Squirrelhunter91 Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Last weekend was opening day, but I'm just getting around to posting about it now because besides school and sitting on stands in the afternoon, I've been busy. Opening day found us in our suburban spot here in Rockland County. There were four guys sharing a 60 acre piece of land. All bowhunters. It was me, my dad, my uncle and our neighbor. My dad and I sat near eachother, my uncle sat about 100 yards to our north and our neighbor 100 yards or so to our south. While it was still dark out and we were set up in our stands, just getting comfortable, a doe must have caught wind of one of us. She must have snorted 15-20 times. We thought that was gonna be it for the morning. We figured that doe busted us and all the deer are gonna steer clear of our area. BOY WERE WE WRONG!! As soon as it got light out, we had deer all around us. Mostly does and fawns. They all stayed inside a sapling patch, never coming out for a shot. Then at about 8:00 we see the big bucks coming up the hill. They come up and stop about 40 yards away from my dad and I. Just out of range!!! They start fighting, rubbing and scraping everywhere!!! Stripe came up along with two smaller bucks.. The big bucks he was walking with moved off to the left, only to come up to our far right about 90 yards away. Those bucks proceeded up the ridge towards our neighbor. I couldn't quite make out which bucks they were. I tried to grunt them in, one of them turned and started coming our way but lost interest and turned around and continued up the ridge. Then about 5 minutes later I hear one deer come prancing down the ridge, I turn to look and it was the big 8pt with the hole in his antler. He ran about 50 yards to my right and stopped when he was near Stripe and the rest of them. Next I hear leaves being kicked up and sticks crashing and look behind me and see a small 8pt coming in tripping over everything. Totally smoked. Then I see him lose his back legs, regain balance and fall over. I knew that buck just got hammered and Mike put the hurting on him good. The other bucks, totally wierded out by why that buck was just running then fell over started stomping their hooves and then after that was unsuccessful in getting the dead deer to move they put the white flags up and scared all the does and stuff that were around. They all ran down the ridge. Not even 5 minutes later, 5 does come running up the ridge and stop right between me and my dad. My dad turns to me and signals that I can shoot one of those does and that he doesn't care. I shook my head no because I saw the bucks coming back up the ridge, only they were making a beeline for the does near me and my dad. My dad couldn't see the bucks coming back. I also didn't want to shoot any of the fawns because they were all button bucks. So here are these five deer underneath us. I see the buck coming up the hill, elect not to shoot and turn to my right to look at a lone doe coming in. Next I hear my dad's Outback sing so I turned and see his arrow bury into the does chest. I watch her run off, we don't hear a crash but assume she's dead. About a half hour later some turkeys come through and Mike comes down looking for his buck. We climb down, lead Mike to his buck and high fives all around. Next we go to look for my dad's doe. We couldn't find her. We found his arrow, good blood on the arrow but the blood trail was minimal. I ended up finding her in the thickest stuff on the property a few hours later. Upon field dressing her we discovered that he got her liver and one lung. Also on the exit wound, the intestines came out and clogged up the hole, leaving minimal blood. We then figured that his arrow hit a rib, causing the exit to be farther back than his entrance. She was broadside and almost directly underneath us. His arrow hit high, but at a 45 degree angle, so we thought everything was good. But the rib just caused his arrow to ricochet. He said the only reason he took her was because she was limping on her back hoof. I didn't notice that otherwise I surely would have taken her. We aged this doe at 3.5 years old. Now what you've all been waiting for, the pics: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arrow32 Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Re: Our Opening Day Congrats!! Real nice doe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoyt03 Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Re: Our Opening Day nice doe gongrats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Re: Our Opening Day Sounds like a great morning Joe. Congrats to your dad and uncle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbeck Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Re: Our Opening Day Nice doe, ATTA Boy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drkillemquick Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Re: Our Opening Day congrats on the doe!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HitRmisS Posted October 22, 2006 Report Share Posted October 22, 2006 Re: Our Opening Day congrats, good showing patience trying to wait the bucks out that will pay off in the long run Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archerjg Posted October 23, 2006 Report Share Posted October 23, 2006 Re: Our Opening Day Congratulations on the deer. Archerjg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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