Thread: Finally, only took 4 years

So this morning I finally accomplished a goal I set 4 years ago, to get a deer with the bow.
I got back into bowhunting in late 2020, and managed to get a pig in Dec 2020. A nice big boar. In March 2021 I got a shot at a deer but stuffed up the shot and hit a tree instead.

In July 2024 I managed to get another pig.


But the deer hadn’t given me a lot of opportunities. I had drew back on 2 other deer but never got a shot away. Finally this morning I was slowing making my way across a face into the gully at the bottom. It’s pretty rocky so impossible to go slowly. I was about half way down to the gully when I heard rocks moving infront of me. Looking ahead I could see two deer moving through the scrub. Hoping they would come out into the open I put an arrow on the string and clipped my release to the d-loop. I got my rangefinder out and waited. Soon one of the deer moved into the open and stopped, broadside on. I ranged him, adjusted my sight and drew back. I put the bottom pin where I wanted and started to pull back on the release. Eventually it broke and I heard the arrow hit the deer, he kicked and ran off. The deer made its way back across the face towards me and I was sure I heard it fall over not far way.
I got my phone and marked the spot I shot from and put some toilet paper in a bush so I could the spot again if I needed to. Then I sat down and had a muesli bar.
I only gave the animal 7 minutes before I headed over to the spot it was standing when I shot it. I quickly found the arrow, covered in blood, but the broadhead and insert had broken off. I figured the arrow had gone right through the deer but stuck in the ground/bushes behind it and the broadhead had broken on impact or when the deer ran off.
There wasn’t a huge amount of blood but I was able to follow the blood trail to the animal, a young spiker.

This was only my second with the bow, the last one was shot in December 1992.