Growing up, I went through many stages and had a multitude of hobbies along the way. Everything from playing guitar and skateboarding to football, basketball, bowling, and of course, hunting and fishing. I kept myself busy and was passionate about all of the hobbies I took part in. I can remember the late nights of playing my guitar until the skin was coming off of my fingers and then continuing to play thereafter. I can also remember trying to learn certain tricks on my skateboard until I could barely feel my legs. In the past I have called myself an extremist. My heart and soul has always bled into the things that I love to do. My wonderful wife knows this well about me and is a saint for putting up with my “obsessions.”
As technology in the archery industry gets better and better it seems that people are shooting their bows at farther and farther distances. Traditionally, I myself use a 5-pin multi-pin sight. My pins are set up for 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 yards. There is a saying though that says practice at double the yardage that you might be shooting an animal at. So, where does that leave you when your max distance at an animal is 60 or 70 yards? I don’t know about you, but I sure as heck don’t have a 120 yard pin in my sight housing. Not literally at least. What if I told you that you could in fact get out to those distances without having a toothpick box worth of pins in your sight? Black Gold has solved this issue with their multi-pin slider sight, The Black Gold Ascent Verdict.
The most used word in archery hunting is probably the word, “ALMOST.” “I ALMOST filled my tag this evening!” “The bull walked right instead of left and I ALMOST had him!” How many times have you heard something along those lines or said it yourself? I hear it every single season and say it myself every year. I think this is why I archery hunt though. It’s the chase. The journey to the goal. Every engagement with an animal where you ALMOST are successful holds a lesson. Another tool in your toolbox and the next stepping stone to your objective. Even a failed stalk is a successful one.
As most of you have probably guessed it, I am a big fan of the company First Lite and their gear. First Lite is the makers of high quality hunting clothing and the first to successfully print camo on merino wool.
Ever since I was a kid, I have been going on hunting trips with my dad. In my teenage years, I would head out with both friends and dad. There came a point though, when I reached adulthood, where I wanted to spend more and more time in the field. I wanted to be out there more than just for the annual deer hunt or sporadic quail hunt. As we grow up our list of responsibilities keep getting bigger though. This proved difficult in being able to schedule hunting trips with friends and even dad. So, I had a choice to make. Either I don’t go out hunting as much or I grab my bow/rifle, put on my backpack, and head out on my own. I think you can guess what my decision was.
If you have never heard of Target Panic, consider yourself lucky, because that probably means that you haven’t had to deal with it. Target Panic is when the archer is unable to release an arrow without panicking. Panicking can take many forms including flinching, not being able to keep the pin held on the bullseye, and not even being able to release the arrow. Movement is completely normal when aiming your bow, but some people have a hard time accepting this which causes them to panic. While you are never going to be as still as you would if you put a rifle on a rest, remaining calm throughout the releasing of the arrow is going to have you stacking them in the bullseye. Target Panic is 100% psychological and, lucky enough, very curable.
2015 was a pretty exciting year for me in the field filled with new experiences and opportunities. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago, when I stopped to think about it all. It was almost overwhelming reflecting back on everything, which is what I intend on doing here. Being relatively new to the hunting lifestyle(3 years), means a lot of things happened to me for the first time. The deeper and deeper that I dive into this, the more things that I want to experience someday and the things that I do get a chance to experience, seem to create new traditions that I can’t wait to take part in the following year. There were way to many firsts that happened during 2015 to list here, but I would like to take the time to reflect on the major ones.
When I was a kid, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to a lot of great memories out in the field that I will have for a lifetime. The first time that I had deer walk into an ambush set up is something that changed me forever. It felt like my legs were going to fall off, I was so nervous. On my first archery hunt I had a beautiful mule deer buck walk right past me at 10 yards. I was so worked up and in awe that I couldn’t even pick up my bow. The first archery javelina hunt that I went on, I missed 6 times before I actually harvested one. Some of these might come across as failures, but underneath the surface they are lessons and added chapters to my library of outdoor experiences that I can reflect on and share with others.
Over the past few years, I have become sort of a backpack nerd. This is pretty funny to me, because when I first really jumped into hunting, I really didn’t see the need to have one. The first backpack I owned was a 2300 cubic inch day pack. I loved that pack until I actually killed something and realized that I had no room in there to haul meat. I was also starting to grow an interest in backpack hunting. From there, I jumped to an Eberlestock Just One pack. Right off of the bat I was impressed with it, but started experiencing some pains in my hips whenever I would wear it. It is one tough pack and can handle anything you throw at it, but it just wasn’t for me. So, the search began!
Here in Arizona, all of us hunters look forward to the end of July/early August. Why? This is when we find out if we have drawn the deer tags that we are hoping for through Arizona’s lottery system. Myself and my family had not been drawn since 2013, so the anticipation of the results was just plain cage rattling. During the 2013 season, I had found an area that would soon become a second home for me. The amount of bucks that I saw left me awestruck. I can remember calling my dad every night telling him things like, “I saw 11 big bucks today,” or “I had shot opportunities at 7 bucks tonight.” Never in all of the years that we went deer hunting had we seen things like that or had those types of opportunities.
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