My Son's First Deer with a Bow and Arrow

My son Brendan has been hunting since he was 12 years old and was out tagging along on many hunts as early as age 5. He is not new to the hunting sports in any way shape or form, but at 22 he had another first this past weekend.  This past weekend Brendan took a nice young buck with a bow on state land from the ground non the less.  This was not his first deer taken or even his first buck, but it was his first deer taken with the bow.

We found 6 piles of old moose poop in this area

Brendan has had little time in the woods during the archery season since he made the varsity football team in his Sophomore year in high school.  Those 3 years of high school football left little time for chasing deer with the bow and even the gun during most football seasons.  After graduation he headed off to college which once again left little time for hunting.  Now he is in graduate school, but living at home and finding the time to get back out in the woods on a regular basis and it has paid off for him.  He shot a nice long beard this past spring and just last weekend he arrowed his first deer with a bow.

I will do my best to tell his story with the same excitement and passion that he does, but it is so much better to listen to him tell it in person.

We are fortunate to have a few nice pieces of state land within minutes of our house and I have hunted this land for over 15 years and know my way around pretty well and spent the late summer getting Brendan reacquainted with the area and offering up some suggestions on where to hunt.  With the storms we've had the past two falls, there are plenty of new deadfalls that offer some great little ground hides in some key travel areas and I had one such deadfall picked out since last year just for this occasion.  My only concern was how much hunting pressure we would see here especially with the new additiona of crossbows being legal for everyone during the archery season.  For the first 5 days of the season, I would drive around the state forest and check for hunters on my way to work, and Brendan would do the same in the late evening on his way home from school.  In those first 5 days we did NOT see a single vehicle or hunter in the spots we wanted to hunt.  So Friday night before the first Saturday of the season, I suggested we attempt to hunt the area we'd been watching, but warned Brendan that I expected to see other hunters in the area.  It had been a long and tough week as my mother-in-law was in the hospital recovering from bypass surgery and we were getting little sleep so we overslept on Saturday and didn't get out until after first light.  Not in my original plan and I thought for sure we'd lost our spot to other hunters.  When we arrived at the gate to park I was shocked to be the only vehicle there.

Brandon trying to figure out why we are not seeing any Squirrels.

We dropped Brendan off at his ground blind and then Brandon and I headed off to hunt some squirrels.  Brandon is still learning to shoot a bow and has his safety course and license, but needs a few more weeks to gain confidence in his shooting.  About 8:30 I got a call from Brendan saying he just had a really nice buck sneak in to his blind at just 15 yards away, but has he adjusted to get a shot he got snorted by another deer he never saw.   One thing I enjoy about hunting is you learn something new every outing and every encounter with an animal and this was one of those lessons for Brendan.  As is typical with many of us that have had these encounters they haunt our dreams on a regular basis and they sure did for Brendan.  He thought he blew his only shot for the season and the season was just 6 days old!  Lesson learned.

Brendan had to wait until the next Friday to get back out to the woods and as he was sneakign into his deadfall, he got snorted again.  He didn't see anything the rest of the morning, but he did take some time to mosey around and check out the sign and just as weeks past there was plenty of fresh sign so he snuck out and decided to wait until Saturday morning to hunt it again instead of hunting it that afternoon.

The arrow tells the story!

We had a similar game plan for this past Saturday, Brandon and I would squirrel hunt allowing me to spend time teaching Brandon about hunting, scouting, safety and getting around the woods while Brendan nestled into his dead fall again.  This time Brendan made some adjustment to where he was sitting and the cover around the deadfall based on what he learned the past two sits and he obviosulty learned well and made the right decisions.  About 8:29 he texted me to check in, I texted him back a few photos of some really nice rubs. A few minutes after that text, my phone rang and it was Brendan calling.  When I answered I immediately new by the sound in is voice that he had shot at a deer.  When I heard the words "I just shot a buck", I almost started to scream with joy, but realized we had work to do and didn't want him to get too excited just yet.  So I calmed him down and gave him some coaching and told him to sit tight, don't move and watch and listen for anything.

