It's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Deer season is officially open!!!!!!!!!!!
Opening morning of Ohio's deer season and I was in my stand as the glow of the sun crept over the horizon. The season opened officially at 6:55 AM and I was ready to begin the adventures for another year.
I had decided to make this hunt solo since my son has had a long week of school and wanted to sleep late this morning.
We had a good rain yesterday evening, and some hard wind with it, so I wasn't too sure there would be many visitors at my feeder.
A fresh layer of acorns on the ground has appeal to a lot of the critters.
As the light increased I had several visitors in the form of birds & squirrels, but no deer had shown themselves, so at about 7:45 I decided to try out my new "volcano stove" and brew a cup of hot tea. Everything worked as planned, but the aluminum stove & cup did make a bit of noise. (the volcano stove is Swiss army design and can use wood, alcohol, or hexamine fuel tabs)
Had my cup of hot tea and was relaxed and just enjoying a morning in the great outdoors when out of the thick brush a doe suddenly appeared.
I had my Phoenix hung from a tree step screwed into the oak my ladder stand is attached to, so the bow is above my head within easy reach. I slowly reached up and slipped the stirrup off the step and lowered the Phoenix so I could rest the fore end on the shooting rail of the stand. The doe was not offering a shot opportunity (facing me) at this point, so I just watched her munch corn.
Then a second doe came in and went to the side of the feeder toward me. Hmmmmmm! This could be the one to provide a good shot angle.
As she and the other doe fed on the corn and I raised the butt of the stock to my shoulder so I could watch through the scope to see the possibilities of shot angle.
I'm using a Leupold scope I got from Danny Miller, and I played with the variable power setting until I have the top "post" of the duplex reticule as a aiming point for 15 yards, the crosshair for 25 yards, and the bottom "post" for 35 yards. In this case I decided to use the 15 yard aiming point since the feeder is 17 yards and she was on my side of it.
She finally turned slightly offering the opportunity to put the (Wac'Em Exit 4 blade) broadhead through both lungs and I squeezed the trigger.
Saw the arrow impact exactly where I wanted it to go, and both deer exploded out of there instantly!
They headed back into the thick brush in the direction they had appeared from, but the doe I'd shot stumbled on her second leap, then recovered her footing and ran on. I watched her direction of travel and saw a flash of white and heard the rustling of leaves and brush as she fell again.
I was 99% sure she was down for good, so I waited about 15 minutes, then packed up my gear and lowered it from the stand.
I quietly climbed down then retrieved my arrow where it had passed through her and stuck in the ground and from that point I could see a massive blood "spill" where she had stumbled. I quietly took a trail that led in the general direction of her flight. (there are several trails I "bushhogged" through the thick brush & rose bushes in the area this summer)
Didn't take much time of distance to see my trophy on the ground ahead and visually confirm she was dead.
Then the fun began.
Walked out to get the landowner's tractor to haul her out and had to unhitch the bushhog. Went to get the carrier I use to transport deer and found he had a sprayer attached to it where he had been spraying herbicide.
No problem, I'll just hitch up the trailer.
Backed up, hitched it up, and discovered it had a flat tire.
Pulled it around to the garage and turned on the air compressor and inflated the tire to find he had plugged a leak but it was still leaking slowly.
I decided I could probably make it to her, get her field dressed and get back before the tire went flat again.
Got to her with no problem and got her opened up and the entrails outside the body cavity, then nicked the stomach with my knife blade in my rush. Luckily I didn't spill any of the contents inside her, but it did have a very strong odor and spilled on the heart and liver, so I left them for the scavengers.
Got her out without further incident, loaded her in my truck, got her tagged in (the first deer tagged this season for them), and got her to the processors cooler.
Now I'm heading to the store to puck up jars and canning supplies. (our freezer is full)
Going to can all the major muscle groups, make jerky with the backstraps, and hopefully there won't be too much ground meat to deal with. I can see a big pot of chili for tomorrow's dinner.
