Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: robby on July 10, 2009, 07:40:07 pm
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I'm a new guy, and have some stuff in the trader forum. One of the fellows there asked to see some pictures of my bows and things. This is the only picture I have showing my equipment right now, I'll get some more of, just the equipment, later. This one shows the lunatic your dealing with anyway, its about fifteen years old. I've never been much for pictures, this time my wife just happen to have a camera when I arrived home. The bow is Osage, 85lb's., 73" lg., with elk antler string knocks, English style, the arrow is either red or white ash, don't remember, both are great arrow woods, the broad head is fashioned from am old two man cross-cut saw.
(http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh217/robin101st/IMG_0001.jpg)
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Nice deer ! Would love to hear the story behind kill.
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very nice,and yes a story to go with that buck has to be interesting.looks like some beautiful country your in.
oh yea, DAMN boy you pull an 85 lb bow :o
i aint never done that in my life. 70 lbs is the most i have ever done and that was before my shoulders got bamd
peace,
tim
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saw that picture in traditional bowhunter mag. awesome sounds like a story
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I'm sure their's some good memories in that picture Rob, and that's a fine buck!
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80 lbs you got my vote for bad a@$. dang nice deer.
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Hunter,yeah thats the one, my oldest boy sent that in, I was kind of embarrassed, but he meant well and a fine young man.
cowboy, sailordad, There are some good memories there, I'll tell you fellows how it went, but right now, I just got home from shooting, and I don't mind telling you, I'm wooped! Manyana.
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ya id be whooped too if i just got back from shooting monster weight bows like that ;D
ill stick to my 50lb bows
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Lookin foreward to the pics and story.It will be a great Benefit to us all,to have the input from your experience.
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yeah, im 16 and rather large, football player and powerlifter, and i only shoot 55 lbs. i would like to shoot a heavy bow like that. looks awsome. ;D
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First, let me say, I am no bad-a$$, tough guy. When that pic was taken, I was 5'10", and about a buck and a half, since then I have lost a little altitude, gained a little latitude, but still, pretty much, have the same attitude. I am very opinionated, but when it comes to archery, I try to maintain the good natured banter and give and take you might experience with Confound shooters at the local range, besides, I'm outnumbered about 60:1, Hah! Reminds me of a time at our archery club. A big fellow was asking about my equipment, asked if he could draw my bow, always willing to share in the promotion of traditional archery, have at it says I. Well, as expected, he got it back to around the sixty pound range and gave up the ghost. Maybe a little embarrassed, I don't know, he was considerably larger than me, anyway, he starts going on about that, You must be some kind of bad-a$$, bet you don't have any trouble at the local saloon, etc. stuff. Honestly I wasn't sure where this was all going, so I looked him in the eye, smiled and with as much humility as I could intone, said, well I don't know about all that tough guy, bar fighting stuff, but I could probably pull your arm off! Got a lot of laughs all around. That's the way I like it!
When I started out, I had a love for the sport and no guidance, so I went to the local library and happened upon a copy of "Hunting With the Bow and Arrow" by Saxton pope. That has been the single most influential thing in forming my opinions and taking the directions I have taken in this sport. I have my own copy, and still, to this day, reread portions of that book every year.
About that hunt, It was a cold, grey day at Lambo Field, oh, wrong venue, sorry. I was in a stalking kind of mood that day, hence the boots. Those are Bean, Maine guide boots, they have the soft gum rubber soles to keep the feet dry, grip pretty good, and are thin enough so I can feel what's under my feet, so I don't put full weight on anything that might snap, the leather uppers tend to deflect weed and prickers without any loud scraping sound you might get from fabric. I don't wear camo, easy now, I'm not saying anyone else should or shouldn't, for me, I don't want to feel like I'm making war on these poor creatures, I just want to kill them and eat them, and use some of their body parts to make better equipment, so that I might do a better job in the killing part. The broad brim hat provides a shade and shadow to the eyes for better viewing, and the band gives a place to stick pieces of weed and such, I also use a bit of burnt cork on the face, well, I guess I do use camouflage, It just doesn't have buttons and zippers Hah! I was hunting a fairly large area adjacent to a woods full of oaks and beech, but hard to hunt on the ground in, because there isn't much under growth, pretty open. Filled with game trails, the area I'm in is goldenrod and such, shin to chest high, broken up by sizable clumps of osier, sumac, and some widely dispersed poplar and other entry level trees. I'm moving little, looking a lot, trying to see them first and make a plan to close with. The deer pictured is the only deer I saw that day, and he pretty much marched in at about thirty yards during one of my, looking a lot, phases. He stopped and was looking behind him and I though there might be a bigger fellow on the way, so I lower myself down at woods speed, thats what I call my movements while stalking, I try to move no faster than the air is moving the environment around me. I'm pretty much a meat hunter, but I still become a bit unhinged at the sight of a nice buck. I figured the buck at hand was better than the one that might be in the bush, so I rise up, draw, Think, and release, The arrow had a good line, but sailed over him, He didn't react much, about as much as you might react if a swallow swooped by your head unexpectedly, I'm not too surprised, I spend a lot of time twisting my string in and out tuning the bow and shooting with my eyes closed, trying to get it as quiet as possible. I'm already back down and chastising myself for thinking too much, I mean, what's all that practice for, other than the pure enjoyment of shooting, Its so when that moment comes, everything just flows along its natural line. I nock-up, completely erase any vestige of what just happened, rock up, draw, anchor and release. It was what I think the Japanese call moo-shin, no mindedness, I knew before the arrow had cleared the bow, it was the perfect shot, every muscle, eye, hands, bow and arrow, were in perfect concert, I watched the arrow all the way in, heard that familiar sound, and knew he was mine now. He bolted, not wildly so, but with the definite mind set, that anywhere but here, is probably a better place to be. I don't think he went more than fifty yards, and the trail was what you would expect from a double lunger. I didn't wait, I recovered my arrow, and went right to him.
