An exhilarating miss!!!!!

[Bill Carlsen]

An oxymoron? Not really. Let me explain.

One of my goals this year is to take a deer from a Double Bull blind. I have two set up on my property. One I set up in Aug and it took the deer about a week to ignore it. In fact, I have pics of smaller deer poking their heads into the mesh looking into it. The other blind is set up about 200 yards away in a spot where the big woods give way to second growth and blueberries from when it was logged off some time ago. The deer never took any time to get used to that one as I put it up about 2 or 3 weeks ago and they were used to in in about 2 days.

I have sat in the second one several times with only raccoons showing up and I sat in the first one only once. There is more to the story than I really want to tell because this is about last night and not about the rule changes that kept me from getting a doe that is bigger than an 8 pointer I have my sights set on.

Having sat for several evenings without luck I was wondering if  my scent was an issue. I take extreme care in that regard but it seemed that activity at the blinds was occurring while I was in one and not the other or in the mornings when I typically don't hunt. I also found that it gets rather dark inside those blinds and I wondered if shooting/sight picture was going to be an issue.

Last night I decided to sit in the first blind, closest to the river. Birds and red squirrels paid me no mind even when I sat in the blind and waved my arms and did other things things you would not do in a tree stand for fear of being seen. I felt invisible but still wondered about scent. Nothing else seemed to be moving but we had two solid days of rain and when I checked the trail cameras on the way in there were no deer pics....just a few coons.

Sunset is around 6:25 PM and about 6:15 I heard a branch break off the the side of the blind. I knew it was a deer. I just wondered which one and if I would be detected, There are about 4 does that are on my "shoot" list and a bunch more that are not because they have fawns or are very small. For about 10 minutes nothing happened and I thought I  had been detected. Then i saw movement off to my right and one of the lone, fawnless does we know from our pics, was making her way down the trail. She got in front of me about 6:30 PM and I was surprised that even with a fair amount of shooting light and still 25 minutes of legal hunting time left how difficult it was to pick a spot looking thru the mesh. As she got into a quartering away position I noticed that the white on her legs and the white of her brisket made an excellent and very visible reference point. If I could shoot just high of the white brisket and a little bit back of her leg I should get a heart shot. The shot felt good, the lumenok dissappeared right where I thought it should I the deer ran about 30 yards and all got quiet. I thought I had taken my first deer from the DB...I was hooked. Having a deer at 10 yards on the ground and completely unaware was awesome.

I waited a bit and exited the blind. A deer bounded away. I was puzzled...lousy shot? More deer coming my way? I looked for blood. There was none. I walked the trail she ran for a bit an found no blood. I went back to the spot she was standing and there was my clean arrow sticking in a root of the tree my camera was on.

Strangely, I felt good. I've killed plenty of deer so I wasn't concerned about whether I could do it or not. I wanted to know if i could do it from my DB blind. Apparantly I found that I could. And on one of those old, smart ass, cautious does. My problem, it seems, is that the lighting in the blind at near dark created a visual problem for me. Next time I just need to take more time as I tend to shoot quickly when I am shooting at an animal. I shot low....perfectly clean miss...no harm done and I learned what I wanted to know.

The long walk out was not at all unhappy. I had accomplished one of my major goals...to see if I could get a deer from a DB. I got a shot on an old swamp donkey at ten yards. I know I can do it....today is another day...just need to be a bit more deliberate in my shooting under the low light conditions.

[maineac]

Glad that you had a great hunt.  Hopefully she will show up again.

[lpcjon2]

Things always work out in the end.

[rastaman]

Hey Bill!  Good luck to you sir!  My biggest problem shooting out of my double bull is my "depth perception" in early morning/late evening light.  i tend to shoot high! (as in over their back) It is a rush though!      

[Bill Carlsen]

rastaman: Typically that is what I do, as well. However, because I was on the ground I purposely tried to place the arrow lower in the chest than I normally would have. The area we own is riverbottom and very difficult to track in, as in thick and wet,  so I wanted a low chest shot...but not that low. I figured the worst that would happen would be that I would shoot my typical high shot an get her about 1/3 to 1/2 up into the chest. Just didn't work out that way. LIve and learn. My biggest success was getting her in that close undetected. I suspect that my best hunting from these blinds is going to be in the morning but I am not a morning person...believe me. But, I will give it a good try a time or two next week. Shortly the pre rut will start and that means anything can happen at any time of the day. Here's the doe I really want to get (long story) who showed up at my other DB last week early in the morning but in good light.

