The Travels Of The Bow Sacagawea

[bob sarrels]

Glad you had a good time with her Ronnie. Sorry you did not connect at Buff's place but thats hunting. Can't count the times I have been out and did not get a shot or missed. Each trip was still a gas. I love that feeling of having my heart trying to pop out of my mouth. I am with Rick, if that feeling leaves me I would probably quit hunting. That is what I do it for. Good luck on your next hunt and see ya down the road. Bob

[Chunky]

Good write up, glad you enjoyed your time with her. Keep the stories and adventures coming.

[ElfEyes]

Thanks everyone, Clay I sent the bow off today

[CEpperson]

Thanks Ronnie im looking forward to getting it and shooting it. Well i guess i will tell you all a bit about myself. My name is Clay Epperson I am 28 I was born and raised right here in good ol East Texas in the town of Brownsboro. I have been an outdoors junky as long as i can remember. My brother and me have been chasing critters and fishing together since we were able to get out and go. I only have one brother he is my best friend and we have made lots of memories together in the woods. I started gun hunting deer and anything else that stood still when i was 9 or 10 years old. I got my first bow when I was 13 and killed my first deer (a doe) that same year in Lampassas on our deer lease. That hoyt rebel was the best and worst thing to ever happen to me. The best because i found something that drove me to be the best i could be, something that excited me, bowhunting was and is my get away. The worst because I have a wife that respects my hunting lifestyle but does not completly understand it LOL. Im married to a great woman and mother to my four year old daughter Lilly that is my world. My wife Tori hunts with me some and was able to kill her first buck ever and her first animal with a bow. I work as a mud engineer for Newpark Drilling Fluids and have been in the oilfield for the last 7 years. Now to the Traditional stuff, I have always had a recurve laying around that i would tinker with and then leave alone. several years ago i was in a pawn shop and i found a 45# Bear recurve for $125 i bought it and went stright to the archery shop and got me a dozen arrows to fit it. I had never been serious about being good with a recurve but all of a sudden I was consumed with it. I shot everday and when I got accurate out to 15-20 yards I started taking it to the woods. That whole season i never had a deer or hog in range the days i took my recurve, but every time i carried my Matthews something would walk right under my stand. I ended up buying a bow from a local guy in Athens that builds longbows it was a 45# Spirit II from Renegade Archery. I shoot that little bow real good and its super quiet. I started hunting with the longbow alot and finally last year i killed my fist animal with trad gear. I was hunting over a feeder and had hogs all around me when a coyote came right up the trail and ran the hogs off, he walked right under my feeder and was quatering away walking at 12 yrds. When i let the arrow fly i had a huge smile on my face because it all just felt right, the arrow hit him where i was looking and he feel in sight of my stand. The feelings and nerves i had at that moment are unexplanable to someone that has never got that first kill with trad gear. Two days later i killed my first trad deer with that same longbow. He was a little 3 point but i was and am still as happy with him as any other deer I've ever killed. After last seasons success with trad gear i put my compound in the classifieds and vowed to go traditional only. The next chapter of my traditional lifestyle started the day I decided to hunt with trad gear only, i went to Jacksonville and visited with Rob Lee and J.J. I found what I wanted and had a bow built for me. I was a wreck waiting on them to call and tell me my recurve was ready. I had pigs coming to feeders and could not wait to get in a tree and break in my new bow. As soon as I got the call I rushed over got my bow got some arrows to fly good and i was in the tree with my 60" 58# Lee signiture recurve name (the Grey Squirrel). The first sit I made with the bow was one i will never forget, just after daylight I heard footsteps coming up the trail. I was so tense i didn't think i was going to be able to draw my bow. I finally found a black blob coming towards me, I let him get in the opening i had shot pigs with my compound several times before. There was no corn under the feeder so i knew i had to make something happen quick, I let the arrow fly and watched it go right behind the shoulder and out the other side of him. Again those feelings rushed through me, I was on cloud nine. I love hunting and fishing and just being outside, that feeling you get when it all comes together, you have done your homework, put in the time and in a flash that buck you have been hunting is standing at 15 yrds and you are at full draw. Nothing compares to that feeling and as long as im able i will be out there chasing that feeling. I have been blessed with an amazing family, a great job, and people that I enjoy sharing those moments of great highs of a successful hunt and the lowest of lows when you send an arrow over that big bucks back. I am glad to have stumbled into a few of your lives through this forum and hope to meet yall one day in person. I am excited to have a month with the Traveling Bow Sacagawea and have big plans to put an arrow in a BIG boar that is coming to a feeder, as hard as it has been to leave him alone I REALLY want to get him with Sacagawea. Thanks to all that are involved in this Bow I am honored to get a chance to hunt with her. A special thanks to Mr Bob Sarrels for builing the bow we know as Sacagawea I will do my best to get another kill under her belt, but either way i will have fun trying. Report to follow as soon as she is at the house and put together!

Clay

[thebowhunters]

I'm jelish, great story and happy hunting to ya. How would one get on the list to shoot her?

[EnW]

Great write up Clay. Good luck with Sacagawea!

~Eric

[ElfEyes]

I enjoyed you biography Clay, good luck win her

[bob sarrels]

Nice write up Clay. Good luck with that little girl.

[CEpperson]

Nice write up Clay. Good luck with that little girl.

Which one lol!!!!

[meangene1969]

Great write up. Good luck.

[Selfbowman]

Great write Clay,enjoy the bows visit.

[LMButler]

Great bio Clay. Now it is time to put that pretty bow to work. Best of luck to you.

[Chunky]

I'm jelish, great story and happy hunting to ya. How would one get on the list to shoot her?

The list right now is made up of 20 archers who all donated to have the bow built. When the bow has traveled to all of those, we will probably start a second list....but that is yet to be completely worked out.

The idea is that all that spend money would have a chance to get her in the first two years.

[Loreva13]

Great bio, hope you get that big boar!!!

[thebowhunters]

The list right now is made up of 20 archers who all donated to have the bow built. When the bow has traveled to all of those, we will probably start a second list....but that is yet to be completely worked out.

The idea is that all that spend money would have a chance to get her in the first two years.

Thanks Mark, I know Bob won't Believe me but I'm ready to shoot one of his bows. Just let me know how much and when, thanks