My First Bow Kill: Filling the Freezer

If you follow along with this blog, you know I love to bow hunt. This has been a newly formed passion. I use the term "newly" loosely because this is my third season of bow hunting. Three long years, in reality this is just a short time period, but this past Saturday was a first for me. It was this first time I was able to harvest a deer with my bow! I was close to taking one my first year, I had a 6-point at 26 yards but buck fever got the best of me. I nicked the deer and tracked it for roughly a mile but never found it. I found out that later that it was a non-mortal injury as this buck was shot on another property later that month. As you can imagine with those thoughts racing through my head as I released this arrow, it was  a BIG relief to see this deer drop in sight.

This past Saturday started the same as opening morning, minus the fisher. The night sky was clear as could be but soon there after sunrise the fog started the settle in. The first movement I heard was around 7:00 AM, it wasn't much to get concerned with considering it was just a few squirrels. It wasn't much longer though until I heard something walking up the hillside behind me. This deer walked in the same exact path as the doe and fawn did the previous weekend. This time it was a lone doe, which meant fair game. As many have talked about before, I see anything I take with my bow as a trophy. Not to mention any chance I get to fill the freezer back up this early I am going to take it. 

The lone doe skirted around my stand, which would lead her to enter directly on my right hand side. As soon as I saw this I grabbed my bow and connected my release. Momentarily before she entered my food plot I drew back, but  she made a detour behind a tree. As she stood there for a few moments I let my draw down, this was the worst thing I could have done. Not because it spooked her but because this allowed me to start thinking. Luckily, this didn't matter before I could let anything throw me off too much she stepped out for a perfect quartering away shot and within seconds I had my pin on her and let the arrow fly. It looked like a good shot, she did the mule kick and then had her head to the ground as she tried to run off. That was a great feeling, but I still wasn't sure for a moment. It didn't take long to know that it was not going to be a long tracking job. She  started thrashing around and then went into a death roll within 15 to 20 yards from where she was shot. Before I could even think or have any real emotion, I heard my phone vibrating with a congratulatory text from Jay. It wasn't  hard to take this one, but all I could think of  is that I had my first deer with a bow and the freezer was back on its way to being full again. 

Below is picture of the tree by which I found my arrow (from a pass through shot) and the next one is the tree in the foreground with the deer in the background.

And now for the hero shot.. 

The before and after..