Bow Hunts and First Bow Kill (10/24/13-10/25/13)

10/24/13

Got out in the woods before daybreak and set up. At about 8:30 a.m. a decent 5 point came walking by me and stopped to graze 20 yards from me. I had no shot at him at the moment since he was behind some branches. He sat and grazed for a solid 20 minutes and the slowly started making his way over to my left to a lane that had been cleared for a good shot. He stepped into my lane at 9 a.m. I was drawn on him and let it rip-- missed. A little bummed, I brushed it off and continued to hunt. Not a half hour later and here come 4 doe walking down a trail to my left. Good sign that my shot didn't scare off the deer! After those 4 doe came by I saw nothing else for the remainder of the morning. We went back out at 4 p.m. and as I was walking to the base of my stand here comes a spike running towards me. I froze and watched it enter the swamp 10 yards in front of me! I watched it for a while and looked out into the swamp to see a nice buck out there. I couldn't tell how big it was but it was a very decent buck. I slowly grabbed my bow and put an arrow in just in case he came by while I was on the ground, but he didn't. I waited a while and then got situated in my tree. Went all night without seeing any more deer until just before dusk when that same 5 point I had missed earlier came back! He did not present me with a shot unfortunately. Today was an eventful hunt.

10/25/13 (First Bow Kill)

This morning was a slow one. I only saw one lone deer way at the other edge of the swamp. I watched him/her walk for a while then lost sight. After that deer no more came by. The evening was a little more exciting. Early into the afternoon a button buck came tromping on by, but I let him pass. Later into the evening a spike came by my stand as well and I let him pass too. At 7 o'clock, right near dark, a nice 5 point came up from the swamp at came right down a trail to the shooting lane in front of my stand. I pulled back and let her rip. My dad and I went searching for it a while later. We found a steady blood trail and followed it for about 50 yards, then the trail stopped. We couldn't figure out what was going on so we fanned out to search for the deer. No luck. So, my dad said he would go out in the morning to look for it. I woke up the next morning with a text from him saying he had found it! This was a great hunt.