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I posted this in another thread, but I figured it can't hurt to add it to the official Bow Hunting harvest thread. Yesterday morning I realized one of the biggest lessons ... preparation pays off. Last year I spent countless days in the woods without even seeing a deer. I did no pre scouting and in turn, spent many an hour sitting against a tree just 'hoping' a deer would wander by. I made sure I had things in order this year. Working to gain access to some private land, putting trail cameras out, scouting for deer trail/sign, and practicing every single night with my bow. This morning it all paid off. Was hunting a small piece of semi-private land in Rockland county this morning. I was about 3/4 of the way up a hill, working the edge of a hedgerow where the deer had worn a trail through. The trail cameras gave me a good idea how many deer were coming through. At 8 a.m. I started to hear some activity off to my left in the hedgerow. I had been waiting there since 5:30, trying to catch them coming out of their bedding area. A four point buck stepped out along the deer path and began working his way to my stand. He stepped out, I gave a quick grunt to stop him and let the arrow go. He had just started to turn towards me when I shot, so what I thought was a perfect broadside shot, turned in to a quartering-towards shot. Arrow hit right behind his front leg, right on my mark, and exited out his side, taking the liver on the way out. He ran for about a 100 yards and I heard the big crash. When I recovered him I was afraid the arrow had exited too far back, but there was no gut whatsoever in the cavity. Certainly not a trophy class buck, but it's my first bow kill and my first buck! Video:

Hit this one last night a little too far back, so came back this morning to find her.

hunting the hamptons!! lol they do not let people like me there!! jk

About all I got...had to cape it in the field...long long night.

I shot a doe with twin button-bucks last night. The fawns are perfectly capable of surving on their own now with most being around 4 months old. Biologist agree that at 90-100 days old a fawn is now considered "a deer" with a fully formed digestive tract and a diet identical to that of an adult deer. Her milk was all dried up. This may seem a bit cold-hearted but the truth is a fawn is nothing like a human child...nature designed them to grow up quickly in a hostile world...they will get along just fine without their mothers's guidance at this stage in their lives. After all, how many lone button bucks do you see wandering around by themselves during bow season...lots of 'em!!!

Picture. His attention was turned towards another deer...thought it was a doe. Turned out that one was my #1 target...I about cried. Was a solid 160 class typical frame. This guy had nothing on him rack wise but dwarfed him body wise. 209 lbs. guts in. Biggest neck I have seen outside of the rut time (late October early Nov).

So this afternoon I got out of work at 4 and headed to my dads place for a sit. In the last hour, I saw 11 different doe that were all spooked and either running or trotting by with no shots possible. Then I heard something coming through the leaves to my left, so I grabbed my bow and got ready. I saw her all by herself and figured it would just be a little button or something like that. She poked her head into an opening and I could see her long nose, and I knew I wanted to take her. I drew back as she was behind a tree, and she walked out and gave me a perfect shot. She came in broadside at 20 yards, and I zipped it her right through both shoulders. The arrow then stuck @ 8 inches into the dirt. Broadhead just needs a once over and Ill use it again. I love these Montecs! This is the same arrow I took my buck with last year! Hopefully I can get nother one with it this year! Shes already quartered up and in the fridge waiting for me to cut her up this week. This is the first time I have put one down on any opening day!

So this afternoon I saw 12 doe. The only one that wasnt running or trotting was the one I took. We figure her for @ 2 1/2, as she had milk. She came in broadside at 20 yards, and I zipped it her right through both shoulders. The arrow then stuck @ 8 inches into the dirt. Broadhead just needs a once over and Ill use it again. I love these Montecs! This is the same arrow I took my buck with last year! Hopefully I can get nother one with it this year! Shes already quartered up and in the fridge waiting for me to cut her up this week. This is the first time I have put one down on any opening day!

Posted this in the local Long Island forum but wanted to post on the official harvest thread as well....Was out on public land today. At 7am I saw the biggest buck I have ever seen in my young hunting career. This thing was massive but it was on the run and had no chance at it. At 10:30am a nice doe came by and now I have plenty of meat for my freezer which I am so so so happy about. Was my 2nd deer ever with a bow and my first doe with a bow. Best of luck to everyone!

I put in hundreds of hours working my land and it doesn't make it any easier to harvest a mature buck. Too many people get caught up with notion "if plant food plots big bucks will be everywhere and easy to kill" sorry, it doesn't work that way.

Elmo, no failure here. The teacher is always silent during a test.

Doe down this evening. I posted it already on my own thread I started this am Opening day report but here are the pics again for those who did not see that thread. 15 yd shot double lung pass through expired in less then 30 seconds!

