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Night Hawk Stories... Entry 30 Getting In To Predator Mode EDITOR'S NOTE: Tim Hooey, the host of "North American Fish and Game Outdoor Magazine," has hunted avidly since childhood. One of the lucky ones, he's turned his love for hunting into a 10-year career. His show runs in syndication in several cities and the Outdoor Channel runs his show on cable on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST. In September 2000, Tim Hooey took a monster elk with his bow in New Mexico. Viewers will have the opportunity to see the hunt on the next season of Hooey's show. This week, he gives visitors to Mossy Oak's website the inside scoop on how he took this elk. QUESTION:
Can you set the scene of the take-down for us? My cameraman and I were shaking we were so excited. I think Tim even took some shots of me where all you could see was my bow going up and down because I was shaking so hard. What hit me first off was how wide the bull was. And even then, I didn't realize just how wide he really was until I climbed out of the tree. QUESTION:
What happened next? When the bull shifted a bit to the right, I shifted with him. I anticipated a shot to my left, but the bull did a 180. Suddenly he was directly to my right only about 28 yards away. I anchored my pin and waited. I had to wait a few minutes for him to drop his head to lower his rack so that it would be out of the way of my shot. When he finally dropped his head, I hit him in the upper part of the shoulder. My arrow punctured both of his lungs. The bull reacted to it like a bee sting. That arrow seemed to hurt him a bit, but he didn't know what had hit him. He started looking around trying to determine what happened. The motto of most guides is to keep shooting till the animal's down, so I guess I went into predator mode. I reloaded my bow at lightning speed and hit him again, quartering into his vitals behind his left shoulder, right through his heart. He went about 80 yards before he fell over dead. Tomorrow: After the Hunt |
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Entry 27-Taking a Monster Elk |