I was 20-foot up a tree about 4:30pm. I hadn't seen a deer from this new spot, but it has trails all around and under it. It is near the bottom of a hill. Behind is slightly lower; in front is uphill. Straight out in front of me it is about 40 yards to the side of the hill.
About 5:30pm I caught movement on the hill in front of me about 50 yards away. There were at least a couple walking a trail. They stepped out in an old grassy road about 50 yards up to my left. The nicer of the two started milling down the road and spent a few minutes at about 40 yards browsing. The trailing doe eventually crossed the road into the thicket. Knowing the lead doe would be following I was stuck with deciding to shot then, or not at all.
We're over-populated so I take the shot. The Rage 3-blade tipped Firebolt smacked the doe like a rock hitting a metal building. Smack! Maybe the hillside added to the echo.
I knew I had the distance right and I had a hit so I waited about a half hour to start trailing. I found the arrow right away. Hmm, red and green. This may not be good. I decided to trail it a little ways to get a better idea of where I hit. Within about 25 yards I found quite a bit of red blood. Much better. I also found good pool where the deer must have stood. I decided to continue trailing. I did find a little green along the way, but more red than green. I found the doe about 75 yards from where it was hit.
The arrow entered the back of the rib cage clipping the back of the lung, slitting the liver and exited a couple inches behind the last rib. This photo is the exit side.
Here is the official Whitetail Whacker's picture with the Excal & tag.
Sorry about the photo quality, these are from my cell phone. This one was donated to the local Hunters for the Hungry so it never came home.
The Rage 3-blade performed great.
DuckHunt
