Ron's 2008 Bow season blog

[Ron]

I decided to start a blog since I finally got out on my first bowhunting trip of the season. I like to record the events and look back over them at the end of the year. These are the events as they happen. The high and lows. The good stuff and the warts as well.

Oct. 3 2008

I finally got to make a trip up North for my first Bowhunt of the year. I left work a bit early in Friday so I could get at least one of two ladder stands set up. I got to the land in plenty of time and set up a stand in a spot that I have not hunted in 15 years. Recently this property became available to me again and I jumped at the chance to hunt the woods I grew up in. The bulk of the whitetails I have harvested both with a bow and gun have come from this property. I started hunting this woods back in 1976 and it felt really good to be back.

I located the stand in a natural funnel with a field on one side and a river on the other. The strip of hemlocks, huge pines and maples is only 80 yards wide and is mostly soft moist river bottom. The field (this year) is planted with potatoes which is not of much interest to the deer but this strip of woods leads to a large cedar swamp at the North end and the river hugs the field for about 400 yards and leads to a large hardwoods with a corn field on the South end. Across the potato field and to the West is a field of beans and then a large oak ridge.

If the deer still followed the patterns of the old days, I would expect them to come out of oaks and beans in the morning and head back to the river bottom and follow the funnel to the hardwoods. In the evening, they always reverse the pattern. The only kicker was the potato field. That field has always been corn, alfalfa or beans for as long as I hunted the area. I placed the stand facing North and had a good view of the river. I used a pole saw to trim a few branches and I was ready for Saturday morning.



Oct. 4 2008

I woke before the 5:00 alarm, took a shower, dressed and then headed to the woods. I parked the Truck about 300 yards South of the stand and walked across the potato field to get to the woods. It was a cold 29 degrees, with a clear sky full of stars. It was perfect hunting weather and I was all smiles as I walked through the cold. I love morning hunts most of all. When I reached the woods, I used my flashlight to find the reflective trail marker pins that lead to my stand. I then strung the longbow and tied it and the quiver full of homemade arrows tipped with my homemade broadheads to the rope I had attached to the stand the day before.

Once in the stand and seated, I pulled up the bow and arrows and hung them on a branch. It was dark, cold and dead calm. I was having the time of my life. There is just something about watching a morning woods come to life. I only had two weekends to go bowhunting last year and have been looking forward to a morning like this for a long time. When it started getting light, I pulled an arrow from the quiver and nocked it on the string. I also pulled another arrow from the head of the quiver and slid it down so it would be easy to access if a 2nd shot was needed.

It was such a great morning and I couldn’t think of a better place to be. That silly grin was on my face the whole time. This is what hunting is all about to me. I watched a few squirrels and some leaves floating down the river and took in all the sights, sounds and smells that make getting out of bed so easy. A few geese flew over and I could hear the dairy cows to the West and South as they begged to be milked. I also heard the odd sound of fall turkeys gobbling. At 8:15, I turned and looked out through the branches and could see the bright sun on the potato field. I caught the movement of two deer crossing the field and heading into my strip of woods. Their current path would put them far downstream of my position so I grabbed the fawn bleat can in my pocket and turned it over 3 times.

The two deer stopped and then headed right towards me. The plump doe and fawn came into the strip facing right at me and popped out of the scrub at about 20 yards. Both were on high alert as they looked for the fawn in distress. I already had the bow in hand as they came into the strip and the doe closed the distance and then turned broadside as she started walking North. When her head went behind a Hemlock tree, I drew the longbowbow. She made one more step and stopped with her vitals covered by a hemlock as big as a telephone pole. When she looked away, I was able to let down. My heart was pounding in my throat and ears. The last four deer I took with a compound back in 2006 were very routine and uneventful. Don’t get me wrong. They were a great time but the mystery, excitement and thrill was just not there as it is when using a longbow. I now had the honest to goodness fever.

