In late September of 2008, my good friend, John Dale from Natchez, invited me to participate in the first private lands alligator hunt ever held in Mississippi. Although I had only one night to hunt, I eagerly accepted the invitation. The Dale camp on Brierfield would be our hunt headquarters. The club caretaker, Scott Skipper, would be operating the boat; I would be manning the crossbow; John would be in charge of the video camera.

The weather turned foggy and cool - not the best situation for hunting alligators at night. The big lizards simply would not cooperate! Every time we got within range, the gators would silently slip beneath the surface and disappear. I did manage to get one arrow into a big alligator, but he managed to pull off after a brief fight in the thick brush and aquatic vegetation. I had to leave the next day, but Scott was able to fill all the club tags during daylight hours with his rifle over the next few days while the big ones were sunning along the shore.

Fast forward to Friday, September 18, 2009, this would be my second attempt at getting an alligator on Davis Island with a crossbow. This year I would be shooting my new Horton Vision 175. I arrived early in the afternoon, and Scott and I prepared our equipment for the hunt. Boat batteries had to be charged, arrows and buoys checked, and the boat launched before dark.

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Greetings Dan! - Hope this note finds you and Karen doing well. Our elk season began September 1st and is now over. I called in a spike for Judy on the 4th and as luck would have it, her arrow clipped a small branch and she shot under him. 4 days later I called him back up and Tim Martell, a friend of ours managed a 20 yard shot from his Hoyt. Then on September 16th Tim called in a cow for me. I'd been practicing shooting with either hand and it paid off!
The cow had apparently seen me move and came in out of range on my strong side then began circling. When she disappeared behind some cover I switched to shoot left handed and had to lie on my side to get the opening I needed. She stopped broad side about 40 yards out and stared at me. Tim called again and when she looked back at him I released the arrow from my Horton XS, the same bow I was shooting when you were out here. The arrow hit it's mark and she went less than 100 yards.
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I first saw the Excalibur Exocet crossbow in the 1998 Cabela’s Fall Archery catalog. Thinking back over the bows I have owned,, most were recurves just like the Exocet, from one of those green fiverglass kid’s bows at age ten to the Ben Pearson Javelina 66” target bow I shot in high school archery club to the Bear Black Panther Hunter that I used to hunt everything from squirrels to deer. I just had to have an Exocet, and as easy as a phone call to Cabela’, my new toy was on its way.

Having had the crossbow for the better part of a year, I needed to find somewhere and something to hunt. The answer came in the form of an ad in the back of an archery magazine “Where to Hunt” section. Forest of Antlers, located in Minocqua, Wisconsin offers hunts for whitetail deer using the crossbow. I was met at the Rhinelander, WI airport a guide named Bob. He told me the lodge was brand spanking new. The handsome building was handicap-accessible and the ground bathrooms were designed with the disabled hunter in mind. The food was top shelf and never ending. A large sitting room offered TV, books, magazines, a stereo system and a video library.

After unpacking and lunch, I headed to the target range...

My road to recovery, since my fall, has been a long and painful one. And, I am still not 100%. But throughout my recovery, I have set a series of GOALS to strive for. And yesterday I achieved one of my most difficult.

About a week ago, I climbed back into one of my treestands, to check it out, with the aid of my new full body harness! I have to admit that I was shaking a little. Considering that the last time I was in a treestand, I fell twenty-five feet, changing my life dramatically.

But my confidence level for sitting and waiting for a deer was not there.......After getting my EAB Doe from the ground, I contemplated returning to my treestands, for several reasons. Mostly because it was one of my goals and secondly, I just couldn’t get this buck’s image out of my mind. I had several photos of him around my stand at dusk and dawn as well as shots taken in complete darkness.

Spurred on by the photos, I made the decision to make my first treestand hunt in the afternoon, rather than trying to ascending for the first time in the pre-dawn darkness....

Read "The Therapy Buck" by Paul Wells....

Miss fast or eat well. It sounds a bit silly, but this is a query that all modern archers must think about when purchasing new equipment. It seems that every new bow on the market hypes its speed capabilities. Though the feet per second that a given bow has the ability of throwing an arrow is fun to know & even to joust about with other archers in the off season.

I submit to you that the real query is “how accurate” is this new bow I’m thinking about. The fastest arrow in the world won’t ethically harvest your animal of choice, if it isn’t married to the accuracy of the archer. That’s right; it is still the responsibility of the individual archer to become proficient with the outfit that is finally decided on. Sure you do require to do your due diligence when shopping for new equipment & there's a whole lot of great new gizmos & gadgets that possibly could help you become a better shooter.