LIVE Kansas Bowhunt - Discuss Here
Whitetail Deer
Wow, A pile of action already. Get in the stand Pat! lol
So....Who's the good, who's the bad, and who's the ugly?
Pat, I'm at the pipeline for the afternoon, and Tom is at the south pasture blind.
Just one doe so far......probably saw seventy deer this morning.....
Is CNN a new TSA screening process I’m not aware of yet?
One of my favorites Go get'em!
That CNN time will really get a guy p*ssed off and ready to hunt!
Take many deep breaths Pat and stay calm.
Good luck guys and try to kill another one (or bigger) than Tom's giant from last year!!
Mark
Better yet...you guys kill one bigger than Pat's last year as his was the biggest........and as Tom has previously acknowledged....he only shoots "dinks." Ha Ha!!!
Go get 'em guys!!
Mark
Good luck guys. Look forward to following along.
Good luck! Can't wait to see the success photos.
This is my favorite feature on Bowsite...living vicariously through y'all.
Good Luck Men
Been waiting for this. Jake and Tm will be tagged out before you show Pat!
CNN? Lucky it's not MSNBC...... that will radicalize ya......
This one is always one of the years best. Good luck fellas...
Slow evening.....I only saw one button buck. Tom saw eleven doe, a button buck, and a gnarly six point. Tom also got to watch two male pheasants fight....I guess the feathers were really flying!! It is 8:00 pm now, and Pat should be arriving shortly. Then we will have our full compliment of bowhunters for the week.
Good luck boys,,hope y'all having better action than we are,,,
If I had only known you were in Texas, I'd have bought you a beer Pat........naah, that's a lie, I was hunting :-)
Good luck to all !
Favorite thread of the year!
Knock em dead gents (I use that term loosely!) Good luck and have fun!
I am betting on MadTrapper to strike first.
Good luck. It is ON over here!!!
Kill em guys. I had the biggest buck I’ve ever seen while hunting in bow range this morning. But it was a hang and hunt situation. No trimmed lanes. I couldn’t shoot for brush. I’ve seen a LOT of activity this morning
Tick, tock........I'm starting to feel a bit betrayed:)
Mark
Ha ha ha, I don't think it's possible to hate coyotes more than Pat hates em. He really has a burn on. I'm somewhat surprised he doesn't also carry an AR with him for the ones that are out of bow range...
I hunted that Cottonwood tree stand the first afternoon of my hunt a number of years ago. I watched two bucks fight for a good :15 out in that open field. It was quite the spectacle.
Good luck guys. We'll be heading out a little north of you next week. I hope that button buck makes it.
I just found a piece of leg bone stuck in the fence yesterday. You big bad hunters with no heart. Good for you all stopping and taking the time. Now get out there and murder that buttons grandpa.
For those of you following this thread, our updates have been somewhat lacking of recent. I wounded a buck yesterday morning, so my hunt is over. However, Pat's update tonight will be entertaining, if nothing else......
Dang, sorry to hear Jake. Can and does happen.
How's that buck fawn doing that was caught in the fence? Did he get up and move along?
Mark
He was gone this afternoon....
Ouch Jake sorry for your misfortune but on the bright side while stuck at camp look all the time you can concoct ways to f&$@$k with Pat Lewis
Lewis, All the more reason for you to check this thread after Pat's next post.......
Bummer guys. Gett'um Pat.
Can Jake keep hunting for just that buck, knowing he's still alive?
Why can’t Jake hunt that buck?? I agree with the policy but if he’s up and running he should be able to keep after him..
Pat, how are the wildlife populations and habitat after the fires last March? Time I spent working the articles further west, around Ashland, didn't look too promising.
Pat if you killed that buck could Jake still hunt?
"Strict rule" end of story. I think it's a good policy myself.
It’s his policy for sure and everyone agreed going in.. i for one would not hunt there with that policy. Lots of money down the drain for something that happens especially when we see so many pics of deer that lived with blood drawn....
Curious to hear why Jake can't continue to "attempt recovery" of the deer he shot. Seems reasonable but I don't make the rules!
Good luck Pat, hope you kill a big'un!!!
You guys bring up a great point - technically he should be able to hunt for that buck only.
I do think the owner can have a "strict" rule with exceptions. Not that it would be posted on a forum.
I am more of a believer in fines vs. not allowed to hunt anymore. What the owner of an outfit is trying to do is save the deer he's been trying to grow from having someone take 2-3 giants out to get one. So if the hunter wants to continue hunting he pays a fine and both are happy(ish).
