Hello, I'm new to Tradgang and I am curious to hear about and see some pictures of other peoples first traditional bow harvest. Mine was a carp taken in June of 2009 in Manitoba with my 42 lb Ben Pearson Hunter 709. What a great day of bow fishing that was, I will definitely go again this year. Hope the picture works.
(http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae287/earlbargen/SecondCarp.jpg)
Cottontail over 40 years ago. I didn't have a camera though, sorry.
Here's my first, shot this guy 2 years ago, my first season hunting with a Longbow! He is now on my wall!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/BowHuntingFool/P1040104.jpg)
About a 3' copperhead. I didn't harvest however, just killed him instead.
my first trad kill was a carp. I'm hoping to take a deer with my recurve next season.
Squirrel about 35 years ago. My how time flies.
Greg
(http://www.tradnj.com/member-imgs/salpattis.jpg)
My first was a Jersey DOE at 15 yards On opening day in 2005
PARTRIDGE NORTHEN MAINE 1989 OR 90
It was a rockdog
MAYBE THAT WAS A RUFFED GROUSE?
I shot 2 chipmunks can't find the pics right now but have a eye witness and if you think they are easy to hit give it a try you have never seen anything jump a string like them. Widow
My first animal with my Mikuta recurve was a black bear here in upstate NY. Sorry but no pictures. It was such a thrill.
My first trad kill was a cottontail over 20 years ago, first big game kill was a spike elk 6 years ago.
Travis
Slow moving cottontail, 25# longbow and a target arrow. 49 years ago, (hey I was only 6 years old, Parents wouldn't allow me to have broadheads!).
QuoteOriginally posted by bawana bowman:
Slow moving cottontail, 25# longbow and a target arrow. 49 years ago, (hey I was only 6 years old, Parents wouldn't allow me to have broadheads!).
LOL! Me too! :thumbsup:
Summertime in "68", I was 10 yrs old. Hunting the railroad tracks near home. Jumped a cottontail & hit it on the run. Lucky you say?!! You're right, cause I missed by a mile....the arrow skipped off the rail and hit the bunny right in the head!
Squirrel in the back yard last September. Sorry, I was too busy doing the Snoopy dance to think about a camera.
Ground squirrel long time ago.
Mine was a Jack Rabbit last May 2009 hunting in Crane Texas with Curtis Kellar and Mark Horne.
(http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm291/BlacktailBuck/PaulsJackRabbit114yardsMay32009.jpg)
A beautiful bull elk many years ago...
25 years ago a robin off the fence at 15 feet with my first real bow, fiberglass red thing with dual shelfs and a 1.00 target arrow. Got a good beating for that one, mom liked robins
QuoteOriginally posted by WINDTALKER:
25 years ago a robin off the fence at 15 feet with my first real bow, fiberglass red thing with dual shelfs and a 1.00 target arrow. Got a good beating for that one, mom liked robins
LOL.
Yep, back then we use to get beatings not a tongue lashing.
That brought back memories LOL.
Paul
A small turkey in 2008 with a Herters perfection 46
About a 4' cotton mouth in the edge of a slough with my ol' 68" long bow and a judo point this summer
Chipmunk about 40 years ago. I could pick them off quite a ways out. They were cat food for the barn cats. I got a bow at about 7, and they were my main targets for a while along with frogs. Then squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs, at lest one possum I recall, and couple coons. After that it was mainly deer with a few squirrels here and there while deer hunting. I still try and hit the chipmunks in my yard on a regular basis.
Pheasant in 1971.
Out of season and on the ground.
At the time I didn't even know there was such a thing as a season,,or you could just about get yourself strung up for shooting birds on the ground.
Shudder to think about doing something like that today,but it's one of the reasons I think kids should be given a bit of messing up room as they learn the ropes.
Never got a pic',,,but he was fine eating.
My first bow kill was a coot in 2000.
Good fortune...I hit the bird in the head at 30 yards (with a Border Khan-45lbs)
I was bow hunting a pond surrounded by vineyards not too far from home.
A day that will never be forgotten!
My first bow kill was a chipmunk. I was 9 or 10 at the time and was shooting a 15 pound green fiberglass bow. The distance was less than 10 yards. I still remember zeroing in on his ribcage. Good times.
MD
cottontail rabbit, with a homemade bow, homemade arrow and kite string for a bowstring. I think I was seven, but I was hooked for life.
My first Trad kill was a cottontail rabbit in 1959. 25# fiberglass bow.(9 years old).
First big game harvested was an Antelope in Wyoming in September 2007 with a 55# Black Widow Recurve. Shot my first deer with a Morrison Shawnee Dakota longbow last November. 2 1/2 year old 8 pointer.
