Couple off season projects

I finally got around to taking some pics of Howard Hill Big-5 I got used.

Also have dozen doug fir ready for fletching and some nice bright cedar flu flus.

Snowy squirrel and rabbit hunt 021112

We had planned a trash shooting and roving woods clean –up shoot, under the guise of a small game hunt. We wanted to have some fun, practice some shooting, and get a couple bags of trash and litter from the woods. The hero shot with a pickup truck full of trash bags would go a long way to ensuring future hunting rights on the small farm property we had permission to hunt on. Being a good custodian to the land and treating the place with respect makes giant impacts on those that care about their farms, especially to owners that are non-hunters such as these were. Having had use of a family farm growing up I can relate to the pride, concern for the land, and value legacy owners hold for the dwindling number of small properties that are left. Well, mother nature had a different plan for this particular hunt. When Brent and Mike assembled at my house Saturday morning at about 7am, there were several inches of snow cover on the grass and it was still coming down. We quickly realized trash pickup would be impossible under the blanket of snow. The flakes were falling as we donned our gear and strung up our bows at the parking area. Mike had not even gotten to throw on his orange vest when he saw a squirrel on the ground a couple 50 yards away in the woodline. We quickly surrounded the tree and realized we had 2 squirrels surrounded in this particular tree. Brent was the first one to loose a flu flu from his 50’s era all fiberglass static “Action Bow” recurve, and Mike and I watched as the shaft arched up through the snowflakes and impacted a few inches from the squirrel who scampered over to my side and a few feet higher. I quickly remembered to bend at the waste way over to keep my alignment, and launched a second flu impacting just a few inches under the squirrel which again went higher. My second flu was quickly on its way and missed a few inches to the left of the animal as it sailed over Mike and several 50 yards downrange. (I later easily found the brightly colored modified cedar shaft with .357 brass head). Now one of the squirrels was on Mike’s side and he had no flu flus. Brent threw him a shaft and he soon launched it up at the squirrel barely missing it as well. What a blast!! The action was hot and heavy!

By now the two were very high up in the canopy with nowhere left to go and really out of range of the bow. Brent was lamenting he left the shotgun in his truck as he could easily now finish the job and have a couple squirrels. I also remembered the several spiral flu flus I had back at the house, so we quickly left Mike to watch the trees as Brent and I went back to my house. We arrived back at the farm again and Brent agreed to be our shotgun backup. We lamented the old single barrel Stevens did not have a sling so he could continue to hunt with the bow until the time for “finishing”. I doled out a half dozen Flus for Mike and I each. By this time, the 2 squirrels were gone and we started beating the brush and looking for rabbit activity. The woods were surreal. Beautiful frosting covered all the branches and brambles as the snow kept gently falling around us. A thick fog rolled in as the temps started to warm a bit making spooky, yet peaceful, atmosphere. We cut the tracks of a few coyotes. One in particular was found along the same path of the only set of rabbit tracks we found. We flushed out a group of 3 woodcock but had to let them go as the season had been closed since the end of January for them. Good to see though! As it turned out, that initial encounter with the squirrels was the only “action” we had, but roamed many miles, got our exercise, took in awesome views and the wonderment of a snowfall hunt, and shot scores and scores of dead stumps. What a great hunt!

John Schulz video on Howard Hill's from

Someone was nice enough to post the entire John Schulz video online for free viewing pleasure! Enjoy....I did! http://archeryduns.webs.com/apps/videos/videos/show/14895607-hit-em-like-howard-hill-parts-1-4

