Stated in the title I didn't get any pictures due to the nature of how it happened. I know, there's no excuse to not settle down for a few minutes for a few pictures, but with such a short time span I had to field dress the deer and get it skinned before I had to head to work I was more concerned with the recovery of the doe and didn't take the time to get pictures. I got out and in stand 30 minutes before sun up Saturday morning. It was a cold, windy morning and by 8 a.m. I was chilled to the bone, the wind was going right through me. I knew what type of morning it was going to be, but considering it was the last day of archery season in my part of PA, I decided to try and stick it out anyways. The wind was brutal, it was cold and I just wasn't feeling that good, so I headed out of the woods at 9 a.m. and back to the homestead to warm up in hopes the wind died down in the afternoon to finish the season with a bang. After getting home and getting warmed up and some food in my stomach, I had some unexpected visitors. Some family members stopped in and I figured that was it and my season was over. Of course I enjoyed the company, but I could see that the weather had changed for the better and the wind had died down considerably at around 2 p.m. and it warmed up to around the low 50s. At around 2:30 I got a phone call, it was my sisters boyfriend, saying he was heading out to a Amish farm to hunt until dark and wanted to see if I would go with him. I figured what the hell, so I told the family members I was heading out to go hunting and told them it was the last day and wasn't missing it. I got around to head out, and meet up with my sisters boyfriend around 3 p.m., this is a area I had never been to or hunted but he had some pictures of some good buck, so I knew there were some good opportunities there to get a good buck. I didn't take my climber stand with me so I was stuck with hunting off the ground, something I don't have a lot of experience with when it comes to archery hunting. On my way to where he hinted I should sit, I kicked out 2 doe running with a small buck, I looked around and decided it was a good place to sit. I found 2 small pine trees that grew close to each other and snapped off some limbs so I could get back into them and keep myself hidden and gave myself some good shooting lanes in this little funnel area between 2 fields, I saw nothing after settling down, but could hear deer moving behind me and couldn't get a eye on them. It was about 20 minutes before dark and I could no longer hear the deer moving. 10 minutes before the end of legal shooting time, it was dark in the woods, but I could see a bit of one of the fields off to my right and knew I'd be able to see better in the field. I decided to sneak to the corner of the field in hopes something might be out in the field eating. I got about 15 yards from the edge of the field and there stood a big old doe staring right at me (first thing I noticed was she wasn't using her right front leg) from about 30 yards away, I thought for sure I was busted, but I froze and after having about a 30 second stare off with the doe she puts her head down and starts eating. At this point I had a split tree and some small brush between me and the doe, but had a opening shot if I could just take a couple steps to my left with out getting busted. I waited for her to put her head down again, I took 2 steps to my left, she lifts her head up again and looks over my way, but as I took the steps I was also drawing my bow and had a perfect 30 yard broadside shot. I let the arrow fly and she takes off, not to long after the shot I hear her crashing in the woods, I knew I had got her at that point. I then go over to where I shot her to see if there was a blood trail or see if I could find my arrow, I found only part of my arrow, about 5 inches of the back end of it with my fletchings and knock and had no idea where the rest of the arrow was, but the part of the arrow I did find was completely covered in blood and it was bright red (perfect sign I had got lungs) so I knew I got good penetration. I knew she wasn't far, but I wanted to give her time and not chance bumping her and making it a harder tracking job than it had to be, by this time it was dark enough in the woods you pretty much needed a light to do any kind of tracking. I took the time and called my sisters boyfriend letting him know that I had got a doe, all I had was a small LED light so I waited for him to get there with a better light before I started tracking. About 10 yards from where I had shot the doe I could see she was pouring blood from both sides of her, not 40 yards from where I had shot her she was down. At this point it had come to the realization I only had 3 hours to get this doe cleaned and skinned before I had to be to work, I field dressed the doe, go it dragged to my truck, took it to my sisters boyfriends house, hung it and skinned it with just enough time to get home so I could change and head to work. It wasn't the big buck I was really hoping for, but I was very happy to have gotten a big mature doe off the ground like that during last light on the last day of archery season!
