Finally getting around to posting but I got my first bow kill last week and it was on public land too. I got to my stand a little late (15 minutes before shooting time) and as always I go in with a red light head lamp and set up an estrous scent wick on a branch. I climb up my ladder stand and before I can start pulling my bow up a doe with a buck about 5 feet behind her run right by the base of my ladder I climbed with head lamp still on, not 30 seconds prior. I start hauling my bow up as fast as I can, meanwhile the buck is still chasing this doe in circles just below, paying no attention to me. He was grunting like I've never heard before which was pretty cool and gave me a real idea of what I should try to imitate when I'm calling. Its now legal shooting time but still pretty dark and the doe circles around the back of me and I take a shot but the angle was pretty steep seeing she was 10 feet from the base of my tree and I hit her very low. The shot was a pass through but the arrow was pretty much vertical sticking out of the ground with not much blood on it (grazing shot right down her side maybe?)... 5 minutes later a 6 pointer is 20 yards to my left and I shoot low again, this time a clean miss. I take out my grunt tube and do my best impression of the dear I heard earlier hoping to pull the 6pt back since he only ran off about 100 yards before going back to walking like nothing ever happened but instead a 8 pointer pops out of nowhere again to my left and 20 yards out. I'm on my last arrow now and actually take my time remembering the impacts of my last two shots and end up drilling the thing right through the heart. He made it about 50 yards and dropped. Ended up having two ppl and a dog try to track down the doe but after about a quarter mile the already light blood trail dried up completely.
edit: sorry no clue how to rotate the pics correctly.
edit: sorry no clue how to rotate the pics correctly.