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Author Topic: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker  (Read 124652 times)

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #200 on: December 16, 2011, 06:45:00 PM »
Hope and I got this nice doe in North Texas last Saturday (12/10)! Sorry for the pic but I made a rather poor shot (which turned out OK because of the mojo in this bow) and it was late by the time we got her recovered and taking pics. She ended up only going about 60yds from where I shot her but since I made a bad shot we waited quite a long time before going to look for her.

     

Oh yeah, Great shot on the tree rat, Bud!

See ya later,

Bisch

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #201 on: December 16, 2011, 06:54:00 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Gerardo:
Excellent Bisch !!!!!      :clapper:    

Where at is your lease in south texas , I have hunted close to laredo in the past ,
Gerardo, my lease is near Tilden. It is about 1 1/2 hours south of San Antonio and probably about the same distance north of Laredo.

Good luck to you when you get your hands on Faith!

Bisch

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #202 on: December 17, 2011, 12:46:00 AM »
Well I got home from my weekend hunt on Sunday about midnight. I satyed home on Monday and then headed to south Tx to my lease on Tuesday. I was not really after anything in particular other than to get to hunt with my lease partner. Due to things going on in his life he has not got to hunt much this season and as such I have been hunting by myself a lot this year and have missed his company.

Hope and I arrived at the ranch in the afternoon on Tuesday just in time to hunt. I went to a ground blind we call the Astroblind. It was a pretty slow afternoon till right before dark when a gaggle of pigs came through feeding. Something spooked them and they all ran off. I thought it was over when a few minutes later a medium sized sow with white front legs and two bigger pigs came through. It was REAL close to dark and very difficult to see through the netting in the window of the blind. I could see those white legs clearly though and told myself "all you got to do is put it right above that white". Well, I took a shot and best I could tell, I missed low. The pigs skeedaddled out of there. I have always said I would rather miss low than hit high (esp on a pig).

The next morning I went to the same blind and saw a few little deer but no pigs.

That afternoon I went back to the same blind again. At about 4:00pm a nice little up-and-comer 8 point came in and fed for a while in front of me accompanied by a small 4 point and a button buck. We are very near the rut and the 8pt is a buck we have not seen before. Here is a pic of the 8 point:

             

Those 3 deer fed around in front of me for about 30 minutes and then just left to go do other things. From then on until almost dark I saw nothing! It got too dark to see through the netting again so I reached up folded it down out of the way. About two minutes later, I catch movement. It is a single pig coming in. Oh yeah! It is the same white legged pig I missed the day before. The pig found my hand thrown corn and began to feed. It was rooting around and would not stand still. It was really starting to get dark and the pig finally stopped and was (I thought) a little quartered away. Hope came to full draw and the arrow was on the way. The arrow smacked hard and the pig tore out of there with my arrow still in it. I got out of the blind to make sure I had a blood trail and this is what I found about 12yds from where I had shot him:

             

This was the first critter I had shot with Hope that I did not get a complete pass through. My buddy had texted me that he had shot a deer so I went and picked him up and helped him drag his little 4 point out of the woods. We then returned to find my pig.

The blood trail started out like this (I always like to see blood coming out of both sides):

             

             

I was real confident. Then about 25yds into it the blood trail went down to just single tiny drops (and I started to get a little worried and second guess my shot):

             

We followed the tiny drops for about 30-40yds and then foud this:

             

We got stuck right at the last big bubbly blood but I knew my pig had to be close. We did a small circle pattern and could find no more blood anywhere. I then went back to the big bubbly spot on my hands and knees and my pig was 4 feet away in a THICK pile of brush. It turns out that the pig was actually quartered to me just a bit and not away like I had thought. So I got to shoot at the same pig two afternoons in a row and bagged her with the second shot. It was a nice sized (70#-80#) sow. Here is a couple pics of the sow that Hope and I were able to take:

             

             

I don't know if I will get out again before Christmas but I am sure I will between XMas and New Years.

See y'all later,

Bisch

Offline Bud B.

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #203 on: December 17, 2011, 09:38:00 AM »
Congrats Bisch!

I wish hunting spots like yours were close to me. I am stuck to two small tracks of private land and public land. Public land during gun season 'round here is a gamble. You might be the one that gets harvested.

