Taylor kills doe 30 minutes into the archery season
Late Tuesday night, with the opening hour of Mississippi’s archery season just ahead, Tim Taylor of Ridgeland changed his mind about where he’d be hunting the next morning.
It paid off, helping the hunter claim one of the first kills of the 2014-15 deer season.
“Last minute last night, I decided to hunt a hardwood creek bank on the edge of a cutover on our lease near Durant,” Taylor said. “I was going to hunt my usual spot, a hardwood tract but they had clear cut it almost to my stand.
“I had checked this creek bank spot a week ago and found some white oak acorns dropping. I decided that was where I’d go, and the wind was just right for it. It wasn’t blowing hard, but it was perfect for where I was. I got in there before sunrise and settled in.”
Conditions weren’t the best for a deer hunt. It was warm and muggy, but a front headed toward the southeast over the next few days may have been a positive and triggered some deer activity.
Not that the temperatures, nor the mosquitoes, were much of a problem for Taylor. He wasn’t there that long.
“About 30 minutes after sunrise, I noticed a doe slipping out of the cutover and another had slipped up behind me,” he said. “I waited until they cleared some brushpiles and then voice-stopped the biggest one when she was in the opening.”
At 22 yards, at 7:30 a.m., Taylor made a perfect shot, sending an arrow through the vitals.
“Absolutely perfect; she didn’t go 50 yards,” he said. “I didn’t see her fall or hear a crash or anything but I saw where I hit her and knew she was down. It was so warm I decided to go on and get down and get her out of there, get her skinned and cleaned and cooling.”
The doe weighed 100 pounds, and for a veteran archer who has stuck deer and gators, you’d think it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Not so, and for a good reason.
“Man, I was pumped,” Taylor said. “I always get pumped, but this time it was because it was my first day hunting with my new Hoyt Faktor bow. How about that?”
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