Lots of luck and a sharp broadhead

I finally had some luck and it ended up being on my backyard property. I went in at first light because I was not sure which particular tree I wanted to sit in. I had found some additional scrapes I wanted to cover. I ended up flushing out a number of deer (over 5 by the sounds) as I approached the area by the neighbor’s property where I wanted to set up, near a downed tree from hurricane Sandy. Around an hour of sitting and watching the sun come up over my house, I see some movement to my left.

I counted 10 deer, all does, approach from the valley to the left. I was looking very hard but never saw a buck. I thought that one would be near all those girls this time of year. They ended up in a grassy area directly behind and downwind of my tree. Just figures. The group was about 20 yards away and caught my scent. A couple stomped, they wiggled their necks like Stevie Wonder for about 25 minutes not knowing where I was. They were looking hard in the deadfall, in my ground blind a short distance away, and all over the area. I was above them slightly and behind a tree trunk standing. They eventually filtered away and I never had a shot. I think they were the group that was in that exact spot when I kicked them out at first light. I think they circled the entire neighborhood to get back from that direction. I sat there contemplating the incident when about 45 minutes later 3 deer come from the right side. I thought it was the huge doe I had seen with my camera earlier, as she had 2 fawns with her also. She was much bigger than the two little ones. They all approached and came right up to the deadfall tree I was above and started to feed on the maple leaves. I had only a frontal shot at the big gal so I waited her out. Eventually she wandered out to about 20 yards and finally went broadside. I was already standing, but had a heavy wool coat unbuttoned that was in the way of the bow string as I released. I watched in horror as the coat took about ½ of the power out of the shot and my arrow was wagging terribly and seemed to impact sideways in the ham! I hit just above the knee on the side of the ham and I saw only about 2 inches of penetration as she leapt over some brush and the arrow fell out of the wound immediately. As she hit the ground I saw lots of red on the leg and she briefly limped and the paused with the fawns about 15 yards away. I got out another arrow and flung it at her knowing I had already wounded her once. I missed by about 5 feet and they all bolted. I waited about an hour and put away my stand. Immediately found my arrow, good blood, but not pouring out. A “stand –up” blood trail. I trailed it about 35 yards more than where it had stood for the follow-up shot and found it there dead! I almost felt like not trailing it at all because I saw what I thought was a minor flesh wound.

It ran a total of only about 75 yards. I fried up the heart for breakfast and discovered 3 large blood clots in the heart chambers. I believe this was the cause of death and not bleeding to death. There just did not seem that much blood on the trail.

The “mom” was an adult and field dresses at 80 pounds.

Here is a close up of the wounds. The head did not penetrate to the inside of the leg and stopped at the bone! It just goes to show what a good sharp broadhead can do!

Thanks to Mike for helping me butcher her up!