Armadillo, rooting up my front yard, his amour plating didn't work as well as he imagined.
Chipmunk this past summer. kept raiding our camp kitchen. Finally put a good stalk on him and snuck up to about 5yrds. Shot from the knees, bow sideways under a porch. Judo took out the front of his brain through the back of his head. City boy cook watching nearly blew chunks. It was great. :)
A ground grizzly! I love hunting groundhogs and was about to give up to the shotgun after about 10 misses, then I finally connected. I still love stalking groundhogs.
Raccoon, then squirrels, then the deer in my avatar.
Garter snake, 1966, S&H Green Stamp 35# fiberglass bow.
A Possum a long time ago! Little bugger kept raidig the dog food in the shed, and I finaly got him with my little red fiberglass bear bow after several mornings of trying! I think I was 6 or 7 at the time.
Probably a lizard, or maybe some unfortunate bird, back in the 50s. My 30 pound fiberglas longbow was a terror to the small critters of the desert.
Cottontail in 1960 and frogs regularily as Pops liked the legs. Carried a bow on my trapline and dispatched skunks, coons, and fox with it. Killed my first deer and my personal best in 1965-dumb luck! Have killed a few deer since then.
I'll let you know...if and when I remember it...lol
Every time I start thinking about it(ie trying to remember) what pops out in my mind never happened in reality.
I have such vivid memories of my "Lazy Boy buck" it's like it's real.
I think its by far my favorite hunting memory.
Weird huh?
You betcha....for me too!
God bless,Mudd
Mine was a "bullfrog" about 45 years ago. Took it with a one piece 60", 40# @ 28" Bear Super Kodiak recurve bow from a distance of about 10'.
My first big game was a smaller whitetail buck about 6 or 7 years ago, can't remember my actual first critter. Like BWD I didn't harvest them, just killed them.
I can't say!!! Our Department of Natural Resources up here is so pathetic that if I mentioned shooting a songbird 30 years ago when I was 6 they'd likely be at my door today issuing me a fine.
That said, my 1st big game kill was a cinnamon colored black bear when I was 14 or 15. I killed him with a 55# Mamba and home made cedar arrows. Hit him in the spine with the 1st shot (trying to drive an arrow down through his back from a treestand) and then emptied my quiver after that. Funny thing was, my quiver held 8 arrows! It looked like a war zone.
Pushing 20 years ago now, a 300#+ (bottomed out a 300# scale) black bear in Quebec. First animal with a stick bow was also my first animal to scocre enough for P&Y....19 2/16". Needless to say that after that I was hooked! 55# Widow MAIII with a 600 gr. 2219 with a Magnus II with the bleeder blade. Less than 50 yard recovery with a tremendous blood trail. Mike
Here's a pic of the rug with my old MOAB, not the bow I took the bear with. Mike
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b99/mule157/DSC00473.jpg)
After seeing the 1st post by Hunter709, I guess mine would either be a carp or a gar with a borrowed Indian Archery recurve, but I have always considered it to a raccoon with a Ben Pearson Cougar.
I was using an electic trolling motor when I shot the fish, some may not consider that a traditional kill.
I just took up trad archery last March and killed a 8 pointer last fall and i thought that was my first trad kill.
Go back 32yrs and for Christmas that year my Grandmother bought me a recurve and 3 arrows.
About 2 weeks later i shot and killed a squirell and my Granny helped me clean that little critter and she fried it for me that night.
As i type this i have a huge smile on my face because every time i stepped out her door those squirells would head for the next county.
Carp back around 1967. Started bumping off cottontails about that time too...
When I was 15 years young, I harvested this old guy(estimated about 5) on public ground in Western Maryland. Goes to show how bad our herds genetics are, good thing we dont eat them there antlers,lol. I was lucky in the fact that it was the first time I had ever set afoot in the woods as a traditional bowhunter. But I was more than ready to make that perfect quartering away 22 yard shot! The day before I was shooting milk jugs in the air!
(http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae73/Guitararcher/IMG_1413.jpg)
My 1st was a whitetail doe in 1973 with a Redwing hunter, Micro-flite arrow MA-3 broadhead, but I did kill a leghorn chicken with a Pearson bow and woodshaft and Bear razor when I was kid living on the farm, the old man took the belt to me for that kill,
(QUOTE)Manitoba Stickflinger "Hit him in the spine with the 1st shot (trying to drive an arrow down through his back from a treestand) and then emptied my quiver after that. Funny thing was, my quiver held 8 arrows! It looked like a war zone."
That's so hilarious!!! It reminded me of my 1st deer killed with an arrow....( no!!..not gonna say it!)....lol
I had a huge buck walking up the trail that was going to pass directly in front of me at about 5 yds, in front of him are two(2) small bucks.
