Remembering early bow hunts

Locating big bucks became a habit but not all fell to my arrows.

Every now and then my mind carries me back to the so-called "good old days." Everything seemed larger than life when we were kids, and first getting involved in hunting was a big deal.

I can't recall the year of my first bow hunt, but I had an old recurve that I used. It seemed as if that bow was as tall as I was, but that is the fun part of remembering things from about 60 years ago. Our mind sometimes plays tricks on us.

My thoughts take me back to an era when very few people hunted with a long or recurve bow. This was long before the first compound bow was invented, and I remember trying to find straight wooden arrow shafts. Some were as crooked as a snake.

Things were much different 50-60 years ago.

Constant practice was needed to keep muscles toned for a quick draw, an even faster aim, and a sure release. There were no tree stands in those days, and the only rubber boots we owned were four- or five-buckle Arctics that were worn during winter months.

The deer seemed much larger back then than now. Of course, I suspect that was because I was smaller, and our size difference was a result of being a teenager.

Most of the hunting in those days came during the traditional November 15-30 firearm season. Blaze or Hunter Orange clothing wasn't worn in those days for one simple reason: it hadn't been invented yet.

Most of us wore green-and-black or red-and-black checked wool coats and pants. Ours were often hand-me-downs from an older brother or friend, and sometimes we hunted in whatever clothing we had. We knew about dressing in layers, and often wore everything we owned to stay reasonably warm.

We never worried much about human scent, and seldom took any precautions about hunting the wind. Many hunters simply walked into the woods, found a stump or uprooted tree to sit on, and would watch where two or three deer trails came together. If they happened to choose a downwind position, they might shoot a deer if they could sit still and not spook the animal.

Studying deer became my No. 1 practice while hunting.

I was fascinated by whitetails in those days. I'd often go hunting. It soon dawned on me that if I was upwind of deer, I seldom got a shot. My education had begun.

One of the first things I learned was to hunt the wind. I learned that a hunter downwind of a whitetail buck was seldom winded. I learned to hunt deeper in the thick cover so I'd have a chance at a buck before the guys lined up outside of the woods would see deer. Another lesson quickly learned.

It didn't take long for me to learn that a long bow or recurve wasn't made for long-distance shots, and I found most of the bucks I shot were between 10 and 15 yards away. I became an instinctive shooter because there were few sights in those days. I drew back, aimed down the arrow shaft at the buck, and when the sight picture looked right, I made my release. After time, those shots often killed that buck.

There are memories of scouting for deer. It was easy to find the main runways, and I avoided other hunters as if they had smallpox. The more hunters in an area, the greater the chance of the accumulated noise and human scent spooking deer long before dawn arrived.

So I hunted deeper in the thick cover, planned my adventure with teenage expectations, and studied deer. I wanted to learn all I could about these animals, because deep down inside, I knew that the more a hunter knew about whitetail deer, the better success they would have.

I hunted deer at every opportunity during the open seasons.

Weekends, holidays, days off from work, all would find me in the woods. I spent countless days studying them from afar, and many of those lessons I learned as a teenager are still being practiced today.

Hunting deer is much more than a casual thing to me. It is something I happily admit to being addicted to. Spending time in the woods, studying and watching deer, is as much a part of my scouting procedures as it was 50 years ago.

Perhaps the bucks were bigger back then, and perhaps they weren't, but it makes little difference now. The good old days didn't occur six decades ago, they are here today. Lots of deer doesn't make the deer hunting better. Hunting one buck, and concentrating one's entire efforts on that single animal, is what makes hunting so much fun.

After all of these years there is nothing better than going one on one with a whitetail buck. If he makes a mistake, you'll get a shot. If you make a mistake, chances are good you'll never know he was nearby.

For me, that's what makes hunting whitetails with a bow, such a worthwhile endeavor. Outwitting a deer means either acquiring a great amount of information about the game you seek or you are carrying a luck rabbit’s foot in your pocket.

Sadly, luck never played a very important part in my bow-hunting career.