after about 8 years of no archery hunting
10-12-2008, 07:18 PM
#1
Fork Horn
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Greensburg, PA
Posts: 163
after about 8 years of no archery hunting
I now remember
Why I enjoyed archery so much. After about 8 years away from archery I decided it was time to get back in the trees. Well it paid off tonight I put down a decent 7 pt. Not a huge rack but after a long time not archery hunting I couldn't be happier.
Well I had put up several stands at my brother in laws place. The farm he lives on is cut in half by a very major road(PA Turnpike) Well I was out last Saturday and then Friday night and the only deer I saw on the side where we had put up stands were those out in the fields right at dark. He also had hunted a few days this week with only seeing a couple deer other than the field deer at dark. He hit a doe last night and we tracked her for about 3 hours with no luck. I think she is still going.
Well across the road on the other side of the farm, the farmer recently cut the corn and the deer have been coming to the field just before dark every night. SO tonight I decided I would take a walk up there and took the climber with me and see how close I could get to the corner where the deer have been coming out. The woods are full of great climbing trees so I picked what I thought looked to be a good one about 10-15 feet inside the woods about 55 yards off the corner. This was actually my first time in these woods so it was really a guess hoping they would come out in this area again.
Well I got settled in about 4:00 and once I got strapped in, bow up etc I had a tree right in front of me about 5 feet away with limbs all over the place. It was a great cover up tree, but also could have caused me problems. So I spent about 15 minutes using my bow pull up rope as a lasso and kept trying to grab limbs and snap them free. The tree was pretty well dead so as long as I could get hooked they snapped free pretty easy.
Once I was done playing cowboy and dead tree I sat back and relaxed just waiting for the deer to show up. It wasn't long before I looked down and there were two does heading toward the corner to go into the field. I tried a few bleats and it got there attention, but they just kept on eating inside the woods. About 5 minutes passed while I watched them and then they just decided it wasn't time to be in the field yet and turned and went away. Well I had a friendly little squirrel hang around for quite some time keeping me company and content so I figured I might as well put him to work when he decided to come right up the tree next to me. I have heard guy say they spit on a deer back etc. Well tonight when this squirrel was hanging around I was getting ready to spray a little curiosity scent and he just happened to be right in front of me so I am sure he got a little over spray from it(deer will be chasing him now for days lol)
Well the squirrel finally decided it was time to move on so he jumped right in the tree above me then went about his way.
The sun is finally dropping below the hill behind me when I look toward the corner and see another doe heading toward the field. I gave a couple bleats and she slowed but then kept right on track for the field. I thought ok that's fine if she comes right up the wood line I have a shooting window here I will take that shot. The wind (what little there was) seemed to be mainly coming from my right crossing me to my left into the field. Well she got into the field and started coming up my way then just did a quick U-turn and heading right back in. I think she may have winded me a little. I know she did not see me because the leaves between her and I were pretty thick. Now I am thinking great so much for that but I will stick it out till dark. Its now about ^;30 I guess and I just keep looking around to see movement. Pretty tough to hear much with the traffic. Well as I am looking I catch movement once again below me. I am thinking her she comes back out when I notice she now has a rack. It h as been 7 or 9 years since I archery hunted and all the thoughts come back to me on when do I draw, how far is this, etc etc. Well I am watching thinking he is going to go right to the field. HE must have caught a whiff of the curiosity because his nose went to the ground and here he is coming right up toward me. I am roughly 25" up and where he is coming I have a few small trees that give me limited shooting lanes. Well he turns to his right and goes behind these trees and I think I better get drawn up on him now while I can. SO I draw up and what does he do, he decide to come under the trees and head toward the other direction coming in front of me. I have now been drawn up for what seem like forever when it was probably more like less than a minute. Well as I am looking through the peep I am trying to look with the other eye to make sure of where I need to let him get to to clear all the trees. HE is still heading the right way and just as he clears all the obstructions i tell myself just ease the trigger and hope he is away from the limbs. right as I release I think I kinda blanked out for a minute. I do not remember a thwack or anything but I am pretty sure I watched the arrow go right into him. He takes off on a slow run up in front of me tail tucked in and I watch as he disappears.
