Realizing I never shared the hunting story here as some had asked to hear. Well, here it is, taken from an e-mail back in late September.
I was asked by John Kelley to share the tale of my successful hunt...and my first archery harvest! Here is the short version (look for the long-winded version in a future Primitive Archer magazine issue):
Opening morning I had a nice three point buck tagged. This buck sort of offered himself up to me.
I was slowly working my way into a waterhole/wallow I knew of from a couple of years back...by the way, this is Sled Springs unit of the Wallow Mountains. I thought I was getting close to the water, but things looked different as some significant logging operations had occurred in the time since I was last there. After sitting and checking my map, I got up to proceed only to spy a buck looking at me from about 35 yards away on a little rim. He had me pinned, but he didn't seem too alarmed. I tried my best to disguise my intentions, and so without much pause, I turned and took a few steps back to where I had been sitting and sat right back down, casually keeping my eye on him, looking over my shoulder through the cover of some brush. He looked curious and so I played on it, throwing pine-cones out into the gravel roadbed and making little squirrel sounds. He started coming down the hill towards me, but eventually decided it wasn't right and turned to face back up hill. I got up with an arrow nocked and drew on him at about 30 yards, now broadside. I let the arrow fly, and it went right over his back, but the sound of the arrow hitting the ground on the other side of him sent him in a short loop only to give me another broadside shot at 30 yards. As I drew back this time, he took two steps towards me giving me only a complete front facing shot. It felt right and I let it loose. The heavy arrow struck him right in the neck, and he dropped to the ground. It was pretty incredible.
The next day I missed two spike Elk, both jumped the string on long shots. Then just about two weeks ago, I hit a beautiful roosevelt 6 point herd bull high in the back. Luckily, it was very poor penetration and he went away with just a minor flesh wound. I had cow-called him back in for a second chance when the herd cow let out a loud bark, leading him to back out of the deal.
Hope everyone else had a great time in the woods. Always lots to enjoy and learn, but sometimes we even get meat out of it!
Happy trails,
Carson
