Back during Hurricane Irene I was out of town in PA on a men's retreat. On that Saturday night according to my wife, our power was lost at around 7:30 PM. I got back home later in the evening on Sunday, and as fate would have it I could not get my generator started. I pulled the carbuerator off about 3 times,and I did not figure out what was wrong until a couple of days later, by then it was too late and I ended up losing all my venison that I had in my outdoor freezer. And let me tell you I am a VENISON lover, and I always have enough venison to last me from one season to the next. Needless to say I couldn't wait until the Maryland opener so I could get out and get me some fresh venison. Well opening day finaly arrived(9/15/2011). I hunted that morning and did not see a single deer. I saw a plenty of Bushytails and at about 9:15 I look over to my left and saw this nice Groundhog coming through, I grabbed my Stahl Longbow and let fly with a Black Diamond Delta 4 Blade, it took the Groundhog through the chest, and believe it or not he made it to his hole and expired. I reached down and pulled him out. I hunted in the evening on opening day as well in another stand and did not see a deer. I went hunting the next day in Montgomery county which is 75 miles away and saw 17 deer that morning and passed up a number of smaller bucks and passed up some does with fawns. I hunted that same day in the evening back in PG County, hunting from a ground blind. I get in the blind at about 4:30 PM and at 5:00 a doe with 2 spotted fawns came in and right behind them came a single doe by her self.I decide to take the single doe, but for at least a half hour I could not get a shot on the single doe, due to the fact momma and her fawns was in the way most of the time. And when the single doe would change positions, she always ended up in a position where I had no shot opportunity. Finaly a deer somewhere down through the woods was really snorting loud and it caught the attention of the deer that I was looking at out in front of my ground blind. Finaly the single doe is in position for a shot and I come to full draw with my Longbow and when I let go, the top limb of my bow hit the top metal brace of the blind, makes a loud noise and my arrow went low just under the does chest and off they took down through the woods. I went hunting in the following days with out seeing much of anything in the way of deer. Then this weekend, I had planned to be on the Eastern Shore of Maryland chasing Sika Deer with my Traditional Bow Club(The Traditional Bowhunters Of Maryland), but I had to be out of town on that Saturday, but I decided to hunt that Friday morning, but did not see any deer. So I went hunting that evening in another location and got settled in my stand at 4:30 PM. The weather is quite nice with out much wind. This stand is not far from a big marsh. Sometime later I happen to look to my left(5:30 PM) and I see a deer standing there that I did not hear come in. My bow was still hanging on it's hook. As the deer began to move from my left to my right down the trail, I was able to reach up and get my bow undetected which already had an arrow nocked. When the doe's head passed a tree at about 15 yards, I came to full draw, and when she came out I let fly and off she took back the way she had come through the marsh. I watched until I lost sight of her and I heard her go down. I only waited a few minutes and went over and picked up my arrow and saw blood right away. I went back to the tree to get my back pack and then it started to rain. So instead of following the blood trail out through the wet marsh, I cut through the woods toward the area where I thought I heard her go down, and sure enough when I went into the brush at the woods edge just outside the marsh, there she was fully expired. Man I was tickled to get some fresh venison, and today(SUNDAY) after church my Brother came to my house and we had fresh venison shoulder roast for dinner cooked in the slow cooker. Man the roast sure smelled good when I walked into the house, and it tasted just as good. Thanks for looking. 62" Dale Stahl Longbow, 58# @31", 590 Grains 5575 Goldtip Trads, Black Diamond Delta 4 Blade Broadhead.
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(http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn230/SNUFFER8/IMG_0104.jpg)
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Great pics, congrats! Thanks for sharing, I can smell that roast all the way up here in KY!
Nice hunt,now I'm hungry.
Yum. Yum. Persistence usually pays off. Congrats.
Nice story thanks for sharing. Nice doe as well. If you weighed her before you did the butchering post her on the Arrow Giveaway contest in the Z-give-a-way forums here. I am making a dozen custom arrows for the winner. It is just for fun and went well last year so I decided to do it again. My goal is to get more pics and weights of does on here.
Congrats on the venison. Your food pic is making me hungry - Nice shot!
Bob Urban
way to go! that sounds GREAT!
Great story! Looks like dinner. Yum.
Martin
:thumbsup:
Yum !
I'm glad you've gotten stocked up again. Congrats!
