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Archers Set To Go

This coming Saturday (Oct. 2) is arguably the third most popular day on the sportsman's calendar – following the opening day of trout season and the opening day of rifle deer season. It is the opening day for archery deer season. About 340,000 hunters have bought archery licenses.

According to the game commission, the first week of archery season sees a substantial deer harvest. Then things slow down for a while. When the rut arrives, things can get crazy for the last week or two of the season when even the wariest bucks emerge from their sanctuaries to chase does for breeding purposes.

Despite the high water we endured following the hurricanes of August and early September, I have been trout fishing a number of times. As usual, I have noticed deer stands hanging from the sides of trees. The stands were not there in August. A couple of these stands sit so high on the trees to which they are attached that I cannot imagine how an archer can get an accurate shot at a deer passing by.

Several enthusiastic archers have asked me why I haven't taken up archery hunting.

"I did," I reply. "Right after I retired 15 years ago, I gave it a shot one autumn. I had a nice platform stand. I had bought a quality compound bow. It was pleasant in the woods. One morning, while using a deer call, I called a doe and a couple of fawns right under my stand. However, most of the time I was bored. Unlike trout fishing and turkey hunting where you try to make something happen, I found that you had to wait for something to happen when archery hunting. I guess I can admire tweety birds and chipmunks for only so long while waiting. And, truth be told, when I was sitting in my stand, I constantly wondered what the trout were doing at the time. Finally, when someone stole my stand, that ended it for me."

Even so, I admire ethical bowhunters and crossbow hunters who do things honorably and do not bait animals to their stands. Next to top-notch turkey hunters, they are probably the best hunters in the woods.

I do have trouble believing the PGC's harvest figures. I cannot wrap my mind around the 80,130 bucks (67 percent with crossbows) the PGC claims archers harvested last season, which would be about three times the reported harvest. Even 27,000 archery-killed bucks seems pretty high.

Anyhow, I hope all ethical bowhunters and crossbow hunters enjoy a wonderful fall of archery hunting.

 

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