How I got my Bowhunting skills

 Hunting skills, how to develop them.

I'll confine this discussion to just hunting with a bow. I have "gone shooting" for kangaroos working briefly for a private contractor for pet food in Australia (obviously). However, I do not call this "hunting" but rather shooting, as the aim was (no pun intended) to dispatch as many suitable subjects as possible for the sole purpose of generating an income. There was no "sport" of any kind involved as we were using all aids necessary in order to achieve such goals.

Now that I have cleared up that definition, let's talk about Bowhunting skills and how I got them.

For me it started at the Orange and District Bowhunters club, many moons ago. A friendly bunch of people and one particular member took me under his arm when he saw how ridiculously I had made my arrows, and actually broke the ice by saying the following just seconds before introducing himself:

"Who the heck taught you to make arrows like that"? 

Then with a friendly smile, introduced himself and then said, if I had time I should come to his home and he will fix those poorly made arrows and tune my bow! Well I had only just moved into this town and that was a damn friendly gesture. I decided to take him up on his offer and one night (it was getting on to winter approaching) visited his place. His wife answered the door and said, "Wal's in the lounge room, go right on in."

I proceeded into a lounge room where all of the furniture was situated around the room, I realised I was standing upon a very large plastic sheet covering most of the carpet on the floor. In the middle of the room was a fairly big section of a tree trunk and on that a sheep carcass. Standing facing me with a raised cleaver in hand, my host greeted me by waving this thing at me (whilst smiling) and saying: "You're next"! 

I knew I was saved when one of his kids entered the room in their Pjs, at least I believed I was! Seriously, once the family butchering job was over, he did indeed take me into some shed and proceeded to explain why my arrows were too long and my fletchings a bit clumsy. After getting epoxy all over his fingers (I was freaking out as my new job in this town was working with very toxic compounds) but he nonchalantly wiped them clean with Kleenix tissues! He then went on to  tune my BEAR bow and welcomed me to the club and hoped they would all see me again. I have my friend Ian and colleague at work at the time for taking me there to this club all those years back.

Anyway I'd like to think I didn't make myself a nuisance out at the range for the next 2.5 years or so, although I did apparently annoy a few by winning the meat raffle three times in a row, the third time I donated it back to be won by someone else LOL! That was back in end of 1985! Same year in Nov i got my SCUBA ticket as well.

Ok, practice at the range. I also went to the range many times to practice either by myself or with others. I also went to the range just to practice sneaking up on kangaroos (unarmed of course) to see how close I could get without them knowing, especially to see if I could sneak to within a respectable shooting distance. I also took every opportunity to go hunting whether for rabbits, pigs or goats. I went not just on regular hunts but also after work in the evenings as well. This latter aspect I was lucky for as I was already living in the countryside and only mere kms from good hunting grounds, which made it possible to go after work for several hours. 

So the formal practice at the range, combined with just improving my stalking skills without bow and actually hunting as much as practically possible was paying off with meals of goat, goat skin rugs (developing tanning skills), rabbit meals, although a little tough LOL) and other.

Training and Tracking

However, I'd like to think the key "training" if you like was the practicing of stalking close to one's game. This could mean on two legs or  crawling along the ground on your guts-QUIETLY!, It doesn't matter but I think one needs to become skilled at both techniques. To perform successfully the latter, one needs to be able to carry their bow without damaging it or any accessories on that bow. The key thing here is not to destroy your string! When I started out with a FRED BEAR recurve of 58# I always carried a spare string with me (and of course bow wax) hunting. Later with a BEAR compound, I also carried a spare string (It had eccentric wheels) but these days with compound bows which require a press in order to string them, one has to be very careful of a ground stalk; essentially because one sharp rock will end your hunting trip if it snags your string!

You may be saying OMG get over it! No one is hunting like this any more! Well let me tell you, there is much excitement to be had with a ground stalk to within metres of your quarry and even within such a short range one simply jumps up and says out aloud: "It's your lucky day" much to the amazement of your quarry, before it bolts off at a hundred miles an hour! Because at that point, one knows they could have taken it down with their bare hands (within reason of course, game dependent!).

Yes there are those who "hunt" from hides, while there is considerable skill in doing this, personally I do not consider it hunting as it doesn't not involve any tracking of your quarry but just baiting. However, baiting one will always have a better chance at bagging something then going on some day march off into the wilds actually looking for some quarry. 

Learning to recognise different animal tracks and whether they are fresh tracks and the approximate age of them is key to becoming a good hunter IMHO.

BCT