1.) toxophilite - 08/24/2013

Now I've been lucky enough to take my share of deer over the years, big, small, bucks and does, spikes, 3pts, 4,5,7,8,and even a small nine point but the sixpoint jinx has been a curse I havehad to carry since my very first day in the woods with my bow, it was 1967 and I was finally old enough for a deer tag, opening day was like Christmas to me and the weather was perfect. cool crisp and calm as my dad dropped me off at my ground blind on his way to his stand a few hundred yds. down the trail. I knew the area well cause I've been following my Dad and his friend through these woods practically since I could walk. anyhow I knew which way to expect the deer to come and it wasn't long before I heard a deer on the trail behind me and sure enough its a buck. he walks out at 25yds and I see a palmated 6pt buck that almost looked like a small moose rack, but now I focus on my aiming point and he begins a slow walk and I draw and he stops at 15yds, I know i'm on him and let fly...SMACK the arrow looks perfect, the buck rears up on his hind legs like a wild horse then bolts off down the hill. Well I knew the shot looked good and I still waited the 30 min. my Dad said to give it and then walked over to check for my arrow and blood, unable to see my arrow I started to look for blood, now the kick-ups where I hit him were easy to see as were his fresh tracks down the hill but not a drop of blood and I looked hard being very careful to stay to the side of any sign so I didn't disturb anything. now I head down the trail to signal my Dad then wait 30 more min. till he arrives. he has me take my spot and walk him through it all step by step till he reaches the point of impact and calls me over and shows me my arrow... stuck perfectly through a sapling about the dia. of my thumb, it had penetrated just enough to prick the buck and leave a drop of blood and some hair on the tip of my bodkin :re: (chapter 1 more to follow)

2.) Deerminator - 08/24/2013

:pop: This is gonna be good

3.) toxophilite - 08/24/2013

my next encounter happened in 1972, I was home on 30 days leave from nam and timed it to be home for the bow season. this time i'm in a stand we called the hammer, its about fifty yds. down off an old firebreak and showing a lot of fresh sign, i'm in a large maple on the edge of a stand of pines. it was a sunny warm afternoon and I spotted movement in the pines below me. now I only have holes here and there through the pines to see so it was a few min. before I could see a rack and he was slowly making his way up a run that will pass me at 18yds. now i'm all set, turned the right direction, focused and ready as he ever so slowly makes his approach, he actually ended up under the pine right next to me and just a couple of steps from my shooting lane he stops...so i'm looking down on a 6 pt of course no brow tines but nice main beams wider than the ears, and then... he takes.... one... step... back....and my heart sinks... next thing I hear an arrow rattling through the trees from behind me, as the buck makes a 180 and runs off back down the hill, I look over my shoulder to see a guy who apparently was walking the fire break and tried to shoot the head on 6 pt. at some 60 yds and now he is running down the hill, stopping to pick up his arrow which didn't even make it halfway to the deer, then runs under me and out of sight after the buck as though he was going to catch up :bang::bang: i'm afraid I tell a better story than write one but i'll do the best I can and hope with time I improve :pray: (chapter 3 to follow):re:

4.) Deerminator - 08/25/2013

:tu:

5.) bluecat - 08/26/2013

Don't stop now! My Fresca is getting warm.

6.) Hunter - 08/27/2013

Lol on the guy running under you!

7.) toxophilite - 08/27/2013

the next encounter was in1974, I was back in the hammer stand late in the season. i'm strictly a bowhunter, never hunted with guns, my Dad was a bowhunter and that's all I wanted to do, anyhow here in central new York there is a gem of a park named highland forest which is open to bowhunting only right through the regular gun season so I hunted there to avoid any gunhunters. now it happened to snow the night before, a good ten inches of the lite fluffy stuff that we get off the great lakes known as lake effect, walking the trail in to my stand I was busting trail through knee deep snow and not a single track spotted all the way in, the cold never bothered me like some others so I was always the last one out and over the years i'm sure it worked to my advantage. anyhow this day shortly before dark I spotted a deer moving left to right above my stand and was going to pass me out of range but to my surprise and delight when the deer hit my trail it stepped into my tracks and began coldtrailing me... now I can see the rack, you guessed it 6 pts. and he's coming straight at me, walking slow with his nose to the ground stopping every few yards to look around then continued to follow my tracks, at this point I should tell you i'm still hunting with a bear super Kodiak recurve at 50lbs. the buck is now only 10 yds from me stopped with his head down as I draw and release my arrow at a spot directly between his shoulder blades...but just then he raised his head and the arrow struck him exactly between the antlers.... the arrow stopped and seemed to hang in the air as the deer went straight to the ground, legs spralled out and a huge cloud of fluffy snow almost made him disappear, but he was back on his feet and 20yds up the hill in a flash then stopped and turned to look my direction....he stared and stared then shook his head like he was trying to shake something off, really really hard, then walked a few yds to the left and did the head shaking again then stared down the hill, he actually went back and forth several times shaking then staring to the point it look as though he would come back down the hill but in the end he turned and went back the way he came, stopping every few yards to shake his head and glance back untill he was out of sight :bang::bang: and so it goes :re: BTW when I retrieved my arrow the tip of my bodkin was curled over with a piece of hide and hair stuck in it :ek:

8.) Deerminator - 08/28/2013

I believe you showed me that bodkin when I was rummaging around in your archery box one day.

9.) bluecat - 08/28/2013

[QUOTE=Deerminator;10050]I believe you showed me that bodkin when I was rummaging around in your archery box one day.[/QUOTE]

Tone it down guys, children sometimes look at these threads.

10.) DParker - 08/28/2013

[QUOTE=bluecat;10055]Tone it down guys, children sometimes look at these threads.[/QUOTE]

Hey, don't be judging.

11.) toxophilite - 09/01/2013

1977 this was my first season hunting with a compoundbow, a bear Alaskan at 60 lbs and I was deadly out to 60 yds. not that I would ever take a shot that far but it made 20 yds a chip shot, any how I was spending the afternoon on private land near pompey New York setting in the northeast corner of a cut corn field 200yds long with about a 15yds strip of tall grass along the north side, i'm actually 20 yds from the corner, its down hill to the north west corner where I spotted a lone deer now at 200 yds all I was doing was watching as it work its way up the edge of the tallgrass and not till the deer had cut the distance in half did I think he may come all the way and with my glasses I could see 6 pts, it took over an hour for him to get up to my stand but eventually he reach a distance of 25 yds, and as I drew my bow for what was to be a "chip shot" and began to settle on the spot.....a pheasant exploded from the tall grass right in the bucks face, now he reared up spun around and sprinted all the way back down to where he first appeared and stayed there till dark :bang::bang::bang: I did take a big doe the next evening and been lucky enough to fill at least one of my tags every year since so venison in the freezer has not been lacking but that 6 pt rack is now part of my bucket list and still many more chapters to come :re:

12.) toxophilite - 09/27/2013

in 1980 new York opened the last four days of sept. in the northern zone for bowhunters to fill any tags left from the regular season. this year is the last year it will be allowed :tap: but back in 1980 deerminator and I made plans with a friend with acreage and the opener (27 of Sept.)being deerminators birthday we knew we had to be in the woods. so we planed to meet at johns and when the day arrived I packed up my car and headed off a bit early figuring on a few practice shots when I reached johns. now john has about 80 acres of reforested farm land north of Oneida lake and a modest deer population, anyhow I drive the dirt road back to an old gravel pit, turn the car around and look in the mirror to see a deer standing broadside directly behind my car at maybe 25 yds. :re: now everything is in the back of my car, bow in its case, arrows in a separate box :re: So I slowly open my door then look back.....the deer didn't move......I step out and turn....the deer is still there and of course a perfect 6 pt. buck and he is still just standing there...Broadside...so I walk to the back of the car, he stands there, I pop the trunk and lifted the lid then looked back and he is still there just watching me :re: so now I unzip my bow case and pull out my bow...look back and he is still there...now open arrow box and pull one out, then put on my finger tab, not looking untill I've knocked my arrow then turn and there he is... broadside... just standing there...I can see he is just over a small rise so I only see from the knees up and it looks like a long 20 yds to the top and maybe 6 or 8 yds more beyond, so 30 yds to the deer and he stood and let me settle in and let fly with the perfect shot clean over his back and into the dirt bank behind him :bang: then and only then did he look away then walk off into the pines. turns out he was standing in a ditch so he was actually only feet from the top of the rise not yards :tap::tap:

13.) Hunter - 09/27/2013

LOL! Been there, done that with the deer standing in a ditch thing.

14.) Deerminator - 09/28/2013

:-)..