My son Daniel and I just spent Christmas break with some great guys from the Professional Bowhunters Society doing some late season bowhunting. I will be back to fill in more of the details as I have time during this busy first day of the new year, but I am so proud of my son I just had to get this started.
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Daniel made a perfect shot with his TallTines recurve (at -4F I will add). It was his first big game animal, but he was one cool dude and made it look like it was #100 :thumbsup:
Looking forward to the story Steve! Happy New Year! :campfire:
Thats great good shooting,thanks for sharing.Way to go Daniel!!!!
Yeah buddy, been waiting for this one to get started since the text!!
:thumbsup:
That is Great Steve. Congrats to you and Daniel. :clapper:
Congratulations young man. You'll remember that for the rest of your life!!! :notworthy:
Congrats ..Steve and Daniel..will be waiting for the story.... :campfire:
Congratulations Daniel!
Congrats young man. :thumbsup:
Congrats!! :thumbsup:
Great experiences.
Man, I am already getting in trouble for being on the computer when we have people coming over...one more of my favorites as I now have to run to the store:
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congrats , nice bird :thumbsup: :clapper:
Way to go.
:cool:
Both pictures tell the story. Congratulations to both of you!
Happy New Year,
K.C.
Congratulations to both of you! What great pictures! I almost feel cold looking at them!
Bernie Bjorklund
NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin
Way to go Daniel!! Looking forward to the full details on the whole week!
Congratulations Daniel,way to go!
Well done and congrats to both of you! :clapper: :clapper:
How cool is this?.....Way!!....I'm saying...
:archer:
Congrats Daniel!
:clapper: Turkeys are no joke! Congrats on a very fine bird! The first of many I hope
Bill
Wow way to go Daniel and Steve I know you are very proud!
Nice!
Having Steve in bear camp over the last couple of years has allowed me to see the pride he has in Daniel. Father and Son hunts are very special and I know this means a lot to both of you. Congrats Daniel on a great trophy, and to Steve for being a great Dad and role model!
Awesome, congrats to you both!!!!
Congrats Daniel !!!
And good on ya Dad !!! Both of you will never forget that day. Good Stuff.... :archer2:
Congratulations Daniel :clapper: :clapper: :clapper: Looking forward to the story from the both of you. Steve, I'm sure proud is an understatement right now!
Way to go Daniel! Very nice pictures!
Congratulations! Turkeys are tough trargets, he has started off in style.
Way to go steve them are precious moments for sure ..can't wait to capture it with my son...anxious to hear story and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YA!!
Awesome job Steve and Daniel. I am very happy for you guys and how the hunt turned out.
Nathan
Congrats to Daniel on such a hard animal to take with a bow!
Congrats :thumbsup: :campfire: KYArcher
:clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
Congradulations on a Great bird :readit: :notworthy:
Congratulations! Nice shootin!
That is awesome!!!! Congrats to both of you! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Congrats! and that sure looks like allot of track in the snow there!
Awesome congrats! :thumbsup: :clapper:
OK, I am excited now, our guest want to watch the Wolverines play in the Outback Bowl, so I can multi task! Stand by...
Sweet...we are watching the Wolverines as well and playing on Trad Gang! GO BLUE! Awesome photos and great job. Turkeys are my nemesis, still haven't connected. Well done Daniel!!
QuoteOriginally posted by Nate Fikkert:
Awesome job Steve and Daniel. I am very happy for you guys and how the hunt turned out.
Nathan
Nathan, we owe the whole thing to you.
You are a shining example of what makes the Professional Bowhunters Society such a great organization.
Nathan found this great opportunity this summer and called up some of his PBS brothers to share camp.
Nathan was also the guy who said Daniel and I would be hunting side by side, so we should count as one man. That made a Christmas week trip doable for the both of us. The way it worked out there were a bunch of us filling slots due to things coming up and every PBS member that was part of our group welcomed our "team" generously as one when paying for the lease, cabin, food, everything. Class guys are the norm in the PBS!
