The wait for bow season is finally over. The field work is finished and all that’s left is to pack gear and pick a stand location.
Bow season opens next Thursday, October, 1. If you have done everything properly, all of your stand and blind sites have been prepped and abandoned for at least a month. There are trails going into and out of all sites, which will facilitate a speedy and stealthy approach and retreat. You have been shooting your bow all summer and can hit a dime at 40 yards and have ordered and received the newest and best gear and camouflage. What could be left but go hunting? The truth is, most of the important stuff. You still have to shoot some more, get your clothes, gear, and vehicle organized, and finally, make a game plan for the first morning. And you thought it was time to hunt.
I have to say, all the hard work you do in the summer preparing stands and trails is important, but can all fall to the wayside if you don’t prepare properly. You may have shot all summer, but did you shoot with all your hunting clothes and facemask on? If you haven’t, you have made the first and biggest mistake as a bow hunter. Sometimes clothing and facemasks can hinder the shooter enough to knock the arrow off by feet. The most common reason for this is string slap on the arm. As clothing is added, the string can no longer clear the arm and ends up snagging and slapping it. This can cause you to completely miss an animal or, even worse, wound it. To prevent this, they make compression sleeves, arm guards, or you can cut the sleeve off of an old camouflage shirt and wear it over your holding arm.
Thick warm clothes and facemasks aren’t the common practicing outfit, but they should be. This isn’t true for all bow shooters, but many cannot shoot a summertime setup in the fall. I personally see quite a bit of arrow movement to the left when I wear a thick facemask and coat. If I remember right, it’s about a nine inch difference. For this reason, I practice and sight in my bow again wearing the clothes that I will hunt in. I have also chosen to use face paint over a mask because it hinders my shooting and doesn’t allow the shooter to feel the kisser button.
Not all shooters use a kisser, but I find them to make a lot of difference when hunting. Many times when you draw back and try to anchor your bow, things just won’t feel right. A kisser allows you to find the proper anchor point quickly and accurately and will help the hunter make better shots by setting up proper alignment. I highly recommend them for hunting.
Now it’s on to gear. I purchased another climber stand this year and know from climbers past to test it out first before heading into the woods. I haven’t used one in years and favor ground hunting, but there were a lot of ridges and open flats on the farm, that one was needed. First, make sure to never leave the ground without a safety harness, and then climb up and down trees to familiarize yourself with the process. Remember, half the time you will either be going up or down the tree in the dark, so being comfortable with climbing up and down will make things safer and speedier. Now you need to shore up the stand with provided straps or ratchets. This will prevent the sections from dropping out from under you if you happen to bump it. Make sure to tie the two sections together, so if the bottom does drop, it doesn’t fall to the bottom of the tree and can be retrieved. Now you need to shoot a bunch from it.
Many shooters have a hard time shooting from elevation at first, but can get over it pretty fast by bending at the waist. Imagine your typical standing shooting position. If you are above the target you have to lower the bow to see it in the sights. If you use your arm to compensate, it will knock your anchor point off typically causing a high shot. By bending at the waist you compensate properly and maintain proper alignment, this will result in an on-target shot if you have chosen the right yardage and the deer doesn’t jump the string.
I recommend using a rangefinder with angle compensation and doing all you can to silence your bow to prevent misses. You then need to thoroughly wash and de-scent all of your gear and clothing. I recommend drying outside, if at all possible, which helps to further eliminate human scent. Remember, in your game plan to play the wind. The deer’s nose is its best sense, so your game plan should revolve around trying to avoid being scented. I like to google or draw a map and record stand and trail locations. I enter the directions and use the day’s forecast to attempt to pick the proper location. Don’t be surprised if the wind is not exact and you have to tweak your plan a bit to not get detected.
Last but not least is your vehicle. Clean it out, so that you have room enough for your gear. I recommend not wearing your hunting clothes in the car. Instead, put them in a bin and put them on outside the vehicle at the hunting site. This will reduce scent contamination and could make all the difference when a big old buck makes his approach.
Good wishes and have a safe, friendly and successful first day.