Crossbow success stories

[Multidigits]

http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/images/trophyroom/WoodyWilliams_tn.jpg

Willie

This guy was crossing in behind me in an area where I had been seeing quite a bit of activity.


I first saw him about 80 yards out. So I had to stand up, take my bow off the hanger, swivel around, get my bow between two trees that I was in (not easy with horizontal limbed archery equipment) before he hit my one opening on that side.I had ranged a tree in that opening at 36 yards and he would cross behind that tree.

I managed to do that without screwing it up and as he hit the opening I BAHED at him. He stopped and I lined up the 40 yard mark on his chest and pulled the trigger.

The arrow looked good but I heard a loud crack. The buck bolted and ran hard for about 30 yards and then broke into a trot. My first thought was I missed and the arrow went under him and struck a log/tree/branch. I glassed the area that he had ran but it was too thick to see anything.

I re-cocked my crossbow and sat down for 15 minutes. Not knowing for sure if I had hit him or not and not wanting to shooting another buck should one come along I got down for a look-see. Halfway down a doe came running by with a small buck after her.
I tip toed over to where I he was standing when I shot, but before I could even look for the arrow or blood I looked down through the woods and saw him lying about 60 yards away. He evidently fell over in the thick stuff out of my view. Total distance he ran after being shot was 60 yards maximum.

He is a nine pointer with real good mass. The three points on his right beam all have a common base, so that is pretty unique. His beam lengths weren't very long. He is a good 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 year old deer that weighed in at 186 field dressed.
On field dressing I saw where it was a perfect heart shot.

Thanks for sharing!

[Mark 1:17]

That is one nice buck, I hope to get one like that one day. Im new to the crossbow thing after becoming disabled at work and need to purchase one. Any help you could give me?:D
Ken

[Willie]

Mark,

I would highjly suggest that you look at the Excalibur line of crossbows. They are no nonsense recurved limb crossbows that shoot faster that most of the compounds and ever bit as accurate if not more acurate.

Multidigits has the best prices going now. $10 and you can become a member of the United Crossbow Hunters of Kentucky and can take adavantage of multidigits offer. See post #25 of ...

http://www.kentuckyhunting.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13797&page=3&pp=10

You can also check out the Excalibur forum where a lot of crossbowers hang out and are more than happy to give you any kind of help that you may need.

http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=1

[Willie]

A DAY TO REMEMBER

It was Monday morning and I was dead tired from hunting the firearm opener in neighboring Kentucky with my son. I’d managed to take a nice 8 pointer opening morning and had tried unsuccessfully the rest of the weekend to fill a doe tag with my Exomag crossbow.

The alarm going off startled me from a deep, deep sleep. I almost turned if off and rolled over and went back to sleep. But one of my sayings is “Hunt Now, Sleep When You’re Dead” and that got me up and out of my warm bed. The rut is in full swing and that’s NOT a good time to be sleeping in.

My stand was in a cut over area that had been logged out about five years ago. The thicket it was in hadn’t been touched by the loggers and had good runs and lots of buck sign. As the sky turned pink and day was breaking good, a spike walked right under my stand and proceeded on down through the thicket. I watched him intently as he nosed the ground about every 3 or 4 steps.

He moved away and then made big circle and came back, crossing below me at 15 yards. He was still smelling the ground as he went. His persistent trailing gave me some hope that maybe there was a hot doe in the area.

Not long after the spike had left my cell phone rang (Sorry - this is a Mrs. Williams requirement) and my son was on the line and asked,” Hey, What are you doing?”

I said,” What the Hay do you think I’m doing. I’m hunting. What are you doing?”

He said,” Getting ready to drag out a good 8 pointer.”

He had been hunting my stand in Kentucky. After an abbreviated version of how he got the buck, we hung up.

The pink sky turned crimson and then brightly lit up. I had been sitting for about an hour when I caught hurried movement just to the south of me. The blur of brown was a doe being chased by a decent buck. They both ran by so quick at 40 yards I couldn’t tell how big the buck was or how many points that it had. I caught bits and pieces of the duo as the courtship went on. After the area I had last seen them for a half hour I returned my attention to the rest of the thicket.

Another half hour passed and a cough was building up in my throat. I was still recovering from a chest cold and had forgot my cough drops. I did a hand muffled clearing of my throat and as soon as I did, I heard a noise to my right.

I eased my head around and there stood a big doe. It looked like it could have been Horsehead’s daughter. Horsehead was a legendary matriarch doe in our area that gave us bowhunters fits. The name Horsehead fit because the animal had a head as big as a horse. This doe was at least 135 pounds. Evidently she it heard me, but couldn’t make out what had made the noise or where it had come from.

Her rapid, steamy breath gave me a clue that it was being pursued. Unable to shoot because of heavy cover, I watched the big doe started walking away through the thicket. It hadn’t gone 20-yards when out popped a big buck wearing an 8-point rack with excellent mass and nice long tines. It, of course, was in the same heavy cover that had protected the doe. The pair meandered through the thicket with the spike that I had seen earlier following at a distance. If the spike got too close, the larger buck would run it off and then return to the doe. Much to my disappointment the big boy and the doe finally left.

My cell phone rang again. This time it was the wife.

“Did Mark call you?”, she asked.

“Yes, but I can’t talk now I have deer all around me. Bye!” is all I said before hanging up.

About an hour later, I caught the movement of white antlers in the same thicket where the doe and big buck had disappeared. All of a sudden the big buck stepped out of the thicket and was smelling the ground. I thought, “I can’t just sit here and watch him walk off again.”

It was desperation time! I pulled my grunt tube out for a try at calling him in. My grunt tube makes a grunt when you blow and a bleat when you suck in.

I sucked in on it. WAHH!

The big whitetail’s head popped up and it looked my way. The buck turned and started walking towards me. Thirty yards out, still in the thick stuff and facing me, it put its nose down to the ground and started to move towards my stand.

“Oh, my stars and garters!!” I thought, “It’s going to walk within 10 yards of me.”

I eased my Excalibur Exomag into shooting position and clicked the safety off.

I held it on the trail waiting for the big buck to move into the scope. The first thing I saw was its nose and then its head with all that magnificent headgear. Its neck came next and then, all of a sudden, it was looking right up at me. ARGHH!

The crosshairs were on the buck’s neck and the bow stock was against the tree. Now, ladies and gentlemen, crossbow stocks don’t bend around trees, so I had to shift my body to move the crosshairs back to the animal’s vital area, all the while silently screaming,” Please don’t run!”

I got the crosshairs back and eased them down low on the body to compensate for the short shot, and popped the trigger. The arrow entered 6 inches down from the back and buried to the fletchings. That means I had gotten at least 15 inches of arrow into the animal. It buck wheeled and ran in a race horse gallop.

While waiting for my nerves to calm down I called my wife to tell her to tell my son to come up and help me blood trail and hopefully drag out my buck. She got a hold of him and he called me telling me he was forty-five minutes away.

I sat and waited for thirty minutes before getting down. I eased over to where the deer had been standing and immediately found blood. I trailed for a short ways picking up good blood with air bubbles from both sides of the body. That meant complete penetration. Twenty-five yards along the trail, I found the broadhead end of my arrow. My son would be here soon, so I backed off and exited the thicket in the opposite direction. I went back to my truck and poured myself a small cup of coffee to help calm my nerves.

My son showed up with a real nice 8-pointer in the bed of his pickup. His buck looked to be a 3½ year old with good length and mass. It later scored 127 5/8 inches. After listening to the story of how he killed it out of my stand in Kentucky and then ran into a bigger buck while dragging his out, we went in to trail my buck.

The task was short and sweet. The blood trail was heavy enough for a blind man to follow! We hadn’t gone sixty-five yards from where I had quit when my son turned around to me and said, ”There it is!!”

Besides “I love you”, there are no three greater words in the English language.

Hugs and high fives were exchanged. I could have easily found the deer earlier, but I am so glad I waited to share that moment with my son.

