Sabot
Active member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2011
- Messages
- 192
So I’m hunting our family land in Louisiana in late October. I’m on a hanging stand about 20 feet up hunting a small clearing about 50 yards by 50 yards.
This particular day happens to be the Saturday of youth gun season and as an added bonus if you are a resident veteran you can gun hunt too. I’m a non resident so it was bow only for me.
Let me tell you, there must be ALOT of kids and veterans in that zip code for the amount of shooting all around me.
About 830, I’ve decided I’m not going to see anything and I doubt there is a deer alive within a mile, so I hang my bow and get down on my knees to pull up my drop rope and zip up my pack. Still on my knees a catch movement out of the corner of my eye and slowly turn my head to see 2 bucks standing in the clearing just casually looking around.
No time to field judge, but one is branches and the other looks like a spike. (Turned out to be a small forkie that my daughter shot to next day from a different stand). I’ve never killed a buck with my bow so it’s on baby!
I slowly stand up, retrieve my bow, and somehow they don’t see me moving on the tree. Everyone knows what happens next. The bow is set to 65lbs draw, but anytime a deer is within 50 yards, it self adjusts to 650lbs. So I Hercules my draw so strong that I over draw it and the arrow comes off of the rest completely.
Panic.
I let off just at the moment that the broad head is hovering over my sight, and now I have an arrow sticking through my sight. More panic.
Marine Corps training kicks in “slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast” over and over in my head as I delicately work the arrow back through the sight and reset it on the knock.
At this point the little buck is at 40 yards looking right at me. We lock eyes and I can see the confusion on his face as he tries to make sense of what is going on up this pine tree. The bigger buck is at 30 yards facing directly away from me...oblivious.
Draw take 2 goes a lot better that the first attempt, but of course the buck is facing away and the sun is breaking directly through the trees and into my eyes. The thought that I may have to hold this draw for a while flashes across my mind just as the young buck decides he wants to leave.
The bigger buck immediately turns to follow him out of the clearing the way they came in, but at a slow walk and not a spook. This move puts him at perfect broadside to me and it was breathe, 30 yard pin, release...nailed him.
The arrow was a perfect pass through and I heard him crash about 75 yards away.
Thanks for listening.
PS. My wife is battling breast cancer and I got very few days in the woods this year. The Lord really blessed the limited time I had available with 2 bucks plus my daughters buck. God is good.
This particular day happens to be the Saturday of youth gun season and as an added bonus if you are a resident veteran you can gun hunt too. I’m a non resident so it was bow only for me.
Let me tell you, there must be ALOT of kids and veterans in that zip code for the amount of shooting all around me.
About 830, I’ve decided I’m not going to see anything and I doubt there is a deer alive within a mile, so I hang my bow and get down on my knees to pull up my drop rope and zip up my pack. Still on my knees a catch movement out of the corner of my eye and slowly turn my head to see 2 bucks standing in the clearing just casually looking around.
No time to field judge, but one is branches and the other looks like a spike. (Turned out to be a small forkie that my daughter shot to next day from a different stand). I’ve never killed a buck with my bow so it’s on baby!
I slowly stand up, retrieve my bow, and somehow they don’t see me moving on the tree. Everyone knows what happens next. The bow is set to 65lbs draw, but anytime a deer is within 50 yards, it self adjusts to 650lbs. So I Hercules my draw so strong that I over draw it and the arrow comes off of the rest completely.
Panic.
I let off just at the moment that the broad head is hovering over my sight, and now I have an arrow sticking through my sight. More panic.
Marine Corps training kicks in “slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast” over and over in my head as I delicately work the arrow back through the sight and reset it on the knock.
At this point the little buck is at 40 yards looking right at me. We lock eyes and I can see the confusion on his face as he tries to make sense of what is going on up this pine tree. The bigger buck is at 30 yards facing directly away from me...oblivious.
Draw take 2 goes a lot better that the first attempt, but of course the buck is facing away and the sun is breaking directly through the trees and into my eyes. The thought that I may have to hold this draw for a while flashes across my mind just as the young buck decides he wants to leave.
The bigger buck immediately turns to follow him out of the clearing the way they came in, but at a slow walk and not a spook. This move puts him at perfect broadside to me and it was breathe, 30 yard pin, release...nailed him.
The arrow was a perfect pass through and I heard him crash about 75 yards away.
Thanks for listening.
PS. My wife is battling breast cancer and I got very few days in the woods this year. The Lord really blessed the limited time I had available with 2 bucks plus my daughters buck. God is good.
