I built this little bow early this spring out of necessity, because I couldn't shoot any other bows I had out of my turkey blind that my wife bought me. The bow ended up being 54" long, and pulls just over 55lbs at 28. I did shoot a turkey with it this spring but after an exhaustive search, I was unable to find the bird. Feeling a little bummed about it, I put the bow up and continued shooting my Strunk yew longbow. Well, a few months ago, I picked the bow back up, and was amazed at how good I was shooting it. I had some good hunts coming up this year, so thought, what the heck, lets take "Little Shorty" out.
Adventure number 1 -- I backpacked about 4 and a half miles into the Holy Cross Wilderness area early Saturday morning for a few days of deer and elk hunting. I had not actually been in this section before, and was not sure how the hike in was. Everything about this area is RUGGED! The hike in consisted of the first 2.8 miles being straight up. I left the truck at 10,000ft and ended up at the pass I crossed over at 12,600ft. After crossing the pass, it opened up to miles of Colorado high country with not a hunter or hiker in site (and this is Labor Day weekend). On Sunday, I spotted two mulies feeding in a draw up above timber. I got a good look at them, and they were both monster bucks! I had the wind right and started my stalk. When I peeked up over the edge of the draw, the bucks were 50 yards away, and totally unaware. as the bucks fed away from me, I made a move to get to some cover, and WHAM!! one of the bucks spots me, and they are gone! I only needed 20-25 yards but it wasn't in the cards that day. Anyways, it was well worth the effort, and that was the first time I've seen deer of that caliber outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, or in a backyard in Boulder, LOL. Monday morning, I jumped a group of cow elk way down in the dark timber. One of the larger cows stood broadside looking at me at 25yards. I slowly got an arrow nocked and started to bring my bow up. The cow just stood there looking at me. I ended up just watching her for 30 seconds or so before she bust out. I could have made the shot, but there is no way I could of got her out of there that day and been at work Tuesday morning. It was probably 6 miles from the trailhead with a 2000ft elevation gain straight up out of there. If it had been the first day, I wouldn't have hesitated. All in all, 2 real opportunities in 3 days of hunting, well that ain't bad
Adventure number 2 will continue next week. I have a bighorn ewe tag in Colorado's famed Georgetown area, S-32. Unfortunately, I couldnt make it for the opener today due to work obligations, but I'm going to be up there from Friday until the season closes on the 19th. Hopefully, "Little Shorty" will finally get a chance to make meat !!
