Sherry Tags-Out...AGAIN
By Jim Paige

Some of you might recall my wife's photo on the cover of last fall's issue of the Vermont Sporting Journal. It showed her with the two deer she'd taken on opening day of the 2000 Vermont archery season. I think that photo and the article that accompanied it generated more calls to my house last fall, than any other topic I'd ever written about. Most wanted to know if Sherry had repeated that performance during the 2001 season. Here's the story now.
We pretty much hunted the same stands as the year before, except that deer numbers certainly were down from the year before. A few changes had been made to Sherry's ten-foot ladderstand also. For one thing, I'd installed a new concealment unit PMI Cover System™ at that stand. It's a low stand to begin with and the camo leaves and branches of PMI Cover System™ were a definite PLUS to this stand!

Sherry was in her stand on opening day by about 1:30 PM. I was a bit further north, at my usual haunt, "The Swamp Stand". We had our two-way radios along, in case we needed to contact one another. We'd agreed to check-in with each other on the hour. I had placed some MAC-ATTAK apple lure out in front of Sherry's stand before leaving her that afternoon. Sherry also had two deer calls to use that day, both made by Primos. They were the Power Buck & Doe and the Still Grunter. We've both called in numerous deer with these calls in the past and tend to use them often to make assorted bleats and grunts, about every 15 minutes or so. Sherry was on the radio by 4:30 PM that day, telling me she'd just hit a deer. I agreed to meet her at her stand at about 5:30. I got there and she motioned me to the spot where the deer had stood when she shot. There was her arrow, stuck hard into the ground and surrounded by bright-red blood!

I walked over to her stand to help her get down. As she handed me her bow I told her this would be a short bloodtrail. Sherry had again made a perfect shot and we found the dead deer not 30 yards from where she'd hit it. My guess is, it had died on the run, about 3 seconds after being hit. It was a chunky buttonbuck that later dressed out at 70 pounds. We both went home smiling that evening! In thinking back, I'm sure had I told Sherry to simply sit in the stand until dark that day, she'd have likely shot another deer. But dark clouds moving in caused me to want to at least check her arrow early that day, in case the rain (that was forecast for later that night) moved in early. Even a short shower can make blood-trailing difficult, at best!

We elected to let that stand rest for a couple days. Sherry had the entire week off from work, so there was no big hurry. On Tuesday afternoon, we were again in our stands. Later that afternoon, Sherry saw a decent doe, but it never came in close enough for a shot. Perhaps it was nervous at all the yipping and howling a pack of coyotes was making, not 200 yards from us. We heard those coyotes nearly every night last fall, and always right at "prime time" it seemed. We even discussed the matter, knowing we'd have to be VERY careful about shot placement, if we DID decide to take a shot. We'd likely not be able to let a wounded deer "lay up" for very long, if we did hit one; not with those darn coyotes right in our face every night!

We were back in the same stands again the following afternoon, as we hadn't "spooked" any deer that we knew of, the night before. We generally leave our stands well before legal shooting time arrives. In this way, we don't spook deer approaching right at dark, and ruin the stand, while climbing down. It also means we always get our shots in good shooting light. I get a lot of calls from hunters each year, wanting advice about how to find a wounded deer they hit in poor light. When I ask where they hit the deer they often say "not sure, as it was almost dark". By leaving the stand BEFORE that time, you can often avoid the gut-wrenching experience of hitting and losing a deer. Coyotes or not, if we are NOT sure of a quick-killing shot, we do NOT begin the bloodtrail for a minimum of 4-5 hours! If you jump that wounded deer, 9 times out of ten, you'll not find it later.

In any case we were hunting again and at about 6:00 PM that evening, I heard a sharp noise from the direction of Sherry's stand. I turned up the volume on my radio to listen for Sherry, hoping she'd just shot and the noise I'd heard had been her bow. All I heard was a little static. I later discovered my radio batteries were about dead. At that moment two deer ran in, from my left (off towards Sherry). I could see they were both does. Although they came to within about 15 yards, I just never had a good shot at either. The deer appeared nervous and would simply not sit still for a shot. Then those coyotes began again, and from right by Sherry! My two deer took off, once those coyotes began.

It was getting dark now anyway and I climbed down. I hurried along to Sherry's stand, knowing she'd not be too comfortable sitting there, with those coyotes right in her lap. When I got there, I was surprised when she told me she'd hit a big doe around 6:00 PM! So that WAS the noise I'd heard. She said three does had come in and she'd had to wait a while to get a good shot. She told me the other two had run my way. So now I knew why those two does had RUN to me, and been so nervous too.

It took us a while to locate the blood-trail, as the deer had made a little half-circle as it ran off. There was good blood though and Sherry said she was sure she'd heard the deer "crash" up on the ridge ahead of her. We actually spoke aloud, while following the blood, to keep those coyotes away from the deer, hopefully. That deer went further than we'd thought, maybe 75 yards in all. We found it in a heap, up on that ridge where Sherry had heard it pile-up. It was a HUGE doe, a really nice deer and Sherry had made a perfect heart-shot on it. It later dressed out at over 130 pounds.
Though it had taken more than a single day, Sherry had again "tagged-out". I would later also take two deer during the archery season, as well, and both came from Sherry's stand. That new Cover System™ seemed to make all the difference too! Once again, a combination of scent and regular calling had paid off for us both. Life was good!

(Author's note: For information on Ridge-Runner Scents, see our ad in this issue. For information on Primos calls, go to Primos.com. For information on The Vermont Sporting Journal, go to:
Vermont Sporting Journal)

---

Want to become a dealer?

Contact David Pitman at PortMidwest International

and we'll send you information about how to purchase
The Cover System in your area.
Or call the number below and talk to us.

1-888-419-6706