So Saturday night I was getting everything ready for the hunt when my girl called...her car broke down. She bartends downtown so I knew this wasn't good. I hopped in my truck and drove her to work @ around 10pm. My cooler was filled with ice, sprayed clothes down w/permethrin and was double checking to make sure I had all my gear. I got home and went to sleep @ 11pm, woke up at 2am to pick her up and got back around 3am...I couldn't fall back asleep I was so anxious so I laid in bed until 430am and woke my son up and got going.
The ride up was about 2 1/2hrs my son and I had some nice talks and I taught him how to ask truckers to honk there horns LOL, he must of hit every truck the way up!
We get to the hunting area and start to get everything ready. I'm not nervous at all at this point. We get taken out by quad which my son loved.
Now for the hunt. We're in the tree stand and FIRST mistake I made, I was putting my broadheads onto my arrows just then. I was having trouble with a GR Hades not screwing in correctly. About 1hr in I hear some yelling, we thought someone was hurt. 2min. later Bill from B&A Archery and one of his guys get my attention and say get down here now! Instantly I put my 3 BH arrows in the quiver and head down with my son, starting to get nervous now. We get down where Bill is and there's a group of 5 hogs approx. 30 yards away. Bill directs me where to go and approx. how many yards I am away from the hogs.
I nock my first arrow and begin to single out 1 hog....I line up my shot directly behind and above the shoulder...follow the hog a couple more feet and WHAM I let go. My son says, Dad you got him!! BUT my arrow hit about 6" high. Luckely not hitting the spine or anything but I know the hog is in pain and I want to end it quick and humane. I quickly nock another arrow, aim and this time I take into account the hog is downhill and WHAM....I totally miss, arrow went right under the hog.
Now my nerves really got me, I don't want the hog suffering. I nock my 3rd and last arrow. I try to calm down but am nervous as hell now. I follow the hog about 10 yards, draw my bow, the hog is walking and I follow with my pin right on the sweet spot....she starts to slow down, I'm lined up perfect now...WHAM I release.....right into a TREE!! Now my nerves are overloaded I have to get another broadhead attached to my arrow and quick!
Bill's guy hands me an arrow with a 2 blade Rage. Bill tells me take a deep breath, slow my mind down and finish this. The hog takes off running so I begin the chase. I follow her downhill about 40 yards, I'm right behind the hog with no shot. This is where I realize I need to take a moment and calm myself, and make sure this next shot is the last.
I say a quick prayer and ask God to take this arrow to where it needs to go so this hog no longer suffers. The hog slows down now, I nock the arrow w/the rage and quietly follow waiting for the perfect shot. The hog suddenly makes a turn left slowly, exposing it's side. I close my eyes, take a deep breath to settle my nerves. My hands are much more clam now. I draw the bow, line up my shot and....WHAM the arrow goes exactly where it needed to! The hog didn't take 5 more steps before it fell in it's tracks. My son, Bill and his guy were right behind me now. I started to put together another arrow just in case the hog wasn't dead yet. Bill walked over and said he's done, nice shoot btw let them know you got another one up the road they have to bring in....that tree LOL!!
I have to say what a rush it was! I do wish I had a rangefinder to help me more and I will have one for my next hunt no matter what.
I realize the mistakes I did make, and know now what to NOT do next time. But for my first hunt I loved it, and my son he REALLY loved it!
To top it all off my son and I got the biggest hog of the day! I couldn't believe it! I would never have been able to do it without Bill and Elroy-the guy who gave me that last arrow. Much thanks go out to those 2 great guys.
After we were finished we went back to camp to get some pictures of the hog and us. We got some really nice pictures too. Oh and the hog could not fit into my 150qt cooler, I had to go find a plastic tote it was just huge! I wanted to watch and learn how to skin and gut an animal so we went down to the shack. I was suprised my son was totally ok with everything. He now wants a new bow so he can shoot it next time.
Can't wait to get out on the next hunt! -Chris
As for that yelling we heard in the beginning. Turns out another guy who had a crossbow took a shot at a hog but left his thumb up to high and the crossbow cable almost severed his thumb. He got his hog though. Had to get taken to the hospital and have the tip of his thumb sown back on. Luckily no nerve damage and no one else was seriously injured.
BTW that Rage 2 blade left a seriously huge hole compared to the Grim Reaper Hades. Think I am switching to those for the future.
I gotta ask... why did you take the broadheads off the shafts???
Your arrows not hitting the same spot isn't a range finder issue, nor is it a broadhead issue. Chris, you need to shoot those broadheads a hundred times maybe 200 to get consistent. My friends are shooting broadheads in June- 3-4 months before season shooting everyday. I spend the last month every night shooting b-heads out of my trad stuff.
Ok you did it - no we can help you get ready for deer season. Lets get you a better bow to start with. Deer wont let you walk up to 30 yds so you'll need to be at the top of your game!
Congrats man!
I do agree with practicing with the broadheads a lot. I think one of my issues was not knowing how far away the hog was. My first shot was approx. 25 yards and my second over 30 yards, if I had known it was over 20 I would have waited to get closer or used my 30 yard pin. IMO if I had a rangefinder I could get a rough estimate pretty fast and be able to take a much better shot. The hog was also slightly downhill so it seemed much closer to me.
I know the arrows not hitting the right spot was all me, lacking the knowledge of estimating distance and being anxious played the main part.
Also Dale I sprung for that PSE Drive....hope I made the right choice...we'll find out this weekend I guess
Ok, you made some mistakes, we all do that and some of us have made the same one's you have......We learn. When you get serious this summer and sounds like your planning on a new bow, we can work on you broadhead tuning your bow so that field points and hunting heads impact the same mark. Btw, I got those wrenches in the mail to ya', sorry so late.
