My son and I were invited to a friends of his place east of here to deer hunt second season, so we went. We got there and John said theres an apple tree down at the lower end of the horse pasture and its down in a deep draw so we took a look at it. We took his word for it because he said the deer are always coming and going checking for apples that are still in the tree and are still dropping. We got there and found a deadfall that had limbs we could lean up against and semi hide in and made ourselves comfortable. We sat there looking around and listened to the bluejays and other birds make their reports. We sat there and out of a timber 40 yrds away, that was on a neighboring property, here come a small 100 doe. It walked right for the apple tree and walked around it 4 or 5 times checking for apples that fell from the tree. It finally came into an area that no limbs were in the way for a clear shot and I brought up my shotgun, beaded in and pulled the trigger. It kicked up its hind legs and ran. I had a feeling I hit it solid at the yard shot so we slowly stared following the blood trail, showing more and more blood as we walked. 40 yards into the neighbors timber there the deer laid. Looking at where I hit it I placed the shot right in the boiler room right behind the front leg. We pulled the deer to the fence and went back and sat down hoping for another shot. We sat there watching thinking this is a pretty good spot, slapping hands, with that apple tree and happy because we just filled one tag. We sat two hours and I watched my boy turn his head looking one direction so I turned the other way for about 10 seconds, then turned my head back and my boy had pulled up on another doe that came out of no where, it wasn’t there 5 to 10 seconds before and I watched him wait for the shot and he pulled the trigger and I seen he hit it solid. We got up and walked slowly following the blood trail and there the doe was laying down and not going anywhere and it was still breathing. I had the skinning knife so I gave it to my boy and he walked up and made the cut to stop its breathing and it died quickly, we could see it suffering anymore then it had too. We both grabbed the hind legs and drug it to the same fence line where the other deer was.
We went back to the owners house and he said he only heard the second shot but was glad to hear we had two deer, he said to us I told you that apple tree was a good spot. The apple tree was growing down in this draw and the wind was blowing over the top with little wind where we were at and it made it for a comfortable sit, the temp was in the mid teens. So from the time we sat down and then walked back to the house we had our two deer in two and a half hours. Im going back this early afternoon to fill two more doe culling tags right back to the same apple tree. The trails there are heavily used and worn down into the hill sides and going a half dozen different directions. Between the big timbers and fence lines with a lot of brush along them its a perfect spot to sit and enjoy the outdoors and think about all the things you can make from the meat. It was a good time for my boy and I and I think theres a really good chance I’ll fill the other two tags, maybe both of them today. I hope you guys did ok this last season too.
Were going to help John put in a pond this next year and he gave us permission to build a heated blind in a few trees where we can sit and wait and pass up smaller deer and wait for a nice one to come by, maybe even bed down for the night to wake up early right by this apple tree. Heard lots of shooting in neighboring timbers so I know other guys were getting thiers too, its a good season so far this year.