Archery Outfitters
y ph Tro etail it Wh unts rgia o H Ge & a rid Flo
Nickie Roth Outfitter & Guide P.O Box 55038, St. Petersburg, FL 33732 727-525-2825 9 am to 9 pm
GENERAL INFORMATION: Archery Outfitters has been in business since 1983., Our mission statement for the past 26 years has remained unchanged: To provide quality hunts designed to be... “affordable to all�. Archery Outfitters Georgia hunts include a scout day and four full days of hunting on a managed6000 acre and a 7000 acre (Archery Only) private property. Guides show you around the property, stand locations, active trails and food sources, assigning youan exclusive portion of the property. You then begin hunting with assistance from you professionalguide staff. You provide your own lodging, food, stand(s), license and personal needs.
Winter 2010 http://www.tbof.org
INSIDE EVERY ISSUE: Rates / Officers.........................................4 President’s Column .................................. 5
FEATURES
Charity Shoot Report ............................................. 5
"Donnie Wilkerson and Rick Connell standing beneath a massive cypress tree while pig hunting in Goethe State Forest. The tree is estimated to be over 900 years old."
News & Notes ..................................................... 6 - 8 A Short hunting Story.............................................. 9 Avatar—Redneck Style ................................ 10 - 11 March Shoot.......................................................... 12 Javalina Hunt ........................................................ 13 Piggin’ Out in South Florida.......................... 14 - 15 Charity Shoot Results..................................... 16 - 17 Charity Shoot Pictures................................... 18 - 19 Dads Last Arrow ............................................. 20 - 21
T he Stickbow News is published electronically three times a year, Spring, Fall and Winter. We encourage articles and tasteful pictures from members and friends on issues of interst to bowhunters. Articles for The Stickbow News should be submitted to the editor electronically, whether by disk or email. Material submitted for the newsletter will not be returned unless a stamped/self addrssed envelope is included with the original material. Photos are not returnable. The Stickbow News is strict about their articles and reserves the right to reject or edit all submissions. Advertising Rates Business Card (3.5 x 2) .... $20.00
President:
Gregg Dudley (352)821-4067 E-mail: dudley4pack@aol.com
Vice President:
Jeff Hester (352)361-6908 E-mail: jlhester@embarqmail.com
Secretary/Treasurer:
Buddy Oswald (352)694-5969 E-mail: doswald304@aol.com
Directors:
Wayne Carter (904)287-5944 E-mail: wv126@aol.com
Quarter Page .................... $60.00 Half Page ....................... $100.00 Full Page ......................... $160.00 Full Page .......................... $250.00 All ad rates are for single insertion in one issue of The Stickbow News. Please contact Ad Manager, Herb Arndt at (352)732-4721, 4719 NE 18th Place, Ocala, FL 34470 fthrfltch@aol.com. Advertising Conditions: •
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received properly scaled to the desired ad size in electronic format. Any ad larger than the established format size will be charged as the next larger ad size.
•
All materials are subject to
approval by the Ad Manager and
Mel Bulger (863)581-6006 E-mail: melbulger@msn.com
Editor of The Stickbow News.
•
The
Stickbow
News
reserves the right to reject any advertising. No fraudulent or misleading
advertising,
compound
bows,
or
Karl Green (904)699-5080 E-mail: karlgreen@aol.com
sights,
releases, crossbows or firearms will be accepted.
•
Location of ads within the
Stickbow News will be at the sole
Andy Love (352)854-0564 E-mail: majorarcher51@yahoo.com
discretion of the Editor.
•
Advertiser agrees that the
Editor may freely use all submitted materials and that the advertiser assumes all responsibility for any claims caused by the ad or related
to
the
Past President:
David Tetzlaff (239)514-7334 E-mail: david@napleszoo.com
Stickbow News Editor:
Pam Brodeur (727)392-4021 11644 Irving Ave Seminole, FL 33772 E-mail: pbrodeur@tampabay.rr.com
Ad Manager:
*UHJJ 'XGOH\
advertiser’s
products and services.
•
Publisher’s liability for errors
and omissions will be limited to republication of a corrected error.
