JONES COUNTY ANTELOPE AND DEER HUNT
Finally got a chance to get back to this. The next hunt I went on was the next weekend which was the opening of rifle antelope season. I won't get into the rifle hunting part but that was what took me out to Jones County that weekend. I had been invited to go by my hunting buddy Leon who had an old college friend Gary who had access to a bunch of land in Jones County. Gary had been trying to talk us into coming out and hunting for a couple years but we had never gotten around to making it happen. Gary's wife was from Jones County and her parents still had a ranch there, plus Gary knew a bunch of other people who would let us hunt. Both Leon and I had archery antelope tags and archery deer tags that could also be used in that county and I was more interested in bowhunting than the rifle hunting. The 1st day (friday) was primarily spent scouting for antelope although Leon and I did get the opportunity to try and decoy a real nice antelope buck. The terrain was pretty flat and we were not able to get as close to the antelope as I would have liked before deploying the decoy. The does that were with the buck spotted the decoy first and did not like what they saw. I think that may have been partially due to the fact that it was so windy that it was hard to keep the decoy from waving erratically. In any event, the does took off at a trot and the buck naturally followed along.
After shooting hours that day, we proceeded to the local watering hole in search of a cold one and some intel. The place to be was a combination gas station/ bar that was basically presided over by a guy named one armed Tony. It was not really to hard to see how he came by that nickname. Tony was a helluva a good guy and one of the last diehards I know of that loyally drinks nothing but Schlitz beer.
The next morning was the opener of rifle antelope season and we were out well before 1st light. After hunting for a couple hours with nothing collected I asked Gary if he minded if I split off with my bow to still hunt a winding dry creek bottom on his father-in-laws place. Gary had no objection and I was dropped off at his in laws with plans to meet up in a couple hours. I had no more than got started down the bottom when 2 whitetail does jumped out of some cattails and nervously trotted away. Having just been busted I hunkered down to see where they were going to go. About that time a 3rd doe popped out of the bottom trying to figure out what had spooked the other two deer. Luckily, I was now concealed and I had the wind in my favor. The doe walked around nervously scanning everywhere trying to detect the danger. After a few minutes of not seeing or smelling anything suspicious the doe went right back down in the bottom and bedded down again. I gave her a good 5 minutes before slowly stalking towards her position. Due to the height of the cattails I could not see her even though I knew I had to be about 15 yds from her. All of the sudden, I saw the cattails start to move and I knelt down quickly only to see the doe spooking out of the cattails. I guess she must have heard me since I still had the wind in my favor. As she hit the opposite hillside I whistled and amazingly enough she stopped! She was about 25 yds now slightly quartered away nervously looking around. I hate to admit it but doe fever clouded my judgment and I took the shot even though the deer was alert. Unfortunately, the exact thing you can expect from such a dumb move happened --- the deer moved forward at my shot and my arrow went right through her paunch. She hunched up and ran to the top of the hill stopping there to look back. It was obvious she still had no idea of the source of the problem. She stood there for a minute or two and proceeded to slowly walk over the hill. I knew right then I was going to have to give her as much time as possible. I looked at my watch and it was 9:30. After waiting about 10 minutes I slowly worked my way over to the other side to see if I could spot the doe and keep an eye on her. Once I topped out on the other side I could see the doe bedded about 200yds away in a mowed hay field. I was laying on my belly in the grass so as to avoid being detected and spooking her from her bed. I layed there for about a half hour mentally kicking myself for being so stupid to take a shot at an alert deer. I know better, but got caught up in the excitement of the moment. At times like this I always wonder if I am ever going to get to the point where I stop making some of the same stupid mistakes over and over. One mistake I was not going to make that day was to push a gut shot deer so I hunkered down to wait. After a short while the doe got to her feet and slowly started walking across the hayfield to a point where the creek bottom wound around below the hayfield. The doe dropped below the horizon and into the creek bottom allowing me to cross the hayfield to try and keep track of her. I got to the other side and carefully peered over the edge into the bottom just in time to see the doe go into a plum thicket in the bottom of the creek. I sat there for about 45 minutes and the doe did not come back out of the thicket. I figured this was going to be her final bed but knew better than to try to push things too early. Since this was my first time on this ranch I took a gps reading on my location. Knowing how things can sometimes look different than a person remembers I dug into my fanny pack and got out my digital camera. I took a picture of the section of creek bottom where the doe had bedded and then zoomed in on the thicket and took another picture.
When I came back 7 hours later the pictures really helped me to identify the spot where I had last seen the doe. I hoped to find the doe dead but was not taking that for granted. I got a few hundred yards downwind of the thicket and slowly started stalking up the bottom stopping frequently to glass with my binos. When I was about 75 yds downwind of the thicket I spotted the tops of deer ears in a washout below my position. As I slowly crept forward I could see that it was the wounded doe. Unbelievably, she was still alive and was bedded down with her head up. Although still alive, I could tell she was really feeling the effects of the shot. At that point I felt like the right thing to do was to close in and get another arrow in her. As I got to 30 yds she struggled to her feet and was quartering pretty hard away from me. I hit anchor and the arrow was on its way . I could see the arrow hit behind her near shoulder and exit the offside. She took off on a final death run making it about 50 yds before going down. I have to say I was grateful and relieved to end her suffering. When I got up to her I found that the last arrow had actually gone through one lung and exited out her neck severing the windpipe on the way out. The following pictures are the pictures I took to try and keep track of where she had gone. This picture is the bigger picture of the creek bottom. The thicket she bedded in is on the right side of the picture just to the left of the big tree.
The next picture is a zoomed in picture of the thicket where she originally bedded. She actually was about 75 yds to the left of that thicket when I found her later that afternoon.
Topic: 2008 bowhunts in review and New Years Resolution (Read 880 times)
