26 Year Archery Veteran Becomes A Rookie!!!

[CEpperson]

Yes sir!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CamoQuest]

That's great! Congrats!

[jooger17]

Long late night on the rig tonight and figured I'd give y'all a little more of the Good Bad and Ugly of Jooger...

So I managed to get one killed but it wasn't without it's own twist of joogerdom. I hadn't been in the stand more than 30min and had a doe fawn, a grown doe, and a little buck of some kind headed my way. He was a 3 point or spike, I didn't have any intentions of killing him so I didn't pay him a lot of attention. The doe comes in and starts feeding on some hand corn at about 15 yards. I stood, got squared away and was insanely confident with the whole shot process. I hit my anchor points, settled my tip, and I just missed... I was actually not upset about it at all. My sight picture was clear, I didn't lose focus, so it seemed as though I might have a grip on this target panic issue. I just missed and I can be ok with that. The amazing part and one of my favorites about trad hunting is the deer don't blow out like they do with a compound. She ran off about 40 yards and started picking up acorns. I debated on letting her slide back in but I looked down and the fuzzy fawn was standing in her same tracks picking up the hand corn... A doe is a doe to me, and the little ones taste better! I made the slightest adjustment, and watched my fletchings disappear about 2" higher than I would call perfect which is still plenty good! I have no affeliation with the company but that Day 6 Evo is a nasty nasty critter! I have never seen so much blood on impact! 150 yard tracking job later and I had my first trad deer and I couldn't be more proud! I'm sure some of you have struggled not unlike myself and know the sense of accomplishment you get when you work your dog *** off to get better at someting and it finally comes together!

Fast forward 24 hours. I am having an incredible hunt and it hasn't even crossed my mind that I have a compound back in camp. I had 2 sets of bucks fighting at the same time inside of 50 yards, does in and out, and had seen a group of pigs at about 75 yards. I look up and see a larger bodied deer working the fence row towards me. I pick up the binos and see he's an older buck and way plenty big enough to have my full and undivided attention! He rolls in and not so politely tells the boys it's time to calm down because daddy is home, and jumps into the feed pen. dead broad side I have a 135" 5 year old 10 point that looks as big as a house. He's a little keyed up so I concentrate dead at the bottom of his chest anticipating him to duck into the arrow. Same as with both does prior, I was oddly (for me) calm and focused. As I turned the arrow lose my mind said, "He's mine... Shoot I shot under him!" I watched my fletchings go 2" under his chest... I thought... I watched him run about 35-40 yards to a scrape and just stand in the middle of this scrape for about 20 minutes. He was hunched up like he was hurting but I had just watched the arrow completely miss him. I quickly knocked another arrow but hung my bow up and grabbed the binios. I gave this deer a very thorough inspection. I looked all through the body/ chest area and saw neither a hole or blood. I looked at his nose and mouth with the same results. After about 20 minutes, him and another buck slowly walked into the oak mot across from my feeder and I lost sight. I sat until black dark and went to retrieve my arrow. When I picked it up it was wet. Not sticky, not slimy, just wet. I never cut my light on, I just walked back to the truck in the dark and inspected the arrow when I got there. I saw green contents on my fletchings but nothing smelled like guts at all. I went ahead and went back to camp, made my hunt the next morning, and came back to check things out. I walked over to where he stood in the scrape and there was blood everywhere. I followed a blood trail that Ray Charles could see for 125 yards and lost it all. I did a full on grid search for severak hours and according to my watch the grid search was 3.21mi long but never found another drop...

The highs and low's of this game are turning me into an old man real fast!

[DRT]

Yes. It can definitely be a rollercoaster ride. Try putting the hand corn at 12 yards . . .
Congratulations on the doe though.
Although as we say, without pics . . .

Sent from my Nokia XR20 using Tapatalk

[BlackHogDown]

Learned a ton from you guys while reading this thread. Congrats Jooger on the doe. Looking forward to your next writeup and continued success. Good luck, bud.

[jooger17]

Yes. It can definitely be a rollercoaster ride. Try putting the hand corn at 12 yards . . .
Congratulations on the doe though.
Although as we say, without pics . . .

Sent from my Nokia XR20 using Tapatalk

I finally closed the book on one this evening!!! I couldn't be more proud of a 200" deer!!! Thanks so much for hanging in there with me!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My biggest issue of the 12 yard hand corn is where I hunt I need to get pretty high in the trees to get to the cover. I rarely ever hunt below 20' because there's no cover there. The vitals start getting pretty small with the angle. I'm also a certified professional at missing them at 6 yards lol.