Gerald Martin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2009
- Messages
- 8,643
Every now and then a hunt will come along that leaves you shaking your head and smiling.
I had a hunt like that on Monday evening. My brother is out from Virginia and since he killed a cow opening week we've been concentrating on deer hunting in the evenings. We've been hunting close to home on some of my familiar, favorite spots.
After a couple evening of seeing the usual parade of does and small bucks but nothing big, we decided to go to another patch of woods on the piece of BMA ground we had permission to hunt on. This particular four acre patch of woods joins a field the farmer had planted in oats this spring. Even though his cows were still in the oats field, I thought there might be potential for deer to filter along the edge of this woodlot as they headed for the field.
I had a good idea of the general location I wanted to set my brother's treestand but didn't have a specific tree picked out. It was about 4:45 p.m till we got to the edge of the woods and started looking for a tree. One medium sized larch in particular caught my eye and we headed over to check it out. It was about 20 yards from the field edge and had several trails passing by within range. I walked past the tree to the edge of the field and found another good deer trail within ten yards of the tree. Figuring this was as good a place as any we retraced the ten yards back to the larch tree.
Keep in mind we had just walked past this very tree not 40 seconds before. I was just about ready to drop my pack and treestand we I saw a black bears ear and nose sticking out from behind a big fir tree about 25 yards away. "Bear!! Right there!!" I hissed at my brother as I slipped out of my frame pack with the treestand strapped to it. My release was still buckled to my bow and I was sure the bear was going to catch my movements but I had to try to get it on. I didn't even look to see what the bear was doing until I got my release on my wrist and an arrow knocked. The bear was still there, sitting on his haunches, occasionally moving his head from side to side. Thankfully the wind was steady in our favor and he hadn't winded us. He knew something wasn't quite right but didn't know what. It was almost like he was trying to figure out which way to go and didn't want to move until he had made up his mind.
The bear was completely behind the fir tree and had to move either left or right before I could get a shot. If he went right, I had several openings to shoot through. If he went left I only had about an 18 inch window to of opportunity before he would be in the brush. The bear kept sitting there for nearly five minutes without moving more than his head. Finally I could stand it no longer and every time I couldn't see his eyes I would take a step in his direction. I only made it about ten feet before he made up his mind and started walking straight away from us keeping the big tree between us. I couldn't step to the side and shoot because of the brush, I need him to go either left or right before he got out of range.
The bear added a couple yards to the distance, then turned to the right and walked into a three foot opening. I was already at full draw and went he got broadside in the opening I bleated at him to stop him. He turned to look and my thirty yard pin was steady on his chest, three inches behind his leg and halfway up his body. The release was steady and the arrow flew straight, unfortunately the bear was still only about 25 yards away instead of the thirty I had estimated. As soon as the arrow zipped throught the top of his back I knew my shot was bad. I thought I hit him about four inches from the top of his back.
The bear grunted and took off like his tail was on fire and I was running after him trying to keep him in sight and possibly get another shot off. I ran about 15 yards up a slight hill and there he was almost 60 yards away sitting on his haunches looking back at me, trying to figure out what was going on. He was a couple yards beyond a fallen log and all I could see of the bear was from the bottem of the rib cage to the top of his head as he sat on his haunches nearly face on.
This is a shot I would never consider if he didn't already have an arrow in him, but I'm a firm believer in shooting at a wounded animal for as long as I have opportunity, even if it's not a high percentage shot. I settled my 60 yard pin between his front legs and tripped the trigger. The arrow arched over the log and went out of sight but I heard a solid "THWACK" and the bear took off again with me in hot pursuit. In my minds eye the arrow had dropped a lot lower and several inches to the right of where I had intended it to go.
I made it about thirty yards when I saw the bear sprawled out in front of me and heard his death moan.
I turns out my eyes had deceived me on the second shot. The arrow took him right in his left armpit, caught a lung , severed the artery that runs under the spine and lodged a vertebrate. He only made it about fifty yards.
Closer inspection proved that my first shot was even higher than I thought and cut only his hide, and about half an inch of meat.
While I was happy with the way things turned out, I'm pretty disgusted with myself for blowing the first shot. In the heat of the moment I just missed my guess on the yardage and shot it for too far.