When I say small, picture in your mind a couple of fawns with spots almost but not quite faded off.
I just knew I couldn't kill that big buck because my heart couldn't take it.
I was standing on an old tree crotch board stand made out of an oak board cut in half and put together in the middle with a large gate hinge. The ends were "V" notched with the blades off of a hay sickle attached so they made the point in the center that stuck into the tree when pushed into it by the pressure of stepping onto the board. Safety harness?.... What's a safety harness...lol They hadn't been thought of back then.
Crude? Yes!
Effective? Yes!
Safe? Not even close!...lol
I digress.. back to the story.
I didn't want to feel like a complete failure so I decided to shoot at one of the small boys before I fell out of the tree.
I just needed to get the bow out of my hands.
I took the shot spining the little buck and running off the monster.
I think I must have gone blank because everything up to the next conscious thought was blurred. As my mind started clearing up I was trying to turn the deer over and it wouldn't roll over. I was puzzled. I could see my arrow sticking out of his back and there was enough of it visible that I knew it hadn't gone thru the bottom of the deer and yet it was obvious that the deer was stuck to the ground by something. I put down my bow and using both hands I managed to get it turned over. I became even more puzzled at that point because I saw what was left of a broken arrow sticking out of the deer and the other half poking out of the ground. "What the HEll!" came out of my mouth. I grabbed the end in the deer and pulled to reveal the fletching.. my fletching!!!!
I had trained myself to go onto auto pilot shooting mode and in the excitement of everything I had actually shot twice without realizing it. That's correct..no conscious memory of the second shot.
BTW this was the smallest deer I've ever taken but being my 1st it didn't matter that I could put all 4 feet together and pack it out like a 6 pack..lol No! It wasn't even field dressed...lol
I think it was cottontail with the old Ben Person Power Jet Bow about 25 years ago. It might have been one of the thousand parie dogs on my wyoming front lawn.
bunny when I was 10...but it was self-defense.
Mudd thats funny! :biglaugh: :biglaugh:
Use take a high heaven(sumac tree) and string it w/ fishing line or kite string and get a stick of goldenrod for a arro and tear spring peepers UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry about the lack of a shirt, this was in the early stages of deer hunting before the wife got used to deer blood on clothes and riding home in the car, LOL!
This button buck was my first traditional harvest and was also only the second deer I had taken up to that point.
My wife dropped me off on public land at 5:30am a couple days into the early October bow season. I spent all day still hunting and checking out the land.
I decided to head for a corn field right before dark. As deer began making their way from the oaks to the corn, this guy ran down the corn rows with a few doe. I had deer all around me and was trying hard to stay undetected.
I was shaking really bad, but was able to stand up and shoot my 1976 50# Bear Black Panther Hunter. I missed low but he just stood there. The second cedar arrow buried up to the fletch and I was standing there in shock. Everything happened less than 15yds in front of my face.
I walked into the tan colored corn stalks and found my arrows. Then the most perfect blood trail you could ask for, the corn was painted crimson for 30yds and a white belly could easily be seen.
Still one of my most favorite hunts.
(http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g128/ad2877/Harvests/firsttraddeer.jpg)
11 points
Adcock pre-ACS TD longbow
52# draw, 500 gr arrows, 3 blade Thunderheads
18 yard shot - double lung - 75 yard recovery
(http://i48.tinypic.com/2cnhvn4.jpg)
my first trad kill was a rockchuck/ground squirrel about 6 or 7 years ago. My first big game was an 80# dressed weight sow hog I killed with my Bear Montana longbow in CA back in 2006.
Tree Rat 1957 first deer was a Doe in 1963.. Man I am getting OLD..
Mudd,
That's a good story, I'm glad I didn't think about the hay sickle blades, but it probably would have been better than old road signs all over the woods.
First big game was a whitetail spike buck, around 1977, taken with a Shakespeare Silver Sovereign recurve, 45# draw, and aluminum arrows with Bear razorheads. Bowhunted small game and fish as a kid, not sure what was first. Probably a frog or lizard.
About the summer of '63 as a kid at the Fort Worth Museum of Natural History I saw a Native American diorama with what must have been a short Comanche horse bow. I thought "I can make one of those", and went down to the Trinity River bottoms and cut a pecan limb and started whittling. The limb was green of course, and I remember weighing the bow limbs down with strings and books to make the right looking curve to match that museum bow. I now know I put at least 4" of set in it before I even shot it! I used that bow and mis-matched arrows I got from who knows where all through High School. Like many others have said, I chased Br'er Rabbit all over the Trinity bottoms as a teen. And hearing so many others mention it, I think those cottontails taught a lot of us to be traditional bowhunters. I still have that little 46 year old pecan stick with its outrageous set and pin knots all along the back. Bill Gates himself couldn't afford to buy it from me.
