In order to prepare myself for the madness that is upon us, I went and sat in the deer stand last night to clear my head. Pretty chilly out, and about a steady 15 mph wind out of the east, which was perfect for the stand I was in. I shut down all the rest of the feeders on the property last week to get everyone concentrated in this one spot, and it worked... too well. About 5:00 they start coming in, in a single file line. The first 12 does took the exit ramp off the trail and went to the neighbor's feeder, at which point I got disappointed. I knew there wasn't enough daylight for them to polish it off then move to mine. Shortly thereafter, another herd of 8 does and one forkhorn come down the trail straight to me. They all had to come within 15 yards of my stand to get to the feeder, but they were all running to make it to the feeder first, so no shots. Feeder is right at 35 yards from the stand, which is my outer limits, especially with a good crosswind. There was one big fat mature swamp donkey in the group and she was broadside to me, so I let one fly. Upon impact, I could tell she was more quartered towards me than I thought, but I got a full passthrough and saw blood squirt out the other side. Perfect.... gut shot. Damnit. I clipped her last ribs on the near side and it came out at the front of her hind leg. She and one other doe took off and ran about 20 yards, the rest just sat their with their heads down eating. She was hunched up pretty good, and wasn't too awfully spooked, so I just sat down and watched her for a while. She went behind my stand about 50 yards and laid down, but still had her head up. The other doe with her circled down wind of my stand, and I started to pucker. I didn't want to get busted and have her take my gut shot doe off with her. Luckily the wind was strong enough to carry my scent right over her and never got winded. So I tried to wait the deer out and hoped they would move on after the corn on the ground was gone. The last light I had, I counted 12 does and three bucks, all within 40 yards of my stand, and I was sittin there freezin my man clangers off. After it was dark, I crept out of the stand as quiet as I could. It wasn't till I was on the ground that some wise acre spotted me and blew. I just kept my head down and walked out away from them all and left. I figured my doe had gotten up when the others spooked, and since it was chilly last night, I decided to let her bleed out overnight and I'd come get her in the morning. The bad thing was, rain was coming in and I knew it would rain by morning and wash any blood trail off... and I was right. Got there at first light this morning and no doe, no trail, nothing. Did find my arrow, still had some blood on the underside, but rain had washed most of it off. Took off walking where I thought it might have gone, and by the grace of God, I caught a glimpse of white underneath a pine about 100 yards from where she was last seen. And there she was! My shot was bad, as suspected, but it was good enough. Pretty sure that will be my favorite Christmas present.
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Hope ya'll all have a safe and Merry Christmas, God bless.
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Hope ya'll all have a safe and Merry Christmas, God bless.
