Editor’s Note: Warren Womack of Bluff Creek has kept a journal of every deer and turkey he killed since 1968. Going into the 2022-23 season, his lifetime count is at 387 deer and 93 turkeys. We share some of those delightful stories here as hunters prepare for another Louisiana deer season.
Bow kill #202, October 3, 1994
I had walked in with first light, to hunt a cow oak tree. It’s located on a drainage in a hardwood flat area, between a major creek and the cutover hills. A week ago, during a pre-season scouting trip, I had walked into this area to check it and found enough sign to make the tree huntable.
There are no water oak or red oak acorns this year so the squirrels are really hitting the green cow oak & white oak acorns. The deer are coming in and feeding on the droppings.
I hunted the tree for three hours, without seeing a deer. I hadn’t been down long, walking the edge of the hills when I discovered some sign on some white oaks. I climbed one and stayed until noon. While in the tree, I noticed a squirrel working a white oak that I hadn’t checked. When I climbed down I checked the tree and was happy to see that it had enough deer sign to hunt.
After I picked out a tree to climb I walked out to my truck for a break. After eating a late lunch, I stretched out for a quick nap before shooting a few practice arrows. I was back to the white oak, set up and ready for a shot at 3 p.m.
About 5:15 a doe came in and I videoed her as she fed around. She started coming into my shooting area, but hung up under me hidden from my view by the canopy of low ceiling foliage. After about 5 minutes she turned and started working her way back towards the direction she had come in. I was standing, ready for the shot. When she stopped in a small opening….. she was 15 yards. It was 5:30 when I took the shot. The arrow hit in the top of her shoulder and down she went without taking a step.
After taking some pictures and video show & tell, I field quartered her where she went down and bagged her up. Loaded down with a full ALICE pack, my stand and all my equipment, I started the long hard trip out. It was quite a strain on me, getting her and my equipment back to the truck. The first 15 minutes of the 40 minute pack out was up and out of the creek bottom to my truck parked on a high ridge road.
It had been a long hard day and I rushed the trip out pushing myself a little too hard and suffered from the early season effort. Probably had something to do with this being my first season after turning 50.
Note: This was my first evening hunt of the season, and the first kill with my new Acadian Woods, one piece recurve bow, hand crafted and custom made by Tim Mullins.
You can read more from The Womack Journal here.
