Just A Doe.........
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: OFFHNTN
12-Sep-16
For those of you who don't get PETERSEN'S Bowhunting Mag, grab one if you see it on the magazine rack. It's a special article for me involving stories of "just does", and one in particular that I shot last fall with a recurve bow my late Father made 37 years ago.
John Lien
From: Bear Track
12-Sep-16
Well done, all around, John.
From: bowriter
12-Sep-16
How times have changed. When I wrote the article, "The Trophy Doe",(Bow and Arrow Hunting Magazine), about 30-years ago, they called out the lynch mobs.
Good for you.
From: Fuzzy
12-Sep-16
bowriter, times certainly HAVE changed, and you, Sir have been an agent of positive change, in my opinion.
From: walks with a gimp
12-Sep-16
Could have tagged a monster of a doe last Saturday evening! Just too warm and our deer population is still down from 2 years of EHD. Big ole long nosed trophy doe and the thing is that she was 10 yards down wind.
From: kota-man
12-Sep-16
Very cool John...
From: Charlie Rehor
12-Sep-16
Horses head does are the hardest to get! Congrats! C
From: yukon roz
12-Sep-16
Nice doe and the bow looks like one my brother shoots good job all around.
From: Stickhead
12-Sep-16
I was real excited on last nights hunt, when I spotted a big doe. She disappeared quicker than the buck I attempted to stalk the night before. Big does are so tasty, and to me equally exciting to hunt. I will pick up a copy of the magazine. We need more real hunting information, and a lot less antler porn.
From: South Farm
12-Sep-16
John, that's a great doe and LOVE the limb design on that bow...did your Dad produce them professionally or for hobby??
Funny thing, just yesterday I saw a doe so big she actually got me thinking of changing my opening day plans this Saturday...just goes to show sometimes antlers aren't everything! I immediately imagined what she'd look like cut wrapped and frozen. LOL!
From: Genesis
12-Sep-16
she could have stood in for the bed scene in The Godfather
Congrats...truly the essence of bowhunting everything else is fluff...
From: x-man
12-Sep-16
Nice John, now ya gotta talk my brother into using his recurve.
From: r-man
12-Sep-16
nice , I plan on getting one first for my freezer. Looks cold there my friend , 90 here
From: OFFHNTN
12-Sep-16
Nice comments guys, thanks. South Farm, long story short...........My Dad was a school teacher in a small northern MN town. Back in 1978 he had one of his classes build bows. I believe they were/are Bingham bows out of Utah in which you you could buy the kits and a press, etc. My Dad died 20 years ago at the young age of 48. Last spring (2015), after church on Easter Sunday, one of his students from that 1978 class approached me and said he had something for me out in his car. As he pulled the bow out, I knew instantly what it was. As the story was told to me, something happened to the bow this student made in class. So my Dad gave him this bow, which was the “demonstration model” Dad made during the class. This student and his family have been lifelong friends of ours, his kids played with the bow over the years, and it shows definite signs of abuse, to me it was beautiful. As I admired the bow, the gentlemen said, “I think it’s something you should have”. I was almost speechless, but I told him I would try to kill a deer with it. I always try to honor my Dad, he was my hunting partner until his death, and this would be a great way to do it. When I was “back home” for Thanksgiving last fall, I went out again with this bow in my hand. 37 years after my Dad made this bow, it successfully took its first deer, as well as my first deer with a recurve bow. It was a very special evening in the woods.
x-man, is there any hope left for your brother?! LOL
From: LC Archer
12-Sep-16
Great story. Congrats! Any animal, taken with a bow, is a trophy. We are archery hunters, not horn hunters.
Anxiously awaiting doe season that opens September 15 here. Dave
From: HUNT MAN
12-Sep-16
So awesome!!
From: iceman
12-Sep-16
Love that story!! Congrats to you. Very cool.
From: writer
12-Sep-16
Cool deal.
My dad got his last Father's Day gift from my mom a few days after she died, suddenly.
He revered it, and seldom used it.
I've taken it out on some Father's Day's and caught fish with it.
Cool feelin'
I mentor a kid who lost his dad when he was four...we're working our way through about every piece of gear the boy inherited to keep his father's memory alive and, more importantly, positive.
