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Memorial Day comes.

My last day in the Blind of my chosen spot. My faith in my choice is beginning to wane. My faith in my calling is shaken. Why have the turkeys forsaken me? Have I not bought all the right equipment? Have I not practiced my clucks, purrs, peas-peas, and playful hen series? Have I not watched all the Turkey Season run up shows on TV?

I awake at 3:30a, strangely energetic. I can FEEL today is going to be different. I go through the routine more quickly than normal and find myself heading out the door well in advance of my normal time. I walk through the woods to the field and begin crossing. Immediately a skunk decides to greet me. She plays the role of Rhino and charges me before retreating. It is almost like I am in Africa, except instead of the risk of a trampling, I'ld have to endure going to work smelling of 'nature'. We play that game for a bit as I try holding my ground while trying to act like anything other than a predator. It takes me a good 10 minutes extra to get around the lovely lady skunk and finally she decides I am no risk to her and she melts into the field headed into the other direction.

I settle into my blind, and I wait. Today I will be patient. More patient than before. Active calling has not brought the Toms out, so today I will be coy. Today I will be the reluctant hen.... shy even. As light breaks I start off with locator clucks. There is a gobble far off. I wait. I am shy. I am..... waiting. Every 15 minutes or so I put out a soft series of locator calls, switching between my GS Slate and the GS mini-box. After an hour I do one hard series. Each hard series, I find the gobbling response it closer, but slowly.

Around 8:00am I see the Tom. This time he has come in towards the top of the field. He stands with his neck stretched high. He calls out to the hen, "Come to me he says. See how magnificent I am." I ignore his advances. Slowly he moved along the woodline down in my direction. Then suddenly a neighbor starts his tractor and the Tom is spooked. He runs half way down the field and leaps into the woods. NNNNOOOOOOO!!!! My head slumps. My day, is it over? I raise my head and resume my series. Doing the same things that brought him into sight before.

9:00a comes and my wife text msg's me. The kids are getting a bit crazy and more moody than usual. How long will I be?
I answer back that I will give it until 10am and then head back through the woods, probably back to the house around 11a.
At 9:30a I've started to clean up the blind of snack bar wrappers and Diet Dew when it happens. A gobble EXPLODES behind the blind!
I lean back and move the flap on one of the windows on the blind. The Tom is about 20 yards away staring down the decoy. My heart takes off! I lean forward and start the camera, and I assume the kneeling stance ready for the Tom to clear the closed windows of the blind and come into my shooting lane. Ten minutes go by and nothing. Fifteen minutes. I lean back and look again to find the Tom in full strut. He is not going to commit.

My heart sinks for a minute and I make my decision. I have to give up on the hopes of filming the shot and work for the Tag Out.
I turn myself in the blind and peek out of the window flap. I have to lower the window in the back of the blind and take my shot. No easy task, but I am lucky that the Eastman Blind uses magnets to hold up the windows and the window facing the Tom does not have the velcro screening up.

I shift the bow to my right hand where I hold the bow upright by the Cam. I reach out and put my left hand on the left corner of the window. Peeking through the gap, I wait. As the Tom dances and prances I wait for my moment. The tom circles slowly, and the moment he covers his vision with his fan, I pull the left corner of the blind window. The Tom turns fast thinking he is hearing the hen rustle. I FREEZE! The tom is unsure why the hen is not coming in, so he puffs some more and continues his dance. He circles yet again after about 4 minutes and I pull the right side. He spins quickly and I FREEZE! My heart is pounding and my throat is dry. I am still partially hidden, as the center of the window is held up by a hook and loop. I slide my hand slowly up and grasp the clasp in my fingers and thumb. Turkey tom spins yet again and I flick the hooks, don't ask where that skill comes from please, and pull the window half the way down. I FREEZE! Now the turkey notices the blind looks different and is more wary. But, the wind is blowing gently and it is causing the decoy to move. He becomes distracted again and concentrates on the Hen. Another 4-5 minutes go by, and it seems like hours. Finally he turns his fan again and I get the window all the way down! My breathing is haggard, and my hands are shaking. I can not believe he has not spooked. I can not believe I am still in there.

So the window is all the way down, but the bow is not in my hands and my mask is down. MY MASK IS DOWN??!?! Crap. In the excitement I forgot to put my mask up and my pasty wife Northeastern mug is shining bright and I am silhouetted in an open window with another open window directly behind me. I am frozen. I am a tree. I am relying on my Mossy Oak clothes and hat to convince this Tom at 20 yards that I am nothing more than a big mound of vegetation. He turned and fans. I my mask up AND my hands on my bow, but the bow only half way up when he peers over his shoulder.

