Garth, when I first spotted him, he was approx 120 yards away. He came in slow and precariously, so I had plenty of time to get relaxed and focused on waiting for him to enter the fenced area of the drinker. He walked down the shoulder of the road that passes alongside the drinker and then alongside the fence railing. Keep in mind, my charge from Bruce was to be able to hit my target at 30 yards - and that's the furthest pin I had set-up in my bow. The fence railing where he walked up and down (3 times back-and-forth) is at 42 yards. I thought/considered... "I'll aim at his spine and it'll fall where it needs too", but that's not respectful of the animal, or of my ability. No, I decided to wait, as Bruce suggested, for him to stick his head down into the drinker. It took him 20-25 minutes to finally enter the fenced area and walk up to the drinker. He got within 10 feet of the drinker and looked "dead-away" from me. That's when I raised my bow. He had no clue I did. When he approached the apron of the drinker and finally lowered his head to the waters surface, I started to slowly draw. I could hear the right shoulder of my jacket making that "fabric rub" noise, so I slowed waaaaay down on my draw so as not to alert him. I'm 100% positive he didn't hear me, cuz he never swung his head up or over to look at me. Instead, he looked away from me toward the fence railing/road, turned away from the water, and walked back toward his entry point. When he did this, he went behind a palo-verde and a huge saguaro, which took him completely out of my view. He jumped the fence where he entered, walked away about 10 yards, and stood there, as if looking for something he may have heard coming up the road? I could see through the palo-verde that he was just standing there, with his back to me, and at only 10 yards outside the fence rails. He did this for about 5-6 minutes before he finally meandered off into the desert. I'm convinced he didn't know I was there. Deer don't jump a fence and then stand 10 yards away from danger (for 5-6 minutes) with their back to you.
I knew when he came up to the fence at his entry point that he'd jump the fence to get to the water. I also knew the palo-verde/saguaro he was standing behind would block his view of me in the blind. It was then that I thought I'd draw on him as soon as I heard him clear the fence, but then I thought... what if he just stands there behind the palo-verde tree/saguaro? He could stand there for 5 minutes with me at full-draw. I thought this through very carefully and decided if he did hold tight, I'd have to let-down, and risk being busted. I wanted to wait until he had his head was submerged into the water trough before drawing/shooting.
I must chalk this up to what Bruce said. This is the first entry... in the first chapter... of my... "Archery hunting book of experience". :roll: