As many here know, today was the opener of the PA archery season, and it was a pretty ugly opener. I got in my stand at about 6:15 and got settled in with an umbrella over me. The morning started off very slow and I didn’t see anything before my dad texted me saying he was getting out at 9, which gave me another half hour.
Right at 9, I looked up to my left and caught some movement, quickly realizing it was antler. It didn’t look big and in pa there is a three point rule but I kept my hopes up. Unfortunately it ended up being a small four point followed by a spike and another deer. I assumed that the other deer was another small buck but that assumption would prove to be wrong. The first two deer moved through my shooting lane at 5 yards but the third was taking a bit longer. As it moved into the lane, I saw that it was a mature doe so I started to put tension on the string.
As her vitals came into the open, I gave her a soft grunt to stop her. I quickly drew, anchored, and released, watching my arrow hit a little back of where I was looking. The arrow buried to the feathers and I still felt good about the shot. I texted my dad and let him know what happened and he showed up as I was getting out of stand. There was no blood at the impact site but good looking blood was found a little ways up the trail. 10 yards later we found my arrow which had pulled through.
Normally we would wait before tracking but we were pressed for time because it is my grandmother’s 90th birthday and we had a party planned after lunch. That gave us 3-4 hours to find her and get her taken care of. We were able to easily follow the blood trail and it looked like we would find her in no time, but we kept going and kept going and there was no sign of the deer. Eventually she angled up the hill which is never a good sign, but as long as we had blood, we would trail her. An hour later, my dad said we needed to go so he could get ready, as he and my aunts and uncles were taking my grandmother to lunch before the party.
I went home, ate something quick and changed clothes before heading back myself to take up the trail again. I was really doubting that I would find the deer based on the movements the deer made and how far she had gone already. This next part of the trail found me crawling on my hands and knees for another hundred yards, but the blood was still flowing and I would look until I had to go to the party. She stayed on a well used deer trail for about 50 yards and then took a sharp turn down the hill through some thick stuff. I went only 15 yards and looked up to see her laying there still alive.
This was really tough for me, I strive to make the best shot I can and make quick, clean, humane kills. I could tell she was suffering but it was too thick to get another shot into her and I was afraid to move anymore for fear of chasing her up again. Fortunately, after a few minutes there, she took her last breath and passed away. This was at 11:30.
The strange thing was that after gutting her very carefully, I found no holes in the heart, lungs, liver, or stomach. I have no idea what I hit and all that I can think is that she just bled to death. Equipment used was an ILF riser I made myself with medium black max limbs pulling around 44# at my draw. Used Easton gamegetter 500s with 170 grains of 2 blade grizzly.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for reading, good luck to everyone the rest of the season
Topic: PA Doe :) (Read 588 times)
