Opening Day Doe

I went out Tuesday morning and sat for three hours. I had a few does slip in on me around 0900 and spook. I’m still not sure how they got where they were without me seeing or hearing them, and I am not positive they busted me, but I never had a chance for a shot. Around 1000 I packed things in and checked the trail cam. I noticed there was a fair amount of activity in the evening, so I decided to go back later and got to the stand around 1700. It was right at 1800 when I saw a doe to my left, so I stood up and grabbed my bow. I had hinged some trees in the spring and one got stuck leaning against another tree. Just so happens that tree was blocking me from seeing another deer. Next thing I know there is a third deer that was hiding in the brush that blew and all three took off. I’m not sure if it was the same group of three that wound up circling around, but around 1900 a group of three does worked their way from the woods to the west, across the railroad tracks and into the woods south of me. I didn’t think they were ever going to work my direction with the way they were milling around, but they finally headed my direction and started munching on the clover I planted in front of my stand. I waited for one to take the lead and get close to a shooting lane, but when I drew back there was three leaves on a tree right in front of the vitals. The deer never took another step forward and wound up turning around to head back to the south. A little while later I heard some movement in the woods to the west again, so I turned around and saw a lone deer working towards me. She eventually made her way to my clover plot and gave me a clean shot. I let the arrow fly and she took off. I watched her for as long as I could and thought I saw her go down. I was confident with my shot, and with the heat I took up the track sooner than I normally would. The blood trail wasn’t the greatest, but I found her about 80 yards away from where I shot her. I walked back up to my grandma’s to get the Gator, then drove it back into the woods and loaded her up. I was really pushing to get a doe for the freezer on opening day, because I had my gallbladder plucked out yesterday and I can’t lift more than 15 pounds for four weeks, which means no shooting my bow. Taking a picture by yourself in the dark is rough, but here she is...



When I got to the deer, I noticed she had broken her left ankle on the back at some point, so I went back through my trail cam pics and found this...



I was impressed after seeing that, because I didn’t notice her limping and she had no trouble running after my arrow hit its mark.

Now I’ll pass the time keeping my mock scrapes fresh and I’ll be able to get back in the stand for my birthday just as the rut will be ramping up.