First big game was a whitetail spike buck, around 1977, taken with a Shakespeare Silver Sovereign recurve, 45# draw, and aluminum arrows with Bear razorheads. Bowhunted small game and fish as a kid in the '50's and early '60's, not sure what was first. Probably a frog or lizard.
http://www.ifish.net/gallery/data/500/blcaktail_bow_mule_deer.jpg
Last year, first year of traditional hunting! East Hebo, Oregon. Blacktail Bow from Norm Johnson in Reedsport, OR
Told myself that I'd shoot the first legal, ethical shot...turned out to be a Spoon and Crockpot spike buck!
Brad
27yard perfect double lung pass through. Missed him at 6 yards first!!!! :rolleyes:
Then refocused when he stopped trotting, broadside and made a perfect shot. The coolest part was that he ran about 80 yards to the other side of a draw we were hunting and fell right in front of my Dad who let out a big "WOOOHOOOOO" in the quite woods. Good times!
(http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af295/WJCook/RecurveBuck11-71.jpg)
Oh, Bear Grizzly (don't know the year) 50#, with CX Terminators 45/60's, 100 grain inserts and 100 grain 2-blade Magnus.
a robin 46 years ago with a solid fiberglas 35 lb. Ben Pearson recurve and a wood arrow at about 15 yards
Still working on it, I'll be sure to drag out the story in another post!
My avatar. So far, I have taken 3 cottontails, and one 4 point whitetail with traditional gear. More to come...lol.
Hard to remember the order since it happened 45 years ago but it went something like this:
First kills-mice, frogs, snakes, chipmunks, squirrels, sparrows, grackles, and a lot of other stuff that flew, ran, walked, hopped, crawled, or moved.
First notable "meal worthy" kill-ruffed grouse
1973 or 1974 A mule deer buck that was bedded below me in the trees. I had nearly emptied my quiver earlier. Had one arrow left and got him. Was shooting a Herters Stika 65# recurve and fiberglass shafts and Bear Broadheads.
Got my first recurve when I turned 12. First kill was a chipmunk. That was quite a while ago...
Great stories! Great thread Earl!
Mudd....glad you had those gate hinges the right way. I can just see you stepping on the stand and it folding as if you were becoming the page of a book.
Grackle. Center punched at 20 yards.
if i remember right, it was a chipmunk in about 1995. just dabbled in trad back then. sice then i think ive got 5-6 chipmunks, 2 squirles, and a opposum..
i didnt hunt deer till this year.no shots. oh well maybe 2010 will be the year.
gaff
Thanks to all who have posted, I am thouroghly enjoying all the pictures, stories and memories. I especially got a kick from the stories of youngsters that got a whoopin for their first trad kill. Keep the stories coming. Earl
8 point whitetail the first day of the PA archery season, 1975.
my first was a tasty doe.
Started in 1965-66....my first kill will be the next one........been along road with many turns!!
If i remember it was a hare,pretty far away,a shoot difficult also with my compounds.
Cottontail in 1948 .
Bullfrog, 30 years ago, with a Bear Kodiac Mag that now hangs over my son's bed.
(http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c318/b1r9i6a6n/Recurvebuck9pt7.jpg)
Sept 17, 2008. My first and only trad kill...so far. Bear Super Kodiak, 60", 56@31.
I might as well tell the story too. I was in my climber at my favorite hunting spot. Two bucks came walking across a small field. The larger 8pt was in the lead. At 25 yards or so, he turned and walked away. The second buck, (this one) walked to within 18 yards. He was very slightly quartering towards me. I drew and sent the arrow on it's way. The arrow zipped right through, and I thought, OH CRAP...I hit gut shot him. He ran 15 yards and stopped. Luckily for me, he ran across from left to right, and was now only 15 yards from me. I already had another arrow nocked and sent it through both lungs. He ran and crashed about 75 yards or so. I was ecstatic, not only because I killed him, but how fortunate I was to get a second arrow into him, and not lose him.
A Squirrel. About 5 years ago I was on first Hog hunt with a bow. My Brother in Law was hunting with a 22 Mag. I had an old old Ben Pearson recurve. He was shooting at a supirrel with his 22 Mag and couldn't hit it. I ask him to let me try a shot with my bow. After some laughing at me he told me to go ahead and shoot. I pulled up never thinking I would hit anything. That Squirrel floped out of the tree and I almost fainted. The luckyest shot I eaver made. My Brother In Law said he would never question my bow hunting again. I got a 150lb hog later the same day. That was not a lucky shot as I was only about 10 yards from it.
