First of all, I want to thank everyone here at bowhunting.com for all the advice they have passed on that I have gleaned while I have lurked the forums here over the pasted several months. All the good advice took years off my bow hunting learning curve. The bad advice was usually called out quickly by the veterans… I am 48 and have gun hunted whitetails for 40 years with trophies on the wall. Last season while complaining about how short gun season is here in Oklahoma (16 days regular season with bonus Christmas does days) a friend (Thanks Kris!) suggested that I get a bow and extend my season from October 1 - January 15. As close as I seem to be able to get to deer on my property - 34 acres in Delaware County, OK - I thought heck, why not! Last summer, I bought a Mission Venture, got it setup at the pro shop - thanks Davenport's Archery in Prague, OK - & fully accessorized. I practiced a fair amount in the backyard summer and fall and had decent groupings to 30 yards. I vowed to bow hunt all season even during muzzleloader and gun season and see what happened. I am ready! or so I thought... Historically, I have never hunted in the trees. Growing up in the wooded Ozarks in NE Oklahoma, we hunted from the ground and my dad thought it was dangerous enough walking around in the woods with a loaded weapon much less being up in a tree with one risking falling and breaking your neck. Needless to say, I rarely hunted from trees. I’ve always been a ground hunter and have never really had any issues getting very close to deer. So I spent the first few outings bow hunting from the ground in full camo - still hunting/stalking/hunkered in deadfalls & makeshift blinds. I saw the usual suspects - does and fawns groups - and even had a few in range but with no good, confident shot. I knew that I wanted my first shot at a deer to be a well-placed one. I didn't cotton to the idea of trying to track some half wounded animal up and down the Ozark hills & hollows. So I tried to be patient and wait for a known good shot, but it just wasn't happening for me... I felt pretty vulnerable on the ground and was busted a few times which was not necessarily unusual while hunting, but I knew I needed a different type of advantage... Then I got invited to a friend's place in central Oklahoma (thanks Clint!)... we had been sharing trail cam photos of our potential sausage stuffing candidates. I arrived that morning and he asked me if I brought my harness... harness? For what? Are we roping deer from a 4-wheeler? Bulldogging & wrestling them from horses? What do I need a harness for... for you! I'm gonna put you in a tree stand this morning. Oh lord I thought... he had an extra so I got fitted up, we got out to the stand (2 man ladder), got up and situated, strapped in and waited for first light. There is a very different perspective waking up with the woods 16' up a tree... I certainly did not feel as vulnerable to being busted and could actually see a long ways through the timber. I was going to potentially be able to see deer long before they could even think about seeing or winding me! I saw a fawn that morning at 40 yards... and confidently passed... I hunted from a different tree stand on his property one more time a few weeks later and saw deer but had no good shot. I watched them from across the field come through the field and passing by out of range. I would not have even seen them, possibly at all, if I had been on the ground. I decided I needed to get up off the ground to maximize the potential for actually taking a deer this season. So I bought a 2 man ladder stand. I'm old and fat so I considered this my best option for a first stand. I got it setup on my property in one of my favorite spots - a funnel/pinch point at the lower end of a long point where deer cross from all directions - they can't cross the ridge up from the stand because of a small bluff on one side, so they cross the ridge there at a saddle where my stand is setup. Of course the also travel up and down the ridge. We cleared some shooting lanes in the white & red oak ridge and I was ready... Next I learned that you are only as ready as the deer that put themselves in range... over the next few weekends, I saw plenty more of the usual suspects. Does and fawns, all out of range. Then during the height of the rut a few weeks ago, I had a group of 3 does and 4 fawns come down the ridge and park themselves under my stand for 20 minutes. They knew something wasn't right, but they couldn't determine exactly what was wrong. They were there so long trying to ascertain what wasn't right that some of the fawns actually laid down. The old does would look me straight in the eyes from 5 yards. I would just close my eyes and count to 30 and try to calm my breathing only to have my stomach grumble & roar from too much coffee and no breakfast! They would be looking away when I opened my eyes. They eventually moved on down the ridge without busting me! I certainly COULD have taken one of these and probably should have to get the stink off and deflower my bow, but at the height of the rut I didn't want to make a rookie mistake of spooking a potential suitor lurking around the corner that might have been following this group. The next day and all the next weekend for 2 days in a howling wind ... nothing... not hair or hide... there were plenty of mature bucks in the area though as my trail cam on a large, old community scrape down in the hollow a few hundred yards away kept revealing, but nothing moving for me in daylight! Saturday, December 8, 2012 - alarm went off at 1am. I need to leave by 2am. It is a 3 hour drive from my door to my property in NE OK. That puts me there by 5am assuming no stops to get rid of coffee or to pay some legalized extortion fee to the state or county for not behaving as a proper citizen. On my way out of town, I stopped to buy some snacks to go with the sandwiches I had made and there was a penny on the ground. Heads up even! I stuck it in my pocket and blasted across the state at the maximum legal speed allowed by law. I arrived at my place at 4:58am. Getting geared up and ready is easier now that I have forgotten things before heading out. First thing I learned is to always buckle your release to your bow. It sucks getting in your stand, all