I am trying to get my bow tuned up. Shooting a whisker biscuit @ 66 lbs. I have tried everything that I can think of and can’t get the bullet hole that I normally get when tuning a bow. I always get a high tear. I have moved the rest all over the place but still get the same tear. Shooting with a d-loop so moving the nock set around really isn’t an option.  Any suggestions?

Any one had luck with getting away from using a peep sight and going to a no peep sight?

Recently I purchased a used Alpine Micro. The past owner had a small peep site installed on it and I want to put a larger one on it. Is there a way to change these out without having to take it to a shop? This bow is for my wife and is smaller and has a less draw weight than mine and I’ve noticed I can put tension on the cams which allows the string to have slack and with and extra set of hands take the string off. Would this help me in changing out the site?

Aquatic Archery
Spark up the off-season by hunting these underwater targets.
By Mark Morrison

http://www.bowandarrowhunting.com/

 To archers like myself who eat, sleep and bleed bowhunting, it seems there’s never enough time to bowhunt.  When there is ample time, sometimes our prey is scarce and the waiting game we play can become monotonous.  The same can also be said for sport fishing.  However, when you combine these two great past-times – bowhunting and fishing – you’ll step into an all out action-packed activity called bowfishing, one of the fastest growing segments of archery today.

 The list of rough fish species available to bow-fishers across the United States is nearly endless.  Due to their wide distribution, common carp, buffalo and gar are the species most often pursued.

 Because of their ever-expanding range and penchant for rapid reproduction, carp are the top fish hunted by bowfishers.  Average size “bronze-backs” range from 10 to 15 pounds.  But they regularly reach 40 pounds and monsters as large as 80 pounds have been harvested by fishing archers!  Carp are strong fighters that prefer wild close-in, fin-to-toe battles.

 Arguably the most aesthetic of rough fishes are buffalo (including bigmouth, black and small mouth), which have a distinctive color scheme that features jet-black dorsal areas that fade into shiny silvery-blue sides.  Typical buffalo weigh 10 to 15 pounds and trophy specimens grow as large as 30 to 60 pounds!  Buffalo are speed merchants, well known to knowledgeable bowfishers for their tremendous battling skills.  When struck with a well-placed fishing arrow buffalo don’t hesitate to employ their inherent speed to streak bullet-like for deep-water sanctuary.  It sometime takes a Herculean (but always fun) effort to bring the fast departing fish under control!

Although gar (shortnose, spotted, longnose and alligator) are found throughout the U.S., they are more predominate in southern waters.  Typical spotted and shortnose gar encountered on the water average 5 pounds and hefty specimens will weigh as much as 10 pounds.  Longnose gar (easily recognized by their ultra-long, tooth filled “noses”) weigh 5 to 20 pounds and monsters as large as 50 pounds have been bow-bagged in the extreme southern southern tier of their range.  Alligator gar are the monarchs of the rough fish world.  “Gator” gar inhabit rivers and reservoirs in the gulf coast regions of the states like Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.  These gar are formidable opponents that can tip the scales in excess of 200 pounds!  Although any size “gator” gar can test a bowfisher’s mettle, seasoned fish hunters agree that the benchmark for trophies is 100 pounds.

 Longnose gar are plentiful only if a few water-ways in my home state of Minnesota.  Still, every spring and summer, I make many treks to a few select area lakes and aim all my efforts at chasing these challenging fish.

One steamy Saturday last July still stands out in my mind.  The wind was dead calm, the air sultry and the intense sun had sizzled the temperature to near 100 degrees – nowhere near ideal conditions for any other bowhunting pursuit but perfect for hunting heat-loving longnose gar.

 I cranked my outboard to life and raced across the lake toward a small inlet stream.  I figured where the creek emptied into a weed infested bay, good numbers of gar should be there to feed and loaf.

 To avoid spooking the gar I shut the outboard down 100 yards from the inlet.  After scrambling upon my elevated shooting platform and lowering the electric foot r=controlled trolling motor, I began a methodical stalk toward the weedline.  The coon-tail weeds were unusually thick…perfect habitat for gar.

