I love December bow hunting

Be deliberate. This buck is quartering away. Take your time & shoot straight.

There was a time when the firearm deer season was terribly important to me, and although that still holds true to some degree, it turns out that I spend more time hunting with a bow during the Nov. 15-30 season that I do with a firearm.

The same holds true for the upcoming muzzle-loader season. I'll hunt a day or two with the frontloader, clean it out in good shape, and pick up the bow again. There's no two ways about it: I'd rather hunt with a bow than a firearm, and that is that.

What attracts me to this bow hunting gig? Many things, including:

December bpw hunting can be cold and snowy but often produces larger bucks.

I like my deer up close and personal. Preferably inside of 20 yards, and 15 yards is absolutely ideal. There is no room for mistakes when deer get that close, and it becomes much tougher shooting a deer with a bow once snow covers the ground.

I find it fascinating to watch deer at close range. Even I can see their long eye lashes and facial hair. Reading a deer's body language, and knowing what they are going to do, really lights my fire.

Once the weather turns cold, and snow begins to fall, deer hunting takes on a completely different aspect for me. The deer seem more concentrated, and there is the opportunity to obtain close-up looks at deer that may not be possible during other seasons.

Bow hunting means an accurately tuned bow, and experience drawing a bow with more clothing on. I normally reduce by draw weight by five pounds, and much prefer not having to struggle to come to full draw.

Cold weather stiffens muscles, and the added burden of too many clothes makes it all that more difficult to draw and shoot accurately without putting extra effort into pulling the bow. That extra effort is what often is noticed by deer.

I like the snow for trailing a wounded deer. I always use a Game Tracker string tracking device, but the snow always helps locate blood along a deer trail. The two -- snow and Game Tracker -- are an unbeatable combination for late-season bow hunters.

Using a Game Tracker, even on snow, increases the chances of recovering a deer.

There is no getting around it. Snow enables hunters to quickly spot an incoming animal. The foliage of October is gone, and when deer move, they are quickly seen. Spotting deer early in their approach allows hunters to get ready well in advance of a shot.

It goes without saying that pinpoint accuracy is required. Even though snow does help when blood trailing, there is no reason to take anything less than a perfect shot. High-percentage broadside or quartering-away shots are still required, and remember to pick the best shot and accept nothing less.

Winter bow hunting means being motionless and quiet. Watch the deer, and move only when the animal is preoccupied with something else. Demand nothing but the highest degree of skill from yourself, and always strive for a clean killing shot.

You know, I haven't shot a deer yet this year. It doesn't bother me because my idea of taking a deer means taking something that pleases me. I have no need to shoot a small buck, and would rather shoot a doe fawn than a small antlered buck.

I've passed up a few bucks, but not many, this year that were within my preferred range of 15 yards. There were a couple of basket-rack 8-points, and one nine-point, and some smaller bucks. None suited me for a variety of personal reasons, and I didn't shoot.

Watching deer up close is part of why I love the December bow season.

This sort of thing has happened before, and the season may pass without me taking a shot. I don't find that troubling at all. I hunt to satisfy myself, and a kill isn't what satisfies me. I hunt to be out there in fair and foul weather, and if or when the right opportunity presents itself with a desirable buck, I'll shoot.

Until then, I keep hunting. You see, there is no pressure on me to shoot a deer. There have been a large number of deer taken over 55+ years, and one more isn't important unless it satisfies an inner need that even I can't describe but I'll know it when I see it.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Some hunt with bow in gun season

A small doe trails behind a decent buck in the fog.

A buddy of mine was hunting one of my stands tonight, and it is surrounded on three sides by a watery alder thicket and the fourth side by an open field that runs through the rolling hills.

He wanted a nice fat doe for the freezer and could care less about arrowing a buck. I put him in an elevated coop, told him to sit still and wait for a broadside shot at a doe.

Arrowing a buck? OK, so what that it’s only the second day of the firearm deer season. There are many hunters, myself included, who occasionally choose to wear camo gear and a Hunter Orange hat, and take to the woods with stick and string while everyone else hunts with a firearm.

Many bow hunters like the added challenge of competing against firearms.

Over many years, I've hunted the entire firearm season with a bow. There's something about the added challenge of competing against 750,000 firearm hunter with more primitive gear.

He started seeing deer shortly after he climbed up tino the stand. A doe and button buck came early but the little buck was always between him and the doe. They fed off into the alders, and then an 8-point with gleaming white antlers showed up. Another doe and fawn tried to come in to feed but the buck ran them off before he could get a shot.

Finally that buck left, and a small buck wandered in, and then they left . The big buck wouldn't allow any other deer around it, and then there wasn't a deer in sight.

This is how deer hunting often goes in northern farmland areas, It's possible to sit for several days and not see a but, and then all of a sudden, a small buck of deer will pass through, The hunter must be vigilant at all times.

It was a common thing in northern farmland areas. Many deer travel together.

"I'm sitting there with perhaps 15 minutes of legal shooting time left and two big does walked in and kept right on going," he told me. "I was just getting ready to put my bow away when I spotted a fawn and a nice doe approaching. The fawn was almost the size of her mother, and I decided to shoot the doe fawn and allow the doe to live another year."

He watched the mother and fawn walk up and stand 10 yards out from his elevated coop, and the fawn stood eight or 10 feet behind the big doe. He came to full draw on the fawn, and when the red-dot settled in behind her front shoulder, he touched the trigger release.

"Just as I stroked the trigger," he said," I saw the doe's nose appear. The arrow hit, and although I was aiming at the fawn, I couldn't tell for certain which deer I hit.

"The orange Game Tracker line went out, sputtered once and stopped. It stuttered again, and several more feet went out, and then the line stopped moving entirely."

He waited until he could get some help and stronger lights, and me and four other guys with lights followed the Game Tracker string for about 100 yards. He found the top portion of his arrow shaft, and we continued following the string and blood.

Tracking the string almost to the deer.

The deer was on a runway and stuck with it, and suddenly the line veered off to the right. We continued following the string but now there was no blood. Fifteen yards later we came to the frayed end of the tracking line, spread out and couldn't find any blood.

We backtracked to where the tracking line took the sudden swerve, found more blood and found the deer within 20 yards.

"A Game Tracker string has saved many deer for me and other hunters," he said. "When we couldn't find blood beyond the end of the string, it was decided to look for blood where the deer swerved. I suspect another deer got tangled in the string and took it out.

That deer, and thousands of other deer, have been successfully found by using the Game Tracker device. It is a wonderful tool for bow hunters, and although my friend's arrow double-lunged the animal, it still went a fair distance before falling.

Everyone who hunts should use this string tracking device when hunting thick cover. We've used it since it was invented some three decades ago, and we still use it for one very specific reason: it helps us recover wounded deer.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors