Last Minute Success

This year I learned that every bow hunter will have a year where it seems that nothing goes the way they want it too. Well this year was my turn. I went the first part of the season without any shots at all, then I had a few shots and either lost the deer or missed the deer entirely. I practiced with my heavy clothes on, I practiced out of treestands, and I would shoot 3 times every week but nothing I did would change my luck! As you can imagine I was frustrated by late season, but I kept practicing and doing anything to give me an edge.

On the last Saturday of the January antlerless season, my mentor, Neil, and I went down to a spot that we were confident about, but the stand was already taken down. So instead I went 70 yards down the 2-track road to a 12 foot tall ladder stand with no brush around it to break up my outline. It was about 5:00 in the afternoon and I hadn’t seen a single thing yet. I look back over my left shoulder and down in the valley behind me there is a big doe coming up out of the bottom. I stand up and grab my bow but I think that there is no way that this big ole doe will get anywhere close to me. She comes up to the road and looks like she is going to go north (to where the other stand was) but instead she walked down the road that is 12 yards in front of me. Now she’s coming straight down the road right to me and I’ve never been so nervous! She stops at 15 yards and looks right up at me but doesn’t pay any attention to me and keeps on going. She walks right in front of me like nothing is wrong. Once she passed the tree branch in front of me I shift my weight to try to get a better shot and the stand creaks and there is no wind to cover the noise. But she doesn’t look my way so I draw my bow back and stopped her with my mouth. She stopped 13 yards away, quartering away so I hold my pin 2 inches behind the shoulder crease and let the string go. The arrow entered right where I wanted it to and came out right in the middle of the shoulder and the blood-coated arrow stuck in the ground on the other side. The monster doe bounded 40 yards away and looked back at the point of impact like nothing had even happened. She was mine! I finally tagged a big doe on the last weekend of the season!

Hoytboy with Mentor Neil and the first doe of his season.

I still had 1 more tag so Neil and I went to a different spot on Monday since I didn’t have school. We hadn’t seen anything till the last 5 minutes of legal shooting light when a few does came off the hay field. The first one was 35 yards away and got downwind of me, but didn’t know where I was. She went back and circled back north where she had come from. Then a few bucks came from the north on a trail that led 11 yards from my tree but they were not legal to shoot. Then a few does came off the hay field and walked right in front of me. I draw back, shoot and the doe bounded off to Neil and stands right in front of him. He shoots at her but barely missed. We got down a few minutes later and looked at the arrow that was coated in blood and started tracking. We found her bedded down about 120 yards away, but she wasn’t dead yet, I took another shoot that put her down quickly and cleanly.

Right when I was about to give up for the year, I end up tagging 2 deer on the last weekend of the season! Now I’m gearing up and practicing for turkey season. See y’all out there!

Hoytboy with his second doe of the season.

1st 2011 turkey

Turkey season is finally here! With having the Nebraska Big Buck Classic on opening weekend, and having the weather be bad, I haven’t had many chances to get out yet. I was on spring break this week, so my mentor Neil offered to take me to a great place that we have seen tons of birds on. We woke up early and got down their just as planned. I was getting ready, went to the backseat to put my release on and noticed, I left my release at home! Luckily, Neil always has an extra of everything. So I put his release on and let’s go hunting.

We had 2 decoys out, a Dave Smith hen decoy, and Neil’s mounted jake decoy. The morning was very vocal with tons of gobbles and hens yelping on the roost. They flew down to the North West and Neil started calling to them with cuts, yelps, and purrs. Every time he called, they would gobble and the hens would try to intimidate him.

At 7:30, I hear something rustling in the grass, I look out the window and see this giant strutting tom, not even 20 yards away from the blind, I whisper to Neil, “there is a tom right there!, don’t move yet.” The big bird moved closer to 5 yards and started looking in the blind, that’s when I got nervous. He then laid his attention on the jake decoy and went over to it and started pushing it around with his body. I pulled my bow back and was settling my pin on the wing butt, when he turned completely away giving me a perfect, up the butt shot at 10 yards with a T3 broadhead by G5! The bird jumped up and ran away, but crashed on the other side of the trees where he came from.

One hour later, we were still hearing hens and gobbles where the birds first flew down, so Neil started calling to them some more. Every time he called, they would respond. After a few calls, they sounded like they were getting closer, so Neil stopped calling and relaxed. Just a minute later, I see two toms coming up the road. “There they are! Get ready!” Neil grabbed his bow, and I grabbed mine. The first one stopped at 20 yards and he shot perfect and dropped it like a rock. His partner circled him and I shot him just a little low, but it still looked like a good shot.

We got out of the blind and found both arrows and tracked my first bird and found it 50 yards away lying in the bushes. He weighed 22 pounds, had a double beard, and had ¾ inch spurs!  We brought it back to the blind and started to track my second bird. Immediately we spotted blood and I followed the trail for 150 yards with a lot of blood, just like a deer trail. I started to lose the trail after 2 hours and 150 yards, so I decided I gave the best effort I could and gave it up. We took a couple of pictures and packed up and went home after a great morning in the woods. Turkey hunting is a great thing to do with friends, and I hope to be able to do more of it later on.

Advice for a new hunter.

If you’re just getting into archery or hunting, there are a lot of things that you should know. Hunting takes a lot of hard work and dedication, as well as practice and consistency. If you have a bow all set up, you need to make sure you have the correct form and practice constantly to keep everything in tune, not just your bow, but the archer. Before you start your hunting season, it is vital that you find the place where you want to set the stand and trim so you have shot opportunities, but not so much that you don’t have any natural cover. After you have the stand set, practice shooting with your hunting set up (arrows, broad heads, etc.) making as little movement and noise that you can. Know how far you can shoot accurately so you won’t injure an animal and know your target.

