Last Saturday, (Oct 18th) I had the opportunity to do an evening hunt. I was hunting deer (buck, doe, whatever) at this point, and I wanted to put myself in a place that would give me the best opportunity of seeing a few. I chose to hunt an area where I was previously busted by a doe coming to apples. There were many trails coming into this small orchard in the middle of nowhere, and I felt I had a good chance of seeing and maybe getting an opportunity at one. After a 15 minute hike I was finally to my stand and shortly after hooked up and ready for my evening hunt. The first thing I noticed after climbing into my stand was 3 new scrapes and a new rub. It was an incredible evening to be on stand, with moderate temperatures and no wind. I had a feeling something was going to happen.
It was getting to the last hour of light and I saw movement below my stand in a thicket below the orchard. As it often does, the movement turned into a doe coming into the orchard. She came to the same exact spot the doe came to in the previous hunt but this time she didn’t suspect a thing out of place. She was working apples between 15 and 20 yards from my stand and finally turned to give me a clean shot. My stand at the beginning of archery season was well concealed because of leaves but now was in the open and not as high as I would have liked. I needed her to turn her head the opposite direction so I could draw. As if on cue, a squirrel or chipmunk made some noise on the opposite side of her making her turn to look. This was my chance to draw and shoot. I just started using Lumenocks this year, and I was impressed with the difference it makes on seeing what happens during the shot. I saw the arrow was on mark and the deer ran across in front of me after the shot. I could see she wasn’t going far and was expecting to see her fall but she made it out of sight. I then listened for the crash but heard none. I was still feeling good about the shot, but slightly confused that she didn’t fall in sight, nor did I hear the crash that we so often hear after a deadly shot. I decided, since I still had plenty of light, I would sit in my stand for an hour. After close to an hour, I got down from my stand and checked my arrow. It definitely wasn’t the classic double lung arrow. It was covered with slime and smelled like paunch. Now I was questioning myself and what exactly happened. I was thinking of getting out of there for the night, but I knew what I saw and decided to take up the track and see what kind of sign she was leaving while she was in sight of my stand. Within 10 yards of the hit, I saw bright blood spraying up high and on the ground. After seeing this I knew she was mine. I trailed her another 35 yards just out of sight from my stand and there she was lying in a bare grassy spot on the opposite side of the orchard.
I love every aspect of the hunt and that includes the processing and packaging of my deer. When the weather cooperates and I have time, I truly enjoy taking the deer from harvest to the plate. With the help of my son Nathan and my brother Shawn, we skinned the deer that night and had it processed by noon on Sunday. My whole family loves venison, so there is a great sense of accomplishment when we all enjoy the first tenderloin dinner from that years harvest.
Good luck the rest of the deer season and congratulations to the successful hunters this far.
Mike
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