There are few people who can tell me they've never made a mistake when going head-to-head with a mature whitetail buck. I've made some really colossal and stupid mistakes.

Making a little mistake that means nothing is not bad, but when a mistake costs you a shot at a good buck at spitting distance, that is something a person will live with forever.

Preaching to the choir is easy because you've made some mistakes, as have I, and we well know the feeling of anger and frustration at ourselves when we mess up.

Fess up! Remember some of your bow-hunting mistakes?

One year a nice buck came past me every night. My stand was in a cedar tree atop a 10-foot knoll. My stand was eight feet up the tree, and when I sat in the stand I was about 20 feet above the trail the buck followed night after night.

The buck was upwind of me, and never looked up at that cedar tree. One day I could hear the buck grunting as he followed his scrape line. He stopped, broadside to me, and as I made my draw, the arrow fell off the rest and rattled through the branches to the ground.

The buck looked up, and then went back to pawing his scrape. I nocked another arrow, began my draw and again the arrow fell off the rest. That buck never hung around long enough to see what made that second tinkling sound.

The question often arises about shooting other critters while deer hunting. I no longer do so, but once while sitting in the same tree stand as noted above, twigs and needles kept falling down on me. I looked up, saw nothing, and five minutes later down came more bark and needles.

I looked up again, and this time saw a big porcupine scratching around on the tree. Not thinking, I drew back, aimed and shot the porkie. It wobbled around, and suddenly I realized what could happen. The animal could fall on my head.

I stepped to the extreme edge of the stand, got two hand-holds and one toe-hold, and down he came onto my stand. A foot nudge sent him toppling over the edge where fell to the ground with an audible thud.

The porkie waddled off, walked down by the scrape below me and died. No deer came visiting me that night.

I could have been wearing a wounded porcupine on my head.

Another time I was in a different stand near an open road that was bordered by a small field, and I was watching a buck 100 yards away. A late arriving hunter came down the two-track trail, knew I was in that stand, and waved at me as he drove past. It's a normal reaction, and I waved back. The car disappeared, and so did the buck. The buck had seen my friendly wave and skedaddled for heavy cover.

Once I was bow hunting in late December, and was sitting in a hay bale blind near a corn field. I have asthma and hay fever so I downed a Benadryl pill to keep from sneezing, crawled inside and soon there were deer in the corn and eating away, unaware of my presence.

One deer was a nice buck, and I'm inside the hay bales, trying to get a shot at the deer. I needed just another inch or two for a shot, and darkness was coming. I tried to force the issue without making any noise, and damned if the two rectangular hay bales didn't move a bit. The small bales moved several inches, and there I went, falling out of the blind and almost on top of the buck.

It's questionable who was more surprised: me or the buck.

All the deer ran off, and at Show and Tell after hunting ended, everyone had a good laugh at my expense. I laughed too as I replayed my smooth move for the other hunters.

Falling out of a ground blinds really requires skill.

One of my dumbest moves came several years ago. We decided to take a different car than the one we normally drove to our hunting land. I'd taken my bow out of the car to shoot a few arrows, and put it back in the car.

The dumb thing was I had transferred everything, including Kay's bow, into the other car. Habit, being what it is, made me put my bow in the car we normally used. I dropped Kay off at her stand, and drove to where I would hunt.

I got my hunting clothes out, got dressed, grabbed my back pack, and started looking for my bow case. It was forehead slapping time as I remembered putting it in the other car.

I spent that afternoon and evening watching deer through my binoculars and spotting scope. It seemed as if all of them were laughing at me, but it was probably just a figment of my imagination.

This nice buck pauses within easy bow range but I didn’t shoot

A hard northwest wind came moaning through the pines last fall, driving the snow horizontally across the newly whitened horizon, and making me wish for the comfort of home and hearth.

The pines were draped with snow, and only the foolish or hungry were afoot in this foul weather. I belonged to the first category, and was hoping a few deer from the second group would filter past my tree. My stand, 15 feet up a pine tree, offered a vast panoramic view of the nearby woods, tag alders and open feeding field. Several inches of new snow covered the ground, and a nearby tag alder thicket provided the only decent cover where deer could wait out the storm.

My glasses were almost useless because they were covered with melted snow, and periodic cleaning of my specs helped some, and the movement was necessary if I were to loose an arrow if and when a buck showed up.

It wasn't a nice day that year to be out, but bucks were moving

The wind sliced through the nearby bedding area like a knife through warm butter. It came gusting across the field, sandblasting my face with hard snow, when a buck stepped hesitantly into view.

