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2007 – 2008 Hunting Season
October 2007
Well, it looks like I caught up with another one during
our 4 annual club hunt in Tunica WMA.
I have no pictures because the camera was not charged up
but the hunt went like this.
After setting the members up in their areas, Sam, Rookie
and I took the last spots and climbed trees.
Squirrel hunters were all around us until about 9am when
the shooting stopped and the woods settled back down. As you would know it
I had just set down to take a break when I heard
something behind me. I looked over
my left shoulder and saw the rear of a deer moving from
my left to right.
I selected this spot because of the thicket about 30 yards from me
and the very large red oaks scattered about. There was also a
ditch that started near the thicket so I climbed a tree
at the mouth of this ditch and hoped a deer would travel along side while
sneaking back to
his bed. That is
just what happened, so I stood up, turned to my right, cranked the Acadian
Woods Longbow back and let go producing a direct hit on the shoulder, oops.
The 580 grain shaft had no problem driving through the
shoulder, both lungs and out the other side. This cow horn, ~10” buck was in a
hurry and did not stop
to present me a standing still shot however he was only
about 15 yards so my shot was at a very fast walking target. The buck bolted and ran through the cane
thicket. You can
imagine what that sounded like, making lots and lots of noise and the
humors part was he turned towards Rookie and piled
up10 steps from the tree he was in. I had told him the evening before when he
had asked if there were any deer around here that he should see one
tomorrow.
Mike
November 2007
It’s 9:30 am and all is quite again after 3 does just scampered by
with range to shoot. Of course there
was a armadillo scratching around when the deer passed and he did not like
sharing so he hauled it while making lots of noise. The deer did not like the noise either so
they ran. I thought about why I did
not shoot but chose to just watch. I
guess I am not mad at them anymore but started thinking about my buddies
being in Ohio. They will most likely come back with
plenty of stories and deer meet.
Thinking of this encouraged me to take a deer if I was lucky enough
to have that opportunity. Guess
what, a doe some sneaking by within 15 yards of my pearch. The deer stakes tasted good.
Mike
January 2008
Are you a bowhunter that spends most of the season looking for BIG
deer? I am talking about 130+ class
deer. If you are then you can
appreciate the following story. The
ending is, well …………… January 18th at 4:05 I heard a
noise to my right and 25 seconds later…
Sam my hunting buddy and I spend lots of time looking for big tracks during
the off season and between the morning and evening hunts during October, November
and the early part of December. We
find the tracks and just monitor the tracks in the area and try and figure
his patterns. Mark the sightings on
the Topo maps. We look for at least
4 points of reference before zoning
in on an ambush site. We are planning
for the RUT.
This year was no different as we found big tracks. Noted the reference points on the Topo’s
and set up to attempt to catch this big track deer not paying attention to
us while having interest elsewhere.
The track emerged into a full blown 135+ one day when he was seen
slipping through sniffing the ground. Named him Bullwinkle. He was too far to shoot. Several other bucks and plenty of does were
seen in this same area but we chose not to shoot. We did not want to mess up the area.
Let me tell you about the area we are hunting in. There is a very large ridge that runs
East to West. We chose the North
side the ridge and set up on what we figured was a natural funnel. Several ridges tie in together about a
quarter the way down. Any deer that
crossed the creek for about 200 yards would funnel and come by us. The area is very thick with cane, vines
and small saplings. Perfect cover
for those cautious whitetails. To my
left was a long holler that started at the creek and ended at my tree. In front of me was a thick ridge that ran
straight away, North to the creek and dropped off steeply at the creek. At about 2 o’clock from my tree was
another big holler that started at the creek and winded in a horseshoe
shape up to me. To me right was the
ridge that bordered this holler which when I stood up I was even with the
top and 20 yards away. I am ~ 20ft
up a tree. This ridge ran up to the
main ridge. Behind me was the main
ridge and I could see my entrance trail and the top way above my head. I have not mentioned that we clear ALL
the leaves out for about 200 yards so that our entrance to the stand is
quite.