 I carefully brought my recurve to full draw, picked an aiming spot on the gar and drove my heavy Muzzy Penetrator arrow at the gar’s enameled hide.  The arrow’s impact was akin to striking a match to gunpowder.  One moment the gar was slowly slicing through the water, the next it was displaying acrobatic maneuvers that would’ve made a sailfish seasick!  The sight of a 5-foot gar completely clearing the water and shaking its toothy beak from side to side was awe-inspiring.

 The sharp Stingray fishing point and 350-pound test BCY synthetic line held firm and I soon had the gar reeled alongside my boat.

 Since I didn’t relish having my hands raked to shreds by the gars protruding razor like dentures, I was very careful when I grabbed my arrow to hoist the fish aboard.  As soon as that was accomplished I permanently still the gar with a sharp rap from my “bonker” (a short section of steel pipe).  This is necessary because a gar o this size coming to life in the confines of a boat can cause a lot of havoc including spilled tackle boxes, shredded clothing and lacerated body parts!  Hanging the substantial fish from my electronic scale revealed it to weigh an incredible 19 pounds.  I couldn’t have scripted a better start to my day.

Bagging trophies like the above mentioned gar is a result of pre-season scouting and realistic “on the water” archery practice.  Successfully arrowing underwater prey requires you to compensate for light refraction.  Simply put, refraction bends light rays in such a way that fish always appear higher (or closer) than they actually are.  To compensate for refraction you must aim low to connect with your quarry.  How low?  That knowledge only comes with shooting experience.  The best rule of thumb is to aim low, then aim lower!  Soon your instincts will take over and you’ll begin hitting with surprising consistency!  Since no two bowfishing shots are alike in range or depth, sight-equipped bows are a hindrance.  Shooting instinctively and letting the shot happen naturally is the ideal method for arrowing rough fish.  Also, to block out annoying surface glare and make the task of spotting and arrowing fish easier it is a must that you wear a quality pair of polarized sunglasses and a hat with an efficient sun-blocking brim.
 
 My above gar hunt represented a typical (albeit very exciting) bowfishing outing.  Previously, I started my season in early May hunting for bowfin (dogfish) and common carp.  I usually continue to hunt carp, buffalo and gar throughout the summer and into early fall.  I also travel to neighboring states to hunt Asian bighead carp (a plankton feeding riverine fish that can easily attain weights in excess of 50 pounds) and white amur (grass carp).

Even with all this variety, I always find time to make several forays for “dusk to dawn” hunts.  My7 bowfishing rig sports a 2,000-watt generator which sends power to a bank of halogen lamps that pierce the inky blackness, illuminating the water around my boat for 10 yards.  Despite the constant humming produced by the generator, rough fish like buffalo, carp, sheephead and gar are more relaxed at night and far easier to approach.  In fact nightime bowfishing is so productive many bowfishers (especially those in southern states, where daytime temps can reach dangerous levels) ignore daylight hunting altogether and do all of their bowfishing under the cover of darkness.

 
 I’ve been a self-proclaimed bowfishing addict for 20 years and I’ve acquired all the latest gear to make myself a more efficient predator of fish.  I didn’t start out that way though.  Like many other youngsters, I literally cut my bowhunting teeth on rough fish at an early age.  Each spring when the annual sucker spawning runs were in full gear my buddies and I would grab our little fiberglass recurves and wooden arrows( equipped with crude homemade barbed fishing heads) and dash for the nearest creek in anticipation of filling our stringers with cold water suckers.

 Those early days provided a lot of action (which is what restless young archers crave) in the form of endless shot opportunities and heavy bags of fish.  But, the real challenge was bringing our fish to shore after successful shot.  You see, at the time we neither had the inclination or resources to attach a reel and line to our bows.  So…after arrowing a fish we’d simply ditch our bows and race downstream after the fast departing fish!  Knowing where the fish was in the stream was fairly easy; we just had to keep an eye on our brightly colored fetching jutting up like oversized pencil bobber through the water’s surface.  Of course, we had to sprint well ahead or our quarry and ambush them on a shallow stretch to finally bring them to hand.  This was accomplished by grasping the arrow and fish simultaneously and tossing the squirming, slippery prize onto the bank.  It was definitely great fun for neophyte archers like us.

