Pennsylvania Game News - August 2013 - 59

results from cramped or uncomfortable
quarters in the stand that require the
archer to assume contorted positions
when drawing and/or shooting the
bow. Failure to clear such branches
and limbs from the immediate stand
area and shooting lanes — permitted
only on private property with permission — also can aggravate this problem.
Weather: The two aspects of weather
most likely to compromise an archer’s
shot are wind and precipitation. The
potential of gale force winds should
keep any bowhunter out of the trees,
but steady winds and more powerful
gusts can certainly affect arrow flight at
longer ranges. While you might try to
compensate for windage by guesswork
and redirecting your aiming point, the
prudent thing to do is to avoid any and
all longer-range attempts, particularly
when dealing with severe crosswinds.
Rain, snow and sleet all can heighten risk by impacting visibility, aiming
capability, saturating feathered fletchings, blocking peep sights, obscuring
sight pins, and generally dampening
a bow’s overall performance. Extreme
cold or freezing weather also can affect
the archer’s strength and coordination
and even reduce his capability to draw
the bow and release an arrow with accustomed competence.
Peripherals: Peripherals are factors
not directly influential to the shot
itself, but can impact the recovery of,
or failure to recover, game. Again, the
highest percentage shot on a deer in
terms of recoverability is the double
lung pass-through shot angled downward at about 30 to 45 degrees leaving
a wound that assures a significant blood
trail. Lowest percentage: sticking a deer
with a steeply angled shot and no passthrough with no exit wound and where
AUGUST 2013

the arrow shaft plugs the entry wound.
This shot may prove fatal, but leaves
absolutely no blood trail and compounds the risk of failure to recover.
Hunting late afternoon or evening
can create similar peripheral recovery
risks. Tracking a deer, especially one
without a significant blood trail, becomes exponentially more problematic
after darkness falls and tracking tasks
may have to be delayed until morning.
This increases the odds of the deer not
being recovered at all or being partially
consumed by predators, or, on warm
nights, having the meat spoil. Other
such recovery risks are caused by approaching storm fronts where rain can
wash away blood trails, or by adjacent
properties that are heavily posted
by landowners who refuse access to
hunters.
Of course, in the end, no bowshot
on game is without some risk. Arrows
launched at unalerted, stationary deer
standing broadside at a distance of
about 20 yards from treestands 15 to 20
feet high on a clear, calm morning enjoy the highest percentage for success.
Shots beyond 30 yards at an alerted
deer moving directly away or angling
toward the hunter on a windy, rainy
evening next to posted property have
the lowest. In most cases, the circumstances of the shot will fall somewhere
between these two extremes. It’s up to
the prudent bowhunter to manage the
risk by applying wise judgment to each
and every shot selection situation.
As an old cowboy guide once advised me on a bowhunt for elk in Colorado many years ago, the only shot that
really counts is the next one you take.
Better make it a good one.

Pennsylvania Game News - August 2013

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