2022 HuntingNY Crossbow Harvest Thread

[WNYBuckHunter]

Post up pics of your 2022 Crossbow hunting harvests here!

Only pictures with the associated story will be allowed in this thread. If you want to congratulate someone, please do it by clicking on the "like this" button for the post. There will be no exceptions.

Feel free to start a new thread if you wish to have comments in addition to posting the photo / story here.

[RangerClay]

About an hour after sun up I noticed this guy trotting up the hill behind me.  He stopped only once and I guessed his range at 35 yards.  I had to squat down a little to shoot under a branch.  I let the arrow fly and heard a thwack.  I let him go lay down for a couple hours before I picked up the trail.  He went about 50 yards and left a good blood trail.  Unlike a deer he ran through the thickest cover.  I finally found him under a huckleberry bush.  My first coyote with a crossbow.  One less fawn killer on the hill.

[suburbanfarmer]

sorry..plz delete

Edited October 29, 2022 by suburbanfarmer

[Bowshotmuzzleloader]

Been super slow and was getting very discouraged,, had this buck on trail cam at night and thought as years past I would never see him in daylight hours well tonight thinking I only going to see does again,, he sneaks up on me and blast him at 25 yards and watch him drip at 80 …

 

[wolc123]

I haven’t seen too many deer at home so far thru crossbow season (just one 4-pointer), which I passed at 15 yards on the second morning.  I also haven’t seen any fawns this year.   I trapped (7) coons in my sweetcorn in the late summer, all but (1) were adult males, and all were exhumed by coyotes within (2) days of my burying them.  Almost every night, one can hear the yips and howling of coyotes.  
 

I was out hunting this morning, in the upper deck of my favorite stand.  At about 8:15, I noticed motion in the hay field to my north.  It was a large coyote, running across, from west to east.  There were others behind it, spaced about 20 yards apart, 6 to 8 of them in total. 

The path they were on, would have taken them safely past, at about 100 yards range, but the leader turned in my direction, and stopped, facing me at exactly 40 yards.  That just happened to be the maximum distance, where I had sighted in the third green dot, on my Barnett Recruit crossbow.  
 

I always wondered if those NAP Spitfire, 100 grain broadheads wound hit exactly the same as a 100 grain field tip, but I was too cheap to try one on a target, to find out.  
 

There is no more need for that “waste” after today, thanks to this coyote.  I put the third dot on the base of his neck and squeezed the trigger.  That’s exactly where it struck:

 

That shot dropped that coyote right on the spot, but it did not kill it.  It paralyzed both front legs.  For at least (5) minutes, it spun circles with its back legs, and lifted its head.  It barked quite a few times, sounding just like a deep pitched German Shepard dog.  
 

Again, being very cheap, I was unwilling to send a second bolt into it.  When it stopped moving, after about 10 minutes, I walked over to it.  It was still drawing shallow breaths.  
 

I had nothing to club it with and I didn’t want to risk a bite.  I held its head down with the foot bar of my reloaded Recruit, and stood on its chest for about 10 more minutes, until it finally drew its last breath.  
 

While it had dropped very easily, it certainly died hard.  I already have one tanned grey coyote hide in the house and my wife didn’t want another.  My neighbor, who traps them, said the hides were virtually worthless.  I cut off its tail and skinned, salted and hung it down in the basement, with my deer tails.  Maybe, I’ll try making some jigs from it. 

It must have bit off the back part of the bolt, trying to yank it out of its shoulder.  The broadhead pulled out rather easily, and still looks to be in decent shape.  I’ll touch up the blades on a stone and keep it in reserve.  

Tomorrow will be my last chance to fill a buck tag during archery season, because I have to leave the state for work the rest of the week.  I’ll hunt the first hour and the last 4.  If I can’t get it done then (I’ll settle for a 3-1/32” unicorn), it will have to wait till late ML season.  I hope I don’t regret passing the 4-pointer on the second day. 
 

I was surprised how heavy that big red male coyote was, when I tried lifting him by the tail.  I had weighed the last one I killed at night on the butcher pile, years before (55 pounds) and this one felt heavier.   Apparently they have been very well fed from coons and antlerless deer that the neighbors  have been nocking off with their nussance permits.  I roped a back leg to drag it up front.  

Edited November 13, 2022 by wolc123

[hueyjazz]

First hunting in the 70's for the first days of SZ crossbow.  Then it was days of only seeing doe and few of them as it be.  Finally, today I see a lot more movement.  Around 10:30 this guy comes trotting by at 35 yards.  Double lung shot.  He only went 30 yards.

Edited November 17, 2022 by hueyjazz
Correction

[heavuser]

Stalked him using his tracks in the snow we got in 3M on Sunday.

I tracked him for about 2 hours before I saw him. I was at 31yrds when he heard me, he turned around, stood up on both legs, right arm on a tree, left arm covering his heart. I shot him dead on in the heart, through his left arm. 452grain arrows, Sevr 2.0 broadhead. The arrow shattered the bone in his arm, shattered 2 ribs, and stopped in the heart, no passthrough even with 200ishlbs of KE. 

The bear ran 20yrds, let out a loud moan then expired. 

Edited December 13, 2022 by heavuser

[airedale]

Way to go!!

Al

[mike103]

Forgot to add my Xbow deer. Nothing to brag about but it ate well.