Don’t Give Up Perseverance Pays Off

A story for hunters looking for their first deer.

December 9, 2017 – 9:30am. I spotted the doe early enough to be able to stand up as she was
meandering from the left on the crunchy snow. I had been in my tree stand for more than 3h,
and I was shivering with a combination of the cold or nervousness. Snow flakes gently flying
over my face led me to believe that the wind was working in my favor. My breathing was
heavy and, to me, was way too loud. . . I simply could not calm myself down. The whitetail doe
stopped right behind an alder bush creating a perfect cover to draw. A few more steps and she
would be right in my shooting lane less than 20 yards from my stand. I came to full draw,
shaking and breathing heavily. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Only the flurries dancing in the
stillness of the morning. Soon it became obvious that she wasn’t going to join in on the party. I
never heard her leave either. Just vanished. Did she hear me struggling to control my
breathing? Smelled me? Saw me? At that very moment, for the very first time since I picked up
a bow, I questioned myself if I would ever kill a deer. After all, this was my eighth year of
hunting and still nothing to show for.

For many hunters who have enjoyed success, they probably don’t even remember the struggle
they had getting their first quarry. Or they were lucky enough to have had parents or friends to
speed up their learning curve. They remember their first one, but omit crucial factors that are
no longer applicable to them. What I am about to tell you is a story of perseverance and
learning to hard way, taking no short cuts. Mistakes? I don’t have enough of one article to list
all the errors I’ve made over the years. In the end, I will give you a few crucial tips that a
veteran bow hunter would have easily forgotten. It is about what it takes to the get the number
1. I found out that these tips were never mentioned to me, but as a bow hunter, they were
paramount to breaking the curse.

To give you a bit of background, I grew up with a dad who is an avid gun hunter. Me, I
remember going hunting with him and his friends on weekends, looking for grouse and hare. By
the age of 20, I believed I stopped hunting all together and was enjoying the world of
motorcycle a lot more. I moved from Québec to British Columbia when I was 26, and I had all
but forgotten about hunting. About 10 years ago, I asked my dad if he still had his old bow he
bought in the mid-eighties. It was an American Archery compound bow will two small cams and
a wooden handle. I joined a shooting range and started practicing. I became a decent shooter
considering the equipment. When Fall arrived, I got my BC Hunting license, and went hunting
for grouse and ptarmigan. To my amazement, I ended up getting two ptarmigans and one
grouse. I was hooked! I bought myself a deer tag and a brand-new compound bow.

7 years without a kill
There are many ways to screw up your hunt, and I think I figured out most of them. . . yet I
know I can find new ways. I became proficient in the art of making Tag Soup, however, there
was a lot I was learning from that point on. What did I want to get out of this? I really wanted to
get my own meat. I had no interest in getting a trophy. Any deer would do. So now I had to
figure out how to get it done. I read about hunting technics and still hunting seemed like a
brilliant idea at the time. The problem with this, was my traveling in the woods was as quiet as
a marching band and at that time, I still wasn’t too worried about smell and wind direction. So
needless to say, I wasn’t seeing too much while still hunting. I liked the tree stand right away.
This began when a seasoned bow hunter invited to me to a hunting trip and told me to get one.
The beauty with the tree stand is the deer come to you, and it is a lot easier to spot a moving
animal than a still one. . . especially when you’re new at it.

In my second year, I started to hang out with bow hunter’s as well, which proved to be
beneficial. After all, it is very good that you learn from your mistakes, but even better to learn
from other people’s mistakes. And even though during these 7 years I was unsuccessful in
getting my first deer, my annual trip to the Southern Interior became the most anticipated
event of the year for me. I was part of the gang, a real group of hunters who had countless
stories of past success. Me, stories of near misses, being busted or how I almost killed myself
going backward on my truck down the hill was all I could share.

During these 7 years of harvesting stories and experiences I was slowly crafting my skills. I
began to control what I could control and improved what I could improve. After being busted
many times because of scent, it became an obsession for me. I would never wear my hunting
clothes before I get out of my truck and headed the stand or the woods. I wore rubber boots
and tried not to touch any branches or trees on my way in. Just like wearing camo, I did not
think I became invisible to the deer noses, but instead of acting as billboard ad, I turned myself
into small print. The more diligent I became, the more game I saw.

My shooting was good, but I had missed a few easy shots. I wanted to make sure this wouldn’t
happen again, so I started to shoot more and more. In 2017, I shot so many arrows that I had
replaced my bow because it exploded in my hands after the string snapped. I practiced shooting
from all angles, kneeling, sitting and standing. Some days I shot as fast as could and others I
held at full draw for as long as my arm could hold. Another scenario I wanted to play out was
trying to shoot when my heart tries desperately to jump out of my chest. To do this, I would run
or do jumping jack, then I would pick up my bow and aim while my heart was at full revs while
trying to hit the mark.

