Well season opened here in South MS Monday. Yesterday afternoon found me sitting over a hot water oak tree in the swamp on our place. At 5:00 a doe and a cowhorn in velvet pop out of a trail in front of me and start heading towards the tree. The doe is extremely jumpy and I only have a small window to shoot her. She comes down a trail at about 14 yards and I decide my best bet is to shoot her while I'm sitting down and while she's walking. I let the arrow go and immediately felt I didn't lead her enough.
Sure enough, the arrow hits her quite a bit back and my heart drops. She bolts off and then does the hunkered up trot they do when they're gut shot. I watch her for about 60 yards and then she jumps into a thicket. I didn't get a complete pass through, but I could see the arrow almost completely through her on the other side. Only the feathers were still in her. Luckily, the weather was cool enough that I knew I could let her lay without the meat spoiling so I didn't go back until this morning.
The blood trail was sparse at first, but the amount of bushes made tracking easier because she was rubbing on quite a few. After about 15 minutes I found her dead as can be. I was so thankful to find her after a terrible shot on my end. She only made it about 100 yards. After cleaning her, I think she expired pretty quickly and I hit some liver but you can never be too careful in my opinion. I'm not saying I wouldn't have found her shooting another head, but the old 2 incher really saved my butt this time I believe. Fresh backstraps!
Topic: Why I love Treesharks (Read 3329 times)
