Well I went down to my family's place in south texas this past weekend and had a wonderful time. I did four hunts and took a deer on the first of those hunts, the rest of the hunts were just for fun or guiding young cousins and I didn't loose any arrows on the latter hunts. During that first hunt, I was sitting in a tripod near a corner of our property. I've sat at that spot numerous times and NEVER loosed an arrow from there. At this particular spot, there is a 30 acre hay field in front of me and thick brush behind me. I had some deer movement early on (which was awesome b/c sometimes there are NO deer there) but it was too dark to shoot so I bided my time. About 1/2 hour later, three deer came out of the hay field and began coming towards my stand. Eventually they got closer and I could tell there might be a shot opportunity. The 2 lead deer came past me and crossed under the barbed wire fence into the brush behind me (state land). As the 3rd and final deer was coming close and nearing the brush line I arrowed him in the front chest area. The arrow zipped in and out and he did a 180 degree turn and BOLTED back into the hay field from where he came. He covered about 100 yards in what seemed like 2 seconds! He then stopped and stood for awhile. He bedded shortly, then got up and started walking away slowly. The fact that he was back on his feet was disconcerting but I knew the shot had been true. At that point I was standing on the platform of the tripod watching him from afar, very anxious. After walking a few steps, he reversed direction and tried to take a step and just nose dived. I was relieved to see the deer go down. A friend of mine was hunting the other side of the hay field and it was early so I did not want to get down and mess up my buddy's hunt. However, no more than 5 minutes after the deer took the nose dive, a caracara landed in the field near my deer (grass was a bit too high to see exactly what was going on). Then another caracara quickly swooped down and joined the first. I was a little worried that those large eagles might try to eat my deer so I got down low and scurried over to the deer and sure enough they were feasting on the head, eyes first! I grabbed the deer and di di mau'd back to the ranch house dragging the deer with me. This is a young deer and many would say its not a 'shooter' but ever since I stopped hunting at feeders everything is a trophy to me! I used to sit at a tripod, have deer come into the corn feeder, feeder goes off, deer eat, I'd pick out the deer I wanted, wait for a quartering away or broadside shot and whack it. That was getting too easy and finally I was fed up and decided not to hunt feeders anymore. When hunting at feeders, it wasn't the same b/c there were too many knowns.......I knew WHEN the deer would come in, I knew WHAT direction they would come in from and I knew what TYPE of shot (distance/angle/direction) that I would generally have to take. It wasn't making me a better hunter and it wasn't the challenge I was looking for. And I was thinking too much before the shots b/c I had the luxury of being able to take my time w/ things before the shot. Now I'm sitting at funnels or game routes or taking walks trying to put myself in a position where I will see something and using the natural lay of the land to my advantage. I'm doing a LOT more scouting and I feel that I'm becoming a more well rounded hunter. Ever since the change I've had 2x the fun and 10x the satisfaction. Never in a million years would I have taken a slightly quartering towards shot while hunting a feeder b/c I generally had the luxury of waiting for the deer to turn while feeding...... but on this hunt, like all the other recent non-feeder hunts I didn't have much time to think: He was walking in, I was at full draw, he was stopped and the arrow was on its way. I doubt I'll take that slightly quartering towards shot again b/c I feel its a low percentage shot and I don't like seeing 'em up and alive that long after the shot. The whole thing lasted just minutes but it felt like an eternity. The shot opportunity presented itself quickly and the shot happened so fast that I didn't give much thought to shot presentation. It weird that I sometimes seem to do my best shooting when I don't overthink and instead just react. The shot was 17.5 yards with my 1965 Damon Howatt Ventura, 40# at 28", with a 588 grain arrow (I realize I don't need 588 grains to kill a deer, but I've been tinkering w/ heavy weights and its been fun). This was my first time to loose a WW at an animal and the damage inflicted by the 3 blade wensel woodsman was shocking. I'm gonna use these heads for awhile and see what they can do on the pigs around here. A big thanks to Dino for the FREE hook up on the 3 wensel woodsmans!!!! I used one of those heads given to me by Dino to take this deer.
Thanks for reading and good luck with your season!
Lets see if I can get the pics to work
(http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s123/fishnhunt/IMG_1732.jpg)
(http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s123/fishnhunt/000_0005.jpg)
Great story! Congrats. :thumbsup:
Congrats on excepting the challenge free of feeders. Great story!
Well-done!
Congrats :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
You may want to invest in a quiver with a hood for safety sake.
Good deal. Congrats.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Nice deer Chris, but do you hunt with those broadheads exposed like that? I'd have one of those through my hand in a matter of seconds. That frightens me.
