Lessons Learned: Angled Shot Placement

Pre-celebration parties are over rated. Never celebrate before the reason to celebrate has actually arrived, thus my first lesson learned this year: don't celebrate prior to finding your animal.

The second and more important lesson learned:

ANGLED SHOT PLACEMENT IS IMPORTANT

I shot a doe on the mountain this year. I didn't recover her. This is my story.

Do you remember the day I alluded to in my recent video where we headed to a mountain lake? This was the day I released an arrow. That morning Troy and I decided to take a bit of a break from climbing to the top and stalking the "big boys." Instead we were going to try something different and spend the morning at a nearby lake. Actually, it was more me than Troy that wanted to venture to the lake, because I had been viewing this little lake from above all week and I wanted to see it for myself.

I didn't realize how far the lake was from camp, because when looking down from the peak it didn't seem that far. It was just over this "hill" through those pine trees and that clump of aspen trees. And when you no longer have the advantage of looking down to get your perspective of the land, it is easy to end up on the long route instead of hiking straight towards the destination. Therefore, what should have taken an hour quickly becomes two, and your little morning adventure turns into a day-long trip.

We did reach the lake mid-morning which allowed Troy to get out the spotting scope and see what the "big boys" were up to in the drainage basins above us. I got to "play" with the fish and soak in the sun. It was a nice relaxing afternoon. After eating our lunch, it was time to head back to camp and prepare for our evening hunt. This time we were taking the short straight route back to camp.

Since we felt confident in our way back this time, I told Troy let's just walk slowly through the woods taking our time and maybe I would have a chance at a bedded doe. So, with an arrow at the ready I began to lead the way.. elmer fudding it over logs. As we were only about 100 yards into the aspen on the edge of the lake, a doe stood up from her bed. The shot opportunity presented itself perfectly. I had a visual of her entire body with her head concealed by an aspen. She was frozen sensing something below, and since I couldn't see her eyes, I knew she couldn't see me either. With my husband standing right next to me, I calmly told him, "I've got a shot. I'm going to take it." Since he had a visual of her head, he was stuck and couldn't move to range the distance for me. "It's okay. I've got it," I said and was able to range her prior to the full draw moment. The distance = exactly 30 yards. So, I could drill her using my 30 yard pin without having to make any adjustments.

Did you catch the mention that she was looking DOWN on us? There was a pretty steep incline, but since my range finder has an angle setting I knew my range of 30 yards was accurate. Without the angle setting, the range would have been 43 yards. I felt confident because I had been practicing these angle shots frequently.

I remember the whole thing. It is a moment burned in my memory. The shot felt right... Pin securely set in the kill zone. String on nose. Bubble level. Back muscles taught. Follow through. Trigger releasing. It felt right. She jumped sky high. The words flew out of my husbands mouth, "You DRILLED her!" And I remember saying, "It looked a tad bit high." Seeing the question in my eyes, Troy quickly assured me that it was a great shot! He was proud of me.

We waited 30 minutes before making our way up the short distance to the top of the hill. I went first. I found my arrow and quickly became excited b/c there was blood on it and it was broken.

My excitement was short lived. As we looked around in the immediate area where the shot made impact, there was only a few small drops of blood. That was it. If I had hit lungs as it appeared I should have from below, there would have been a lot more blood. There wasn't. It was going to be a long day. Knowing that with a minimal to non-existent blood trail we needed to sneak back to camp and possibly give her time to expire without pushing her deep into the woods. So, with the question lingering in my mind if I had just fed the bears and coyotes that evening or if I would recover my deer, we took the "short" trip back to camp to change clothes, lighten our packs and prepare for hopefully packing a deer back to the truck.

Without dragging this story on, the end of it is this: We didn't recover my deer that day. After searching and combing the area all day without a blood trail to go on, here is what we think actually happened. With the angle of the shot and my gut feeling that I shot just slightly high, I probably hit the "no-zone" or "no man's land" - the zone right in between the spine and lungs resulting in a muscle, non-fatal shot. She probably lived through it or I suppose the cycle of life continued by filling the stomach of a bear or coyote.

Here is where shot placement and angle are critical. Everyone knows that when bow hunting, to wait for the broadside or quartering away shot. Think about it... you need to ensure that the path of the arrow penetrates through to the kill zone. If the animal is quartering to you, this is a terrible shot b/c it means that a gut shot is likely. However, what about the up and down angle shots? The important part here (which I neglected to think about) is to consider the exit wound. Think about it. If I shot slightly high, I suppose I could have nicked one lung, but what about the other one? If you are shooting high, think about the steepness of your angle and take that into consideration. I should have accounted for it and shot a little lower. It is a lesson learned.