January 18th at 4:05 I heard a noise to my right and 25
seconds later it was all over. Yes
on top the ridge that when I stand up I am looking even with the top. All I saw at first was something that
looked kinda funny swaying side to side and then emerged into antlers which
were attached to a big deer head that was mounted to 200+ pounds of deer
steaks. The buck stopped while
scanning the area including me and felt all was ok. He turned to his left, my right, and
started a parallel path between me and the top of the main ridge. There was a large tree between him and
me, closer to him then me and when his head was behind the tree I stood up
and started to shift to the right. I
could not help noticing that his G2’s
were ~10-12”, G3’s ~8-10” and had split brow
tines. A quick glance estimated him
to be at least a 10 pointer with about 1-2” of antlers outside of
each ear. Of course the tree was not
big enough because he appeared from behind the tree to soon and I was not
all the way around. I then thought
that he should continue to travel the same path and I would turn around
from my right to left and shoot him on the left side the tree at about 15
yards. My scent loc let me
down. I had scent loc from head to
toe. Yes you figured it out. The
north wind and he being south of me, he stopped, smelled, raised his head
up and looked towards me down the ridge, turned and bolted back the
direction he came from but STOPPED 20 feet from where he first smelled me. The vines to my right are very thick and
he was behind them. He then started
a slow decent down my side the big ridge.
I had ONE opening between the vines.
How many times during 3D season there is a target set up like this
and we all complain. I drew back
while following the SPOT behind his shoulders and when he passed this very
small gap, I let one fly. Of course
there was a small vine I did not see which deflected my arrow and he hauled
@#$% over the ridge but stopped quickly after I doe bleated to him. I thought I still had a chance. I waited for them antlers to show them
self over the ridge. While I waited,
15 minutes or so later the sounds of a deer to my left told me that a running
deer was approaching. More sounds of
running deer approaching. Thinking Bullwinkle
may be interested in these teasing does and show himself again. A total of 4 does being chased by a
smaller buck. Now of course I
thought that since the does went where Bullwinkle was last seen, the
smaller buck would to and all h@@#$ would break out. The smaller buck followed the does and
topped the hill and was not seen again HOWEVER behind this display of the
RUT and chasing deer was yet ANOTHER big big buck walking very slow on the
same path the does where. The first
sighting was ~ 70 yards away. Get
this, this big buck had a smaller buck pestering him by mimicking ever move
he made. The bigger buck was
throwing his antlers around at him and even kicked at him a time or two. The smaller buck chasing the does
crossed the ridge to far to shoot and figured that this buck would to. He continued towards me but still in the
bottom. I gave him a low doe bleat
and used another trick I will keep to myself. He looked my way and did make a move in
my direction for about 20 yards but still 40 or so away. He was eyeballing the smaller ridge in
front of me. If he chose to come up
on the smaller ridge were about 30 different deer over the last 2 weeks
have passed, he would be 15 yards away broadside. As is goes, Bullwinkle2 and his sidekick
turned North and slowly walked away.
Serenity in the woods once again like nothing ever happened. What an experience. Thanks God for the opportunity.
Maybe next year.
Mike
2006
– 2007 Hunting season
Sam and I decided to scout a new area to
us early in October. We believe that
you scout more than you hunt. We
found a crossing on a creek that looked like someone took a tiller across
the creek. After deciding where we
would hunt, a mile walk back to the camp to gather our stands and
stuff. We arrived after lunch and
jacked a tree. About 4:30 I saw a
deer move and shortly after another.
Both had antlers. We use two
way radios with ear phones so I called Sam and to let him know that there
were two bucks moving between us. He
heard them but could not see them.
Earlier I was going to climb a tree just about were they were
standing but decided to move to the tree I was in. Guess what, they picked up my
scent!!!! After a few minutes the
other buck got to close to the 8 point and this deer did not like that so
he moved up and then started walking. I picked out a opening and when the
first one walked through it I sent a cedar shaft tipped with a Magnus two
blade on its way. Both bucks bolted
and I watched the one I shot as far as I could. Sam called me on the radio and wanted to
know what all the noise was. Well I
climbed down and went to Sam and watched while he descended down the
tree. We discussed the shot and the
plans of tracking. We went to the
spot I shot the deer, 22 yard shot, and discovered lots of blood and the
arrow. The arrow passed through the
deer and was sticking in the ground.
We started following the blood.
There was plenty to follow.
The tracking job was very easy because 75 yards later there he
was. We both went back to the truck,
I got the pull cart and he went back to the camp to give instructions on
what to do for supper since this was the club hunt and we had lots of
members waiting on food. I went back
to get the deer and Sam returned a short time later to help wheel him out.
