The time has finally come in – Mr. Eight and BoneShed Archery have met for one last time.  While some of our team members could have gotten him sooner, it was a team effort to make this happen.  Here is what took place:

It was a cold morning hunt in Virgina.  A cold front had just moved in and would only be staying for a day or two.  The deer were out in the field eating the soy beans from the second that I got into the tree stand.  In normal fashion, each deer slowly made their way to the tree line only to disappear before there was enough light to tell whether or not they were a buck or a doe, except for one of them.  The last deer that was out on the field was about 100 yards away and seemed to be taking its time with leaving for the day.  Once there was enough light, I could tell that it was a buck, but I could not tell which one.  Then in normal fashion, the deer made his way to the tree line and started to head in.  Once all that could be seen was his tail, I decided that it could not hurt to try to bring him back with a grunt.  Worst case he continues to go into the woods and ignore my grunt, best case he responds.  With a short and quiet grunt, the deer turned on a dime and came back to the edge of the field.  Once he stuck his head back down to the ground, I did another low and quiet grunt.  This time he responded fully.  he picked up his head determined what direction the grunt came from and a b-line straight for my stand.  Once he came into range, he turned broad side to give a 15 yard shot.  By this time my nerves had kicked in and I was shaking uncontrollably.  I drew back and let go, a miss!  I could not believe it, I missed.  To my surprise, the buck did not go anywhere, he wanted to find this other buck.  With shaking still in control, I managed to get another arrow, draw back and connect with a 22 yard shot.  At this point I was nto sure which buck I had just shot.  I knew it was a buck, but I had stopped paying attention to the points when he made a b-line for me.  Now the real change started, tracking the deer.  The tracking took a long time, but after about 200 yards, he was finally found, and to my surprise it was Mr. Eight.  Finally after watching and tracking this deer since June, I was able to put everything together.  Somethings learned from this hunt:

IT HAPPENS FAST – When the time comes it will happen fast.  Keep in mind that it may not happen again so try to remember as much detail as possible.

POWER IN THE BROADHEAD – The only thing that actually saved this hunt was the broad head.  At BoneShed Archery we use RamCat Broad heads.  Even though the shot was bad the broadhead did its job perfectly.

MISS DOES NOT MEAN THE END – If you shoot and miss, this does not mean the end.  Stick it out and try to keep calm.  With Bow Hunting you could get another chance.