I’ve hunted on and off for a total of about 11 seasons now, and my attitude about hunting has changed more dramatically than I ever would have imagined.  Starting out I was always in a rush, especially deer hunting.  The minute I saw a flicker of brown or white my gun was on my shoulder and I was trying to find the deer in my scope. 

After harvesting some nice deer, and honestly making some foolish shots, I realized I’m not out here for the kill, I’m out here for the hunt.  That kind of thinking led me choose archery as my first choice for method of hunting these days.

Archery hunters choose to do things the more difficult way.  We have to get closer, we have to be careful of wind, and scent, we have to make a perfect shot, because follow-ups are rarities in the archery woods.

From purchasing the bow last spring, through practicing daily all summer, I couldn’t have been more excited for the Pennsylvania archery season.  The opener came and sure enough I had some action the first morning.

Four doe came in together.  The problem was when I saw the first I thought she was alone.  So, when I turned to get a better look, the big mature doe bringing up the rear saw me in the tree.  She alerted the rest and they bolted.

I was able to hunt again the first monday night of the season and as I arranged my gear at the base of the tree, two doe came into my setup.  As they fed I was able to nock an arrow and come to full draw while kneeling next to my tree.  The first doe stepped behind some brush, so I settled my 20 yard pin on the second doe.  As I looked her up and down I came to the conclusion she was a yearling.  While it would have been great to punch my tag on my second outing of the year, I asked myself, “is this small doe how I want to use my single doe tag?”  I knew the answer to that question, and slowly let down my bow.  I continued to kneel next to the tree as they fed out of sight.

I spent the next couple of hours in the tree, without another sighting.  Even though I didn’t see another deer that night I felt like that night was the most successful night of hunting I’ve had in a long time.

It’s our priviledge to be in the woods pursuing such amazing creatures, and we choose when to fill our tags, we are never obligated to fill our tags.  That, at least for me, is what makes hunting a great tradition.

Hello all, as you know the Blog Contest has been completed and we are working diligently to get all the prizes out.

We still have not heard from some of the winners.

So, If your name is listed as one of the official winners of the Archery Talk Blog Contest 2.0 PLEASE contact me via PM as soon as you can and we will get your prize out to you ASAP!

Thank you

Kbrando

 The following is a true story.

 As each day goes bye and I am  thinking about my hold, aimming , and various “littile” things I work on each time. Being hard on my self is something I do and get mad about. For no apparent reason. However shooting a bow has tough me how to slow down and relax.

 Get home see my great kids and very understanding wife. Grab a snack and get to shooting. pratice make prefect they say . So when is it gonna pay off. I know I am “actully” shooting good. Hitting on or with in the “10 ” ring it a great shot in the feild. Yet I still want to hit that x spot. Distance is a game that I have come to find takes time.

Recently I had been invited t ofreiends camp up north (adirondacks area) . What a wonderful place it was, state foot tails near and as many miles as you wanted to walk and see. After a little time to get the feel for were I was I look at a map and got it down. There was basically a large triangle of land I heard was loaded with deer. The problem I relized was at the middle of the triangle was a farily large mountian. Trails lead alaround but up this place. It was know’n area buy hunter but hard to reach from unposted areas. Were I was it wasn’t a hour hike. What a place. I studies the map a while longer and figured I could get around. The guys who tagged me along are looking to take a hike after getting camp opened up. We went a decent hike,  along the foot talis and then following a river and back out, maybe a couple of miles. As I took another look at the map I relized just how large the area was we were entering earlier. what we had ventered was but only the samiliest tip of the iceberg. What an increadile experience that area was.

 A few days later back in reality we talk of making another trip. This time for a two day stay. I was jumping for joy. Now only if the wife is good with it i am in great shape. And what do you know she was. She must be up to something, but I will worry about that later. Now it’s game time.

 I have to admit that I have never been on a true hunting trip. I know laugh now, its ok I understand now what the trill is about up to this point. Feeling a little weary that I may not have it in me, but hell I have done almost everything else but this.Shooting has always been of intrest to me, much to my father’s “sha-grine”. Latley he seems more opening to what I am doing , guess its just I am older and he hasn’t much say. I am excited and nervious I guess. But I know if I do as I know to do I should be fine. Another day  soon and that much closer to it.

