First let me apologize for this being so long, but I wanted to share with this special community.
39 years ago just prior to my 16th birthday I took my first deer with traditional gear. It was a little button buck and I was shooting my Shakespeare Necedah at 48 pounds with aluminum Herter’s arrows and Bear Razorheads. It was a great day only spoiled by the fact that my father wasn’t there as he had to work that Saturday. I hunted the following season and had no luck. The following year I went to the Naval Academy where hunting wasn’t an option. Following graduation, my career kept me busy flying jets in California. While I longed to bowhunt there just were not that many opportunities. Finally in 1982 I was stationed in Pensacola Florida and had the urge to hunt again. My dad had made me a takedown recurve in the late 70’s that I had not really shot much and I decided that was what I was going to use. Well, wheel bows had just come out and I had to have the newest, so I switched. I know – bad idea, but a lot of you here did that too. Anyway, I only got the chance to hunt on a few occasions over the ensuing years until I retired about 10 years ago. I picked up a newer wheel bow and had some success taking whitetails with it, but 2 years ago I realized that I was missing something. I had become a much better hunter, but it just wasn’t that challenging. My dad had been keeping all my old gear for me and I had him send out the recurve he had made for me. I struggled that year trying to get ready and then got a bad case of tennis elbow in both elbows. It took me two years to fully recover and after some surgery on my right thumb to remove a joint I finally got the overwhelming urge to jump back into traditional. I joined Tradgang, and although I didn’t post a lot, I read and learned. Finally, I determined that the bow Dad had made was just too strong for me. He was more than happy to take it and work the limbs for me to get it down to a draw weight I could handle. When I got it back I decided that the riser didn’t quite fit my hand and the limbs needed to be refinished. After some great advice here, I tackled the project myself. I refinished the limbs and reworked the all walnut riser to fit me and it turned out very nice. I also made a set of antler limb bolts for it. Dad was really excited providing advice all throughout the project. Now the quest was really on. I had to take a deer with this bow as my dad is now 85 years old. Again this site helped immensely in finding the right arrows and working through some noise issues.
……Ok, enough background. After two misses earlier this season (one on Monday), I finally connected yesterday with a nice 6 point buck. To make it even better I was hunting in a tree not 15 yards from my brother who took a fat doe with his wheel bow the day prior. We were set up on this slope inside a 40 acre woodlot in suburban Northern Virginia when at 3:30 PM I spot some movement about 90 yards off in some holly trees. It had just started to sprinkle and the wind had started blowing so I thought it might just be falling leaves. However I thought I saw a patch of brown move again so I stood up. My brother followed suit as that was our agreed plan. We both looked hard for 5 minutes and saw nothing. Within 1 minute of sitting back down I see a deer emerge from the hollies. I then notice it has antlers. I slowly stood back up and looked over at my brother who now thinks I’m nuts. The deer finally pops into his view and he readies himself as the deer is on an intercept path closer to him than me. We are both cursing the wind as it has shifted to blow directly down on the buck. He doesn’t seem to mind though and is just browsing slowly toward us. About 5 minutes later, lo and behold another buck steps out from the hollies and follows the first one browsing in trail bout 20 yards. The first buck is a 6 point and the second looks to be the same but slightly bigger. I’m thinking that my brother will let the first one come closer to me where I can reach him with the recurve and he will take the trailer with his wheel bow. Then the lead buck (sorry about the lead / trail stuff, I was a fighter pilot), turns to start heading in the direction of my brother and my heart sinks. After another 10 yards or so he comes to this blowdown and decides to change course, which looks like it will bring him within my range. I slowly turn on the stand to place my feet in the direction for a shot. The buck is completely unaware we are there. All of a sudden he stops walking 25 yards away and looks straight in my direction. I’m certain he didn’t look up but must have caught a whiff of scent. Anyway, after a long 20 seconds, he starts walking again but now is angling away on a path that will take him out of range. I glance over at my brother and carefully motion for him to take him. He shakes his head no and points at me. He is outside my comfortable range and I shake my head no. Miraculously the buck turns and 5 steps later he stops right in front of a tree I had marked at 18 yards and gives me a quartering away shot. Now, I had determined on my prior two misses that I had not picked a small enough spot and my follow through was less than perfect. The whole 25 minutes it took him to walk to me I kept repeating “pick a spot”. Well, I did and watched that arrow fly a perfect path about 3 inches behind his left shoulder and mid body. I was holding the follow through so tightly that he was already 5 yards into his run before I looked up to see where he was going. I noticed that the arrow was sticking out but it looked like good penetration. He went tearing off through the woods and I saw him stumble about 50 yards out. 20 yards farther I saw him fall to the ground and kick twice and then he was still. I was absolutely overcome to have finally done it. I looked over at my brother who was locked in on the second buck. Unfortunately he was still about 50 yards out. He didn’t spook when the one I shot took off, and he didn’t know what was going on. I put my bow on the hangar and tried calling him in with the can and soft grunting. He was curious and started in, but decided he needed to go check on his buddy thus taking away any opportunity for my brother. It then started to rain and we decided to get down and get my buck. We didn’t want to miss an opportunity to practice tracking even though we knew exactly where he was. There was no blood at the point of impact, but we found the first few drops of bright red blood about 15 yards away. The rain wasn’t coming fast enough to wash it away yet. Without a pass through, the trail wasn’t the best and it would have been a difficult tracking job in the dark. We found the arrow about 30 yards from where he fell and I could see that it got about 12 inches of penetration. When I field dressed him I found that the arrow had completely destroyed one lung and clipped the second one before hitting the opposite shoulder. He ran a total of 70 yards from where he was shot. The Stinger broadhead needs a little touchup on the point, but is otherwise ready to go again. Surprisingly the arrow spins true and can also be used again.
After getting the buck in the truck, the first order of business was to call my dad, tell him the good news and thank him for the awesome bow. He was absolutely thrilled. Oh yea, my setup – Dad’s homemade takedown laminated recurve, pulling 45 pounds at my 27 inch draw length shooting a 2016 arrow tipped with a 125 grain 2-blade Stinger and an extra 80 grains of pdp weight. Total arrow weight 556 grains.
Attached is a picture of the finished bow and one of the deer. I had the limbskins on the bow to reduce glare from the limbs and since it was raining didn’t take the time to take the bow down and take them off for the shots with the buck.
He isn’t the biggest I have shot, but he is certainly the most memorable. 39 years later and I have come full circle.
Ready to load into truck and raining:
Deer as found - forgot to bring the bow with me:
The bow:
Topic: Success - 39 years since last trad deer (Read 3963 times)
