- Joined
- Aug 1, 2008
- Messages
- 491
Well I got up to the hunting land at 1 AM Saturday morning, got my hunting clothes all lined out in the back of my truck, walked out to my tree stand and got my bow hung up in the tree along with a couple extra arrows, then proceeded to try to get a little sleep. Well after tossing around for an hour or so, I succumbed to the fact that sleep wasn't what I needed, but rather needed to park my butt in a tree stand. Needless to say, at 4:14 in the morning, there I am sitting in my stand with 2 hours of blackness left in the morning, listening to around a dozen deer come by and munch on a couple apple slices right beneath my tree stand. About a half hour before I could even make out the silhouette of a tree, all the deer had made their way to the swamp on the edge of the property, and left me with nothing more than a contended feeling of just being "out there" and soaking it all in.
I got out of my treestand around 7:30 and headed back to go get some breakfast at the little backwoods cafe where you do not simply order a stack of pancakes, but rather order ONE pancake that is 3/4" thick and about 13" around...for about $.75. When I got back, I cut up a couple apples and tossed a couple apple chips on the ground by my stand, scouted out the area a little more and verified that I had my stand in about as good a spot as any and just had to invest some time into sitting in it.
2:30 PM roles around and I am getting twitchy to kill something, so I go and head back into my stand earlier than I needed to, but hey, I went there to hunt right? Well off in the distance, there was a few people shooting some handguns and rifles and it was making a lot of noise for the deer. I was like, "are they gonna do this til sundown??" They were shooting for close to 2 hours when finally, around 5PM they stopped. I was like good! Now we can hopefully get some action. Fast forward to 6:30 and I am running out of daylight and I hear a twig behind me snap. I slowly turn around to look at the 2 doe coming up from my rear, and then realize as I start to look back, that off to my left I have FIVE MORE coming in!! This is all well and good, but how am I gonna draw with 7 deer within 40 yards of me? Well all 7 of them were walking with purpose after all the gunfire and they were absolutely not taking their time to stop and smell the roses. The 2 had stopped behind me as 4 of the group of 5 crossed about 25 yards in front of my stand. Not a one of them gave me a single shot and were using the heavy brush as cover. It wasn't until the lead doe stopped when she caught scent of the apples that the fifth one now appeared and she was the nicest of the group. About 140 lbs, long and graceful. I was able to draw my bow and wait for a shot by this point. The doe then stepped out onto the trail and stopped with a slight quartering away shot to me, and at that very moment I took the shot. Now here is the kicker...at the VERY moment I pulled the trigger, she took a half step forward. Not from the sound, but this group of 5 were not at all taking an afternoon stroll. Well having took aim at the front of her lungs trying to catch the heart, I watched as my arrow went through the back of her rib cage and I was like DAMN! That's gonna smell gutting her out, and then I thought, Wait a minute, I think I got the back of her lungs...the liver at the very worst which is still ok, but I'll take lungs any day of the week. Well, I went back to get my flashlight just in case, but turns out I didn't need it. She took some HUGE strides and went like a blur, but only made it about 50 yards where she fell. the blood trail was fairly short and very heavy thanks to a MASSIVE hole from the Rage broadheads. I love these broadheads. This is the third deer I have taken with them and the entrance and exit holes they make are enormous!
The first photo I needed flash on from some horrible shade on that side...
I got her back to camp, and now a different itch is setting in...GOTTA USE MY BARKIES! Well, I am sure this goes without saying, but I am going to say that the Custom Semi Skinner is hands down, by far the most incredible knife I have used to gut a deer with. I barely had to rock it up through the briscuit and sternum and it drove right through it no prob.
This morning I woke up and had another knife that needed some action...the Ptarmigan. She was a pretty young doe, (18 months) so I knew the hide would come off fairly easy, but once again, I was amazed at how well the Ptarmigan sliced and cut it's way through the hide and the control I had with the entire edge was unreal. Anyone that does NOT have either of these knives, and does any hunting whatsoever, needs to get one or both of these. I almost cut clean through the back tendon making my cut around the ankle. That would not have been good given she was hanging by that tendon off the gambrels.
All in all, it was a good hunt and a real nice early season doe. Those backstraps look real tasty don't they? :thumbup:
, best of luck for next time, J.
