That First Real Bow Hunting Season, circa 1969, Nice Pronghorn…BUT..

Excerpts from “An “Autobowography” of the Past 55 Years of Archery

By Tom Dorigatti

Ok readers; let’s turn back the clock some 45 years to 1969.  I had moved to Casper, Wyoming and was teaching at East Junior High School in Casper, Wyoming.  The teaching assignment was the best of both worlds.  I was teaching French and Earth Science; both of which were elective courses.  Life was good in the teaching, life was good with the family because we were expecting our first child in February 1970, and in addition to all this, I had found and become a member of the Red Arrow Archers Archery Club in Casper and had experienced my first outdoor field archery tournament in early August.  I also met some great archers and bow hunters, one of which took me under his wing and set up a hunt for mule deer that I will remember the rest of my life.  But I am ahead of myself here, so let us get on with these true stories about that “First Real Bow Hunting Season.”  The facts are true and no names have been changed to protect anyone!  Keep reading.

Hunting Season, October, 1969.

I managed to get lucky and get a pronghorn (antelope) permit for the Poison Spider hunting area West of Casper for the fall of 1969.  Since the indoor target season wasn’t going to start until November, I still had some time to go hunting.  I was quite successful in finding some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and also got permission to hunt on some private land if need be.  I still had a 50# Bear Kodiak Magnum recurved bow (compounds weren’t available in our area just yet) and I also had my matched wooden hunting arrows, along with some 2016 24SRT-X aluminum shafts that a club member, Art Cox had given me.  He had given me two dozen of them, so I took one dozen and made hunting arrows out of them after having tested them to see how they flew. They flew just great out of the Kodiak Magnum!  HMMMM…2016’s flying great out of a 50# Kodiak Magnum with 125 grain Bear Razorheads on the end, and the same arrow flying great out of a Bear Polar target bow at 35#@28”?  I only mention this in passing…or is there a reason for me mentioning this? Well of course there is, but that, too is another story to be told.  Read on.

I was still shooting bare-bow (no sights) for hunting, with fingers on the string, since I felt more comfortable hunting in this manner.  (In 1969, release aids weren’t yet in the game of archery and bow hunting).  In the early fall, I had met another fella that was a bow hunter and he also had a pronghorn permit for the same area.  However, he worked late during the week, so he could only hunt on weekends.  The hunting season always opened on a Saturday, so Jim Lewis and I were out there early on Saturday for the opening day.  It is important to know that in Wyoming, back in 1969, we did not yet have a special pre-season for bow hunting!  That was to happen, however in 1970 or was it 1971?  Not to matter, I would have bow hunted anyway.  The big thing was that in order to hunt, you had to wear a blaze orange cap and so many square inches of blaze orange on your torso, and in addition to that you were competing with the rifle hunters to boot!  It is obvious that if blaze orange was required, then camouflage clothing was out of the question!  Competing with rifles and not having Camo gear didn’t seem to matter much either as you will soon find out.

Nice Big Pronghorn Buck, BUT...problems arise!! HRUMPH!

Jim and I both knew that the road hunters would be all over the place.  We had pre-scouted and found a spot a few miles away from the beaten path. This was where several large bucks were frequenting.  The pronghorns did go for water early in the mornings and late in the evenings, but neither Jim or I wanted to sit at a waterhole or windmill and fight the mosquitoes and boredom, so we elected to go into the back territory and spot and stalk our “goats”.  At first light, the rifle shooting started off in the not so far distance.  We had spotted a couple of really nice bucks and I decided to try to pull a stalk on one of them.  There was plenty of higher sage brush, a couple of deeper gulches, and some other “stuff” that would provide cover.  In addition, the wind was in my favor.  I had about 300 yards or so of stalking to do. I was able to move reasonably well to within about 80 yards or so before things got a bit dicey.  I then had to basically start to do a slow belly crawl, moving a few feet, stopping, watching for rattle snakes and other creepy crawlers, cacti, rocks, scorpions, etc, and then moving a few more feet onward.  All the while, this buck kept feeding and his head was away from me.  I knew full well, however that their vision was very acute and sensitive to movement and that they also had uncanny peripheral vision, too.  Thus getting up super close behind one would be tough, but not impossible.  I got to within about 30 yards or so when the buck turned dead broad-side to me, still grazing and oblivious to my presence.  I then moved maybe at most another 2-3 yards and I heard this snorting off to one side of me.  That buck didn’t lift his head; that buck didn’t turn to look over my way; that buck simply put it into high gear and high-tailed it right outta there muy pronto like somebody had lit a fire under his butt!  I remember thinking quickly, that buck didn’t snort, his head was down, so what the….and then I looked over and about 15 yards away, still lying down were two doe antelope, looking right at me!  I hadn’t seen either one of them; I was so intent on stalking that buck (and watching for rattle snakes, ha), that I hadn’t seen those two does lying down.  That ole buck wasn’t as stupid as I thought he was; he felt safe because he knew he was safe…guarded by those two does!  Oh, how I wanted to shoot one of the does out of spite, but of course, that would have meant the end of my season by taking a doe.  Not hardly; not on opening day. 

Yet another lesson learned about bow hunting…or was it one forgotten and re-learned as in “pay attention to what is around you”?  Seems I’m screwing up by the numbers on my quest for my first big game animal with bow and arrow, doesn’t it?  Just the previous year, I had skillfully stalked to within 20 yards of a huge mule deer buck and taken the shot.  The arrow had gone right where I was looking too.  Nailed him in the antlers and knocked him off his feet.  I thought I had a spine shot, but no, he is only stunned and got back up, violently shaking his antlers trying to get the arrow out of them and stop it from rattling around!  He ran off, all the while acting dizzy and shaking his head.  I saw him a few days later, but couldn’t get close enough for another shot.  Yes, the arrow was still stuck in those antlers, too.

The saga of my first full season of bow hunting will continue in the next episode….