I can't type the whole story now, will do that later....but my last deer (also my first deer) was shot around this time October 2001, it was a large doe taken with an osage self-recurve. I have had several near misses/close encounters including missing a pope and younger 2 years ago.
I january this year I set my mind to drastically improving my accuracy and also bought a custom recurve made by a friend and hunting partner, Mark Malkowski. I posted several videos of my form on the shooting page and you tube....and worked on it as much as I could all winter spring and summer. mostly shooting at night from my driveway into my garage at 15 and 20 yards (25 yards would put me in the middle of the street).
well. In guess it paid off :bigsmyl:
7:10 this morning I shot a nice mature doe from a treestand, she was about 10 yards away, but uphill so she was almost parallel with me. double lung and top of the heart.
quick specs....56#@27" 58" takedown recurve "Red Thunder", CX terminator 4560 shafts with 100grn brass insert, 125grn woodsmans with 75grn steel adaptors, and home made lumi-nocks. got a pass through, though it hung by the fletching end in the exit for a few feet. she went about 70 yards and I watched her pile. Would guess her around 110 or 120 or so....
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/hickstick/07doe.jpg)
this is a lowres pic from my cell phone. Mark took a pic with his digital cam and will email them to me tonight.
with this, the Sox 2 up in the world series, the
bruins up 6 wins 3 losses,the Patriots 7-0....I couldn't be any happier!!!!!
Very nice Congrads!! :thumbsup:
Very good looking deer!! Congrats!!
Congrats :thumbsup:
Good job......... :thumbsup:
Congrat!! I share your joy, I killed my first with a bow since 2000 just 2 weeks ago. Nice to get that "Monkey" off your back, ain't it?
JOhn :jumper: :jumper: :jumper:
Sweet, :thumbsup:
p.s. send some mojo this way so I can end my drought.
Congrats. :thumbsup:
Great looking doe! Congrats!
Alright! :thumbsup: Congratulations on the doe and for sticking it out through the lean times. Sorry to hear about the PY buck you will be ready for the next one.
thanks guys.....will do boobender....
There is no water that is sweeter than the first drink taken by a man dying of thirst. Congrats
Congratulations Marc...she's a beaut! :thumbsup:
I still haven't connected with a stickbow since I made the switch in '99. Will give it a good try this weekend. You and others are providing plenty of inspiration this year.
Marc that's awesome man. First Jawge, and now you, and all your teams doing well,you guys are having a heck of a year. You should be buying lottery tickets.
Couldn't be happier for ya.
Ferret in Wisconsin
go get 'em Darren!
my hands are still shaking 5 hours later :)
Congrats Marc!! :knothead: :knothead: :knothead:
Very nicely done!!
Way to go Marc, congrats! :thumbsup:
David
Congrats,
I ended a 6 year drought last year with a wooden yew longbow. I've taken 2 since.
Jason
CONGRATULATIONS My Friend!!!!!!!!!! :clapper:
Congrats!
ok...now that work has slowed a bit...
I've been hunting since I was teenager, but not seriously until the late 80's/early nineties. I grew in a somewhat rural town between Boston and Worcester (New Englands second largest city), across the street from a horse farm. the farm was once and apple orchard/pig/chicken farm around the turn of the previous century up thru the 50s. when my neighbor bought it, ripped out most of the apple trees (something like 150 trees) to make grazing pastures for cows. the cows are long gone and they raise show horses there now. anyway, its about 50 acres, the the pastures use up probably about half of that, the rest is mixed hardwoods with a few apple trees sprinkled about.
My brother and I have been hunting this farm hard, for 15 years or so, and it by no means loaded with deer, but I've had at least one shot opportunity a year there for the last eight or nine years.
I blew the first few years worth of shots and blamed all the gadgetry and techno mumbo jumbo for my misses. So in '99 I found the *********** and decided to go primitive. missed a buck that year with an ash selfbow that our friend pablo made, shot a doe in CT in 01 with 'meg' and osage selfbow with heat bent recurved tips. the next few years I struggled to even draw a bow with a deer present. in 2003 the farm owner (paul) took ill with cancer, and lost his life after a half year struggle. so in '04-05 I made a glass lam takedown longbow named 'the saddle', partly for the saddle shaped hill that I've had most of my close encounters on or around on the farm, and partly for pauls love of horses, and dedicated it to him.
in 04 and 05 I missed a huge buck each year shooting 'the saddle'. once because the bottom limb hit the tree stand seat, and the other because I tried to worm an arrow through an overgrown apple tree. in '06 I wavered from my newfound love of trad, bought the latest and greatest wheelie, and still managed to miss. sold it on an auction site, and bought 'red thunder' from my friend Mark. as said earlier, I dedicated most of the year to 'relearning how to shoot, both from elevated and from flat ground.
more to come....
awesome!!! could I see a close up of one of those cx arrows...Im thiunking about trying them>>thankz...marco :)
:wavey:
nice go'n congrats!
