10th annual Baltimore Bowmen shoot

I was waiting for Mike to arrive after a half day of work in order to get down to Baltimore and secure a good campsite. I scooted out of my front door and saw this hen turkey. She did not seem to care about my presence too much so I watched her as she fed around my house to the backyard. There I got my camera out and snapped this pic. She finally had enough of me at 10 yards and after a few "putts" casually fed away up the hill. My wife saw it at the bird feeder the next day!

well, after a late start and about an hour of rush hour traffic we made it to the range and found one of the last cramped areas to set up 2 tents.

Our neighbor had a old canvas tarp set up like a whelan tent and 2 osage selfbows hanging from the poles. He was from downstate DE and we found out later he might be hunting in the same CO unit as Chris and I this year. I left him my card and email info.

After striking our tents, Mike and I checked out some vendors tents before heading out to the first 3D target range. We got to the end of the course just as it was too dark to see our arrows in flight.

We ate our steaks by citronella candle as we were too close to other tents to use any of the massive amounts of poplar wood I split and brought with us. It was a pretty quiet night despite so many folks. The next morning I was roused from my slumber at 6am by the sound of an elk bugling! Man, that got the juices flowing and made me excited for Colorado again! We ate a big breakfast and headed down to the ranges. The weather was beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky, warm, and not a single mosquito or gnat! We ended up shooting all 3 courses multiple times. There were 80 targets so we figure we shot about 150 targets over the day and a half.

There were all sorts of targets as the 2 favorite courses wound through a wooded creek bottom. I can remember shooting at grizzly bear, polar bear, caribou, elk, turkey, javilina, big horn sheet, mountain goat, bison, jaguar, and lion.

The practice was definitely worthwhile. Mike and I struggled at first, and shooting with onlookers was unnerving at times, but we improved as the day went on. I can only remember 1 arrow I lost permanently that broke on the river rocks. A lot of the sky-lined targets were positioned to put your arrow into oblivion or into big oak trees if you missed. I found a fair amount of other people's arrows and placed them in the bucket at the clubhouse for their owners. I was a fun shoot and I look forward to doing it again!

Black Bear attacked my turkey decoy!

I should have known it was going to be an interesting day when realized I forgot my camera. Mike and I headed into the woods just as daylight was poking above the horizon. I had planned to hunt the small meadow on the bottom of the property, but when I approached the wood line I saw a light. Another hunter was setting up in the field. So I thought to myself a moment. There was no other hunter’s vehicles parked in the parking area. These guys might be illegal. So I approached their pop-up blind to check ‘em out. They turned out to be a couple guys from Westminster that indeed had permission, as they threw out the landowners name as well as the other local old guy’s name. They said they would move, but I said not to bother. I pointed out my longbow and told them they would have better luck then I at getting something. Their expressions were priceless when they saw the longbow! They came all the way from Westminster to Frederick to hunt, so I wished them luck and quickly moved on. I think I recognized the older fellow as the guy I saw carrying an xbow during last rut from my tree stand. He said he had parked at the farm house. So I left and headed up the hill. I caught up with Mike, and informed him about the gun hunters below. Then, went uphill from him, already in sweat lather at this point. I set up my jake decoy facing me about 12 yards out on a small plateau and got nestled in front of a giant clump of vines and multiflora that was climbing a decent sized tree trunk. It was a perfect set up for the ghillie. I had dense cover behind and some sparse stuff in front. After about an hour, I see movement and hear a twig break off to my left. I turn my head and I see a black bear about 10 yards away! It had no clue I was there, and it apparently did not know I was there either. I watched it lumbering about, stopping now and again to scratch itself. It spotted my jake and slowly approached it from behind, sniffing the air hard. It was upwind of me. It started to paw at my plastic shell of a decoy and I though “HOW COOL”! I wish I had my camera! Then it started to get behind the decoy and actually bit the head of my jake! OK, that’s enough of that! I was not going to let it destroy my decoy. So I stand up and get its attention. I took a step back, but did not seem too alarmed. I took off my head net so it could see I was a person and was expecting it to run away at any moment. It just looked at me quizzically. Now, my heart is beginning to pound harder. This thing is not scared! I approached it a few more loud steps and it ran back a few bounds to where it approached from my left. Still quizzical, it would start coming toward me sniffing after I stopped pursuing. Now, it was behind me. Great. I can’t turkey hunt with this thing behind me! So I again walked toward it. Same deal. Just kept coming back. I reached down and threw some large chunks of bark that came down from a dead tree. It would go over to the chunks after they landed and sniff them. Great, now I am playing fetch with an adult black bear! Finally I decide to full out charge the bear and run toward it. I run about 15 yards and it runs about the same distance, stops, and starts to return again. OK, done playing nice. I grabbed a steel blunt arrow from my quiver and decide to try to sting this thing in the ass and get it some fear of humans. I really did not want to hurt it badly though, and the 60 pound bow with heavy wood shaft would get some penetration…. I decide to try to short draw it. It was sitting about 15 yards at the base of a tree. I took aim at his big ole rump, and let fly. Of course I missed low….doh!!! It bounded off a couple more steps and started turning over logs looking for bugs! Amazing!!! Finally it lumbers off up the hill. I got back in my hiding spot, but it was very hard to keep still after that, and I kept looking behind me. I think the bear was a teen / adult but probably not over 150 pounds. Larger than a deer by far, but not the huge rumped gal I saw in my backyard before. As things quieted down I hear a twig snap from the same area the bear came. Oh boy, is it back? A turkey??? Nope, 3 deer. They were slowly feeding and moving by me. It would have been another easy shot at 10 yards had they been in season. This Ghillie suit hunting is getting more and more exciting. As the morning got later, I decided to move up the hill and do a little run-and-bow hunting. I crested the hill and set up a hasty sit. Took out the box call, and scratched out a few yelps. After about 15 minutes of nothing, I decided to get up and move on. As I rose I spotted animals off to my front about 80 yards away. Two coyotes. Normal grey colored one in the lead, and that dark brown one I had seen before. I thought they probably came in to my yelps and already spotted me, so I make some squeaks with my mouth. That got their attention and they froze in the trail. Eventually however, the grey lead yote gets nervous and bounds forward and out of sight. I quickly mentally say goodbye to my cedar arrow and woodsman head, and think to myself if the brown one lets me get back to full draw I’ll chance a Hail Mary shot. It does and I let fly. About 5 yards in front of it my arrow glances off a beach tree branch and the yotes explode out of there. I ended up finding my arrow and head, minus the nock, and it was in good condition and stuck in a deadfall branch. More good luck to not center a rock! So I never did see any turkey that morning…..but boy was it exciting! I NEED to carry that camera every time!