Caught another
one…………
The morning of December 28th I made
the decent into a big bottom that my hunting companion Sam and I had
scouted earlier in the year. We
picked out a tree to stage our ambush.
We saw many tracks and big tracks last year in the area. This year was not any different. The tree we picked out was smaller than
usual but it would have to do because there was a fallen down tree in this
bottom that forced the deer around and up the hill just a bit. This smaller and very thick bottom
connects to a much larger bottom that runs east and west. This thicker bottom runs north and
south. On several occasions I had
checked the entrance of this smaller bottom to find large tracks entering
and leaving. After several checks
during the week I figured out that in order to catch this big track deer I
would have to be midway this bottom before the real thick stuff and setup
before daylight. Sam and I picked
out a ridge from the top to sneak down to the climbing tree. On this day the wind was right, out the
SE so down I went.
It was 5:30 am that I arrived at the tree
and sitting in my perch. Shortly
before sunrise I heard walking and cane snapping. Except the noise was coming from up the
bottom instead of where I figured the deer would come from. The deer paused a bit which was a good
thing because it was still low light condition. The sound turned towards me and closing
the distance. My heart started
pounding because at about 20 yards I could make out the head gear. He was heading for the trap we set. My longbow was at full draw once he
started around the tree top. I
don’t think that I mentioned that the tree top is only about 10 yards
from the climbing tree. When the
buck started to make the turn he gave me a quartering away shot. I sent the Port Oxford Cedar shaft tipped
with a Magnus 2 blade towards its vitals.
The buck crashed through the tree top, crossed the ditch and stopped
before the other hill. At that point
I was second guessing my shot. Did I
miss him? I know I picked a
spot. The bow is quiet, so did he
jump string? All this was going
through my mind while I was listening to him making steps and some noise
across the ditch. It’s now
6:30 and I hear a cracking noise and I look up on top of the next hill. I
could see him staggering a bit and then he fell end over end back down the
hill and lay to rest about 30 yards from the tree I was in. Since he was still moving, I climbed down
nocked an arrow and snuck up to him to finish him off but once I got to him
there was no need. He expired. I examined his antlers and his very large
body. He is indeed a trophy. After admiring him and gathering up my
stuff I glanced up the mountain that he was to be dragged up. I was not
looking forward to the drag. I knew where my other hunting buddies Larry
and Mr. Riley were hunting so I parked by their truck and started calling
them on the radio until I got in touch.
They came to help along with Mike Tyler and Cody.
This buck had 19 ¾ main beams,16.5 inch
inside spread 9 point buck and weighted in at 212 lbs.
I had a great hunt yesterday to
top off a great weekend. It all began on Sunday when my Dad took me
and my son to hunt a box stand. Gabe had his .243 and his trigger
finger was itching. First he asked to shoot a rabbit then a coon and
everything else he saw. We saw a bunch of deer but none passed within
my comfort zone for him. Finally he spotted a doe at 25 yards!
She came into the pipeline at 40 yards and he shot but missed low. We
reviewed the video which confirmed a miss. We all had a good time and
he was happy as ever. My Dad and I made an evening hunt.
He got into his ladder stand and I snuggled into a fallen tree. He
had does wind him and I took a 30 yd shot at a small doe. No luck but
it was a real treat to hunt with my Dad again.
Monday morning I
woke up to make the morning hunt, but I talked myself out of getting out of
bed. My area is underwater so my morning hunt would be pot
luck. Throughout the morning, I kept thinking about how or where I
would hunt during the afternoon. At 1pm I decided not to go into the
swamp. Where would I hunt? I know I would be in knee deep
water. The ridge I hunt is covered in palmettos and is surrounded by
cypress and tupelo gum trees. I know it holds some deer but over the
past 8-10yrs I’ve only seen a limited number of bucks. At
1:30pm I figured that I would never kill a deer at my house! I got my
things together and headed to the swamp. My plan was to get on the
south side of a east-west ridge in hopes that the deer would travel towards
the higher ground for night time feeding. Sounded good enough to me
anyway. I made my way through the palmettos and settled on a
tree. In years past, I would see tracks in this area, but after
several hunts without sightings I gave up on this location. Now, here
I am in knee deep water and have to figure out how to get my climbing hooks
on and up a tree with my equipment without putting anything on the
ground! It was a task, but I set up near a fallen tree so I could lay
my bow and arrows on it while I climbed. I got settled in my stand
and began watching squirrels. I’m always curious as to what
they are eating when the trees are as bare as they are now. I was
watching a squirrel feeding on maple tree buds for a while and decided it
was time to get to hunting. After an hour or so I could hear the
squirrel feeding behind me but I noticed the crack of a palmetto. I
turned to see ripples in the water and assumed it be wood ducks. To my
surprise, I see 2 does feeding in the water. What could they be
eating? They are eating the fallen maple buds from the
squirrel! They feed off then I notice the squirrel move to a tree 10
yards away and as he feeds the buds hit the water and palmettos with the
faintest of smacks. The large doe moves towards the sound of the
feeding squirrel. Now the doe is within 15 yards but on the backside
of my tree. I make a few practice draws to see where I can shoot
without my string hitting the tree during my draw. She eventually
moves into a shooting lane and I consciously try to make a good low shot.