Now he is a noticing something is not quite right. While strutting he moved to the other side of the tree, moving behind the tree as he goes. As he moved behind the tree, I come to full draw! He steps out, one step... two steps. I hold a slight bit high and release. THUMP! The NAP Spitfires, launched from the PSE Diablo hits its mark and the turkey drops in his tracks. He shudders twice as I burst out of the blind and perform the Coup de grâce. It has been over 40 minutes of blood pumping action. Alternating between moments if extremely fast movements and minutes frozen in the form of a tree. It has been the most exciting Spring hunt yet for me.

It has taken me many a morning (can only hunt to Noon here in Maine), and was my last day in this spot. I was taken out of my game plan, missed my video, and shot out of a window that started off closed and ended up being the direction of my success. I can't say enough about what it means to keep at it. To keep going out, to keep trying different techniques. To be aware and to never consider the day done until your time is up.

Special thanks goes out to my brother who tagged out on a Jake earlier and forced me to keep trying. To Mossy Oak for letting me sit without 20yards of turkey and not cause him to run, and to Tracy at GS Calls for his awesome Slate and Mini Box Call. Lastly, thanks to PSE for making a GREAT bow in the Diablo. It just keeps on doing its job, chance after chance.

The Shot:

 

 

The View from the Field:

 

 

Tags: 2008 Turkey Spring Pse Diablo Nap Spitfire Vbg Triangle Tom Hen Gs Calls

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One day, in line at the company cafeteria, Joe says to Mike behind him, "My elbow hurts like hell, I guess I'd better see a doctor."
"Listen, you don't have to spend that kind of money," Mike replies.
There is a diagnostic computer down at Wal-Mart, just give it a urine sample and the computer will tell you what's wrong and what to do about it. It takes ten seconds and costs ten dollars....alot cheaper than a doctor.
So, Joe deposits a urine sample in a small jar and takes it to Wal-Mart. He deposits ten dollars and the computer lights up and asks for the urine sample. He pours it in and waits. Ten seconds later, the computer ejects a printout: You have tennis elbow. Soak your arm in warm water and avoid heavy activity. It will improve in two weeks. Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart. That evening, while thinking how amazing this new technology was, Joe began wondering if the computer could be fooled. He mixed some tap water, a stool sample from his dog, urine samples from his wife and daughter, and a sperm sample for good measure. Joe hurries back to Wal-Mart, eager to check the results. He deposits ten dollars, pours in his concoction, and await the results. The computer prints the following:
1. Your tap water is too hard. Get a water softener. (Aisle 9)
2. Your dog has ringworm. Bathe him with anti-fungal shampoo. (Aisle 7)
3. Your daughter has a cocaine habit. Get her into rehab.
4. Your wife is pregnant. Twins, not your's, get a lawyer.
5. If you don't stop playing with yourself, your elbow will never get better!

Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart!

If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what, with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning uphill BOTH ways yadda, yadda, yadda!

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter...with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the damn record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and screwed it all up!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids' and the graphics sucked! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn't see, you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little bastards!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire ... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled!!!!!!!!!

You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!
Oh yea, and a seatbelt was Mom throwing her arm across your chest every time she hit the brakes.


Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

2006 Deer Hunting - 4 Point Buck - Bow

After careful CSI type analysis of the scene, this is what we figure.

THE SHOT

After recovering what was left of the deer and finding the entrance and exit wounds, we saw that the shot was just about perfect height from the back of the shoulder. Now, I distinctly remember trying to hit a little lower, which with the blood, made me think I hit the heart or arteries (but you guys said arteries would spurt). Once we got out of the woods, we thought about the shot as we had looked at it in the morning before we started tracking.

After relooking at the spot where the deer bucked and ran off, we are guessing he took a step forward and down as I released. The ground here is wet from a torrential Friday rain, and it was obvious in that section there were some hoofprints and then his deeper JUMP prints. So, if he had not stepped down, I probably would have had good alignment and been in the bottom of the lung on the near side.
He was also slightly quartering towards me, which is was also shown both in the prints and in the entrance and exit. When I drew and was releasing he had been broadside, so we think he dropped his 'stand side' leg as he stepped forward, and the hoof prints show a little spread there as well.

RECOVERY:
Just before I started my tracking last night I jumped on the PSE board and read their Guide:Tracking wounded deer by Woody Williams, and tossed some toilet paper in my pack as my neighbor and I went to track. That toilet paper saved the day. This morning we were able to follow really obvious squares of toilet paper (and some scraps when I started to run out) right back to where we had left off the night before. I'm buying some flag tape soon. The rain would have ruined the TP, but it held off.

