I'm not much of a collector.
I do have a drawer where I toss my pins when I return from a trad rendezvous. And I have around 10 groundhog teeth I found over the years. Other than that I really don't care much for saving things.
One thing I do save are arrows that were from a special hunt or event. I hang them on my bow rack. I have a couple I made for my cousin before he passed away. One from my Texas javalina kill. And one that I used to kill my 100th groundhog. It's a chundoo with a big wide Magnus head.
I shot my 200th dirtpig last summer but the beast took the arrow down the hole. I really wanted it but I wasn't going to rent a backhoe to dig it up. Oh well. So much for my collection.
I was hunting today and had just shot number 210. I actually grabbed the fletch end and yanked the hog back out of the hole. You can't let a good 1916 and a Muzzy go down a hole! I cleaned up the arrow and stepped back on the path and noticed one of my old broken cedars with a MA-3 still attached. Cool! A hog must have been cleaning house and pushed it out of its' den. There are lots of groundhog bones laying about my stomping grounds too.
I broke off the head and stuck it in my pouch.
I eventually hunted near the hole where I killed #200 and I thought of the cedar I had found earlier. I stepped up to the hole to look around and right there on top of the freshly excavated earth was my arrow! Way cool! It was an aluminum shaft with a Bodkin 3 blade, the feathers were rotted off but the rest of the arrow looked good. I did a smell check and stuck it in my back quiver. I got my arrow back for my collection!
Pretty neat.
Topic: A Gift From A Groundhog (Read 301 times)
