I wish I had a big elaborate story for this one but really I don't. My parents live on about 15 acres and they're covered up in deer. I have only known of this deer since last season. This is actually the smaller of the two bigger bucks but the bigger guy has gone MIA, wouldn't be surprised if somebody has gotten him by now.
Regardless, I put up a pop up about a week before bow season started and naturally it took the deer a little bit to get used to it, but I have put in a couple miserable sits and have been busted one 4 separate hunts by the resident does who sleep within eye sight of the feeder. Not to mention the 95-100 degree days where there's no way to combat the sweat and wind blowing straight to the feeder..
Yesterday morning I had N/NE wind blowing straight into my face so I knew it would set me up for success. I walked in from about 500 yard with no light (pretty much a full moon) and got settled at about 5:45, so I sat for about an hour and fifteen minutes before the sun started to make its appearance. In the meantime I watched a couple does and a fox wander around.
Right about 7:15, deer started to pour in and he peaked his head up around 7:25 and made his way in. The shakes started and I needed to compose myself while also trying to not make much movement because at this point I had 4 does with babies with 15 yard of me at eye level. This went on for about 30 minutes and I ended up with about 17 deer within 30 yards of me. I thought I missed my chance as he began to walk away, and I knew if he came back I had to make it happen. Sure enough he turned to walk back and I took a deep breath to calm the nerves, raised the bow and drew back. As it goes, he stopped right behind another deer and I had to hold at full draw for what seemed like 5 minutes but was really about 40 seconds (something I NEVER practice). Finally, he cleared the other deer and I let the arrow fly at 27 yards and watched the lumenock disappear at 7:53 AM. I heard the wonderful punch of the arrow punching right through the ribs and watched the blood flow as he high tailed it out. Within 10 seconds I heard him crash. I texted my dad "Dead Deer" and he shortly headed out on the ranger with his blue lacy in tow for what was a pointless tracking job as it looked like a scene out of a horror movie. Dog made a full sprint straight to the deer within seconds.
Taped out at 131.5
