[Cull]

Better than my first harvest, was my first hunt with a bow. The hunt was in 1974 and I had just celebrated my 13th birthday. I was shooting a Colt 38 lb recurve with cedar arrows and Bear razorheads. Back then bows did not have to be 40 lbs but had to be capable of shooting an arrow x number of feet. I practiced religiously on the hay bale in the back yard and was teenage confident well beyond my actual abilities.

Our lease was in Blanco county and loaded with game. I crawled into my butt killing 2x4 treestand and settled in for the afternoon hunt. Very soon a group of blind turkeys came in and I drew back on the boss gobbler. Fire one: Two tailfeathers and a bunch of freaked out turkeys flew from the scene.

Within 15 minutes a young and very stupid four point buck came in to the corn. Fire two: Just a little bit high.

Another 15 minutes and a nice doe joins the party. She is pretty nervous and my confidence is headed south on a fast train. Fire three: Just a little bit low.

There are now three arrows and two feathers on the ground but the doe decides it's worth one more chance at the tasty golden nuggets under my stand. Fire four: Blood!...Well sort of, I nicked her foreleg and gave her a shaving cut.

I am now out of arrows and look up to see a huge 8 point headed my way. I start shaking uncontrollably. The tree is dropping leaves from the commotion in its upper branches. The buck laughs and quickly heads for the hills. (I guess I didn't scare him out of the county because he is still hanging on my dad's wall from a hunt a few weeks later).

Now totally humiliated, I crawl down from my perch and gather my scattered arrows and trophy feathers. I walk out to meet my dad and instead meet the local game warden. It seems that in my wild shooting, the taped on names (required back then) on my arrows had flown off two of the shafts. Well of course those were the first two arrows I showed the warden. Finally, I produced the third and fourth arrow that still had the names on them. I recounted my hunt from hell to the warden and explained how the other two name tags were probably being used for show and tell by laughing animals somewhere out in the dark. He smiled, said better luck next time and left me. My dad picked me up soon after that and laughed for a week.

Inauspicious beginnings.....I know all too well.