# when was your first deer with a trad bow



## whossbows (Sep 6, 2011)

1996,,good doe,bob lee recurve,43lb,1916 arrow with a 75 grain wasp,,,,,,,,,,had to sit down 3 times,thought i was going to fall from the tree,,,man that was great..


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## whossbows (Sep 6, 2011)

i forgot the picture


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## Al33 (Sep 6, 2011)

1976. Jasper County Georgia. 55# Ben Pearson Hunter, Bear Razorhead on an aluminum arrow, don't recal what size.


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## Badddwithabow (Sep 6, 2011)

last year... self made glass bow full length 5575 with a 100gr insert and treeshark up front....


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## ChrisSpikes (Sep 6, 2011)

Tuesday afternoon, October 20, 1998.  Spike buck.  17 yard shot on a hard quartering away angle. 65# Martin Damon Howatt Hunter, Pape's Bark Brown 2219, Simmons 160 grain Landshark.


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## T.P. (Sep 6, 2011)

Doe, 66lb Patriot recurve, 1990. Sorry no pics.


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## jerry russell (Sep 6, 2011)

October 22, 1980 Fayette County Georgia. Is was a crisp fall morning and I was severly under dressed. When this little buck came walking in I drew my 37 pound black widow bow and shot a solid 3' to the left of the buck. I watched him run away and the excitement coupled with the cold had me shaking terribly in that old Baker climber. It was all I could do to stay standing. I was so bummed over the missed chance when I noticed the little buck sneaking back up to my arrow. He sniffed the arrow and was trying to decide what to do. I was now a total mess and could barely keep the arrow on the rest. I would love to say I pulled it together and nailed that buck but the truth is I could barely draw that bow. I pulled back and FLUNG an arrow in his _general_ direction. That arrow would have missed that buck by 5 feet if the poor thing had not jumped the string and ran smack dab in the path of the arrow. Trailing that deer was sureal and when I walked up on him I just sat beside him in that Fayette County cutover for 30 minutes. I knew something very special had just happened to me and it may be hard to believe but I also new right then and there that this was the start of something huge in my life. That scrawny little buck ignited a passion in me that I swear burns as hot today as it did at that moment.
That was 31 years ago this October and not a single big game animal that I have ever taken has meant more to me than that little 4 point.


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## Mudfeather (Sep 6, 2011)

Sept 21, 2002..17 yd shot with a 58# Widow shooting 2315s I think..


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## eman1885 (Sep 6, 2011)

the first evening of the october blackbeard island nwr hunt 2008. 2.5 year old doe, 62# archery traditions canebreak, carbon arrow, magnus stinger 4 blade


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## ngabowhunter (Sep 6, 2011)

September 10th 2011. Early morning. Big fat doe at 15 yards. My late father-n-law's 71# American Longbow "Trophy Hunter", his wooden arrow with his Howard Hill broadhead. I hope.


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## Dennis (Sep 7, 2011)

1991 big doe with a 70# Quillian longhunter in Morgan county sorry no pics


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## Apex Predator (Sep 7, 2011)

On Cumberland Island Oct 9th, 2007.  Great Northern Ghost recurve.


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## HATCHETBOWDAN (Sep 7, 2011)

1972. Shakespear Necedah 45lb bearhead glass shaft.


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## BkBigkid (Sep 7, 2011)

Oct 1, 2010 
a Doe in Walton county, Bear Grizzly 50# a Wood arrow I made from a Blank and a 125 Zwickey Broad-head.  Standing on the Ground with my Climber on my Back a 12 yard shot with Her staring me down before the Draw. 

Pic is in my Sig


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## Glenn (Sep 7, 2011)

2005 I think the year was...

Yearling Doe on Apalachee WMA in North Florida
Shooting a 1970's Bear Grizzly 50@28" with a POC arrow I made and a ACE head.


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## Troy Butler (Sep 7, 2011)

T.P. said:


> Doe, 66lb Patriot recurve, 1990. Sorry no pics.



Shot my first with the same type and weight bow only I shot mine in1991 second year to hunt with bow. Guys in camp told me "if you kill anything with that thing they would eat the whole deer hide feet and all". I did not make them eat the feet.


