Bear and Deer Pictures

[sw]

My son and I went to Mountain View, AR for our annual bear hunt on Oct 1, 2010. Last year he was successful: this year was my turn. The bear was killed out of a ground blind with a Strykeforce X-bow using 175g X-bow Trick points/Red Hot Arrows. The double lung/heart hit #275 bear went about 30 yds in about 2 seconds. Got in stand at 6 AM and shot bear appx 5:30 PM. This was first x-bow bear as previous bear have been with a compound.

After work on Oct 19,2010, the deer was killed with same set-up appx 500yds behind my house in my woods. Both the bear and deer were shot at about 24 yds. The deer was also a lung/heart shot. This has been a good, but hot hunting year. We've just had no rain forever!!
I realize this has been a rather boring pair of hunting stories but that's all there is.
Not taking a shot that is not a heart or heart/lung shot is now my rule-started the year with that personal rule. Note: there was an extreme downward angle for the shot. The exit hole is much lower than the shown entrance hole. Has served well so far. Pre-ranging major places in the hunting field really helps. The x-bow is easier than a compound or my recurve, which I still use. Sometimes 60+ year old bodies need a break.
I do not know why the deer picture is up-side down. It field dressed appx 213#, est live wt 250#. We have some good sized deer here in this agricultural area of Arkansas.
Steve

[Dave W]

Congrats on the two trophies, nice looking 8 pt'er!

[dougedwards]

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing them.

Doug

[lastofthebreed]

nice & well nice again....beautiful area!

[wilmsmeyer]

Nice shooting Steve. What's that buck score?

There's been rifle and crossbow chatter in my part of the state. If you took all the variables into account with bow vs cross bow what is your opinion: Let's say on a scale of 1 to 10 in difficulty, the bow is a 10. What would the crossbow be?

I know you are one of the better authorities in comparing both.

[Harley]

Steve, you've already had a year to envy and the season's just begun.

Harley

P.S.: Wilms, the year I shot a crossbow due to injury, I killed two deer opening morning and another pair one afternoon a few weeks later. The ONLY thing difficult about X-bow shooting is cocking the darn thing. Otherwise, it's about the same as shooting a small caliber rifle whose range is limited as much by the sound of the release as by the fall-off of velocity.

I know, though, that Steve's X-bow is much quieter than the Horton I used to shoot and much more powerful, giving him a greater effective range.

Harley

[sw]

Oct 25, 2010 5:16:05 GMT -5 wilmsmeyer said:

Nice shooting Steve. What's that buck score?

Field dressed wt - 213#, rough net score - 128". Thanks.

[jims]

Nice write up and stories. Good hunting.

[sw]

Oct 25, 2010 5:16:05 GMT -5 wilmsmeyer said:

Nice shooting Steve. What's that buck score?

There's been rifle and crossbow chatter in my part of the state. If you took all the variables into account with bow vs cross bow what is your opinion: Let's say on a scale of 1 to 10 in difficulty, the bow is a 10. What would the crossbow be?

I know you are one of the better authorities in comparing both.

Wilms,
Having shot a recurve V-bow for most of my entire hunting career and still shooting it along with my x-bow and MLer here are my thoughts.
Recurve 10, compound for very experienced hunter 7, x-bow 4, 50 cal smokeless 2, 45 smokeless 1, and of course 40 cal smokeless 0.
Steve

[deadon]

Steve,just found this thread,WOW,great shooting,pics and story Rusty

[Deleted]

Congrats on success's this year already,WOW. Smokeless Too.....
Greenhorn

[ozark]

Congratulations Steve, Mountain view area and you didn't come over after bread? I would have enjoyed seing you and your son. Ben Keep in mind that the latch pin is out all the time here.