Bowhunting Basics: Getting Started

Have you been thinking about taking up bowhunting? It's never too early to get prepared for the next hunting season.

Bowhunting is a special sport requiring special knowledge and equipment. It is above all else personally challenging. If approached with the proper attitude and understanding, it can be immensely rewarding.

Bowhunting success should not be measured solely in the number of animals hanging from a game pole. Although a punched tag and food for the freezer are basic and honorable hunting goals, most serious bowhunters revel in the challenge of the hunt itself. If a kill is made, it is often anticlimactic. What counts is the personal satisfaction gained from pitting oneself against wild game while armed with one of man's oldest hunting tools.

This year, only about one bowhunter in a dozen will bag his deer. Yet bowhunting popularity continues to grow. The reasons are found in the sport's unique challenges and rewards.

Beginning bowhunters should realize there is no real shortcut to success. To fully understand bowhunting, you must experience it. No amount of archery practice can adequately prepare you for the pulse-pounding moment the animal you seek steps into shooting range. Nevertheless, proper practice and preparation are essential. Without them no bowhunter should attempt to hunt. Venture afield only when you understand your personal abilities, what your equipment will and will not do, and how game is to be hunted.

Learning To Bowhunt

Consider yourself fortunate if you have an experienced friend who can help you learn to bowhunt. Having someone to hunt with, to answer your questions and to teach you proper techniques, is an ideal situation. But even without the benefit of an individual teacher, you can master the fundamentals if you are serious and willing to shoulder the responsibility.

An excellent program for beginning bowhunters is the standardized eight-to-10-hour International Bowhunter Education Program developed by the National Bowhunter Education Foundation. Now offered across the United States and in several foreign countries, the course teaches bowhunting fundamentals and responsibilities. It is designed to help participants become better, safer bowhunters in a minimum amount of time.

Many areas also have active, well-organized bowhunting clubs that offer instructional bowhunting seminars or seasonal shooting competitions. Most clubs feature outdoor ranges and some host regular bowhunter shoots that simulate real hunting conditions. They feature 3-D animal targets, cardboard silhouettes, or paper animal targets set up in hunting terrain with shots taken at unknown distances. These shoots are among the best forms of off-season practice. In addition, such clubs are ideal spots for meeting veteran bowhunters who can provide first-hand advice on equipment, shooting, and hunting techniques.

Knowledge of the hunting area is often a prerequisite to consistent success. Year-round scouting trips will acquaint hunters with their territory and help locate new hunting areas while pinpointing game movements and concentrations. Where necessary, permission to hunt is obtained from landowners. Stand sites will be located and necessary licenses and permits will be obtained well in advance of opening day. Consequently, when bowhunters finally go afield, they are committed, confident, and well prepared. They are ready to bowhunt.

Be Prepared, Dedicated

There are several ingredients that will help you enjoy bowhunting. Among them are being fully prepared before you take to the woods, so you are the best bowhunter you can be. Other ingredients are a passion to be involved with the sport, the development of your shooting skills, proper equipment selection, and the time and money to pursue the sport. All of these ingredients will be fitted to your individual lifestyle.

More than two-thirds of all hunting in the United States today occurs on private lands, with the hunter required to seek permission from the landowner. According to a survey by the Future Farmers of America, the major reason farmers post their land is because of unpleasant prior experiences with hunters. Common problems cited were litter, theft, and game law violations.

The key to obtaining permission to hunt on private land is to get to know the landowner and for him to get to know you. However, you want to do this long before the bow season opens. Approach him early in the year, at a time when his schedule is not so busy. Offer to help mend fences, cut firewood, or volunteer to put up Hunting By Permission signs. These activities, when done in a sincere manner, will often guarantee a place to hunt.

Bowhunters, perhaps more than other types of hunters, learn from their experiences failures as well as successes. The thoroughly prepared bowhunter who looks on each trip afield as a learning experience as well as an adventure is already well along the road to bowhunting success.

Bowhunting Essentials

Bowhunting success hinges on the hunter's ability to understand the habits, habitat, and behavior of the game he pursues. Learn all you can about your target before taking to the forest with bow in hand.

Deer hunting is the cornerstone of modern bowhunting. No matter where you live, you're probably within an hour's drive of a good area to hunt deer. Far more bowhunter-hours are spent pursuing whitetail deer than all other species combined.

Big game animals depend on their nose, ears, and eyes in that order of importance to detect potential or imminent danger. Keep the following points in mind as you plan your hunt:

• Human odor, when encountered by an animal at close range, is very alarming. Immediate alertness, overt nervousness, and outright panic are typical reactions.
• Unnatural woodland sounds such as the human voice or metallic noises are sure to draw the immediate attention of keen-eared game. Even the raspy sound of an arrow being drawn into shooting position, the slight creaking of a treestand, or a stick cracking underfoot can tip your hand at the most inopportune moment. All such sounds can spook game.
• Movement is readily detected. A hand brushing away a bothersome insect, a head turning quickly, a bow being drawn all may attract an animal's attention. Even if the animal does not immediately run, more often than not it will be alerted to a hunter's presence. This makes getting off a good shot extremely difficult. Because a bowhunter should be close to his target to obtain the most effective results, he must continually guard against detection. Common sense combined with a few pre-hunt precautions can benefit you greatly.