Every time I start out in something new, there always seems to be a tinge of feeling overwhelmed.  I think it’s natural.  In the beginning of a new endeavor, you don’t know your backside from your elbow.  The longer down the road you go, the more impossible that very endeavor can seem.  How much defeat can one endure before wanting to throw in the towel?  Bowhunting is all too perfect of an example of this and I am sure you might have felt this way from time to time.  The key to all of this in my opinion though is perspective.  It’s how you look at it.  Is what you experienced a failure or is it part of something much bigger?  It is the Evolution of a Bowhunter and we are all part of it.

I’ve talked in the past about hunters oftentimes being hermits and living in their own world.  We chat among ourselves, preaching to the choir in our little circles, but don’t extend much past that.  In doing so, we generally don’t get any blow back from our beliefs.  The stories we tell to each other are spoken of openly between us.  There is no, “watch what you say” mentality when we do this.  We don’t have to worry about how we posed a deer for a photo or if there was blood on our hands.  When we tell tales of a bad shot we made and how the animal suffered a lot longer than we would have liked, you aren’t met with disgust.  Your fellow hunter gives you remorse.  More times than not, they know exactly how that feels and can sympathize.  That is us though.  Not everyone has this outlook.

The thought to increase the draw weight on my bow when I was younger was not one that ran across my mind often.  In fact, I was pretty stuck on never raising my poundage above 60 pounds.  As I went farther down the road that is bowhunting though, I quickly decided that it was something I wanted to look into.  Why?  Well, for one I would be able to deliver more kinetic energy downrange, which would result in better penetration.  As an avid bowhunter, I always hope for a complete pass through on animals and this would aid in that.  Another reason was specifically for longer range shots.  This would increase my arrow speed.  Increasing draw weight would close the gaps between my pins, which would give me the ability to shoot even farther than before.  That is something I’ve really began to love over the years.  Watching my arrow sail into its mark from 100 yards is a great feeling.

After just coming off of my last hunting season until spring, I find myself reflecting on the past year.  This is when I look back and reevaluate my goal setting.  Did I have any gear that I wasn’t exactly happy with?  Did any weaknesses stick out?  How about my actual hunts?  What did I do wrong in the field that I could work on for the future?  For me, it is an ever evolving process.  I am always looking for the next best piece of gear or new hunting spot.  Just when I am happy with how something works for me, I end up trying to figure out something better.  My Dad has always told me, “don’t ever think you’ve got it all sewn up.”  There is always room for improvement.  Where do you go from there though?

Since I dove down the rabbit hole that is my hunting blog and creating content in general, a constant question that lands itself in my inbox is how one goes about starting to do these things.  The simple answer to this is to take a page out of Nike’s book and “JUST DO IT.”  However, there can be quite a few moving pieces in that question.  For instance, what kind of content do you want to create?  Do you want to help people out and be a resource for folks?  Are you looking to tell your own story and inspire others?  Is your cup of tea video or writing?  These, along with others, are all questions that need to be answered before diving down the rabbit hole I mentioned earlier.

It wasn’t until my late teen years, when bowhunting entered my life.  Even then, it was just a sprinkle of time during the year.  My Dad and I would go out for a few days in Dec/Jan, followed by talks of missing our rifles.  This bowhunting stuff was hard and we knew it.  Whether it was one thing or another, something would always happen to thwart our chances of wrapping our tags.  Fast forward to present day and I am still telling tales of how I ALMOST killed a buck.  Over the past 5 years of bowhunting hard, I have been fortunate to fill a few tags, but it didn’t come easy.  Perhaps, that is why I am so drawn to it.

Here is a brief overview of the tent I have been running on my backcountry adventures over the past year.  It is the Nemo Hornet 2P backpacking tent.  Super cool tent.  Lightweight, durable, packable, and has a simple design.  You can check it out at www.nemoequipment.com.  If you have any questions, lets have them!

As I woke up on the morning of December 29th, I told myself that today was going to be the day.  Today would be the day that I closed the distance, and filled my archery tag on a mule deer buck.  The 29th would be my 5th day of hunting mule deer here in my home state of Arizona.  This time of year here is a time that has grown on me and dug its roots deep into my core.  Year after year I take to the field with my bow to chase both mule deer and coues deer.  Every year I have a few successes mixed in with a ton of failures.  Of course I like to look at those failures as lessons learned and opportunities to grow.  That goes for all walks of life, not just hunting.  This year would prove no different in the “lessons learned” department.

If you are anything like me, you are probably constantly trying to figure out how to be better at what you do.  I am not one that tends to settle for good enough.  In this case, I am talking about a love that most of us share and that is bowhunting.  The thrill of sneaking in close and sending an arrow through the vitals of our quarry is one that is unparalleled.  It’s a feeling that wouldn’t be describe as “a dime a dozen.”  For that reason, I think is why we want more and more of it.  At least that’s how it is for me.  I don’t know about you, but I have way more failures than successes in the field and I think that’s how it should be.  If I killed something every time I went out, bowhunting would lose the mystique that I’ve grown to love so much.  Still though, I am always trying to progress as an archery hunter.

My wife LOVES jigsaw puzzles.  Oftentimes my whole coffee table is nothing but puzzle pieces for weeks at a time.  Every time that she opens a new box and dumps out thousands of tiny pieces, I can’t help but admire her tenacity.  Of course she doesn’t look at them as a whole, she looks at them in sections and breaks them down like that.  Usually, she finds all of the end bits and organizes them.  From there, she will proceed to actually connect them.  After going through this arduous process, while all the while maintaining an intimidating level of patience, she finds success.  What happens when she is finished?  The puzzle gets broken back down into thousands of pieces and put back in it’s box.  Done and done.  Onto the next puzzle.