My 2016 Hunts

 I started my fall hunting off with good success.  I was able to shoot my very first coyote with a bow.  This coyote came in sneaking up on a black squirrel and I shot it within about ten to fifteen feet of me.  I was sitting on the ground behind a fallen log.  I was so excited, I called my husband and had him come out to help me with it.

 It was minimal tracking.  It had only run about thirty yards and I found it in a creek.

I have since taken it to the taxidermist for mounting.  It will be mounted in a lay down position with its head up and will be on a shelf in our living room.

 I took my first doe in early October. Theres a bit of a story to this one.  I was up in an old, very dead pine tree that is not exactly safe to be up in, but it seems to be a sweet spot for me.  She came in on a deer run and walked right in front of me eating.  I took her with the crossbow and she ran about thirty yards and dropped still In my sight.  As I sat up in the tree watching her, a buck came strolling in and I didn't have another arrow with me.  For about five minutes I watched him go to her and sniff all around her.  He even ran off a smaller doe who was trying to check her out.  So I scurried down the tree, ran up the property to my house and grabbed another arrow.  Came back out and he was gone, but this time my husband went up another tree stand near me and called a couple deer in.  And sure enough a small buck came right in.  Within a few minutes I slung an arrow at him too.  Knock went straight through.  unfortunately we tracked him for much of the evening and the next day but had no luck finding him.  That has eaten me up knowing he could've died and his meat was wasted.  I felt like I had a good shot on him, but I'll never know.

Early November I was hunting again in my sweet spot, dead pine tree, and again with my husband in his tree stand near me, a small doe came in off a run in front of me and this buck came in following her.  My husband grunted a couple times and it got him walking perfectly in front of me.  I debated this buck for a moment but when he jumped and darted at the doe he was following I was afraid he was going to run her off so I thought "I'm gonna take him, it would be my first buck off this property". so I hit him with the crossbow and boy did he jump and run, and crash so hard.  He ran about thirty yards just out of our sight.  I thought he was a four point, but at closer inspection after finding him, he's a bit more of a small 7 point.

Finding him was a lot of fun.  Really good blood trail, it was completely dark out, and we just had our headlamps on.  He had run up over a hill and rolled down the other side so when I shined my light across the ground all you could see was his big bright white belly up!  I was so thrilled.  

My first buck from this property I've been hunting about 5 years.  I searched all over for the arrow and could not find it.  While field dressing him though I reached up to cut the esophagus and grabbed ahold of the knock.  The arrow was in his chest cavity.  Thankfully I didn't get cut on the tip.

 My last deer of the season was this hefty doe.  I dream about awesome deep snow hunting.  Nothing is more fun then watching deer come in from so far away and you can spot them from so far because everything is covered in a blanket of deep snow.  Everything seems to be so much quieter and peaceful in winter.  I was sitting up in my husbands tree stand for this hunt.  My neighbor was sitting in his stand on his property but we could still see each other.  We were texting about what we were seeing.  I had a button buck under me eating and he text that another was coming in behind be.  My back was up against a huge tree so I could see what was back there.  Out of the corner of my eye to the left I saw her walking in.  She was just to my left eating when I though, "its nearing the end of the season, I have one doe tag left, she's a great size, its a great night out here, I'm gonna take her". I usually sit with my bow or gun in a pretty good "ready" position so I don't have to do much moving.  I was able to get my sight on her easily and thwap!!  I text my neighbor that I shot the doe.  We sat for a few minutes and both go down and chatted.  I went back up to the house, made dinner, and my husband and I came out and hardly had to do any tracking.  There was blood spatter everywhere!!  Tracking your deer in deep snow is the funnest part!!  I had a really successful year of hunting and am so thankful.  My husband also ended up shooting a buck with a muzzle loader so our family ended up with four deer in the freezer for the year.  We couldn't be happier!

This is my nephew Lyric.  I was able to take him out for his first ever deer hunt.  He was very excited about it.  He lasted a full thirty minutes before he started yawning and was ready to go in.  

I had his cousin Jaden come out to get him to go back in, so I could finish the evening in the woods.  It was a very fun experience for him.  He whispered so quietly and thought it was so cool how hidden we were.