Quiver: On or off the bow?

This hunter has removed his quiver from the bow. For him, it’s a good habit.

 

It’s a real easy question to answer. Do you shoot your hunting bow when the quiver is attached or off?

Now me. I always take the quiver off my bow. It’s how I learn to shoot, and who am I to go against my original training. I was taught that in 99 percent of the case, a bow hunter seldom will get a second shot if he misses the first shot.

Life often is about making such personal choices. None of us must follow other hunters like a flock of sheep, and do as they do. We can and should think for ourselves.

This applies as well to bow hunting as anything else. Every bow hunter worthy of the name has his or her own personal way of doing things, and often they turn out right. We all learn from the best teacher -- experience.

A quiverless bow in a tree stand is the ticket for me.

 

Bow quivers are a case in point. A fact I face whenever I hunt with my bow. We were checking out a TV hunting show, and a woman was trying to draw and shoot at a buck with the bow quiver on. She was having trouble, and it begged the question.

Should hunters leave the quiver on their bow while sitting in a stand and shooting at a buck? Or, should they take the quiver off to minimize weight and to eliminate an unnecessary item that could easily become tangled in tree limbs and mess up a shot?

IIt’s my daily blog so I'll go first, and throw my hat in the ring and voice my heartfelt opinion. I climb into a tree stand, and after attaching my full-body safety harness to the tree and my body, I sit down, and use the haul rope to raise my bow from ground level. The bow quiver is immediately removed and placed elsewhere on the tree after one arrow is removed. I often hang the quiver on a nearby limb where it will help break up my silhouette, and where it is out of my way.

Once the quiver in hung, I unscrew the broadhead and attach my Game Tracer string behind the FirstCut broadhead, and screw it into my Maxima carbon arrow shaft. It trails out easily behind the arrow, and at normal ranges of 20-25 yards, it doesn’t affect arrow accuracy.

I attach the release to the string, stuff the lower limb of my C.P. Oneida Black Eagle bow into my left boot, and relax. I hunt and shoot sitting down, and my stands are positioned so bucks usually come from behind me and on my left side.

I prefer sitting to shoot because there is less movement involved.

 

If the deer follows his normal pattern, he will approach from behind and on my left side. I'm right-handed, so when the buck comes within shooting range, and looks the other way, I start my draw and as I reach full draw, the lower limb clears the top of my boot and is clear of my leg, the stand or any tree branches.

This allows for a minimum of movement, is very quiet, and oh so effective once a hunter becomes used to it. This method of drawing a bow wouldn't be possible if my bow quiver was still attached.

The arrow shafts, vanes or even the quiver could get caught up in clothing, limbs or branches. But there is another reason why my quiver comes off my bow when I begin hunting.

It reduces the overall bow weight. Not much, mind you, but when hunting in a variety of locations, sooner or later a bow quiver is going to hang up on something. I remove all possibilities of that happening by removing it and hanging it some place where it is out of my way.

Whenever I watch a television show, or hunt with someone who always leaves his or her quiver on the bow, it makes me wonder how many lost opportunities have occurred because of that quiver.

Bow hunting offers but one shot 99.9 percent of the time. Why keep a quiver on?

 

A bow is a one-shot piece of archery equipment. It's not like hunting with a bolt, pump or semi-automatic firearm. Unless the wind is very strong and noisey, second shots at a buck are so rare as to almost be nonexistent. The quiver is just one more thing to mess up a shot.

A bow quiver on a bow, doesn't speed up getting off a second shot at a deer. It is somewhat awkward to reach to the quiver, pull out another arrow, reach across the bow to nock it, and prepare to shoot again. Chances are, any self-respecting buck with heavy headgear will be long gone if you miss that first shot and he may not come near that stand again.

I often use my bow to help camouflage my upper body and head. I wear a face mask while hunting, and can still turn the bow inside my left boot so the handle and upper limb breaks up my silhouette. If a deer offers a shot, a simple and slow half-turn of the wrist will point the bow toward the animal as the hunter comes to full draw.

Such a movement may or may not be necessary, and that is a debatable point, but it would be impossible to do with a bow quiver attached. For me, that is a strong enough reason for removing the quiver.

The slight added weight of a bow quiver (even a three-arrow quiver like mine) can allow a hunter to unknowingly cant the bow to that side. Is it enough, under the pressure of a nearby buck, to throw the arrow off its intended course?

I don't know and don't care to test the theory. My preference is to shoot a bow unencumbered by a quiver. It's my thought that it just simplifies everything, reduces weight, eliminates canting, and besides ... it works for me.