I wanted to try to get as quick a kill as possible due to the lack of blood
trail in this water. I release my arrow and it disappeared behind a
palmetto. The doe bolted 10 yards then stopped to wonder what had
happened. I could only see her nose as she stood behind a large gum
tree. I wondered if my arrow hit its mark and if the doe would drop
at any second. She began walking away which provided a
perfect quartering away shot opportunity. She was now 28-30 yards
away when I released my second arrow. This was my longest shot at a
deer and it disappeared behind the back rib! I was pumped up to have
executed this shot. My farthest shot and it was perfect. I
heard the doe crash in the palmettos. I could hear her splash every
now and again so I knew she was down! I was on top of the world to
have entered this flooded swamp and taken a doe. What could be
better? I called my father and told him the good news and then called
my cousin and was talking to him when the palmettos came alive closer to my
stand. Then it happened, the antlers of a nice buck appeared and it
was headed my way! Holy #@&$! “Big Buck!”
was my last words to my cousin before rudely hanging up on him. I got
myself situated on my stand for the shot. The buck could hear my doe
splashing in the water but was not worried about the noise. He was
walking quickly through the palmettos and would only offer another 28-30
yard shot. He entered the opening and the rest is fuzzy to me.
I stopped him for a second and released my best arrow ever! The last
best shot had happened only 10 minutes earlier. The arrow entered
tight behind the shoulder. The buck exploded and was jumping over
palmettos. Anyone that has hunted the swamp can relate to the beauty
of watching a nice buck leap over the palmettos with water splashing with
each leap. His last leap was behind a small group of palmettos and
then water went everywhere as he crashed during a full sprint! It was
over, my best buck with a bow had just died! This has been a 10 year
quest to kill a deer with a bow and I finally accomplished my goal!
Words cannot describe the feeling I experienced. I called my cousin
and don’t remember a word of what I told him. I had to sit down
because I was getting dizzy from all the excitement. My best attempt to
describe the feeling would be to relate it to the documented feeling of
crack smokers. They say that a crack head will try and try again to
get the high they experienced the first time they smoked, well I
don’t know that I will ever have a feeling like I just
experienced! I’m definitely an addict to bow hunting! I
got down and found my buck in the water a mere 50 yards where we met.
The drag was real easy due the water depth. I made a quick search for
my doe without luck and dying batteries, so I decided to get to my boat and
call my Dad for a little help. He came out and we made it to the spot
where I shot the doe and I pointed him in the direction she traveled and I
headed to the tree I was hunting. He radioed to me that he found blood
on a palmetto. I took a compass bearing and headed his way. As
soon as I reached the palmettos he radioed that he found my doe. I
met him at the deer and noticed that my fist shot was a brisket hit and the
two blade head cut everything to her sternum. Good thing I got that
second shot. We took them to my Dad’s for pictures and
celebration. This whole experience would not have been the same
without sharing it with your Dad. He came out just for a little while
but that time brought me back to my younger days where we hunted every
weekend together and we were a team like no other. We will do it
again!
My buck was 8points with
17.25” inside spread. It has 20” main beans with G2 that
are around 8inches long.
Gregg L. Gravois
Mr. Tim Mullins had success in Missouri catching up
with these two does.
Connecting The Past To The Present
By
Emile P. LeBlanc
I
have sat on a deer stand for many hours meditating on things that I have
done, things that I should have done, things that I wish that I had done
and even things that I wish I hadn’t done. You do things like that
sometimes to wile away the time when things are slow. It helps you put life
things in perspective.
