On my third day in the woods of this deer season, I went in with a good feeling.  I knew I'd get a deer today, and I was right.  I was hunting Stand #1 at Liberty Hill, a ladder stand looking down an old winding logging road.  I got in the stand well before daylight and settled in to begin my wait.

At about 8:15, I saw movement about 200 yards away, at the far end of the logging road I was looking down.  My binoculars confirmed that two does were headed my way.  As I watched them, they both broke into a run and they quickly cut the distance between us in half.  They stopped about 100 yards out, and I could tell that while one of the deer was slightly smaller than average, the other looked to be a nice doe. 

I traded my binoculars for my rifle, waited for a clear view, then slipped off the safety and fired.  Both deer vanished instantly, but I was confident that I had made a good shot.  Here's the important thing about shooting a deer, especially one shot at a long distance.  Use your binoculars to carefully make a note of where the deer was standing when you shot.  If you have time, it's better to do this before you actually shoot, but sometimes there is not enough time for that.

Through the lens of my binoculars I found a small gum tree growing near where the deer had been, and I chose this to be my point of reference.  I gathered my gear and stowed it all in my backpack, then climbed down from my stand.  About 10 or 15 minutes had passed from the time I shot, so I began to make my way quietly but quickly down the road to where the deer had been. 

As I approached the gum tree, I began to look for blood or scuff marks in the road.  I soon found two likely scuffs, but no blood.  Turning around, I began to walk slowly back toward the stand, and almost immediately found a huge spatter of blood in the road.  A good solid hit, for sure.  I followed the blood trail into the woods on the right, sometimes losing it, but always picking it back up.  As the blood headed into a thicket, I chose to go around the briars, and I found myself on an old abandoned road bed.  I started to look around to see if I could pick up the blood trail, but almost immediately spotted my doe laying on the ground not 15 yards away.

I dragged her out of the woods and back to the road, then went and got my truck.  I wanted to take some time to put some corn out for Pete on Saturday, so before loading the deer onto my basket I drove down to the corn trailer, grabbed a few bags, then drove to the stand that I want Pete to hunt in on Saturday morning.  After corning it and adding some Buck Grub to the mix, I headed back, loaded up my deer, and took her to the processor.