First deer with a bow
West Virginia
Contributors to this thread:
To lighten things up and get back to why we hunt, tell us about your first deer with a bow. Where? Year? Gear? Etc.
Mine was a late October,Calhoun County doe on a long oak point. Roughly 20 yard shot that took out her lungs. Taken with a High Country bow and a four blade muzzy broadhead. I believe the year was 1995.
Mine was when I was in college. I had an old bear blacktail bow and I could throw an arrow faster than it would shoot. I bought it while working at JP Penney when they still had a sporting goods department. (anyone remember those days)? I was in a small strip of woods standing on the ground against a big tree and a big doe walked up behind me and past the tree I was against. She was about to jump the fence in from of me and was looking into the field where she was headed. Too late. I shot her and she ran back where she came from and I went and got a buddy at dark and we found her. I was hooked. I hunted a few years with a bow before that happened. Great days for sure.
Excellent thought and post. My sophomore year October 1988, I had a short football walk thru practice because it was a day before a game. I came home from practice, threw on some ole Treebark pattern faded coveralls, grabbed my 50lb draw Darton 30MX bow and Easton XX75 arrrows and took off running a half a mile to my treestand located by a neighbor's pond. It was my second true season of bow hunting having completely missed deer five times the year prior. There were plenty of deer that traveled through the funnel but never any bucks. As soon as I got situated in the tree, a buck comes walking down the path I was hunting. Before I shot, I was already making excuses for why I was going to miss. I nailed it in heart and saw it pile up after a 50 yard death dash. Not knowing how to gut a deer (this was my first deer bow or gun) I ran back home without even looking at the deer to get my Dad's help. I remember telling him it was a monster, "like something you would see in a magazine". It ended up being about a 10" wide 8 point. To this day it is my personal favorite harvest.
The year was 1974,I am thinking the bow was bear grizzly recurve ,but not sure about that. I do remember we loaded the 4 point in back of family station wagon. lol
I just turned 11 years old and was shooting a Bear grizzly recurve too. Spike buck at about 35 yards walking at a fast pace thru the woods. Would never take that shot now - and have not shot over 20 yards since then. After I hit him he ran about 15 yards and ran head first into a big oak and dropped right there.
Same year I was checking my box traps and saw a rabbit - shot and missed - and the rabbit ran right into the box! My grandfather and grandmother actually saw the whole thing from the kitchen table! LOL gave them something to talk about for many years to come!
1974 Ben Pearson cougar I think.....hardy county on lost River mountain out of moorefield....Home made ""man killer" treestand ,,,no safety belt just a rope around waist,,,bear razor head or Pearson deadhead,,,graphite arrows ( remember them? ),,,,killed a doe
Discovered the joy of bowhunting way too late in life. It was 2010, hunting in Jackson Co. with a Pearson bow that I bought just to see if I would like bowhunting. Was in my tree stand and had three does coming down an old gas well road. Two of them spooked and took off, the third just kept slowing browsing toward me. An 18 yard shot and she only went another 20 yards and dropped. I was hooked!
1974 or 1975, bear Kodiak magnum. 4 point in northern Michigan. Hunting on ground on a power line r/w.
1972... Darton SL-50, early compound, no sights... missed a 6 point at 10 yards and he ran out to about 25 and turned broadside. Second shot went through the chest and he made it about 30 yards before going down in sight.
First one was eye-opening... this really is possible!! Made me realize how much confidence plays a part in hunting.
It was a looonnnng time coming before I shot a deer. My Dad did not hunt so I went with my Uncles that just pointed in a direction and that is where I went. Flung many arrows with recurve then WT Hunter with hand-me down arrows from my 6'-5" uncle;I am 5'-10".
In 1990 (age 22) I joined an archery club, bought a High Country Safari. Learned to shoot correctly with the correct length arrow.
I hunted with a couple of fellows that chewed tobacco, I do not. They told me if I kill a deer while hunting with them I have to take a chew. Killed a little BB and before I gutted him, I packed in a big ol cheek of Levi Garret.
1969 I was a senior in high school. My dad and a cousin and myself were hunting inJackson county on Kaiser property. After a morning hunt we were heading in to get some grub and we were coming upon some thick brush so Dad and my cousin let me get to the top of ridge while they skirted along the bottom on way back to car. They jumped a big buck and he ran to top of ridge and stopped. Luckily he stopped about 15 yards in front of me and I shot him with my Wing Thunderbird bow. The rest is history, he was a nine point and field dressed 182 lbs.