I’ve made some good friends through archery, running and online forums.  Rich is one of those.  We have hunted together, he has beat me in trail races, we have shot together, and we banter back and forth on Sage Creek Forums.   

Below is his epic saga.  A tale of overcoming obstacles to succeed, that even a motivational speaker would have a hard time topping. 

I set off for my 5 day adventure to the place I killed a bear a few years ago. I headed up the trail intending to reach my destination of 7 miles in time to hunt that evening. I don’t recall it being that tough, maybe I’m getting old, but it was a rough haul. I found the whole area burned, even where the stands of timber were still viable, the understory was taken out. That could bode well for the next few years, but I noticed there was no sign the whole way. Previously the trail was littered with bear tracks and scat, now the only track I came across was a big cat (I think).

I set up for the evening but spotted absolutely nothing, nor the next morning. I was pretty discouraged (and tired), but decided it was time to come out and relocate. When I made it out, I made camp at the trailhead and made a new friend. I left my UA heatgear shirt out and hunted out from camp. When I returned, I found the doe trying to make a meal of my shirt — yum, salty.

I got up the next morning and drove another couple of hours to another spot I wanted to check out. I’d not been in there before, but it looked promising, at least on paper. By the time I reached the trail head, I found to my dismay, the trail was closed that morning due to fire. I was starting to feel that I was the victim of a nasty conspiracy. Even so, I decided to take off in the other direction. No map, no idea of the kind of territory, nada. Up the trail, a bunch of weekend hikers were coming out, great, I thought, just what I need are tons of people around. Eventually I made it up to a ridgetop overlooking a small basin. I glassed it until late in the evening and it was not looking positive, no deer, no bears.

 

I decided to move my vantage point way around the other side and my mind starting wondering if I should just call it a trip. I hadn’t seen didly and it was frustrating me to no end. But I finally persuaded myself to stick it out and see if my luck might change.

I awoke to a gorgeous sunrise and set up to glass. After about an hour and a half, after spotting nothing but a small herd of cattle, I did a double take when a decent sized black bear appeared at the bottom of the basin. It was nearly shear faced at my location and it was going to take me a good 90 minutes to go back around and down to get in position, but the game was on. Packing up my gear, I slowly made my way around to a finger ridge that would take me down to where I thought the bear may be hanging out.

Once I reached the timber, I slowed myself down to still hunt mode and tried to keep the wind in my favor. Before long, I heard a buzzard fly up out of the forest floor. I thought there may be something dead in the area and went to check it out. As soon as I spotted the deer carcass, the bear that was guarding it spotted me and busted out. I stood there silently cussing, but I took out my camera and headed down to take a few snaps. I got 10 steps and the bear busted out again; it had come back and apparently wasn’t ready to give up its meal.

I worked my way back up the hill about 100 yards and sat down to wait for him to return again. I thought it would be an hour or two, but no more than 15 minutes passed before I heard the bear starting to drag the carcass through the brush. I removed my boots and sneaked down the hill. I side-hilled my way above the bear and suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of a bear woofing. I peered into the brush below me and saw the bear looking in my direction and woofed again. I couldn’t see its body clearly, but the head seemed big given the tiny ears. I was thinking this was the bear I spotted that morning. It didn’t appear that it would abandon the deer easily, and although it was only 25 yards away, I could not get a clear lane. After about 10 minutes the bear worked its way back to my left and started feeding again. I maneuvered my way left about 10 yards. There was a bright sun and the shadows were deep and, finally, the bear moved into a spot where there was a gap in the brush about the size of a pie plate with his vitals exposed – 20 yards. I decided to take the shot and settled my top pin in the middle of the gap where I thought was the sweet spot. I let off a smooth release and my arrow zipped through the gap to put the smack down on him.

He roared, did a few spins and took off. He crashed off through the brush and I kept a mark of the last location. After I went back up the hill to collect my things, I went back down to the shot location. Half of my arrow was laying on the ground. I tried to follow the trail, but it was torn up by him dragging the deer around. I searched and searched and found not a single drop of blood. Not good. So, I set out on a grid search to cover the whole basin if I had to, but it only took me an hour to find it.

The bear had definitely lost weight since I last saw it, ground shrinkage was severe. Turns out it was a sow, and not the bear I spotted earlier, about 175 – 180 lbs. The shot was not ideal, I put the FMJ400 with a Hellrazor broadhead right through its shoulder blade. The broken end of the arrow was sticking out and the broadhead ended up just at the edge of it’s chest and was still in perfect condition. Did the job, but it left nary a blood trail.

I was a little surprised at how small she was, but the best thing was I was only 50 yards from the trail. Suhweet.

If any trip convinced me of the value of not to giving up, this was it.

Lucas Spence is a fellow California hunter who put the work in to apply for some of California’s Draw Archery hunts. Not many folks think of California as a Mule Deer state, but there are opportunities for respectable bucks and even an occasional magnum muley along the Sierras from Oregon to Nevada. It just takes some work to find them .

Lucas sent me a picture of a nice velvet muley from the Northeastern region of California. After my Nevada hunt, I can really appreciate his well deserved success.

I shot a very nice 4X3 Muley which was 24 wide 17 tall and had actually 2 nubs starting on his right which makes him a 5×4. He weighed somewhere in the 250 to 300 lb weight. He was a huge bodied buck. Shot him at 40 yards one shot put him down within 40 yards. Was a great hunt and got to share it with my dad

Great clean archery kill Lucas. I look forward to seeing more from you in the future.

My huntin’ buddy Kirk Edgerton is pretty well known for going into some remote country with a backpack and killing some magnum blacktails and black bears in the Northern California mountains. You have seen him here with some nice hogs and he has witnessed me missing a nice black bear on a late season bear hunt.

On the opening weekend of the 2009 season Kirk was fortunate enough to team up with Brent Miller, for a backpack hunt in a game rich area. Watch as the duo spot blacktails and bears from a high vantage point and try to stalk into bow range.

This is Western Hunting at it’s best. Keep an Eye out for more from the Relentless365 team in the future.

PUEBLO, Colo. – Youngsters interested in the sport of archery are invited to attend a one-day archery event at the Bighorn Archery Range in Pueblo from 9-3 on Sat., June 27. The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) and Johnson Sport and Ski will co-sponsor the event.

Activities include target practice, a fun shoot, a 3-D shoot, and instruction. Boys and girls age 7-16 are invited to attend, but must be accompanied by a parent.

Instructors from the DOW and local archery experts will provide instruction on the finer points of archery safety and shooting a bow. The DOW will furnish the equipment.

“This event is a great opportunity for youngsters to learn more about this rapidly growing type of outdoor recreation and try their hand and using a bow,” said Steve Lucero, an education coordinator with the DOW. “Archery is one of the world’s oldest sports. It is safe and fun when done properly.”

The Bighorn Archery Range is located just east of the DOW office at 600 Reservoir Road. The range features ten shooting stations with covered platforms.

For more information, call Johnson’s Sport and Ski (719) 542-6012 or Division of Wildlife (719) 227-5207.

When I had the opportunity to join eight other bowhunters  for a wild pig management hunt on the historic Tejon Ranch I counted my vacation days and decided I could fit a couple more in..

“COUGH COUGH…Gotta be the swine flu boss….Probably won’t make it in Friday.”

The Tejon ranch is California’s premiere diversified agriculture entity including enterprises in Wildlife, Ranching, Farming , oil and gas development and even real estate development.   If you have ever driven over the Grapevine pass to or from Los Angeles on Highway 5 you have seen the steep and rugged hills of Lebec.

At nearly 270,000 acres, Tejon Ranch is the largest contiguous expanse of private land in California. Its 422 square miles make it larger than the City of Los Angeles and about 40% the size of Rhode Island. The Ranch is located along Interstate 5, approximately 60 miles north of Los Angeles and 30 miles south of Bakersfield.

Tejon Ranch was founded in 1843 as a Mexican land grant. In the decades that followed, the Ranch grew in size as additional land grants were purchased by Tejon’s founder, General Edward Fitzgerald Beale, a historic figure in early California. The 270,000–acre Ranch is now the principal asset of the Tejon Ranch Company, which was incorporated in 1936. The Company’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “TRC.”

