Well I went down to my family's place in south texas this past weekend and had a wonderful time. I did four hunts and took a deer on the first of those hunts, the rest of the hunts were just for fun or guiding young cousins and I didn’t loose any arrows on the latter hunts. During that first hunt, I was sitting in a tripod near a corner of our property. I've sat at that spot numerous times and NEVER loosed an arrow from there. At this particular spot, there is a 30 acre hay field in front of me and thick brush behind me. I had some deer movement early on (which was awesome b/c sometimes there are NO deer there) but it was too dark to shoot so I bided my time. About 1/2 hour later, three deer came out of the hay field and began coming towards my stand. Eventually they got closer and I could tell there might be a shot opportunity. The 2 lead deer came past me and crossed under the barbed wire fence into the brush behind me (state land). As the 3rd and final deer was coming close and nearing the brush line I arrowed him in the front chest area. The arrow zipped in and out and he did a 180 degree turn and BOLTED back into the hay field from where he came. He covered about 100 yards in what seemed like 2 seconds! He then stopped and stood for awhile. He bedded shortly, then got up and started walking away slowly. The fact that he was back on his feet was disconcerting but I knew the shot had been true. At that point I was standing on the platform of the tripod watching him from afar, very anxious. After walking a few steps, he reversed direction and tried to take a step and just nose dived. I was relieved to see the deer go down. A friend of mine was hunting the other side of the hay field and it was early so I did not want to get down and mess up my buddy's hunt. However, no more than 5 minutes after the deer took the nose dive, a caracara landed in the field near my deer (grass was a bit too high to see exactly what was going on). Then another caracara quickly swooped down and joined the first. I was a little worried that those large eagles might try to eat my deer so I got down low and scurried over to the deer and sure enough they were feasting on the head, eyes first! I grabbed the deer and di di mau'd back to the ranch house dragging the deer with me. This is a young deer and many would say its not a 'shooter' but ever since I stopped hunting at feeders everything is a trophy to me! I used to sit at a tripod, have deer come into the corn feeder, feeder goes off, deer eat, I'd pick out the deer I wanted, wait for a quartering away or broadside shot and whack it. That was getting too easy and finally I was fed up and decided not to hunt feeders anymore. When hunting at feeders, it wasn’t the same b/c there were too many knowns…….I knew WHEN the deer would come in, I knew WHAT direction they would come in from and I knew what TYPE of shot (distance/angle/direction) that I would generally have to take. It wasn’t making me a better hunter and it wasn’t the challenge I was looking for. And I was thinking too much before the shots b/c I had the luxury of being able to take my time w/ things before the shot. Now I'm sitting at funnels or game routes or taking walks trying to put myself in a position where I will see something and using the natural lay of the land to my advantage. I'm doing a LOT more scouting and I feel that I'm becoming a more well rounded hunter. Ever since the change I've had 2x the fun and 10x the satisfaction. Never in a million years would I have taken a slightly quartering towards shot while hunting a feeder b/c I generally had the luxury of waiting for the deer to turn while feeding…… but on this hunt, like all the other recent non-feeder hunts I didn't have much time to think: He was walking in, I was at full draw, he was stopped and the arrow was on its way. I doubt I'll take that slightly quartering towards shot again b/c I feel its a low percentage shot and I don’t like seeing 'em up and alive that long after the shot. The whole thing lasted just minutes but it felt like an eternity. The shot opportunity presented itself quickly and the shot happened so fast that I didn't give much thought to shot presentation. It weird that I sometimes seem to do my best shooting when I don’t overthink and instead just react. The shot was 17.5 yards with my 1965 Damon Howatt Ventura, 40# at 28", with a 588 grain arrow (I realize I don’t need 588 grains to kill a deer, but I've been tinkering w/ heavy weights and its been fun). This was my first time to loose a WW at an animal and the damage inflicted by the 3 blade wensel woodsman was shocking. I'm gonna use these heads for awhile and see what they can do on the pigs around here. A big thanks to Dino for the FREE hook up on the 3 wensel woodsmans!!!! I used one of those heads given to me by Dino to take this deer.
Thanks for reading and good luck with your season!
Topic: Lighter bow + heavier arrow + mexican eagles = deer down (Read 884 times)
