Eleven yards into a 13 yard shot............

[tim roberts]

Last summer I got to make a couple of awesome trades with a fellow Trad Ganger, and ended up with 12 matched arrowheads, a dozen cane shafts, of which six of them had the great arrowheads mounted on them, and some other wonderful things.
Well, this year I set a couple of goals, one was to take a deer with one of these cane arrows tipped with stone, the other goal is to get two Bear's Paw bows accustom to taking animals, one os a longbow and the other is a recurve that I got from Neil this summer.  Shooting 3 bows during the summer, and getting good enough to be comfortable to hunt with all of them was a great learning experience, I learned that if your form is good and the focus is on the spot, it can be done!
So back to the story, last Saturday was the Montana opener, that morning I found myself in my favorite willow tree waiting for the sun to rise and deer to come by.  For the most part things went as planned, the sun came up on time and the deer started moving out of the fields.  Sometimes a lot of deer come by there sometimes no so many, this morning was one of the not so many, but alas, a little later in the morning one did come by, the difference though this morning, was this one was a nice little 3 point.  Now the wheels in my mind started turning, do I want to do this on opening day, do I want to wait for maybe something else?  Well those wheels quickly said shoot!  I came to anchor, and as I was pulling off the string, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a swollen elbow, and that where my focus went, and yep you guessed it, that is the neighborhood that the arrow went. a clean miss and another lesson learned.  For the most part that took care of the morning hunt, will get back later for the afternoon hunt.........................

[DannyBows]

Good luck with those arrows. Someday I'd like to take one with a primitive arrow.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

 

I have  a feeling this could turn good.

[Gerardo]

Sitting around the fire waiting for the rest.......

[lpcjon2]

Hello!!!! Is this one of the use your imagnation for the ending type stories. If its taken this long tracking must be involved.

[Mudd]

Swollen elbow?... Yours or your quarry's?

God bless,Mudd

[bondo]

That's some good thinking. Get those misses out of the way early in the season, that's exactly the way I do it.

[YORNOC]

 An honerable miss!

[VTer]

Don't leave us hangin'  

[Possum Head]

Hey Mudd,I had the same question!!

[59Alaskan]

I am guessing the swollen elbow looks smaller at 13 yards.  Looking forward to more of this story.

[reddogge]

Yes, I'm wondering, yours or the deer's? I once shot a 3 legged deer missing a hind leg. It's gait was painfull to watch and I had a hard time concentrating. Once hit it ran with no noticable limp. I felt I had done it a favor by killing it.

[Bjorn]

Oh Yeah!    

[tim roberts]

Okay, back to the hunt........The afternoon started out alright there was a little bit of movement in the field, and sometimes this can be good for opportunity, this afternoon was not the case, though.  Normally  we hit the stand 3-4 hours before dark, knowing full well that the real chance come just after the sun drops behind the Tabacco Root Mountains, it is then when things start moving.  The deer start coming off the Madison and into the fields, well tonight they were right on time!!   :D   As I watched there appeared a doe followed by a couple of good size fawns, but as she neared the bank, I lost sight of her.  In that area the bank is higher by 3 feet or so than the river so I didn't think to much of it.  That is till shooting light started fading fast and there was no sign of her.  About that time I glanced over to the East and there she was, she had gone down stream and come in behind me.  Well she wasn't quite in the shooting lane that would  work, and it wasn't really to my liking.  Then she stopped broadside, face totally hid by branches, but the problem was the branches, if she turned the wrong way, and I didn't get a pass through, I wouldn't be able to see the arrow, so I held up, this was at 10 yards!  A few moments  and about five steps later she was in a great lane, and just slightly quartering.  One glance and I knew she was just past 12 yards, just like shooting in my basement!!!  So I picked a spot, came to anchor and pulled off the string.  Now somewhere I heard it said that when you release that arrow, time slows down and that the flight of that arrow is forever etched into your memory, when the reality is things are happening pretty damn quick!!!  Well, for that first 11 yards that arrow was going to the exact spot that I had intended it to go to, and then, well that ole' doe, she decided to turn.

Now would be a good time to go do some leather work and come back to this one later, but alas I will get it told.

Fortunately she turned away, making a slight quartering away shot into a heavy quartering away shot.  The arrow hit back, and even though it was where  it was I knew that something good was hit.  Quietly I got down from the tree and went over to look for blood, there was nothing, so I went to where Rich was and we decided to call it a night.
The next mornings hunt was uneventful, and after all the deer left the field we started to put together last night events,  The deer ran past Rich, so we looked around, no blood and no arrow.  we started to look where we knew she would go.  A while later Rich found the arrow, it was broke but the point was still attached!  Continuing on the trail where I figured she would go, led us straight to the river.  It was there that I figured if she made it in and across, the trail was gone.  After talking to Rich a minute, he agreed to go back to where we had left the arrow, and I walked around the next bend in the river.  Well it was just past that bend, about 15 yards from where we figured she crossed the river, there she lay!
Will post a picture in a bit................
Thanks,

[lpcjon2]

Congrats and a fine job of continuing the hunt for her.Well done  

[Ric O'Shay]

Yes Sir Tim, well done!

[tim roberts]

Here is the picture of the doe that I got.
This was a great opportunity from the very first when I got talking with David, and we were able to do a little tradin',  all the way up to being able to take this doe!
Thanks David for a most memorable hunt, and lasting friendship, and thanks to all of you for letting me share it!

[bondo]

Tim, that's great, look like the point came through in pretty good shape. Looks like a big body on that doe. Still a little over two weeks until our season opens, all I can do is pace the floor.

[tim roberts]

This is a view from my stand, looking down the arrow that took the doe!
The point stayed in great shape, the shaft broke just behind the point.

[mmisciag]

Congratulations! I have to wait until the 17th for my shot this year. Inspiring. Great story.

Martin