After about two weeks of unproductive deer hunting in an early archery season I put my sights on other game. The harvest moon was just the wrong phase for an early season deer hunt and the weather was not cooperative. Cooler days brought wind gusts or blew in from the wrong direction for a successful hunt, as I spooked more deer on the way into my stand than I ever saw while hunting. The warmer days showed no deer at all, as they did not stir from their bedding areas on those days.
I packed my Mathews Mustang, equipped with a Kwik-3 that held Gold Tip arrows topped with Bacon Skinner broadheads, and stepped into the Missouri timber. I toted a new hunting blind, which I set up quickly and easily in less than a minute and entered the blind completely concealed behind shoot-through mesh. A camera at the ready and a Gold Tip XT Hunter 3553 arrow nocked, I set my bow within reach and waited patiently.
It did not take long for the familiar sounds of scampering feet to reach my ears. I listened for the little feet to come closer and when I was sure where the squirrel was I leaned over and searched the vicinity of telltale rustling sounds for my target.
After a minute or so, I spotted him and I watched until he came close enough for a shot. It was a little like a game of 'I spy' trying to keep up with a gray squirrel as I squinted through the mesh screen at the gray and brown color leaf litter, but I managed to locate him again and again despite his wandering to and fro.
Finally, I could see the squirrel from my vantagepoint in the shadowed blind. I drew my bow and searched the sight for a clear shot. The angle was too sharp and with such a sideways shot, I was not confident of hitting such a small target and I slowly let down my Gold Tip to wait for a better shot. At this point, I needed to breathe again so I sat back down and resumed normal breathing after the excitement of hunting a quarry that was still unaware of my presence.
I could still hear him crunch through the leaves outside, and then chatter a warning as he chased another squirrel out of his territory. Several more squirrels passed my blind at more than 20 yards of distance. I began to hope they would come closer as I was tired from drawing on an impossible shot. In about an hour I watched about ten gray squirrels play and eat acorns. One I even caught on the camera about a foot away after I grew tired of waiting at full-draw for him to move to the other side so I could make my shot. When he did finally move into a perfect position for me to take a shot I was caught between camera-in-hand and reaching for my bow and he escaped into the forest to bury another acorn.
Not long afterwards, I heard another squirrel and when he was just ten yards out, I found myself at full draw watching him through my sight. This time I only had to hold at full-draw about a minute before I was sure of the shot. He stepped directly in front of me offering a perfect straight shot. I released my arrow, sure of a hit. The little acrobat jumped string. He actually jumped straight up and turned. Then he ran to and climbed a few feet up the nearest tree. I couldn't believe it. I had missed my first shot. Barking wildly and clinging to an oak tree just a few feet away from where he had just been ambushed, he eyed my Gold Tip arrow that was now embedded into the ground where he had just stood. Oh! I nocked another Gold Tip and waited. After a few more noisy complaints, he jumped from the tree back to the ground. I immediately drew on him and watched as he leaped over the place that he should now be resting beneath my arrow. He turned back and gave the arrow one last look and continued to chatter loudly. Before he could turn back, continuing in the same direction he had originally traveled I released my second arrow.
The Bacon Skinner at the end of my Gold Tip XT Hunter passed through the squirrel behind his left shoulder and he expired about ten seconds later. I could not believe it. No one would believe that I had missed a ten-yard shot the first time or that a squirrel could jump string. Even more surprising was the fact that he presented a second shot and I actually hit a target that small.
I had to take a deep breath at that moment to calm down and I giggled to myself as I whispered to myself a familiar phrase I've heard when a popular television hunter harvests his game, "You calm down, mister!" I finally caught my breath and took a moment to say, "Thank- you Lord for this harvest and allowing me to be here at this moment to have my first bow hunting success."
I was so disappointed the hunt was over. The waiting and watching while I was unbeknown to this creature and then waiting for the perfect moment to release a Gold Tip arrow into the kill zone of a squirrel was an unforgettable experience for me. What a great bow hunt! He is definitely my first trophy. I spent all day in that blind, but no other squirrels dared to approach after the first squirrel went down.
The best part was my husband's face and his utter shock over what I finally had accomplished. My first bow-kill. If I can take a squirrel with my bow, maybe there is hope for me during this archery season in the deer woods.
