Picked you out of the tree While your drawing! Been there done that. The best way to beat this is to wait till they are lookiing in another direction then draw. Either their head needs to be behind a tree or wait till they pass you and are looking away from you. The other way to beat this is to draw earlier. That can work really well if they decide not to pass you. However if they stop for any reason where you can't shoot, then your stuck at full draw. Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time, you have to let down. They will pick you as soon as you let down. Especially if there are more than on set of eyes. I've been caught at full draw a few times. Time ticks by VERY slowly. Not a good situation. I now prefer to wait. Usually a good opportunity to draw presents itself. Sometimes it doesn't. I've been burned by being too patient as well.
. As she goes to snacking I noticed a rather white branch 45 yards or so from us that I hadn't seen before, then it hits me that there's two of them and they are being rubbed on a 5" diameter tree. At this point the buck is head down, eyes behind the tree and has no idea we are there, so I tell my daughter to drop the granola bar and shoulder the crossbow. She stares at me like I'm speaking French and keeps snacking. I explain why and where the deer is and she hands me the granola bar and starts shouldering the crossbow. Unfortunately the buck has stepped around the tree and is bee lining towards us as she settles in, with lots of head bobbing and fidgeting to get everything just right. The buck stops and turns broadside between 30 and 35 yards, wide open vitals. I can't see his head but can tell he is staring straight through my daughter trying to figure out what just moved. At this point the safety is still on and she has done zero shooting past 20 yards. I haven't explained to her what the extra lines in the scope are for or what do do if she needs to split lines. So I whisper hold still and keep it on him, see what he does, which she does perfectly. He decides to circle to the left, which puts him behind the downed cedar tree, no way to move the crossbow and get my daughter repositioned for a shot. I've got my bow with me and it is laying to my left and I'm tethered in to a tree, allowing me to grab my bow and try and position for a shot. He catches a bit of movement and decides that he better keep his distance. He never got our wind and trotted off calmly so I expect we have a chance to see him again. If I had started by telling my daughter there's was a deer coming she may have been settled in and still enough to get him closer and take a shot, if I would have discussed what the extra lines were for she could have taken a shot. Overall I consider the hunt a success, she did great with everything and is ready to go again, except now she knows how to aim for deer that are within 35 yards.
Truth
My stepdad gets bad coughing attacks (bronchitis) and I asked him: "how does this not affect your hunting." And he basically said he eats cough drops all morning.
One more thing to carry! Already carry too much "essential" crap.