I began to study the “luckiest” hunters in the group – the guys who seemed to always have deer
hanging up the game pole. And I copied their habits. They were the ones who spent the most
time in the stand, and who drank the least. At first, they did not voluntarily share hints and
tricks, but would gladly guide me if I asked. All of a sudden, I was in my stand earlier, stayed a
little longer, and I started to see more games as well. They were slowly but surely leaking their
skills into mine. The more dedicated I became, the more they opened up on their secrets.
After spending hours and hours in tree stands, miles and miles walking the woods, I started to
finally see what was so obvious to the “lucky” guys: Trail patterns, overlooked areas, sometimes
very close but missed by most. Although I stubbornly stuck in the same hunting tree for years, I
was on the verge of seeing the light.

And there I was, eight years later, once again, looking for another opportunity and a chance to
end the drought.

December 9, 2017 11:00am
I came back to camp totally dejected. Finally, I concluded that my tree stand location was not
supreme. I had been hunting there for years, saw deer, took 2 shots, missed both, but
somehow it never really yielded. With one afternoon left in my hunting season, I evaluated my
alternatives. My first option was going to use someone else’s spot since they left, or second
option, go to a new place where I placed cameras two days earlier. On my way, I picked up my
cameras where the floor was covered with tracks. When I looked at the photos, I was shocked.
Lots of deer and the best part was, many of them at around 4pm. Perfect! I got excited again,
but cautiously. By two pm, I was up in the stand longing for a chance to make it count.

2:15pm
I had barely settled down when I noticed something moving to my right. A whitetail doe
appeared at 30 yards on a deactivated logging road. She stopped and started snorting and
pawing the snow with force. I was frozen unable to move. She refused to move forward and
backed up. Obviously, she felt something was right. Maybe she didn’t like the alfalfa in front of
her, or could smell the hunter who had walked there earlier that morning. My heart was
already pounding out of control while I was pleading with the Almighty to help me calm down. I
stayed still and watched her traveled into the small pines still wheezing and pawing. What I
didn’t know at that time, she was giving me ample opportunities to draw my bow, but I never
got the hint. She crossed all the way to the opening on the other side to my left no more than
20 yards away. The reality of it all, I had already missed two opportunities to draw my bow.
Instead, I was again unable to move with my heart hammering inside my chest while she stared
in my direction, her stiff leg hitting the ground. I cannot move. Slowly I managed to control my
breathing. The doe and I had now been on a standoff for over 10 minutes. She cautiously
retreated into the small pines and stopped, broadside, leaving a small opening at what I
believed to be 40 yards. I raised my bow, came to full draw and rested my 40-yard pin on her
chest. I pull the trigger on my release and unleashed the arrow. As the projectile was flowing,
the doe turned. And then I see her run, and run, and run then disappeared. Did I hit her? I think
I did. I don’t see blood. Could it be it? I think I heard the “thwack” that everyone talked about.
Or was it the bush? So, I was now standing in my stand, and started the mandatory 30-minute
wait before going to check. 6 minutes later I was coming down the tree. I just couldn’t wait any
longer. On my way down, I witnessed some coloring on the snow where the doe was. No
doubt it must have been the sun reflecting on it giving me a false sense of victory. I was trying
so hard to stay quiet and avoiding moving towards the area. Unable to bare the postponement
any longer, I inched my way toward where the doe took off. In disbelief, I saw that the
coloring was not the sun rays, but was in fact blood. Lots of it. My arrow was covered with it. I
could hardly believe what I was seeing. Blood. A blood trail. A BLOODTRAIL! I just wanted to
scream, but I yearned to see her dead before getting a false sense of hope.
I slowly walked beside the crimsoned snow, trying to see as far as I could. Within 50 yards I
caught a glimpse of her laying down by a tree. A tear rolled down my cheek as if years of
frustrations were leaving my body. After 7 years of coming home with only stories, this time, I
was going to put meat on the table. At age 49, I killed my very first deer.

My luck has improved a lot since. In the last two years, I harvested 6 more deer (2 mule deer, 4
whitetail). Among those, 4 were bucks, one a 4X4, and yet my favorite is still my first doe.
Someone told me after the first one it become easier. I think what he meant was, after you get
one, you have a memory of success, and you can build on that.
I would like to finish the tale by sharing with you tricks that I think would help any new
bow hunters. Not because I am a great hunter, pretty far from it. But because my success is
fairly new, and these lessons are still very fresh in my memory. I think these tips would apply to
hunters seeking their first spoil.

