AHAMO ARCHERY CLUB October 14, 2004 October 2004 Newsletter CLUB OFFICERS President: Dick Sousa (592-8045) Vice President: Bill Lewis (498-9364) Secretary: Lee Pereksta (592-3856) Treasurer: Dave Holthouse (291-0211) Trustees: Ed Rebarich (345-7608) Steve Murphy (291-7554) Sergeant at Arms: John Terfone (738-1692) News Editor: Lee Pereksta (592-3856) 3D Coordinator: Chuck Vincent (733-2792) VP of Indoor: John Terfone (738-1692) Indoor range phone (734-7272)
Key Dates to Remember
Tuesday Nights - Leagues, indoor range 7:00 November 1, Club Meeting - Indoor Range
October Club Meeting
There were 13 members at the October meeting. We discussed 2005 shoots, Indoor Leagues, replacing the cardboard at the indoor range, and fixing the candy machine. There was one new member voted in.
New members:
The newest member of the club is Chad Burns. Welcome to the Ahamo Archery Club.
Candy Machine News:
The candy machine at the indoor range is broke. It doesn’t take money anymore and needs to be fixed. If you know someone talented enough to fix it... or know of a machine we can replace it with, please contact John Terfone (738-1692).
Indoor Leagues:
Indoor leagues have started. If you would like to shoot as a member of the league, or would like to just shoot along with the league, just stop down on any Tuesday night. We start shooting at about 7:00. Note that both members and non-members are welcome to shoot in or along with the league.
Indoor 3D - Planned:
We decided to hold an indoor 3D in November. Even though the last couple of shoots went well, the treasurery is a little tight. An indoor 3D shoot will get us into January when dues are paid.
The indoor 3D is planned for the second week-end of rifle season. Set-up will be on Saturday November 20th and the shoot will be on November 21st. This will give everyone an opportunity to check their set-up before heading back out to the woods again. We haven’t set a time for set-up yet, watch for that in the next newsletter or be at the next club meeting when we discuss it.
Be Safe:
There’s a couple of incidents that happened to club members in the last few weeks that you should be aware of. The names will be left out of the stories to protect the innocent (even though they may discuss it with other members anyway).
One of our members was setting up a stand by himself - and was standing in it just after putting it up. This is a member that is a little loose with using his safety harness - but did have it on this time. While in the stand, he happened to glance down at the chain that was holding the stand in place. It was a Cabelas easy hang stand, where you put the chain and a bracket in place, then slide your stand into the bracket. One of the links was open, and if it had opened a little further, the chain would have pulled completely apart. He had his harness on, but was able to quickly step down onto his tree stand steps before the stand fell. When inspecting the chain after taking it down, there was even another link starting to open. As a safety warning for all - you need to inspect your hunting equipment. Check your chain, nuts and bolts and brackets holding your stand together, check your steps for rust and be sure they are securely screwed into your tree - and not in last year’s screw holes.
The second incident is similar. A club member was standing up in his stand after hanging it, with someone below him in the tree, handing things up to him. This was a fairly large tree, and he was using a chain extension that was held on to the stands chain with a C-Clamp. The C-Clamp was evidently not strong enough for the job and had pulled so far apart that it was hanging on by the tips of the clamp. He quickly told the other hunter to get down right away, and got off of the stand himself. Please be extremely cautious when altering the way a stand is designed to be used.
I also had noted in a couple of archery magazines I recently read, a note from a tree stand manufacturer warning that it had been recalled. The manufacturer is Rivers Edge, and about 7 models of that stand were recalled because the bracket the strap hooks too could allow the strap to unhook from the stand while it is hanging. The recall notice gave a number to call for replacement hardware for those stands.
Bowhunter Education classes all stress safety, and one of the most important safety lessons is the importance of using a safety harness. Note I said harness - not belt. Safety belts worn around the waist or chest do work to secure you and keep you from falling - but if you happen to fall the consequences can be serious. You can flip upside down, the pressure on your stomach and organs can cause you to pass out, and you could even break ribs. One in 3 hunters will fall at least once during their hunting career. Every year I hear of a couple of incidents - either from fellow Bowhunter education instructors, or in a bowhunting magazine. I also know that I could end up a statistic unless I am careful all of the time.
Tree Stand manufacturers almost always include harnesses with their stands now. There are also several types of harnesses you can purchase. If you don’t have a safety harness - get one. Practice putting it on, and practice using it so you are comfortable with it. As you climb your tree, hook you harness to the tree as soon as you can. Some harnesses even allow you to use it all the way up your tree, and if it is easy enough to attach, you can attach it to your tree whenever you think you are nearing a difficult part of the tree to get over or around.
