Report Your Archery Kill - 2006

[bigbucks]

Nice job, nice deer, your story's a little on the short side though...

[so haaad]

I had a big doe directly under my tree last night. That is such a great feeling to have them in close, and then to study all of their movements and behavior.

[harvey lee]

ttttedttt

very nice job and buck.

[96trigger]

Went out last night, Had a nice little six pointer stand in both of my shooting lanes, broad side, 15 yards, haven't drawn back yet, but man, it was tough last night. Anyone else have that problem? I hunt next to state land and constantly question weather QDM will work, but hey, if I don't let it go, then it definitely won't have a chance. It will be a real nice deer in 2-3 years.

By the way, deer should have winded me, came from the wrong direction, yet he never lifted his nose. I have a pretty good scent regimen, but for all those scent lok critics. Try it, I swear it works.

[KOTTKE]

Had 6 Does under and around me for about 25 min last night, a true testiment to scentloc and scent sheild, also had 2 huge coons come walk under me, they saw me trying to change out arrows and ran half way up a tree in front of me, one of them made the mistake of peeking aroung the tree, WHACK dead coon

[gr81]

Shot my first deer of the year at 7yds. Turned out to be a button buck . Arrowed a lung and the heart. The deer went 10 yds and dropped. The mother snorted at me for about 10 minutes before she ran off. It was only my 2nd deer ever with a bow. Those backstraps are gonna be tender. Good luck to all.

[mattrd]

My younger brother shot his first deer with a bow tonight! A nice little 7pnter. We've really been doing a lot of scouting and practicing all year long and to see him get this buck just makes it all worth it. I'm very excited for him. I've shot a couple of nice bucks with my bow before, but I think I'm more excited that he shot this one. Made a perfect shot from 12yds out of the tree stand (double lung, heart shot) Congrats to him and now it's my turn!

[harvey lee]

gr81 and to mattrd's little brother,congrats on your deer.I am starting to get edgy as I have not shot one yet and usually by this time of year I have whacked a couple of eater doe's.Maybe this weekend.

Your little brother was probably pretty pumped and that is what it is all about.

Again,CONGRATS.

I see by your posts you are fairly new members.so Welcome to Fishing Mn and I look forward to reading your future posts.

[Lucky One]

Is it slow this year compared to past years? I am new to bow hunting, but from what I am hearing it sounds like a lot of experienced bow hunters have harvested a deer by this time most years. This year many of them have not even seen a deer. Do the crops impact this at all? I know that around our hunting land all of the crops (beans & corn) are still in.

[96trigger]

It might seem slow this year but alot of that can be due to the weather. Its only been a couple of weeks since opener. The weekends have not been the greatest, windy, warm, etc. I don't like shooting a deer when its this warm and the bugs are still out. That said, there is a cold snap coming this week, the deer should really start moving, also the days are getting much shorter, FAST. The prerut will be starting/started. We will start seeing more deer now, also the crops are coming out in what seems like record time this year. I drive to work and can't believe how many crops are picked by the time I drive back home. I plan on going out tonight but with the warm, windy, full moon, I don't plan on seeing anything. The deer are really nocturnal with a full moon.

[harvey lee]

This year has been hard for our group hunting in North Dakota as every time we go there the weather is BAD.Again this weekend it will be very windy,full moon and some rain.Diffucult times to hunt deer.But we are going soon.

[bigbucks]

I would agree with the previous poster. It has been slower than normal for me personally. Most years I've already shot one by now, last year I'd already shot two & passed on a few small bucks & lots of fawns. This year I've passed on one fawn in 10 outings so far. 3 of my last 5 outings have had no sightings & 1 of those (last night) they were 400-500 yards away. Some of it's just bad guesses on stand selections, some of it's weather. I think the lack of bugs doesn't help either, as they aren't needing to get out of the cover so badly before dusk.

I had two near shot opps on nice does in my 2nd & 3rd outings of the year, not much since.

[chucker34]

Whew! Good. I thought it was just me. I have pretty much seen nothing (hunting during legal shooting time). But then again, I've only been out about once a week since opener. And those have been 2-3 hour stints. I know they're there cause I've seen them from the car, during family walks, and on my trail cam (often yards from my stands) but every time I've been out hunting, the weather has not been conducive to deer movement at all - windy, rainy, hotter than heck, you name it.

Tomorrow is it, I can feel it. High winds but I'm in the woods and the wind will be in my favor. : )

[BLACKJACK]

I'd have to agree, its been slow this year. I've had one deer within shooting range, and I couldn't get my bow off its hook without spooking her. Another night I was in one stand and watched two small bucks go by a different stand 75 yards away!!! The stand my wife who has never shot a deer should have been in!!! I'm also trying out some new spots, they really haven't panned out, they're more fencelines and alfalfa and will probably be better once the bucks start cruising and looking. There ARE deer around, I notice that my clover spots are getting cropped down. One night I didn't go hunting and sure enough, watched four deer eating on one of my spots! Thats why they call it hunting!!!!

Last night I watch a buck off in the distance eating beans, tried to grunt him in and he ran the other way!!!

