Well, I am in the National Guard and didn't get to get into the stand until after 330 because I was at drill this weekend. I just started bow hunting this past January. I have yet to draw back on a deer with my bow, until yesterday. This is how it unfolded: I climbed up to about 25 feet in my Summit. Started getting settled in. I pulled an arrow from my quiver, nocked it, laid my bow across the front of my summit and hung my quiver on my tree hook. Got my gloves and facemask out of my bag and when I went to zip up my bag and knoocked my quiver off of my tree hook. I watch as it fell 25 feet to the ground. Instead of climbing down and getting it, I was lazy and said, I got one arrow, I'm good, right!?!?! Fast forward to about 415...6 doe are walking in, right at me, spread out feeding. I have 5 circling to the left and one coming through the thicket from the South dead in front of me. I pick out one that I want to shoot and she is coming in perfectly to my left at around 15 yards. Her head goes behind a tree and I come to full draw. Just as I come to full draw, her head comes out from behind the tree, PERFECT TIMING. However, as I reaach full draw, my elbow barely touches some leaves behind me and make a rustling sound. She looks me DEAD in the eyes, nothing but her head sticking out from behind the tree. As I try to hold my bow at full draw, she is frozen. So here I am, busted, struggling to hold on and she whirls, but not in a hurry. It was like a spooked whirl, but not fully committed to running off. More of an unsure of what is going on kind of whirl. We have all seen them. Her shoulder reveals a shot for me and.....instead of doing the sensible thing and letting off the bow and saving my arrow, I let it fly. Missed, shot just under her. They all run off, so, I just hang my bow up and get ready to take whatever medicine is about to come my way. Did they all run off? Nope, I forgot about the one in the thicket, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! I thought I heard her break and run, nope. What does she do???? Comes right of the thicket, jumps the small dried up creek right in front of me, turns broad sided and starts feeding at 10 YARDS! The other 5 doe come right back and start feeding right along with her. They stay around about 30 minutes, feeding right under my tree... Lesson learned for sure. Be patient, a lot more patient. After all of this, it was awesome to get to watch them feed around and interact with each other. Even though I missed, I learned something and it was a great afternoon on the stand. Oh, the sting of my miss was lessened when a friend of mine called to tell me he missed 4 TIMES yesterday. Want to know the crazy thing, it was the same group of does that I missed one out of. Truly a lucky group of does yesterday! Guess I'll be carrying an S hook with me from now on....
Wow what a story. Never had that happen to me. At least you know you are in a good spot. All those does will bring the bucks in.
