Hunting Elmer

Ok. So. This is my first year to hunt with my bow. I´ve had it for 3 years and remember cussin´ my husband after he talked me into buying it b/c we had to drop some cash on it.

Now...by no means...am I this life-long hunter. My WONDERFUL, AMAZING, Husband (Kyle) that puts up with me and all my randomness, got me into it when we started dating (a little over 9 years ago). I shot my first buck with him on his parents´ place. It was a 9pt 3 1/2 year old buck scoring 120 Net - Low Fence.

My very first deer :). Kyle looks so proud :)).

Everybody says that you get the jitters when that buck walks out. Well...the first time, I didn´t have time to get them. It all happened so fast. I wish I had that video Kyle videoed that day. I may have to try and find it. It was HILARIOUS!!

So...last year. My brother-in-law (Chris) told me I could shoot myself  a buck. It wasn´t any big monster buck, but a nice tall 8 pointer that was probably around 4 and a half, BUT I had to shoot it with a muzzle loader. Never shot one of those, but I was gonna give it a go and borrowed one from a friend - Cordes. So I was sitting probably 20 feet up in a tree stand and he walks out.



There he is... He looked better last year - when we had more rain.

  Now mind you...I told my WONDERFUL husband that we should shoot the gun first. Also keep in mind that our good friend Kyle Cordes (that has been around guns all his life) told us he shot it and it was on. Sigh...

Ok. So I´m sitting there. I move my leg a little and the deer hears "something", but he doesn´t make me. He looks like he´s fixing to walk away and I was saying to myself  "Please come back, please come back"...and he doubles back. Starts eating corn and gives me a PERFECT broadside shot. I´m steady. My hearts beating, but I´m not shaking. I pull the trigger, see the cloud of powder, and NO DEER.

I´m thinking to myself. I saw NOTHING but deer in my cross hairs...nothing. I wasn´t shaking. I could have thrown a rock at it and hit it. There´s no way I could have missed it. The shell casing is right where the deer was, but no blood. Anyways...we look for this deer for what seemed like FOREVER.

Then...before we took the gun back to our friend Cordes, I asked my husband to shoot the gun. So guess what. It was a little over a FOOT low. So....I shot right underneath the deer. He came out unscathed and I will NEVER forget how I should have gone with my gut and made sure it was sighted in!! Grrr....

Ok...So My husband and his brothers are pretty strict about hunting whitetail and managing a property, so we can harvest nice trophy bucks or cull out bucks that won´t be trophies. They could go on for days about the importance of genetics and letting a deer get to its full potential.

My husband Kyle with his big buck deer :).

The brother-in-law Chris with his big buck deer. (He´s single ladies :))

Kyle´s oldest brother Kory and his buck - with Little Miss Kylee.

Well...Elmer (The buck I missed and yes...I´ve named him) is back. They have game cameras set up all over the place. He visits the protein feeder regularly. So about 2 months ago I decided I´m going to hunt with my bow. So I started practicing.

The arrows are a little high, but that´s b/c Kyle wouldn´t adjust the sites until I shot like that at least 3 or 4 times consistently.

Then we got it dialed in.

More practicing...

Opening morning was Saturday. The stand where the deer was coming to regularly was sitting in the wrong direction for the wind, so I couldn´t sit there for the first hunt. I was 20 yards or less from the deer and they would´ve been able to make me for sure. So I sat in the same blind where I missed him with the muzzle loader. The wind was better there. I saw some does and a nubbin´ buck and decided to get down close to 10AM. When I´m about 1/2 way down the ladder I look down the alley towards the feeders and I see ELMER. (There was a limb in my way from the stand.)

So...I try to climb back up in stealth mode, but I´m sure they already heard "something" rustling around in the bushes (He was with a doe). Anyways...he never came out, but Chris (brother-in-law) went and cut the limb after that :).

I hunted every hunt, except the evening hunt when I went to Ledbetter for an auction. I saw one big doe almost every hunt (Dolly - I named her too.) One morning hunt I saw two bucks right before it got light. I think one was a small 7 pointer (not a shooter). That´s the only one I had a shot at. There was another buck and I think it was ELMER, but they both ran away when the feeder went off and never came back.

Elmer and the other 7-pointer I think I saw that morning.

So maybe I´ll get´m. Maybe I won´t. We´ll see and I´ll keep you all posted.

One thing I know for sure is that hunting with a bow is a much different experience than hunting with a rifle. Talk about ADRENALINE! When you hear a deer walking out and you think it could be that shooter your heart gets to beating. It´s an EXPERIENCE! In fact...I think I prefer it now. Everything has to be PERFECT. It´s true hunting. If anything is off, the wind, the distance of the deer, any noise or movement, the position of the deer, when you can pull back so other deer don´t see you...It´s a lot to think about.

You get A LOT of alone time with yourself and nature while you´re sittin´ up there and I kept going through scenarios in my head. My biggest worry is the deer seeing me when I draw my bow back, but I had to keep tellin´ myself. BUCK UP BABY!! You can do it. Quit cryin´ about it and get it done. Wish me luck folks!! I´m not sure when I´ll get back down there, but I´m doin´ my best.