9-11-2010.


3:15pm I am getting ready to leave after running around town getting things together with my friend Michael Fontana, who is now a 1st year bowhunter. I decide to take him to my QPM property and give him a shot at least seeing a doe, if not trying to kill one. It has been great teaching Michael he literally came to me and I set him up by taking him to the local proshop, he thought that he was right hand shooter, but we did an eye dominance test on him, we found out that he is left eye dominant, so we got him set-up with a left-hand charge. He picked up a ½ dozen arrow, a truball release and a ½ dozen 100grain Muzzy 4 blade broad heads. He has been practicing with me for a couple of weeks prior to this. And now we are set out to try and get the first deer of the season. Mike like all of us who start out has the same limitation on funds as any working class bowhunter. So he purchased a 30.00 BIGDOG treestand from Menards and aa 70 set of climbing ladder.
Well we get to the tree and I get up the tree literally in about 5 minutes with my MUDDY climbing sticks which are the bomb. Then I hung my muddy stand in about 5 minutes. Then I began to hang his stand on the left of me. Well first of all the pull straps that came with the stand TERRIBLE, I could not for the life of me get the thing cinched to the tree. So I had to get a ratchet strap out of the truck and it still was a pain in the butt it took about 20 minutes just to hang his stand!!! He got a real lesson in “you get what you pay for” There was nothing wrong with the stand just the way it fastened to the tree. I lent him a tree saddle to use as a harness, because the harness that comes with these stands are more of a political statement than a safety tool.
Well we get settled into the Treestand about 4:25. And of course being a new hunter Michael is excited and since we have been friends for a long-time in a non-hunting capacity, we tend to talk (TOO MUCH) and about 5:15 Michael sees that there are three deer about 65 yards from us, Now I have my trusty PRIMOS buck decoy out about 39 yards from the stand (too close I will explain why later).. Anyway it’s the OLD DOE, the one I have talked about in my other stories from 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. She sneaks up on the decoy stays 40 yards away, she doesn’t snort, she stomps 3 times and then circles at a full run 25 yards west of the decoy and heads to the north side of the property, she was exactly 65 yards when I wanted to make a shot and she is so SMART!!! She didn’t’ see us, but she knew something was up. She also had triplets, so shooting her is a priority, this is the 4th year she has had triplets with her.
Anyway after that is over with, Michael of course wants to talk about what went on, then I see some deer coming up the creek, he says “deer” and I am trying to keep him from shooting through the brush, and he waits, but can’t stop talking. He is truly doing pretty good, but won’t stop talking, finally one of the little 9 month or yearling does comes out, I say “Don’t shoot, wait for the mother to step out I will shoot her and you shoot one of the fawns, its about 6:00pm at this time, he comes to full draw immediately, I haven’t even taken my bow of the hook. So he’s holding, holding, holding, I am saying, “don’t shoot) the big doe finally commits and steps out the trees at 26 yards and I release and nail her in a sharply quartering away shot, I know its good… (more on that later)
I tell Michael shoot the little one and he lets it get out to about 20 yards and he releases, I can tell immediately the shot was very low front, but I can’t make out if it was a fatal shot… After that we settle in, he is pretty excited, shaken, all of the above, he about falls out of the tree, he is so excited. He leans over and says, “What an adrenaline rush!!!, He then begins to ramble on and on about how he nailed the deer, I at this time cannot tell if he got a good shot or not, it looked really low and front, but not to disappoint him, I want to wait to see blood.
So at this time about 6:35 we have seen 7 deer total. I tell him, “we have until 7:55pm to hunt” so we settle in, of course he has a hard time being quiet, when I spot a loan fawn coming up the creek, I tell him get ready, then he says, “no there are more deer!!” he is so excited he can’t stop talking (its great to be with a newbie!!!) There is a doe directly under the stand, but no shot opportunity, he says “I have a 60lbs I can shoot through that brush!!” I say, “NO YOU CAN’T STOP TALKING” well he continues to talk… the doe is literally about 10 yards away, I also wanted to wait and see if she would commit to clearing the brush, she didn’t then she got nervous cause Michael is continuing to talk and try to give me a play by play of where the doe is every 3 steps she takes, Finally she gets east of us since the decoy is not moving, she starts stomping and getting pissed then Michael started talking again!!! (love a newbie) and she looks up, she looks right at us, and I whisper, “ stop talking stop moving” he was so nervous and excited, he couldn’t get that I was giving him the look of “SHUT UP AND STOP MOVING” LOL anyway, she looked up through the trees at us about 10 times then she decides that its time to go. And Blows all through the woods and so does the other one, scaring everything off.
It is now about 7:20pm and we have seen a total of 11 deer today. So I tell him we are going to climb down at 7:55pm and we are going to collect all of our gear and then look for his arrow (no lumenoks) and then go look for our deer.
I am positive my deer is down within in 40 yards of where I shot her. His deer had crashed through the creek, but it was running so fast, I do believe he might of hit it in the foot, but at that time I didn’t want to tell him…
Well we get down out of the tree with a few minor problems… Michael having never descended a Treestand at night, it took a little, but we got down there with minor incidents.
While I was taking my stand down and my steps, Michael went to look for his arrow, he found it, I tell him “stick it in the ground right where you found it” he’s like “why do that, so I am trying to remove Treestand etc. he calls his wife and tells her “we got two” now of course, I wouldn’t of done that, because in bowhunting, you don’t “have em” unless they are in the back of the truck on the way to the processor.
Anyway, I get the MUDDY stands and sticks down. We get our gear packed up and then I go to look at his arrow, now told me, “I have blood everywhere” well, when I finally get to look at his arrow, not much blood, he had WIPED his arrow off with his gloves, but there was not blood trail. Which was my suspicion that he hit the front leg.
We go to my Lumenok’d arrow and there is blood all over the ground behind and in front of it. I walk to where the doe walked in, and there is blood… we cross the crick walk about 10 yards and I look 20 yards to the west and say “there she is” she’s dead, so then we drag her out to the trail. Then we try and find Michaels deer, we look for about an hour, but I cannot pick up a blood trail anywhere. I tell him, we will come back in the morning its going to get 45 tonight, so I took him through the whole process of field dressing, then putting on a tag, calling in the tag and then taking the deer to the fire station to be checked in and then taking the deer to the meat locker. After that we are back home and he is on his way. He comes down on Sunday 9-12-2010 we looked for his doe from 8:30am till about 10:30am and could not find it or any sign of any blood.
So I had to break the news to my friend… you had a bad shot man. He was disappointed to say the least, but I told him, Same thing happened to me at this very spot 2006 season and I shot mine at 10 yards, he started describing his shot, and I know what I think he did wrong, he did not bend at the waist and keep his “T” formation he also might of jerked a little to the right.
Anyway, we get back to my house and separate our gear from the night before and he says “ I still had a great hunt and it was successful in my opinion” I tell him, “anytime you can bowhunt it is successful because its American freedoms being enjoyed” anyway, I tell him I am not sure if I can hunt this afternoon or if I even want to. I have some gear things I need to take care of (my pack weighs about 35 lbs.) and I need to put together the Modular style pack I was carrying before.
PS sorry about the crappy picture, but it was 11pm and we had the brights on the truck on.