Thread: First Bow hunt!!

Hi Guys
Just like to share a bit of success I had with my first bow hunt. I got my first bow a 2nd hand PSE X Force Axe about 3 months ago. After alot of ******* about to try an adjust it for me we got it shooting well and I was happy out to 35 yards. I had never bow hunted before and this close range stuff was new to me.

Anyway last week a mate of mine came down to my place for the weekend hunting so after work on Friday we set off. We were mainly after Chamois or Red Deer. Just as we were about to leave town I decided to glass up onto a slip in the bush about 2km away. Luck would have it that I spotted 3 Chamois feeding on the slip. I had seen some animals on this slip once before and have been keeping my eye on it.

We decided to have a crack at these Chamois on the slip so quickly left the car park and started out power walk/jog up to the slip. Its was rather late(8.30pm) so we had to go fast or we would run out of light. It was rather hard going heaps of supple jack and bush lawyer. My mate who was with me(an American) was a bit surprised as this was his first time in the south west coast bush.


Anyway after a while of hard slog we had gained some height and it looked like the slip/clearing was just to out left about 30 yards away. I have been up to the slip before a couple of times but there are no tracks to it and I did not have my GPS so we were just following our noses really.
I crept over to the clearing and could just see out on to it. judging by where we had last seen the Chamois(about an hour ago) I thought we should go higher up. We crept up hill another 20 odd yards through some vertical vine crap. From here I snuck out toward the clearing again.
As luck would have it there was a young Chamois out on the slip, I ranged him at 22 yards. I could not get a clear shot through the bush and he had not seen me so I stayed put. Adam(my mate) was mean while perched on a old tree about 3 feet behind me and he couldnt see a thing. I ranged a few spots where I thought the Chamois might move to and as I was doing so a mature doe Chamois moved into sight.

She was at 16 yards and must have got wind of as she was quite alert. I some how managed to get to full draw in among the vines. She was hard quartering away from me...

I felt good so let rip. Id never seen a bow shot animal before in real life and was amazed at the sound of the impact. A solid Whack.
She stumbled at the shot and tore off with the young buck and another doe we had not seen below us.

I was pretty happy but nervous aswell. I wasn't sure if it was the right place to hit and was really worried about vines/leaves hitting my string as I fired.
After a few of minutes and with Adam assuring me it was a good shot we crept over to where she was standing when I fired. On the ground was an arrow soaked in blood!!

Pretty stoked haha


I was super happy!! Complete pass through and plenty of blood on the arrow. The time was 9.30pm one hour exactly after we had spotted them from town.
we sat and waited for 15 more minutes but it was starting to get dark so we decided to try and find the blood trial.

I have never tracked a bow kill animal before and this is where Adam really helped me out. I was pretty hopeless at finding blood but he was on to it and with the help of my head torch we were soon finding a fair amount of blood.
After about 40 mins of tracking and only going 40-50 yards from where I first shot from we found my Chamois doe.


was really amazed at the damage from the broad-head (125gn Muzzy)
Took out 3 ribs on the way in,smashed the top of the lungs and severed the wind pipe the broke 2 ribs on the way out!



An hour later we were back at home happy as could be.
This was first time I had ever taken my bow out for a hunt and it was a awesome experience. Cant wait to get back out there and have another crack at some more Chamois or Tahr. Thanks alot to Adam for his tracking skills made my life alot easier and less stressful haha.



Here is the Chamois head after I cleaned it up. along side some other ones I shot late last year.
The doe is on the far left 7 1/2 inches beside a young buck(7 1/2") and a older buck(9 1/2')


Thanks for reading guys and good luck out in the hills.

Awesome, congrats on the first successful bow hunt. Was there any bruising around the entry/exit hole?

I can only see the last pic anyone here see the lot?

great stuff, love to take my bow over to NZ one day. Love to take a chamois too!

Thanks man. cant wait to get another.
Um not really, just a pretty big hole.
Heres a photo from when I skinned here. bit dirty after dragging through the bush haha

Exploding heads on the broad head haha

Originally Posted by Toby

Exploding heads on the broad head haha

Just a hard quartering shot I suppose haha. good ol muzzys

Well done JP, looks like you deserved that one after the hard work you put in, good skills, and well done on your first bow kill....

Excellent hunt yes can only see the last pic.

Originally Posted by Dundee

Excellent hunt yes can only see the last pic.

Same.

Try uploading again.

Can no one see the pics? sorry

Can you see em now? haha
heres the entry hole

That's some impressive wounding alright.

Good skills for your first bow shot animal.

looks brutal, awesome dude well done.

Good stuff hairy