Editor’s Note: Parrish Elliott of Fairview, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, has been a Mossy Oak Pro for 7 years, a deer hunter for 25 years and a bowhunter for 20 years and has taken more than 80 deer with his bow.
I took a nice 10-pointer inside the city limits where I live. A friend of mine had permission to hunt 70 acres and invited me to hunt with him one day. I knew this area fairly well, because it was near where I had grown up. The deer always had been on these 70 acres. I could remember seeing deer on this property back when I was a teenager.
This property was surrounded by a subdivision. Several people around the property had said they had seen big bucks on this particular piece of land. I didn’t have an opportunity to put up trail cameras before the day we were going to hunt, but I found a spot where four trails came together and merged into one trail. I found a thicket about 150-yards away from this intersection of four trails. I was pretty certain that was where the deer were bedding. The trails led to some white oaks and to the backsides of several gardens people who lived in this subdivision had made. The deer were eating the acorns from the white oaks and helping themselves to those gardens. So, I put a tree stand on the trail that came from the bedding area, went to the white oaks and continued on to the gardens.
At first light, I saw three does coming down the trail. My stand was about 30-yards from the trail. The does didn’t see me, because I was wearing Mossy Oak Bottomland camo. I think Bottomland is the next best thing to sliced bread. Although it’s one of the oldest patterns that Mossy Oak produces, I still believe it is one of the best. After the does had passed, I spotted a nice 10-point buck coming broadside toward me. I waited until he got a little bit past me and drew my PSE Omen Pro. I aimed right behind the last rib. When the arrow hit the buck, it traveled almost the entire length of the deer’s body and came out his front shoulder. The big 10-pointer only went about 50-yards before he piled-up. This was the first day I ever had hunted that property. When my friend came and helped me drag the deer out, for some reason, he never invited me to hunt that property again (grin).
Here are a few tips to help you have success at the beginning of bow season:
- Choose the best 40-yards on the property that you have to hunt. If you understand that you only have about 40 yards all the way around your tree stand you can effectively take the deer with a bow.
- Look for little places where no other hunters hunt. Mature bucks don’t live long enough to be mature if they walk around during daylight hours in the same places where hunters are. You can find these little places oftentimes where there are lots of people but few woods.
Day 2: Mossy Oak’s Parrish Elliott Says to Stay Away From the Deer
