Best and Worst Bow Hunts

[Caustic Burno]

Deepsouth after your amazing shot on the coon I got to thinking about some of my most
memorable. Like to hear some others.

I had got into primitive big time building my own bow's and arrows this was early 70's .
Well I had three four under my belt figured I had this down.
Built a 16 foot ladder stand and put it on a White Oak flat on my place.
Deer season was here and I was ready to slay them with my homemade arrows
out of switch cane fletched with turkey feathers from one my hunts, a Osage bow
and string made of squirrel hide.
Before daylight I was in my stand when the sun came up there were 21 deer feeding under those
White Oaks. While they were all out of range this really nice 8 pt started feeding my way.
He got 18 yards in front of me and went to hooking a cedar, I drew released and he ducked the arrow.
Now I am confused as it doesn't get any quieter than primitive. Meanwhile he is back to hooking the cedar,
I knock another arrow shoot low and he jumps it. Now I am really confused. He is still standing there
pull my third arrow from my quiver and drop it. This dam arrow hits every rung on the ladder on the way to the ground.
It is going tink tink tink 16 times to the ground, I now have 21 deer staring at me with one arrow left.
The 8 pt wanders out of range and a spike comes by and I drill him at 12 steps. He jumped the string a little.
Now I got to sit there for another 45 minutes with no arrows staring at my deer not wanting to spook the others.

Got down gather up my arrows and looked at the fletching and I hadn't cut my turkey feathers down.
They were still full height. Got my buddy to shoot them back at camp with me standing off to the side of the target,
dang arrows sounded like a mad swarm of bumblebees coming through the air.

 

[Deepsouth]

Deepsouth after your amazing shot on the coon I got to thinking about some of my most
memorable. Like to hear some others.

I had got into primitive big time building my own bow's and arrows this was early 70's .
Well I had three four under my belt figured I had this down.
Built a 16 foot ladder stand and put it on a White Oak flat on my place.
Deer season was here and I was ready to slay them with my homemade arrows
out of switch cane fletched with turkey feathers from one my hunts, a Osage bow
and string made of squirrel hide.
Before daylight I was in my stand when the sun came up there were 21 deer feeding under those
White Oaks. While they were all out of range this really nice 8 pt started feeding my way.
He got 18 yards in front of me and went to hooking a cedar, I drew released and he ducked the arrow.
Now I am confused as it doesn't get any quieter than primitive. Meanwhile he is back to hooking the cedar,
I knock another arrow shoot low and he jumps it. Now I am really confused. He is still standing there
pull my third arrow from my quiver and drop it. This dam arrow hits every rung on the ladder on the way to the ground.
It is going tink tink tink 16 times to the ground, I now have 21 deer staring at me with one arrow left.
The 8 pt wanders out of range and a spike comes by and I drill him at 12 steps. He jumped the string a little.
Now I got to sit there for another 45 minutes with no arrows staring at my deer not wanting to spook the others.

Got down gather up my arrows and looked at the fletching and I hadn't cut my turkey feathers down.
They were still full height. Got my buddy to shoot them back at camp with me standing off to the side of the target,
dang arrows sounded like a mad swarm of bumblebees coming through the air.

:lol2: That's a good one caustic. I bet they were pretty slow too. I don't know why but I seem to remember the hunts where something went wrong better than the ones that were successful. I was hunting an acorn tree hanging over a public gravel road once. It was a dead end road and I was at the end. An old lone doe come out only side October the road. I shot at her and missed. She didn't pay any attention to me and started eating acorns in the road. I took another shot. Missed again. She did jump to the other side of the road. I took another shot and missed again. This time it spooked her and she ran off. Three shots three misses all on a very had packed gravel road. You an just imagine what that did to those old bear heads. Bent all three.
I had a very good buck come out on me one morning while hunting a Mississippi river island. I took a shot at what I thought was 20 yards but turned out to be 27 yards. I wasn't use to seeing deer that big! My shot went low the buck jumped forward and kicked my arrow breaking it in two. He went about 8 yards and stopped so I took another shot. This time I shot high and the arrow went into a big bier patch and I never found it. Two shots two arrows and one broadhead gone. About 15 minutes later a little doe walked by and I drilled her. Go figure.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Deepsouth my youngest boy was probably 15 hunting the same flat.
We heard him hollering for help, I was hunting across the creek so I was bee lining to him.
I heard my Dad coming on his atv then it shut off and I all I could hear was laughter.
When I get there my son still up in the tree, has shot a six foot timber rattler that had crawled up to
the base of the tree he is in. He has used all his arrows 6 total and has hit the snake twice.
That rattler was pinned down but real mad. Dad wouldn't shoot it till I got there.
I can still hear him boy aint never seen anybody treed by a snake before.
The boy was using expanding broadheads and they didn't have time or the snake hide was not
tough enough to make them open. I told him if you would have been using Zwicky's he
would be cut into.

