Well, yesterday morning was another one of those mornings that will not soon be forgotten. Aaron and I left town around 5am and hit the woods well before daylight. The moon was so bright on our walk in that we actually could have left our flashlights in the truck- with shadows cast before us, we crossed the recently partially cut soybean field as quietly as we could, but not quietly enough. Immediately we spotted a doe running from the center of the field. Not a good way to start the morning.
As we split up near the south end of the field, I spoke softly saying "hey, it's about to go down". We chuckled a little, wished each other good luck and parted ways. I found my trail with ease and noticed it could use another boot sweeping to clear freshly fallen leaves. As I made my way through the darkness of the woods, I shined my light on the creekbed to find that it had nearly filled from a rain we received Friday. I crossed the creek and climbed into my stand to settle in for the waking of the woods.
As the sun broke the horizon, dew beagn to fall fromt the treetops, keeping my nerves wound tight and my bow in hand. It's hard not to turn your head from side to side with all of the 'noises' around you, but I tried my best. I could hear turkeys making their way onto the soybean field and was tempted to get down and try to slip to the edge of the field to intercept them, but I was here for the deer- turkeys will have to wait. Text messages around 9:30 confirmed that neither myself or Aaron had seen any movement and he was wanting to get down to move his stand to another location he'd scouted. I replied that I'd like to sit at least another hour and I'd let him know when I got down.
I tucked my phone back in my pocket and pondered filling my empty bladder relief bottle in my pack. As I turned to hang my bow, I gave a last glance across the creek and saw the grey flick of an ear in a small clearing 40 yards up a trail along the north bank. I spun back to face the direction of the movement and quickly could make out a small doe, then a yearling and finally a much larger body behind them. Unable to see the head of the last deer, I decided it had to be a buck, but soon found it to be another doe. Fine by me- I'm a meat hunter first and horns can't be filleted.
As they made their way down the bank, I felt the chill of the morning to my bones. They looked to be planning to cross the creek to my left so I put tension on the string, but then with noses facing me, they slowly turned back up the trail, one by one. They did this several times, eventually shuffling enough that the big doe was in the lead. She hit another trail that would lead her along the bank on the far side of the creek, so I slowly turned to the right in the stand to have a shot at the first large opening I could make out ahead of her. As she slowly approached the spot, I looked back to see the two smaller deer trailing her by several yards, staring hard across in my direction. When their heads turned back to the trail, I refocused on the lead doe and found that she had stopped right where I needed her to be. In a brief moment I picked a spot above her elbow, decided she was inside my instinctive range, drew, anchored and... At the fraction of a second that I told myself to pull through, everything kind of blurred in my mind, but only long enough for the arrow to be on its way home. She heard the bow and went into a spin to bear back on the trail, but not quick enough to avoid 509 grains of arrow confirming my shot with the audible "whack" I love to hear. My knees went jelly immediately as I crouched in the stand to listen to her run path and all went silent in a matter of seconds. I sat down and texted Aaron "#2 down between me and the field". I said a prayer that I had heard her go down, dug through my pack for a drink of water and my binoculars. I scanned the spot where she had been standing when I took the shot and spotted my arrow, broadhead burried several inches in the dirt, feathers a crimson flash in the morning sun. I slowly lowered my bow and climbed down and when I crossed the creek to the point of impact I found my arrow and frothy blood on the ground. I smelled the feathers and there was just the faint scent of blood- no liver or stomach. I smiled!
I stood there waiting for Aaron to make his way up the creek and snapped a couple of photos of my stand from the big doe's once point of veiw. Though the photo barely shows it, my stand is on the center tree across the creek.
Aaron made his way up the creek and we went off trailing blood. Ten yards or so in, Aaron said "there she is buddy". I looked up fifteen yards ahead and there she lay, just as I thought I had heard, a soft quiet fall in the grass without much commotion of twigs or timber, almost peacefully leaving the earth.
I took time to close my eyes to thank my maker and took a couple of photos.
Field dressing revealed a low right lung entrance, through and out of the front left side of the heart, just behind the valves.
Equipment used:
Holzrichter Customs Longbow 62" 50# @ 28"
Easton Axis Traditional 500 full length with 75 grain brass insert
Muzzy Fred Eichler series Phantom 150 grain broadhead
Total arrow weight 509 grains
Topic: Kansas 2013 Deer Hunting Thread..Keep 'em Coming!!! (Read 5344 times)
