Mathews Inc.
Bowhunting Kansas Live - 2003

DAY 1

11/9/03

11/10/03

11/11/03

11/12/03

11/13/03

11/14/03

11/15/03



LIVE DISCUSSION


See our 2002 Hunt

See our 2001 Hunt
Untitled Document

Sunday Morning Hunt

What a way to start the hunt! With my license in hand (this time) I went back to the same treestand that I hunted on the first morning last year. I really like this stand, it's in an area that's active all morning long. At first light, a nice 8 showed up but big deer are big for a reason. He checked the wind first before coming in and he winded me.

Shortly after first light, a small buck came in and fed around my stand for a half hour. I used the opportunity to practice drawing and setting up my camera. I drew on him about two dozen times before he picked me off and ran into the thickets.

In total I saw about 10 deer this morning, half were bucks with only one close to being a shooter. It was a great morning.

 

Sunday Afternoon Hunt

Kent had a hunter last week who had seen a huge 8 from a stand they call the River stand. I decided to hunt there tonight. The wind was perfect for that stand, the only drawback, Kent mentioned, was a remote chance of seeing some wild hogs. I made sure it was OK to shoot them if they came in and Kent said - "absolutely."

I was settled in a 3:30PM and forty minutes later I heard a racket heading down the trail. Here comes 20 hogs into my treestand. They started to root around, squealing and carrying on. I flipped on the video camera and picked out the largest one. A well placed arrow found its mark and the hog ran off. Not wanting to leave a dead hog laying around, I waited a bit, then trailed it. He didn't go very far and I dragged him away from the path the deer come in on. I started to think that this hog would make an excellent Bowsite.com bloodtrail competition, so I left my bow at the ground and climbed up the stand to get the camera. While I was gathering my gear, another group of hogs came in from the North. There was one real nice boar in there so I said "what the heck" and very quietly climbed down the stand. The hogs never saw me as I picked up my bow, nocked an arrow, and drew on hog #2. Another great shot and the Hog tore off. I was two for two. I climbed back in my stand, waited a bit, then bloodtrailed the 2nd hog. It had only gone about 70 yards and I dragged it to the fence where I would be picked up later. With two nice hogs under my belt, I climbed back into my stand - hoping for a buck.

Untitled Document

Watch Pat shoot his hog
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I wasn't expecting to see anything, with all the hog action and bloodtrailing, but I underestimated how great the hunting is here. At last light, a gigantic whitetail with tines visible from 300 yards away, moved downwind of me. I picked up my binoculars and glassed him. I could not tell what he was, all I know is he was BIG. Unfortunately, he appeared to be nervous and moved off.

Just before dark, I saw another deer approaching and put the glasses on him. It was a heavy, perfect 10. My heart started thumping. He moved towards me and walked 25 yards from the stand. A bit too far out of range for my recurve so I watched him walk off. Kent and I guessed he was about a 150 class 10 - a little light on width but very heavy and symmetrical.

What an exciting day!

 

 

 

 

The hog on left was shot from the stand, the hog on the right was shot from the ground. What a fun hunt!

 

Details about our 2003 Bowhunt

Last year's bowhunt was fantastic. However, the bucks were hard to pin down because they were in full rut. So Kent Jarnagin and I decided to bowhunt a week earlier - during the pre-rut. We'll be bowhunting the same familiar spots and holding out for a trophy-caliber whitetail.

This hunt is strictly a fair-chase hunt. No fences or purchased/genetically engineered deer. The land we are hunting are large tracts of tightly controlled private lands owned by Kent Jarnagin and Kent Woolfolk of Cimarron River Outfitters.

My 2002 Buck from Cimarron River Outfitters

Hunting Gear - 49lb, 56" Black Widow SAIII TD Recurve, Gold-Tip 3555 carbon arrows, and a wensel woodsman broadhead

As always, we will be bringing the hunt to you as it happens, day by day. We are in a very rural section of Kansas, with poor phone line speed - video footage will be difficult - but we'll try.

If you are new to our live hunts - here's how we do it.

I bring a digital video camera into the field and record everything that happens. Depending on the activity, and the amount of time I have between hunts, I may do both a morning and an evening upload. As soon as the hunt is over and I'm back at the farmhouse, I begin editing my video footage, creating web snapshots from digital video and converting them to web format (JPEGs). I then write a synopsis of what happened, do a quick spell and grammar check, then I upload the package to that day's update. This will all happen sometime before midnight (hopefully) Central time.

 

Next - Day 2

Our Kansas bowhunt takes place in Southwest Kansas with Kent Jarnagin of Cimarron River Outfitters.

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