show and/or tell

[zip4644]

I love to hear hunting stories. I have not been a member for much more than a year but it seems like we have a few bowhunters that are active here. Tell me your best bowhunting story or show me a picture, or both. Doesn't have to be your biggest just your favorite.

 

[BourbonTrail]

My favorite wasn’t successful at all, but it was one of my favorite hunts ever.

2020 - I went elk hunting in Northern Arizona (my avatar pic). I spent a week stalking elk in rut during one of the driest years I can remember, with a bow. Rut was late, and tourists from Phoenix were running amok. It was 95 degrees almost every day and bone dry, but it was a great adventure. We had a base camp near the Mogollon Rim and a couple of spike camps covering the juniper scrub and big pine canyon country. I saw probably 10-20 elk that trip. The third day, had a bull bugle, IN CAMP, at 3 am. I fell off my air mattress. The best was about 5 days in; I had a big bull elk cross my path at 15 yards before sunrise (cow tags in my pocket) and bugle.

1 out of the 4 of us filled our tags (me & my father had cow tags, family friend and one of his friends had bull tags). It was a great time, and my first elk hunt after living in AZ for 15 years and then moving away.

 

[Firebird]

just something special about elk hunting and especially with archery tackle. Big and noisy and their musky smell or they can be impossible to find and silent and they can smell you a mile away. Get in close and try not to shake too much-haven’t made it to africa with my bow but it’s going to happen one of these years!

 

[Firebird]

I wrote the story on here about this hunt already. (Slick trick and dull knives)It was special because he went down in sight and was the easiest packing job I ever had. It was a spike only area and I was glad for the success. Experience often counts more than inches do-my treestand in the pines in the background-

 

[John the Electrician]

Happens to be my biggest and most memorable.

I own a nice piece of land with my brother and dad (who has since passed) and after hunting it unsuccessfully for 5 days during the Wisconsin rut I needed a change. I called a Highschool buddy and he let me hunt his family farm nearby. Friday was kind of a throw away with out everr having been there before.

Saturday looked great, inch of snow and all the things. I hiked around from noon to 2:15 but NO FRESH DEER TRACKS TO BE FOUND! The friend had a lot of farm land and little actual woods. I finally gave up and used my climber to get up a tree in a little ravine with a spring, kind of a brushy washout with a couple dozen bigger trees.


so I’m pretty dejected up in a tree overlooking a thirty yard wide brushy swale and grassy hillside beyond. Then, there he stood 70 yards away on that hillside

I grunted and he looks my way, grunted again and he came in on a string right to me. I shot him with my bow, six steps from my tree. It was just like a hunting show.

I have never had him scored, people tell me he is around 160”. What had been a week of frustration turned a 180 in moments.

 

[Bullthrower338]

@Firebird i have had two bulls fall from an arrow within a matter of feet from where I shot them. Both were hard quartering shots that hit the liver. It is an amazing thing to see and it changes the way you think about the effectiveness of an arrow.

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

The start of my Tiny 10 quest with the bow:

 

[zip4644]

The start of my Tiny 10 quest with the bow:

View attachment 498358

and a hammer as well....

 

[Firebird]

Marius please forgive my ignorance/inexperience but is that a Damara dik dik ?

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Marius please forgive my ignorance/inexperience but is that a Damara dik dik ?

Yes sir, it is indeed.