I was going to be taking part in one of the ranches wild pig management hunts for 2 1/2 days in May.  The ranch offers a variety of options for the hunter from  season access passes for nearby residents, guided hunts, or even  a package deal for groups.  Check out the Website www.hunttejon.com for details.

On this trip  I was in the company of some experienced porcine pursuitists.  Most were from the southern half of the state.  I already knew Zeke Bass.  The Triathlete / Realtor / commercial diver from the Santa Barbara Area.  The fellow Pope & Young Measurer was on his third trip to the ranch.

Nate Treadwell is another Pope and Young measurer along on the trip.  He had been successful in previous years. You may have read his adventures over at Phillip’s Hog Blog

So I felt confident that I was in the company of eagles even if I was just a turkey.

The Archery Wild Pig Management hunt is similar to the public and private hunts except that it is designed to offer additional help to archers to help raise the rate of success. This is a 2½ day unguided hunt. The hunt includes meals, lodging and one of our guides working with your group. The guide will work with you by directing and assisting all the hunters in getting to areas that have active pig populations and informing them on how to successfully hunt these areas. As with all of our hunts, each hunter will be required to have hunting liability insurance, purchased from Bob Boggs Insurance. There must be a minimum of 8 hunters and can be up to 11 hunters.

Laura Francese during the photoshoot for the 2009 Martin Bows. 

Oh yeah, she can shoot too!

There are more videos at Archerytalk TV.com

After many years, and lots of hard work by dozens of volunteers, Sonoma County now has a field archery course once more.   The Sonoma County Bowmen archery club has constructed a range on the Lake Sonoma Recreation area. 

The 14 target course offers a variety of challenging sidehill, uphill and downhill shots to challenge the target archer or bowhunter looking to tune up with field points before the season.  Each target is “double staked” so that a hunter and a field round may be shot on 14 targets instead of 28. 

Field
Field rounds are at ‘even’ distances up to 80 yards (some of the shortest are measured in feet instead), using targets with a black bullseye (5 points), a white center (4) ring, and black outer (3) ring.

Hunter
Hunter rounds use ‘uneven’ distances up to 70 yards (64 m), and although scoring is identical to a field round, the target has an all-black face with a white bullseye. Child and youth positions for these two rounds are closer, no more than 30 and 50 yards (46 m), respectively.

In the weeks to come I will post updates on the range and Sonoma County Bowmen activities as they come up. The SCB website will be online soon, and will be a wealth of information on archery in Sonoma County and California.

I left the Redding Western Classic Trail Shoot with a new pair of Nealy Custom Bowstrings, from Klamath Falls, Oregon. I had been in contact with Tom since earlier this Spring. The stock strings on my Martin Warthog, while servicable, will now serve as my backup set in case of emergency.

I didn’t make the decision lightly. I have shot other custom strings with good results but I kept seeing a number of pro’s at archery shoots who shot the Nealy strings. One of those is my good buddy Dave Bengston. Dave is a Hoyt sponsored shooter in the Senior Men’s Pro Division. He has been shooting Nealy strings as long as I have known him, and they get a workout at shoots nearly every weekend in the spring and summer.  Dave told me about how the Nealy strings are pre-stretched and had no creep. 

Resistance to creep is important in a compound bow string.  If a cable creeps (stretches and elongates permanently) it changes the way the cams rotate.  If the cams aren’t rotating in sych, then energy and speed are lost, and accuracy can suffer due to difficulty holding at full draw, and erratic arrow flight. 

So I called Tom Nealy at his shop, and chatted with him about my bow and that I hunted hard and did some tournament shooting with my bow.  I was frank with him that I needed a tough string that would hold up to a weekend of shooting in the rain as well as a week or two on a backcountry bowhunt with little care. 

He assured me he could fit the bill, and asked about the string dimensions.  I gave him the length of each of the cables and the shooting string, along with the length of each section of serving.  He even asked which nocks I used on my arrows so he could apply the right kind of serving material for perfect nock fit. The Nealy Strings are made with BCY 452X material.  It is completely stable , and has no creep.

