My trail cams have informed me that about 80F degrees is the movement point for the deer around here. I get very few deer pics when temps exceed that. It was 84F when I left the house, but I knew it would drop below that around sunset less than two hours later.
I was trying an entirely new ambush location. The landowner has suggested for years that I set up right off of his driveway in the afternoon because deer are always around. I finally decided to take the advice. His driveway runs from an open field/pasture in between two small patches of woods and opens up into his front yard. The area between the woods is about 100 yards long and it is about 40 yards across. When the deer wander from his front yard through this bottleneck out towards the open fields just before dark, they offer an excellent ambush opportunity if you play the wind right and are set up in the woods on either side. It's plenty thick on both sides to hide both deer and hunter.
I was in place about 90 minutes before sunset on what I hoped would be the downwind side. Mother nature was pulling my chain shifting the wind direction from time to time. I wasn't there 20 minutes and I had two doe in his front yard just over 60 yards out. Except for a ten minute period when the deer ran into the woods when the landowners wife drove through, I had deer visible for the remainder of the hunt. When the deer came out of the woods the last time, they were within bow range of my truck.
Eventually there were three feeding under oaks about 60 yards away. A nice doe and two younger ones. It wasn't until about ten minutes after sunset that they finally decided to make their way through the gap out toward the open field. I had my choice of them. The large doe hugged the far woodline providing a shot of about 42 yards. The younger ones were passing at 28 yards. I opted for one of the tender ones with the closer shot. The shot was true but a few inches back because I didn't try to stop them as they walking and it was extremely quiet. All three bolted back toward my truck upon the shot. 
The one that was hit stopped after about 40 yards and was looking labored to turn into the woods. She only made it about five yards into the woods.The Tooth of the Arrow left a pretty easy to follow blood trail that didn't really start for maybe 20 yards. Then it looked like you pulled the drain plug.
She was a small one, but I'm following orders that the missus prefers them that way.
At least for the remainder of the early doe only gun season, I'll be trying to fill a tag with a vertical bow. Then when archery season starts in October I'll be ready with the Wolverine to score a buck. Now I just need to put on the Lumenoks and Tactacam as I was equipped with neither on this impromptu hunt. I'll likely pay for that mistake as I'll be returning a few times to search for that arrow. Apparently reflective wraps alone ain't enough.
