-Barney You Are the man!!!! This is Barney's first Buck and it also happens to be the first deer he saw all season. But best of all it's his first deer ever!!!! Way to go Barney!!! Read more about the mystery of Barney!! Also read about hunt that bagged this sweet 8 pointer and see more photos!

Sure Mongo can't kill anything with his bow (three years running), but as long as bowhunters can use guns there will always be meat for the freezer. This doe was being trailed by an Indiana four point who I shocked by shooting his good time out from in front of him. Hope to see you in a couple of years Bucky! Eat up all that clover and rape this spring and tell the ten point I arrowed high and never recovered 'No hard feelings'.

PS I found another hat that fits!

Barney scores with his bow...again. 2004 makes three years in a row...ack! Nice Martin Cougar III - like butta. Don't believe him when he says he's dating the Martin Chick (is she smokin' or what?). Congrats Barney! Can I dance with the bride?

Mr. McGabbagoo scores on the opening day of the Indiana 2005 bow season. This deer was taken at 12 yards with a Mathews Outback. Mr McGabbagoo shot the doe with a Grim Reaper tipped PSE carbon arrow as she was barking at him. She chased her tail for a minute and then expired 40 yards from his stand.

Your first deer with a bow is always a trophy! Congrats to Mr. McGabbagoo!

The curse of the rip on Barney story is over! Mongo drilled this doe October 29, 2005 at 8:50 AM. That Matthew's Switchback is sooo quiet. When Mongo shot her at 25 yards she didn't even move until the arrow hit. The Tekan tipped carbon arrow sliced through her lungs and heart then made a clean exit out the other side. She ran 20 yards and fell over dead.

Nice war paint, Mongo!

Mongo took this Indiana 12 point (110 gross, 100 net) buck on November 9, 2005 at 9:10 AM. Mongo was still hunting from a stand with no action to a new location, using his patented deer walk, when he spotted this buck moving down a deer trail with its nose to the ground. Mongo got on his knees and hid behind a bush and waited for the buck to approach. When it got in range and went behind a tree Mongo drew his Matthew's Switchback. The deer stopped before the intended firing lane at only eight yards and stared Mongo down. On top of a bush being in the way the deer was angling towards Mongo. Mongo aimed for where the heart was and let the arrow fly. The G5 Tekan tipped Carbon Express arrow entered the buck's right front shoulder and exited the left hind quarter. He went 50 yards. Deer down !

Once again the mighty cry echoed through the woods - I! - AM! - MONGO!

When it rains...Mongo has turned into a wise-ass-suburban-girly-man killing machine. He took this male coyote at 7:30 AM on November 11, 2005 at 20 yards. The coyote came in at a trot but stopped when Mongo drew his bow.

Full mounts are expensive!

This is Mongo's first crossbow deer. She was taken at 10:00 AM on December 31, 2005 at 17 yards with a Barnett crossbow and Tekan II broadhead. Barney and Mongo located a saddle between two ridges. We created a path of least resistance through a gully past the stand and then left cover leading to the path where it entered the woods by not mowing the CRP field near the saddle. A deadly combination for this last doe in a group of three.

Barney scores on this tasty doe the evening of November 3, 2006 at 5:45 PM. Barney took her from a ground blind set in the middle of an Imperial Whitetail Clover plot from 15 yards with his new Hoyt Tricon (him and Tard claim the Trikon is better than a Mathews???) and a carbon arrow he made himself tipped with a deadly G5 Tekan. Barney wisely waited until the next morning to recover the deer and after a very difficult blood trail found her not more than 120 yards from the blind! Her dying words were "At least Mongo didn't wound me..."

After a tough bowhunting season (trajectory!), Mongo took this eight point buck with a 12ga shotgun (his first deer with a shotgun) on opening morning November 18, 2006 at 8:30 AM. The buck trailed a doe in across a hardwood flat and up the ridge to our "cross-roads stand" and was shot at 30 yards. The crossroads stand is the same stand Tard took his first buck from and has been very productive, producing three deer and one miss (a friend's son's first day in the deer woods!) in four opening mornings during the Indiana gun season. This buck dressed out to 165#s. He's the first buck we've seen with a mane!