 Because bowfishing is a year-round, day or night sport in many states, it is ideally suited for passionate bowhunters of any age looking to extend their hunting season.  Be careful, however, because bowfishing excitement is contagious.  Your bowhunting goals may soon include harvesting trophies like 40-pound carp, 50-pound buffalo fish and maybe even 5-foot streamlined predators with bony armatures and mouths stuffed full of needle sharp teath!

Correcting a Bad Habit
By Byron Ferguson

http://www.bowandarrowhunting.com/

 Regardless of what kind of bow you shoot – recurve, longbow or compound – at some point you are going to develop a bad shooting habit.  You may develop faulty release, target panic or some other nasty shooting habit.  And in most cases, the bad habit usually strikes when you least expect.

 Picture this common scenario.  You are out on the backyard range and have been shooting great all week.  Maybe you’re excited about a big tournament or special hunt coming up and so you practice more than usual.  Then, the next day, you start to begin your normal shooting practice and suddenly your arrows are spraying all over the target.  You quickly ask yourself, “How is this happening?”

 The first move a shooter makes when such a shooting malady occurs is o start doubting their equipment.  Of course, for the compound shooter, there is more equipment to doubt.  But even traditional archers doubt their simplified gear.  Once your bow is shooting well, you should record its brace height, the location of the nockset, tip-to-tip length and other key measurements so you can quickly check your equipment of poor shooting occurs.  If your shooting does go haywire and all measurements check out okay, you’ll know poor accuracy is due to pilot error and not faulty equipment.

Concentration is a Must
 The single biggest reason why traditional shooters fall into shooting slumps or bad habits is because of lack of concentration.  When shooting, you should only be thinking about one thing – and that is aiming.  Each arrow you shoot should be shot as if it’s going to be the only arrow of the day.  In other words, devote as much concentration into each shot as you can.  This will greatly improve your accuracy and shooting form.

 Another key pointer when practicing is to never shoot when you’re frustrated or tired.  Persisting to shoot a bow when you are tense and angry will program your mind to acquire a negative shot sequence which could lead to freezing, snap shooting or other symptoms of the dreaded shooting disease known as target panic.  Shooting while your muscles ache or hurt will also cause bad habits to occur – habits that when developed are increasingly difficult to overcome.  Whether you feel tired or frustrated, you should quit shooting immediately and pick up shooting another day.

Practice Up Close
 Whenever my accuracy begins to go haywire due to lack of concentration, I’ll shoot at a big bull’s-eye from close range (about 5 yards).  When doing this, I shoot one arrow repeatedly, taking plenty of time between shots.  I find it easy to regain my concentration back when shooting from this close.  For some reason, your mind knows that you can’t miss from this distance, which allows you to relax and shoot with great confidence.  I do this close-range practice routine until I feel my shooting rhythm coming back.  Then I’ll move back to maybe 10 yards and keep shooting until I’m shooting with total confidence.

 My friend John Sloan, Bow and Arrow Hunting’s  editor-at-large, told me about a shooting difficulty had not long ago.  “I got this new bow and it was shooting perfectly,” Sloan told me.  “Then one day I was missing the entire butt.  I couldn’t hit a barn wall.  Naturally, I started fighting my equipment and fighting my form.  It got worse.  I started back with one arrow at three feet, shooting with my eyes closed.  After a day of that, I moved to 10 yards.  Finally after three or four days of just increasing the distance and shooting one or two arrows, with plenty of time between each, I was back shooting fin again.  But every practice session started with three or four shots from close range.”

 The next time you start spraying arrows across the target, don’t fight it.  Although I always like to stop on a perfect shot, sometimes you just have to put the equipment up.  But many times, you can correct the problem by getting close to the target.  Never practice a bad habit.  Correct it.

Stick Bows: See The Arrow!
Shoot a visible arrow so you can identify your hits.
By Joe Blake

http://www.bowandarrowhunting.com/

 At 27 yards the big pronghorn buck stood, legs splayed, as it quenched its thirst at the muddy pond.  The only problem from my perspective in the well-situated pit blind was that another smaller buck stood adjacent to the animal I was concentrating on and effectively prevented a shot.  All I could do was wait and hope that the smaller buck finished drinking and left before my target departed. 

