Archers Ready To Go

Saturday (Sept. 30) is the big day for crossbow and bow hunters, the day they have been dreaming about all summer. It is the opening day of the archery deer season. Bowhunters have been practicing with their equipment for months so that they can make competent, humane shots on deer. Members of the crossbow community have sighted in their crossbows, making sure their sighting systems are in working order and that their equipment is properly tuned.

Many of these archers have erected stands in locations where they believe deer will be traveling. I have noticed deer paths along several places where I fish, and recently ladder stands have appeared in trees along some of these paths.

Many sportsmen believe the weeks of archery season that offer the best opportunities for success come in early November when the rutting (breeding) season makes the deer become more active. However, knowledgeable sportsmen have told me that the first week of the season often provides the best hunting for archers who have done their preseason scouting. PGC statistics support this. Early season deer have not been disturbed by hunters parading through the woods, and they may be somewhat less cautious than they are later in the season, at least prior to the rut.

I only ever gave bowhunting one half-hearted try. This occurred during the autumn of 2006, my first year of retirement. I had erected a treestand in a patch of woods at my wife’s family’s farm. This stand was located in an area where I had killed a couple of deer with a rifle during previous hunts.

I didn’t like just sitting there waiting for deer to appear. On the first morning I sent out bleats from a deer call, and within 15 minutes I had a doe and two fawns appear not far from the stand, easily within shooting distance. However, I am not a doe hunter and passed up any attempt to harvest one of these animals. I returned that evening, bleated, and had the deer again approaching the stand. Not far from the stand, one of them caught a whiff of my scent, and they quickly vanished into a thicket.

I took a little time away from autumn fly-fishing adventures to hunt; but when I did, I wondered what the trout were doing.

I had no more close encounters that fall -- during which someone sneaked into the woods and stole my stand. That — and my fear of failing to recover a wounded deer — pretty much ended my interest in archery hunting.