So my goal this year is to get my wife on her first deer and her to successfully kill. She has never hunted before and she is all bow. She doesn't have any desire to take any game with anything other than a bow. Makes me proud for sure. She went out with me a couple of times back about 5 years ago after we started dating. Since then she has shot her old bow for 3 years and kept on me about buying her a new one. I finally did a few months ago and she has practiced a lot and is a pretty good shot. All the prep of her shooting takes us up to Saturday morning. I woke up early at around 4:00am and it was thundering and pouring rain. I went back to bed and woke back up at 5:00am. I waited and when the thunder stopped I woke her up and we got ready. By the time we were ready to walk out the door and the rain had let off enough for us to go, the sun was starting to rise. Still dark enough we needed our head lamps to see, we were blew at by a doe then 2 seconds later crossed paths with a fawn. Just past the fawn a doe jumped up and ran off. I figured the hunt was over at that point. We got set up in quick time. We raged a few trees to get the distances. The tree our side of the trail was 16yd and a tree opposite side was 31yd. After being in the stand for 45 minutes or so I had just sent a few BH.com members a text letting them know that I thought the hunt was a bust. No sooner did I hit send I looked to my right (her left) and there stood nice mature doe at 24yd. I waited till she had her head turned and I stood up to turn facing Jess to let her know she had a deer in shooting distance. It was a really bad shot angle for her so she waited for the deer to move into her shooting lane. She did everything perfectly. Waited till the deer wad moved behind a group of trees to stand and draw. So she was already doing pretty well. She was at full draw on her first deer without being busted. Success number one. The deer approached her shooting lane and I looked down to see what appeared to be my wife at full draw and anchored so as soon as the doe stepped into her lane I let out a MRRR. Yep, a little to early for her and she felt pressured to get a quick shot off. The shot went off and the deer took off. I didn't see the arrow fly but, the sound, it sounded right. She waited in excitement and sent out some text about shooting her first deer. Well, so did I. We waited 30 minutes and she climbed down. I didn't have my harness unhooked before she said "OH MAN!" I knew that tone and the way she said it, it wasn't good. She knows as well as anyone what blood soaked vanes look like and she was right. The arrow had clipped the top of the small ridge that was just before the shelf the doe was standing on and drilled a root. I Asked her what she shot her for and she said she put her 20 pin in what would be the 10 ring. That's when she let me know she felt rushed and didn't feel like it was the best shot she could have made. The yardage was 25 and with her bow shooting just over 230, that 5yd and a rushed shot missed the deer. Had I let her stop the deer on her own and had she had time to process everything she needed to do, I feel sure she would have pulled off a great shot and she wouldn't have had to miss her first opportunity. So right now, I am beating myself up over a bad experience for her. She didn't give up though. We were back out and at it Sunday morning and Sunday evening. When it hit her that it was going to be 2 weeks before we could get back in the stand, she started trying to figure out an evening we could leave work early or a way for us to get back out. That's a good thing. Anyways, I'll post the video of her first kill in a few weeks hopefully.
Sorry to hear about the miss, but at least the deer did not walk away wounded and you wife still has the desire to hunt with you. Can she call my wife?
I was glad it was a clean miss and her response after she found it was at least I din't hit her and injure her. I'm sure she would call her. Every single chance she gets to tell another woman about how much fun we have together because of archery, she does.
ya, never stop a deer for somebody u are hunting with. You cannot see their angle. Just let it play out in her hands.
That is bow hunting. In the years to come, there will be many blunders. That's how we learn. What just happened is just the first drop of water in the bucket. If it were easy, it wouldn't be so rewarding when we taste success.