Whatever happened to paragraphs? :scared:
Way to go! Looks just like a buck I killed last week about 60 miles southeast of you in Dewitt County. Congrats! CK
Thanks for the responses guys. This past weekend was the first time I used the quiver w/o the hood and probably the last time. There were lots of problems other than just the precariousness of unsheathed broadheads:
-the woodsmans seemed to rust fast in the heavy fog/dew we have during the mornings down there
- its hard to pull an arrow from the quiver b/c you dont have leverage/fulcrum anymore at the top b/c there are clamps on top instead of foam
- bow doesnt fit into soft case when strung w/ quiver b/c no hood to help it slide in.
So yea I'll be going back to the hood for this weeks hunts and practice. Good luck to ya'll!
wow Curtis I just checked out the website. You guys have some very reasonable prices compared to what I've seen elsewhere. Might have to look into it some day. I've always wanted to arrow a goat or sheep with my bow.
Thanks and take care
Great story and yes, paragraphs sure make
things more readable.
QuoteOriginally posted by freefeet:
Whatever happened to paragraphs? :scared:
LOL! My eyes hurt too! BUT GREAT STORY!
Thanks for sharing it! :thumbsup:
Good story & deer. I'm w/you sans feeders for reasons you mentioned. Hunting means different things to different people.
guys thanks for the comments. okay next time I'll use paragraphs :)
I'm a CPA not an editor :)
Fine story, fine shootin and fine pictures. Folks from Texas don't need no paragraphs! Sentences are BIGGER in Texas. :goldtooth:
Congrats!
Thanks for telling us about your hunt.
Congrats. I just bought a Damon Howatt Balboa 45#@28". Tell me more about your arrows I am just getting started trying to figure out what I want to shoot out of it. Hopefully next year or maybe late this year I will take one with it. It was made in 1968 or 1969. Kind of cool to be shooting a 40 year old bow. Anything with a trad bow is a trophy.
Thanks Neutron. Post some pics of your bow if you have em. Yea it is cool to be shooting with a 40 year old bow. My bow is much older than me.
Before telling you about my arrows let me first list some caveots b/c I dont want to lead you astray. I'm better at hunting than at tuning!
- I used O.L. Adcock's online tuning literature to dial in the nock point via bareshafting. It worked great and a big thanks to Mr. Adcock for keeping that info online! However, I have NOT dialed in the spine via his bareshaft planing method b/c I keep having to cannibalize bareshaft arrows and turn em into fletched hunting arrows as my hunting arrows get broken or lost.
- A lot of guys on here are good enough archers to group improperly spined arrows consistently in tight groups. The flight might not be pretty and the arrow might be inefficient b/c not all the force is linear behind the broadhead (both of which will serioulsy hamper penetration) but those arrows can still be grouped. Try to avoid this. Its a pandoras box. I am kindof guilty of it now and trying to claw my way out.
- I believe my 500s are too stiff for my bow even w/ 300 grains up front (100 in the brass insert, 200 in the broadhead) and as such I am downsizing to 600 spine carbons in a few weeks. At that point I will take the time to properly bareshaft plane using Mr. Adcock's method.
- My Arrows are now at 588 grains. A few weeks ago they were at 515 and some of my arrows had a tendency to impact to the left of where I aimed. Im not talking about bareshafting nor am I talking about an arrow being butt left in the nock point when sticking in the target. Rather, I'm talking about a fletched arrow impacting to the left of where you are aiming. That could have been a spine stiff indication OR it could have been poor form. I have since added 75 grains and am now lobbing these arrows w/ the 40 lb bow. I'd love to know the feet per second. Left / Right accuracy (ie windage) seem to be better and elevation has been retrained in my brain. However, I still want get 600 spined carbons, spend more time tuning, more time working on form (I see no reason to even attempt to tune until form and release are consistent), and shoot a 500-550 grain arrow out of the 40 lb bow.
Having said all that here is my current setup with a finished weight of 588 grains:
A full length Axis ST 500 spined carbon (the really skinny ones), with three 4 inch fletch, a heavy reflective wrap, and a 100 grain brass insert in the front. The broadhead is a 125 grain wensel woodsman glued to a 75 grain stainless steel adapter making a total broadhead weight of about 200 grains. Wish I was shooting something w/ more character like wood. I went from Alum to Carbon to save money and have less breakage. Ha ha that was a joke I am breaking more carbons than I was bending alums. Eventually wood would be nice.
For the rest I will defer to the other guys on this site who have much more experience than me.
Good luck!
Congrats on your deer. If you want a challenge try hunting MI. It has been a challenge just seeing deer this year.
DUDE! Good job on the paragraphs! :thumbsup:
If your arrows are flying well and hitting with the nocks pointing straight, then the left of target impacts might be corrected with an adjustment of the brace height. Try raising it a hair at a time and see if that makes a difference.
Ha ha. Thanks I am finally learning how to write....now if I can just condense!
Thanks for the tip too. Theres a LOT of stuff I'm still trying to learn and the tips will help no doubt!