I called my brother in law and told him I hit one and he is like just stay there will be over. I told him I needed to get down before the knee shacking made the tree fall over. I waited about 5 minutes got down looked where I shot him saw some blood and headed out toward the car to give him time and to grab my light and get rid of the tree stand bow etc. I felt pretty good that I had a good shot on him so it was just a waiting game now. My BIL showed up and we headed back down to see what we could locate. I looked for the arrow and could not find it which made me feel a little worried as to how I could not have blown through him at the distance I was at. he was almost right under me. We found some spots of blood but it was minimal. At this point he had roughly an hour to lay down so we slowly started to walk. Another guy who was hunting up at the top of the hill came down to assist us as well. We were not finding a lot of blood but I was figuring well no arrow the exit may be plugged up and still holding onto the arrow. We went about 75 80 yards and the other guy said hey there your arrow. It was a complete pass through and the fletch must have got stuck coming out the bottom of the deer in some fat. We then found some better blood which we figured we would since the hole was now opened with no "plug" left in it. We took a few more steps and my BIL says let me see your light I think I see something white. Sure enough there he laid about 20 yards from the arrow.
I had a vacation day scheduled for this week and planned to chase deer, but now maybe I can get after some ducks(they were one of the main the reasons I stopped archery hunting for the last few years season collided and I was having more fun in the swamps)
Shot him with a Kodiak Outdoors Bow(bought from my main duck hunting buddy who is now at LSU for his master degree so I need a new duck hunting partner)
100 Grain Tekan Broadhead(one blade got bent)
Trap door rest and using a film canister with a little vanilla smell as well as Kirschners curiosity scent
here are the pics
entrance
Dinner :-)
whats for dinner ????
Deer dressed out on the scale at 154 lbs
my future hunting partner :-)
Why I enjoyed archery so much. After about 8 years away from archery I decided it was time to get back in the trees. Well it paid off tonight I put down a decent 7 pt. Not a huge rack but after a long time not archery hunting I couldn't be happier.
Well I had put up several stands at my brother in laws place. The farm he lives on is cut in half by a very major road(PA Turnpike) Well I was out last Saturday and then Friday night and the only deer I saw on the side where we had put up stands were those out in the fields right at dark. He also had hunted a few days this week with only seeing a couple deer other than the field deer at dark. He hit a doe last night and we tracked her for about 3 hours with no luck. I think she is still going.
Well across the road on the other side of the farm, the farmer recently cut the corn and the deer have been coming to the field just before dark every night. SO tonight I decided I would take a walk up there and took the climber with me and see how close I could get to the corner where the deer have been coming out. The woods are full of great climbing trees so I picked what I thought looked to be a good one about 10-15 feet inside the woods about 55 yards off the corner. This was actually my first time in these woods so it was really a guess hoping they would come out in this area again.
Well I got settled in about 4:00 and once I got strapped in, bow up etc I had a tree right in front of me about 5 feet away with limbs all over the place. It was a great cover up tree, but also could have caused me problems. So I spent about 15 minutes using my bow pull up rope as a lasso and kept trying to grab limbs and snap them free. The tree was pretty well dead so as long as I could get hooked they snapped free pretty easy.
Once I was done playing cowboy and dead tree I sat back and relaxed just waiting for the deer to show up. It wasn't long before I looked down and there were two does heading toward the corner to go into the field. I tried a few bleats and it got there attention, but they just kept on eating inside the woods. About 5 minutes passed while I watched them and then they just decided it wasn't time to be in the field yet and turned and went away. Well I had a friendly little squirrel hang around for quite some time keeping me company and content so I figured I might as well put him to work when he decided to come right up the tree next to me. I have heard guy say they spit on a deer back etc. Well tonight when this squirrel was hanging around I was getting ready to spray a little curiosity scent and he just happened to be right in front of me so I am sure he got a little over spray from it(deer will be chasing him now for days lol)
Well the squirrel finally decided it was time to move on so he jumped right in the tree above me then went about his way.