 That’s exactly what happened!  One minute both bucks were noisily gulping down the dirty water and the next minute my buck stood alone as his counterpart turned to vacate the area.  Quickly coming to full draw, I concentrated on the trophy’s chest and released the heavy cedar arrow, but that’s when things became sketchy.  Sure, the Zwickey-tipped arrow ate up the distance in an instant and hit home with a resounding thud, but that was all I knew for sure.  You see, I had recently made up these arrows and used a black cock feather, two gray-barred hen feathers and a black nock…what could I have been thinking!

 Brighten the Way
 One of the most important points to releasing an arrow at a big-game animal is to be able to follow its flight and identify the hit, and this is virtually impossible when using dark or drab-colored fletching and nocks.  This is especially true for instinctive bowhunters who must train their eyes to the flight of the arrow in order to learn to shoot well.  Obviously, if you can’t see what your arrow is doing on each and every shot you can never complete the learning process, and for this reason it is imperative that you use the arrows that you can see well in flight.

 From a personal standpoint, I have always preferred yellow fletching and nocks more than any other color, but white, red, orange, chartreuse and others might work for you as well or better.  Each bowhunter is different and has different preferences when it comes to arrow colors and combinations.  Also, some hunters can get by with just a bright cock feather or even simply a bright-colored nock and follow their arrow’s flight just fine, which is great if you are concerned that the game you are after might pick up a quiver full of brightly colored arrows.

 From years of experience I don’t believe that bright arrows alarm game unless you are waving your bow and arrows around like a flag;  the possible exception being when you are bowhunting for turkeys because they see colors better than other game.  For this reason, I strongly suggest that a bowhunter experiment during the off-season to come up with a color combination that is visible and is to his or her liking.

 Dipping Helps Little
 On the opening hunt I had dipped the crown on my arrows in bright orange which shows up great when the arrows are in the quiver but the color of the cap dip is of little use when the arrow is in flight because you won’t see it!  As luck would have it I didn’t need to identify the hit because the arrow effectively cut the big buck’s heart right in half and he only made it 50 yards before going down in a cloud of dust.  But had the hit been less than ideal the lack of visibility from my arrows could have caused problems.  This is because identifying the hit is of paramount importance because it tells you what type of tracking job you might expect and how you should proceed.

 Now let’s fast forward nearly 20 years to a definitely older and hopefully wiser bowhunter who is carrying a quiver fill of very visible, white arrows.  White cap dip, three white feathers, white nock.  As the tall-tined eight pointer turns broadside at 17 yards the hunter sends a cedar arrow perfectly through the deer’s ribcage and watches as the shaft skips across the hay-field behind the deer.  The results mirror that of my previously mentioned antelope hunt in that the buck raced away but folded up in plain sight only 60 or so yards away.  But what differs is that I knew instantly that the shot was perfect and that the buck’s flight would be short.  The only reason I could be so sure of this was because my white feathers told me so!

 As with nearly all of life’s decisions, arrow colors are a matter of personal preference, but don’t overlook the importance of visible arrows on your next hunt.  If you are a stickbow shooter who uses instinct alone to guide your shafts then don’t even consider an arrow you can’t follow in flight.  While visibility has its practical side, also don’t overlook the sheer joy of watching your arrow arch gracefully toward its intended target, whether it is that buck of a lifetime, a 3-D target or simply a rotten stump.  There’s something almost magical about watching your arrow and target come together, and I for one intend to enjoy the experience by using visible arrows for all of my shooting.

Map & Compass
Weather you hunt wilderness elk or small woodlot whitetails,

a good topo map and compass will always increase your effectiveness as a hunter.
By Bill Vaznis

http://www.bowandarrowhunting.com/

 “ It will be shooting light soon,” Bob said as he pulled the 4×4 off the road and down into a gully.  He left the diesel running and turned on the dome light to show me an old topo map complete with diagrams and plenty of notes in the margins.  “Take this old logging road down to the clear-cut, about a half-mile away,” he said, “and then work your way along this edge.  I’ve seen elk here, here and on this ridge just below the cut.  It should take you most of the morning to cover it thoroughly.

