Secret Revealed
In this blog I’m going to let you in on a little secret, I’m not strictly an archer, oh wait, I believe I’ve already told you this. If you didn’t know, welcome to my secret, if you did, sometimes we need a refresher.
My theory is, (and this depends on your location and the deer’s behavior), the first part of the season is great for a bow. At some point the deer in my area tend to wise up and that’s when I might get a little distance between the deer and myself to accomplish the harvest. Conditions change again toward the end of the season, so now what?
The conditions I face are that I have a small permission to hunt right on the edge of town. There are other hunters around me and we’re all competing for the same deer. After some adventuring around the woods and through sound, I witnessed the bucks during the rut tango, I found my, (well most likely several of us hunters’) target buck’s bed.
Time to Move In
It’s time to move in! I have two options, I can use the Bear Whitetail Legend RTH Compound Bow or the Killer Instinct Fatal-X Crossbow. I’m going to need to be extremely stealthy, with as little movement as possible, as I won’t have much cover to hide me. I’m going with the crossbow.
Some may say, “ Why not just take your rifle?” I would respond like this, “ Using a rifle would be a completely irresponsible choice on my part. I hunt a small permission, as I mentioned earlier, there are other hunters, houses and public roads in every direction. Not to mention the terrain is flat. I’m in the business of harvesting an animal in the safest way possible.”
A Safer Method
So the cons to shooting a rifle on the ground where I am is it’s dangerous. Pros to shooting a crossbow or compound bow is the arrows won’t travel anywhere near the distance a bullet will and the noise level is night and day! This allows me to creep in on the path the buck takes at dusk or dawn to leave his bed and to return and await his arrival without the concerns of endangering anyone else.
Preparation
- Check the string and screws on the Killer Instinct Fatal-X Crossbow that they are all in good condition and tight.
- Wax the strings and lube the cams.
- Go to the range and take some shots to ensure that it is zeroed.
- Install my quiver, (most likely I’ll only get one shot off, but I’ve heard some stories) and load the arrows with the Thorn Compound Broadheads.
- Pack my Accu-draw cocking device and my decocking arrow.
- Check the weather and the wind and line myself up accordingly with my crossbow cocked, loaded and on safe.
As I make my way to my new set, it’s important to think like a deer but look like a tree. I’ll be sitting directly in their living room with little cover, there’s no telling what might happen. Animals are unpredictable and I’ll be on their turf. This is a bit more exciting than sitting in a stand off the ground, can you handle it?
Hunt or Harvest
If I have success on the very first sit, I will be amazed! This is not a guaranteed harvest, in most cases it never is. But here’s to the Killer Instinct Fatal-X Crossbow and some old fashioned tracking giving me the upper hand on our target buck to hopefully harvest him before the season ends. If I do, I promise you’ll read about it right here!