I don't know where this thread is going to go Chris, because some folks can get downright nasty when stuff happens, but don't let any of it deter you......Stay on the path. :)
LIke Dale and Roger said, practice with those broadheads. And if you get a range finder, I would use it to practice and develop your range estimation skills. In other words, when you are up in a tree or out practicing, pick objects and estimate their yardage, THEN use the rangefinder to see how close you are. Do this over and over until you get better. This is what helped me the most, over the years. I had a terrible time estimating yardage years ago. Now it is usually not an issue. First thing I do when I get up in my tree is range a 20y and 30y "circle" around my stand. Usually after a couple hunts, I can just see it in my mind's eye as I look out from my stand. I don't even bother getting it(rangefinder) out when a deer is approaching. Too many things to concentrate on. I just wait til it gets within that 30 or 20 yard circle and then aim accordingly.
Oh, and when I saw that second pic with all the blood, I had a feeling that was a RAGE kill! ;-)
Congrats again! :)
I'm glad I had the experience though. It gave me a lot of knowledge in hunting including what to and not to do. I know I'm not an expert but I'm learning.
I'm paying for the bow now so I can start practicing right away. But I already have some things I want to get after the bow to help improve my hunting.
And believe me whatever broadhead I use I will have 6 arrows all ready to go in my quiver the day BEFORE lol. With how great the Rage worked I think I am going to use them next time. Next paycheck I'm going to pick up a pack with a practice broadhead so EVERY time I go to the range I can practice with it.
I also have to modify my back quiver. The opening is to big allowing the arrows to move around a lot and if they slide to the opposite side can be hard to reach. I'm going to sow the opening closed a little more then halfway. I'm also going to ad some hard styrofoam to the bottom to hold the broadheads properly.
I do plan on going deer hunting this year so I'll be practicing EVERY week, especially now that I have a target at home I'll be shooting just about every day.
I check out that Quickee Kwiver to thanks.
It was great that you had your son along to share this with.
I would not use a back quiver like Roger suggests. You need to be very careful how you handle/secure those rage heads so they don;t deploy early. And make sure you get a rage compatible quiver. Not all quivers will accept RAGE heads. If you want to know what I use, send me a PM. It is probably a little more $$(56?) than the Quikee, but works well with RAGE. Not sure if Quikee works with Rage? It might, just not sure.
As Phil said, it is a journey! you will make mistakes along the way. But you will learn every year. I have been bowhunting over 20 years and learn things every season! Just when you think you have "seen it all", something will happen and you will learn from it. ;-)
Good luck
Mike
I'm thinking of using a ground blind at the 5c UBP hunt also. I thinkit would be a much better time for my son...hopefully I can ccamouflage the blind good enough so it won't spoke the deer.
I know this is a little off topic, in regards to the mentored hunt program. Once my son gets the new bow and starts practicing I'm not sure he will be ready for bow hunting by this fall. Meaning the weight he will be able to pull may not be enough to do the job. I'm going to be taking him to the range as much as possible and look into becoming a member at Wapiti as Bob suggested. But I don't want to rush him into pulling more weight then he can handle and wind up him getting hurt. I'm just going to let him increase his DW naturally as he's comfortable with it. We are still going to go to the 5C camp out and hunt though.
What would you guys recommend as a good starter hunting rifle for an 8yo? He has a Remington 1022 Takedown and he has shot before but I am not sure what a good caliber hunting rifle would be good for him? I have an old Mosin Nagant I was going to use myself but I like now more :) but if he's not quite ready to bite hunt u was thinking I could take him rifle hunting this year, by next year he should definitely be ready to bow hunt.
I know this is a strictly bow hunting forum I apologize for asking this question here but I know you guys are extremely knowledgeable hunters and I want to ask you guys as opposed to some random rifle hunting forum. If this question needs to be removed I will do so without a problem or maybe if anyone had any suggestions you could PM me with them to keep it strictly bow talk from here on out.
Thanks, Chris
Chris- PM sent.
Start him off burning a lot of rimfire and get him a shooting stick that he can use both standing and sitting.I bought a bog pod and it works perfect for the way we hunt.Them move him up to something with more muzzle blast but not a lot of recoil.A .223 is perfect.Muzzle blast is more of an enemy with kids than recoil.We still hunt most of the time during rifle season.It looks like we're on an African safari.He carries the shooting stick and I carry his rifle.When we see a deer,I just hand him the rifle and he's on it.So far,he's killed 3 deer in their beds in the last two years.Kids are capable of being quiet,alert and moving slow.You don't have to stick them in a blind where they'll just get bored.There's so much to teach them when you still hunt,there's no way they can get bored and not have fun.
Your son won't be ready to hunt with a compound for a while.You need sufficient Kenetic energy and that's a combination of draw weight and draw length to get enough speed.Some kids can work up to a sufficient draw weight but if their draw length is too short,they just won't have the KE to get decent penetration.I'm not a crossbow fan but I did buy my son one for christmas because it's really the only way to get him out during archery season for the next year or two.I would have let him sit out archery season but he bugged the crap out of me so I folded like a deck of cards and bought one.If the kid wants to hunt,I'm taking him.I will say,he likes shooting his compound way more than shooting a crossbow.
Good luck and have fun.It's an awesome journey that everyone should experience.
Don't focus on the amount of game being seen and don't put any pressure on yourself or him.The preperation can be just as much fun as the actual hunt.Make him realize that.
congrats and just keep him shooting, you're right to not push to far too fast. He'll get where he needs to with the bow.
