So I took last week off of work and met some family and friends at our ranch in Duval Co for a week of uninterrupted hunting.
I’ve been rifle hunting this place my whole life but went out and bought a bow last summer. Started with the Drenalin, moved on to the XLR8, and ended up sticking with the Halon 32 - 6. After shooting the FAST XLR8, I was a bit concerned with the trajectory of the arrows. Not nearly as flat as the XLR8 shooting the same arrow set up. But what do I know? More on that later.
We are blessed at our property with plenty of animals to look at. We often see Deer in the backyard, 15 yds from the porch. That said, the number of deer taken on this 640 acre, LF ranch are limited to shooter bucks only. The definition of “Shooter buck” varies by person but that’s for another thread. I say all that to say this... NEVER has a doe been taken on this property. Nothing against it at all. We just never felt the need to with our neighbors shooting anything that walks across the fence. I had decided, though, that I’d take the first animal that presented me a shot with my bow.
After hours and hours of practice, I felt comfortable enough to jump in a stand opening bow weekend. I had been stacking arrows out to 35 yds in the backyard. Even busted a few nocks. Upon jumping in a stand, I quickly realized that there was more to bow hunting than shooting Lol
Now to the hunting:
Pictured above is my stand setup for morning 1. I had been to this stand a few times with my bow and just danced with Deer. I’d have a shot, draw, and the deer would scatter. They’d come back, more weary than before of my presence, and I’d scare them off again. I was beginning to get frustrated as I learned to ready my bow, draw, and make a shot without being “busted”. Also, I was toying around with scent control every time I went out until I found a routine that worked for me.
The rain from the night before really threw a wrench in my plans. Every step up the ladder caused water to fall from the mesquite leaves, causing all sorts of noise. Despite the noise, A lone doe walked in just after sun up. Again we went back and forth until I realized I should draw just before she steps into my view. I started to draw and all was good to go until the water droplets made her aware of my presence as I adjusted position for a shot. She took off. But wait, here she comes again 5 min later. Draw, no shot, let down. Again, I am drenched from the water that’s soaked the mesquite tree I’m sitting in. Off she runs. Here she comes again! Draw, hold (felt like 5 min), and she turns head-on towards me. I realized that if I let down again, I likely wouldn’t see her again today. By this point I am shaking pretty good. Just before I let down, she turns perfectly broadside. I don’t even remember hitting my trigger. It was THEN that the nerves hit me. I could see my lumenok directly under the feeder where she was standing. Full pass through. She darted off out of view but I could hear her go down. A short track later and there she was. The rage hypo has broken 2 ribs on entrance, 3 on exit, and had enough energy to stick into the ground behind her. Not worried about aforementioned trajectory issues anymore. Pretty cool experience to share with my parents and friends. My first bow kill!
Fast forward a few days with no action other than a few trapped hogs. Last day of the hunt, I moved to my favorite stand. A short walk up from the barn. The stand is situated at the edge of some, thick, nasty, stickery thicket. Maybe one of you can tell me the tree from the pics from the stand.
These deer at this location just wait for the feeder but the learning curve regarding getting a shot off was an entirely diff experience but I’ll get to the action. This was an eventful hunt, to say the least. Like I said, I was covered in 10+ doe immediately as well as a few small bucks. It was kind of cool seeing a nursing fawn at 30yds
I had gotten the doe killing out of my system and I was hunting for bucks, pigs, or javelina (which we had discussed the night before as not being around anymore). After a while, all the deer but the fawn/momma had wandered off. Fawn was under the feeder and momma was off to the right, just out of sight. Glancing around the pond, I caught some movement at the edge of the brush. I watched for 45 min as a bobcat slowly made his way to the edge of the water, opposite the feeder. It was amazing how this cat, small admittedly, was able to conceal himself behind a 6” tuft of grass with momma staring right at him. After a while, she busted him and he ran off toward the barn. He was so tiny and well concealed, that I couldn’t get a decent pic. Here’s a print I found the next morning. Boot for scale. This is me trying to redeem myself for not providing a pic!
A bit of time goes by as it starts to get a bit darker. Some deer started to mosey on back towards to pond/feeder. I could hear some crunching around the brush off to the right. All the deer took off. “Here come the pigs”. Nope. The “non existent” javis!
They came and went several times until one was dumb enough to walk into my shooting lane. He was quartered hard away just before last light. Aiming for the opposite shoulder, I let loose. Hit him a bit back. I watched through the nasty thicket as the glowing lumenok came to a rest. The next morning, we squatted down and made our way through the thicket, using the trails that the game had cleared out. Sure enough, he dropped my arrow and continued another 20 yds or so into the thick stuff. If it were a deer, I would’ve continued in order to retrieve my trophy. Not in this case though. I realize I’m breaking a TBH cardinal rule without providing an LDP but I don’t care in this instance.
Bow doe down.
Bow javelina down.