The 8-pointer seemed to have come from nowhere. The animal appeared like gray smoke scudding ahead of the wind, moving dark against white from the tag alders into the snow-covered open woodlot.

It traveled downwind, and stopped at random to check the wind, and then seemed to drift slowly across the whitened woodlot. It was the epitome of a whitetails strength to survive in all types of weather and ensure perpetuation of the species. Deer must be tough to survive for long in this type of weather.

It also was the stuff of calendar photos: a snowy scene, green topped pines and a motionless, majestic buck alertly surveying his surroundings. I raised my bow as the buck stepped methodically through the deepening snow to within 30 yards, knowing I wouldn't shoot until it moved to within 15 yards and offered a high-percentage shot at a no-miss range.

It's a close shot or nothing because of my vision problems

The buck began to forage, and conflicting thoughts sent electrical currents coursing through me. Live or die, it's late in the second bow season. I may not have another opportunity to take a buck before the season finally ended.  Besides, it would be a tough drag for one man to get the animal out of the woods to where I could pull it to my car with the four-wheeler. It would be a back-breaking chore just to lift it into my vehicle.

Conflicting emotions offered the thrill of taking a nice 8-pointer while testing my mettle against a savage late-season snow storm. The buck fed closer, browsing on something just off the ground, and my mind was forcing me into a confrontation with myself over the sanity and wisdom of shooting or not shooting this buck.

Give in, and just do it, came one mental command. The flip side said no, it will be too tough physically and there will always be another opportunity.

Flip a coin or do something; I chose to pass on this buck

The buck solved my mental deliberations. It gradually fed into a thick tangle of second growth from a cutting made 10 years before, and it slowly disappeared from sight.

I trudged through the building snow to my vehicle, cased my bow, and prepared to head out. Within moments, the vehicle was filled with welcome warmth, and I calmly reflected on my ambivalence.

Was I too wishy-washy? Had I lost the killer instinct?

The questions pinged around like metal balls in a pinball machine. Minutes of inner reflection told me that the answer was a definitive no to both questions.

There's something about a nasty storm, and hunting in bad weather, that satisfies my mental needs. There also is something about taking an animal's life, or not taking it, that causes great deliberation. It's easier to kill the animal than to allow it to walk away.

Granted, venison is one of my favorite meats. I take deer every year with bow, muzzleloader, rifle or shotgun, and each year I pass up many bucks that could have been harvested.

But, darn it, it feels good to let one live another year and to recall the decision many times over a long winter.

That's why it was simple not to pull the trigger on my bow release. That decision made it easier to yank the four-wheel-drive lever into low-lock and ease down the rutted and slippery two-track for a snowy journey back to civilization where my decision to not shoot made even more sense.

The power of granting life or death over an animal had been satisfied once again, and this time, the buck lived to furnish many fine memories. The thoughts of passing on that buck will live longer in my mind than it would have if the buck had been killed.

Knowing I had made a wise decision based on my personal feelings and simple logic was enough to turn this hunt into a successful one.

The result of good planning and the plan working out.

Many hunters think of bow hunting as a huge-antlered buck standing motionless at 20 yard with nothing but a few low-growing weeds and air between them and the deer.

This so-called calendar pose is what many short-term bow hunters expect to see while hunting. They've been conditioned over many years to expect such a shot, no matter how unrealistic it may be.

The same hunters seldom think of spotting a nice buck, his head held low, as it ghosts through a cedar swamp or tag alder tangle. The truth is that while an occasional shot is taken at a broadside, head-in-the-air buck, the reality is much different than what our imagination tells us is true.

The little things about bow hunting should tell us that a buck seldom offers an easy, open shot. Often, the animal is partially screened by brush or is standing in thick cover. Deer often stop when their vitals are screened by thick brush.

I'm not naive enough to believe they deliberately do so.

One of the little things that hunters must learn, and practice faithfully, is an extraordinary amount of patience. Hunters who get strung out by a motionless buck that doesn't move are usually unprepared for a shot when the deer does move.

Patience is something all of us must believe in. It's always better to sit motionless, and if the buck doesn't move before shooting time ends, chalk it up to another night when the deer outsmarted the hunter. Such things happen far more often than most of us care to think about.

Sitting motionless and silent is far preferable than trying a Hail Mary shot that may make it through the brush to the buck's vitals, but for whatever reason, it rarely does. Taking a low-percentage shot only educates or wounds deer.

