It's been two years since I've shot a deer but this week has been a jackpot week for me.
This past weekend I was able to hunt with my buddies Chris Kinslow, Andrew Kinslow and Charlie Lamb. The temps and the winds were not ideal but we made the best with what we had.
Friday night the boys arrived and I scrabbled to get everyone to their hunting spots. I put Andrew in one of my favorite stands. It is the stand I shot my first traditional deer from. Chris picked his own spot because he has hunted my place before and knew where he wanted to be, so that only left Charlie to accommodate. Knowing that Charlie prefers to stay closer to the ground than a lot of my stands allow, I set him up in a spot where there is a north / south and east / west deer trail intersection. Because time was not on our side, Charlie and I had to hot foot it into his spot...sorry Charlie.
No deer were taken but a few were seen on Friday and Saturday. Fast forward to Sunday. Chris and I were the only two hunting my place. Andrew and Charlie had gone to another farm to hunt.
Chris was in another one of my good stands and I was in a stand that I had yet to have a shot opportunity from but I felt it held a lot of potential. I set facing south with an E / SE wind. The forcast was calling for a SE and S wind and a clear day. By 06:00 I was in my stand and setup, I text Chris to confirm that he found his stand in the dark and I settled in for the wait. This stand looks out over a weedy overgrown field with pockets of scrub brush. To the east of the stand in a small milo plot that I planted and behind it (east) is hardwood timber. Behind the stand (north) is mostly trash wood timber with a mineral lick in the timber. The stand that Andrew was sitting is located 20 yards from the mineral lick and about 50 or 60 yards north from the stand that this story is told from. To the west and over a hill from the stand is a large cut bean field.
At 06:15 through the murky morning light out in the muted colors of the weedy field I caught the slightest of movement. The kind of movement where you ask yourself "did I really see something or is the light, or lack of it, playing tricks on me?" I raise my binoculars and stare through them to try and pick out a form. "THERE!" I think to myself "deer." I catch the movement of a head and the flick of an ear and the broken outline of a back. For sure I know it's not the big boy that I've captured on camera,
(http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc168/Gatekeeper100/2009%20Deer/Big9-3.jpg)
so the next question is, is it a doe or a young buck. Straining my eyes I see the thin neck and the smooth crown "doe... perfect!"
I stand on the metal platform of my 16' high perch and continue to watch as she slowly walks from the SE angling her way to the NW. She is not on a deer trail so her intended destination is a mystery to me. Ten yards in front of me is a trail that is kept mowed for horseback riding. From this trail two deer trails merge. One runs east / west and the other veers to the southwest. She crosses the SW trail and continues on her northwest path. Ten minutes has passed and the anticipation and excitement is growing in me with every passing second. I check the feather on my bow the wind is steady out of the east at about 5 MPH. The doe is now 30 yards away to my southwest if she continues on her course she will be down wind of me and I will be busted. A few more steps and whammy! She throws her nose into the air and holds her head high. Ha! Before I climbed into my stand I tried a trick my friend Tracy Potter (K.S. Trapper) told me about, I put out two scent wicks that were soaked in vanilla extract and she found one of them. This turned her but not hard enough. She was now headed north and 25 more yards would put her down wind of me and with the incline of the terrain I would surely be busted. Her movement becomes hidden by a cedar tree as she continues to close the gap between us. Slowly her head appears from behind the tree if she moves 15 more yards north I will be busted. Suddenly a miracle happens, the wind shifts to the SE and this puts her in the vanilla scent stream again! She stops throws her head up into the air again and then turns to the vanilla soaked wick. HOLEY SMOKES! I was about to come unglued! She was within 12 yards and quartering away. I had my bow up by then and began to follow her. She casually walked to the wick and stopped at the edge on the mowed trail smelling the air. With this I focused on her far shoulder drew my bow, anchored, released and...flinched in one continuous motion.
Thud went the bow, and the arrow smacked her in the ham. OH CRAP YOU IDIOT! She is off like a flash with my white fletched arrow flagging from her side. I stand saddened, embarrassed and ashamed of what I had just done as I watch her run in confusion through the field. The excited high I was riding on had just plummeted and crashed solidly into the ground. I was paralyzed with anger at myself as I watched the doe run away from me and then turn to run past me at 25 yards. I have practiced this shot over and over and over with very good results. My problem is not enough experience shooting at animals. Shooting at foam and target bags is one thing but taking a life brings a lot more drama to the table. I stand in the warmth of the dappled sunlight listening to the chaos I released as the doe breaks her way through the timber trying to escape the object protruding from her side. Bewildered, I text Chris with this message at 6:33
Me: "Watch 4 doe w/ n ham! ----"
Chris: " U hit her in the ham?"