I get the policy but hunting can have a lot of gray areas and this is a classic example. Plus, if you are going to have this policy you should also have a policy if you do not go home with a shot you get 50% off (or something like that back). Can't have just a one-way policy.
I think it's a fair policy, but if someone else shoots Jake's buck, he should get his tag back?
Whats going on with Mad Trapper?
Is Tom hunting or sitting in town at the local café?:)
Mark
What are the odds of seeing the same buck a mile away? Much more likely when feeding is allowed. Just like bears in Canada. They know the stations and visit a number of them.
It's the owner, he can do whatever the heck he wants.
My first thought, having met Jake a couple times, and knowing some things about him, was that he might be able to hunt for "that" buck. But I understand the outfitter having a no exceptions policy. I'm confident Jake would hunt for that buck and that buck only until he killed him or had to go home. But there are people out there that would hunt for "that" buck, and then shoot a different one if it came in. Then just say "Oops, sorry." I'm sure that's the reason there is a "No exceptions" policy.
Ultimately, sounds to me like the guys knew the rules going in, and before they paid their money. If it's okay with them, I don't guess I have any standing to be upset about it :)
Good luck Pat!
Guys, Let's focus on the important stuff.......how about that artwork?!! LOL!! I wish I could post the video....but every third word would have to be "bleeped"!!
Class acts, respect the way they handled this. Character with both the highs and lows of hunting. Best wishes guys!
Jake...from the looks of those drawings, looks like you were thinking outside the box AND stayed inside the lines! Any action shots of the luv ewe or did she stay home?
Policy is good. "Exceptions" are a slippery slope. I wouldn't hunt with an outfitter that didn't have one. It's good game and client management.
The turkey sign is my favorite......still laughing!!!!
Great job Jakester...... =D Gotta love it when a plan comes together......
Fun camp for sure!
Jake sent you a text. Pass it along if you are still there.
Go get him tomorrow pat he will be there
Why leave your bow tree overnight?
The policy prevents guts from wingin arrows and taking bad shots which some people will do because they spent alot of money...
The signs were a riot!!!
Mark
“I am more of a believer in fines vs. not allowed to hunt anymore. What the owner of an outfit is trying to do is save the deer he's been trying to grow from having someone take 2-3 giants out to get one. So if the hunter wants to continue hunting he pays a fine and both are happy(ish).”
Disagree. Around here, if you’re caught speeding and you just pay the fine, there are no pints against your license and no notification to your insurance company. But the fines are pretty steep - my wife got caught one evening doing 16 over and it cost us $150. Ouch. But no points and no increase in insurance.
But some folks around here make about half of what we do, and there are others who’d hardly bother getting out of bed for what I make in a year. So we have a traffic problem; people of ordinary means pretty much stay no more than 10-12 over the limit, people who have to watch every nickel keep it under 10, and the high-rollers drive like they’re on the autobahn because hell, it’s only a coupla Benjamins...
IOW, fines only work when they HURT, and there are people in this world who can buy their way out of just about anything - like the local kid who had amassed something like 17 moving violations before his 19th birthday and didn’t lose his license until he got drunk, caused a one-car accident, and killed somebody’s 17 year-old daughter on one of the local back-roads. And even then his mommy wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper expressing her outrage over the fact that people were talking about her precious boy as if he were some kind of Bad Kid.
No Exceptions policies Work; Exceptions only Enable. Kudos to those who take their lumps like grown men.
Good luck, Pat!
And FWIW, a head-on shot at a coyote is OK by me, because you can’t really hit anything without getting damn near everything. Though you should be prepared to finish the job promptly.
No afternoon update usually means somebody's tracking or making plans for the last day, 11th hour tactics.
Probably dragging him out now
Still no update? Hope all is well....
I like the wounding policy, but don't care for the piles of corn in virtually every pic.
Matt
Any time a coyote comes out it turns into a coyote hunt!
Hope you find your buck today Pat!
I'm not going to get any work done today until this situation is resolved. :)
what an awesome rack....GL
Good luck, solid integrity telling it like it happened! Best wishes either finding him or him being totally un-scathed.
Yes, much appreciated on the actual story. TV would've edited it out.
If you got him up the rear or on a glute, he's dead. Lots of major arteries back there that will kill him. If you are using a 2" expandable, that extra cutting surface pays dividends in a situation like this one.
I always appreciate the honesty of these hunts. Good luck and I hope you find him.