Cottontail rabbit for me. I got a bow and arrow set for Christmas 43 years ago along with a bale of hay for a target butt. A week later I talked my dad into taking me out hunting. I don't know who was more surprised. Him, me, or the rabbit.
I am 54 years old now and I still have that bow.
Dennis
Bullfrogs around the edge of the pond with a fiberglass recurve when I was 6 (35 yrs ago) Good Times! :archer:
5 point whitetail, walking at 6 yards. I can still remember the feeling that night. October 31, 2004
opossum, on the back deck eating the cats food
A squirrel in my back yard with my fiberglass Stemmler Recurve when I was about 10. Afer that It was either a squirrel or carp about another 10 years later with my Bear.
Mine first two were some canned hunt "farm animals" on an exotics hunt in TX. One of which is shown on my profile picture.
Since that time, I've graduated to primarily "fair chase" type hunts and harvested elk, hogs, deer, etc. I've met a lot of great trad guys along the way. It's all good!
1956 sparrow with a bent tree limb and a 25 cent arrow.Boy are you guys spoiled.LOL
Raccoon that was strolling around in broad daylight and about to head into my neighbors yard they've always got their dog out, and he runs right up to anything). Took him in the eye with a #50 Bear Grizzly and a 2317 aluminum arrow
1962-63
A field mouse that happened to run in to the point of my arrow as I was shooting in to the hill along the side of my house.
The bow and arrow was from the Indian Brave Archery set you could buy at any 5&10 at the time. IT had a real point and feathers on it too. not those cussed suction cup things.
1962-63
A field mouse that happened to run in to the point of my arrow as I was shooting in to the hill along the side of my house.
The bow and arrow was from the Indian Brave Archery set you could buy at any 5&10 at the time. IT had a real point and feathers on it too. not those cussed suction cup things.
Blue Jay 50 ft up in a water oak. 30 lb fiberglass bow. 1964, age 11.
I built my first self bow and took a decent 7 point with it the same year, 2008. Dont have a picture handy sorry.
A 50# button buck in dec 2004.That was actually my first bowkill after 13 years of bow hunting(actually 4 of them were in the Marines,and I didn't hunt during those years...the others I was still a stupid teenager that didn't understand if you sit still at key times,the deer come to you ;) ).
I did it with my dad's first bow,a 45# bear grizzly.
My First Trad. kill was a 250Lb. Black Bear and on the same evening i was blessed with a nice whitetail my 1st with Trad. bow also.
Chad T
My first is my avatar picture from just 2 1/2 years ago. I had hunted years with a compound, but this was literally less than 20 minutes into my first time in a stand with a traditional bow. Nice doe with a youngster came in almost exactly as I had planned. Broadside at 17 yards, she was nervous but I worked up the gumption to let my first longbow hunting arrow fly at an animal without the aid of sights. Saw here jump and watched the arrow fly out of her. I thought I had a horrible hit with no penetration and felt aweful for ever thinking that a 43# longbow was going to work out.
I got down to recover my arrow, expecting to find the results of a flesh wound, but suddenly it was tears of joy and amazement when I found serious blood. I knew instantly she had gone down fast. I nearly jogged the 80 yards of gory blood trail and there she was with a text book double lung on the spot I had aimed. My arrow penetrated to the off rib and bounced back and she had kicked it out with her leg on the jump.
I was made a firm believer in trad gear that day.
Age 13. A big Warren County Doe. Ben Pearson Mustang. 64" 45 lb @ 28. Easton Gamegetter II with Wasp BH.
Greenie
Some kinda snake last July with a 45# Bear Black Bear was stump shooting missed my stump and the arrow went way back in the weeds I said "I'll never find that arrow" went looking and found it a few yards behind the stump with a snake on the end of it..If it woulden't have happened tome I woulden't have believed it
I remember it like it was yesterday! It was a Ground Hog at 15 Yds. square in the Boiler Room!
For me it was a button buck...I thought it was a big ole doe... I shot it in Missouri on the first day of my hunt there about 7 or 8 years ago. My second was his twin brother about a minute later.
I quickly learned the difference between a Florida doe and a Missouri button buck.
I was 12 years old in 1974 and took a groundhog. Killed about 5 that summer, and the greenhouse owner paid me $5 a head.
1959-Cottontail
Hap
A coon in the hen house with the last self bow my Great Grandfather ever made,1975
mule deer doe 1970
First and only trad kill so far is a squirrel prob two month's ago 16 yaers old a couple week's after I missed a 8 point buck. :biglaugh:
My first was a cow elk in 2002. Used a longbow and a cedar arrow that I made. Hooked for life.