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## bam_bam (Sep 7, 2011)

Troy Butler said:


> Shot my first with the same type and weight bow only I shot mine in1991 second year to hunt with bow. Guys in camp told me "if you kill anything with that thing they would eat the whole deer hide feet and all". I did not make them eat the feet.



Great story. It just kill me to hear when people say "that bow wont kill a deer".


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## Jayin J (Sep 7, 2011)

bam_bam said:


> Great story. It just kill me to hear when people say "that bow wont kill a deer".




I hope mine kills one this year.....


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## T.P. (Sep 7, 2011)

Troy Butler said:


> Shot my first with the same type and weight bow only I shot mine in1991 second year to hunt with bow. Guys in camp told me "if you kill anything with that thing they would eat the whole deer hide feet and all". I did not make them eat the feet.



I bought that bow from Dan when he had his shop in Athens, still have it. Don't shoot it anymore, stuff in my body starts cracking, popping and breaking when I try to pull it back. She would sling an arra though.


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## sawtooth (Sep 7, 2011)

in 2001 or 2002, I can't remember... I had just got a Ben pearson hunter, 50# and not in very good shape. I shot a BIG button head(that i mistook for a doe)- I was shooting a 2413 Aluminum arrow and a 125 gr. Magnus head.... way too light and stiff..... but oh well, I had no teacher. I shot at the deer from a TOmcat II climber  at about 10 yards and saw the fletching just vanish..... then I watched the deer streak off and when it attempted to clear a barbed-wire fence and failed....... I knew it was in the bag.. that's what got me hooked.  I didn't even want to clean the deer and delayed as long as i could, I was so proud of it.


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## Necedah (Sep 7, 2011)

1966 with a 45# Shakespeare Necedah Wonderbow, cedar arrows, and a Bear broadhead.
After playing football, going to the dance and dropping our dates off, my buddy and I headed for Cedar Creek, got in our sleeping bags about 2:00am. After a restless 3 hours, got up, ate a breakfast of honeybuns and Coca Cola and stumbled to our stands. I just couldn't stay awake. About every 10 minutes, I would force my eyes open look around and go back to sleep. By about 9:00, I could only get one eye to open at a time, but I did manage to see someone waving a white tissue about 20 yards away from my stand. Thinking that was strange, I manged to get the other eye opened and saw the "white tissue" was actually a deer wagging its tail. Well, I eased up in the stand, waited for the shot, and I was shaking so, bad I don't see how I ever hit the doe. I had a pass through, could see the arrow, and eased up and got it. 
The arrow had guacamole on it, so I waited for three anxious hours before I started looking. I didn't have to go far. The doe was 30 yards away from  where I shot her and she was stiff as a board. The arrow also hit the liver.  And that's how I killed my first deer in 1966.

Dave


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## Jayin J (Sep 7, 2011)

Necedah said:


> 1966 with a 45# Shakespeare Necedah Wonderbow, cedar arrows, and a Bear broadhead.
> After playing football, going to the dance and dropping our dates off, my buddy and I headed for Cedar Creek, got in our sleeping bags about 2:00am. After a restless 3 hours, got up, ate a breakfast of honeybuns and Coca Cola and stumbled to our stands. I just couldn't stay awake. About every 10 minutes, I would force my eyes open look around and go back to sleep. By about 9:00, I could only get one eye to open at a time, but I did manage to see someone waving a white tissue about 20 yards away from my stand. Thinking that was strange, I manged to get the other eye opened and saw the "white tissue" was actually a deer wagging its tail. Well, I eased up in the stand, waited for the shot, and I was shaking so, bad I don't see how I ever hit the doe. I had a pass through, could see the arrow, and eased up and got it.
> The arrow had guacamole on it, so I waited for three anxious hours before I started looking. I didn't have to go far. The doe was 30 yards away from  where I shot her and she was stiff as a board. The arrow also hit the liver.  And that's how I killed my first deer in 1966.
> 
> Dave




Great Story Dave....I hope my first one is as memorable as yours was.   I like Honey Buns and Coke too.


