For years I have hunted hard with a bow and have traveled to the midwest in search of the elusive trophy. Those were fun and fulfilling years with many great hunts and trophies and memories to last me through my geriatric years. This year I was to forgo the midwest lotteries, for I wanted to spend time taking my 11YO daughter on some early crossbow hunts so she could get a taste of hunting with an arrow. (Bolt in the case of the crossbow). She fell in love with the crossbow while practicing with it and at 11 was eager to give up firearms hunting already!! This was in no part from me, I have encouraged her to use whatever she wanted, but she was all about the crossbow!! Earlier I posted the results of our first hunt when she was successful taking her first antlered buck. Which was a fine 3 point from NJ.
That deer behind us we found ourselves headed to PA for a three day weekend during the Columbus day Holiday. We arrived at my friends 600 acre mountain top hunting camp in Pike county. I had an arial photo and a little advice from him, however he had not hunted there yet this season!! We walked up a logging road in the dark looking for a stand I had never seen before. This was fun!! We finally found it and settled in. I had to hang a second stand so I could be in control of her by law. It was a still, yet warm morning and not a deer was spotted. It was now 8;30 and like often when hunting with a child Tori was starting to get antsy. I asked if she wanted to sit till 9 am and then we could walk around and scout a little. She was all smiles at THAT idea!!
15 minutes later she was thoroughly done and had the crossbow hanging on a hook as she tossed pieces of tree branches at the passing by squirrel's down below. My head jerked around behind me at the sound of what I thought was a buck grunt. I was half way into denial when I heard it again. I told Tori "Grab your Bow, I just heard a buck"!! I could see the look of disbelief in her eyes. We had not seen a deer all morning and now this. One minute later and I catch the glimpse of antlers skirting to our right. Tori sees him also and goes into "Coyote mode"
The buck passes thru a small shooting lane well within range, but too fast for a shot. Then we lose him in the thick pine forest. Tori looks at me and relaxes her pose and tells me he is gone. I quickly took my grunt call from my pack and blew 3 quick grunts of the same relative length and volume he had. It worked!! I could hear him coming back!! Tori settled her crossbow resting her elbow on her knee and when the buck stepped out at 19 yards I grunted him to a stop. Within 15 seconds Tori released her perfectly aimed arrow that ripped thru his lungs and exited his heart. He stumbled a few yards and collapsed.
Tori was overwhelmed with excitement and began to shake violently. She was a little surprised at her lack of bodily control and I looked at her held out my hand and showed her that her OLD man was suffering the same fate!!!
We laughed and shared a most memorable few minutes. I was shocked that the first and only deer we saw was a nice 8pt buck.The temperatures soared that day and she al;so got a lesson on cutting up a deer quickly!! After we had him in the cooler and finished lunch it was time for our afternoon hunt. We had no doe tags so Tori was done and I was up to bat. We choose another stand location that was deeper in the property and closer to some darker growth and there was a stream nearby and a small swamp. The temp was now 85 degrees so I was banking on the water. Long story short we had an evening full of does. 11 to be exact and all within 25 yards. What a great day filled with exciting and educational experiences.
There is no hunting on Sundays so I planned a day of horse back riding and scouting.
Hey WFW said in my lsat post that all a girl needs is a bow and a pony so I thought this sounded fun. We took a 2 hour horseback ride at a local stable and Tori was all smiles 
I gave her the option of going home or watching dad hunt and she wanted no part of going home so after we completed our ride we headed back to do some scouting. This time I picked an area of the property that had no stands on it. I wanted Tori to experience scouting and finding and setting a stand from scratch. She is already well schooled in the ways of the white tail. She learned at a young age while we salamander hunted what scrapes and licking branches and deer runs were. I told her we didn't need to find a lot of sign, for we only had a buck tag, so even though it's fun to watch deer we needed a buck to hunt.