These are great stories please keep them comming.
Killed a watersnake about 1956 or so. Took several shots as I remember. I was about 8 years old at the time.
John
A half frozen pheasant around '64. Shot him with an old fiberglass bow from Mac's Archery, and a 19 cent wooden arrow from a Badger Paint hardware store.
Someone made me a bow from a lilac tree. A morning dove when I was five with a bodkin broadhead off the neighbors picket fence, we cooked and ate it. I shot that bow for four years and added rabbits and ground squirrels before it broke.
1969 - Button buck that I thought was a doe. I was maybe 18 feet up on a wooden stand nailed in the crotch of an oak tree at Quantico MCB, VA. Shot him with a 48lb Shakespeare Necheda (still have it) and a Herter's aluminum arrow with Bear Razorhead. Funny, I still have some of those arrows and I spine tested them recently and they showed 73 lbs. All I know is they flew like darts for me back then. Wish I could shoot as well now as I did when I was 15!
my first trad kill was a doe i missed her three times opening morning and was so frustrated i almost went back to my wheelie bow which my friend talked me out of.i shot her the next morning with my longbow and my friend saw me shoot her he was coming to get me and saw her standing 8 yds. in front of me looked up in my tree and i was drawing on her.it was something we will never forget.been totally trad since that day.
squirrel.
My first trad kill was a ground hog and then a blue grouse.
BUT this was my first big game animal (well small black bear everyone kids me that I shot a black lab).
(http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg163/jerbearyukon/bear.jpg)
I was sheep hunting and this bear wouldn't leave our camp....we tried everything...he was hungry and a problem.
I shot him at 12 yards and just when I released he turned his body and his head - the arrow went in the back of his jaw and straight into his brain.
He rolled into the creek and NEVER MOVED.
I was just shaking...I never saw the shot...I was concentrating on the spot so hard I never saw the arrow.
I knew he moved but it was a blurr and about 15 minutes to dark.
No shotgun in camp so I wasn't going to sleep with him around it.
When we got the lantern and fetched him I saw the arrow and couldn't believe I hit him where I hit him.....I would never aim there, but boy he went quick.
that's how I got my handle Jer Bear.
Jer Bear
'07 Coyote
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/hunting/1stTRADkill.jpg)
First anything
(http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg177/Joe-Mart/DSCF1920.jpg)
Bear Super K 65@28
First big game
(http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg177/Joe-Mart/P1000205.jpg)
Striker TDR 53@25
BEN - Coyote is your first WOW - those are usually pretty hard to get.
What's your secret young fella
Jer Bear
mine was a squirrel about 5 years ago.
My first critter bagged with a recurve was a ground hog about 40 years ago. My first big game animal was a button buck back in 1991. :thumbsup: :archer:
First living thin I ever shot was a pear in a tree about 30 years ago. My kid arrow stuck in it and didn't make it all the way through. I had to wait until the tree dropped it's fruit for me to get my arrow back. After that it was a frog.
My first was a Bullfrog in an old stock pond with a borrowed Bear Recurve probally 35-40 yrs ago. My how time flies!!!
QuoteOriginally posted by Jerry Wald:
BEN - Coyote is your first WOW - those are usually pretty hard to get.
What's your secret young fella
Jer Bear
They are a sucker for the squeaking sound you make kissing into the side of your fist----has worked for 3 so far: only 1 with trad bow though. :bigsmyl:
One of my aunts tame geese at about 40yds. while it was walking with a twine string and a willow stick. Best shot I have ever made. It was about 45 yrs. ago and boy did I ever get a licking!!! Shot alot of arrows since then but have never made a better shot, killed it DEAD..
I shot a black bird with a youth longbow when I was 6 or 7 years old. Got in a heap of trouble over that little stunt.
First "real" kill was a 90# doe.
My first trad kill was a button buck taken from the ground two years ago. The shot ended up being about 8 feet.
In 2006 when I was 12 at 19 yards double lung with my Black Widow PRS with Bear Razorheads.
(http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af311/TraditionalBowman/deer2-2.jpg)
Does a 2x4 stud hiding behind some sheetrock count? Must have peeked out just as my arrow got there.
A cottontail when I was in the 7th grade with a little wooden bow and an arrow with a point I whittled on it. I was hooked then.
gobbler
My first trad animal was a corsican ram at 20yds.
(http://i579.photobucket.com/albums/ss239/archeryrules/img027-1.jpg)
Bisch
I shot a doe in 1972 with a Bingham recurve that I finished. Still have the bow. Haven't shot it in a long time. Don't have a picture. Gary
My first was a groundhog. More years ago than I can remember.
