Bow hunting can be a progressive challenge for anyone who likes to go rifle hunting. Bow hunting can make you feel much more accomplished as a hunter as you’re using ancient technology. Not only that using a bow can also teach you some new skills that will help when you use your rifle again. You need certain skills to get anywhere near your target even if you hire a guide. Sudden movements or even just your scent can alert your prey to your presence and they’re not going to stay around for a chat! This adds a little more excitement to the hunt.

You can be successful with your bow hunting if you learn a few basic secrets:

If you are using a deer stand, you need to space out the time you use it. The more often you’re out there, the more the animals will get to know that you are there. They may even get to know your routine and avoid the area altogether. It’s important to get more than one stand and switch between the ones that you use.

You will need to waterproof your arrow fletches for hunting in the rain. Using hairspray will work, but make sure that it’s of the unscented variety. Use three or four light coats of hairspray on the fletches, make sure you allow each coat to fully dry before adding another coat.

You will need to try to mask any human scent possible. Perform this de-scenting before you get to the stand. You will need to observe which direction the wind is blowing in. Animals can easily pick up your scent from a long way away. You don’t want the wind blowing the scent in their direction. If the stand you are using is not well suited to the wind direction, then go and get to another one. Remember, animals are designed to sniff out scents and use this as part of their early warning system.For more info see http://www.deerelkhunting.com/equipment/Bringing-Out-the-Big-Guns.html

When elk and deer are out of season, you can still practice all aspects of your bow hunting skills. When out of season you must also regularly maintain and check your equipment so that you’re ready for the season to start.

Both elk, and deer have a habit of cramming that last bit of feeding in before the winter hits. This extra feeding will result in more activity than usual. Watch the weather carefully for any snow or rain storms, this would cause the temperature to change. Animals notice these changes in temperature and act accordingly. If a major storm is forecast then ideally you want to hunt before or after for better results.

Cold weather will make hunting with a bow more of a challenge, in winter your draw back will be much more difficult. You will need to drop the draw weight by a few pounds if you plan hunting in really cold temperatures.

You can have a really exciting time when you go bow hunting. It’s a fantastic challenge and you can really learn some great secrets that you can’t when hunting in any other way. Thousands of people all across the world are hooked on bow hunting, why not join them?