Hunting with a Stick and a String

For the last two months, I have been slowly, slowly building up  all the things you need to go into hunting deer with a bow.  This is a casual hobby for me.  I don't plan on hunting in the  rain.  If I am tired, I don't plan on hunting,  I only plan on hunting if I want too.  That, of course, does not include situations where I am hunting with a buddy..  In those cases, we will hunt at almost any cost.  I do have my pride. 

Anyway, back to the bow.  I got one about the first of September of this year.  It is a PSE.  I now know that is a Precision Shooting Equipment bow.  At the time, I didn't know anything. I was lucky because it turns out to be a pretty good old bow.  What I didn't know was that bows have changed over the last fifty years.  I shot my bow, also the result of technical changes, quite a bit from 1957 to 1964.  But, do the math, that is a while ago now.  In 1957, I got a fiberglass bow, a new thing,   It looked like a long bow.  It had no wheels, no crossed strings and definitely no iron.  My new bow has all of the above.  It also needed a sight, a rest, and a mounted quiver.  Acquiring these items is what was involve with the set up part of the hobby.  That is all done now though.  I am about one hundred dollars shorter and the bow is about three pounds heaver.   I am good to go. 

My friends know that I am good to go.. That means that I better get started in the field or in the woods or even down the road but a huntin I had better go or face mild harassment.  Into the corn field I went.  Now, this corn field is just tailor-made for hunting.  Rows, twenty feet wide had been cut in it for use in harvesting later on.  Walking down the rows, I could see deer tracks.  This was getting to be fun.  It was so quite.   I could feel the weight of the bow.  A gun is different.  What do you do with the arrow.  Should it be in the bow?  If so, how do you keep it from falling.  If not, how do you get the time to move it into position while being very quiet and watching a buck that is really better at this than you are.  I elected to have it nocked or placed on the string and ready to go. 

Suddenly, after only about twenty minutes walk from the house, I stop and listen.  There is a sound.  A rustle in the corn means a big animal is near.  I can't see a thing and it is twilight.  Finally, there is a burst of noise.  One hundred and forty feet from me, this deer bursts into the clearing.  That is too far to even consider shooting with a bow.  It would make it but I wouldn't reliably hit anything.  What a thrill and a surprise to see that deer.  As darkness fell, I walked home, feeling happy and  lucky to be there with that old bow.  It was fun.