This hunt took me back to the thrill and excitement of when I was a kid with my Ben Pearson super jet. I missed a lot of deer (always high and just over the back) bowhunting was new to me then and is responsible for some of my fondest memories. That was the sort of hunt I was looking for once again and so far, I was just as I recalled.

But I digress. Back to that doe. After a minute or so, she took another step forward and then another and I came to full draw, I anchored and released and watched my arrow travel just over her back and into the soft black dirt. I was right over the shoulder and can’t recall missing a deer by such a small margin. I also cannot remember the last time I missed a deer period. I'm not trying to sound boastful but the reason I have not missed is because of all the deer that I have harvested, I have never shot one further than 18 yards.


As the two deer started to walk South, so I got out the can and was going to make another attempt and turning them back but I was shaking so hard that my hand would not roll over smoothly so the can made a 6 or 8 mini (chattering) fawn sounds as if the fawn in the can was being bounced up and down. Even though I did a poor job with the call, the two deer turned and tried to circle back towards me and to my left. They were both stiff legged and starring hard with ears perked. After a few minutes, they turned and started walking away. I gave the can a few more shaky rolls but they would only stop, raise their heads and look my way. After a few minutes and a few more calls, they ignored me and browsed slowly away. I was able to watch them for about a half hour as they worked their way along the river.

I was still shaking like a leaf from the experience ( a sensation I had not felt in a while) and now the cold was settling in. My fingers and toes were like ice so I sat down. I was disappointed in myself for breaking the cardinal rule of bowhunting (not picking a spot) and at the same time, I was smiling and shaking my head at the whole experience. From my seated position, I could see my arrow sticking in the ground.




About an hour later, another deer came running across the potato field and was making that same sound as my can. My guess is that it was the twin to the fawn that was with the doe and it was making a late trip back to the woods and was looking the two deer I had seen earlier. This fawn must have bawled at least 20 times as it crossed the field. Eventually, I could no longer here the fawn as it moved South. I sat in my tree until 10:00 a.m. and then made the trip down the ladder to get my arrows. Both were buried in the soft black earth and easy to pull. I wiped the heads on my pants cuff, quivered them and headed back to my truck.

While at my truck, I changed out of my hunting clothes because I still had another ladder stand to set up about 400 yards downstream from the first stand. When I finished that project I took a walk around a small section of woods to where a hidden field was. This field was on a neighboring property that borders the land I was hunting and I always remember checking that field for deer. As luck would have it, there was a small doe fawn feeding. This may have been the bawling fawn from earlier in the morning.

I took a few pictures and then remembered that this camera takes video as well.





After watching the fawn for a while, I went back to the farmhouse. I got there by 2:30 and was ready for a late breakfast/lunch. The plan was to go back to that first ladder stand at 4:30. In the mean time, I sat at my Mother’s computer and wrote out the first part of this hunt while it was fresh in my mind. I then took a shower and headed back to the woods.

[Ron]

I got back to the ladder stand and looked at my watch right after pulling the bow up. It said, 4:14. The wind had shifted from the N.E. to the S.E. which worked well for an evening sit as I expected the deer to come back to this edge and hang out for a while before going out across the potato field. I spent the afternoon listening to huge flocks of geese pass overhead as well as the chattering of a red squirrel that took great offense to my sitting in his tree. He would go up, down and around me as he tried to figure out what I was. I snapped a few pictures of him along the way as well as shots of other things.



The view of the river from the front of my stand.



Looking West and where I had the two shots in the morning.



The evening progressed with no real action and there was not much left of the day but this is always the best time for them to pop out. I looked behind my stand and noticed what looked like a deer looking straight away from me but it was missing it’s legs. My long distance vision has taken a downward turn and the low light in the hemlocks was not doing me any favors. That’s when I pulled out the trusty new camera with the 40X zoom lens.

As I looked through the viewfinder I could see that it was a small doe, bedded and chewing her cud. He was about 60 yards to the South of me and the wind was in my favor. I pulled out the can call and rolled it over about 5 times but she never turned her head or even looked in my direction.It was starting to get a bit darker and the viewfinder on the camera read 6:30.



