Me and my bud went hunting this evening on my favorite ridge - barely got in the woods and bumped two nice bucks, went about 50 more yards and bumped a doe. I was still about 200 yards+ from my fixed stand, and my bud had his climber. He went ahead and set up right where we were, and I backed out the way we came, right to the starting edge of the ridge. Since I didn't have a climber I had to hunt from the ground. I foud a big pair of trees to hide between and waited.
Sure enough, a big ol' cow headed doe popped over the ridge directly downwind of me. She did the "I see you" tango in front of me for about 5 minutes before doing the Hitler high-step back and forth in front of me three times, trying to get me to move. the third time she was somewhere between 15 and 20 yards from me - I decided that when her head went behind the big pine tree between us I would draw. I drew back, and she gave me the perfect broadside shot, but was staring a hole through me and had one leg in the air. I knew she was gonna duck, so I aimed right at the tuft of hair just under the knuckle in her front leg. I figured she would duck right into a perfect double lung hit.
When I released, that doe ducked, and I mean DUCKED - she dropped competely on her side and the arrow passed JUST over her back, never touching her. She hit the ground so hard it took her a second to regain her footing to bolt away. She left a bare spot in the leaves where she hit the ground and scrambled back to her feet. I may as well have been a guy in a bad suit emptying a Desert Eagle in Keanu Reaves' direction.
After I retrieved my arrow, a fat spike came wandering by, and gave me a shot between 10-15 yards. Somehow I managed to hit the one strand of ancient barbed wire between me and him, with one of the bleeders from my Stinger shaving a dozen or so hairs off his chest, just under the knuckle.
Today, in the battle of Man VS Deer, Deer won... :banghead:
Isn't this a GREAT sport, Al? Maybe... tomorrow... YOU may get to win!
I was at full draw on an unaware doe at 20 yards this evening, but she suddenly took two quick steps that put brush between us, and there were no more openings to utilize.
I let down, smiled at her, and watched her slowly feeding away for the next five minutes.
It was a good night!
Daryl
Tomorrow. Hap
I feel your pain buddy! I got matrixed by a giant buck last week. I was hunting in my ground blind as it had been raining pretty steady earlier in the evening. Just as the rain slowed a giant buck came trotting towards the blind at a pretty good rate. I knew I couldn't shoot him moving that fast and he was going to be out of my window of opportunity pretty quick so I had no choice but to try and stop him. I grunted and he stopped perfectly broadside just like they do on the Outdoor Channel. The only problem is at the same time I released he was already turning to run back the way he came and the arrow missed him by a couple inches. It is actually funny that you posted this thread because when I was telling my buddies about this shot I told them it was just like something out of the matrix. :biglaugh:
Sounds like an Awesome hunt! Ya gotta love it!
Keep after 'em Al!!