Your first Trad kill story and pics

[Dannys]

So whats your first trad kill, story, bow and broadhead used, pics, your age,...My first was a coon that was in a silo munching away on corn, and I was able to get with in 5-7yds of the door and when he came out I stuck him with a wasp 3 blade from a Bear Kodiak 40#. I was 15. No pictures.

[jrchambers]

my first was a bunny but my first larger game was a black bear, I was 20 years old bob lee 62lb gold tip 175 razor cap, I finaly got the little boar after 2 other failed shots a day before
 

[Dannys]

that's awesome! what kind of shafts are they?

My first was a corsican sheep in west TX. I stalked up to 20yds on a herd and shot one. I was using a mid-fifties Palmer recurve and a 2016 aluminum arrow. What a rush! I have pretty much not hunted with anything but bows since then!

   

Bisch

[joe ashton]

My first was a  mule deer doe back in  1992,
58# big horn recurve.
cedar shaft, dipped in red.
3 red feathers.
Zwicky 2 blade Eskimo.  
  In my mind I can still see that red arrow flying through the air.  The hit was tight behind the left shoulder. Penetrating to the feathers.  I can see the deer running and I can hear her crashing (which at that time I did not know what that wonderful sound meant). I tried to wait an hour; that is still hard to do. It was a short 40 yard easy blood trail.  I had no idea how lethal a sharp broad head is...  and two very long, 5 mile round trips back to the truck. I got to the truck at midnight.  I had run a out of water at 3pm.
Joe

[Nathan Killen]

My first was this doe. Happened my first year on a beautiful October evening about 1/2 mile from home. Shot was around 18 yards, double lung and she made a dramatic exit and expired in about 50 yds. Stalker recurve (56@28) and a 550 grain beman arrow with a Simmons interceptor leading the way !
 

[Hoser1268]

My first was this 8pt. I walked up on this deer within 10 feet in the dark in the morning right under my stand. He just walked away from me. I sat in the stand anyway and he showed up around 11am. I was using a 48" Rocky Mountain Recurve 57@26 with wood arrows and Magnus broadheads.
 

[Dannys]

Shotgun season is next Saturday, and I wish all those guys that hunt  2 days out of the year to terrorize the woods and blast whatever they'd see would pickup a longbow or recurve I'm sure it help our deer herd our public lands would be more enjoyable. Starting after shotgun season when my arrows are built and parts come in I'm striking hunting traditional! Waiting for my first trad deer

[Cyclic-Rivers]

My First was a Squirrell if you dont include carp.

I had almost stalked up on a couple does. I was within 30 yards and a buck came in and pushed them out.  Time was tight so I started a stalk on a squirrel that was 80 yards away building a nest.  It was up and down the tree every minute.

Leaves were extra crunchy and I was making my way extra slow.

I finally covered 70 yards. I was at 10 yards and ready to intercept this squirrel the next time it came down for a bunch more leaves.

At that moment 2 squirrels came charging in from over the hill and I shot the lead one through the Chest.  It stood up bit the arrow then looked at me and started feircly growling.  A quick well placed second arrow between the eyes ended it quickly for him.

I was using a 46# Griffin Longbow.  50-55 cedar arrows. 1st was a broken razorhead and the other tipped with a blunt.

 

 

[HNTN4ELK]

I was about 15 1/2 years old, just got my permanent drivers license after 6 months of supervised driving.

I has seen a half dozen mule deer coming to this cow tank in west Texas when we were dove hunting in September. They would wait out in the creosote bushes a couple hundred yards away until we were finished shooting, then they would come in just at dark.

So in late October, I planned to ambush them. I set up behind some brush. About a half hour before sundown, I just happened to be downwind and when that old doe came by at about 15 yards I sent a cedar arrow with a Hilbre broadhead through her side, buried it to the fletch from my 50# Bear Kodiak Magnum.

My dad was so surprized when I came back to camp that night with a deer in my old GMC stepside. He looked to make sure I had not packed my rifle along.

