as more and more states began considering legalizing the use of a crossbow in
archery season, i found myself remaining opposed with an exclusion mentality. i justified my feelings because my
experience with crossbows had not been
good, that was until i met Barb terry
of ten Point Crossbows. She seemed
very knowledgeable, so when we both
ended up at one of the Deerassic Classic
Giveaway events, probably in 2004, i
asked for some expert instruction. i
wanted to know if my thinking was
tainted.
Barb started educating me about their
products and showing me how she
cocked and shot the crossbow. She was
good. and with her professional instruction, i quickly got the hang of it. i
began stacking arrows in the bull’s-eye.
So much for me feeling they were inaccurate. Barb stressed the importance of
drawing the bow the same way every
time and using the drawing aid to give
you consistent nock alignment which
increases the accuracy. She showed me
the aCUdraw 50 that reduces the draw
weight 50% and the aCU draw system
with a handle that allows someone who
doesn’t have a lot of upper body strength
to accurately crank the crossbow to full
draw. Since Barbs lessons, i have robinhooded many arrows especially at the
Deerassic Classic events. i even shot
double robin-hoods in the X-ring at the
Deerassic celebrity shoot hosted by ten
Point Crossbows in 2007. So much for
feeling that crossbows are not accurate;
that myth was busted.
after Barb’s first instructional session, i
decided to give crossbow hunting a shot.
Carbon express had a new crossbow that
they asked me to field test. i sighted it in
and hunted with it at the annual Bow
and Does event at White Oak Plantation
in tuskegee, alabama. i stayed on for
an additional crossbow hunt for writers.
During the White Oak Plantation hunts,
i had many firsts with the crossbow:
shared my crossbow with a first time
lady bow and crossbow hunter, drew
my crossbow for the first time in a treestand, shot at my first deer, observed my
first deer duck right under the arrow,
harvested my first deer and wounded
my first crossbow shot deer. it was a real
learning opportunity.
i found out there really is a learning
curve and just because you see a deer
does not mean you are going to get to
shoot it or a shot opportunity guarantees
a dead deer. Hunting is still hunting and
although it is much easier and quicker to
teach a person to shoot a crossbow accurately at short range, they still have challenges to overcome to be a good hunter.
this experience caused me to rethink my
exclusion mentality and start developing
an inclusion mentality. after all, the
conservation movement in the United
States has been a tremendous success;
we have more deer now than any time
in our country’s history. With more people and more deer, we witness more
opportunities for human-animal conflicts. insurance companies constantly
complain about deer-vehicle collisions.
Many collisions cause extensive damage
and some even result in loss of life. With
expanding urbanization and reduction
of historic habitat, the complaints and
conflicts with humans and animals will
continue to rise. Deer have become
very adapted to living near humans and
browsing in yards, gardens, orchards,
and fields. the amount of annual damage continues to increase.
Continued on page 48
Dress Your Deer For Success
By Whitney W. Hurt, J.D.
Every hunter dreams of harvesting a
whitetail deer of a lifetime. Some cherish these moments in photography.
However, after the harvest, the excitement can fog our thoughts and we simply “snap the pic” and celebrate the
hunt. Later we view our photo shots
and realize we should have taken more
time to prepare.
We have a few ideas that will capture
the memory for a lifetime while preserving the nature of outdoor ethics.
1. Make your whitetail presentable.
Physical appearance needs to represent the moment he walked into
your safe zone for harvest. Your
deer needs to have a clean natural appearance. No blood on him,
tongue hanging from mouth area or
field dress markings. The photo moment begins when you walk up to
your game and secure the harvest.
Accept No Limits | outdoorwomenunlimited.org
2. Day vs evening. 80% of
the whitetails in our region
are harvested within one
hour of daylight or one
hour before dark….Light in
your face. It highlights your
success as well as you, the
hunter.
3. Selection of background
for your memory shot is a
necessity. Although photographs can be taken at the
processor, on a tailgate or at
camp, location of your harvest is where memories are
made and the story begins!
4. Last thoughts that will make
this process easier and less
time consuming include
the following; pack paper
towels/wipes/small plastic
squirt bottle of water; hat/
cap off face; gun placement, pen and journal.
Fall/Winter 2015 | BLAZE | 43