Sorry for the delay in further updates, brother had his first child last night. 7 pound 1 ounce Marshal James Daly.
As for the hunt. Spotted a couple of decent fork blacktail on the edge of a timber patch shortly before dark. Checked the wind and began a short stalk. Darkness was setting in quickly but I had not trouble in spotting the bucks. I lost sight of them briefly in the timber as I worked around a deadfall to get into shooting position. I crept around to a clear shooting lane, and spotted a buck with his head turned away, contently feeding. At about 8 yards the 60 pound Sky Longbow sent the 700 grain fir shaft tipped with a i50 grain Magnus Jopurneyman head on it's lethal journey. The buck went on a dead run for a solid 8 - 10 seconds. I waited an hour and began the trail. After 50 or so yards the trail began flowing quite well, I could actually follow this one from a standing position with a flashlight! After 150 yards I decided to wait until morning, it would be cool enough, and there is no wory of scavengers in the area. I met my brother in the morning and took up the trail again. In less than 45 minutes we found the end of the trail. Bucks on the run can cover a heck of a lot of grond in 10 short seconds!
The two bucks I first began stalking were decent forks, the one at the end of the trail was not among the two I remeber stalking at all.
A small crabclaw spike/fork. Not the one I was expecting, but a lovely animal none the less. Still legal, and excellent table fare. In the fading twilight I only saw the bucks antlers as a rear profile, and not a side profile. From the rear they looked of similar hight and spread as the smaller fork. While initially surprised, I am still quite happy with the harvest, and just now realized it is the first big game harvest for my new to me Sky Bow.
Topic: first of the season (Read 633 times)