The next year the regs changed to only buck deer without landowner OK.
 
That was 1971.

Gary Carvajal

[Mike Bolin]

My first was a Black Bear in Quebec in the early '90s. Shot him with a Black WIdow MAIII, 56#@28" and a Jim Dougherty gray 2216 with the big Magnus and the bleeder.
I was setting in a pine on a hillside and the bait was across the ravine about 8' lower than me and only 10 or 12 yards away. Had a small bear in on the 2nd night that I passed on as I had taken a bigger one with wheels on a previous hunt.
On the third evening, I heard a beaver slap the water with his tail on the nearby lake shortly after I got strapped into the tree.....something was coming! I stood there with my bow ready for probably 45 minutes. I finally hung my bow on my hook and settled in, deciding whatever had scared the beaver had moved off in another direction. After about 30 minutes, I heard something moving above me on the bait side of the ravine. I caught a glimpse of black and figured it was the little guy coming back in for a snack. A BIG black head appeared followed by a huge black body! The bear lay down and started chewing on something that I found out later was a beaver skull.
After what seemed like hours, although it was only a few minutes, the bear committed to come in to the bait. When his vision was blocked by the bait barrel I stood and drew the Widow. When I hit anchor, my headnet folded and blocked my vision!! I had to let down my draw and as I did, the bear caught my movement, set down on his butt like a big black dog and the stare down began!
Finally, he stuck his head back in the barrel, but jerked it back out before I could move.....he knew something wasn't right! The next time he moved into the barrel, I ripped off my headnet, hit anchor and released! He just stood there for a few seconds, not sure of what had happened. Then he tore off up the hill. I heard sticks breaking and thought that he had ran a long way, then silence and then the death moan!!!
I went back to camp and gathered up the outfitter and my hunting buddy. It was still light when we got on the blood trail. All told, the bear had only made it about 40 yards. The sticks breaking that I'd heard was the sound of limbs breaking on a fallen tree at the top of the hill. He had tried to jump the tree, but didn't have enough left to clear it. He got his front legs over the tree and then slid down it, breaking off limbs and making me think he had covered a lot more ground than he really did. The recovery is story all it's own! My buddy and I ended up wet to the waist, the trailer on the 3 wheeler got stuck in a beaver run....too much to tell here!!
He was aged at 19 years old by the Quebec Ministry of Resources. Teeth were gone or broken but his coat was prime! Over 6' and his skull measured 19 3/16" P&Y. We weighed him on a 300# scale after field dressing and he bottomed it out, so he was big for a spring bear.
Been hunting with recurves and longbows ever since! Having issues with photobucket so I can't get to a photo. The only one on there is of the rug I had made..........sorry!! Mike

[Mike Bolin]

ttt..........good thread!

[bofish-IL]

I had shot a coyote, bunch of squirrels, hundreds of fish before my 1st deer.

 I was setup in a narrow funnel with about 30 yards wide of timber with a picked cornfield on the bottom side and another on the upper side. A large buck was chasing and breeding a doe in the bottom field and I had been grunting and rattling trying to get him to check things out. He was having none of it.

As I turned back around I had a smaller 6 point buck standing broadside at 22 yards. I raised the recurve bow a friend and I made, pulled the cedar arrow back that was tipped with an old bear broad head and shot. I saw my shaft buried to the fletching as the deer ran over a small knob 60 yards away.

Later after I got down I was tracking the small amounts of blood on the corn stalks, then I happen to look at the brush along the edge and blood was dripping from the bushes.
 
As I reached the knob, there was my buck upside down with feet sticking toward the sky. He had started to jump an old woven wire fence and had fell over sideways and landed on his back jammed between the fence and a 4 inch diameter tree. It took a lot of pulling and grunting to get him free.
 

[scrub-buster]

My first was this fall.  It was an 8 point buck.  I used an osage selfbow, hill cane arrow, and a stone point.  I made all my equipment except for the stone point.  A friend knapped it for me.

