Today is September 14, 2017 and while looking through my documents back up files, I located a Word document that I mailed to one my bride's kin folk Don Adcock of Belmont, NC.  Within the letter, I inserted a pix of a deer taken with the bow and arrow in 2005 and I still remember a few details about the hunt.  I was able to capture the picture from the Word document and change it into a .jpg for screen viewing.

I usually feed the deer outback broadcast corn a few months before our annual archery season which normally opens the first or second week in September, therefore deer frequent one of my favorite hunting stands on a fairly regular basis prior to opening day.  I also have written permission to hunt the 134 acre track of land known as the B. C. Moore and Sons estate land which is adjacent our property.

BACK TO THE 2005 ARCHERY HUNT 

I had seen several fairly decent bucks in the area, but I am no trophy hunter aka horn hunter, simply a meat hunter for the freezer.  Whether buck or doe, it doesn't matter.  I try and avoid harvesting yearlings, but at dusk dark late in the season, a yearling will look like a small doe for sure, especially a button buck. 

One large body four and six point buck were observed coming into the feeding area regular and they were still in the velvet opening archery week.  I decided to try for either of them if the opportunity presented itself.  I had a game camera near the corn and they were captured on the digital game camera every few days, mostly coming in right at about dark or in the early morning hours to feed.

According to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission data base, I tagged the deer on September 15, 2005 and will recall what I remember of that evening hunt.

Normally, I don't get onto stand until after 4:00 P.M. and will stay on stand as long as their is available shooting light which is about the limit of legal hunting time, being 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset. 

I was using a Bushnell Holographic Sight on my bow which squeezes out the last bit of available shooting light which gives you about 5 minutes more shooting time due to not having to use a peep sight limiting your vision.

I heard a deer approaching from my right on a heavy used game trail and he used a lower trail to access the broadcast corn.  When he got in the clearing which was about 15 yards from my platform tree stand, the trail camera went off and I already had the Holographic sight heads up display center dot on his heart/lung area and the arrow was released.  It was a good solid hit and he bolted off to his right and went into heavier cover, whereas I heard him crash and everything quickly went silent again.

It didn't take too long to climb down the tree and needed my flashlight to track the buck, but I didn't try and follow the blood trail, but went directly where I heard him go down which was around 40 to 50 yards at the most.  That was an easy deer to locate for sure.  The arrow placement was perfect for a heart shot and you can see where the arrow exited behind the right front lower leg.

I set my small digital camera up on a homemade monopod and took the following pix:

After the picture was taken, I quickly field dressed the ole boy and dragged him out. 

I tagged a few more deer that year, but the NC Wildlife Resources Commission data base didn't record what type of weapon you used on their database at that time.

There were several years I didn't take any hunting pixs for whatever reason and prior to our digital age, I rarely took any pixs with my bulky Nikon F2AS camera.

I am sure that buck rendered some wonderful cube steak and gravy along with other recipes!

Web published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 09-14-17.