Finished work early and slipped off to the woods around 2:00 pm. On the way I thought "today is the day", well ... almost. Have yet to get my first bow kill. Didn't have a bow until after rifle season was underway last year. Passed up a 15 yd broadside on a spike a couple of weeks ago. Got settled in the tree this afternoon and I'm thinking "man it sure is breezy". Wind is steady and swirling until 3:35. At 3:55 I hear footsteps behind me. I sneak a peek and there is a doe about 10 yds behind me and maybe 3 yds to my left. My heart is pounding (I know, it's just a doe, but it will be my first with a bow) because she snuck up on me and kinda caught me with my pants down. So I get up tight to the tree trunk and figure as soon as she passes in front of me I'll light her up. Well she must have drifted straight to my tree and stopped directly under me. I heard her stop right under me but didn't dare look. I don't know if she smelled me or saw me but in an instant she bolted about 30 or 40 yards straight back the way she came and then looped around to my left across a wet weather creek and up the hill along with her accomplice whom I was unaware of until they started going up the hill. I was bummed but immediately thought "they've been bedded down and when the wind stopped they came in to feed, just be still, there will be more coming". Well, I was right! Maybe 20 or so minutes later, when the wind stopped again, I could hear them walking on the same hillside they had previously run off to. I don't know if it was the same two plus 3 more or 5 new does but after about 10 more minutes I finally spotted 2 of them at 96 yards. The others turned out to be a little closer but not much. The good news was that they were feeding down the hill towards me. When my kids were little and all worked up about something I would tell them "now is the time for patience" ... it's hard when they are right over there. I finally got half of them within 40 yds but 40 yds was a shot I had already determined I would not take so I was waiting for at least 30 yds. 30 yds never came. They never spooked. Nobody stared me down. No stamping of feet or blowing, they just one by one turned and walked back up the hill from where they had come. It was shocking to me how small a doe looks at 40 yds in the woods!

Awesome! You'll stick one soon. Stay persistent! Good luck

Big difference between the bow and gun. Ten yards means nothing with a gun and means going home empty handed with a bow. Best of luck and I can assure you that it will be worth the wait.

Gets the ol' ticker going doesn't it?

So much blood got pumped to my head so fast that my ears were buzzing and I swear I could feel my head swelling up!

This doesn't seem to happen to me if I can see or hear them at a distance, or at least not as bad, but when they sneak up on me it's instant heart racing time!

Ok, still no bow kill. I only killed one small deer last year which led to venison rationing at my house which is difficult with a 14 yr old boy who prefers it to beef. So when rifle season started, filling the freezer became the priority. That's accomplished now so today I went back to the bow. This morning I watched a spike mill around for about 20 minutes. I let him walk. This evening I went to the same stand and didn't see anything. When I felt like it was too dark to shoot I stood up and drew my bow to make sure I couldn't execute a shot and decided it was time to pack it up. I had no sooner un-nocked my arrow and returned it to my quiver than I heard something walking towards me. There was still enough light to see but just barely. I realized it was a deer and scrambled to re-nock an arrow. No shooting light? Who said there was no shooting light!? So I could see it was a deer but I couldn't tell what sort (buck or doe), honestly at that point it didn't really matter to me. I drew on what was about a 15 yard shot and I could see my pins through my peep but I saw all of them. I couldn't isolate a single pin and I couldn't get it lined up on the deer at all much less it's vitals. There just wasn't enough light. I let off and waited for the deer to pass. It was behind me now and when I peeked around the other side of the tree I think it sensed something because it just froze and so did I. The last thing I wanted was for this deer to see me in the tree. It seemed like it took a really long time and at one point I wasn't sure that it didn't actually bed down right there but it finally moved on. I gave it a few minutes and climbed down and headed out. 5 or 10 minutes earlier and I would have had my 1st bow kill.

hang in there...you won't be disappointed!

Props for not taking that shot. You still have some time left.

