Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer Bow Talk Opening Day Buck

I mentioned shooting this deer yesterday afternoon in the First Sit thread and here’s the story that I promised.

I left work about 11:30 and ran to my wife’s aunts house to take a scent shower on the way to the woods. Got to the property at 1:00 and started walking in at 1:30. It was UNGODLY hot so I took my sweet time, walked in slow, and took a bunch of breaks to try to keep from sweating (didn’t work lol). By the time I got in the tree I was drenched in sweat so I sprayed about a half a bottle of scent killer all over me, mostly just to cool off lol. It was pretty quiet the first few hours with the first doe showing up at around 3:15. Around 3:30 another doe and fawn came in to join her and I watched them at doe #1 feed around for a while. 4:00 rolls around and as I’m watching the deer eat I see another deer coming from way back in the hardwoods. He stepped out into an opening and I just about lost my mind. Having not shot a buck in three years I was beside myself thinking about him coming in for a shot. He picked his way up through the hardwoods and eventually got within 30yds but was facing straight at me feeding. After watching him and waiting for him to turn for a few minutes one of the does started walking around behind me and all I could think about was she’s about to catch my wind and blow the whole operation. About the time she gets straight downwind of me the buck begins to turn but walks behind a tree. At this point I am absolutely freaking out. I had a bottle of water hanging off my pack and I could see the water sloshing around in there from me making the whole tree shake. The doe begins to stomp, he’s still behind the tree, my heart is beating out of my chest. After a couple stomps from the doe he starts to realize something is up and makes a step out away from the tree. Knowing this may be my only few second to get a shot I snatch my bow back and let an arrow fly as soon as he clears the side of the tree. The arrow hits him about 6” behind the shoulder and high. He runs off and I hear crashing. I gave him a good hour and a half before I look for blood. Got down and checked everything out, had good blood on the arrow but not much on the ground, what I could find though was definitely lung blood. Followed the trail for about 80yds before it petered out. Not wanting to mess him up if the hit was bad I texted CNC and asked him what I should do. He suggested we wait till daylight the next morning before going in with his dogs and that’s what we did.

Went back in this morning with CNC and his dogs. The deer was only about 80yds from where I lost blood yesterday but I just couldn’t see him. I hate he went to waste but I do not regret the decision to err on the side of caution and come back the day after. I wanna say a huge thanks to CNC and his awesome pack of pups for the recovery. I’m beyond ecstatic to get my hands on this buck!