For some reason I never posted this here on TG. Here's the story, a little long, but wanted to preserve the details:
I really wanted to get a deer in October this year. I haven't done that in a while and with a clean miss with the recurve and losing one with the "other" bow, I had already wasted two opportunities.
It was Sunday October 30 and coming down to the wire. That weekend was youth weekend in my area of La. and I was excited about taking my 8 year old nephew on his first real deer hunt. We didn't see anything Saturday morning/evening except for a bobcat that morning, that was at 166 yards, out of his range(100 yards). Sunday morning we had 4 deer cross just before shooting light and then 10-15 hogs trickled down the pipeline and cut into the woods about 100 yards out. Unfortunately it was still too dark for him to shoot. We didn't see anything else and I had to meet my parents to drop him off at 1:30, Sunday afternoon.
On the way back to the camp I decided I was going to make an evening hunt. I thought about setting up my climber on the pipeline where the deer and hogs came through but someone was already signed out for that area. Then I remembered hearing someone say they saw deer in another area the evening before. This reminded me of a good crossing where I consistently saw deer last year. I figured what the heck and grabbed my Martin Hunter and climber to go set up.
The deer were crossing where a small road/trail met a narrow pipeline forming a "T". The pipeline runs N/S and the other trail joins it from E. The deer were usually crossing from E to W, but that was always in the morning. I wasn't sure where they would come from this evening. The wind was switching from SE to NW, but was supposed to be NE by 5:00. I picked a tree about 20 yards S of the "T" on the W edge of the pipeline. Because of the lean of the tree I ended setting my stand facing away from the pipeline, but I made sure I could shoot back to it on either side.
I went ahead and sat down for a while because I knew I would be standing the last hour or so. Saw a few squirrels, cardinals, and various other birds moving around in the brush, but nothing else. I stood up around 6:00 and after a bit I started hearing distant noise in the palmettos. It was too far away to tell exactly what the noise was, because between the squirrels and birds things were constantly being dropped into the palmettos, making a ton of noise. But this sounded a little different, more sustained and I found myself straining try to figure out if it was something walking.
A few minutes later, just when I was starting to relax, I heard soft rapid footsteps on the trail that meets the pipeline. I looked up to see a small deer headed towards the "T". I quickly got into position and noticed two more coming behind. A few short seconds later the doe and two fawns stepped out into the pipeline. I gave the fawns the once over and if they still had spots they were hard to see. I made the decision to take the doe if possible. I needed her to take a couple more steps and she would be broadside at 20 yards, with a clear shot through an opening in the limbs/leaves between us. As luck would have it she did just that, but as she got to the edge of the opening she turned away from me and took a couple steps before stopping with a branch just close enough to be in the way. Without thinking I quickly drew and anchored while simultaneously bending my knees to ensure I could shoot under the branch. I reminded myself to not rush and hold at anchor for a couple seconds while I settled in on the "spot". The release was automatic and I heard the Muzzy Phantom hit home rather loudly.
She immediately dove into the palmettos crashing to the west before turning slightly southward. I heard her run about 100 yards before I thought I heard the crash in the palmettos, but I didn't want to get overconfident. After losing the deer the week before, and knowing how noisy the palmettos are in general, I told myself that she may have just stopped running and began walking there. I quickly checked the watch and it was 6:30 exactly. I decided to sit tight for a while in case a buck came through and to give her time to expire. It started getting dark quickly, so I climbed down at about 5 minutes to 6. Went to look for my arrow but couldn't find it. I immediately found blood leading into the palmettos. The blood was bright red so I decided to head back to camp to get some help. I came back about 7:30 with a couple friends, and Chelsea my girlfriend, who had been at the camper grading papers and getting the play-by-play through texts. The blood trail was easy to follow and we quickly found her piled up with my arrow still in her. There was no exit hole. The arrow came in at an angle taking out both lungs and burying into the offside shoulder. I barely missed the heart. I am very impressed with the blood trail considering there was no exit. We got her back to camp and she weighed in at 115 lbs. My first traditional deer and only the second one I've even drawn on with traditional equipment!
Sorry about the terrible picture but the batteries were dead in my regular camera and I had to use my cell phone. I'm still upset about the lack of quality pictures, including none of the blood trail and stand location. I guess I can chalk it up to my overwhelming excitement. I've also included some pictures from the area just to give an idea of what it's like where I hunt.
Late season from stand:
Topic: First Trad Deer (Read 467 times)
