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Every year about this time it dawns on me, as it has today, that in a couple of short months it will be bow season again. I always find myself wondering “Did God really allow me to live another year so that I can be in the woods again with my bow in my hand?”! I feel very much like I did when I was a child and someone suddenly reminded me that Christmas was around the corner. “Really? Already??”
I hate to admit it but I think this feeling (very much like Christmas) is tied to the commercail stores who have just begun setting out the fall hunting supplies. Those large retailers who suddenly produce boxes and boxes of toys that literally take up entire shelves of space. As I was looking in amazement as the employee unloaded yet another box (I was in his way but couldn’t move!) I scanned furiously for what was different from last year. What new product would I get the first chance to hold simply because I was in the store in the middle of the day when most people were working or still too busy to notice? My wife politely asked the employee to box it all up again and put it back where they got it. The employee only nodded and smiled.
I hate to sound shallow but I know many here will understand when I say that I think I appreciate living in the United States and the freedom that brings, most deeply in the fall of the year. When I think of the thrills that await me in a few weeks and wonder what sights I will see in the woods, I wonder how I could have ever been so lucky as to be born here and be reaping the benefits of the efforts made by such giants such as Fred Bear. As I realize that I will soon be able to go into my back yard or my neighbor’s back yard and do what my counterparts in Europe are forbidden to do it makes it all seem even more surreal.
As I think of the personal challenges that lie ahead of me in the woods, matching my wits against one of God’s most illusive creatures (the mighty whitetail deer) I thank God for giving me the chance and the health to pursue them and I thank all of our military personnel who are fighting to make sure I can do it again next year (or should God decide I’ve had enough tries, someone just like me). God Bless America.
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I thank God for every season and every day
I can enjoy every season as it unfolds Spring Summer Autumn Winter.:D
By some qwirk of law Bowhunting is not allowed in England.:(
BUT Life is still good and I can look forward to Autumn and winter deer hunting. in the woods forests and Mountains…cept with a rifle:?….bow is just for stumps and targets
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You said: “I hate to admit it but I think this feeling (very much like Christmas) is tied to the commercail stores who have just begun setting out the fall hunting supplies.”
Certainly, that’s part of the annual “pre-rut” wind-up. But for me it’s cooling temps — right now, mid-July with weeks of heat yet to come, the past three mornings here on the mountain have been 45 degrees and suddenly I’m “in the mood.” A more subtle influence is the gradual decrease in daylight — the same biological inner clock that puts the game into rut also influences my mood and cravings. Archery seasons here in CO open in less than six weeks! Who but serious hunters would notice these subtle natural changes and the internal longings and energies they create? It’s a privilege and a blessing to be a trad guy, making life so much richer. Dave
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David Petersen wrote:
Certainly, that’s part of the annual “pre-rut” wind-up.I’m sure there’s a Master’s thesis in there somewhere exploring the connection between latent rut behavior and misplaced spending….
😉
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Same here, in some respects:
Yes, it is as though it is like Christmas waiting for opening day. I thank God for the blessings he has placed on me. Provided me with a good life, another year and another opportunity.On the commercial side… I don’t even look at the catalogs anymore. If I need something I just go buy it.
As far as “freedom” goes… well you can hunt in Russia too! When hunting doesn’t require a license I’ll consider it free. Remember Government cannot give you anything, it has not already taken away! And that’s just a fact.
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The commercialism doesn’t bother me much and I don’t really care what people choose to hunt with.
I shoot a re-curve so I must be using a purer form of archery than the guy hunting with a compound. The compound shooter hates the guy who uses the crossbow and the guy using the self-bow hates me, while the guy who made his self-bow string out of the inner-bark of a willow tree hates him. The guy who ground his self-bow out with a sharp rock and sandstone hates everybody. There’s no end to it.
As far as the commercialization of archery and all the products, IMHO it breeds competition and capitalism which means better products for us all. When I read about the animosity between some archery hunters it always reminds me of the advent of Windows in the 90’s. The old programmers hated Gates and Microsoft for “dummying” down their profession so that even a house wife could send and recieve email with a click of a button and they too considered themselves to be “purists”. None of them, however, complain when they pick up a new laptop for $250.00 and start streaming youtube videos on it.
For me, the setting out of hunting equipment in stores is the reminder of the upcoming season and it excites me to know that all across the country, my fellow hunters are doing the same thing I am; looking at products and dreaming of the hunts soon coming. At Christmas time many people get into the “spirit” by looking at lights in the park or seeing the displays in shop windows. I’m not a big gadget guy and do not buy alot of things that I don’t think I really need but just being in that environment, surrounded by the products, it is very much like seeing the toys and lights in the shop windows.
Happy Hunting everyone.