Simply Fishin'

Saturdays were made for spending the entire day fishing -

even if you don't catch anything but sun.

Thanks honey for untangling lines all day!

Cleansing Fire

There is something that stirs inside me at the sight or thought of fire. It is compelling yet frightening all at once. The smell of smoke can invoke memories of times spent around campfires, thoughts of cozy fireplaces where friends and family are gathered near, or even thankfulness when the lingering scent on my husband's clothes reminds me he arrived safely home from a job well done. This same smell may remind others of not so pleasant memories.

The thing about fire is that it burns. That is the nature of the flame. It is one of the most powerful forces of nature. It can bring destruction and since we live in a fallen world, it can bring devastation also. If left unattended or intended for evil it can be catastrophic. However, what is interesting to me is the power fire also has to comfort, cleanse and refine.

A flame comforts. The moment a flame enters a dark room, darkness immediately is consumed by light. Light invades darkness and not the other way around. Interesting. I'm reminded of the miners trapped below the earth's surface who conserved the light they had. Yes, a flicker of light comforts.

A flame cleanses. I believe in good sound management of the wilderness areas we love. This means at times that it is necessary to clear out the overgrowth, burn down the weeds, the dead stuff, etc., which ultimately allows the forest to come back stronger. New growth quickly emerges. The burn strips away the unnecessary.

I've been saddened to see many of the wilderness areas I love here in Colorado become overtaken by beetle invested pine trees. These Mountain Pine Beetles (MPB) have been eating away and killing large numbers of trees in Colorado for several years now. They infect the weaker trees first - the older, crowded, or growing in poor conditions trees. Once MPB infest a tree, there is really nothing that can be done to save the tree. They suck the live out of the tree and then move on to a nearby tree once their host tree is dead. And I'm afraid that with this rampant problem, we are going to be due for a big fire if this isn't taken care of soon. And when the fire comes, it will ultimately cleanse the beetles. However, it would have been better if this could have been controlled earlier with well managed controlled burns. Instead, a fire is probably inevitable. It will come and it will destroy indiscriminately.

A flame refines. Fire is often associated with God Himself. There is a fire that burns in our hearts - a "refiners fire" lovingly controlled by the hand of God. The intense fire transforms. The refiner's fire does not destroy indiscriminately like a forest fire, nor consume completely like the fire of an incinerator. Instead it purifies. The purpose of refining is to separate out the impurities that ruin its value. The impurities are burned up and silver or gold being refined remains intact. It becomes pure. God is like that. He is a refiner's fire. It hurts at times, but then our perspective suddenly changes at the realization of afflictions eclipsed by glory.

Photo Shots from my Cell Phone

This week's Outdoor Photo Prompt over on the Outdoor Blogger Network is inspired by the cell phone camera. The challenge is to find one photo taken from your phone that you are most proud of. This is not an easy task for me. I have several pictures on my phone that I'm proud of for various reasons and most exist for purely the entertainment factor. Simply stated - they make me chuckle a bit and thus the reason for the pic.

So, as I scrolled through the dozens of photos stored on my phone I had a difficult time just choosing one. Here's a few of my favorites, along with my commentary...

Yep! It's a boy!

I wish I could teach my dogs this trick! I captured this photo with my cell phone at a local gas station. "Sally" has traveled over 1,000 miles in this side car with her owner. How cool is that?

Sign captured with my cell phone while I was.. ur.. never mind.

But Really? Nothing else?

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of visiting this facility?

And last but certainly not least... the lake shot

Hunting Season 2010 in Video

I've finally finished slicing and dicing video clips and pictures from our last hunting trip. I was a bit bummed because for some reason when I converted the video some of the pictures turned out a bit blurry. Since this is just for fun and really no other reason at all, I'm not going to mess with it any more. So, my apologies for the quality of some of these shots. It is what it is. (I would love at some point to actually have a real video camera to take along on our hunts, but then again... I probably wouldn't be able to fit it in the back pocket of my pants then. ;)

Anyway, I hope you like this little clip of our hunting adventures. It is about ten minutes long, so go grab a cup of coffee first and then sit back and enjoy...

Hunting Season 2010 from Emily on Vimeo.

Flower Darts

Have you ever noticed these petal-less stems?

And how they make perfect "dart" throwers.

Especially when there are hunting friends walking in front of you.

Just sayin'.