We would be hunting 900 or so acres in some very famous country in western Wisconsin. This is the first time I have hunted Wisconsin. I was very impressed and plan to do a lot more there! They were very non resident friendly! My deer tag was supposed to be $160. Turns out it was half price and came with two antlerless tags in addition to my either sex tag.
Daniel really lucked out. Until he is 17, we can get him a Jr. Patron NR license. It covers just about everything for hunting and fishing. The backtags that little machine spit out were a 1/2" thick! There were over 16,000 leftover turkey tags for our zone, so we were set for anything.
I also understand that patron license goes until 3/31/13 and that will allow him to pick up a leftover spring turkey tag for $15. We are all over that!
The WI boys told me the fall turkey season has just recently been extended to 12/31. What a great opportunity for families and youth. Either sex, Christmas break opportunities for plentiful and patternable turkeys.
How can you beat this:
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Our first morning was spent getting a lay of the land and driving around the thousands of acres of state land to see if we could find any "hot" sign.
Early afternoon found us back at the farm. After talking it over with the rest of the guys, Daniel and I set off to an area none of us had looked at with our Lone Wolfs on our backs. We checked a field edge, found some activity, then pressed onward and found a nice little "hub" and decided to set up and see what we would see.
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At 15 minutes before shooting time expired, we saw movement from the north. Here comes a half rack 8 point with a doe and twin fawns. The buck and doe ended up at 30 yards and the fawns ended up at 10. None of them were in any danger...I could see the arrow on Daniel's bow dancing up and down about 3"; he was excited!
The fawns ended up in our bootprints and got nervous taking the whole group up the ridge.
Congrat's on the turkey. Looking forward to the rest of the story.
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
QuoteOriginally posted by Lin Rhea:
Congratulations! Nice shootin!
Lin, I have not ever seen a better shot :goldtooth:
We had a long drive out from Michigan. There were no electronics allowed on the ride. We were able to discuss what was possible during the week. We played out lots of scenarios. We talked about how
THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE ENTIRE TRIP WAS COMING HOME TO MOM AND SIS SAFE! Be careful with bows, arrows, broadheads and knives, and tree stands. They can all kill you or you friends.
I promised my wife many, many years ago I would
NEVER get in a tree without my safety harness. My favorite bear stand at Ryan's is 4' off the ground...I wear my safety harness! Daniel made the same promise and I watched him like the many Bald Eagles we saw from the stand that he was always connected. Nothing is worth getting hurt climbing a tree to hunt, no Boone & Crockett buck, NOTHING. If he got hurt, I would not be able to go on, much less go home, so that was priority #1 and that will never, ever change.
So, we discussed shot placement on both deer and turkey. I guess he actually listened because he drove the Wensel Woodsman Elite thru both wing butts!
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There was 6" of arrow sticking out the off side. Daniel is shooting a 50# @ 28" TallTines. I think he is drawing about 27" now; it seems to change weekly! I do know we have things tuned for a full length 500 FMJ and 250g WW Elite for turkey and Abowyer Brown Bear for deer.
I shot my last buck with a compound the year Daniel was born. He has never shot one and can't understand why anybody would want to :D . He has grown up surrounded by the best bowhunters in the world from all over the country and they have all treated him like a son/grandson. Someday he will realize how blessed he is, right now he just thinks it is normal!
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Awesome shooting. Congrats young man.
Very nice! Congrats
Lots of great lessons on this hunt. On our first morning of scouting we took note of lots of turkeys in a couple fields. We set up on one of these fields and refined our setup over the week, learning something every day ultimately setting up the Double Bull for a high percentage shot.
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Good job! Congratulations!
I was certainly impressed with Daniel's dedication. We hunted turkeys every day till noon or so. We were back out in the tree stands right after lunch till dark. he never wavered and was always rushing me to get ready and get going.
