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Bow Hunting

Started by Norm, November 10, 2003, 05:12:15 AM

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Norm

The weather here has finally cooled down enough for me to get out my bow and do some hunting. I use a PSE compound that I purchased in the early 80's. It is on it's third set of limbs and cables but has always been my favorite to shoot. I have a few others but always go back to the PSE when hunting time comes around. This year I finally bought a decent arrow rest and some new pins for the sights. I find that when I have to concentrate on a shot I use the pins but if I make a quick decision I shoot instinctively. I have tried to learn to just shoot without the sights as that's what I use for carp shooting but can not make the transition for deer hunting.
 
My favorite spot to hunt is along a creek that runs through the middle of our farm. It is not very big but has a good flow year round. This keeps a few fish alive and really attracts a wide variety of wildlife. Saturday was cold and a light breeze out of the NE. This keeps my scent away from most of the shooting area. I hunt on the ground as I'm not real fond of heights and it is a real challenge to get close enough for a shot without the deer seeing or smelling me. On one side of my spot is some multi-flora rose that breaks the wind and my profile. The other side is some scrub bur oak trees. This gives me two shooting lanes. One over the creek and the other behind me.  
 
After clearing out all the leaves and twigs so I don't make any noise moving around I got settled in for some hunting and watching. Soon the cardinals are in the briar patch feeding on the red berries that grow on them. They are the prettiest red and stay for a few minutes. Next I can hear the distinctive sound of wing beats overhead. Out of nowwhere come a half dozen mallard drakes following the creek line. They come in low with their wings set and land just downstream around the corner. While I'm concentrating on the ducks a young six point buck shows up on the opposite bank. Never heard or saw him until then, he was all of a sudden just there. He walks along the bank line smelling for any does that may have passed by recently. He walks down the bank into the water and follows the creek right in front of me. It is a decent shot but I'm not in the mood to go wading if I hit him and he goes down in the water or runs back to the other side. Instead I just enjoy watching him walk by not knowing I'm there.  
 
After seeing one you get that heightened senses where you seem to be able to hear and see a little better. Must be the adrenaline. Fifteen minutes later I can hear some rustling in the leaves off to my left. I can't see anything so I just assume it's a squirrel and kind of keep the sound in the back of my mind while I keep on the lookout for the big buck I saw walking in. Pretty soon that rustling in the leaves gets louder and I know it's too much to be just a squirrel. Slowly I turn around trying not to make any noise and get my bow ready for a shot. The rustling can't be more than a few yards away but still can't see anything. Then out of the really thick brush come four hen pheasants scratching for food. I sit and watch them feed until they wander off. By then it is starting to get dark and I'm feeling the cold creep through all the layers of clothes. Time to come home. Short walk home and Patty has the fire going and supper started. I'm chilled to the bone and although a cold beer doesn't help warm me up it sure tastes good.

Haytrader

Hey Bibby,

You got a strong contender for "Best Story Teller on FF" in this Norn feller.

 ;)
Haytrader

Jeff

I was just thinking near the same thing. Norm, ya had me right there witya.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Norm

Thanks guys, Don's stories got me thinking about how much I enjoy just being outdoors. If I didn't like to eat I'd try my hand at writing. :D

If you ever get a chance there's a writer by the name of Peter Hathaway Capstick. He wrote among others "Death in the Long Grasses" good book for a day when your snowed in by a blizzard.

DanG

Great story, Norm. I was getting excited, and I don't even hunt! I had to read it 'bout 3 times, trying to figger out how you put the dice on the bow. ???  Then I got another beer to clear up my dixlesia and saw you were shootin' carps, not craps. :D :D
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

chet

Norm, you summed it up quite nicely what I like about bow hunting. In our neck of the woods the woods is really alive during the early bow season. By the time gun season rolls around everything is getting huddled up for winter.
I am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

EZ

I've been bow hunting for about 5 yrs now. I been deer hunting since I was 12. Shot many of deer, a couple of nice big bucks.
Last Saturday I went out, been trying to get this 14 point but the closest he's came up was 100 yards. Well anyway I was sitting there waiting on the big guy, for probably 2 hrs, about half asleep, and then he came thrashing out of the brush right in front of me, about 10 yards. I was shaking so bad, I could'nt take the shot. He walk off and that was it. I went back to the house and told my wife about it, and she said , YOU CHOKE.  :-[
EZ

