I was hunting a thicket behind a peach orchard i had just gotten permission on. Still hunting down the trails cut in for horseback riding, and getting the lay of the land. I had already seen a few deer but had been busted or too far to make a move. Suddenly i caught the hind end of a deer standing still in the scrub oaks twenty yards to my right. The moment i stopped she took off like a heart shot deer. She crashed trough the oaks and for some reason broke left towards the trail in front of me
Without thinking at all i took ten running quick steps down the trail and began to draw as i stopped. Before she hit the trail i began to draw and swing through her.
Now let me state this to be perfectly clear. I do not shoot at running deer i do not know why i did what i did. It felt as though i was watchin it happen. Like the deer was connected to my broadhead from the moment i saw her.
My draw hit anchor as she nosed into the trail and i swung through sending my arrow on a path into the opposite side of the trail. I watched in slow motion as my arrow slid through the scrub oaks on the far side of the trail as she cleared the trail and met my arrow twenty yards away. A solid thunk noise confirmed what my eyes saw. I stood in the trail takin it all in, oddly not surprised at all i had hit her until i really thought about it. I jve never been so connected to a shot. I never considered shooting or not shooting. I just watched it all happen. She was quartering away when the arrow struck, and it looked good but i waited a few moments anyway. WHen i came to the spot i had hit her i found blood right away. Thickening within a few yards. Then i found me arrow in good shape, it slid back ou after going in about ten inches from the blood on it. The bloodtrail became a road, and even through the thicket i could see the blood on the ground and trees without even looking hard. Sometimes from ten yards away.
The shot entered in front of the hind quarter. Cutting the femoral, slicin the liver, and going up into the offside lung. The trail was short and easy. She came to test alongside a swamp, and as i knelt to spread tobacco in thanks i was filled with emotion. This bow was built from a tree i cut off my farm the previous spring. Its handle and knot reinforcement made from braintanned buckskin i had made myself from one of the previous years deer life was good and i was a happy man. Why i shot tht arrow i will never know and i dont plan to do it again. The only way i can describe the feeling, is a short moment of zen in the art of archery.
