First off, I'm thankful for TradGang. Not much trad archery in my neck of the woods so I've learned a lot here. I'm also humbled by the difficulty of hunting deer with a stick and string, and how some of you guys do it so ably year after year.
After some unsuccessful hunts in 80 degree temps with clouds of mosquitoes, I find myself hunting with my dad and some buddies on about a 5,000 acre ranch SW of Abilene, TX. It's at about 2,500 elevation where the plateaus begin, and is mostly mesquite, cedars, cactus, some oaks, caliche, and rocks - about like Mars for a Louisianian. The amount of deer on this place compared to my usual stomping grounds also made it feel pretty foreign.
First afternoon, I'm sitting in a cedar ground blind with my new Zipper and miss just under a doe at 25 yards. I kicked myself for shooting that distance and for not practicing more shooting sitting down. So after a whole lot of practicing sitting on the ground in a chair, of course the next afternoon I find myself standing to shoot in a 22' ladder stand and proceed to shoot just over the back of a pretty decent buck at 18 yards. Of course I was down (sick really) and lost a bit of sleep, but was glad nothing was wounded. I was also glad I left my compound at home to resist temptation.
The next morning I settled into a different cedar ground blind overlooking a wheat field on a high point. At daylight out came a doe, who was chased off by a 3 point. After leading him all over, she lost him on a hill and came back to the field I was hunting. The 3 point eventually came back out then they both started staring out of my view. I got ready and in came a nice buck puffed up like king of the jungle. I took a second to eye him up and when I saw the long G2 with a crab claw, I quit looking at the antlers. Normally this buck probably would have been cautious, but he was dogging the doe and backed her right into my position. He did the whole lip curl thing about 25 yards from me! I'm just glad I didn't lose it. He then faced off with the doe and the two walked to about 20 yards. I drew and honestly don't remember the shot sequence, but it felt good at release. Although it didn't turn out to be a perfect shot, it was a pretty easy recovery.
Not only is this my first deer with a recurve, but my biggest ever with any weapon.
Topic: First Tradbow Kill and Biggest Buck! (Read 8471 times)