1st Annual "Season Closeout" hunt

We celebrated the closing of the 2010-2011 deer season with a full day of hunting. It was a fun way to get together, formally end the season, and hunt as a group on this last chance hunt. I think I may try to make this hunting day an annual tradition! Mike M. and I hunted the morning at the Frederick property. We heard some deer as we entered the woodline in the dark of morning. We both hunted the deep Laurel patch to try to intercept the “big heard”. We set up on stools under the laurel understory browse line and waited. I fickle wind chased me from my sit around 8:30, so I started off a slow stalk up the hill toward Brent’s tree (bedding area) and left Mike in a position free of my wayward scent. I moved slowly and hunted well, but never encountered any deer through the laurel and into the multiflora. Mike had decided to move as well and was hoping if I pushed one off the hill he could intercept. Unfortunately, he did not observe any movement either. We called it quits at 10:30 and headed for a quick lunch and drive to Havre De Grace. Mike and I got to Chris’s as he was shooting a few arrows in the backyard, so we broke out the bows after he got Moses (Cujo dog) put in his kennel. Chris is in the market for a new short longbow and Mike brought both of his two customs bows for Chris to shoot. We all pretty much shot poorly, but had fun shooting different bows and comparing the feel. Chris even brought out his homemade “old Ugly” takedown and Mike did pretty well shooting it at 15 yards! Tom showed up ready to hunt, as he had hunted the morning in the area we were going and saw no game. We thought our luck might change with 4 hunters surrounding this small woodlot. We pulled up and Mike made the comment, “If you look up bedding area in the dictionary, it would have a picture of this place”…. Chris guided us to our trees and we pretty much had the place surrounded. Unknown to me at the time, Chris pushed a few deer past Mike when he left me for his position. Unfortunately, they ran by Mike when he was halfway up his tree, behind him, and at a full run! Tom later reported seeing a few deer moving fast that could have been the same ones. I had a nice sit, and the weather was very mild in the 60s, and a moderate warm breeze had my tree swaying every so often. I watched some songbirds, saw some young eagles flying, heard the sounds of the waterfowl going and coming from the river, and even saw a few insects flying around…..but no deer as darkness fell. No one in the group got off a shot, yet I think we all had a good time. It was nice to hunt new terrain for a change. I’ll have to wait until next year to pursue deer again, and I now have a lot of time to get my act together and shoot better between now and then! We still have opportunity for squirrel into February, and spring Gobbler starts in April to round out the season totally.

Wednesday 012512 bowhunt

I looked at the weather forecast, and my work schedule, and decided to take a hunting day on Wednesday. The season is drawing to a close and I have yet to collect a deer with the bow this season. Time was running out and I also wanted to find the arrows I lost in the snow on Saturday (excuse). I entered the woodline just as it was growing light enough to see well. I moved quickly and quietly, and did not kick out anything that I could hear as I moved to the back of the property. I decided to move forward closer to the ridge line that the deer moved over both times I encountered them here recently. The wind was tricky and kept changing up and down the ridge, but never downhill (the direction I thought the deer would come).

The morning drew on uneventfully. I did hear a few coyotes howling late in the morning at a couple domestic dogs barking in a nearby wooded house. I watched the sun start to warm things and melt the hard ground into a soggy mess.

I am not sure if the deer just were not moving, or if my scent had somehow alerted them from the ridge, but in any event, nothing showed. I easily found my arrow from the miss Saturday. It was stuck in a nice log right where I thought it would have been. I probably walked over it several times in the snow. I also found my errant judo tipped arrow from the walk out. I decided to catch some lunch and head back out for the afternoon. I was back in the woods about 12:30 with a full belly, and a lot less insulation. It was sunny and warm. I walked up the hill still trying to play the changing air currents. I flushed out a small antlerless deer despite my best attempts to be quiet. She may have winded me, but in any event she bounded up very high on the hill last I saw her. I still hunted my way to a nice thicket where the wind was favorable. I snugged up against and behind some deadfall in the shadows of a beech tree that still had crinkling brown leaves that would rustle whenever the wind blew. The sun was warm and I dozed several times. It was a nice relaxing hunt, but no animals besides a downy woodpecker were observed. I did find two very small seed ticks on my hand. I wondered how many others were crawling on me?! Gave me the itchies for the rest of the sit. I never did find any more....yet. On the stalk out of the woods I came across the remains of a fawn in the overgown field. Only the small skull and spinal column, four lower legs, and the thick winter hide were left after the yotes and foxes had their way. Such is the way late season hunts can be...feast or famine. My next hunt will probably be my last this season for deer. Jan 31st.