There have been countless times when I've spent 30 minutes to one hour waiting for a good buck to move that last 10 feet to offer an open shot. More often than not, they refuse to budge and shooting time ends with the animal still standing motionless in thick cover, still looking around.

Another little thing to remember is to stay in your stand until the buck moves off by himself. Start crawling down out of a tree, and you'll have ruined that stand for the rest of the year. Just hang tight, remain silent, and let him move when the mood strikes him. Wait for someone to come looking for you, and let them spook the deer rather than you doing so.

Building your patience level doesn't occur overnight. It takes time and a great deal of practice, and blowing some possible shot opportunities, before you acquire the necessary skills to wait out a slow-moving deer.

Don't do something stupid if the buck is slowly making his way to you. Perhaps you are in his travel route, and if you sit patiently, the buck may move to you. If you haven't been calling, and suddenly start calling to a nearby deer, the animal may turn away. It may or may not spook, but if the deer keeps coming to silence, don't introduce something new into the equation because it could backfire.

Be very cautious about dropping things. I've seen bucks and does stop 50 yards away because they saw something they don't like. I once watched a buck come a long ways only to stop just out of easy bow range.

Why the buck stopped was beyond me, but stop he did, and he kept looking on the ground along the edge of a tag alder run between us. I studied him through binoculars, and tried to see what he was looking at, and it remained a big mystery.

He left without coming the 20 yards necessary to provide me with a clean shot within my established shooting distance. He walked off and soon disappeared, and as shooting time ended, I eased from the stand and walked over to that spot.

It took a moment of looking around but I found what had spooked the deer. A hunter had moved through that area while hunting grouse and woodcock near the alders, and apparently had shot at a bird.

I found an empty 12 gauge shotshell, and it was laying somewhat in the open where the setting sun would glint off the brass. It wasn't much, but from where the buck had stood, there was still a tiny glint of sunlight there. The buck knew something was different, and turned and took another route out of the area.

It's some of these little things that can make or break a bow hunt. Always be aware of what is going on around you during a hunt because it can affect how deer react.

Bow quiver on when shot is taken. Replace quiver after the shot.

Life is about making personal choices and decisions. None of us must do everything as others do. We can dare to be different if we choose.

This blog post applies to bow hunters. Every stick and string hunter worthy of the name has his or her way of doing things, and often they turn out right. We all learn from our best teacher, experience.

Bow quivers are a case in point. Should hunters leave the quiver on the bow while sitting in a stand and shooting or should they take the quiver off to minimize weight and to remove one unnecessary item that could easily tangle in tree limbs and mess up a shot?

Hunters swing both ways on bow quivers but not me.

I'll go first, and throw my hat in the ring and voice my opinion. I climb into a tree stand after attaching my full-body safety harness to the tree and my body, I sit down, and use the haul rope to raise my bow from ground level. The bow quiver is then removed and placed elsewhere on the tree after an arrow is removed and then nocked. I often hang the quiver on a nearby limb where it will help break up my silhouette but be out of my way.

Once the quiver in hung, I unscrew the broadhead and attach my Game Tracer string behind the 100-grain FirstCut broadhead, and screw it into my Maxima carbon arrow shaft.

I attach the release to the bow string, stuff the lower limb of my C.P. Oneida Black Eagle bow into my left boot, and relax. I hunt and shoot sitting down, and my stands are positioned so bucks usually come from behind me and on my left side.

I shoot sitting down, and stow my bottom limb in my rubber boot.

If the buck follows his normal pattern, he will approach from behind and on my left side. I'm right-handed, so when the buck comes within bow range, and looks the other way, I start my draw and as I reach full draw, the lower limb clears my boot and is clear of my leg, the stand or any tree branches.

This allows for a minimum of movement, is very quiet, and oh so effective once a hunter becomes used to it. This method of drawing a bow wouldn't be possible if my bow quiver was still attached.

The arrow shafts, vanes or even the quiver could get caught up in clothing, limbs or branches. But there is another reason why my quiver comes off my bow when I begin hunting.

It reduces the overall bow weight. Not much, mind you, but when hunting in a variety of locations, sooner or later a bow quiver is going to hang up on something. I remove all possibilities of that happening by taking it off and hanging it some place where it is out of my way.

I want my bow in my hands at all times with my release on the string.

Whenever I watch a television show, or hunt with someone who always leaves his or her quiver on their bow, it makes me wonder how many lost opportunities have occurred because of that quiver.

