My goals for hunting are simple: 1. Have fun. 2. Fill the freezer. With those expectations set I ventured out to bowhunt for the first sit of Ohio's season. The breeze was coming out of the north to the north east with temperatures in the mid 60's and dropping throughout the afternoon. I decided to hunt out of an oak tree situated on the edge of a freshly combined bean field and inside corner of two blocks of woods. The deer should show up as evening arrives to dine on either waste grain left by the combines, grass along the freshly cut waterways or acorns dropping from the canopy that are not yet squirreled away by the squirrels. It felt good to be back in my element.
The golden hour was fleeting when the first doe appeared like a mirage, standing sixty yards to the south feeding toward me in the open field. What began as one, suddenly turned into three deer casually dining their way northward. I was already on my feet, reaching for my bow as they inched closer to one of my open shooting lanes.
The lead doe quickly saw or smelled something that made her uneasy. As she was quartering toward me, her head snapped alert, staring into the woods to my left. I was at full draw, waiting for her to turn. She blew, spun and trotted out of the left side shooting lane. A clean shot was now blocked by the leaf cover in front of my stand. I was still holding at full draw as she stepped back into my lane. The doe was now quartering away at a hard angle, nearly facing away from me. Moments later she and the other two trotted south, bounding back into the woods. I let down from full draw, wondering if they had winded me or if something else had their attention.
In the waning minutes of legal light I could hear more deer approaching, this time from the woods behind me. Two does stepped out into the field, working just outside of range through the shooting lane to my right. At about 40 yards out the lead doe froze in her tracks, her attention focused to the south. Noticeably uneasy, she turned and trotted back into the woods with the younger doe, running just ten feet from my stand.
With darkness signaling the end of opening night I thought, "Well, that's that I guess." Just as I hung my bow on the hanger I could see what had all the deer on edge. The silhouette of a coyote quickly slinked through my shooting window and into the woods, following the deer that had just done the same. I don't blame the coyote for messing up my hunt, after all the coyote and I were both after the same thing, a meal. It definitely felt good to be back in the woods.
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