I hunted the scape road on Sunday morning and had a wonderful time. The woods was beautiful and I was as comfortable as a guy could be sitting in my stand. I was using a millennium tree seat with a wooden ladder platform stand.
Here was my view of the scrape road and my bow. This is Mark's old bow and I put up a post a few weeks back about having it redone to use as a tribute bow.
I was hoping to christen it in right this morning. I was starting to think I wasn't going to see anything at 8 am when suddenly I heard a doe blowing above me which was upwind of my position. I was confident with the follage and the wind direction it wasn't me that had alerted her. I stood up and readied myself. About 5 minutes later I was thinking about sitting down when I looked over my shoulder and saw a doe walking up the scrape road. I readied for the shot using my typical routine. I often draw when a deer is behind a tree in order to minimize my detection as well as it puts me at full draw without any sight picture of the deer. She walk into my sight picture and the arrow was away. It almost seemed too easy as my mind was already telling myself what a great shot I was making. It did look perfect right until the point it hit the deer with a loud CRACK!!!!
The deer was off like a scalded dog and I was left with the disturbing image of my arrow that had not penetrated much of her shoulder blade.
I was shooting a 56# bow with beaman arrows weighing sporting a 100 grain insert, 125 grain steel adapter, and 165 grain Simmons treeshark. I'm not lacking for FOC but it wasn't much of match for her shoulder blade. I regret to say that despite 3-4 hours of tracking in the morning and another 1 hour later that afternoon we followed a diminshing blood trail that eventually stopped. I was sick and still am that I made a hit that didn't put her down. Heavy bone isn't forgiving and while my shot location was only 2 inches from being perfect it was still 2 inches from its intended mark. This is not how I wanted the first shot with Mark's bow to go. But like real life, hunting doesn't always have the perfect ending. My hope is the does wound will heal and I will see her again.
Feeling dejected after losing my doe I was greated by my two son's Charlie and Alex. They have the amazing ability to put things in prospective. It was exactly the medicine I needed. They can always make me laugh and take my own life less seriously. Here is a picture of them on a spring turkey hunt we had. They were as happy holding up the decoy as if it had been a real live turkey.
Topic: The Munchy Games!! (Read 635 times)
