Bowkill Series: #1 November 7, 1990 – Bowhunting Wood Lots

This is the story of my first ever buck with a bow, but it is also a quick study in bowhunting wood lots.

In this series I am going to post every buck I have ever killed with a bow along with a very short story of the hunt. I will include anything I learned from that hunt that I think will help others.

I shot this buck on November 7, 1990 from the edge of the wood lot shown in the background. It was my first bow kill.

I shot this buck from a stand overlooking a big scrape that was just inside the edge of the four acre wood lot behind me in the photo.  The woodlot was about two miles from my parents’ house. You can see the stand location on the photo I included.

We had a fresh snow the evening before and it was super still – no wind that morning. The snow still laid piled up on every little twig a half inch high. It was a gorgeous November 7th morning.

I have shot a lot of bucks over the years on, or around, November 7th. If the weather is cool, this can be one of the best days of the season.

This buck came out of my wood lot and started to cross the open picked cornfield. He was probably 150 yards away. I didn’t have a grunt call, so I just used my mouth and made a loud grunting sound and when he stopped I repeated it. 

The buck came out of the wood lot I was hunting on the blue path and then when I mouth grunted at him he ran straight toward the cover and came along the edge and stopped right next to the stand, about 10 yards away. He then ran along the red line into the field and fell over.

He immediately turned and ran straight toward the wood lot.  I figured he was spooked, but within a few seconds I saw him trotting toward me along the edge of the timber.  I was shocked that it had actually worked. 

Remember, this was my first encounter with a decent buck when I had a bow in my hand. I had hunted Michigan for a season prior to this, but I didn’t have much success during that time.

So, here he comes, trotting along and stops along the timber right in line with my tree. I was sitting in a really small tree (one I would never hunt now because it was small enough to twitch and dump a gallon of fluffy snow with every movement of my body).   

Fortunately, I was already standing and didn’t have to move. I came to full draw and found a nice five inch diameter hole through the brush that centered his vitals. I remember reminding myself to hold the grip correctly and then released the arrow.  

I didn’t see any of the brush around that small opening moving after the shot, so I knew the arrow had gone true. 

The buck ran about 100 yards straight out into the field and fell over. I was stunned.  I had never killed a deer with a bow and I was super impressed with how well that worked!  I was immediately hooked for life.

LESSONS LEARNED

I learned that an arrow can kill a deer very quickly if you hit them in the right place.

I learned that bucks like to follow wooded fence lines (if I was hunting that spot today I would have my stand in that fence line where the buck was walking instead of in the wood lot itself).

I learned something about bowhunting wood lots too.  Bucks tend to cycle through wood lots. It is a strange thing. Though the day I hunted it was my first sit there, I had scouted the spot several times during late October and early November and the scrape I was hoping the bucks would use would be torn up one day and then nothing for several days until it got torn up again.  The deer weren’t in that wood lot all the time, (at least the bucks weren’t). They tended to cycle in and out.

I also learned that a simple mouth grunt can pull a buck within bow range.  

Finally, I learned just how exciting bowhunting can be. 

You can follow along with this series by clicking this link to read about Buck #2.