The hit had been perfect with the exit hole right at heart level. The buck later rough scored out at 141 6/8. It was a day that neither my son nor I will ever forget.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/Woowoo1/2001CrossbowIndiana.jpg

[nwebb]

I sit around today reading the different post people had placed. At 3:15 I decided to go down in my bottoms and do some bow hunting. While I was in the stand I had two phone calls but had my phone on viberate. As the sun set, I sit in my stand watching the squirrels playing around in the field and in the woods. A trukey picking about 100 yards out. As daylight slowly gave away to dusk out from the woods came a nice buck. I sat thier tring to decide if he got close enough weither I would shoot him or not or if he would get in range before legial hours expired. Then all of a sudden out steps another buck. This one was difffently a shooter. I sat froze in my stand, both picking and walking all so slowly back and forth nibbling in my green patch plus plot. The longer I sat thier the more I thought they would never get close enough before dark settled in. I had about 5 minutes left for legal hunting when the 8 point came within 40 yards while nibbling. As darkness fell he finally positioned himself behind some limbs on a tree which I had a one foot by one foot hole to shoot through. I pulled up my bow took aim and let the arrow fly. I watched him and his partner take off through the field around the brush pli and off into the dark shadows of night. I was not sure if I had hit him or not but I knew if I got down I would lose the spot that I knew he had stood. I called my wife on my cell phone told her I thought I had hit a big buck could she come help. She replied I am on my way down. By the way I have the best wife in the world God has truly blessed me with her. Because she is a hunter to. So I stayed in the stand untill she got down to the bottoms I got my flash light out of my back pack. Shined the light through the hole in the branches. She walked to the spot shined her light around till she found my arrow. I ask is their blood on it she replied yes. So I put all my stuff back into my back pack and climbed down the stand. So we started tracking the deer in the direction it took off. Went around the brush pli looking for blood. She shined her light in the right direction an said thier she is, it's not a buck it's a doe I said no way I know it was a buck. I instally thought who shot that doe as she got closer she yelled it is a buck it has to red dots on his head. I thought what the heck. So we got our lights and started looking around. The only thing we could figure out was aftter I shot him he took off running. While on the run he fell head first into the ground and flipped tail over head when this happened he ripped the antlers off his head. The best I can figure he was about 20 to 21 inches wide 8 point 9 inch g 2's. Maybe not the biggest deer to some but my best buck to date. I am sorry this is so long but I love the story behind my first bow kill ever. I want to thank My Wonderful Wife and My God for allowing me the privelige to hunt in the Great United States. I will post pics of the deer and the rack when I get the film devopled. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/GSP/deer11.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/GSP/deer10.jpg


Killed with a Horton Legend SL
Deer Taken 1-1-05

[gwhilikerz]

Please tell me you didn't take him TODAY and in KY.:)

[nwebb]

No I took him on 1-1-05. I have this posted in another forum just took and pasted it here for the story. I thought the date would show when the origanal post was. Sorry

[jerry]

3 great stories Multi,Willie and nwebb!!! Great deer also. Goog jobs guys!!!

[Willie]

Great story nwebb..

Thanks for sharing that with us.

Huntuing late season bucks can present a problem like hat. Fortunately you were able to find the antlers.

Congratulaions on a fine hutn and buck..

[gwhilikerz]

No I took him on 1-1-05. I have this posted in another forum just took and pasted it here for the story. I thought the date would show when the origanal post was. Sorry
I figured that was the case. I just didn't want someone to see the story and start crying that xbow hunters were poachers. Great Deer!

[Willie]

Here is a picture of the buck in post #1.

It was taken from a video camera that I used to film him and several other buck earlier in the year..

He had a pretty unique rack in that the right beam had three points with a common base..

http://www.hunt101.com/img/115313.JPG

[Willie]

Almost slept in this morning. It was warm – 61 degrees F at 4:00 am. Wind was blowing pretty good and rain was threatening.

Halfway to my hunting spot the rain started up and I almost turned around and came back home. But it quit before I could find a turn around spot..

Got into my treestand about 5:30. The treestand is in a rather large pine tree located in a stand of large pines that leads back into some coalmine stripper pit spoil banks. A lot of our deer like to bed in those areas.

As the pink light got brighter and brighter I am watching where the deer ‘normally’ come from and that is southwest. It is down through the pines and is fairly open. So I can see about 100 or more yards. Being able to see that far in advance I had my crossbow hung up on a hanger.

I’ve got a Southernly wind in my face so I am not paying a whole lot of attention to behind me as that is the bedding area and the wind is wrong for anything to approach from that way.

WRONG!!!

I hear a noise and before I can ease around to see what it was a pretty decent buck walks right past me (10 yards) and into some thick stuff. I get my crossbow off the hanger and pull out my grunt tube. I grunted at him 7 or 8 times while he just kept right on walking right on out of sight. I then whipped out my Primos Can and turned it over a couple of times followed by a couple of grunts from the grunt tube. I then did a repeat on the Can and tube.

Just when I was about to give up lo and behold the buck had turned around and was coming back. He walked right up to within 20 yards of me and stopped. He was looking everywhere for that buck and doe he had heard. Unfortunately where he stopped was a no shot area. Dogwood branches were all in the way of a shot. I had the Exomag up and ready for him to move. Finally he started walking again and as he hit a very small opening I went BAHH with my mouth. Unfortunately he took two more steps after I BAHHed and was behind stuff again. ARRGH!!

He is looking and trying to smell the deer that grunted, wahhed and now bahhed at him. He stood there for at least 2 -3 minutes surveying the scene. Holding the crossbow up into a shooting position, the wieght of the crossbow is weighing heavily on my arms. FINALLY he started walking again. He hit another opening at 17 yards and I BAHHed again. This time he stopped and looked back over his shoulder. It was beautiful quartering away shot. My aim was slightly back on him and basically aiming for an off shoulder exit hole. I popped trigger and the Exomag barked and the buck did a kick and did a race horse gallop out of there.

I lost sight of him as he topped a small incline, but I heard a loud crack of a limb or stick breaking very shortly after loosing sight of him. I crossed my fingers and said a silent prayer that it was him falling.

I called my son , who is on vacation this week, and had him come up for the trailing and dragging (hopefully) out. The trailing was fairly short of about 100 yards and he had piled up just about where I heard the stick/limb crack. The Wasp Hammer SST had done it's job well.

He is a basic nine pointer (4 X 5) with a 1 ½ inch sticker off one brow tine. We aged him at 3 ½ and he tipped the scale at 178 field dressed.

I should have known better about not watching all directions during pre-rut and rut. They can and sometimes do come from any and all directions. Even from down wind…

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid87/p95400024b22581116566ff61849fcdfc/fa956a37.jpg

[Willie]

Willie - here is the last story - until after this year's deer season.. ;)

2004 Kentucky Crossbow Buck

The pre-rut is fastly sliding over into the REAL RUT. I was situated in a scrub area in Kentucky that had pretty good rut activity in the years past. This was the first time I had hunted this stand since mid October. The reasons being that I didn’t hunt as much as usual (couldn’t walk much on my sprained ankle and recovering form a double hernia) and the weather has been just too blamed too hot.

The hernia is healed and the ankle is doing a lot better. The weather had cooled great. It was a perfectly clear morning with just a slight breeze with a temperature of about 44.

As dawn was breaking I could tell that there was a lot better visual vantage now than the last time I was in the stand. I could see for a hundred yards or so in some areas. This is an extremely thick area and when the leaves are on the trees a deer can get within 20 yards of me without me seeing it.

Good shooting light came and I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I slowly turned my head to see a pretty decent ten point making his way through the woods out about 70 yards or so. The direction he was walking would take him past me, so I tried to grunt and wahh him in with a grunt tube and a Primos can. That stopped him and he was looking. I wouldn’t make any sounds while he was looking. If he turned his head or started to walk again I would repeat the grunt – wahh sequence.

It was all to no avail as he decided that he would continue on his merry way. He had not gone very far when he made an abrupt left turn and started trotting- he was after a doe that had came into the picture. I’m sure if she was attracted to the grunt - wahhing or not. As they both made their way back towards where he had come from I noticed another deer over by where they were. Undoubtedly it was her fawn.