Temps ranged from -7 to 20F. It was -4 when he killed the turkey! We had a Double Bull blind, but no heater. We used Sitka Gear Fanatic jackets and bibs as our outer layer with Sitka Merino wool and traverse layers underneath. We would each put a small chemical hand warmer in the built in muff of the Fanatic jacket and we were warm and cozy no matter how much the cold wind howled.
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Fantastic Daniel.
Nice job little brother!Great pics and story. :thumbsup: It sure looks cold there!
I was on this trip with Steve, Daniel, and Bob Daigle.
Steve is right, it was a great setup by Nathan Fikkert for a late season hunt. Made even better by the recent change in the turkey regulations to extend the season to the end of December.
This allows a terrific opportunity to get the kids out hunting during the Christmas break for deer and turkey. Some people overlook the fall/winter turkey opportunity, and they are missing out on some great hunting. The fall WI license allows one to shoot a tom, jake, or hen. This increases the shot opportunities immensely, and uncomplicates the process of bird selection. And with the snow on the ground concentrating the birds attention on food sources, it doesn't get any better for turkey hunting.
Daniel was a joy in camp, and really entertaining. When older, you forget the caloric intake necessary to fuel a 13 year old. :) But once the furnace was stoked, it was "When are we going to go out??". Enthusiasm such as this is only produced by repetitive exposure to hunting opportunities. Good going Dad and Daniel!
Going back to all the special people in our lives, every so often "packages" show up at our house. "Godfather" Gene and "Uncle" Barry Wensel are two contributors to this phenomenon. This fall, Barry sent Daniel a knife and Daniel planned to gut his first deer with it. He further decided this turkey was more than special enough to break the knife in on.
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We eat what we kill in our house. Turkey is a favorite even my wife will eat. This turkey has some special use ahead of it. Daniel and I have been entering the Compton Chili contest since it started. Daniel won it last year. Daniel has also won the Michigan Longbow Association Chili Contest two years straight. He has gradually taken over making the chili...it started with him watching and me making. Lately all I have done is supplied the wild meat. This year is the passing of the torch. He is doing it ALL now including killing the meat.
Makes me almost cry!
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
congrats!!
More great PBS people. Mike Theis and Bob Daigle were our hunting partners on this trip. I have known Bob for years meeting him in many of Whip's outings and PBS shoots. Meeting and hunting with Mike for the first time was a pleasure. We did not get a lot of camp pics because we were all hunting hard, but this one is classic!
Mike, in his magic and never ending bin of goodies produced a GIANT tub of turkey celebration brownies. I think the adults actually got one or two!
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We did eat good on this trip. Good bowhunters are typically good cooks too :thumbsup:
Wow did I miss out. What a great story and pictures. Looks like the accomodations were alright too. Once again, really happy for you guys. Glad I could get it put together for you all to enjoy:).
Nathan
Congratulations to both Daniel and his proud dad. What a great experience to share. And that's a great shot you made, Daniel.
Wow - what a great story and a TURKEY for his first archery kill?!?!? The critters will start being stacked like cordwood now! Congrats to both of you Daniel and Steve. Great pictures and great story! :thumbsup:
Congrats to both of you on this special day. Daniel I hope this is merely the tip of the iceberg for ya bud.
Congrats!!! Great pics too!!
Daniel congrats on the turkey buddy...what a year you got your first duck and goose this year also!
Daneil is also a crack shot with a shotgun, it must be an instinctive thing! HA!
I've got some awesome turkey reciepes if you need any.
I'm happy for my two friends and very proud of Daniel.
Hang'em Low
George
Good job Daniel and Steve!
Congrats Daniel!!
:thumbsup:
Great pictures , thanks for sharing. Good job. :thumbsup:
Great going Daniel!
Way to go! :clapper: :clapper: :clapper:
awesome.
