I rode my bike in (on a gravel road most of the way) 2.75 miles then walked the last 0.25 mile. I got everything set up including my new inflatable decoy (first time using one) and was in the tree and ready 10 minutes before shooting time. About 30 minutes after shooting time the hunters on the neighboring leases really started hammering the deer. Soon after that, I saw a deer feeding about 60 yards or so away through the trees. I looked at it through the scope and could tell it was a doe. I tried calling her with my bleat can but she wasn't interested and walked away. About an hour later I saw two deer near the same spot and they quickly moved on. As the morning went on I decided to call it a day at noon so I could go vote early.
At 11:50 I heard a deer running off to my right. It looked like one deer chasing another so I blew my grunt call and immediately heard a grunt in response. Despite that, the deer continued on moving away from me so I took out my bleat can and gave it a turn. Almost immediately I heard a deer come running towards me. When she got close where I could see her I was surprised to see that it was a doe. She came running in and suddenly stopped just 5 yards in front of me. Not having killed a deer last year, I wasn't being too picky so I quickly made sure that she wasn't just a spotless fawn and that was all I cared about. I turned my head back to the right for second, didn't see another deer coming, and knew it was time to shoot. I put my crosshairs just a little lower than I wanted to hit high behind her shoulder and squeezed the trigger. She jumped and ran and I could see blood coming out of her back. In just a few seconds she was out of sight but I heard her go down. I stayed in my tree for a few minutes to calm down before making my descent. While sitting there I was thinking how lucky I was that she stopped in front of me since shot options around the tree are somewhat limited. Then I remembered the decoy! She stopped because she saw the decoy!
I climbed down, got my camcorder and took up the blood trail and found her very quickly. With the temperature around 80 I hurried back to my bike and rode back to my truck to get my 4 wheeler (once you've killed and recovered a deer here you can use an ATV to get it out of the woods). I got my 4 wheeler, went back to the deer, field dressed her, loaded her up and drove back to my truck.
There was a hunt of firsts: first deer with my 380, first time field dressing a deer, first deer killed on public land, and first time using a decoy.
As mentioned, the bow was a 380. The arrow was a self-assembled BEE with Blazers and a 92 grain brass insert. Broadhead was an Innerloc EXP (aka Excalibur X-Act).
Here's a little video I made after I shot her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXAWYAyp2Vo
