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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: dhaverstick on November 18, 2016, 02:59:00 PM
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I have seen a lot of deer this season while bowhunting but just couldn't get the critters to give me a shot I wanted to take. That all changed last week when I took off Thursday and Friday to bowhunt before Missouri's firearms season opened on Saturday. I have a farm in the south-central part of the state that has been in my family since the early 1800's. Dad still lives there and we chase the whitetails together every chance we get. I arrived at his house Wednesday evening anxious to get out in the woods.
Thursday morning I got to play Deer Monitor again; I saw several does but they all had beauty shop appointments or something because they did not linger in one spot too long. I was up on the ridge above our lower field at a place we call the Deer Turnaround. I was surprised at the lack of buck activity taking place given the time of year it was. I personally would rather shoot a doe for eating but I sure do like to watch the boys stir things up! I spent the middle of the day scouting around and decided to hunt on the edge of our middle field that afternoon.
There is a huge thicket between our middle field and our graveyard that the deer use as a travel corridor. Dad always mows a road through the middle of it to allow them easier access and I set up on the edge of the road from time to time. That afternoon I put my climber in a hickory tree that sets on a little knob overlooking where the road goes into the field. The deer use that place as a staging area and a young buck had the brush horned up pretty good around the mouth of the road. Dad had seen him a couple weeks before when I was there and I figured he was still hanging around close.
About 4:30 I saw a doe walking in the field and I bleated and grunted to her. She stopped to listen, then took a couple of steps and stopped again. There was some brush between us which blocked my view so I just waited for her to appear on either side of the obstruction. I called again and waited. After a few minutes, I heard a deer in the brush much closer to me and I couldn't figure out how that doe had gotten there without me seeing her. When I looked towards the sound, I figured it out; it wasn't her it was the young buck coming to see who was in his territory. He came down the road and stopped right in front of me to smell where I had placed some doe pee. When he turned quartering away, I sent an arrow his direction. The hit was good and in no time at all I was loading the 6-pointer in the back of my truck.
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q240/dhaverstick/2016%20Hunting%20Photos/ArcheryBuckSmall-1_zpsghurzul6.jpg)
Friday morning I hunted on the ridge behind our barn. I saw a bunch of deer but the only thing that came into bow range were bucks. I saw 3 shooters in 30 minutes! However, in Missouri you can only kill one buck with a bow before firearms season so I was out of luck. Firearms season happened to open the next day and I planned on being in the same spot armed with my flintlock rifle. My decision paid off well as I added a nice 8-pointer to the meat pole around 8 am with a 25 yard shot from Ole Smokey.
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q240/dhaverstick/2016%20Hunting%20Photos/FirearmsOpeningWeekendSmall-1_zpsqjscnbfv.jpg)
I finished getting all my meat put away a couple of days ago and I'll probably sleep in this weekend since the pressure to provide is gone. On the other hand...there's a cold front coming through today and tomorrow looks like a good day to be in the woods. I just might have to slip behind the house and see if I can stick a doe to take up empty freezer space. Life is good!
Darren
EQUIPMENT NOTES: The bow is used is a 54# 62" Quest longbow made by Mike Dunnaway of Wild Horse Creek Bows. I made the arrows out of golden mahogany shafts I got from Kevin Forrester and tipped them with 190 grain Meatheads.
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A bent pole. Very well done!
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Atta'boy
Your luck was like mine last year...it all came at once
Tim
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Very nice. Just a question, how cold was it because down in SE Texas, it's never cold enough to hang one very long. We must skin and quarter within a couple of hours. That is, if you are ever lucky enough to get one.
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Doug, it was in the upper 20s Friday morning, low 30s Saturday morning, and low 20s on Sunday morning. We don't always get that lucky and it sure was nice this time.
Darren
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Well done.. :thumbsup: ....
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Can't beat that .
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Originally posted by dhaverstick:
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q240/dhaverstick/2016%20Hunting%20Photos/ArcheryBuckSmall-1_zpsghurzul6.jpg)
EQUIPMENT NOTES: The bow is used is a 54# 62" Quest longbow made by Mike Dunnaway of Wild Horse Creek Bows. I made the arrows out of golden mahogany shafts I got from Kevin Forrester and tipped them with 190 grain Meatheads.
Ah but, what about that beautiful quiver?
homebru
PS congrats!
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:archer:
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Thanks, Homebru! I made that quiver a few years ago and just about every animal family is represented in its makeup. The body is bison leather and the blue trim is deer. The orange piece on the bottom is Honduran caiman, the green "swoosh" is ostrich leg skin, the circle is ring lizard and the orange band at the mouth is stingray hide. I carved the holding ring out of a piece of moose antler and sewed the whole thing up by hand using artificial sinew.
Darren
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q240/dhaverstick/Leather%20Goods/Quivers/DSC00101_zps221893d6.jpg)
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q240/dhaverstick/Leather%20Goods/Quivers/DSC00084_zpsaee4c54a.jpg)
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q240/dhaverstick/Leather%20Goods/Quivers/DSC00078_zps5ce7ee5f.jpg)
(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q240/dhaverstick/Leather%20Goods/Quivers/DSC00064_zps6d268ffd.jpg)
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Congrats Darren!
The deer and the quiver look great!
Thanks for sharing.
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I Luv it!
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Way to go! A full freezer is a good thing!
Congrats,
Bisch
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Awesome, congrats.
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FIRE UP THE BBQ.
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Hmmm, seems like I saw this picture someplace else recently...? ;)
Congratulations again. :thumbsup: :notworthy:
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Nice work, Darren!!