Hunting Story

[Mhuddle]

#2689

I have a brief story to share regarding my quest to find better arrows. This last year, my first year truly elk hunting, I hunted with my compound. I wanted it to be the first year of hunting traditional but an elbow injury kept my recurve on the sidelines.

Elk hunting was amazing. I’m truly hooked and I’m planning my first traditional hunt this fall.

Ok back to story. On the second day of my hunt last year I was lucky enough to call in two bulls. The first was a spike bull with brow tines. He came within 10 yards, wow that was amazing! After he left I was able to call in a nice 5X5 (my guess as I wasn’t paying much attention to the finer details of his rack). I knew he was a legal bull and that was all that mattered to me. First problem I had was my mechanical fall away rest was sticking due to the wet environment of melting snow. So when I drew my bow my arrow popped on my rest (it will be nice when I don’t have to worry about stuff like that!). I got the arrow back on the rest and then the bull just stood behind the trees at 20 yards for what felt like forever. I couldn’t let down, not because the bull could see me but I wouldn’t have been able to draw my bow back without the arrow popping off again. I was at the point where I couldn’t hold any further when my buddy cow called down the ridge. The bull immediately turned and headed his way which put the bull at 28 yards walking in front of me broadside. I cow called when he was in the perfect spot and loosed my arrow. I heard a loud crack (not the sound I was hoping for). To make this longer story shorter, after we backed away until dark, we headed back out in the 12 inches of snow to track. I found the spot where I hit him. Followed the blood trail 20 yards and located my arrow. To my horror, the arrow had only penetrated 3 inches (how far blood was up the shaft) and the 3 blade G5 125 grain head was broken. On of the blades was bent in half and snapped. I believe my arrow penetration was stopped by bone. We tracked through the night even after the blood trail stopped knowing that it wasn’t a lethal hit. We could hear what we believed was the same bull bugling half the night.

Back to the topic. I discovered the Ashby information on this page this winter and I’m currently building some arrows that will follow those principles for maximum penetration. I want to have arrows that can account for the off chance the arrow doesn’t go as planned. The 28 yard shot I took at the elk was a automatic shot all year long during practice, I could make it with my eyes closed. Add field variables and holding your bow back for minutes and those automatic shots become, well, not automatic.

Sorry for the long post, but I just wanted to share my experience and how much I appreciate this site and the things I’ve learned this winter.

[James Harvey]

#13639

Mate, I for one appreciate your honest reflection and sharing it with us here. The silver lining of every failure are the lessons learned, so we all get to benefit from this kind of thing.

It’s a credit to you that you have that much respect for the animals you hunt that you’re looking for solutions rather than just hoping it doesn’t happen again.

Again, thanks for sharing your story 😉

Jim

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