Born Again

"I been feelin' like my old self again . . .and if you ever see that sun come shining in. . . well get born again."

—Cory Chisel

 In a life spent outdoors, I've tried just about everything hunting and fishing related.  

When I was young, I took a "Jack of all trades, master of none" approach to the outdoors.  Those years were carefree and fun.  

As I grew older, passions like duck hunting, trout fishing, and grouse hunting graduated from passions to obsessions.  I became single-minded and serious.

Too often my outdoor pursuits were more task oriented, complete with a good measure of self-inflicted pressure.  I expected the dog work to be perfect.  A missed shot was cause for self- flagellation. When days did not go according to my plans, as they are wont to do, my play became more like work.

The hubris of young manhood? Probably.  With age comes reconciliation and reflection? We'll see.

A result of all of this was that I stopped doing things that at one point in my life brought great joy.

Like shooting a bow and arrow.

As a kid I'd walk around the woods and fields near our house and plink with my old Bear recurve bow.  I had blunt and judo pointed wooden arrows.  I had some arrows with Flu Flu fletching.  I'd shoot at stumps and squirrels and rabbits and pheasants.  Every once and awhile I'd hit what I was aiming at.

I even killed a deer with my old recurve.

Today, I find myself a born again bow hunter, smack dab in what is arguably the greatest time in modern history to be a Wisconsin deer hunter.

My younger self could have never imagined the technology available to hunters today.  That kid would be blown away by the awesomeness of my new Mathews Z7 compound bow, it's quiver full of carbon Gold Tip arrows armed with 3 bladed mechanical broadheads.  And the mind boggles at how much fun the young me would have had with a trail camera.

Nor would that younger version of me have recognized the current season framework I am today happy to find myself in.  The 2011 Wisconsin Deer Archery Season runs for 113 days.  Where I live I essentially can shoot as many anterless deer as I want.  And, for each anterless deer I shoot, I "earn" an additional antlered buck tag.

This is a far cry from the days of my youth, where deer regs were pretty simple—one license, one buck.

It's already been an eventful season.  Many little dramas have unfolded in front of me, as I sit perched 25 feet above the earth in my treestand.  

There have been close encounters with big bucks, curious does and fawns, howling coyotes at dusk, and dawns breaking across crimson and gold fields.  I have a great story about how I killed my first deer with a bow in over 20 years.

Stay tuned.