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"Getting Started with
Bow Hunting."
A practical perspective.
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By Michael Kennedy
Field
Editor |
I love to bow hunt.
Call it a passion. Given the choice, I prefer it to hunting with a
firearm but that’s just me. I love to talk about it. I love to
extol its virtues, even to hunters that don’t bow hunt. Sometimes I
even get lucky enough to do a little bow hunting evangelism, convert
someone, and help him or her get started. Before getting a “new
believer” started though, there is a lot of discussion about
philosophy, gear, ethics, and many things in between. With that
said, this is not a gear article. Here are a few practical
thoughts, which I hope you will find helpful.
Do you have the time to practice, and will you practice? This
question was Number 1 on Eric Jantze’s list of the five things he
would say to someone who is thinking about getting started with bow
hunting. Jantze is the Owner and Operator of J & J Outfitters in
Angel Fire, New Mexico (www.jjoutfitters.net).
When Eric isn’t guiding for elk, mule deer, and pronghorn, he is
usually somewhere in North America bow hunting. In a conversation I
had with him not too long ago, Eric told me that if the individual
doesn’t have the time to shoot a lot all year round, or isn’t
willing to do it, “I don’t even recommend that they take up bow
hunting.” He went on to say that he has seen too many accomplished
rifle hunters have an unsuccessful bow hunt, with many missed shots,
only to find out afterwards that the individual put very little
practice time in until a week or two before the hunt. He said that
the unsuccessful hunters “invariably sing the same old song about
how good a shot they are with a rifle, and how they were putting 5
out of 5 arrows in a pie plate from 30 yards a week before the hunt,
and thought they were good to go. It’s just not the case.” Most
bow hunters would agree. Most would probably also agree that there
is practice, and then there is real practice.
The art of real practice. With respect to practice, it is not
simply a matter of throwing up a bulls-eye bag or a 3-D target in
the backyard, and shooting the same 20 to 30 yard shot a few hundred
times before deer season opens. While it may build proper muscle
memory, assuming that your shot execution is technically sound, this
kind of practice won’t build experience and it won’t develop the
other necessary skills that you will need to become a successful bow
hunter. George Taulman, professional outfitter, guide, and hunter
agrees. Taulman is the Founder and Owner of United States
Outfitters (www.huntuso.com),
and needs no introduction if you have ever seen a Realtree Outdoors
hunting video or have watched the Outdoor Channel. A very
accomplished bow hunter, George believes that focused practice is
one of the key ingredients to being successful. When he and I spoke
recently, he was very matter-of-fact. “You have to put in the time
shooting from every conceivable position and angle, such as shooting
off one knee, shooting from the side of a tree while using it for
cover, shooting uphill and downhill, even running at full speed and
stopping to shoot,” says Taulman. He then gave the example of
stalking a big bull elk that stops to rake and rub. “When the elk
does this, he’s essentially deaf and blind. Sometimes the best
strategy for getting close enough to shoot is to rush him when he
starts to rake and rub. Most hunters have never done that or tried
to shoot after running when they are winded, so most will never
practice it and, as a result, might miss the bull of a lifetime. I
have seen it happen.” Glibly put, the seven-p principle applies
here: proper prior practice prevents p--- poor performance in the
field.
Gear
Although this isn’t a gear article per se, you will obviously need
the right gear to get started with. There are oodles of bows,
sites, rests, arrows, and accoutrements on the market and it is very
easy to buy the wrong stuff, especially if you get bad advice. As
the saying goes, talk is cheap and opinions are like…Well, you know
the rest. So, where do you go to get the right stuff and good
advice? My advice is to find a reputable full service archery pro
shop like Nix Guns and Archery in Lewisville (ranked as one of the
top seven archery pro shops in the country by Sports Afield), or
Outdoor Pro Shops in Garland before you buy anything. Bow
technicians at shops like these are usually knowledgeable, many are
real-deal pro shooting staff for major bow manufacturers such as
Hoyt and Mathews, and all love to hunt. By way of example, Troy
Blackall and Shawn Rice are two such bow techs at Nix, and they and
I chatted recently. “I try to stress the importance of buying a rig
that is custom fit to the individual”, says Blackall, “with proper
draw length and draw weight, the right arrows, and the right site
for the type of shooting you are going to be doing”, adds Rice. On
the other side of town, at Outdoor Pro Shops, Mathews pro staff
member Fay Frigon echoes the same thought, “It’s absolutely
essential to get a proper fitting bow, the proper set-up, and arrows
that are tailor-made for your type of shooting and your rig.”