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To TRL242, and all us folks…
Couldn’t agree more, especially about incessant bickering etc…
Currently raging, especially in NY, is the “Crossbow Question”. The debate is not only endless, but IMHO, ridiculous.
Take out the word “crossbow” wherever it appears in any of these arguments, go back in time (we’ll call it the 70’s) and put in the word “compound” and IT’S VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interestingly, we are all still hunting with whatever implement we choose. AND THAT, to me anyway, is the beauty of the society/country we live in.
Hunters, regardless of the implement we choose (some of us are more correct than others :wink:) need to stick together and fight the real enemy…those who would take away everything from our guns to our crossbows to our compounds to our recurve/longbows to our self bows to the very staves we choose to make them out of!
Be well my friends…straight arrows…tight lines and smile and thank God we can have these arguments!
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Amen!
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trl and jmsmithy — You fellers certainly have a right to your opinions, which in this case are close to that expressed by Ray Borbon recently in another thread. In another situation I would agree. But please allow me to take the discussion a few steps farther. First, trl, I don’t think anyone here “hates” anyone for the hunting tool they choose to use; what I and others I know feel is disgust at a marketplace and media that have led contemporary bowhunting away from its traditional baseline values of woodsmanship and “doing more with less,” toward increased hi-tech replacements for personal effort and skill — and I feel not hate but sympathy for the hunters who have followed that route, as they are going only skin deep and missing the heart of it all. And Smithy, if it were as straightforward a matter as having the open-mindedness to live and let live so far as personal weapons choice goes, I’d not be concerned or upset. But it’s far more complex and troublesome than that. In sum, the popularity and profitability of the compound led the marketplace to take the next step and improve and popularize modern crossbows, which are even easier to use than compounds. Use x-guns in gun season and nobody cares, certainly not me. But the issue here is not simply a matter of personal choice or even ethics. Problem is, increasingly, with the strong backing of NRA, states are allowing x-guns in archery seasons. This is problematic on at least two fronts: first, x-guns are not archery equipment and thus don’t rate the special season considerations given to “primitive” (not my term but the official term in most states, with the bottom line being muscle-powered and held) archery gear. They are simple machines that launch metal bolts with the touch of a trigger. Second and most problematic, at the same time we’re seeing the expansion of hi-tech into archery seasons, we’re seeing more “bow” hunters and higher kill rates. That in turn facilitates the argument from the gun lobby that archery seasons are no longer “primitive” and are having an increasing impact on game management, thus should not have the special benefits associated with them — long early seasons, camo, rut hunts, etc. — and should be shortened so that gun seasons can be repositioned and lengthened. Thus, technology is hurting us. Again, I am not arguing with you, but merely attempting to expand on this complex topic to reveal the background issues. Cheers, dave
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Moss I find it interesting that a guy still gets in trouble for hunting deer in Nottingham…..I think I saw that in a movie!
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dp, I couldn’t agree more. Similar to the degradation of our archery season by the high-tech compounds and soon to be x-guns, here in Indiana the whitetail gun season has been degraded by inline muzzloaders, handguns and now rifles that shoot handgun cartridges.
As you said, I don’t care what they do during gun season. My point is I grew up hunting with my father with each of us carrying recurves during archery season and flintlocks during gun season.
Now, it almost scares me to go into the woods during gun season (chasing bunnies with my beagle). When they let handguns into the woods for deer hunting a lot of people (target shooters) started deer hunting just because they could. Opening morning sounded like a war zone and I’m sure a lot of deer were not recovered properly.
The x-gun will do the same to our archery season. There will be guys who only normally gun hunt that will buy a x-gun to join the archery season. This cannot help our cause. 🙁 Mike. -
I thank God for every second I can spend in the woods. On another note, commercialism is good for the economy. But I must admit I don’t buy much since I hunt with selfbows, self arrows (wild rose or pine shafts) and trade points. Our pastime allows us to buy what we need or make what we can and hunt with it. Jawge
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I’d second what DP has been saying about the NRA. And add that the auto insurance companies are into killing off the deer in the south. They are tired of paying deer/car accident claims.
In NC, the insurance lobby worked with the NRA lobby and came very close to eliminating the archery season entirely. Everything would have been called gun. I am sure that eventually they will win. They have deep pockets, and nothing but time on their hands.
Our state archery association says that they support the NRA, and encourages people to join. Which bugs me to no end. The NRA certainly doesn’t return the favor to any archery association.
Give a guy something to be paranoid about, and he’ll ride that bomb all the way to the ground. yee-ha!!!
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Strait-Aero wrote: Amen!
Gotta watch throwing around those “amens”….David Petersen said it all. That problem is becoming most evident here in Ohio.:oops: Wayne
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