Chuck Deshler, Kevin Halverson and myself were invite to the Red Arrow Hunt Club bt Treedancer(George Marsh) for a weekend of self bow hunting. George owns both farmland and hunting property. The Red Arrow lodge is where the hunt began. We had the run of 120 acres of awesome whitetail property with some of the finest accomadations.
what a great weekend in a great northern michigan deer camp
id like to thank treedancer for havin us up
for the weekend
Got pics fellas?
Here's the bows we brought for the challenge. (http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa7/owlbait/IMG_0150.jpg)
The cabin.
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa7/owlbait/IMG_0157.jpg)
owlbait's first self bow kill.
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa7/owlbait/IMG_0153.jpg)
I was wearing my TwoTracks vest, Mrs. Owlbait custom cotton pullover :) and used a 160 grain Grizzly Kodiak and my Safari Arrowmaster quiver.
George put this deer pole in just before we arrived. I was happy to be the first to hang one from it! :D
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa7/owlbait/IMG_0169.jpg)
Red Arrow ranks right up there with any hunting camp. I think most would agree? ;) :p (http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa7/owlbait/IMG_0175.jpg)
That is AWESOME!
Congratulations Mike. Those selfbows are another level I do not think I will make it to.
Tell George when he is not busy he can just drop one of those cabins over to Ocqueoc Lake for me ;)
Looks like a great time :thumbsup:
(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa7/owlbait/IMG_0166.jpg)
Mike congrats on your accomplishment,nice deer. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Thanks Larry. What a rush! I don't think I will stop smiling for a good long while. I had a lot of help from a bunch of tradgang members to get ready for this hunt and to just make it happen. I was lucky to share the weekend with Kevin Halverson, Chuck Deshler, and George Marsh, and several sponsors helped me get my gear hunt ready!
If it was me Mike I think I'd be riding that high for quite awhile,again congrats on a nice deer.
Now don't forget, the second group picture was "slightly" altered. :readit: ;)
It's amazing how those antlers just appeared out of the blue. :biglaugh:
Congrats Mike! Looks like a ggod time was had by all. :thumbsup:
Thanks Rick. Absolutely the best weekend hunt that I can remember, even with some crazy weather mixed in.
We sure did have a great time. Thanks be to Treedancer for the weekend. He is a great host and has a beautiful cabin setting in some wonderful Michigan woodland. I was blessed to be there with my friends for the weekend.
Fridays hunt was cut short due to some hard rain.
We didn't hunt long but we did get to set in the cabin and eat chili and talk till late. You can see some of the cabin in the picture with all of the bows. We "Ruffed it" pretty good.
Mike was a buck magnet on Saturday morning,no shot fired. Then he and Kevin went to the farm to set some "Hot" stands that did not disappoint.
While Kevin and Mike went to the farm, George,his son Kelly and myself stayed at the camp and saw a dozen and a half deer between the three of us.
This trip began back in the late winter early spring.
I will finish that part of the story in the morning. The rack is calling.
Congrats on the nice doe Mike.
Thank you again(and again) to The Marsh Family for showing us a great time.
CTT
Congrats Mike! That is awesome!
Benjy
Congrats....What a awsome looking place....
:notworthy: :notworthy:
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: Good for you Mike..Congrats on a fine hunt.
:thumbsup:
Good job Mike. I remember you working on that self bow with Pearl Drums at Marshall last spring. You are a member of a club with just a few members.
That looks like a great hunting camp. Thanks for showing us. Congrats on a good primitive hunt.
Fantastic looking camp, well done!
Way to go Mike!! congrats!!
Nice work Mike! Glad to see the bow kill more than foam. Congrats.
-Dan
You see, We have a primitive shoot in Marshall Michigan each Memorial day weekend.
Mike and Kevin Came down and brought some bows, boards and such with them.
Kevin had started on some bows and had some good fun getting his shooters made over the spring and summer months.
Mikes bow was made about 8 years prior but was to heavy for the ole boy and a couple of tradgangers helped him out with a do over. This is the thread that explaines what went down in Marshall that weekend in May.
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=008534
The boys got ate up with bow making and that got me to thinking about a wood bow hunt for the fall.
I was all the time on the emails and PMs with Mike and Kevin(mostly Mike) answering questions and such.
So I called my Buddy George and asked if he would like to host a "Primitive Hunt" this fall.
He was on it like a duck on a Junebug.
The bow recieved attention all through the summer.
We wanted to use primitive arrows as well and that took some time to get ready. I had planned to make up some cane/bamboo shafts but time never seemed to become available for that.
Kevin and Mike knocked out some wild wood arrows, cane arrows and bamboo arrows. Some worked better than others but in the end it was ceder that was used by all.
One of the best perks that comes from having Kevin as a friend is that he is a very good knife maker. He knows how to forge steel and heat treat things to maitain the cutting edge.
If you have been to my booth at the shows you have seen Kevins Knives for sale. I cannot keep them on the table for very long. They are very nice and hold a tremendous edge.
He went to work on some tradepoints and started to show me some pics over the summer. I was really digging the points he was showing me.
At Comptons this year,He gifted me some steel from an old sawmill blade. I was planning to craft my own points from it,but as with most of my projects this year, time ran out.
This is a thread of Kevins donation to St.Jude
http://auction1.tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=167;t=000051#000000
The post Lady pulled into the drive way one day and Handed me a package from Kevin. Inside I found 6 wonderful points. Ready to mount and razor sharp.
A day or two prior, Mike sent a box that had three matching arrows that he had put together.
A simple hickory stained ceder shaft fletched with 3 natural turkey feathers sporting a P/Y cut.
I fixed the trade points to the shafts and was ready to find a bow to use for the hunt.
The three shafts from Mike as well as An English arrow that would fly well for me.
(http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/twotracks/P1020566.jpg)
(http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/twotracks/P1020567.jpg)
I can't take credit for the arrows, I got those from Roger Crow. I gifted them to Kevin, Chuck, and George :) I wanted to hunt with my bamboo but I developed a problem with my arrows coming off the shelf and the cedar seemed to be the most consistent arrows I had. So that was the deciding factor. Thanks for all the congratulations fellas. Things came together for me this time, and I'm still smiling! :D
Your "RAHC" cabin looks like an ideal place to enjoy your hunt from George. Congrats to all.
Had a great time at our hunt and congratulations to Mike for winning the Primitive Hunt challenge. Thank you Mike for the beautiful arrows, thank you Kevin for the flat out awesome knife and thank you Chuck for the one of a kind flat bow. (Guys, check out Mike's picture of our bows. The flat bow is the one in the middle.) Next year for sure. George
That must mean owlbait got a second invitation! This is just the greatest week ever!! :bigsmyl:
Dang, hate that I missed this thread the first time around. Looks like a great group of bows and folks, but don't think I will be making my own bows anytime soon. Ver, ver nice Mr. owlbait. :goldtooth:
And good to see Kevin's talents on display. I hate to report that his knife he made me did draw blood, but that it was the first time I ever stabbed myself (in the arm) - I violated the cardinal rule of cutting things and was in a hurry. And yes that bastard was sharp and wouldn't stop bleeding and will leave a mark for years. :biglaugh:
Great job :thumbsup:
Dang Limbender, BECAREFUL MAN. Hope all is OK with you. Just think up some cool story to tell in camp..."hey! I got the scar to prove it!!!"
Kevin does good work,
(http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt12/twotracks/P1020572.jpg)
The spalted ash on top is my go-to knife.
some of the others are stock knives. The bottom Knife is a gift from Kevins son,an up and coming knife maker. I plan to work it over in the field SOON :pray:
I was lucky enough to win the Primitive Knife that Kevin put up for the Challenge. Cool deer bone handle! AND SHARP!
Is it to early to plan for this fall? Or Spring?
gobble gobble.
this was a fun trip.
thanks again Treedancer!
Never to early! Chuck.
Let me know when you want to come for turkey.
Then we will sit around the campfire and plan our deer hunt.
We have to get in a bow building weekend or two also.
George
Oh yes, Thanks for the reminder.
I need to get this worked out soon!
Chips will fly this weekend I guess.
Thanks George.
CTT