The summer months of 2013 were spent similar to others, working on cleaning four wheeler paths, walking paths, getting deer stands prepped, cleaning shooting lanes, checking trail cameras, and practicing with the bow. –Thankfully, most of these activities are now shared and enjoyed with my two younger sons and my brother, Nicholas, is usually more than game to help as well. All in all, it turns the usual mundane activities into a lot of fun as we experience everything together in the anticipated arrival of the bow season.
The 2013 season arrived on September 14, 2013 with some nice, cool weather. We didn’t have big plans to go after any certain big buck as we really didn’t have a lot of sightings to go off of yet, despite the trail cameras. However, with the cooler temperatures we decided that if a big doe showed up we would put some venison in the freezer. –We also decided to try something new this year and hung two stands together in hope that we could video a deer or two and maybe even catch one on film getting arrowed. Saturday and Sunday morning I sat with Nicholas in the stand above him in hopes of videoing a kill. We did have a couple of smaller bucks come right by the stand and got them on camera, however they needed another year or two to mature and Nicholas passed on them. Sunday evening we decided to try our luck one more time at this set.
It looked like it was going to rain and we reluctantly left the camcorder home as we didn’t want to worry about the electronics getting wet. On the way to the stand Nicholas asked me if I wanted to trade spots with him and be the “shooter” that night. –Why not. We changed things up and after sitting for only an hour or so a small doe came up towards our stand and was followed shortly by a mature doe. The doe definitely knew that something was not right as she got directly downwind from us. She maneuvered to head back the way she came from, but inadvertently walked across a shooting lane 25 yards from the stand I was in. She scanned the area on full alert, but made the mistake of looking through the pines in the opposite direction. –This enabled me to pull my bow back and I let the arrow fly. The alert doe definitely ducked my arrow and did a quick jolting 180 degree turn into the pines. My arrow was exactly on mark as I watched the flight however, and I knew he sudden duck did cause a slightly more forward and upper hit, but I felt good about the shot. I made eye contact with Nicholas and he wasn’t certain on the hit, but indicated that he thought it sounded good.
As the skies were darkened with lingering rain showers that two of us climbed down and began the tracking a bit quicker than we normally would have in fear of the rain washing the blood trail out. Upon inspection of the scene we nearly immediately located good blood and the arrow was lying in the grass only a few feet from where I shot her. We recovered her as she only ran about 50-60 yards and had a good blood trail to follow. Although we didn't get this particular hunt on video the two of us both recognized the fun that we had simply hunting together as we had years and years before when we were little guys just learning to hunt on the ol' Weiland farm near Brainerd. Nick helped me clean her up and we were able to get the kids and my wife, Andrea, out to see her before it was dark. We then enjoyed a beer as we butchered deer number one of the season. All in all, a great ’13 opening weekend shared with the family and I even shot my first opening weekend deer ever. It’s going to be a great year!
PS- Nicholas, thanks for the help and I promise I will sharpen my knife!
Good huntin',
Luke