The second snowy freezing rain hunt - Sat. 012112

The weather forecast Friday afternoon was for snow turning to freezing rain, then all rain into the afternoon Saturday. Friday was bright and clear and I was bummed out that I did not decide to hunt this day instead of Sat. The weather seemed perfect with the impending front to have deer on the move. It always seems like I make things harder on myself, but I was determined to hunt the wet Saturday morning. Brent could not hunt because of family obligations, so I had Mike along to take his spot at the private farm. No one else hunted this late in the season to care. I would repeat the hunt we performed last Sat. with both of us on the ground sitting for a few hours, and then trying to push deer off the mountain toward each other about mid-morning. We sipped coffee and watched the freezing rain pelt the truck windshield as we pulled into the parking area. After a few minutes of chit chat, the dawn started to break, and the precipitation slowed to a stop! It was perfect timing. I went back towards my rocky ridge in the laurel patch chasing two deer against the snowy backdrop as we entered the woodline in the gently increasing light. It was very loud to walk on the crust of ice and snow, so it was unfortunate we pushed that group, but unavoidable. They were posted about halfway up the hill between the upper trail and Brent’s stand. Had they been higher and if it was not so noisy to walk, we may have been in place without their noticing. Oh well, it was good to see deer regardless. After about 20 minutes of being set up on my stool nestled against the trunk of a large chestnut oak, I can see deer moving clear of the peninsula through the dense laurels. There was a significant browse level to the foliage and sitting low on my stool offered the longest viewing distance from the ground. Still the area was dense. I remained stone still and could see at least 3 deer were sporting headgear of various types, but none seemed very large. Probably the largest was a basket 6 that I could see. I lost count at around 15 deer in the group as they passed a, open window. They seemed to be moving by me at about 60-70 yards down the valley feeding as they meandered. For a few minutes I thought I would be typically about 30 yards too far away and just have a good show. I watched as several times deer got on two legs to reach higher up in the laurel canopy and intermittently shake off the snow/ice from their coats, flashing the white of their underbellies and neck patches in the process. Then a small group split off and started to feed up the ridge crest toward me. There was a significantly bigger doe in the lead of a group of about 5 antlerless deer of various ages. She was moving on a line that would take her into bow range to my uphill side. As they moved cautiously, I eased around a few inches in my stool to prepare for that open window in the brush to my left. She continued on. I started easing back the bowstring, hoping the larger part of the group off to my right did not catch the bow movement as they milled about. When she passed the tightly choked brush and her head went behind a trunk, I came to full draw successfully. She stepped into the clear and I focused hard on a spot behind her front leg that was a little darker than the rest of the coat. It was about the size of a baseball. She was between 20-25 yards away. I followed through and released. The bow jumped oddly in my hand and I watched as the yellow crowned and fletched shaft soared about 3 feet high and rearward. I was shocked at how far I missed based upon how hard I thought I had concentrated. The entire woods seemed to explode with deer running. I reached down quickly and picked up another arrow I had positioned at my feet, and as quickly as I could froze again. Since the two groups split if different directions, I thought there might be a chance they would come back in range again. I was not sure if any of them actually saw me. What did I have to lose. After about 10 minutes of stillness, I saw a deer head bobbing through the brush slowly and cautiously. It was sniffing up and down and trying to see anything that might be danger. It was the lead deer of a group of 6. It was not one of the largest deer, but had a severe limp in its right front leg. It was the “point” man in this file as it was, no doubt, the most cautious having been injured. It slowly led the group closer following the same general direction as the group I had just flung an arrow at. I was hoping it would end up in the same spot also, for a rare second chance shot. However, this group was trying to catch the other group who was undoubtedly father up the mountain on the other side of the ridge. Their route therefore was a bit farther away. They passed in front of me at about 60 yards, and for a second, I toyed with the idea of making a long shot if one stopped in the clear at that distance. But they passed over the ridge edge so only the neck and half of the back was exposed. I was not proficient or confident enough to make that shot yet. I guess I could have stood up, but the likelihood of the thick brush blocking my view was also great. So I just watched them pass. They had no idea I was there. After an hour and a half of looking, I never did find my arrow no doubt buried in the snow somewhere over the small ridge. I will have to go back after the snow melt and look for it. I know I missed cleanly. I recreated my shot and realized my mistake. Shooting the longbow uphill from a seated position allowed my lower limb to strike the ground in the last few inches of limb travel. I was not familiar enough with the length of the longbow compared to my short recurve. Each time recreated the shot; my lower limb tip hit the ground. No wonder the bow seemed to jump oddly! H well, lesson learned. At least I concentrated and picked a spot well. No one said this stuff was easy! Meanwhile, Mike did not see too much in the way of deer, but did see a giant fox squirrel. He got up and walked a bit getting to know the thick multiflora area around Brent’s stand tree. He agreed that was a good spot. I continued my push toward him and we eventually linked up after I caught the sound and flickering intermittent sight of a couple deer on the crest of the hill about 250 yards above us in high gear. Then, we heard the sounds of female hikers on the nearby Gambrill trail. No doubt they were pushed by the shrill conversations and raging twig snapping of the hiker’s heavy footfalls. It always amazes me how loudly non-hunters blunder through the woods and then wonder why they do not see a lot of animals. We shot a few stumps and checked out the lower end of the property for sign on the way out of the woods. As I suspected there was little. The adjacent mountainside was beautiful with a frosted coating of powdered sugar on the trees. I lost a second judo arrow in the meadow on the way out. Just another arrow to look for once the snow melts. At least I will have an excuse to come back out there and look for my two shafts. It was a great day to hunt and we saw no other hunters. We had the entire woods to ourselves. I do not regret passing up that Friday one bit now. You never know how things will unfold in the woods. update: I found my arrow(s) on Wednesday. Stuck in a log just under the snow. I probably walked over it a few times!

