the "kumbaya" stuff ...this is my third year, but second full stay at solana. it's really all about a confluence of like-minded trad bowhunters that's second to none. fabulous country, excellent guides, great on site ranch management, and fabulous FOOD (yeah man!). it was great to meet both old and new friends, share camp, and hunt the land. you betcha i'll be back next year.
the hunt stuff (well, just some of it) ...unlike last year, this trip didn't produce a buck for me. not even a doe. nor a piggy or a turk. heck, nothing, nada, no bloody arrows. sure, i was out and up for the kill, but sometimes things just don't come together for sundry reasons - or the critters just aren't that obliging. not a problem for me, the thrill of the hunt is my cake - the killing is the icing.
man, i had a GREAT time!first hunt for me was wednesday late afternoon in "the box" - a large wooden structure set into the woods and about 20 yards in front of a feeder and some pasture land. a narrow horizontal slit window gave me good access to the goings on, and right away a "doe" appeared from nowhere and started feeding. as it got closer i spotted what i needed to confirm - spike horns. pass. that feller got within about 7 yards of me. never knew i was there. from the left a pair of does were feeding in but never got within range. then an truly nice 8 point strutted left to right behind the feeder, about 30 yards out, never stopping, then gone. so were all the other deer. within another half hour the spike returned. end of the first sitting.
a few hunts later i was in a carpet blind overlooking a "road trail" peppered with corn. nada for the whole sitting until the sun went down and hogs moved in, grunting and munching the kernals like, well, slobbering pigs. the light was dim, but i could see the forms of at least 5 or 6 hogs, picked out one that was broadside and standing relatively still, pulled back the 54# sparrowhawk and let fly a woodsman tipped carbon ... "SQUEEEEEEEEEEL!!!!" ... the pigs blew out but i was sure i hit one good. guide truck showed up inside of a half hour but no arrow or blood to track. pigs 1, rob 0. it happens.
"the aeroplane that arrived too late" - another afternoon hunt is from a ladder platform stand with only one viable window opening in the tree leaves. cool, totally still air, quiet as can be. first up is a spike, nibbling the corn off the feeder. he's there for quite some time and then a doe shows up, and then 3 more does. of course the does stay out of the shooting window. i see 2 more does enter from the right, but no way to shoot the 64" longbow. one of the does enters the window and i wait for her to present a better body angle ... and then HE appears. 8 point, nice mains, brow tines, but super wired and edgy. forget the doe, i want this bad boy! he's Real Nervous, i get the bow up, arrow already nocked, apply slight pressure to the string and ... he snaps his head up and looks directly at me with big, glowing saucer eyes. busted. 2 minutes later a twin engine sport plane roars overhead, breaking all the silence. DANG!
sunday morning, last hunt, in a tripod stand. cold morning and a slight northerly breeze makes it colder yet. 6am, 7am, 8am ... finally at 9:01am a real nice 6 point shows up, thick rack, good body weight, and he begins feeding behind the tree stand's leaf cover ... slowly moving closer to the feeder that's about 20 yards away, and then he's under the feeder, cracking corn. at 9:11 he's right in my zone and i aim low and release, he drops into the arrow (i think?), i hear a grunt and he bolts off into the bush to my left. i wait a half hour and come down. no arrow on the ground. no blood. no hair. it happens, again.
no blood, no critters, but
what a great hunt! you've got to LOVE solana! maybe next year!
Topic: OFFICIAL 2013 SOLANA RANCH HUNT THREAD (Read 26735 times)
