Pennsylvania Game News - July 2024 - 10

money to burn. OK, well, maybe that's
a stretch. I did, however, have something
more important ... an employee discount!
A
tree stand was my next purchase,
followed by deer calls, cover scents and
camo gear for both fall and cold-weather
hunting - in short, all of the tried-andtrue
hunting devices and accessories the
stores, magazines and TV shows said
you needed to be successful.
And so my journey as a hunter began.
A Hunter-Trapper Education course
taught me proper hunter safety techniques.
But I didn't know much else, and
it showed. Despite having all the right
equipment, watching countless videos,
and talking to seasoned hunters for advice,
I struggled to put the pieces together
and get the job done.
Something just wasn't working for
me. I needed a change.
For starters, in addition to hunting
from my tree stand, I decided to try my
luck and hunt the ground. And that produced.
Seven years after first taking up
hunting, I snuck up on my first deer and
shot it from a kneeling position just 10
yards away.
I soon transitioned to ground hunting
exclusively, while also ditching the calls
and the cover scents, too. I couldn't do
any worse, right?
Ten years in, along with that transition,
came the best and final upgrade in
my hunting career. I traded in my tree
stand for a strategically placed metal
folding chair.
You're laughing right now. I can all but
hear it. A folding chair is an " upgrade? "
The truth is, I can't help but laugh as
well when I think about it. Hunting with
a compound bow from a folding chair
isn't normal. It's not how anyone will tell
you to hunt.
10
Maybe you can get away with such a
seat if you're hunting with a crossbow or
a firearm, but a compound bow requires
space for all of the movement required
to get into shooting position. That means
you can't tuck yourself into vegetation
and properly conceal yourself. Trying to
pick up, draw back and aim a bow under
such conditions just leads you to make
too much noise and commotion. Instead,
you have to sit in the open.
And that's hard. Believe me, there's
a reason why I don't fill three tags each
year. For every deer you harvest, you
spook 30 or more.
Yet, somehow, despite all these challenges,
my hunting improved when I
switched to my folding chair. I saw more
deer, had more shot opportunities and
started harvesting deer at the statistical
average. This was finally a hunting
method all my own.
It defies logic and reason - don't ask
me to identify anyone else who hunts this
way - but that only gives me more motivation
to prove the naysayers wrong.
And prove them wrong I did.
Fast forward to fall 2023, 18 years
from when my friend first convinced
me to take up hunting. I began hunting
a new, significantly smaller plot of land
sandwiched between large housing developments.
It was neither ideal nor
anything close to my typical haunts. But
the surrounding patches of woods held a
healthy deer population, as evidenced by
the major game trails available to hunt
along.
I placed my now-iconic metal folding
chair in the corner of the property where
vegetation concealed me from the rear. I
was fully exposed from the front - not
using a blind - but that didn't concern
me. My focus was two trails, one on my
left and one on my right.
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2024

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