Jerry Simmons and Dr. Robert Sheppard Tell Why Bowhunting the Old Way and the New Way – Both Produce Deer
Day 3: Longbow Hunter Jerry Simmons Says Food Will Lead You to Deer
Editor’s Note: If I had to pick two bowhunters and bet on them to take bucks anywhere in two days of hunting, I’d select Jerry Simmons of Jasper, Alabama, and Dr. Robert Sheppard of Tuscaloosa, Ala., for their consistency. During one deer season in one 38-day stretch, Simmons bagged 36 deer, in a time of more-liberal deer seasons. Sheppard regularly takes all the deer he wants to clean and eat or give away every season. Here’s a look at these two men’s styles of hunting to aid us in learning how to take more deer this season.
 “Regardless of weather temperatures, time of year, moon phase or ay other factor that can influence deer, the animals always have to eat,” Jerry Simmons explains.  “If you find where they’re eating, you can locate the deer.” Simmons rarely puts his tree stand right over a feeding area but instead prefers to hunt the trails leading to the feeding region. “If you take a deer coming along the trail, or you miss a deer on the trail, more than likely that same deer and the rest of the deer in that section of land still will go to that same food source to feed for several more days until that food supply is depleted,” Simmons emphasizes.  “However, if you take a deer and/or leave your human scent in that feeding spot, you probably will cause the deer to leave the spot or only feed there at night.” Simmons feels he owes part of his bowhunting success to keeping all human odor out of the places where numbers of deer feed.  If successful, he may take several deer from that same spot, before the deer deplete the food source, or the deer abandon that food source because of hunting pressure.
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