Lessons Learned From Old Geezer

It was early December last year, and my son Hunter had two different bucks on camera. He was hunting one, and he told me to go hunt one of his other spots that had also had a buck coming in fairly frequently.

Hunter had already taken a great buck that met the Pope and Young minimum earlier in the season. The buck I was hunting was named Not Quite, due to the fact he was a big mature buck but would not quite score Pope and Young.

We strictly bowhunt and manage these properties hard and try to take only mature animals no matter what we think they score.

On the afternoon of Dec. 9, I grabbed my PSE Carbon Air, fanny pack and safety harness and headed to the stand. I climbed up and settled in for the afternoon hunt. I remember it being a nice cool evening, and the wind direction was good for this particular stand location. My first sighting was a hen turkey that came strolling by apparently on her way to roost. As the evening sun dropped below the horizon and the light was fading fast, I began to think I was not going to see any deer during that sit.

It was just before grabbing the pull-up rope to let my bow down, when I caught movement to my left.

I could not make it out to start with, and then I realized what I was seeing—it was a buck’s light-colored antlers I was seeing as he lifted and swung his head left and right to check the wind. He slowly made his way toward me, and he was super cautious.

I thought to myself, “That’s Not Quite… the buck Hunter had described to me.” He had a good spread and great beams, but I couldn’t be sure on the number of points or their length.

I could also tell by the body size this was a mature deer, and if he offered a shot, I was going to take it.

Tim Knight with his Dodge County buck they had named Old Geezer. Tim was able to take the deer with his compound bow last December.

He took his sweet time moving down the trail, and I was losing precious light by the minute. He finally offered me a shot at about 20 yards slightly quartered away. I drew my bow back and got anchored and realized I was basically aiming at a silhouette. So I remembered thinking if I can just center mass the hit quartered away, the 165-grain Bipolar with its large cut will put him down even if I need to give him some time. I always use my personal scenario of aim, aim, aim… squeeze.

And the arrow was on its way!

I watched as the arrow with the green Ignitor lighted nock blinked as it passed through the buck and he bolted, leaving the lighted nock glowing, but not near as bright.

• • •

There is an old saying that “Getting Old Ain’t For Sissies.” As I get older, I am finding that to be very true. I have been writing these articles for the better part of 30 years now and sharing my bowhunting experiences along the way. I well remember the days of pulling 75 pounds on my bow for hunting and boasting about how much weight I was pulling. I can remember going to archery tournaments in the 80s and guys boasting about shooting 90 pounds, and some were pulling almost 100 pounds of draw weight. I’ve witnessed strings and cables break, and I’ve even seen bow risers burst at the handle because they couldn’t handle the draw weight.

As I have gotten older, that attitude has changed dramatically as I age and as I just physically can’t do what I used to do as a younger man.

Fortunately, the technology in archery has come a long ways since the 80s. Bows are much more efficient at lower poundage, and arrows have gone from wood to fiberglass to aluminum to carbon.

Also, over the years I have watched more than my share of outdoor hunting shows and have watched these small-framed women, such as Tiffany Lackosky, Vicki Cianciarulo, Kandi Kisky, Gina Brunson and Nicole Reeve, just to name a few, shoot some of the biggest Midwest and Canadian bucks with their bows.

So I started doing a little research and asking some questions on the social media sites about draw weights, draw lengths and arrow weights that these women and others like them were hunting with. Come to find out, most were pulling less than 50 pounds of draw weight, less than 27 inches in draw length, and less than 370 grains of total hunting arrow weight.

Yet they are taking on a consistent basis some of the largest whitetails ever recorded on film!

This got me to thinking about us guys who like to boast about our bow draw weight and arrow weight and how super fast our bows are. We are for the most part hunting deer in the Southeast and shooting much smaller framed and thinner skinned deer. As a taxidermist, I can tell you there is a huge difference in the hair and skin density of a mature Midwest buck and our deer here in the Southeast.

Over the years I have slowly been lowering my poundage on my bow, just because it is easier on my back, shoulders, elbows and wrists. Not to mention it is much easier to function well on those frosty mornings when you have been sitting in the cold for several hours.

And here is another point to be made, we in the Southeast don’t have to deal with bone-chilling cold and wind for the most part, like the Midwest hunters do. Although we can lower our draw weight, our draw length for the most part does not change, and this can be an advantage for shooters like me with 29 inches or longer.

On average, you can figure 5 pounds of bow weight per inch of draw. This means a person pulling 60 pounds at 27 inches of draw would have to shoot 70 pounds to equal the speed of a person pulling 29 inches of draw at 60 pounds.

This is why it’s difficult for archers with a short draw to get the speed of a longer draw archer without substantially increasing bow draw weight.

Lowering draw weight is also much easier on your equipment and makes it quieter to shoot. I recommend keeping your total arrow weight the same, or in some cases adding arrow weight and not making it lighter. Have you ever wondered why freight trains, log trucks and semi trucks are so devastating on the highways even at slower speeds? It’s because of the stored energy and weight along with momentum.

