Tips to Better Bowhunting
Place Your Tree Stand Properly and Use Back Cover
 Editor’s Note: Bowhunting can be a complicated skill, because it combines two sports that both have a certain degree of difficulty. Archery itself requires a great deal of eye-hand coordination and the abilities to release properly, judge distance and place an arrow where you are looking. Then when you add hunting skills to archery to produce bowhunting, you have not only got to be able to find the deer and see him, but the  deer must be within 30 - 40 yards of the bowman for most of the time and standing or walking a particular way. Then you can place the arrow in one of the vital organs of the deer to bring it down. Since a broadhead shot from a bow does not have knockdown power of either a shotgun or a rifle, an arrow must be placed so that bones will not deflect it. Therefore the accuracy in shooting must be must greater with a bow than with a rifle.
Many ingredients must be considered when determining where to put your tree stands. Notice I said, tree stands and not tree stand. To be an effective bowhunter, you should have more than one stand in a region where you plan to take a deer. Then no matter which way the wind is blowing,you can climb into a stand in the region where you think the deer will appear and have your scent blowing away from the deer’s approach trail. Food is another consideration indetermining where to put your stand. I know biologists have lists that rate the different foods deer prefer. When you look at the lists, just about everything deer eat are weeds or nuts – a wide variety of food. But to put your tree stand in a feeding area where the deer is likely to show-up when you  are hunting, you have to be able to determine which weed, fruit or nut they prefer during the time you’re hunting. Remember to place your tree stands close to food or trails that deer will use. And, put your tree stands so that no matter which way the wind is blowing, you can get into a stand, and your scent will be blown out of your hunting area.
Be C onscious of Back Cover:
I’ve seen hunters who had on camouflage from the tops of their heads to the tips of their toes, and they still have stood-out on the side of a tree, silhouetted against the skyline where they are as easy to see as an elephant in a flea circus. For some reason, people often believe that when you are in a tree the deer don’t look-up. But that is not true. So you have to be conscious of back cover, unless you have the sun right at your back. If the sun is at your back and shining into the deer’s face, then the deer will not look into the sun, and you don’t have to be as concerned about back cover. But if the sun is not in the deer’s face as he comes to you, you’ve got to have some kind of cover behind you to break-up your silhouette. You can and will spook deer, if you are silhouetted against the sky.
Tomorrow: Some General Tips for Better Bowhunting |