Larry

Don't feel bad EZ.  About the third year of bow hunting I climbed into my tree stand about 20' up a big oak tree before daylight.  Like Norm I was enjoying all of the birds and wildlife as dawn broke.  Sun came up on a beautiful warm morning and wasn't to long until I was sound asleep dreaming of huge bucks.  About 9am something woke me up and looked around for that huge buck but all I could see was a doe directly under my tree stand eating acorns.  Figured fresh deer loin for supper as I had been practicing my shooting from 10 to 30 yards all summer and this would be an easy shot at 20'.  My only problem was I had never practiced shooting straight down and I soon learned the arrow falls off the rest pretty easy when shooting straight down.  After two shots with the deer never moving I through a branch at the deer to get it away from the tree.  She moved off about 20 yards but by this time I was so excited I couldn't keep a steady aim so I let her walk.

Wish I could write like Norm does.  He does an excellent job and paints a picture.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

DanG

Larry, you should wish you could shoot like you can write. :D :D
I don't bow-hunt, so I can spare myself the pain of reporting on my own miscues. ;D.  Down here, bow season is before gun season, so lots of people take it up just so they can get in the woods early.  With the season being so early, the weather is still warm and skeeters are a problem. A buddy of mine got some old panty-hose from his wife to put over his arms and hands for protection and took to his stand. A good buck moved in and started browsing right under him, and he was getting antsey to get off a shot. The buck finally got in a good position and he started to draw on him. He was using one of those release mechanisms with a T-handle and a release button. As his grip got tighter, the panty-hose bridged from his thumb to his hand and tripped the release early, resulting in a "dink" shot with the arrow falling across the antlers. The deer vanished with no chance for a second shot. The most amazing thing about this little tale is the fact that the guy came back and told about it. I think I'd have kept my mouth shut. :D ;D
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

EZ

Its not even been a week since my buck fever thing and all of my family and friends and the guys at the shop know about it. I only told my wife, until now.  ::)
EZ

Norm

Another one of the reasons I don't hunt in a tree stand is for the same reason as Larry stated. I had a small six pointer come under one I was in and after 3 shots I said the he!! with it and yelled at him to spook em off. It was comical, one over his back one under his belly and one so far off I won't even say where it went. I keep 5 broadheads and one blunt in my quiver and thought I had donated enough arrows for one nite.

Tom

Norm,
Take a lesson from the Florida scuba divers and create a "bang stick" out of your arrow.  It's got a 12 gauge shell and ignition device in the end.  In the water you push it real hard against a sharks head and it goes off.  Maybe, in deer hunting from a stand, if you miss the deer it will go off under him when it hits the ground.  Kinda like  hunting with hand grenades.  :D

Norm

Went out bow hunting Sunday night for the first time this year, I hunt an area of our farm that is not easily accessible until the crops are out. It's got lots of brambles on it so I wait until we've had some frosts come that kill off the weeds and bugs, otherwise it's almost impossible to move through. I always enjoy the first time being in here as you get to see what has changed in the year past. I moved along slowly hoping to see what I spooked up not really hunting as much as just scouting the area. The leaves are still mostly on and the weeds are still mostly there so it's pretty thick still, first thing I saw is what I heard and that's the snort of a spooked deer. Sure enough a couple of yards more and three does come bounding out into the adjacent corn field, they give me that "what the heck are you doing here" look and lazily bound off not really that scared. First shot of gun season and they'll not be so noncholant, most likely be in the next county after being spooked. I settled in a spot that's next to a small creek running through, there's two trails that run near it and several small tress have been rubbed. Soon the sun gets lower in the sky and the line of bright gets lower on the trees in front of me, this is when I see the most deer so I start to perk up and look and listen more carefully. First thing I notice is that the mosquitoes are not frozen dead yet and seem to have found me, darn things buzz right in my face. Weeds are so thick I can only see a few yards so at sunset I decide to give it up for the day and head back in before it gets too dark to see. The walk out warms me back up and when I get to the top of the hill by our house I'm greeted with a beautiful sunset. The clouds are just dimming in color and I take a moment to thank God for letting me enjoy such a great day.

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