Trad hunting story

[nevadabugle]

Mine just happened last weekend. Friday evening I drove around a bit and ended up roosting a couple birds on the south end of some public. From past years I knew they often would cross the thin strip of private south of them onto another public piece, so that’s where I headed Saturday morning with my 11 year old, who has his first turkey tag this year and is bowhunting.

It was miserable, cold and rainy, and by the time we got close to where I wanted to set up my son was a little disgruntled, but then we heard gobbles, not from way across but close, basically right where I planned to set up. It was a little hard to tell where they were and I wanted to make sure we were close enough both to the gobbling and to the birds I roosted to get a chance at seeing something.

Right then, as we’re rounding the outside corner of a small wood lot I see a bird about 150 yds away, who spots me and scuttles off. I was pretty bummed because my son didn’t even see the bird before it took off, but we decided to set up right there so as not to further spook whatever birds might be over there.

As soon as we were set up my son decided he needed a nap so he spend the next hour curled up in a sorta waterproof picnic blanket I brought along for that very purpose. He woke up cold so I let him wear my puffy while he read a book and I looked for birds, calling every 30-45 minutes.

We had agreed that if we didn’t see anything by 9:30 we’d go get some breakfast so you can imagine how jacked I was at 9 when two Toms suddenly popped up over the hill we were facing, coming from pretty much where I’d expect the birds I roosted to come from, at maybe 125 yards or so!

They gobbled hard when I called so I called softly one more time just so my son could hear some more gobbles and then shut up.

They worked their way in somewhat cautiously until they saw the Jake and hen, which I’d had to prop up between scrub oaks because I apparently left the stakes at the last place we hunted. I need to go back and find those still. Anyway once they spotted decoys they came in quick. My son was supposed to be the shooter but his hands were freezing and he told me to take the shot so I obliged. Shot was about 15 yards and snapped the wing bone clean in half so that the wing was hanging by a little bit of skin and tissue. I had to run out and put him down for fear he would run away, although he didn’t seem to be trying to run, just flopping around on the ground.

The really crazy thing is after dispatching him I ran back to the blind and started calling again. By this time adrenaline had warmed up my son’s hands and he was ready. I called the second bird back in to about 15 and if the blind had a window in a different spot or he’d taken another couple steps we’d have brought him home too.

All in all it was a great day and my son was a trooper helping carry gear out that I’d carried in so that I could carry my bird, but I’m still a little bummed he didn’t get to shoot instead of me.

That said this was my first tag filled with the ASL, first tag filled with my son along, as well as my redemption for the bird I missed the very first time I took my son turkey hunting several years ago, so it was a big milestone for me personally.

The bird weighed in at 21lbs soaking wet with 1” spurs and a thick 10” beard.

Bow is a St Patrick Lake Pacific stick, 50# @29”. Arrows are full length 2016s, 2” 4 fletch, standard insert and zwickey delta with a 100gr adapter so about 630gr total.

Love It! Great job!

 

[wyodog]

Long story shortened.

I drew an area 22 Wyo elk tag and hunted with a recurve for the first time. i had been hunting by myself but I took a friend with me on this day. We saw a heard of elk with a big bull working through the timber and decided to follow quietly. As we worked our way up the mountain, we had opportunities on a couple younger bulls doing the same thing we were doing. I am sure they had different intentions.

About 1,2 mile up the hill we started seeing a few cows milling around but the bull had gone silent, and we couldn't see him anywhere. The wind was steady, so we hunkered down and listened for a minute or so. Patience got the best of me so i turn to my friend and gave him the signal to bugle. He sounded off with a single bugle and received a deafening reply followed by antlers crashing against a tree. He was close! it wasn't long, and I saw antlers moving down the hill, soon enough he was in sight but out of my range. After a short standoff he moved a bit to the left, enough to block his view of me. I turned and looked back and gave the signal to bugle again. what I heard next was the worst sounding screech of a bugle you can imagine.

I was certain that would be our demise. Unfazed the bull started the bull started working his way down toward us, he was swaying his antlers back and forth, looking for the intruder. Time slowed down. I could see that he was covered in mud and had water dripping off him. I drew my recurve back slowly and waited. Still swaying his antlers, he walked by me at 7 yards, and I let go of the string.

Oh no, as he crashed away, I saw my arrow in the bottom of his shoulder/top of his leg! i watched desperately as he crossed the creek and started back up the hill. Wait a minute, he's not moving very well I thought. then I heard it, a loud crash. As it turned out my eyes had deceived me. The arrow was tucked up close to shoulder and had penetrated both lungs and the broadhead was in the offside shoulder. The bull had travled about 100 yards and died in a matter of seconds.

 

[StupidLightweight]

I won't bore you with the details, but my panda hunt outside of Wuhan in early 2020 was my best traditional hunt yet.

 

[TDHunter]

Mountain Goats are the perfect bow hunting animal. I've taken 4 goats with the longbow or recurve from 5m-25m. This was the biggest of the 4.

