Resources to Start Bowhunting

Fall is here. Time to go kill something.

Summer is officially over, and it was a wild one. I spent much of it traveling and trying new things—I’ll have more to share soon. One of my new things is I am now the editor-in-chief of alloutdoor.com, outdoorhub.com, and thefirearmblog.com.

The guys at all three sites have absurd amounts of domain expertise, and one of the first things I wanted to do was leverage that to create helpful buying and how-to guides. Of course, anything outdoors is by nature seasonal, so much of our early focus has been on bowhunting, since in much of the US, bow season for deer comes before rifle season:

• The Best Beginner Compound Bows

• The Best Hunting Bows

• The Best Bow Sights

• The Best Compound Bow Stabilizer

• The Best Rangefinders for Bowhunting

• The Best Ground Blind for Bowhunting

Of course, you can’t be editor-in-chief of an outdoor site without doing outdoor stuff, so I’ve dusted off my vintage yard sale bow, and I’m going to take my two boys bowhunting for the first time. My deal with myself is if I can bag a deer with this old bow, I get to buy a new one.

Tree Stand vs. Ground Blind

You have to have something to conceal yourself while hunting. Most guys around here use a tree stand, which is sort of an adult version of a tree house. High up in a tree, you’re out of sight and smell of deer.

I don’t like tree stands for a few reasons. One, I’m terrified of heights, and I don’t think I’m cowardly or unreasonable in being so—there are a lot of good ol’ boys around here in wheelchairs because they fell out of a stand. Expert outdoorsman Hank Parker recently fell out of a tree stand. Thankfully, it seems Hank will make a full recovery, but it goes to show that it can happen to anyone.

Most commercial tree stands are all metal—which is extra slippery in the wee hours when it’s dark and everything is wet. The ladder rungs are usually round and thin, which doesn’t help things. Then you get to the top and sit on 5 square inches of metal. No thanks.

Plus, I’m bringing two hyperactive young boys along. So, instead, we’ve set up a deer blind in our woods. A blind is basically a tent, except there’s no floor, you can see through the windows, and you can easily pull them down to shoot at things.

Blinds have some other advantages:

• You have a roof over your head in case it rains

• You can stash gear in there

• Your clothing and scent aren’t quite as crucial as when you’re out in the open

• You can run a small heater inside

Of course, it’ll probably make my hunts more difficult than they would be in a tree stand, but at least my kids won’t fall (or jump) out of it.