I would say a Pine tree

Reading all the posts about being out there. I can't wait for the weekend and the forecast is cold and cloudy!!! 30's in the morning, going to feel like November!!!!!

If you need to ask this question you will never get why I do it. I take and give back to the land. I'm a steward of the land and want the next person who takes over my land to have prime habitat. It adds a new element to my off season low. I get my family involved in all my habitat work. All animals benefit from it. Do I need to go on?

Congrats, I need to get my arrows and hands bloody soon Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

well I bother because it feeds the deer and other wildlife. I am getting healthier deer and less winter kill as they eat the sugar beets I plant all winter. It just helps the wildlife population overall.

I am pretty sure upstate New York keeps coming in at the top part of this list on affordable living. As in land, house, rent and such. It was also one of the least affected areas when the recession hit and values went crashing down everywhere. Yes some of the taxes really suck, glad I do not smoke anymore!! I really like the seasons and we are pretty safe from major weather disasters, yea we get snow but most of the state besides where I live gets less than 50 inches of snow a year. No hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, forest fires, or huge floods. I could possibly cosider some place out west like Idaho or Montana but out there in that beautiful county things are a lot farther apart. In NY besides the Dacks you can not be more than 45 to 60 minutes from a city anywhere in the state! I like that I can be in the Dacks in an hour, Canada in an hour, 6 hours to the Ocean or NYC. Everyplace has its pluses and minuses it is what is the right balance for you.

That doe would be in the freezer !

I will say that you guys do appear to be encountering more wussy fawns than we've got. Around here, whenever I have spooked a "family" group, the fawns have no problem leaving the doe in the dust. I never see them stumbling around whining and looking for where ma went. They already know exactly what to do and it's up to ma to keep up.

Had the opportunity to take two doe yesterday afternoon but both had twin fawns. Let them both pass. Enjoyed watching them. Kept telling them to go get their daddy! LOL

let me add, this does not make you any less of a hunter neither, we utilize many techniques for the taking of deer.

This is a tough subject. Like SteveB said, if you shoot any doe, the odds are pretty good that you have shot a mother of a fawn or two. Also as has been mentioned, it is a necessity in order to control deer populations. There simply is no other way of doing it. But I have to admit that after a summer of photographing and watching does and fawns, you do get a sort of attachment and concern for them. However, let little sons-of-britches eat another shrub or mow down more expensive plantings, or mess with my fruit trees and I not only shoot the mother but wipe out the fawn too .... lol.

Im with many others in that I have no issues with taking does, fawns with them or not. They are fine to be on their own at this time of the year, it wont be long till the older does are giving them the boot so they can mate anyways.

What I find funny is seeing people posting on this forum while on their stands. Makes absolutely NO sense to me. OK, I can see someone wanting to take a phone with them for safeties sake, but why fuss around with these contraptions when you are supposed to be hunting? I guarantee that sooner or later these hunters will miss spotting a deer while playing with these things. Email friends and post to forums when you get back home. In the woods one should be looking and listening for game movement and not looking at this forum. I know that's what I will do when I get out there.

Again Phade, it wasn't that long ago for me I was sticking near-side shoulder or only hitting one lung because I was too eager to think about quartering toward vs quartering away. Its also no secret I've been hunting in CNY after my whole life in Eastern PA nearly on my own for 5 years now, so I have plenty of sympathy. The real problem is first he posts about a dead deer, and sounds so sure of its demise and location he is going to continue to hunt. Then when he realizes tracking deer is hard, he gives up and decides to try and shoot that buck he was looking for instead. Then when alot of members politely try to give him some guidance and confidence and encouragement to keep looking (hell, he probably would have actually recovered the deer and we would have all been celebrating his actual achievement), he sets his stunner on blast and starts telling us swamp stories and how crazy and rich we must be to search deer overnight and stuff. Meanwhile lets not forget he did have the foresight and economic means to film it all. Uck...I hope my wife gets home from work soon, I gotta try and get in the woods and get this bad taste out of my mouth. I shouldn't let this kind of thing bother me. Time for me to put away the computer and handheld electronics for a while...especially in the woods.

Like WNYBuckHunter said...I used this a couple years ago to find a buck. It is amazing how fast they can find deer. They can tell you where the deer was shot from the hair on the ground. And it's free, they do accept donations though.

