October 2nd was the opening day of my bow season. Spent the summer shooting and getting dialed in. My shooting setup High Country Archery TSS, Tru Glo Sight, Quality Archery Designs Drop away rest, Easton ST Axis arrows, and NAP Spitfire mechanical broadheads.

An Ellicott City evening hunt. Temperatures in the mid to low 60's. I got setup in a Poplar tree overlooking a huge white oak that had dropped a ton of acorns. After i get setup i'm looking through my binoculars (Nikon Trailblazers 10x42) and I see some movement sure enough 150 yards away 4 deer grazing. They are making their way over towards my area about 50 yards away when three of them head into the woods out of range. For some reason one deer decided not to follow and headed straight for my shooting lane. Was this going to be my first shot on a deer? Needless to say my heart was racing. When it was behind some brush I drew once it was in my lane, broadside, I made a noise to stop it and wham arrows away. I have never shot a deer with my compound bow before only my 7mm mag and 1 with a crossbow. Normally with the 7mm mag its lights out on the spot no running. So i see the arrow pass through it mule kicks and takes off for the woods as it is running away i see a spot on the left side that is dark. I felt confident about the shot but never shooting a deer with a bow i was a little uneasy if i made a kill shot. So now i'm shaking in the tree, ansy and I want to get down and look for the deer but it is only 4:45 there could be more deer out there. I look down where i shot and my arrow is laying there covered in blood so i was excited about that but still anxious because i did not know if the deer was down or not. Since we were on a property that the owner is looking to get deer off his property we were prepared to shoot a few deer. Not 10 minutes after I shoot here comes 2 doe. They pretty much stayed out of range until one of them smelled something and was headed right for my shooting lane. She was on the perfect path for another shot so i drew there were branches in the way of the breadbasket so i was holding then she saw my arrow and stopped on a dime and went no further. She turned around and headed up the hill to where she met her doom with another guy we were hunting. Not even 2 hours i have drawn twice on deer in my first day hunting this year. I hang my bow back on the hanger and sit down. Down the field about 100 yards I see a buck and 2 does just grazing then they lay down together. As I am watching them through my binocs I hear some commotion to my right in the woods. Out of nowhere an 8 point is headed right in my lane of shooting. I was told to shoot when I could and he was going to give me a better shot then the first one. I draw he walks into my lane, I make a noise to stop him just like i did with the other one and this time without hesitation he bolts about 30 yards away. He stops looks around and heads right back to me. Same shooting lane everything I draw again this time i let him keep walking and I release......same heel kick as the first one. He starts running left then turns around and goes back right where he came from as he is running away i see my fletchings of my arrow sticking out. I do not see or hear him go down but i am confident i put a good shot on him. I wait until dark to get out of the tree and go over to my first arrow, its covered in good blood and a blood trail leading into the woods. We are looking around and I see the front half of my second arrow and what looks like a murder scene of blood leading into the woods the same way. We follow the second trail to the woods and sure enough about 50 yards into the woods he is down. The first one i shot was a little harder to track the blood stopped just about as it entered the woods. Luckily there is a large creek that runs down to the road so we just followed the creek all the way down and sure enough there was a deer laying there. I go up to it and of course its a spike. I guess i was so caught up in trying to put a good shot on that i didn't even notice the small antlers that were popping through So the first day out i put two decent shots on deer and get them. I can't shoot another buck this year but i'm happy shooting does Maybe this year will be a good one. Pictures to come in a bit.