Unsurprisingly, the similarity in thinking doesn’t end there. Both
Outdoor Pro Shops and Nix, and other pro shops like them, share the
same philosophy of making sure that you “try it before you buy it.”
Since most pro shops have their own range, you will get personal
instruction on the mechanics of proper shot execution before you
ever leave the shop with one of their bows. The reasoning is simple
enough. Their well-deserved reputations depend on it. Under normal
circumstances, the average person will be shooting 3” or 4” groups,
or better, from 20 yards in less than 30 minutes with expert
instruction, and you will be cordially invited back for any
adjustments, or for any problems that you might have with your new
rig. This may not sound like a big deal, but it is. Having a
top-notch bow technician is a very important piece of “equipment”
for you to have, and should not be underestimated. As for these two
pro shops, all that I can tell you is that most of the guys I know
in the greater Dallas Metroplex go to one shop or the other. ‘Nuff
said there.
Shoot 3-D to learn distance and sight pictures. In addition to
having proper fitting gear and proper technique, being able to
accurately judge distance consistently and know the proper sight
picture will dramatically increase your chances of success as a bow
hunter. As you might have guessed, the only way to get good at it
is to do it—a lot. Michael Braden, a consistently top ranked
professional archer, 2003 NFAA Shooter of the Year and Hoyt
pro-staffer at Nix, emphasizes the point. “I recommend that you
shoot 3-D all year round and as much as possible. Moreover, make it
a point to go to different courses whenever you can so that you are
forced to shoot under a wide variety of conditions and
circumstances,” says Braden. This is also good practical advice.
When you go to a 3-D club shoot, you will shoot anywhere from 20 to
40 targets depending on the event or the club rules. The beauty and
the benefit, is that you will shoot at life-sized game in realistic
scenarios, at various distances and angles. You will shoot in the
woods and in the open, up-hill and downhill, at big targets and
little targets, at animals you are accustomed to seeing and animals
that you are not. You will shoot from 15 yards out to as much as 55
or 60 yards, depending on the course, and you will not be allowed to
use a rangefinder! Like golf, you will never have the same shot
twice. Misjudging your shot by 2 or 3 yards can mean the difference
between a score of 10 and a score of 5, or maybe missing the target
altogether and a score of 0.
In the words of my good hunting buddy and bow hunter extraordinaire,
Cary Walker, “I promise you that one season of 3-D will do more for
your shooting skills than all of your range time and back yard
practice put together.” Another practice pointer on judging
distance is to make regular forays into the woods with a
rangefinder. Pick out objects as you walk, of varying sizes, at
various distances and angles and guess their distance. Then check
them against your rangefinder.
Hunt
In addition to chanting the mantra “Practice, practice, practice,”
you should also hunt, hunt, hunt as much as possible. As Hunting
Editor, Outdoor Writer and Mathews pro-staffer Luke Clayton puts it
with emphasis, “The ONLY way to become a proficient bow hunter is
spending time in the woods hunting. You have to learn the body
language of the game you are hunting, and learn to draw your bow at
the right time. It is next to impossible to successfully draw on a
‘wired’ animal that senses something is wrong.” With that said,
hunt deer, hogs, turkey, javelina, varmints, exotics, and anything
else that you have a mind to shoot and that is legal. Why? There
is no real substitute for shooting at live game. There is no
substitute for being up close and personal at full draw with your
heart pounding and your adrenaline pumping. And, there is no
substitute for learning first-hand when to draw, when to shoot, and
when not to shoot. And remember, adrenaline is an important
variable here. It is both the thing that we crave and the thing
that we fear because it is responsible for so many missed shot
opportunities. It is also virtually impossible to fabricate or
duplicate on the practice range or at a 3-D shoot. It therefore
stands to reason, that the only way to understand adrenaline and
learn to control it is to repeatedly put yourself in shooting
circumstances that bring it in to play. Make sense?
Spend time with bow-hunters who have proven themselves successful.