Chris's Sat. afternoon bowhunt 012112

Did Swan Harbor in the PM after the snowfall. Went in about 2:00pm - me, Dave and Tom. Tom went South to the river edge straight back, Dave went West and to the North edge of the county field corner, I went back to the West and South at the South end of the field, to cover that route into the woods. Tom got first action, I scared a pair of deer in his direction and had a single one walk by within range but unfortunately his bow was still on the ground! I saw probably three or four sets of tracks that were from early that morning while it was still snowing and probably two or three sets that took place since the end of the snow. Just general meandering feeding tracks. I got to the rear corner and wasn’t more than about ½ hour and a four wheeler with three you guys (20’s) went down the trail to the point where we know the boat is. I picked up and moved East to the center of the strip along the riverbank – to get further away from them and possibly catch anything moving from them. I had a deer walk up within 30 yards of me, but behind me back in the thick stuff, it eventually moved off unseen. ( I was in snowcamo on the ground). Eventually the three guys unloaded on a flock of geese, I think they took the boat over to the marsh strip and then sky busted anything flying over (strictly illegal – no blind site). Tom reports that the birds were pretty darn high and he didn’t see anything go down. Around Sunset Tom saw about 5 deer feeding around the marsh point where we normally kick them out, but they hung there and did not enter the woods ( I think they knew we were in and were waiting for dark). Dave says he had two come in from the East, coming across from the Soccer field but that they didn’t make it to him until he was on his way down out of the tree. He got to hear them run off. Still pretty good population roaming the area. Just a matter of good wind and luck to get in front of one. Our odds do seem much better when more than one of us is out. A couple of good sets of tracks, probably from the Spikes and Forkys. That be it for the report! Congrats to Tom, now an officer of the company and with an extra week of vaca ! We’re wondering if that will get him out to Colorado this year….