Anyone willing to plead their case for keeping a bow quiver on a bow while hunting is encouraged to contact me. You won't change your mind, I won't change yours, but I'd love to hear your philosophy.

Debate can be healthy if everyone approaches it with fairness in their heart. Talk to me about this quiver issue.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Dogging the deer tracks

This nice buck was watching a hunter that was following his back-trail.

Snow depths are getting deeper this year as one storm after another blows through the state. Whitetails are moving freely throughout the Lower Peninsula and parts of the Upper Peninsula but if heavy snows continue in the UP, the deer will soon all be yarded up, which makes for a long winter.

Many avid hunters want to learn more about deer. There's no better time to learn about deer, from deer, than taking a walk through a swamp or woods. It can provide great exercise, and can teach a sportsman a thing or two about these animals they hunt.

Wait for a fresh snow, and go for a hike. There will be no particular destination in mind, but walk until you find one big track traveling alone. Chances are good it will be a buck, and he may be with or without antlers. Many bucks lose their antlers in December, but some Michigan bucks will keep theirs into January or February.

Find a unique track, and get on it and track it for a mile or two.

This is a form of hunting without carrying a bow or firearm. Get on that track and note any particular characteristic about it. One hoof may be oddly shaped, or one leg may drag a bit, and anything different about a hoof print will make it easy to identify.

Stay on the track, and usually you will determine that the deer knows you are behind him within 30 minutes. You are not trying to stalk the deer; instead, you are trying to track that animal until you see it. It's a game of hide and week, and you'll soon learn the deer is better at staying out of sight than you are.

You'll soon come to where the deer is bedded down, and keep to the trail but continue to look ahead and to both sides. Eventually the deer will circle to check you out.

The deer will mosey along until he hears, sees or smells you on the trail, and then will start to meander. Ofter the deer will take you through some rugged terrain before it begins to circle.

The circle is your first clue that the deer knows you are back there, dogging his tracks. They often circle back to a point where they can watch their backtrail. They want to know what is coming up behind them.

Sometimes the deer, if badly spooked, will light out of there on a hard run and cover a quarter-mile or more before slowing. That's OK, just let him run and keep to the track.

Stay on the same track, and don’t be in a rush. Fast-moving hunters spook deer.

Deer that are being followed will often join up with other deer, mix with them, follow many of the same runways or trails they use, and that is when tracking a deer becomes more difficult. It's important to find a track that is noticeably different than those of other deer.

The animal may try to fool you this way, and if this doesn't shake you off the track, look for it to head for another area that holds many deer. Track the deer through that maze, and the animal will either get really spooked or develop a curiosity.

I should note that it isn't wise to do this when deer are yarded up. Deer pinned in a cedar swamp do not need to be spooked. They often will be living off fat reserves, and even though the animals may run away, it may later lead to their death. Track deer when they can freely move.

A deer may move with the wind, across wind, or try to circle to get downwind of your location. A circling deer is trying to see or smell you, and that is when it pays to look all around and slow down a bit.

Don't hurry. A slow-moving sportsman will move the deer where it wants to go, and a spooked deer will lead you on a long chase. Often, a deer will be spotted within a mile.

You may see it standing motionless in the tag alders ahead, crossing a snowy hill ahead, or heading into the next patch of thick cover. It's not necessary to follow a deer to the point of exhaustion.

The trick is to watch what deer do when they know something is after them. They are less frightened of a slow-moving person than one moving as fast as possible.

Watch and see how deer try to elude you. They will make sudden direction changes, stop, move off to one side or the other, but often will be back in thick cover. You may find yourself walking within 20 yards of a deer without seeing it.

Deer will try to elude you. Look for sudden direction changes or movements.

This is great exercise, but even more important, it gives a hunter a greater insight into how deer think and why they do some of the things they do. And best of all, it is fun.

Become extremely good at this tactic, and then start carrying a bow or firearm. Walk up a buck without overly spooking him, and you'll have acquired a talent that very few hunters possess.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Try something new

A pyramid pit blind like this one allows close, easy shots at ground level.

Why do people climb mountains? The answer is easy. Because they are there.

The same analogy applies to deer hunters. Why do people switch stands methodically. The answer is because they can and should.

A lady bow hunter I know loves to sit in just one stand. She will hunt in it every day of the season if possible. She loves her stand, its location and she knows where the deer will come from to pass by within her shooting range.

Don’t be afraid to try something new and different. Don’t get in a hunting rut.

What's more: she shoots good bucks from that stand. It works for her but this method of hunting is not for me.

I always want to know what lies ahead and around the next bend in the trail. Each day of deer hunting is a day of discovery for me, and that means moving around from one area to another.