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## Jeff Roark (Sep 7, 2011)

October of last year, my first year of traditional bowhunting. A nice young doe, killed with a Quinn Stallion 55#, 3555 GT blems with a Magnus Stinger on the ground still hunting. I had gotten off two earlier shots still hunting but had missed, both in the same day about 2 weeks prior to getting her.




IMG_0077 by JRoark75, on Flickr


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## Troy Butler (Sep 7, 2011)

T.P. said:


> I bought that bow from Dan when he had his shop in Athens, still have it. Don't shoot it anymore, stuff in my body starts cracking, popping and breaking when I try to pull it back. She would sling an arra though.



I still have mine too and like you it hangs on the bow rack. But yea it would sling an arra. them 2419's and 145 snuffer did the trick on a few critters.


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## Hoyt (Sep 7, 2011)

1964 with  48lb. American Archery Cheetah Standard recurve in area E-2 at Ft. Stewart. Big doe.


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## chenryiv (Sep 7, 2011)

You guys are inspiring me!! Hope to have my first traditional this year.......Can't wait


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## longbowdave1 (Sep 7, 2011)

In the fall of 2005, after 25 years of bowhunting with a compound, I built my first self bow. I hunted trad only for the first time, I should have had a few deer.  I missed shots on two doe, and a dandy buck.(the white belly hair off the buck didn't get me through winter!) I think I was trying to hard to make it happen. I was a member of the "Amish Bowhunters", every time I shot at a deer I said," Ahhhh, Mished again!"
 In 2006 I built a hickory backed, hickory 60# bow and tryed again. On a cold November day, I took a shot at a spike buck and this the time the arrow found it's mark! The buck jumped and ran under my stand and stopped. He wobbled, then layed down at the base of my tree and expired! I couldn't believe i had done it, I sat in the tree for at least 1/2 an hour enjoying the moment. I took the young buck with a self made hickory bow, cedar arrow, and a Zwicky 2 blade eskimo. What a day!


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## dpoole (Sep 7, 2011)

2 years ago doe


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## whossbows (Sep 7, 2011)

just aint nothing like it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


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## Allen Oliver (Sep 7, 2011)

1-9-2011 Big Ol Swamp Nanny. Sage Takedown Recurve,Gold Tip 3555,Magnus 125. Second Season of Hunting with Trad Equipment only. Deer is the one in My Avatar.


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## pine nut (Sep 7, 2011)

I t was way back in 1967 the morning after a frat. party in which a buddy and I were rushing a  freshman student to join our fraternity and we invited him to go bow hunting the next morning along Sandy Creek in Green county near Skull Shoals. We borrowed him a bow and some arrows got him a license from a bait stand/beerstore open all night, and I took him to my deer stand which was a rudely constructed stand made of treelimbs laced across tree limbs.  I put him in the stand and walked on down the creek,  in the creek,  for several hundred yards.  I was thinking man I hope he appreciates what I did for him.  Well I decided I would get out of the creek and went to a spot where a sort of terrace came slanting towards the creek with a blown down tree paralleling the creek along a bank that intersected the terrace.  I walked around the root ball and went up the terrace and sat on a stump thinking it was just going to be killing time. I was hunting with a n American Archery Cheeta Special 57# @ 28" and Bear magnum arrows with a Bear razor head all bought from Dan Quillian.  I was dozing when I heard a twig snap and then I was on full alert as I spied a small deer at the root ball of the downed tree, which was laying with the top limbs almost reaching the aforementioned bank to my RIGHT.  I watched as the deer walked to the gap between the tree top and the bank which was at the most about five feet wide.  He stopped dead still behind the limbs.  I thought if he jumps forward he'll be behind the bank and GONE! He stood there and I sat there  with no chance to correct my stance without being seen.  I'm sure my heart was ricocheting around in my chest and I was frustrated to no end!

That buck was young but he was tired of living I guess because he turned around in his tracks and very slowly walked back to the root ball, came around it, and walked angling towards me.  More cardiac rattling...  Well he stopped and he was just beyond the terrace.  I had gotten a bit more prepared while he was going back around the tree, and I knew he had stopped to plot his next steps and would look up before he jumped or walked up the terrace.  It was now or never, and I drew and let'er fly. Trying for a between the neck and shoulder shot.  The arrow spined him and he dropped in his tracks.  When dressing him I removed the razorhead from the off side and the razor was still intact!  He was small as I said but I was sure proud.  When I started deer hunting I was sixteen and I hunted the first seven years without ever seeing a deer!  Thet were scarce back then in North Ga.  By the time I killed this one I had seen plenty but had no shots!  When I finally saw a deer I was near hillsboro Ga and I had seen seven in the first 30 minutes of the day !  That's another story though.


