I thought my long wait for a traditional deer was over this morning, this is the first year that I have gone totally traditional, in years past I have hunted half the season with a recurve and the last half with my compound and it seems like I always got my shot opportunity later in the season with the compound but this year I'm going to get one with the recurve. Anyway, the morning started out great with lots of deer around my stand but they were all doe with fawns, at 7:30 a lone doe came by with no fawns with her and I decided to take a shot when she came into range, at 12 yards she stopped slightly quartering away which was a perfect shot opportunity so I drew and released, she ducked a little and I hit her about 4 inches below the spine and about the same distance behind her front shoulder. I knew the shot was a little high but I was pretty sure it was a fatal hit, my arrow penetrated to the fletching which gave me 2 holes which I also thought was a good sign. I watched her run out of sight and waited an hour before I came down out of my ladderstand and started tracking, the blood trail wasn't the greatest when it started but got better as I followed it, I tracked her almost 200 yards off of our farm and onto the state ground that borders our property on one side, I wasn't on the state ground that long when I came upon a gentleman with the deer I had shot, he had finished her off with his compound bow and was gutting her when I came up to him, we chatted for a couple of minutes and he asked how long I had been tracking her and I told him, he then asked if which one of us should take the deer, I said since you made the finishing shot that you can have her, he agreed and we looked at the lungs in the gut pile to see what my arrow hit, only the top of one of the lungs had a slit in it so who knows how long she would have went if he wouldn't have shot her. We chatted for a few more minutes and I offered to help him drag the deer to our property and I went and got my truck and we loaded it and took it to his truck.
I was a little disappointed but happy to see that the deer was harvested, made a new friend in the process and got an invite to hunt with him in PA on his property if I ever wanted to. Maybe next time, if only the shot was a little lower I would be showing pics of my first traditional deer.
Rodney