Kevin Harrison posted on May 09, 2011 14:51
Recently, I was watching a popular hunting show, where the host was talking about hunting accomplishments based on the weapon used. If the same deer was killed with a bow rather than a gun, would it be more of an accomplishment? The statement made me think back to an article written by the same host in the eighties about a deer he tracked and killed. While tracking the deer, the hunter removed his boots to soften his step while sneaking through crunchy snow conditions. This enable him to kill the deer in a strip of timber soon after. Without putting words in that hosts mouth, I would think that gun kill is as much of an accomplishment as any bow kill from a treestand or blind could ever be. Maybe more because he truly did go one on one with that buck on that bucks turf and beat him. Again that is just my opinion but if anyone has tried to it, they know how difficult a wily old buck can be to kill this way. It made me start to wonder why the art of tracking and killing deer is not more widely recognized and shown on TV. How would this type of whitetail hunting be measured on the accomplishment meter? I do think tracking and killing deer in the big woods deserves serious consideration when talking deer hunting accomplishments. The woodsman skills needed to get miles back in the woods keeps most from tracking deer. Add the ability to read a track in all weather conditions and guess the bucks next move, all while still moving through the woods, swamps, ridges and mountains at the pace needed to catch that monster. Let’s not forget the stamina and grit needed to follow that buck for miles, from deer to deer, until he finds that receptive doe or your 180 grain core-lokt, which ever comes last. More stamina is needed now, as the buck lies at the end of the track, two miles from the nearest road and only one way to get there at 0-dark thirty!!
Lets take another look at “hunter accomplishment” and add the method of tracking whitetails to the mix and maybe we’ll come up with some new answers.
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