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first opening day harvest

dante322

*Supporting Member*
5,506
157
Crawford county
After an uneventful opening morning, I wasn't sure I wanted to go out for an evening sit. The heat and the east wind made it sound kinda uninteresting. My son, jesse, wanted to go though and since this is his first season we gave it a try.
I set him up in the stand I sat this morning. It's in a good spot along the south edge of an ag field right next to where the drainage tile dumps into a creek. The field is actually divided right here with corn to the left and cut beans to the right. The deer like to come out of the woods at this point and will usually follow a trail that crosses them about 20 yards to the west of the stand.
After he was settled in I took my climber a little further up the field edge to a spot where a tree had fallen in the spring and created an opening in the tree line with a nice straight poplar tee just inside the woods. Unfortunately I discovered the tree was just a little too big for the belts on my climber. (I know what I'm asking for christmas) at this point I was pretty much out of options for an east wind so I decided I was gonna try to help jesse out. I headed up a hill to the south east of his position and climbed into a 2 man buddy stand that I have set up on the west edge of a long narrow corn field. I'm used to seeing deer come up out of the woods from the creek in the evening headed to this field, but this time I wanted them to wind me and, rather than come up the hill to me, stick to the creek and pop out by jesse.
We had been texting back and forth a bit about squirrels and dropping acorns and at about 7:00 or so I sent him a text telling him to be ready because we were getting into the golden hour of the night. I had barely tapped send when I heard the corn behind me rustle.
I turned to see the top of a corn stalk moving to my right. There was a lot of leaves and branches blocking my view so I bent down a little bit to see under them and saw a deers rear leg.
I grabbed my bow of the hook and as I was moving to get a shot on the other side of the tree I accidentally bumped my foot which made just enough noise to get the deer to stop. This gave me time to get my release clipped on and get ready, this was gonna have to happen fast since it was gonna be within ten yards after it started moving again.
The deer was upwind of me so it couldn't smell me and the same leaves that were blocking me from seeing it kept it from seeing me as well. After a couple seconds it took another step... the head cleared the leaves and I saw I had a slick head in front of me.
At this point it was like I was simply acting on instinct. I didn't even give myself time to decide if I wanted to shoot before I was drawn and anchored. I kept hearing the little voice in my head say aim for the exit, the 10 yard pin settled in the spot and the arrow was on its way.
I saw a flash of the green nocturnal high behind her shoulder blade and then she took off leaving the arrow stuck in the dirt just beyond where she stood. I looked up and saw her and another doe I didn't even know was there hithing the treeline at the edge of the field. I heard the leaves and limbs crunching for a few seconds then I heard the crash.
She was down.
I let jesse know I had one down but told him to sit tight and finish his hunt. I'd let him know when I was ready to pick up the trail. I thought the other doe was gonna head his way but unfortunately she didnt.
At this point I had a dillema, I was a lonnngggg way from the jeep, and I had a deer down. I realized that the direction she went took her toward a recently cut bean field. All I had to do was take the jeep around the block, pull in the field and I would be within 100 yards or so of where she was laying. No brainer. I picked up jesse along the way so he could be with me for the track and recovery. We went ahead and stopped at the house to drop off my climber, his gear, the tote with the camo... and pick up the game cart while we were there.
We got back to the woods and headed to where the shot was. I left the arrow so that if we didn't see her right away we had a good starting point for a trail. I told him "I think she hit the woods right in here somewhere" he replied " there's some blood right there" shining his light on a tiny drop of blood on a leaf. I told him to wait here while I retrieved my arrow. By the time I got back to him he was already on the trail. That kid is like a freak in bloodhound! The trail was pretty pretty good but I have to admit, he was following it like an old pro. I was impressed.

I'm happy I had him with me. My mission now is to put him on one and I would love to see that happen at strouds. He wasn't quite prepared for the field dressing thing or the skinning and processing today, but he now knows what to expect and is stoked to get his first.
 
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Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,184
157
Nice job buddy!! Now the fun part begins.. Really hoping Jesse gets a couple of shots this year