The Deer-Slayer Returns

Click on the title for the full set of pictures.

It was about 0830 hrs when I first heard something arriving into the little clearing I was sitting in. I was pretty sleepy and was watching some rather funny-looking woodpeckers nearby and watching the semi-random antics of the local squirrels. I looked down and saw a doe. Slowly, she slipped in, 25, 20, 15, 11 yards, eagerly munching away. This process took about 10-15 minutes. She was a bit nervous at first, but once she started eating, her head was on the ground more than not. As soon as I recognized her as a doe and not as a button buck, I slowly stood up, freezing if she even lifted her head up. At one point, she looked up at me for a while as I was in a rather awkward position that had a high risk of emitting potentially toxic gases or at least noises that would spook 99.999% of deer. I was relieved when she went back to eating and I was able to get into an upright position. Carefully, I closed the jaws of my caliper release on the string and slowly, quietly drew back, hoping the noises would be ignored or better yet, undetected. She continued to eat and I took aim, waiting for her to line up broadside. I made one last check to make sure she was indeed a doe and made sure to line up my sight in that pocket, where her heart and lungs were. Once everything was set, I pulled my trigger and sent the arrow flying into her vitals.

Thunk! And then the most un-nerving noise I had ever heard came out of her. My first thought was Holy crap, I think I just wounded her! Much to my relief, she just fell down to the ground, so I knew I got her in the spine and it was hard to tell for sure from my angle whether I was too far back or not, but a later inspection would tell me that my line was good, just that I shot high. Too high for heart/lung shot, but when we cleaned her, I just about cut her spine in two. Thunderhead broadheads rule! For about 5 minutes, she flailed about and grunted and I was worried that she'd run off and not leave enough of a blood trail to follow her because I didn't have a complete pass-through. Thankfully, she just lay there and flailed about before finally dying. I was ready to take a second shot on her but when I went down to inspect her after about 5 minutes of no movement, there was no sign of life, so I didn't have to take that second shot.

For the record, she's the first deer I shot and was able to keep the tenderloins because I didn't break her guts. Apparently she did a really good job of ducking my shot to send my shot as high as it did! I was about an inch from making a catastrophically bad shot that would've made us have to track her for long distances. So yeah, I've been insanely lucky with my shots!