At 8:00 AM on May 4, 2007 Mongo bagged this 24lb (dressed) Tom. He had a 10-1/2" beard and 3/4" spurs. Now Mongo's wife can be a fall and spring widow. Lots of thanks to Old Leatherneck for his guidance, knowledge and expert calling. I never thought anything could match a big buck for excitement in the woods, but when mr big came into our decoys strutting and gobbling I knew I had just found deer hunting's equal.

It was the day after Thanksgiving 2007 and I decided to hunt a tiny 10 acre parcel near my home that a customer had kindly given me permission to try out. There was no real urgency left in the year because I had gotten a button buck in the early archery season. Barney and Mr Magabbagoo had harvested a small buck and a doe as well. My scouting consisted of using Google Earth to find two ditches from other properties that intersected on the 5 acre woodlot that the property offered. By 5:00 I had sat three hours and decided that if I didn't spot at least one deer I'd never return. "I'm sitting up a tree watching kids play in their yards and people drive by on the rural highway not 300 yards to my west. How can this work?" I silently asked.

I had taken all the usual precautions, Scent Lok, rubber boots, Scent Killer, scent killing body lotion rubbed on my hands/ face/ hair, and Primetime doe urine as a cover scent on my boots. 5:30 came and from one of the ditches a deer appeared. He strolled south towards my climbing stand and nonchallantly leaped the field fence onto my friend's property. I finally saw his eight point rack and decided he was a shooter.

I've purchased land, planted food plots, scouted till I knew every deer path, and speant endless hours hunting my own property but the "Pop-in" buck chose this time and place to meet me. As he aproached he caught scent of the new girl on my feet and followed my exact path to my stand. If I had not learned to make all the preperations and do little things like wearing a ball cap into stand so no hair would touch a branch and raising my arms as I waded through the tall grass so I would not touch skin to blade I would have lost him like others that had run from my ground scent before. If I had drawn before his eyes were blocked by a tree he would have been on alert and jumped the string like the does I have wounded and lost. If I had not opened both eyes before the shot I would have missed the small branch that wanted to deflect my arrow. Because of all those other deer I was able to hold my emotions together just long enough and the shaking did not overwhelm me.

Then he paused and my pin settled on his heart. I don't remember releasing the arrow. I never saw it strike the buck. As he ran I snort weesed at him and he paused again to listen to the challenger. "Did I hit him?" as the seconds were dragged from us. "God did I screw it up again?" Then the buck at last answered with a wobble. He fell over straight sideways. I existed only with the buck for those few minutes from when he first rose from the ditch until he fell over dead. He encompassed my whole world for that time and yet I don't know if he ever realized I was there. I suppose it is better that way.

The "Pop-in" buck officially grossed 125 4/8 Pope and Young points and netted 122 6/8.

You know, some guys read Mongo and Tard, laugh and then go on with their lives. But James Harvey of Virginia (name and state misspelled because of PETA death threats) really took Gutting for the Gutless to heart, and lungs, and kidney, and Yuk! We had second thoughts about posting this picture because we were afraid we might offend someone. That would be subpar performance for Mongo and Tard , since we are used to offending large groups of people such as women and ministers, for instance. We included this on the trophy page because we don't have a hunting pornography section...yet.

James took this deer and another that he thankfully did not show us any pictures of (we hear he ate it with fava beans) on November 1, 2003 with a muzzle loader in the grand state of Virginia. His motto - "Every moving thing that liveth, I give unto you as meat" (Gen 9:3) says it all.

Mathew James emailed this awesome first bow buck and says:

"My Cousin, Tim Wade knocked this nice eight pointer down with his bow October 17, 2003 at 3:45p.m. It was his first bow kill. He was hunting on a 1/2 acre clover patch. The buck was apparently cruising for does. The buck snuck up behind him and when Tim turned his head there he stood. The buck went behind a cedar tree and lowered his head to check out the food plot. Tim had time to put his release on his string and the buck stepped out. Tim was in a stand sitting on a milk crate and had to shoot the buck at ten yards from the crate. He made a killing shot right down through the lungs. The buck ran about 100 yards and crashed.

