Popped my Cherry Yesterday!!!

[DONTSTROKEME]

Well it isn't longrange but it is a filled tag.
I took up Archery Deer hunting here in the northwest this year. We don't really get long range shots here but the modern season is overrun with hunter orange, 8000 people looking for 16 bucks. I hadn't taken any big game before and wanted to take a deer, and archery is the onle season here that is ANY deer. It also has a great season, all of September and from November 22 to the end of December. I ended up tradeing a 38 Special into a Reflex compound bow (which is a Hoyt that didn't sell the year before) in mid September.

I didn't think that I would be good enough with it to hunt in September but I was actually pretty good with it. I hunted some of September and most of December with no luck. Alot of snow and then cold snaps, then big wind storms, and I could not find a deer anywhere. Yesterday I saw a little doe, no spots.....that was my only requierment this late in the season. At about 45 yards I took her through the lung. I was very suprised at how good the broadhead worked. I know that it isn't a huge animal with dense bones but it just sliced right through her.

I had a bit of trouble with the cleaning of the deer but I got through it by my self ok. No one was around that had done it before because of the holidays. I am proud of one thing, that I did it all by myself for the first time, I have cleaned lots of grouse and coyotes and racoons but nothing where I cared about the meat.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o183/dontstrokeme/th_HPIM0418.jpg

I might catch some crap about a doe or that it is small but......it is venison.

Joe Oakes

 

[DONTSTROKEME]

Just posted but they are very small pics?????

Any ideas?

Joe Oakes

 

[James Jones]

Any deer killed with a bow is a trophy in my book. Archery is my first passion in hunting, and trust me killing a big old doe is harder than killing a big buck as their generaly more weary from looking after babies.

45yds a is a pretty good poke for a bow down here in the south 15-20yds is average but we hunt from tree stands 99% of the time.
I have showed several people vedios that I shot while hunting der with a bow and their always amazed how fast the go down and just how much they bleed. I shoot a 4 blade expandable (Rocket) with a 2" cut and the hole it makes is amazing, I'll have to see if I can get some vidios from VHS to disc and get them posted. I even had a guy that was in the stand above me filming gag after he watched a doe I shot stagger off pouring everything everywhere , he had never seen a deer shot with a bow and was awe struck how quickly she expired.

Congrats and enjoy the meat , no matter how long you cook them horks in the crock pot they will never get tender !!

 

[pythonwill]

I never did score bow hunting, I just had a blast getting into range to try for a shot. I gave it up because I would have starved waiting for my venison /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif anything you score with a bow is a well deserved trophy.
From the pic of the hole in the side It looks like you did a fine job of cleaning the meat up after dressing it out. mine seldom looks that clean until its on the cutting table.

 

[davewilson]

Joe, when you kill your first deer with a bow, in the late season, that's special. not many can say that.it'll be one of those hunts you'll never forget.a definite congratulations are in order.you had to do a lot of things right.

i don't know about cooking horns in a crock pot. but i love to chew on those old tough bucks.they taste the best to be!

 

[Mountainsheep]

Congratulations on the kill! Personaaly, I consider 45 yards to be long-range shot for a bow. It has been several years since I've taken a bow hunting, but it is very exciting and challenging. I hope this is just the first of many for you.

Merry Christmas,
Dave

 

[41mag]

Congrats on your first archery kill.

I tried many years ago to get into bow hunting. At the time they had anterless during archery season with no permit. I was looking for freezer meat and figured what the heck. I practiced week end and week out and got everything ready for the openeing weekend. I had a stand overlooking a trail that was beaten into the ground about 4" deep, and could just about set my watch by the time they came by each day.

The opening weekends led to me sitting in the stand watching as the same deer I had previously watched, walked carelessly through the pasture about 200yds out from the stand. Nothing made it down the trail during bow season.

Opening weekend of rifle, I had a buck and doe crawl by my stand within about 15 yds, and decided that with the rifle, I could get them in close or out far, and haven't looked back.

A late season deer in heavily hunted areas is a trophy no matter what. Again congrats on your hunt and hope it leads to many future sucesses.

 

[ATH]

I enjoy all deer hunting, but nothing beats getting up close and personal with a bow...congrats!

45 yds is a long range shot, especially for a newbie. I shot one at 50 once and thought that was way, way out (though I'd practiced for it of course).

 

[Buffalobob]

Congratulations

The reason I enjoy bowhunting is there is a lot of hunting and very little gutting, dragging, skinning and butchering. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif More fun less work.

 

[sambo3006]

Way to go! You will never forget the details of your first archery deer. Mine was in 1997 and I can still remember what the breeze was like that day and the feel of the deer's warm weight.

45 yds is pretty good distance. What was the BC on your arrows? Were the heads match kings or broadheads? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As far as field dressing one, when I was about 14 and had never killed a deer I asked my youth pastor at church how to gut one out and he said "Just open him up and take everything out." To this day that is the simplest and best way I have ever heard it described.

Congratulations again on your archery kill!
Sam

 

[Roll-Yur-Own]

Congrats! I love archery and 45 yards is a long shot for most any archery hunter. Meat is meat.

I started archery hunting to expand my season and quickly learned that you see a lot more deer and less hunters during archery than during rifle season. They are not pressured and only REAL hunters are afield.

Plus in early season you get first crack at those 16 bucks you mentioned.

Happy Holidays!

 

[stxhunter]

i got two hogs and a bobcat this season with my bow passed on a couple of young bucks i'm haveing the bobcat mounted shot i it at about 10 yrds so far nothing with my 300 ultra i really injoy the getting up close and personable with archey and i second the seeing more game during archey season the hogs and deer around here turn nocturnal soon as rifle season starts great going that first kill with a bow is special and 45 yrds at that great shot

 

[grit]

Joe,
Congrats, and thanks for the story. The first year I hunted with a bow I got a doe tag to go with my buck tag. Figured I'd at least get to take something. I did. The doe. There's a lot in common between bowhunting and long range rifle work. I took my furthest bow shot at a deer this year. A perfect quartering away at 75.5 yards. Nailed it! Like countless times at the range! There is always a thrill when you make a good long range shot.
Anyway, welcome to bowhunting. It's an awesome addiction. Enjoy the venison.