The week of the 16th my buddy and I went over to the east side to do some archery hunting. This time we decided to do our first high hunt with our bows, we chose and area to hike into that we had not hiked or hunted before, no the smartest thing to do, but we were looking for a challenge. We also have a friend in the area that was going to be able help us out with his Mules if we got something. The hike was about 7.5 miles and we were both wearing about 60 lbs. Did I mention that our friend at the last minute that had the mules had to back out of the hunt, I knew right then that we were in trouble if we got an animal. Well we did the hike anyway, took us about 5.5 hrs, my buddy and I are in good shape, by the end of the hike I think he may have had tears in his eyes
. By the time we got to the lake we were going to stay at we were barely standing upright, we got the tent up, had a hot meal, a few shots of whiskey and and hit the rack. The next day we were so tired and sore we could barely walk, hunting was going to be interesting especially without my friends pack animals. We fished at the lake, caught a few nice trout for lunch, scouted a bit, only saw one doe, spotted a nice mountain goat on the opposite canyon. After our hike it was confirmed unless we wanted to make multiple trips up that grueling trail we would probably not be smart to kill a deer at that altitude. So we enjoyed the lake, fished some more, rested up.
After 2 night we headed back down to the valley to hunt our friends property, we Sat in our tree stands for several mornings and evenings without seeing many deer. Mind you that in the past few years this spot usually yielded 10-15 deer per sit, morning and evening. Only a few whitetail showed up after dark on the first two nights. After asking around sounds like there has been quite a few cats in the area, the deer may have scattered for the mean time. Also this year has been especially wet and the deer may have been staying up a bit higher with the more abundant food sources. Anyway we stuck it out and on the second to last night a whitetail doe came into my stand 40 yrds away, I ranged her twice and took my shot. Sounded good, however at the last minute she may have spotted me or jumped my string, she turned from what was broadside to quartering away just as I released the arrow. She ran like her ass was on fire so I new that I had hit her, just not sure were yet. She ran to the edge of the field and laid down, I slowly climbed out of my stand to look for my arrow to see what it looked like. Well unfortunately it was pretty obvious that I had gut shot her, later i would find out that it entered past her hip and exited just before the lungs.
My buddy and I let her be for about an hour and headed slowly her way, she began to get up so we backed off and made the decision to head in for the night and track her in the morning. Well I did not sleep well that evening, concerned about coyotes, cats, etc!! We got up first light and found her blood trail, that came to and end pretty quick, followed what looked like a distressed pattern of tracks on a trail that paralleled an irrigation ditch. I found her less than a mile from were I shot her, piled up under a tree.
She is not a huge deer, probably 120 after she was gutted, but she is my first archery kill. Glad we found her and can't wait to eat some Venison!!!
