Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

We Should Do a Book

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #91
    The Lost Wallet Buck

    bm22 and I had a lease in Tilden for 4 yrs. Lance would always make a few trips each year as a guest. This year I told him to take out a cull buck. We all split up for an evening hunt. That evening I killed my first buck with a longbow. It was special to me as I killed the deer with a bow given to me by Jim Hickman the year before he died. I hit the deer a bit back and was worried about the hit. It turned out to be a good shot as I found the deer the next day within 20 yds of the hit. I wrote a story about it and it was published in the TBOT news letter.

    I met up with Brandon bm22 after I did not find blood where I hit my deer. I call him my third son as I hunted with his dad and him when he was just a little kid a bit younger than my two sons. His dad and I have not hunted together in yrs but Brandon and I have made several hunts and been on some leases together.

    Brandon and I met up with Lance who was on a blood trail. He said that he had a good hit so it was decided to track his deer first and then go after mine. The blood trail started out great with quite a bit of frothy red blood. The deer jumped over a few catus patches and there was blood sprayed everywhere. After a bit the blood started to peter out. We had tracked the deer much farther than any of us had anticipated.

    I turned to Lance and said "You know what this looks like?" He said "It looks like the doe that I hit in one lung back when we hunted in Fredricksburg on Draper's place." I said "Yep". Lance is one of the best trackers that I have ever hunted with. Brandon and I are no slackers and it taxed all of us. We tracked that deer for around 3-4 hrs if I remember correctly and I figure at least 1/2 mile. It was dark, cold and we all wound up with mesquite and catus thorns in all parts of our bodies.

    We got to a catus flat and had lost the blood. Sometime wandering around trying to pick the blood back up Brandon says I lost my wallet and it has $50 in it. Brandon was at that age when $50 was a chunk of change. So now we are looking for blood and a wallet. We got a bit split up during this period.

    I looked and saw two eyes low to the ground about 25 yds away. I told the other two "I got eyes over here but I think its a coon but I'll check it out." When I was about 15 yds away the deer stands up and we are staring each other down. I yell "Guys hes over here!" Lance says "Shoot him!" I had a spider web of mesquite between me and him but I had no choice and I figured he was fixing to haul outta there. Well I figure there has been a time when all of us has held a small flash light in our bow hand and attempted to shoot. Fun, right? I shoot and my arrow hit everything between me and the deer and everything past him between him and Mexico.

    Well the deer did not appear to like that very much. He started off at a good trot. He was too bad off to run full tilt but he darn sure was not walking. I knew that Brandon and Lance were off my left shoulder but I could not see them for all of the brush. I yell "I missed. He's headed your way!". Brandon had spotted the deer and was shining the light and yelling "There he is SHOOT! SHOOT!"

    Lance yells "Duck! Get out of the way!" I cannot see any of this. I can only hear from my position. Brandon ducked. Lance shoots over the top of Brandon. I hear Lance's bow go off. The deer is running through a maze of mesquite. I expect to hear Lance's arrow bouncing off of all of the brush between him and the deer. Time slows down and I remember thinking dang its taking that arrow a long time to hit something. Next thing I hear is Lance's arrow hitting the deer with a water melon thunk. The deer is double lunged and it runs about 15 more yds and I hear it crash in the brush and Lance and Brandon screaming.

    Lance had made a 25 yd shot on the deer in the dark as Brandon shone the flashlight while crouching down in front of Lance. The deer had indeed been one lunged on the first shot. We figure the arrow hit the deer as it was spinning away from the shot.

    Brandon never did find his wallet...........
    Last edited by M.E.B.; 07-16-2014, 10:23 PM.

    Comment


      #92
      Great stories Mike. Maybe I'll add 1 or 2 more.

      Comment


        #93
        Great stories M.E.B.

        Comment


          #94
          Yep never did find that wallet, or my ID, social security card or gift cards. I am glad there isn't a Jose out there somewhere using my ss number...

          Comment


            #95
            Originally posted by bm22 View Post
            Yep never did find that wallet, or my ID, social security card or gift cards. I am glad there isn't a Jose out there somewhere using my ss number...
            You mean you HOPE. Hello #3.

            Comment


              #96
              The Hell B----

              The first year Lance and I hunted the lease in Frederickburg we had to deal with a learning curve. As mentioned in an earlier story the ranch was the owner's retirement dream. 250 arces that was very well kept with very little under brush. You could ride a tractor pretty much through the entire place without ducking. We had to get pretty high up in a tree to find cover. It took us a while to figure out why all of the sudden we did not get any complete pass throughs. We finally determined that it was because we where so high in the tree and shooting at such a sharp angle the arrow was hitting the ground on the far side of the animal as it ducked.

