justbairley
Member
Brief introduction. I'm 31 and this is my third year hunting. My first year I went out once with a friend and he put me in his stand. I shot a hefty doe at last light with a muzzleloader. She ran across an open field 150 yrs and expired. I was completely hooked.
Last year I set off on my own Oct 1st and hunted with a x-bow and then muzzleloader through the entire season. I saw 1 doe in over 20 sits. By the end of the season I was convinced I was doing something terribly wrong.
I hit the homework hard this last year, learning everything I could about deer. I bought a compound bow in June and practiced just about daily. I got a little bit of scouting in over the off season but not as much as I wanted.
Oct 1st came and early in in my evening sit a doe and fawn came in on me. I didnt have a shot on the doe but the fawn came in 7 yards broadside but I ended up not taking the shot, thinking i would have more action. Over the next couple weeks i moved around a lot and saw at least 1 doe most sits, but no bucks.
The last two weeks I have been stuck at work, but last night I was able to get out for the last day of michigan bow season. I sat from about 10:30am and at 4:30 I saw a deer working out of suspected bedding. I perked up and got ready. The deer passed out of sight and I relaxed a bit, but before I knew it, he was entering my line of sight again. That's when I saw it was a buck, just a small 6 point, but he looked perfect to me!
Really quickly he was right under my tree at 10 yards. I was drawn back and ready to make the shot from the saddle on my strong side. I stopped him with a mouth grunt and let the arrow go.
Obviously I dont need to explain this part to anyone, but I was so full of adrenaline before and after that the whole sequence is just bits and pieces and I can't for the life of me remember seeing that arrow hit.
I watched that buck jump up, and haul ass about 50 yards into some thick cover, stop for a moment and then proceed walking away.
When I got down I scoured the area for blood and my arrow. I didn't find either but I did find a large tuft of brown hair. I followed the trail to the point where I last saw him and couldn't find blood. There was snow on the ground which should have made finding blood much easier I would imagine.
I backed out and took my gear to the truck and waited 2 hours. Went back in and followed where I saw him heading last. It led me over some heavily used deer tracks into a marsh/swamp area. I went up and down all the deer trails entering that area and couldn't find a speck of blood. I pushed into the start of the swamp area but not too far as the water was getting too deep. Eventually I had to back out as I felt like I wasnt gaining anything.
It was always my thought that if this happened to me I would be in the next day again looking, but this morning was opening day gun season in Michigan and I walked by about 5 stands I'm the area I was combing over last night and decided I wasnt going to do that.
Steven Rinella says, I hate that I lust so badly for this animal, that it impacts my ability to make a shot that I could nail anytime on a target. I felt that last night.
If anyone has any thoughts, experiences or words to share with me I would appreciate it.
Last year I set off on my own Oct 1st and hunted with a x-bow and then muzzleloader through the entire season. I saw 1 doe in over 20 sits. By the end of the season I was convinced I was doing something terribly wrong.
I hit the homework hard this last year, learning everything I could about deer. I bought a compound bow in June and practiced just about daily. I got a little bit of scouting in over the off season but not as much as I wanted.
Oct 1st came and early in in my evening sit a doe and fawn came in on me. I didnt have a shot on the doe but the fawn came in 7 yards broadside but I ended up not taking the shot, thinking i would have more action. Over the next couple weeks i moved around a lot and saw at least 1 doe most sits, but no bucks.
The last two weeks I have been stuck at work, but last night I was able to get out for the last day of michigan bow season. I sat from about 10:30am and at 4:30 I saw a deer working out of suspected bedding. I perked up and got ready. The deer passed out of sight and I relaxed a bit, but before I knew it, he was entering my line of sight again. That's when I saw it was a buck, just a small 6 point, but he looked perfect to me!
Really quickly he was right under my tree at 10 yards. I was drawn back and ready to make the shot from the saddle on my strong side. I stopped him with a mouth grunt and let the arrow go.
Obviously I dont need to explain this part to anyone, but I was so full of adrenaline before and after that the whole sequence is just bits and pieces and I can't for the life of me remember seeing that arrow hit.
I watched that buck jump up, and haul ass about 50 yards into some thick cover, stop for a moment and then proceed walking away.
When I got down I scoured the area for blood and my arrow. I didn't find either but I did find a large tuft of brown hair. I followed the trail to the point where I last saw him and couldn't find blood. There was snow on the ground which should have made finding blood much easier I would imagine.
I backed out and took my gear to the truck and waited 2 hours. Went back in and followed where I saw him heading last. It led me over some heavily used deer tracks into a marsh/swamp area. I went up and down all the deer trails entering that area and couldn't find a speck of blood. I pushed into the start of the swamp area but not too far as the water was getting too deep. Eventually I had to back out as I felt like I wasnt gaining anything.
It was always my thought that if this happened to me I would be in the next day again looking, but this morning was opening day gun season in Michigan and I walked by about 5 stands I'm the area I was combing over last night and decided I wasnt going to do that.
Steven Rinella says, I hate that I lust so badly for this animal, that it impacts my ability to make a shot that I could nail anytime on a target. I felt that last night.
If anyone has any thoughts, experiences or words to share with me I would appreciate it.