Suburban Bow & Air Hunting Adventures: Suburban Bowhunting Adventures November 14th, 2009

November 14th, 2009: LLNC Stand: Since it was a nice afternoon, cold but no rain, I asked my daughter Whitney if she wanted to go with me and run the camera and see if we could harvest a deer on camera. I have been trying to get better at videotaping my hunts, as they will be memories for my kids and grandchildren to see in the future. I have been having all sorts of problems with my back, but my daughter and I decided we would make a go of it. I had decided that no matter what size of deer came in, if Whitney, who had never seen an animal harvested in person, came with me... I would harvest whatever deer we saw. Since I hunt in this order, meat, video, trophy size. I decided that we could take a chance and "pack it in" meaning we would haul in two muddy tree stands and some sticks and see if we could set-up and harvest a deer in the same evening. We left the house about 2:30pm and we got to our stand area about 2:45 I hung the stands and sticks and we were settled into our stand by 3;15pm. I explained how the video camera (JVC GZ7HD) and I began rattling and calling.

I have been reading a book by Jud Cooney "Decoying Big Game Animals" and he has some very unorthodox (or long forgotten) tactics for getting an animals attention. one of them was to put a funnel on the end of any of your calls so you can get the "megaphone" volume to reach out. So I have a Sceery coyote howler, so I took the funnel part off of it and put it in my backpack.

Speaking of my backpack... I want to share with all you readers, if you are sick and tired of having an unorganized backpack, spending hundreds of dollars on backpacks that now hang in the shed, I will tell you I have found a system for a backpack that I think is second to none. Military men will know what I am talking about. I purchased an ALICE/MOLLE pack frame online for 12.00 on ebay, it was a surplus, no straps nothing. I purchased two 2" nylon belts like carpenters use and made them into straps for the pack, after using these I broke down and bought the GAMEPLAN GEAR treestand carrier. which was only $49.00 at BassPro in Altoona. Now this is a luxury and totally unnecessary for this project. I also bought some pipe insulation for 1/2" pipe which I put all the way around the packs frame. Here is a list of everything you need.

1. A.L.I.C.E. pack Frame

2. (1-3) Fieldline or Remmington Tactical Field Bags

3. (6) 1" chain links (like a caribiner but they screw instead of snap shut)

4. (6) 2" carbiners (like they sell at walmart)

5. (6) 3/16" x 1" eye bolts and nuts

6. (12) 3/16" x 1" fender washers

Basically you drill holes in the side of the stand two at the top, two about a third down from the top and two about 2/3 down from the top, install the eybolts then install a chain link on each eyebolt, then put the carbiners on the loops of each of your tactical bags and and put the stand onto your treestand carrier or add two straps to it and a belt. it is the easiest backpack ever. In my pack the Top bag holds my camera arm and related accessories. usually my lunch. The middle bag holds my "hunting equipment calls, everything that would be in my pack. The bottom bag holds my video camera and related accessories. If I am not video taping I take the top and bottom bags off and only carry the middle bag. it works out great.

Now back to the hunting: I made a few quiet grunts and then some rattling. I use the Treestand Rattlr which allows me to lower it to the ground. Well it gets to be about 4:15pm and then I hear the sounds of something in the distance. I am wearing Walker's Game ears, not the expensive one's but the $29.00 pair from Wal-Mart. They work awesome as I was able to HEAR the deer before I SAW the deer and get Whitney ready with the camera. I waited for the buck to come in, I was looking at him through the binoculars, when get got to 20 yards I was at 1/2 draw and he looked right up at us.!!! we were both in sticksNlimbs non-insulated coveralls and had sprayed down with homemade scent killer. email us at jpjones@suburbanbowhunter.com if you want the recipe. He looked right at me, I finished my draw he turned back down and I released. My arrow hit a branch and hit him right in the neck, he dropped right on the spot. I hurried up and put another arrow into him while he was on the ground except he was at the wrong angle. So to be safe and humane, I followed up with another shot. Which immediately pierced his heart. I believe that you owe an animal the quickest death, even when there is a mis-shot like hitting a branch. You can watch the video on my website at http://www.suburbanbowhunter.com/

What made this hunt special it was only the third time my daughter Whitney has been hunting and the first time I have ever harvested an animal with her. I knew that taking her would be good luck and she would have a good time, and she did. Check out the video:

First Buck on Video November 14th, 2009

Equipment we used on this hunt: