Traditional Bowhunting: The Hunts

8th In The Series Of Traditional Bowhunting:

The Hunts: Successes of the Bass Pro Sage Takedown Recurve

David Williams, Bass Pro Archery Cabin Gurnee, IL.

What defines success in a hunt?

To many, it’s the trophy of the rack or bone on the wall… not that these hunters are not ethical hunters, it’s just the way they measure their personal successes. As a traditional hunter I believe measure my hunt differently by choice. I chose to hunt with traditional equipment and even primitive equipment; I choose to hunt spot and stalk methods; I choose to hunt with and without modern camo clothes and methods for the challenges, frustrations and rewards often never having pulling and loosing the arrow.

Success, Failure or Adventure in the hunts as definition is up to the hunter and the goals and choices you set for your hunt. My choices are mine and mine alone thus making everyone’s own personal choice to hunt the way they do, making hunting so stimulating and rewarding for each of us.

Time in the woods going one-on-one with Mother Nature is an adventure each time no matter how well studied and equipped you are for the hunt. Some feel that not getting an animal is a failure or mark against them. It’s not. There is always a story in adventure to pass long at those campfires, share with friends or fellow hunters and last but not least a lesson from Mother Nature herself.

I am a meat hunter. I am lucky may family enjoys the venison brought home making my harvest even more rewarding also, depending on the local State rules means I can harvest a doe instead of a buck, and sometimes like this year both a buck and a doe. Back to measuring success to many it’s posting pictures on Facebook, having a head mount made, sharing their version of venison jerky or chili with others. All of which I have done but the one I cherish and handed down to me is saving “the Blood Arrow.”

The Blood Arrow, what is it? The blood arrow is the defining scale of the hunter. It shows the hunter just how good he or she is at the moment of truth. It’s not the trophy size that that defines the bow hunter, it’s the arrow that all telling quality of the shot. That testament of the hunt lays in the color of the blood on the arrow. The bow hunter cannot hide from the facts of color on left on the arrow. I keep every arrow they are my true trophies. By saving these arrows they also become markers in a timeline. A timeline is a great mirror in which we can rediscover how truly marvelous our journey has been in bow hunting.

Our hunting season never really starts on opening day of the deer season it started months earlier. None of us, with the exception of those we watch hunt on TV, get as much time to hunt as we would like. Time seems so short pressures have a successful harvest.

My pressure began with customers and co-workers coming into the Bass Pro Archery Cabin with pictures of their harvests right after the opening of the season. It seemed like there would be no deer left by the time I got into the woods. When I got the chance to get out, Mother Nature moved her first piece in the game with warm and windy weather like last year.

2015 so far, I have harvested 2-Bucks and 2-Does and still have til mid January to hunt in Missouri. My hunting with the Bass Pro Sage Recurve I have harvested 2-Bucks and 1-Doe with 3 different arrows and 3 different broadheads.

Just a note on me, I love making arrows to hunt and shoot with and every year I make new arrows to take into the woods. This year I did make 4 sets of arrows for the Sage Bow, 3 Carbon and 1 Wood. 2 complete arrows came from Bass Pro.

All the following deer were harvested with the 45# Samick Sage Takedown Recurve from the 1st Blog:

Marsh doe was harvest in western McHenry County, IL. She was a mid day deer on a warm 50 plus degree bright day. It was a light wind was from the Southwest as it had been for early November and in my face.

• Arrow: Carbon Axis Spine 500
• Arrow Fletching: 4” Left Wing Parabolic Feathers
• Broadhead: Blackout 100 grain 3-Blade
• Broadhead Insert: Brass 50 Grains
• Shot Distance: <10 Yards
• Shot Placement: Lungs with Pass through
• Recovery Distance: <20 Yards
• Hunting Style: Spot and Stalk
• Camo: ASAT

 

December buck was harvested the week before Christmas in Western McHenry County, IL. He was mid day and mid week deer on a 50 degree bright day. Windy swirling in and out of my face from the Southwest as I sat.

• Arrow: Carbon Blackout X3 Spine 340
• Arrow Fletching: 5” Left Wing Shield Cut Feathers
• Broadhead: Steel Force 125 Grain 2-Blade with Bleeders
• Broadhead Insert: Brass 100 Grain
• Shot Distance: 15 Yards +/-
• Shot Placement: Lungs with Pass through
• Recovery Distance: 25 Yards
• Hunting Style: Sitting on the ground
• Camo: Ghillie Suit

 

Second Season, buck was taken just before the New Year on private land on the Chain of Lakes, IL. Early afternoon temps in the low 30’s and slight Northeastern wind. He actually came in to work an active scrape.

• Arrow: Ash Tapered Spined @ 80#
• Arrow Fletching: 5” Parabolic Feathers
• Broadhead: A Vintage Howard Hill 2-Blade 160 Grains
• Shot Distance: 18 Yards
• Shot Placement: Lungs with Pass Through
• Recovery Distance: 25 Yards
• Hunting Style: Sitting in Corn
• Camo: Ghillie Suit

 

This year also includes one World Class miss thanks to my impatience that an arrow has become a very nice perch in a tree. Every time I have walked that tree there’s a bird sitting on my arrow.

Time in the woods bow hunting, good or bad, can be especially fulfilling. As we get older, we get maybe more poetic or spiritual about the experiences. For instance the ‘Marsh Doe’ surprised me and I thought she had seen me, proof that you should always have an arrow nocked when stalking. The ‘December Buck’ I spotted and went behind me out of sight but I could hear him and the out of nowhere he came into range for a shot. And last but not least is the ‘Second Rut Buck’ that ran by me then stopped to work a scrape I hadn’t noticed.

Every animal I harvest is personal and a moment stamped in your memory of joy and sadness. I put a tremendous pressure on myself to release only that arrow for the best and humane shot. Only when I have heard the animal go down, pick up see the blood on my arrow and then lastly touch the harvest do I relax. The joy comes with dragging the harvest back to the truck and thinking I getting too old for this…then smiling Hell No I’m Not Too Old…on my drive to the butcher.

I was very fortunate this year to harvest the deer I have compared to days that add up to months with either seeing deer and never having a shot at one or, years of never even seeing deer.

The next and last blog in this series will be all the little tuning things.

Check out the previous blog in the series: Traditional Bowhunting: Camo  

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