My deer hunting season ended a little early. Every year I switch gear and keep record of what worked really well (good), what seemed promising but was not in the end worth the effort (meh), and the complete fails (ugly). I focused on bowhunting this year. Most of my other gear was dialed in.
The Good
The Good
- Hoyt RX9. Accurate, light, easy to draw and shoot, a meaningful upgrade from my last bow (2020 Mathews VXR).
- AAE Max Stealth in four fletch. The most forgiving, durable, and quiet vane configuration I’ve ever used. 2-3 inch groups at 70 yards.
- Iron Will SB 125. Blew through a deer at 50 yards. I wasn’t sure I’d hit my deer because I didn’t hear the arrow impact until it hit a tree twenty feet behind.
- Kuiu Ranger 2000. Perfect day-hunting pack. Carried saddle, platform, climbing sticks, insulation, and everything I need for a day hunt close the body’s center of gravity.
- Having learned to hunt from the ground (rather than a blind or tree stand), in big public land with low deer population (rather than private property), and from a friend who is also a tracker. I had to change all my hunting strategies opening week, and knowing how to take a different approach turned the season around.
- Saddle hunting. On the one hand, I was able to get closer than in years prior, so that was good; on the other, see below.
- Victory HLR. Great shafts. Bought three dozen. Which is a good (and expensive) thing because they break easily. Not sure it was worth upgrading from RIP TKO to save ~30 grains.
- OMP Phoenix. Almost put this with the good. More accurate than bitz, faster than LCA vane master. It’s now my standard jig, but I’m just not sure it was worth the upgrade.
- AAE Airazr material. Weakest vane material ever. I found myself fletching after every visit to the range.
- AAE Max Hunter. Loudest vane ever. Which was a disappointment because it steers a broadhead extremely well and is durable (and looks pretty cool).
- Tinkering. After wasting time and money, I ended up just copying Dudley’s arrow configuration, which proved super forgiving, and spent time practicing at the range.
- Saddle hunting. More precisely, installing a platform the morning of a hunt. That saddle hunting is *advertised* as quiet says it all. It’s so much more noisy and sweaty than any other method. I saw no deer no matter how early I arrived until I started coming in and installing the platform the night before. I just don’t see how rattling around for 20 minutes in the morning at the base of a tree is anything but a recipe for getting busted.
- Neighbors. I hunt a 100 acre hardwood tree farm which belongs to a friend. A neighbor also has permission to hunt there. He basically ignores the property because he’s had no success there, but last year he saw me drag a deer out and seems to have gotten interested. Two weeks before archery season, he went through with a chainsaw and cleared 200 yard shooting lanes across the property, drove in garden spikes with blue ribbons every 20 feet, and removed every thicket the deer used to cross from one side of the property to the other. The deer responded by…leaving. I used to see 8-12 deer there every day. Opening day archery: nothing. The one deer I did encounter was terrified, clearly stressed. I spent days visiting places I’d seen deer, and nothing. I came back two weeks later and found he’d put up four stands in one corner of the property and had a timed feeder. Finally, I just walked the whole property and figured out what the neighbor had done. Thankfully, I learned to hunt from a tracker, and was able to figure out where the deer were moving: that is, nowhere near the shooting lanes.
