When I first met my husband he told me that he was a hunter. He likes hunting waterfowl, upland birds and other game. He had a Labrador retriever and he spent a great deal of time training the dog. As we began to date more often I began learning how dogs are trained and noticed that I have a natural skill to work with animals. We had been dating for several months when he mentioned that he was going to be going deer hunting. I questioned this since deer hunting season was still a couple of months away. He told me that he was into archery hunting and that the period began two months earlier than the gun season. I had heard of archery hunting, but I never knew a person that was involved with it. I was about to enter into a entire new world of hunting.

The year we were dating I did not see him get ready for hunting. I just knew that We did not spend as much time together on the weekends since he was out hunting. I discovered the preparation that goes into bow hunting once we were married. To begin with the the clothes he wear is completely camouflage. My husband insists that the clothing be cleaned with no detergents and it has to hang outdoor for a few days so there would be no household smells on it. The reason for this is that with archery hunting you need to get very close to the animal that you will shoot. Also, he practiced shooting arrows into a big target that has the form of a deer. This step was to improve his accuracy at various distances. He also placed a portable stand in a tree so that he may quietly sit and wish for a deer to walk close enough to be shot. He told me that there (exists|is} a procedure named still hunting in which the hunter is on the ground, but when there are still many leaves on the trees in the early season, the tree stand is a much preferable method of hunting.

I was really surprised at the amount of time to train and the energy that is required to pull back the strings on the bow. After a few years I started admiring archery hunting and the people that do it. It is much more of a sport that using a gun to shoot a deer. The animal needs to be close and the shot needs to be very defined. My husband has shot a few deer and two black bears with his bow. It is more work and more time consuming, but it is an activity that he enjoys.