Tip 1 – Shoot!
The critical success event is shooting. Do not let anyone else tell you otherwise. You can spend
as much time as you want in the woods, do all the scouting you care to do, unless you release
an arrow toward an animal, no games will ever fall. So practice and shoot! Practice from close
range and from distance longer than you would never dare shooting an animal. And whenever
you get a chance, let go of that arrow. To emphasis this point even more, I spent hundreds if
not thousands of hours hunting black tail deer. Never took a shot at one. I spent a fraction of
that time hunting mule deer. Shot two arrows, and now I have deer in my freezer.

Tip 2 – Distance yourself
This might seem like the opposite of what you were told. If you are like me, and you never killed
a big game animal, you might find it quite intimidating. When they’re so close that you can hear
them chew, it is very difficult to maintain full control of your emotions, not being heard and
have an impeccable timing. I killed my first two deer from what would be considered long shot
(over 40 yards). However, I believe it helped me a lot to be calmer and not be detected when I
drew my bow. Because they were further away, the window of opportunity that I could draw
increased. And if you shoot from a tree stand, there’s also the “bending at the hip” that you
have to master. My tendency was to simply drop the arm holding the bow which inevitably
ended up with too high of shot. So practice your long shot, because the further away you are
from the game, the easier it will be to control your nerves, and not be heard. It will give more
occasion to draw and the angle won’t be too much of an issue. I since killed deer at less than 20
yards. Before my first kill, I wonder if I would have blown a few if not all of those opportunities
because my timing was off.
Now, I much prefer closer shots.

Tip 3 – Timing is everything
You have probably been told of that one, but here’s my take on it. When the game is close to
you, timing is crucial. Some of the deer I killed where down right to a matter of flawless timing.
What seemed so natural with those, when to get up, draw the bow, aim and shoot, was beyond
awkward at first. I waited too long before drawing, or drew too early, or got pined in the wrong
position unable to move, I aimed too fast, took too long to find my pin. . . So the more you will
screw up with your timing, the closer you will get to perfecting it. Draw your bow more than
you’re doing now. One of my rituals is as soon as I am setup in my tree stand, I pick up my bow,
and I go at full draw, find my anchor points, bend at the hip and aim at an imaginary deer. I do

that to build an automatic response, it is amazing how it becomes second nature in the heat of
the moment. Now believe you can do it.

Tip 4 – Believe it will happen
Many hunters will tell you, don’t expect to get something, just hope. I disagree. Since I changed
that little turn of phrase, my luck has increased tremendously. All of a sudden, my timing is
right. And I think that deep down inside, a great deal of successful hunters see themselves
achieving their goals. They might even call it “quiet confidence.” I remember when I missed
golden chances to bring down a deer. I was replaying of my hunts in my head, I used to always
think of what went wrong. I saw myself without a good shooting lane, or the deer winded me,
or was unable to see myself aiming at the deer. And guess what happened the next time? Yep,
much of the same. Instead, you want to focus on the moments that made you smile, got your
heart going, lessons learned. To help me with this issue, I had to write a success story. Yes, I did
exactly that. . . And you would be surprised how much it resembles what really happened.

Tip 5 – Find your own playground
Finding a great hunting ground was one of my proudest moments. It took me 8 years, but when
I found it, I knew I would see deer there, and it is producing beyond expectations. It is so
tempting to take a freebee from someone else or have someone let you use their honey hole.
Truth be told, it rarely happens. I strongly encourage you to find your own and be very careful
with whom share its location. – for safety reason, it still important that someone know where
to find you. When my friend introduced me to whitetail hunting, he let me use his tree. I saw
deer, one of them a massive 4X4. (You know I blew those opportunities, right?) As tempted as I
was to go back there and take his spot, I never did. Instead, I would try different places, some of
them were terrible choices, others, a few deer here and there. I improved my abilities to locate
busy trails, and sometimes just moving my stand to another tree created much better shooting
lanes or cover for drawing my bow. There are plenty of people, article and videos that can
guide you in finding your own.

For me, I prefer to look for routes rather than beds, scrapes or food plots. I choose trails
because I found them much easier to locate than the latter. Whenever possible, I use cameras
even if it is only for a few days. In the winter, you have the snow that tells the story of what’s
going on in the neighborhood. Even now, I am always on the lookout for another place.
Well, I hope you can find a few things in this article to help you breaking your duck. I will have
to stop here as I am making a very tasty Elk Tag Soup. After I thin sliced the tag, I might put it in
a whitetail broth with some veggies and mule deer meat cubes. . . Yep, that shouldn’t so bad.
While this soup is simmering, I’ll be thinking of that elk opening day . . . what a story. . . really, it
was unreal. Maybe one day I will tell you.

Author: Stéphane Gingras

Instagram: The_bowhunter_file