Connection
Archery hunting is to white tail hunting as fly fishing is to trout fishing. It is a purer form of hunting in my opinion, not too say I don’t enjoy rifle, but as with fishing, I enjoy the more traditional methods most, the methods that take the most attention to detail. The reason archery is more difficult, and thusly more enjoyable for me than rifle season is that I feel more of a connection to the deer that I am hunting. With archery, one must put in a considerable amount of work in order to be successful on a consistent basis.
When hunting archery, it is imperative to get the deer to come to you. To do that you have two options. You can either scout and look for sign that deer are in the area and then find their trail system that they are using and set you stand up there or you can plant food plots, notch trees, and make sure you are near a source of both water and good cover. Basically, you either find the trails the deer walk on and wait until they walk down the trail while you’re sitting there or you create a place where the deer like to go and hang out and entice them to come to you. Both entail a pretty heavy work load but both are enjoyable in and of theirselves.
The work that you put in is a reason that you can feel more connected to the deer. When your sitting in your tree stand, ground blind, or on a stump, you know how hard you worked to find what is going to be the spot that the big one is going to walk past. When they finally do, they are hardly ever in a rush.
Often times I will hunt near a field edge or a clearing. This allows me to have plenty of time to prepare myself. You can often see the deer coming a long ways off, and they hardly ever run towards you. The feeling of adrenaline pulsing through your veins is a rush unlike I have ever experienced before, you swear the deer will soon hear your heart beat, its a struggle to sit still, but if you move you will blow your chance so you force your self to settle. With the equipment I use, I don’t feel comfortable taking shots over 40 yards, which is pretty standard, but I would prefer the deer to be within 20. Often as they get closer to you they are stopping to feed, take two steps, and stop for ten seconds, take three steps, stop for a minute. When you have spent days plantings your food plots, tracking and scouting for sign, setting up stands, checking trail cameras, those seconds are grueling. With a .308 Rifle, you can make 200 yard shots easy and reach out even farther if you have some practice. There is no anticipation. With archery, every step that deer takes in your direction bumps your blood pressure up because at any second they could turn away because they don’t like something. There are many Reasons a Deer Will Spook and turn away. You might have moved your foot, the wind could have changed and they can smell something that doesn’t belong there, anything could happen, and you just hope that it doesn’t happen this time.
When the deer finally come within range, you have to wait until you have a good shoot. There is nothing worse than rushing a shot, wounding the deer and never finding it. There is a pretty small area that you aim for, directly behind the front shoulder, this is where the heart and lungs are and is often referred to as the Vital Box.
Image from Pennsylvania Hunters Ed
The best shots will hit both, but really either will put a deer down quickly and relativity painlessly, which is the goal. Even if you hit both lungs, they will often run for over 100 yards on pure instinct alone. If you hit a deer in the guts, like the stomach and the intestines, you will kill it, but most likely, you will never find it. Gut shot deer will run for a mile or more. That is why it is imperative to wait until you have the ability to take a clean, ethical shot. If you are going to take an animals life, you owe that animal the upmost respect, and finding, cleaning, eating, and sharing the meat how one can show their respect. Image from Pennsylvania Hunters Ed
The hard work, the waiting, the tension, and finally the harvest, are all reasons why I feel the most connected with deer I have harvested in archery and why archery season is my favorite hunting season.
You did a really good job of describing why archery season was more enjoyable to you than rifle season. I was able to put myself in your shoes and understand that connection that you have with the deer that you hunt with the way you wrote this post. I wonder if archery season tends to be a favorite of other hunters just as it is for you.