Bobcat started it all!

[Bowhunter1994]

here's my cat
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGUFLBgSl54"]Whitetail hunt quickly turned into varmint hunt - YouTube[/ame]

[quarterback]

My first 2 bows were Parker's. Killed (and missed) many critters with those bows...wouldn't trade for the memories. Much like your experience, once I actually got to BOW hunt and shoot my first deer (spike buck) I was hooked for life. Bow hunting is an awesome sport. I cannot get enough of it to this day. Thanks for sharing your story.

[TEXophilite7]

very cool! Thanks for sharing!!!

[TEXophilite7]

Got him mounted too

[COPPERHEAD]

Nice cat and shot placement!

[gator89]

That's an accomplishment! Congrats on the cat and welcome to the fire.

[Spoken0313]

Nice!

[Bowhuntinonly]

Congrats and welcome. I stared bowhunting at the age of 45 and have loved every minute of it, that was 15 years ago.

[Hudge]

my first kill was a trophy rat at 20 yards under a pvc feeder lol i shishcabobed him/her i dont konw what it was sorry i didnt check

[Jbonds99]

Still waiting on my first cat. I want one bad. Hope I see one on the new lease this year.

[*DW*]

Nice cat.

[basskicker24]

Great story. And a nice cat.

[Fling em]

Nice story! It is an addiction for sure!

[Booner Sooner]

Outstanding story. Once this gets in your blood there is nothing like it.

[Dale Moser]

I just stumbled across this thread, and it struck a chord with me. I hope you don't mind if I share my story on your thread, as I'm in a story tellin mood and the Green Screen is quiet tonight.

I went to church with a whole bunch of good folks when I was a kid, one father/son duo were bowhuters. I'd been hunting my whole life but had never given much thought to bowhunting until they got it in my head. I worked 50-55 hours a week during the summer from the time I was 11 and spent most of my money on guns and fishin tackle till Darrell and his son Carson put the bowhuntin bug in my ear. I had mentioned it to dad a time or two without much reaction till one day Carson (he was younger than me) asked me to drive him to Smithfield Archery when they were on Davis Blvd, so he could shoot. I walked out with a Hoyt Rebel XT 50lb bowk a dozen aluminum 2213 Eastons, a lame sight, and 3 Thunderhead 125s. I bought a 4$ bale of straw at the feed store on the way home and was shooting decent groups into a dot on a paper plate that night at 20yds. The next day I called Darrell and asked him why my fingers were bleeding and "how do yall shoot that much" and he gave me a leather hootus that fit between the fingers and I thought I was really in bidness then. He told me to get a "mechanical release" as soon as I could afford one, so I bought a velcro Cobra thing the next week, and brother I was choppin tall cotton then.

I talked dad into takin me to the lease (outside Lampasas on 580 I believe, near a non town called Nix) one weekend late in October and I built me an AWESOME bow blind...a tripod top setting on the ground at a fence crossing with enough brush stacked around it to maybe hide a walkin stick. I was on a doe only mission (it was a 1 buck county then, and we split our tags). Dad woke me up early the next morning and sent me on my way, but all the deer used a different crossing that day so I started "stalking" the feeder. I un-leashed one of those now crooked arrows at a doe at the feeder 40 yards away and came up about 6" low. Un-daunted I took to the cedar breaks down the edge of the hill after her on foot. About an hour and 150 yards later I jumped "that doe" and she jumped up and faced straight at me at what I judged to be about 19 yards. I put the 20 pin right in the center of her chest(facing directly at me) and let fly...direct hit! The only smart thing I did that whole day was marking the spot, and heading back to get dad. To make a long story a little shorter, we tracked very poor blood for another 200yds or so downhill where we found my "doe" laying dead in the creek with 3 whole points, and 1/2 the arrow still in "her" having gone in a little far back behind the shoulder, and come part way out a lot far back (the Hoyt Rebel XT was not a speed demon). I felt like a complete moron, and dad didn't offer a whole lot to the contrary until we got back to camp and ready to leave. He said "You know a lot of people hunt with a bow for years and never kill a buck". It didn't soothe my pride a lot then because I knew I'd ended both of our buck hunting for the year, but now it means the world.

I was not thrilled that day, but I sure wish now that I had a picture of that deer. I gave the "rack" to our cocker spaniel to eat and didn't bowhunt again for about 6 years until Chicken talked me into buying a new Matthews Legacy(from Smithfield Archery). Our 1st bowhunt at his ranch I killed a doe with a complete pass through and she didn't go 25 yards (he shot one in the middle of a wheat field from behind two hay bales that morning too). I couldn't have been more proud when I called dad on the way to the processor with that 68lb doe. The knowing laugh he gave me on the phone told me I wasn't as foolish as I thought 6 years ago, nor as bad *** I though at that very time....but that we both knew I'd learned something.

I gave dad that Matthews Legacy 4 or 5 years later (when I bought a new Tribute) to trick him into going bowhunting at our lease with my brother in law and I. He had it dialed in for weeks before a limb de-laminated the week before season opened. "Find me a bow" he said, so I did and he bought it from the classifieds on this very website. Ol Pops has killed more whitetails than most folks in his life, and some dang nice ones at that. But he shot his 1st one with a bow 2 years ago, a 10 point.....and I got to track it, and gut it for him. It wasn't his biggest deer by a dang site, but I aint heard that ol fart so excited in at least 10 years or so. Ok, I was excited too.

Funny how this sport works.


My apologies for being long winded on your thread. Like I said, I'm in a story tellin mood, and this brought it all back to me.