SPRING BRANCH, Texas — There is something hard to explain about the primitive instincts of hunting with a bow and arrow. My sense seem to more acute and i am much more aware of every thing and every sound around me.
I began hunting with a bow about 35 years ago because the season opened about 6 weeks before rifle season. What I learned about whitetail increased 10 fold.
You have to be much more quiet, much more still. You have to plan your hunt more thoroughly. You have to know from which direction the wind is coming, where the deer move, feed, drink and sleep.
With a rifle, you can easily take an animal 200, 300, 400 yards away or more. With a bow it's 20 or 30 yards. Some, much more skilled archers than I will shoot 50 yards or more.
I am not that confident in my abilities, so I won't shoot at a deer that is much more than 30 yards away. I was brought up to never take a shot I wasn't absolutely confident I could make. I would never want to wound an animal and let it get away.
That explains why, when my friend Raul Reyes took me to leading Edge Archery in Boerne, TX, I ended up walking out with a new bow. My "High Country" bows were 30 years old, so when I shot the "Prime Cenergy" bow...I have to have it.
The technology has advanced so far, there is no comparison between my old bow and the "Cenergy." It's crazy fast and flat shooting. I was now ready to hunt again... with confidence!