Mercy Kill

My first deer shot with a bow

                                                 This is the blind that I shot the deer from

Well I did it, I shot a deer with my bow! It was not the deer I wanted but I had to shoot it because it had a broken leg and I felt bad for it. It was a mercy killing. Rick and I got to the woods and got into our stands at 4:35. Rick was in his climber stand about 50 yards from me. I was in my ground blind. Shortly after we both got settled in we both saw the deer. I could see right away that it was a little one and thought to myself,  oh it is just a little one I am not going to shot it. Then as it started to walk down the hill I could see it limping really bad, the poor thing could hardly walk. Then I was thinking please just walk the other way so I don't have to make the choice to kill you. Well I guess it did not hear my thoughts because it just kept coming. Well once I decided that I would kill it and put it out of its misery then I got excited. It was making it's way down right where I needed it to be, it was about 2 steps from my shooting lane so I pulled up. And of course it stopped and decided it should just eat a few acorns. So I held and held and finally I had to let down. Well I managed to let down with out making any noise so the deer did not hear or see me. She finally decided to get moving again and moved right into my shooting lane. So I pulled up and shot! She was down!!!! I got my first deer with a bow!!! It was 5:02 when I shot it, I was in the woods for lest then a half hour.  I of course was shaking like a leaf by the time it was all done.  Even if she was  just a little thing it was still very exciting. Rick was just as excited as me watching it all play out. The whole season of hunting Rick kept saying that he sure hoped to see me shoot a deer, so he was happy that he got to. Rick also said it was okay that she was little, number one because there is a unwritten rule of archery hunting that says for your first archery kill it can be any size deer . And second I saved it from a much worse death since it had a broken leg. When we looked the deer over we found that it's front leg was broken way up high. It looked really bad. I took a picture of it but I forget to download it to here before I left home. I will have to put it up when I get home from work. We forgot to take the camera with us last night so the only pictures I got were from my phone, so they are not a very good. 

   I had a great time hunting this year and have lots of story to tell. From the deer coming up to my blind and sticking its head in it to me flashing a deer with the light on my hat because I thought it was Rick coming to get me off my stand. And then there is the turkey stories....All and all it has been a great hunting season and I almost hate to see it come to an end. It was so much fun hunting with Rick and I am so glad that he talked me into buying my hunting bow 2 years ago. I will be back next year to get another deer! Later Sharon