Finally had deer start showing up at around 5:45 PM yesterday afternoon. Had 2 does come in and start feeding on the corn up toward the main pile I had (where I had an open shot). While they were working their way toward me, I spotted another doe, bigger than the 2 that were there already. Kept watching her to try to get a shot. Heard something down the hill and looked and there was another doe coming up the hill toward the corn. Finally, the bigger of the first 2 does that had come in must have gotten a whiff of me, because she started getting kind of antsy. She moved up the hill like she was going to cross over the saddle, but then turned and dropped back down right into my big shooting lane. She was angling toward me so I kept waiting for her to turn a little and give me a better shot. I wasn't moving, but all of the sudden she looked dead at me and stood there looking at me. I knew I was busted and that was going to be as good of a shot as I was going to get. Put the crosshairs on her shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The Lumenock I had on the arrow was blazing a big red light toward her shoulder in a flash. I head the "smack" of the arrow and she headed down the hill. I eventually heard her go down a little piece down the hill.
I sat there for about 10 minutes and then went down and started looking for my arrow. Couldn't find it where I hit her at, so I started going off in the direction she had gone, trying to pick up the blood trail. A little piece down the hill, I saw the Luminock shining. Got the arrow and found the blood trail. Only problem was that she wasn't laying much blood. To cut out the time of trying to follow the sparse blood trail, I went over to where I had though I had heard her go down at. Topped a little bit of a rise and there she was.
Before I had gone down the hill following the trail, I swapped out the memory card in the camera. She had been standing almost in front of it when I shot, so I was hoping that I had a picture of the arrow in flight or her taking off or something. No such luck though. The camera still caught a couple of images of me still sitting in the blind and then when I came down to find the arrow/trail.
Here's how she was when she hit dirt.
And then the "money" shot.
It was supposed to be pretty warm last night and then rain this morning, so I came on back last night. Got back up here at 10:30 PM and watched the weather and confirmed it wasn't going to be cool enough to let her hang overnight. I got her skinned, quartered, partially deboned, and put in a cooler of ice water to keep overnight. I think I finally got in the house this morning about 1:15 AM.
The bow performed flawlessly!!! I hit that doe in the left shoulder with her angling toward me. The broadhead went through her shoulder and partially through her right back leg, cutting the skin a little on the outside.
That's some freaking penetration! The lack of blood though was due to the high entrance wound and really no exit hole. The arrow had come back out the entrance hole about 20 yds after I hit her. Total, she may have traveled about 80 yds after the shot, but it was in a semi-circle.The Equinox claims it's first victim and I've got some good fresh meat now!
