For Christmas that year I received a new bow. I still have it too. My folks had decided that I just might stick with archery and upped the sixty-five bucks for a little Bear Kodiak Magnum 42# @ 28”. I loved that bow more than anything and over the years that I shot it, we shared many firsts.
It was decided to spring it on me early as a surprise.
It was before daylight and I was getting ready to head out the door to deer hunt. Dad was getting ready for duck hunting. We’d finished breakfast and I was tying on my boots when he brought out the little Magnum. Of course I about fainted.
What a beauty!!
I guess it didn’t occur to Dad that a little practice with a new bow might be a good idea, but I wasn’t going to complain. I probably wouldn’t see a deer anyway.
When I walked out the door that morning the new bow had the killer quiver on it and a pair of elastic camo sleeves that everyone in those days used to hide the shiny limbs. It would be years before you could buy a bow with a dull finish and who wanted to paint a beautiful bow.
It had no silencers, no nocking point and I didn’t have a clue about the brace height. It would do just fine.
By the time I got the quiver and sleeves on the bow, dumped about a quart of Pete Rickard’s deer lure on my pants legs and finished my other preparations it was starting to get light outside. I can’t say that I was bummed about that.
I was wearing out that old tree stand. It was the only place I knew to hunt. I climbed up in it again that morning, but I’d learned that every time I sat there I wasn’t going to see deer.
As the full light of day came over the pin oak bottoms, I sat there admiring my new prize. I knew it needed a nocking point badly and I set about putting one on the string.
A loose thread was pulled from my jacket and that would do just fine. I began wrapping it meticulously around the string at what I had judged to be the right spot. Intent on my project I was started by the faint sound of rustling leaves. I raised my head quite casually to see a mature doe feeding just yards from my stand.
I guess that deep down I knew I didn’t have a snowballs chance of shooting this deer with the new bow. The shakes had started the instant I saw the doe so it was going to be a crapshoot regardless.
The shot was made, the deer ducked, the arrow stuck in the ground, the deer walked away… simple as that!
It took a while for the adrenaline surge to subside and when it did I noticed that the temporary nocking point I’d been working on was gone. No problem. I’d surely find more loose threads in that old camo jacket to peel off. And that’s what I did.
In about three wraps of the thread on the string I was again hearing leaves rustling. Not thinking much of it (clueless) I looked up and received another overdose of adrenaline. It was another deer and a buck to boot!
Following the procedure that I was so used to by now I readied the arrow. I didn’t do any better on this animal than I had the doe. Once again I sat there alone in the tree vibrating on the black metal bucket.
That would be it for the first morning with the Magnum. But the adventure with that little bow was just beginning.
Topic: Just got my first deer..... again!! (Read 3033 times)
