What is your most memorable/enjoyable hunt?

[cfortner]

I have only been bowhunting for 3 years and have some pretty memorable hunts under my belt at this point. I would like to hear the best of the best stories from some of you veterans.

My most enjoyable hunt:

Mid October 2005:

It's the 1st year for any of my family to bow hunt on our lease. Consequently, we do not have many "Bow blinds" setup. I decide based upon my sighting of a doe and two yearlings at a feeder we called "the lake feeder" that I would setup there one hot October evening. I knew these deer showed up around 6:30 in the evening ususally. So I make my way to the feeder and find a tree to lean up against about 12 yards from the feeder. While walking up to the feeder I scare a covy of quail from under the feeder off to the east.

I sit down and commence the wait. I sit for around 30 min before I notice the quail have returned and I'm surrounded. Not only am I surrounded by quail but one is so close to my right knee (Sitting indian style) that I could litterally ring it's neck by moving my arm about 10". While I am contemplating ringing this quail's neck (am I really fast enough) the deer appear. The begin eating corn from under the feeder about 12yrd away. At this point it was a doe and a single yearling. You could tell the were a little uneasy. While they never snorted or wheezed at me the doe circled me 2 times trying to find my scent, before she settled back in front of the feeder eating corn. At this time the yearling is about 5-6 yards in front of me and somehow catches site of me. For the next 10 minutes the yearling stomps it's right front leg and lunges at me while trying to get me to move. This continues, over and over (I'm trying to stifel my giggling), until a 4 wheeler fires up about 100 yards away on the neighboring property and they both take off. While the doe gave me more than one opportunity to draw on her, there was no way I could have succeded with the quail scentry the deer had. Despite the fact that I didn't get a chance to bring home any food, I had a WONDERFUL afternoon with game as close as it could possibly get.

[Goldeneagle]

Well, it was really my son's hunt but I was with him. He got drawn for a youth hog hunt at the Dos XX with the HCB. It was his first ever kill and we had a blast. Met some great guy's and kid's. We even got to see the GREAT WILDMAN in action! I'm still sorry for keeping him up all night.

[Tmag]

One where I sat in the stand with one of my kids. What a blessing.

[2050z]

My most enjoyable hunt happened when I was 32 years old. I was hunting family land in MS. My dad and I hunted a lot growing up, but I never was able to get a deer. I was using his old 30-06 and shot two deer(buck and doe) in one morning.

When he heard the shots he was on his way to check up on me. I found both deer and then heard my dad calling my name. I called back and he walked out of the woods. He was smirking at me and said you missed again didn't you? See I have never killvest a deer before with a rifle. All were with a bow. I said nope I got two deer. The expression on his face was worth a billion dollars to me. He stuck out his hand and shook my hand and then he hug me.

Dad was proud of me that day. We walked back to the house talking about all the deer he had taken with the rifle. He seemed to walk a little taller that morning.

[2050z]

My next memorable hunt is coming up. I am talking my five soon to be six year old daughter hunting with me for the first time

[bowhunterhelm]

I really have too many good one's to pick a favorite

[mesquitecountry]

One of my most memorable is in the hunting reports section

The other. 2 years back.

I killed a double drop w/ bow (first archery)
my brother killed a 196" non typical
My sister killed a 280" 6x6 elk

All on the same morning within an hour of one another. That was a morning to remember!

But I count them all as memorable. If i sat down and thought about it I bet I can remember every single hunt I've had. All the way back to when I was just a pup.

[double lung]

for three years in a row i had killed good deer and my dad seemed to be jinxed. we where both in our stands about half a mile apart and i had three hogs come in at about 9:30am. i called dad and asked what he had around his stand, not wanting to shoot anything if he thought he had spotted a big buck he had seen on a game camera pre-season. he said he was about to get out of the stand so he said go ahead and start letting the air out of the hogs. well, about ten minutes after i found the last of the three hogs i shot, i hear a shot. i grab my last arrow (that is covered in good lung blood ) and call him on the radio. no answer. try again. no answer. well he finally calls back and says he thinks he shot the buck. but the best part is, he was so shook up that he did not want to go to the place where he shot the buck because he was to shook up and did not know if it was the "biggun". so i abandon my hog search, run to his stand, and walk up to the buck. it is the big one, thank god. so i had three hogs busted with an arrow and my dad had the biggest buck he had ever killed.
doesnt get any better than that!

[Joey~AP]

This one.

[WIKI]

Lee. County 2005. Peak of the rut. Some would call me crazy for even hunting this paticular day. Thunderstorm after thunderstorm moved through. Every time the rain would stop mature deer would come out from everywhere. They were reacting to the grunt very aggressivly. There was a 10 that I had got on the trail camera that I had my heart on. I had not seen him on the hoof unitll that day. I seen him twice that day without a real chance to even pull back on him. But WOW what excitement just at the chance. It really rained that day and the water was sarting to stand in the trees behind me. I hit the grunt and almost imediatly a nice mature 8 jumped the fence and started my way. There was also another deer coming through the water. Hearing him crashing throught the water was awesome. Both of those deer bowed up to each other and put on a great show. You talking about a heart pounding day. I hunted till 2:00 and knew I better get out. Well the creel had swolen and it did not come down enough for me to get out of the pasture untill almost 10:00 that evening. I could never recreat this hunt. No kill but by far my most memorible and exciting hunt to date.