I am beyond excited and if you can’t tell, hooked for life. Thanks to PigSticker for the coaching, tuning, gifted equip, etc.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I’ve been rifle hunting this place my whole life but went out and bought a bow last summer. Started with the Drenalin, moved on to the XLR8, and ended up sticking with the Halon 32 - 6. After shooting the FAST XLR8, I was a bit concerned with the trajectory of the arrows. Not nearly as flat as the XLR8 shooting the same arrow set up. But what do I know? More on that later.
We are blessed at our property with plenty of animals to look at. We often see Deer in the backyard, 15 yds from the porch. That said, the number of deer taken on this 640 acre, LF ranch are limited to shooter bucks only. The definition of “Shooter buck” varies by person but that’s for another thread. I say all that to say this... NEVER has a doe been taken on this property. Nothing against it at all. We just never felt the need to with our neighbors shooting anything that walks across the fence. I had decided, though, that I’d take the first animal that presented me a shot with my bow.
After hours and hours of practice, I felt comfortable enough to jump in a stand opening bow weekend. I had been stacking arrows out to 35 yds in the backyard. Even busted a few nocks. Upon jumping in a stand, I quickly realized that there was more to bow hunting than shooting Lol
Now to the hunting:
Pictured above is my stand setup for morning 1. I had been to this stand a few times with my bow and just danced with Deer. I’d have a shot, draw, and the deer would scatter. They’d come back, more weary than before of my presence, and I’d scare them off again. I was beginning to get frustrated as I learned to ready my bow, draw, and make a shot without being “busted”. Also, I was toying around with scent control every time I went out until I found a routine that worked for me.
The rain from the night before really threw a wrench in my plans. Every step up the ladder caused water to fall from the mesquite leaves, causing all sorts of noise. Despite the noise, A lone doe walked in just after sun up. Again we went back and forth until I realized I should draw just before she steps into my view. I started to draw and all was good to go until the water droplets made her aware of my presence as I adjusted position for a shot. She took off. But wait, here she comes again 5 min later. Draw, no shot, let down. Again, I am drenched from the water that’s soaked the mesquite tree I’m sitting in. Off she runs. Here she comes again! Draw, hold (felt like 5 min), and she turns head-on towards me. I realized that if I let down again, I likely wouldn’t see her again today. By this point I am shaking pretty good. Just before I let down, she turns perfectly broadside. I don’t even remember hitting my trigger. It was THEN that the nerves hit me. I could see my lumenok directly under the feeder where she was standing. Full pass through. She darted off out of view but I could hear her go down. A short track later and there she was. The rage hypo has broken 2 ribs on entrance, 3 on exit, and had enough energy to stick into the ground behind her. Not worried about aforementioned trajectory issues anymore. Pretty cool experience to share with my parents and friends. My first bow kill!
Fast forward a few days with no action other than a few trapped hogs. Last day of the hunt, I moved to my favorite stand. A short walk up from the barn. The stand is situated at the edge of some, thick, nasty, stickery thicket. Maybe one of you can tell me the tree from the pics from the stand.
These deer at this location just wait for the feeder but the learning curve regarding getting a shot off was an entirely diff experience but I’ll get to the action. This was an eventful hunt, to say the least. Like I said, I was covered in 10+ doe immediately as well as a few small bucks. It was kind of cool seeing a nursing fawn at 30yds
I had gotten the doe killing out of my system and I was hunting for bucks, pigs, or javelina (which we had discussed the night before as not being around anymore). After a while, all the deer but the fawn/momma had wandered off. Fawn was under the feeder and momma was off to the right, just out of sight. Glancing around the pond, I caught some movement at the edge of the brush. I watched for 45 min as a bobcat slowly made his way to the edge of the water, opposite the feeder. It was amazing how this cat, small admittedly, was able to conceal himself behind a 6” tuft of grass with momma staring right at him. After a while, she busted him and he ran off toward the barn. He was so tiny and well concealed, that I couldn’t get a decent pic. Here’s a print I found the next morning. Boot for scale. This is me trying to redeem myself for not providing a pic!
A bit of time goes by as it starts to get a bit darker. Some deer started to mosey on back towards to pond/feeder. I could hear some crunching around the brush off to the right. All the deer took off. “Here come the pigs”. Nope. The “non existent” javis!
They came and went several times until one was dumb enough to walk into my shooting lane. He was quartered hard away just before last light. Aiming for the opposite shoulder, I let loose. Hit him a bit back. I watched through the nasty thicket as the glowing lumenok came to a rest. The next morning, we squatted down and made our way through the thicket, using the trails that the game had cleared out. Sure enough, he dropped my arrow and continued another 20 yds or so into the thick stuff. If it were a deer, I would’ve continued in order to retrieve my trophy. Not in this case though. I realize I’m breaking a TBH cardinal rule without providing an LDP but I don’t care in this instance.
Bow doe down.
Bow javelina down.
I am beyond excited and if you can’t tell, hooked for life. Thanks to PigSticker for the coaching, tuning, gifted equip, etc.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
and congratulations on your first kill with a bow.
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