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Thinking about Bowhunting...

What started out as a simple message to my team members, morphed into the below “message-topic-rant”. Not sure exactly where it all came from. It could have been the epic weekend that I spent kicking my own ***, or just the time of year where a mix of random thoughts that seem to bombard my mind every-waking-second. Mostly, it’s just what I think about bowhunting I guess. Please don’t take personal if you disagree. This is just my opinion and the things I’m thinking about at this time of year! Enjoy….

This past weekend my good buddy and team member Tyler Tisue and I spent some 25 hours hanging stands on one of our properties. This morning rolling out of bed, my body looks and feels like I have been in a UFC fight with a barbed-wire fence that was wrapped with tick-laden poison sumac. This brought me to consider many of the fancy products, slogans, logos, and general “talk” I see and read on a regular basis within this wonderful hunting industry.

Last night, while hanging off a pin oak about 25 ft. in the air on our 9th stand set-up of the weekend, attempting to mount a stand in the 5th position on a tree that was made to make hanging a stand level - impossible; I thought about a particular advertisement I saw in my most recent copy of North American Whitetail. Just another flashy advertisement for some product that would never find its way into my pack. It made me chuckle; even though my legs were shivering from fatigue and I was dripping with tree shavings, spider webbing, and tick laden sweat. What a glamorous marketing and advertising campaign Tyler and I would make right now! 3 days worth of sweat and mud on my custom Wallmart pants and random soaking-wet “t-shirt” would look pretty classy in-print!

There is much talk, writing, and promotion that is done in this industry in-regard to “how to kill a big buck”. I feel like the more magazines I read, the more hunting-related videos and TV I watch; the less connection I feel with much of this industry. As I’ve gotten more and more involved in the hunting industry, I’ve found myself actually feeling more and more separated from “the popular” side of the sport. Celebrity driven shows and videos, fancy ATV’s and trucks with camo paint jobs and 100 sponsor logos (looking more like a Nascar than a hunting rig), and about a thousand “success in a bottle” and gimmick products pretty-much everywhere!

When I think of bowhunting, “outfitted celebrity hunts“; aren’t what I think about. I think about the hundreds of hours I spend baking in the sun on some bug-infested field edge waiting for a 10 second glimpse of a big – velvet covered rack. I think of the hot summer days hanging stands in conditions that remind me of what Vietnam must have been like for so many young men. I think of the literal 5,000 tree limbs, branches, saplings, and poison Ivy vines that I cut last season, only to realize another 5,000 will be cut this season. I think of the thorn covered trees that upon plunging into ones body will cause a pain and frustration that brings forth many words of displeasure. I think of thousands of spider webs that I will break with my face as I push through the timber. I think of the hundreds and of miles I will walk this upcoming season. I think of the thousands of arrows I will shoot in the upcoming months before and during season. I think of arrows that won’t fly straight, bows that have “something not right” with them. I think of the white flash that a perfectly released arrow makes while finding its way to the spot I was aiming at. I think of the skunked days on stand when I don’t know where I should be, or why the deer aren’t moving. I think of the endless excuses I will make to explain why we aren’t seeing anything. I think of the rare days on-stand when countless bucks come within range in their pursuit of happiness. I think of the single opportunity I may or may-not get to place an arrow through the vital organs of a giant whitetail. I think of the bucks that I “almost” killed. I think of the hundreds of snorts I will hear this season because I have once again been reminded of the incredible sense of smell the whitetail deer possesses. I think about how it’s so worth the thousands of dollars and hours I will spend this year for that single moment that will be over faster than I can comprehend. I think about how if I didn’t have this never-ending goal in my life, I don’t know what I would be doing. I think of catchy marketing and advertising slogans that I can’t relate to; knowing what I believe I know. I think of the camps I will share with good friends, team members, and regular guys this fall. I think of the bucks than may or may not make the cover of our next DVD. I think about the inspiration I will need to push through another long - hard season. I think about how a particular bucks antlers may feel in my hands as I kneel beside its cow-like body. I think of cold January mornings I will hate as much as love. But more than anything, I think of the purity and simplicity of the moment I know I have just succeeded in killing a whitetail. This is what I never stop thinking about bowhunting.

Here is to thinking about another quickly approaching season doing what we were all made to do! Shoot straight, and wear your harness! I only have to imagine what it may be like to be thinking about bowhunting from a wheel chair to know it’s so worth the extra 2 minutes in a day it takes to be safe!

Enjoy each hunt this fall like it is your last….