 “When you get to the creek, cross it just inside the cut, and have your lunch.  Then take out your compass and head 280 degrees for about a mile until you reach a rocky bluff and a line of aspens.  Follow the line of trees due south.  Keep your eyes open now because there have been a couple of big bulls seen here in recent days.  You should come out on this other logging road around sunset.  I’ll pick you up there.  Any questions?”

 “Yes,” I replied.  “What happens if I don’t hit the logging road by dark?”

 “Just shoot three arrows in the air,” laughed Bob, “and I’ll park the truck and come in to get you.  If I can’t find you by midnight, however, I’ll tell the guys back at camp that you are good and lost, and they can divvy up your gear.”

 “You won’t have to get out of the truck,” I replied with feigned sarcasm.  “Just open up a thermos of hot coffee, and hang it out the window.  I can smell a cup of hot coffee a mile away.  Besides, I know you’ve got your eyes on my bow case and Gore-Tex rain gear, so I’ll be sure to be at the logging road by dark.  See you then buddy!”

 Orienteering Basics
 It is difficult to take full advantage of a topo map when hunting for elk, moose or deer unless you know exactly where you are in relation to the map.  One way to orient yourself is by simple inspection.  Take up a position in your hunting area that offers you good visibility, and then pick out a few prominent physical features such as hilltops or a lake.  Orientate the map until its typographical symbols correspond to the terrain in front of you, and then using the contour lines try to pinpoint your exact location on the map.

 A more precise method is to set our compass at 360 degrees and place the side edge of its transparent base plate on a line parallel with the Magnetic North line.  Use the Declination Diagram found in the map’s margin.

 Now, point the Direction-of-Travel needle to the north and rotate the map and compass together until the north part of the compass needle points to the “N” on the compass housing.  (Some models have a black outline of an arrow permanently drawn inside and on the floor of the housing.  It always points to “N” on the compass housing and some outdoorsmen find it easier to align the magnetic needle with this arrow.)  Make sure your jack knife or wristwatch are not influencing the compass needle.  There, you have oriented the compass, map and yourself to Magnetic North.  It is that simple!

 Scouting Big Woods
 Topographical symbols and the spacing of contour lines can help you locate probable feeding and bedding sites, as well as runways and escape routes, from the comfort of camp.  Basically, the closer the contour lines are to each other, the steeper you’ll find the terrain.  Most ridge contours point downhill toward lowland feeding areas while valley contours point uphill towards the higher elevations—two locations elk and deer like to frequent!.

 I often study those little brown squiggles for hours trying to locate bottlenecks, saddles, gentle slopes and natural crossings that often govern the daily movements of most big-game animals.  I always check out meadows, burn-overs, clear-cuts and old farmsteads for evidence of feeding activity, and , the edges of dense swamps, nearby high ridges and the tops of steep ravines for possible bedding sites.

 One fall, while bowhunting for elk in Colorado, we found a hotspot for elk by closely studying a topo map.  We knew there was a herd of elk nearby, but they seemed to disappear from the face of the earth once the bulls stopped bugling.  A creek bed, however, caught our attention.  It seemed to meander effortlessly through the valley we were hunting.  Upon closer examination, however, we “saw” on the map where a steep ridge blocked the creek at one point causing it to flow due east for a few hundred yards before it resumed its natural course.  That herd of elk was holed up on the bend of that creek, and if it wasn’t for an unexpected close encounter with two black bears we might have arrowed one of those bulls.

 Finding Your Way Around
 There is no mystery to navigating in the big woods.  Just use your common sense and follow these basic rules and you can hunt with confidence just about anywhere in North America.

 The first rule is simple.  Before you take that initial step into the wilderness, pick out a prominent landmark to help you return to your starting point.  A mountain peak or ridgeline can often help you stay oriented without a compass—even in the dark.  In other cases, I like to use a power line right-of-way, a river or even a dirt road as a backdrop.  This will allow me to find camp even if I overshoot my starting point.

 For example, let’s say you want to hunt an aspen-covered ridge that lies due north of a large stream.  No matter where you are at quitting time, all you have to do is travel due south to hit the river.  The best part is you can be off by a half mile and still locate your starting point in the dark by simply following the river’s bank back to your vehicle.

