ok ok...I'll spill...
he he nice to have some time at the top :D
long version:
Oct 26th...woke not feeling great (and knowing that I hadn't bagged a deer IN SIX YEARS), thought for a few moments about crushing the alarm clock and crawl back under the warm covers, but then thought that my friend Mark (more on him later) would be sitting at the gate of the farm waiting on me. Knowing that he can't hunt it without me there (stipulation of the farm owners), I crawled down to the shower.
met him at the gate and drove in. I had noticed the weekend before a large area at the edge of a clearing under some oaks was really torn up, so I skipped out on halftime of a Patriots game to hang a stand over the run leading up to this area. I decided to try that stand this morning and my buddie mark (who'd already bagged 3 deer in CT) went to one of my other stands. we bid each other good luck, I took a final drag of coffee, and rubbed some burnt cork on my face. climbed abort in a light fog (the air...not my brain
).
hung my bow, got settled right around legal shooting hours 1/2 hour before sunrise. decided to wait 15 minutes so I could see a bit better, then I would rattle. after 15, I picked up the antlers and gave 'em a go. after a minute of few of silence I turned to hang the antlers on the hook and movement caught my eye. it was a doe, on the runway coming up to the oaks. in the half light I thought it was small yearling or fawn..and it was active VERY skittish. head bobbing, sniffing the air, prancing back and forth. while watching this behavior, which I could only interpret as her intent as trying to avoid the bucks she heard fighting, I quietly lifted the bow from the hook and got in position. over 20 minutes she must have changed directions 6 times, undecided about what route to follow. but eventually she came up the run. it was nearly a perfect setup, she was coming in from behind the tree, passing to my left at about 15 yards, the only suboptimal thing was even though the stand was 16 feet up in a maple, the run rose up a hill which would put us on about the same elevation. I knew I had to draw as her head went behind a tree.
when her head disappeared behind the tree I began the draw...but only got about halfway when she popped out the other side oblivious to me. I let her take two steps, and thought, 'draw'...
next thing I know I see the home made lumi-nock dissappear, shes spins around bolting into a clearing we call 'the whole' she gets to about 50 yards and I see a wabble in her gate. boom, she goes down, in sight 60 yards away. THEN the adrenaline kicks into high gear. (I think I actually raised my hands in victory) I whip out my cell phone to send a text to Mark, but my fingers are shaking so much the message must have appeared as 'IIII JJUUSTT SHHOTTTT A FREEEEAAKKINGGG DOEEEE!!!!....I can't find the words to tell you how excited I was, as I said earlier, it had been since October 2001 that I had gotten a deer.
I calm my shakes, climb down and almost get jerked back to the tree as I'm walking away (forgot to unclip from the static line). Mark meets me at the truck and we drive down to check her out. nice healthy mature doe. guestimate the weight at about 120 pounds, got the top of near lung, the top of the heart lung connection and the middle of the off lung. the arrow passed completely through, only hanging on by the nock as she spun and fell 4 down her path.
now for getting back to my friend Mark, he made the bow I shot her with. I had bought it off him in January when I began seriously trying to improve my accuracy. I dare say he was AS excited as I was!
the bow is osage & paduk limbs, osage, paduk and grey action wood riser. 56# at 27.5". shooting CX terminators 4560s with 300 grains up front (WW with a 75 grn adapter, and 100 grain insert.) and as I mentioned before sporting home made lumi-nocks.
Topic: Mark Mancini (Read 974 times)