[jerp]

My most memorable was my older son's first bowkill. All his friends had already killed many deer with rifles but he was determined to kill his first deer using a bow. He really showed a lot of patience - two full seasons of hunting went by with nothing to show for it - he seemed snakebit - whenever he hunted, no deer would show or they'd be out of bow range. Still, he refused to pick up the rifle. Then one morning (he was 16) I went to get him from his stand and he was so excited I thought he was going to fall out of the tripod. "Dad! I shot a spike - and I think I heard him fall!" A short track later he had his "trophy". I was very proud and it was a great lesson for him on how patience and persistence pays off....

[holdem]

Shot an Old Boss Gobbler with grandpas old Long Tom 12 ga single barrel that I refinished and loaded with a hot handload. (4 - 1 3/8 - 4) Felt him smile down at me as I lay on my back looking at the sky. Retired that shotgun and will never shoot it again.

[Brute Killer]

The elk hunt I went on at the end of August this year.

[nsbowhunter]

I have alot of great hunts and then I have some even with kills that I can hardly remember. Some of the hunts that always stay fresh in my mind are
1) My very first buck. I was 14 years old and I begged my cousin to skip a football game and take me down to our place near Sanco ,TX. We arrived and the wind was blowing around 40 miles and hour. I grasped a blanket and went to the deer blind hoping the wind would lay so something would move. Heck anything at that time in my life would have been just fine. As I set in the blind wrapped in the blanket I fell asleep. I woke to a hard banging against the blind. It was a branch the wind was blowing back and forth. I looked down by the feeder and I see a buck standing behind a ceder with only his head sticking out. I got the semi auto 30-06 and shot at the only area I could see which was his neck. I immediately ran down and there he was. I screamed so loud my cousin could here me from his blind 500 yards away and against the wind which was still blowing 40 mph.



2) The second hunt that always stick to mind is my very first bow kill. I was 17 years old and had hunted with bow in hand since the age of 14 but everything I had shot was lost. I almost gave up bow hunting but was convinced by some to try better equipment and give it one more year. I was working by then so I had enough money to get a new bow,all matching arrows and brand new broad heads. Before this I had what ever arrow I could find, broad heads that where years old and a bow that could have been in a museum. I practiced and got pretty good. Opening afternoon of bow season I'm setting in a tree stand that we had built in between branches of a ceder tree over looking a 5 gallon bucket we cut triangle holes into to let the corn spill out. My confidence in seeing a deer was very low as I had hunted the area for many year and not seen to many deer. As I set there I look out at a lone tree that was right near the spot I had shot a doe the year before but lost. I pulled my bow back to replay that hunt in my mind and all of a sudden a deer walks out of no where and strait to my bucket of corn. With bow already pulled back the hard part was over. All I had to do was swing the bow to my left and put the pin on the heart and let it fly. The arrow found its mark and the deer took off. When my dad showed up to get me I told him I had shot a deer and it was a doe. I was proud none the less because it would be my first bow kill and recovery if I found her. We tracked her down and the first thing I see when we walk up our GONADS. Dang! Its a buck we yelled, turning him over to see him better. To find out that on the right side which I had shot he had no antler. On the left side he had a antler but it dropped down and against his face completely hiding from me when I shot.

3) My next and most recent memory was with my daughter last year. We go out opening morning of youth season looking for anything with antlers so she can kill her first buck. A spike makes his way in and she makes a good shot. That afternoon we go out to another piece of property hoping to get a turkey or hog. The first thing we see is a young buck. Now,this place doesn't have a lot of deer so for her to even see a buck was a decent accomplishment in itself. She ask if she can shoot him and I explain that for her next buck we where gonna try and get something bigger. She exclaimed that this deer was bigger then her spike but I had to sadden her but telling her just to watch the deer. Then another small buck walks out and the two began to spare a little. This sparing must a got some attention because there ears perk up and they both look to the side and I tell me daughter another deer is coming. What walks out completely blows my mind. Its a old eight point that we had neck named "Old Man' from lots of trail cam pictures through a three year period. No one had ever seen this deer in person and he is standing right in front of us. I give my daughter the green light and she makes another perfect shot. He aged at over 8 1/2 years old but probably will not score 100.

[TMEC]

One of my most memorible was when my daughter was probably around 4 years old (She turned 24 this week). It was the year I had decided to try bow hunting. I had built a platform stand in a live oak tree with a 2x4 across 2 limbs for a seat. I had explained to her that we needed to be very quiet so we would not scare the deer away. We were about 12 ft up and about 20 yards from the feeder. She was between my legs sitting on the platform. The oak had some persimmon trees growing up under its canopy. So from her vantage point she could not see directly under the feeder. Some does had begun to feed and about 15 minutes later I heard some grunts in the brush so I was waiting to see if hogs came in. When all of a sudden my daugther noticed the deer and in a loud voice said " Daddy! Daddy! Look! Some deer! Well needless to say they were gone and so was the hunt. But I would not have done anything different if I had it to do over again.