Once we got back to the last marking, we looked around a while for more blood and there was just none to be found. So, using the last 3 markers as a guide (each about 12 years apart), I started down the most obivious trail (which was not 'obvious' at all. But, I was trying to think like a deer. Dad went out ahead and using my voice as a guide, while I stilled squat walked looking for blood, he started doing half circles out in front of me checking the trail from side to side. About 50 yards from the last marker (about 150-200yds total), we found the deer. Coyotes has eaten just about every single part.

ARROW and BROADHEAD - Entrance and Exit
There was a pretty good entrance wound and a sizable exit.
The arrow went in the ribcage, and the exit was just behind the ribcage. There was no bile, or mucus on the arrow at all, and the blood was dark red.  It 'might' have clipped the stand side lung, but the material on my Montec has got to be Liver.

The Trophy Pictures:

Tags: 2006 Deer Hunting Pse Diablo Montec Fall

2007 Deer Hunting - Bounty of Harvest

It all started the week before.
The season had opened and it was another fall with my own yearling in the house (second child, 9m old). I had no time to scout, but I had a couple spots on my neighbors land picked out.

All that week as I arrived home after a long day; 4am Andrew diaper changing, 5am feeding, 6am Samantha is up, 7am off to drop off kids at Daycares (split with wife, we go in opposite directions)... I get home after a longer than usual work day and stare wistfully out the window. I know there are deer out there somewhere.

On Thursday I am supposed to put my stand up and fix my blind to place on the edge of a field. I get home to find out my wife had tweaked her shoulder working out and is out of commission. I cook supper, give the kids baths, get Andrew in bed and then retire to the living room to dream about being out in the woods.

Friday rolls around and I am going through the 'routine' that evening while my wife is waiting to get into the Drs office this upcoming Monday to get her shoulder checked out. By now it is hardly able to move. The phone rings, it is my brother.

"Shawn", he says in a shaky voice while half whispering, "I just arrowed a doe!" He continues,"I finally got a shot on with the Diablo and it felt soooo smooth. She was quartering away hard but I know it was a good shot. It all felt so magical." I ask him if he needs help tracking, though I was not looking forward to the hour drive knowing Mandy would have to deal with two kids with a hurt arm. Marc replies, "Naw. Charlie is coming to help. If we do not find it by 8:30p, I'll give you a call back." Around 8pm, he calls and excitedly tells me he found her. She went about 80 yards and went down. I congratulate him and ask him if Dad is going to help him skin it out tomorrow. Nope, he is busy.

So I offer to go down and help him out and I'll find Mandy help babysitting with the kids. At that point he suggest I pack my bow up and take a turn in the stand. There were three does in the area and they all came in together. He is sure they will come back out, as he has them well timed and they are walking through like clockwork.

I ask Mandy if she would mind if I put an evening in the stand, and she agrees. She does tell me that not only do I need to do, but if I get the chance I need to take the shot. No waiting for the perfect moment. She has seen me shoot and I need to use the skills I have.

The next day I head out in the late morning down to my brothers. As I make the hour trip I am feeling a little pride in the confidence my wife has in me and her actually saying she knows I can make a humane shot even without the broadside. It fills me with confidence as I head down and makes the drive that much more enjoyable.

I arrive around 1pm and help my brother finish processing his deer. It is a nice time chatting about how exactly they came in, how he kept waiting for the broadside, but finally settled on the quartering away. I take a couple pictures for him, and while it looked like he hit it WAY back, the shockwave sliced and diced all the vitals and left the ponch in place. A textbook shot.

I head over to the landowners place at 3:30 and settle in. I sit enjoying the cool breeze (it had been 80 dgrees all week, fall in Maine - welcome global warming). I slowly turn my head this way and that, my bow across my lap holding my personally assembled arrows in the quiver. I am shooting Xweave Predators fletched myself with Blazers (2 Orange and a White cook Vane), Bohning Signature Flo Orange Nock and Slick Trick Magnums.

I pull out an arrow and place it in the Whisker Biscuit, and nock it. Staring at the broadhead, I reflect back on the decision to make the switch. Last year I took a buck with a G5 Montec, but the blood trail was less than I would have expected and I just felt my sharpening skills were not good enough to make the most of the broadhead. I bought a couple packs of ST Magnums to try out as an alternative and within my second set of 3, I was hitting 2" squares at 20yds with no tweaking of rest or sights. I was sold.

