In need of a hunting story?

[Friends call me Pac]

While looking for a tablet I came across some notes from last year.  The notes were taken by me as I kept kind of a running story of how the hunt was going.  The hunt was held on public land here in Arkansas and was the very first Arkansans Roaming Around Our Woods (ARROW) traditional get together hunt.  

The six members that participated are all members of Trad Gang.    The notes I have found are brief and I will have to go by memory to explain the goings on a little better than just reading the snippets on the tablet. Hopefully, this will help ease the pain of those that are needing a hunting story while they wait for their respective openers.

Sunday: I arive and get my camper set up.  Today will be for relaxing.  I'll get a good night's sleep and will start hunting in the morning.


Monday:  Morning hunt in stand of oak trees.  Had a doe at about 10 yards but she came out on my right side.  I’m right handed and had no shot from my treestand.

On my way back to camp I saw a deer swimming across the lake and went closer for a look.  It was a fine 8 point.  Once his feet touched shore he was gone.

Once I got back to camp I was talking to other campers and couldn’t figure out some of the strange looks I was getting.  After awhile I understood why the weird looks, I still had my face paint on.  Must have scared them a bit.

No luck on the afternoon hunt.

To be continued...

[Shedrock]

[Killdeer]

Hee hee! I have gotten those looks without the face paint! Especially around the end of the second week in camp.   :eek:

Please, continue, my good man.
Killdeer  

[Friends call me Pac]

Had to take a break and go eat supper.  This next part covers Tuesday.

Tues:   No luck this morning with the doe from yesterday.  Went scouting around 10 am.  Saw two deer while scouting.  Didn’t see any antlers but that’s ok.  I’d be happy with a doe.

While scouting I found an old stone foundation from an old homestead.  There was also a well about thirty feet deep but no water in it.  The well was a deathtrap if I ever saw one.  Anything falling in there didn’t stand a chance of being rescued especially if nobody knew where to start looking.  I will warn the other guys about this area when they get to camp.

Found some persimmons.  They didn’t look ripe at all but I had to take a bite anyway.  Yep puckered me right up.  I’m thinking the local wildlife is way tougher than I am as I see where something else has been eating them.

While roaming about I saw a red squirrel not 10 yards away on the side of an oak tree.  I calmly drew back and sent my bomb proof stumping arrow on its way.  I missed the squirrel and the arrow bounced back and landed by my feet.  I bent over and grabbed the arrow for a second attempt.  The shot looks great but the squirrel dodges the arrow with a speed that amazes me.

Saw a gray squirrel about 25 yards away and took a shot.  Man it was close.  I’d be surprised if he didn’t loose some fur.

Went across the creek and explored that mountain.  I’m sure some would laugh at calling it a mountain but it had my tongue hanging out.  Saw a deer while going up the hill.  Right after seeing the deer I saw an armadillo.  I took a shot at him but missed.  To my surprise the armadillo ran straight towards me and tried to go down a burrow that my feet were straddling.  He was a chunky fellow and only about half of him went into the hole.  The back half was out in the open and in plain view between my feet.  I stood still until he calmed down and backed out of the hole.  When his head cleared I tapped him on the head with the tip of my bow limb.  Zoom!! Right back into the hole and still had half of his body in plain view.

I decided I had done enough for the day so I headed back to my jon boat and headed back to camp for the night.

[Mike Vines]

Sounds like a good time so far.  What else does this hunt have in store for us?

[Mudd]

 


God bless,Mudd  

[Gen273]

       

[Zradix]

[Friends call me Pac]

Wednesday:  No luck during the morning hunt.  Came down and did some walking around.  Saw four deer while scouting.  

Shot at a red squirrel and missed.  Managed to get another chance at him but missed with my second arrow as well.  Will I ever actually get one of these suckers?  As I walked along thinking about my nemesis the squirrel I happened to spy a skull of some kind of animal.  I walked over to it and picked it up.  The teeth were long and narrow.  When I pulled them free from the skull they were almost in a complete circle.  I made an educated guess that this was a beaver skull but wasn’t positive.  I decided to bring the teeth back for the guys to see when they arrive.

I decided to check out a cedar thicket.  As I was walking along I saw my first Arkansas tarantula.  I’ve seen a lot of them while stationed in Oklahoma but this was my first time seeing one here.  When he got into range I gently touched him with my bow tip.  It took off just as fast as it could go.  It was kind of neat seeing that big ol hairy creepy crawler.


