Early Season Success

Kyle Swart

Date: September 15, 2011

           Finally it was here. What I and every other hunter in Michigan had been waiting 9 months for...deer season. It couldn't have come any sooner this year. I was eager to get out and not only get a deer on the ground, but it had been almost a year since I had been in a treestand.
           The early season is probably one of my favorite times of the year to hunt. The deer are still somewhat predictable and are still in their summer feeding patterns. From what I have learned through experience, deer seem to move more during daylight hours in the early season than they do in any other season, which makes it a good time to get out and hunt before they are pressured and turn seemingly nocturnal.
           It was the 16th of September. The second day of the early firearm doe season here in Michigan. I was bowhunting as usual (yes it is legal to use a bow during a firearm season in MI). I finally had a day off of work so I decided to hit the woods.
         I would be hunting over one of our new food plots, planted with rape and purple top turnips. We had lots of trailcam pictures of deer using this food plot in daylight, so I figured it would be a good stand to sit in.
         I got in the stand at about 5:30 pm. This gave me 2-3 hours to sit. Within 5 minutes I was surrounded by squirrels, and I had to try really hard to keep myself from sticking arrows in a few of them.
         It was about 6 o'clock when I had the first whitetail action. A doe fawn came through the woods and stood under my stand for about 5 to 10 minutes. (see picture below)

Doe fawn under my stand

   
  She eventually wandered back off into the woods and soon after she was gone, a spike horn came to within 20 yards of my stand and stood there for a while browsing on green leaves and other summer growth.  I watched him for a few minutes until I heard leaves crunching off to my right side. I looked over there and here came a 5 point. It was a nice young buck.
        The 5 point and spike united and browsed on leaves together. While  I was watching them, I failed to notice that a nice doe had entered the food plot.
        I took a quick glance to the plot and there she stood. Not 25 yards from me, about to leave the food plot into the brush. I quickly but quietly grabbed my bow and came to full draw on her. She caught some movement from my stand as I pulled the bow back, and she was focused on me.
       It was now or never, I settled my 20 yard pin just behind her shoulder and released to arrow. It was textbook perfect shot placement. The arrow passed through and I could see it stuck in the dirt. She ran off the plot, and with every step, and large spray of blood was released from both sides of her.
       She stumbled and fell before reaching the woods, but somehow gained footing again and made it another 10 yards before she expired. In total, she made it 30 yards from where she stood when I shot to where she lay.
        It was a very easy tracking job. As soon as I stepped off of the food plot on the blood trail, I could see her white belly. I called my dad and told him the news and he came out to the lease with a couple of friends to help get her all cleaned up and in the back of the truck.

Mature doe I was very glad to get a shot at

   
        I couldn't have asked for a better start to the season.