First hunt trials

[JP BowHunter]

Well, got my first hunt of ‘21 under my belt. It was a total quagmire of course… Snuck into a spot close to a bedding area where I killed my buck last year and proceeded to ascend my chosen tree with my new Beast mini sticks ( which worked great) only to realize that my bow rope is now to short to get all the way up to hunting height… so I did some tree climbing acrobatics to get the bow into the tree with me once I got my platform set. In all of my summer practice I never once thought about having extra sticks from my setup last year affecting my bow rope. I guess I was just concerned about making sure I could get up the tree efficiently with the new sticks vs my old hawk ones. Anyhow I made it into the tree and had a decent hunt, saw a couple of coyotes ( no shot) and then had a little buck fawn bed down under my setup.

After the hunt is when things got interesting, I tried to repeat my acrobatics to get the bow back to the ground only to have it drop the last two feet ( nothing damaged) and then when I went to put my pack on my back, I was a little bit to aggressive with my swing and launched my rangefinder into the woods… I can now say with certainty that finding your rangefinder in its camo carrying case in the dark is tough business…

Anyhow, I’m no worse for wear and those bucks better take notice… there’s a beast in the woods and he’s coming back with a longer bow rope.

[Ryan549]

As much as I look forward to the first hunt each year, the curse words tend to fly when setting up. No matter how prepared, (I practice hanging stands a lot) it is almost inevitable that my first climb has some hiccups.
I can laugh about it now, but it is frustrating.
Best of luck next time and be safe

[Rich M]

That's all part of the adventure -
I didn't bring insect repellant (relied only on thermacell) and got ate up big time.
Also didn't have enough water for a full day hunt (drank a 32 oz bottle of gatoraide between 0600 and 2000 hours, low was 70 and high was 87 degrees).
Also didn't bring my pull rope either but was using a climber so wasn't as big a deal.
Did see a nice FL buck but no shot.