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## TIMBERGHOST (Sep 8, 2011)

October 12, 1996.  Button Buck.  PSE Blackhawk Recurve, 
55#@28".  Wal Mart Terminator 3 blade head (serrated) with chisel point.  14 acre hardwood bottom in Merriweather County owned by my uncle.  Killed a large doe later that season (Wednesday before Thanksgiving) on the same property.


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## rapid fire (Sep 8, 2011)

Blackbeard Island Oct. 2008.  1 1/2 yr. doe at 8 yds. Complete pass through from the Black Widow.


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## TIMBERGHOST (Sep 8, 2011)

Rapid Fire!  That sure is a purty one piece Autumn Oak you got there.  What year model is it?  I love the one piece MAs.  Too bad they don't make them anymore.


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## TNGIRL (Sep 8, 2011)

WOW!!! Loads of inspiration for me here!!!!!
Whossbows....that ain't you!!!!!!!! that feller weights lots more than you plus he looks like he's got a mouthful of teeth!!!!!! beard does look familiar tho!!!!
Al, everytime I see that pic it just cracks me up....was you in that movie "The Deer Hunter"?????
Dave and Bill, I think your stories absolutely ROCKED!!!!! guess it means I need to go partying on Friday don't it?????
Hello Mr. Kinnnnnnard!!!!!
I am hoping and saying little bitty prayers that I will score with a bowkill on a deer this year. The Good Lord has alot to worry with these days so hate to ask for something this trivial but it's on my wish list for sure.......


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## TIMBERGHOST (Sep 8, 2011)

Hey Tomi!


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## Blueridge (Sep 8, 2011)

1975 in Sumter Co. while I was in college , a doe.


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## bowhntr (Sep 8, 2011)

My first was in either 1999 or 2000 with an old Herters Utopian takedown 62" 55# @ 28 " . An ash arrow dipped crested and fletched by me went thru a doe that was running down the trail I was sitting over when dogs started barking nearby. Then another doe came by and stuck her then a five point came by but I estimated the distance wrong and shot under him. To say the least it was the best day I had ever had with a bow in my hands and the first deer that had given me a chance to shoot at them .


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## rapid fire (Sep 8, 2011)

Timberghost, that is a 96' model and in near mint condition.  I have killed all sorts of critters with it and it fits me like a glove.  60#@27"


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## TIMBERGHOST (Sep 9, 2011)

Thanks RF.  I gave a '96 model like that to my younger son a couple of years ago. It is 64" long and 52#@30".  Loved that bow but my boy loved it more than I did so you know how that goes...


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## Blueridge (Sep 9, 2011)

Forgot the details. Was able to climb a big water oak and stand on the limbs for 3 hours. This big Doe showed up at about 15 yds and I got her through the lungs with a 2018 game getter shaft/ bear razor head. I was shaking so bad I almost fell when I drew back. Pure luck but I was hooked.  Bow was a Bear Kodiak Hunter 47#


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## pine nut (Sep 10, 2011)

TNGIRL said:


> WOW!!! Loads of inspiration for me here!!!!!
> Whossbows....that ain't you!!!!!!!! that feller weights lots more than you plus he looks like he's got a mouthful of teeth!!!!!! beard does look familiar tho!!!!
> Al, everytime I see that pic it just cracks me up....was you in that movie "The Deer Hunter"?????
> Dave and Bill, I think your stories absolutely ROCKED!!!!! guess it means I need to go partying on Friday don't it?????
> ...



It was my first experience with grain and champagne as I remember (barely).  One of those water cooler cups full and I was more than looped!  Only drank two or I'd a been still at the party!  LOL


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## Night Wing (Sep 11, 2011)

My first deer was a doe. I took it when I was 16 years old way back in 1966 with a 36# Wing target bow (with white colored limbs).


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