Change of Email Address? Please contact: Secretary/ Treasurer Buddy Oswald doswald304@aol.com
I hope everyone is as excited about our 20th anniversary celebration as I am. It takes a lot of hard work to keep an archery club alive and thriving for that span of time. Over the years, the tireless effort of officers and members has served to solidify TBOF’s image as a premier bowhunting organization. The club’s reputation as a traditional bowhunting body that works to promote archery opportunities and ethical sportsmanship is well deserved. It is entirely fitting that we take the time to celebrate our 20-year milestone. In so doing we are attempting to reach out to past members and officers and invite them to rekindle their affiliation with TBOF. Rick Connell and Mel Bulger are working to contact a lot of our former members to ask them to renew their club membership. If you know anyone who has dropped off the radar, please take the time to invite him or her to join us for the 20th Anniversary Celebration.
I know that some of you have been with the club since the origin in August of 1990. Others of you have only recently come to join us. Whether you are a long time member or a newbie you bring something special to the club. You have unique talents and skills that we can all benefit by. I encourage you to apply your special skills for the benefit of our organization. One way that you can help is to show up for club workdays. Our next workday will be Thursday, March 4, 2010. I would love to see you there. This club didn’t last for 20 years based on one person’s effort. It has taken the contributions of hundreds of folks. If we all do what we can it is safe to say that the next 20 years will be just as successful.
Gregg
Wow! What a great charity shoot! We had over 100 shooters show up to raise $1872.19 for youth archery programs in the state of Florida. These programs include Boggy Creek Camp for Kids, National Archery in the Schools Program, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4H, church programs, etc. If you have a Florida based program that you would like us to consider supporting, be sure to get a grant application from Buddy Oswald.
Rebecca, Wayne, Donnie, Rick, Reed, Andy, Jeff, Marv, Gary, Wesley and Rick for all their help!
This year we had a great volunteer group that helped us set up our range and groom and maintain our course trail system. Thanks to Mel, Herb,
The volunteers did a great job setting up a friendly and fun course for our members. Expect a few more challenges at the March shoot!
There were a lot of first-time participants at the charity shoot. Among them were Dale and Sandy Karch of 3Rivers. 3 Rivers has been a long time supporter of TBOF through their donation of raffle items for our state shoot. It was nice to finally meet Dale and Sandy.
State Championship Calendar
3:45 PM Competition Ranges Close
Thursday, March 4, 2010
4:00 PM Competition Score Cards Due to Office
4:00 PM Long Distance Novelty Shoot (main gate)
5:30 PM Banquet (office)
DARK-Fun Range and Iron Man Ranges Close
7:00 PM Coon Shoot (behind office)
9:00 AM Workday-Set up for Championship Shoot
Lunch provided for workers Friday, March 5, 2010
11:00 AM Office Opens
Shoot Registration Begins
Frank Scott Fun Range Opens (follow signs from vendor area)
Iron Man Range Opens (follow signs behind office)
Dart Throw Novelty Begins (office)
8:00 AM Office Opens
Silent Auction Begins (office)
Shoot Registration Continues
Sealed Bid Auction Begins (office)
Frank Scott Fun Range Opens (follow signs from vendor area)
Raffle Ticket Sales Begin (office)
Iron Man Range Opens (follow signs behind office)
Merchandise Sales Begin (office)
Dart Throw Novelty Begins (office)
DARK-Fun Range and Iron Man Ranges Close
Silent Auction Begins (office)
7:00 PM Coon Shoot (behind office)
Sealed Bid Auction Begins (office)
8:00 PM Office Closes
Raffle Ticket Sales Begin (office)
Merchandise Sales Begin (office)
9:00 PM Coon Shoot Score Cards Due
Campfire and Music by Mark Baker
Saturday March 6, 2010
8:30 AM Office Opens
Shoot Registration Continues
