Shoulda, coulda, woulda...
Shoulda killed a doe this morning.
Coulda had fresh loins on the grill for lunch.
Woulda be fun having my kids along to track & drag her out of the woods.
BUT (and there's always a BUT)
2 does came in from the field behind me. (slightly down wind, thanks again Scent Smoker!) I had no idea they were there until they entered the woods right behind my stand. I didn't move until they were in front of me. Quickly grabbing my bow, standing up, and coming to full draw in one motion. The stood quartering away at 18 yards. I paused for a second thinking back to something Brock wrote a little while ago... and watched my pin floating on the brown fur of the deer for an extra second or two (it IS a beautiful sight to see). I double checked my bubble was squared up and moved my finger towards the trigger of the release. Everything felt absolutely perfect from my anchor, to the extra seconds of watching my pin, to the release letting loose.
Then I saw what looked like a high hit, followed by the two deer blasting out of the woods. The one I shot at took off like a rocket, while the other bolted 50 yards and stood looking around like, WTF?
I could see the deer wasn't hit, and wasn't acting hit. She ran like crazy out to 200 yards, then circled back towards the woods, eventually rejoining her fawn.
Reviewing what happened, I could see my arrow sticking in the dirt. Clean as a whistle. Then I caught a glimpse of a broken twig, right in line with the hole I was shooting through. In my rush to get the shot off I just didn't see it there. Everything looked good through my peep, but obviously it wasn't. The silver lining is that I had a clean miss and didn't wound the deer.
The cut twig I clipped off...
The arrow stickin in the dirt...
The hair cut off the top of her back...
Back at tomorrow...
Shoulda killed a doe this morning.
Coulda had fresh loins on the grill for lunch.
Woulda be fun having my kids along to track & drag her out of the woods.
BUT (and there's always a BUT)
2 does came in from the field behind me. (slightly down wind, thanks again Scent Smoker!) I had no idea they were there until they entered the woods right behind my stand. I didn't move until they were in front of me. Quickly grabbing my bow, standing up, and coming to full draw in one motion. The stood quartering away at 18 yards. I paused for a second thinking back to something Brock wrote a little while ago... and watched my pin floating on the brown fur of the deer for an extra second or two (it IS a beautiful sight to see). I double checked my bubble was squared up and moved my finger towards the trigger of the release. Everything felt absolutely perfect from my anchor, to the extra seconds of watching my pin, to the release letting loose.
Then I saw what looked like a high hit, followed by the two deer blasting out of the woods. The one I shot at took off like a rocket, while the other bolted 50 yards and stood looking around like, WTF?
I could see the deer wasn't hit, and wasn't acting hit. She ran like crazy out to 200 yards, then circled back towards the woods, eventually rejoining her fawn.
Reviewing what happened, I could see my arrow sticking in the dirt. Clean as a whistle. Then I caught a glimpse of a broken twig, right in line with the hole I was shooting through. In my rush to get the shot off I just didn't see it there. Everything looked good through my peep, but obviously it wasn't. The silver lining is that I had a clean miss and didn't wound the deer.
The cut twig I clipped off...
The arrow stickin in the dirt...
The hair cut off the top of her back...
Back at tomorrow...