I then remembered again that I had video capabilities so I started to film her. the video makes it look much darker than it really was.



As I was filming her, I was preoccupied with trying to keep her centered and to keep from moving the camera around. What I should have been doing was watching her body language. It wasn't until I viewd this footage later in the evening that I paid attention to what she was doing. Her head snapped aroud as she looked back to focus on something behind her. A reaction that was completely missed by me. I stopped recording and repositioned myself to take another short video. This time, while filming, I noticed her head jerk forward and realized that she was watching something. The camera time read 6:37. I should have ignored the bedded doe and been paying attention to the woods around me but I was in a tree having the time of my life, soaking in the sights and since it was so close to quitting time, I had let my guard down. I took my eyes away from the camera and looked in the direction that had the does attention and as I looked to my left, I was faced with answering the question my Dad and brothers keep asking me and that is.

"What are you going to do if you see a great big buck and you don't have your compound?"

As I looked in the direction the doe was focused on, I could see a huge non typical buck approaching from my left. When I laid eyes on him, he was 30 yards away and closing the distance. Since he was walking towards me I got a good look at his rack. It was very thick and wider than his body and very white in color. This was a very large bodied deer as well and his neck was already thick. I also noticed that the rack had a lot of extra junk sticking in lots of directions. What I noticed most was that total mass and thickness of all the tines. This was a big old deer and while I don't pay much regard to record book scores, it was clear this one would have fit that qualification and then some.

I pocketed the camera and grabbed the longbow hanging from a branch in front of me as he closed the distance to about 25 yards. I am ashamed to say that lost my cool and did something that I have promised myself I would not do and that is to take a shot further than the personal limit I set for myself which was 15 yards or less. I should have kept my cool and remembered the trail he was heading on would bring him within 10 yards of my tree but the excitement over seeing the single largest buck I have ever seen while holding a bow in my hands got the better of me.

In the fading light and with the buck now 22 yards, I drew anchored and made a voice grunt to make him stop. What I failed to see was a long hanging branch half way between us but my arrow found that branch with ease and sent the shaft cleanly over his back and into the dirt. The noise and motion associated with hitting that branch made the buck run forward (and even closer to me as he followed the trail) and in a flash, he was out in the potato field.

I stood there for a minute or two cursing myself for being so greedy and taking a shot that should not have. I didn’t blame myself to much for not seeing the branch but had I waited for the buck to continue on the trail rather than rushing the shot, things may have come out differently. I thought about how that shot would have played out with my Bowtech at nearly 300 FPS and the longbows 172 FPS and feel confident that I would have harvested that deer but my mind is made up as far as using the homemade bow and while it would have been nice to give that deer a ride in my truck, I have many more hunts to look forward to and at some point, I will connect with a deer. This was turning out to be one of the most exciting and memorable bowhunts I had been on in longer than I can remember.

I climbed down and collected my arrow and headed for the field. The sky was still bright but the moon was high.



When I got out to the edge of the field, I found the tracks of the buck in the dirt along the edge of the field.



Sunday Morning I was back in the same stand and looking at that branch and can understand why in low light, I did not see it. I took a short video of the branch.

=http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/WBH_stuff/Cct%204%20hunt%202008/?action=view¤t=MVI_1603.mp4


I was thinking about the shot I took and the clear trail that I could see leading only 10 yards from my tree and wished for a do-over but this is what makes bowhunting a challenge and exciting and with the gear I’m using, this is turning out to be a very exciting season.

Before I climbed down from my stand, I took the two arrows from my quiver that had field points on them and picked out a yellow maple leaf and tried to see if I could hit it. The leaf was about 15 yards away.



It looks like I can't blame the gear. Now I have to work on staying cool and picking a spot. While no harvest took place. As far as a hunt goes, on a scale of 1 to 10, this weekend was an 11. I can’t wait until next time.

