On opening day of muzzleloader deer season, Clint Beasley of Hardy killed a mature buck at Harold E. Alexander Spring River Wildlife Management Area with a much more primitive method.
He used a vintage recurve bow.
Beasley, 43, a semiretired carpenter, lived 11 years in southern Illinois hunting the massive whitetails for which that region is famous. He returned to Arkansas and hunted three seasons without killing a deer. It's not that Beasley didn't have opportunities. He simply had to recalibrate his standards.
"After three years of hunting down here, I realized I wasn't going to be shooting any 180s [on the Boone and Crockett scoring system]," Beasley said. "I've had opportunities at a nice deer such as one I killed, and a couple that were even better. I realized I needed to find something nice to shoot and be happy."
The 41/2-year-old buck originally had nine points, but broke off a tine to reduce the count to eight.
"When he walked up, everything screamed 'Shoot him!' The way he carried himself and that mature body," Beasley said.
Beasley scouted an area near a road and a cluster of homes. He said he found a fresh scrape, which is a spot in the dirt that deer have cleared with their hooves. He stepped off a logging road to avoid a limb and jumped a big buck off its bed.
"There's some private land close by, and when I jumped the deer, a dog barked, so I figured it was him," Beasley said. "If he was really bedding right in there, it was going to be hard to get in there to approach him."
Beasley checked a nearby Conservation Reserve Program parcel and found no deer sign, but he did find an ancient chinquapin oak tree that was heavy with acorns.
"That particular tree is probably 350 years old, and it probably doesn't make nuts all the time," said Beasley, believing it was a good place to shoot a doe.
On the morning of Oct. 17, the wind changed. Beasley said he trusted his intuition and picked a different tree that was more suitable for the wind. He said he also knew he had to be there early, so he ascended his tree under starlight. A truck came down the road, and the same dog barked. Beasley said he knew the game was on.
"Something came past there that made the dog bark," Beasley said.
That "something" showed up a few minutes later.
"The buck just popped out around the tree like a mushroom," Beasley said. "It was so quiet I knew I shouldn't try to stop him. When I drew, he looked at the movement."
The buck was one move behind in this chess game, however, and Beasley's arrow found its mark.
"He tore the woods down. It sounded like a train wreck."
The time was 6:50 a.m.
"Some other hunters came tearing down that road on their way to their stands," Beasley said. "I said to myself, 'Boys, you're too late,' "
Beasley's bow is a vintage Bear Kodiak Hunter that a friend found on Ebay and gave to him.
"It was made in Michigan before Bear moved to Florida," Beasley said. "It's museum quality, but I hunt with it. This is the fourth buck I've killed with it."
Beasley used Magness Snuffer broadheads. Beasley said he likes that particular broadhead because you can heat it up, hone it, and use it over and over again. It fits with his traditional recycling ethic, which expresses itself within one of Beasley's favorite activities -- knapping his own arrowheads. He's been doing it since he was a child.
"I gave a demonstration in show-and-tell at school on how to pressure flake with a deer tine," Beasley said.
The late Wayne Bomar, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wildlife officer in Greene County, taught Beasley the art.
"He was a flint knapper, though most people didn't know it," Beasley said. "I caught him flint knapping on the tailgate of his truck one day. I kept pestering him and made him show me how to do it."
Beasley knaps only with bone or stone tools. He amassed knowledge by traveling to knapping gatherings around the country. He learned enough to spot the good and bad in authentic Native American arrowheads that he finds.
"You see some and think, 'That guy probably wasn't a good hunter,' " Beasley said, "but then you find one that's super thin, sharp and perfect, and you know that guy probably killed something. It takes patience to take the abuse you have got to take to get it in shape."
Stone arrowheads are kind of like bullets in some ways. Beasley said a well-made arrowhead will break off at the tip, which increases the frontal impact area and causes maximum damage.
"You can sharpen it again and probably kill a couple more animals with it," Beasley said. "One of my buddies killed a fox with one. It was still sharp, so he put it on another arrow and killed an 8-point buck with it. It broke the base on the far shoulder, but it is still long enough to knap back into shape and use again."
Arrowheads for deer hunting must be made from chert, flint or obsidian, Beasley said. Obsidian or other glassy stone is easiest to work. You also must match the weight of the arrowhead to the arrow, which Beasley also makes. He makes his own longbows, too, but he said hunting with a longbow is a different process than hunting with a recurve.
"Poundage of the bow will dictate the spin of the arrow. The weight of the head is how you control flex," Beasley said. "A heavier head will limber the arrow to where the bow will actually shoot it."
It takes years of practice to understand the relationship and to tune an arrowhead to a particular bow and arrow combination.
"It's about how perfect you can make the equipment," Beasley said. "I always thought I made a nice straight arrowhead until I went to making arrowheads. I put them on a roller to make sure there was no wobble. Trying to get that out of a rock is very difficult."
