I will try and give the short version of this story, because it is a long one. I first picked up a bow in my hand exactly a year ago when I returned from Iraq, because my brother (treenap) wanted to introduce me to the world of deer hunting the way he knows it. Being no stranger to the outdoors, I didn’t have a clue about hunting deer, but it didn't take me long to figure out that I'd soon be buying a bow of my own, so my brother and I could share moments together of which we hadn't in the past.
Over the summer, my brother and I traveled to the Midwest where the giants roam to put in the usual work of hanging tree stands, game cameras and hand throwing corn. I soon figured out what all was required to make sure we were setting ourselves up for success when it came to 2010 hunting season. Numerous hours of work combined with the seemingly endless amounts of money soon slapped me in the face. I'll remind you that I had no equipment what so ever and I needed to make sure I could self sustain when the season came. As all of you know, buying things like tree stands, a bow, glass, rangefinder, scent block suit, and other gear is not cheap what so ever, but I committed to this sport to share moments with my brother that we would have forever. We had put in all the work and now the waiting game starts.....
Before I knew it the beginning of November was here and it was time to go hunting. All I had been dreaming about over the past year was sitting in that stand and finally getting to go on my first hunt and sharing those moments with my bro. We all know things happen in life are sometimes out of our control, and it was the same in this case. I soon found out that my brother wasn't going to be able to hunt with me this year. He had some important things come up which didn't include making the trip. Undoubtedly, I was pretty upset (but not at him), because he was the whole reason I got into this sport in the first place. I wanted my first harvest to be with him. It was going to be ok though. I had a backup plan that involved a buddy meeting me, and he was going to fill in for my brother.
On Wednesday, the 10th of November, I headed north to the land of crop country. I couldn't sleep the night before, so by 4 am I left DFW and was hauling *****. My buddy and I met around 230 in the afternoon just in time to get in an evening hunt. Everything was ready. All we had to do is show up, climb in the stand, and get ready for one of these beauties’s to walk on by.
The first night I saw tons of deer, to include and small 10 pt, but none that committed me to drawing on them. It was the first day of the hunt and I had plenty of time. Before I left my brother gave me some advice. He told me "Don’t pass up a deer on the first day that you would shoot on the last." I would of shot that 10 pt on the last day, but I knew what was in the area from the game cameras we had out. So, I did what he told me not to do.
The next morning rolls around, and I'm in the stand 45 min. before the sun even starts to show any light what so ever. I'm sitting there in the dark, and there is deer everywhere all around me. I can't see them, but I can hear every branch break, and every leaf crack, as they shuffle through the grass. With my Mathews DXT in my hand, all I can do is wait. As the sun comes up, I look over to my left and there's a heavy, tall and wide 8pt standing about 25yards away. In one split second I'm overwhelmed with nervousness, and I swear I could feel my heart pounding so hard it was hitting my ribs. So I stand up slow, raise my bow, and attempt to draw it back. Did I mention it was 26 degrees too? Between freezing my ***** off and my heart pounding out of my chest, I could of sworn my bow was set at 150 LBS draw weight! I was so nervous I couldn't even get my bow back! As I'm struggling to draw my bow the deer looks up at me. I had no choice, so I slowly let off and while I was doing so the deer walked off into the wood line.
About an hour go's by and I saw lots of fawns and a few doe. It took me about that long just to regain my composure and get my head back in the game. All of a sudden I get a text from my buddy sitting in the stand about 600 yd. down the tree line from me. He says "10pt bout 145+ headed your way". Not even five min. after that, I look to my right and there he is. He's walking right to my stand. Before he has a chance to see me I stand up and put my release on my bow. I wait until he gets all the way into my left shooting lane while drawing my bow. About 25 yards away I let out a "MERRRRRRRRR" and he stops. I put an arrow right behind his shoulder but a little high. Although, I still thought it was low enough to put him down. I texted everyone I could think “BBD!!!” After speaking to my brother on the phone, we both decided to let the deer lay for a while before I went blazing through woods to go find my prize. In the mean while I let my buddy climb in my stand, because while I was waiting another 10 and a small 6 came in on me. Deer everywhere!
After about an hour and a half of sitting around, twittling my thumbs, my buddy text and said “let’s go find your deer.” So, I walk back to the stand where I shot him and we start the track. Knowing that I hit him high, but saw the arrow pass through, we knew it was going to be a few yards till we found any blood. We looked and looked but couldn’t find a drop. Finally, about 150 yards from the stand I find my half my arrow covered in blood all the way to the fletching with a few drops of blood on the ground. We thought for sure we would continue the track and see more blood along the way. I have no idea how, but we couldn’t find a drop. My friend is a very experienced bow hunter, and he and I looked for close to 4 hours for this deer. We were practically on our hands and knees to find a blood trail somewhere and just couldn’t find one. Once we figured that there was no blood we started gridding out the area. We looked and looked with no deer in sight. I was heartbroken. My first deer ever shot and he’s nowhere to be found.
To make this long story short, feeling defeated I continued to hunt with encouraging words from my brother, and friends. I had other opportunities throughout the next couple of days to take a shot, but the stars were never aligned. The shot was either too far, he was behind a tree, or even one time I just got snuck up on and just wasn’t ready. God had given me every opportunity to take home a shooter and it just wasn’t happening.
Finally on the last night of the trip, about 30 min. before it was completely dark, I hear a shuffle in the woods to my 12 o’clock. I immediately grab my bow knowing I was going to be ready if it was something worth shooting. Hell, by this time I’m ready to shoot a doe. I hated thinking about spending all that money on an out of state tag and not have anything to show for it. I look into the trees and see that it’s a pretty big bodied deer, but I just can’t quite tell exactly what it is. He takes a few more steps and I see it’s a buck, so I stand up before he notices. Once I stand, I hold my bow with my release connected waiting for him to come closer, and I can tell he’s a shooter. He stops and basically looked straight at me from 60 yards away. I stand completely still and tell myself that as soon as he looks down I’m coming to full draw, and I’m just going to hold it until he clears the trees. And that’s what I did. I must have held my draw for a minute and a half while he walked out of the trees. He walked right into my left lane and I put it to him……..Finally. Bad thing was…….. I spine him……… Good thing was…… he drops right there. I hurry and put another arrow in him and finally finished him off. What a hunt!!!!!!
I hunted pretty hard those four days and could have made this story a lot more detailed with other events, but I didn’t want to bore everyone. I just wanted to share my first experience with you all, because it was a trip I will never forget.
I’d like to say thank you to my brother for introducing me to this sport even though you weren’t able to make it this trip. The memories I will have forever are because of you. You taught me everything I needed to know to be successful on my hunt. Bow hunting has brought us closer in the past year than we ever have been in the 31 years I have been alive. And for that I am thankful. I love you………..
And know for the good part……..LDP’s!!!! He’s about a 6 ½ to 7 year old 8 point that weighed 260 to 280 LBS. I haven’t officially scored him yet, but everyone tells me he’s around 135” if he had his other brow tine. I don’t really care what he scores. I just enjoyed the experience and was grateful to take him home. Here he is………Thanks
Over the summer, my brother and I traveled to the Midwest where the giants roam to put in the usual work of hanging tree stands, game cameras and hand throwing corn. I soon figured out what all was required to make sure we were setting ourselves up for success when it came to 2010 hunting season. Numerous hours of work combined with the seemingly endless amounts of money soon slapped me in the face. I'll remind you that I had no equipment what so ever and I needed to make sure I could self sustain when the season came. As all of you know, buying things like tree stands, a bow, glass, rangefinder, scent block suit, and other gear is not cheap what so ever, but I committed to this sport to share moments with my brother that we would have forever. We had put in all the work and now the waiting game starts.....
Before I knew it the beginning of November was here and it was time to go hunting. All I had been dreaming about over the past year was sitting in that stand and finally getting to go on my first hunt and sharing those moments with my bro. We all know things happen in life are sometimes out of our control, and it was the same in this case. I soon found out that my brother wasn't going to be able to hunt with me this year. He had some important things come up which didn't include making the trip. Undoubtedly, I was pretty upset (but not at him), because he was the whole reason I got into this sport in the first place. I wanted my first harvest to be with him. It was going to be ok though. I had a backup plan that involved a buddy meeting me, and he was going to fill in for my brother.
On Wednesday, the 10th of November, I headed north to the land of crop country. I couldn't sleep the night before, so by 4 am I left DFW and was hauling *****. My buddy and I met around 230 in the afternoon just in time to get in an evening hunt. Everything was ready. All we had to do is show up, climb in the stand, and get ready for one of these beauties’s to walk on by.
The first night I saw tons of deer, to include and small 10 pt, but none that committed me to drawing on them. It was the first day of the hunt and I had plenty of time. Before I left my brother gave me some advice. He told me "Don’t pass up a deer on the first day that you would shoot on the last." I would of shot that 10 pt on the last day, but I knew what was in the area from the game cameras we had out. So, I did what he told me not to do.
