You’re lucky to have me around. Why?  Because by having me around you get to learn from my screw ups, and trust me I make a lot of them, so you don’t have to make the mistakes yourself.  For example, today I missed a deer that was almost close enough to touch.

There are multiple reasons why I missed but I’m going to highlight the main ones so maybe you won’t duplicate my pathetic effort.

Reason 1 – I wasn’t mentally prepared.  This deer surprised me.  I was done hunting, tired of being wet, and was almost back to the house when the doe came trotting by about 10 yards away.  She walked behind a tree; I clipped on my release, drew back and waited.  When the doe popped back out I put my pin right behind her shoulder and touched the release.  I knew from the sound it was a miss

I just wasn’t prepared to see a deer at that point of the hunt.  For the past two days I had been sitting in the rain.  Every part of me was wet and just wanted to get somewhere dry. I wasn’t really hunting, just walking around the woods with a bow, and there is a huge difference.  The point here is that from the time you get out of the truck, until you get back to it you need to be mentally prepared for a deer to come out.

Reason 2 – Lack of Focus.  This really is an extension of Reason 1 but it deals more with physical focus than mental.  You see, there was a limb between the deer and me that I never saw.  When I let the arrow fly it hit this limb and went straight down, going right under the doe, just clipping a few stomach hairs.  I should have made sure the shooting lane was clear before releasing the arrow.  So I should have focused on the area between me and the deer, and then focused on a small spot to hit on the deer, before focusing on my pin.  That’s a lot of focusing and I’m pretty sure I did none of it.

Reason 3 – I wasn’t physically prepared.  Honestly, I haven’t shot my bow enough this year.  Between being sick, traveling for work, kid’s school activities…I just haven’t had time so I’m not shooting as well as I can.  Plus, I was wearing a backpack and I have practiced zero times this year with a backpack.  It really can make a huge difference.