Setup in my favourite spot, wind perfect, scent-killer on, etc. Wait a LONG time last night, and starting to think nothing’s gonna show up. About half an hour before dark, a doe and fawn come along. I briefly entertain the idea (either-sex arehery in regiion 4), but conclude that I just ain’t that kind of hunter. Fawn and mommie pass on by.
About 5 minutes later, here comes a nice fat little 3 point white-tail, moving slow, and stopping at regular intervals to munch. I hold my breath, and ever so slowly bring up the x-bow. I catch him at 15 yards, slightly quarerting away, with his head down, standing still. I hear the thump as the arrow passes clean through, and freeze so he doesn’t notice me.
Deer bounds stifly about 15 yards away, and looks back. With a gimpiness to his stride that convinces me my shot was good, he meanders off behind some trees. I can tell by the lack of crashing through the brush that he didn’t go far.
I hang out, and start the timer for the search-and-recover mission. Watch a couple more does, and what I’m pretty sure was a trio of 2 and 3 point bucks meander through while I wait (was getting pretty dark by that time).
An hour later when we went to look, there at the end of a blood trail that a blind man could follow in the dark without a flashlight, he was. My shot hit farther to the rear than I would have liked (nicked the gut – ewww), but it did the job perfectly. By the time we found him, he was already stiff and getting cool – so he went down within a few minutes of the shot I’m sure.
Anyhoo… thought I’d share.