Success rate for the backcountry bowhunters.

[Firearrow]

2 backcountry CO hunts in WA's for deer.
2008 saw some jawdroppers, bad weather, 7 days, no stalks
2010 8 days in the flat tops 2 bucks, 15 sheep, 100's of elk, not a single stalk.

hoping to break the trend this year and bring something back to TN!

My buddy hunted the Flat Tops last year for rifle 1st season, and his son shot a cow. They didn't see much. They should have hired you as ther guide.

[Twojump]

This will be my 5th backcountry solo bivy hunt... very, very close last year on a 3pt bull at about 40 yds (no shot), but got busted by the Spike in the group at 20 yds...
0-4 right now on bivy hunting....
Shot 1 nice Mulley Buck with my bow out of a base camp in the same general area after I got started bowhunting 5 years ago... and 1 Blacktail Buck in the Coast Range in Oregon
Will get it done this year!

[fatrooster]

My first year to bowhunt was 2007. Shot my best buck ever which scored about 160" but was 27" wide on the main frame outside spread. He had a sweet kicker which put his outside spread to 31.5 inches. I've hunted bow every year since then with zero success rate. Not because my stalks weren't working out but because I honestly did not find a buck that I wanted to go after. Also, I've been helping a couple of other guys try and get thier first buck. I did however shoot a buck in 2009 that I did not recover. I was bivvy hunting alone, put a nice 160's buck to bed, staked him and shot him. When he heard the shot he jumped and I hit him in the meaty part of the neck. I searched for him for two days and came back in several days later looking for him. I was pretty downhearted when I didn't find him. But I was very happy to see him in 2010 hanging out in the same spot with the same 3-point buddy. Unfortunatley, he saw me at 600 yards and moved over the mountain. This was opening weekend. I never saw him again until the last day in the next canyon and never had a chance to get close to him. He was definitely a more cautious animal. I know his trick now and will try to get him during the muzzy season this year. Yeah, I said muzzy. A friend talked me into putting in for muzzy as one of my choices and Thats the tag I got. Its killing me not to hunt archery this year but I'm gonna make the best of it. By the way, that buck grew a little from 2009 to 2010. I'm guessing that he was a 170's buck last year. Here is his picture.