Another safety tip is to be sure someone knows where you are hunting and the approximate location of your stand in case you fall. Make sure they know what to do if you do not contact them or return home by a certain time - and be sure to be there on time, or to call them if you know you will be later than expected. Carry a cell phone with you if you have one, carry a whistle with you for signaling if you are lost or hurt (it is much easier than yelling), and carry extra flashlights and batteries with you just in case you need them.
As a final note, be sure to use a flashlight when you enter or leave your hunting area, and be sure of your target before you draw on it. I’m sure most of you have heard about the archer that was shot in Giffords a few years back. The archer was walking out in the evening without using his flashlight, and the shooter saw a shape stepping out of the woods and thought it resembled a deer. The hunter was shot in the hip and was hurt pretty bad. The shooter thought he saw a deer, so he shot. Don’t be either of these two types; use a flashlight, and be sure of your target.
Not only do hunting incidents hurt those involved, but they hurt the sport of Bowhunting. We teach in Bowhunter Education classes that the future of bowhunting is in the hands of current bowhunters. Accidents cause others to think about putting more restrictions on the sport, and unethical behavior by a few can create a bad image for all others that bowhunt.
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.
If you are getting tired of too many articles on hunting in this newsletter, write one on target archery, tuning, or anything about archery you think would be interesting to other members. Send it to me and I’ll put it in the newsletter.
My Email address is: hunterlee@MSN.com
Cardboard for the indoor range:
If you’ve been to the indoor range lately, you’ll notice piles of cardboard all around the sides of the range. We found out about a load of Cardboard a couple of weeks ago that was available for free - so we jumped on it. We had a rush workparty to unload it on a Saturday - and thank you’s go out to Ed Rebarich, Bill Rhoades, Steve Williamson, Rich Chandler (and a special thanks for the use of your trailer), and to John and Jimmy Terfone for carrying it all down. I even helped a little.
We discussed replacing the old cardboard at the October club meeting. Potential dates to replace it is the Wednesday and Thursday just prior to the November 3D. Watch for more information in the next newsletter, or be at the club meeting when we discuss it and make final plans for replacing it.
Next Meeting:
There are a couple of key things to discuss at the November meeting. One is preparations for the November shoot, another is to finalize plans for replacing the cardboard. Another item to discuss is the Wahoo shoot.
The shoot will be in March next year, and we need to start discussing it now. There is a lot of planning involved with that shoot (that ended up being a lot of fun for many of us last year). We got our wives involved and the meetings usually were held in restaurants, so it gave many of us a chance to take our wives out every couple of weeks.
If you’d like to be a part of the discussions and initial planning for the shoot, be at the next club meeting. There were a lot of suggestions made at the end of shoot dinner meeting last year - and hopefully, the improvements we documented should help us to make the shoot even better than it was last year. The discussions at the next meeting will probably not get into too much detail, but they will at least get us started in the planning process.
Deer Season News:
With deer season underway, it’s time for the annual reminder that Ahamo has deer awards for all hunters that harvest deer. We give out a very nice plaque for your first deer, and plates to add to it for deer harvested each year. The catch is - you need to notify me so I can keep a record of the deer harvested by club members. I will put your name in the newsletter for each deer you shoot, and keep an overall running total of deer harvested by club members. I also need to know if you need a plaque, so if you shoot a deer and don’t let me know you need a plaque also, you will only get the plate for it.
Tracking your deer:
Here’s some tracking tips that will hopefully help you recover your deer. When you finally get that all important shot at a deer, a number of things can happen; it might drop right away probably due to a spine shot), run a short distance and crash, take off into the darkness and give you a tricky tracking job, or it might lay down to hopefully will expire before you get on the trail and jump it causing an extremely tough tracking job.
What is the sequence of events you should follow after the shoot? I’ll go into what I do, and hopefully you’ll pick up an idea or two that will help you with your deer.
After the shoot, I do my best to observe the deer until it is out of sight. While doing that, I watch how it runs to see if it appears hurt, watch it to get a fix on the place I saw it last, and look back to where it was standing to get a fix on where it was when I shot. After I lose sight of it, I go back over all of the events and places to remember, and then glance at my watch. It is important to wait a while after shooting, not only to give you a chance to settle down so you don’t have an accident climbing out of your stand, but also to give the deer a chance to expire. I note the time, go over again where it was when I shot, and where I saw it last. I also revisit where I saw it last and pull out my compass (I keep it with me while I am in my stand) get a fix on the direction and do my best to estimate the distance from my tree. Keep observing all around you, just in case it doubles back or circles around behind you.