You have an awesome website by the way, it's easy to read, and the information is great! I really like the vegetarian emails, too. If you can post this I'll email my cousin the link and you'll get at least 20 more visitors to your site."

Thanks Matt, and now that we've posted the picture we need those twenty hits - it'll double our count for 2004!

Julie, a domestic engineer from the great state of Texas, sent us her trophy pictures from her first deer which she took at 50 yards with a 243 Win. I'd say Julie is your typical Mongo and Tard head based on her email:

"I see you don't have any pics of girls! Well here's one for ya. My brother took me hunting on his property in Texas. I got this pretty baby on my first time out. Dropped him like a pro! I have pics of my brother doing the dirty work and gutting him too if you want those! hahaha Anyway I got this last Dec. 2004 but now I'm hooked! My husband got me a 30/06 for my b-day in Oct. and I just can't wait to take it out here in CA. I WANT A BEAR! Grrrrrr My husband is laughing at me now because I just told him I'm sending you my pic and he said you WANT your pic on the MONGO and TARD sight? I said YES! and he said it would make my life complete wouldn't it! You know... it just might! I have had many a laughs at your sight since I found it earlier this week. I love it! I sent it to my brother in Texas too! Hope you post my pic!"

She'd be as good as the Martin girl if she could just shoot a bow. NICE BUCK! GRRR

Thanks for sharing your stories guys. It's very refreshing to read some real hunting stories, uh, adventures! Way too much hype is placed on bagging "MONSTER" bucks these days. In truth, any bow kill in my book is a true trophy. I too, like yourselves, had to learn bow hunting pretty much on my own, with my two buddies, Keith and Andy. We spent the better part of our teens in Maryland public hunting areas, in pursuit of the wily whitetail with our bows (and guns). Our bow season in Md. lasts from mid Sept. to the end of Jan., so we had plenty of time to make mistakes, and learn the hard way. I'd like to share one of our first bow hunts together in the Frederick Watershed, which is a really mountainous area that us flat-landers weren't use to.

My alarm clock rang that Sept. morning a good 3 hours before light, which was a good thing, because we had a 65 mile drive ahead of us to get to the mountains where we were bow-hunting that morning. The first thing I noticed when I checked the weather outside was that it seemed really foggy out. I waited for Keith and Andy to show up at my mom's house, and waited, and waited. Finally, about an hour later than planned, Keith's Dodge Dart came squealing to a halt in front of the house, Andy behind the wheel. "Geeze guys, what took ya so long?" " Oh, Stupid Andy had to eat at Tippy Taco's last night, thought he'd never get of the crapper," said Keith. Gear loaded in the trunk in mere seconds and we were off. Now anybody who knows Andy's driving knows that he has only two speeds, fast and faster. We made the 65 mile trip in about 40 minutes, and had our portable climbers on our backs and were following Andy through a God-Awful mountain laurel thicket to ascend the mountain.

The fog at the base of the mountain was really thick, and none of us had a compass, but we had faith in Andy's guiding skills. We walked for about 20 minutes, well past the time that the incline should have began, still pitch dark outside, when we came back to the road that we had just parked on. Shining my flashlight to the left, and there sat the Dart, just 50 yards away. So much for our guide. So we set off again, this time in a straight line, no trail, just terribly thick mountain laurel. We finally started up the mountain and got out of the laurel patch, and stopped to catch our breath. I happened to look down at my PSE Cobra bow, and my friggin quiver with all my arrows was gone! Must've got knocked off in all that mountain laurel. Begging Keith and Andy, who only carried 3 arrows each, to give up one of 'em was no easy task, but after bargaining with Keith to wash and wax the Dodge Dart, and buy Andy a 12 pack of Miller after the hunt, I had 2 arrows! Good thing I didn't see any deer, cause I'm sure the arrows were totally wrong for my bow. Any how, Andy did manage to get 2 shots off that morning, not touching a hair, and Keith and I got skunked, well, except for his shiny Dodge.

This is Andy's 2005 buck.

Julie, our biggest and definatetly craziest fan that we've heard from so far, claims she took this hog with a knife this summer in Texas. I heard this guy once say to never let the truth stand in the way of a good story...well we'll let you hear it right from the mare's mouth.

