From Dave DeFreece

To all,

     The following deer (deer on left) was taken over a doe decoy with a tail wager on 11/13/2004 @ 4:38pm. I was grunting at a 10 point that was shagging a doe for the last 30 minutes. The doe started towards my decoy, She was still about 125 yards out, while I was still grunting at the doe I looked up and saw a deer with horns on it's head right in front of the decoy at 20 yards!! I scrambled to put the call in my pocket, the deer caught the movement but was more interested in looking at the moving tail on the decoy. The deer
moved around to the back side and when the tail wagged the buck jumped and moved away to about 32 yard I pulled the bow, put the 30 rd pin on the side and shot with one movement. After the shot the deer did not respond!! It started to walk away towards the other deer. I knew I hit the deer, I saw the arrow go thru the buck and come out the other side. I could not believe that this deer was not running. The deer walked 40 yards after the shot, the rear legs buckled and the Buck laid down and expired. (At this point I said a little prayer of thanks) The time frame from seeing the deer in front of the decoy to the time the deer expired was about 40 - 60 seconds!!
This is not a large 8 pointer but the experience that this hunt gave me is what bow hunting is all about!!

Good luck and good hunting

    This is the second installment of the "2004 Dream Season"      First of all let me say that some of you may say it is luck, Yes luck does have something to do with taking a nice deer but persistence and preparation closed the chapter of my 2004 season.
     This deer came to the doe decoy with the trusty tail wager @ 8:35 am on Sunday 12/12/2004 weather was 25F. With 20-30 mph wind I was hunting heavy woods. He came to the back of the decoy and gave me a facing shot @ 35 yards, I did not opt to take this shot since this was the second rut I knew he would investigate the "HOT Decoy" He stayed at this yardage for about 2-3 minutes testing the air and looking around (it felt like and hour!) Has started to move around a large oak tree to the backside of the doe, when he was behind the tree I drew my Hoyt Enticer bow and as he was walking I shot him @ 27 yards quartering to me, The shot was Good, I saw were the Beman ACS carbon tipped with steelhead 125 expandables Go completely thru the Buck. 
     The deer went 100 yards to a field edge, This is were I last saw him. I got down from the tree, gathered my decoy and tree stand, went to the field edge and saw no deer. I decided to pull out and wait 2 hours. I came back with my daughter Allison to look for the trophy. We looked for about a hour, there were only a couple spots of blood, I knew I made a solid hit on the deer but I was getting a very sick feeling in my gut. We circled around were we saw the last blood and there he was laying under a crabapple tree in a  field of solid thorns, I said prayer of thanks  when I saw those horns sticking above the grass. The deer was within 200 yards of the stand, The shot was quartering away at a good angle, The left lung was a solid hit, but it did not hit the right lung. As the arrow passed it took some entrails out and plugged the exit hole the reason for the absence of blood.

I thought this deer would score about 130-135 but my neighbors friend was over and said this it would score between 145/ 150. 

And just think when the alarm went off @ 4: 30 I thought it was to windy to hunt today and I almost stayed in bed!!

Dave DeFreece