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My First Buck With a Bow - not Pope & Young but I was proud none the less!	Preserve Americas Right To Hunt and Bear Arms!	My Favorite Hunting Buddies (My sons many years back now)

As an Archery Deer Hunter in Michigan and being restricted to Public Hunting lands I have had some interesting experiences trying to find a place to hunt and maintain some type of consistency to what I do.  I have managed to hunt the same basic 10 acre piece of State land for the last 8 years and have been successful 5 of them.  It's takes a lot of work to scout and learn what the deer are doing when you're constantly invaded by fellow hunters which change the deer's habits on  a regular basis.  It takes lots of patience and being in the woods EVERY DAY POSSIBLE in order to be successful.  I would hope to someday have a piece of private property to hunt but in the mean time, I'm still having fun in the out doors.

Archery hunting season 2000!

My Son Joshua got an 8 point opening day! October 1st 2000

The Proud Hunter and his eight point Michigan State Land Buck		Hanging the Deer

Well, it's November 4th and we both have put a deer in the freezer.  Unfortunately for me, mine didn't have antlers but then again I'm a meat hunter and you can't eat the antlers.  Still about 10 hunting days left before the Gun season opens, so maybe I can score that big buck yet.  I saw him tonight but he was more interested in the doe he was chasing than my grunt calls.

Archery hunting season 2001!

My Son Joshua got lucky again.  A nice size spike on Oct. 15th.  I want my stand back!  Just Kidding, I think it's great!

The Proud Hunter and his Spike horn Michigan State Land Buck - only ran 45 yards after a perfect double lung hit.

Archery hunting season 2002!

This year has been a unique one so far.   On October 2nd my son missed a nice Doe at 25 yards...practice is needed (buck fever got the best of him).  On October 5th my son got a great hit (so we thought) on a nice 4 point buck.  I watched the deer run into the field and lay down 50 yards from me, thought it was all over!  My son and I use family service radios in the woods to keep each other up on what's happening.  When my son got down about 20 minutes later to look for his arrow (which he found the front half of), the deer got back up and ran off about 100 yards and lay down again.  Since it was dark, we decided to wait till morning on this deer to let nature takes it's course and not scare him into the swamp.  The next day I picked the trail after hunting for about an hour in the morning and followed it easily for about 100 yards or so as it was heavy even the next day.  Then all at once, nothing!  Making ever larger circles out to about 100 yards I couldn't find so much as a drop.  I think at this point the half of the arrow that was still in the deer must have plugged the hole?  We searched for another 4 hours checking all the logical and not so logical places in a bout a mile radius where he may have laid down again and nothing!  This was a depressing realization to accept, but none the less a sometimes reality of hunting.

On October 12th, I missed a nice 4 point at 5 yards!  I made the common mistake when shooting with a sight and a release, of forgetting to bend at the waste when shooting at such a steep angle.  Should have a perfect easy broadside shot but nope, over his back it went.  I knew it the minute I released that buck fever got the best of me and I screwed up!  I reached for another arrow as the buck ran about 10 yards out from where he was and stopped.  One other thing to remember when shooting with a release, make sure your release is fully locked on the string before you draw.  As I began to draw back for a second 15 yard broadside shot, the release "twanged" off the string and the arrow looped over his back like an arrow shot from a toy bow.  At this point I'm feeling, well you can imagine.  I figured this deer was meant for another day as I watched him trot away!

On October 13th, I moved my stand back onto an Oak ridge that I hadn't hunted for a couple of years but had taken deer from before.  On the 16th, which was a beautiful cool evening, I arrived at my stand late (work issues), and climbed up at about 5:45 PM.  At 6:05 PM I see a deer about 75 yards below me walking alone by the edge of a swail going away from my location.  I pulled out my favorite Primos call, a Doe in heat bleat in a can and gave a few twists of the wrist.  He stopped and listened for a minute or so, so I hit the bleat a couple more times.  He came straight up the hill and after waiting for a couple of minutes at full draw he finally cleared some brush and gave me the shot I needed.  He ran about 100 yards and it was all done.  Another State land buck in the freezer!

The prize with 6 points	And my hunting buddy (my youngest son)	Waiting for Processing (we do our own)

Stepoutside dot org   A great general info site

Bills Hunting and Archery Page Another neat hunting info site

Outdoorsite dot net Great general Hunting and Fishing site and info

Mossy Oaks - Hunting the Country

The Outdoor Channel