I went into another cove and saw seven turkeys walking along the bank.  I got the boat secured and took off in a game of cat and mouse with them.  Their numbers are down here in Arkansas so no open fall season.  However, that didn’t mean I couldn’t stalk them.  It took awhile but I did manage to close the distance to less than twenty yards before I got busted.  They took off at a fast trot straight up the mountain.  I was impressed that they never even slowed down running up that thing.  Once I got back to the boat I took off my snake boots and socks and slid my feet into the water.  I’m surprised the water didn’t boil due to my feet being so hot.  Man did that soaking ever feel great.

Got up into my evening stand.  It was the same tree that I had the doe at 10 yards from me on Monday morning.  I kept hearing noise but couldn’t see what it was for what seemed like a long time.  The noise was made by three deer as they walked up a dry creek bed.  They came within forty yards but it was just too far for me to feel comfortable enough to take a shot. Oh well, it was a good day anyway.

[SheltonCreeker]

Good Stuff! Keep it coming!

[Friends call me Pac]

Thursday:  The other guys are showing up at the campground sometime today. Being retired is great and kind of bad at the same time.  It’s great because I can hunt and fish whenever I want to go.  On the other hand it is kind of bad because all of my friends are still working and I don’t have anyone to share my time afield with.  Oh well, they should be getting here soon.   I decided to stay around camp so I can welcome them, besides I’m awfully stiff and need a break from climbing the hills.  I’m actually glad to take the day off so I can recuperate.
 
I already know Caleb, Tyler and Dave but have not met Arkybob or Powduck yet.  Everyone is a member of Trad Gang.   I’m thankful for Trad Gang because without it this hunt would never have taken place.   A traditional hunt with other folks that enjoy long bows and recurves has been on my mind for several years now.  I started a thread on TG to see if anyone was interested and it looks like the hunt is actually going to happen.  Whoohoo!

Have to go get gas for my jon boat today.  It only has a six gallon tank but the 25 hp motor sure makes that six gallons last a long time.  I absolutely love using my boat to hunt public land.  In only a few minutes you can get to places where seeing another hunter is a very slim chance indeed.  After getting gas I drove down the road a little way and arrived at Burl’s smoke house.  They have great smoked meats and a sandwich was on my mind but that wasn’t all.  They also have a museum of sorts in the store.  This would be a good time to get a bite to eat and take some photos of the stuff they have collected in the store.

Everyone has arrived and met.  Our respective camps are set up and plans have been made for the evening hunt.  Dave is going with Caleb in Caleb’s boat and I’m taking Tyler with me.  Arky bob and Powduck are hunting together from their boat.

I set Tyler up on some persimmon trees that were getting fed on and I went across the little bay to the same place I have seen the deer the last two days.  I was pretty sure I had my three deer figured out and even expected them to show at 6 pm.  Right on time I could make out pieces of a deer in the leaves slowly working its way towards me.    It slowly wondered through the area and kept me on my toes but never came close enough for a shot.  

The three deer that I was expecting finally showed up at 6:20 pm.  Instead of coming out of the dry creek bed like they did the night before they came out some distance further up the creek.  I watched them feed on acorns for awhile only about 40 yards away.   I knew if I could move my stand over there after dark I’d have them locked in for the next evenings hunt.  The problem was finding the correct tree they had walked by.  Once I get on the ground things look different to me than when I’m up in a tree.  I had to figure some way to mark the actual tree that I wanted.  The light bulb went off and I unscrewed my broadhead and replaced it with a hex head.  I shot the arrow right at the base of the tree that I wanted to move my stand to.  Even in the dark the reflective wrap was like a beacon guiding me to the correct tree.  I patted myself on the back as I placed the climber on the tree.  I’d get a deer for sure tomorrow.
I made the short trip to pick up Tyler.  He hadn’t seen anything.  Maybe tomorrow his luck would change. We loaded his gear up and headed back to camp where we would sit around and get to know the other guys better.

While sitting there practicing our lies on each other I brought out the beaver teeth and told everybody they were Big Foot claws.  Had lots of wild guess as to what they really were but nobody guessed beaver.  

It looks like this is going to be a great hunt with some great people.  Hope this takes off and becomes a yearly event.  I’ll just have to wait and see.

[Friends call me Pac]

Friday:  I saw a doe from my stand this morning.  Wouldn’t you know it that deer crossed right by the tree I was in yesterday afternoon.  Came down at 10:00 and did some more scouting around for that magic spot.  As I eased along I saw two does eating their way across a acorn flat.  I tried my best to sneak up on them but the ground is dry and the leaves sound like rice crispies as I take each step.

I went out this afternoon and there was a doe standing by the water right where I park the boat to walk to my stand.  I took this as a good sign but I didn’t see anything that afternoon.  The does I had been seeing never did show up so I was thinking it was time to give the area a break.  I moved my stand to the area where I had stalked the two does  and would give it a try in the morning.

Got back to the camp site and found out one guy missed two deer and another guy missed one deer.  The deer are definitely moving and I go to sleep thinking about the mornings hunt in the new area.

[sweeney3]

Huh.  How'd I miss this?  I'm gonna have to pay better attention for this year.

[Friends call me Pac]

Saturday:  It was a long morning in the stand.  I went back to the same place I had hunted the evening before.  I kept looking at my watch and thinking I’ll give it a few more minutes.  At 10:30 I saw a doe working here way up the ridge towards me.  There was a fallen oak tree behind my stand and it was maybe 3’ thick.  I really hadn’t put much thought about the downed tree but boy did that ever come into play.  The doe fed towards me and ended up on the other side of the fallen tree.  She was well in range, probably less than 20 yards.  I knew my chance was here.  That dog gone doe would stick here head and neck over the log and eat acorns on my side of the tree.  She looked just like a horse eating across a fence.  With the log in the way I didn’t feel good about a shot but I kept hoping she would jump over the log.  Several long minutes went by and she eventually made her way down to the end of the tree and crossed the little logging road and started to work her way back towards me in a diagonal manner.  I calculated that at a certain tree she would be as close as she was going to get before drifting away if she stayed on the same course.  When she got to the tree I had a beautiful broadside shot.  I let the arrow fly and watched it sail just over her back.  


I went back to the same stand that afternoon.  I had two does come out of the thicket and feed towards me.  It was looking good and they kept getting closer and closer.  Unfortunately, they never came close enough.  At least I’ll have a story to tell when I get back to camp tonight.

[Friends call me Pac]

Hope you have been enjoying reading this thread.  Here is the story of the last day of A.R.R.O.W. 2010.  

Last year I posted a slide show about the hunt. I will post a link at the bottom for those wishing to watch it.  

We hope to see more hunters at the ARROW 2011 event to be held at Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs Arkansas this October.

Sunday: Last day of the hunt.  Caleb and I will hunt together and Dave will be hunting by himself.  It’s our last chance.  Everyone has seen deer and several shots have been taken but no deer so far.  

Caleb dropped me off on a point from his boat and gave me directions as to where I should hunt.  His directions were pretty easy.  Walk to the back of the cove and sit down.  I have left my treestand at camp and will be testing out the ghillie suit I made over the summer.  I’ll have a small folding stool to sit on and plan to use local brush to help me blend it.  I found a great bushy tree for a blind.  By sitting behind it I feel concealed well enough.

About 7:30 two does come out of the woods and start feeding on the shoreline weeds and grass in the back of the cove.  They stayed within 50 yards of me for over 30 minutes.  They never got quite close enough.  I was impressed with my ghillie suit.  They never knew I was there.  One doe kept scratching her ear with her back hoof.  It reminded me very much of a dog scratching the same way.  I’m sure the tickets are still a problem.  It is still very hot.  

After awhile they wandered off but that was not the last deer I saw that morning.  About 30 minutes went by and I saw a doe not 30 yards away.  She was eating acorns and was right behind me.  She never spooked and I watched he calmly feed away and out of sight.  I thought it had been a pretty good morning as I began my walk back towards the next cove over where Caleb was hunting.  His boat was pulled up on the beach on the point and I sat there and waited on him to show.

I went back with Caleb that afternoon and hunted the same spot. This time I moved closer to where the two does had come out of the woods.  My plan was as soon as they stepped out they would be less than 20 yards.  It didn’t happen that way of course.  They never came out at that spot but I wasn’t surprised.  The wind was swirling like crazy.  Even with the wind swirling I still saw four deer and had several others blowing their warnings all around me.  Man talk about frustrating but still kind of cool too.

ARROW 2010 has been a great success in my mind.  It is true nobody got a deer but after 2 years of trying to get this hunt set up it has finally happened.  Everyone had a great time and everyone had seen deer.  I can only hope ARROW 2011 will be just as good.

Here is the slide show.  If you would be interested in hunting the ARROW 2011 hunt please feel free to pm me.  We will happily welcome any of our Trad Gang family that would like to attend.  A 5 day out of state licenese for all game is $150. We camp at a Corp of Engineer campground and food is whatever you decide to bring.