Deer Tri-fecta

…all right this might be my last post on deer hunting for a while – as the 2009/10 NE deer season has come to an end…on January 5, I filled my final antlerless permit and as I pulled the big doe back to my vehicle the realization hit me - I had succeeded in harvesting a deer with a bow, muzzleloader and finally a rifle…a deer tri-fecta of sorts…

…I find myself comparing the three harvests – and how much they were alike, and yet how different…the first came with my bow in late October when it was 50 degrees, the muzzleloader deer in mid-December around 24,  and now the rifle deer in early January at 14 degrees…

…thinking about it, between the three methods – my bow is perhaps the most advanced with its stabilizer, fiber pins, harmonic dampers, stainless steel broadhead and my fancy trigger release…and the rifle, an old 30-30 with open iron-sights, likely the least influenced by the “advancements” of the last 20 years…the muzzleloader somewhere between…

…all three shots were taken when the deer was broadside, and as luck would have it, the placement of the shots were extremely similar – though the ranges varied some: Archery ~8 yards; Muzzleloader ~35 yards & Rifle ~30 yards…interestingly the deer that ran the most after the shot was the rifle deer (~60 yards) – the least, the archery deer (~35 yards)…none of the three deer knew I was there before the shot, either…

…which was the most exciting?…that’s easy – it was a three-way tie!…

hershy