Better late than never... first year write up.

[irork]

Well, as the title states.. it's better late than never! And dang it, I'm itching for archery season 2014 so I thought I'd relieve some stress by writing about my year in 2013!

To start off, I'm a 26 year old novice that has been a die-hard fly fisherman and outdoorsman, but never a hunter. That is, until 2013 of course.  I completed my hunter safety 2 weeks before spring turkey, bagged a nice bird first weekend out and that just set the hook on an addiction that will no doubt, be long lived. My ultimate goal when deciding to hunt was to follow up fly fishing (in my opinion the purest and most humble of fishing methods) with archery hunting, for the same reasons. I don't ever plan to hunt for trophy, but rather to get out in the back country and woods to harvest a freezer full of meat.

Fast forward to a week before archery season opened for deer, the anticipation was simply killing me. I was insanely busy with school (Central Washington University) and big city work in seattle. I was prepped to hunt the west side for blacktail with my brother in law, in the woods i grew up running around when I was a youngster. Opening day came, and I had the whole week off to give full effort! My brother and I loaded up the bikes and went for a trek to get as far out as we could, in hopes to have some relaxing time to "break me in" to archery hunting. All plans went out the window when we unexpectedly found ourselves in the draw we wanted, with deer in bow range, within the first hour of my bow hunting career. A few really nice heavy bodied blacktail does bumped about 100 yards in front of us and began feeding on a small knoll. They clearly knew we were there, and kept an eye on us as we made our way in close. I was able to get to about 42 yards of the Doe I had chosen, she presented me with a quartering away shot at that distance, I drew back, took a deep breath and flat out missed low. A shot I was very confident in had completely changed when a live animal was in the sights. She spooked probably 100 yards, and gave me a second change 5 minutes later. Again, missed low from the same distance, and away she went for the evening. I had two emotions... 1.absolutely crushed that I missed twice 2.So excited for the next morning!

5 days of hunting very hard left me with a humbling experience of seeing no animals where we KNEW they would be. On a Thursday, with my brother in law back to work I went out on my own and sat up in one of the tree stands we had placed, and had a relaxing afternoon with no activity. My Brother got off work and met me out in the draw. we spoke for a bit and set up a game plan for the evening hunt. He went off on his own, and urged me to make it happen from the tree stand, but take an opportunity on foot if I'm presented. Those words stuck to me like glue. About an hour before sunset I was getting discouraged, thinking the tree stand would pay off eventually, but no deer is no deer. I was readying myself give up and walk towards the area my brother was hunting when out of the blue, about 150 yards behind my tree stand, a deer steps out of the timber and began feeding on the nice dewey grass. A heavy bodied doe, the same doe I missed the first evening out. She was feeding away from me and I knew I had to make it happen. The advice my brother gave, came to fruition. I calmly lowered my bow down to the ground, and not-so-calmy climbed/jumped out of the tree (with no grace at all). I was sure that the racket i just made ended my chances but much to my surprise, when I got to a viewable area, there she stood, chomping away on the grass. Ranged at 173 yards, with downed timber, waist high grass and brush between her and I. I began working towards her slowly on my butt, hands, knees and feet. I tried to stay low and out of sight, periodically checking on her with the range finder. I found myself at about 60 yards and tempted to let an arrow fly, as I had obstruction in front of me. She put her head down and that was enough for me to crawl under a chest high downed tree, a few steps and up on a small rise. 45 yards to her, broadside but staring straight at me, clearly unhappy. I drew back, put the 50 yard pin on her (didnt want to miss low again) released my arrow and was sure I was spot on... before she ducked the arrow and took off. The combination of me overcompensating high, and he being on me like white on rice probably led me to shooting over her shoulder. I watched he run straight to the timber, sure she was gone. But to my surprise she stopped, and fed a bit more. I scrambled a fair distance and got to 52 yards. I took a step up on a stump, got comfortable and drew back, released an arrow and watched her faceplant into the ground before stumbling up and making a run for the timber. Just as I go to call my brother in law to let him know we have some tracking to do, I see him standing across the treeline from me pumping his fist. He was secretly there to watch to whole thing go down. After a quick hell yeah and high five we marked the spot of contact and began looking for blood. Shortly there after we found good blood, and decided to give her some time. We jumped on the bikes and ran for the house to get the truck and some flashlights and some lighter clothes (lots of sweat coming). We made a 2-3 hour long blood track in the DENSE timber in the dark and came across my first archery kill! Getting that deer out of that timber and to our access road was tougher than I expected but I had a smile from ear to ear! By 2 AM the deer was hung and dressed in the garage. Butchered, packed and in the freezer the following evening.

This experience would have been great alone, but I cannot express the amount of meaning it had to me, to do it all standing next to my brother in law. I know most of you have already experienced this bonding, but it was new to me and is no doubt the start of a great family tradition for us younger generations! I will never forget the help and experience he gave me, and cannot wait to get back out with him!

Thanks for reading!

[PlateauNDN]

Congrats amd good write up.

[Lunchbox1981]

Congrats!  You have now truly been bitten.

[Bean Counter]

Great writeup and photos there, Irork! 

[Eli346]

Thanks for the read, a good one at that! I'm sure we'll be seeing more of you.

[Watimberghost]

That's what its all about! Congrats

[MLBowhunting]

  great job and welcome aboard.

[pianoman9701]

Welcome to the forum. I'm hungry now. That was a great write up. 

[Jellymon]

 

[irork]

thanks guys! I really appreciate it! You will most definitely see a ton of me in the future!

[sakoshooter]

Good for you and congrats.

[Sandberm]

Was I the only one a bit into the read who thought the story was going to read he got a Turkey the first weekend, a deer the first day out and then heck, throw in an elk too. With a "Whats so hard about this hunting stuff" vibe?

But then he missed his first shot (missing is what Im good at) before eventually getting his deer with a tough haul out to earn his meat.

I like the packaged meat pic with the antler decoration.

[Phobic]

HAHA great story man, thanks for sharing.