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 can remember being a young man taking to the field with my Dad. We tried and tried and always came up short in filling the freezer, but rich in good times. The more we went out, the more I thought that maybe I just wasn’t cut out to be a bowhunter. We had a hard enough time trying to get opportunities with our rifles, and now we just made things even harder. What the heck were we thinking? My Dad didn’t raise a quitter though and I pressed on. It was those good times that made me do so. I soon found out that I wasn’t chasing a deer, I was actually chasing memories and the deer would have been a much appreciated byproduct. This is the reason I think I didn’t throw in the towel, and how I think this bowhunting thing should be approached. Spend this time learning as much as you can and enjoying the present. Don’t dwell on the future.
After a few years of getting my butt handed to me on a silver platter, I experienced a sort of “Ah Ha” moment. Before you go trying to congratulate me on my first deer, put the brakes on. It was much less of a victory that let me know what I was doing was actually possible after so many “failed” attempts. During an evening glassing session, some years back, I was fortunate enough to put some deer to bed and close the distance. There was a brute of a buck bedded under a tree with my name all over him. All I had to do was get to a certain rock and his fate would have been sealed. To make a long story short, I ended up missing 2 bucks within a matter of 10 minutes. While I was indeed heartbroken after the events, I was also invigorated. I got within bow range of these bucks and made a shot! The fact that I missed didn’t matter. It was a matter of inches and that is what ensured me I could pull this off after all.
That was probably 5 years ago when I missed the above mentioned bucks and I have been fortunate since then in the freezer filling department. I am by no means an expert at this stuff, but I will say that all of that struggling in the field shaped me into what I am today. The only way I have ever known to get better at something is to just keep doing it over and over again. After much effort, you will see success. Last year I had an experience that made me realize how much I’ve grown as a person. The best day of bear hunting I had ever experienced had just passed without a filled tag. However, the next day I was more excited to get my brother in there after a bear than myself. Hunting is oftentimes a very selfish act and this was something new to me. It made me feel over the world when I watched him harvest his first bear. Embrace the journey from the start and don’t worry about tomorrow. Embrace today.
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