 Of course, back bearings are not always so easy to figure out.  Let’s say your forward compass reading to the ridge is not magnetic north (zero or 360 degrees), but rather 95 degrees.  In this case, traveling due south to get yourself out of the woods could get you good and lost!

 The rule of thumb to reverse directions is to add 180 degrees if your forward reading is less than  180 degrees.  Conversely, if your forward reading is more than 180 degrees, then subtract 180 degrees.  In this latter case, your return compass reading or back bearing will be 275 degrees.

 If you can’t remember which is which, don’t worry.  Choosing the wrong formula will result in an answer of less then zero degrees or more than 360 degrees, and both of these are of course nonsense.

 Don’t wait until you get turned around to figure out how to get back to camp.  Know where you are at all times! One way to do this is to sketch your forward progress, keeping note of pertinent landmarks you encounter en route.  Write down degree bearings, too.  It is easy to forget what direction you want to follow after a day of chasing big whitetails about.

 As you hike through the woods, turn around once in a while to see what the return trail looks like.  It is amazing how different everything can appear from this new perspective!  Nothing is more disconcerting then to be on the correct path to camp, but not recognize it as such even in good light.

  A few words of caution now about navigating in the big woods—beware of lateral drift!  You can become hopelessly lost by following your compass “more or less” in the general direction you want to go.  Lateral drift occurs when you take one step in the right direction, say due north, but two or three to the “left” to go around a rock or fallen tree.  In essence, you have gone one step in the correct direction, and two in the wrong direction—due west!  Where do you think you’ll be in two hours? I can assure you it will not be due north of your original position!

 To counteract lateral drift, pick out a landmark straight ahead in the direction you want to travel, even if it is only 50 yards away, go to it, and then sight down your compass to another landmark.  Continue with this procedure, and you’ll soon be out of the woods.  Remember the shortest distance between two points is a straight line!

Of course this can be tricky sometimes, especially in the dark.  If I am going “way back,” I stuff a shoulder pack with a small flashlight, extra batteries, some dry clothes, water-proof matches, some food and a small plastic tarp in case I get a bit “bewildered” or get a shot late in the day.  Trying to find the blood trail in the big woods on a return trip the following morning can be like looking for the proverbial needle.  It might be much easier to stay with the animal overnight, and then continue to follow the blood trail the next morning in good light.

 Finally, always trust your compass.  Human beings were not born with a “sense” of direction.  If your compass indicates you must turn around and go back through the swamp, then do it!  Try and keep in mind that it is you who are confused—not your compass!

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Hi Spirit: Texas Fallow Deer

Here’s some cool, off-season fun!

By: Ted Nugent

http://www.bowandarrowhunting.com/

            The intense, nonstop grunting of rutting fallow deer can best be described as the continuous, deep guttural growling of a hyperventilating leopard.  Hell, if I had to wait all year to breed, I’d probably make obnoxious noises too!  It’s wildly eerie and foreboding, especially if you may be unfamiliar with these big, handsome European deer.  Their breeding grunts are much louder than that of a whitetail, more intense and seemingly around the clock. 

            The good news is that some real smart Texan hunters began importing these beautiful, delicious beasts into the wilds of the Lone Star State back in the late 1800s.  Now, for the simple reason that they are valued as game animals, there are far more fallow deer in Texas today than can be found on the entire European continent.  That’s how ya do that if ya truly care about wildlife, one of the many reasons I’m so proud to be a hunter.  No animal rights fleeb has ever done jack squat for any animals or habitat.  The idea of animal rights is one big lie. 

            But my ears don’t lie, and the surround sound of intense growls stabbin in and out of the thick Texas Hill Country  caderbreaks had me vibrating with joyful anticipation.  Bookend bull elk screamed their rutting glory from both sides nearby on the north and south ridgelines, lifting the hair on the back of my neck up a notch or two.  I believe the whole damn ponytail was nearly skybound at this point, the audio stimuli neck and neck with the brilliant visual allure of golden sunrays glistening off the white-gray caleechi gravel around the cedars and live oaks.  Even my nostrils were pumping with a delicious cocktail of pine, earth tones and mad bull musk wafting about my face. 