I should have said it was my first traditional big game. I shot a black bird with a fiberglass recurve in 1965. Gary
(http://i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy231/927waters/groundhog2.jpg)
lets try this again. not my first but my first with my Samick red stag 50@28 purchased from fellow tradganger George D. Stout. shot him underneath one of my grandpas old John Deere B's just before he got into his little hole in the straw bales in the barn.
It was a gobbler for me! Sorry for the bad pic :(
(http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e175/Wapiti1/DSC00329_00.jpg)
My first was a muley doe @ 4yrds. with my bear supermag 55lbs.@28 sept. 2009. and I'm not stopping there! :bigsmyl:
Turkey. Delaware's first by stick bow.
my first was a field mouse 20 years ago this summer. i remember it like it was yesterday. my dad had just finished bush hogging the pasture behind the house, and i could see the mice running everywhere. the final shot was about 5' with an old red fiberglass youth bow.
Mine was a carp last summer.
My first deer with trad bow was in '73 spike buck 50#super kodiak micro flite arrow bear greenie b-head.17yrs old at the time.out of a baker tree stand. Funny thing was an eight point buck wascloser than the spike but I didn't see him until after I shot. Deer continue to school me! I have used it well over the years!-----------------------------------------------------------
Black Widow64" 68#@31 ma111
Black Widow 62"65#@30psa11
Black Widow62" 66@30 ma11
Awesome shots, guys! Impressive!
My first traditional kill was a 2009 doe (My 1st all trad season). I couldn't have been happier, when it happened. I'd set a couple buddies up in another spot....and they got to go with me on the recovery. 17yd shot. 35yd recovery.
(http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m314/SBGobblers/tradgang%20photos/1sttraddeer.jpg)
(http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c85/Got2strum/Billys8pointdeer9-30-06013.jpg)
A poor squirrel in 1967. Don't remember yardage but he popped up on a log and I shot him with a 43# Bear Grizzly and Bear cedar arrows with field point. Hit the squirrel in the eye and the arrow was stuck halfway through his head like Steve Martin.
I started trad hunting 2 years ago so I vividly remember my first, and only, but hopefully not last harvest. 2 Nov 09 About 10th hunt, second time with deer within range, first time with a shot opportunity. Made good enough shot. So far, 1 for 1. I know that succcess rate will not last, but will see how long I can keep the streak alive :D (http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af241/krm367/trad/avatar-1.jpg)
A possum about 54 years ago when I was 8. My dad sold the bow when I was in my teens. A few years back I found the bow - a friend (who I met in 1985 had picked it up at a pawn shop years before. It's the same bow because the 'notch' for the possum is still there. Sometimes it's really a small world.
Craig
A carp also in 67 or 68 with a 25 lb. fiber glass bow. Shot in the mighty Mullet river near my home in Plymouth,Wi.
Lost treasures.
We've all had them. There was that bow that you traded away; it shot very well but a "better" bow came along or maybe you needed more room in the den. So you sold it, only to regret it years later.
There are those bows that you keep as wall hangers because they have a special meaning, like the first self bow you made or the bow that was given to you by that Old Fart bow hunter you so highly respect. Then there are those that you wanted to keep, but for some awful reason, the bow mysteriously disappeared.
I was 9 years old and we had just moved to the farm. This was South Jersey, 1974, and there was not a significant deer population, but a rather healthy number of rabbits and pheasants. I would shoot my Fred Bear red fiberglass bow at an old chair in the back yard. Life was good. One afternoon, while enjoying a day of chair shooting, my uncle Eddie came over to pay a visit. He sat there watching me and, when I was done, asked to look at my bow. He commented that it was a good bow, for fiberglass. But, if I was in the market for a new bow, he may just have one collecting dust somewhere. Well, when I heard this, I was all smiles.
A short time later he returned with a long lemonwood bow that had recurved limb tips. He explained that his uncle had made this bow for my mother when she was in high school. When my mother saw the bow, she told me how she used to take it to school via the bus and shoot high school archery.
I put a new string on it and ventured down to what use to be McCrory's and bought up a mess of arrows, a snap-on quiver with a cheap plastic hood, and I started shooting. I practiced all summer and fall, just waiting for small game season to start.
First day of small games season, 1975, a bit chilly and I went hunting. Ventured down past the cornfields, crossed the road and hit the woods across from Murphy's farm. I passed a few shotgun hunters and they all but chuckled when they saw my bow. It was longer than I was tall.