I sit and wait. In front of me are several old and dying apple trees, still feebly bearing fruit. Several woodpeckers flitter from tree to tree while searching for bugs and soft spots in the trees to find tree worms (or whatever they really are).

Slowly the sun goes down and the sound of traffic slows in the distance. My awareness increases tenfold as the 'right time' approaches. I start scanning more with my eyes, working right to left and slowly turning my head to help my vision reach the tote road to my far left. Time slows down, but it is not boring. It is that time that takes out into the woods. The time where you become part of nature as a predator. Your patience becomes ten fold as you wait. Waiting like a Puma in the trees.

Off to my far right I hear the tell tale sound of a deer. Not surprisingly the small doe has decided to break all the normal rules of access and is coming through the thickest part of the woods instead of the easy tote roads or the two deer trails running parallel to them. I turn my eyes and head slowly, and she is walking straight in. I see that she is small. But, I promised the wife that it was meat I was after and not a trophy. If a deer came out, and did not sport spots, then I would take it.

Slowly she comes in, but relaxed. She walks straight in and under my stand. Stopping for a moment she sniffs the rungs of the ladder stand and sort of glances around. I guess the soles of my 15 year old leather slipper boots (it was so warm I could not wear my 'hunting' boots) did not leave much scent. She then walks out from under the stand and slowly starts walking straight away.

As she comes out from under the stand I wait for her to get out a little and then I stand and turn ever so slowly. Forest Ninja's could not have moved so silently or smoothly. Knowing she could not see at that angle behind her I get myself into position.

She browses a little but slowly continues walking straight out. It is time for a decision! So I wait for her turn? Do I risk her walking straight ahead and under the canopy 30 yards out? I look to my right again (straight ahead of my body now) and check for following does or bucks and see nothing. This is my chance for the evening and I think of my wife back at home, hurt and watching our two kids to give me this chance. I draw.

One of the important pieces of a successful shot is to not change your style. To let your instincts do what you have done dozens, hundreds, thousands of times at home and on the range and in the 3D course (if you are lucky enough to live close). To draw the same, anchor the same, hold the same, and to take the shot when it looks and feels right. Overthink it and you take too long. Get over excited and you shoot too soon. I bring my bow up into the draw (I happen to draw upwards, always have) and line everything up, just like every other time. I envision in my mind where the arrow will go, and aim for the far lung. I ‘see’ the arrow going through to the far leg, down and through.

Without even realizing it my finger smoothly pulls and my Scott Wildcat go off. I see the arrow in flight through my VBG Triangle sight and watch as the arrow strikes HARD. The doe drops instantly and without so much as a kick breathes in and out 4, then 5 times. In the time it take for me to see her drop with the arrow still within her, I have a second arrow out of its quiver and nocked in the rest. Later I would remark to my Dad and brother than my hands just automatically did it, that the next thing I knew I had the bow in the ready position and tension on the dloop. I watch as she takes her last breathe and passes, less than 30 seconds after the shot. I can not express my concern, and then relief that no second arrow would be needed.

As I let my bow down and call my Brother and Dad, I reflect on the shot and wonder if I ‘missed’. I had certainly not intended to spine her. And the arrow not getting pass through had me concerned that I had somehow missed the vitals and hit something harder like the upper scapula. I take great care to respect the doe as I have my Dad take some pictures of where she lay. I give thanks for the bounty and we move the deer off to take care of her in preparation of getting her to the tagging station.

Later, and mostly due to the interest and thoughtful atmosphere of sharing here to help educate ourselves and others, I take special interest in capturing on my camera the entrance, exit, and damage pictures. Upon skinning out the doe I find that my shot was not bad at all. In fact, the arrow passed one blade through the spine, nicked one lung (it did not look like a pull out wound) and punctured the far lung cleanly. There was complete pass through the lower ribs on the far side and the broadhead had actually lodged in the far leg in the lower potion of the shoulder. It was that penetration that required two hands to start the broadhead back out through the body. Interestingly, and maybe it was because it was dark, we had not figured it as a pass through or I would have captured a picture of the broadhead external to the shot.

Attached below are the photo’s that relate to this story.
There are more if people are interested, but these are those that tell the story without being repetitive.

Thank you for the opportunity to share.