After our successes of last year, you would have thought that all three of us never picked up our bows until we got back to Kansas this year. Not the case! I hope that Pat finds that buck and mine too! I shot my buck out of that stand. I thought that I made a perfect shot. The arrow was a complete pass thru and it looked really good. He ran about 80 yards into the trees along the creek and I thought that he started to waiver. It looked like he was going down. I went to a two blade broadhead this year because I was hunting bigger animals earlier in the year. It left a lousy blood trail for a complete pass through. Still had a great time though and am ready to go back next year for some redemption. Brother we are pulling for you. Find that deer.
If no blood on arrow I'm not following how you may have hit anything good..??
I’m with Andrew.. not sure how an arrow would pass through and not have blood?
I had a doe duck the arrow one time. One blade of my Snuffer had blood on it and zero sign on the shaft. She went 30 yards and layed down and died. That one blade was enough to slice an artery in her neck.
hunter II, wow, that is pretty neat.. never would think that is possible
I thought the same thing Pyrannah.....................................until 2 years ago. Hit a doe low with a 2 blade and had grease(tallow) and some clear "fluid" on the arrow, but no blood. Was a complete passthru and I later put things together and concluded that I have slipped the arrow just under the skin between the skin and the ribcage and did not hit anything vital. I did eventually find a blood trail about 40y from where it was standing when I shot, but absolutely no blood on the arrow or anywhere near where it was shot.
Maybe a better way of putting it is no substance on arrow, which i assume Pat would have mentioned seeing or smelling or tasting
So, assuming they find no blood, he still gets to keep hunting?
I think I would have climbed back in the same stand early this morning on the chance that the same buck would have walked back in. Once daylight hit and a little time passed without seeing him, then go look.
Wow, it's hard to believe that all three experienced hunters wounded three bucks....I'm not being critical, just trying to calculate what the odds are of that actually happening. Lord knows, I've wounded my share as well over the years. I'll be arriving just north of CRO to start my hunt on Saturday or thereabouts.......hopefully better luck. Must be a weird year as 7 other guys hunting the properties I'll be hunting have killed 5 and wounded 2. That's about a 30% wounding rate. One was superficial and the buck was seen the next two days.
Damn I hope you find him Pat or a clean miss, I liked the quartering to shot even better than a 30 yard broadside on a deer, ,I killed a couple of my biggest quartering to, must be close and you cant be shooting a girls bow.
good luck I bet you pull a last day miracle. you have done it dozens of times in the past
Pretty common for a big buck to disappear without a sound. The really smart ones duck and run with their tail down.
In response to the deer that was shot and seen again...I certainly agree with allowing to hunt for that deer only. A poorly shot deer may seem fine a day or two later and then go septic before dieing 10 days later. So just seeing him walking around still doesn't equate to a full pass.
The wound on the deer appears high enough to have caught vitals but I could be perceiving the hit higher than it actually is....
Pat, good luck on the recovery. I know all stops will be pulled out, every effort made. I've seen ya rent a copter to find an elk for cryin'out loud.....
But part of me hopes you don't find it...... the resulting blood trail challenge could push some of us over the edge........
Thanks for telling it like it is guys. Not all hunts go as a T.V. show. Appreciate the fellowship as well.
WOW! If you would have said the 3 of you would hit and not recover this year after shooting 165, 180 and 190 bucks last year, I would have said you're nuts! But I guess this is a lesson that sometimes @#$% happens even to the best of us! I do appreciate hearing the good, bad and the ugly just as it happened, though!
I don't know a hunter who has not had this happen. Difference is we are not "public" figures who tell the story openly. Great humility gentlemen!
Looking forward already to next year's hunt.
"Listen, it's not easy to tell you exactly what happens on these hunt. But I feel it's important so that experienced, and inexperienced bowhunters can learn from the mishaps. And contrary to what you see on TV shows, mistakes happen to everyone - even the 'celebrity' bowhunters. I made a promise to my visitors a long time ago that we would be honest with you and I'll continue to do so. "
That's what makes bowsite real - I think everyone appreciates the above Pat. The goods, the bad's, the ugly's ..... all part of what Hunting is
Thanks for keeping it real!
I love the honesty.
It happens to all of us and it sucks. We learn from it and move on.
It was fun following along.
For the older hunters on Bowsite, who will ever forget the classic opening of ABC's Wide World of Sports with host, Jim McKay's famous phrase, "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat"? This phrase pretty much sums up Pat, Jake and Tom's 2016 and 2017 Kansas hunt. The 2016 hunt was surreal; the 2017 hunt was unreal.
Thank you guys for taking all of us along and sharing and being brutally honest about your hunt. You are truly standup bowhunters. You have proven that you are mortals and bowhunting is a double-edged sword. This is why bowhunters love and are challenged by bowhunting.
I personally await next year's saga that must already include revenge. I already can sense much revenge in a month or two when Pat & Co. return to Kansas to take some frustration out on those yotes !!
