You get out today Lee? I was talking to Dubbya and almost drove off the road while counting deer on Damisch again at the old Battaglia farm! Think I was at 11 or so when I had to redirect my attention to driving.
Ya, I went out. Learned the hard way there was 12" of snow in the field, sweated my butt off to the stand, but saw fresh sign. Sat in the tree, and it was great until about sundown. I had 2 does coming in until people started sledding on the hill that faces the road(facing west). The 2 does scattered. Then at sundown the temp seemed to drop like a rock. When I was closing up shop in the tree I dropped my glove........ouch. I couldn't get down fast enough to retrieve my snow-laden glove, and then the walk-of-disappointment back. I know, I shouldn't complain...I think last night may have softened me a bit...Naaa. This afternoon I will try my ace-in-the-hole groundblind. May not see deer, but its warm. Still beats work.
I killed a Doe (4th for the year) last weekend. I'm still waiting for a nice buck to show his face....couple more days.
Yesterday was awesome. Got in my ground blind about 2pm, kept close to my propane heater until my clothing started to smell like it was burning, then figured I would turn it off if I saw any deer. A guy in a skidsteer was playing around in the back field til about 3:30, then it got fairly quiet. About 4:30 I got a feeling I better get ready to get ready, so I got off the stool and knelt on the ground (heater still on). The around 4:50 I was doing the head-bob when 2 big does popped into view at 25 yards(crosswind). Off went the heater, but then the head bob deer test started when one of them caught me moving. The other one looked really hungry and I thought I had her at 20 yards(Doe-Fever?). But when I shot, my bow made a weird loud noise, and I have no idea where my arrow went. She ran off about 10 yds, looked back, then did the stiff-legged walk straight away(unsure what happened, but not wounded). I waited a half hour then looked around-no arrow, but no blood, no hair, was walking fine/no limp/no random wandering, etc. Followed her for about 300 yds before I felt better with myself.(##@%@###) I took the bow apart when I got home, looked fine. Potential Reasons- 1. Fuzzed up deer looked big? Held for 20, ended up about 28. 2. Maybe had a cracked nock? Bow noise sounded like a dry-fire, but may be due to echo in a ground blind? Dunno. Won't know until Spring thaw. 3. Snow in lower cam? 4. Maybe upper limb hit blind...(I'm leaning towards #1, Probably just the shooter.)
Final Update- Three more arrows in the snow, clean. Figured out my problem-my drop away doesn't drop too well in the cold. I took it all apart this morning and cleaned it with alcohol to remove all oils. Tonight I will just put graphite powder on it. Lesson learned, in the cold, max out the spring tension, and don't use oil on it. Last night I saw 6 does, 1 six-pointer, and a monster 10-pointer, maybe 150 class. Gotta say, one hell of a season.