I made my peace with the animal, and gave thanks to our creator, That is important.
That's pretty much it, an average guy, doing what comes natural, more often than not, coming home empty handed, that day I was successful, but even if I had come home empty handed, I think I would still felt I had achieved some measure of success. God bless!
Robby
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Great story and a dandy buck :)
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Thanks for the story Robby. I enjoyed it !
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Nice deer and very good story,thanks for sharing. :)
Pappy
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You're quite the story teller!...I enjoyed it and appreciate the sharing. You should submit some stories to PA... ;)
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Your story sure brought back lots of memories of mule deer and elk stalks. Like your way with words and especially appreciated the blessing of the animal at the end! Hope you will submit some stories to the PA mag. Was at a local ranch rodeo with a bunch of my cowboy friends and all of us feeling a little cowboy tough when a fellow showed up in an old van. He pulled out a stick bow from the back along with some blue ribbons that he passed out! He strung up the bow and asked if anyone of us could pull that rascal and offered ten bucks for the feller who could do it! Now that was enough to draw a chute run bareback with the potential of 50 or 60 dollars winnins. So we all lined up for the chance and all he said was no dry firing! You know bareback riders and cowboys in general consider themselves a little tougher than the average dude. Well there was a lot of strainin and some serious red faces when none of us could even start to draw that bow. Had to be the bow from hell! One of the sore contestants said we will all bet you ten bucks we can pool up that you can't pull ole tree trunk yourself. Now this feller was dressed in khaki pants, tenny shoes, and a tiedyed tee shirt. Must have scaled in about 160 pounds and measured less than six feet. A real bean pole Ichabod specimen. No comment from him! He nocked an arrow and pulled back and sent it sailing plumb out of sight over the ridge! Pulls about 110 says he and I'll take that tener now! This is a true story as I remember it from l969. Pokie
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Another good story,I'm loving this. :)
Pappy
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Good story Pokie! Would be nice to know who that gentleman was and a little of his history! ;)
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Good one Watcher!! Makes me wish I had been there. Not for the bow pulling part, but it sounds like there was a lot of laughing and a bunch of guys having a good time. Back in the day, ten and more years ago, when our club would get well over a hundred guys to a 3-d shoot. I guess I was some kind of oddity, I mean, I was not only the only guy with homemade stuff, you couldn't even find a modern laminated recurve amongst all that towing equipment. If I took a buck for every time some confound shooter came up to me and said "Oh, I've heard of you, I thought you'd be bigger", I could have bought some of those fancy arrow shafts made from re-cycled beer cans, I hear they make great tomato stakes. I always looked them in the eye and replied,"Yeah, well, I'm big inside." I never really liked the attention, but I'd stand at that practice range and shoot the breeze all morning If it would help get the shooters out. These days, we are lucky to get twenty shooters, though I do see more traditionalists, quality over quantity, I guess.
Robby
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Robby: I found out later that the fellow with the tree trunk bow was named Jim Patterson. He did not always have a job and grew himself a reputation earning some grub and gas money pulling that bow. He showed up one day at a turkey shoot and pulled the same stunt. Nobody ever got mad at him taking their money cause he fair enough earned it. And in those days it was a common occurance for a little fracus to break out over minor differences, especially if someone figured he might just have the upper hand. Well when you watched ole Jim brace that bow, you thought twice about chastizen a feller who you just watched do somethin you never had a chance doin! One of my aquantances said he got to be pretty good friends with ole Jim and they used to get in the cups together. Guess he was just as good at arm wrestlin as bow benden and that provided some fair amount of free beers. Kind of reminds me of that wrestler from Oklahoma that could break a pair of pliers just by squeezin um! And that is also a true story! Pokie He must have been just plain tough inside also!
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I'm glad I took the time to read that one. This is what it is all about.
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That's one heck of a photo Robby, and an even better story. That's the neatest thing I've read online in a while. Thanks alot for throwing that up. ;D
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robby, thats an inspiring story- a great buck, and an 85 pound bow? geez, mite as well go out there with a warbow haha. oh, and i have to thank you for honoring the dead, theres more and more unethical hunters out there, its good to see one who knows his way around. -jimmy
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Great stories fellas.Ya'll sure nuff sound like my kind of hunters.God Bless
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Great story - especially the recovery from a miss, and the term "woodspeed" gotta remember that, thanks
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sounds like my kind of guy