Shot Taken - Miss - Deer Day 6 - Sat 12 OCT

Nick, Alex and I take off at 7 am for the woods.  It's 55 degrees and it's misting, overcast & foggy.

As we drive E out of Mulberry, we see a deer in the beans.  We drop Nick off at Vice's and head around to park on Neal.  We see another deer in the beans.  Hey, at least they are moving.

Alex walks N to his stand and I walk E down the road.  As I approach the bottoms, I see mama doe and two babies feeding directly toward me at 50 yards.  I nock a bolt on the crossbow and think I'm about to get a shot from the road!  It was not to be.  A truck came by and spooked them W.

Since it was so wet, it was easy to walk quietly.  I made it to where the deer were standing before the truck came, and they wind me.  The tromp off to the N.  I continue N as well.

I am not yet to Bailey's house, maybe 100 yards into the tree farm and I stop to tie my shoe.  As I slowly raise back up, I catch the white glint of antlers coming S toward me.  Looking back, this is the time I should have taken stock of the distance this buck would cross.  But no, I was too busy just eye balling the deer.  He was a nice 8-pointer.  Not one to hang on the wall, but surely one that would have made a lot of salami.

I could not have drawn it up any better.  He comes S, two tree rows E of me.  He stops broadside, and looks the other way.  I put the scope on 1.5 (in between the first and second dots) thinking that he's close to 25 yards.  Wrong - he was at 15 yards!  The bolt sailed right over his back.  Now, since the bolt hit the woods to his right (W of him), the buck circles around TOWARD me.  I sit there with no way of cocking the crossbow and loading another arrow without getting busted.  We lock eyes for a few seconds and then he snorts and runs N. 

I checked the area for the bolt and blood.  I recover the bolt - nothing but mud - no blood.  I stalk N to test how far he ran and jump the tree does from their beds, due N of Bailey's.  Of course, they all run S.  Now if this were shotgun season, I could have bagged 3 deer today.  But since it's archery, I have none.

Nick texts me and says he saw a buck run by about 45 yards W of him - and he was still running N.  Nick also had a raccoon playing in the creek - which he thought were deer.  Then, a beaver slapped its tail at him.  He saw nothing other than the running buck.

I text the guys that I am walking back to the truck dejected.  I swing around and pick up Nick.  Alex wanted to stay as there was a doe in the field which he hoped would feed toward him.  Vain hope.

We rolled out of the woods by 9, having seen about 7 different deer, a raccoon, and a beaver.  Nothing for the freezer, but a good day.

The weather is supposed to remain hot most of next week.  Rain coming in tonight and high 70's tomorrow.  No hunting tomorrow.

I'm having flashbacks to last year when I had this same problem - shooting OVER deer.  Guess I need to work on my field range estimation skills.  The Good Lord provided me a nice opportunity today and I just blew it.  Oh well, there will be more days to come.

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