 

[Alan]

Okay, first off ladies please don't read any more .... And since I know now you will, bear in mind this was back in the early 80's when I was young and dumb.

For 10 or 12 years me and my hunting buddy went to our favorite hunting area. We had plenty of food and beers and went to town for what we needed. One year we had been camping/ hunting for a few days, ate plenty, after about three hours of a long quiet hunt nature called. I went down by a creek to take care of business with paper towel in hand, steep bank so I set my bow up top and climbed down below..... Yup pants around my ankles and a nice cow elk was bedded down about 30 yards from me, she popped up to see what the noise was. I saw her as soon as she stood, so here I am, pants around my ankles, bow is 20 yards away and me feeling like a dumbazz! And to this day I am a dumbazz for that move.


Okay, best hunt with a bow. Same spot, had to walk through thick western Oregon bush growth to get into an area of cat tacks to see so I could hunt. I always crept a slowly as possible. Opening day, as soon as I broke out of the heavy bush I had a cow elk 30 or so yards broadside. One arrow, down like a rock. 15 or 20 minute hunt, opening day, 50 yards, flat ground to pack it out to camp. Best part of it was, I slept in the rest of the trip, sat in camp and drank beer, but I did cook and clean .... And I did give him a quarter ..... But he did get irratated and I enjoyed it. :mrgreen:

 

[M5farm]

I shot a coon with my bow and the bastard ran off with it and climbed a tree. I had to go home and get my 22 to kill him to get my arrow back. Never killed but 1 small buck with a bow but plenty of doe's. Had several jump the string over the years. All my memorable hunt involve firearms.

 

[Deepsouth]

Good stuff guys! This was a great ideal for a thread caustic.

Ok I give you a couple of bad ones now for my best.

We were camped 8 miles off the road up bear creek canyon in the San Juan national forest in SW Colorado. We were after bull elk. It was about mid morning and I had met up with one of my buddies about half way up slope from the creek. We were taking a break and filling each other in on the mornings hunt, which had been very uneventful for us both. All of a sudden an elk bugled just about 150 yards above us. We grabbed bows and started climbing. About 50 yards up we hit a game trail. I cow called and the bull answered me. We were close to his level and he was still about 100 yards away. I stayed put and Don moved toward the bull and climbed up above the trail. When he got set I called again. The bull answered again and he was closer. After another call or two I saw antlers coming through the aspen. When he got to about 25 yards out he stopped and was looking for me. Suddenly I saw something flash and the bull jumped. I realized Don had shot and missed. Don was using a recurve and i had a compound. The bull looked down the hill and I drew. I shot and he just stood there. I couldn't believe I had missed also. I was trying to get another arrow nocked while keeping an eye on him. Just as I was getting ready to try to draw on him again I noticed his rack looked like it was wobbling. Suddenly he fell and rolled down the hill. Don and I met where the elk was standing and he said I nailed him. We went down to him and found two holes right through the boiler room. We'd both hit him! I let Don have him since he shot him first and there is no doubt that his shot was fatal. But it was great that we both got to kill the same bull.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Since it is a hunting thread adding guns as well.
Back in the dog hunting days we hunted with a lot of Cur-Pointer crosses they wouldn't run
about quarter mile and come right back.You could hunt all day with the same two dogs.
When you heard one open you better have the shotgun up and the slack out of the trigger.
I was standing at a fence corner with a 8 foot bush hogged right away trying to watch both ways.
Ole Tip opened on a nice eight point blew out of the clear cut on my left
This deer looked like someone threw a hatchet across that trail as his ass was going out
one side Ole Tip front was coming in the right away she wasn't ten feet behind him.
I heard him coming through clear cut and had the Model 97 thumb cocked and ready.
It was just a flash across the right away and I shot, saw the buck go through a four strand barb wire fence and never miss
a step. Figured I missed. Speck opened on my right and was building a fire under one .
Ole doe busted out and I shot knew I hit her and another behind her folded up like a JFK shot.
Then Tip bayed. I had hit the buck and she had him. Went over to the doe on the ground
couldn't find a mark on her then I seen a spot of blood behind her ear, the other doe was laying about fifty yards
in front of her I had put 8 No1 Buck through her rib cage.
I shot twice and had three deer couldn't do it again in a million years one of those buckshot strayed
when I shot at the doe and the one following ran into it for lack of a better term.
I stood confused for a moment with my shotgun on the second doe cause I couldn't figure out why
she had plowed the ground.

Of course when every one got together my story was if you really know your shotgun
nothing to it, all about hand eye coordination :bs: .

 

[skyhightree1]

My best bowhunt was the best and worst all in one day same time. I brought a friend here to the farm to hunt on my corn field and it was after we got the law where we could hunt with crossbows. It was our first hunt with them and was hot as S... skeeters were ridiculous. A doe walked out in front of me I let the aarow fly it took off like a jet and died in about 30 yds. My friend radioed me said good job I said thanks lets stay till dark to see if you get one sure enough 30 mins later same thing happened he took a doe too. great day then we got down took deer back to the house cleaned his deer then cleaned mine and mine evidently had been wounded and had gang greene and stunk to high heaven I had to toss the whole deer. We only killed does but it was with a friend of mine and we experienced the crossbow kills together across the field from one another about 60 yds away.

 

[M5farm]

Our hunting lease is a seed orchard, there is around 100 acres in the orchard and pines and hard woods surround it on 3 sides. In early January the deer hang out all night in the orchard part and go into the woods around daylight. My dad called me one evening and asked me to come down to the seed orchard the next morning at daylight and ride thru before I went to work. He had seen a nice buck several times but he couldn't get a shot on him. He had planned to walk the long way around and get in his stand without disturbing the deer in the orchard. I got up that morning and got to the main gate a little before daylight. I just switched the truck off and waited till I could see pretty good. As I was opening the gate I saw a few does a couple hundred yards out. As I turned to key in the lock I spotted a buck with them. I got my rifle and free handed a shot and he went down. I finished opening the gate and drove out to the buck. I nice 9 pt I kept my word and made a round thru the orchard and came back and loaded up the deer went and skint him out. I stepped it to 267 steps. Later in the morning my dad called and asked if I had driven around the orchard as he requested cause he hadn't seen anything. I asked if he heard a shot he said he heard one on the river about daylight. I told him it wasn't on the river and to look in the back freezer. I had caped it out and had put the head in it. He said he wasn't mad but it was the one he had seen and couldn't get a shot on it.

 

[yme]

My brother and I were walking out of the timber one cold morning after an ice storm. As we rounded a corner there stood the deer of a lifetime about 300 yards down a logging road. It was beyond my brother's gun so I pulled up and one shot and down he went right in his tracks. I was on cloud 9 with the buck and the shot until we got to the buck and it was only a fair 8 point. We both agreed that was not the buck we saw and that he was the only one there but there he laid. We scouted around for another blood trail and tracks but there just wasn't anything. I backed off down the line of my shot and noticed the ice hanging off a limb behind him. All we could figure out was he had enough rack that we could see the movement of the rack when he jerked his head up and everything else was the tree behind him. That deer ground shrunk 100 inches in the time it took to walk to him.

The best/worst with my bow was sitting in a ladder stand and was just starting to draw on a doe when a squirrel jumped from another tree to my tree and landed just above my head. When my heart started beating again my bow was on the ground and the doe was looking up at me with a look on her face that said what was that all about. Climbed down got my bow and went home.