When in college in the late 70's, I remember at the end of a week of finals I was to meet my hunting buddy at camp for 2 weeks. We lived on opposite sides of the State and didn't get together much at the time.
I was rushed because I had to take my last final Thursday morning, drive 58 miles home, load my gear in the truck, hit the grocery store, and drive 110 miles to the camp. And needed to get all accomplished in time to arrive at camp, unload, set my stand up and hunt Thursday evening.
Managed to get home on schedule and my Dad helped load the truck so I could get on my way. Bought the necessary provisions and headed to camp.
Arrived at camp and Organized my gear for the 2 weeks. Had a Black palm bow which I had recently purchased along with some cane arrows and a bamboo quiver. It was of SE Asian origin, had brought it along to show my Buddy.
He finally arrived, got his gear together and we decided to head in and set our stands. It was around 4pm and we had just enough time to set up and hunt about 2.5 hours.
We grabbed the stands and put them in back of the truck, I went into the camper to get my bow. That's when it hit me.... I was so excited to show off the Black Palm bow, I had forgotten to get my Bear T/D and quiver when I was packing!
Didn't have time to drive home, Buddy said we could just hang the stands and go get my bow. We would just wait and hunt in the morning. I thanked him for offering to give up a hunt and drive home with me but said no way.
I grabbed that Black Palm bow and bamboo quiver with 4 cane arrows and said lets go. (I had shot this bow only once just to see how it would shoot the hand made arrows, and get an idea as to what the draw weight may be.) He thought I was nuts, (He also was a wheelie shooter and thought I was nuts using a recurve) we did the hunt and unfortunately I had no shot opportunity.
But.... my Buddy managed to take the largest buck he has ever taken with an arrow that afternoon!
An accomplishment that would never had happened if I had agreed to forgo and drive to the house for my bow.
We drove to get my bow later that evening after caring for his deer.
I later put the Palm bow on a scale and found out that it had a 46#@28 draw. It was legal draw weight, but the homemade broadheads were under size in width to be legal. This was the first time I ever hunted with cane, and would not be the last.
The Palm bow has never been used since, and currently hangs in my hallway along with the quiver and arrows. It has taken its place among my Native artifacts collection which it was originally purchased for.
Topic: Gotta slow down and think (Read 1075 times)