It's not my nature to hunt the same stand two days in a row unless I feel a big buck will show. I watch deer on a daily basis, and know where the bigger bucks travel.

Some bucks get into lockstep with moving along the same trail but many big-antlered deer vary their travel routes and schedules. Young bucks can be patterned, and it's possible to predict with 95 percent accuracy what time the little buck will arrive. Nine times out of 10 they will show up within five minutes of when they are expected.

Now, me, looking at the same scenery day after day takes its toll on my patience. It's much more fun, to my way of thinking, to sit in a different stand every day. It helps me avoid getting into a rut.

Hunt a tree stand, ground blind, pop-up tent, elevated coop -- switch around.

My preference is to mix up my hunting activities. One day a treestand will be picked, and the next day it may be a ground blind a mile away. The following day may be an elevated coop, and the next day I may choose a pit blind. This allows me to study different deer, try to pinpoint a big buck and his travel area, and it keeps me from getting bored.

A bored hunter is not an effective one. Move around, try different locations, and it keeps you hunting different areas. Switching hunting spots on a regular basis keeps hunters from being patterned by deer.

Each spot will feature bucks approaching from a new and different angle, and like other sportsmen, it's like learning a new stretch of river. Sometimes the new spots will not pay off, but other times they do.

It's impossible to know how good a hunting area can be if we don't hunt it. A great deal of thought goes into choosing locations for ground or tree stands, and that means someone must sit there and study deer patterns and travel routes under various wind directions.

I want to know everything there is to know about a certain location. There have been times where I've put in a stand, hunted it for a day or two, and pulled it out because something about it just didn't feel right.

Take different  paths in and out of a spot. Have at least two routes to choose from.

Hunters, like many people, listen to gut feeling. They have hunches, and I'll look at it a few times, put a stand up, and know within 30 minutes of crawling into the stand that it isn't right. If it doesn't pass muster the first night, it won't be there the next night.

I don't believe in moving stands just because it goes cold for a week or so. If it has a proven record, it stays in place for a season. I've seen stands be cold for most of a season, and then pick up toward the end.

It's not long until the December bow season, but these tips are meant to give hunters food for thought between now and then. If you are limited to 10 acres, there may only one or possibly two good spots to hunt. If so, switch back and forth. Twenty acres offers two or three spots, and 50 acres offers even more possible stand location choices.

Just don't get locked into hunting one spot day after day. Sooner or later the deer will pattern you, and that is not good situation to find yourself in.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

How much is too much?

This Cuddiback photo of a buck was taken at 15 yards, an average bow shot.

The man had a very serious problem. He no longer could draw his bow without severe arm, back and shoulder pain.

He is the son-in-law of a friend, and being young and strong and very competitive, he and some of his buddies decided to settle a macho bet of who could draw the most poundage. Testosterone was flowing, and they soon began by pulling 70 pounds.

Hey, no problem, they all thought. The next step was to crank each bow to 75 pounds of draw weight, and measure it on a scale. Only two  sucked the bow back to full draw, and then they raised the draw weight to 80 pounds.

How much draw weight is needed to kill a deer with a bow?

This was possible for both of them, but the others had already dropped out of this childish contest. It took considerably more effort than they were willing or able to give. This contest was finally going somewhere. The two guys kicked the draw weight up to 85 pounds, and with a great deal of posturing, each one reached that plateau but it was obvious it was becoming very difficult for both men.

We've come this far, one said, let's take it to 90 pounds. There was a great deal of grunting and groaning as each bow came back to their individual anchor points at that draw weight. Both were red in the face, and agreed now to take the contest upwards again, but now only one pound at a time.

One man made it to full draw at 91 pounds. The other man did not. We then had a winner and a loser, and both titles belonged to the same person.

The winner-loser felt something go as a muscle ripped in his shoulder while he took it up that one last pound, and his shoulder hurt all winter and was still sore in the spring. By now, he had cranked his bow down to his usual draw weight of 68 pounds.

But he couldn't pull that much weight now. He was then forced to travel in reverse, and tried again at 65 pounds, and then 60 pounds, and finally settled in at 55 pounds. It still hurt to draw his bow at that poundage, but over the spring and summer he settled in at that draw weight for good.

It's been about 15 years since the two strong men competed to be the top dog at pulling the heaviest draw weight. He is content now because he doesn't have to crank down his bow for the December bow season, and he has found that 55 pounds is plenty heavy and fast enough to kill a buck while hunting in Michigan's swamps and woods.

