Master Plans from Top Bowhunters to Take Deer
Day 3: Prepare for Bow Deer Season Carefully with Bob Foulkrod
Editor’s Note: Bowhunting need not be a sport of feast or famine. To up your success rate, try this advice from some of the country’s most-consistent, detail-oriented bowmen. Why do some archers consistently take deer each season with their bows, while others who spend just as much time in the woods rarely, if ever, experience success? Let’s see how the best bowhunters in the nation produce deer. Bob Foulkrod of Troy, Pennsylvania, has killed a world-record caribou and almost 20-other caribou that qualify for the Pope and Young record book with his bow. Also a bowhunting instructor, Foulkrod intensively hunts whitetails each year and has learned to solve bowhunting problems to bag more bucks.
  “Many hunters will set up a tree stand and may see deer 50-yards from their stands all week. I’m convinced a hunter should move his tree stand – even if he has to lose a hunting day to get his stand in the right place – rather than watching deer just out of bow range. I’ve also known other hunters who, after setting-up their tree stands, sat in these stands for several weeks and not spotted any deer. If I set-up a tree stand, I want to see deer. Although I don’t believe that the kill is the number-one reason for bowhunting, I do go into the woods to attempt to bag a deer. If I can’t take a deer, I at least want the opportunity to see deer. For all these people who say they go into the woods to observe wildlife while sitting in their tree stands, I suggest they go out on their front porches or down the road and stay out of the woods where other people are trying to hunt. Perhaps more bowhunters don’t take more deer because they’re reluctant to move their tree stands once they put them up.”
Watch the Noise You Make:
 Foulkrod names one of the most-difficult problems with taking deer from a tree stand with your bow as the noise the hunter makes when he stands to shoot, when he draws his bow, when he moves on the stand to shoot or when his clothes rustle against a bush. “In my opinion, the hunter hasn’t had bad luck when this happens but rather is experiencing hunting problems created by himself. Most bowmen believe when they put stands in trees, all that’s left to do is to hunt from that tree stand. However, successful tree stand hunting involves much more than having an elevated platform from which to shoot. After I’ve placed a stand in a tree, I stand on that stand and practice drawing and aiming in every direction from which a deer possibly can come. If a limb or a twig is in the way for when a deer presents a shot, I eliminate it. If any branch is sticking out close to my seat, I cut it off. Then my clothes won’t brush against it. If my tree stand squeaks the slightest bit, I try to locate the squeak and get rid of it. I try to eliminate all the excuses or all the problems that keep me from taking a clean shot, once the deer presents that shot. This preparation is made prior to my actually hunting from that stand. Then when I leave a stand site, I know the next time I get in that stand, I’ve removed all the problems I can that will prevent me from taking a clean shot at a deer.”
  You’ll learn more information and tips in the new Kindle eBook by John E. Phillips: “Jim Crumley's Secrets of Bowhunting Deer,” and learn many ways to prepare venison in “Deer and Fixings.” Go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the names of the books and download them to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.
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