It didn't take Brandon and I long to arrive at Brendan's deadfall where we found him standing there with a grin from ear to ear.  I calmly approached and had him walk me through what had just happened.  Brendan had just put his phone back in his pocket, heard some crunching and looked up and could see a deer moving through the thick brush on a trail that would take this deer right by Brendan's hide.  The deer stepped out of the little hemlocks which had been blocking most of Brendan's view of the deer just long enough for Brendan to see antlers and then he went into that fast shot planning mode that we all have gone through.  He waited for the deer to step behind a tree, went to full draw and as the deer made two steps from behind the tree he bleated at it and as the deer stopped and the pin settled just above the deer's heart Brendan released an arrow.  He said he heard the thud and watched the deer take off tail down.  The deer jumped two deadfalls and after the second he heard a large crash but couldn't see anything or hear anything after.  I'm not going to lie, I was a little excited at that point and was struggling to sit tight for a bit more to give the deer a little more time, but he and I needed it to clam down and get ready for the tracking job at hand.

Blood at the shot

Blood almost two feet up the tree.

I had Brendan line me up where he thought the deer was when he shot and I found no blood or sign and my heart sank into my stomach.  I thought, no way.  So I had him rethink it and I played the deer and he walked me past the shot and off in the direction he saw it run.  still no sign.  I wasn't more then about 10 steps from where he said the deer was standing when he shot, so I spun around and headed in the direction the deer had come from and I found blood.  I had Brendan come to the blood and walk it back to see exactly where the deer was standing.  He was only off about 10 feet but just enough to not find sign where he first lined me up.  I then had him look for the arrow, which is a key part to determining what type of shot you got on the deer.  I noticed a very small drop of blood going away from the blood trail and then another.  So I had Brendan follow those tiny drops and it led him right to his arrow.  Those drops of blood had come off the arrow after it passed through the buck.  Only at that point was I confident that the last jump and crash of that deer was where we would find Brendan's deer, but why pass up a training and learning opportunity so I sat back and had Brendan and Brandon follow up the blood trail as I coached from the back of the line.  They tracked it over one small dead fall and right to a second.  I decided to walk around the deadfall to the right, but stopped after a couple of steps because I could see the buck laying there dead.  Brendan caught me stop quickly and said "You see him don't you?!" and I just nodded and he looked up and there it was. The nice little 7 pointer - we refuse to give him the 8th point - didn't go more then 50 yards from a double lung complete pass thru shot.   There was as sigh of relief and some high fives and more then a few hugs and back slaps, oh and a few pictures and then the work began.  Brendan filled his tag out, and we decided to drag it out of the area and field dress it away from his hunting area so we loaded the buck on the Dead Sled and strapped Brendan in and yelled MUSH!

That Dead Sled is nice to have for dragging.

Brendan dragged the buck out and once we reached a spot far enough from his hunting area we started a new lesson on field dressing a deer.  Brendan has a degree in Health Sciences and Rehabilitation Services and is in Graduate school pursing a Masters in Occupation Therapy so he took the opportunity to turn all "Mr. Anatomy" on us and held a show and tell session showing off all the different things he learned ins school as we worked through the process of dressing the deer.  I was very impressed with his knowledge and the fact that he didn't puke as it had been almost 6 or 7 years since he last shot and field dressed a deer.

Brendan's First Archery Deer!

I'm happy he had a successful hunt for many reasons and I was glad I was there to share it, but I am extremely proud to see how well he learned from all those previous hunting trips and of course from his schooling! His passion for the outdoors is evident and growing every day,   Having fresh venison in the freezer is just icing on the cake!

Being able to share my passion for the outdoors with my kids, family and friends is really what my blog is all about and I look forward to this weeks outing as fall turkey opens up and we will try to get Brandon his first bird.  That is if I can get both of them away from the bow for a day.

It doesn't get any better then this!

My Review of the Northeast Hunting & Fishing Expo

Well, I'm finally getting around to my review and observations about the recent Northeast Hunting & Fishing Expo and apologize for being late.