Frank Scott Fun Range Opens (follow signs from vendor area)
Iron Man Range Opens (follow signs behind office)
Dart Throw Novelty Begins (office)
Silent Auction Begins (office)
Sealed Bid Auction Begins (office)
Raffle Ticket Sales Begin (office)
Merchandise Sales Begin (office)
Fred Bear and Howard Hill Competition Ranges Open for Casual Start (main gate-Follow Directions of Starter)
Sunday March 7, 2010
8:30 AM Mandatory Shoot Meeting For State Championship Competitors (office)
8:50 AM Range Assignments and Score Cards Distributed (office)
9:00 AM Shotgun Start For State Championship Competition
11:00 AM Competition Score Cards Due
Iron Man Score Cards Due
All Ranges Close
11:45 AM Silent Auction Ends
Sealed Bid Auction Ends
12:30 PM Awards Ceremony
1:00 PM Raffle
Banquet Information: The TBOF State Championship Shoot will commemorate the 20th anniversary of our organization. Our second annual banquet will be held on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 6:00 PM with our featured speaker being, none other, than Monty Browning! The best bargain for the banquet is a raffle/meal combination for $40. That cost covers your dinner (chicken and pork, sides, bread, drink, dessert), 5 special opportunity banquet raffle tickets, and 20 regular raffle tickets for the usual Sunday raffle. A second purchase option is a meal ticket for $12. A cub that accompanies a paying adult can eat for free. Early donations to the special banquet raffle include a knife by Joe Post, a knife by Don and Skyler Wilson, a hog hunt with Archery Outfitters, a javalina and hog hunt with 7th Age Outfitters a commemorative Treadway bow, and a Big Jim Bow. More items are currently in the works. We need to sell tickets in advance so we can communicate food information with the person who will cater the meal. Please send a check for the appropriate amount made out to TBOF to this address: TBOF/CO Gregg Dudley PO Box 1268 Weirsdale, Fl 32195.
vided. This training will enable you to lead a small group of kids and parents on a private-land hunt in 2010. Please call Kelly Langstrom in Tallahassee at 850 413-0085 or contact her via email to sign-up for the training. We have lots of hunts, but need lots of people (huntmasters, cooks, hunter education instructors) to offer these quality programs. Visit the YHPF webpage at http://www.myfwc.com/SAFETY/ Safety_hunt_safety_youth_hunter.htm
Gallery Feature-We Need Your Hero Shots! I know that some of you have had a great year in the wild outdoors. I keep hearing the stories, but I want to see more pictures! There is a gallery feature on our website that lets us post member photos. To submit your photo, simply email a jpeg to joni@camelotc.com or dudley4pack@aol.com with the words TBOF Gallery in the subject line. Here’s a picture of my Texas hog that I killed on a recent hunt at the Solana Ranch:
Silent Auction at State Shoot: We will have 18-20 used 3 D targets for silent auction. These targets do not meet our competition standards any more, but they have a ton of life left in them. We will auction the following targets: Caribou, strutting turkey, gobbling turkey, antelope, mountain lion, coyote, javalina, black bear, brown bear, mule deer, mouflon sheep, hog, Russian boar, chamois, and assorted deer.
Florida Huntmaster Training: For all you folks that are interested in Florida’s Youth Hunting Program, here’s an opportunity to receive your huntmaster training and learn about the program that is working with our youth to, “continue the heritage.” The training will be held at the Ocala Conservation Center on February 27 and 28, 2010. If you preregister you can stay at the camp on Friday night. If you choose to arrive on Saturday, you need to be there at 7:45 am. All meals will be pro-
Always Looking For Stories: If you have a good hunting story to tell send it to us! We are always looking for a good story for our newsletter. Stories are not limited to successful hunts. Topics that are related to traditional archery like camping, cooking, wilderness skills, photography, and leatherwork are welcome as submissions. Share your knowledge or skill with us all.
