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Jesse's Hunting > Hunting Articles > Hunting Articles Archives > Stay Ready for Success
Stay Ready for Success
Kirk Edgerton - JHO ProStaff
- Sacramento, CA
October 06, 2006
If you’ve spent any amount of time in the woods pursuing large game, I’m sure it’s happened. If you’re lucky, it’s only happened once. For me on the other hand, I learn the hard way.
Being ready pays dividends
The author and friend, Tony Elwell were ready when they encountered these meat hogs. |
The first time I experienced it was on a cool, Tennessee fall day. The rut was in full swing and it was the opening day of muzzleloader season, which in the south, falls perfectly at the beginning of the rut. I left the house that morning with bow in hand, hoping to bag my first archery buck.
After hunting hard all morning and while making my way back to the car around mid-day, a spindly four-point walked right out of the woods, directly in front of me, and stopped broadside at no more than 35 yards.
That would have been a great buck for me at such a young age, and so new to archery, but all I could do was watch as the buck walked off the road and melted into the woods. That was the day I realized it’s pretty much impossible to shoot, harvest, or kill an animal with a bow slung over your shoulder and your release in your pocket.
Since that incident and countless others I prefer not to remember or recount, I always enter and exit the woods ready. By “ready”, I mean that I have an arrow nocked, my release on the D-loop, and all my gear accessible. I can attribute at least ten, big game harvests to my new-found “ready” style of hunting. In each of these cases, had I not been ready, I would have come home empty-handed with another ‘almost’.
Being ready also means being mentally focused. If your mind is not in it and you’re thinking of how long the grass is at home that you should be mowing, you’ll never notice the bedded buck you just walked past. Being ready means being 100% in the game.
Next time you enter the woods chasing big game, stop for a second and ask yourself, “Am I walking slowly and cautiously? Am I stopping frequently to scan, look, and glass for game? Is my rangefinder handy? Are my bow, release, and arrow ready?
“Am I ready?”
Editor Note: How many times has this happened to you? Have you ever lost a great opportunity because you weren’t ready? Tell your story now in the Campfire forum at Jesse’s Hunting and Outdoors!
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