The show itself just seems to get smaller and smaller, which seems to be typical of many shows I attend.  This could be due to the economy as well as companies taking advantage of open houses or special weekends at their shops instead of loading up and dragging it to the show.  This show was represented well from many of our local companies, charter boats, captains and guides but was very light on out of state charters, guides and outfitters.  Some of that could be due to the Sportsman show just weeks before in Springfield MA, but still a disappointment. The show leans more towards  those that fish then those that hunt but fortunately I do both.  I didn't find any great deals on any gear and I didn't see anything that caused me to say "I have to have that".  So in simple terms the show was just ok.  I was able to work my way through the 6 rows of booths in just about an hour and a half.  One nice thing was no SHAMWOW guy!!  There was a small section that included fly tiers who were tying flies and you could ask questions and even purchase their flies.  A trout pond for those to try their luck at catching a fish and a casting area where some of the pros presented casting instruction and demonstration.  definitely a little something for everyone, but the keyword here is little.

One thing i did see that I hadn't seen before was a new game drag called the Game Sled from Hunting's a Drag Inc.  Currently my hunting partners and I use a game drag called the Dead Sled from Arc products.  The Dead Sled  is basically a big piece of thick plastic with some holes for strapping down the game.  Kind of like the little blue roll-up sleds you had as a kid.  They hold up well for the most part, but it takes a beating on some of the areas we hunt and some don't make it past a single use as the rocks chew holes through them or we rip the strap due to the sled getting brittle in the cold or hung up on a deadfall or something.  Another downside is the Dead Sleds we use now are their width.  Because it is a big piece of long plastic rolled up, the width is about 2+ feet and becomes difficult to carry around with you.  The bag and strap that comes with it won't last long either.  The Game Sled however looks to solve some of the problems with our current Dead Sleds.  First is the material itself.  I'm not actually sure what the material is but it is a pliable material that looks and feels extremely durable with the straps and buckles securely sewn to the sled. Because it is a pliable material it allows you to fold up small and then roll making it fit in my backpack.  It does seem to be a little bit heavier than my current one, but the size and pack-ability out weighs the extra weight in my opinion.  The Safety orange color of the sled is also a plus in my opinion.  I have one on order and hopefully i will be successful this fall and can report back on the Game Sleds performance.

After we completed our trip through the exhibitor area we decided to take in some seminars from the local Captains and Guides that were at the show.  This by far was the highlight of the show for us.  We got so much out of these seminars which were also included in the $10 entry fee.  We attended 4 seminars related to salt water fishing, but they also had seminars on fly fishing the upper Delaware and  a few for the hunters as well.  The first seminar was on fishing blackfish and black sea bass presented by Captain Kyle Douton from J&B Tackle in Niantic, CT.  Captain Douton is the captain of the J&B Charter Boat and provided a very informative session for sure.  The second session was Light Tackle Trolling Tubes & Spoons with T-Man Trolling Systems presented by Captain Pat Renna from TMan Custom Tackle.  Captain Rena also runs a Charter boat where he takes clients out to experience this light tackle and tubing technique for striped bass and bluefish. Captain Renna is very active on one of the fishing forums (CTFisherman) that I participate on and  I've seen the reports from many of Capt Renna's trips and he surely knows his stuff and is always available to help answer your questions.  Our next session was by far the most entertaining as Captain Greg Dubrul who is the owner and captain of the Blackhawk II Party Boat out of Niantic, CT kept everyone laughing and interested as he discussed techniques for night time striper fishing.  It's been many years since I fished on the Blackhawk II but now that Capt. Dubrul is in charge I'll have to add the Blackhawk to my list of visits this season.  We finished the sessions with Capt Blaine Anderson from Anderson Guide Service who spent the last hour discussing catching trophy stripers on live bait.  If you are interested in live bait fishing for big stripers, then you must take in one of Capt. Anderson's clinics. Capt. Anderson also manages Connecticut Outfitters located in Wethersfield, CT and is a shop I frequent often and they also offer many fishing seminars at their store.  They are very friendly and knowledgeable about all types of fishing and carry an incredible array of items for chasing trout to striped bass.  Make sure to check them out.  Capt. Anderson also is a regular on CTFisherman and someone willing to help with your questions.  Make sure to contact the store for information on upcoming seminars.

Although I was a little disappointed with the small exhibitors section it did allow me the time to take in those great seminars and take away some new found knowledge that hopefully I can apply to my fishing this year.  Time to get on the water.  Tight Lines everyone.