A Good Start .....

Well I did get out last Monday, the 12th, for a sit in the Mid Stand as we call her. All my stands are twenty feet off the ground, and the Mid Stand is about 25 yards into the woods from a small field. It was placed near a logging trail that heads down into the field. In the photos you see the view from the stand. It is bow season here in NH, and typically I have two tags for bow, one for either sex, and one for buck. I generally try to fill my doe tag early so that I have venison for the freezer, and then concentrate on mature bucks. On this evening, I was in stand by 4 PM, and did fill my doe tag...she did weigh in at 130 lbs. dressed, and I pick up about 60 lbs. of good eating meat tomorrow! She was the smaller of two huge does that came in. None had babes, which is not a particulary good sign. We are overloaded with black bear here, and they do raise havoc with the fawns in the spring...In any case, the day after I dressed her out in the far Field, a bear came in and completely devoured every single piece of that doe I left - including the contents of her rumen! Clean! Not even the ravens had a chance. Here is a copy of the email I sent that evening to my camp companions...
"Ok Boys, listen up. Tonight we put venison in the freezer. I took the Mid Stand about 3:30 and for about two and a half hours watched wildlife around me. I can assure you that there are 387 Gray Squirrels and 978 color varieties of Chipmunks per hectare at LRDC.
Then about 6 PM, I heard them coming, and froze. From directly behind me they came down. The first doe was the biggest, a taker but she was on my left and I couldn't draw without getting her attention. She passed at about twenty yards and cautiously entered the field. Just then I moved my foot and another one I was unaware of jumped from behind me. It took her fifteen minutes to make it to the field where the big one, while chowing, kept looking directly up at me. At about 6:15. I heard a third coming down, and this one passed right under the hemlock tree to my left, about a ten yard shot. She swung right, down to the stone wall about twenty five yards directly in front of me and turned broadside to the right. She too was a big one. As her head went behind a small hemlock I drew and shot using the 10 yard pin because of the steep angle. She dropped like a stone, never took a step. But I could see she was still breathing, and nocked a second arrow. After a few moments she made an attempt to get to her feet so I put one through both lungs, and she was done. Once I checked I found that my first arrow took her spine out and bent the arrow in a big curve. The second, through her lungs, was a through and through. She's a big one, she'll go at least 130, maybe more. So now the freezer is full again, I can concentrate on the hunt! Good luck to you all! Jack"