First blacktail with a bow AND SECOND ONE! (added)

[lokidog]

Went out to a treestand across the island this morning.  I put a couple apples out on the sides of my shooting lane.  Didn't climb up until about 7:30.  Within two minutes of nocking my arrow, I could hear a deer coming down the trail I just walked in on.  It stopped and ate a couple of apples while I was trying to see if it was a doe or the pencil-headed spike that came by me on the ground a couple days ago.  I didn't bring any optics since my longest shot from this treestand is 20 yards but even at 7 yards, it was still pretty dark and hard to tell for sure there were no little antlers.  Then it moved into my shooting lane to eat another apple as another deer approached behind it.  This one was smaller and turned out to be the pencil head.  So, determining that she appeared to be a mature doe with a long face I decided to try to fill my second deer doe tag.  I drew back, brought the pin down and... oh crap, the hair trigger on my wife's release that I was borrowing, went off.  Couldn't see the arrow fly as it was still pretty dark (why is it we can't use illuminoks?), heard it smack the deer she ran off in a big circle around me and I heard her pile up (I hoped anyways that was what I heard) about fifty yards away within fifteen seconds.  I couldn't see my arrow until I climbed down a couple hours later after doing some rattling.  It was a pass through and was stuck in the ground in the side of a pear so it blended in from my treestand view.  There was a bit of blood where she had been standing.  I didn't want to stir up the woods too much so I went directly toward where I though she had dropped and there she was, ten yards from the tree I shot a nice buck out of two years ago.  It turns out I did hit her a bit high slicing the top of one lung with a blade and then angling down and punching through the middle of the other lung.

She's not big, pretty much average sized doe for our little island, but she will make some great burger, pepperoni and backstraps.  I'd better enjoy her this year because I don't think I will be purchasing a $64 doe tag for next year for out here.

Oh yeah, I was wearing my orange....   

[Ripper]

Nice job on some good eats.

[singleshot12]

Good meat deer and they always seem to bleed out better with a bow 

[Button Nubbs]

nice work!

[vaz,,66]

nice 

[lokidog]

So, I spent a little time back on this stand this week.  Had the dumb little spike tempting me Tuesday morning at 7 yards.  Went out this morning.  Got a late start as it took ten minutes to get the &%$&$ boat trailer off the truck.

As I walked up to the trail to my stand in the semi-dark, four deer spooked off the road I had just driven down, one large bodied silhouette grunted at me as he trotted off... crap.  I thought one of the others might have been a buck as well by its size and the way it walked.

So, a bit frustrated, I walked into my tree stand.  I had been dripping doe in heat scent on the road as I walked in.  I also crushed an apple in my trail as I walked the thirty yards to my stand.  Got set at 7:24.  I waited about ten minutes and did a series of grunts.  At about 8 I heard a deer trotting on the road sounding like it was coming toward me.  A few minutes later, I could here one of the apples being chewed on about 15-20 yards away but I could not see anything as I pretty much just have one shooting lane.  Then, I heard a branch crack and rustling on the trail coming from the other way, so I drew the bow just in case....  Out steps a fawn into my shooting lane and noses an apple.  I can still hear the one chewing on the other side.  The fawn looks behind it and jumps off the trail so I let the bow down figuring it was probably a doe.  About fifteen seconds later, I see antlers coming into my narrow shooting lane so I draw as he steps into my lane, not a spike, aim,  fire, oops, maybe high again like the doe.  The deer runs across the road into the neighbors' property, turns, runs a ways crashing then a couple crashes from one spot , and silence.

I climb down to look at my arrow, it is stuck in the ground about a foot from where the same arrow was stuck in the ground Sunday.  Yeah,  I can use my "lucky" arrow again.  The arrow has blood on it and one drop on the ground.  I turn to look down the trail and there is absolutely no blood walking the thirty yards to the road, WTF?  Geat!  There are some big drops of blood in the road.

I walk over to the neighbor's house to make sure they have no problem with me going over there to recover the deer.  He asks if I was hunting their property, nope.  OK, no problem.  He tells me a giant four point had just run by their house (not sure if he counts eastern or western style).  Mentions that the bucks must be hitting the crazy sauce as they seem to be running all over.

I call my wife at school and ask if our boy wants to come help me track my deer, he says yes so I walk up there and meet them halfway (no, I was not on the school property, but close    ).  We go back down to get my grunt tube out of the treestand, it is now about a half hour after taking the shot at 8:15.  Take a picture of the boy standing in the shooting lane.  Get down, take a picture of the arrow.  Then we walk out to the road and follow the blood across it where it promptly disappears.

[lokidog]

Luckily, he did not run quietly, and the neighbor's property is not super brushy so we worked our way through the woods.  We saw a couple of stirred up tracks, crawled under a tree, and there he was about ten feet off our track.

We took some pics and dragged him out to the road.  Then, we went back to the blood trail and did manage to find a little that veered off the road track.  It would have been a very difficult tracking job had I not heard where it ran and if the brush was thicker.  Though, if the brush had been thicker, blood may have wiped off on it more easily.  I can't figure why there was so little blood spray for a double lung pass through shot?

Moral of the story is even if there is no blood right away, stay on it.  Also, try to live in a spot that has decent game living there.   

[longashes]

Congrats on a successful season! 

[EDT]

You write a good story.  very cool that you could stab two deer this year.

[patton1]

Congrats.  Good deer season.

[LincolnTWilliams]

I like how you sent your son in there to check if he was down or not! haha "Yeah buddy just go over there and poke him with a stick... dady's gona be behind this tree overe here".

[GrainfedMuley]

Good job Ed. That boy has a fat neck!   

[lokidog]

I like how you sent your son in there to check if he was down or not! haha "Yeah buddy just go over there and poke him with a stick... dady's gona be behind this tree overe here".

    

[jmx369]

What a great season!

[fj40beast]

Great job Ed!