Deer Management in Florida: Folks there is a lot of changes taking place in the way we manage deer in the state of Florida. Most of it appears to be for the better. The FWC appears to be working very closely with stakeholders to assure hunter satisfaction with the process. While it is Support Our Neighbors:
impossible to please everyone, effort is being exerted to see that all input is considered. Stay actively involved in monitoring the process by checking updates at http://myfwc.com/recreation/ Deer_index.htm
It was already three weeks into the Central Florida archery season and so far the only thing I had to show for it was one bent-up Woodsman Broadhead. It had gotten that way when I dug it out of a tree in the vain hope of reusing it after a wary doe had jumped the string. Unfortunately, the damage was too severe. It would end up on a shelf with an assortment of other unusable equipment. Although not good enough to put back into service, I just couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. By Friday evening, October 16th, a little over a week of the season remained but less than half an hour of sunlight was left in the day. As so often happens, I’d sat for three or four hours without seeing anything and then, at the last minute, an animal decided to appear. Actually, it was three animals. Three hogs, to be exact, coming in from the right. Now, feral hogs may not be the preferred game species in your neck of the woods, but where I hunt there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of them. And when the deer don’t show up but the hogs do, they will certainly suffice. The first hog to come through was pure black and what I’d call about medium size. He was followed by a larger spotted sow, then a small orange one bringing up the rear. They all took the same route through a little clearing near my stand and then right back into more thick stuff where I lost sight of them again. Not one of them had offered me a shot. Thinking they would reappear in the opening directly in front of me, I waited and listened as they rooted around for acorns. When the black hog finally came out to my right again, it seemed almost certain that I would soon be sending an arrow his way. But he was facing my treestand and never turned broadside, save for that half second just before he vanished back into the brush. Doggone it; he was the one I wanted, too! A few minutes later the spotted sow wandered out and, with her nose to the ground, never noticed as I
slowly turned toward her. She was broadside to me, maybe even slightly quartering away when I heard a very distinct voice in my head say “There’s your shot”. I always thought we were supposed to repeat the mantra of ‘Pick a spot’, but with a voice that clear seemingly coming out of nowhere and daylight on a tight budget here, I wasn’t about to argue. After a quick prayer for arrow guidance I readied for the shot. I really can’t say I remember bringing the recurve to full draw, but I know I did. With a mere nine yards separating us, the arrow had completed its mission before my mind could even grasp the fact that I had released the string. After the initial squeal the animal bolted but I could still hear it several yards away, thrashing in the leaves. A few seconds later it let out its last gasp and the woods were quiet again. Out of habit I looked at my watch but I already knew I didn’t have more than a few minutes of light left. Since the sound had ended so abruptly it seemed pointless to wait any longer before beginning my search. I climbed down from the tree and dug a flashlight out of my backpack. The bloodtrail I encountered quickly explained why the animal had stopped within earshot; the Woodsman broadhead had passed through the heart on its way to the far leg and the hog had only made it nineteen yards. It was well after midnight before I was finished with all the processing chores, and the fact that I hadn’t had to spend several hours trying to locate the animal was now more appreciated than ever. With the end of archery season fast approaching, I hunted as much as I could for the next few days. With only two days left, I managed to take a doe from about 14 yards. She didn’t even make it as far as the hog had. I’d have to say that both animals are a true testament to the effectiveness of a sharp broadhead and traditional equipment.
Bowhunters are starving for movies that fea-
Now if you haven’t seen the movie, the
ture archery. Whenever a new movie is re-
Avatar shooting style involves turning your
leased with an archery component the
shooting hand upside down, anchoring
internet is abuzz with anticipatory dialogue.
around the jaw line, and releasing. The
The release of The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
problem, which became evident when Jeff
Robin Hood, The13th Warrior, and other simi-
decided to test it, is that in real life, when
lar cinematic fair caused a lot of excite-
you hold a bow string like that the torque of
ment in archery circles. Most recently, the
your fingers on the string causes the arrow
release of the Avatar movie caused the
to twist off the shelf. The result tends to be
same type of stir.
an arrow shaft flying in perpendicular orien-
At the recent TBOF charity shoot I found my-
tation to forward movement.
self involved in a conversation in which the
Such was the case when Jeff, proclaimed,
shooting style of nine-foot tall blue aliens
“Hey ya’ll, watch this!” and let loose the
was critiqued and analyzed. It was kind of
string. As you may surmise a carbon arrow
like trying to figure out if Mighty Mouse can
makes a heck of a racket when it hits a sap-
beat up Super Man. The participants, all of
ling sideways at 180 fps. The impression is
who are respected TBOF shooters, had all
such
recently seen the Avatar movie. Finally un-
preservation instincts to activate. As the
able to control his curiosity, Jeff Hester de-
onlookers picked their selves up off of the
cided to shoot a target in the “Avatar style”.
dirt, stepped back out of the bushes, and
that
it
inspires
involuntary
self-
pulled prickly pear spines out of their skin they
After witnessing Jeff’s earlier performance it is
immediately began to berate Hester for his
amazing to me that Gary allowed his limited
performance.
edition, mint condition commemorative Bear
The ensuing harangue focused on four facts: 1. It was a movie!
