I went out 2 saturdays ago and cleared a HUGE milestone. My first climbing tree stand archery deer! no pics though, don't want proof of a "bad" decision - quick story.
I was hunting from the tree stand hoping for a buck or doe to walk by and saw some turkeys at about 0830 but they were 60+ yards out and would not respond to the calls. so i shut up and they moved on. About a half hour later, here comes the parade of does. I watched most of them move out of range directly behind my tree and I had no shot, but a couple of them moved right under me. I watched them and the surrounding woods for a bout 15 mins as they fed under my tree. I was looking for the buck that usually comes out after the does but did not see him at all...so i decided to take a doe.
I watched as one of them wandered off without giving me a shot at all, and the second one, a really big bodied deer stepped into a shooting lane and stopped as if on queue to present a good shot. I drew...or tried too and could not. tried again, and failed. I realized that i had deer fever. And I was trying to draw the bow while aiming down at it. I had not practiced this and did not have the muscle strength to pull the 75# bow at that angle. I relaxed, squared up and drew straight out, met my release to my cheek anchor point, pivoted at the hips, settled the 20 yard pin at the deer's elbow, raised just slightly and clicked the release sending my arrow deep into it's vitals.
So far, so good. called my buddy and told him. He waited 20 mins, then got out of his tree and worked toward me. I directed him to the spot where I hit the deer from up in my stand and he immediately found blood and the arrow...good, a clean pass thru.
I climbed down and started following the half hour old blood trail. It was a decent trail, but after about 30 yards fizzled out...my heart sank. Right about the time we were going to resort to hands and knees crawling, I looked up and saw white belly on the ground about 20 yards away.
upon walking up to it, i unpacked my field dressing kit (gloves, papertowels, water, knife) and went to get started when I noticed that she was a he and had the wrong plumbing for a doe. checked the head and to my horror found that it had one busted off antler (small) and one 2 point spike about 4" long that was hiding behind it's ear the whole time I watched it. :shrug:
I saved the back straps and made medallion steaks out of them (they are very tender and VERY easy on my pouch) and ground the rest. Extruded jerky is on the way. gotta leave the meat frozen for a couple weeks to kill all the nasties and then I can start making my jerky for the year.
My son and I scarfed down the first backstraps not an hour after cutting them off the deer...I also completely processed this one myself - it was my first time and a huge milestone for me. Good luck and stay safe out there guys and gals!
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