Equipment

2006 Diablo NH 65# 26"DL
VBG Triangle w/G5 Peep
WB DX QS
Doinker Multi-Rod 7" D2 Hunter
SIMS Modules as Riser Vibration Dampeners
Scott Wildcat Buckle
Radial XWeave Predator 200s @ 26.75"
Bohning Signature Flo Orange Nocks
Blazer Vanes (2 Flo Orange/1 White)
Slick Trick Magnum 100s
Benchmade Snoddy 210
Buck Woodsman 105

Game
Doe @ 75#s
16yds
Spine/Lung
0 Foot Tracking

Supporting Pictures

My second group with Slick Trick Magnum 100s.
I did not shoot a third.:


My Doe Represented:




Slick Trick Post Shot --
Straight Blade:


Only Damage:

Tags: 2007 Deer Hunting Pse Diablo Doe Slicktrick Vital Bow Gear Triangle

2007 Spring Turkey - Bow

Turkey hunting, from first to last

My Morning, had to leave blind at 9am due to work.

• 4:30am: head to blind, set up 1 hen facing off canter to left of blind.
• 5:00am: get first gobble response
• 6:00am: Finally lure the tom over the crest and he sees decoy.
• 6:00am-8:00am: Tom stops gobbling and Struts, Preens and Stands on Log showing off. Slowly, SLOWLY displays, preens, and peck feeds down the entire length of the field edge to the right, around the corner and hangs up 30yds short and behind vegetation (not clearable)
• 8:05am: Second Tom blast into the field gobbling like crazy.
• 8:10am: I give up on closer Tom who is stalled and I Box Call the Field Gobbler. He approaches 60 yards out and sees decoy.
• 8:10am-8:50am: He circles around to the left continues crossing the field, enters the woods and comes in behind me. He would not enter by 3 rear facing shooting lanes and ends up walking off as well.
• 9:00am: I head out, no turkeys in sight.

I moved my blind.
I think the distance that the Toms have to cross from the far side of the field put them on edge when they do not see any hen movement for so long.

I got 2 shots off out of the blind last year when Paired Toms rushed the decoy, but have had 4 other times when single birds fetch up after crossing a couple hundred yards only to see the decoy never move or call back.

I've moved my blind over the little crest and 1/2 to the other side of the field where they usually enter to give them less distance to consider the immobile hen before they are in range.

Guess that is why they call it Turkey Hunting and not Turkey Shooting.

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Day 2

Another near miss.
Set up this morning and 2 hens, a jake, and small tom come into the field.
They just would not respond to calling and calmly pecked and strolled on by out of range.

At least there are birds about!
Tomorrow I get 4 hours in the blind.
We'll see what happens.

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Day 3

This morning was even more stressful than the other morning.
A larger flock (for around here) came into the top of the field.
About 10 hens, one big tom and 1 jake (I thought).
I called to them as they crossed the top of the field and slowly 4 hens and the jake broke off and started coming by way, the long way. They did a giant circle around the field and came into the decoys the opposite side of where they entered the field.

Now, I am getting excited. They slowly come in and I notice the jack is a young Tom. More color and a 2-3" beard. Here they come, but the tom is out the outside and they are all kind of huddled together. I draw back and hold waiting for a gap.... wait for it... wait for it....
GAH... have to let down.

They peck along slowly, with the Tom still on the outside and just poking his head up every so often and looking at the decoys. I draw back again... wait... wait... wait........ wait. MAN!
I let down again. Still now shot. Now they are about 3/4 out of my shooting arc and still moving along.

I take a couple deep breaths and draw back again. Watching them slowly walk out of my arc and range. The whole time there was not ONE break in the flock that let me have a shot at the small tom.

I'm trying to convince myself it is for the best, that I succeeded in calling them in, and that I'll gt another chance. I have 2 days this week, a week off, and another week before my season is over. And I know there are two other big Toms around. But man! I just wanted to tag out and eat some turkey!!!

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Day 4

Yesterday:
Cold, Rainy, Damp.
No turkeys.
BOOO...

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Day 5

Finally!
Got up at what I thought was 2am with the baby to feed him.
Then as I was prepping the bottle I realize it said 12:00 not 2:00.. WHOOOOOHOOOOO
2 extra hours of sleep!

So, I get up again at 2:30am, get ready and head down to my Dads.
Get there, say hi and we head out to the blind around 4:30am.
The landowner had said she saw 1 big tom and a couple jakes almost every morning, so we waited.
Around 6:45am a lone jake came in my Dad spotted him out his side of the blind.

I promised my wife that if it had a beard, I would take it down.
He had a beard, so I waited for him to get into my shooting lane and took him down at 21.5 yards.

