Man I tell you the amount of things I learn at the Armory is mind blowing. I said it before and I will say it again, Thanks redbarron for the suggestion of shooting arrows at a distance farther than I intend on hunting.
Boy it paid off yesterday with another doe for our freezer, she could be the twin of the one I recurved 2 weeks ago only this scene broke loose quickly.
To make a long story short:
The stand I "hunted" yesterday is more suited to gun hunting with a huge field to my right and behind my tree. I have one clear lane off of each side off of the backside of the tree to sneak a 250gr sabot out to 200yds if need be.
I have zero shooting lanes out in front for use with a bow but the tree is on the uppermost part of a hill on the crosswind side of 4 intersecting trails, kind of like an 'interchange' if you will and gives me a chance to shoot over most of the brush out to bout 28yds in some places and only out to 10yds or less in others.
Well I forgot my dang rope in the vehicle and that sucked royaly. I had my back pack on and my Parker compound in my right hand as I made my way up the 18 foot ladder. The stand by the way is a double ladder wrapped in burlap camo so my boys can move around a little when I take them with me for gun season.
I snuck my bow up and under the netting and was having a hard time getting it around me and the back pack at the same time but managed to do it without falling. As soon as I stood on the platform I was reaching to take my pack off and noticed 5 doe's feeding out in the field and 2 were close and broadside. I cannot figure out how they failed to see my movements but they had no idea I was there and the wind was perfect.
I am glad my rangefinder was around my neck, the closest deer was 44yds. I knocked an arrow put my 40yard pin(with a mental double check of my new pins this time) and didn't realize what 'felt weird' about coming to full draw was I was using my fingers and not my release and I still had my backpack on. I watched the arrow stick into the ground behind her and they all took off.
The shot was little high and a little far back, a liver shot. She made it about 350-400 yards into some of the thickest nastiest thorny cover on the property with a very minnimal blood trail, she bled out internaly. I had to track her hoof prints on the forrest floor with a tiny drop of blood every now and then to assure me I was still following the same deer. The whole time spent 'hunting' less then 5 seconds, the time spent carefully tracking one set of deer tracks out of an entire herd, 2 1/2 hours.
I ended up using my belt as a drag rope and plastic wire ties to hold my pants up, I should be kennyohiohillbilly, that had to be a site to behold.
Thanks again for the advice redbarron it paid off with my personal longest confirmed bow kill to date, 44 yards, a little unconventional but a kill none the less. By shooting at small targets at 50 yards it made her chest seem like a broadside minivan at a range that I felt comfortable with.
I will post a pic later, she is hanging out back on an antenna tower out of the direct sunlight.

This post has been edited by KENNYOHIOHUNTER: October 11th 2009 12:54 PM

Way to go Kenny!
Your story is better than mine.
My second one this year was a "less than 5 minutes" hunt story too.
I went out late, climbed into a stand that I'd not been in since last year, hauled my bow and quiver up on a rope, got an arrow knocked, and started to settle in and check it all out. I had some small branches w/leaves in my sight line to my right, so I reached up and tucked them out of the way. Then I looked to my left, and there was a deer standing about 30 or so yards away.....and it started moving in my direction. When it turned broadside and it became clear that it wasn't going to get any closer, I waited and got a shot (still at about 30yds) with it's head down and on-side foreleg extended.
The cover where he was is 4ft tall grass, a bugger to follow sparse blood in. Unsure of exactly where I'd hit it, I waited to follow it up, and ended up doing so in the dark. With a Pelican LED flashlight and my Gerber Carnivor blood tracking light in hand, it took about 45min to find.....and it was only about 40yds from where I'd shot it.

Congrats on gettin some backstraps. Also way to go on not giving up on that deer and bringing her home. Good job man.

Kenny, that is awesome.

Are youi using any of the bag-r-bucks this year? Are the ones from last year still haning up?

You guys are way ahead of me. Since I started the new job I have been on the road or in ATL and other than opening weekend I have not even had a chance to get out. I am getting ready to start a 3 week stint with only one day off so I wont get much done between now and the end of the month either. .

congrats kenny!

Congrats on the deer Kenny Good job tracking.

Good job and nice skills, Kenny!

Way to go.

Congrats bud!

We bought enough bag r buck to last up a couple of years, it seems that they only need replced about once a year, great set-up that I will be utilizing for years to come.


I enjoy the quick hunts just as much as the all day sits.
Hunting in any form satisfies my soul, I cannot get enough of it under any circumstances.


I have realy learned some good tracking skills over the years and have not lost a deer, mine or anyone else's for quite some time. I get called a couple of times a year to recover someone elses deer and when I get there I get all of the information from everyone involved and then go at it by myself, I find it easier for me to stay focused without the distractions of others.


I would like to get 8 or 10 this year but I have a feeling I will only have enough time to get 5 or 6. We will see, it also depends on how the deer react to the gunshots in another month and a half, that usualy changes things in the bow woods. I prefer to hunt Whitetails with a bow.

Good kill Man!

And you confirmed that I'm not paranoid about putting my release on before even entering the woods!

Hindsight is always 20/20 I will be doing the same thing from now on. I got caught a couple of years ago with my rangefinder in my pack and I needed it, thats why it hangs from my neck as soon as I change into my hunting clothes.

i was in a hurry one day and climbed up into my climber and no sooner did i get sorta settled in when a doe walked right under me at about 8 yards away. i went to clip my release and it wasn't there. it was in my truck.

that was the first and last time i ever made that mistake.