Beautiful deer. Congrats. Heres to less of a dry spell till the next one! :thumbsup:
Congratulations :thumbsup:
Congrats!!
more of the story....
so I've gotten out a few times this year, mostly in Connecticut as the season there starts mid sept, and up here in mass it doesn't start 'til mid october. Had only seen one deer until 2 weeks ago when I had a doe get run off by a button buck, the the button got run off by a spike, the spike gave me a shot at just over 20 yards, but I didn't bend at the waist and shot over its back. so I told myself to calm down next time, no need to panic, etc.
snuck out for an hour wednesday evening at the farm and didn't see anything but an owl. but still made plans with Mark to hunt there friday morning for an hour or two before work. after staying up to watch the world series 2 nights in a row until after midnight, and being home with my 4 year old daughter all week while my wife was in Ohio visiting her ailing grandmother, I was WIPED. my alarm went off at 5am and I hit snooze, and even thought about turning it off completely. If mark wasn't going to be there waiting for me (he can't use the property unless my brother or I am with him) I probably would have stayed in bed. but I managed to drag myself out, showered and took the 5 minute drive to my parents to suck down some strong coffee. mark climbed in and we drove back to our parking area.
at about 6:20 I climbed up in a new stand that I had just hung last weekend, 15 yards off a run leading to some white oaks that were torn up by feeding deer. on the way in I made a quick mock scrape on the run with some doe pee. waited about 15 minutes and then blew a couple bleats on my new favorite call, the Quaker boy hammer. waited another 10 minutes and did a rattling sequence, which almost proved to be my undoing. about 5 or 10 minutes later I caught movement back behind me about 35 yards out, and made out the outline of a deer. she was acting very skittish, looking in just about every direction, sniffin the breeze and just generally looked unsettled. at first I thought it was a yearling, but quickly made up my mind that this quite likely could be the ONLY deer I see in MA al season, so if she presented a 'good' shot I'll take it, no matter how small she is. I think she was trying to get back to her bedding area, but wanting to avoid the 'bucks' she heard sparring. my heart was racing and I was breathing pretty heavy, but her procrastination gave me a good 5 or more minutes to gain 'some' composure, work on controlling my breathing, and line my self up for a shot on the run the stand was set near. Eventually she decided it was safe and came up the run. I waiting for her head to disappear behind and ash tree and began to draw but she too quickly popped out on the other side, of course head and neck visible on the right side of the tree, rear end visible on the left. its uncanny how they can always manage to do that, isn't it?
and she stepped out and I thought, "...now or never.." then she stopped fast, sticking her nose up in the air and slightly over her off shoulder as she got a whiff of the scrape I had made, and I took the opportunity with the head slightly turned to come to anchor. at this point shes just about 10 yards off the left hand side of my stand, perfectly broadside, and as she was slightly up hill, at just about the same elevation my 16' high treestand was. she never knew I was there. I don't remember releasing, and was almost startled when I saw the home made luminok come into my vision and streak towards her. she dropped and spun about 100 degrees on impact and as she did I saw the shaft hanging out the exit in her off shoulder, just barely by the fletching as she took off. she ran straight away and covered about 60 yards in what seemed like 4 or 5 seconds and then she went down for good.
I excitedly pulled out my cell phone to quickly text mark but my hands were shaking soo much I couldn't type! the message was something like, 'II JJUUSUTTS SSSSSHHOTT AAAAAAA DOOOOEEEEE'
very nice congrats :0)
hey bro...way to go!!! thanks for sharing with us. Now I'm off to the woods.
God bless, Mudd
Congratulations Marc! I know all about droughts!
It was seven years ago yesterday when I shot my last deer with a bow. On the property that I do the majority of my whitetail hunting on we have a rule, you shoot it you mount it. Last year alone I had over twenty bucks within twenty yards but not the right one. This year my buddy that owns the property finally decided we needed to thin a few of the does. I was looking forward to the likely chance of shooting a deer with my bow this year but injured my back on an earlier hunt and haven't been able to get out all season. At this point it looks like it will be at least an eight year dry spell.
thanks again guys...I'm still grinnin.
here are some higher res pics.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/hickstick/07doe3b.jpg)
close up of the bow..
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/hickstick/07doenbow.jpg)
lordy....I had forgotten how much work is involved in butchering. spent the better part of saturday processing as the temps up here went from 38 degrees at the time of the kill to almost 70 degrees saturday afternoon. of course sunday it dropped back down to the 20's. but I didn't want to risk it.
but now...at leastthe printer is partially full :goldtooth:
Congrats!
congrats :thumbsup:
Nice photo Marc...where is that grey coming from on your chin? Babies? LOL
Pretty bow.
What kind of hat is that? Is that a berea of sorts?
Hey man congratulations on ending your drought, and don't worry about the P&Y buck, she'll taste a lot better on the grill. ;) :thumbsup:
no ferret, its a irish flat cap turned around backwards. got it from noggin tops years ago. one of the most comfortable hats I own in temps from the 20s to the 50s.
I really think there is just something about wool, that helps break up the outline over and above the pattern knitten in. I think it just diffuses the light differently then flatter weave materials. this was the 4th deer in 2 weeks that I've had 20 yards or closer who never knew I was there (couldn't get shots lined up on the others). a month ago, when it was warmer, I was wearing camo, and a regular camo baseball cap and got bagged from 40 yards out.
edited to say...oh yah, about the grey on the chin...I took one look at the photo and shaved. :) the facial hair really added about 20 years to my otherwise 'boyish' looks :D
That's just about as good as it gets, hickstick. We both killed deer and the Red Sox are the champs. Pretty neat. Congratulations on your deer. Jawge
yah jawge...and the pats are 8 and 0! its great to be a sports fan in new england now....(especially one with meat in the freezer :) )
Well done.
Nice deer :thumbsup: I'm chiming in a little late because i thought the thread was about the lack of rain :banghead:
Marc, you still planning on coming down to CT to fill a tag or two? You can sjow me how it's done :)