Tags: 2007 Spring Jake Pse Diablo Nap Spitfire Jake Turkey

Took the bow out for the first time in 6 months. TOO LONG.
Local range closed so no winter shooting. New one has opened this year.
Deep Winter meant I could not even shoot my lanes until today.

Took a couple pictures of it with the new riser dampeners and the MeanV CSS on it.  Old Town Archery redid the timing and adjust the draw back to 66# draw.  I'm going into me third year with OEM strings and they all checked out.  I guess keeping them well waxed has helped keep them in good condition.

I'm shooting a tad bit high. Could be the adjust draw weight, the css, or just me.  Not sure and not real worried about it right now.

The CSS makes the bow 'feel' better.  It sort of 'thuds' on the shot and makes the bow feel a little more 'solid'. Not sure how to explain it.  I got tired after about a couple dozen shots.  Reminds me that now that it is a little warmer I need to  get the kids out and running around, for MY benefit.  ;)

New  Bow Picture


First Group in 6 months (20yds)

Tags: Pse Archery Diablo 2008

Finally got some time outdoors in the daylight and no kids running around.

Tags: Knife Companion Downeast Knife Company Buck Benchmade 802ss 110 Snody 210

Without money to buy or build a good picture set-up and it being too overcast this entire weekend, I decided to try a sheet and a lamp. This is how the experiment came out. There is still a little glare. I think I need get another bulb for my second lamp I have (currently have lizard heat bulb in it) and use a couple sheets to fashion a ‘box’ to help spread out the light. Well, here is what I ended up with tonight.

 

For those of you who hunt deer, want to pet deer, or anything in between....this is too funny! Names have been removed to protect the stupid!

 

This is an actual letter from someone who writes, and farms:

 

'I had the idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it.

 

The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not four feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

 

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it.

 

After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up -- three of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope.  The deer just stood there and stared at me.

 

I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation.

 

I took a step towards it...it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and then received an education.

 

The first thing  that I learned is that while a deer may just stand there and look at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED.

 

The second thing  I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity.  A deer-- no chance.

 

That thing ran, bucked, twisted, and pulled.  There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it.  As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined.

 

The third thing I learned, the only up side, is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

 

A brief ten minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up.  It took me a few minutes to realize this since the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head mostly blinded me.  At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison.  I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

 

I figured that if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere.

 

At the time, there was no love lost between that deer and me.  At that moment I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual.

 

Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in.  I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set beforehand...kind of like a squeeze chute.

 

I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

 

The fourth  thing I learned!!!!  Did you know that deer bite?  They do!  I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist.

 

Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head, almost like a pit bull.  They bite HARD and it hurts.

 

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly.  I tried screaming and shaking instead.  My method was ineffective.

 

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds.

 

I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it.  While I kept it busy tearing the bejesus out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

 

That was when I got my fifth  lesson in deer behavior for the day.  Deer will strike at you with their front feet.  They rear right up on their back feet, strike right about head, and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp.

 

I learned a long time ago that when an animal -- like a horse -- strikes at you with their hooves and you cannot get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal.  This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

 

This was not a horse.  This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work.  In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy.  I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run.

 

The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head.

 

Deer may not be so different from horses after all because, besides being twice as strong and three  times as evil, the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

 

Lesson six...  Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave.  I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed.  What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.  I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away.

 

So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope so that they can be somewhat equal to the Prey.

Went to Old Town Archery Today.
Remember them from when I bought my bow in 2006?


Towards the end of last season my draw seemed to be longer. I figured it was string stretch over time and that I needed new strings. Bob check the bow over, had me draw it, and checked the timing. He gave the strings another year, gave a not of approval on the contact points, but declared the timing off.

The timing being off was what was making my wall feel 'mushy'. So, he had Chad (?) reset the timing, serve where my MeanV CSS contacts the string, and rechecked me.
Good to go.

I really appreciate the honesty. He COULD have just agreed that I needed strings and sold me some and took my money. I would not have argued or known otherwise. While I can do most things, I don't have a press or enough experience with strings to know any better.

Kudos again to Old Town Archery Shop and to Bob for superior service.

Tags: PSE Diablo Archery Bow Arrow Old Town Archery

Bounty of Harvest

It all started the week before.
The season had opened and it was another fall with my own yearling in the house (second child, 9m old). I had no time to scout, but I had a couple spots on my neighbors land picked out.

All that week as I arrived home after a long day; 4am Andrew diaper changing, 5am feeding, 6am Samantha is up, 7am off to drop off kids at Daycares (split with wife, we go in opposite directions)... I get home after a longer than usual work day and stare wistfully out the window. I know there are deer out there somewhere.

On Thursday I am supposed to put my stand up and fix my blind to place on the edge of a field. I get home to find out my wife had tweaked her shoulder working out and is out of commission. I cook supper, give the kids baths, get Andrew in bed and then retire to the living room to dream about being out in the woods.

Friday rolls around and I am going through the 'routine' that evening while my wife is waiting to get into the Drs office this upcoming Monday to get her shoulder checked out. By now it is hardly able to move. The phone rings, it is my brother.

"Shawn", he says in a shaky voice while half whispering, "I just arrowed a doe!" He continues,"I finally got a shot on with the Diablo and it felt soooo smooth. She was quartering away hard but I know it was a good shot. It all felt so magical." I ask him if he needs help tracking, though I was not looking forward to the hour drive knowing Mandy would have to deal with two kids with a hurt arm. Marc replies, "Naw. Charlie is coming to help. If we do not find it by 8:30p, I'll give you a call back." Around 8pm, he calls and excitedly tells me he found her. She went about 80 yards and went down. I congratulate him and ask him if Dad is going to help him skin it out tomorrow. Nope, he is busy.

So I offer to go down and help him out and I'll find Mandy help babysitting with the kids. At that point he suggest I pack my bow up and take a turn in the stand. There were three does in the area and they all came in together. He is sure they will come back out, as he has them well timed and they are walking through like clockwork.

I ask Mandy if she would mind if I put an evening in the stand, and she agrees. She does tell me that not only do I need to do, but if I get the chance I need to take the shot. No waiting for the perfect moment. She has seen me shoot and I need to use the skills I have.

The next day I head out in the late morning down to my brothers. As I make the hour trip I am feeling a little pride in the confidence my wife has in me and her actually saying she knows I can make a humane shot even without the broadside. It fills me with confidence as I head down and makes the drive that much more enjoyable.

I arrive around 1pm and help my brother finish processing his deer. It is a nice time chatting about how exactly they came in, how he kept waiting for the broadside, but finally settled on the quartering away. I take a couple pictures for him, and while it looked like he hit it WAY back, the shockwave sliced and diced all the vitals and left the ponch in place. A textbook shot.

I head over to the landowners place at 3:30 and settle in. I sit enjoying the cool breeze (it had been 80 dgrees all week, fall in Maine - welcome global warming). I slowly turn my head this way and that, my bow across my lap holding my personally assembled arrows in the quiver. I am shooting Xweave Predators fletched myself with Blazers (2 Orange and a White cook Vane), Bohning Signature Flo Orange Nock and Slick Trick Magnums.

I pull out an arrow and place it in the Whisker Biscuit, and nock it. Staring at the broadhead, I reflect back on the decision to make the switch. Last year I took a buck with a G5 Montec, but the blood trail was less than I would have expected and I just felt my sharpening skills were not good enough to make the most of the broadhead. I bought a couple packs of ST Magnums to try out as an alternative and within my second set of 3, I was hitting 2" squares at 20yds with no tweaking of rest or sights. I was sold.

I sit and wait. In front of me are several old and dying apple trees, still feebly bearing fruit. Several woodpeckers flitter from tree to tree while searching for bugs and soft spots in the trees to find tree worms (or whatever they really are).

Slowly the sun goes down and the sound of traffic slows in the distance. My awareness increases tenfold as the 'right time' approaches. I start scanning more with my eyes, working right to left and slowly turning my head to help my vision reach the tote road to my far left. Time slows down, but it is not boring. It is that time that takes out into the woods. The time where you become part of nature as a predator. Your patience becomes ten fold as you wait. Waiting like a Puma in the trees.

Off to my far right I hear the tell tale sound of a deer. Not surprisingly the small doe has decided to break all the normal rules of access and is coming through the thickest part of the woods instead of the easy tote roads or the two deer trails running parallel to them. I turn my eyes and head slowly, and she is walking straight in. I see that she is small. But, I promised the wife that it was meat I was after and not a trophy. If a deer came out, and did not sport spots, then I would take it.

Slowly she comes in, but relaxed. She walks straight in and under my stand. Stopping for a moment she sniffs the rungs of the ladder stand and sort of glances around. I guess the soles of my 15 year old leather slipper boots (it was so warm I could not wear my 'hunting' boots) did not leave much scent. She then walks out from under the stand and slowly starts walking straight away.

As she comes out from under the stand I wait for her to get out a little and then I stand and turn ever so slowly. Forest Ninja's could not have moved so silently or smoothly. Knowing she could not see at that angle behind her I get myself into position.

