Shemane “Queen of the Forest” Crossbow Antelope

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The sonic bombast emanating from our little SpiritWild Ranch bunkhouse was ferocious.

A couple of MotorCity Madmen were unleashing a torrent of maddeningly intense all American rhythm and blues rock-n-roll to die for as Derek St. Holmes and I jammed out the master list of killer tunes for the upcoming Great White Buffalo Rockout 2012. Wild-eyed and bushytailed, we slammed out the coolest music in the world like a duo of young uppity teenage brats with their first guitars and loud amps. We were intoxicated with the whole creative juice thang, and loving every soulful moment of our lifetime collaboration of high energy kick-ass guitar noise from Detroit.

My Queen of the Forest, Shemane, pre-crossbow.

Alas, BloodBrothers do not live by rock alone, and we were hankering for some fresh meat to go with the carnivorous soundtrack whirlwind blazing from our predator fingertips. My dancing goddess wife Shemane had just returned home from a maniacal Zumba dance-a-thon, and the three of us decided to swap guitars for our new snakeskin Excalibur crossbow and hit the Double Bull groundblind for the last three hours of daylight on this fine Texas springtime evening

Alas, BloodBrothers do not live by rock alone, and we were hankering for some fresh meat to go with the carnivorous soundtrack whirlwind blazing from our predator fingertips. My dancing goddess wife Shemane had just returned home from a maniacal Zumba dance-a-thon, and the three of us decided to swap guitars for our new snakeskin Excalibur crossbow and hit the Double Bull ground blind for the last three hours of daylight on this fine Texas springtime evening.

Shemane had spent the previous days practicing with the new Excalibur, and had become comfortable, confident, and proficient with it. Turkey season was in full swing and the exotics always need killing, so off we went a-hunting with some sharp sticks and an attitude.

Derek has Cherokee blood running through his veins, and he is a natural aim small miss small guy, but first to bat with the Excalibur would be my Queen of the Forest Shemane, as she had yet to bloody her first crossbow bolt. As a fine sponsor of Spirit of the Wild TV, Excalibur would surely celebrate this dangerous woman putting to use their killer product to bring home some fresh straps for the band.

The heavy spring rains had turned our little slice of Texas heaven into a rainforest jungle with the lushest greenery we had ever seen. Fortunately, Ol’ Uncle Ted had spread a wide swath of Throw and Grow food plot seed in the field by the big oak grove prior to the rains, and game were using it regularly. Enhanced with some Primos Swamp Donkey and a sprinkling of golden kernels, we figured luck should be on our side.

Two hours slowly ticked by with only the occasional crow and dove joining us, but at the magic bewitching hour, a trio of shaggy whitetail bucks cautiously worked their way toward our ambush. Love those live decoys.

Shemane was reading her book when Derek poked me and pointed northeast and smiled. The tall spiral horns of a mature Indian Blackbuck ram materialized on the small ridge as it inched its way in from the distant cedar thicket. Shemane slowly swapped book for Excalibur and I rolled SpiritWild tape. The intensity was building nicely.

Lady luck was indeed with us, as Shemane always seems to create, and when the handsome buck antelope paused at twenty some yards quartering towards us, my little meat queen launched here protein seeking projectile square into the beast’s shoulder with a silent snap and a solid “whollop” for a picture-perfect hit.

The glowing Lumenok told no lie as the laser like lighted nock disappeared in and out of the antelope in a flash. I captured his death run on film as he made his last staggering leap into the thick cedars eighty yards out.

Huge smiles filled our little pop up blind, and everyone knew we had meat on the ground.

The recovery was quick and effortless as the razor sharp broadhead had killed the animal within seconds, and we rejoiced the beast was dead, long live the beast.

Shemane’s first crossbow kill excited her, Derek, and me, as this historical arrow-flinging weapon has rightly become so very popular around the country as a fun, challenging, efficient tool to balance the herd and procure the sacred flesh for many hunting families.

We handled the beautiful antelope with tender loving care, and still got in another 40 minutes of daylight hunting for Derek. But Shemane had used up the daily allotment of luck, and vowed to return another day to see if the rock-n-roll Indian could get the crossbow job done.

My band and crew craves a lot of meat during rehearsals, and thanks to my deadly woman, the carnivorous predator Nugent soundtrack will be in full bloom all spring and summer long again this tour, inspired by the perfection of tooth, fang, and claw conservation and the grand tradition of exotic game hunting in Texas.

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