Crosshairy
Well-Known Member
Dad and I scouted some areas on the scouting day (yesterday). As Poser had pointed out to me, not many persimmon trees were dropping, although the locust trees were dropping bean pods pretty reliably. Knowing that, I figured that an area with both types of food would be a solid choice if I was lucky enough to find it.
I went to a spot I had hunted about 4 years ago on a hunch, and found 3 different persimmon trees that were producing decent amounts of fruit. Two of them were within 20 yards of each other. I found a locust tree (never learned to tell the difference between black and honey locust) 20 yards from one of the persimmon trees, and thereby established my "triangle of doom". I found a decent tree for the climber, hung it, and came on out with a few minutes' light to spare.
Not much movement all morning of anything except a fox squirrel. I heard one deer snort back in a thicket, but never saw anything. Then at 8 AM two does came hopping in, obviously jumped up by something some distance back. They came to a stop directly beneath my stand. The closest one was so tight against my tree that I had to stand up and shoot almost straight down (probably about 10 feet from base of the tree). They had no idea I was there. I was grateful that they stopped on their own, so that I didn't put them on alert by whistling at them.
While waiting the deer out, another fellow came through about 20 minutes later. I called him over, and he apologized for walking up on me, but said he was trying to determine whether he hit a yearling within a herd of deer that came through on him. Evidently, he was the one that pushed them towards me (although it sounds like they were moving my direction anyway, so I'd like to think that I would have eventually seen them anyway).
He spotted my arrow on the ground, which I hadn't seen at that point, and said that it was covered in blood. As I drew my pull-rope up to me, I realized that the end of it had blood on it - that's how close the deer was! Blood trail was pretty easy to follow. She was piled up about 100 yards away. The deer cart is great in those woods, since the ground is pretty much flat as a board in most spots. I was at the checking station by 10 AM without rushing.
This was my first deer with archery equipment. It was great, because I needed some confidence in myself and my equipment. I was using an el-cheapo Horton Steelforce recurve crossbow with Carbon Express bolts and 100-grain Muzzy broadheads.
I'm now positive that I can make a good shot and put a deer down all the way out to 3 yards
I went to a spot I had hunted about 4 years ago on a hunch, and found 3 different persimmon trees that were producing decent amounts of fruit. Two of them were within 20 yards of each other. I found a locust tree (never learned to tell the difference between black and honey locust) 20 yards from one of the persimmon trees, and thereby established my "triangle of doom". I found a decent tree for the climber, hung it, and came on out with a few minutes' light to spare.
Not much movement all morning of anything except a fox squirrel. I heard one deer snort back in a thicket, but never saw anything. Then at 8 AM two does came hopping in, obviously jumped up by something some distance back. They came to a stop directly beneath my stand. The closest one was so tight against my tree that I had to stand up and shoot almost straight down (probably about 10 feet from base of the tree). They had no idea I was there. I was grateful that they stopped on their own, so that I didn't put them on alert by whistling at them.
While waiting the deer out, another fellow came through about 20 minutes later. I called him over, and he apologized for walking up on me, but said he was trying to determine whether he hit a yearling within a herd of deer that came through on him. Evidently, he was the one that pushed them towards me (although it sounds like they were moving my direction anyway, so I'd like to think that I would have eventually seen them anyway).
He spotted my arrow on the ground, which I hadn't seen at that point, and said that it was covered in blood. As I drew my pull-rope up to me, I realized that the end of it had blood on it - that's how close the deer was! Blood trail was pretty easy to follow. She was piled up about 100 yards away. The deer cart is great in those woods, since the ground is pretty much flat as a board in most spots. I was at the checking station by 10 AM without rushing.
This was my first deer with archery equipment. It was great, because I needed some confidence in myself and my equipment. I was using an el-cheapo Horton Steelforce recurve crossbow with Carbon Express bolts and 100-grain Muzzy broadheads.
I'm now positive that I can make a good shot and put a deer down all the way out to 3 yards
