Not a biggun but can't eat antlers. I took my first deer with a bow on Sunday! To make it better it was with my Legacy longbow. He was a small fork horn about 110lbs or so.
He surprised me coming in because I thought I would be able to see any approaching animals from far enough away I would have time raise the hood on my bow hunter's ghillie. He came into the feeder around 0720 feeding calmly for a few minutes while I tried to stand unnoticed.
When I finally thought I could stand unseen I failed. He spooked out about 20yds further but uncertain what scared him and with a growling in his belly, back he came. He never noticed me in the tree even with my bare face showing.
After he calmed back down he offered me a 22yd broad side shot. Which, I whiffed right over his back, the green Nockturnal pointing the error of my ways.
While the Legacy is certainly not a high-end stick it is scary quiet, especially when shooting a 630gr Alaskan Griz Stick. Because of this, he still didn't spook very far, about 20 again. Still uncertain about what was going on the young buck again came back to feed.
Now I have a bit of a predicament. My hip quiver is attached to the arm rest of my ladder stand meaning I will have to kneel down to grab another arrow. All the while with a now very alert deer in front of me. Seems God was smiling on me because I some how accomplished this even knocking the arrow, all unseen.
I guess he decided to move to a different food source because he took a couple more bites of corn and pellets then started walking parallel to my stand towards a stand of oak trees. He's even closer now at 15yds, just focus and pick a hair.
But once again he busts me, this time drawing but this time he stops and looks straight up in the tree at me. He spooks a third time in a semi-circle to another part of the trail and stops at 17yds but now I'm at full draw and locked onto his front shoulder.
I completely forgot the basics, anchor point, pick a hair, just went on instinct and let fly. Shot was a bit forward on the right shoulder but missed the bone, burying the 125gr Phantom through the leg, both lungs, the other rib cage and into the opposite leg.
At first I was worried because as he ran off a substantial amount of the 30" shaft was sticking out with the bright green nock blazing away. As he tore away obviously deeply wounded he began to stumble and falter, even plowed a deep furrow in the Oklahoma dirt. Bucky turned off the trail towards the willow thicket jumping into the thick nasty stuff where I lost sight of him.