WHAT AN OPENER!!!!
Saturday morning: Shot over the back of a 10 point at 10 yards, and the second shot center punched a sapling. He wandered off, unspooked.
Saturday afternoon: Walking an open field on the way back out for the evening session, I walked up on a BIG (another 10) point out feeding. Dropped, stripped my gear, nocked an arrow, and did a belly crawl to the top of the rise. His body was completely perpendicular to me, and he was just feeding - at 30 yards. Each time he picked his head up, he looked opposite my way. No way to get closer. So I gave it a go. Got to my knees, came to full draw, picked a spot, and let it go. Watching that arrow arc through the air was beautiful. Closer, closer, - man, its going to do it!!!! SMACK. Buck startles, and tucks his tail, scooting for the woods. Went back and got my partner. I was beyond excitement. We went back to the spot, and commenced the search. Found the arrow, with the front 3" broken off, and blood only about 6" on the shaft, and little or no blood anywhere. OH NOOOOOOOOO! Shoulder blade! Some hard searching resulted in a miniscule blood trail, and after a solid 2 hours, and no spots bigger than 2 or three drops, no signs of him lying down or stumbling, we called it (was not an easy decision). A matter of inches, and now my emotions hit rock bottom.
Sunday morning:
A bad nock resulted in pulling the arrow off the string (twice) on an 8-point at 10 yards before he walked out of my life. Later, missed a doe at 20 yards by shooting over her back (again). She wandered around for the next hour feeding, then wandered off. Need to do a touch more trimming at that stand.
Around that I also saw numerous does outside of range. In my entire season last year, I only saw two deer (button and a doe).
So its a week of getting my head right, shooting straight, and back at them Saturday.
Not the story I wanted to be telling......
BobW