Friday, Sept. 17
It's been many year since I hunted the opening weekend of the archery deer season but this year I got a thermacell and the itch to hunt the opener. I have not harvested an antlerless deer with a bow since 2006 and since then I have only taken one other deer (a buck with my homemade bow). I set my goal as a nice fat doe and hopefully a buck.
I drove up to my parents house on Friday night the 17th of Sept. Road construction delayed me a bit but I was in no real hurry. By the time I hit Stevens Point, it was raining. With all the rain they have had this summer, this is the last thing I wanted to see.
Saturday Sept. 18
The alarm went off at 5:00 and after dressing, I was out the door. It was a windy morning but at least it wasn't raining. I was in the stand at 6:17. The morning only produced a few grey squirrels. At 8:30, a light rain started and by 9:15, I was on my way out of the woods.
The rain didn?t last and after a late breakfast, I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on my Dad?s pontoon boat and trolling motor. At 3:30 I got dressed in camo and headed back to the woods. Last year, I was contacted by a friend who is making and marketing an attractant scent for deer and bear. I was not able to use it last year because I got it when the rut was already on and I was using the can call and rattling instead of scents but I looked forward to using it in the early season of this year. I had taken a piece of cheese cloth and tied a string to it and saturated the pad with the scent and hung it from the rough bark of a tree about 15 yards from my stand. I left the ziploc bag to the right of the tree, under a fallen branch.
At 4:00, I caught a bit of motion to my left which is surprising since the river is 30 yards to my left and in the evening, the deer tend to come from my right. The Movement was from a small fork horn buck.
He passed under my stand at only 10 yards. He was not the buck I was looking for so I shot him with my video camera instead. He was walking along and nibbling on whatever greenery caught his eye. He was up wind of me so he did not catch my scent or the scent of the attractant. Click the picture below to start the video.
Here is a perfect shot opportunity. He was looking away, broadside and upwind. Too bad he was not about 3 years older. Click the picture below to start the video.
He was so interested in what was on the other side of the river, I was able to switch between video and still photography to snap this picture of his head gear. No brow times and small forks.
It wasn't until I looked closely at the photos that I noticed the remnant of fawn spots on his back. I have seen this on other deer. It is very noticeable after skinning and with the hide laid flat.
The whole time I was in my stand, there were 2 red squirrels throwing stuff at me or actually dropping things on me. My stand is in a big hemlock and there two hard workers spent their time nipping off parts of the tree and dropping them to the ground, then they would climb down to gather and bury their treasures.
at about 5:15, I saw movement in the distance. I could see the legs of another deer approaching from straight down wind. I expected to hear the typical snort/blow sound of a deer that catches human scent. Instead, this deer would approach and stop and take a few more steps and stop. When it was about 70 yards away, I could see it was a lone doe. She would come forward a few steps and then turn and go back and come towards me and then turn and take a few steps back. It was like she was making a figure 6 pattern as she approached, each time getting a little closer. Each time, she would stick her nose high into the air. I was certain she was winding my but she kept approaching. I had my bow in hand because this was exactly the type of freezer trophy I was looking for.
This is a complete hunch on my part but it seemed as though she was smelling me but was drawn to the attractant with more pull than my scent was deterring her. She was clearly cautious but drawn towards the scent pad between her and I. When she reached the scent pad, her head was briefly behind the small tree with the pad which gave me little time to come to full draw. she stepped out along side the tree and was standing over the ziploc bag I left on the ground after hanging the scent pad.
She was 16 yards away and slightly quartering towards me. I settled the pin behind the shoulder and released. Because, she was alert, she dropped a bit so my arrow hit higher than I would have liked. I was using a Rage Broadhead and when the arrow struck her side, I made the distinctive sound of a good solid hit.
Here is a poor quality rendering of where she stood.
She bolted and as she ran, I could see her until she hit some very thick river bottom. When I lost sight of her, I could hear a great deal of crashing and brush breaking and then it was quiet. The total run time was about 10 seconds. I checked my watch and then gave her ten minutes before climbing down to find my arrow. It was still quite early and I would be nice to have daylight to track and drag and get her out of the woods. I carried the arrow out to the open grass to take a photo. The O-ring from the Rage head was slid back nearly to the fletching.
This is the first deer I have taken with a rage head and I was curious to see what sort of blood trail I would get. I was pleased with the heavy blood trail through the tall grass and small brush. At times, I would walk parallel to the clearly visible trail to prevent being blood soaked. This was a blood trail that could be seen and followed far ahead of my position without having to search for blood. The word that best describes the blood trail is "Spectacular". The trail ended 60 yards from where I found my arrow. This image shows the exit wound side.
I flipped her over to tag her and get a picture of the entrance wound.
After gutting and washing, My Father helped me hang her to cool. The night was around 40 Degrees.
On Sunday, I packed up and headed home to butcher and wrap her for the freezer (all expect the tenderlions. Those will be supper on Monday night). While processing, I took these photos.
This is a photo of the skin side of the entrance hole
The internal view shows a rib was completely severed by the blade.
This is a photo of the skin side of the exit hole.
The internal view shows another rib was completely severed by the blade.
My bow is set at 61 pounds and shoots 275 FPS and develops 55 ft/Lbs of KE. I am impressed with the rage head. Upon inspection of the wound after we hung the deer, my Father said.
"That's too much damage. You don't need that big of a head."
P.S., the scent I was using is called Butternut and is a food based attractant that smells good enough to eat. Development of Butternut was based on a research study by the University of Michigan regarding the dietary selection process of the whitetail deer. Study results showed that the whitetails number one food source trigger was not affected by region but rather by the food source itself. The Food source which was rated #1 for the whitetail is the core essence of Butternut.
Here is a link.
http://www.butternutlures.com/
