My wife's 2012 archery hunt

[Musky hunter 82]

I wanted to get a post going to capture my wife's archery hunting season as we go through it, so I'll post updates on what we saw and how the hunt went. We mainly can only get out on Saturday mornings, she has bow hunted a couple times last year and came very close to getting a doe. So here's this start to this years hunt.

Sept. 15th Opening day of Minnesota archery season found us sitting 20 yards apart on an oak ridge that is over looking a trail that leads from a corn field back to the bedding area. The leaves were so loud when we walked in that i knew we'd be able to hear any deer coming in. She was hoping to get a shot at a doe or a buck and this was the best spot for this. I have 12 different bucks on the camera through out the summer so our hopes were high that we'd at least see one. At 7:15am i hear leaves crunching, I can tell right away that it's a couple of deer coming our way, I can see a large doe and a fawn coming right in. I look over at my wife and can tell that she has seen them also, the doe started to circle around me while the fawn went right into the mineral lick. The doe ended up coming out right under her stand and staied the for close to 15 mins. Never giving her a clean shot, all the while I'm shaking like crazy from the excitement that she might get her bow deer on the very first morning. Well they ended up moving off never giving her a chance to draw, half an hour later I look over and see 3 more does coming our way but they ended up getting down wind and knew something wasn't right, and moved off.

Here's a picture of the doe and fawn that she had infront of her.

More to come on last weeks hunt and yesterday's hunt, but here's a teaser for you.

[hookjunior]

Thanks for sharing, hope she's able to connect with one. I sometimes wish I could my wife interested in going hunting.

[matchset]

that's pretty awesome so far!

[Musky hunter 82]

September 22nd: We're in the same stands as the weekend before over looking the same area, we had high hopes since we saw 5 the week before. we sat for 3 hours and didn't see a single deer, but we did have 15 turkeys fly off their roost right next to us (should've bought a turkey tag).

October 6th: Another early morning hunt, we got settled in our stands around 6:45, it wasn't much longer and the duck hunters in the area really started blasting. The wind was really blowing good from the North North/East, it wasn't the best wind for the stand but it's the only set that we have where we can hunt close together. The thought just went through my mind that here we go again no deer, just then I see movement off to my right, I look closer and see the white throat patch of a buck as he rubs his nose on a limb. He starts heading down the ridge away from us, in desperation I grunted to him and sure enough he turns around and starts to head our way, I look over at my wife and try to give her hand signals (not easy to see when you have black gloves on and are wearing camo) to tell her that he's coming down the trail right next to my stand. He took the trail that went 5 yards from teh base of my tree, and 29 yards from her tree. I kept watching her to see if she was going to get her bow up and draw as the buck is only 20 yards and standing perfect right now, my heart was going crazy with excitement that I might get to see her take her first deer with a bow. The out of horror the buck turns and walks away, when I looked back at her I can see the frusteration on her face, se couldn't get her bow drawn back se was shaking too much. Now she has shot bigger bucks with her gun, but with a bow it's a totally different feeling, I felt so bad for her and tried to tell her that it happens to all of us. We didn't see any other deer that day, but the good news is now she's more determined then ever to get one with her bow.

[archerystud]

Sorry she couldn't get drawn back but the excitement factor is great.

[engfish]

I can't wait to read about next weekend's adventures. Tell her that we're all rooting for her. She got a real good taste of it.

[matchset]

thats a bummer but that feeling is such a rush! i love it!

[bigbucks]

+1 nothing much better in the hunting world than having a deer you want to shoot in range or just about.

[sticknstring]

It'll be that much sweeter when she finally connects! I'll be following this thread and wishing her luck!

[Rippinlip]

Keep coming with the story, great so far.

The adreline rush is what it is all about.

[Musky hunter 82]

The next time we got out was Wednesday night the 9th:

We made it to our hunting spot around 4:20pm, after we changed into our camo we headed to our stands. When we got there I asked her if she minded that I went down the ridge to sit next to a big oak tree to see if the deer were moving down the other trails, she said sure go find them. Before I left I told her that if she shoots at one to wait for 10mins then come find me and we'll go looking for it. I reached my spot around 4:35pm at 4:45 I can hear deer moving off to my left, I can see two deer moving through the thick saplings in a semi-circle around me. I could tell that it was a large doe and a fawn, at times they were within 5 yards of me sitting on the ground. They ended up going around me and were heading up to where my wife's stand was, when they got out of site I checked my watch at it was 5:15pm. I was hoping I could hear her shoot but I didn't hear anything , at 6:15pm I had 17 turkeys come by me at 10 yards and when they finally moved off (6:30pm) I heard a THWAK!! and could her something running through the woods. About 10mins later I can see my wife sneeking along the ridge, when I get to her I can see that she's disappointed, and when I look at the arrow I know why. There was only a tiny spot of blood on one of the fletchings, I asked her what it was and how many deer she saw. She said she saw 2 deer right away but they didn't come close enough the half an hour later she saw 2 more deer but again they were too far away. Then around 6:30pm she can see a large doe and two other deer coming right to her. When the doe got to 15 yards quarting away saw let her arrow fly, and right away the doe took off running with her tail up. after the shot a couple of mins later the other two deer came in, they ended up being a doe and a button buck. I started looking for blood on the trail she went down and 10 yards from where she shot at her I found a little spot of blood then I ended up finding a couple more little spots further down the trail then nothing, I searched and looked down every trail that was in the area and nothing. My only thought by looking at the arrow and that the blood was in the middle of the trail is that she just nicked the brisket. I'm so proud of her though that, in just a week she learned when to stand and when to draw her bow back, and when to shoot. Now she just has to follow through when she shoots, I'm confident that she'll get one it's just a matter of time. But this season is really giving her all aspects of what bow hunting is all about.

Here's a picture of the two deer that came in after she shot at the doe, you can see her in the stand in the background.