The sun is finally dropping below the hill behind me when I look toward the corner and see another doe heading toward the field. I gave a couple bleats and she slowed but then kept right on track for the field. I thought ok that's fine if she comes right up the wood line I have a shooting window here I will take that shot. The wind (what little there was) seemed to be mainly coming from my right crossing me to my left into the field. Well she got into the field and started coming up my way then just did a quick U-turn and heading right back in. I think she may have winded me a little. I know she did not see me because the leaves between her and I were pretty thick. Now I am thinking great so much for that but I will stick it out till dark. Its now about ^;30 I guess and I just keep looking around to see movement. Pretty tough to hear much with the traffic. Well as I am looking I catch movement once again below me. I am thinking her she comes back out when I notice she now has a rack. It h as been 7 or 9 years since I archery hunted and all the thoughts come back to me on when do I draw, how far is this, etc etc. Well I am watching thinking he is going to go right to the field. HE must have caught a whiff of the curiosity because his nose went to the ground and here he is coming right up toward me. I am roughly 25" up and where he is coming I have a few small trees that give me limited shooting lanes. Well he turns to his right and goes behind these trees and I think I better get drawn up on him now while I can. SO I draw up and what does he do, he decide to come under the trees and head toward the other direction coming in front of me. I have now been drawn up for what seem like forever when it was probably more like less than a minute. Well as I am looking through the peep I am trying to look with the other eye to make sure of where I need to let him get to to clear all the trees. HE is still heading the right way and just as he clears all the obstructions i tell myself just ease the trigger and hope he is away from the limbs. right as I release I think I kinda blanked out for a minute. I do not remember a thwack or anything but I am pretty sure I watched the arrow go right into him. He takes off on a slow run up in front of me tail tucked in and I watch as he disappears.
I called my brother in law and told him I hit one and he is like just stay there will be over. I told him I needed to get down before the knee shacking made the tree fall over. I waited about 5 minutes got down looked where I shot him saw some blood and headed out toward the car to give him time and to grab my light and get rid of the tree stand bow etc. I felt pretty good that I had a good shot on him so it was just a waiting game now. My BIL showed up and we headed back down to see what we could locate. I looked for the arrow and could not find it which made me feel a little worried as to how I could not have blown through him at the distance I was at. he was almost right under me. We found some spots of blood but it was minimal. At this point he had roughly an hour to lay down so we slowly started to walk. Another guy who was hunting up at the top of the hill came down to assist us as well. We were not finding a lot of blood but I was figuring well no arrow the exit may be plugged up and still holding onto the arrow. We went about 75 80 yards and the other guy said hey there your arrow. It was a complete pass through and the fletch must have got stuck coming out the bottom of the deer in some fat. We then found some better blood which we figured we would since the hole was now opened with no "plug" left in it. We took a few more steps and my BIL says let me see your light I think I see something white. Sure enough there he laid about 20 yards from the arrow.
I had a vacation day scheduled for this week and planned to chase deer, but now maybe I can get after some ducks(they were one of the main the reasons I stopped archery hunting for the last few years season collided and I was having more fun in the swamps)
Shot him with a Kodiak Outdoors Bow(bought from my main duck hunting buddy who is now at LSU for his master degree so I need a new duck hunting partner)
100 Grain Tekan Broadhead(one blade got bent)
Trap door rest and using a film canister with a little vanilla smell as well as Kirschners curiosity scent
here are the pics
entrance
Dinner :-)
whats for dinner ????
Deer dressed out on the scale at 154 lbs
my future hunting partner :-)
10-12-2008, 07:57 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Southampton Pa BUCKS CO
Posts: 2,492
RE: after about 8 years of no archery hunting
Congrats !! That's a nice deer and I love the backstraps on the grill picture. Did you cook all dem straps at once? Thats a ton of meat for the troops
NICE BUCK!!!
Hatchet jack
NICE BUCK!!!Hatchet jack
10-12-2008, 08:01 PM
#4
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Central Minnesota
Posts: 9,445
RE: after about 8 years of no archery hunting
I love the back straps on the grill picture
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