My brother-in-law Mark was the one that got me hooked on bow hunting. Last weekend, he flew in from PA for a brother-in-law hunt down at the lease. The weather was great for hunting and the animals were moving!
The first kill belonged to Mark. He was in the double-feeder blind in the morning. You could say things weren't going his way. When he first arrived and set up, he noticed two of his five sight pins were missing the fiber optic lead. After accepting that handicap, he had a mishap with his seat. He claimed that it was a rock that gave out under one of the legs, but the result was him tumbling over and into the side of the blind. Perhaps the deer just had to see who the comedian was. In any case, three Axis does came in at first light. The last one was the big one that Mark targeted. Being the experience bowman that he his, he quietly drew on the beast. At that moment, the doe chased one of the smaller ones down closer to the cliff face. If you've sat in the blind, you'll know that this positions the animal below you. As Mark followed the deer through the sights he ended up lowering his bow to where the arrow, when released, passed through the window fabric/flap. Whap! Oops! Sh&#@! Laugh it off Mark, it must not be your day. At least you see your arrow stuck in the ground below the blind. Although the arrow was easy enough to retrieve, Mark got another surprise. It turns out the arrow hit the deer! in the guts. Double SH$#@! That's when Mark came to pick me up at #3 (where I saw lots of animals - pigs, sika doe, WT does, 8pt WT Buck - but no shots). We decided to wait until after lunch to track the doe. Four hours later we returned to the blind to see if we could follow the trail. What trail? I found out green gut juice 1) looks like everything else on the ground, and 2) doesn't leave much of a trace. We ended up on random vectors trying to think like a gut-shot deer. I was about to give up when I returned to the blind, glanced into the trees, and noticed something white. 40 yards from the feeder was a 110 pund Axis doe minus a few guts. Pays to wait people.
The next story is mine. Mark and I sat together in the south (wood blind) ground blind in the afternoon. For two years, I've been waiting for my first deer kill with a bow. This was it. The first deer to show up was an 8 pt WT. I noticed him through the trees to the right of the blind. It's always exciting to see bucks come in even if they are not shooters. Right behind the WT, I noticed another set of antlers in the trees. These weren't WT antlers. It was an Axis and it looked like a shooter. As he came in, I was afraind the sound of my heart might scare him away. Mark, without a second chair in the blind, rose to his knees. The buck was tentative. A sudden movement from the WT and they both scattered. They didn't run far, however, and 15 minutes later they were back. The hog panels presented a little challenge for me since the height was interfering with a path to the vitals. I must have waited another 10-15 minutes until he cleared the panels for a shot. I drew back and launched an arrow at 25 yards. The arrow penetrated the deer and it looked like a good shot. Not having shot and killed a deer before, I was a liitle nervous about where the shot went and how good the shot was. Mark's view was impaired by cedar in front of the blind. I also found out Mark was silently suffering from being on his knees so long. I literally had to push him over to regain blood flow to his legs! We call that brotherly love right there.
Mark wouldn't let me track for an hour. The blood trail looked good, however, and eventually ended up at a dead 30inch Axis buck 50 yards from the blind. Not the oldest or biggest buck in the woods, but he'll be hanging on the wall nonetheless. Axis Buck Mount: $450. Freeze drying process to preserve the velvet: $150. Telling the story of my first buck kill with a bow: you got it!