[Ron]

Friday Oct. 10 2008

Attended the funeral for my Uncle Stanley today. Most of my Dad's Brothers and Sisters that were able to travel, made the trip. It was hard to say goodbye to Uncle Stan. Uncle Stan lived at my Parents house for many weeks each fall. My Parents farm house has a small attic upstairs that my Dad converted into bedrooms. that is where my three brothers and I slept. When Uncle Stan came, he got one of the beds and either my self of one of my Brothers would sleep on a mattress on the floor. Uncle Stand would tell the greatest stories.

After the funeral, I headed up to my parents place to do a little bowhunting in the same woods Uncle Stand grew up in and often hunted. I slept in that same bedroom Where Uncle Stan started telling us Stories back when I was about 10 years old. It felt good to go back to were those memories were made.

On Friday night, I hunted the second ladder stand that is about 400 yards down stream from where I hunted the weekend before. This strip of woods is very narrow with the river to my right and the potato field to my left. From the river to the field is about 80 yards.



The farmer leasing the field had already begun to dig the potatoes but was not there when I pulled into the farm. Once in my stand I took some pics. The river to my right.



Through the woods and to my left, you can see the potato field.



I was in the stand at 4:40 and at about 5:30, I could hear the rumble of the potato trucks heading back to the field. They spent the rest of the evening digging and making one hell of a lot of racket. At times, they were digging at the very edge of the field which put them about 60 yards from my tree. It is no surprise that I did not see anything but a lone gray squirrel.



A half hour before quitting time, I climbed down and walked back to my truck. I saw several deer on the newly chopped corn field that is to the South of my stand.

Sat. Oct. 11

Got up at 5:15, showered and was off to the same ladder stand. I watched the sun come up and that was about the only thing I saw. At 8:30, the farmer was back picking potatoes so I got down and went for a slow walk along the river bottom. The farm equipment was loud and the river bottom ground was soft so I was able to sneak up on a small doe but never got her in range for my bow. Luckily, I am much more accurate and can shoot a greater distance with the camera.



As I walked up stream, I came across an old tree stand that I built back in about 1982. I can't believe it hasn't fallen off the tree yet. I took a lot of deer with a bow from that stand. I built it about 25 feet in the air and it was a great spot to watch the deer as they traveled along the river.





On the way back to the truck, I came across a lone hen turkey.

[Ron]

When I got back to my Parents place, my Dad was working on his tractor. He had discovered a leak in the fuel tank so he and I spent the rest of the morning fixing the leak and doing other repairs to the tractor.





After lunch, My Brother came over and he and I worked on my Parent's roof. My Brothers had re-shingled the house but had not finished putting on the shingle caps so he and I finished that job.



Then it was back in the shower and back to the woods. It was 78 degrees with a S.E. wind. I left the jacket behind and only wore a camo tee shirt and a thin orange vest since the youth gun hunt was taking place. When I got the farm, the potato harvesting was still going strong but they were now further from my tree. It was hot and breezy. That, coupled with the bright moon kept the deer bedded until the cool of night. The only action I had was a lone female wood duck that would swim up and down the river.



When I left my stand at the end of the evening, There were a few deer standing right by my truck that was parked under a big oak tree.

Sun. Oct. 12

Got up and showered and headed back to the ladder stand. The morning was just like Saturday except the potato farmers must have been in church. I sat until 9:30 and drove around to the far end of the field to check out another spot for a future hunt. This field is 2 forty's long (880 yards) so the potato truck can dig non-stop in a row that is a half mile in length.



As I drove across the field, I saw a lot of places were the potato farmer missed or spilled a lot of spuds. Having grown up on a potato farm myself, I knew they would lay there and rot as it is not cost effective to drive around and pick the missed spuds but I had a little free time so even though I didn't get any meat, I did pick up some potatoes.

