It has been awhile since my last posting. One does not have time to write while the hunt is still on. But now looking back over last year's season I have many thoughts.
It was a good season, a week long bowhunt the first week in November (5-11th)was the highlight. It was a great time, I hunted public and private ground from the tree and ground. I sat in a groundblind from sunrise to sunset two of those days. I saw seven bucks over one water hole. I am sure that location will be next years honey hole. I thought about life alot during those times. I thought about the coming birth of another son who was born in December, little Alexander. And while I was daydreaming I had a good 170in buck appear just long enough to get my adrendaline pumpling, it had to be one of the biggest bucks I had ever seen while bowhunting. He was beautiful, he had a thick neck, and wide tall rack, at least for the very brief glimspe I caught of him. I was using a Montana doe decoy with scent for the set up and that combination sparked his interest. I had a few other smaller bucks show up before and after. The Rut was just heating up in Western Iowa.
The next day I was ready, I had cleared shooting lanes, setup early, everything was perfect. I was hunting from a groundblind with setup for an easy thirty yard poke. Around 11am, a bruiser showed up, a good 140in. or bigger buck walked right into my position, and stopped to sniff the grass where I had dropped scent. I slowly drew my bow, picked my spot behind the shoulder, and released. I had already imagined how great this deer was going to look on my wall. Boy was I wrong. My carbon arrow with a 100 grain muzzy tip, hit what was supposed to be shoot through netting and zip I never even saw where the arrow hit, and the buck did not wait around for a second opportunity.
I could not believe it. I have somewhat of a perfectionist streak in me, and sometimes it gets me in trouble because I wait for the perfect moment. I over analyze, plan, and train. But this time everything was perfect, nothing left up to chance, except that I had never shot through the netting material in the blind. I just trusted it, not wanting to put a hole in the brand new material.
I can make many comparisons to that mistake in life, but many people make that mistake through their faith. Some like I did with the blind netting, just take what is handed down to them through their culture or through tradition, and take it for granted that when it comes to time of the shot that everything is going to go smoothly.
They never take the time to test it out; see if it performs as advertised. They seldom do the research to see if what they are being sold is genuine, woods tested.
But like my experience, if something is not tested, put to a real world test, it often does not work like it is advertised and falls short. Now in my case, true I lost a trophy deer and may have shed some tears, but the hunt went on, and I got another shot, another deer.
But in life most of the time we don't get second chances, we get one shot and if we havent taken the time to found out if our beliefs fly true to the mark. In the hunt of one's lifetime, we can often find ourselves asking what went wrong, after the shot. But then it is too late.
Life is a lot like bowhunting. Most of the time we only get to release one arrow.
After season upon hunting season, and hours upon hours waiting for that trophy to arrive; enduring the elements, and then in the few seconds to make the shot. One arrow is all we get and so many things can go wrong. Once it is drawn back and released their is no bringing it back, now matter how much we want to. Believe I have a few shots that may forever play in my head.
In life and in hunting there are no mulligans, no do-overs, we get one shot and we had better make it count. When arrows are our beliefs, that we use to make our choices we had better test them on the range, before we enter into the hardwoods.
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