After work doe harvest.

[gerald strine]

Friday night after work I went to my tree stand behind my house to sit for the last hour of light , I have state land behind my back yard mostly old growth oaks ,hickory ,maples , not much for bedding areas or under growth, but my stand is with in sight of my house and very convenient for a quick sit even if the odds are not the best.
I get set up and am just enjoying the beautiful fall trees in all their splendor knowing that in a week or so it will be over and the trees bare until spring, When I hear dry leaves crunching behind me to my left.
After years sitting in the woods and listening to the sounds of chip monks , squirrel's, racoons, ect I could tell just from the sound of the dry leaf's crunching that it was a deer.
The crunching is getting closer and closer from behind and finally I can see it is a Doe , alone no fawn just what I am hoping for I want to save my buck tags for the rut hunts and one for firearms season.
When I first see her my limbs will not clear the tree I am set up on even though she is on top of me, I am worried she will smell me she is so close.
I need her to take a few more steps after a long pause for her to look around and check things out and keep me twisted around , heart pumping faster, one eye closed looking through the scope, contemplating angles not the best facing me slightly angled She takes the steps and I am on her TING I take the shot at 10 yards from 15 feet up in my stand.
She goes running off full tilt crunching leaves the whole time then a pause ,a wet cough , a few more crunching steps, then a bigger leaf crunching , She is down to my ears.
I was confident she was down from she sounds I herd but I like to wait a hour before moving or looking it is always a very reflective time to go through a full spectrum feelings and second guessing every thing that just happened, This is hunting often prayers are made at this time ,I would say always for me such as " Thank you for this wonderful creation of yours " " Help me to find this deer to feed my family." "Things happened so fast Lord I pray I did not mess up"
This is what goes through my mind while a adrenalin high pumps through my veins.
Turns out my ears did not lie I found her in the dark with out to much searching .
Pulling my tried but true " Lttle Tikes Wagon " to load her on because my deer cart was
dissembled in the back of my car and the wagon was empty and was my deer cart for many years it got her home.

[ODH]

Congrats on a sucessful hunt & doe.

[xcaliber]

Congrats, always nice to hear them crash. Sounds like a great hunt.

[Riflemanz]

Congrats! Great story.

[janesy]

Nice work Jerry! I hope one day I can hunt my own backyard. Very cool setup.

[Boo]

Congratulations! It was a very well told hunt. We often do not describe the feelings after a shot.

[longbow joe]

Congrats nice writing

[mr meat]

Congrats on the doe

[AJ01]

Great story with a great conclusion!!
I have a standard prayer that I say before the start of each hunt. It goes like this....

"Lord should You see fit to grant me the opportunity to harvest one of Your magnificent creations, please let my aim be true, let my arrow fly straight. May it find it's mark, and may the end come swiftly. Thank You for all of your creations. And Thank You for allowing me to be a small part of it all".
Amen!!

Just the thoughts of an Old East Texas Redneck.
AJ

[grouse]

Great story and thanks for sharing! You have more patience than I do. If I'm sure I made good hit (I love lighted nocks) and I hear a deer fall, 20 minutes is all I can sand to wait. I start thinking about coyotes, fading light etc. and off I go.

[DuckHunt]

Congrats on the doe! It has to be something special to be able to harvest one so close to home.

You have more patience than I do. If I'm sure I made good hit (I love lighted nocks) and I hear a deer fall, 20 minutes is all I can sand to wait.

I've got even less patience, especially in fading light. If I hear it fall, I'm packing up right then. It'll still take me 5-10 minutes to pack up and climb down and get to it. But fall is the important part. I'm not talking about hearing it stop. That's not good enough. I'm talking about a full tilt crash and slide or tumble. You know it's down hard when you hear that.

[nchunterkw]

Congrats and a great story. Like many here I go through the same emotions after a shot. But one difference is with my hard hearing, I don't hear the crunching unless they are on top of me and I never hear the crash. Maybe if it was all crunch leaves,....but here in NC it's a lot of pine needles.

[Hester0305]

Congrats on your doe I'm glad everything worked out and you were able to recover her so quickly. I am fortunate to be able to hunt in my backyard at times but usually my wife and grandkids get those opportunities to put some deer down 1st. Congrats again.