Now that my 2014 tournament fishing season is over, I plan on spending a lot of time with my family. When I’m not with them, I’ll most likely be in the woods hunting. That’s the relaxing reward I give myself after each tournament season. It’s a time to rest my mind and body and start preparing myself for the next season.
I’ve killed plenty of deer with a rifle, but these days, I’m strictly archery. For me, it’s more challenging. These days with a gun, if you can see a deer at 400 yards or closer, he should be dead.
To me, archery is kind of like flipping – it’s a close encounter with a deer kind of like flipping is with bass fishing. So many times, you get a deer within shooting distance and you don’t even get a shot. I think it’s the adrenalin and excitement.
I’m not old by any means, but I’m not young anymore and there’s a lot that I’ve learned about values and perspective through my years in the woods. Back in the day, it was all about killing something; that’s how I measured success.
Now, it’s not so much like that. I definitely want to kill a deer, don’t get me wrong. But today, a successful hunt is getting several deer within 30 yards of your stand and just watching them in the wild; how they move around and interact with one another. To me, that’s a successful hunt.
I think what I enjoy most about hunting is the solitude. I hunt kind of like I fish – I like to get out far away from everyone. I mean, I can count on one hand how many times in 40 years, I’ve hunted next to a field. I get in the thickest, nastiest stuff I can find.
And the colder, the better. I would rather fish in 30 degrees than 90. I’m the same way with hunting. I like it when it’s cold because I think that makes the deer more active, and I like to be in some thick stuff. Basically, I want to be in the type of habitat where the first time I see a deer is when it’s within bow range. That’s what I look for when I pick places where I think a big one will travel.
What’s nice is that my entire family enjoys hunting. Two of my daughters are old enough to hunt on their own, but I still like to take them hunting with me because that special bonding time we share is priceless.
I usually take them one at a time – I don’t think I can afford all the snacks to take all three of them at the same time.
But it’s really nice every time we get the chance to go hunting together. I’m careful to make sure that just like fishing, I make this enjoyable for my daughters by hunting in place that are easier to reach than the places where I hunt alone.
We hunt places where they’re going to see a lot of deer. They may not see a big one, but they’re going to see a bunch. All three of my girls have a .243 youth model single shot rifle. That’s a good gun for young hunters and mine are all good shots. So far they’re 100% on the shots they’ve taken.
I also make sure I’m not pushing my daughters too much while we’re out in the woods. I have to remember that when I take them hunting, we’re on their schedule. Whenever they’re ready to go, it’s time to go.
Our schedules work out really well because I can go hunting just about every day while they’re in school. I’ll stay out there until 1 or 2 o’clock and then when they’re home from school we’ll do things together in the afternoon and the evening. Several nights a week, my daughters have basketball games in the evenings, but if we’re not at their games, a lot of times we’ll go hunting in the evenings.
I’m away so much during the tournament season that I really miss being with my family. Our off-season schedule works out really well, though, because I can enjoy the relaxation of being in the woods hunting as much as I want to, but not be missing time with them because they’re at school.
Most of my hunting is close to home, but a couple of weeks a year, I go out to southeast Kansas for what I consider my most serious hunting. I sit in a deer stand for two weeks and that’s when I really get serious.
I’m really excited about going to Kansas this year because of where I’ll get to hunt. The last few years, I’ve hunted public lands and I’ve killed some big deer out there, but I was getting to where I wanted something more. It’s kind of like fishing the minor league tournaments and then eventually, you want something bigger and better.
Well, I got lucky this year. The last time I went up to Kansas to look around, I met an outfitter. I got to know him pretty good and he’s going to let me hunt on his land. I’m going to enjoy hunting on private land for a change.
My personal best deer went 157 inches but I’m always looking to top that. Even if I don’t I’ll still enjoy every trip to the woods – especially the ones I make with my daughters.