If you know it was a bad shot, wait a half hour to an hour before getting out of your stand and sneak out of the woods. Give the deer an additional 2 to 4 hours before going back to where you shot it, and be as quiet as you can. If you believe it was a good shot, a half hour is a good rule of thumb for waiting. Even on a good shot, be extremely quiet getting out of your tree and when you track.
After getting down, go to where you think the deer was standing when you shot. Look for blood, hair, and your arrow. Don't rush at this point, be sure you give this step as much time a needed to be sure you don’t miss anything. Blood on your arrow or on the ground can tell you a lot. If there is green matter on your arrow, and it has a strong odor it was a gut shot. In this case quietly head back to your truck and wait 2 to 4 hours before tracking. If it is covered with blood that is a good thing - dark blood might mean a liver shoot or an artery heading towards the heart. Bright red blood could mean lungs or an artery from the heart. A trace of blood might mean you sliced an artery with your broadhead, but the arrow did not pick up much blood on it when passing through. Frothy blood on the ground means a lung hit or maybe a neck hit nicking the wind pipe.
White hair on the ground or arrow that is long, fine, and sometimes twisted means a stomach or lower body hit. Hair on the bottom of the rib cage is a mixture of white and dark brown hairs that are relatively long. Back hair is long, dark, and sometimes black tipped. Neck hair is short and brown. Noticing the hair will give you an idea of where you hit the deer.
It is important to note that you might not find blood on the ground for 20 to 40 yards when tracking, so don’t stop looking. The deer might be bleeding internally or the blood might be soaking into the hair before starting to drip onto the ground. Try to always walk to the side of the trail so you don’t disturb any sign. You might also want to lay down on your belly and look from the ground along the trail. It might be easy to see leaves turned up that way, to see where the deer was running.
If you have no luck finding blood, then return to your tree, check your compass heading, and walk the estimated number of yards to where you last saw the deer. Mark that spot and start looking for blood. One time I even left a hanky on a tree limb and returned to my stand to see if in fact I did leave the hanky where I saw the deer last.
I carry a partial roll of toilet tissue that I use to pull pieces of tissue from to mark the trail as I find blood. It makes it easy to pick up on the trail again if you lose it. You can also easily retrace your steps to get a feel for the direction the deer was running.
I carry a small flashlight to get in and out of the woods. At night I put a strong light in my pack for tracking, and if it looks like a long tracking job, I return to my truck to get my trusty Coleman lantern. The bright light makes it much easier to find blood on the ground at night. Carrying plenty of lights is helpful also. I have a large light that takes one of those lantern batteries that I will lay on the ground or hang on a limb pointing in the direction the deer was running. I then follow the beam and use my Coleman lantern to weave back and forth on the trail looking for blood. When I do find it, I leave the lantern on it and use another light when returning to the one on the ground.
If you lose the trail, don’t despair. This is when you need to start circling and looking for blood or the deer. I once found a deer that left almost no blood doing this. The exit hole had become plugged with part of an intestine and fat and the deer just quit bleeding. I headed as far right as I thought it might have gone for 50 yards and circled left until I was confident I was a far left as it might have gone. I returned to last blood, and did the same thing but for 100 yards. I kept increasing my circle until I was on my last pass - about 400 yards from last blood, and found the deer on this pass.
There are also some special trailing situations. If it is raining, I would not wait to track unless it is a gut shot. On a gut shot I would first check for blood to get a fix on the direction, track it slowly until loosing the blood, then mark the trail and head back to the truck to wait. When picking up on the trail again, the only thing to do is look for the deer by circling and walking trails. If it is not a gut shot and it is raining, I would keep looking until I found it, but would still track slowly and quietly while looking for the deer. Tracking when it is snowing is similar, except that you may have tracks to follow until they get covered up by fresh snow.
2004 Successful Hunters:
So far this year I only have heard of one successful club member. Congratulations go out to Aaron Peterson for harvesting a 4x3 buck. Please be sure to notify me when you do get your deer so I can keep a record of it. Call me at 592-3856, or email me at hunterlee@msn.com.
2004 Big Buck Contest:
Just like in the past, Ahamo will be awarding a big buck award to the club member shooting the buck with the largest rack. For this prestigious club award, you do not need to wait for the regular drying period. Bring your rack down to a club meeting and I will measure for the club award.
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