Amy’s First Alabama Bow Kill

November 8th, 2013, I was able to break away from studying and spend the weekend with my love, Darryl. He had a beautiful spot picked out for me that day. It was a lock on stand that he hung over the summer. He had been monitoring the deer activity for several weeks and there were does that visited the field on a regular basis. At this point in my hunting career, I had only killed one deer with a bow. It was a buck on our honeymoon. While it was a kill, I don’t count it because I had a guide walking me through every step. This time it was all me. I hadn’t been in the stand that long when 2 does came into the field from the left. They slowly fed their way closer and closer to me. With every step they took the more my heart started pounding. I was shaking so hard! I stood up slowly, pulled my bow back, and as soon as she turned broadside, I hit the release. The adrenaline rush, was unreal!

10/19/13 Alabama hunt

Saturday October 19, 2013 was the first day I actually got to hunt at my new club. We have spent several weekends down there scouting and hanging stands. I go to a small food plot that me and my wife put a ladder stand up on back in July. I get settled in to the stand around 2:45pm. At 4:15 I have a doe walk in to the field. She’s out there just feeding around and I am preparing for a shot. In the mean time a small doe walks out right in front of me at 15yds. The big doe walks into one of the holes I have to shoot through so I prepare to draw my bow. The smaller doe catches the movement of me drawing and takes off. Big doe goes with her. I’m a little upset at this point as I thought I made sure neither of them were looking at me before I made my move. Now they are in the woods stomping and blowing at me. That goes on for about a minute and I hear them run off. A few minutes later a deer out in front of me starts blowing and I can’t figure out why. The wind is hitting me in the face and the two deer that busted me went the other way. Out of the corner of my eye I see something move and a big bobcat crosses the end of the food plot. So I figure that’s what the deer is blowing at. So I pull out my grunt call in hopes of calming the deer in the area back down. I grunt softly 3-4 times. As I’m putting my grunt call up I catch a glimpse of an antler tine straight in front of me moving through the pines. As he gets closer I can see that he’s a good buck. I prepare for a shot if he comes in to the food plot. He takes his time very cautiously approaching the field. As he gets to the edge of the plot and I see the path he plans to take I realize I may very well get a shot at him! It worked out just perfect. He walks in to the plot and walks straight to one of my shooting lanes and stops. I’m trying to figure out how to get my bow drawn back without him catching me when all of a sudden he picks his head up and looks the other way! Couldn’t ask for anything more perfect! I get drawn back and find my anchor point and settle my 20yd pin just a little high. He’s at 25yds and completely calm. I turn the rage extreme loose and it finds its mark! I hit him just a tad higher than I would have liked to but it was still a good hit. He takes off running back into the pines. I call my wife to tell her the good news. Then I text a few buddies to let them know what just happened. I couldn’t be more excited! After giving him 45 minutes I started to trail him. My arrow was covered in good blood and the blood trail was amazing. He went 80yds or less and was laying in a small dried up creek bed. I thanked the good Lord for allowing me to harvest him and began to drag him out. I would always call my dad after my hunt and tell him what all I had seen and if I was lucky enough to harvest a deer. He has always been so supportive in my hunting. Since he has passed I now call my Mom and share my stories with her. As I walk to my 4 wheeler I call my mom to tell her exactly what had happened she tells me that she is happy for me and how proud she was. She then tells me that my dad would be proud of me as well. That made it all that much better. Here are a few pics from the hunt.

My first TN deer 10/6/2013

I went to hunt with a good friend of mine in TN on his farm. We seen a ton of deer over 4 days of hunting but just couldn’t get a shot with a bow to work out. Well on the last hunt it finally all came together. I was hunting a white oak flat along the edge of some pines where the deer were bedding. Does and small bucks were coming from everywhere. At 8:30 I picked out a doe and decided to take her. With 23 deer in bow range I managed to stand up draw my bow and take the shot without them busting me. She was at 24yds and quartered away from me so I settled my pin toward the back of her ribs. I touched off my release and let the rage eat! She took off At the shot. After settling down I climbed out of my tree and began to pack up my stuff. I met my buddy at the truck and we went over how it all played out. After giving her a good 30-45mins we started tracking her. She only went 40yds. The best part is we only had to drag her about 100yds to the road and we could drive right up to her. I had my first TN whitetail!

Carbomask

If you wear facepaint when you are hunting you should try  carbomask. a buddy of mine told me about it last year and I finally broke down and ordered some. This stuff is awesome! It goes on nice and smooth and comes off just as easy. It’s a little more expensive than the regular grease paint but it’s well worth it. It has no odor that I can tell. It will last all day and here’s the crazy thing. I can put it on and sweat or even be out in the rain and it doesn’t come off but when I’m done I can wet a paper towel and it comes right off!!!  It comes off so easy that I removed mine in the restroom of a restaurant in less than a minute yesterday. It’s that easy. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to use facepaint while hunting.

shines acorn scent

i guy i used to work with asked me one day if i had ever used any shines. i said no that i had never heard of it. we stopped by marks outdoors and i bought a bottle of it. i always have my doubts when trying new stuff so i didnt get my hopes to high. on the first morning i tried it i sprayed my legs and boots down good and walked across a hayfield and into the edge of the woods next to a red oak tree that was dropping. about 8:00 that morning i looked out into the hayfield and a 4 point and a nice 6 point were crossing and got on my trail where i had walked in. the only problem is that went the wrong way!!!!   they were headed back toward where i parked the truck and not to my stand. so the next morning i did the same thing except i would stop and spray my boots every 75-100yds to keep the stronger scent coming to my tree. at 7:15 i had a nice 8 point crossing the hayfield catch wind of my scent and he followed the shines scent trail right toward my tree.  when he hit 25yds he got a little nervous and stopped. i managed to get around for a shot. i thought everything was good until i released my arrow and WHACK it hit a limb and went sailing over his back. talk about a sick feeling. better a miss than wounding one but to watch him run off my heart just sank.  that was 2 great encounters in the first 2 days trying the shines. well i had to work all the next week but the next saturday rolled around and i was back at it.  me and a buddy were hunting at his place and we saw several deer going up and down the hillside all out of range. the next morning we sat up where we were seeing all the deer the day before.  my buddy sat up on top of the ridge and i sat up at the bottom of it. a nice 8 point came in from behind us and and was going to go right between us. that is until he hit the trail i walked in on. again the shines brought him right on in. i shot him at 8 yards and was my first ever 8 point buck.  i will never forget that day. it was a great day to be a bowhunter!  i have had several deer,bucks and does, come in to the smell of shines. i even like to spray some where i want to take my shots. i have had quite a few deer stop and lick it off the ground or a tree that i had sprayed it on. i still use it to this day and i go through 5-6 bottles a year!  it has really helped me as a cover scent and as an attractant. i would recommend giving it a try. you wont be disappointed!!!

 

 

here is a picture of the 8 point i killed thanks to the shines!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

rage broadheads…

i just thought i’d do a little write up on rage broadheads. i have been bowhunting for 14 years now and have tried several different broadheads. i have shot fixed blades as well as expandables. well a few years ago i decided to give the rage a try so i went and bought a pack of 2 blade 100gr broadheads. they group really well and and hit exactly like my field points. my only complaint was the rubber o-ring. the blades kept wanting to come off  of it so i ordered some other o-rings to put on them. now they work great. well the day after the season opener i get my chance to try them out. i shot a doe at 24yds quartering away from me and managed to blow through her off side shoulder. she ran 30yds and was down! the blood trail was unreal! need less to say i was impressed so far. a few days later i got to test them again on another doe. this time she was a little bit further away. she was 34yds and perfectly broadside so i let her have it. i hit her a little farther back than i intended to. i managed to hit her in the liver. when she took off running i could see where i had hit her and i just knew i’d have to wait a while to track her and it would be at least a 100yd tracking job. to my surprise i heard some crashing and thrashing just in the edge of the woods right off of the field. i waited an hour before getting down and i walked over to where i shot her. sure enough there was a lot of dark red liver blood on the ground. it was an easy tracking job and to my surprise she only went 45 yds and expired. now im really impressed at this point. that was 4 years ago and im still just as pleased with them now as i was then. i have never seen a broadhead perform like the rages do. i have made some great shots and some not so great shots and the rages always seem to do their part. as of right now i have killed 3 bucks and 14 does with the rages and my longest tracking job so far is about 90 yds. i have lung shot (no spine at all) 2 does and had the drop in their tracks. this is the longest i have shot any one broadhead and i can say i have no plans of changing anytime soon.

 

here are just a few pics of deer i have taken with the rage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

muddy harness review

i have a couple of reviews i’ve been meaning to do and i’m just now getting around to them so hear goes.

 

 

last season i purchased a muddy safety harness to try out. i was wearing a full vest type and for one it was a little to hot during our bow season and two it just wasnt comfortable to me. i wanted something light weight and didnt have a lot of material to add any extra warmth during our warm bow season. i have to say that i love the muddy harness. i like the size,weight, quietness and ease of use of the harness. i can throw it in my scent free container and toss it around and i’ve never had a problem with it getting tangled up. it is also very easy to put on in the dark without a light. i like the tree strap they send with it as well. everything i needed came with my harness. i got the harness,tree strap,linemans belt and deer drag all together when i bought the harness. the harness also has binocular straps on the shoulders as well which at first i didnt care anything about because my vest type harness had them and the weight of the bino’s would pull the vest down and cut into the back of my neck. well the muddy bino straps are AWESOME!!!  it’s more comfortable than than anything i have ever used to carry my bino’s. i gun hunt off the ground a lot and i have to admit that i wear my muddy harness when hunting from the ground just because of the bino straps. all in all it is a great harness and i have no complaints about it what so ever. i give it 5 stars and would recommend this harness to anyone!     now i just have to get my wife one so she can ditch the cheap one that came with her stand!