When I got back to my Parents house, My Dad was in the driveway cleaning and chopping some freshly picked horseradish roots. My Mother won't let him do it in the house and I know why. As soon as I opened the door of my truck, I was assaulted by the smell. I told my Dad that I had made a great harvest and that he should go check out the back of my truck. He asked "How big" and I said "At least 150 pounds"



After, I cleaned up and had a bite, I went for a walk behind my Parents house to look for future hunting spots. I came across a small doe on the edge of the clover where a large oak leaned out onto the field.



After the walk, I decided to pack up and head home since I had a lot of spuds to deal with. I came away with no meat but I have enough potatoes to last for a while and can share some with the neighbors. After unpacking and putting things away, I enjoyed baked potatoes for supper.

[Ron]

Friday, Oct 31

Got to my stand at 4:30 pm. Saw nothing until a half hour before quitting time. I Saw two small bucks in the river sparring and screwing around. They spent a half hour in the knee deep water making a hell of a racket. I lowered my bow and quiver and sat there watching them until it was too dark to see. They snorted at me as I climbed down and walked out.

I've never seen deer act that way in the river before. It was like they were taking bites out of the water. I could hear their teeth and jaw's slamming shut as they would bite at the water. It was very odd. Both were small forks or sixes.

When I got to my truck, I had to take a pic of the sky. It was a great dark Halloween night.



When my sister came to my parents house with her kids and their bounty of trick or treat candy, she mentioned seeing a large racked buck near my parents house. I went and checked it out with my camera and the spotlight. I got a low light and poor quality video of him and it's clear enough to see that he is a large deer.




Sat. Nov. 1

Uneventful morning. Nothing stirring. It was dead calm and quiet. I did a little blind grunting and used the ca call in hopes to pull something in but came up dry. I went back to my parents house and did a little shooting of the shotgun I had just finished restoring. This bolt action really packs a whollop. I took a few shots at about 20 yards with fine shot and it seems to shoot just fine.



Then I tried a few slugs.



And lastly, an un-picked pumpkin at 50 yards.



Saturday evening, I was back in the stand and my only visitor was this noisy guy.



Sunday Nov. 2

It was a damp and foggy morning with spotty on and off showers. It started raining a little harder at 9:30 am so I packed up and head across the harvested potato field and right before I reached my truck I noticed a deer in the neighboring field at about 200 yards away. I now use my camera as a binocular and the zoom works great of identifying deer. I used all the zoom this camera has for these shots but the fog and rain make them look grainy.



I spent the rest of the morning moving one of my ladder stands North and deeper into the swamp along the same river. I was looking for a spot with a few rubs where I could set up. I found very few rubs along the water and most were on very small trees.



While looking at the rub, Something on the ground caught my eye.





I set mt ladder stand up about 50 yards from the small rub and will try again next week.

When I got back home, I received a call from a hunter that needed a deer butchered. I spend the rest of my evening cutting and wrapping a 75 pound nub buck.

[Ron]

Sat. Nov. 8

I moved one of my ladder stands last week and sat in it for the first time on Saturday afternoon. I got to the stand at 2:30 pm and hung 4 small sponges soaked in Tinks 69 upwind of my location and then climbed into the stand. It was COLD with a slight rain snow mix and hard Northwest winds. The soggy river bottom and the rain made it almost impossible to hear anything approaching so I sat tight with my hood pulled up to keep me dry.

At 3:30 I heard a noise to my left (down wind side) and turned to see a buck at 10 yards. He didn't smell me but I think he was focused on the Tinks sponges. I was busted sitting. I have never harvested a deer from a seated position but there was no chance in standing up with the buck so close. He took a few more steps towards the sponges and stopped with his head and part of his front shoulder blocked by a big cedar tree. I took the longbow that was resting on my lap and moved it to the vertical position. and got ready for him to step forward but he just stood there. I leaned back and could see the hair line on the back edge of the front leg so I figured I would take the shot.

I took the below picture the next morning to show where he was standing and made a poor attempt at sketching where he stood.



I had plenty of time to tell myself to pick a spot and to take a good aim and then release. The arrow hit a bit high and the deer lurched forward and turned to run back on the trail he came from. About half of my 29 inch arrows was still visible as he ran off. I gave 3 loud blows on my grunt tube and he stopped for a moment and then walked off.