Bowhunting is one of those things, when it clicks, it clicks. It still gets my blood pumping just the same as you describe. Heck, yesterday, I watched a 7pt chase a doe into a thicket past me. I passed on him, but could hear them in the thicket so I decided to play with him. Snort wheezed. Here comes the doe back out, and across my shooting lane. The buck was behind her. As he stepped in the shooting lane, I realized it wasn't the same deer, but a really good 10 that I didn't have pictures of. He crossed too fast, and chased that doe all over the bottom, never giving me a shot. I went from calm, to barely able to stand in the matter of seconds. It's an awesome rush, I get that way any time I plan on shooting a deer. Even does.

I work in service and never know for sure when my work day will be over until it is. Yesterday I got done fairly early so I scrambled home as fast as I could. I've been hunting the same 2 man ladder stand, across the road from my house, for the past several days and thought I may have been spotted the last time I was in it so I brought my climbing stand and repositioned only about 40 or 50 yds away. I climb the tree to around 25' and looked down only to discover my pull rope had come loose and was in a pile next to my bow on the ground. I climb back down, secure the rope, and climb back up checking the rope frequently. I get to the point where all the slack is out of the rope and keep going. I look down and see my bow about 2' or 3' off the ground and my 2 arrows lying on the ground. @#$%!!! I climb back down, covered in sweat, thinking "ok, this is some kind of sign, I'm just going home", but by the time I got down I thought "well I'll just sit in the ladder stand instead". When I'm about 1/2 way to the stand I think "Hey, wait, where's my release?". I'd left it at the house! Now I'm thinking my day is done as I'm walking back to my house. There are about 5 acres behind my house that I've hunted for the last few years. The property changed hands last year and although permission had been granted to keep hunting, I haven't done it yet this year. It had been just hardwoods with scattered pines and all the normal undergrowth you would expect to find in the woods but the new owners stripped it to bare ground leaving only all the mature trees. This left it pretty open. It was already difficult to hunt (I see a lot more deer on the other side of the road where I started) and I figured it would be even harder now but I called the new owner to confirm that I still had permission and with his ok walked out my back yard to one of two ladder stands. Pretty close to dark I see a deer feeding in the open just on my side of the tree line. I range it at 77 yds. I'm thinking dark is going to catch me but suddenly after about 15 minutes, it starts walking in my direction. Based on it's direction I start ranging trees and planning where I want to shoot. Deer starts at my 9 o'clock and will cross pretty close behind me. I decide when I will shoot and as soon as the deer's head passes behind a certain tree, I draw. When it's whole body is on the other side I let loose.

Woohoo!!! My first bow kill!!!

Deer did a somersault and landed on it's feet 180* from the way it had been going, ran 75 yds and laid down.

I made 3 mistakes that I know of but got lucky.

Mistake #1: Deer turned out to be a spike with little 1/2" antlers that I couldn't see in the fading light.

Mistake #2: When I was preparing to shoot I ranged a tree and estimated the difference to the deer from the tree. I should have ranged the deer. I used my 30 yd pin and the deer was actually around 25- 27 yds I think. My shot was a little high.

Mistake #3: When the deer emerged from the other side of the tree I didn't stop him, I just shot. It's one thing to do this on a slowly walking deer at 100 yds with a rifle bullet traveling over 2000' per second, it's a whole other thing to do it at 25 - 30 yds with an arrow traveling somewhere around 300' per second. I aimed for a deer standing still and hit a moving deer a good 12" further back than I wanted. I got lucky because it was a total gut shot but the rage did it's work and now he's quartered in my cooler!

Thanks for reading my story. I'm glad to have finally gotten it done. There is no comparison between a bow and a rifle kill. My rifle is put up for the year and I'm not even sure if it will come out next season.

Good job

Nice job

Congrats! there is no comparison! the bow kill is a up close and personal affair, and once you experience your first, it's got ya hooked!

Good job!

way to keep at it. good story

Good job!