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Should have known better...

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Just to bring this full circle and to put an exclamation point on the shit show of a season I had, let me share this bit of embarrassment.

I always try to hunt the first and last day for tradition's sake. With Sunday being my wife's birthday and the Super Bowl, I opted to close out the season on Saturday. I left the house at 2:30 expecting the worst for my new ground blind. Sure enough despite having a support pole in the middle, it had collapsed under the weight of ice and broke 3 poles. So after alerting 4 counties to my presence while breaking it down, I grabbed a chair and headed off for an overgrown field to try things from the ground. I found a patch of brush and settled in around 3:30 with lanes crossing right to left at 15, 25, 30, and 40 yards. The wind was perfect and the view was great for the final showdown of the season.

At 5 I was putting my book back in my bag when I caught movement out in front of me at 70 yards. A doe had popped out of the thicket and had also caught movement. The stare down was on... She eventually relaxed and started closing the distance. After glassing her momentarily I recognized her as the same doe I missed on opening day. The dark patch of fur high on her shoulder is a dead give away. I didn't plan on shooting a doe, but I was going to finish what I started!

She closed the distance to 35 yards and disappeared behind some brush, so I came to full draw. Like mature deer are apt to do, she froze as she sensed something was up. I held and held and held until I was about to let down. Just as I was relaxing, she started moving again. She stopped facing me and the stare down was on again! I held and held and held some more. A full 2 minutes passed, which was an eternity for a guy who hasn't shot in 2 months outside of a couple practice arrows before I left. The neighbor decided to let loose on his AR and it was enough for her to get antsy enough to turn to leave. She froze broadside at 23 steps and I settled the pin. As soon as the arrow cleared the string, she looked like a wrestler dodging a take down attempt! She resembled a flying squirrel on the side of a tree: SPRAWLED! In slow motion I watched my Nocturnal burning towards her heart when at the last second the arrow bounced clean off her back. I turned around like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?" as if someone else was there to witness her amazing display of arrow dodging. It didn't take long to confirm I simply gave her a hair cut.

So after not missing a deer with a bow in 14 years, I missed the very same deer on opening day and on the second to the last day of the season some 125 days later. Talk about a humbling kick in the Johnson! I'm not the archer I used to be and it hurts the old pride. She better hope she doesn't give me a chance this fall because I'll be back to old form and it will be game on!
 

teej89

Senior Member
2,288
48
NE PA
haha sorry Jesse that sucks man. But full draw for two minutes and the AR going off having her on edge you can't blame that on yourself, just bad timing.
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
All the fun, none of the mess.... just put a little frustration in place of the blood and guts and you have everything you ever wanted in a hunt! Catch and release is wildly popular in fishing. Maybe it will catch on in hunting as well...
 

finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,855
260
SW Ohio
All the fun, none of the mess.... just put a little frustration in place of the blood and guts and you have everything you ever wanted in a hunt! Catch and release is wildly popular in fishing. Maybe it will catch on in hunting as well...

Great perspective Brock! You now have a target doe Jesse!
 

xbowguy

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
29,632
234
Licking Co. Ohio
All the fun, none of the mess.... just put a little frustration in place of the blood and guts and you have everything you ever wanted in a hunt! Catch and release is wildly popular in fishing. Maybe it will catch on in hunting as well...

Never thought of it as Catch and Release. Got a new outlook from here on out! rotflmao
 

jagermeister

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
18,060
223
Ohio
Damn good story man. Thanks for sharing. Just goes to show you, no matter how much we think we know and how good we think we are, these critters will always find a way to humble us at some point or another.
 

at1010

*Supporting Member*
4,943
139
sometimes a kick in the nuts like that is what it takes, next year you'll be tuned up, and probably smoke a big buck!