Deer Hunting the Hard Way
I’ve killed a number of deer on the farm in the few years we’ve lived here but it has always been on a nuisance permit because of crop damage and up until now I’ve never taken a deer with any kind of bow. The farm is the kind that deer come through eating as they go but there isn’t a constant water supply and it’s mostly open without good bedding areas. Each fall starting a day or two after gun season opens, not a deer will be seen for several months. Then in the spring, they will come on through eating fresh green fruit tree leaves and, later, if it’s a soybean year, fresh soybeans. They’ll also eat corn but only on the fall when it gets dry and other food sources have diminished.
It has been kind of wet this fall so the corn hasn’t yet been harvested. Having the corn for cover apparently has given the deer confidence and, either shortly after sunrise or in the evening a group of three has made a habit of coming through my yard. I decided that this might be my year to actually take a deer in bow season.
I have a Horton crossbow on extended loan from my stepson that I’ve taken hunting before but have never been successful with. Two or 3 weeks ago upon getting up early I saw DEER in my back yard. I dress causually in the mornings. Dressing in a swimming suit gives me the illusion of being in Florida rather than Ohio so I was dressed in swimming suit sans shirt or shoes. There was no time to lose. I raced to the basement, got the crossbow, put a broad head in it and snuck outside. I knew the deer usually came from the back field following an old fence line and then along the western border of my yard. I therefore went out the front door and took my position behind a low bush and waited for the trio.
Everything seemed to be going well; I thought the wind was right but, upon approaching to probably 15 yards and coming around a tree the larger doe came to an abrupt stop and reversed course. I suspect the corner of the house and eddies in the air made if possible for her to smell me; I don’t think she saw me.
A few days later, the driveway monitor went off and I look out the window to see the three deer in my front yard. There wasn’t any way to approach them without being seen. It was obvious that a change in tactics was in order.
I decided to be ready for them the next time they came through. I took the screens off the windows of my upstairs office (pictured above) and left the cross bow there with a selection of arrows. I even practiced shooting at targets at various places out of the windows. The does AND a buck showed up after dark several nights later when I was at work. A few days later the does were in the front yard again and I took a shot at one from probably 50 yards and it was a clean miss.
Several evenings later, my wife, aka Sweetsums, woke me from a nap (I had worked the night before and was fairly tired) with the question of whether it was legal to shoot deer on Sunday. She is a Pennsylvania girl where Sunday hunting isn’t legal but in Ohio it is. It appeared that my plan was coming together.
I went up to my office, loaded an arrow into the cross bow and opened the windows. In my haste, I had neglected to micturate (if you don’t know what that means look it up) and I wasn’t about to abandon my position even though the urge was there. Sure enough, the deer started coming by eating remaining fruit tree leaves as they came. There was one problem; I had opened the top window and the angle was such that I needed to be higher to get a shot.
My only choice was to stand on my swivel office chair which of course started turning as I stood up on it. I got a shot off at a deer eating at probably 10 yards away and have no idea why I missed. The deer seemed startled by the twang of the bow string but didn’t leave; they just went to some trees in the front yard.
Fortunately, the angle from the front window was such that I didn’t have to stand on a chair and had a good steady rest from a distance of about 25 yards. I didn’t have the good broadside shot I would have liked but took the shot I had which was at the neck. The arrow hit with a satisfying thwack and the deer went down.
The deer obviously had some nerve damage but could still get around a bit and wasn’t dead. I know that it’s fairly routing for arrowed deer to take a bit longer to die than those taken with a gun and that itŐs routine for bow hunters to wait half to three quarters of an hour to start tracking but I didn’t want the thing laying there suffering and wanted to end the job so waited about ten minutes.
When the deer saw me coming, it took off as surprising speed considering that only three legs were working and made it to the edge of the corn field with me in hot pursuit. It fell just in the corn field as I caught up and grabbed its hind legs. Yea, I know, not the textbook way to do things, but it didn’t have horns and I was bigger than it was. Sweetsums asked if I needed help. I had her get me a pocket knife with which I dispatched the deer by making an orifice in each pleural cavity thus causing bilateral pneumothoraces.
I believe I once again have some respect amongst the deer population since, as far as I know, none have been back. Hopefully the nice buck will be back. I’ll have the right windows of my “deer stand” open this time.
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© Martin J. Lohne 2009. Written 11/2/09.