 

 

thanks muddy for the great harness!!!

Our Wedding

Darryl and I got married on October 30th, 2009. Ever since I can remember I had always wanted to get married on that day. October 30th was a special date to me because it was the day that my grandparents were married on in 1953. When Darryl proposed the one thing he asked me was not to pick a date during bow season. Know that October 30th fell right in the middle on Alabama’s bow season, I started making plans for the end of September, giving me 8 months to plan everything. I was trying to get the church, reception site and invitations finalized for a September date, when the day before Mother’s Day Darryl did something very special. I come home from work to a dozen roses and card saying ” To the Mother of my future children, I know how important October 30th is to you, and that you have always wanted to get married on that day, so if you want, you can change the date. I love you and it doesn’t matter to me when we get married as long as I have you!” I didn’t know what to say. I had already booked the church and I did know if I wanted to change  everything at this point. I told him I was would think about it and that I loved him too. In the end I did change the date and that day remains one of the happiest in my life!

Now since we got married during hunting season and Darryl had always said that if he got married he was going to wear a camo tux, I ended up using it as our theme. They guys wore camo tuxedos, the flowers were hunter orange, the groom’s cake was camo, corn was thrown as we left the reception and we drove off to begin our life together in Darryl’s custom camo hunting truck.

My new pet!!!

well my wonderful wife let me get a new pet yesterday. i have wanted a pet snake for a long time and because of my mother’s fear of snakes i couldn’t have one growing up. i have always enjoyed watching and catching them and i think they are fascinating little critters.

after i got my hands on an aquarium i started looking for my first pet snake. on one of the hunting forums i visit regularly there is a guy that knows a lot about snakes. he has raised them for a long time and if you have any questions that are snake related he’s the one to ask. i contacted him about what snake i should get being it will be my first and what all i should know about them. he was very helpful and gave me a lot of information about snakes and how to properly take care of them. then he told me that he was about to have a clutch of corn snakes hatch out and that i could have one of the babies if i wanted it! awesome!!!!    he posted up pictures of them right after they were born and he would keep me updated on how they were growing and eating. well the time finally came when i could get one. i asked him to pick me out a good one and send it whenever he was ready. well i got it last night and got everything set up for it. we haven’t came up with a name yet but i will let y’all know when we do.

a look around our trophy room……

i thought i’d post up a few pictures of our trophy room for everyone to look at.

we will start with the deer.

the deer on the top left was killed with my bow. it was my second deer ever with a bow and my first 8 point.

the deer in the middle is an 8 point that i killed in the first snow i ever hunted in.

last but not least the buck on the right is my biggest alabama buck to date. i killed him with my rifle and he is an 8 point that scores 140 3/8″

the bottom left i have a shoulder mount of the first bobcat that i ever killed.

in this picture i have a tail fan mount of my “auburn” turkey i killed at my inlaws place.

the  “hanging dead” turkey mount is a turkey i killed in butler county a few years ago.

the silver fox squirrel sitting on top of the limb was also killed in the same place as the turkey the feb before turkey season.

the euro mounted 8 point is one  i killed a few years ago.

the euro mounted 5 point is one that i killed when i was a teenager.

the  largemouth bass in this picture i caught when i was 9 years old. it weighed 10lbs 4oz.

the 3 point skull mount in the middle was my first bowkill ever! it took me quite a while to get my first deer with my bow and im still proud of that one!!

the seven point on the far right was another one i killed when i was a teenager.

the 2 bucks in this picture are both bow kills and were killed 1 day apart. the 8 point that is in full velvet  was killed on oct 22,2010.

the 7 point on the right was killed on oct 23, 2010. he weighed 201lbs and was 4.5 years old!

the 2 bucks in this picture came from out honeymoon hunt (story coming soon). the one on the right i killed and the one on the left my wife killed. both were taken with a bow in wisconsin. hers scored 143″ and had 13 scorable points and mine scored 160″ and had 16 scorable point!

the 4 deer in this picture are the same 4 deer above. i just wanted to show you the pheasants in the floor between them. they also came from our honeymoon hunt. the one laying down my wife shot with a shotgun and the one flying i shot with my bow. these were our first pheasants ever!

last but not least  is my little red squirrel. i killed him on the honeymoon hunt as well. he was taken with a bow @ 30yds!