For example, if I had a ping-pong ball in one hand and a golf ball in the other, they are the same size in circumference, but the weight difference is significant. I could stand you at 10 feet, and if I could throw the ping-pong ball 100 mph at you, but could only throw the golf ball 50 mph, which one would you choose to be hit by?

Another great example… if I was standing on the roof of your house and you were on the ground, and you had a choice for me to drop a red brick on top of your head or cinder block, which would you choose? The brick will do damage, but the block would drive you in the ground like a tent stake.

I’m using these examples just to get you to thinking about these factors—draw weight and arrow weight versus speed.

This has been debated for a long time, but as you get older like me you realize that it’s not so much speed that is most important, not as important as it is to have equipment that you can shoot accurately without struggling.

For those of you who have followed me over the years through this magazine, social media or my business know that I love to hunt hogs in the off season. This is when I do most of my practicing and preparing for deer season, along with making any changes to my equipment as I try it out on hogs. I can tell you for a fact that a hog is a lot tougher to shoot through, especially big boars with shields, than any deer ever thought about being. Even a big gobbler with thick primary and secondary wing feathers and a thick breast bone plate is harder to shoot through than the rib cage of a whitetail.

At present, my personal setup is 58 pounds of draw weight, 29 inches of draw, and a total arrow weight of 462 grains. This includes a 165-grain broadhead and a lighted nock in the rear with three blazer vanes and a speed of 275 fps on a three-shot average.

I believe that regardless of these figures nothing is more important than shot placement and educating yourself on the shot placement and shot angles of the animals you pursue. A great rule of thumb for bowhunters is to aim for the spot you think the arrow will exit.

So, I’m taking it from the ladies as I get older. I’m shooting less poundage as I get older, but I’m keeping the same arrow weight. This setup makes it better and easier on me and my equipment, and it doesn’t take away my ability to make a clean, successful shot.

I’m still putting in my time to make sure my equipment is tuned well and shooting accurately. I’m learning that less is sometimes more, and anything you can do to keep it fun and not have to struggle is way better. I’m 60 years old now with the three granddaughters, and I want to be able to share with them the great outdoors and the sport of archery by example.

Who knows, by age 65 I may be down to pulling 50 pounds or less. As long as I’m still in the game, I will be happy.

• • •

I called my son Hunter on the phone and told him in a nervous voice, “I think I just shot Not Quite! He said, “You’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not kidding. I shot him about two minutes ago, and I think I heard him crash!”

Hunter said, “I’m on my way,” but I told him to let me get down and check my arrow and I’d call him back. I called  Hunter back and again told him I was pretty sure I heard him crash but not 100 percent. He ran into a thick clearcut, and it was possible that I just heard him go through a brushpile or treetop.

When I climbed down and walked over to my arrow, I could smell him—that rutted-up buck scent is unmistakable. I shined my light over on my arrow, and it was plastered from one end to the other. In fact, there was a drop of blood dripping off the nock as I shined my light on it.

I called Hunter back once again and told him, “I don’t know how far he ran, but he is dead judging by the sign on the arrow.”

Hunter arrived a few minutes later, and we decided to take up the track. I let him with his younger eyes go ahead of me and spot blood sign, and then I would go to him and hold the next blood as we tracked. This went on a little slow as there was not as much sign as I was expecting as we tracked. We had gone about 60 yards when I heard Hunter say, “I smell him!”

And about that time I said I could smell him, too. And then Hunter said, There he is!”

He was piled up in a briar thicket with his belly facing us and head up in the briars. When Hunter grabbed his head and pulled him out, he said, “I don’t believe it, you killed Geezer!

“What? It isn’t Not Quite?

Hunter said no, it was the Geezer,  the oldest buck on the property. No one has had a picture of him since the summer, and we did not know what had happened to him. He’s at least 8 1/2 years old. No club member has ever seen him in the daylight or from the stand. Even our neighbors have pictures of him and were hunting him. We high-fived each other followed by a big hug.

Hunter said he was calling Jake Hendley, a fellow club member. We were going to need some help with this big old joker. Geezer wound up with an 18 1/4-inside spread and 23-inch main beams with not very long tines, but his head and neck were the most impressive with a 24-inch neck measurement at the ears, a true warrior and trophy.

Although I do not use trail cameras for deer, this is a prime example of never putting all your trust in them. I was just in the right place at the right time to harvest this buck. It does make you wonder how many big bucks survive just because a hunter chooses to stay home or hunt somewhere else because he or she has no big bucks on camera. There is no telling how many bucks come through an area every year and don’t walk in front of the camera. Or maybe they do walk in front of the camera, and that is the only time that particular buck passes through that area in pursuit of a hot doe. Or maybe he’s just a traveler like Geezer.

Sometimes I think we need to just go hunting. Just go, because you never ever know when a trophy buck might show up like Old Geezer!