Getting Ready

I love this time of year. I am busy with all of the pre-season preparations. Practicing shooting my bow and sighting in rifles. Cleaning out my packs full of old napkins, leaves from last season; crumbling and half rotten. Old candy wrappers, and empty cans of tobacco. Musty clothes piled in tubs ready for washing and airing out. Boots with last years mud dried in place to remind me of the raining weekend when we bagged 4 whitetails, 3 bucks and one doe. Leaking rubber knee boots that need another patch to replace the previous patch that now leaks.

I love the preparation, and in many ways it is almost as fun as the hunt itself. Each item that I gather has a memory of a previous adventure. Rattling antlers - from bucks harvested in the past still remind me of those fateful adventures when all seemed to go as planned. Knives that have cleaned several animals, moose, mule deer, turkeys and of course whitetails. Each has a story and each a memory forever deposited into the bank of my mind. My vest still has turkey calls in it, and the unused tags from last season. Left after a hurried exit. I need to put those up and replace them with grunt tubes and water bottles. Batteries need replacing in headlamps and GPS. Knives need sharpening and storing. Tents need to be set up and checked for leaks. There is a lot to do, and I have always reserved August as the time to do this.

Our season in my part of South Carolina open on September 1st. Our two week archery season is around the corner and I am getting ready. Anxiously I anticipate the first morning, wishing and hoping it will not be too hot, but experience tells me it will. Usually in the 90's with little wind. I can only hunt the morning before it gets too hot and all of my scent control is lost to beads of sweat. If it were not for the thermacell- (Still one of the greatest inventions for hunters the past 40 years) I would have to wait until it cooled down. Early season means nothing when the mosquitoes are bigger than buzzards and swarm like locusts. But the thermacell keeps them at bay and seems not to spook the deer. It too is checked and stored.

Camp stoves, lantern mantles are replaced, propane tanks filled, cots checked and the lit goes on and on. Yet it is with the anticipation of a child waiting for christmas that opening day captivates me. I count the days, and long for the opportunities to come.

Yes I love this time of year, I look forward to it, I in some ways long for it, for the anticipation, for the preperations, for the going through and plundering through things and memories of times well spent.

Making Practice Fun

One of the things I love to do when practicing is to try different shots. I get bored with shooting paper targets, dots and 3-D targets over and over. So I will set up different shots to make it more interesting and to increase my focus. Some of my concoctions include old shotgun shells placed vertically on a stick, golf balls, life savers, coins, etc.

To support these targets, I fashioned some target holders, one of the easiest is taking a clothes pin and epoxy it to a fiberglass fishing arrow. You can then push the arrow into the ground in front of your target and use the clothes pin to hold the target. (see picture) This lets me hold a variety of items. When shooting old shotgun shells, I slide one shell over the arrow, and then place another (brass to brass) on top and shoot the shell. When shooting coins or life savers, cards, I simply clamp it with the clothes pin.

Yesterday while doing this I went into my shop looking for a new target and found an old washer, I did not measure the washer, but it is about the size of a 50 cent piece with a 1/2 inch hole.

Standing 10 yards (my eyes are old and I cannot see these small targets beyond that distance) I shot the washer. Eventually after 12 shots with 6 hitting the side of the washer, I was able to send one through the center of the hole.

This type of practice helps my focus, and is a lot more fun than shooting dots, or 3-D all of the time, and I have found that it really helps my ability to shoot game. It causes a lot of repeat-ability and that is key to archery. Repeating the fundamentals over and over and over. Until it is second nature.

Get some junk and try this, it will make your practice a lot more fun.

Why we Hunt

I hunt and I am proud to be a hunter. I hunt because I descend from a long generation of hunters, from the beginning of time, human beings have hunted. We hunt for food, and we hunt for sport, mostly however I hunt because I am a hunter. That is part of who I am. It is a tremendous side of my life, I dedicate many hours in planning, scouting, target practice and actually hunting. And I do so proudly.

I hunt because I enjoy nature, I love watching undisturbed wildlife acting as if I were not there. I enjoy watching sunrises from tree stands and arctic tundra's, I marvel at sunsets over snow capped mountains. I sit in wonder at does and fawns, bull moose and black bears that magically appear when you least expect it. I hunt to be there, and to watch what is going on. I hunt to challenge myslef and my skills against the smartest and wisest of all game animals. I hunt to push myself and my skills. To test my woodsmanship and my ability to execute under pressure.

Sadly, we are loosing hunters in America at an alarming rate. Fewer and fewer young people are being introduced to this wonderful sport. and adults are turning in their guns for golf clubs. In my opinion what is worse is that many "hunters" are loosing their skills and becomeing excellent marskmen. The marketing of hunting has cause many to loose or never learn woodsmanship. THey are content with sitting in a box over a food plot and then brag about what they killed. Sure they killed the animal, but they never hunted the animal. Hunting involves the fullest aspect of the chase. It involves scouting the terrain, determining the best places to be and the best time to be there, it involves understanding animal behavior and then putting all of that knowledge into action to successfully and humanely harvest that animal.

There are many different types of hunters, big game, dangerous game, bird hunters, waterfowl hunters and small game hunters, hound hunters and others. We all are of the same mould, drvien by something inside that fouces us to put ourselves out there where the animals are to have a chance at bagging one of them. There are many different methods of hunting, rifle, shotgun, compound bow, traditional archery, handgun, muzzleloaders, and others and we all use these methods for our own reasons. Personally I hunt in the extremes, I love traditional archery and I love rifle hunting. I have harvested game animals with shotguns and handguns as well. But these are my preferences. What ever your preference that is fine. We all need to allow us to pursue game in our own way (as long as it is legal)

Hunting is a sport. As Larry Weishun says, there are only two sports, hunting and fishing the rest are just games. To be a sportsman is to participate in hunting and fishing.

I am a hunter, and my son's hunt, and I hope my daughters will become hunters, we hunt because we are hunters and we do so proudly and unashamedly.