 

[OldnLazy]

I have shot many fish with a recurve but this is my first animal with a recurve. I shot him on Sat. the 11th. Public land in a ground blind. I got there about 3:45 not expecting to see anything until after 5:30pm. Around 4:10 I heard something sound like it was running along the edge of the timber I was sitting on. I looked up to see this buck trotting at a good pace. He reached my second shooting lane and I let an arrow fly. I hit him kinda far back but he was quartering away from me. A clean pass threw showed good blood, but I couldnt find a blood trail for 40 yards. I sat back down in my blind waiting to see if I could get a shot at a doe. About 5 o'clock I watched another hunter walk by me with out noticing me. He walked right down the deer trail that the buck had just gone down. I thought "great, not gonna find any blood now". I started looking for a blood trail shortly after that. The trail led us right under that guys tree stand. It looked as thought the blood trail was drying up when the guy hollered from his stand. "Theres good blood up on this deer trail" I ran up there and followed it for about 50 yards when I saw him laying there. What a rush!!! This is my first kill with a recurve. Wing Gull 45lbs 64" long. I used Magnus 125 grain broadheads. He is a 10 pointer with 6 on one side and 4 on the other.

 

[Firebird]

Was just thinking how much fun it would be to hunt the tiny ten. Pretty sure in Marius’ back yard he could do oribi, blue duiker, grey duiker, steenbok, klipspringer and even try Vaal rhebok with a bow. Seems like I might have missed a couple but even with a firearm it would be amazing. South Africa and it’s diversity is fantastic! I know that damara dik dik came from Namibia, another dream destination for my someday bucket list!

 

[Osama Mahdi]

The start of my Tiny 10 quest with the bow:

View attachment 498358

You looks familiar Sir

 

[Ryan]

For me it's my only javelina.

I grew up in Tucson, Arizona and javelina are a pretty common animal to bowhunt in the area. I've known plenty of people who had no difficulty getting one a year or at least one every other year. I on the other hand could not. I stumbled on to them out of season plenty of times and when season rolled around the same herd either disappeared completely or became super cagey and smart. In one case when I got to my final stalk on a bedded herd, they had had enough nap time stood up and vacated without ever knowing I was there, and without me getting a shot. Aside from a couple seasons in high school this went on for six seasons in college until I left Arizona. In 2014 I decided I would visit family and friend in 'Zona and get serious about a javelina the following January season. I didn't have the time or ground knowledge so I found a guide with good experience on our first evening we stalked into a herd he and his assistant had been tracking down near Sasabe and I made a good shot at around 35 yards. There was another hunter in camp and try as they might for the next three days he couldn't get a good shot on one.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

For me? A small basket-racked 8 point from my home state of Kansas. It was late in the season. I was hunting a thin strip of timber connecting a feeding area with a bedding area. Probably a ground blind would have been the prudent stand choice. I put up a small homemade folding crotch stand, in a small elm. It was 7 feet off the ground. It was dead calm that evening. I called in the buck in question and he walked by, offering a broadside shot. I somehow managed to draw without being seen or heard. He was 12 feet from the tip of the arrow when I released.

A side story is it costs me all of ten bucks to have him shoulder mounted. I used to have a small side business doing deer heads. I picked up a form, eyes, and earliners at the state taxidermy convention auction that year and used the those to do a shoulder mount of him.

Forgive the crappy photo... this mount is now 22 years old. People ask why I wanted such a small buck mounted up. 1) The story behind it. 2) It was super cheap to have mounted.

 

[ARHinAK]

Black bear I took while on a solo hunt about a 2 hour bush plane ride from the nearest anything. I’d been dropped off. Hurried the photos out in the field because it was going to be dark in a half hour and I had some work to do before making it to my tent. The bear happened to make the Pope & Young book but the odd thing was that he was a 3 legged bear. Some people think he was a snare bear, having lost his leg to a snare when he was young. I don’t know, I think he was born that way. Excuse the mess, I was remodeling when I got the rug back.

 

[zip4644]

Black bear I took while on a solo hunt about a 2 hour bush plane ride from the nearest anything. I’d been dropped off. Hurried the photos out in the field because it was going to be dark in a half hour and I had some work to do before making it to my tent. The bear happened to make the Pope & Young book but the odd thing was that he was a 3 legged bear. Some people think he was a snare bear, having lost his leg to a snare when he was young. I don’t know, I think he was born that way. Excuse the mess, I was remodeling when I got the rug back.

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Great bear….