Me: "Yes I'm so p-----!"
Chris: "Dare I say...there's an artery back there. it could work U never know."
Meanwhile the ruckus in the timber has grown silent and I sat in the filth of disgust that I had with myself and was suffocating in the pity that I had for the animal that I had injured.
By 08:40 I couldn't take it anymore. I text Chris to let him know that I am going to get down and look around for my arrow, I didn't want to screw up his hunt. After seeing the shot I thought the best I could hope for was to recover my arrow. "Please let me recover the arrow, the complete arrow" is what I was praying for. The blood trail was spotty and that is being liberal with my wording. After seeing the lack of blood and what blood I saw to be bright red, I was convinced that it was a muscle injury only. With that I climbed back up in my stand and waited for Chris to finish his hunt.
Around 09:00 Chris and I meet up and begin the tracking job. After seeing the sign doubt of a lethal hit entered Chris' mind too but we continued the search with hopes of finding the arrow. A drop here and a drop there was what we were following and at times the drops were 20yards or more apart in some of the thickest, thorniest stuff on the farm. I jumped ahead about 30+- yards to a known deer trail and found more blood. A little better sign but still nothing to get excited about. Speck by speck we continue and I again jump forward to a known creek crossing but see nothing so I go to another crossing and search the ground for sign but find nothing and then Chris says "Here some good blood." "Hey here's your arrow...AND HERE IS YOUR DEER!!!!" With utter disbelief I turn to look at Chris and start walking towards my friend who is smiling from ear to ear and running to congratulate me. To hear him tell it I had a look of "you better not be screwing with me or were going to throw down." Grasping my fiend's shoulder I walk over still in shock from hearing his words to see my trophy. Thanks for being there Chris it was great to have you share in the recovery and see me end my dry spell.
(http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc168/Gatekeeper100/2009%20Deer/DSCN3829.jpg)
By all means, this is not a shot that I am proud of but I am very relieved to have made the recovery. While I did pretty much put the arrow in the crease, it was the wrong crease. The shot hit her in the front part of her ham, clipped the kidney, and blew through the liver and diaphragm. No intestine and no gut. From the point where she was shot to where she expired was approximately 300'.
The moral of this story is don't be too quick to give up. To quote Gail Darling (One Shot) "there's an artery back there."
(http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc168/Gatekeeper100/2009%20Deer/DSCN3830.jpg)
Equipment used:
54" Shrew Classic Hunter 55# @ 29"
31.5" Carbon Express, Heritage 250 arrow with (3) 5" shield cut fletching, 50 grain brass insert, 125 grain Wensel Woodsman broadhead with 75 gain steel adapter. Total arrow weight 650 grains.
Congratulations Tom! :thumbsup:
Quote"there's an artery back there."
Yes there IS! Nicely Done Tom! That's hunting...thanks for sharing.
:thumbsup: :campfire:
Congrats , that bow has MOJO...will ya sell her back now??? Marco :)
Nice deer :thumbsup:
Good job!
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Congrats Tom, way to stick with it!
Congrats Tom :thumbsup:
Way to stay with it and good luck with the buck in the pick.
Tracy
You spin a nice story my friend!! It was indeed a great weekend. I look forward to next time. Congratulations again on the doe.
Now about this statement..."It's been two years since I've shot a deer but this week has been a jackpot week for me.".... sounds like there may be more.
Great hunt for sure, congrats!
Yep there is. Heck I've made a habit of hitting that dang artery.
Moral to the story. Never give up on a blood trail.
Nice Job!!
Mike
Atta boy Tom :thumbsup: I killed my first deer in 1976 with a ham shot and had your same feelings and then relief when recovered.Congrats Kip
I got my first buck with a bow shooting that artery. When he dropped I couldn't beleive my eyes.
Way to go Tom. I thought Ben had mentioned You had one down was waiting for the story.
The shortest blood trail I ever followed was a doe shot in the ham. She went about 8 steps and I've only seen 1 deer leave more blood on the ground than She did.