Also, if you don’t have warm clothing, get some. Even in the middle of the season, the weather can get nasty so be prepared. Sitting still for over an hour can be a lot colder than you originally thought. Find your warmest clothes for late season when the temperatures can drop below freezing, and if you get too cold, get down, and go back to your vehicle or camp. No buck is worth losing your hands for.

Another piece of advice that no-one can stress enough and it can save your life is ALWAYS wear a harness or vest that is approved by the Treestand Manufacturing Association if you are hunting from a treestand. Even if the law doesn’t require you to, I would recommend a hunter education course. They teach you safety, ethics, and how to be as successful as you can be. And if at all possible, hunt with a buddy, and have a method of communication like a cell phone or two-way-radio. These tips could possibly save your life.

Good luck on your hunt, and always be safe.

November 14 Buck

Posted by Sam H.

This year has been slow for deer hunting for us. But the dry spell finally ended for me. On November 14, I shot a great 5×5 thanks to the ability for hunters to use archery equipment during rifle season.

It was a cool morning with the wind out of the south-west so it was the perfect opportunity to sit in my favorite treestand on the whole property that I had already shot 2 big bucks out of the years before. Right away I saw a nice buck at 20 yards but it wasn’t legal shooting time yet, so I had to pass on him. Just as the sun started to peak we started to see more deer. First, there were 2 bucks messing around just 35 yards north of me in the brush. I heard the bigger one of them snort-wheeze at the other one. Once I heard it, I grabbed my Primos Buck Roar deer call and hit a snort-wheeze to challenge him. He turned my challenge down and trotted away. But that’s ok, because I don’t want to shoot a wimp anyway.

Later, around 9:30, I saw a small fawn 35 yards to the west. I didn’t care that it was there but then I saw a big body behind a cedar tree. Next, I saw a brown spot with a little blond mixed in with it on its head so I knew it was a buck, and he had a huge body, so I knew he had to be a big one. Before he could clear the thick cedar, I stood up and got ready to take a shot. I let him walk at 20 yards until his head got behind a tree so that I could pull my bow back without getting caught. When I pulled back, he noticed some movement but he didn’t know that it was me. I settled the pin right where his heart is. I pulled the trigger on my release and he sunk and swung towards me. My arrow hit right in the shoulder area and penetrated about 4-5 inches, just enough to get one lung.

He ran to the spot where those other bucks where playing and walked in circles as he was dizzy. I noticed that he was bleeding heavily, so I knew that it was a good sign. Eventually he walked off to the west. We gave him 3 more hours to die in peace. We got down at noon and started tracking. Right away, we found blood and it made for an easy blood trail. We got about 100 yards, and a doe and a buck jumped up and made a run for it. I knew it was him. He ran 75 yards before bedding down underneath a cedar tree. We sat there passing the binoculars between us watching him for any movement and strategizing how to sneak up on him if we needed to.

After about 20 minutes, he stood up to reposition himself and fell back down. He laid there and tossed and turned like he was having a bad dream. After another 15 minutes, he hadn’t moved and he didn’t look like he was breathing. We waited for the train to come for some cover noise so we could sneak up on him quietly and get another shot. We got within 20 yards and kneeled behind a thick tree. I pulled back my bow while Kevin grunted at him to see if he moved and I could shoot him. He didn’t move at all. We snuck around and tried the same thing, and still, nothing. He was lifeless. I had finally done it! I had killed a giant Pope and Young buck that was a lot bigger than I originally thought.

We gutted him and drug him up to the road and got back to the stands since it was cold enough that the meat would stay cold enough. Now, the meat is at the butcher and the head at the taxidermist. What a great day!

Pre-hunt Prep – FIELD REPORT/ARCHERY DEER: From Sam

(…we wanted to see what our archers do “behind-the-scenes” to help prepare themselves for the hunt – successful deer hunting goes well beyond just going to the woods, especially for the bow hunter…so we asked Sam what he does to get himself ready – here is his reply…hershy)

I spend a lot of time preparing for a hunt. Most of the things I do for pre-hunt preparations focus around scent control. I wash my clothes in scent shield’s scentless laundry detergent. When they go in the dryer, I also put in an earth-scented dryer sheet. After everything is clean, I put all of my clothes in a scent controlled bin with scent killer and activated carbon. When we get to our hunting spot, I spray them down with earth scented scent-killer. But even more important than masking your scent, is playing by the wind. Playing the wind means simply being up wind of where the shot should happen. We set our tree stands up so that we have an opportunity to hunt up wind from the deer trails & crossings.

During the Rut, we use doe urine as an attractant for the bucks. We spray the scent on cotton balls that are placed on the trails. Hopefully the bucks smell it and come in looking for a doe in heat and give us the opportunity to get a good shot. Keep in mind, like anything else, they don’t ALWAYS work. But sometimes, they work like magic.

Another tactic that will also increase your chance of success is being as quiet as possible going to the stand and moving as little as possible so that you don’t spook the deer if they sneak up on you. I have had countless deer see me before I see them. Most people think that deer can’t see all that well, but they can see movement very well. Just simply moving your head can spook a deer from farther than 30 yards!

Also, I spend countless hours in the back yard or at local ranges practicing with different scenarios so that I am ready for any shot opportunity. No matter how much preparation you go through for a hunt, you aren’t ready to take a shot if you haven’t practiced and tuned your bow. Make sure your broad heads are sharp and screwed in to your arrows well. We add silencers to our bows to make them less noticeable to the deer’s ears.

Sam