I went out for my second tradition deer hunt this moring with a friend of mine. He was using his crossbow and I had my rawhide backed yew long bow that I got in the 2012 bow swap. I was using wooden arrows and two blade broadheads. I've got a lot of grief from my fiends about my long bow. I just can't seem to spend the money on a compound bow or crossbow.
We got to the hunting land that we lease with another long time friend of ours at about 0630. I was going to be hunting a patch of hardwoods with a food plot just outside the woods in the field. The low for today was 50 which is cold to me and I walked through a field with chest high grass that was wet. Then right before I get into the woods my light dies. GREAT!! So using my cell phone I and find a tree about 30 yards inside the woods and climb it. I get set up in the stand and get a text from my buddy at 0644 that he is in his tree and set up. As it gets daylight I see that my best shooting lane is to my hard right. I stand up and try to draw my bow to see if I will be able to shoot in that direction should a deer come from that way. The bottom limb of my bow hits my stand so I cant shoot that way. I did not want to adjust my stand since the sun was up and I was thinking that I should be seeing deer at any time now. At about 0730 I see a deer walking the wood line right at the end of the shooting lane to my right. Turns out there was four deer total two does, a spike and a small basket rack buck. They feed in the edge of the woods and food plot for about half an hour. they stayed out of range and to my hard right the whole time. As soon as they left the area I adjusted my stand hoping that if they came back through I might get a shot.
At about 0830 I see two more deer walking in the food plot just outside of the wood line. They feed around for a while and then one of them blew and they ran off.
I get a few text from my buddy letting me know that he had a doe blow at him. At 0900 I get a text from him saying that he is ready to come out since the doe blew at him. I tell him to hold off till 0930, and 10 mins later I get a text from him saying that he has a doe behind him. The he text me and says that she blew at him three times and that he is coming down to head back to the truck. I take my face mask off and start to get ready to come down. I looked down my shooting lane and seen a dead stump and figured I might as well shoot it since I didnt get a chance at a deer. I stoop up to get a arrow from my quiver for the stump and out of the corner of my I see a doe walking like she is in a hurry. I grab my bow just as she gets infront of the stump I was going to shoot. I draw back and release the arrow and could see that it was high. I thought it went over her back but it turns out it hit her in the spine and she goes stright down. I put another arrow in the vitals and called my buddy and tell him.
The whole time I was watching the deer I kept telling myself to pick a spot. The I forgot to pick a spot.