Montana longbow and wood arrows to be used for the avatar experiment. This time the witnessing parties secured protected positions behind trees, shrubs and each other prior to
2. Avatars are not real!
the actual shot. No one was killed and we
3. You aren’t an Avatar!
emerged from hiding to examine the results. Since it only took 15 minutes to find the arrow
4. You are going to kill us all!
and it was unbroken the experiment was con-
Undeterred, Jeff began to critically analyze his
sidered a success. Four shots later Jeff actually
performance as an avatar in training. I offered
hit the target and he was pronounced a Red-
to cut his little finger off because the avatars in
neck Avatar.
the
movie
only
have
3
fingers.
Donnie
Wilkerson offered the only constructive criticism.
Donnie told Jeff he needed a left-
handed bow so the funky-handed grip wouldn’t torque the arrow off the string. Unfortunately for all of us Gary Linn happened to be shooting with us. Gary is left-handed.
Jeff Hester is TBOF’s vice president and the author’s regular shooting partner and good friend.
He does, however, bring this kind of
story upon himself.
javalinas behind me. If you’ve ever gotten “The Shakes” you know what I mean when I say I got the worst case of them. I was expecting the javalinas to be as big as our Delta javalina target, but they are really smaller. I watched them for ten minutes waiting for one of the bigger ones to come from behind a mesquite bush. He did. I was elated when he gave me a seven-yard broadside shot! I put it as close behind the shoulder as you can get and it was a clean pass through. I’ve never seen an animal move so fast. He ran directly It was a weekend in November that my dad and mom called my sister and I to their bedroom. I was expecting a talk about cleaning our house, which is what we usually do on the weekends. As it turned out they were planning two trips for our Christmas presents; a trip to New York City for my sister and my mom and a hunt for
behind us and I heard a wonderful noise, the crash!! We returned to camp and told Curtis and he was as exited as I was. He told us that if we wanted to go find it we could. So we went back and with a tenminute search effort we found him. My trophy turned out to be a 45 -pound Javalina boar. We got tons of pictures and it was a blast.
my dad and me. The hunt was for Javalina with Curtis Keller of 7th
We then returned to camp and told our story to the other hunters in
Age in Crane Texas! I was shocked. I have hunted in Georgia, Ala-
camp. They were proud that a young person like myself was into
bama, and Florida and had killed a lot of deer and hogs with my
hunting. We then went to bed. Over the next few days we saw a
gun, but I had never killed anything with my bow. This was going to
group of twenty-five plus hogs, another group of Javalinas, and a
be great!
big mule deer buck. Our weather switched all the time, the first
My dad drove out to Texas after Christmas. He hunted deer and hogs on Solana ranch. He shot a hog and a doe and apparently had a great time. On the 4th of January I flew out to meet him. I flew to Dallas-Fort Worth then on to Austin. My dad was waiting at the gate for me and it was good to see him. He had been gone a whole week. My dad grew a beard and had longer hair but everything else was good ol’ dad. We had to rearrange the truck because it was packed solid and he had it set up to accommodate one person. Then we drive to Crane, Texas. We got to the Gloria Looney Ranch and we only had to wait a minute until Curtis pulled up beside us and nodded hello. When we got in the gate I was in awe, it was beautiful and the weather was a perfect match. We set up camp and got ready for the first night hunt. Curtis took us to the “Dump Blind” (a pile of 55 gallon drums, plywood, and wire). We only sat there for about an hour and a half when I smelled it, that three-day-old skunk smell. I asked my dad if he smelled it as well and he glanced at me only to say, “Don’t move”. I had twelve
night we got a windstorm with sixty mile an hour gusts, and the second night we had a snowfall, leaving us with a half an inch of snow. This was my first Javalina, first bow kill, and my first high adventure hunt trip. I had a blast.
