It started out on public land, with a bow I purchased in late September of this year. I had been working hard to learn how to read the signs of deer and where to go. I had been shooting into my target frequently from 20 yards with close groupings of arrows. And often my first shot was a kill shot. This brought me confidence.
Once I got in the woods, or even preparing for a hunt, my confidence wavered. I couldn’t decide where to go, or how to hunt. My target being a buck whitetail deer, which I have hit three with my truck, and my wife hit one this year. An unfortunate reality in northern Pennsylvania. At the age of 30, I decided to take up bow hunting. I was able to wrap my head around it as a challenge. As for the first time in a long time, I was in one place for more than 1 year consecutively. This gave me a clearer understanding of the land I live on and near.
After a handful of fruitless outings on Pennsylvania state game lands, I was enjoying hunting but starting to get frustrated having hardly even seen deer. And the ones I did see I generally spooked. Little did I know., This would keep happening. Over and over, and over. I was granted permission to hunt some land across the street from my house. Boy do I have the best neighbors. After struggling on public land for a while, I felt hopeful that private land with cornfields, fields, creeks, and hills, close to home, would increase my chances. Yes, I am very thankful for all of these things.
My first day in the woods, on this new land, was an evening sit on the edge of a field. Mind you, I am new to this, and I can confidently shoot a 20 yard shot at a target. As I wait that evening, one spike mills about in the field for almost an hour. All of a sudden I see a large rack deer come from the opposite side, straight at me and the spike at 70 yards. I began to shake. This is the shake I had heard about, that for some reason I thought I’d be immune to. I don’t know why I thought that. But I did. This uncontrollable shake of nervousness, adrenaline, and excitement. My breath control was gone, and shaking had taken over.
This large 8 point deer was over 80 yards away. But it got me going at such a rate, I was beginning to understand the thrill of the hunt. That large buck sat in that field and ate next to the young one for 15 minutes, slowly got up and left. I sat quietly with no grunt tube or rattling antlers, god knows what chaos I would have caused if that were the case. I went home that night full of excitement to get out the next morning.
Same spot, close to my house and out well before sunrise. I decide to walk in along the field, rather than cross the creek. This is the way it was shown to me, and a spot that the landowner pointed out to me day one. We knew they came in and out of the field that way. On my way in, I spook deer in the field, I have a slow and already spooked deer type of morning sit. I had many more of these over the next few weeks. Spooking deer before sunrise was a hard thing not to do when walking into a spot where a lot of deer bed or live in general.
So I built a blind 20 yards off of a road that gets about 1-3 cars per day of travel, and it was an easy low impact way in and out. I sat 20 yards from an apple tree and a deer highway over a fence line by the road. I built my blind in about twenty minutes with no gloves and it was all pricker bushes. I literally cut a square out of a pricker bush that was over 6ft tall on one side. And would have two to three shooting lanes. Bloody hands and some leveling digging for my fold out metal stool, I had a blind. Sitting here in the morning was productive in seeing small bucks. I saw two I was unable to shoot because I spooked them while attempting to draw my bow. Close, and noisy.
I was also able to watch deer far away from this location and really get a better feel for how they moved around the property. I sat lower down and in one corner of creeks and fields, it led to me taking my first shot at a good 7 point buck. I was sitting in a deer bed among tall dried up golden rod, in the shade of a large round pine tree. I hear something coming. Seeing his rack first, I knew it was a shooter. I see the trail he is on, he moves quickly with his head down. He slows down and comes into view, I drew back, and fired. He was slowly moving, and it was likely about a 25 yard shot. The arrow went under his belly and between his legs. He startled barely and kept moving on the trail and across the field.
I had missed my first shot at a deer. I learned a lot from that experience. Don’t shoot at a moving deer, stand up and take your time to have a well placed shot. Afterwards I looked at the angle I shot at. And my arrow likely hit the golden rod the second it left my bow, and before it got to the deer. Overall, a bad shot, and I learned from it. I end up moving around, sitting in my pricker bush blind most mornings, still hunting some afternoons, and having evening sits in different locations all around the property. Seeing deer, but having a hard time getting close enough to them, and spooking doe.
I have a few rough mornings in my blind of spooking deer before dawn and having a case of the morning shits after a habanero pepper consumption. I decided to head back to the first place I sat, close to my house, and right where we see deer frequently. I had lost confidence in it because I was spooking deer most times while sitting there.
I chose to sit there on the Wednesday morning of the final week of archery season. It was about 26 degrees and frosty. I dressed warm and had a short walk from home. No deer really started moving until about 7 AM , about 45 minutes after first light. The first set of deer I see are 200 yards away, and literally in front of my blind where I had sat a lot of mornings before. Two young bucks and a doe. I could not confirm the size of them. Barely legal. 3 points on one side in PA. I was frustrated that I was not sitting there. But then I spotted a few more deer moving around the area, I thought, there has got to be something moving closer to me soon.
Finally about 100 yards away, I see a head pop up in front of a white wrapped round bail of hay. First glance, I thought it was a doe. I watch it stand up through my binoculars and confirm it’s a buck. And a shooter at that. I am a first time hunter, and it was my goal to shoot a legal deer with a bow this year. I can’t be picky. This deer proceeds to quickly gimp its way across the field, in a slight zig zag, but in my general direction. He appears injured, but still moving relatively fast. With head down and occasionally stopping and looking/listening. I finally feel he is close enough to put my binocs down and get ready for a shot.
I am tucked behind a round bail of hay, which is not see through, so he can’t see me, but I can’t see him. He comes into my view to the right of the bail at about 20 yards, head down. I stand up, he keeps coming, I “meep” he stops, looks up, moves slightly to the right, opening his side up to me almost broadside. I place the target on his front right shoulder, and pull the trigger. The moment I have been waiting for. He runs, to the right, pretty fast. Disappears into the forest in the direction of a two creek confluence. As he ran away, I saw what I thought was the arrow fall out of his body. I sit down, wait, notify a few people of what happened, satisfy my smoking habit, and try to relax. Then I start shaking. About 5 minutes after the shot. The shaking started and the adrenaline was real.
My friends and wife show up to help track him, I am color blind, and don’t often pay good attention to detail. We waited almost an hour and a half on a cold morning, hoping not to bump him, or make any rash moves or decisions in case it was not a kill shot. We found the arrow, half the arrow had broken out of him, and it was blood red. A good sign. We track spotted blood to the corner of the field, I enter into the thick with an arrow knocked in case of a second kill shot needed upon finding him. I see a view area, across the creek and see a white belly. I saw him lying there motionless at about 30 yards. I knew he was dead. I could smell him from twenty yards back. He fell in a convenient spot, and the shot was placed with precision,I double lunged him and he died 50/60 yards from where I hit him.
This is my first deer kill ever. I was on the ground, with my bow. I went through trials and tribulations throughout the archery season. And truthfully, I had doubts I was going to be able to kill one in this fashion. I have a lot of people to thank, including my wife and family, my late grandfather, and friends who helped motivate me to make it happen. I feel very thankful to have harvested my first deer. A six point buck.
Looking back, my confidence had changed throughout the season. I went from an unjustified level of confidence early on, got humbled by deer and their actions which lead to a lack of confidence. The night before I shot this deer, I said to my wife, “Tomorrow is my last day of hunting season.”
Her startling reply was, “already?”
I told her, “It’ll be my last day, because I am going to shoot one tomorrow.”
And that’s what happened. Confidence is key in most things. Learn, figure it out, and focus. Hunting is a different and fun way to spend time in nature. And we get meat in the freezer. I’m addicted.
