My Very First Deer
I was finally blessed to harvest my first deer ever and fortunate enough to do it on my 60th Birthday. This year has been pretty busy so I have not had much time to hunt. Other than a few hours putting up trail cams and checking my ladder stand I did not hunt at all until November 15th. I decided to go that morning as I had time to do it before work.
I climbed into my Big Game Spin Shot at 6:15 to watch the sunrise in a little over an hour and hopefully see some deer. I am enjoying hearing the birds and watching the squirrels with my coffee as the sun rises. I am facing to the north as I hear the rustling of leaves to my right. I watch as a small doe galloping at a fair pace runs through the woods about 40 yards north of me. Maybe she is being chased so I sit motionless watching and hoping for what may be pursuing her. My Ten Point Titan Extreme XL resting on the shooting rail with a Black Eagle Executioner tipped by a Slick Trick 100 grain fixed blade broadhead at the ready.
Nothing appears so whatever if anything was chasing that doe, never made it my way. I quietly spin around (a great feature of the Spin Shot Ladder Stand) to look a full 360 degrees around me and decide to face to the south for a while as the sun is continuing to rise. A glance at the time and it is a little before 8. I have already decided that I can only hunt until about 9 as I need to be at my store to open at 10am. Nothing but birds and squirrels for a while now, but they can be enjoyable to watch also. I make the decision to turn again and face to the north northeast. I pour myself another cup of hot coffee from my thermos as I continue to enjoy my time in the woods.
The blessing begins with a little luck included. For a reason still unknown to me, something catches my attention over my left shoulder behind me. I see a small doe in my peripheral vision and am facing the wrong way to get a good view, or any chance of a shot. I very slowly but deliberately raise my crossbow to clear the tree and start to spin counter clockwise to see the doe. It seems like I spent 10 minutes making the turn but I know it wasn’t that long in reality. I get turned around and the small doe is now directly southeast of my stand about 20 yards away. A closer look and I see a second doe, larger in size about 15 yards behind her. They are slowly walking from west to east being very observant of their surroundings. The smaller doe looks directly at me as I froze and did not move fearing of being busted by her. She is now slightly to my left, quartering towards me with no clear shot due to some small limbs. As she continues to move I decide that if the larger doe follows in her tracks I will take a shot when she is between the two trees I have selected as my best shooting lane.
I raise my Ten Point into position; taking the safety off arming my crossbow. I lower my head and locate the larger doe in my scope. I follow her movement needing her to walk only another few yards into my chosen shooting lane. She makes that walk and I make a noise to freeze her for a hopeful shot. She freezes and I place the crosshairs of the scope on my desired location for impact. I squeeze the trigger and see my Lumennock glowing brightly on its path. I watch as her front legs buckle and she collapses, her chest hitting the ground in the view through my scope. Both does are now running to the east at a frantic pace, their raised white tails showing brightly. I can’t see my arrow in the deer of my choice as she runs from the area. I study the area of the shot with my binoculars to try and locate the arrow hoping my Lumenock would show me the location but unfortunately do not see it. I check the time and it is 8:38, just a little over an hour after daylight. I scan the woods to my east with the binoculars hoping to see the doe down with no success.
Knowing that my time is limited I climbed down from my stand and do a quick search of the shot area and do not locate my arrow or any sign of blood. Now I begin to question myself, did I miss completely and the arrow is buried in the ground out of sight or did I hit the doe and just did not see the arrow as she ran away or what. I do a second quick look of the area and decide it is time to leave. If I did hit my target, and not seeing any blood, she may be only wounded and if I try and find her now I will most likely just push her further away.
I discuss everything with my son, who I am thankful for getting me back into hunting 3 years ago. We are both unavailable to get to the woods later in the evening so I decide I will go in the morning to check the area again. I spend the rest of the day and most of the sleepless night replaying the hunt in my mind and trying to figure out what actually happened.
I get up Sunday morning to Birthday Wishes from my wife and decline her offer of Breakfast as I want to go to the woods. I get ready and go for another hunt for the same doe. I take a rake so I can clear the leaves from the area of the shot hoping to find some clues. I find none and start to check the top of the fallen leaves in the direction I seen them running to look for blood. I finally locate a few drops of blood over 15 yards from impact that lets me know that I at least wounded the doe. The minimal amount of blood at that time now has me feeling bad that it may only be a wounded animal that we all hate to do but at the same time some excitement that we may be fortunate to harvest the doe. I continue looking for more blood and locate a little more about 5 yards further, still only a few drops. Then I locate a larger amount of blood on some leaves with more on the sides of a couple of small saplings indicating that blood is being pumped from the entrance wound. I am starting to feel better about the shot and text my son who is on his way to help track the doe.
I continue to follow the blood trail as it winds through the small acreage of woods that we are lucky enough to have permission to hunt from a local farmer. The amount of blood continues to fluctuate but I locate a spot where the ground is disturbed and appears that the doe stumbled or collapsed about 40 yards from where the shot was taken. Continuing on until I located my gift next to a tree about 70 yards from my stand location. There she was, lying next to the tree unharmed by any coyotes as I had also feared with the meat protected by the cold temperatures. She is no award winning giant deer or the great large buck that we all dream about, but she is one of the best gifts I have ever received! Turning 60 wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. In fact I think it worked out to be Perfect.
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