Friday 11/2/2012

The ride to Ohio seemed to pass quickly this year. Unfortunately I won’t be staying long, as I’m meeting my friend Bob Kendall a little north of where I normally hunt and riding with him to Illinois tomorrow. We will be hunting with my friend, his son, Bobby. I’ve looked forward to this trip for a long time since I’ve never hunted Illinois during the rut. As with all hunting I haven’t allowed myself to have any expectations. Hunting is hunting and you never can predict what will happen on any given day or week. I’ll just hope for the best and see what turns out after I’ve hunted for a week.

We set the tent up quickly after arriving. My dad, Doug and our buddy Jeff all wanted to get in the woods for the evening hunt. It’s always nice to get in the woods that first afternoon so you have a general idea what’s going on. Since Jeff has never been here hunting I took the time to show him around a little bit so he wouldn’t be going in the woods blindly. We didn’t see any deer while we were out and neither did Doug. Dad saw a few. The weather as almost perfect for hunting. It was chilly, without too much wind and very overcast.

When dad came back to the tent he seemed a little irritated. We quickly realized that the top limb on his bow was sheered off. When I asked him what happened he said while coming down the tree in his climber he didn’t look down after he let his bow to the ground on his tow rope. When he made his last hitch before getting off the stand and onto the ground he wasn’t paying attention and the bow was leaning against the base of the tree. It didn’t stand a chance as the V in the stand (where it attaches to the tree) cut into the limb and cut it in half. The bow he was using was one of my old Martins, approximately 10 years old. It’s one of his favorite bows and was always one of my favorite bows.

Since I knew he hadn’t taken any time to properly set up his spare bow I decided to leave my spare with him which as well tuned. We share the same draw length and our equipment is very similar. On another note, he also forgot his arrows so when he went out for the evening hunt I also lent him some of the spare arrows I brought with me. The entire evening basically was a disaster from the get go. Before we ate dinner I gave him the bow and a few more arrows so he would be set for the week. Then, we headed a little north so I could stay at the lodge where Bob was hunting. Hopefully the two of us both have a good week in different states. We’ll be meeting up a week from tomorrow to head to Kansas for a week. We’ll see what happens………and we’re off.

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