I was quite surprised when my name was drawn at the 2009 spring shoot as the winner of the drawing for the hog hunt in Arcadia, Florida with the Archery Outfitters crew. This is something I had wanted to do for quite awhile as I had never been that far south from my home in the northern part of the state. After checking with several of my buddies to see if there was any interest in their wanting to go with me, our Vice President Jeff Hester said he would. It was on! I contacted Nickie Roth and made arrangements to come down this past December and give it a go. Mr. Roth has been a long time supporter of our club and has donated this hunt many years as a TBOF raffle. The day finally came for us to venture south and Jeff and I found ourselves pulling into the town of Arcadia ready for an adventure. Mr. Roth’s property is about eighteen miles south of the town and is a working cattle ranch with lots of woods, swamps and LOTS of wild hogs. Even though the weather wasn’t cooperating with us (rainy and quite cool) we were itching to get into the woods. After proper introductions to our guide and the other hunters (we were the only traditional bow hunters on the outing), we were given a tour of most of the property and allowed to pick out our stands. Every stand we looked at was setup absolutely perfect for the traditional bowhunter. On these hunts you’re allowed to hunt from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning with a limit of two hogs and one deer. Our hunts were literally a wash out on Friday and Saturday morning, as the rain really came down hard. The clouds parted Saturday afternoon and after a bit of practice with our bows we headed to our stands. It wasn’t long after I settled in that I had a decent size pig come wandering by and froze in its tracks, as it must
have caught wind of me, switched ends and ran off. That event got the adrenaline going and I knew the day was only going to get better. Sure enough about an hour later here comes a pack right up to my stand with the biggest of the bunch giving me plenty of time to plan for a shot. I must have said “pick-aspot” to myself about a thousand times as I drew back and loosed the arrow. POW! I hit it and actually made a decent shot with my RER recurve. The pigs freaked and all headed for safer places, but I felt confident that this one was going to be down soon. I waited about twenty minutes, came down and started looking for sign of a hit. I quickly found both pieces of my broken cedar arrow and plenty of blood. There was plenty of sign to follow, but the pig had run into the thickest palmetto stand I’d ever ventured into. I turned around and headed out to find Jeff. Sure enough, he had just about the same experience, so we had two pigs to find in the dark. With the help of our guide, Don, we were soon loading up our pigs to head to the skinning rack. The pig I took had the neatest coloration of any I’ve taken and it made some pretty decent sausage to boot. Everyone there took hogs and we were also treated to a “Redneck Limo” tour of the property on a swamp buggy at the conclusion of our hunt on Sunday. Some of the biggest hogs we’ve ever seen in the wild were out feeding with the cattle, which would make for some excellent ground stalking opportunities. All in all, I was very happy with my adventure on Mr. Roth’s property and look forward to planning another trip there soon. Nickie’s website is www.archeryoutfitters.us and his phone number is 727-525-2825.
No Photo Available
1 ......................................... Roger Smith 390 2 .............................................Steve Redden 3 .................................Ronnie Weatherman
1 ........................................Susan Nelson 365 2 .............................................. Debbie Smith 3 ................................................. Diana Smith
1 .......................................... John Rollen 390 2 ..................................................... Bill Collins 3 ..................................................... Tom Swift
1 ....................................... Dina Voutour 355 2 ........................................... Martha Varney 3 .............................................Helen Claudio
1 .........................................Rick Connell 350 2 ................................................... Karl Green 3 ..................................................... Ron Miller
1 ............................................ Mel Bulger 320
1 .......................................... Noah Bates 385 2 ............................................. Jessie Peebles 3 ....................................... Wesley Danielson
1. ......................................DJ Buchanan 370 2. .............................................. Conner Burks 3. ..............................................Jake Williams
1 .................................Isabela Robinson 220 2 ........................................... Tyler Buchanan
