Archery Hunting Photos

[vister]

the smile on your face says it all!! congats on a nice one too!

[CrowRiverRat83]

Thats what its all about! Im in the same boat, 6 years bowhunting and yet to score a buck. I would be just as excited. Good job!

[Meat-Run]

snapcrappop,

totally awesome buck and great expression, congrats and I too am in the same situation 5 years and no buck YET I can feel it this is going to be my year!!!!

mr

[luckey]

I got this one Sunday morning. It's my first bow kill buck.

[T.O.W]

Congrats on the first bow buck. I hope to be there someday. How much did that one weigh? He looks hefty.

[snapcrackpop]

Thanks guys. I wanted a good photo that captured my feelings...I think I got it.

I am proud of myself for making the shot count when given the chance. That has been my biggest worry/fear.

Nice deer guys! To the rest of you hang in there, it's worth the wait.

[DonBo]

Great buck luckey! Some nice ones coming in now.....

[WestCentralGuru]

nice deer guys. Ive been bow hunting for 2 years and passed on many decent bucks this year. Ive yet to shoot a deer with a bow.

[MattL]

I shot this doe back on October 18. Quartering away shot at about 15 yds with 3-blade Rage broadheads. Made for a short tracking job. The action is really starting to heat up out there with a lot of bucks chasing between 10:00 and 2:00.

[bigbucks]

Nice job guys, some very nice bucks especially. Had a dandy 10 pointer very close last Thursday night in WI that was unaware of me, but I was being harassed by a 4 wheeler across the fence & that was the way he wanted to & needed to go. He turned around & skeedaddled.

[MattL]

I took a couple days off of work this week to hunt and had probably the best hunting I have ever had. Most of the deer activity was between 10 and 2. I took this 10 pointer yesterday at around 8:00 a.m. He wasn't the biggest buck I've seen over the last several days and he probably should have been given another year or two, but he presented a 15 yd broadside shot that I couldn't resist.

[ac777]

That's a beaut there Matt. WHat part of the state did you get him?

[alex1]

If you would have let him go someone else would have taken him. Dandy buck and congrats.

[Meat-Run]

Beautiful buck MattL.

mr

[Heartman]

All great pics - congrats to the hunters - keep them coming!

[B-man715]

Nice deer everybody!

I finally got a full time job again, good for the bank account, but bad for hours in the stand. I've been pretty much been limited to hunting weekends for the last month. Last weekend (Halloween) I sat dark to dark on Saturday. I only saw 3 deer all day!!!! Talk about slow I passed up a small 6 and a spike and saw a doe a ways out. I decided to only hunt the morning and evening of Sunday. Sunday morning I tried a different stand (ladder stand on a creek crossing). The leaves were wet and a nice shooter 8 point came running in (nearly silently) off of the deer trail. I had my bow up and ready to draw thinking he would run past, for a quartering away shot. Instead he stopped right in front of me at 10 yards with the wind in my face. I couldn't draw and he started to inspect his surroundings and noticed the big blob on the ladder. I closed my eyes and waited for what seemed like forever, but after a full minute I thought he would lower his head and resume his course. Instead he took a few bounds I was unable to get a shot off. Picked off in a ladder stand, sometimes I just hate them things. GGGGRRRRRRRR!!

Anyways I got mad and left, thinking if he saw me any other deer would too. That evening I hunted a different property. It was a hard decision to either hunt or watch the game, so I brought the headphones with and did both! I ended up passing on a doe and seeing a decent 6 point walk by too. GO VIKES!!

All week passed with me leaving the house in the dark and getting home in the dark. I heard from my neighbors and friends of the day light activity picking up fast!! I was excited for the weekend

Saturday morning came and I was in the stand for the all day, what I had hoped for EXTRAVAGANZA! It was HORRIBLE! Like the weekend previous (Halloween) I passed a different spike (7am), saw a small 6 (8am) and a doe fawn sreamed by at 3:30 pm. Three deer in 12 hours on stand!! [PoorWordUsage] Talk about a long day To say the least my spirits were low.

Last night I checked the weather forecast for the lastet wind update, and found it to be east for today. I looked in my notebook for a good stand site for that wind and decided on a funnel that is over a half mile back on some public land. (that I found last year)

To say the least I wasn't exactly thrilled when the alarm clock went off at 4:30 this morning, but I hoped this funnel would produce some activity for another all day hunt. With the gps in hand and my climber on my pack I found my way to the spot. I had only passed two scrapes and a few fresh rubs on the way in (1100 yards of walking). Nothing spectacular.