   

[reddogge]

My first was a poor little squirrel I hit in the eye but the first deer was in 1969. I was hunting Aberdeen Proving Ground in MD and in a tree on the edge of a field and a small 5 point buck walks down the edge at about 25 yards. I shot and the buck jumped 90 degrees to the left and the arrow caught his femoral artery and sliced open his belly too. He died within 40 yards.

I was using a Bear Grizzly 43#, Bear Microflights, Razorheads, Dan Quillian treestand, Bear bow quiver.

 

[Trumpkin the Dwarf]

Well, I shot a coon two years ago, but my first big game animal with a bow was this fall.
 
The story is here  http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=131592#000000  . 68lb @ 32" Toelke Whip. GT trads, and a Simmons Land Shark.

[mooseman1967]

In the summer of 1989 I moved from Kansas to Nebraska and when I was unpacking the moving van I found my compound did not survive the trip. Being that I was very poor due to the move I did some searching around to replace my bow and was having trouble coming up with the funds to replace with a like model. I ended up at Cabela's since it wasn't to far from me and was looking in the bargin bin and there was a Martin Custom Bushmaster for $129. I thought to myself I have shot these before and really had a blast doing it.
  The following fall I got an invitation from my sister to come see her in Colorado on the western slope where she was working for a guide. She said just pay for your gas and get out here with your bow and I'll take care of the rest! Well, fast forward to 4 days into the hunt. We were coming back from town with supplies when two small bucks bounded across the road ahead of us about a 1/4 mile. I was riding with my brother in law and he said remember that ladderstand down there I told you about, get to it as quick as you can by following the creek and see if you can intercept them. I took of on a quick pace and climbed into that stand and was hooking up my safety belt (there wasn't harness's back then) and here they come. I wasn't in the stand for more than a minute when I let the arrow fly! I watched him bound for about 20 yards and just disappear, it happened so fast I wasn't sure what all just took place. I worked my way back to the road to where my brother in law was and told him I hit one but didn't trail it. When we went back out there the buck was dead within 10 yards of where I lost sight of it.
 Was using a Martin Custom Bushmaster 70@28 and a very poorly made maple arrow that I made a month before with a bear head. Notice the fancy quiver made out some old blue jeans!
 

[Steve O]

Mine is still in the annals of the TG archives. That is cool.

   1st Stickbow animal

53# Super Shrew, 250g Wensel Woodsman--pre Karch    

[jrbows]

Mine was the ALMOST everything went wrong hunt you often read about in magazines. I was running late, hadn't scouted the area, wore the wrong shoes for the weather, set up in a small tree that I could only get about 10 feet off the ground facing the rising sun and swaying back and forth in the wind. While beating myself up mentally for all this a spike came in at 14-18 yards put his head behind a tree and let me take a shot I heard a loud smack after I released and the deer jumped straight in the air and switched ends he looked confused for a minute then put his head down and started feeding out of the area he hit a patch of sunlight about 25 yards out and I saw a baseball size red spot behind his shoulder long story short I found him about 100 yards away piled up the smack I heard was the arrow hitting a rock on the back side of the deer, 145 grain wolverine head 600 grain ash shaft and 58# longbow the broadhead went through on a horizontal plane between 2 ribs and exited the other side the same way, I learned that no matter how many things go wrong only a few or even one thing has to go right.

[Yolla Bolly]

:(     let's see---I was about 10.  A series of early morning, loud squalling noises brought me out bed and out of our house armed with my Howatt Cavalier and blue/white fletched Bear MicroFlite fiberglass arrows with Bear 110 gr broadheads .  Found a large disheveled tabby cat crouched next to my  the family Dodge station wagon, facing off three family cats which were under the car. "Stalked" to the back of the car at about 6 yards.  Shot her behind the shoulder: she screamed and ran---made it about 30 yards to the front of the house and dropped.  She was scarred all over, with both one ear in tatters.