My First Bow Deer

"I placed my sight pin accordingly and I let the arrow fly"

On Saturday I went out bow hunting for the second time this year. I got out to my stand at about 2:00 pm. The woods where quiet until 4:00 and then a group of two bucks and four does came through the woods. They where around for about 15 minutes before finely heading on their way. For the rest of the day deer kept filtering their way through the woods. I even had a porcupine (which I have never seen here before) came through the woods.

And at 7:00 I finely had a doe came into bow range in a pretty good clear part of the woods, but it had its vitals behind a tree. So I held my bow at full draw until the deer walked out from behind the tree. I estimated the yardage at 30 yards, and when the deer walked out from behind the tree, I placed my sight pin accordingly and I let the arrow fly. Since hunting hours on Saturday closed at 7:13 it was pretty dark by the time I shot it, so when I shot, I saw the lighted nock on my arrow fly through the air, hit the deer and then come out the other side.

After I shot it I watched it run off and sat in my in stand for 20 minutes so I would not jump the deer if it where close by. Then I got out of my stand and found my arrow because it had the lighted nock. The arrow was nice and soaked with blood. Since I forgot to bring a flashlight when I went out to my stand, I went back to my truck to see if I had a flashlight in it, on the way back I saw 5 more deer; all together I saw 16 deer total. When I got to my truck it did not have a flashlight in it, so I went home for a flashlight and some supper.

I went back out at 8:30 with a friend to look for it. We went to where I shot the deer and found blood right away, so we started to follow the blood trail. The trail was easy to follow as there was a pretty steady trail of blood. Then we found it only about 40 yards from where I shot it. When we got there I found that the arrow hit right where I had intended for it to, since the deer was quartering away I placed the arrow behind the ribs so that it would angle up into the chest cavity, so that it would have the biggest wound channel in the vital area as possible. Then we took some pictures, and then gutted it. When gutting it I found that I got both lungs and the heart when I shot it. Then on Sunday we cut it up and put it in the freezer

This is not the first deer I shot with the bow, but it is the first one I have recovered. Last year I shot I nice big 8 pointer. It laid down 3 times after I shot it then I trailed for 3 ½ miles and lost the trail. I spent several hours trying to pick up the trail again but was never able to. I know this one is not a very big deer but it was a yearling which makes the best eating.

I'll be having some for supper tonight.

Good Hunting,

Caleb