All the practicing at 6 yards payed off today. First deer down.

All that practicing at 6 yards payed dividends today. DEER DOWN.

Well all that daily practice with the cross bow at 6 yards in my basement each day often 5 hrs a day payed off today.

I woke up at 3am and arrived to Bismark lake at 4pm got my stuff on and headed to the last food plot. I arrived on stand at 5 15 am. I had already desided to hunt the corner of the field where i had seen the deer at on Sunday.

I seteld in and weighted for the morn to break. First animals i see were those fast moving dark ducks that make a slight buzzing sound as they fly threw the air so fast. I not know what type of duck they are but i saw 300 give or take a few fly over the field edge off the lake. In sets of 2 or 3 but never more then 7 in a set. I saw 129 geese fly over. Those numbers easier to count. Flying V's like flying fortress going to bomb the Germans in ww11. Honking away as they fly over head.

At 730am no site of deer or terky and i was getting despondent. I was beginning to second guess my decision to sit in the wood edge where the field meets the woods. But I remember changing spots on Sunday and it costing me a terky so i stayed put.

This time i dint forget a drink or food. I ate my breakfast early to keep my mind off moving. After my eating my 4 sandwiches and drinking my watter i picked up my crossbow and terned on the red dot and took the safety off and just put the crossbow on my knees.

What is that? I ask my self. Its not leafs blowing off the trees there is no wind. I look to my rt since it sounds like its coming from my rt. Is a deer walking up out of the bottom? No movement to be seen. Grunt grunt Grunt so loud and so close in my left ear i jump out of my socks. I force my self to slowly look to my left. I not have to look to fare because there he is. This buck is walking so close to the trees he is bumping the trunks on occasion. he is rt on top of me. He stops rt in front of me and looks into the field. I take the opportunity to lower my eye to my red dot. He does not ketch my movement. He proceeds to grunt Grunt Grunt. His nose is not to the ground when he walks its straight out like the lance of a knight in armer jousting his foe. I have split second to decide to shoot or not. He is a smaller body deer then the big bodied deer I saw Sunday( that got no closer then 60 yards). And this deers 4 point rack is dismal compared to the 10 point rack on Sundays deer. I decide real fast Id rather drag this deer out then the bigger bodies one. The deer is now just passing my and i lift the crossbow off my knee to get him in the scope. I not got allot of time he is entering the forest now. I put the red dot at his rib line he is now quartering away from me and i pull the trigger. He lurches up into the air in mid grunt when the bolt slam d into his boiler. I saw a fount en of red shoot out of his body every time his front feet touched ground. He was a ground rocket with red pin strips shooting threw the forest. before I even had the crossbow back on my knee he had gone down.

He died not even a 20 yards straight line from where I shoot him. He was walking past me at just under 5 yards when I shoot him. It was 7:51 am when i looked at my watch. I later found my bolt 7 yards past where it went threw the deer Exit would was threw opposing shoulder. The muzzy 100 grain 3 blade broad head Still in good shape only neading new blades put in or sharpened somehow.

It was a little before 9am when i was finally done field dressing him. I started the dragging out proses at 9am. I used the line mens line and waist harness off my safety harness to drag him out. I got to the end of the first food plot at noon. I meet another hunter leaving the woods and he had a deer hauler with him and he offerd it to me and after a breather we both dragged out my deer. We got to my truck at 12:30am and finally managed to get it in the truck somehow.1 mile walk took slightly more then 3 hrs. My back was pinching my nerves serverly and i had to waight for them to stop pinching before i could drive home. I got home at 4:15pm.

The deer is strung up under my porch rt now its 60 degrees under there. I got 3 backs of ice in its cavity rt now.

When my back is fealing better tonight once i cools down ill move it to the tree so the cats or dog not get it.

I know some ppl will condem me for shooting such s small racked deer. I am happy to have gotten the deer. One hand hunting is doable just slightly more challengingly at times. This deer is the first deer I have harvested by my self 100%. I even field dressed him my self. Cut my self some in the proses though
The hard part was dragging him out the mile. I thought i was going to die but there was no one I could call for help. So i just did it little by little. Each time my legs gave out due to pinched nerve I reminded my self how good this one will taist. It is also my first cross bow harvest.

Sorry no one was with me to take a pic of me with my deer.