settled and go to put your release on and it's missing! But that is another story too... anyway… I was ready to head to the stand by 5:30 and after tromping through the woods made it to the stand and was settled by 6:15am. It was a perfectly still morning. So still that I could hear the hens clucking and roosters crowing from the commercial egg houses 1/4 mile away. The fog had been pretty heavy the whole drive until I got to my property. I was a little disappointed that it had lifted. I knew the foggy cover would only enhance deer movement and the second rut should be kicking in here. At shooting light, 6:45am, I stood up, surveying the woods bow in hand, arrow nocked. A bald eagle flying low (30 feet over me) overhead startled me out of my skin as the air beat from his powerful wings. I had placed some Tink’s 69 in a wick bottle about 25 yards quartering upwind from me. The very light wind - 3-5mph) was coming from the north carrying the scent down the point and into the hollow and was suppose to change to the east after daylight. That would still carry it in good form down into the main hollow below me for the rest of the day. It had rained the day before just enough to soften the leaves. The squirrels were not making much racket skittering through them from tree to tree. I was focusing my attention downwind thinking the scent wind was going to be my best bet this morning. Reality was, I was already getting bored. How could one put so much effort into and spend so much time in the woods this year and not stick a deer! My wife was becoming annoyed also... "Hunting... It affects the whole family!" she berated me via text last weekend after leaving at 2am and waking the baby. Yes, I have a beautiful 16 month old daughter, but that is another story also. My plan was to sit until 2pm, go pull the camera card, head to the truck and download the pictures to my laptop, eat a sandwich and get back to the stand for the evening sit. (continued in next post)
At 7:15am and about official sunrise, I put the bow on the hook and sat back down. I have yet to determine a good way to hold the bow without my arm wearing completely out after 15 minutes. As soon as I sat down and had a slightly different perspective, I saw movement through the trees up the ridge. Big and brown moving horizontal through the tree trunks about 100 yards away... a deer! It looked kinda small, probably the doe & youngsters group again... but I stood back up, got bow in hand, rotated my feet to be able to follow a shot in that direction... it was still pretty dark & hazy from the complete cloud-cover and lifting fog... I could see the deer coming at a steady pace down the ridge and upwind from me. At 60 yards through the trees, I could see it had antlers and was not puny but certainly was not huge like some I have on camera. At 30 yards away, he stopped behind a tree and surveyed his surroundings for a moment. I took the opportunity and started to draw and was immediately overcome with weakness as I am struggling to get the string pulled back, hoping my finger was OFF the release trigger, shaking terribly from the excitement and hopefully not groaning or grunting at all the extra effort and straining it took to actually get the bow drawn back. Finally the bow broke over, let off and I was relieved. I settled in to find him just as he started moving again. He quartered away from me broadside heading just downwind of the Tink’s wick in the small sapling about 25 yards away. I had just found my peep, sight pins and the deer as he was walking slowly but with purpose when he stopped, put his nose up and looked around trying to find that scent. I settled on his elbow and the next thing I knew the arrow released with a whiz! I do not remember releasing the arrow on purpose; it seemed automatic. I was shocked as he mule kicked and took off and my first thought was "DAMN! How could I have missed that deer!" then he stopped 25 yards away at the break edge of the ridge and looked around both ways. As his tail is flickering and he is seemingly looking around trying to figure out what just happened, I am trying to figure out what happened too! I have just missed the perfect opportunity to take my first deer and a buck no less at 17 yards! You idiot!!! After standing there for 15 seconds looking around, the buck starts quivering... and convulsing... and his left legs kicked up as he flopped right over and started thrashing around, rolling down the hillside. I could not breathe and there was a tickle in my throat. I just HAD to cough and realized it was probably ok to do so at this point... Gawd, I hope I don't start dry heaving like that fella I saw on that bowhunt or die episode after shooting that giant buck. This buck was certainly not a monster like that one, but I was flush and light headed and stood paralyzed as the buck kicked around in the leaves just over the ridge break. OH MY GOODNESS! I HAVE JUST KILLED A DEER WITH MY BOW!!! I was irradiating from the adrenaline. I hung my bow on the hook and sat down before I shook right out of the stand. After a few minutes, I could not hear him in the leaves anymore... he was dead. I was exhausted & spent too. Eventually, I felt safe enough to get my gear together, lower it all down with the pull rope, un-strap my harness and slowly make my way down the ladder. I stepped off from the base of my stand tree to where I thought he was standing when I shot. Blood at 17 yards and a good blood trail in the direction he went... I found my arrow buried in the cherty rocks 6 feet beyond first blood, crimson up the shaft and covering the vanes - a clean pass-through as yuall call it. The point of the G5 Striker broad head was tweaked sideways from burying 4 inches in the chert and had hair embedded in the cutouts of the blades. I quivered the arrow and followed the blood trail down the side of the ridge... There was lots of blood then huge puddles & spurts where he had stood for so long before keeling over and flopping down the hillside. I saw white belly lying against a red oak and hurried toward it trying not to slip in the rocky, leaf-covered hillside on my still weak knees...
Long story- Yes! Good story- Definitely! Awesome story and awesome story. The story made me feel as if I was in the stand watching it take place!