I knew I had hit him high but I was not too far back so I was sure I had hit him in the lungs. I desided to sit for 20 minutes but waited 45 instead since he took off with my arrow. At 4:15 I got down and collected my sponges and went to where he stood to take up the trail. There was no blood to be found but the black muddy kicked up tracks made the trail easy to follow.

After tracking about 40 yards, I spotted a shed antler in the wet leaves.



A few feet further I found my broken arrow. the first 6 inches were missing





After going another 20 yards I found the only blood that I would find while tracking this deer.



It was getting dark as I kept following the muddy trail along the river. It took me all the way to my other ladder stand so I desided to walk out to my truck to drop off the bow and quiver and take up a path that would lead me back to the stand but would parrallel the trail that I had just followed about 40 yards closer to the field edge. As I approached my truck, I jumped a deer and my heart sank. I never got a good look at the deer because it was too dark but I still took up the trail back to my stand and if I came up empty I would come back in the morning and take up the trail again.

As I re-entered the river bottom to walk through the tall grass, I stumbled upon my buck. It was just dumb luck to walk into the woods where I did but I will take a bit of good fortune anywhere I can find it.



I learend the next morning that the trail I was following branched off and he died about 30 yards past the branch on the other trail. I looked him over and realized that he had died only a few yards from the spot my Uncle Stan used to hunt. Uncle Stan died a few weeks ago and when I put everything together in my mind, I just took a moment to sit in the grass and reflect on Uncle Stan and the fact that I had just realized my goal of harvesting a deer with all homemage gear and to do it in the same woods that Stan and I hunted so many years ago made it a pretty emotional event. Your never too old to shed a tear. I sat there pondering things and giving thanks for my good fortune.

After gutting I examined the deer to find that I had gone through both sides even though the arrow stayed with the deer. I expected to find the front half of the arrow and my homemade broadhead inside the deer but it no resides somewhere along the trail of his final steps. I had hit the top of the near lung and the upper third of the far side lung. He traveled less than 100 yards brfore it expired.

Exit side hole







My goal was to partake in a hunt like the founder of the Wisconsin Bowhunters Association (Roy Case) did back in the 1930's. Roy was the first person in WI to harvest a deer with a bow during a recognized archery deer season. He did it with a homemade longbow and arrows and his own homemade broadheads. I couldn't be more pleased with my good fortune. My goal was to take a deer with a homemade gear and I was able to realize that goal in the same woods that I was brought up in. It doesn't get any better than this. I feel very fortunate to have achieved this goal.

[Ron]

I processed my buck on Tuesday. Here are the before and after pics of the skull cleaning from A.M. to P.M.

[Ron]

After seeing 7 bucks in two morning and two afternoon sits and after bagging my buck, I told my Father that I would back out of the area so he could have a chance to bag a buck this year. I told him that I would sit on my last morning hunt until 8:30 am and that he should drive back and park next to my truck and I would come out of the woods to meet him and to gather up the gear and he and I would erect my pop-up blind for him to hunt from for the remainder of the bow season.

At 7:45, I had 2 small bucks under my stand that I was get video of and at 8:00 am (a half hour early) I could here my Father's truck bouncing across the 2 forties of frozen potato field to get back to my location. When he got to my truck, he started beeping his horn for me to come out and the buck just walked off into the woods. He was so excited about putting up that pop-up that he couldn't wait to get at it. I hope I still have that drive when I'm 73.

We put up the blind about 50 yards from my ladder stand right along the river amung the cedars and hemlocks and cleared a few lanes and brushed it in to conceal it a bit. I spoke with him last night and he shocked me. I told him not to hunt that blind until at least Wednesday and he said that he has not been back into that stand at all because it's been the wrong wind............... I about dropped the phone. This old gun hunter has never played the wind (or wore camo or practiced and kind of scent control) ever. He must really want to get a buck. I can only hope that he is sucessful.