This sport never ceases to amaze me. In many ways but mainly the highs and lows. Take my hunt yesterday for example.
I decided to take the black widow recurve out as it hasn't seen any action this year and the longest shot I was likely to see was 30 yards. A shot I'm comfortable with and have shot thousands of times the last couple years. On the way to the stand walking through the last field of beans we still have standing I spot the spawn of satan himself (ground hog). To me groundhogs are never too far to shoot at. Load up an arrow, let fly and hear the telltale "thump". No way did I just make that shot! Sure enough.....Satans spawn is deader than a hammer. At 41 yards with an instinctive recurve. I'm the next generation Fred bear! (High). This took place at 2:15 pm. I paused to take a couple pics and went on to my stand.
Upon reaching my stand I tie my bow to the rope get my harness clipped in and start to climb. Just as I am ready to step onto platform here comes a mature doe and 2 button bucks. Dang! If I wouldn't have messed with that stupid groundhog I'd he ready! Of course all 3 deer come into 10 yards and offer perfect broadside shots. It took me 45 painstaking minutes to get into stand pull up bow and get arrow nocked. They had walked away at this time but the mature doe was still under 30 yards. Remember I just smoked a groundhog at more than 40 this deer is as good as on the meat pole! At least that's what I'm thinking at the time. Take the shot and hit her high and a tick forward. Watch her run 200 yards arrow still in her. (Low. Actually really low). Decided to hunt the rest of the afternoon and give her 5 or 6 hrs. Not 20 minutes later here comes Satans other son in the form of a coyote! Aaaaaaaand I sail one over his back at 15 paces (really really low now).
An hour or so after dark we start trailing the doe I made the bad shot on. The blood trail was tough to say the least. 2 hrs later and 500 more yards and we found her. She had expired in her bed. (Really really high). Confirming my decision to give her a bunch of time this was now 7 or so hours after the shot and she was barely stiff!
So in the course of an 8 hr period I went from on top of the world to down in the dumps. Then really down in the dumps to right back on top of the world. I guess the highs wouldn't be so sweet if there weren't some lows that came along from time to time.
I decided to take the black widow recurve out as it hasn't seen any action this year and the longest shot I was likely to see was 30 yards. A shot I'm comfortable with and have shot thousands of times the last couple years. On the way to the stand walking through the last field of beans we still have standing I spot the spawn of satan himself (ground hog). To me groundhogs are never too far to shoot at. Load up an arrow, let fly and hear the telltale "thump". No way did I just make that shot! Sure enough.....Satans spawn is deader than a hammer. At 41 yards with an instinctive recurve. I'm the next generation Fred bear! (High). This took place at 2:15 pm. I paused to take a couple pics and went on to my stand.
Upon reaching my stand I tie my bow to the rope get my harness clipped in and start to climb. Just as I am ready to step onto platform here comes a mature doe and 2 button bucks. Dang! If I wouldn't have messed with that stupid groundhog I'd he ready! Of course all 3 deer come into 10 yards and offer perfect broadside shots. It took me 45 painstaking minutes to get into stand pull up bow and get arrow nocked. They had walked away at this time but the mature doe was still under 30 yards. Remember I just smoked a groundhog at more than 40 this deer is as good as on the meat pole! At least that's what I'm thinking at the time. Take the shot and hit her high and a tick forward. Watch her run 200 yards arrow still in her. (Low. Actually really low). Decided to hunt the rest of the afternoon and give her 5 or 6 hrs. Not 20 minutes later here comes Satans other son in the form of a coyote! Aaaaaaaand I sail one over his back at 15 paces (really really low now).
An hour or so after dark we start trailing the doe I made the bad shot on. The blood trail was tough to say the least. 2 hrs later and 500 more yards and we found her. She had expired in her bed. (Really really high). Confirming my decision to give her a bunch of time this was now 7 or so hours after the shot and she was barely stiff!
So in the course of an 8 hr period I went from on top of the world to down in the dumps. Then really down in the dumps to right back on top of the world. I guess the highs wouldn't be so sweet if there weren't some lows that came along from time to time.