I want to be able to shoot through two deer at a time. ha

Hope you don't get a pass thru & hit the propane tank LOL

Congrats WNY! Having coffee and going out for a morning sit. Cross your fingers for me to get my first deer with my bow. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The new bow has officially been broken in!!! This doe came out with two buttonbucks at very last light and I sent a Rocket Steelhead through her lungs @ 20yds. I had 5 bucks feeding out in the adjacent cornfield that was just chopped a few days ago. One was a 3.5 year old 8-pt that is definately on the hit-list. Think I'm gonna take the morning off from hunting to hang a stand where all of the bucks came out tonight... I shot her standing right about here...

Patience, patience, patience. That's the key to bowhunting. Quartering away shots are always an excellent option.

Serving in the United States Navy I recently moved to the Saratoga Springs area. Have been an avid waterfowl and bow hunter all my life and would love to know of some public locations nearby to hunt, especially for waterfowl. Thanks guys! I should add that I looked on the DNR site and found nothing very helpful about my area.

ok , my final thoughts on this post, yes it was a bit pretensive... but hey its opening day, and i was still hopin for a buck..., hadn't climbed down yet... whats good for the goose is good for the gander... of course a doe is not down until its in front of you in pics... later explained( w/ precursor of excitement) it looked to me as a heart shot.. excitement gets ya, ya know.... i will post the video of the shot, the blood, etc so you can asses for yourself.... i apologize for my distasteful post earlier, but as a dedicated hunter who loves this with all his heart, i was frustrated... of course i try to make the best shot possible, and yes i make every effort to find them ( side note, this is my first season in NY, moved here for gradschool from florida, and never lost a deer that i have shot at with archery equipment thus far) so firsts are a B(*tc&... but they happen and It's just a matter of time.... so i accept that... i also use tape to either mark last blood or direction if unclear, by trail or landmark... YES it is our job to make EVERY EFFORT possible to recover EVERY deer ...duhhhh.... deer search was suggested to me ( guess what) on this post, we don't have such a thing in Florida swamps where flag ponds and palmettos are a maze of similarity.... do you even know what a flag pond is? i guess the gators do the tracking for ya when you've searched and searched, however, your take home is much less interesting by then, so ya take pride in it, but hey, a little help never hurt if you exhausted every option, at least you may be able to salvage a good portion rather than finding it 6 Days LATER ..... sorry for that reference, you were rather nice... so i should say COYOTE GRUB... the basics of the shot were: she was broadside at 20, as i shot she took a step which made her quarter away, so an otherwise perfect heart/lung shot was a little forward given the angle.... the way she ran for 20, stopped, and then walked (not run) was a little discerning because when she stopped i got a good look at the entry, it loooked like hi heart, low lung, so when i saw lung blood thought it was done deal, however, after a walking blood trail with three dinner plate size pools of bright bubbly lungtastic blood, she began to clot, blood became more stagnant and dark, clumpy, then a spot every 10-15 yds at best... then nothing, so my assessment is ... da da da da dunt dunt da daaaaaaa........ she quartered away at the last second making for a more forward shot than anticipated leading to a forward/low lung shot with minor lung involvement entering the opposite shoulder w/o allowing complete penetration or fracture of the shoulder which would inhibit mechanical abilities in addition to physiological implications such as lack of O2 based on the lungs inability to oxygenate blood of the arteries, the hearts ability to pump that oxygenated blood to the brain for nerve impulse and to the muscles for mechanical function, therefore leading to her demise...... lack of pass through did not allow for exsitory flow of blood from the lower wound(decrease overall loss of blood) , the arrow was snapped off possibly inhibiting blood flow out of the body due to the pressure exerted by the arrow on the ruptured vessels.... and lastly she did not exert a maximal effort in escape, therefore leading to decreased O2 demands, which results in lower heart rate, and lower heart rate results in decreased level of blood lost... if this rant seems a bit precocious... it is.... haha, if you've made it to the end of this w/o shooting yourself, congratulations... ohhhh, did i forget to mention that i am in gradschool for physical therapy, and im a bit of a SMART A$$..... ooopppsss. in all seriousness guys,, thanks for the input, im glad we all can agree as serious outdoorsmen who are passionate about what we do.... thanks for reading -+=----, no seriously, im not gay... lol good night, and hello to day two!!!!!!!!!!

Just watch a Texas deer hunt on a sendaro, and you will get the idea of baiting...Vs food plot

Somebodys havin straps tonight!! Nice!! My night ended watching a doe for bout 45 min in the food plot, as she walked away i caught a glimpse of #1 hitlist buck who must have decided to stay back in the thick stuff....at least its first day not last day of season. You dont get to be 5yrs + old by being dumb. He will slip up, and i will arrow him. This is his year to die

Way to go Shooter!