No sooner had they went out of sight I heard a commotion of running deer in behind me. A spike buck came running a yearling doe right past my stand. It was a god thing he wasn’t a good one as I couldn’t have even got my crossbow up in time to shoot. They went on down through the woods.

About 15 minutes passed and there were no deer anywhere. I had settled back down into my seat when a rather large doe and two fawns walked past me out at about 75 yards on the opposite side of where the buck had been earlier. They were in no hurry and just meandered up through the woods

No sooner than they had passed a looked out in front of the stand and a basket racked eight point 1 ½ year old buck was walking right to my stand. He slowly made his way through the woods and ended up passing within 5 yards of me as I watched him carefully. He had almost an ear width rack with slender tines that stuck up pretty good. If he can make it a couple of years he will be a superb deer.

The busy morning was about to get busier.

Another single doe came through some brush and went by my stand about 40 yards out. She didn’t seem in any hurry and being alone I thought just maybe a buck would be trailing her. No such luck.

I couldn’t see very well in behind the stand, but I did hear a deer walking. I eased my head around the tree and there stood a small 4 pointer. He was going to walk right past my stand going on the same run as the eight pointer earlier only in the opposite direction. When the pre-rut and rut is on there is no rhyme or reason to which way deer will travel.

When he got a little past my tree he went on alert. Whoa! I don’t think he smelled me, but I did have out some “Doe in Heat” scent in my Pee Willie Wick. The Pee Willie Wick was stationed 20 yards on the other side of the tree. I wasn’t sure if he was smelling that or not, although the eight pointer never stopped to sniff. He started doing that stiff legged walk and would just do a little stomp and stare. he must have got a little whiff of me.

This went on for about 5 minutes when he started staring down through the woods. I eased my head around and picked out the motion of a pretty decent buck meandering through the woods. He wasn’t trailing anything, but basically just browsing here and there.

He was out about 60 yards or so when the two bucks made eye contact. The forky forgot about the smell and started going back the way he came. He got in behind me and I lost sight of him. I could still hear him every now and then so he didn’t go far.

The buck I was now concentrating on was making his way towards my stand to the spot where the forky was at. That would put him at 15 yards straight out from the stand. I slipped the safety off of my Excalibur Exomag and waited. He went in behind some honey suckle and I eased the crossbow up. He stopped. OUCH! Did I make a noise?

He wasn’t looking in my direction but up through the woods towards where the forky had went. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him to see if the forky was still there and had picked out my movement. Whatever it was – me making a noise, my scent or the forky sending body language signals to him he didn’t like it. I thought once about sending an arrow through the honey suckle as it was not very thick and close to him. As soon as I thought it I rejected it. I would wait him out.

He started to turn and when he did I put the 20 yard crosshair low on him. He started back down the path that he had came in on, but this time he wasn’t angling towards me, but angling away. When he cleared the honey suckle at 15 yards I pulled the trigger. The hit was perfect and the angle would take out both lungs.

I watched him as he ran for 70 yards and then pile up. The Exomag with the Wasp SST Hammers had done the job quickly again.

The buck scaled out at 178 field dressed. He is a nine pointer if you count the broken brow tine. Inspecting him showed an old wound on the top of his neck. I thought at first that it was a grazing shot by an arrow, but during the skinning process we could see that it was a tine wound from fighting.

He is not a whopper, but I am pleased with him since I really haven’t hunted that much this year due to my double hernia operation and the busted up ankle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v474/Woowoo1/PB050038b.jpg

[Dalebow]

NICE DEER, much bigger than anything that Ive ever got with rifle or bow. Maybe one day his brother will pass me by:-)

Dale

[hatchet jack]

great stories, nothing like having a great deer hunt , you can set & set , think about giving up"" then you see something move ,the heart starts to pound, the blood starts to rush,,, then there he is , like a ghost ,you cant breath you are afraid to move. some times he wins, some time you win. but you never forgit .;)



hatchet jack