Category Archives: General Tales

June 29, 2010

Country boy humbled!

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Shortly after celebrating my 12th year on this fine Earth, I started seriously shooting a bow. That came after years of flinging arrows out of my oldest brother’s hand-me-down Bear youth bow. When it became serious, my dad armed me with a brand-new PSE Spirit, the appropriate accoutrements and just enough wisdom to be dangerous.

I remember vividly having to get him to take me back to the bow shop to get a package of nocks after shooting well enough at 20 and 30 yards to break several. I’ve always felt like I could hold my own when it came to shooting arrows during the couple decades since.

One of my shots from day one on a mountain lion.

Then came Union Grove! More specifically, then came the 30th Annual Bowhunters Jamboree held in Union Grove, N.C.

I knew the humility was coming well before I stepped foot on the course, which would mark my first time shooting in a 3-D competition with bow and string. Shooting alongside three good friends kept my embarrassment manageable, and actually shooting a sliver higher score overall in the two-day tournament than one of them reduced subsequent ridicule. That said, I was truly humbled. And I had a blast.

The biggest challenge for any of you that have not shot a tourney of its kind, is that you’re challenged to identify the distance between your shot location and a 3-D target … without a rangefinder … and without help from your shooting partners. That is more difficult than it sounds as I write this. The range of distance is apparently supposed to be between 20-40 yards.

Day 2 with a large black bear standing WAY back there!

However, there is the ol’ +/- factor for those distances. I have no doubt one of the targets on the first course we shot was in excess of 45 yards (coincidentally, that target was one of my few 10-ring shots of the weekend – coming only after watching two of my shooting partners missing the target completely, which is a good sign that the distance “is further than it looks”).

In total, we shot 40 targets on the weekend. They were all unique, and the entire experience was fun. I will shoot more tourneys in the future. And I’m happy to report that I was able to improve by some 37 points on Day 2. My first accomplishment.

Equally important to making the trip enjoyable was sharing a camp with several of the active members from RackMasters Outdoors. What a great group of hunters! And their site is loaded with great topics and a full array of information from seasoned archers to help people out.

Like all fun forums, it also has the right amount of ribbing going on! It’s free to join and worth the time to be active on the site. Go to www.wildcountryarchery.com to sign up. Make sure you introduce yourself when you get there!

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Cat Tales

I wanted to give a shout out to Bob Chavez for sporting one of the AHT stickers on his personal hunting machine. Bob’s ’99 Jeep Grand Cherokee just turned past 210,000 miles. As he notes: “Built right here in the USA!”

Thanks for your support, Bob!


Bob has added a hefty 4-inch lift with “some 31.5-inch meat on those wheels.”

Thanks for representing Bob. And please give him a wave next time you pass him sporting his decal on the way to the stand!

The Hunting Mobile!

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June 6, 2010

Daydreaming … beyond this year!

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With extremely high hopes and a couple very strong opportunities for successful hunts in place for 2010 and 2011, it might be difficult to understand why I spent a big chunk of today thinking about hunts roughly a dozen or so years away.

While flinging a few arrows at the target with a couple of hunting buddies, conversation stumbled upon taking our kids hunting. Jason, whose target we were trying to wear out, has a little girl just a few months older than Sara. We chatted about buying our little girls youth bows and letting them shoot with their daddies. Those days will be here much quicker than that first hunt. But I look forward, with great anticipation, to hopefully sharing the woods with my little girl. Jeff, our third shooter tonight, has a boy who is within a few years of his first hunts.

I do not plan to pressure Sara (yes, she does already have the lifetime license which is more pressure than I’d like to put on her), but my hope is that she will see just how much passion I have from enjoying all of the fantastic things that hunting provides. My dad never pressured me once, but he was able to help me develop an unmatched enthusiasm for the outdoors.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m about as excited for hunting the 2010-2011 season as I have been in many seasons. But I can’t help but imagine how awesome it will be to share the woods and waters with Sara when we get the chance to do that in a few years!

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in 2010, General Tales

May 16, 2010

Changing tune

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There are a lot of things I did as a teenager that I’m not all-too proud of. And while the statute of limitations has surely run its course on all of those things, I’m still not prepared to share any of them here!

Conversely, I couldn’t be more proud of the awesome times I spent with many of my high school pals chasing wildlife around the Southern Tier of New York State. Those days are top of mind to me right now, mostly because one of my closest hunting partners has given up hunting. He’s actually gone a bit further than that. He publicly chastises hunting (particularly for sport).

High school hunting buddy, Jeff Mattison, and me after a day of duck hunting and chasing "doodles"... Jeff is still a hunter! Notice the gun rack in the '78 Chevy.

This is a friend who I’ve shared duck blinds with, walked acres of poplar woods and driven mature hardwoods for deer on countless occasions! I would like to think that as we grow older, we also expand our knowledge base. That said, my affinity for the outdoors and, moreover, my belief that sportsmen are the foundation of conservation has never been stronger.

You’ll notice the very famous quote from Teddy Roosevelt on the left column of this blog. Many historical quotes by famous dignitaries become outdated. This is one that couldn’t be more relevant in 2010 as it was the day Roosevelt said it more than a century ago.

More high school hunting buddies after limiting on geese. This photo ran in our hometown paper, even though we missed the first morning of school during early goose season!

I invite you to read it … and then share it.

Without question, I still consider the ol’ hunting buddy a friend. It doesn’t bother me that his views on hunting – and probably many other things we enjoyed as teenagers – has changed. Heck, mine have too. But those times afield were some of the most fun times I had as a kid. I know they were for him too. Hopefully, those are not moments he’s ashamed of.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , | posted in 2010, General Tales, Hunting Stories From the Past, Uncategorized

April 29, 2010

Them: “What do you do in your spare time?” Me: “I hunt.”

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Technology helps quite a bit in imagining the hunting community being very large. Of course, it’s big enough for the folks that are a part of it to spend an estimated $80 billion this year for goods and services that allow them to partake in it.

But the community of hunters often seems small to me when I’m introduced to new people in a professional setting. I travel quite a bit and I’m fortunate that I get to meet a lot of people during those trips. It’s something I enjoy. But earmarking $1 for each hunter I’ve encountered while traveling for business during my decade-plus professional career, wouldn’t get you enough money to buy ammo for next duck season.

This little girl already has her lifetime hunting license! (I like including photos and decided to include the cute kid for this post!)


That scares me.

I’m both proud and thankful that I have never backed down to the backdrop of politically correctness and have never had an issue sharing with people who ask that hunting is my favorite past time. Once in a while that draws a puzzled or fretted brow, but by and large most folks are somewhat fascinated by learning more about hunting as a sport. (Note: My colleagues often give the ol’ “Here we go” look when the “What do you do in your spare time?” question is posed on trips. They know what’s coming.).

My fear is not rooted in sharing my gospel. Rather, it’s concern about the continued lack of hunters in our young generation. That reality brings with it very few good things. Those of you who might look at that fact as an opportunity to improve your chances of success afield should instead wonder if it provides greater risk to the elimination of your opportunity to hunt at all.

Budgets will shrink. Support will be reduced and the sheer strength in numbers that we’re still afforded as outdoorsmen for having a voice, is being weakened by the day.

If you hunt, and you enjoy it, don’t be afraid to share why to all who you encounter. And if you can, find the time to introduce someone new to the sport we all share and love. Imagine, if you will, how many new hunters we could introduce to this amazing sport if we all committed to introducing two new kids this year. And another two next year … it would be a wonderful thing for the sport, and for the kids you’re showing it to.

1 Comment | posted in 2010, General Tales, Uncategorized