Nikki’s First Bow Harvest… and it’s a Velvet Buck!

We headed up to the NC Mountains in Ashe County on this hunt with John Paul, Beth & Richard! We decided to make it a family outing as much as possible so my mom and two of our boys went along for the ride! We were so late getting there because of departure issues that we all decided to stay at a campground for the weekend. We found this place called Helton Creek Campground online and decided to check it out!

Once we finally made it there, NOBODY could get cell phone service and this place was back in the CUT! So we were setting up tents and the campsite by headlights & flashlights. What an adventure it was with an 8yr old & a 3yr old! Needless to say, they were not happy campers at that point. Once we got camp all set up we all decided to try to get in a short nap to start a hunt in the morning.

4 hours later it was time to get up. We all showered with our scent control products of choice, got all camo’d out, sprayed down & headed out into the darkness! Beth, John Paul & Richard were all in stands by their plots, Jon & I were in a blind a little higher up to the left side of the mountain. On the way in we spotted a few doe but they spooked and took off!

After sunrise, Jon & I were very patiently waiting, waiting & waiting. My wonderful A.D.D starts kicking in when I don’t see anything for so long! Jon & I were playing games on our phone, recording some footage, and just enjoying the time we were spending together. I even decided to do my own deer call…. “heeerrrreeee deeer deeer deeeerr” just trying to make Jon laugh at the time, but now I don’t think I will EVER live that down!

We took off back to camp in the early afternoon to take a nap and get some food. I wasn’t feeling very well and decided I wasn’t going to go back for the evening hunt. Weeellll, Beth wasn’t having it, so I took some meds. With a pep talk from her I decided to give it one more try! We got back to our parking spot, got camo’d up, sprayed down, grabbed my Mission Rave Bow armed with my Thunderheads. Back to the blind we went!  After what seemed like FOREVER, I nudged Jon when I saw it out of the corner of my eye. It was a pretty big Doe from what I could see. I got my Bow raised and release ready, just waiting for a good clean shot. It moved in a little closer and Jon tells me it’s a buck, still in velvet! He got a good view of him through his window in the blind, he could see better than I could through my screen. I was JACKED at that point, adrenaline was in FULL FORCE! When he came closer I knew I had to take the shot, It was now or never! I had practically climbed over Jon to line up my sights as well as lean a little sideways to get a good 20 yard shot from his side of the blind. I got him dialed in and sent my arrow flying! WHACK…. got him!

We saw him run out about 35-40 yards then we thought we heard him fall. Little did I know, the mountain side completely dropped off the way he ran. We waited for the other 3 to come up to us to follow the blood trail a bit down the mountain. Jon & John Paul continued down while Richard took Beth & me down to the trucks. The blood trail looked as if he headed straight down that way! Less than 5 minutes later, there he was pretty as you please! I am so glad Beth gave me her little pep talk and I went back in the evening to get my FIRST bow kill!

Nikki Fentress