My first!

Soonerlongbow · October 23, 2012, 10:38:00 AM

Not a biggun but can't eat antlers. I took my first deer with a bow on Sunday! To make it better it was with my Legacy longbow. He was a small fork horn about 110lbs or so.

He surprised me coming in because I thought I would be able to see any approaching animals from far enough away I would have time raise the hood on my bow hunter's ghillie. He came into the feeder around 0720 feeding calmly for a few minutes while I tried to stand unnoticed.

When I finally thought I could stand unseen I failed. He spooked out about 20yds further but uncertain what scared him and with a growling in his belly, back he came. He never noticed me in the tree even with my bare face showing.

After he calmed back down he offered me a 22yd broad side shot. Which, I whiffed right over his back, the green Nockturnal pointing the error of my ways.

While the Legacy is certainly not a high-end stick it is scary quiet, especially when shooting a 630gr Alaskan Griz Stick. Because of this, he still didn't spook very far, about 20 again. Still uncertain about what was going on the young buck again came back to feed.

Now I have a bit of a predicament. My hip quiver is attached to the arm rest of my ladder stand meaning I will have to kneel down to grab another arrow. All the while with a now very alert deer in front of me. Seems God was smiling on me because I some how accomplished this even knocking the arrow, all unseen.

I guess he decided to move to a different food source because he took a couple more bites of corn and pellets then started walking parallel to my stand towards a stand of oak trees. He's even closer now at 15yds, just focus and pick a hair.

But once again he busts me, this time drawing but this time he stops and looks straight up in the tree at me. He spooks a third time in a semi-circle to another part of the trail and stops at 17yds but now I'm at full draw and locked onto his front shoulder.

I completely forgot the basics, anchor point, pick a hair, just went on instinct and let fly. Shot was a bit forward on the right shoulder but missed the bone, burying the 125gr Phantom through the leg, both lungs, the other rib cage and into the opposite leg.

At first I was worried because as he ran off a substantial amount of the 30" shaft was sticking out with the bright green nock blazing away. As he tore away obviously deeply wounded he began to stumble and falter, even plowed a deep furrow in the Oklahoma dirt. Bucky turned off the trail towards the willow thicket jumping into the thick nasty stuff where I lost sight of him.

BigBucksnTrucks · October 23, 2012, 10:46:00 AM

Congrats!!!

wooddamon1 · October 23, 2012, 10:48:00 AM

goldflinger · October 23, 2012, 10:59:00 AM

Awesome, Congrats! It was quite hot Sunday wasn't it. I only managed a 3 hour sit in the morning and did not see a thing.

Soonerlongbow · October 23, 2012, 11:02:00 AM

Still worried about how much penetration I actually got, and didn't hear or see him go down, I began to fret. I waited about 25 min before getting down and took up the trail finding the arrow along the way. It was coated in bright, frothy pink blood with what looked like bits of lung on the shaft.

I walked up to where I thought I saw him enter the thicket scanning the area for any sign. Nothing. Not a drop of blood or hair. Knowing my hunting partner was headed over I backed off meeting them at the gate.

When in doubt back out, so we did. Ninety minutes later we took up the trail, going in where I marked last sight. Nothing again after 20 yards so we went back out to last blood which was a few yards away from the thicket entrance. Thinking I got the entry point wrong we went to the next trail in, searching nearly the entire acre sized thicket to no avail. We backed out to the last blood again both saying we thought we smelled him.

Standing at the last blood half way between the two trails I thought maybe he went into the thick stuff between them. If he did I doubted he could do so without leaving a trace of SOME kind. Taking two steps in that direction I saw hair laying motionless on the other side of a downed willow.

As he jumped over the tree he piled up face first into the dirt in a running position. He was dead before he hit the ground. Total distance traveled was around 75yds.

For a young deer he was surprisingly large for my area of SW OK. Even mature bucks around here average 110-130. He may not be the biggest buck I've killed, not the smallest either, but other than my first rifle deer 20 years ago this was my most proud. I've hunted with a bow since I was 14 and this was my first bow kill. All the more special because it was with my longbow.

I'm so thankful to the Lord for allowing me to do this. Blessed be his name.

DannyBows · October 23, 2012, 11:03:00 AM

Congrats!

Soonerlongbow · October 23, 2012, 11:09:00 AM

Thanks all!

It was quite warm that day, about 68 at sunrise. I thought it was going to be much cooler so I dressed for cooler temps. My father-in-law & brother-in-law finished packaging up my deer after we skinned him and I removed the shoulders and legs. I had to go to work so I'm thankful for his help also. Otherwise I would have let him hang in the barn if had been 40 degrees or so.

Longbowlogan · October 23, 2012, 11:21:00 AM

Awesome! Congrats on your harvest!

mathews8pt · October 23, 2012, 01:58:00 PM

Congrats!

TJK68 · October 23, 2012, 02:03:00 PM

Great Job!!!!

JamesKerr · October 23, 2012, 03:46:00 PM

Nice!

huntingarcher · October 23, 2012, 03:51:00 PM

Heck Yea!!Congrats!!!

Lefty · October 23, 2012, 03:51:00 PM

Congrats! Post up a picture of him if you can.

BBWV · October 23, 2012, 07:28:00 PM

Well Done..Congrads!!!

AWPForester · October 23, 2012, 07:52:00 PM

Congrats. God Bless

moleman · October 23, 2012, 08:23:00 PM

Congrats! Well done!

October 23, 2012, 08:25:00 PM

Congrats!

Bisch

lunchbucket · October 23, 2012, 08:28:00 PM

Congratulations!

far rider · October 23, 2012, 11:37:00 PM

Way ta go!