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Rod
09-25-2006, 08:49 PM
Well I got Bev, my GF interested in archery and while she isn't yet ready for a recurve she did buy a crossbow and after a bunch of target practice she felt she was ready try to bag a deer.

We set up a blind in her backyard and sat out each evening without seeing anything until last night.

After about an hour in the blind out walks a HUGE doe followed by a pair of pretty big fawns. Without binos I couldn't be certain but I thought that one of the little guys was sporting a set of spikes big enought to be a legal deer and I told her that if she could confirm the antlers she should take it.

The true hunter that she is she said that she wanted a "BIG BUGGER" for her first crossbow deer and would wait for some serious horns..... 5 minutes later out walks a beautiful 3X5. He stood behind the doe for what seemed like hours while it continued to get darker and darker.

The doe finally moved out and she made a perfect shot, I heard the bolt strike and saw the buck flinch before he ran off.

We waited about ten minutes and went to look for a blood trail (flashlight required by this time), I found the first droplet of blood about 10 yards from where he was standing and about 5 yards further it looked like someone had opened up a garden hose! we followed the blood trail for about 75 yards and found him piled up with a perfect passthrough shot to the heart.

Not only is Bev a great shot and one hell of a sportswoman she certainly held her own today when we cut and wrapped the meat and she fleshed and salted the hide in preparation for tanning.

I caped him out for her and we will be contacting my taxidermist this week and she is going to tan the hide herself and make us some slippers...

A fantastic first deer for a woman who truly deserves it.

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m59/rlahaise/3x5.jpg

cowboy-up69
09-25-2006, 08:51 PM
Nice buck! :D

Gus
09-25-2006, 09:15 PM
Right on, excellent first archery buck.

livingston
09-25-2006, 09:19 PM
Very nice deer!! Looks like a happy hunter:)

bsa30-06
09-25-2006, 10:12 PM
Nice buck, and a real good deer for a first archery kill.Congrats

Timbow
09-26-2006, 06:35 AM
Congradulations on your kill! Nice looking animal.

rocksteady
09-26-2006, 07:56 AM
Nice looking deer...Pass along congrats to the GF...

Canuck2
09-26-2006, 08:00 AM
What a good looking buck! Kudos to your girlfriend; good for her, putting in the time and prep to make this a successful hunt.

MB_Boy
09-26-2006, 08:57 AM
Nice work!! Pass on the "thumbs up" to your girlfriend.

bwhnter
09-26-2006, 09:13 AM
Great Job!!!

~T-BONE~
09-26-2006, 07:56 PM
Wow nice to see she held out..... 1st bow ..1st deer... Be tough to top that! Congradulations wishing you two many more great hunts down the road!8)

BlacktailStalker
09-26-2006, 09:39 PM
Congrats, thats a nice buck

Marc
09-26-2006, 09:40 PM
Tell Bev Congrats on a great deer Rod. Where you guys hunting in a bow/shotgun only area? Can you shoot does up there as well?

Marc.

huntwriter
09-27-2006, 04:54 AM
Congratulations to the first bow kill.

Rod
09-27-2006, 08:28 AM
This deer was taken in Bev's back yard, as we are on the east side of hwy 19 it is shotgun/archery only.

We have seen a group of several bachelor bucks hanging around since last spring including one that is considerably larger than this one. About mid July the bucks stopped showing up and we were getting a little discouraged but about two weeks ago I was heading to the barn and a bigger buck was about 30 yards away.

He stood and watched me as I opened the barn to get my bow then crawled through the grass and he was broadside at about 20 yards when I took the shot.

Bev was watching from the deck as I missed by mere inches and she has been kind enough to remind me daily that I missed what was probably a larger deer than the beauty that she took :-)

With plenty of time left I am confident that I will have another opportunityand Bev will be picking up another tag this week just in case I need further demonstration.

Cheers
Rod

Elkhound
10-20-2006, 11:28 AM
Bev was watching from the deck as I missed by mere inches and she has been kind enough to remind me daily

Funny how they only remind us about the mistakes and not the great things we accomplish eh?:lol:

Congrats on Bev's deer. Hope it's the first of many.

