Thursday, November 2, 2017

Hunting With Bow, Chapter Two

I tried being a bow hunter again this fall.  If you'll recall I began my bow hunting career last year with a brief and unproductive burst of hunting on one October weekend (if you don't recall, you can read about it here).  Fast forward to this year and - trumpets blaring - an entirely new hunter took to the woods....on two different weekends!  Among the highlights of this year's stick-'n-string process:

**I had to get a new string.  Shortly after beginning my shooting practice in mid-summer the bowstring broke on the release of a shot.  Unfortunately buying a new string for a recurve bow isn't quite the same as finding a new roll of dental floss.  Had to find an archery shop, had to learn how to measure a bow, had to order the string.....more then a month disappeared between the snap of the old string and the first shot with the new.  The stress of losing a month of practice was tempered by the discovery of a great archery shop in a neighboring (and nearby) town and a higher quality string than I had been using.

**I bought enough camouflage clothing to cover myself from head to, well, ankles.  And most of it was on a clearance sale!  Last fall I was somewhat visible, this fall I would be a phantom.  Unless it snowed.  Which it did.

**Even with a lost month of practice I shot much better than a year ago.  I didn't practice every day and I didn't take lots of shots when I did practice, but I shot enough to ascend to the level of "deadly" from 10 yards, "deadlyish" from 15.  I found a more consistent release point.  I learned how to aim better with my bow that doesn't have sights.  I took single shots from different distances to increase the pressure of being accurate.  Most importantly, I gained confidence.  A beautiful thing, confidence; for a condition that can't be touched or measured or exchanged it certainly is valuable.

**I chose and prepared higher quality hunting sites than a year ago.  Drawing on my lessons learned from last hunting season, detailed in the post that is linked above....the one you still haven't clicked.....I had three different spots prepared for this year's hunting.  Spots with easy access, spots with clear shooting lanes, spots with deer runways well within shooting range.  All three spots took advantage of our superb food plots.  Each spot gave me a different wind advantage.  And, according to my cameras, each spot was travelled by deer in the daylight.

**My hunting time increased by at least a couple of hours over last year.  Once again the weekends of late September and early October filled up with family or job commitments.  When I finally pulled on my new camo and strung the bow for my first hunt most hunters had been hitting the woods for over a month.  But even with my small window of time I made the most of my opportunity - I was on stand for a couple of long afternoons and one long morning and even one whole day!  And in that time.....

**I saw a deer!  With bow in hand, standing at one of my three chosen hot spots, I witnessed a live whitetail deer on the move.  Oh sure, it was 150 yards away....across a river bottom....on the neighbor's land.....running away from me......but it was the first deer sighting of my (so far lame) bow hunting career.  And it was pretty darned exciting.

And with that, my second bow hunting season is over.  I am now two days away from rifle season, the style of hunting I still have the greatest passion for.  I will trade my camo for blaze orange and my arrows for bullets.  The bow hunting season in Minnesota lasts until late December but this hunter plans to have a freezer full of venison by the time Thanksgiving gets here, so unless some dreadfully bad rifle hunting takes place over the next two weeks my bow outings are done.  I may not have arrowed a deer....again.....but I'll always have the memories.  Both of them.

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