I’ve held a hunting license since 2002 at the age of 9 years old. Always participated in deer camp and gun season throughout the years. When I was probably 17 I thought I’d get into bow hunting with a Hoyt that was gifted to me by a family friend. I didn’t practice much. I hunted carelessly, and ultimately fell out of it as I progressed through my waterfowl hunting career. After about a 8 year hiatus from it, I decided to pick a bow back up and take it seriously and try to put a buck on the ground which I have never done with a bow. Man, I had no idea how terrible of a deer hunter I’d been for almost 20 years….

Last season was beyond humbling. Getting busted by does so often and frequent it felt pointless, learning thermals, bedding, feeding, how deer move through cover. Most importantly, hunting where the deer are instead of where you’d like them to be. It was like I’d never deer hunted at all. All the stars came together tho in November of 2021 when I had a mature 8 pointer come cruising through at 230 in the afternoon and I made the worst shot I’ve ever made on an animal at a whopping 3 yards on the ground. Fortunately, he survived and is still walking around as of this winter. That one stuck with me.

Fast forward to this season, I focused a lot of my energy on summertime scouting and finding areas with past sign. Identifying bedding, access, food sources, and finding sets where access in and out is solid. All of that was good and great until season came along and many of the areas I hunted were getting beat to a pulp by other hunters and hikers. Still, managed several good encounters and almost punched a tag on a mature 8 pointer if I could have gotten him stopped.

The pressure was just absurdly high on my several public pieces in October and instead of trying to beat a dead horse I decided to hunt an entirely new area. A couple afternoons of scouting and observation sits on a food source I figured what the hell, we’ll dive in on some bedding one morning as a cold front was coming on Halloween. Access was solid, I got in quiet as a church mouse, and climbed up in the saddle. About 730 I look up and see brown moving down the trail I was hoping for, out pops a clean looking  young 6 pointer cruising the doe bedding. He went to fork left toward me, and I was already trying to slow things down. 25 yards I drew back, settled in through my shot process, and let her rip. Perfect. 

1st bow buck on the ground, I couldn’t have been happier about it. Embrace the process and enjoy it. life’s all about learning, have some fun with it🤘🏼

Learning Through Hunting: My Journey

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Learning Through Hunting: My Journey

James A

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