I have from time to time reviewed the course that
my bowhunting career has traveled and the memories made with family and
friends. Most of the time that I spend in my workshop, I spend working on
my hobbies as well as “Honey-Do” projects. I will occasionally gaze up at the bows
that I have hung on display and can associate most them with a number of
events that we participated in. I still have the first “Real”
bow that I bought in Lewistown,
Montana back in 1972 at the
age of 19. It is a “Plain Jane” Bear Black Bear Recurve
shooting 45# @ 28”. I don’t remember how much I paid for it but
it wasn’t much compared to today’s Traditional bows. I remember
several hunts that I made then and seeing Mule Deer 300 yards or more away
and realizing how inadequate my little weapon was.
During my college years, I enjoyed many hours of
shooting this old bow with friends as well as earning an “A” in
a PE Archery class. I still have a framed picture of a bowfishing trip that
I made with a friend and the 10# Redfish that I took with that bow. As the
years clicked by, my experience, knowledge and accomplishments grew. The
old bow collected dust there on the rack and I would take it down
occasionally and clean the dust off of it and even refinished it once out
of respect.
About two years ago, I thought….. You know,
I have never killed a deer with that old bow. That would be an interesting
accomplishment to pursue with my first bow. Well, as things go, it ended up
on the list of nice things to do one day. As this season started, I thought
that this year should be the year that I killed a deer with that old bow
but the lack of deer meat in the freezer prompted me to grab my Black Widow
Recurve bow, since this bow had proven itself from Canada to Africa!
Well, as luck would have it, the Black Widow proved itself again on the
first hunt of the year! I had run out of excuses so I proceeded to set up
the old bow with a new string, complete with real Beaver fur silencers and
I would be shooting one of the old Bear Razorheads attached to an 1816 X7
shaft with real Turkey
feather fletching. A three arrow Kwikie Kwiver finished out the setup and I
was ready. I had finally made the commitment and there was no turning back!
The several practice sessions revealed that the
old 60” bow shot as well now as it ever did even though it was only
shooting 42#’s at my 27” draw and did not have the
“umph” of my 60# Black Widow Recurve. This may have been a big
part of why I never seriously considered hunting deer with that bow. I
would have to keep my shot close, inside of 15 yards. As I tried to recall
shots from the past, I could only remember 1 shot that I taken at a deer,
or any animal for that matter, over 15 yards in the last 20 years and that
shot was at 18 yards! Most shots had been in the 10 – 15 yard range
with a few as close as 3 yards.
During each of the 7 unsuccessful hunts that I
took this bow on, I would keep my spirits up and motivated by imagining how
great it will be to rekindle an old friendship and finally kill a deer with
this bow. December 2, 2006 was a “Perfect” morning. The second
day after a frontal passage, wind from the North at about 3-5 mph, 29
degrees and not a cloud in the sky! 6:00 am found me perched 20’ up a
sugarberry tree thinking “Boy, what a Perfect morning to be perched
20’ up a sugarberry tree”. At 6:40am, a group of 7 deer comprised
of Does and big fawns came into view along an open power line ROW (Right of
Way). I had turned and was in position and on “Red Alert”
before deer number three came into view. They seemed a bit nervous as they
gathered next to a small Bayou trying to decide weather to cross or move my
way through the wooded funnel area where I was perched. Finally, what
seemed like 5 minutes, a mature Doe made a move down the trail that led to
my effective bow range. She stopped at 13 yards broadside and looked
straight up at me for maybe 3-4 seconds. Another mature doe was even with
her flank and paid no attention to her focus. As the lead doe turned her
head and made a step forward, the second doe stepped into her vacated spot.
The string came back to its old familiar place and the next thing that I
remember was watching the herd of deer explode in three different
directions and a doe running off back across the ROW with my blue arrow
still attached.
After settling down from the adrenaline rush, I
ran the shot back on instant replay 8 or 10 times, and started to feel
pretty good about the shot. I was still a bit apprehensive and did not even
start on the trail for over an hour and a half. As I approached the spot
where I saw the deer stumble, I immediately saw good blood. The trail was
pretty good considering how fast she left after the shot and the fact that
there was no exit wound and the arrow was still in her. The 125-yard blood
trail led me to the first deer taken with the first bow that I ever owned
and it only took 34 years!
Everything is bigger in Texas
I know there are deer around here but
which way did they go?
 
Friends from the LTB hunt
Only wimps need 4-Wheelers
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