            Good God, I love this hunting game!  A pair of cottontail rabbits hopped in unison below my NorthStar ladder stand, and I just leaned forward and sighed a huge sigh of happiness.  Say YOWZA and pass the Great Spirit in megawads of hallelujah! 

            Directly behind me in the glow of the morning sunrise came an abrupt and loud grunt.  I dared not move to take a peek; it was that close.  In my hard left peripheral vision a white form emerged from the dark green cedar clump as an all white fallow doe poked her nose into the grass break.  To my immediate right, ace videographer Ronnie Bradford zoomed the camera onto the pretty white deer and we had live action video liftoff.  More blaring grunts and growls came from every direction and the Spirit of the Wild jam session was kicked up a beat by two ravens raising cacophinic hell right over our heads.  It was wonderful.  I thought I was loud.  Every hunt is very inspirational stuff for this old guitar player. 

            Without hesitation I slowly lifted my bow into semi-shooting position, expecting a buck to follow the doe into the clearing.  I waited as more wonderful creature sounds bumped and grinded the cold, still, morning air.  My Mossy Oak camo did its job perfectly when the deer appeared to stare a hole clean through me, never identifying me as human.  (Of course some folks have suspected this about me all along.) 

            The gentle breeze was blowing away from her to us, but now my gaze brought to my attention movement to our right, directly downwind to the trail behind Ronnie.  A light-colored form could be seen amongst the thick buckerbrush and I immediately recognized it as antlers.  Big antlers!  Fallow buck antlers, and they are spinning to and fro, radaring the danger zone before him.  I worried about our scent getting to the buck and blowing our ambush.  But another advantageous product was doing its job too.  Fortunately, we had sprayed ourselves down with Nature’s Essence. 

            “Essence of Fall” cover scent, and the big, bad hombre stuck his nose out and ambled into view.  Wow! A gorgeous gray-white, spotted fallow buck entering the Nuge Zone!  The wary old monarch kept the overhanging cedar limbs around him, taking one ultra cautious step at a time, his eyes riveted on the pretty little thang feeding to my left.  At one point he was nearly in shooting position when he spang back into the thicket with a leap.  I took advantage of this disrupting move to slowly swing my bow up into shoot-ready position, and as he cautiously stepped forth, I burned my vision into the pocket of his chest directly behind his shoulder.  Now he looked away, and my bowstring came back into the corner of my mouth, the WhackMaster arrow and Nugent Blade back to full draw.  I kissed my dinner arrow goodbye, and in an instant it was gone and vanishing into his foreleg crease with nary a sound, the Sims silencing products eliminating any bow twang whatsoever. 

            The buck exploded 180 degrees and the doe jerked her head erect.  Ronnie stood up in his stand to film the beast dash away to his last resting place in the beautiful green prickly pear cactus patch only 50 yards away.  He was stone dead in an instant.  My cherry-red arrow lay in the grass where he had stood but a moment ago, and all returned to normal once again in the peaceful Texas Hill Country.  I leaned back against the tree bark and smiled broadly for the camera.  I love to share my happiness with my fellow wildlife enthusiasts.  The Spirit of the Wild was soaring high on the wings of an American eagle again. 

            I made my statement on camera about the special feelings I was experiencing, trying hard to put into words the awesome dynamics of such powerful sensations.  We tracked the big buck on a very educational bloodtrail, recovered the handsome beast and exposed a roll of film to document the memorable occasion.  With echoes of bugling elk, cawing crows and grunting deer still reverberating throughout the land, we tied a Glenn’s DeerHandle onto the stunning horns and pulled him back to the road.

            Back to camp, mu buck would hang next to five other magnificent fallow bucks, all much larger than mine.  Steve, Gary, Steven, Tom and Michael had all taken trophy stag in the last few days here.  Outdoor Edge knives made skinning and boning of  the meat an easy and enjoyable task.  Fat, juicy backstraps would be grilled to perfection tonight, and grand celebration would ensue.  As the fiery Texas sun descends on another great day of hunting, the bucks would be still grunting and carrying on, and the tribe of happy hunters at the Young Ranch would sing along in the great Spirit of the Wild fallow deer event.