I
’ve heard it said many times in my life that hard work will
pay off. With that in mind, I have paid attention to the
work ethics of others, and how certain people lead by
example. Early in life, I knew I had to work hard and be very
detail-oriented in order to become successful in my chosen
career path as an aviator.
My approach to bowhunting would be the same. As a
young boy, I spent the majority of my time on my grand-
parents’ farm. It was there where my passion for bowhunt-
ing whitetail deer began. I was very fortunate to grow up in
a family of hunters and trappers. My uncles were successful
bowhunters dating back to the 1970s, when most people in
our area knew nothing about archery, much less bowhunting.
What stood out the most about my uncles was the effort they
put into educating themselves on the area they were hunting,
the animals they were pursuing, and how they would identify
ambush locations. As I grew older, I knew that in order for me
to become successful there had to be a dedication to both time
and details. Offseason scouting was something I took the time
to do in my teenage years, but being young, I wasn’t experi-
enced enough to know what I was looking for, or what I was
looking at. Sure, I could recognize the basics of deer sign, but
the “why” was not a thought process yet. Through trial and er-
ror, I began to invest more time in the offseason to determine
why whitetails did what they did.
Hunting more than I scouted was working, but not to the
level that I thought it should. There were some years in the
early 90s when I would hunt three to four states each fall,
and I would fill tags on Pope and Young-quality animals, but
something was missing. Why wasn’t I killing older-age-class
bucks? Going through the same motions each fall would
yield the same results. Finally, I decided to get serious about
targeting older bucks, and if that meant not filling tags, then
I’d accept those terms.
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