The past month has been very hectic, along with firearm and muzzloader seasons pounding the west Michigan deer herd, so I have not been out in the woods since mid-November. I finally got a break in the schedule for an evening hunt last night, but the place we hunt early season is not very good once the corn gets picked. However any opportunity to be in the woods is worth the effort and I headed out for a nice snowy sit in my primary stand. I didn't see a thing but a solitary squirrel until 5:10 and had pretty much written off seeing a deer.....when 3 abruptly stepped out of the treeline about 125 yards to the west into the picked corn field. They milled about and dug in the snow while slowly making their way in my direction. After 10 minutes, with the light slowly fading, the biggest old nanny was almost in range. When she stepped between a couple trees with her head shielded from view and body perfectly open at 26, I drew my Prime Rival, centered the pin and ran my firing engine. The results was the unmistakable "twack" of impact and the big doe exploded from the spot in the directlon they had come. Normally I wait at least 30 minutes, but it has just begun to snow and I was alone on this hunt, so I lowered my bow and checked out the scene. My arrow was standing upright in the show with a 3 foot swath of blood spray leading to it....a good sign. I stopped for a few minutes to call my wife and text my hunting buddy, then slowly took up the blood trail. The 6" of snow made for perfect tracking conditions and every bound yielded more red stuff to follow. She slowed a bit after getting into the woods, but the blood trail remained promising. I was almost out the other side of the finger of woods when I saw a wide slide of blood, as if the doe fell or dropped for a moment. There was another one about 6' from that spot and when I looked to my right, the flashlight beam picked up the glint of an eye. There she was.....down in about 80 yards! I called my wife back with a sincere request, as I forgot to put the Hitch Haul on the back of my Jeep before leaving. She also shared with me that one of my Christmas presents was a dragging sled....and wondered if I wanted it early...HECK YEAH! I took my bow back to the Jeep, removed some outer clothing, then headed back to field dress the doe while my wife was on the way. By that time it was snowing heavily and the doe was covered, along with my pack that I had left at the recovery spot. After field dressing, I dragged her about 100 yards out of the woods and into the picked corn field before shelving that idea and waiting for the sled to arrive. Walking back to drop off my pack and catch my breath, my wife soon arrived and we walked back to finish the job. I can say with 100% certainty that a sled makes dragging in snow 1000% easier.....8^) Merry Christmas to all....mine came a couple days early.
Sled for the win! Your wife really knows the good Christmas presents for the hunter too huh! Congrats! Definitely a lot of snow from previous weeks here in Michigan, I was loving it! And the sled made pulling those deer out even easier Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
This is the only photo I took........holding a flashlight in one hand and my lo-tech phone in the other. Doesn't do the deer or the snowy conditions justice.
Congrats. I had deer out before I could even get into my stand this morning. Hopefully tonight! Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Thanks to all who read, commented and liked my post. Merry Christmas to all.....hope you had a wonderful day with family.
