Heart break this AM…have a cold front moving in, had the perfect wind but the deer came through to early for a shot.
Got down to head home for the afternoon and regroup for an evening hunt, quietly got about 40 yards from my tree and boom I’m 10yards from a 4x4 that came in an hour before shooting time…he has moss all over in his antlers, hard to spot, but doesn’t spook although he facing directly at me. I DIDNT NOCK AN ARROW BEFORE I STARTED WALKING OUT! (I always have an arrow nicked…). The buck is scanning and I spend the next 20 minutes slowly getting an arrow nocked and positioning my body for a shot. He suddenly stands up and quarters away to the left! I use the opportunity to get fully drawn. He looks over his left shoulder at me as I let one rip for the boiler maker!
My arrow flies by his his left side missing him by 6”!!!! He lightly spooks, runs about 40 yards back toward the tree line I hunt, stops looks back and trots off!
How. Did. I. Miss. My personal max shooting range is 30yds and I hunt river bottoms. I know I am hitting a 3” target out to 30yds. What happened? I walk back to the truck and with my heart rate pounding from the walk I toss out my foam block I keep in the truck. Rip an arrow and smash…dirt 2’ right of my target, and a terrible twang sound from my bow…! I didn’t notice that when I shot at that buck, probably because of the adrenaline. I inspect my bow and realize it must be the phone mount I bought to record my shots! I never tested it when I tossed it on yesterday evening. Fired another arrow, twang, smash, dirt. Pulled off the phone mount under my stabilizer, fired an arrow, swack. Bottom left corner of the 3” white circle on my target. Stacked 2 more at 20yds and 10yds as I emptied my quiver walking toward my target to grab arrows.
What a tough lesson. I can’t believe I didn’t shoot my bow after tinkering with it, I saw THP using it, it’ll work, right?! I can’t believe I didn’t have arrow nocked either! Hopefully I got it all out of my system now, headed out this evening after I spend a couple more hours with the family.
Wish you all better luck!!! Sorry for the novel but had to share in hopes it might be a good reminder and reinforce y’alls good habits! And I thank the Lord that it was a clean miss. I couldn’t help but to smile and say thank you Jesus.