NEEHAMA
10-20-2006, 12:09 PM
nice work, congrats

Onesock
10-20-2006, 09:52 PM
Well ya know its great she got a deer, and I am happy for her. But ----- I hope she does realize there is a whole lot more to bowhunting than shooting a deer in her back yard with a x-bow. As we see there is a photo going around of a deer with an arrow sticking out of it,probably shot in a neighbour such as yours. Not good. I don't think there should be a bow season in urban area's for this reason. The guy that shot this probably fancied himself a bowhunter also. I am sorry to upset anyone here but this is how I feel. Take a bowhunter education course, learn about bowhunting and get out in the bush and do it. Once again congrats, but lets get out of town to hunt.

N-W-Redneck
10-20-2006, 10:04 PM
Never mind the nice buck..............


WHAT A WOMAN! :D


Not only does she hunt, but can follow through the whole process from the shot to the table. Heck, she makes ME feel like a newb as I've never tanned a hide, or made a pair of mocs. Although it's something I've always wanted to try. I hope you appreciate what you got there bud! Congrats to both of you for your respective 'game'! LOL

Thunderstix
10-20-2006, 10:43 PM
Whoa! That is too cool!

Rod
10-21-2006, 08:51 AM
This is not her first deer by far, she has been hunting since she was a teen and has taken several deer as well as moose. Prior to even considering using the crossbow for hunting she spent several days punchin' holes in a target from various ranges and insisted on being able to put all shots "in the black". She did all the work on setting up a ground blind within her comfort zone of a trail junction (20 yds) and made certain the shooting lanes were free of any obstructions.

This isn't a "town deer" her house is a rural acerage surrounded by farms and backs onto a large overgrown brush filled field. The deer here are just as wary as any I have hunted back in the hills.

We have seen a few deer since she took this one but unfortunately they have all been does or bucks that simply never offered a shot.

This is not a girl who simply picked up a xbow and whacked a deer, she is an experienced firearm hunter who like many of us decided to expand her chances and the xbow allowed her to do so this season. I will be building her a takedown recurve with lightweight limbs to practice and build up her "shootin' shoulders" and a second heavier set of limbs for hunting once she has had time to practice, practice, practice. Of course she has no intention of attempting to take any game by any means unless she is totally confident in her equipment as well as her own ability to make a clean kill.

Fabulous woman with superior ethics that I would be happy to call a hunting partner regardless of our current relationship.

Cheers
Rod


Well ya know its great she got a deer, and I am happy for her. But ----- I hope she does realize there is a whole lot more to bowhunting than shooting a deer in her back yard with a x-bow. As we see there is a photo going around of a deer with an arrow sticking out of it,probably shot in a neighbour such as yours. Not good. I don't think there should be a bow season in urban area's for this reason. The guy that shot this probably fancied himself a bowhunter also. I am sorry to upset anyone here but this is how I feel. Take a bowhunter education course, learn about bowhunting and get out in the bush and do it. Once again congrats, but lets get out of town to hunt.

Fred
10-21-2006, 10:18 AM
Nice looking Buck but a nicer looking Lady. Well done. Fred

QnsCowboy
10-21-2006, 07:17 PM
Well ya know its great she got a deer, and I am happy for her. But ----- I hope she does realize there is a whole lot more to bowhunting than shooting a deer in her back yard with a x-bow. As we see there is a photo going around of a deer with an arrow sticking out of it,probably shot in a neighbour such as yours. Not good. I don't think there should be a bow season in urban area's for this reason. The guy that shot this probably fancied himself a bowhunter also. I am sorry to upset anyone here but this is how I feel. Take a bowhunter educatiion course, learn about bowhunting and get out in the bush and do it. Once again congrats, but lets get out of town to hunt.

I never stop being amazed at how some, feel the need to trash other people's accomplishments....That is a great buck, taken with a cross bow...She has the opportuinity to take one from her back yard, so be it....As stated she has taken other animals before, this was a first with the cross bow...Maybe you could take an education course on accepting people's accomplishments, instead of critizicing them.....

Craig

oldtimer
10-21-2006, 08:39 PM
Craig as a senior statesman on here i couldn't have said it better. Rod pass on my congratulations and tell her to ignore ignorant posts.
Onesock the buck was taken legally. I don't know where you live but a lot of us live in rural areas where it is legal to shoot wild game.A lot of us post where we live , why don't you ??? Mike

Beverly
10-22-2006, 10:12 PM
This is not her first deer by far, she has been hunting since she was a teen

....ah technically since I could walk :lol: I think pretty much as soon as I could balance on two little feet I was my dads hunting buddy lol.:wink:

Rod
10-22-2006, 10:26 PM
Hey a newbie on the list!!!!! Great to see that you joined :-) I guess I gotta behave now eh?

And remember no telling tales about the deer I miss with my bow.

Elkhound
10-23-2006, 11:40 AM
Welcome Beverly........nice to see female hunters out there.

Now you are in for it Rod. We can here the real stories now. Mrs.Elkhound posts here too. I know what I am talking about.:lol:

Rod
10-23-2006, 12:45 PM
Well I guess I really will be in for it since the number of bucks that are showing themselves even on the trail cam have dropped off dramatically I have decided that I will take the next legal deer I see. Being that does are legal here that's probably what I'll end up with.....

Of course I'll probably never stop hearing that Bev's first archery deer was a monster buck, if I do cut my tag on a doe you can bet it will be well publicised here!

I finally got my new recurve from Bowhunter Superstore after a full month wait (I hate Canada Customs) excellent deal on a 60lb recurve and after messing around with brace height, knocking position and a couple of different arrow rests I can put a handfull of arrows inside 6" at 30 yds so I'm confident that I can make a clean shot within that range..

Huge scrape found this morning about 100 yards from our ground blind so with any luck the other bruiser we saw earlier in the season will offer me a shot. (I would have to go into hiding if Bev takes two bucks before I get anything).

Cheers
Rod

Beverly
10-23-2006, 01:26 PM
(I would have to go into hiding if Bev takes two bucks before I get anything).


Hmmmm... I suppose this is why you tried to convince me this morning not to sight my cross bow back in? :mad:

You can bet your butt that if you take a measly doe or spike that the
" big guy " you missed will be in my freezer before you can get into town for another tag ROTFLMAO!

QnsCowboy
10-23-2006, 05:42 PM
Sounds like someone has already outshot the other....:)

Welcome to the site Bev....

Craig

Rod
10-23-2006, 06:39 PM
Yea she outshot me.. worse yet read my second post in this thread and you can imagine what I'm going through after having her watch me miss a monster....:mad:

Did I mention that it was pouring rain that day, I was in a T-shirt, didn't have my glasses on, early morning and I was short on coffee...... wind was wrong...... wait I can think of some more excuses just give me time :-)

xtremearchery
10-25-2006, 12:20 PM
Awesome job! Beautiful buck. I think anyone would be happy with that deer!

The Hermit
10-25-2006, 01:06 PM
Nice buck! You are a blessed man too!

Rod
10-25-2006, 02:46 PM
I have yet to see a buck since Bev took her deer and I am really worried about the fallout I will suffer if I don't arrow a buck ofmy own this year. If anyone has a tree stand that has a bunch of bucks milling around it think about the public service you would be doing be dropping me a note and offering to let me harvest a buck :-)

I have taken my fair share of deer, mostly Ontario whitetails and several were pretty impressive animals and all but one taken with rifle or BP.

That one deer was arrowed with a crossbow made from scratch over 20 years ago, I still have the beast it uses a car leaf spring for the bow, has a 250lb draw and will turn wood bolts into matchsticks about 10 feet from launch and normal aluminum bolts almost fold in half from the force.

I am too old and have too many deer to my credit to be desperate but I really look forward to taking a blacktail with a traditional bow but having seen the look on her face and hearing how proud her dad is about this deer I can honestly say that if it takes me 5 years to arrow a deer the memory of this one will more than make up for it.

Hermit; you are right I am blessed and I know it! :-)

Elkhound
10-25-2006, 05:02 PM
Hermit; you are right I am blessed and I know it! :-)

And that, truely, is all that matters

deerhunter
10-25-2006, 06:20 PM
Congradulations on the nice buck,wish I get my wife into hunting.Rick

Beverly
10-27-2006, 10:31 PM
Hermit; you are right I am blessed and I know it! :-)

Oh ya ya ya.... :twisted: sucking up will not stop the gloating LOL! You need to get a bigger buck then mine soon so you can shrink my head a tad prior to me bagging an even bigger one!