I am off to a great start in the 2011 Ohio deer archery season. On opening day, September 24th, I shot my first deer of the season which was a nice doe. I had some roasts cut out of her and had the rest made up into Trail Bologna. I already have her meat back. By the way it's been very tasty. This was also the first time I ever shot a deer in September. You can read the story about this doe under the title A First At Age 45 [3].

Deer #2 I shot on October 10th. This was my biggest buck ever. He was a Buckeye bruiser. He had 12 scoreable points and scored 144 1/8". Out of this guy I had some round steaks, several different kinds of roasts, and pepperoni snack sticks. Once again, I already have his meat back and those pepperoni sticks are to kill for. You can read the story of this big buckeye Ohio bruiser under the title My Best Buck To Date [4].

Now for the story of deer #3. It was the evening of October 18th. A large rainy, windy cold front was moving into our area that night. I knew it would be a great evening to be in my doe killing stand. I arrived and was situated in the stand right about 4:30. At 5:00 I saw some movement up on the ridge. The ridge is about 60 yards away and there alot of trees between my stand and the ridge. I could see it was a single deer but I couldn't tell what it was. The deer walked off without incident.

It was now 6:00 and I heard something coming up the hill from behind me. I turned and looked over my left shoulder and saw it was another single deer. Through the trees I could see it had a decent set of antlers on it's head. He finally came into the clearing and I saw it was the nice 9 point that is a 2 1/2 year old and is a no-no on our property. It really didn't matter to me though because obviously my one buck tag is used. He walked up past me about 40 yards to my left and was out of sight by 6:08.

Fast forward to 6:13. I heard some noise on what I call the doe death trail. Sure enough I looked over and here comes a very nice looking doe and a button buck. The button buck walked right out in front of me but the doe cut behind me. I could hear her walking behind my stand as I was watching the button buck eat acorns. Then I could tell the doe was walking within 5 yards of my stand on my right side. This whole time I was not moving as I was hoping this doe would come back up and follow her button buck. Sure enough she came up on my right and walked right on past my stand. When she got out to 18 yards she stopped on her own and I then sent an Easton XX75 Tipped with the Rage 2 blade shot from my Horton Legend crossbow zooming towards her chest. She gave me a perfect quartering away angle. I watched as the arrow hit it's mark and passed through her chest. The doe kicked up her back legs and took off like a bolt of lightning. The time was now 6:17. I watched her run down the hill behind my stand about 60 yards. She then fell and flipped around a few times and was done. I then sent my wife and my son a text and called my buddy Dave to let them know of the good news.

Knowing the doe was down I sat in my stand about 15 minutes then got down to go get her. I was pretty happy because she was running towards my truck. I got to the doe, took a couple of pictures of her, gutted her and dragged her back to my truck all in less than a half hour. I was back home by 7:10. The next day I took her to the processors and just had the basic workup done on her. I had some steaks, roasts, and burger. I will probably get her meat back next week. Hopefully you all enjoyed the story and I look forward to writing a few more this fall.