              I met up with Lance at camp and he was grinning ear to ear. He had just shot a very big and ancient doe. He tracked it a short ways and found a ton of blood. We rounded up some flash lights and headed to his stand. Sure enough there was a lot blood. After about 50 yds there was a circle about 10 around that looked like a blood bath had occured. It looked like you had poured a gallon of red paint on the ground. However it also appeared that the deer had teleported from the spot. We could not tell which direction to look.

              We laid down our bows and started looking on our hands and knees. Finally I got up and said that I would look towards the rancher's house about 300 yds away. Lance said "I hope she did not go that way." We had both half jokingly, half worryingly, talked about a deer winding up in the ranchers pool sometime as we had pulled two from the back pond already.

              I got about 200 yds away. Just about the time I heard Lance cursing I saw eyes at about coon level and headed that way. I came across a doe with a head the size of a mule laying upright with its head against her side. I could not see a hole in her. She had her eyes open. I shined a very bright light at her and she did not blink.

              I yelled for Lance to come quick and to bring a bow as mine was still laying by the bloody circle. We were far apart and he came a good ways towards me without his bow and had to head back for it. We had been looking for a dead deer after seeing the amount of blood loss.

              He got to me and was pretty winded. I asked what all of the screaming was about. He said that he had killed a world record copper head in the middle of all of that blood we had been crawling around.

              He looked at the deer asked "Is she dead?". I said "I don't know. I don't see a hole in her. I have never seen a deer die laying down upright like that. She has not blinked. She has not gotten up and ran off with me screaming for 10 minutes 15 yards from her. I don't know if she is dead or alive or what. Is she the same deer that you shot?" He said "She has to be. There cannot be that many does in this county this big?" I had to agree with that. Since we both agreed that MORE THAN LIKELY she was THE deer for him to shoot her.

              To this day neither of us knows what happened. He shot at the deer and it appeared to hit her behind the shoulder but the Zwickey tipped arrow bounced off of her and half way back to us. Swear to GOD. She got up and hauled butt out of there. We gave chase. She had been shot twice and was in better shape than us. We are running and screaming across this open pasture with flash lights waving. We gained on her and Lance got two more arrows in her. I finally got up on her and I managed to hit her hind quarters hard enough to knock her down. She was still trying to get up with me holding her down dodging the two arrows in her and Lance finished it.

              The first shot was a one lung hit because of the sharp downward angle. That taught us a lot. Lance said "We are gonna chicken fry back strap tonight." I said "Oh no we're not its already 10 o'clock and this Hell B----(the name of Capt Mcall in Lonesome Dove's horse) is gonna be tough."

              We Lance perservered and we cooked her backstrap at 1200 that night. Toughest deer I have ever ate. We ground the rest into burger.
              Last edited by M.E.B.; 07-18-2014, 09:14 PM.

              Comment


                #97
                Thought I would bring this back to the top for those that may have missed it the first time around.

                Comment


                  #98
                  Telepathic Deer

                  I was hunting in Sanderson 30 ish years ago. I was up in a tripod overlooking some corn I had been throwing out for a few days. I felt like I was pretty well hidden.

                  So there I sat feeling all warm and fuzzy about my little hiding place. That was until a doe walked up to my corn pile and then looked up right at me. She then trotted off about 20 yds and stood with a bush between me and her. She just stood there looking at me.

                  Well about 5 min later a huge doe walks right to my corn pile and starts eating. I started raising my bow for an easy 12 yd shot. All of a sudden the doe that was still hiding behind the bush comes charging out. She rams the eating doe with her chest so hard she almost toppled her. She works like a cutting horse and directs the other deer about 25 yds away.

                  They stare into each other's eyes for a couple of minutes. Then in unisome they both look right at me. I swear the big does eyes got so wide I could see the whites. Then they turned and walked directly away.

                  It surprised me that the first doe saved the others life. But what really weirded me out is that I really believe some type of communacation went on when they were staring at each other because that bigger doe imediately looked right at me afterwards.

                  Comment


                    #99
                    Dang that is weird

                    Comment


                      Originally posted by M.E.B. View Post
                      Telepathic Deer

                      I was hunting in Sanderson 30 ish years ago. I was up in a tripod overlooking some corn I had been throwing out for a few days. I felt like I was pretty well hidden.

                      So there I sat feeling all warm and fuzzy about my little hiding place. That was until a doe walked up to my corn pile and then looked up right at me. She then trotted off about 20 yds and stood with a bush between me and her. She just stood there looking at me.

                      Well about 5 min later a huge doe walks right to my corn pile and starts eating. I started raising my bow for an easy 12 yd shot. All of a sudden the doe that was still hiding behind the bush comes charging out. She rams the eating doe with her chest so hard she almost toppled her. She works like a cutting horse and directs the other deer about 25 yds away.

