The morning dawn broke as we pulled into a gravel drive and parked the truck. Donning gear and buckling my archery release I stepped into the quick pace my best bow hunting buddy set and followed closely as my husbands footsteps led the way through crisp, frosted blades of grass. Our destination: a natural bowl that set low between a creek bed and an elevated corn field. Like other land locked bowl formations this large depression in the ground showed many deer trails and recent heavy deer sign.

We set up on a brush-covered rise that gave us a great view of one end of our location, but offered much cover for our Ameristep® two man blind. Seating ourselves in the fixed chairs, we began to scan the tree line and pulled up the new Nikon Monarch binoculars occasionally to sort the shadows from the wildlife. Less than an hour later I spotted a doe about sixty yards away and whispered to my husband deer DEER! As I spoke another deer near the doe raised his head and antlers of white caught my attention. He must have heard me whisper and his gaze stayed fixed upon our position for a few moments before he dropped his head to feed in the acorn litter on the ground.

The doe disappeared from sight as I focused on the buck. He began to feed away from my line of sight and my hunting guide, for the day, pulled out an arsenal of calls and went to work. Bleats, fawn calls and a few buck grunts attracted his attention. He turned back and fed as he cautiously watched for those other deer he had heard. The buck passed from one side of the blind to the other and amid his travels I lost sight of him again. The trail he chose brought him within twelve feet of us. I anticipated that his path would cross in front of my blind. I chose to draw as he walked from the right side of the blind and he seemed to spook when he cleared the brush and found our blind. Before I could see him again, he snorted and turned to run. I let down my bow and hoped I might see more deer soon but I was a bit disappointed by the bitter sweet experience of seeing two deer and ALMOST getting one in my shooting lane.

We discussed the opportunity we might have of turning the blind around to face the location that the deer approached from and watch the trail for more bucks and does. The wind was still in our favor so we packed up quickly and moved about 15-yards toward a better vantage point on that trail with the blind facing the area that was previously to our right. That left most of the brush behind us to break up the outline of our blind.

My husband spotted a buck and alerted me. As I got ready to see the deer, I spotted a doe coming toward me from the same direction. "There is a doe right here," I said. "NO! Thats the buck!" My husband told me. I drew as soon as the spike buck's head passed behind the tree in front of me. Aiming for the shoulder I released while he was walking and I watched the arrow hit him full force a few inches back from the crease in his shoulder. The angle was great but what I did not yet realize was the placement of that shot while he was still moving put my deer in a dire strait. Lowering my bow I could only see the tree. I leaned over to watch my deer as he spun back toward the creek and he made a wide arc in the open timber, then I lost sight of him behind brush and a tree fall.

I was elated! My praise to God and my prayer of thanks found me in tears as I realized my first contact with a deer in seven years of bowhunting! For a couple minutes we discussed the archery shot itself and where I had last seen my deer. "The shot was a little far back." My husband cautioned. I remembered it to be about three inched off my mark but he disagreed and said we should give him time as it would be a while for that kind of a shot to bring him down. I was still so excited and sure we would find a good blood trail as the arrow penetrated him well.

Over an hour later we had walked through every inch of the woods South of the log road in an attempt to find the blood trail, sat to rest on a fallen log and then made our way back toward the log road. Faltering in my hope of ever finding the deer I almost gave up the search. My husband, determined from his own experience in recovering a deer after mortally wounding it, set out to look in the narrow hedge row north of the log road.

Every so often I would look up to see where he was and then resume my own search. When I did not see him as I searched for his form in the trees I paused to scan the timber line again. Waving his arms with a motion for me to drop to the ground caught my attention. "Oh my gosh he found my deer!" I said to my self and I moved as low to the ground as I could to cover more than 200-yards between us. As I got close I dropped my gear and crawled bow in hand several yards to sit next to him and we both looked through the brush for the deer but he was not there! "I lost him, he was there and when I looked away to motion to you I lost him again." He told me.

At this point I was so frustrated. We had lost the deer for the third time in two hours. "We are not going to find this deer." I thought to myself. Finally I stood up and searched. I took a step every few seconds after searching in every direction. An odd breathing sound erupted and faded every minute or so. Another step and we would listen and look. "What is that sound?" I asked. "I don't hear it!" he answered.

The buck moved and breathed at the same time. He was bedded just twenty feet away from me behind brush and a hedge tree. I had been unprepared for the labored breathing and his prolonged suffering. I had to make another shot and then wait for him to expire.

Sheila's gear list

Ameristep 2-man blind

Nikon Monarch binoculars

Mathews Switchback XT

Scott release

Muzzy broadheads

GoldTip arrows

BassPro Brush-Camo clothing

RedHead hydro packs

Primos 'the can'

MAD Buck Growl

WR Case knives

The Dead Sled