Headed out to Loch Raven this evening with a good friend of mine.  A little after 4 pm I heard some grunting from the hill behind me, at which point I turned around to see 2 or 3 does running.  I couldn’t see the buck but could hear him and he was clearly chasing a doe.  Sadly he pushed them off into the thicket where I couldn’t see or shoot.  A little while later I saw 4 does come down off the hill but a good 50 – 60 yards away from me and seemed to be heading away from me.  Well, a little while later I got a text message from my friend saying that he could see them and they were heading my way.  Good news for me since it was 2 does and 2 fawns and I need 2 does so I can have a chance at my bonus buck!

Needless to say they came trotting over my way a few minutes later, the biggest doe passed right by me at 30 yards but moving way too fast to shoot.  The fawns of course being fawns were right behind her, but offered shots, but I didn’t want to harvest a fawn they need to grow up.  So that left this one doe who was in the back, and she had stopped and was starting to feed along.  I was all ready for her to take the same path and to have a nice broadside 30 yard shot.  Deer will be deer and never do what you expect, she started walking back and forth feeding along, the others were off about 50 yards to my left, but she was over in some thick stuff only 25 yards away.  I watched the other 3 feeding and this one decent size 2 1/2 year old doe for 20 or so minutes (at least it felt like that long).  Finally the one  off to my right looked like she was going to walk away and gave me a 23 yard shot that wasn’t the best as I only had a tiny window and I decided not to take it.

Then a minute or two later she turned completely around and started feeding back to me,  by this point the biggest doe whom is 50 yards away has picked me out and is just standing there watching me trying to figure out what I am and why I am moving my head.  Well, the doe started to get closer and closer until she was just 15 yards away, but feeding in thick stuff and I had branches in front of me so I had no shot at all.

I was getting worried knowing the bigger doe had picked me out that it was only a matter of time before she took off, but the fawns were still feeding as was this other mature doe.  So I just waited,  and finally this doe walked around the tree and through all the thick stuff she was in and walked into an opening. 18 or 19 yards there she was quartering away giving me a perfect shot.  Well, knowing I wanted to harvest a doe I decided I would take my chances with the other big doe watching me and draw my bow.  I drew my bow back and as I settled into my peep I heard the big doe and maybe one of the fawns start running.  The doe I was planning to shoot went on alert but thankfully didn’t move, I settled in my peep put my 20 yard pin right at the back of her shoulder a little high (since I was 30 feet up I knew I would have a good downward angle) and let my arrow fly.

Wham,  I heard a thump that sounded like a branch being broken.  The doe ran about 20 yards and stopped, I went oh know did I hit a branch!  Well, thankfully she took one more step got shaky and fell down just 20 yards from where I shot her.  At which point I grabbed another arrow and knocked because I realized the other 3 deer where still very close by and didn’t know what had happened.  Well the big doe and one fawn were further away and the other fawn was standing 30 yards away just looking around.  Finally that fawn came back to me, I had her at 15 yards looking around trying to figure out what was wrong.  I let her walk away and then started getting down which is when I spooked the other 2 off which I thought had left too because I couldn’t see them anymore.

When I went down and and looked for my arrow I found it half way between where I shot her and where she died covered in good lung blood.  So then I went over to the deer and discovered that I had placed a perfect quartering away shot.  When we finally flipped her over  I had hit just a tiny bit high of where I was aiming it had passed down through her lungs and possibly heart and came out just in front of the opposing shoulder.

All and all an exciting night and I have 1 of the 2 does I need.  She will be some very good eating this winter.  And I was very pleased that my accuracy is back and me and my bow are ready to head out and do it again!

Looks like great weather this weekend and even the holiday week looks good as well.  Bucks are chasing and these cold nights make for great hunting!  Good luck everyone!

As promised I wanted to provide everyone some daytime photo’s of the 11 point I harvested on Saturday 11/3/2012.  I am including photo’s of the rack as well as the last photo to show where I hit him.  It was a perfect double lung shot at 26 – 27 yards and he ran 75 – 85 yards.  The butcher is hopefully going to weigh the deer so I will try to update this post when I pick up the deer in about 3 weeks. However, we all guessed him to be 125 – 135 field dressed.  The head is safely in the hands of a taxidermist and once I get it back I will be sure to have another post with the final pictures of him mounted.

Enjoy the photo’s and make sure you provided us with your trophy pictures doe or buck as well!

Third time really is the charm!  Got setup a little late this evening but better late than never right?  Shortly after 6 pm I had 3 does come in feeding and I watched them as they walked around feeding.  About 6:20 I had another doe come it, and at this point I had a fawn, yearling, and two adult does feeding within 30 yards of me and I had decided my trigger finger needed scratched.  It was plenty cool enough and I had waited long enough, it was time to harvest a doe for some meat.  I was just waiting on a good clean broadside shot.  Just as I was about to take a shot a the one bigger doe that didn’t have a fawn I saw another tree coming.  I quickly got a good look at it and sure enough it was that same 11 point I have been telling you all about.  The same one that I have missed both days before hand.  He might have gotten me to miss twice, but three times was not happening.  I watched him approach and waiting on a good broadside shot, finally at 6:27 pm  with just 5 or 6 minutes of legal shooting light left he presented me with the perfect broadside shot at 27 yards.  I let the arrow fly and heard the signature thunk of an arrow landing where it should.

I will honestly say that it was dark enough I wasn’t sure where I hit him all I knew was I put it right behind is shoulder and dead in the middle up and down.  He took off running and I lost sight of him.. So I waited about 30 minutes before I started my search.

Went to the place he was standing and started looking for the arrow, found it clean pass through with good lung blood on it!  This told me my shot landed right where or close to where I was aiming.

Started looking for blood, couldn’t find any, he didn’t really start bleeding until about 40 yards into his run.  I was only getting dots and some places several dots, knowing it was a clean pass through I thought I would have more blood (this had me a bit worried).  Followed the blood trail for another 60 yards or so and started to see signs he was bleeding more, took the flashlight looked around and there he was just 5 yards further over in some brush.  So in total he ran about 85 yards, which isn’t so bad. When I found him I learned my shot had landed right where I was aiming behind his shoulder, but was an inch or so high and gave him a high double lung shot. This is why I didn’t have a big blood trail, it was mostly only dripping out the exit, which was high as well.

I of course had to grab him and check him out and count the points, and as I said yesterday after I shot at him, it isn’t so much that he is that big, but he is super cool as you will see in the pictures below.  He is a mainframe 8 with a second  beam or kicker on his right side that gave him 3 more score-able points. He has several other little points but they are less than an inch. Probably the coolest 11 point buck anyone could ask for even more so from central Maryland.  This deer makes me even more thrilled and excited as anyone could have taken him as he was spending most of his time on public land in Loch Raven and I got not 1, but 3 chances in 3 days to harvest this awesome deer.  I don’t normally need do-overs but I am sure glad I got more than one on this deer!

Below are a few pictures taken with my phone this evening, I will post a few more better pictures tomorrow after I get the camera out, along with some more details about him such as weight and such.

Anyone want to take some guesses at what he might score?

Hope everyone else had as an exciting weekend as me, and if you were lucky enough to harvest a deer as well, post a comment with some pictures! Good luck to everyone this week with rut really getting geared up it should be awesome hunting this week.   I now must move on to helping thin the doe population.