October Doe

[Missouri CK]

I went to college at the University of Missouri and so I had Onestringer make me up some wraps a year or so ago with Mizzou colors.  I finally fletched them up with yellow feathers to go with my new osage longbow.  Odd how this one seems to have orange feathers.

   

[Bel007]

I love orange feathers.  More pics please   :D  

 

[Steve O]

  I bet this will be a good one!

[imhntn]

[Big Ed]

[Missouri CK]

My brother Andrew took his annual trip up to Weston, Missouri to hunt on his long weekend after parent teacher conferences at the school where he works. I always look forward to having him up, and I try my best to put him on my best stand locations on several of the farms I hunt.  

My good friend Tom Porter (Gatekeeper) and another friend Mark Harris both are generous enough to offer up their land for Andrew and I to hunt.  I kept my eyes on the forecast trying to figure out the wind and play it right.  On Friday afternoon my brother arrived after I got done with some early afternoon patients. I literally skipped out of the office with that feeling of freedom that comes with time off and the upcoming rut upon us.  I was checking trail camera pictures when Andrew arrived.  Always great to have my first hunting partner in deer camp.

[Missouri CK]

We met at the bunkhouse that Mark has on his property. It’s the perfect hunting location.  His farm has it all. Scrub thickets, switchgrass and other native grasses for cover along with some interesting new ideas on deer habitat improvement.  The trail cams show everything from deer, coyotes, bobcats, and turkeys.  Even a few good bucks thrown in as well.  Mark also has a cool building called the bunkhouse which is separate from his main house and overlooks a pond he built.  The bunkhouse is filled with antelope mounts, deer, and a bunch of African animals.  It’s a man cave with some serious style points.  I figured I would lay out all the hunting spots with the descriptions and info I had collected over the fall and let Andrew pick his spots.  I think a guy always feels better when he is hunting a place he picked himself.  Andrew headed for a brush blind where I had passed on three bucks earlier in the fall.  It’s a great hide and the deer never made me.  Andrew ended up seeing a small spike that is more like a button buck.  He only has one side that is no bigger than your thumb.  

Our group that has hunted together for the last several years includes Charlie Lamb and my father-in-law, Gary Norris. We all put up a $5 bet on who would shoot the first deer.   Charlie and Tom had beat me out several weeks earlier despite my best efforts. I had passed on several smaller bucks this fall.  I also had three opportunities with does that I would have taken in a heartbeat.  Unfortunately, all ended with the wind giving me away, bad shot angles, or deer making me while I was hunting in my ghillie suit.  All-in-all fun but I had yet to release and arrow.  I didn’t see anything Friday night and so Saturday I decided to give up the ground hunting and opted for a treestand along a road that we call the scape road on Marks place.  Andrew went to Tom’s farm and sat the Vanilla stand that Tom killed a doe on two years ago when it came back to some vanilla scent he had put out.  Andrew and I both love that stand and I knew he was happy with his location.   My morning was pretty uneventful until around 9 o’clock. I was starting to get a little discouraged that I hadn’t seen anything from this stand.  I was about to send Tom a text message saying “Pretty dead here”.  About the time I went to push send I heard some serious movement through the woods to the west...

[Guru]

[dirtguy]

   

[dirtguy]

   

[Mudd]

Cool!          

God bless,Mudd

PS: Is Mark a UMC graduate also? I ask because I went to school back in the 70's with a Mark Harris who farmed somewhere up near St Joseph,MO. He was the president of the Independent Aggies when I got to know him.

[flippnsticks]

[Missouri CK]

Mudd, I don't think its the same guy.

[Kapellmeister]

   

[Missouri CK]

My wind was perfect for that direction.  Suddenly multiple does bust out onto the scrape road.  They initially crossed right over the road and looked to be headed down into bottoms where they bed and far beyond my range.  I can called and I’m not sure if that really affected them or not as their actions where pretty jumpy and playful anyway.  They stopped and the would take turns jumping  and moving suddenly. Then stand still looking at each other for the next several minutes.  I was pleading with them to head down the scrape road to the junction of my trail which would take them down into the bottoms.  As if on cue that’s what they did.  Several times the lead doe changed positions and the deer spread out but they were moving my direction.  Suddenly the picked up the pace and I could see I was going to get the test I look forward to every fall.  It’s the test all of us trad bow hunters look forward to when hunting.  Can all the practice we put in come together at the moment of truth?  Can I hold steady, pick a spot, and get to full anchor?  

The doe that was now in front was not the biggest but certainly was a mature doe. I could shoot to the main scrape road and to my deer trail and kept my body in the middle so I could do both.  The doe made the turn onto my trail and the script couldn’t have been more perfect.  I drew as she made the turn and my arrow was at full draw waiting on her as she came into my window.  Solid anchor and eyes squinty, I let it go when her shoulder clear a small sapling.  The hit was hard and perfect! I saw blood immediately on impact.  She wheeled back to the road along with the rest of the six other does.  As she crossed the scrape road I could see blood pouring out both sides as she retreated into the woods they had come from. I couldn’t keep her separate from the others as they all scrambled into the thick understory on the hillside above me.  But the smile had already broke across my face with the knowledge that my hit had been fatal.  The damage done by the Simmons treeshark and my new Sunbear Longbow was devastating to say the least.  Large clumps of hair were present at the shot location and the blood trail was visible to me from where I stood in the tree stand.  I could even see the side of this tree where she had hit on her way up the hill.
 

 

[Kip]

Good Morning Chris   I know you took lessons in telling a story from Charlie since you are friends.Congrats June a bear and October a deer.
           

[Missouri CK]

[Missouri CK]

Thanks Kip!

[Missouri CK]

It took 45 minutes for the other does to clear out and I don’t think they ever got my wind.  I got down quietly and followed the trail up to my deer 70 yards up the hill.  
This is what I saw where I found her.
 

Here she is with my favorite group of hunters including my two boys.

 


Charlie Kinslow is my oldest son and we let him follow the blood trail when we went to get the deer.  That was his first time and I enjoyed watching him.
Nothing better than sharing time with good friends and family.  I wish my brother would have gotten one this weekend but I know he had a good time as well.  

Next year bro, when I start to tell you about my stands just ask me what my first pick would be….  then take my second choice. That’s how it worked out this time!

[Missouri CK]