"I got me a Hog! Not only did I get a hog but I got it with a knife! The pics stink because we left the d-cam in the truck when we went running after the dogs started barking, so we didn't get pics of the actual kill or the knife. GRRRR but thought you'd like the pics anyway. Oh and check out my pink shirt. I got tired of hearing everyone say I was a tomboy! LOL Julie"

Quite frankly it sounded like bullshit to me. I'm really starting to respect this Californian. I asked for some elaborations.

"What happened was..... I heard something from my truck that sounded strange. So I grabbed ol trusty (the knife my Dad gave me when he died, I don't know why) and hopped out I went walking into the dark woods,by myself (I don't know why). I heard some scraping so like in SCARY MOVIE I went there. LOL And then I saw 'em a whole herd? of wild hogs. Scraping and rooting! So I said to myself "self, you better get back to the truck" so I slowly turned around but apparently not slow enough. One of the hogs saw me and came a runnin! So I started running back to the truck. It caught up with me of course so I gave it a swift kick in the face. That shocked it a little. Then I remembered I had the knife my Dad had given me. Just then the Hog lunged at me and as it did I pulled the knife out of the sheath and stabbed it(it was times like this my Dad had given it to me for, I thought). Kicking and screaming like a little girl, the blood ran out of it's side like a fountain! I KILLED IT I threw it in the back of the truck. I had to get a picture of this and send it to Mongo and Tard! and to answer your question... there is no season for hogs like this. They are like a varmint, a nuisance. Still trying for that Bear! Julie"

This story is truly an inspiration. Mongo and Tard hereby form the Association of Spear and Shank Hunters (ASS). For us ASSes bow and arrow are too modern. We ASSes will swoop from the trees on a strong vine and slaughter with our knife and spear all animals that are unlikely to fight back!

Mongo & Tard, I stumbled across your web page the other day and enjoyed what I was able to read. I even laughed out loud a couple of times. Anyway, I wanted to share an experience that I had with you and send you a pic.

I was able to harvest the buck on the right on opening day of bow season here in Spotsylvania VA. It was my first ever day a field with a bow and it was as easy as calling my dog! The evening before I went down to my stand (wearing my rubber boots) and put out some doe piss. The next morning I was there really early. I was approaching the stand and heard what sounded like a deer run off. I tied my pack and bow to the line and decided to let out a bleat from my primos call before ascending. I was worried that if I waited too long he'd get too far away to hear it, and perhaps not return. Well, Halfway up the tree (to my probably illegally high stand a nice buck came crashing into the area of my stand. I'm like "what the F?!" So there I am, standing on a piece of 2x6 nailed to a tree about 15' off the ground. Pack and bow setting on the ground tied to my rope, and this horny guy decides to come on over and see what's going on.

I could tell that he had antlers that were pretty good size but not much more than that. Even though it was a pretty well moon lit morning there were still a lot of leaves on the trees casting shadows. After a little while I didn't hear him walking around and thought that he may have made his way a little further away. Since I was getting tired of hanging onto the tree I decided to take my chances and finish climbing. Once in the stand, with pack and bow in hand, I decided to let out another "bleat". About 30 seconds later he was back under my stand. I pointed the bow at him but it was still much too dark. Once some light started coming in from dawn I decided to let out another call. This time he came back, but much slower and with a lot more caution.

He came in from a thicket to about 40 yards and stopped. I could have probably taken the shot, but since I was new to this type of hunting and there was some vegetation in the way, I decided to wait. He stood there looking for a couple of minutes, which of course seemed like hours. My heart was out of control at this point, in fact I was surprised he couldn't hear it! After a few minutes, he started to turn like he was going to go back from where he came from. I noticed that my rope was on the side of the tree that he could not see, so I shook it around a little rustling the leaves below. It worked, he turned and came right out in front of me.

