Merry Christmas everyone. This is a true story and I thought it might give you a good chuckle on this Christmas day....
Several years ago, a neighbor of mine, Tim, who's an avid traditional bowhunter, rekindled my desire to shoot the stick bow again.
I previously went from the stick over to compound because of the excuse of "I have no time to practice". Tim, being the astute guy he is, pointed out that I'm self employed, work out of my home, and it only takes 15 minutes or so to wing about a hundred arrows. Excuse eliminated.
To further induce me to come back to traditional, Tim said he'd let me shoot one of his bows. He only had 10 of them to pick from. I settled on a Shaftcaster, a 60" recurve at 60lbs. Shaftcasters used to be made by a fellow in my home state of Wisconsin, up in the Antigo area. Nice bow. Okay, back to the story....
I have a ranch home with a decent basement, allowing me to shoot comfortably out to 20 yrds if need be. So, I set up a target, which was one of those bale types. It had the letters "target" written vertically on the edge of both sides of the face. To help me focus, I began shooting at the letters. After awhile, I became pretty accomplished at calling out a letter and putting my arrow into it.
One day, my neighbor, Tim, stopped over to chat. It just so happened that he stopped over when I was practicing. So, to show him my shooting progress with the bow, I said to him, "You see the letter E on the target? Watch this." and I let fly an arrow, striking the letter dead on with the arrow. To show it wasn't a fluke, I repeated this several more times with similar success, all arrows striking in the E.
Fast forward to a month later....Tim has a nice piece of property and invited me up to hunt with him for a weekend in early October. We were hunting in an Earn-a-buck area, meaning we had to shoot a doe before we could harvest a buck. So, I had my sights set on a doe.
We had an uneventful Saturday. Sunday morning started out similarly - no deer to get the adrenaline pumping. It was a little before 9:00am. I just got done radioing Tim that I hadn't seen anything yet. Then, I saw 2 doe out about 150 yards in the timber. I thought to myself how nice it would be if they would turn and come in my direction. Well, golly gee, they musta heard my thoughts (something Gomer Pyle might have said)! They turned and started down a logging road - heading right toward me.
The lead doe turned off the logging road and hit a nearby trail that would take her about 15 yards in front of me, offering a perfect broadside shot. I thought to myself, "It looks like you're going to get some action."
My tree stand was positioned about 10 ft up on a hillside, looking downward. The deer trail was 15 yards down hill from there. The angle didn't appear to be an issue I needed to concern myself with.
When the lead doe was just about broadside on the trail, she stopped and looked up the hillside. Fortunately, my backland all terrain camo was working wonders, blending me into the hill. I could tell the doe was looking right through me.
However, my scent wasn't doing me the same favor as my camo. She obviously got wind of something, as her ears were twitching back and forth trying to pick up something to verify what her nose was on to.
Well, I decided I needed to take the shot while I had the opportunity. I drew back and couldn't help but notice how wildly her ears were twitching back and forth. The release was good and the arrow took off toward it's mark...smack into the doe's head, right into her ear.
The doe dropped on the spot. But, she didn't die. Foam started coming out of her mouth, like she was having a seizure or something.
I radio'd Tim and said I just shot a doe. He asked, "did you see where she went?" "Yep", I said, "she's lying right in front of me, still alive". "Did you spine her?", Tim asked. "Nope", I said, not wanting to say more. "Well, where did you hit her?", Tim asked. "Ah, in the head", I hesitatingly responded. "In the head...how did you do that?", Tim questioned. "Her ears were twitching all over and I guess my eyes just got focused on them when I let the arrow go. The arrow goes where we're aiming you know.", I said. "That's for sure", replied Tim.
I stayed put in the stand and watched the doe to make sure she didn't try to get up, while Tim started making his way over toward me. By the time Tim arrived, the doe had stopped her thrashing about and was pretty still. I could still see her sides heaving up and down, so I knew she wasn't dead. Since Tim was coming up the hill, he would come upon the deer first, so I directed him toward her. The deer was shielded from his view by some rocks and low scrub brush.
Tim took an arrow and expired the doe with a lung shot. I went to remove my arrow from her head, but couldn't. That old bear razorhead had completely penetrated her skull to the point I couldn't even see it. My only choice was to unscrew the aluminum arrow (sorry, didn't have wooden ones to shoot).
We tagged and dressed out the deer. It would be only a short drag for us, and fortunately, a downhill one at that.
As we were dragging the doe, Tim turned to me and said, "Well, I guess that E is for ear, huh?" I didn't get it. So, Tim helped me fill in the gap, "When you called out the E while practicing, I'll bet you never guessed the E stood for ear, did you?"
We both laughed a good laugh. And that's what traditional bowhunting is all about - sharing a good time in the field with good friends.
Topic: E is for Ear (Read 262 times)
