{"id":3536,"date":"2020-10-07T14:45:33","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T18:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorsportsnation.com\/?p=3536"},"modified":"2020-10-07T02:26:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T06:26:08","slug":"third-whitetail-hunt-2020-doe-tag-filled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorsportsnation.com\/third-whitetail-hunt-2020-doe-tag-filled\/pentecostkyle12\/hunting\/10\/07\/2020\/3536\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Whitetail Hunt 2020 – Doe Tag Filled"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sunday afternoon, I headed out with bow in hand for my third hunt of the 2020 season. I decided to hunt my private land spot for the second time. The weather was mid 50’s and cool. There was rain in the forecast for an hour at 4 pm, so I did bring a shell jacket just in case. Hiking into the woods, I had decided to get a bit more aggressive and set up in my saddle 20 yards closer the travel route I had observed on the previous sit.<\/p>\n
<\/a>I was running my Ozonics unit in the tree. Even though the breeze was very slight, it was pulling from my tree across the back of the travel corridor I was trying to intercept. While not a foolproof solution, I have had great success with the Ozonics masking my scent on my previous couple hunts this season. Shortly after I got set up, a group of does and yearlings were working their way through the trees headed for the farm field on the neighbor’s property. The rain was just starting to fall and I was wearing my Goretex shell jacket which was making a bit of noise. One of the younger deer heard it and got extremely interested in my tree. I froze and tried not to move an inch, but sure enough, the deer made me and it blew loudly. The group ran behind me about 200 yards and circled downwind. I could see the older deer moving back and forth with their noses in the air trying to wind me, but I believe the Ozone generator was doing its job and confusing them enough that they weren’t sure what was going on. About 10 minutes later, they made their way back through their original route and on to the field.<\/p>\n As the rain increased in intensity, the deer movement dried up for the next 30 minutes or so. Eventually, I took off my noisy jacket and got my bow in hand so I would be ready when they started moving again. Not long after that, another group of does came trotting through the woods about 30 yards from my tree. They were completely oblivious to my presence. I waited until they reached the clearing in the trees where I had a good shooting lane, drew back, and let my arrow fly at one of them. The doe did a huge mule kick and jump, and took off sprinting through the woods.<\/p>\n After waiting for 30 minutes, I slowly and quietly got down from the tree. I carefully packed up my gear and headed over to where I had shot the deer. The sun was starting to set at this point and I had to strain a bit, but eventually found the first few drops of blood on the ground. Scanning the area, I picked up the hit location and started to follow the blood trail. I proceeded cautiously. I was confident I had shot the deer right through the shoulder, but wanted to be careful in case the shot was off. I proceeded slowly, marking the trail every 50 or so yards with a reflective marker and recording some GPS coordinates.<\/p>\n