So far this season I’ve held tough looking for another encounter with the Curved Horn buck. This afternoon, with just a few days left of the deer season, I decided to switch into Freezer Mode and focused on getting the opportunity to bag a nice doe to take to the deer processor.
At “Deer Thirty” a lone doe walked out of the gulch 70 yards away and slowly browsed and meandered in a general direction that could possibly take it near my ground blind,
This year, because of a serious rotator cuff tear in my right shoulder, I’ve been hunting with a Darton crossbow, however, it blew up while I was practicing earlier in the month, a very unpleasant experience. My hunting buddy Rick Philippi loaned me a BowTech Stryker crossbow that they had sent him because he is on their pro staff. So as the doe got closer I waited with the Stryker at the ready.
When the doe came by me at 15 yards I aimed for a broadside, quartering away angle and triggered the shot. I saw the bolt hit the vitals and fly 10 or so yards further. The doe immediately ran to the thick brush 45 yards away and it looked like it fell to the ground.
I texted ‘the Duck’ and after his hunt was finished he drove over with his 4 wheeler. It was one one those evenings where darkness came on fast and black. The doe was 10 yards further than where I saw it go down. I tagged it and cinched it to the 4 wheeler to drive to my house and load it in my pickup bed.
We drove to Hamilton and checked the doe in at Whaley Deer Processing. Then we stopped at Frieda’s Mexican Restaurant. The Duck and I pounded a bunch of the best mexican food in the county.
Here is a picture taken by my iPhone of the doe and me as we switched it from the 4-wheeler to my truck.
EQUIPMENT:
I used a Grim Reaper Broadheads 2-inch cut Whitetail Special Pro Series model. It made a big cut and put the skids on this doe within sight. This is my favorite broadhead because it flies where I’m aiming and knocks their lights out fast.
I shot the Black Eagle Arrows Executioner Crossbow Arrows. I’ve had good success with these arrows the last two years as well as their hunting arrows I used with my compound.
For Scent Control I use the Atsko ZERO line of Sport-Wash Laundry Detergent to wash all my hunting clothes and spray with N-O-Dor Oxidizer in the field as needed. I set up my hunting sites so the game is close and Atsko products never let me down.
I borrowed the BowTech Stryker Crossbow and when I practiced with it my arrows consistently grouped tight. The shots are much quieter than my previous crossbow. It is lighter weight and easier to handle in the close quarters of a ground blind.