I was impressed at the personal service I received from Tom.  It turns out that he and his son Thomas make every string to order rather than having stock on hand.  That means if you want fluorescent orange and yellow strings (like my buddy Dave), they will make  ‘em.   You can see the array of colors in this link to the BCY color chart. 

I got a set of nice grey and green strings that won’t attract too much attention in the mountains or from a fellow shooters.  I changed out the strings myself by loosening my limb bolts 7 turns each and pressing the limbs with my Bowmaster portable bowpress.

It was pretty simple actually.  I took measurements of my D-loop height, distance to my peep, brace height and axle to axle distance.  Then I replaced each cable , one at a time, and finally the bowstring.  The served end loops fit just right over the posts on the cams, and was a great upgrade from my stock strings. 

With cables twisted to the proper length, peep and d-loop installed I took the Warthog to the Wednesday night 3d league.  After 3 sighter arrows in the warm up bales, I was dialed in and shot the 14 target, 42 arrow round with a brand new string. 

The string performed flawlessly.  My peep came back straight, my draw length never changed, and the arrows went where I aimed ‘em.  I can say I am pleased with the Nealy Strings and I would recommend them to all my fellow archers and bowhunters.  While they may not have the flashy ad campaign that some other companies may have, the personal attention and craftsmanship of both Thomas Nealys has created a great product that professional archers and recreational shooters can rely upon. 

You can order your Nealy Custom String directly from the source :

Tom Nealy

4570 Summers Lane  

Klamath Falls, OR 97603

541-884-1536

 nealystrings@hotmail.com

The morning of the third day was overcast and threatening, but we were prepared for another deluge.  But the sun did manage to come out as the siren went off to signal the start of shooting. 

Sunday was my best day on the range.  I put up 416 points that day on 20 targets.  It was also the day we shot the famous Bigfoot target at 101 yards.  Of course it began to rain as we stepped up to the line.  I managed to eke out an 18 on the target that I only scored 16 both years prior.  Next year 20 !

It was down to the wire until the last target.  I needed a 20 to tie Rich and I came up short when I shot an 18. 

The End result was a new Personal Best Score of 1424.  I had improved by 17 points over last year.  If nothing else, the weekend gave me a new degree of confidence for my upcoming trip to Tejon Ranch May 15-17th after wild hogs.

  Scores omitted to protect the guilty. But if you have a favorite archer you are tracking, the results are up on the Western Classic Website.

In the “Team Challenge” though Doug and I with our Martin Bows put up a total of 2859 points to win.

The next highest was the Mathews boys.   Bringing up the rear was the Bowtech Boys.

As always it was a good time.  I had a great time shooting with some new people and really enjoyed the camraderie. As I said in an earlier post, I was shooting to have fun.  Goal accomplished

On

Day 2 it didn’t mess around. It just RAINED ALL DAY. I managed to pick up a few more points when I adjusted my sight. I immediately quit missing low and right. I finished the day with 1008, 18 points above of my performance last year (in better weather).

The day prior we had finished 25 targets in 5 hours. With the rain slowing every thing down, we shot for 2 additional hours on the second day. I was very happy with the combination of Under Armour Cold Gear, a Woolrich Shirt, and my Cabela’s Rain Suede Coat. I was wishing I hadn’t left the rain pants at home though…

Now I think I’m pretty tough, but there were three little girls ages 7-11 a target behind us who stuck out the cold rainy weather with nary a complaint. Yep they were from Washington and shooting Martin Bows. Six of us hard core bowhunters (and dads) sure admired their perseverence that had some folks walking off the course. My hats off to you gals. Keep up the good work.

The most memorable target wasTarget 33, our last of the day . A 63 yard shot across “the Canyon” on a pair of standing grizzlies. I made the first shot in the 10-ring, and the second shot was blown 18 inches to the right and landed in the bear’s “arm”. I was just glad I hadn’t lost the arrow.

After shooting there was no messing around with a run. We just cranked up the heat and grabbed showers.  I spent the evening drying my clothes in the hotel laundry facility.