Trophy Bow Hunting Advice
Filed under: Recreation and Sports
Back in the mid ‘80s, Brad Harris gave me some of the best bow hunting advice I’ve ever received.
We had traveled many posterior pinching miles on the backs of stubborn mules across rivers and ridges and up and down steep hills to reach an outfitter’s remote hunting camp set up deep in the interior of the rugged Devil’s Backbone Wilderness Area.
Brad already was one of the most famous hunters in the nation and had recently signed up as the Public Relations Director for Lohman Calls.
That first evening, as I was trying to find a comfortable sitting position, I admitted to Brad that I had just taken up bow hunting, and the first thing out of his mouth was:
“Don’t try to hunt trophies right away. You need to develop some confidence in your bow hunting abilities and in what kind of damage an arrow can do before you start waiting for racks.
“On average, bow hunters only harvest one deer of any kind for every four years hunted,” Brad added. “So even a doe is a trophy to a beginning hunter.”
This advice seemed a little strange coming from a man who had gained a wide reputation by collecting record racks all over the world.
I figured I already was a good hunter, so, like many other egotistical mistakes I’ve made, I didn’t take his advice. Besides, Charlie Farmer, also an accomplished hunter and outdoor writer sharing camp with us said: “You’re the kind of lucky guy who’ll probably go out there and kill a big one his first year.”
Well, it was three years before I finally got close enough to a buck with a big rack to even try a shot. And I got so excited I messed it up. After that, I thought about giving it all up. I had sat through a lot of boring hours to reach that one blunder.
But I finally realized that, in the meantime, I had passed up a lot of good opportunities at does and average bucks that would have taught me a lot of things only experience can prove. Brad’s words began to haunt me with a sense of humility.
Even after I changed my attitude and broadened my opportunities, I was quite surprised to find that it took another year to accomplish a kill. After that, however, the frequency increased until I was taking up to a half-dozen deer a season.
Bow hunting is one of my favorite things, and I do a lot of it. Each season I see scores of deer I could easily down with a rifle, but I haven’t even owned one big enough for deer for about a decade. Nothing pushes all my hunting buttons like this primitive method.
Despite technological advances in bows, it is still a primitive method that demands you get very close and personal with your target. For a good shot, a deer not only has to be standing relatively broadside and in the open, it ideally should be only about 20 or 30 yards away.
There is something special and exciting about invading a deer’s space to that degree, and, even if you have a great bow and can shoot tight groups at a target, there are dozens of things that can go wrong during the frantic moment of truth–and some of them usually do…
I’ve had a few chances at record book bucks, but haven’t registered one yet. Mainly that’s because I don’t hunt in trophy territory, and because I still don’t let a lot of does pass while waiting for a bragging-sized buck.
In fact, I’ve passed up a lot of average to nice bucks while opting for a more tender and tasty doe. As a group, hunters harvest too many bucks, anyway, and I think it is a shame to shoot anything with antlers just to say you killed a buck.
I’d still like to put one on the wall that would make book, but if it happens at this point it will be more luck than design.
It’s really not a big deal to me, anymore. What I love most is the fascinating pastime of bow hunting. Even with an attitude of “if it’s brown it’s down,” and a lot of experience to boot, bow hunting still requires a lot of solitary hours sitting in a tree before something happens.
I like action. Besides, I still get pretty excited sometimes when a doe comes in and throws a few complications in my direction.
I’ve come to realize there’s a lot more to hunting that just bragging rights. And, even though Brad Harris can brag with the best of them, I think he knew this all along.
Ron Kruger has been an outdoor writer/photographer/editor for over 30 years.
Tags: bow hunting, deer, hunting, trophies
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