With my recent wedding and the planning/honeymooning that went along with it, this weekend was my first chance to get out in the woods. Last night and this morning I didn't see a single deer. This evening my good friend Mike offered to run the camera for me and start learning the new camera/arm setup before we head down to the Campbell Outdoor Challenge next month. With not a lot of options available to us, we picked a stand near a known doe bedding area where Mike doubled up on two giant nanny's last fall. We got to the stands and the wind was totally wrong for where we wanted the deer to come from. So we pretty much just chalked it up to a wasted night and were having fun goofing around, playing with the camera, etc. With 10 minutes of light left we're both taking pictures of the sunset with our still cameras when all of a sudden a doe just shows up in the wide open at 15 yards, broadside. I quickly stick my camera between my legs, holding it by the lens, grab my bow, and get ready. Mike swings the camera around and gets on the big doe just as she disappears from his sight. Right behind her comes another doe, this one a yearling. I knew the video would be great, but I just couldn't shoot the little one. So I wait for the big doe to take two steps and let her have it. Perfect shot, clean pass through, she jumps straight up in the air and takes off. 20 seconds later we hear crashing and it's all over. I think maybe 2 minutes passed from the time when we saw her until she was down. Unfortunately Mike wasn't able to get it on film as she had moved out of his line of sight, but oh well. There will be plenty more does to shoot this year, and hopefully a few bucks too! :D
If she were a bear, we'd be talking about her big ol' pumpkin head! Congrats, Justin... that's a nice one!