I saw another sunrise with Faith.

 

Then after a bout of sneezing at about 8am I decided my morning chances were nill. I got the climber down and did some scouting since the recent rain had the leaves silenced.

I have seen these before but thought I'd show you all a little of Faith's hunting grounds.

These are all within 50 yards of my stand.
 sorry for the poor photography


 

 

 

And just so you don't think the deer around here pick on only small trees.


 


And I saw this right as I got to the road where I parked.

 

I gotta do some chores and then I'll be back this afternoon trusting in Faith to get me through and get some harvest photos up.
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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #204 on: December 17, 2011, 12:29:00 PM »
Good luck Bud!!!! I am blessed to have a good place to hunt and a few friends that have good places too. A couple of the animals I have taken with Hope are only due to the friends part. Looks like there is good sign in your area, but for whatever reason, the deer just are not cooperating with you and Faith. Keep at it because a day in the woods (even with no harvest) is better than almost anything else!

See ya later,

Bisch

Offline Gerardo

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #205 on: December 17, 2011, 12:35:00 PM »
Nice pics Bud B !!!!

Bisch    :notworthy:   I am spechless !!! CONGRATS !!! you sure are taking hope for a ride around TEXAS

keep on sharing
Gerardo Rodriguez

Offline Bud B.

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #206 on: December 17, 2011, 09:35:00 PM »
I


SAW


HIM!!


I made it back to the stand today at 1:30pm. I was s-l-e-e-p-y! Thank goodness for the harness.

I was in a daze at about 3:30 when I heard what I thought were footsteps behind me and to my left. I'm backed up along a treeline that has a creek running along the property line. I'm facing east-northeast. I turned and there he was. A massive antlered thick buck. I caught him as he jumped the creek. His antlers gleamed in the low sunlight. He cleared the creek with ease. He hadn't a clue I was there. He had a tag along. I thought it was a doe.

The big buck landed and looked around. I prayed he would turn right. He turned left and slowly walked along the creek. he was only 15 yards away when he landed but it was too thick to get a shooting window. I was afraid to move and get busted by the next one in line. It came up to the creek to follow the big leader. It thought about jumping the creek. He bobbed and dipped but must've thought he couldn't do it so he jumped in the middle of the creek and came up. He was a little spike with a left 4" tine and his right tine was either gone or too small to see. He looked right at me!

He paused for about two seconds and then took the same left turn and followed Big Daddy. This was last year's crop. The old buck was definitely mature and wise. He had a dark patch on his crown and thick neck and body. He looked to outweigh the spike by about 75 pounds at least. He was taller too. I'm not a real good judge of animal weight but I'd bet he go 200lbs live weight. He's the biggest buck I've ever had that close to me while hunting. His body disappeared long before I lost sight of his antlers in the thick brush.

Dwight Millsaps, "see" here on tradgang, hunted this patch on Thanksgiving. He can tell you how thick it is. (Dwight, he went near the tree you were in.)

I have never seen such a magnificent animal while hunting. He's the one that's been polishing that big cedar.

I'll be back. I only had about 45 seconds to see them both. The little one was just tagging along. I hope and pray I get a chance with Faith on this guy. What an accomplishment that would be.

I'm still dumbfounded.

 

When he jumped the creek he landed behind the big dead tree in this photo. There was a small parallelogram just to the right of the tree that would have been my only window, but he was quartering away and spine was all I could see. I was shaking pretty bad too.   :)  

 
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Online rastaman

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #207 on: December 17, 2011, 10:08:00 PM »
Good luck to you Bud!
Way to go again Bisch!
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Offline Gerardo

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #208 on: December 17, 2011, 10:57:00 PM »
Good Luck Bud !!!!! Hope you get to see him again , this will be good motivation !!!!
Gerardo Rodriguez

Offline Bud B.

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #209 on: December 17, 2011, 11:00:00 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Gerardo:
Good Luck Bud !!!!! Hope you get to see him again , this will be good motivation !!!!
You bet it's motivation. I didn't get a bit sleepy after seeing him. I'm still feeling a little of the rush!
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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #210 on: December 17, 2011, 11:26:00 PM »
Good luck, Bud! I sure hope you get a crack at him.

Bisch

Offline Bud B.