 

[North Idaho Stickbow]

View attachment 803979View attachment 803979Mountain Goats are the perfect bow hunting animal. I've taken 4 goats with the longbow or recurve from 5m-25m. This was the biggest of the 4.

No kidding? I would have figured a mountain goat would be monster of a challenge.

 

[Beendare]

I won't bore you with the details, but my panda hunt outside of Wuhan in early 2020 was my best traditional hunt yet.
View attachment 707222

I almost choked on my coffee ...thats funny!

 

[Beendare]

Here's a quick one.
I hunt the late archery season in AZ with a few buddies. Years ago, My one buddy R. and I had Javalina tags and he had never killed one.

We were glassing a hillside that was a long ways off that had big patches of that Prickly Pear cactus they like. Javi's have some of the best natural camp...plus they move slow. Setting up Binos or a spotter on a tripod and leaving the bino in one spot for a short time helps pick up the slight movements of these Javis that looked like rocks at first glance.

"I have 20 Javis," I said. Typical of a first timer it took a minute for my buddy to pick them up. "Lets go" he said picking up his bow chomping at the bit. We sat and studied the hillside for a bit to plan our mile long stalk and try to determine landmarks in open high desert that had almost none.

They were on a small hill that popped up off the desert floor. We got the wind right and snuck right in to the spot we last saw them but the brush on the hillside was about thigh high and thicker than it appeared from our first vantage. We should be really close to them. I looked at R 15' away slightly above me with a facial expression of, Do you see them? He looked back, nothing. It seems they had completely disappeared. We were super quiet...and the wind was right.....weird they disappeared as they typically don't move much when they find a feeding spot they like.

We both quietly stepped up on small rock outcroppings about 12' apart. Again we looked at each other- Nothing. Thats weird.

Then about 6 feet away from R and 8 feet away from me one moved. The surprised look on R's face was awesome. We both smiled. I gave a slight nod- Shoot him. He looked at me and motioned slightly- no you shoot. Dang him...we were going back and forth and he wouldn't shoot.

By now there are 8 Javis that appeared out of thin air between 8' and 20' away. Pretty soon the wind would swirl with them blowing out of there and neither one of us would get a shot.

Well as any Javi hunter know, once you shoot is when the fun starts and I knew that would force his hand so I shot and ended up spine-ing one now 7' away. Once the squealing started, here they come like a Chinese fire drill all puffed up huffing and puffing literally shooting by us 3 feet away. Now there was the whole herd of twenty and I tried not to laugh as R was trying to draw and get on one as they darted by.


Three of the Javis started attacking the one I shot and R picked one off. The fire drill went on for a solid 6 minutes.

Walking off the hill R said that was the most action packed time he had ever had on a hunt- we literally laughed for an hour afterward.

 

[LH-ENG]

View attachment 803979View attachment 803979Mountain Goats are the perfect bow hunting animal. I've taken 4 goats with the longbow or recurve from 5m-25m. This was the biggest of the 4.

What was your bow/arrow setup on this hunt?

Congrats btw!

 

[Yam42]

Not much of a story but a good lesson in patients. I bought a recurve to do a traditional only hunt. Shot all summer and became very proficient out to 40 yard. I scouted the day before the opener and found a nice buck. Opening morning I found the buck again and put on a good stalk. The buck I was after had a small buck laying between him and I can another just to the right, if you look closely at the picture you can see them.
I waited until they were bedded for a bit and got into my socks and started the stalk. I crawled to within about 10 yards and the deer had no idea I was there, there was just enough of a knob I crawled right up on them until I could see antler tips.
I shoot a clicker and thought to myself if I draw back with a canted bow that when the clicker pops the deer will stand and I’ll get a shot. I considered just waiting them out but my excitement got the best of me. I got onto my knees and the deer didn’t move, I slowly drew back and “click”. The deer all three stood up like planned only the big buck ducked behind the tree and the 3 point stood up right between us and stared at me at full draw at 10 yards. I considered shooting him but with the big buck just past him I decided to pass and let down. The bucks trotted about 50 yards away and started feeding, I crawled up into their beds and watched them for another couple hours just outside of bow range until they bedded again.
I blew a couple more stalks that day on the buck and had a family emergency the next morning and had to leave the hunt early. I’m going back this year for a full week and hopefully that buck is still alive. Hopefully this time I can be a little more patient and let a shot come to fruition instead of forcing the shot.

The buck
View attachment 702551

The blown opportunity spot.
View attachment 702552

Thanks for the story. It's good to hear stories about showing restraint, especially in these days of instant gratification social media vomitting

 

[Yam42]

What was your bow/arrow setup on this hunt?

Congrats btw!

same question here: what draw weight

What was your bow/arrow setup on this hunt?

Congrats btw!

Nice job! I have the same question. I use a 45# traditional longbow for coastal blacktail. I am considering expanding to larger animals, wonder if I need to bump up to 55# for ethical hunting.