New Years crossbow doe
I took advantage of this day off to celebrate another year on this earth and planned this afternoons hunt a few weeks ago. With the cold weather and snow, the field that I wanted to set my blind and hunt was getting some afternoon action by the number of tracks coming from the inside corner. Got everything set up and was settled in by 2:00. Wind was perfect in my face as I set up the camera and ranged some stubble that was left in the field. Right over the camera is where I expected the deer to enter the field.
At 4:00 I caught some motion and saw one deer entering the field. The doe saw or smelled something she did not like and after a few minutes turned and slowly walked back into the treeline. Somewhat dejected, I again began peering through the three windows of the blind that I had open. With 20 minutes of shooting time left, a group of deer again were headed my way. At 15 yards the four yearlings stopped and began pawing the ground for whatever was peft beneath. With no interest in shooting one I enjoyed watching them through the viewfinder of the camera as they eeked out a meal.
From the same trail, I saw three more deer headed my way and immediately could tell two of them were mature does. My heart and breathing picked up instantly as the deer walked right into my setup. With deer already feeding at 15 yards I was confident the others would join them.
The big lead doe followed the script and I had to hold my shot as she displayed her dominance by rearing up on her hind legs while swinging her front hooves to clear the others from the exposed frozen ground. When she turned broadside, the forward safety of the TenPoint crossbow was squeezed, the crease behind the should centered and the Lumenok streaked on through and disappeared under the snow.
The field emptied and I began to gather my thoughts and rewind the footage to verify what I thought was a high double lung. The footage confirmed the hit and I found my arrow three feet behind where the red spot in the snow showed its path.
The snow made trailing easy and I found her piled up just inside the woodline. She is big, mature doe and will top off my freezer for this year. What a year it was. One Pennsylvania 8 point, a spring gobbler and two does with the TenPoint's Carbon Elite, shooting Easton FMJ tipped with ABC Sonics.
2013 started out in fine fashion and I couldn't have imagined it playing out in a better way with a big doe on the ground on New Years Day in the snow!!
