AHAMO ARCHERY CLUB April 20, 2003 April 2003 Newsletter CLUB OFFICERS President: Bill Rhoades (932-0417) Vice President: Bill Lewis (498-9364) Secretary: Dave Wise (498-0186) Treasurer: Dave Holthouse (291-0211) Trustees: Ed Rebarich (345-7608) Jim Chandler (537-8058) Sergeant at Arms: Dick Sousa (592-8045) News Editor: Lee Pereksta (592-3856) 3D Coordinator: Mike Vandeman (332-4625) VP of Indoor: John Terfone (738-1692) Indoor range phone (734-7272)
Key Dates to Remember
April 26 Work party - 9:00AM indoor range 11:00 Outdoor range May 3 Workparty 8:00AM Outdoor range May 4 Ahamo Outdoor 3D May 5 7:00 Club meeting,indoor range
April Club Meeting
There were 13 members at the April meeting. We discussed upcoming work parties, the first outdoor shoot, the Winter Sports Festival, a possible new range, and a Bowhunter Ed Class at our indoor range.
New members:
There were no new members voted in at the club meeting.
Bowhunter Education Class
A Bowhunter Ed class was held at our indoor range on April 9, and 10; plus April 12 at the Aksarben Aquarium. There were 11 people attending the class and it went really well. Thanks go out to Dave Wise, Bill Lewis, and Nick Tramp from Ahamo; and to Rich Cadwell, a member of the Nebraska Traditional Archers, who also helped teach the class.
3D News
Our first 3D of the year is coming up fast, and there are a couple of work parties planned to get ready for it. Please note the dates and come out to help.
April 26 Workparty:
The first workparty will be on Saturday April 26. We will need people at the indoor range at 9AM to carry the targets and other 3D equipment out to trucks. We should be at the outdoor range by 11AM to unload and start getting the outdoor range in shape. If you can only make it to the outdoor range, please don’t loose patience if we aren’t there right at 11:00 - that is just a rough estimate of when we will start arriving at the outdoor range.
May 3 Workparty:
The first outdoor shoot of the year will be Sunday May 4. There will be a workparty to set up for the shoot on Saturday the 3rd. The workparty will start at 8AM at the outdoor range. We will be carrying out and setting up targets, trimming branches (bring clippers or small saws if you have them), and setting up tables, tents and other stuff for the shoot.
May 4 3D Shoot and workparty:
Registration for the shoot is from 8AM to noon. One or both of the ranges is usually ready to start being picked up at about 1:30 (sometimes sooner). The tear down process will take about 2 hours if we get enough help.
For new members, the outdoor range is located at the YMCA camp at 245th and Q. Just before the Elkhorn river going west on Q, turn left and will find the range about a quarter of a mile further on your left. We only use the range for our 3D shoots, and are only allowed to be there for workparties and during the shoots. It’s a pretty neat setup and our shoots are a lot of fun. If you can’t make it to a workparty to setup, you are still encouraged to come out and shoot.
Winter Sports Festival News:
At our last club meeting, we decided that we would only be a part of the Winter Sports Festival next year if we are compensated fairly. This year we only received $6.00 per shooter, which we determined did not even cover the wear and tear on our targets. We cannot afford to continue supporting this event at a loss.
New broadhead target:
We discussed obtaining a new broadhead target for the indoor range. The old one is pretty worn. We had discussed this at the last couple of meetings but have not purchased one yet. The club gave Dick Sousa an ok to purchase one, and he will be reimbursed for what he purchases.
Bill Lewis won a small foam target as a door prize at nationals that he donated to the club. You may notice it at the indoor range hanging off of the cardboard. It isn’t very large, but stops arrows very well and it’s a pretty neat target. If you shoot broadheads at it, be sure you are a good enough shot that you don’t miss it and hit the cardboard.
Workparty to rotate cardboard:
There will be a workparty to rotate the cardboard on May 20th. The cardboard on the top and bottom of the targets is in pretty good shape, so we will be rotating it to put the good cardboard in the center of the targets. We will also be compressing the cardboard a little to make it more solid than it currently is. This type of work party is usually pretty fast if we get enough help. It will start at 6PM on Tuesday May 20th and will last from 2 to 3 hours. Please make it a point to come down to help. Write this in on your calendar now before you forget.
Newsletter Items
If you are a club member and have an item for sale, send me the information to put in the newsletter. Also, if you have an interesting deer story or any archery tips you would like to share with club members please send them to me for the newsletter.
My Email address is: hunterlee@MSN.com
Another Hunting Story:
Here’s another hunting story. If you get tired of reading my stories, please write one of your own and send it to me so I can put it in the newsletter.
This one is a story involving a little luck and a lesson. I’m not sure of the year, but it was many years back. I was hunting at Giffords and it was December 31st. Giffords has a couple of roads cutting in that circle the property pretty close to the Missouri River. One of these goes past a small patch of private property near the river that the owners can only access by boat. About 300 yards past that property and 200 yards deep (away from the river) was the stand I was hunting that day. I had been in my stand since about an hour before sunrise and was hoping I had walked in quietly enough that there would be some movement at sunrise.
My stand was about 20 feet up and 20 yards from a pretty good deer trail. It was back in some brush but I had a real good look down the trail to see anything coming. At about 8AM, I saw the only deer I would see that day. It was a nice sized doe that was walking along at a pretty good clip. I could see it coming from a long distance and had plenty of time to get ready for a shot. Since it was walking pretty fast, I decided to lead it by putting my sight just in front of it’s chest. As it got in front of my stand I let go of the string. The deer spun around and took off, limping on one of it’s back legs. I couldn’t understand that because it hadn’t been limping when it came in, and I had led it pretty good.
I waited a half-hour and got down to track. There was a real good blood trail that was easy to follow. It just kept going though. It ran to the road then headed towards the property I mentioned earlier. The trail left the road and went right through the property and out towards the road again. I found the deer bedded down. As I approached it the doe tried to get up but could not. I had to shoot it again to finish it off. On inspecting it, the only other wound was to the back left leg. I had hit it right at the joint of the knee and had severed the femoral artery causing it to bleed quite a bit until it was too weak to keep moving.
The lesson I learned was that you do not shoot at a moving deer. I did some math and figured that at 20 yards it takes an arrow about 1/3 of a second to hit the target. A slow moving deer will move at a pace of about 1 yard a second, and you need to lead it by a foot to hit your mark. If a sprinter can run 100 yards in 10 seconds, I figured that a running deer would at least do that, which is 10 yards a second. You would need to lead it by about 10 feet to hit the target. Based on where I hit the doe, I would have needed to lead it by one body length. I chalked that deer up as a valuable learning experience. I will not shoot at moving a deer anymore, even if it is walking. I purposely make a high pitched fawn bleat type sound when a deer is moving. That seems to work pretty good for me in order to stop it. I have since found that other hunters do the same, and each seems to have their own sound that they think works best to stop a moving deer.
The next time you have an opportunity to shoot a moving deer - don’t. Be at full draw as it hits your shooting lane and make a sound that hopefully will make it stop.
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