Ah, the memories of the early hot days trying to bowhunt. It was a challenge enough to be learning how to bowhunt pretty much out of ignorance. What little I knew about it was what one of my uncles had told me about his experiences. He had an old beat up Ben Pearson recurve that really needed some sort of finish on it again. His experience was only about shooting at a buck way out of range in a hay field until he ran out of arrows. So I had found an old bowhunting magazine and read it over and over.
But the big day had arrived and I had climbed up into a tree and stood on a big limb with my bow and my three arrows. I didn't even have a real quiver, they were crammed in an old heavy duty sock and tied shut. It was pretty hot so I had on an old Tee shirt and faded blue jeans. I had high hopes, I was up in a tree and deer never looked up according to one uncle. Now my feet could have used better shoes as that limb sure got to hurting them.
Heck, I didn't know anything about the wind or anything else but I was hunting and with a bow! I had been sweating pretty good for a while and every little breeze was welcomed for sure. I had a couple of horse flies come to me and I slapped at them until they finally left. But then the first mosquitoes began to come in. At first it was the little small ones that drive you nuts but I was pretty quick and kept them killed down.
But then, the first squadron of the big banded bloodsuckers began coming in. Their legs were striped black and white and they looked like they could do some serious damage to a person. It was bad enough to hear the constant buzzing in your ears but then to see a big bandit land on your arm. They settled in softly as their legs spread out to get ready for the big feed. I let a couple gorge themselves before smacking them and leaving an impressive bloody spot.
Never saw a deer that hunt or for several more hunts but the skeeters sure came in. I remember one time that I was actually using some sort of camo paint that I had globbed on pretty thick in places. I remember watching one of the bandits coming in and settling down on a big glob of paint and begin drilling thru it all into me. Back then I went thru every kind of spray and oil trying to keep those bloodsuckers down but they still came.
As I learned more and more about deer, I began to understand the importance of wind and scent. So then it was bug suits and masks. Now days, I guess a lot of people are using those Thermo cells and they must work pretty good. I have seen deer go to the water trying to get away from the bloodsuckers. I even saw one bare skinned coyote that had to be super miserable, the mange had taken all of its hair. I had a bug suit that I had to use rubber bands on my arm to keep it from getting into my bow string when I shot. Most of us have been in places that you just knew that the mosquitoes would carry you off. But the striped or banded legged ones were the ones that looked like a pregnant C-130 taking off with a full load of blood.
Topic: Back in the day, the Banded Bloodsuckers (Read 435 times)
