I Didn't Miss By Much.....

[nchunterkw]

Took a few hours off Friday afternoon and headed to the woods. Cool, overcast with a little, but not too much wind. And late October. I sat in a stand I hadn't been in for over a month but didn't see anything. Maybe 1 squirrel. We all know those days right? Everything seems good, but nothing moving for whatever reason.

Hunt. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

Went out Saturday afternoon (after yadwork with my wife, and watching the first 1/2 of Penn State - Ohio State, and feeling optimistic for my Lions...but that's another story). Had my duck hunting buddy with me. He was gonna explore and sit on the north side of the pines, and I was going "tried and true" on the east side in a stand where we had already killed 2 deer. We got there a bit early so he could walk around a bit and pick a good spot to climb in his saddle, so I took some time to clear (or try to clear) another shooting lane. I got all settled by 4:30 or so. It was another nice day. Overcast but not oppressingly so, pretty quiet, low 60's, leaves falling, just a nice day to be out. The squirrels started going around 5:00. Chasing and jumping all over the place, with no clue I was there. And it was crunchy enough that I could actually hear them....which doesn't always happen with my ears. Haha. AFter a few minutes I "felt" some movement to my right. And sure enough to my right and behind was a deer. I nice doe...not a fawn but not an old Nanny either. Nice dark coat. She was with 3 others. 2 Fawns and another nice doe. They are pretty much on top of me. About 7 - 8 yards to my right and just back. It is late Oct so I'm looking to see if they are dragging anyone with them but nothing. No chasers. Oh well, the deal is to thin the herd so I wait on however is going to present a nice shot. Well, the darker lead one keeps coming and crosses into an openeing in front of me at about 8 - 10 yards. I'm in a 15ft ladder so it's a bit of a steep angle but not straight down or anything. I get the bow up and move the crosshairs up the leg then a tad higher and WHACK! 500 gr arrow tipped with a 200gr VPA 1 1 /4" single bevel blows through her like nothing. No mule kick, but she hunches up the near leg and takes off to my left. I hear her crash about 5 seconds later...maybe less. Nice! I look back to my right and all 3 are still there looking in the direction she ran. I figure they can still see her where she fell. There is no shot on them and in 5 minutes they just walk away, no tails up and didn't even really move off too fast. I give it another 5min all the while looking for my arrow that HAS to be right in front of me. but nothing is glowing. Odd. I lower my bow and climb down. It's 5:21PM The arrow is right where it should be, covered in blood and missing 1 fletching. Perfect just like I thought. OK, even though I think I know where she is, let's track the blood. Yeah, the blood. OK, she didn't go far so there has to be some blood.....5 yards, 10 yards, 15yards...OK this is crazy. SO I just walk 20 yards farther and I see her laying on the hillside. I go up to her and back track the blood...it's there but man, it's not much.
I head back to the tree, reload and climb back up. But nobody else shows so around sunset I get back down and go clean her up, get her to the truck and go pickup my buddy. He had seen a few but too late to shoot. The post mortem on her showed I hit just at teh top of the shoulder and exited just on the low side of the other shoulder. Didn't hit the heart, but again took out the blood vessels leading to it...no doubt why she went down so quickly. 1" or maybe 1 1/2" lower would have been better and maybe put more blood on the ground...but right now I'm more of a fan of the 3 blades. Oh yeah...before I went to my spot, I went to where I shot that last deer on Friday and was able to find my arrow! Bad news was I hit a rock and the tip is going to take some work, but I should be able to bring that BH back to life.

All in all a good day, made better by us swinging by a processor where I dropped her off as a Hunters for the Hungry donation. No skinning or processing for a change.

[Boo]

Congratulations Keith! Good on you to donate buddy!

[flinthead]

Awesome Keith... congrats!!

Those shoulder shots are deadly, but never bleed worth a crap!!

[grouse]

You didn't miss at all! Nice going.

[one shot scott]

Congratulations!!

[ODH]

Had the same result with the first doe I shot this year in the same spot. A recovery is all that counts, congrats.

[DuckHunt]

Those shoulder shots are deadly, but never bleed worth a crap!!

Agreed.

Congrats on a fine nanny that'll feed someone that needs it.

[mr meat]

Congrats on the doe

[longbow joe]

Congratulations your on a roll!

[AJ01]

Nice Job Keith!!

Sorry to hear about the performance of the VPA. I like my 3 blades to cut on ALL bevels. I know single bevels are tough, but...

The main point is... not much of a distance to track!!

[nchunterkw]

Yeah this was right out of the Ranch Fairy's book.....who cares about the blood trail when they don't run far?

I'll give them another shot, but like you I'm leaning a bit more towards the 3 blades...

[xcaliber]

Congrats Keith.

[frisky]

Congrats