Well it finally happened. Stefanie and I bagged a deer!It was Saturday Oct 25Th . We woke up really early to get to the lease before daylight. Now the night before I could not sleep. I didn't catch a wink until about ! am .So when the alarm went off at 5 am I told Stef lets just get back in bed and forget about it.I mean beside the fact that I was tired Stefanie had ignored my wishes the night before and washed her hair with some smelly kiwi shampoo crap. We both crawled back in bed and layed there for about 15 minutes and I thought to myself if I don't get up right now and go I will always wonder if I missed an opportunity.
So Stefanie and I got up , brushed our teeth and headed out to Jacksboro. The drive to our deer lease takes about 2 hours and I usually make this trip on my own and it is pretty boring. But here lately the greatest thing has happened . My pretty little wife has taken an interest in going with me to hunt and I love it. I am not sure yet if she really likes to go or if she just really likes me . But either way I am thrilled with the fact that she want to be with me no matter what I am doing. And I feel sure that now that she has felt the thrill of the kill that she is hooked!
We got to the deer lease about 15 minutes later than what I wanted to but it was my fault for laying back down.we literally all but ran to our spot the we were to hunt and set up our little pop-up tent and settled in. Within 5 minutes (Stef says) of getting set up we had 2 deer walk in. I never saw him until Stefanie finally pointed him out to me.They milled around us for about 5 minutes then walked back in to the woods. The next thing we know another one comes in. At this time of day it is still a little dark where we are sitting . I can't tell for sure whether this deer is a fork horn or spike buck but know he is one of the two. And I have been swearing to kill one of the many spikes we have on our deer lease from day one of this season. Now was my chance if I could just tell what he is for sure. Then he just leaves :( ..........then he comes back :)..............then he leaves :( ........................then he comes back :).......................this goes on for about ten minutes of him walking in and out range until finally he walks to our right where Steffy is sitting and runs out. By this time I am sure he is a big spike and cussin myself for not shooting him when I had many opportunities but was not sure :..........Stefanie and I start exchanging our excitement and disappointment of not getting to shoot him and are talking at normal volume when she gets real quite and wide eyed and says in a little whisper "THERE HE IS!" and sure enough this silly deer had walked right back into our area and was quartering away from us at about 15 yards away.So he walks over to a little mesquite tree that I had marked and knew was right about 35 yards away , lowers his head behind the tree and starts grazing on some green grass and taking a poop at the same time ( may be a little too much info ?). I draw back my bow and man I am shaking like a leaf my adrenaline is pumping and I cannot steady my bow!!! So I take a deep breath and let it out slowly as I release my arrow. It flies away and I am sure I hit my mark. I know that sounds silly but when you shoot at an animal with a bow it all happens real fast and the animal does not hang out to see what just him . They usually run away as fast as possible(imagine that). Most experts will tell you to wait at least 30 minutes before tracking a wounded animal but I could not make myself wait that long . So after 10 agonizing minutes we get out of our blind and go look where he was when I shot him. NO BLOOD!!!!! This is a very bad thing. But I also can't find my arrow which is weird . Usually the arrow will go all the way through an animal and land or stick in the ground behind them covered in BLOOD. But this time NOTHING.
to say the least I am concerned that I either missed him , or have not fatally wounded him . In which the latter of the two would be the worst case scenario for me.I PRIDE MYSELF ON BEING AN ETHICAL HUNTER , AND BESIDES THAT A PRETTY GOOD SHOT TOO! My friend Kent always says "when the shooting ends , the fun begins" and on this day man he is right. Stefanie and I start looking for him in the direction that we last saw him. We look for about 15 minutes. NOTHING. Can't find him anywhere. I am getting real worried now so we go back to the scene of the crime and re-assess the situation. Stef and I make one more pass and still nothing. So we do the one thing that we always do when we need some help. We stop together and kneel down and pray for God to help us find this animal if he is hit and thank Him for this day of being together and all of our many Blessings.I know some of you will think I can just see them out there in the middles of the woods kneeling down and asking God to help the find that poor animal" but I promise you THAT REALLY HAPPENED!
So we went back one more time to where we started from. We mad one more casual pass and probably both felt like it was in vane but just had to look a little better. We made it to about 350-400 yards away from where I had shot him and were walking through a pretty little oak grove just talking and strolling along when Stef stopped and said "THERE HE IS!!" And sure enough once again my lovely bride has the natural instincts for deer hunting of a Cougar!!!! She spotted him when he came in and she spotted him laying there fatally wounded . The only bad thing was that he wasn't dead yet. So I knocked up another arrow and tried to put one more in him to finish him off but when I did he stood up and stumbled off about 20 yards away . After seeing the way he was hurt and not able to get very far away I knew it wouldn't be long before he faded away. So Stef an I did the only thing we could. We prayed again that God take this animals life quickly and thanked Him for providing this pure ,free range , protein that we would soon be cutting into family sized portions!!! YUMMY!!! So by the time we prayed and ate a granola bar each he was finally dead. TBC!!!!!!!!