There seems to be an obsession with more and more arrow speed. Years ago, most bows couldn't shoot 150 feet per second (fps). Many thought an arrow speed of 200 fps would be impossible to attain. Ten years ago archers and bowhunters felt an arrow speed of 300 fps would never be reached, but it has.

Do most bow hunters require increased poundage and arrow speed?

The reality of shooting a bow is that if an arrow travels at 180 fps, and hits a deer at a distance of 20 yards or less, the arrow will hit the animal before it can hear the bow string twang and jump the string or duck under the approaching arrow. So ... is there a need to shoot an arrow any faster?

Of course there is, under certain circumstances. Faster arrow speed means a flatter arrow trajectory. An increase in arrow speed of only 20 fps will allow a person, with the proper skills and considerable practice, to easily kill deer at 30 yards instead of 20. Hunters who travel west to hunt for antelope, elk or mule deer with a bow often need to shoot at longer distances, and that is where a faster arrow speed is required to flatten out the arrow flight.

There are still some men who are into heavy poundage on their bows, and who want to reach out and set new personal arrow-speed records. They modify their bows, add an overdraw, shorten their arrow length, and crank up the poundage. They use carbon inserts and carbon arrow, and shoot continuously.

How far up the poundage ladder is it necessary to climb?

Hunters broke the 300 fps barrier years ago, but as time goes on, I see fewer people maxing out the poundage of their bow. And, to be honest with you, I'm seeing far fewer people with shoulder injuries caused by taking their body to a point where it was never meant to go.

I now advise people to shoot what feels comfortable to them. A test of strength and determination isn't required to be a successful deer hunter.

Most deer hunters are content to keep the poundage down to a comfortable level, and where drawing a bow is fun ... and never a painful exercise from which they may never recover.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Never hunt angry

Deer hunting, like so many other things in life, is always good. It's just that some hunting days are better than others.

And, if you trust nothing else, know this: hunting success can always get worse. Success depends, in large part on wind, weather conditions and hunting pressure. Wherever we hunt, we cannot change the wind or weather conditions.

Anglers have the same problems. Too much rain or snow can affect how fish move or hit. The same happens when the wind swirls, or when lightning and thunder start shaking up the sky.

For many of us, our hunts are planned for a week in advance and the weather doesn't always cooperate. We spit and sputter, gripe and complain, and then we go out and hunt angry.

No one can control the weather. Live with it.

Hunting angry doesn't help. If anything, being mad about something we can't control doesn't do anything except mess up our hunting judgment. As a result we make some dumb mistakes.

We mess up. We get mad, and that makes us feel worse, and we begin to fidget. We move around, make the occasional noise, and any deer that may have come to us are long gone.

Why get mad? I've hunted deer for too long, and over more than 55 years, and have become somewhat philosophical about bad weather. Learn to take the good with the bad, and think happy thoughts rather than thinking how ticked off you are. That line of thinking only make people even madder, and that only increases their problems.

Don't sweat the small stuff. Instead of focusing on the things  we can't control, change your thoughts and think about those things that can be changed.

Take a deep breath, let it out and relax.

Climb a tree, if need be, and set in an elevated coop and do whatever can be done to beat the wind. Or ... do what some hunters do and that is to go home and take a nap. There is always tomorrow.

Taking the good with the bad doesn't always mean that a bad day can't be productive. I've sat out, and had the wind ripping leaves off the trees, and about 30 minutes before shooting time ends, the wind gusts taper off and die. It then becomes whisper quiet, so quiet you are soon wishing for a soft breeze.

If some light rain falls when the wind dies down, there can be some very good deer movements. It seems as if the deer are happy to see the weather change as they move out to feed.

Caution often is more likely when deer move after a strong wind and rain storm. Hunters must learn to keep their cool,

and take what they get even though we seem to be having more bad weather in the early season than ever before.

Last-minute weather changes have paid off for me more times than I can remember. Heading in to the house, and skipping the evening hunt, often means hunters quite possibly will miss the finest 30 minutes of the day as the wind and rain dies.

It's far better to consider the weather, whether good or bad, as part of the deer-hunting experience. Such last-minute weather changes don't happen often enough that we can plan around them, but they can pay off often enough that they should be one more trick in our deer-hunting repertoire.

Sometimes the weather changes before the hunt ends.

It's an awesome feeling when we've rode out the bad weather, and than see the last-minute change that we've hoped for. We no longer are mad at the weather, and things start looking up. When the bad weather suddenly changes, and the good weather moves in and the deer start to move, we feel blessed as we sit in a ground blind or tree stand.

Look up at the sky, nod and  say "thanks," and get ready for a nice buck to step out of heavy cover and be within easy bow range. Just remember: it never pays to hunt angry.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors