The minute I sold my property in Young County and made the move to San Antonio for my new job with Texas Hunter, I started looking for a place in the Hill Country hunt. Karla’s tough luck on our place in Young County chasing her first buck was well documented on TBH, so my goal for the new place was a fun place to hunt with a lot of animals. We were to busy last season with the move and getting settled in to even think about hunting, but this year I was not going to let that happen. I was very fortunate that a good buddy had a spot open on their place in between Junction and Menard on a beautiful ranch.
I spent the last couple of months working on the lease and getting it ready to hunt. Fast forward to this weekend, Karla was going to try to take a buck with her crossbow. We arrived late on Friday night and settled into camp. Before hitting the hay, I set her arrows up with broadheads (tested) and lighted knocks (not tested…more on this later). The first morning was a beautiful, cold hill country morning that started a little slow with only a lone boar showing up right after the feeder spun. She wanted to hold off as she was horn hunting!
Pretty soon, the deer started pouring out of the woods. Every buck that walked out….”Can I shoot that one?”…………..”How about that one?”, so needless to say I had to keep her trigger finger still until the right deer showed up. After a while a nice 4.5 year 8 point and I could not hold her off any longer. She settled in, heart racing……
She is the most patient shooter I know, so after what seemed like an entirety of playing cat and mouse waiting on the perfect shot, she settled on the shot and let it fly! I heard a weird noise but did not think much of it as I watch the buck take off. The buck ran about 70 yards and stopped to look back to try to figure out what just happened. I could see he was not hit and she says, “there is my arrow” which was laying about 10 yards in front of the blind. I sat there perplexed, but I looked down at her crossbow and saw the string had popped off. Needless to say I had a pretty bummed hunter…..
I told her to load up and lets go get it fixed. I called around and could not find anybody open or that could fix it, so we headed back towards San Antonio as I was bound and determined to get her back in action this weekend. I ended up talking to the guys at Leading Edge Archery in Boerne and he said he could help. We made the 1.5 hour track to his shop and we could not be more pleased with the service and the outcome. He worked his magic and she took a few test shots to make sure it was still on point. Before heading back, Karla had wanted to try this restaurant in downtown Boerne for awhile so next think you know I am sitting on the bistro patio in downtown Boerne watching a Lamborhini car show across the way in my snakeboots. That was not how I planned my Saturday at the lease, but the food was outstanding.
We headed West in time to make the evening hunt. We got settled in, thinking it was just a fluke shot and everything was back on target. The practice shots she took were with her original nocks, and not the lighted nocks she was hunting with, this will be a major part of the story in just a bit. Everything goes off as planned……….wind in our face, feeder spins, tons of deer in front of us. Here comes her buck back in and she settles in for the shot. After waiting for the perfect shot, her arrow sails right underneath him. She is heartbroken again. I am at a loss for words and started thinking, its those **** lighted nocks. I know better not to hunt with something I have not practiced with but never though the nock would make that much difference. After a great dinner, the plan was set to go back to shooting the original nocks.
I took the arrow that she drilled the bullseyes with at the archery shop and said we are shooting this arrow this morning. My feeder goes off about 15 minutes before shooting light and as soon as it did I had two bucks eating corn 20 yards away. As it got more and more light, I could tell we had a shooter. I did not say anything to her as I wanted to make sure she had a shot attempt instead of getting her hopes up after what transpired this weekend. As soon as legal shooting light happened and she had the shot, she wasted no time smoking the buck. She turned to me, shaking, “I got him, I got him……I got him.” It was an awesome moment for us and I could not have been more proud and happy for her.
The shot was good, but we still waited 20 minutes to exit the blind to work through the process. The buck had run to our left, so I had the last location in mind but wanted her to start with the arrow and work from there. As we walked to the shot location, I could not help but peak to my left and I see the unmistakable white belly laying in the brush. She turned around and saw my smile, realizing at this time, she had her buck with her crossbow. Instead of running to the deer, we worked through process as a teaching moment for her. Of course we found no arrow, no blood but I knew right where the buck was laying.
It was a great shot and the buck only ran about 40-50 yards. As soon as she put her hands on the deer, she said, “We have to face time Bill”. Bill is my dad and the first thing she thought of was to share the moment with him, which means the word to me. I tried to channel my inner Legdog (cut the tongue, pull the grass, lay on your stomach, get the good sky, etc. 😊
to grab a few pictures.
Then it was time to get D-MO his tailgate pic
Back to camp, it was time to get legal and celebrate the moment with my good friend and his family back at camp.
After taking care of the buck, we got a victory DQ blizzard before dropping the buck off at the processor.
This was an awesome weekend, that did not go as planned but the 3rd time was the charm for Karla this weekend. I would not have traded the events of the weekend for anything else when it was all said and done. I could not be prouder of Karla for how she handled the ups and downs of the weekend. She told me on the way home, she is ready to move on to a compound bow so looks like I will be bow shopping soon and I will make sure I give the guys at Leading Edge Archery a Boerne a call to make that happen. Major kudos to those guys for helping make this weekend possible. What an awesome weekend!
I spent the last couple of months working on the lease and getting it ready to hunt. Fast forward to this weekend, Karla was going to try to take a buck with her crossbow. We arrived late on Friday night and settled into camp. Before hitting the hay, I set her arrows up with broadheads (tested) and lighted knocks (not tested…more on this later). The first morning was a beautiful, cold hill country morning that started a little slow with only a lone boar showing up right after the feeder spun. She wanted to hold off as she was horn hunting!
Pretty soon, the deer started pouring out of the woods. Every buck that walked out….”Can I shoot that one?”…………..”How about that one?”, so needless to say I had to keep her trigger finger still until the right deer showed up. After a while a nice 4.5 year 8 point and I could not hold her off any longer. She settled in, heart racing……
She is the most patient shooter I know, so after what seemed like an entirety of playing cat and mouse waiting on the perfect shot, she settled on the shot and let it fly! I heard a weird noise but did not think much of it as I watch the buck take off. The buck ran about 70 yards and stopped to look back to try to figure out what just happened. I could see he was not hit and she says, “there is my arrow” which was laying about 10 yards in front of the blind. I sat there perplexed, but I looked down at her crossbow and saw the string had popped off. Needless to say I had a pretty bummed hunter…..
I told her to load up and lets go get it fixed. I called around and could not find anybody open or that could fix it, so we headed back towards San Antonio as I was bound and determined to get her back in action this weekend. I ended up talking to the guys at Leading Edge Archery in Boerne and he said he could help. We made the 1.5 hour track to his shop and we could not be more pleased with the service and the outcome. He worked his magic and she took a few test shots to make sure it was still on point. Before heading back, Karla had wanted to try this restaurant in downtown Boerne for awhile so next think you know I am sitting on the bistro patio in downtown Boerne watching a Lamborhini car show across the way in my snakeboots. That was not how I planned my Saturday at the lease, but the food was outstanding.
We headed West in time to make the evening hunt. We got settled in, thinking it was just a fluke shot and everything was back on target. The practice shots she took were with her original nocks, and not the lighted nocks she was hunting with, this will be a major part of the story in just a bit. Everything goes off as planned……….wind in our face, feeder spins, tons of deer in front of us. Here comes her buck back in and she settles in for the shot. After waiting for the perfect shot, her arrow sails right underneath him. She is heartbroken again. I am at a loss for words and started thinking, its those **** lighted nocks. I know better not to hunt with something I have not practiced with but never though the nock would make that much difference. After a great dinner, the plan was set to go back to shooting the original nocks.
I took the arrow that she drilled the bullseyes with at the archery shop and said we are shooting this arrow this morning. My feeder goes off about 15 minutes before shooting light and as soon as it did I had two bucks eating corn 20 yards away. As it got more and more light, I could tell we had a shooter. I did not say anything to her as I wanted to make sure she had a shot attempt instead of getting her hopes up after what transpired this weekend. As soon as legal shooting light happened and she had the shot, she wasted no time smoking the buck. She turned to me, shaking, “I got him, I got him……I got him.” It was an awesome moment for us and I could not have been more proud and happy for her.
The shot was good, but we still waited 20 minutes to exit the blind to work through the process. The buck had run to our left, so I had the last location in mind but wanted her to start with the arrow and work from there. As we walked to the shot location, I could not help but peak to my left and I see the unmistakable white belly laying in the brush. She turned around and saw my smile, realizing at this time, she had her buck with her crossbow. Instead of running to the deer, we worked through process as a teaching moment for her. Of course we found no arrow, no blood but I knew right where the buck was laying.
It was a great shot and the buck only ran about 40-50 yards. As soon as she put her hands on the deer, she said, “We have to face time Bill”. Bill is my dad and the first thing she thought of was to share the moment with him, which means the word to me. I tried to channel my inner Legdog (cut the tongue, pull the grass, lay on your stomach, get the good sky, etc. 😊
to grab a few pictures. Then it was time to get D-MO his tailgate pic
Back to camp, it was time to get legal and celebrate the moment with my good friend and his family back at camp.
After taking care of the buck, we got a victory DQ blizzard before dropping the buck off at the processor.
This was an awesome weekend, that did not go as planned but the 3rd time was the charm for Karla this weekend. I would not have traded the events of the weekend for anything else when it was all said and done. I could not be prouder of Karla for how she handled the ups and downs of the weekend. She told me on the way home, she is ready to move on to a compound bow so looks like I will be bow shopping soon and I will make sure I give the guys at Leading Edge Archery a Boerne a call to make that happen. Major kudos to those guys for helping make this weekend possible. What an awesome weekend!
Comment