From: kdw@icd.ab.com (Kenneth D. Whitehead)
Subject: Re: Bowhunting wound rates
Organization: Allen-Bradley Company, Inc.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:16:25 GMT

In Message-ID: <1992Nov2.180244.2471@spdc.ti.com> Jeff Achenbach wrote:
> 
> >>>>... Many
> >>>>people I've talked to on these hunts have the attitude that you can't kill 
> >>>>a deer unless you shoot, or that they've paid their $50 and won't get their
> >>>>money's worth if they don't kill a deer. Also, with this possibly being
>>>> their
> >>>>only chance to hunt, they are not likely to turn down marginal shots.


Well, if I may relate the flip side of this coin...  Pennsylvania bowhunting
season has come and gone without me so much as drawing my bow back, again...

I spent over 60 hours during October and the first week in November sitting
in my treestand on an oak ridge on my property in Pennsylvania.  During the
entire month of October, I had only one deer, a small doe, in shooting
distance of my stand.  She was extremely spooky, so I passed up the shot.

At the end of the first week of November, with snow on the ground, leaves
off the trees, and the rut heating up, things were different.  On November
6, I saw 9 deer, chasing each other around, the bucks grunting like pigs;
none were close enough for a shot, however, but even if they had been, they
never stopped moving, and I don't shoot at moving deer, at least not with my
bow.  On the 7th, I saw 2 more early in the afternoon, but once again, they 
were out of range.  Then, about 4:30 in the afternoon, HE came in.

I had estrous doe scent and a buck's tarsal gland sweetening up a scrape
under my stand.  As I said, at about 4:30, I heard the sound of footsteps,
and looking in the direction of the sound, I saw a buck heading directly for 
me.  As he got closer, I was able to see his rack, and my eyes nearly popped
out of my head.

The buck stopped almost right under my stand, quartering toward me.  I watched
him, not more than 5 yards away, looking around for the source of the scent.
He had a wide non-typical rack, which would have been a nice typical 10-pointer,
except that he had at least 4 approx. 1 inch "ring hanger" tines jutting up in 
the area of the brow tines.  I had never seen anything quite so big while hunting
in Pennsylvania.  He was completely unsuspecting.  I couldn't have possibly 
missed from that distance.

Instead of drawing immediately, however, I kept waiting for him to turn a
bit so that I would have a broadside shot, or better yet, a quartering away
shot, the only kind I'll take.

He never turned.  I let him walk.  He's still out there, breeding the does
on my property. :-)

Later on that evening, as the sun was starting to set, a flock of 16 wild
turkeys came shuffling up the draw, and one by one, took off from the ridge
not more than 30 yards in front of me, flying up into their roost trees.  Neat.

You know, I've told this story to a number of my bowhunter friends, and not
a single one of them has chided me for not shooting.  That doesn't surprise
me, because I know what kind of people they are, but I just thought some of
the folks on this newsgroup would find it interesting.

It was a pretty good end to the bow season, IMHO.














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