Putting the bow down Come Saturday morning

[Bowshotmuzzleloader]

Well I haven't taken a deer this year yet with my bow, although I've had the opportunity to take 4 young bucks that I passed on and 2 does and last night I almost had the opportunity to close the deal on a 2 1/2 or older buck with two does but hung up for 20 minutes not giving me a shot if only if he stopped 15'more I would of had a great shot,, oh well it was a great hunt none the less.. I'm going to continue the rest of the season with the controversial crossbow and see if I can close the deal on a decent buck .. I'm looking forward to this weekend and really hoping my son closes the deal on a buck he's really putting the time and effort in...

[wolc123]

This will be the third year I will not pick up a vertical bow.   I was not able to practice with mine 3 years ago, due to some major surgery, and that was also the year they made the crossbow legal for the last 2 weeks.    There is not much that bothers me more than wounding and not recovering a deer, and the crossbow greatly reduces my chances of doing that for 3 reasons: 

#1, don't have to draw with a deer in close.  That virtually eliminates the need to shoot at alert deer which have caught a glimpse of the draw.  "String jump" is only an issue when shooting at alert deer, and string jump caused all 4 of my bad hits over 35 years with a vertical bow.  

#2,  Shooting from a rest.   My accuracy with a gun is at least 4 times better from a rest (as determined by measured 3 shot group diameters) compared to offhand.  The same thing holds true with my crossbow.   Vertical bows are fired offhand.  All of my stands and blinds now have good rests.

#3, use of a telescopic sight.   This almost lets me pick out an individual hair on the deer I shoot at, at ranges up to 50 yrds.  "Aim small miss small".  The human eye can only focus at one distance at a time, but the lenses on a good telescopic allow the crosshair (or aim-dot) to be in near perfect focus at the same time as the target.  

My last shot at a deer with a vertical bow was a clean kill, but it was a lot more due to Divine providence (I don't believe in luck) than my making a good shot.   The buck must have caught a glimpse of my draw as he passed thru the hedgerow that my stand was in.   When he stopped, 25 yards out, and quartering away, I released my arrow.  He reared back and down, taking the arrow thru the neck and jugular, and dropped dead after a quick 30 yard dash.    

My only shot at a deer with a crossbow (two years ago), killed him clean with a shot thru the heart at 59 yards.   He did not see me slowly move the crossbow in position on the rest for the shot, and never flinched when the bolt released, even though my crossbow is a bit louder than my vertical bow.      

I am definitely looking forward to getting out there with the crossbow on Saturday.  Fortunately, our venison supply is in fair shape now thanks to a NZ, ML doe kill and another that a neighbor killed with his bow, and gave to us.  That will let me be a little more selective.  Button bucks will be my primary quarry with my antlerless tags (nothing is better eating), and 2-1/2 year and older bucks with my buck tag.   The 1-1/2 year bucks and all the does will most likely get a pass from me on this weekend at least.

Good luck this weekend to all the hunters no matter which weapon you choose.  There are plenty of deer out there for all of us thanks to the non-winter we had last year.