Grasshopper

[Stephen Graf]

#4187

After hunting a lot already this year, yesterday morning was my first close encounter with a deer. I was in my stand for maybe 15 minutes when a nice 8 pointer came in on my left side. I was still in my “settle down mode”. I had an arrow on the bow, but wasn’t ready to shoot. He walked in and looked right at me as if I had been there every day (1st time in that spot). He mulled around eating acorns, and finally left after a few minutes.

So Then I got into my killer mode. And none too soon as another buck came in from another direction. He to looked right up at me. What,… do I have a blinking light on my head? Same story, walked around, kept trees between us, ate some acorns and left.

After he left, I looked at myself and where I was sitting trying to figure out why they were looking right up at me. While I am doing this, a doe comes in from directly behind me. OK I say, this should work as the tree I am in is between me and her. She’ll walk on by and I’ll get my chance… Not a chance. I can hear her come within 5 yds of my tree and then circle around. She looks right up at me to say good morning. But then incredibly walks out in front broadside while eating acorns. OK, here we go!

Her head is down and behind a tree, and I can hear her munching nuts. I draw, settle in, and release…

And a most astonishing, yet ever so common, thing happens. She ducks the arrow. But how she does it is impressive. She ducks so low, her chest hits the ground, followed by her chin. The arrow sticks in the ground and pins her to the ground. She rolls out from under the arrow, gets up, and trots off. Only to leisurely stroll by my right side a few minutes later to say good bye.

I know I shouldn’t have shot at her since she had made me already, but it seemed like a good opportunity. I wish I could figure out how she moved so far so fast. It seems she moved faster than just falling do to the force of gravity.

When I got out of my stand and went behind the arrow and looked back up toward the stand, the line should have put the arrow right at the bottom of her chest (my usual aiming point).

An old timer once told me he always shot at their front knee. I laughed at him when he said this, but now I wonder… I’d hate to shoot a deer in the knee. That wouldn’t sound good around the camp fire…:oops:

Needless to say, I’ve moved my stand to a different setup.

No matter how far I think I’ve come in my 25 years of chasing the whitetail, master deer always has a new lesson for me. One of these days, I hope to take the stone from the masters hand…:roll:

[MontanaFord]

#32646

It truly is impressive just how quickly a deer can “get outta the way” of that arrow. I’ve had a few deer jump the string on me. One of the first deer I ever shot at was a doe at about 25 yards, broadside. Had she been a 3-d target and not moved, I would have pinwheeled her just behind the shoulder. But in the amount of time the arrow was in flight, she spun herself around so that the arrow was set to pinwheel her paunch, and was two jumps away before the arrow got to where she had been standing. I couldn’t believe how fast she got out of the way of that arrow. Those arrows were moving at around 175 fps, and 25 yards is only 75 feet, so mathematically, in .428 of a second, she managed to spin completely around and make two jumps…and by the time that full second was gone, she was probably 30 or 40 yards away, still running. Simply amazing how fast these creatures can move.

[Cottonwood]

#32744

Yep, they be quick 😆

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