The Travels Of The Bow Sacagawea

[Phillip Fields]

Good write-up Mike.

[Chunky]

Good write up. As I have said a couple of times, it's not about hunting...it's about sharing, getting to know our TBH trad brothers better.

I am glad you were a part of this.

[Bowyer]

I received Sacagawea today! When I walked in the house at 7:30 this evening the package was right there waiting for me,,,,, and I had no clue what it could be. I asked my sweet wife what it was and she said "That's the bow you were waiting for!". When my brain finally caught up, I got excited and grabbed a knife to open it and let her out. She's a pretty bow!
I'll be taking her to the lease this weekend. Probably won't try to hunt with it but will sling a few arrows!

Charlie

[Chunky]

That's great have a good time with her...remember, we are looking for a short bio, a little write up about your time with the bow, and if at all possible at least one pic, preferably you with the bow, but it can be family, old hunting, etc....

[Loreva13]

Have a good time with her Charlie!

[wasp9760]

How can I get on the list?

[little john]

Nice writeup brother mike and you made the right call

[Bowyer]

First day shooting. arrows are all over.


Second day after adjusting the brace and more practice.


Today, I think I'm getting the hang of this.


Please overlook the old school cat wiskers. I couldn't handle the noise and the little yarn puffs just didn't help.

I found that for me, the arrows fly better when I nock them on top of the string nock.

Do I really have to send her to somebody else? I wish I had her in November, hunting was better then and I think I could have taken a doe with her.

Charlie

[little john]

that sure is a sweet **** I hope I get to shoot it someday

[Loreva13]

She's a sweet shooter isn't she? Nice!

[Bowyer]

My name is Charlie Allen, I,m 50 yo. Married my high school sweetheart and we had 2 daughters. Now we have 8 grandchildren!
I dropped out of school in my senior year and we got married. The first couple years I had 2 jobs in construction then found a production job working in a glass factory. After 14 years there I was accepted into the maintenance training program and spent the next 10 years learning industrial maintenance. I then left and went to work at an apartment complex where I was the service manager for the next 5 years. Now I am once again performing industrial maintenance for Pactiv in Corsicana. Our plant makes foam plates and cups.
Growing up my father taught me how to fish. He was in the Coast Guard and we moved around quite a bit. We fished everywhere from the east coast to the west, salt water, rivers, streams and lakes. I never hunted anything bigger than a bird until I was 26.
In 1989 My wife gave me an inexpensive compound bow for Christmas. I began shooting that bow daily. Told a friend at work about it, Steve, and he told me that I could hunt deer with it. Steve taught me a lot about archery and hunting and we learned about bowfishing together.
Bowfishing is where I first experienced traditional archery. Steve and I found that recurves were more suited for it than those heavy compounds.
My first deer season, hunting type II, I got lucky and on the very first hunt killed a 3 point. Was sitting in my home made ladder stand and at 9:30 am opening morning of bow season, he trotted by at 20 yards and my arrow found that sweet spot, about 3 inches from the tail. Hitting the femoral artery left a wide blood trail for me to follow. He went about 75 yards and piled up.
I remember shaking so bad that I was afraid I would fall off of my ladder so I climbed down and once reaching the ground my legs were so weak that I had to sit down for about 30 minutes to calm down.
My first time blood trailing was easy however finding my way back was a little more difficult. After field dressing, also my first time, I started dragging my trophy buck to the road, or so I thought. After a while I began thinking that it was taking too long to get to the road. I got that "Oh Crap I'm Lost" feeling. I knew that I had walked in on the south side of a East/West road and needed to head North to find the road again. With no compass I looked up and could see the sun was shinning through the trees. So, I sat down and poked a stick in the ground and marked the shadow. A few minutes went by and I heard voices! I walked about 50 yards and came to a road with 2 fellas sitting on the tailgate of their pickup drinking a soda. They gave me a ride back to my truck, which was 2 miles away. I went back and got the deer and my bow then headed to camp.
It was 12:00 noon when I pulled into camp. There were probably 50 other hunters in camp and they all gathered around my truck as I told the story about how I shot the buck then got lost and 2 guys giving me a ride. Right then a guy pulls up in a dune buggy, gets out and walks up, says "Nice buck, did y'all hear about the guy that shot a deer and tracked it for 2 miles and got lost in the woods this morning?"
I had only been a hunter for 6 or 7 hours and was already a legend!

A few years later on another type II hunt, I forgot to pack my release. Only an hour from home, I decided that I would carry my recurve on the first morning hunt then quickly run home and get the release. Well that morning I harvested a trophy Armadillo and never did go get the release. I sold that compound and never looked back.
Several years and trad bows later I decided that I wanted a quality longbow but didn't want to spend that kind of money. That's when I found Bingham Archery and made my first longbow. Have only made 9 longbows and 1 recurve but like some of you know, harvesting an animal with a weapon that you made is a whole different experience.

We are looking forward to teaching the grandkids to hunt. Some have already said that it's what they want to do. Looks like I will get to make at least 8 more bows!

I really enjoyed shooting Sacagawea. Had no problem getting my arrows to fly straight. Only some minor string tuning and I was soon slapping arrows together on target. Unfortunately there was no opportunity for me to hunt with her. I did share her with a couple guys at the lease.

Thanks for allowing me to join in the Travels of Sacagawea!

Charlie

[Phillip Fields]

Good write-up Charlie.

[Bisch]

Nice write up Charlie!

Bisch

[Hoggslayer]

Great write up. Thanks for sharing.

[Loreva13]

Great write-up!!!

Thanks for sharing.