The funnel itself is a bridge of dry land between about a 10 acre swamp and a 5-7 acre pond. I already had a tree picked out to cover the 30 yard span. On the deer trail passing through I quickly made a mock scrape and dumped some tink's on it. (putting out scent is something I rarely do.) My thought was that this scrape might stop a buck that is running through the funnel and present a shot without having to grunt to stop him.

I set up my climber and maxed out my hoist rope, my feet were at 25 feet. The wind was perfect and I had a chip shot to the trail.

I wasn't sitting for very long and about 6:45 I saw some movement coming around the swamp. The deer was about 60 yards away trotting right towards the funnel. I saw antlers and stood up with bow in hand. As the buck closed within 30 yards I decided he was a shooter and drew back my bow. He merged right onto the main trail that crossed right in front of me and was closing ground fast! My shooting lanes aren't much of lanes (can't cut trees down on public land), but the mock scrape I had made earlier stopped him perfectly in a small opening!! 15 yards away, 25 feet up, the shot was steep, but I sunk a perfect arrow through his chest as he was peeing on the mock scrape!

The arrow didn't pass through, lodging in the opposite front shoulder. I watched as he srambled throuth the brush, he was nearly out of site then suddenly piled up about 70 yards away!

I let out a few hoots of celebration, hoping nobody was close enough to hear They would have have thought it was the biggest owl ever LOL

I climbed down and packed up then walked over to check him out. He was a nice 10 point, not huge, not my biggest, but a buck like that is good enough to ride in the back of Brandon Meyer's truck anyday!

[jkcmj]

I shot a small 8 point tonight. With all the nice bucks on trail cam this year, I had not planned on shooting one this small, but he jumped up out of his bed right alongside the trail I was walking to my evening stand and I could not help myself. I had one trail cam photo of him which gives you a peep into their lives before the kill.

[DooWap]

Got this guy the afternoon before rifle opener.

[1eyeReD]

Awesome buck!! Even better story. I hope to some day have a good buck and story to go with.

[sticknstring]

Nice bow bucks Doowap and B-man. I had the same gameplan as you B-man but mine didn't pan out.

Congrats to you too jkcmj - nice buck.

[T.S128]

Got out of my slump finally. Haven't been able to connect with one with the bow since a doe in '05. Missed a doe last year and others no chances or too picky. (try to let smaller ones walk) Felt good to stick one again though. here she is

[JoeTC]

My first buck. Shot in WI on Nov. 5

[Archerysniper]

All very nice deer guy's it's allways a thrill to let the arrow go and watch it hit and hear that thwack as it hit home.

[bigbucks]

Great deer guys, congrats to all.

Shot this buck on Friday morning, after passing on a little 6 pointer. This is my biggest ever gun or bow.

I found him a 100 yards from my bow stand Friday morning. It had ran there in about 5 seconds after being broadside at 18 yards at 7:43 according to my watch. There was no blood trail. You can see the entrance wound, there was no exit. He must have had a slight quarter towards me. There was 6"s of arrow inside of him, with the broadhead just below the skin behind the off shoulder. He was full of blood, but we found just one drop on the ground less than 10' from the deer.

He was 18 yards from the stand & walking fast when I stopped him with my grunt call & drilled him. I heard the crack when

the arrow hit him & he took off charging hard. At about 50 yards his rear started to sag & shortly it was getting really loose & wobbly. He took about a two step left stagger at a 100 yards & tipped over. He thrashed up in the same spot a time or two & then all was still. I couldn't see him from the stand once he was all the way down, but was sure he was there. I gutted it out for a half hour just to be safe before going to collect my prize.

He's 11 points, very heavy rack. Pretty sure this is the same deer I was drawn on ready to shoot the Thursday before gun season last year, but he's much bigger now. I thought he was an 8 pointer then. He was in the same exact spot, crossed the fence in the same place about an hour after a little buck had come through last year, which is also what happened on Friday. It was eerily similar. My portable's about 4' higher this year & the tree that stopped me from shooting him earlier last year is on the ground now. We think he's a 3 1/2 year old, guessing him in the 180 lb. range.

We took some pics with me wearing the camo I'd brought with for the purpose, but those are on my Mom's camera... I measured the spread at just over 16"s. He has 4 tines about 10" long give or take. Guessing the main beam diameter around 3" on pretty much the whole thing.

He crossed the fence here to the left of that Maple tree (black trunk).

He was standing here when I shot him.

This is how he laid when I walked up to him.

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This is the in the woods shot.

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Just another shot in the woods.

[sticknstring]

Congratulations Rodd - he's a dandy.