From: x-man
12-Sep-16
"x-man, is there any hope left for your brother?! LOL "
He keeps telling me he's going to do it someday...... Honestly, he's running out of room to put P&Y mounts, he might as well try for a different kind of trophy.
From: WV Mountaineer
12-Sep-16
That's really cool man. God Bless you and yours
From: Mark Watkins
13-Sep-16
What a story John!
What a great way to honor your Father!!!
Mark
From: rooster
15-Sep-16
Just read the story last night. Very good stuff!
From: Grubby
15-Sep-16
That's a great story!! I hope that bow gets to go on many more hunts!!!
From: HDBOW
15-Sep-16
Awesome!
From: bowriter
15-Sep-16
Don't know what year I wrote thisun. Follows along with your post.
From: LBshooter
15-Sep-16
A mature doe is a true trophy, but any deer with trad gear qualifies as a trophy.
From: OFFHNTN
15-Sep-16
I got an email from my Mom yesterday, she said she was wiping the tears from her face as she read it. She was also a teacher at the same school as my Dad, so yes.....I had them both for teachers! She gave me an A+ on the article. The tears and the grade = Mission Accomplished. :)
From: Brotsky
15-Sep-16
Awesome story John! Thank you for sharing!
From: deerslayer
15-Sep-16
Man, that's an awesome story. Congrats on the doe. Losing a parent is tough stuff..... Neat to hear about your connection to your dad through that bow.
From: Tonybear61
15-Sep-16
Great story.
I was in High School in 78. Quite a few guys were able to make bows in class back then. Knives, crossbows and gun stocks too.
No way they would ever let you do it in school now.
From: Jeff Durnell
16-Sep-16
Congrats. Prey is prey.
From: 'Ike' (Phone)
16-Sep-16
I'll look for that...We only have very limited opportunities out here, which is a shame...
From: Stickhead
21-Sep-16
I picked up the magazine, read the article this morning while drinking coffee. Best article in the magazine. Exactly what I like to read, stories of real world hunting for the average guy. Too bad the whitetail rut calendar was wasting space in the same issue. I have until Sunday to fill my either sex mule deer tag here in Colorado. I have not had a shot opportunity yet, and would not have, nor will I, pass on a young buck or a doe.
From: Razorsharp123
21-Sep-16
Nowhere near me to pick up a copy so I want to buy one online. Is this article in September or October 2016 mag? I see they have both listed online and want to be sure before buying.
Thanks!
From: Stickhead
21-Sep-16
Petersons Bowhunting October 2016
From: APauls
22-Sep-16
Awesome story - congrats! I can't believe it also happens to be your first trad kill...that is very special!
From: Brokenarrow129
22-Sep-16
What a great tribute to your father. Thanks for sharing.
From: OFFHNTN
23-Sep-16
Thank you all.
From: 12yards
23-Sep-16
Cool kill with your dad's recurve! IMO, we have come full circle. Now it seems does have been marginalized and we've come to shoot too many in a lot of cases.
From: greenmountain
24-Sep-16
I got a "trophy " buck last fall. The hunting tool was a rifle. The antlers were nice but the trophy comes from the anticipation. I saw this animal the Monday before Thanksgiving when on my way to hunt elsewhere. I got to my stand in the pitch black and waited for my hunting partner to come by. I told him of the buck I saw. I planned to find a way to intercept him. I had a trail camera in an old orchard and saw that he had been a regular visitor. I reasoned that he was going out of the orchard looking for love so I set up about a half mile away where I knew the does would be bedding. I was rewarded with a glimpse just before dark on Wednesday. I spent Thanksgiving with family as promised. I took the deer cleanly on Friday morning and was assisted in transporting him to the reporting station by one of my hunting partners. The other arrived as we were weighing him in. I have a picture of the three of us together. Yes, This is a true trophy. PS. I have taken trophy does too. Many of the elements are the same.
From: spike78
24-Sep-16
Greenmountain, I know what your talking about. I hunted a spot with around 1000 acres of hills and valleys and basically a square of woods with no rhyme or reason of deer travel. It took me three seasons in there to finally bag a deer. This place probably had 10 deer per square mile. Trophys are measured in other ways that is for sure.
From: nijimasu
24-Sep-16
Love this thread. Love your story. In my mind, there has never been such a thing as "just a doe."