I started hitting the thickets. I'd sneak up on them, look into them, and see if I could find a sitting rabbit. After a few hours, my stalking skills started to get relaxed and I was just not as quiet or all that sneaky now. Then, all of a sudden, the whole woods exploded as a big old cottontail jumped up and started to run. He ran right in front of me. I had already drawn, anchored, aimed and released. The arrow flew from the lemonwood bow and the rabbit started tumbling, head over heels. I trailed him for about 20 feet and found my trophy.
I promptly gutted him and started for home. While walking down the dirt road I passed the two shotgun hunters who had chuckled. The older man looked astonished and then congratulated me on my hunting skills.
This bow adorned my bedroom wall when I lived on the farm, when I lived in the city, when I moved to California, when I moved back to Baltimore, and then when I moved to Georgia.
When I ran out of room, I took the bow and a few guns to New Jersey to hang on the wall of my grandfathers den.
The bow has since vanished, but it's still alive in my memories.
FVR published TBG
My first trad kill was in 1972 it was a small spike buck with a 45lb Bear bow with a Bear broadhead
Bout a 70lb. hog back in 1965 with a #48 Cheetah Standard recurve made by American Archery. Snuck up on her feeding in millet field in Ft. Stewart, Ga. Shot it with 125gr. Bear broadhead with the bleeder blade insert.
My first trad kill was my sisters barbie doll,Ken tried to defend her but he became my second(not kidden got a serious a$$ whip-en for it).After that it was frogs till I got older,Then the fun began. :archer:
Mine was a whitetail doe with an original ACS longbow. I had just got it and prior to the trip I'd been shooting a compound. I started shooting my longbow about a week before leaving, and dedicated a huge amount of time to becoming accurate enough with it within 15 yards. I only had two arrows, and had dropped my first out of the stand. I was about to spend my last on a rabbit, as the sun was setting, and just as I was about to draw I saw her coming out of the corner of my eye. I was very excited and when the shot came it seemed like I blacked out for a split second...it wasn't a choice shot but took out the kidneys and she was down within 10 seconds. A great memory for me :D
Craig
Fox squirrel in the top of an oak tree in 1970. Mike in Ohio
A young doe with a Bear Grizzly or Super Kodiak about 35 or so years ago.
Fox squirrel out of a mulberry tree about 1968
Mine was a carp about 30 years ago. Maybe that is why I still enjoy bow fishing so much.
March of 2009
60" predator
29.5 MFX Classic
WW Broadheads
(http://i811.photobucket.com/albums/zz36/coonbait/18175_100413236658313_1000006891-1.jpg)
A rabbit 40 years ago with my 1965 52" Herters Perfection and micro-flite #7 arrow tipped with a Bear razorhead.
This was November 7, 2007 ... I guess I got lucky, this was the first deer I shot at. Double lung pass through, shot was around 10 yards. He only went 30 yards. I was using a Greatree Deer Master 55#, 125 snuffers and a Beman classic arrow.
(http://i584.photobucket.com/albums/ss285/jcpattee/spike.jpg)
Got a javolina in south Texas. Better than any kill I ever had with training wheels. Sure glad I made the switch.
A Red Squirrel out of a Cedar tree about 1967.
I actually had two...hard to say one was more significant to me than the other.
I shot this buck in 1990. It took me four years to get him and the only time I saw him was when I shot him. He turned out to be a NH State record for a bow (152 7/8") and held that spot for 10 years. Two other bucks have been killed with higher scores but as far as I know they were compound kills.
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a322/Arrowworks/BillsDeerWEB.jpg)
I shot this cow moose the last hour of the last day of the '07 moose season. The sense of accomplishment was one of the most gratifying of my hunting career.
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a322/Arrowworks/BillsMoose.jpg)
Ooooopppppssss! I misread the title of the post. I thought it said "finest" bow kill. My first bow kill was actually a chipmunk I shot when I was 13 back in 1956.
I killed this buck one week after I killed my first animal with trad back in 1997. My first was a small doe but I can't find pictures of her right away.
62" MAB Black Widow TD
2314 XX75s
(http://i547.photobucket.com/albums/hh472/ishoot4thrills/scan0005.jpg)
First trad bow kill was a blackbird when I was eight. First big game kill was a caribou in Alaska many years later...
todd
My first traditional kill was a feral cat out behind the shop. Perfect shot behind the shoulder, I don't remember drawing or releasing just the arrow punching in right behind the shoulder.
rabbit, about 30 years ago, first deer about 15 years ago.
Mule deer doe - Douglas Pass, Colorado. Long time ago.
Had to think long and hard on this because it was so long ago, it was a mourning dove with an old Howatt Cavalier.
My first trad kill was a grey squirrel. My second trad kill was a 10 point buck, which was also my first deer ever - remember, it's better to be lucky than good. Both were taken with a 45# Ben Pearson gamester recurve in the early 70's. I still have that bow.