Spike Down: Harvesting My First Deer
My second season started after my wife. She was able to go down before me with her dad. While she was there on her last night she tagged out. So not only did she tag out before me she also got a deer before me. She got a nice doe too. My first year I didn’t get to tag out despite seeing deer and releasing some arrows.
A week after the wife came home from her hunt, it was my turn. Load up the car with the Wildchild and the wife head down to our hunting place while her dad follows behind us. The day we get there we do a bunch of driving around and just look around to see how much activity there was with the deer and maybe other animals like bear or elk. Next thing you know it’s time to go to bed. Funny how time flies when you’re having fun in the woods.
The next morning, I got up earlier and saw that it’s raining and decided to take my time up to the blind. When I get up to the blind the rain has stopped for the most part and it’s like mist and fog that came rolling in. While sitting in the blind I had to adjust the chair and see if I could pull the bow back from certain angles depending on how the deer would come in the field.
After sitting in there for a while and starting to nod off to the sounds of birds and other animals, I open my left eye and look to see if there was anything coming. Sure enough there was. This buck came out of nowhere. They say that these deer are ghosts of the forest and I sure do agree with that. As he starts to slowly move into my line of sight I start to grab my bow, which the arrow was already nocked. I pulled back my bow and my mouth became super dry. My heart was pumping so fast.
As the arrow released from the bow the dry mouth and heart pumping had started to stop. I hit my deer. Arrow straight through him. He took off like a bat out of hell. I was so happy that I hit him, but I left the blind too early. I went to the spot where he was when he got shot and found my arrow. It had blood on it which was a good sign. I went back to the blind to put my stuff in it and to take a min to get the adrenaline to calm down. When I looked up two more bucks were walking in and they just looked at me for a min then took off.
I then went to track down the deer and as I walked down the hill a little bit I heard a big crash. Now I don’t know if I heard him go down or I heard him get up and run off but I heard sound from the direction I later found him at. After I heard the sound I decided to give it more time and I went back to camp. When I got back the wife was like what are you doing here it’s prime time morning get back out there. I then told her that I can’t go back since I just tagged out for the rest of the season. Everyone did the happy dance. Now with that it was time to get a hold of the father in law up there to help track and use his truck. I also went and got our friend’s old dog who loves to track and help find the deer, unfortunately that may have been his last deer to sniff out.
Long story short we found the deer and the Wildchild helped field dress it well a little help. I was proud of him for that. He didn’t say it was nasty or anything. Just asked questions like what parts of the deer were.
With that I will say that my wife might have tagged out before me but, at least I got a buck before her.
- Aaron
STAY UP TO DATE
Join our newsletter to stay in touch, hear about sales, and extra perks!
Recently on the Blog
A Dream Realized
Exciting things are happening here over at The Wild Paduanos! We recently stepped out of that dreaded comfort zone and took some huge steps toward our dream. I wish I could say that we finally purchased our dream land, but we aren’t quite there yet. Hopefully sooner rather than later!
Sorry for Disappearing
I am so sorry for disappearing, again. Things have been quiet on the blog for awhile now, despite my intentions otherwise. Adding Wildbaby into the mix has been a lot harder than I had imagined. She is such a velcro baby that it is hard to get much accomplished besides nursing and if I am lucky, a thirty minute workout.
Its Been Awhile: A New Vision
Oh. Em. Gee. Has it been a minute since we posted a blog and I am SO incredibly sorry. Things have just gotten so crazy with the new baby, this COVID-19 mess, and life in general. We have basically been on lockdown since Wildbaby was born and while I am usually a homebody, this has been a bit too much even for me.