Traditional archery has a way of bringing out sentimental feelings in me. I’m not sure what exactly does it the most, I’ll just use the word “close”. You are close to the equipment, the environment, the game you hunt, and, I feel, the people you are associated with. This little story starts back about seven years ago with me standing in the driveway of my home with a Howard Hill long bow. We live next to a big swamp and I was standing there just staring into the tangled mass trying to pick out what might be a critter. I had noticed an old bucket sitting in the garage with a bunch of old arrow shafts sticking out of it. You know the kind you save forever but really never do anything with. Well, right or wrong, I grabbed a bunch of those old shafts and commenced to flinging them hither and yonder at nonsense targets out in the swamp. At about the time I let it go I realized that I had just flung my dads last hunting arrow out in the swamp. Stupid is as stupid does. I remembered when my daddy (yeah, I called him daddy till I was 18) got those arrows. It was 1967 and a lot happened that year. My mom got a brand new ’67 Impala SS with a 327 V8 (sweet). My dad got a white Ben Pearson recurve 40# @ 28”. I’m sure it was white because he had to color it with old crayons when he went hunting. He bought me a Colt planesman recurve 39# @ 28”. Never could figure the 39 instead of 40 thing back then. He then had a top-notch archery guy named Ray Chioda in Leesburg set him up a dozen Falcon 1818 aluminum shafts. Well, over the years the bows moved on, the arrows got bent, broke, busted, or lost except for one. It was set up for hunting with a Fred Bear razor head, and that’s the one I shot into the swamp. Here about three weeks ago my six-year-old grandson Connor and I had gone out into the swamp to pick up garbage and generally mess around. We have an enormous black bear in our area who takes delight in going right into the garage to get him some vittles if you forget to close the door after dark. We were about fifty yards out in the swamp
when something caused me to glance upward. There, sticking out of a bay tree was my dads old arrow. It was nasty, and the broad head rusty. Of course it had been sticking in that tree for what, seven years? I had Connor climb the tree (cause I can’t) and go past where the arrow was stuck, bend it over so I could reach it and cut it off. Finding the arrow….cool, Connor climbing the tree….neat, the look on Connors face when he realizes I’m cutting down the tree he is in…..priceless. I told him not to worry, just jump to the next closest tree when his tree falls. The crazy kid bought it, and believe it or not, did it. I took that arrow, checked it over, cleaned it up, touched up the cresting, added new 5” white feathers, and cleaned up that old Bear broad head. Then I got to thinking… “Why don’t I shoot a deer with it?” My dad never got to. I did my best figuring, shortened the shaft a bit to spine it for my bow, put it back together, and watched as it flew perfect. At this point you need to understand that I have had the monkey on my back about whitetail deer for quite some time. Florida whitetail deer are spring loaded, and unless you can figure which way they are going to spring…..well, you get the picture. I’m not saying how many times I’ve missed, but I was running out of fingers. It was the last evening of the season, and my son Jarrod and I had hunted earlier that day without seeing a thing. The weather was changing, wind was blowing, Jarrod had gone home, and I was ready to call it quits for the season. I told my wife Doris about my dad’s old arrow and what I had intended to do with it. She said, “You got one more shot; you’d better get out there, and try changing your attitude too.” Then she added that if I didn’t go I could help with housework. Well, hells bells that’s easy. It was not quiet in the woods. Wind was buffeting around, and then it starting raining.
I had changed over to ground blinds for several reasons and was really glad of it at this point because it had started raining pretty darn hard. The palm fronds I had used to brush in the blind opening were getting pushed down from the rain and blocking my view. The rain stopped, wind died, and darn if it didn’t get as quiet as a mouse. It wasn’t long at all when I noticed two spring-loaded whitetails coming into view. I eased well back into the blind making myself as invisible as possible. It was a buck and doe. The buck was not legal. With a doe tag in my pocket, and my dads’ old arrow on the string, it was once again up to me to correctly judge the spring. I heard the arrow rattling through limbs somewhere past the doe. I watched as the doe bounded off about fifteen yards, stop, turn around, twitch her ears, and appear to take two steps as if she was going to resume feeding. I remembered the tight spot between the fronds, thought about where I had focused, and my brain saying, “here we go again”. In the time it took me to think those thoughts, she lay down, and it was over.
Many times my family has come out of house when they heard my truck pull up to see if I “caught” anything. Here lately it has been less, and on this night they didn’t even leave the light on. I stuck my head in the door and asked, “Where is Connor?” The reply was “in the tub”. Not once did they ask, “How did you do?” “Did you see anything?” “Did it rain out there?” Then I said, “Tell Connor to come on, he will need another bath when he gets done skinning this deer.” Heads popped up, Doris and Lindsay both said “deer?” at the same time, and I heard water splashing in the tub. We took good care of every part of that deer, and Connor got another bath and to bed rather late on a school night. I went back the next day and made every effort to find my dad’s last arrow, even with a metal detector. It suddenly dawned on me that my dad’s last arrow wasn’t meant to be found. It had done its job for my dad and me and was now used up. That was a close one. Close to past loved ones. Close to nature. Close to family. Whew!
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