Well I really wanted to hold out this year for a decent buck (shot a spike last year) but she hung around a little too long and she was a little too big for me to pass up. Deep down inside I'm just a meat hunter
I left Renton around 2:30 to my spot in 454 to move my game cam and scout out a decent enough sized tree to hang my stand. I normally use a climber stand but I found a nice area on this ld skid road in some 20 yr old growth and all of the trees had too many branches. Anyhow by the time I finished setting my cam, mineral rock, etc it was almost 4pm. There was a cut about 3/4 of a mile up the road with good sign that i wanted to sit for the last few minutes of light.
I dropped my pack at the top of the hill so I could be stealthy creeping down through timber on the edge of the cut. As I eased into a spot where I could see I set my bow in front of me and sat down on my butt to do some glassing. I wasnt there two minutes when I caught movement to my right and noticed a large bodied deer with its head down feeding. I moved my binos over and the deer caught the movement and picked its head up...slick head, great I thought well she might have a buck in tow so I figured I would just hang tight as I was in good cover and the wind was perfect. She was about 35 yards directly across from me.
After about ten minutes and the light fading I realized two things: 1 there was not a buck in tow and 2, she appeared to be a dry doe. Well she milled around a bit and ended up perfectly broadside at 30 yards...I couldnt resist. I reached down to pick up my bow and she caught the movement and took one step towards me. I removed my arrow from the quiver and nocked. She was out in the open but I sitting on my butt at full draw trying to lean forward to shoot over one limb and under another. I settled my 30 yard pin just above the crook of her elbow and released. immediately I saw my arrow shoot wayyy right of intention and bury into her left hip just behind her guts.
Oh this is great I thought I wasnt even going to shoot her now I wounded her and I am running out of light and it is starting to RAIN!! As soon as I saw the arrow hit I immediately though well that might be far enough back to get her femoral. I decided to get on the blood trail immediately. I quickly and most thankfully noticed there was a ton of bright red blood, I followed her down about 75 yards over the next 20 minutes or so and found her expired about 75 yards from where I shot her.
It was now pretty much dark and I had 2 miles back to the truck. I quickly went the 1/4 mile up to my pack where I had my head lamp and other gear. I rettrieved the pack and made my way back down to the deer. I was suprised at her size as she was somewhere between 140-160lbs on the hoof. This was about the time when my headlamp died!! I ended up doing as much as I could in the dark which was removing both backstraps and the left front and rear quarters. I loaded them into the pack, stripped the rest of the hide off of her and opened her up to cool. Now it was completely dark to the point where I couldnt see my footing at all going uphill through the timber about 1/4 mile to the road then the 1-3/4 back to my truck.
I went back today and got the rest of her, the meat was perfect and untouched by any critters overnight.
I have some decent pics but they are too large to post, my camera on my phone doesnt have a flash so I took these today after retrieving the rest of the meat.
