Making The Most of Bow Season

Every Whitetail season, bowhunters take to the woods in hopes of bagging a target buck, filling the freezer with meat or just simply getting back into the deer woods. Archery season is a great opportunity to hunt because in most states it comes before any firearm seasons. This makes for far less pressured deer and if approached properly, makes for increased likelihood of success. But, what can we do as bowhunters to ensure our success even more? Well, that's what we'll cover here in this blog post. Keep reading for our key three things to make the most of your bow season.

KEEP SHOOTING

Don't throw away an entire off-season of practice and dialing in your equipment by stopping your regular practice just because the season has started. Archery is a perishable skillset and if you want to maintain your accuracy and efficiency in your movements, draw and release you need to keep shooting. Consider some drills that might help you maintain your cool in the deer stand and reduce that anxiety when a big buck comes cruising by. Try shooting at a target set at 30 yds with your broadheads. Shoot 3 arrows and aim for a 4 inch grouping. If yo don't get that grouping that round doesn't count. Start with getting 5 rounds or "ends" and work your way up to 10. If you can, practice form a stand or elevated platform. Another good drill is the long hold which has you draw back your bow and hold it here without aiming. Hold it for 2 mins (start with 1 min if you need) then after that time aim for at least 15 seconds before shooting. This helps simulate a hunting situation we've all been in when a deer presents themselves only to move after drawing your bow forcing you to wait while you look for an open shot. Try these out and it'll make practicing fun and practical.

MANAGE YOUR SCENT

Bowhunting means getting up close and personal with whitetails a lot of times and there's no better way to spook deer out of an area than by poorly managing your scent. People might scoff at the idea of this because they "shoot big deer all the time" without it. But they're also probably the same hunters shooting deer at 150 yds with a 30-06 over a bait pile or cut corn. Take the time to treat everything you can for scent control. Treat yourself with the proper shower and hygiene products. Treat your gear and clothes to eliminate odors and bacteria and also consider an ozone unit for your blind or tree stand. We used to not be huge fans of ozone units but they're a small investment to make when your already spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on hunting equipment, tags, travel accommodations and fuel (and whiskey!!!). So, manage your scent so that you give yourself the best possible chance in the deer woods and so that you don't educate the deer early in the season to your presence.

MANAGE PRESSURE

Bow season happens early in the whitetail season for a lot of us. It's important to manage your entry and exit points to where you're hunting. Be mindful of bedding areas, travel corridors between bedding and food or water and known areas of activity such as rub lines and scrapes. Trail cameras can be a wonderful way to help manage this as deer move into their fall patterns. Having a good exit plan is especially essential if you know there will be deer nearby after dark. Think of areas like fields or areas with bait if that is legal in your state. If deer are going to likely be around when it's time for you to exit, consider having a friend or family member pick you up in a vehicle, tractor or ATV/UTV or whatever is frequently used on that particular property. Deer will be accustomed to these noises and will be paying more attention to the vehicle than you coming out of the stand. Deer will be less likely to associated the area with any danger seeing and hearing something they are used to seeing.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

If you do only these 3 things consistently during your bow season, we feel you'll increase your changes of success tremendously. Of course, you still need good pre-season scouting, good intel from cameras to work off of and of course deer in the area. We discussed these very topics in on our YouTube channel. Check out the video below and subscribe to the channel for more content like this!