November 25th
I was only able to hunt the evening because I had been putting off yard work for the last month. My wife decided to go hunting with me on this evening. We had a long and very wet walk to the back half of our property. That being said I was still encouraged about our chances because we had been seeing some nice bucks in the area. I also had made the decision that if I saw a nice doe that I was going to take her. So all I would need to see is a mature deer to make things interesting. We were sitting for a couple of hours without seeing anything until 5:00 rolled around. We started to here some leaves rustle about 50 yards to the southeast and then a large doe appeared. She was trotting and heading our direction very quickly. I got ready to shoot and all of a sudden she stopped at about 15 yards ahead of me in the brush. She had seen me. I had my gun on her, but there was only a small opening to shoot. I paused a second and then fired. The gun went BOOM and sticks went flying everywhere. She turned and ran about 30 yards and then started to slowly walk away in thick cover. Another doe had joined her and they just trotted off like nothing had happened. I thought what the hell just happened? Then my wife quickly pointed out a 4 inch tree branch about 7 to 8 feet in front of me with a large bullet hole in it. DAMN!! I didn’t see it in the scope when I was aiming at her. My mistake but the good thing is that she ran off unharmed. Those were the only deer that we saw all afternoon.