M
moonlight
Guest
Well, I decided to pull the "trigger" this morning. First, a little back story.
I am one of those hunters that many don't like...you know, a guy who puts in for the draws, but doesn't draw, so I pick up my bow, practice throughout the summer, and head to the hills. It's alright, I know that many would like to see a pick a weapon proclamation in Oregon, but as it stands now, if I have the opportunity to hunt, I am going to do it.
This brings me to my next declaration. I am a teacher and FFA Advisor. While I typically have some time in the summer to scout, our FFA State Fair coincides with opening weekend here in Oregon. As soon as I return home from Salem, I have inservice prior to a four day Labor Day weekend, and then school starts. I don't get to get out as much as I would like due to after school meetings, so my hunting is limited to the weekends and pretty close to home. I spent friday through monday of Labor Day Weekend hard at it, but couldn't make it happen. I had some opportunities, but that's it.
We started school this week. All week long, I heard from every one that I work with how great our school's football team is this year, and that they couldn't believe that I missed the first game of the year to go hunting. So while I was looking forward to hunting friday after school, I decided to go to this weeks game instead.
I came home from work, and my oldest daughter (6 yrs) asked me if I was hunting tonight. I told her no and she got really excited because I was staying home. When I told her that I was going to the football game, she got very sad, and said, "so you won't be home when we go to bed? You aren't here in the mornings when we wake up because you are either working, or hunting, and now you won't be here to tuck us in tonight." My heart kind of broke. It was at that time that I told her that I needed to go to the game (which I did by this point in the week as I actually had a duty there as a staff member now), and that I planned on hunting in the morning, but I would not go hunting saturday night, or all day sunday and would just spend the day at home. I figured that I still had two full weekends left to our season, so that was fine.
So I left the house this morning with a couple places in mind to hunt. I went to the first place and walked in and sat and watched a draw, milled around a little, to no avail. After a couple hours, I decided to hit a part of the unit that I hadn't been in yet this season. I arrived where I wanted to park, and walked in a ways and set myself up. Shortly after getting there, I had a doe come into a bench just below me. As I was watching her, and looking for more deer, this little buck materialized. He came across an opening infront of and below me. These deer had no idea I was there. After thinking about what my daughter had said to me, I decided to make the rest of the bow season about my family. I drew, settled my 30 yard pin, and released. My Axis FMJ 340 with an 85 grain Wac'Em blew through him. He took off down the draw, and the does moved up the hill. As I sat there, a couple of the does came back down the hill, and stopped, looking into the draw. They suddenly spooked, and I thought I heard a crash. I figured he was done, and I could head down to him.
As I got to where he was standing, I saw no blood, which I thought a little strange with the downhill angle that I shot him at. I knew which way he had gone, so I continued down the draw with no blood. I kind of started thinking that perhaps I had missed, or paunched him. I then came across my arrow, which was covered in blood from broadhead to nock. Fortunately there was no paunch residue on it, and there were some bubbles, so I knew I hit him good. I continued down the draw another thirty yards, and there he lay. No, he is no monster...but he is my first bow buck, and he will eat good. More importantly, having killed him allows me to spend the rest of my weekends with my family, and that made my daughter very happy when I got home.
Sorry for the long story, and good luck to all of the rest of you this season!
"success Is Reason Enough!"
I am one of those hunters that many don't like...you know, a guy who puts in for the draws, but doesn't draw, so I pick up my bow, practice throughout the summer, and head to the hills. It's alright, I know that many would like to see a pick a weapon proclamation in Oregon, but as it stands now, if I have the opportunity to hunt, I am going to do it.
This brings me to my next declaration. I am a teacher and FFA Advisor. While I typically have some time in the summer to scout, our FFA State Fair coincides with opening weekend here in Oregon. As soon as I return home from Salem, I have inservice prior to a four day Labor Day weekend, and then school starts. I don't get to get out as much as I would like due to after school meetings, so my hunting is limited to the weekends and pretty close to home. I spent friday through monday of Labor Day Weekend hard at it, but couldn't make it happen. I had some opportunities, but that's it.
We started school this week. All week long, I heard from every one that I work with how great our school's football team is this year, and that they couldn't believe that I missed the first game of the year to go hunting. So while I was looking forward to hunting friday after school, I decided to go to this weeks game instead.
I came home from work, and my oldest daughter (6 yrs) asked me if I was hunting tonight. I told her no and she got really excited because I was staying home. When I told her that I was going to the football game, she got very sad, and said, "so you won't be home when we go to bed? You aren't here in the mornings when we wake up because you are either working, or hunting, and now you won't be here to tuck us in tonight." My heart kind of broke. It was at that time that I told her that I needed to go to the game (which I did by this point in the week as I actually had a duty there as a staff member now), and that I planned on hunting in the morning, but I would not go hunting saturday night, or all day sunday and would just spend the day at home. I figured that I still had two full weekends left to our season, so that was fine.
So I left the house this morning with a couple places in mind to hunt. I went to the first place and walked in and sat and watched a draw, milled around a little, to no avail. After a couple hours, I decided to hit a part of the unit that I hadn't been in yet this season. I arrived where I wanted to park, and walked in a ways and set myself up. Shortly after getting there, I had a doe come into a bench just below me. As I was watching her, and looking for more deer, this little buck materialized. He came across an opening infront of and below me. These deer had no idea I was there. After thinking about what my daughter had said to me, I decided to make the rest of the bow season about my family. I drew, settled my 30 yard pin, and released. My Axis FMJ 340 with an 85 grain Wac'Em blew through him. He took off down the draw, and the does moved up the hill. As I sat there, a couple of the does came back down the hill, and stopped, looking into the draw. They suddenly spooked, and I thought I heard a crash. I figured he was done, and I could head down to him.
As I got to where he was standing, I saw no blood, which I thought a little strange with the downhill angle that I shot him at. I knew which way he had gone, so I continued down the draw with no blood. I kind of started thinking that perhaps I had missed, or paunched him. I then came across my arrow, which was covered in blood from broadhead to nock. Fortunately there was no paunch residue on it, and there were some bubbles, so I knew I hit him good. I continued down the draw another thirty yards, and there he lay. No, he is no monster...but he is my first bow buck, and he will eat good. More importantly, having killed him allows me to spend the rest of my weekends with my family, and that made my daughter very happy when I got home.
Sorry for the long story, and good luck to all of the rest of you this season!
"success Is Reason Enough!"