He was about 15 yards in front of my stand and I let him have it. He then ran about 40 yards and fell down, tried to get up a few times and kept falling. Finally, he laid dead (or at least I thought so) in the briars. I waited about 20 min, drank some coffee, contemplated what a great hunter I was, convinced myself that bow hunting wasn't as hard as everyone made it out to be and so on before descending from the tree. Once down I walked over to the animal and tried to get a look at his eye just to be sure, but couldn't make it around him due to his position in the briars. Being fairly confident that he was a goner I stepped over him to take a look. That is when he came back from the dead!

I was now standing in the briars with a zombie deer standing up between my legs! Luckily I already had my knife out, just in case... I grabbed his right antler with my left hand and forced my left elbow/forearm into the back of his skull in an effort to hold him down. It was actually working pretty well, partly due to him dying and him not being able to get very good traction in the leaves, but once the knife went in his neck - he became super deer! I think the only way to describe what happened would be to call it a deer killing rodeo with a panicking cowboy! I'm pretty sure that I may have even been yelling out some noises, but I can't say for sure. For some reason my vision of this situation is a little blurry. What I do know is that I won't be in that situation again! Those thrashing antler came way too close to my face. After delivering what I knew had to be a mortal wound to his throat, I let him go and jumped back away from him. He ran about 15 more feet into the thicket and fell once again.

As he laid there dying, and I was thinking to myself "what the hell was I thinking, a few minutes ago I was convincing myself how good I am at this" I heard something coming through the woods. It was making its way through a small valley on the other side of the thicket from my dead/dying deer. At first I was really confused since it was so close. At first I even thought it was the dying/dead dear moving in the thicket but I couldn't see any movement. I then realized that something else was alive and coming into my area. First thing I thought was another deer is coming, but when the noises stopped, I started thinking maybe it was a poacher (which we have had problems with in the past). Then my thoughts went something like this - "its a deer, no... a poacher! Na, it is a deer! Hmmmmmm, could be a poacher, and if it's a poacher, it could be pointing a gun at me right now! There is no blaze orange requirement in VA during bow season, so there I am, 15 feet from a dead buck and something is sneaking up on me... I decided to step to one side to see if I could get a better look down the hill into the valley.

As soon as I did, the buck on the left side of my picture ran away. I guess he was either investigating the doe piss also, and or the noises. I heard a similar story about a second buck attacking a mortally wounded buck that had just been shot by a black powder rifle not more than two minutes prior. Anyway, I saw this buck two more times during bow season but he wouldn't come in close to me. I even passed up a couple of nice does/bucks waiting for him, but he knew better. The fourth time I saw him, unbeknownst to him it was general fire arms season, and I'd caught him following a few does to one of their early evening food plots. The 30.06 proved once again to be effective!

I apologize for the buck on the right being so ugly, but I usually skin their head and hang them in a tree until the end of the season. It is known as the tree of shame, and it lets the other creatures in the woods know that there is a killer primate in the woods! Fair warning?

An unrepentant caveman - UGH - We love it! Not a tennis-racket-GEICO-type-caveman but the kind who kills with his bare hands (or at least knows how to make it up convincingly). Here's to every man who is dying of cancer, a navy pilot, or made a million dollars selling their internet company! We hope you have successfully polluted the gene pool and got your girl!

To the creative and inventive, braggadocio shall be our cry- good luck and godspeed!

Tod Scott wrote to tell us about his first deer with a bow - Yikes!

"This was my first buck with bow. Taken 6:30 P. M. Oct. 29, 2006. I was hunting in my climbing stand, 20 yards back in the woods, facing a clover field. I had found some pretty good rubs on the trail coming up the hill behind me.That's the way he came up, behind me and to my left, then he turned broadside and walked right where I needed him to. At 20 yards, directly in front of me, there was an opening in the tree line, and when he got there I let the arrow fly. He didn't go 40 yards,I heard the crash."

We asked for some details and we got them along with a great picture of Tod's son and his first deer. What could make a father more proud?

"The deer was taken in Breckinridge Co. KY, with a Mathews FX, and 100 grain Razor broad head. My son also took his first deer Oct. 24, 2006 the youth hunt weekend, with H&R single shot youth rifle .243 cal. , at 7:00 A.M. He walked out right underneath our buddy stand about 40 yards. I was way more excited about that deer, and so was he . His name is Joseph Scott he's 10 years old."