P.s. The short hunting video I've been working on is almost done... I'll post it soon!

A Few of My Favorite Things..

I'm feeling a bit random tonight, so I thought I would simply post some of my favorite things that I enjoyed this past weekend...

1. Archery Shoot for a good cause

Today, we participated in a "Shoot for the Girls International Archery" tournament where all of the proceeds went to The National Breast Cancer Foundation. Our local archery shop had about 50 attendees for this shoot, so it was a packed house. There was a good mixture of guys and gals that showed up to "shoot for the girls." Below is the target we had to shoot at. The white space in loop of the ribbon = 10 pts and the ribbon itself = 5 points. Yes, you had to try and shoot the small pink ribbon. I couldn't even see it at 20 yards! (Oh, and the below pic is the husband's target. He beat me this time.. but not by much.)

2. A good glass of red wine shared with friends. Need I say more?

3. Sunsets kissing western prairie skies. Again, further explanation - unnecessary.

4. Freshly painted rooms

I learned a new painting technique this weekend and I think I am now hooked. Faux painting with a woolie is absolutely fabulous. I painted our guest bedroom in a couple of hours and it only took that long because of the taping and talking. (My sister stopped by for a bit.) If you've never tried this type of painting, I would highly recommend it. It only took 1/2 quart of paint to do the entire room and it is a great stress reliever b/c you simply slap a little paint on the wall and smear it all around with the "woolie." So fun!

TGIF

It's FRIDAY! Go celebrate or do something fun... like hunt.

I hope everyone has fun plans for the weekend.

This is Big Al's 6x6 unicorn bull.

One set of antlers are normal and the other side is growing straight up from the skull.

Cool, huh?!

Beary Interesting...

I've confessed my fear of bears recently and now I have an intriguing question for you all...

We found something interesting when wandering through the woods during our recent elk hunt. Hanging from an aspen tree was a bear head as if put on display. Honestly, it kinda freaked me out and still does a bit. I'm not sure what to make of it. Why would someone take the time to carefully skin out the hide and then hang it on a tree? Is it out of respect for the animal? Some bizarre custom? A warning sign of sorts? I still don't know... I've tried some google searches in an attempt to figure this out. You can get some pretty strange results with searches like "skinned out bear head hung from tree."

I would love to know your thoughts!

Any ideas why someone would do this?

Antlers in the Woods - Keep or Leave

On the way back from one of our recent evening hunts, the wind carried the smell of a decaying carcass right past our noses. Simultaneously everyone muttered the words, "what is that awful smell?" There was no escape route. No amount of air-freshener would be able to remove the cloud of unpleasant aroma waffling through the night air. I tried covering my face with my hands, breathing through my mouth (not recommended b/c you can then almost taste the smell), pulling my shirt over my nose, etc., etc. The smell persisted to invade my nostrils.

Two of the guys (my husband included) were not deterred by this awful smell and instead suddenly had a mission to fulfill. Great! That means we get to hang around and smell this loveliness even longer. With their noses guiding their footsteps they combed the area to discover the source of the stink. There was something dead and they were bound to find out what "it" was. I was not interested. Just thinking about it again I can almost smell the foul odor, like scents of college anatomy class that linger in your clothing long after you've finished the dissection.

Thank goodness it didn't take long for the discovery to take place. The guys returned with a decaying elk skull, my husband proudly smiling as he held his treasure high for all to see. Apparently, someone had arrowed a 4x3 bull several weeks ago and was unable to recover their animal. This is unfortunately a reality of hunting from time to time, and instead of the hunter coming away with dinner, other critters in the forest are fed for several days. (I'll be adding more thoughts on this later.)

We discussed what would be the proper thing to do with the rotting skull. This bull had some incredible brow tines for a young bull and the antlers deserved to be used somehow.. a candle display on a table, handle for a knife, etc. However, the dilemma is that we weren't sure if taking the skull / antlers with a partial hide still on it would be frowned upon by Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW). The final decision was to stash the antlers, talk to DOW and then come back later for the extra set of headgear.

It was a good decision for several reasons: 1) The head was decaying, full of maggots and stunk. BAD! 2) The game warden officer we talked to on the way out of town confirmed that we made the right decision to leave the skull. 3) Again - the skull stunk and I'm sure would have stunk up the entire truck bed.

I guess the lesson is if you are unsure of what the rules / regulations are for anything related to hunting, it is better to error on the side of caution. I for one do not want to loose my hunting privileges. Apparently having a second set of antlers in your possession without a tag could score you some hefty fines and possibly even get your license to hunt revoked.