Doe Down

This last weekend I went hunting for white tail deer. I was going to try and harvest a doe if the opportunity was available to me. All deer are trophies to me whether they are doe or bucks. I get shaky and “buck fever” no matter what I hunt. From pigs to deer, I’m a nervous wreck and have to consciously tell my self to chill out! I’m like a ball of excited energy every time I am face to face with a potential animal I can harvest. We have noticed on this particular Ranch that there are way too many doe compared to bucks. The buck to doe ratio can be very important when managing and trying to keep your game healthy and thriving.
…

A cold front that blew in the day before was more of a cool front than cold. I went from sweating in a ground blind to wearing a light jacket. This winter has been extremely mild and dry this year in South Texas and has made the hunting season a bit more challenging. The animals just don’t move as much in the heat. Warm weather has a tendency to turn the game more nocturnal than usual for this time of year. Warm weather or cold…….I am ready and on the hunt!
…
I had on jeans, black long sleeve shirt, favorite black light weight fleece, lucky black face mask, and a pair of new horribly unbroken in snake boots. I recently had to get a new pair of snake boots and retire my old stinkers! My trusty,comfy old pair have acquired a stench that can’t be covered and would no doubt get me busted by any animal! I tried that no scent powder, dead down wind, cover scents, even febreeze! Nothing worked on them, but I still can’t trash them yet. Maybe I should try tomatoe juice?……no wait that is for skunks! My old snake boots aren’t as bad as a skunk. I loved those old stinky boots and hate breaking in new ones! Ok, enough about my stinkers!
I was dressed and ready for ground blind hunting! I like hunting in ground blinds because black is a good color on me! Ha ha! I do take on a certain ninja persona when I’m all in black waiting in silence in a ground blind for the game to come out! I am the ground blind ninja of south Texas ready to use my ninja bow skills at the first opportune moment! I became Ninja Nena!
…

This certain feeder I was hunting had gone off pretty early. It was a little foggy and over cast and I could hear, but could only see the silhouette of the deer. It took it longer than usual to clear up enough to hunt that morning. It is nerve racking to hear the deer and know they are there, but not be able to make them out. I could hear their hooves crunch branches and their teeth chomp the corn. When the fog finally lifted I could see the deer very clearly in front of me. I had five doe and a yearling buck. Only two of the doe were mature. I decided which one I was going to take and slowly grabbed my bow from the holder in the ground beside me. I raised the bow and sat there still because the yearling buck saw me move. Oh snap……I was slacking on my ninja skills! I was mentally preparing my self when” bang” I heard a shot and all the deer in front of me scattered like ants! Ugh! My heart sank but I was still filled with adrenalin from being so close to the deer. I had already mentally prepared my self for drawing back. I go to this place mentally when I decide I’m going to harvest an animal. In that place I get a sort of crazy rush,but can stay calm with controlled breathing techniques! Ok, back to the bang…….yes there was a gun shot! The Ranch I am on has both bow and gun hunters and there was a hunter in a blind very close hunting with a rifle. He hit whatever he shot because I heard a thud after the shot. You can tell when it’s a miss when your close because the shot noise carries and a hit has a thud to it.
…

My mind began to drift to what if, what is it land. What kind of animal had been shot? Did he hit a deer or was it that monster pig we’ve been seeing on the game camera? It could have even been a coyote or javelina. We have the occasional bobcat and even a mountain lion has been seen. It was probably a coyote. I remember hearing them early this morning walking to the blind from camp. It is thick with coyotes we see and hear them way to often. The coyotes have become a problem for both the hunters and the farmer. You can’t go a day with out seeing a coyote and you hear them calling sun up and sun down. They have done a number on the calves and fawns this year. We are going to have to do some serious predator hunting in the near future.
…

So what was shot? My mind began to wander but was quickly interrupted by the sound of branches. Were the deer coming back? Yes they were……well maybe my hunt wasn’t over after all? Two doe and the yearling spike came back. Lucky me one of the mature does came back. They had already eaten most of the corn earlier and were kind of skittish from the gun shot. My window to take her was going to be slim if any at all. I still had my bow in hand at this point and all I had to do was slowly draw back and wait for my shot. She finally came into range and I drew back and let the arrow fly! To my surprise I got another pass through. It was my second pass through. I had one the weekend before with my Black Buck Antelope. I was so excited! I made a good shot and she ran off into the brush. I had to wait it out and track her. This is one of the harder things for me because it is like time stands still and being patient when I am excited is difficult! I had a pretty good blood trail so I was confident she was down and decided to walk back to camp. I needed to get the four wheeler and my friends and family to help me load her up. When I arrived at camp, sure enough there was a nice eight point buck hanging at the cleaning station. The gun shot I heard had been a buck harvested! I congratulated the hunter and went to go get my doe. Doe are a great harvest and in my opinion taste better than the bucks. I had plans to make some sausage out of this doe! It was another great weekend hunt! I am so thankful for all my outdoors opportunities, adventures and for this awesome harvest! I cooked the back strap for dinner! Yummy, yummy in my tummy!