This is my season with a few pics for you to enjoy and get away from the crap that has plagued the EXCAL forum in recent times.
First and foremost I am a solo meat hunter when it comes to deer hunting but like most on here I do dream of taking a monster racked buck. This year was harder then most with deer #'s down and up and down weather.
I hunt hard and often with over 60 sits this year on public and private properties. Some sits with my small excal bow (phoenix) are only for 1/2 to 1 hour allowing to feed my addiction and I am fortunate to live in a rural environment.
My season started in Oct with some good deer sightings while on stand. I made a horrible high shot on a tasty spike buck on public land on Oct 27. Broadside, in standing soy beans at 20 yards with lots of light. Full pass thru in the backstraps is what I conclude after searching for 2 days. Lesson learned ...use your rangefinder properly and trust it...I shot this deer for 30 yards and he was only 20.
I therefore needed to stop hunting for the remainder of early bow season to gather my thoughts on making this poor shot.
Opening Day Controlled Hunt ....passed this large bodied mature buck at 930 am after watching him tend scrapes and visit my buck decoy....too big for eating and not much horn for the wall (cell phone pic at 60 yds)
In the afternoon I took this smaller eater buck at 105 yds with my savage 220f
TCam picture of this buck 42 hours before harvest...NOTE the yellow circle I made around an old wound!
When I butchered this deer the backstraps showed the evidence on an old broadhead pass thru wound (maybe slug?) This gave me some hope that the buck I made a poor shot on high may actually live
Nov 13 buck fawn harvest with Phoenix .....clean kill and easy recovery...video of shot and arrow hitting deer also recorded on action cam
Nov 22 large 8 point...13 yard shot.... Ibex SMF....taken by a 16 year old kid that I have mentored since 12....he is a natural with 8 whitetails under his belt and even passed some does while bow hunting solo this year.
I have Tcam pics (year is wrong but date and time correct) of this brute from Oct...deer was shot about 900 meters from this picture site at one of my stands
Nov 29 public land doe with the Phoenix....she went a ways double lunged so I backed out for a few hours
I hunted with the crossbow very hard in Dec.....Dec 27 small 8 point with the Phoenix
This was my 20th deer kill with the Phoenix and I love this bow. All deer were taken with 100 grain Spitfires
I subsist on venison and hunted hard to make this happen in 2014. I also took my first fall turkey with the crossbow from a tree stand.
I am not about to give up my Phoenix but the Micro has sure caught my attention after I handled one!!