The scouting went well and we followed a decent rub line down the mountain until it converged on an old logging road with an acorn flat and trees that were dropping nuts. A quick lesson on difference between red and white oaks and she was quickly honing in on a few nice white oaks that were producing. We found a nice flat where two ridges converged and where the logging road split and went in two directions. There were multiple scrapes and dozens of rubs littered along the flat. Another quick lesson on wind direction and the affects of afternoon and morning thermals and together we decided on a tree. I marked it in memory and the plan was to hunt a pre-hung stand in another are in the A.M. and if we were unsuccessful we would return mid-day to hang and hunt this set.
The next afternoon found us perched high in that tree after a deerless morning sit. We were settled by 3:00 and it was now almost 6:00 and zero deer sightings. Then I heard it........ deer steps in the crunchy leaves, but I couldn't place it. Then Tori said there dad. It's a nice buck! Yup sure was. I fine 8pt and he was feeding our way. He stopped to make a rub and then a scrape and I couldn't help but think how lucky she was to be seeing all this. What a wonderful display he was putting on working licking branches and all. He was angling by at just under 30 yards and Tori was eager for me to shoot. I waited for him to stop in a shooting lane and I settled the 30yd cross hair right where I wanted to hit him and thought for a minute how cool this was, me shooting my first ever deer with a crossbow. I squeezed the trigger and and the bolt sailed harmlessly over the bucks back!!! OOPS!! Immediately I knew what I had done! The buck was a couple of yards short of 30 and I held the cross hair up high where I wanted to enter like I was shooting a firearm. UHG! The crossbow is much more like a bow and from that height in the tree I should have been aiming at the lower portion of the deer.
Let me tell you I was nowhere near as upset about it as She was!! She was down right unhappy with me after all the scouting and hiking and stand hanging and sitting. She actually looked at me and said "That's just unacceptable" Ha! Little shit!! LOL!!! So of course the buck trotted off and I had for the first time shown my daughter a kink in my armor
A good lesson to teach that SHIT HAPPENS!! Well that was it. We took down the stands and headed home.WHAT a GREAT adventure!!!!
This Friday I was finally back home in NY after traveling for work and had the weekend to target a few bucks I had on my "Wish List"
Friday night I was greeted to windy conditions followed by rain. I had set my goals high and was after the Biggest on my list. Well, it was a colossal "FAIL" and I spotted only two does from a far distance. Frustrated I decided to go after a different deer that lived in much smaller woods.Saturday afternoon I teamed up with a good friend whom had scouted a farm with me prior to the season. Our plan was to" divide and conquer" if you will. We had seen several nice bucks in the area and the wind was perfect. He already had a stand set so I was going to have to take "option B" and pick a spot and hang a stand. I was at the corner of a cut corn field an alfalfa field and a ridge that ran parallel to the back of both with a logging road on it. My plan was to play the otion of covering all three
I placed the stand just in the woods and the toughest of all the scenarios was the logging road for it was 38 yards away thru the still foliated forest.At 4:30 I heard it. The sound of a deer approaching from deep in the woods. Then I heard it stop and begin making a scrape. It was buck alright, but how big. I struggled to see thru the leaves when I finally caught him lift his head to work the licking branch. OH SNAP.... He's a SHOOTER!! I grabbed the bow and toyed with the thought of grunting to him, for he was now headed directly down the logging road which would parallel him to the fields. I decided against the grunt and quickly ranged the opening in the logging road where he would be broadside. Yup..... 38 yards exactly. Well, this was it.... This is what we practice for so we can make these shots. As the buck entered the shooting lane I drew the bow. Luckily for me he stopped to survey his surroundings. I settled the pin on his ribcage and the bow went off.... sending the arrow zipping thru his lung and exiting his heart. The buck ran in a big semi -circle and was now standing directly under me!! I readied another arrow, but it was obvious I wasn't going to need it. He quickly lunged forward and laid down for a final dirt nap just 10yards from my tree!!
What a fine buck he turned out to be. 5 points on the left and 5 on the right, two of which are a forked brow tine. This is my 6th NY buck with a bow that "Grosses" over 125". My buddy joined me shortly after dark and we celebrated another fine victory!!! Team work put another fine critter to rest!!
This has been a most memorable early season for me. I feel truly blessed and can't wait to see what the rest of 2011 has in store!!!!
Good luck everyone!!! I smell rutting deer soon!!!
And it was HOT weather!!!