Bowhunting has ended in New York, but continues for the month of January in neighboring Connecticut which just so happens to be a quick 15 minute drive from my house.

My favorite time of year to hunt is the late season and Connecticut allows me to stay in the woods a whole extra month - if they would just change the law to also allow Sunday hunting it would probably be where I spent all of my time.

Yesterday I took advantage of the freshly fallen snow to hunt whitetail deer as they scoured the covered landscape in search of food. The morning hunt was interesting and after arriving late due to my alarm not going off and the snow covered roads I walked up on four deer, drew back on one and killed a tree - so much for that.

By mid-afternoon I was back on stand and spotted two deer at 3:00pm. As the deer worked their way in a third ran towards them and instead of walking by my shooting window they all ran by it. It wasn't until roughly an hour and a half later when I spotted my next deer. With my rangefinder battery dead, I estimated a 45 yard shot and watched as my arrow sailed over the deer's back. The deer went 10 yards and I nocked a second arrow.

The deer then turned and walked back the way it came and I began to draw back in anticipation for a shot. The deer was a few steps away from an opening I know is 40 yards, but right before the opening the deer made a hard right and started walking right at me. I continued to hold at full draw as the deer slowly worked its way in. When the deer was about 15 yards away it knew something was up and I could tell the deer was getting ready to bolt. I had to lean around the tree to take the shot and as I released the arrow I watched as it buried into the deer's shoulder. Unfortunately, I didn't get a pass through, but I knew that at close range shooting a 425 grain arrow out of my 75 pound Hoyt Turbo the deer wouldn't make it far.

After 45 yards the deer wobbled, but then got a second wind and charged up the hill. With no blood in the initial area, I decided to back out and return in the morning to trail the deer. After following tracks in the snow for 40 yards I found the first sign of blood. The pictures below tell the story of what happened next:







Not exactly how I wanted to get my first kill with the new bow. Last season I saw several coyotes, but this year I haven't seen, heard or taken any trail cam pics of coyotes in the area so I figured they were hunting somewhere else. Obviously I was wrong and the coyotes are hungry - this is the deer after 16 hours. Looks like I won't be leaving any deer over night anymore.