It's been a relatively slow fall for me. Lots of opportunities to hunt, not many shot opportunities. This morning I took vacation from work and headed out. It's a good mile walk in to where I hunt and I left the house about 6:30 am. The morning was cool and dark although the ambient light reflecting off the cloud cover allowed me to walk in without a flashlight. I set up in a big maple at the top of a hill which overlooks an area of open hardwoods. I climbed up, hung my stand and settled in. Shooting light came along at 7:45 and it made me remember that with Daylight Savings time coming to an end, getting up an hour earlier next week is going to suck.
At 8:30 a tall narrow racked 7 pt came in but he passed by out of range and went down into the valley behind me. The next 2 hours were slow. I saw one squirrel. That was it. Still it was a pleasant morning with the temp about 40 and a cool breeze coming in from the north. Finally at about 10:00 am I stood up just to stretch a bit. I peered over my right shoulder, down into the valley below and to a small hill on the other side of the valley. I noticed a doe and a fawn coming down the hill and into the valley. I'm not too excited yet as at this point they are 100 yds away and could go anywhere. Still, they kept coming until they were on my side of the valley and starting to walk up the hill directly behind me. Had they taken 3 or 4 steps in either direction they would not have offered a shot. As it was they kept coming up untill the ole gal was directly under my stand. She was nervous. Every time the breeze would stiffen she would twitch as if she were about to explode. I was standing up, fingers on the string, waiting to see which way she would go. In front of the maple I was in, there is a small beech tree with branches going everywhere. Whichever way she went, I needed her to get about 10 ft away from the base of the maple in order to have a clear shot. She started to her left, still under the protection of the beech tree and stopped. She stood motionless for about 3 minutes, which seemed like 10. I could hear my heart pounding and my left leg was shaking to the point of making the bow tips quiver. I struggled to keep my composure. Anytime I've made a decision to kill an animal the adrenaline starts to flow. That's a big part of why we hunt, right?? Still, the adrenaline has to be controlled or it will consume you, ultimately causing failure. So I got it under control and focused on her every movement, every twitch, every blink of her eyes. Finally she turned and went to her right, and stopped just at the far edge of the beech tree, about 2 O'clock from my stand. I shifted slightly and picked out a burr stuck in her hide about 2/3'd the way up her body, came to full draw and shot. Instantly I saw a red spot the size of a silver dollar appear on her side. She bounded through the open hardwoods and went over a hill towards the crick. Then I saw a small sapling shake so hard that the few remaining leaves it had were knocked to the ground.
I called my brother to let him know what had happened, then sat for about 15 minutes before climbing down. My arrow, with a big ole Snuffer attached to it, was coated with pink lung blood and I knew the trail was short. I found her about 75 yds away, right at the base of a small oak sapling. The shot had gone in right between her right shoulder and the spine, and came out on the opposite side, just behind her front leg. Tonight I'm feasting on Advil.
Topic: Ohio Doe huntin story (Read 598 times)