So opening day of Archery season in Virginia was this past weekend.  I was lucky in that I was able to get out for the opening day.  The last time I was able to get out for a season opener was probably 6 years ago, and it was for duck season in Mississippi.  So to actually be able to get out on opening day was great in its own right.

My bowhunting to this point has been nothing but foam in the back yard.  But let me tell you, that darn cube target from Walmart has been “killed” more times than it wants to admit, and will continue to meet my arrows until it simply can’t stop them anymore.  My father-in-law, who gave me just about every piece of archery equipment that I own and doesn’t even bowhunt, decided he wanted to scout some areas that morning and we headed to the woods.  Since I knew he wasn’t going up there to hunt, I decided to sacrifice getting into the stand before day light and took the chance of blowing the whole hunt by stomping my way to my tree.

I was in my stand, ready for action around 6:50 a.m.  Well, as my track record goes in this stand, all I saw for the first hour and a half were a bunch of squirrels (one of which almost joined me) and the occassional bird.  Around 8:15 I found myself dozing off and figured, “What the hell, I’m not missing anything anyway.”  So I decided I’d take a short nap.  Well, good ole Mr. Murphy decided to make an appearance.  I shut my eyes for what seemed like an hour (really it was only 5 minutes) and was awakened by the sound of crunching leaves.  Thanks to the squirrels, I didn’t really think too much of it until I saw something much larger than a squirrel moving out in front of my stand at around 50 yards.  I knew it was a deer, but I wasn’t sure if it was a buck or a doe.  Though it didn’t really matter, I was hoping that it was a buck since this would be my first bow kill and my very first deer, EVER.  On top of that, there is a doe that frequents this area of woods that has two fawns with her and I wasn’t going to shoot her.  So I wanted it to be a buck so that there wouldn’t be any chance for confusion and accidental shooting of the wrong deer.

To my pleasure I saw horns and started getting myself prepared to stand and draw.  I’m not sure, but I doubt if the sequence of events could have gone any better.  The buck took a few steps and stopped behind a small group of trees and bushes that shielded his view of my stand.  That’s when I stood up.  At this point he was at least 40-45 yards away.  I gave a quick grunt call and he started walking towards me again.  As he stepped behind another tree I drew my bow.  I was at full draw when he turned and started quartering very slightly toward me (he was almost perfectly broadside) at around 30-35 yards.  I settled my pins on him and as I was squeezing the trigger on my release the sun broke the clouds and brightened my pins so much that they blended with his shoulder.  At this point it was too late.  The hair trigger on my release had all ready let the arrow fly.

When I released the arrow, the buck flinched slightly.  Immediately after getting hit, he jumped in the air, spun 180 degrees and took off back through the thickets behind him.  My heart was pounding harder than it ever has.  I knew I had hit him by the way he took off, but I was a little nervous about the hit due to the last second sunshine on my pins.  So I waited an hour which would have felt like much longer had a group of does (including the momma and two fawns) not decided to stop by to snack on the red and white acorns that cover the ground around my stand.

After my hour wait, I got down and went to the last place I saw him.  While there was blood on the ground, I couldn’t find my arrow anywhere.  I was thinking the worst, muscle hit into the bone and he’s taken off with my arrow.  So I start following the blood trail.  I only make it about 40 yards into the thickets when it simply disappears.  At this point I’m starting to get nervous.  I don’t like the idea (I honestly don’t anyone that does) of shooting an animal and just letting it suffer needlessly.  Also, I had read a lot of posts by people that lost deer and I didn’t want to join that group.  So I walked in a zigzag pattern for about 20 yards and there on the ground was more blood.  My heart literally skipped a beat.  From that point on, it was like bread crumbs leading me home.  I found him piled up against a tree not 30 more yards past where I found the trail again.

I won’t bore you with the details of dragging him out of the thickets and down the mountain.  But I will tell you that he could have weighed 300 pounds, I was getting that deer out of the woods.  This was my very first bow kill and my very first deer EVER and I couldn’t be prouder.  While he’s not the biggest deer in the woods, he’ll always be a trophy to me.