I come away from it all saying that if I can't be good, at least this time I was lucky!
I had a hunt like that on Monday evening. My brother is out from Virginia and since he killed a cow opening week we've been concentrating on deer hunting in the evenings. We've been hunting close to home on some of my familiar, favorite spots.
After a couple evening of seeing the usual parade of does and small bucks but nothing big, we decided to go to another patch of woods on the piece of BMA ground we had permission to hunt on. This particular four acre patch of woods joins a field the farmer had planted in oats this spring. Even though his cows were still in the oats field, I thought there might be potential for deer to filter along the edge of this woodlot as they headed for the field.
I had a good idea of the general location I wanted to set my brother's treestand but didn't have a specific tree picked out. It was about 4:45 p.m till we got to the edge of the woods and started looking for a tree. One medium sized larch in particular caught my eye and we headed over to check it out. It was about 20 yards from the field edge and had several trails passing by within range. I walked past the tree to the edge of the field and found another good deer trail within ten yards of the tree. Figuring this was as good a place as any we retraced the ten yards back to the larch tree.
Keep in mind we had just walked past this very tree not 40 seconds before. I was just about ready to drop my pack and treestand we I saw a black bears ear and nose sticking out from behind a big fir tree about 25 yards away. "Bear!! Right there!!" I hissed at my brother as I slipped out of my frame pack with the treestand strapped to it. My release was still buckled to my bow and I was sure the bear was going to catch my movements but I had to try to get it on. I didn't even look to see what the bear was doing until I got my release on my wrist and an arrow knocked. The bear was still there, sitting on his haunches, occasionally moving his head from side to side. Thankfully the wind was steady in our favor and he hadn't winded us. He knew something wasn't quite right but didn't know what. It was almost like he was trying to figure out which way to go and didn't want to move until he had made up his mind.
The bear was completely behind the fir tree and had to move either left or right before I could get a shot. If he went right, I had several openings to shoot through. If he went left I only had about an 18 inch window to of opportunity before he would be in the brush. The bear kept sitting there for nearly five minutes without moving more than his head. Finally I could stand it no longer and every time I couldn't see his eyes I would take a step in his direction. I only made it about ten feet before he made up his mind and started walking straight away from us keeping the big tree between us. I couldn't step to the side and shoot because of the brush, I need him to go either left or right before he got out of range.
The bear added a couple yards to the distance, then turned to the right and walked into a three foot opening. I was already at full draw and went he got broadside in the opening I bleated at him to stop him. He turned to look and my thirty yard pin was steady on his chest, three inches behind his leg and halfway up his body. The release was steady and the arrow flew straight, unfortunately the bear was still only about 25 yards away instead of the thirty I had estimated. As soon as the arrow zipped throught the top of his back I knew my shot was bad. I thought I hit him about four inches from the top of his back.
The bear grunted and took off like his tail was on fire and I was running after him trying to keep him in sight and possibly get another shot off. I ran about 15 yards up a slight hill and there he was almost 60 yards away sitting on his haunches looking back at me, trying to figure out what was going on. He was a couple yards beyond a fallen log and all I could see of the bear was from the bottem of the rib cage to the top of his head as he sat on his haunches nearly face on.
This is a shot I would never consider if he didn't already have an arrow in him, but I'm a firm believer in shooting at a wounded animal for as long as I have opportunity, even if it's not a high percentage shot. I settled my 60 yard pin between his front legs and tripped the trigger. The arrow arched over the log and went out of sight but I heard a solid "THWACK" and the bear took off again with me in hot pursuit. In my minds eye the arrow had dropped a lot lower and several inches to the right of where I had intended it to go.
I made it about thirty yards when I saw the bear sprawled out in front of me and heard his death moan.
I turns out my eyes had deceived me on the second shot. The arrow took him right in his left armpit, caught a lung , severed the artery that runs under the spine and lodged a vertebrate. He only made it about fifty yards.
Closer inspection proved that my first shot was even higher than I thought and cut only his hide, and about half an inch of meat.
While I was happy with the way things turned out, I'm pretty disgusted with myself for blowing the first shot. In the heat of the moment I just missed my guess on the yardage and shot it for too far.
I come away from it all saying that if I can't be good, at least this time I was lucky!