View from my stand at 6:10 pm this evening!! Doe down Baby!!!

i didnt read your whole post, just the first part. i was amazed at the times you were entering the woods!!! 730 am and 530 pm are the prime time for deer to move. you stomping through the woods at that time is crazy. i dont know wht obligations you have in life but if you can only hunt am or pm, you should choose and get in before the "golden hour" if you hunt the morning you should be in stand by 530 if you hunt the afternoon you should be in by 4

Doe down baby!

I have killed more deer using a call than any other single hunting tool other than my weapon. I never go into th woods without a call... I call all throughout the hunting season. This time of year is a great time to call... deer are naturally curious animals and will react to a call this time of year just to investigate what they percieve as a familiar sound... young bucks are especially easy to call early... yearling bucks are usually new to the area and like any teenager they are looking for some action... any new sound or somewhat familiar sound sparks their attention and they will come to see if they can make a new friend... sometimes they will run to the call.. bigger bucks will also come to the call, but in my experience they will always (100% of the time) move downwind before approaching the spot that the call came from usually busting the hunter long before he gets into bow range... in and area where a big buck can see a long ways like an open field he will expect to see what made the call, if he doesn't, he will be very skiddish while investigating it's source so don't expect him to just prance straight over to your stand.. he will make a big circle and get his nose into the wind first and approach from inside the cover. I have never seen a young buck ignore any call.. I have though seen several big bucks act as if they never even heard it.. even though I know that they did. For smaller bucks you really don't even have to be a good caller.. for bigger bucks you had better sound like a deer.

Relax guys dam, I'm not some joe shmo city slicker fartin around in the woods , spent almost three hours lookin for her in thick nasty underbrush with grass shoulder high, she could be Layin right next to me n I wouldn't even know it, and U try walkin circles in that sh?$!!! Gettin down at 4 n lookin some more till dark... Get off your high horse!

Agreed. I don't want to bust this guys chops at a time like this, but I thought the thread said "doe down"? I for one NEVER consider an animal "down" until I wrap my hands around it.

Bigfoot for sure.

Here it is opening day...I was up at 4a.m....gear all rounded up...English muffin and hot chocolate eaten, shower and off by 5:15 My walk down to..... Oh ya ...the swamp stand...was a tad longer than I thought...more like a mile..but nice...The trail proved easy to maneuver and I never used the new head lamp...Though fallen ash leaves crack like twigs even wet...I settled in and waited...no noise or movement coming in and setting up ...so I knew they weren't off the fields or the downed logging tops south of me... This was a perfect morning all west wind and light...not to chilly and partial overcast... it Would have been more exciting had the loggers co-operated with me....I knew being undisturbed the deer would have migrated to the downed tops from last Thurs./Fri. logging...they had dropped well over a dozen mature blk Walnuts( at the landing).. I waited for 8a.m. and heard machines start up GREAT!...then slowly approaching???they were moving the skidder down the road...hhmmm...some one else is logging their land in the area now...OK then the cutters will still be here...it's bigger than the property next to the house....Noooooo.... Well at 9:30 I heard a crash..and at first thought two bucks clashing...then nothing....perhaps a dead fall...The chickadees and bunting kept me alert hitting every stalk in the swamp..... then 10:30 a small crash and brush moving about 40yrds out...a few deer were moving in...and I know one was a little spiker for I saw his head...could not get a bead on the others moving around ...so after a bit I slowly got the cam out...too slow though... for the guy south of me (between logged woods and our land started pounding...some thing ...and they moved farther away headed for the swamp on the North side of me...a different neighbors land....at 11:30 I grew tired of the pounding and got home at 12pm... THERE...opening morning of 2012 had fun

Man i love those non-typical racks!

I'll take some flak for this and I'm not saying its not a bruiser but that is an ugly rack. Not that I wouldn't kill it.

30 yds. Not bad for a bow that was built in 1986! Same gear, same distance.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this SteveB. If only the first shot counts, then why am I shooting 50-60 arrows or more every time I shoot? Here is why, to make sure that when I get that one shot, It counts. I'm a firm believer in practice makes perfect. And if you don't practice, then you are just asking for trouble.

Doing the Happy dance...This mornings practice I started out at 25 yrds....3 arrows 3 bullseyes 1/2 in apart and a shaved fletching...on first set...switched out arrow...2 round 3 bulls eyes ..still 25 yards 1 and 1 1/2 inches apart.... Not bad shooting instinctive with these aging eyes....Confidence high ...I came home...lol