The next morning rolls around, and I'm in the stand 45 min. before the sun even starts to show any light what so ever. I'm sitting there in the dark, and there is deer everywhere all around me. I can't see them, but I can hear every branch break, and every leaf crack, as they shuffle through the grass. With my Mathews DXT in my hand, all I can do is wait. As the sun comes up, I look over to my left and there's a heavy, tall and wide 8pt standing about 25yards away. In one split second I'm overwhelmed with nervousness, and I swear I could feel my heart pounding so hard it was hitting my ribs. So I stand up slow, raise my bow, and attempt to draw it back. Did I mention it was 26 degrees too? Between freezing my ***** off and my heart pounding out of my chest, I could of sworn my bow was set at 150 LBS draw weight! I was so nervous I couldn't even get my bow back! As I'm struggling to draw my bow the deer looks up at me. I had no choice, so I slowly let off and while I was doing so the deer walked off into the wood line.
About an hour go's by and I saw lots of fawns and a few doe. It took me about that long just to regain my composure and get my head back in the game. All of a sudden I get a text from my buddy sitting in the stand about 600 yd. down the tree line from me. He says "10pt bout 145+ headed your way". Not even five min. after that, I look to my right and there he is. He's walking right to my stand. Before he has a chance to see me I stand up and put my release on my bow. I wait until he gets all the way into my left shooting lane while drawing my bow. About 25 yards away I let out a "MERRRRRRRRR" and he stops. I put an arrow right behind his shoulder but a little high. Although, I still thought it was low enough to put him down. I texted everyone I could think “BBD!!!” After speaking to my brother on the phone, we both decided to let the deer lay for a while before I went blazing through woods to go find my prize. In the mean while I let my buddy climb in my stand, because while I was waiting another 10 and a small 6 came in on me. Deer everywhere!
After about an hour and a half of sitting around, twittling my thumbs, my buddy text and said “let’s go find your deer.” So, I walk back to the stand where I shot him and we start the track. Knowing that I hit him high, but saw the arrow pass through, we knew it was going to be a few yards till we found any blood. We looked and looked but couldn’t find a drop. Finally, about 150 yards from the stand I find my half my arrow covered in blood all the way to the fletching with a few drops of blood on the ground. We thought for sure we would continue the track and see more blood along the way. I have no idea how, but we couldn’t find a drop. My friend is a very experienced bow hunter, and he and I looked for close to 4 hours for this deer. We were practically on our hands and knees to find a blood trail somewhere and just couldn’t find one. Once we figured that there was no blood we started gridding out the area. We looked and looked with no deer in sight. I was heartbroken. My first deer ever shot and he’s nowhere to be found.
To make this long story short, feeling defeated I continued to hunt with encouraging words from my brother, and friends. I had other opportunities throughout the next couple of days to take a shot, but the stars were never aligned. The shot was either too far, he was behind a tree, or even one time I just got snuck up on and just wasn’t ready. God had given me every opportunity to take home a shooter and it just wasn’t happening.
Finally on the last night of the trip, about 30 min. before it was completely dark, I hear a shuffle in the woods to my 12 o’clock. I immediately grab my bow knowing I was going to be ready if it was something worth shooting. Hell, by this time I’m ready to shoot a doe. I hated thinking about spending all that money on an out of state tag and not have anything to show for it. I look into the trees and see that it’s a pretty big bodied deer, but I just can’t quite tell exactly what it is. He takes a few more steps and I see it’s a buck, so I stand up before he notices. Once I stand, I hold my bow with my release connected waiting for him to come closer, and I can tell he’s a shooter. He stops and basically looked straight at me from 60 yards away. I stand completely still and tell myself that as soon as he looks down I’m coming to full draw, and I’m just going to hold it until he clears the trees. And that’s what I did. I must have held my draw for a minute and a half while he walked out of the trees. He walked right into my left lane and I put it to him……..Finally. Bad thing was…….. I spine him……… Good thing was…… he drops right there. I hurry and put another arrow in him and finally finished him off. What a hunt!!!!!!
I hunted pretty hard those four days and could have made this story a lot more detailed with other events, but I didn’t want to bore everyone. I just wanted to share my first experience with you all, because it was a trip I will never forget.
I’d like to say thank you to my brother for introducing me to this sport even though you weren’t able to make it this trip. The memories I will have forever are because of you. You taught me everything I needed to know to be successful on my hunt. Bow hunting has brought us closer in the past year than we ever have been in the 31 years I have been alive. And for that I am thankful. I love you………..
And know for the good part……..LDP’s!!!! He’s about a 6 ½ to 7 year old 8 point that weighed 260 to 280 LBS. I haven’t officially scored him yet, but everyone tells me he’s around 135” if he had his other brow tine. I don’t really care what he scores. I just enjoyed the experience and was grateful to take him home. Here he is………Thanks
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