Came home empty handed one more time - Deer Hunting - Deer Hunting

Headed to SD last Tuesday night with high hopes of filling one or two more archery tags. I knew my time to hunt would be limited and being in the middle of the rifle season would add its challenges. However, I was optimistic I would get a crack at something.

Woke up Wednesday to 22 degrees and no wind. Great morning to help dad do chores and cut up his rifle deer. By about 11AM, I was headed 45 minutes south to my cousin’s farm that has a good population of both whitetails and mule deer this time of year. However, by the time I arrived, the wind had kicked up to about 35 mph and the temps had dropped to 5 degrees. I decided to avoid the tree stand do some spot and stalk on the mule deer. This is an old family farm with remnants of tractors, cars, trucks and you name it junk in the trees around the place. Great cover for stalking actually with the weeds grown in this year.

My cousin hadn’t even dropped me off when we spotted our first candidate for a stalk. A nice mature doe was with some yearlings. I chose a route that would put me about 20 yards from the deer when I came out from behind the wind break. I slowly made my way to the deer and sure enough they were still there when I got to my shooting position. I drew back and had a 20 yard broadside shot at the doe but there was a young deer directly behind here. I didn’t want to chance a pass through and wound an animal. So I held. It seemed like a while, but it was probably only 20 seconds and I had a clear shot. I settled and released. WHACK! I stood to watch as the deer ran off. My heart instantly sunk. My shot was high. Right in the middle of no mans land.

I went back to where my cousin was sitting watching this all unfold. He said, look, there is your deer standing down there in the trees. With the binocs, we could clearly see the shot was high but there seemed to be quite a bit of blood on her hide. I said let’s let her bed down for a couple hours and hope for the best. So, we marked where she was standing and went and killed a couple hours BSing and looking at the country.

Almost exactly two hours later, I snuck in with my bow hoping to find my deer. She was no where to be found and only 3 small specs of blood. We guessed she moved into another set of trees and decided with the fading light to do a “drive”. My other cousin carried his bow and I posted at the end of the trees. Sure enough, she came out with 4 other deer. Unfortunately I guessed at the wrong spot to sit and didn’t think a 90 yard attempt in 35mph winds was worth it. I watched where the deer ran to and we left for another hour. It’s now getting close to dark, we searched and searched for blood where I had last spotted her, nothing. I had to leave that night, but my cousin said he would call if she came up over the next few days. They hunted hard for her while chasing rifle deer around and never spotted her. Either she’s still running around or the coyotes have cleaned her up by now. Looking back, not sure I would have changed anything other than to take just another 5 seconds to settle a bit more.

Spent Thursday with 48 of my closet family members eating and enjoying telling stories. It was 5 degrees out with 30+mph winds again, so our annual pheasant hunt got cancelled this year. That’s alright, the beer and BS was probably just as good anyway.

Friday morning I was in my stand at the same farm I hunted several times earlier this fall. I was in a stand that is in thick cedars, a definite bedding area on days like this. -5 and 30+mph winds again. It was a “quiet” morning until about 8:30. I was actually thinking about heading home when I spotted an ear through the trees about 60 yards north of me. Then another, then a leg. Alright, I grabbed my bow and turned so I would be ready for a shot. While watching these deer, I would occasionally peek back south to see if anything was coming. As luck would have it, one time when I looked there was a decent 5 point standing about 8 yards from me. He caught my movement and jumped about 20 yards. He knew something wasn’t right, but he was far from spooked. He started walking to my last shooting lane. As his chest entered the lane I grunted. He slowed, I released and shot right over the top of him. Thankfully it was a clean miss as I’m not sure my heart could take another wounded deer this year.

I’ll be back in SD next week for a company pheasant hunt. I’m hoping to get at least two more sits in and then my archery season will officially come to an end.

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BTW- That’s alot of family!

And we were missing over 10 people. My grand parents on my Mom’s side had 7 kids. It’s amazing to see how the family tree has branched out.

While I’m disappointed in myself for shooting poorly. I have been able to put into perspective just how special this fall has been. I’ve had a bunch of cool encounters, I was able to pass on two bucks that in my past would have gotten whacked but most importantly I got to see my kids spend a bunch of time with Grandma and Grandpa on the farm. They have gotten to know their great grandparents better. Not sure I could have asked for much more.

A week from today I’ll be chasing roosters with my coworkers. Hope the weather holds steady out there. I hate late season roosters in 2 foot of snow.