Sunday the wind is supposed to turn around to the north which will allow me to hunt one of my best stands!!!! Hopefully I'll have a good report Monday!!!

[bigbucks]

Rainy is actually excellent, if it's just a little off & on drizzle. For some reason they like to move in that.

[Stratosman]

It's been a bit slow where I hunt, I passed three does first time out, I have been seeing lots of deer, nothing with any size though, but seeing 5-10 in the fields each time.

[harvey lee]

A very tough weekend in North Dakota.With constant winds in the 20-35 range the deer were not moving well along with the full moon.

I did stick a very nice flattop on Saturday night and saw another 5.My son saw 3 very nice bucks with one being a brute with serious mass but it wasnt a good shot.

We will be heading back to stick him in 4 more days.His days should be numbered hopefully.

[Boomer]

Congrats HarveyLee and everyone else who's had good luck.

It's been slow for us so far, but I think once the crops are out and it cools down we'll have some luck too.

It's a blast just to be out there so no complaints here!

Good luck the rest of the way everyone.

[swampbuck]

i finally got out last night! got in the stand at 5:30 and had little 6 pt come in to 3 yds. 10 minutes after clmining up! 5 minutes later a couple does came in and started feeding 50 yds from me.

one of them busted me and then walked right to me at 8 yds. I shot and hit her what i thought was a bit high.

went back today at lunch and found her 50 yds away!

Good start to the season 20 minute in the stand and one buck in and shot a doe!!

[tripper]

My morning of hunting was a little short but enjoyed it.

It was a quit walk into the stand because the melting frost had the under cover nice and wet. I got on stand and had been there all of 10 min. when three spikers came in on my right side at about 20 yrds. I had decided to just watch go about their way when it dawned on me they were all looking at somthing on the other side of me. I turned my head slowly and caught movement a little to my right rear just as a doe steped out of the brush 15 yrds from me. She was on a trail that would take her past me at about 10 yrds. and on out infront of me. As she moved by me I slowly got my relase on the string and prepared for the draw. Her path took her behind a small spruce and I made the draw and waited for her to step out. When she steped out I had a nice quarting away shot at 15 yrds. so I let out a little mouth beat and she stoped. I let the arrow go and watched as it disapeared in her side. She made a couple jumps and took a few steps moving maybe 7 yrds. further down the trail and stoped . I thought about getting another arrow out but knew I had a good hit as I could see my arrow laying on the ground were I had hit her. She stood there for a while and before laying down never to get up again. In the mean time the three spikers milled around my stand for another 15 min. and I could of taken any one of them too had I wanted to but we let them go for a few more years.

[harvey lee]

Congrats to swampbuck and tripper on your bow kills.

[BLACKJACK]

Shot a small doe last night!!! Had two does and a small spike buck out in front of my stand for about 20 minutes, finally one of the does presented a good shot and I took it. Watched the two does run into the woods about 70 yards away, all the time hoping the shot one would fall over. Got down and retrieved my arrow - it smelled and wasn't bloody - gut shot!!! Don't know what happened, it was right below my stand, too steep an angle? Hit a twig?

Walked home, contemplating my options, they say to wait 6 hours on a gut shot, thought about coming back in the morning, but they were predicting snow and rain... Decided to give it two hours, came back and found the blood trail leading into the woods. Right away it went down a steep bank and I lost the trail, did it go left or right? Looked over the likely paths thru the brush, followed a couple different paths, backtracked, and found more blood! I tracked it for about 80 yards, losing the trail several times, at times the blood trail was great, other times nil, finally I was about 10 feet from coming out of the woods and lost it again. Walked to the edge of the woods, contemplating what direction it might have went and believe it or not, I smelled 'dead deer', the kind of smell you get when you stick your knife in to gut the deer and all the gases escape. I started shining my flashlight around and about 15 feet away was my deer!!!!

By the time I was done gutting, the rain was coming down steady, my blood trail would have been gone this morning. I also was only about 30 yards from where I shot it. I've noticed that in the past, deer will most times go back to where they came from when shot.

Lessons learned: Need more practice from elevated stands; my new LED headlamp worked great, it gives off a nice white light; and stop when you're blood trailing and look over the direction and trails and lay of the land, most times when I lost and refound the trail it was by following the easist path. I also used marking tape on every blood spot, that enabled me to look back for direction of travel, and when I did lose the trail, I could go back to the last spot and start again.

It was actually kind of fun trailing, part of the whole process. Now onto the next part tonight - butchering my deer tonight. I've never done it before but I'm looking forward to it!

[Mark Christianson]

Great story Blackjack!

Contgrats!

[chucker34]

Ditto. Great work BlackJack! Sounds like a great evening.

[harvey lee]

Congrats on the deer.I had almost a similar story last weekend only I went a lookin and pushed the deer,went back to the house and returned a little while later and found it.I had shot it in the liver as I didnt have a heart lung shot as a tree was in the way.It all turned out well,but just maybe I should not have taken that shot.

I have been burned a few times as I always think I can make any shot and those arrows just dont curve around trees.