First meat for the year.

[crafty]

Between military duty, working full time and taking 18 credit hrs in school I haven't had many opportunities to be in the woods since the opener.

Anyway i hung up my compounds this season and decided to get back to the simple life of stick n string. I've been shooting well this summer and Monday evening it payed off well.

It was the first sit in this set in a block of pines that have always held deer. I have one good lanes cleared to a well traveled trail with some small holes to others. It just so happened on this evening that I had to utilize one of them small holes.

At 1845 I had a nice little velvet 5 PT slip in behind me and walk in on my entry path and under my stand. It wasn't until then I noticed him. I heard him approach but thought it was going to be over my left shoulder and not my right. Quiet little devils they are. Haha. Anyway he made it out about 20 yds and circled back under me making a loop before easing off. A great encounter on a promising deer I hope to see next year.

Shortly after that the same thing happened and I find two spikes under my feet. As they came by I noticed the bigger of the two favoring his front leg a good bit.  I thought if the shot presented itself I would take it. Sure enough about 10 steps later the bigger of the two stepped in a small hole. The shot would have to be right on to get both lungs at that angle.

I came to full draw while being sure to bend at the waist and keep form.  Picked my spot and let the Snuffer 145 do its job. On impact my arrow hit high on the entrance clipping the entrance lung and what I felt was definetly bottom of the other but I didn't get a pass thru. I was a bit shocked. My 56@28 kohannah is throwing a 600gr arrow pretty hard to not go thru but it made it up to the wrap almost and stopped as the deer bolted.

I watched him go about 40 yds before it got to thick. Suddenly I heard him crash. Then get up and crash another 10 yds or so and one more time before it went silent.  Because of the arrow not passing thru I knew the track wasn't going to be easy. The deer wasn't but 9 steps from my tree and I'm 18' up. I elected to back out at that time in hopes of the deer being where I heard the last crash about 65 yds out.

I went back to the barn and waited another hr until I felt confident the deer had expired before heading back in to start the track. Upon arrival I found what I had guessed to be true. Only a few spots of blood 20 or so yards in. I followed kicked up tracks another 30 yds or so until I lost him.

At this point I chose to fan out with my buddies father who was helping me and cover the area I heard him fall last. We zig zagged for about 30 mins as my hopes were dwindling that he went further than I had figured went I heard" I found him" from Mr. Langdon.  A sigh of relief set over me as I made my thru the brush to find me buck

After a 13 yrs break I had another Trad kill and am looking forward to the rest of the season.

Here the arrow looks like a near spine shot but that's because he his laying on it.  U can almost see where the Broadheads is pushing the hide on the bottom side but never cut thru. Almost makes me think it wasn't as sharp as I had thought.  But ill fix that. It did the job anyway. U can also see the nasty scar on the front leg which I'm guessing had broke n never healed correctly.

And hero shots which for some reason wouldn't take well


Hoping to take the next deer with my newest Thunderstick Stealth.

[Gen273]

Congrats!!! and welcome back to Trad.

[TJK68]

Congrats on your first Trad kill in many years. Job well done.
Tom

[ARCHER2]

Congrats! Well done!

[Fritz]

Good eating right there! Congrats!

[Izzy]

Nice hunt, congrats.

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

Well done! I am not too surprised you didn't get a pass through to be honest. You slammed the snuffer right into his brisket from the looks of it. There is a lot of bone and cartilage down there.

Either way, he went out quickly, and you did a great job of following him up.

[VictoryHunter]

Congrats!

[joe ashton]

a well told story, thanks.

[ISP 5353]

Congrats on a great deer!  

[achigan]

Congrats on the deer, and thanks for your service!

[Caughtandhobble]

Well done Brother  

[tracker1]

Thanks for sharing that is a great start to the year

[David M. Mathis]

Looks like your lens fogged up. Congrats. Mike

[Bernie B.]

Congratulations on a great start to your season!  Welcome back to the trad world!

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

[RC]

Congrats!!RC

[Josh Perdue]

Great job

[Cmane07]

Congrats!

[Biathlonman]

Also went through the heavy part of the ribs where they meet up with the spine, with a not so little broadhead.

[pitbull]

Awesome, congrats!