Well boys, I finally got the monkey off my back. Got my first bow kill a couple days back after passing up ones for a few years. Me and a buddy of mine were hunting a somewhat suburban area, he was hunting a stand a couple hundred yards away and I was in a small field edge hunting from a blind. Around 7:00 a.m. he sent me a message he had a few does headed my way. After a couple minutes they showed up. But I had been passing up does for a while wanting my first kill to be a buck. After about 10 minutes there was roughly 6-8 deer in the field with one little spike (who disappeared but I didn't plan on shooting anyways). I had the two side windows in the blind open, the front (shooter) window mesh partially pulled back. The deer were peaking in, but not spooked and kept feeding. I kept my movements to a minimum as I didn't want to spook them. After a couple minutes I heard a rattle. About 40 yards to my right was an 8 point feeding the field edge line, with a small 4 pointer trying to lock antlers. At this point my heart was racing. He was feeding right towards me. Luckily I had my bow laying on my lap, but didn't know when I was going to be able to draw back, because the deer around could see my movement within the ground blind. There was a small fir tree to my 2 o'clock. I said when he steps behind there it is my only chance to draw back. When he disappeared behind there I drew back. I still didn't have a shot so I held until he walked into my view which seemed like forever. He would pause, feed, look in the blind, then repeat. After he stepped within my view, I took what was maybe around a 10 yard shot. Right behind the shoulder. Little did I know he was quartering to me a little sharper than I thought. I decided to sit a hour or two before tracking, but was worried because we had rain coming, and skeptical on if he might try to cross the river. After a few hours between waiting and tracking, I stumbled on my deer. To my surprise he had made it to the river bank and I found him in the mud flat trying to cross the river but he had never made it. My first buck with a bow was an 8 pointer weighing in at 183 lb and the wait couldn't have been any better.
Congratulations! My best friend lives in Warren, ME. Y’all sure get a lot snow...lol. We rarely see any in TN. Hoyt Helix Hoyt RX1 Hoyt Carbon Spyder ZT