2018 Opening Day

[J.Brower]

Well, my season came to a quick end. Notched my tag opening day for the first time ever. I didn’t want it to end so quick, but first legal deer was the name of the game this year, and this one fit the bill. Hunted hard for the morning hunt, hiking a few areas with nothing to show other than a handful of does with fawns. Went back down the hill to grab the wife so she could tag along for the evening sit over a cut we have seen a group of decent sized forkys in the last couple of weeks. Well we almost made it to where we were heading to and she spots one 80 yards up the clearcut. Wasn’t feeling too confident with that shot this year. Made the decision to try to get up on top of a gravel pit area and end up a little closer. Made the slow climb up and he ended up at 52 yards, more than doable for me, perfect broadside stance. Pin floating right on the vitals, let it rip, deer jumps and walks 10 yards to the side.... wtf just happened. Quick check with the binos shows a less than favorable shot, but he’s hurt. He ends up walking down another 30 yards and stops again, facing straight away leaving me no second shot. The first shot wasn’t going to be enough to put him down in any reasonable amount of time so I moved a bit to the side to get a better angle and snuck in a bit closer using whatever I could to block him from seeing me. Finally got to 45 yards, but still a hard quartered away shot. If he was going over the hill he was standing on there would be no chance for another shot. My wife in the meantime was down on the road still, but couldn’t see where the buck was, or me for that matter. Let the second one fly and he barreled over the edge of the hill. Quickly made my way through the slash in the clearcut back down to ground level, and see him piled up halfway to the road. Second arrow was right where it needed to be, in through just behind the ribs straight through the heart and poked out the front shoulder. Wife helped dress him out, and drag him down the hill to the truck!
Still trying to figure out what went wrong with the first shot, but all that matters is he went down fairly quickly and I did my duty to make sure of it. Another year of learning in the books.

[Dtray332]

Good for you man. Glad you were able to share it with your wife.

[Thehowler]

Nice!

[Rainier10]

Congrats man.

[C-Money]

Congrats! Nice buck!

[elkoholic1]

 

[bracer40]

Congratulations! Memories made for two lifetimes!!

[teanawayslayer]

 . Great job!

[Dan-o]

Nice job.

Now if only you could catch some fish.     
(leave me a few)

[CedarPants]

Great job!!

[boneaddict]

Awesome. 

[J.Brower]

Thanks guys. Went back up and found my first arrow this morning, along with the small branch that deflected it.... Makes perfect sense now as before the branch it was heading for the sweet spot.

Nice job.

Now if only you could catch some fish.      😉
(leave me a few)

If our river season is worth a half a crap this year you will have to come up. If I still have my boat that is lol


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[huntnfmly]

Very cool congrats

[t2shortb]

Sweet, well done! Good job on sealing the deal and giving that buck the respect of an ethical kill!