I'm curious how the outfitter reacted to 3 quality bucks being wounded. I've known a few outfitters who wouldn't have invited these hunters back.
Matt
"I'm curious how the outfitter reacted to 3 quality bucks being wounded."
I'll take a stab.
3 hunters paid nice prices to hunt bucks. 3 hunters didn't take bucks, and the 3 bucks nicked will live so that next season someone else can hunt the same bucks (or later this season)
also, the outfitter got great exposure on just how big the bucks are on their lease, and the 3 hunters said nothing but great things about the outfitter
every outfitter in the world would want those 3 back the way I see it
Tough luck Pat..... get em next time !! I'd love to hunt there !!
Damn Pat I guess sometimes you are the hammer and sometimes you're the nail tough break or breaks appreciate your honesty Lewis
IMO, it's a good policy because it keeps people from taking marginal shots and preserves the quality of the hunt for everyone paying because "that guy" who can't kill a deer to save his life because he's a bad archer or chokes under pressure won't wound every quality buck that the outfit has access to.
Thank you Pat for the story again this year. Always one of my fav threads unfortunate on the outcome however one we can all relate too. Glad most only superficial wounds. Revenge next yr taking 1 or 2 of them down a yr older would be sweet
Darn! Is there other hunters yet this year? I imagine if it was my place and two for sure were still running around, I would be ok with it. They probably figured those 3 were gonna take 3 slammers home again! Now they got paid and still have at least 2/3 of the bucks running around. Thanks for sharing again, always enjoy following along. Kevin
Thank you Pat for the story again this year. Always one of my fav threads unfortunate on the outcome however one we can all relate too. Glad most only superficial wounds. Revenge next yr taking 1 or 2 of them down a yr older would be sweet
I admire your honesty, Pat.
Wap
It's hunting, not killing. Ship happens and it happens more often with archery gear. The battle isn't over until the animal is recovered. Many of us like the challenge of archery and the fact that defeat is often the result rather than success.
Wouldn't be invited back? With that mentality, I guess you bench Peyton Manning or Tom Brady after he throws a pick? Adrenaline makes us do crazy things and sometimes take shots that we shouldn't take in the field. We've all taken a shot that we'd like to have back. If you haven't, you haven't hunted long enough. I appreciate Pat's honesty on this hunt. Pat, I hope you enjoyed your humble pie and I hope it's a long time before I have a slice. It's archery and it'll happen to me again and all of us at some point in our hunting careers. My hat is off to you for maintaining your integrity in your story.
Hunting isn't a slam dunk and hunting with a bow can have a lot of things go wrong fast. To hide it doesn't help young hunters and it ignores the reality of the hunter vs. prey relationship. So thanks for sharing in a tough week (kind of reminded me of last years Super Bowl where I thought for sure you had them pegged!).
Next year you will be holding a 185"!!!!
Tough luck fellas. I could never had written this script or conclusion given the years of experience and fact that you all got it done there in the past. Y’all need some form of exorcism before returning there again. Better luck next time.
The average of your last two trips is still spectacular
Thanks for sharing! Your hunt coverage adds to the hunts I take, and helps in the reminiscing. I've been fortunate the past two years, but am reminded of the reality of our sport. Keep making memories for yourselves and for us!
In the worst possible case the outfitter has no fewer bucks than if all three had been recovered
Gray Ghost has no idea what he is talking about! Any outfitter would love to have that group of hunters!
Good effort guys. Thanks for taking us along again.
Damn I would have bet the farm against that outcome.
Nice job pat for being honest to you're followers u you have my respect.
Stealthycat- this outfitter actually doesn't need anymore clients. He already has a long waiting list at least three years long I think
Thornton that's true I imagine, however the concept remains the same I'd think. Outfitters live by reputation and return clients and word of mouth etc ...... this one has nothing but great reviews, reputable clients, these 3 guys had bad hits and that's part of bowhunting .... if i were an outfitter I'd see nothing but positives from having these 3 back
I don't know what Gray Ghost is saying and I was explaining how I'd see it is all
That's bow hunting !!! Some days a hero some days a zero. Thanks for posting it up every year.
That’s great Pat! Rematch next year.
Glad to hear it Pat! They are tough animals!
Not to rub salt in the wounds, but I am curious about Jake's shot. Did he get a pass thru? And wondering if it was a steep shot angle? From the bottom picture of the buck the shot is definitely low, but I would have thought it would still get enough of the vitals to be lethal. I was picturing a much lower shot from your description.
What about the other 2 bucks, any pictures of them?
