Got my first doe with the bow

[BowmanMike]

I was on my way to my stand yesterday afternoon around 2.45 pm when I saw a couple of does at the edge of a field. I tried to stalk closer to them to maybe get a shot at one of them. After managing to cut the distance quite a bit I could not get closer than 45 yds, a distance I definetly do not feel confident with yet.

Now we were in a wooded area. The does just kept feeding and milling around. The wind was right from the does to me. One of them walked to the left of me into some thick stuff and out of sight. I tried to follow the other one slowly but she kept moving and I could not close the distance.

She disappeared but the other doe came back from the thick stuff. I let her walk past me at about 35 yds since there were to many branches in the way. So I followed her for a bit and then saw her bed down. Her head was behind a tree which I kept between us as I managed to close in to 20 yds. I could see her body really well and I was still hidden by the tree.

I was trying to decide if I should take the shot, since a bedded doe is not my first shot choice. I picked a spot right behind her shoulder and waited for my heartbeat to get back to normal. Then I released and saw the arrow hit almost exactly where I aimed.

She jumped up and ran off. This is where some problems started. The angle of the doe wasn't quite as broadside as it appeared, she was curled up a little.

I couldn't find my arrow so I gave it 30 mins and then started tracking her. Not much blood, but her trail on the ground was fairly easy to follow. I tracked her for 400 yds and then I jumped her out of some tall weeds. I checked her bedding spot and saw blood and stomach contents. Not what I wanted to see. So I backed off and went back to my house to regroup, maybe get some help and call the landowner of the property the doe led me on. I got permission but no help, so a few hours later,at about 6 pm I went looking for her again. I picked up the trail from the side I entered the property and followed it as it was getting dark. Found some more spots where she bedded but lost the trail on the driveway. I decided to get my buddy now, since he was done hunting. I got in my truck and as I turned around in the driveway my headlights shone right on the dead doe next to the driveway. Can you believe it? She was 18 yds from the last bed I checked out.

I looked her over and found I hit her just behind the shoulder in the center, but the exit hole was at the bottom and end of the ribcage, so I hit one lung, the liver and the stomach.

Moral of the story is that shooting a bedded doe is not the best idea, and sticking to the tracking pays of. She was probably 700 yds from where I shot her.

I am still very excited about my first deer with the bow though. But I learned a lot.

[aspen_00]

Congratulations! Great story!

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[fasteddie]

Congrats on your deer and tracking her down rather than just giving up !  Good job ! 

[outdoorstom]

Nice job, and good ethics for not giving up...well done!

[phade]

Pics man, pics!

 

Congrats!

[518BowSlayer]

that's awesome, I never shot one with a bow from the ground. thats gotta be exciting!

[Lawdwaz]

Good job, Mike.

 

700 yards is a looooong ways to track one out.  You got lucky on this one!

[BowmanMike]

hey phade

I am still living firmly in the last century, it is a wonder I can use the internet, so pictures are a different thing. No cell phone for me. Forgot to bring the wife's camera, maybe a good thing.

[Hock3y24]

Good learning experience there! Congrats and pics or

It didn't happen!

[grampy]

Congratulations Mike! Great story too. Way to hang in there with the tracking, and glad you found her. You will never forget the first bow kill! And yes, you will continue to learn. After many hunting seasons behind me, I'm still learning too. The only thing I would have done differently, is after I knew she was gut shot , to back out and give at least six hours before taking up the trail. I learned this lesson the hard way and pushed too early, lost the blood trail and then the deer too. Happy that it all worked out for you though!

[Huntscreek]

Good Job congrats, they don't all drop where we hit them. Nice tracking.

[hunter]

Congrats. I'd say you handled it like a pro.

[NFA-ADK]

Congrats on your first bow kill!  Great story, good luck the rest of the year! 

[BUCKANDAQUARTER]

Excellent job! Tracking can be no easy feat.... especially without a second set of eyes. Congratulations

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[Paula]

Good tracking. Congradulations

[WNYBuckHunter]

Congrats! Great job on following through and finding you deer!

[Buckmaster7600]

Congrats on the first 1! In the future give them more time unless you see them fall I use 2 hrs as a minimum. My grand father always said "you will never jump a dead deer but I jumped dying deer will go a LONG ways"

[Cabin Fever]

Congrats! Great job and determination on the tracking job too! Couldn't have been easy and must have been frustrating, but you stuck with it! Lesson learned too!

[G-Man]

Congrats, glad you learned along the way,knowing what she did and where dhe went will help you in other tracking situations,I use to back track deer I killed in the snow to see where they came from and what they were doing ,added a lot of knowledge to my hunting.