DeerT

Well, I am posting this in the bowhunting forum because although I took this deer with a gun...I will probably never do it again.
Story goes like this. I have seen almost 50 deer this year during bow season-spikes, does with fawns, and young bucks. I have also seen another 8 and a 10 on the first day of bow season so I was waiting and waiting. I wanted my first deer with a bow to be a good one(even though they' re all good). I put in probably 40+ hours in various stands do get this wonderful buck. Well, opening day gun was last weekend. I brought my bow and my 30.06. Everyone else on the lease was hunting with a gun and I stuck by my bow the first morning. I saw another 8 point at 40 yards but was not going to take a shot past 30 no matter what especially after losing a turkey a few weeks ago.
I get back to camp tell the other guys what I saw and they convinced me to at least take my gun so I brought both. I was hunting out of the Ameristep Penthouse blind so I could easily take both and be fine.
Anyways, I get to the blind and had decided I was going to take a turkey. I didn' t see any. At 5:49PM about 15 minutes or so before legal time was up I actually started to pack up. Well at about 65 yards that buck walked out. I immediately began shaking like a leaf. Then thoughts of doubt as to whether my bow would perform started crossing my mind. Will I get a pass thru, will I get good penetration. I had no doubt that I could make a kill at 40 yards or less but as I stated above 30 was my set limit. He walked to 35 yards...now I' m really freaking out. Do I take the shot or not? Like I said I was in a ground blind. The grass crunched when I went to get on one knee. He heard me and bounded two leaps and stopped. Then his tail went down and he went on about his business. He was coming back..oh my gosh I' m getting a second chance. Well he then figured something just wasn' t right and bounded off to about 60 yards. So I then thought I don' t want to miss out on the first 8 pt I have ever had an opportunity to take. So in my weakness I grabbed my gun, popped a round off and he dropped in his tracks.
After he dropped all I could think of was...hmmm that' s it!? What I mean by that is it just didn' t seem to have the thrill for me that I thought it would. Almost like it was too easy using the gun. I can honestly say that even though I lost a turkey a few weeks ago(that I shot with my bow) I had much more of a lasting thrill(if that' s what you want to call it) and satisfaction then I did when I took this deer. I must say that I am very thankful for this buck but I will also say I think from now on I will let the opportunity pass rather than use a gun again. It just didn' t " do it" for me. Any body else feel this way? All my buddy' s are telling me to shut up because you got an 8. Well maybe I should.

jerry606

congratulations, thats a fine deer gun or bow

kshunter

Congrats on your first buck, way to go!

portable ladder

congrats

Doemasters

The satisfaction comes from scouting, set up, being in the woods-their home & ultimately, realizing we are the top of the food chain. It doesn' t matter what projectile you sank into the game, it matters, when projected years from now in your mind, what the game sank into you.

Handles

I think it matters to a lot of bow hunters. It does to me. After starting bowhunting I don' t look as forward to rifle season as much as I used to even though I love to shoot a rifle or shotgun. Part of it has to do with the flood of other hunters, many of them (in my experience) are loud(I shot this and this and this), smelly (no idea what scent control is), lazy(I' ll drive my pickup to the edge of the field and sit in it to shoot my deer), whereas during the bow season I rarely see anyone else, if I do he/she is usually trying their best to be quiet etc. The other part is just as you were explaining. Is he close enough, is he at 25 or 32 yards, will the wind swirl, wait until he looks away to draw the bow, steady now, pick a spot, he needs to take a half step to expose his heart, crap that doe is looking right at me... All of those things add up in the bowhunting experience. With a rifle, shotgun, muzzleloader. 100 yards, point and shoot, Now I' m not saying that it is always that way with a gun, I' d be a fool if I said it was, however it is almost always that way with a bow. There is an added thrill to the kill. If you don' t bowhunt, you can' t understand all that is involved no matter how good of a gun hunter you are.

JeramyK

Congrats on the buck !

Add me to the list. I' m another person who would rather take an animal with a bow. If I get skunked during bow season and the freezer is getting empty I' ll grab my gun. That' s about it though.

Duckmastor2

The same thing happened to me last season. I hunted at least 15 times during bow season and never got a deer in bow range. The 1st day of shotgun, 4 does come walking 30 yds of the stand. Picked out the biggest one, point, shoot, dead. Just didnt have the same feeling I get when I get 1 with a bow. With that said though, thats the only deer I got last season. So the venison my family enjoyed would have not been possible unless I went during gun season.

So, from now on, if i' m deerless come shotgun season, i' ll take the gun until I get I get one. After that, i' ll only take the bow.

Danny45

I like to eat too much, so I use whatever weapon is legal at the time. And with bow season running from October 1st thru January 15th here, there' s plenty of time to take the bow.

wolfen68

I guess I' ll be the lone dissenter[]...The buck beat you, he had you down, it was a fair fight, you lost, but then you cheat, you couldn' t accept it, you decide to pull a fast one, deal from the bottom of the deck and pull out the trusty ole 30.06 and kill him. And then you take a pic with his corpse draped over an archery target...oh to dream. Maybe next year.