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #211 on: December 18, 2011, 08:57:00 AM »
I got home and as excited as I was telling what happened my wife said, "Aw...you didn't shoot him did you?" Both her and my daughter aren't anti hunting, they just think deer are too pretty to shoot. I have to say it was nice just to see him but if he gives me a chance I'll have some 'splainin' to do. I hope.   :thumbsup:

I actually thought he may have been shot by gunners in the area and wasn't sure if he might still be around. Hunting pressure around here is tough. I hear gunshots all the time while in the stand. Some are close. I'm right next to a large leased area that's hunted hard. It's just west of the oblong field in the photo.
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Offline Bud B.

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #212 on: December 18, 2011, 06:10:00 PM »
Another sunset with Faith. Only squirrels were game seen. Lots of birds and even a buzzard landed in the top of a dead tree near me. I could see the wrinkles in his bare head. Coal black eyes.

No deer.
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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #213 on: December 18, 2011, 06:17:00 PM »
Well, I did not get to go hunting this weekend so I took Hope to meet a few other Trad Gangers!

Gangers in attendance were: Raging Water, kestimator, dbishop, Green, and myself. dbishop also had his dad there providing moral support. Here is a shot of when we were first geting started. It is truely a motley crew:

           

Most of the guys had seen/followed the Adventures of Hope and Faith and wanted to fling a few arrows with Hope.

Here is Raging Water with Hope. This bow probably felt like a kid's bow to him since his regular bows are in the 80# and up range!:

         

And kestimator;

         

And Green too:

       

This gathering looked somewhat like a meeting of the Central Texas Assn of Mudd's Merry Men as Raging Water, kestimator, and Green were all sporting their Robin Hood hats made by Mudd.

We played all kinds of archery games like kicking a ball and then shooting at it, aerial targets, and clay targets. We even tried our hand at shooting at a mountain laurel bean from 50yds! kestimator won that one:

         

Here is a picture of our "bow rack" when we would go pull arrows (that is dbishop's dad in the background):

         

And here is Raging Water and dbishop playing tug-of-war with Raging Water's 82# takedown bow (actually they are just trying to get it apart):

         

All in all I think it was a great time shooting with friends and everybady said they really liked Hope. I know I had fun shooting with my friends.

Hope and I should be getting back to the woods just after Christmas to try for one last time.

See ya later,

Bisch

Offline Green

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #214 on: December 18, 2011, 07:04:00 PM »
Had a great time with the ganger's at what turned out to be the CenTex Mudd Society shoot.  It was a pleasure to shoot HOPE.  Very smooth and hard hitting bow that Bisch has put pounds and pounds of Mojo in during the short time he's had her.
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Offline see

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #215 on: December 18, 2011, 07:08:00 PM »
Hey Bud,Just got your message and all I can say is wow,you got to see him.Oh how I wish I could have been with you again to have seen him with you.We both knew he would be big by all the sign he was leaving.If you can stay in there long enough you will get him.Hopefully he will stay in there for he knows the gunners aren't allowed.Thanks for letting me know he came to where I was at.One like that don't come around often.I am hoping to be with you again next year.Keep us all posted on your future times in the woods.Hang in there brother.I believe your name is on him.
see

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #216 on: December 18, 2011, 09:52:00 PM »
Hope is a fine, fine bow. It was an honor to shoot her with the Mudd's Merry Men of Central Texas!

Matt
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Offline kestimator

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #217 on: December 19, 2011, 08:16:00 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by Raging Water:
Hope is a fine, fine bow. It was an honor to shoot her with the Mudd's Merry Men of Central Texas!

Matt
I second Matt's comments on the bow and the day!! ....and will add that I think that we all had a blast  :)  
Bisch, thanks for sharing this special bow with us!!!
Sincerely,
Kevin
Have a nice day!
Kevin

Offline Mudd

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #218 on: December 19, 2011, 05:43:00 PM »
It was great to see you guys having fun with Hope.

I also felt honored that you'd wear the "Robin Hood" hats with a camera running...lol

God bless,Mudd
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Offline Raging Water

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Re: The Adventure of Hope and Faith Stalker
« Reply #219 on: December 19, 2011, 09:52:00 PM »
]Hope in Action with Jerry "Bisch" Bischoffberger[/URL]
Matt

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