It’s been two years since I’ve shot a deer but this week has been a jackpot week for me.
This past weekend I was able to hunt with my buddies Chris Kinslow, Andrew Kinslow and Charlie Lamb. The temps and the winds were not ideal but we made the best with what we had.
Friday night the boys arrived and I scrabbled to get everyone to their hunting spots. I put Andrew in one of my favorite stands. It is the stand I shot my first traditional deer from. Chris picked his own spot because he has hunted my place before and knew where he wanted to be, so that only left Charlie to accommodate. Knowing that Charlie prefers to stay closer to the ground than a lot of my stands allow, I set him up in a spot where there is a north / south and east / west deer trail intersection. Because time was not on our side, Charlie and I had to hot foot it into his spot…sorry Charlie.
No deer were taken but a few were seen on Friday and Saturday. Fast forward to Sunday. Chris and I were the only two hunting my place. Andrew and Charlie had gone to another farm to hunt.
Chris was in another one of my good stands and I was in a stand that I had yet to have a shot opportunity from but I felt it held a lot of potential. I set facing south with an E / SE wind. The forcast was calling for a SE and S wind and a clear day. By 06:00 I was in my stand and setup, I text Chris to confirm that he found his stand in the dark and I settled in for the wait. This stand looks out over a weedy overgrown field with pockets of scrub brush. To the east of the stand in a small milo plot that I planted and behind it (east) is hardwood timber. Behind the stand (north) is mostly trash wood timber with a mineral lick in the timber. The stand that Andrew was sitting is located 20 yards from the mineral lick and about 50 or 60 yards north from the stand that this story is told from. To the west and over a hill from the stand is a large cut bean field.
At 06:15 through the murky morning light out in the muted colors of the weedy field I caught the slightest of movement. The kind of movement where you ask yourself “did I really see something or is the light, or lack of it, playing tricks on me?” I raise my binoculars and stare through them to try and pick out a form. “THERE!” I think to myself “deer.” I catch the movement of a head and the flick of an ear and the broken outline of a back. For sure I know it’s not the big boy that I’ve captured on camera,
so the next question is, is it a doe or a young buck. Straining my eyes I see the thin neck and the smooth crown “doe… perfect!”
I stand on the metal platform of my 16’ high perch and continue to watch as she slowly walks from the SE angling her way to the NW. She is not on a deer trail so her intended destination is a mystery to me. Ten yards in front of me is a trail that is kept mowed for horseback riding. From this trail two deer trails merge. One runs east / west and the other veers to the southwest. She crosses the SW trail and continues on her northwest path. Ten minutes has passed and the anticipation and excitement is growing in me with every passing second. I check the feather on my bow the wind is steady out of the east at about 5 MPH. The doe is now 30 yards away to my southwest if she continues on her course she will be down wind of me and I will be busted. A few more steps and whammy! She throws her nose into the air and holds her head high. Ha! Before I climbed into my stand I tried a trick my friend Tracy Potter (K.S. Trapper) told me about, I put out two scent wicks that were soaked in vanilla extract and she found one of them. This turned her but not hard enough. She was now headed north and 25 more yards would put her down wind of me and with the incline of the terrain I would surely be busted. Her movement becomes hidden by a cedar tree as she continues to close the gap between us. Slowly her head appears from behind the tree if she moves 15 more yards north I will be busted. Suddenly a miracle happens, the wind shifts to the SE and this puts her in the vanilla scent stream again! She stops throws her head up into the air again and then turns to the vanilla soaked wick. HOLEY SMOKES! I was about to come unglued! She was within 12 yards and quartering away. I had my bow up by then and began to follow her. She casually walked to the wick and stopped at the edge on the mowed trail smelling the air. With this I focused on her far shoulder drew my bow, anchored, released and…flinched in one continuous motion.
Thud went the bow, and the arrow smacked her in the ham. OH CRAP YOU IDIOT! She is off like a flash with my white fletched arrow flagging from her side. I stand saddened, embarrassed and ashamed of what I had just done as I watch her run in confusion through the field. The excited high I was riding on had just plummeted and crashed solidly into the ground. I was paralyzed with anger at myself as I watched the doe run away from me and then turn to run past me at 25 yards. I have practiced this shot over and over and over with very good results. My problem is not enough experience shooting at animals. Shooting at foam and target bags is one thing but taking a life brings a lot more drama to the table. I stand in the warmth of the dappled sunlight listening to the chaos I released as the doe breaks her way through the timber trying to escape the object protruding from her side. Bewildered, I text Chris with this message at 6:33
Me: “Watch 4 doe w/ n ham! ----“
Chris: “ U hit her in the ham?”
Me: “Yes I’m so p-----!”
Chris: “Dare I say…there’s an artery back there. it could work U never know.”
Meanwhile the ruckus in the timber has grown silent and I sat in the filth of disgust that I had with myself and was suffocating in the pity that I had for the animal that I had injured.
By 08:40 I couldn’t take it anymore. I text Chris to let him know that I am going to get down and look around for my arrow, I didn’t want to screw up his hunt. After seeing the shot I thought the best I could hope for was to recover my arrow. “Please let me recover the arrow, the complete arrow” is what I was praying for. The blood trail was spotty and that is being liberal with my wording. After seeing the lack of blood and what blood I saw to be bright red, I was convinced that it was a muscle injury only. With that I climbed back up in my stand and waited for Chris to finish his hunt.
Around 09:00 Chris and I meet up and begin the tracking job. After seeing the sign doubt of a lethal hit entered Chris’ mind too but we continued the search with hopes of finding the arrow. A drop here and a drop there was what we were following and at times the drops were 20yards or more apart in some of the thickest, thorniest stuff on the farm. I jumped ahead about 30+- yards to a known deer trail and found more blood. A little better sign but still nothing to get excited about. Speck by speck we continue and I again jump forward to a known creek crossing but see nothing so I go to another crossing and search the ground for sign but find nothing and then Chris says “Here some good blood.” “Hey here’s your arrow…AND HERE IS YOUR DEER!!!!” With utter disbelief I turn to look at Chris and start walking towards my friend who is smiling from ear to ear and running to congratulate me. To hear him tell it I had a look of “you better not be screwing with me or were going to throw down.” Grasping my fiend’s shoulder I walk over still in shock from hearing his words to see my trophy. Thanks for being there Chris it was great to have you share in the recovery and see me end my dry spell.
By all means, this is not a shot that I am proud of but I am very relieved to have made the recovery. While I did pretty much put the arrow in the crease, it was the wrong crease. The shot hit her in the front part of her ham, clipped the kidney, and blew through the liver and diaphragm. No intestine and no gut. From the point where she was shot to where she expired was approximately 300’.
The moral of this story is don’t be too quick to give up. To quote Gail Darling (One Shot) “there’s an artery back there.”
Equipment used:
54” Shrew Classic Hunter 55# @ 29”
31.5” Carbon Express, Heritage 250 arrow with (3) 5” shield cut fletching, 50 grain brass insert, 125 grain Wensel Woodsman broadhead with 75 gain steel adapter. Total arrow weight 650 grains.
Topic: There’s an Artery Back There (Read 2741 times)
