Pro Staff Photo Gallery

Welcome to the Pro Staff Photo Gallery. This is where we will post photos of our Pro Staff with game they have harvested in the 2010-2011 season.

[Pro Staffer Tom Knight - Florida]  August 2010: This year’s deer hunting season brought a new opportunity for me, the chance to harvest a velvet buck with my bow. My home state of Florida made some major changes to their hunting zones and season dates effective for the 2010 hunting season. My particular zone's archery season opened on July 31st this year which provided me with that very chance, something that had been on my "bucket list" for several years.

I had been watching this bachelor group of bucks, which consisted of two mature 8 points, a young 8, a 6, and a 3 point, running around my property for most of the spring and summer. Opening day could not get here soon enough. My stands were hung, some shooting lanes trimmed, all of my hunting clothes had been washed with my Dead Down Wind laundry detergent, and I was practicing with my bow on a daily basis. Well, it did not happen opening morning as I had been dreaming about for months, but by weeks end I was able to scratch the velvet buck with my bow off of my list.

I had been hunting pretty hard all week and had seen several deer but not the two bucks that I really had my eye on. On the seventh morning of the season I rose from the bed with a spring in my step. I got dressed, grabbed my Hunter Safety System safety vest, my Thermacell, my bow, and was headed back out to my favorite spot. I was sitting in my stand as the light was just coming over the horizon when I noticed a couple of deer heading my way down the middle of the creek, which had about a foot of water, it was unbelievably beautiful. They were about a hundred yards down and heading in my direction, but with the low light conditions I was not exactly sure what they were. When they hit the 50 yard mark I knew these were the two 8 points that I had been looking for. That of course is when the adrenaline kicked in. I was starting to realize that this was going to happen and I was about to get an opportunity at the bucks that I had been watching since April.

As they got closer they decided to come up on my side of the bank which was going to put them at about six yards from my stand as they passed. The one that I really wanted, as I knew he was the older of the two (aged at 5.5), was in the lead. When he stepped behind a large Oak tree between the stand and the creek I drew. So as he stepped from behind the tree and stopped on the other side I let the arrow fly. A six yard shot that definitely hit its intended target. He broke and took off running in the same direction he had been heading during that very long 15 minute approach. The other buck turned and headed in the direction from which they had come but stopped and turned broadside at 30 yards. He was not sure what had happened and just stood there trying to figure it all out. I watched him as he walked off a few minutes later.  What a great morning it was. I had just arrowed my first velvet buck and now still have another encounter to look forward to in the very near future.

Whitetail Deer  |  8 Point  |  Bow  |  Florida  |  08/06/10

[Pro Staff President Robert Householder - Alabama]  August 2010: Denny and I hunted together all weekend at Old Spanish Fort Hunting Camp (outfitter) taking turns being shooter and cameraman. Our goal was to take a hog with our bows. First morning I was shooter and we had hogs come in but every time I had a shot, he couldnt get it on film and when he had them on film I had no shot so those hogs got a lucky break. That evening we had planned on setting up a blind on a field where hogs had been coming out. I would be filming and Denny the shooter. I carried my rifle in case there was no bow shot (huge field). The hogs were already there when we got there. No way to sneak up on them to get a bow shot so I slipped up quietly and took a 70 lb sow with my rifle. She dropped like a sack of rocks.

Now I had a hog  but the afternoon was shot. We needed to get back to camp to get the hog cleaned and that would kill the afternoon. On the way back we met Berry, the outfitter, coming in to drop hunters off. He got the hog and told us to go back hunting. He said he would handle it. We thought that was awesome but was a little confused when he told us to go right back into the same spot. We had just shot and drove a 4 wheeler up in there but he said to go so we went. The rest is history. Denny got a boar with his bow and I got it on film. Because we just transferred my hog to Berry's truck and left to go back hunting, there was little time but for a few pics. Thats the way it goes, I guess....

Wild Hog (Sow)  |  70 lbs |  Rifle (308)  |  Alabama |  08/28/10

[Pro Staff Director Denny Chambers - Alabama]  August 2010: After getting Robert's nice sow, that he took with his rifle earlier in the afternoon, back to Old Spanish Fort Hunting Camp proprietor Berry Brown, we decided to return to the same field, and follow our original plan. The plan was to setup a ground blind and try to harvest a hog with my bow on film. We had been told that the hogs there were not used to seeing ground blinds and that they would be very skittish if they saw one. So we had to find a spot that allowed for good cover allowing us to camouflage the blind well. We found such a spot that was 32 yards straight across from a good trail that hogs had been using to enter the field. We set up the blind and used tree trimmings to cover it up as best we could. The setup gave us a perfect bow shot as well as a perfect filming shot of the location where we expected to the hogs to enter the field. Of course the hogs, or hog in this case did not cooperate and came in off to our left. From this approach, I could see the hog through the brush, but did not have a clean shot. Robert was manning the camera to my left, and could barely even see the hog from his position.

We had to be patient, and wait for the hog to slowly make his way further out in the field so that both the camera and I had had a clear view of the hog. The hog finally made his way into the open from my view, and I now had a clean shot on the boar. Robert however, still did not have a clear view of the hog through the camera lenses. It was starting to get late, and with the overcast we were slowly starting to lose our camera light. So Robert got the camera off the tripod and found a hole in the brush that gave him a pretty clear shot of the hog through the camera's view finder. He gave me the O.K., and I drew back and settled my 30 yard pin right behind the shoulder of the hog, and let the 2 blade Rage fly. It found it's mark, clipped the spine of the hog in the process, and send him straight to the ground. With the hog down but still kicking, I grabbed another arrow, stepped from the blind, and quickly finished the hog with another well placed arrow. At this point I was PUMPED!! I had just taken my first hog! I had harvested him with my bow...and I had it on film to boot! It was a great weekend, and I can not thank Berry Brown and all the guys and gals at Old Spanish Fort Hunting Camp enough for showing us a great weekend, and putting us on the hogs.

Wild Hog (Boar)  |  135 lbs |  Bow  |  Alabama |  08/28/10