 

Here's the buck I am after...her body is bigger than his!

 

[jonsimoneau]

Sounds like a good time Bill!

[Manitoba Stickflinger]

Bill....it's obvious you've spent some time bowhunting...great attitude and story..Thanks.

[Mechslasher]

story of my life.  hunting one stand and the deer are walking by the other.

[Bill Carlsen]

Stickfinger...yeah...got my first bow when I was 8 years old back in 1951. It's all still like new, however, when you have experiences like I did last evening. By the way....LOVED your video. I've killed 6 bears with my bow but none quite as big and the last two I have seen you post on here. My next bear I would like to get on the ground. Did you ever weigh the one you just posted?

[maxwell]

Bill did you shoot through the mesh or out a clean opening?  Good story hope you have a great season.

[Bill Carlsen]

I shot thru the mesh, Maxwell. It was a little darker than I expected and the white on the deer's leg and brisket gave me some perspective. I just should have taken a bit more time thinking about the shot before I committed to it. Next time will be different, I hope. By the way, I've killed turkeys and shot at other small game animals shooting thru the mesh but have never had any problems with that. I think that maybe I should practice downstairs at night with the lights out and shoot at a candle. That is sort of what it felt like. Next time I'll aim for a a mid ribcage shot tight behind the shoulder.

Most of the time misses make me feel upset or self defeating but this situation, being in a DB blind and getting a shot off just makes me more confident that I'll  get it done....still have 3 tags and 2 months to do it. I posted this thread because I so often see "Miss" threads leave guys feeling incompetent and/or inept. For me the miss was only a learning experience and the "blind experience" left me feeling rather confident in using the strategy. The best part of not getting the deer was that it was  clean miss and she was obviously on her way back to the blind area because she didn't know what had just happened and didn't smell me. That's all good stuff, as far as I am concerned.

I hunt in the Texas brush and we have very few trees suitable for treestands. As a result, most of our blinds are ground blinds. All ours have mesh in the windows and I love it. It does, however, mess with your depth perception. You have to get used to it. I like to range a lot of objects (trees, rocks, etc) from my blind so I know the distance and don't get fooled in the heat of the moment.

Another major problem with the mesh is if the blind is facing the sun as it is rising or setting, there will be a period of time where the pattern on the mesh is visable inside the blind. It makes seeing and focusing on things outside the blind very difficult.

As far as the misses go, I do not like missing at all, and it kind of peeves me. That being said, I would rather have a clean miss than a bad hit any day.

Bisch

[Friend]

Finding enjoyment in the hunt is the prize.

[Bonebuster]

I bet the miss is stored as deep as any hit.

Something learned through an encounter, is something stored forever.

Be brave.

[mambashooter]

It happens  

[Bill Carlsen]

Friend and Bonebuster get it. It was an awesome experience for me. I once shot a small buck from the ground without a blind from 3 yards. But the nice thing about the blind is that as I get older it is getting more difficult to sit long periods without having to shift my weight a bit now and then. The blind solves a lot of those kinds of problems for me.

[maxwell]

I have two of lucky's tent company blinds and they are great, but I cut most of the mesh out because I don't like the idea of shooting through them. I once had a beautiful gray fox put his head in the window; I thought about tapping it's nose but figured I was too slow in my old age, it just walked away probably was three feet from me.

[RC]

I really like the excitement of hunting on the ground. I have a Brickhouse Blind that is close to a Double Bull maybe not the same quality but a lots cheaper. I`ve sat in it and had birds and squirrels run across the top. I`ve not had a shot at a deer in it yet but its some kind of fun.The woods seem more alive from the ground.A clean miss at a deer for me from it would be the next best thing to killing one from the blind.I had Turkeys at about 15 yards and could wave my hand and they did`nt see me.RC

[Hopewell Tom]

Good attitude with a lesson learned. The next story will be about the one you got. You're not so far from me and your woods look like some of mine and the talk about being older fits too. I have a spot that's been a "problem" for me and I think I'll go up there this afternoon and build a ground blind. Give the ground a try.
 I'm inspired by the miss and your attitude. Thanks.

[Huntrdfk]

Pretty neat Bill, getting that close on the ground is a big deal, blind or no blind......next one won't be so lucky!


David