She browses a little but slowly continues walking straight out. It is time for a decision! So I wait for her turn? Do I risk her walking straight ahead and under the canopy 30 yards out? I look to my right again (straight ahead of my body now) and check for following does or bucks and see nothing. This is my chance for the evening and I think of my wife back at home, hurt and watching our two kids to give me this chance. I draw.

One of the important pieces of a successful shot is to not change your style. To let your instincts do what you have done dozens, hundreds, thousands of times at home and on the range and in the 3D course (if you are lucky enough to live close). To draw the same, anchor the same, hold the same, and to take the shot when it looks and feels right. Overthink it and you take too long. Get over excited and you shoot too soon. I bring my bow up into the draw (I happen to draw upwards, always have) and line everything up, just like every other time. I envision in my mind where the arrow will go, and aim for the far lung. I ‘see’ the arrow going through to the far leg, down and through.

Without even realizing it my finger smoothly pulls and my Scott Wildcat go off. I see the arrow in flight through my VBG Triangle sight and watch as the arrow strikes HARD. The doe drops instantly and without so much as a kick breathes in and out 4, then 5 times. In the time it take for me to see her drop with the arrow still within her, I have a second arrow out of its quiver and nocked in the rest. Later I would remark to my Dad and brother than my hands just automatically did it, that the next thing I knew I had the bow in the ready position and tension on the dloop. I watch as she takes her last breathe and passes, less than 30 seconds after the shot. I can not express my concern, and then relief that no second arrow would be needed.

As I let my bow down and call my Brother and Dad, I reflect on the shot and wonder if I ‘missed’. I had certainly not intended to spine her. And the arrow not getting pass through had me concerned that I had somehow missed the vitals and hit something harder like the upper scapula. I take great care to respect the doe as I have my Dad take some pictures of where she lay. I give thanks for the bounty and we move the deer off to take care of her in preparation of getting her to the tagging station.

Later, and mostly due to the interest and thoughtful atmosphere of sharing here to help educate ourselves and others, I take special interest in capturing on my camera the entrance, exit, and damage pictures. Upon skinning out the doe I find that my shot was not bad at all. In fact, the arrow passed one blade through the spine, nicked one lung (it did not look like a pull out wound) and punctured the far lung cleanly. There was complete pass through the lower ribs on the far side and the broadhead had actually lodged in the far leg in the lower potion of the shoulder. It was that penetration that required two hands to start the broadhead back out through the body. Interestingly, and maybe it was because it was dark, we had not figured it as a pass through or I would have captured a picture of the broadhead external to the shot.

Attached below are the photo’s that relate to this story.
There are more if people are interested, but these are those that tell the story without being repetitive.

Thank you for the opportunity to share.

Equipment
2006 Diablo NH 65# 26"DL
VBG Triangle w/G5 Peep
WB DX QS
Doinker Multi-Rod 7" D2 Hunter
SIMS Modules as Riser Vibration Dampeners
Scott Wildcat Buckle
Radial XWeave Predator 200s @ 26.75"
Bohning Signature Flo Orange Nocks
Blazer Vanes (2 Flo Orange/1 White)
Slick Trick Magnum 100s
Benchmade Snoddy 210
Buck Woodsman 102

Game
Doe @ 75#s
16yds
Pass Through: Spine/Lung(s), Far Ribs, Lodged in Far Leg
0 Foot Tracking

Supporting Pictures

 My second group with Slick Trick Magnum 100s.
I did not shoot a third.


Doe:


Slick Trick Post Shot --
Straight Blade


Only Damage:

Tags: Deer Doe 2007 PSE Diablo Xweave Slick Trick Magnum Vbg Triangle Archery Bow

A sample of their work.
If you like what you see below, check out their progress towards their April 1st release date.

Downeast Knife Company

Downeast Knife Blog

Hi guys, We've had a crazy week trying to get these Downeast Companion prototypes done for the show this weekend. Well, here they are. We're currently working with several laser engravers in our area. There is no limit to the amount of clip art they have. Micarta is great for laser engraving images on. What do you think.

The DK Companion

• Overall Length of approximately 8",
• Blade length 3.75" with 3.5" sharpened
• D2 Steel, 1/8" thick, with various finish options
• Micarta Grips in various colors
• Kydex or Leather sheaths with color options

 

[Click for larger view]

Protect and Serve SOLD

Deer Hunter

Old Glory

U.S.M.C.

Old Glory II SOLD

Tags: Knife Knives Companion Maine Downeast D2 Custom Engraving Deer Turkey Fish