Way to stay with the trail.
Well told. Congrats.
Nothing puts them down quicker!! Its amazing. Congrats.
Great story and pictures, my friend. It's good to see a happy ending. Sure some mighty fine company you fellers keep!
Todd
Way to go, Tommy Boy!
What's next?
:campfire:
Very nice work
A great time spent with Hunting Buddies and the Deer is a fine Bonus....Congratulations!...Is there more???
Good on you Tom! Wish I could have been there to see you break the drought! Ben
Good job, Tom. I once had an arrow deflected and it hit the deer high and towards the rear. To my amazement he only took about 3 steps and went down. The boadhead, a Hunter's Head, cut the artery under the spine that feeds the kidneys. Lots of blood, loss of blood pressure and the deer passed out because of the rapid loss of blood. Hitting a major artery is fatal whether it is in front of the deer in the chest or anywhere else in the body. I assume there was a lot of blood in the body cavity.
Nice story Tom. Thanks for taking us along on the hunt with you.
Congrats on the deer.
I like your choice of weapon also (:
Congrats Tom! :thumbsup:
Congrats Tom. Thanks for sharing. Many have us have been in that exact situation so your not alone. Great job.
Really enjoyed your story - extremely well written. Keep it up.
Nice deer, and if no one else noticed- nice hat!
Gary
Not only is there an artery there, it is the biggest muscle group on that deers body and big muscles need big blood supplies. A good muscle hit will often leave you a decent blood trail and if trailed right will usually get you your deer.
Rules for trailing a deer so hit is sometimes a bit different that we usually preach, however.
The femoral arteries are part of the mix in the ham regions and if you slice these there will be a waterfall of blood lost.
ChuckC
Way to go Tom!! Congrats!! Tastes way better than a stinky UT coyote! :thumbsup: :clapper:
Tom, you said it, not enough experience in shooting live animals, different drama than shootin at foam!
I hope folks starting out or having problems on game, listen to that. Get out there and shoot small game. We owe it to the animals.
Congrads on a nice deer and freinds to share with :thumbsup: Steve
Thanks everybody for the support. :bigsmyl:
I'm glad you recovered it Tom. I had a similar situation once myself. I had just gotten a new hunting jacket and the string hit my sleeve. The arrow hit the femoral(sp?) artery and the blood trail looked like someone was pouring from a bucket. Moral of the story is, even a bad shot can be a killing shot. You should never give up the trail until you are positive of the outcome one way or another. I wish you continued success.
Congrats!!!!!
:bigsmyl:
Good job. I haven't tried that shot placement yet, but I have heard that it will work.
Congrats!!!!
I have heard from several others about how lethal that placement is.
Great work on the recovery.
way to perservere! And Congrats...
Great story.
Great photo`s too!
Congrats!
Cool hat!!! :thumbsup:
Bonebuster beat me to the hat part! I like the looks of it.
Great story, great harvest and all around great job! Congrats. :thumbsup: :clapper:
Sometimes as posted in the Faith pix it just happens for a reason. Congratulations!
Not to open up a can of worms but...what the heck. Tom was shooting a three blade wensel head and I know Tom gets em wicked sharp when he is done with them. My point is that it was able to do a ton of damage as she was on her death run. I've sat on both sides of the two blade/three blade debate and I have to say this is a classic example of a situation where a three blade is definitely preferable. The massage hemorraging that occurred is certainly a large factor in why she went down so quickly.
Congrats again Tom it was a feeling of pure joy to see that deer and help you find it. We went from a bad low to a really big high.
Chris
Congrats on a fine kill. My first trad kill some years back was a doe hit just fwd of the ham and under the spine. She went down in 20 yards, massive bleeding. I have alsohit a small hog there. Hunting in near dark swamp and palmettos, I couldn't tell the front from the back so shot for the crease...got the wrong end. That hog died as quick as any I've killed. Gotta' love those Wensel Woodsman heads !
Way to go Tom Glad you made the follow-up and found her.
Dennis
great story....
We dont always make perfect shoots, congrats again. :thumbsup:
Persistence Persistence
it does pay off,
Congrats on the recovery , and now that you got it all done ,
I hope you can now focus on your buck, always love your stories , and congrats on a great adventure!!!
:thumbsup:
Gatekeeper thanks for the story, it actually feels like your there. Congrats! Always looking forward to your next one.