Daniel called me shortly after pin-wheeling his bird. At first I "assumed" he had shot it in the face with a load of #6s but it didn't take long for me to realize otherwise when he told me his arrow passed through both wind butts! Both dad and son have a lot to be proud of and thankful for. As someone already said, I think we are just seeing the tip of an iceburg here. Street talk has it Daniel was asking about a polar bear hunt now :bigsmyl:
Way to go Daniel!
:clapper:
-Jay
Steve-O.. Steve-O... he's our man... if he can't do it... Daniel CAN! Good job boys. UB
Congrats!
Beautiful bird! Congrats!
Nice job young man.
Great job!! :thumbsup:
:clapper: :clapper:
Nice work.
NICE!! Kid must be a pretty good shot! And thanks for bringing your son up right.
Awesome. Love the pic of your son walking down toward the farm with the bird over his shoulder....classic! Congrats to you both!!
Way to go Danielson!
Steve..congrats to you and to Daniel! Hunting trips shared with your son are the best you'll likely ever have...nice you can share it with us. Great pics too!
Awesome pics and story!
QuoteOriginally posted by Owlgrowler:
NICE!! Kid must be a pretty good shot! And thanks for bringing your son up right.
Yes sir, he is deadly...I was able to show him all the things I do wrong so he has very few bad habits so far ;)
I am glad you all are enjoying the pics and story. Daniel plays football and is in the high school marching band, so Aug thru Nov are pretty tough to get any hunting in. We do what we can and try to give him and his sister as broad of experiences as possible. Hopefully it will make them good citizens.
Well done,thanks for sharing those great pics.
Leland
Ha!! Awesome! Great job man!
Outstanding! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
:clapper:
I wish I was that good!!!!!!
Congrats again, Daniel and Steve!
Congrats!!
This is great...congrats
Awesome!!! Nice job!!
Congrats!
Very cool..
Very Nice Steve you should be very proud
Congrats again to both of you!
Steve, I know your feeling of pride brother :clapper:
Congratulations! :thumbsup:
Steve, there are few things in life that you will ever do that will be more cherished than the time you spend in the trees with your kids. Give your boy a bear hug...time flies, it wont be long and soon that young buck will be draggin his old man out to the woods, thanks for sharing and congrats to both of you!!
Congrates and nice shootin Daniel. Welcome to Wis. both of you. :wavey:
That's excellent Steve. You should be proud. Congrats to you fine young man.
Way to go Daniel!
Steve, it seems like only yesterday when a smaller Daniel said to me, "Ron I like your chili best"
Tell him like Bear Claw said in Jeremiah Johnson, that I said, "You've come far Pilgrim"... :clapper:
Great story! Congrats to both of you!
quote:
Originally posted by Ron LaClair:
Tell him like Bear Claw said in Jeremiah Johnson, that I said, "You've come far Pilgrim"... :thumbsup: I am sure he will seek you out in Kzoo to give you all the minute details and get your opinion on a few turkey chili ingredients.
He has been reading all this with great interest and pride. He is lobbying pretty hard to get registered. I am not sure I am ready to unleash him on the whole "Gang" just yet :D
Great job to the both of you Steve and Daniel. I'm sure that chili is going to be some good eating.
Sherinuff a hunter! Strong work, there sir!
Nice bird, good job!
Congrats!!!
Congrats to your son on the turkey that is a cool accomplishment.
Steve,
That is awesome! Tell him congrats!
Thanks,
Josh
Been waiting for this to get all the way down to page 2, until I offered my congrats to the young man and his dad to bring it back to the top. Really really great. Congrats !
How could i missed this!!! Way to go Daniel! what an accomplishment for you and your Dad! It just starts my year off great. You will be a turkey Pro like your Dad in no time....always stay smokeless on your turkey hunting!! they taste better
Joey, he remembers you well from our Friday night Kzoo dinner :thumbsup: And was chuckling that he helped start out the year good for you too.
He told me the other day, "Dad, hunting turkeys with the bow is a lot more satisfying. I want to do it that way all the time."
I told him he better start carrying more of our stuff!