One of those days you dream about. Walking in, I could see the amazing amount of tracks with the full moon on snow. Felt like a good day. Climbed into my ladder stand at 6:45, a little late, but wasn't worried. At 7:15 a crack behind me, and a doe with I suspect her fawn in tow. They walked away, but a few minutes later she (or another) came running back behind me into an overgrown 1/2 acre field. I figured she was trying to ditch the fawn. She disappeared behind snow covered pines, only to reappear a few minutes later. Once she went back into the thicket on the opposite side of field, two young bucks showed up in the field and were pushing each other around, a spike and a forkie. After a while, they separated and the forkie headed towards the doe. She came busting out of the thicket and almost run the spike over. All three ended up going away from me and never seen them again. It was 7:35.
The sun hit the trees and everything started to drip and I sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Even the neighbor's dogs weren't too bad today. At just a couple minutes before 9:00, I heard footsteps close. Looked behind me into the field again and three deer headed straight at me. I stood and got ready. Sure enough, the lead doe passed to my right, hit the trail in front of me and followed it. As she walked behind a big oak I pulled to anchor. She stepped out almost perfectly broadside at +/- 8 yards. Arrow away. Shot through her like a knife in hot butter. She hunched up a bit, but then just stood and looked around for a few seconds. Then trotted off, with the other two following. I had to keep looking at the arrow on the ground to confirm what just happened. I didn't think she would go far.
A few minutes went by and another doe was heading my way, but stopped and just looked around, occasionally stomping her foot. I looked real close to make sure it wasn't the one I just shot. It was another adult doe. Not sure if she was one of the followers. She finally walked off. Thinking of getting down at 9:30 to follow the trail, I noticed movement in the direction she ran. 3 or 4 deer were working the edge of the adjoining field. I climbed down at 9:50, picked up my arrow, walked a few yards and bumped another deer. This one was another forkie. He just looked at me and walked away.
With all the snow on the ground, you would think a blood trail would be easy to follow. I was only getting single drops of blood. WTH? The arrow was covered. With all of the deer tracks, it took me a while to figure out which were from my doe. But, after about a half hour, I found her, and she really didn't go very far.
This is how I found her, under a grove of pines, I only saw her ear at first, half covered with snow. I got her near side lung and liver. Hit was just a bit back from where I thought.
Kohannah Longbow. 62@30. Doug Fir shafts with Zwicky 125.
Topic: And the stars aligned.... (Read 2425 times)