Congrats, but I dont know what looks tastier that chuck or the doe. Got my sons to eat chuck with me this summer and they loved it. Way to put meat in the freezer. Lost several dozen goose breasts in the same manner one year. :clapper:
Congrats, Tony. :thumbsup: Well done on BOTH "critters"!
Nice shot and good story Tony! Great pictures too! Congrats on the doe!
congrats! man that is a dandy groundhog!!! nice shootin :archer2:
great job tony them woodchucks over here in western are almost ready to dig deep it has been in the low 40s the last couple of days and has rained the last two .
i would love to come down that way and try for one of those sika deer . i haven't seen one or tasted one ever lol.
and just think they are only a few hours away from me . but i can't get anyone to come with me lol.
Scott
Yumm. Nice hunt....glad you were able to restock the larder. I'm sure there's plenty more to come Tony. This one was certainly hard earned.
Nice shot on that doe, Tony. Congrats on starting your freezer refill. And don't post photos of food. It makes me so darn hungry :)
good job ! Congrats on your doe. Sorry about the power loss.
ChuckC
Nice!!
Great story!!
Very nice !!
Great job and great story! Congrats on restocking the freezer. And nice shot on that doe.
Well done! :clapper: I hope you didn't hurt your bow when you smacked the limb. :pray:
:archer:
:thumbsup:
congrats :thumbsup:
You done real good!
Nice job!!!
:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
Good job Tony. I am sure that freezer will be plenty full soon enough.
NICE! That is one big woodchuck.
Great story and fine job of replacing that lost venison. I would have been bummed to lose all my freezer meat. I lucked out and got a generator in time or I would have ended up with a similar story!
How was the woodchuck?
Wow! Congrats and a great story!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Reaching down a hole for a groundhog?! :scared: Congrats on both kills! :clapper:
Good eats and a good story! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Way to go! :thumbsup:
:thumbsup: :archer:
Good for you Tony! Congratulations!
Nice shot and story. And that roast looks Gooood. :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
Mr.Sanders!
glad that you were able to get the freezer back in action.
I'm hoping to go out this weekend and try my luck.
Did you eat the woodchuck too??
Excellent recovery!
I suspect you have some recipes that we might trade our mothers for. :saywhat:
Killdeer :thumbsup:
That's great Tony...congrats buddy! :clapper:
Way to go Tony! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
CONGRATS and Great Story!
Congratulations and thanks for sharing.
That roast looks great - going to have to go thaw one out now!
Looks like it's not going to take you long to restock your freezer Tony. Nice shooting and nice doe. Congrats!!
Nice shooting, congrats!!
Randy
:thumbsup:
Thanks every one for the nice comments and the kind words. I haven't eaten the Groundhog yet, but he is in the freezer to be used along with some Squirrels,and venison stew meat, which will be made into a wild game Brunswick Stew. Thankfully I did not damage my bow when it hit the metal brace in the blind. I hope to get out again sometime this week and see if I can lay another one low. Thank you much. Shoot Straight and Good Hunting to all that go afield.
Tony
Very nice story and great shot on the deer.
Congrats-
Thanks for sharing! Glad you could re-stock the deep freeze.
Best regards,
Brian
Way to go Toney! I know that you will have plenty of venison by season's end. Let me know how you do on thos sika deer.
Man I,ve had that freezer thing happen! :mad: :banghead: :mad:That is truely maddening.
Congradulations on a fine doe and restocking the larder.
Congrats on a fine doe! :thumbsup:
Great job Tony, you always get it done. To be successful you have to be out there a lot and you do that. Man that sure looks good I can smell it from Kentucky.
Nice to see a guy appreciate hunting and the venison as much as you do.
Wow, now that makes me hungry. Nice shot.. congrats !
Well alright Tony! We all know that you would not starve due to a dead generator, and you handle it with style. Maybe I'll stop by for some Brunswick stew....
If anybody else runs into a similar problem try and get some dry ice and use the freezer as a giant cooler. $20 dry ice will save a freezer full for a few days.
Way to go, Tony! Great start on your restocking operation!
Congrats Tony! That woodchuck will be good in that stew. Great pics and story!
Big ground hog! Nice doe too. Roast looks good. I'm having fresh backstraps tonight. Congrats.
Tony great story and I agree that roast looks delicious! How your son doing this year, is he still hunting? Appreciated your story from last year concerning his deer, keep it up :thumbsup: .
Awesome story and my mouth is waterin..... :help:
Thanks for sharing with us Tony !
Just realized that was my 2011th post !!! Could not think of a better place for it either !