What was your first traditional bow harvest?

[countrygirl]

For me it was a button buck...I thought it was a big ole doe...  I shot it in Missouri on the first day of my hunt there about 7 or 8 years ago.  My second was his twin brother about a minute later.

I quickly learned the difference between a Florida doe and a Missouri button buck.

[bartcanoe]

I was 12 years old in 1974 and took a groundhog.  Killed about 5 that summer, and the greenhouse owner paid me $5 a head.

[Hot Hap]

1959-Cottontail
Hap

[painthorse]

A coon in the hen house with the last self bow my Great Grandfather ever made,1975

[elkken]

mule deer doe 1970

[Longbow Jake]

First and only trad kill so far is a squirrel prob two month's ago 16 yaers old a couple week's after I missed a 8 point buck.  

[Randy]

My first was a cow elk in 2002. Used a longbow and a cedar arrow that I made. Hooked for life.

[joevan125]

These are great stories please keep them comming.

[1bjd]

Killed a watersnake about 1956 or so. Took several shots as I remember. I was about 8 years old at the time.
John

[stagetek]

A half frozen pheasant around '64. Shot him with an old fiberglass bow from Mac's Archery, and a 19 cent wooden arrow from a Badger Paint hardware store.

Someone made me a bow from a lilac tree.  A morning dove when I was five with a bodkin broadhead off the neighbors picket fence, we cooked and ate it. I shot that bow for four years and added rabbits and ground squirrels before it broke.

[Stinger]

1969 - Button buck that I thought was a doe.  I was maybe 18 feet up on a wooden stand nailed in the crotch of an oak tree at Quantico MCB, VA.  Shot him with a 48lb Shakespeare Necheda (still have it) and a Herter's aluminum arrow with Bear Razorhead.  Funny, I still have some of those arrows and I spine tested them recently and they showed 73 lbs.  All I know is they flew like darts for me back then.  Wish I could shoot as well now as I did when I was 15!

[chad graham]

my first trad kill was a doe i missed her three times opening morning and was so frustrated i almost went back to my wheelie bow which my friend talked me out of.i shot her the next morning with my longbow and my friend saw me shoot her he was coming to get me and saw her standing 8 yds. in front of me looked up in my tree and i was drawing on her.it was something we will never forget.been totally trad since that day.

[jomama]

squirrel.

[Jerry Wald]

My first trad kill was a ground hog and then a blue grouse.

BUT this was my first big game animal (well small black bear everyone kids me that I shot a black lab).

 

I was sheep hunting and this bear wouldn't leave our camp....we tried everything...he was hungry and a problem.

I shot him at 12 yards and just when I released he turned his body and his head - the arrow went in the back of his jaw and straight into his brain.

He rolled into the creek and NEVER MOVED.

I was just shaking...I never saw the shot...I was concentrating on the spot so hard I never saw the arrow.

I knew he moved but it was a blurr and about 15 minutes to dark.

No shotgun in camp so I wasn't going to sleep with him around it.

When we got the lantern and fetched him I saw the arrow and couldn't believe I hit him where I hit him.....I would never aim there, but boy he went quick.

that's how I got my handle Jer Bear.

Jer Bear

[BEN]

'07 Coyote

 

[JoeM]

First anything
 
Bear Super K 65@28
First big game
 
Striker TDR 53@25

[Jerry Wald]

BEN - Coyote is your first WOW - those are usually pretty hard to get.

What's your secret young fella

Jer Bear

[Lonnie bailey]

mine was a squirrel about 5 years ago.

[Wiley Coyote]

My first critter bagged with a recurve was a ground hog about 40 years ago. My first big game animal was a button buck back in 1991.