Thinking and being alert to deer is easy

This buck has a larger rack than you think; Count the points
photo c.  Dave Richey Outdoors

My mind seemingly has tunnel vision. The only two things i seem focus intently on while bow hunting is studying deer, which really doesn’t make me all bad. I could care less about ball parks, Nascar races, or tournament golf.

Whitetails excite me; almost everything else is far less interesting, and certainly a lot less fun.

People question how I can only think about these two items most of the time. It must be easy because both passions have consumed my thoughts for more than 50 years.

Both thoughts are of equal importance, and without my intense study, there would be less hunting success. A number of years ago, I was asked a question at a bow-hunting seminar I was giving.

Another seminar attendee asked if the only thing I thought about was writing. I gave the man a straight answer.

It's a wise hunter who can act and think at the same time

"Writing is what I do," I said. "It's how I make a living, and to do my job properly, I'm always thinking about the next story. It has to be what I think about on a daily basis. I'd be dead in the water without the next story idea. The same thing applies when I bow hunt for whitetails."

My answer is based on these reasons. For me, hunting whitetails with a bow, and studying the animals at every opportunity, is what I do. To stop studying deer is to stop learning about whitetail deer. To stop learning means less opportunities and decreased success.

When I hunt, I become totally focused and immersed in my surroundings, and what the deer are doing. I never lose my concentration on deer, but I continue to focus and watch other deer. I can solve all kinds of deer hunting problems while sitting in my ground blind or in an elevated coop or tree stand.

Stay focused on your surroundings and remain alert

When working, my thoughts are always on deer hunting or trying to figure out why a particular deer did what it did the night before. Most people forget yesterday's hunt but not me.

Some people find it hard to think about two things at once or have trouble chewing gum and walking. That often happens when deer hunting: I'll be trying to solve a knotty little deer travel pattern problem, and a nice buck will walk out. My reflexes take over, and I can shoot that buck while shifting mental gears, and then I will shift back to solving other problems after shooting the deer or passing up a shot.
Solving any bow-hunting problem is always easier while bow hunting. Any hunting area always has some natural noises, but out there, the phone doesn't ring to distract me.

Years ago I learned that many of my award-winning articles and columns came to me while sleeping. One part of my brain kicked into gear, and I would wake up, slip out of bed, head for my office and write it while the idea was still fresh in my mind.

The same thing happens while bow hunting. A problem may bother me for weeks, and then one night while sound asleep, the answer wakes me up faster than a face slap with an ice-cold wash cloth. I suspect that being asleep allows the subconscious to kick in, provide the needed answer, and usually the answer is so simple I wonder why it didn't come to me much sooner.

Hunting and thinking is just as easy as walking and talking

I'm able to study deer, think about various deer patterning problems, and be ready and able to shift gears automatically, and shoot the buck. It's what I've trained my body and mind to do, and anyone else can do it providing they've learned the basic fundamentals of drawing and properly aiming a bow and making a smooth release. Do those things long enough, and do them properly, and it becomes simple.

This sort of thing often happens while I'm hunting. When my two main thoughts meld while aiming at a big buck, it is one of the most memorable events of my life.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Firearms and common sense go together

Chuck Lunn with two snowies taken on a hunt. He didn’t shoot me.

Outdoor writing has been my personal livelihood  for 44 years. One would think over that period of time that I’d seen everything in the outdoors.

Today’s newspaper carried a short blurb. A deer hunter did something foolish, and managed to shoot and kill himself. It makes me wonder what’s wrong with people.

I have probably written at least 100 stories, and perhaps more, about the many ways in which Michigan hunters have managed to kill or wound themselves or others over the years. You’d think after awhile people would quit taking idiotic chances. Quit thinking that hunting accidents only happen to other people, but I learned differently about 20 years ago.

Accidents can and do happen, but are usually the result of poor judgment.

Today’s account of yesterday’s fatality detailed how the unlucky hunter had climbed into his tree stand, and was in the process of pulling his loaded rifle into the tree. No one knows for sure  exactly what caused this tragedy, but the barrel was pointing up when it went off. The bullet from his rifle killed him, and the police are supposedly investigating the accident.

If anyone out there is hunting from a tree stand or any other elevated platform, for God’s sake, don’t load the firearm ahead of time. Even an unloaded rifle, muzzleloader or shotgun should be raised into the stand butt-first. Use a stout rope, tied a firm knot around the firearm, and don’t load the silly thing until you have it in the blind.

A loaded firearm can catch the trigger on a twig on the way up, and boom, it blows off half your face. Or the shot goes off, and hits you in various parts of your body. I used to investigate such stories for The Detroit News as part of my job, and some of the ways people injure or kill themselves would amaze most sportsmen who have more than a little bit of common sense.

Here are a few examples, including one that happened to me.

One guy stopped to fire up a smoke while hunting. He stopped walking, rested the muzzle of his shotgun on one foot while lighting up, and the shotgun went off, blew away his toes and part of his foot. Now there is another reason to stop smoking. Now the guy hobbles around.

Two guys hunting together paused to have lunch. They met, leaned their loaded deer rifles against a tree, and started going through their brown-bag lunch. One guy accidentally bumped a rifle, it fell to the frozen ground, went off, and the survivor had to break the bad news to the other man’s wife about how an accident killed his best friend.

Another nimrod was duck hunting from a boat. He and his friend built a framework of wood and chicken wire around around the boat. They cut cattails, wove them into the wire, and went hunting. They saw some ducks coming, one man stuck the muzzle of his 3-inch 12 gauge through the wire to shoot. The ducks swerved, he pulled back on the shotgun stock, but the front bead was caught on the wire. So he reaches through the wire with a couple of fingers, and pushed the barrel backwards while pulling the stock back with the safety off and his finger on the trigger. They now call him Stubby after shooting off two fingers.

I was shot in the hand and wrist by a snowshoe hare hunter in my party who had become lost, and was firing three-shot bursts from his 12 gauge, as I went back to get him. He was firing wildly in a panic, and just as I found him, he shot in my direction. Many pellets him me but didn’t penetrate my Hunter Orange shooting coat, but some pellets did go into one gloved hand.

Take no chances, think before shooting, identify your target, and use caution.

These accidents occur because some people don’t pay attention, use very poor judgment, have little or no common sense, and seem willing to take chances while hunting. There were no firearm fatalities last year, but we’ve already had our first in 2010. One death is one too many.

Engage brain before picking up and using any firearm. The life you save could be your own.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors