Get out the Bow….
Here in southern Maine, the deer herd is strong and “to many” deer are crammed into the urban jungle where I live. I leave for the Big Woods in a few days, but not before I get a few days of bow hunting in. Maine offers a special archery season in those areas where deer numbers are high, but gun hunting is taboo. The local communities around Portland, like Westbrook, Cumberland, Scarborough & Falmouth are suburban communities with shopping malls, housing developments and hoards of people where farms and fields once stood. This area still has lots of whitetails huddled in the small woodlots and old pastures, making this a bow hunters dream. I try to stick a nice flathead doe for our freezer, before I head north. Here’s a quick recall of my “two day” bow season:
The spot I had picked out to hunt was a small woodlot between several houses and a local golf course. I had hunted here for years, but the golf course went from 9-holes to 18-holes and two more houses were built, shrinking my honey-hole even smaller. The deer are real predictable and I found where they were raiding a group of apple trees along a clover field every night before they hit the clover, a classic staging area. I’m not much of treestand guy, anybody can shoot a deer from a tree in my opinion, so I sneak and peak my way into the area and sit on an old bucket that’s surrounded by a big white pine limb that fell during the winter. The apple trees are 18 paces away and three major runs came into the area from the western side of the woods. On most days, the wind will blow west to northwest in mid-September, my ambush site was established with this in mind. Night one, I got in around 5pm, snapped a few annoying branches and settled in. I placed my fanny pack behind me, turned back and a deer is walking towards the apple trees from my right. Holy cow, I wasn’t ready for this. It looks like a decent deer, I draw my bow, following the deer to the opening. It’s a spikehorn. I want to let off my bow, but he grabs an apple, eating it while staring directly at me. I’m frozen at full draw. He keeps eating. Just before I can’t hold on any longer, he turns around. I let off on my bow, one of the cams picks up a twig and snaps it. The little buck turns, looking right at me. He stares for a minute, then quickly turns to his left. I move my eyes that way, here comes two more deer. A huge doe is first. That’s the one I want, I draw again. Now, the spike starts to stomp his feet, the doe walks right up to him and stops. I set my pin on her vitals and release. She jumps a little, walking off with the spike in tow. I missed… I sat in disbelief for several minutes, laughed, swore and laughed some more. I went to make sure of the miss, returning to my blind and ate a Butterfinger. As I was sitting, the wind started to blow and I could see a small maple limb dangling in the wind. Upon closer examination, the arrow had cut the branch sending my arrow……….well, who to hell knows. One of the neighbors will find it when they mow their field, I’m sure.
Night two, finds me back among the apple trees as the wind stayed true, prompting me get to my brushpile-blind earlier than the previous night. Nothing came through all evening except a couple flocks of mouthy turkeys. I might have kee-kee-ed at them a few times, as I can never let a turkey walk by without calling to them. Right before I was thinking about leaving, I hear a snap. Now, as Hal explained in his article about using your ears in the deer woods, I froze and stared in the direction of the noise. A nice doe comes waking in. She’s moving slow and the sun is setting fast…. She walks around an apple tree, but still gives me just a quartering shot. I hold on her, but let off. She never suspects a thing and keeps walking into the clover field. It was one of those cases where the shot just didn’t seem comfortable. Even though it was my last night to hunt, no need to risk a wounded deer. Once again, I sit and shake my head, laugh and swear some more. It just wasn’t meant to be. Well, that’s fine. I had a great two days and got another deer story to tell when we’re sitting around the fire.
GuideMike
Big Woods Bucks Pro-Staff