Sorry in advance for the long story, but I'm pretty excited.
Went out this morning with my faithful sidekick, my 7 year old son. We were running kind of behind and didn't get to the stand until around 6:30, bumped a few deer on the way in and I wasn't really expecting to see much. We climbed up in the stand (my son's first time in a tree stand), got our harnesses hooked up and settled in. Not fifteen minutes after sitting down my son managed to drop my can call, wow those things make a lot of noise bouncing off every rung of the metal ladder! Not long after he was complaining about being cold, I had brought along some heat packs, but they were in his fanny pack down on the gound. So, I climb down, get the heat packs, (and my can call!) and get back in the stand. At about 8:30 he's certain he can take it no longer so I lower the bow and we get down to head for home.
On the way back to the truck I thought it would be a good time to teach him how to be a little less noisy as he walks through the woods so I ask him to stand still and watch and listen as I go on ahead and then try and walk to me and listen to how loud he is when he walks. I get about 40 yds. ahead and turn to have him walk to me. He starts down the trail and actually does a pretty good job of not making much noise, except he stumbles over a branch. Well, about that time I hear something moving on the side of the ridge and see three deer about 40 yds. from me. I quickly take an arrow from my quiver and begin to move down the trail. About 20 yds from where I was when I first saw the deer I see them coming across the hill and assume they will come across in front of me at about 30 yds. In the meantime, my son is still trying to "stalk" down the trail to me totally unaware of the deer. I finally get him to stand still and out come the deer. I draw back as they walk straight towards me and when the lead deer stops and turns broadside I set my 20 yd. pin on her and release the arrow. It's a solid hit, but doesn't pass thru. I watch the three deer run down the hill as long as I can and then turn to my son who was able to see the whole thing, boy was he excited and much warmer all of a sudden!
Anyway, after waiting awhile, I go over to where the deer had been when I shot and can't find any sign of blood. After about a half hour of searching I find a small drop on a leaf but can't find any additional blood trail. I was beginning to think I had really screwed up, but I knew the arrow had hit in the chest, it just didn't penetrate which made me think maybe I hit the shoulder bone. Well, much to my suprise, my son, who's about 10 yds. ahead turns and indicates he has found some blood. That little stinker ended up finding the trail about 4 more times when I had thought we lost it. I was litterally crawling on my hands and knees to find one small drop of blood then another. The blood was bright red and bubbly, there just wasn't much of it. After about 120 yds. and 2 hours of crawling around we reached the edge of the creek and some heavy cover and there in the middle of it was the deer. I don't think my son's feet touched the ground all the way back to the truck, you'd have thought we had just got a P&Y buck as excited as he was! I can't wait until he is consistent enough with his bow to get out and experience this great sport as the hunter instead of the bystander. Thanks for listening!
Went out this morning with my faithful sidekick, my 7 year old son. We were running kind of behind and didn't get to the stand until around 6:30, bumped a few deer on the way in and I wasn't really expecting to see much. We climbed up in the stand (my son's first time in a tree stand), got our harnesses hooked up and settled in. Not fifteen minutes after sitting down my son managed to drop my can call, wow those things make a lot of noise bouncing off every rung of the metal ladder! Not long after he was complaining about being cold, I had brought along some heat packs, but they were in his fanny pack down on the gound. So, I climb down, get the heat packs, (and my can call!) and get back in the stand. At about 8:30 he's certain he can take it no longer so I lower the bow and we get down to head for home.
On the way back to the truck I thought it would be a good time to teach him how to be a little less noisy as he walks through the woods so I ask him to stand still and watch and listen as I go on ahead and then try and walk to me and listen to how loud he is when he walks. I get about 40 yds. ahead and turn to have him walk to me. He starts down the trail and actually does a pretty good job of not making much noise, except he stumbles over a branch. Well, about that time I hear something moving on the side of the ridge and see three deer about 40 yds. from me. I quickly take an arrow from my quiver and begin to move down the trail. About 20 yds from where I was when I first saw the deer I see them coming across the hill and assume they will come across in front of me at about 30 yds. In the meantime, my son is still trying to "stalk" down the trail to me totally unaware of the deer. I finally get him to stand still and out come the deer. I draw back as they walk straight towards me and when the lead deer stops and turns broadside I set my 20 yd. pin on her and release the arrow. It's a solid hit, but doesn't pass thru. I watch the three deer run down the hill as long as I can and then turn to my son who was able to see the whole thing, boy was he excited and much warmer all of a sudden!
Anyway, after waiting awhile, I go over to where the deer had been when I shot and can't find any sign of blood. After about a half hour of searching I find a small drop on a leaf but can't find any additional blood trail. I was beginning to think I had really screwed up, but I knew the arrow had hit in the chest, it just didn't penetrate which made me think maybe I hit the shoulder bone. Well, much to my suprise, my son, who's about 10 yds. ahead turns and indicates he has found some blood. That little stinker ended up finding the trail about 4 more times when I had thought we lost it. I was litterally crawling on my hands and knees to find one small drop of blood then another. The blood was bright red and bubbly, there just wasn't much of it. After about 120 yds. and 2 hours of crawling around we reached the edge of the creek and some heavy cover and there in the middle of it was the deer. I don't think my son's feet touched the ground all the way back to the truck, you'd have thought we had just got a P&Y buck as excited as he was! I can't wait until he is consistent enough with his bow to get out and experience this great sport as the hunter instead of the bystander. Thanks for listening!