                      They stare into each other's eyes for a couple of minutes. Then in unisome they both look right at me. I swear the big does eyes got so wide I could see the whites. Then they turned and walked directly away.

                      It surprised me that the first doe saved the others life. But what really weirded me out is that I really believe some type of communacation went on when they were staring at each other because that bigger doe imediately looked right at me afterwards.
                      Crazy!!!!

                      Comment


                        Cool story M.E.B.

                        Comment


                          Great stories !!

                          Comment


                            Great Job Everybody............Mark Awesome Idea!

                            Comment


                              Second Chance Bushbuck

                              September 2007 found me in the Limpopo region of South Africa on my second African bowhunt. I was using my 66” 2 piece Massie longbow, 57lbs at my 28” draw. For arrows, I was using Grizzlystics tipped with 125 grain 4-blade Magnus Stingers screwed into a 100 grain brass insert for a total arrow weight of 620 grains.

                              I had taken several nice animals and on Friday my PH, Antonie, asked if I was interested in a Bushbuck. I told him I was and he said they had access to a piece of property in the mountains near Thabazimbi that had a good population of Bushbuck. Of course I was interested and we made plans to hunt there on Saturday.

                              Saturday morning we got to the blind overlooking a waterhole at about 7:30. This blind was sitting on a 8 or 10 foot high bank about 6 yards from the edge of the waterhole. I would be sitting by myself. I put my gear, along with lunch and water for an allday sit. I also had a radio so I could contact Antonie. About 9:30 a young ram bushbuck came in. Something spooked him before he drank, but I wasn’t interested in shooting him anyway. During the rest of the morning, several different animals including Impala, Blue Wildebeest, and Mountain Reedbuck came to the water.

                              Throughout the morning I could see several Zebra holding back from the water. One of them was a nice stallion that I would have taken if he had presented a shot. One of my biggest regrets is that I had passed on a great Zebra on my first trip to Africa, but that’s a story for another day.

                              At about 4:50pm a really nice bushbuck came into the far side of the waterhole. Finally he committed to drink. He was at about 18 yards and perfectly broadside. I picked a spot, came to a solid anchor and let the string slide off my fingers. Thunk…. I felt my upper limb make contact with the metal roof of the blind. With a sinking heart I watched my arrow dive low into the bushbuck’s shoulder. It looked like the arrow centered the knuckle joint and I got almost no penetration. I got on the Radio and called Antonie. I told him what the hit looked like. We agreed that there was little likelihood we would recover him but we spent hours that evening and next morning searching. An interesting sidenote is that the Bushbuck is one of the antelopes that can be aggressive when pushed so Antonie was prepared with his rifle when we were tracking. Since, in Africa, if you draw blood you have to pay the trophy fee, that bad hit had just cost me $900.

                              I still wanted a Bushbuck so we made plans to hunt that property again on Thursday. This time Antonie sat with me and we got into the blind about 7:50am. Antonie set up the video camera and we waited to see what would develop. Because of what happened on Saturday I drew my bow several times to check clearance. The roof was a little low so I was going to have to watch my bow cant when I shot. If I had been shooting my 62” bow I don’t think there would have been a problem. During the course of the morning several varieties of animals came in including a nice bushbuck but none offered a shot.

                              At about 9:50 a bushbuck came from behind the blind and when down the bank and started drinking about 6yards from the blind. Antonie whispered “shoot”. Because of the steep angle and the low roof of the blind I knew it was going to be a difficult shot. He was at a sharp angle away from me. I picked a spot that would have the arrow exiting through the off shoulder, came to anchor and dropped the string. Thunk…I heard the now familiar sound of my upper limb brushing the roof of the blind. In the excitement and haste of the shot I had neglected to watch the cant of my bow. From the time I saw the bushbuck and Antonie said shoot until I dropped the string was about 10 seconds. Antonie said the hit looked too far back.

                              We waited about an hour and crawled out of the blind. I’m feeling kind of low. Antonie grabs his rifle and we, including the African tracker, start tracking. We found some blood, but not a lot. We followed the track about 200 yards and the tracker spots the bushbuck dead under a tree. We were only about 75 yards from a bushroad so we drug him out to the road. While we waited, we sent the tracker for the truck. Antonie walked down the road a short distance and called to me, I walked down and he showed me a fresh Leopard track in the dust.

                              I had hit the bushbuck just in front of the left hip, the arrow had went through the liver and took out the right lung.
                              Attached Files
                              Last edited by Phillip Fields; 10-16-2014, 11:58 AM.

                              Comment


                                Surely some of you other trad hunters have stories you could share. I've really enjoyed this thread.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X