First Trad Deer

[Lin Rhea]

They say the first is an ice breaker. I sure hope so. I've failed to connect long enough and today, it finally happened. Lunch was even a little tastier today.
 

[GRINCH]

Now thats an pic I can relate to,way to go Lin.

[DEATHMASTER]

Looks good.

[Dogboy900]

Good stuff. I think the first tastes the best too!

[gregg dudley]

[rastaman]

Man you are making my mouth water! Way to go sir!

[WESTBROOK]

Congrats Lin    

Eric

[akaboomer]

Yes sir, tasty lunch. Congratulations Lin.

Chris

[Doug Campbell]

Heck Lin, figured you'd have a big old cast iron skillet over your forge to cook that stuff up...    Congrats Buddy        

[South MS Bowhunter]

Lin, mmmm, mmmm, mmm! The taste of success, make it all the better.

[Lin Rhea]

I guess you guys deserve a story.

I wish it could be a neat and tidy story, but not so. It started off bad.

Yesterday, I and my stepson (Wyatt) went to some oaks that are dropping heavy and the deer are really liking it. The bad part is that I made a not so good shot getting an arrow covered in paunch contents and watching the deer disappear into a cut over with high grass, weeds, and tree tops pushed up into piles. I located the blood trail and followed till it started getting dark and we backed out.

Chris Montgomery (akaboomer) and I have been in regular communication reporting what we're seeing, wind direction, etc. by text the whole day. When my cell phone goes dead, he calls on the landline and offers to come this morning to help search. So he shows up and off we go at daylight. We find the trail and follow for some distance, blood getting harder to see in the grass as well as our first frost is obscuring the sign.

We took along my little Rat Terrier (Daisy) to "help", thinking she might turn out to be some help.
 

She meant well, but she was more interested in the smaller creatures under and around logs and brush.

[Lin Rhea]

Here is where the presence of Chris really made the difference for me. He has good eyes for the trail as well as the determination of a bulldog. None the less, we lost the trail eventually and decided to fan out and cover some area of the cut over. We looked for an hour or so, met and talked about where we would be if we were the deer. There was a likely bedding area up ahead and we started easing forward.

[Bernie B.]

You're telling a good story Lin, keep it up!    

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

[Lin Rhea]

I spotted a deer bedded over to the side and let Chris know. Of course we stopped on high alert. I looked through my binos and saw frost on the deer's back and Chris mentioned it too and we deduced that it was dead.

Well, it wasn't. I eased up to it arrow at the ready, but..... not ready enough. I was 10- 15 feet from it when it jumped up. We both got off a shot but I dont think either hit it. We confirmed by the blood in the deer's bed that this was my deer.

 So, we now had a situation on our hands.

[Lin Rhea]

We saw where the deer ran and also could tell that it ran into but not out of a thicker area. So, we spread out a little and moved up slowly. There was a few moments where I could not see Chris down in a small valley. I heard the thunk of his bow and a crack. I move more. I saw him moving up. He pointed ahead in the thick stuff.  I moved up.

And that's how we handled it. Each moving a little at a time. We knew something was about to happen since just ahead was an open meadow. We were literally looking into the bushes and downed tree tops.

I saw Chris raise his bow and shoot almost down at his feet. The deer ran out and maybe 15 yards and laid down. I managed to stick another one in it and it was over.

Like I said, it was not pretty, but it's done. It was turn our backs on a bad situation or do what we thought we could. In this case, it turned out. The deer traveled a few hundred yards total.

She weighed about 80 lbs, not including arrows.

Chris and the deer after dragging it back and we're resting.
   

Me and my helper
   

I was using my Tall Tines recurve.

[drewsbow]

congrats  

[Rob W.]

My first Trad deer was a similar situation.

Way to stick with it!    Congrats!

Good story and pics!

[Tsalt]

Congrats Lin!

Congrats on your first trad deer. And kudos for sticking with it and a good recovery. I had almost the same thing happen a few years ago when I made a not so good shot. As I approached the deer I thought was dead, it jumped up and ran off . I ended up recovering that one too but I was sure worried. If i think there is any chance the deer is still alive as I approach now, I put a second arrow in them as soon as I can get a shot.

Congrats again,

Bisch

[Brianlocal3]

Outstanding work.  I loved the story