Said another way, hang out with the guys who have a lot of mature
trophy animals hanging on their walls. I guarantee you that they
did not come by them just by being lucky. Those animals are on the
wall because the bow hunter who harvested them was a complete
bow-hunting package, a combination of commitment, hard work,
shooting skills, and hunting skills. You can acquire a vast amount
of bow hunting experience and wisdom from these hunters if you just
take the time to ask. I haven’t met too many that weren’t willing
to share just about everything they know, except perhaps their
favorite hunting spots, with someone new to the sport. If you ask
the right questions, or just listen intently, you will learn a lot
about hunting by stealth, which leads me to the next topic that
means a whole lot more to bow hunters than it does to gun hunters.
Stealth for wealth
Cutting to the quick, and this really is the bottom line, if you
want riches in the freezer and trophies adorning your walls, thou
shall be sight-proof, soundproof, and smell-proof. And out of the
three, being smell-proof is probably the most critical. You can
remain quiet and have the right camouflage pattern for your
surroundings, but if the animal smells you before it ever gets near
you, the first two points are moot. As a bow hunter, you must be
meticulous about scent control and scent preparation. There are
some great scent control products on the market, such as Scent
Blocker and Scent-Lok, and you should never set foot in the woods
without being dressed in it head to toe. Proper scent control and
scent preparation also means keeping your scent control products
sealed in a scent controlled environment when not in use.
Personally, I keep mine packed in airtight containers with “fresh
earth” scent wafers, in my garage and far away from the everyday
human odors of the household. When I am on a hunt, I never bring my
hunting wear inside where it can attract human odors and food odors,
which means that I dress outside no matter how cold it is.
Ethics
Last, but certainly not least, a few words about ethics. You can,
and should, take a bow hunter safety course even if you have been
hunting with firearms your entire life. The International Bowhunter
Education Program is a cooperative effort and courses are offered
several times a year at various venues, like Outdoor World/Bass Pro
Shops. A bow hunter safety course will provide you with a lot of
good, practical information about bow hunting and the ethics of bow
hunting, and it is now required in many states if you want to bow
hunt. It is also a requirement for many of the special draw and
public land hunts like, for example, the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge
draw here in North Texas.
Also on the subject of ethics, is the issue of shot selection. Know
your limitations. In the beginning, try to limit your shots to 25
yards or less, preferably 20 yards, unless you are in open terrain.
Moreover, “If you don’t have a good broadside or slightly quartering
away shot, don’t release that arrow,” advises Luke Clayton. Just
as important, always follow up after the shot. You cannot assume
that you missed simply because the animal didn’t flinch, run like a
scalded dog, or give some other indication that it was hit.
Especially with bow hunting, many lethally hit animals will simply
walk or trot away if the noise didn’t scare them, only to lie down
and expire within 100 yards from where it was shot. This happened
to me two years ago in New Mexico on my elk hunt. I had a broadside
shot at a cow from 32 yards, and let it fly. The elk never
flinched. It stood there for a few moments, looked around, and
slowly sauntered off with the other elk and went into the timber.
Given the body language, and playback of the shot in my mind’s eye,
I thought I might have missed low. From my vantage point and line
of sight, I saw the arrow strike the ground under its belly but
beyond the animal. After waiting about 30 minutes, I got down from
my stand to retrieve my arrow. No blood and no blood on the
ground. Nevertheless, I headed to the spot where the elk went into
timber, about 80 yards away. Not ten yards into the timber, there
it was. The shot hit the on-side lung, centered the heart, and
exited cleanly beneath the offside lung. I can’t explain that lack
of blood on my arrow, but I would have made a big ethical mistake
and lost my elk if I hadn’t second guessed what my eyes told me.
A few
final words
If you got nothing else from this article, I hope that you got what
I perceive to be a simple truth. There is a world of difference
between taking game with a firearm from a good rest in the relative
comfort and concealment of a box stand at 180 yards, and taking it
by stealth with a bow at 20 or 30 yards. This statement is not made
to be lofty or judgmental and, by making it, I am not suggesting one
method of hunting over the other or saying that one is better than
the other. I do both and enjoy both. The difference between the
two, however, is measurable. If you decide to get started in bow
hunting, and I sincerely hope that you do, it will forever change
the way that you hunt and the way that you think about hunting.
Perhaps more important, it will be good for you and it will be good
for our sport that we love so much.
Michael Kennedy is a free lance writer from Coppell, Texas.
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