My Traditional Journey...

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Davids new Trad bow
 
My father bought a locally made Osage long bow to shoot with us. We were talking about traditional everything so much that my best friend David, who always shoots the fastest compound made each year, bought a Hill style longbow from a guy that bought it at Roy's shop years ago. Jeremy bought a nice left handed longbow out of the shop and wow did he shoot better than with the right handed ones! I really smiled when I thought how longbows had penetrated our little circle in the past year.

 
measuring Jenna's draw and setting her up to shoot

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My shooting was improving a lot over last year. The more arrows I shot it seemed the more I realized about myself, my form. Still sometimes my concentration was better than others but overall shooting was improving, groups were smaller.

 

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September came to the woods and I called my brother Dan from camp with a nervous declaration. I told him this year I would hunt the entire archery season traditional with my Cascade longbow! He laughed a little and said he was waiting to hear that. Being the good brother he is he had been pestering me about it for some time.

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this is me,brother kennys photos are easy to spot!

 
Dan's son Steven shooting his new bow.

 My single bag archery range at camp had evolved a bit. I now had three hanging bags, a small ladder stand to shoot from, a dirt hill with Styrofoam cooler top for out to 70 yds, and an intimate knowledge of more stumps than I thought there could be. Of course the native chipmunks are actually my favorite part of the archery range.
   


   
stump known as "the weasel"

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the dirt mound with shots of 30,40,50,60,&60yds


   
Jeremy calling the next shot of 30 plus yards from the out house seat.

   
his view from inside...
The three of us shot for hours and hours more than one trip to camp. Taking turns calling 4-5 shots the rounds became more creative and difficult as we went. We laughed and cheered at arrows flying through the air until someone needed a rest.

 
Brother Dan

[jonsimoneau]

This is good stuff.

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Trail cameras were out and I had a really frustrating time with some of them, lost weeks of potential pictures but the good news was Sly was still alive and I was getting more photos of him than last year. His rack changed some, no kicker/sticker points this year,just a heavy 10. I'm unsure how old he is though, I first saw him in 2010 and he was huge then. The 8 point he was hanging with really blew up with a year of growth!

 

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2012 8pt always with Sly, look at his brows?! look like same 8 as last year? did to me. Bases look way bigger this year. What do you think? Same 8pt?

   
2011 8pt trail cam to compair

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Sly 2012 zoomed in

 
the boys after dark. Grrr! lol

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There were a lot of other good deer on trail cam that were 2.5 or older but I don't want to fill pages with photos these two were one and two that I knew of.

It's also notable that I missed Sly with a 30-06 rifle still hunting his bedding area in Nov 2011. All I heard was a small branch break and I turned to see him running in thick cover as he crested a small berm. It was a quick shot but I can still see the cross hares on him in my mind.

Entering the fall of 2012 I had seen that buck a number of times one way or another and I wanted him in the worse way. All the sightings were in a core area. I knew he was there but couldn't seem to be in the right place at the right time. Unfortunately I wasn't alone in my quest as is the case for most of us i'm sure. I have plenty of competition during bow season and cringe when ever I hear a gun hunter smacks a big buck. I don't know how they do it but some how he survived another year and I felt fortunate to have another year to go after him.

[maineac]

Keep it coming!

[Cyclic-Rivers]

[threeunder]

Really, REALLY, enjoying this!
 

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Before the archery season opened I mailed Dan's boys and Jenna a few gifts. Partly because kids like gifts, like mail, and partly just to tease. On some of the gifts were specific messages... but the basic premise was that Jenna couldn't open hers until I scored somehow with my longbow.
 

Back
 

I remember her saying "Well what if it's a bad year like last year?" I said well uh, last year wasn't that bad but we can have a safety clause in there. Ok, if I don't kill anything with the long bow by the end of the extended bow season then you can open all the gifts. Well she felt satisfied with that.

 


 

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Our 2012 Archery Season opened 1 October this year! I felt a little nervous but really excited. I had been there so much all ready camp looked perfect as you pulled in the long driveway, I love that! I was as prepared as I would be this year. It was time to move into the woods at camp and attempt to soak up enough fall moments the next three months to last a year.
It was time to be a hunter again...

 

[Big Ed]

[Greg Sz.]

what a great tale! Can not wait for the finale!

[Tsalt]

Enjoying the story!    

[J.T.]

   

[snakebite]