A bow is a one-shot piece of archery equipment. It's not like hunting with a bolt, pump or semi-automatic firearm. Unless the wind is very strong and noisy, second shots at a buck are so rare as to almost be nonexistent.

A bow quiver on a bow, doesn't speed up getting off a second shot at a deer. It is somewhat awkward to reach to the quiver, pull out another arrow, reach across the bow to nock the arrow and prepare to shoot. Chances are, any self-respecting buck with heavy headgear will be long gone if you miss the first shot.

I often use my bow to help camouflage my upper body and head. I wear a face mask while hunting, and can still turn the bow inside my left boot so the handle and upper limb breaks up my silhouette. If a deer offers a shot, a simple and slow half-turn of the wrist will point the bow toward the animal as the hunter comes to full draw.

A full draw should make your bow and arrow unencumbered by anything.

Such a movement may or may not be necessary, and that is a debatable point, but it would be impossible to do with a bow quiver attached. For me, that is a strong reason for removing the quiver.

Whenever I watch outdoor TV shows, each person is checked to determine if their quiver is on or off. It seems quite evenly divided as to their preference. Those who stand all the time usually have the quiver on while those who sit to shoot take the quiver off.

Many hunters, including some of the television hunters, hang their bow. A deer approaches, and they risk being caught by a sharp-eyed deer. Me, my preference is to hold my bow where there wasted movements that could spook the animal. Holding a bow with quiver attached becomes just too awkward to hold during the hunt.

The slight added weight of a bow quiver (even a three-arrow quiver like I use) can allow a hunter to unknowingly cant the bow to that side. Is it enough, under the pressure of a nearby buck, to throw the arrow off its intended course?

I don't know and don't care to test the theory. My preference is to shoot a bow unencumbered by a quiver. It's my thought that it simplifies things, reduces weight, eliminates canting, drops a few ounces of weight and besides ... it works for me.

Anyone willing to plead their case for keeping a bow quiver on a bow while hunting is encouraged to contact me. You won't change your mind, I won't change mine, but I'd love to hear your philosophy.

Photographing wild whitetail bucks requires as much skill as hunting them.

It was one of those great nights a few tears ago when the deer started moving early on a west wind, and continued filtering through my area until after dark. It presented me with a dilemma.

Should I shoot a buck with my compound bow or with a camera? The new Canon camera with a 300mm lens seemed to beckon hard and long for my use, and because it is newer than the bow, I left the bow in its case at home.

The first deer came along the edge of a funnel between two tag alder thickets. It was an adult doe, and lacking anything better to do, I watched her come for 200 yards. She stopped once, looked back, and hauled butt toward me and she was weaving in and out of the tags.

Knowing where to set up for taking good photos works just as well when hunting.

Her body language told me all I needed to know. She was trying to stay ahead of a trailing buck, and she squirted out in front of me. She stopped just out into the field, stood momentarily, and kept moving.

Two minutes later, as silent as a shadow, came the 8-point. He had five-inch brow tines, and had all the makings of a good buck with one more year on him. I clicked off several photos as he stepped out of the snowy alders where she had run out, and he trotted head-down to the place where she had stopped 15 yards from me, and came to a broadside halt.

I got another photo as he came to a stop, and he apparently didn't hear the camera shutter clunk, but off he went in hot pursuit. Then minutes later two does and four button bucks and doe fawns passed, and they too were looking over their shoulder. I clicked a few photos of them passing by, and then all was silent and still for several minutes.

The wind was switching from southwest to west to northwest, and back again. My stand was perfect for the wind, and it gave me a good view of the funnel these deer were using. They often would step out into the field rather than cross the two-track trail in heavy cover.

There's not a lot of traffic down this trail, and my stand was 150 yards from it. The deer seem to favor a more open view of the area rather than to be caught in heavy cover with a car coming. I found it a bit odd, but it seemed to be a local quirk of these animals.

A knowledge of deer habits is very important when shooting photographs.

A half-hour passed, and I could see a few deer across a wide-open field, and those animals were heading elsewhere. They weren't heading in my direction.

Fifteen minutes before shooting time ended, a small doe was seen being chased by a spike, and she came busting down through the funnel, jumped out of the tag alders and never slowed down near me. The spike had twin six-inch daggers growing out of his head, and it's possible the doe was more concerned about rough stuff with those spikes than being bred by him.

A minute later a pair of year-and-a-half-old bucks, one a 7-point and his buddy had 8 points, walked past my stand just inside the brush. I snapped some photos of them, and they were on their way.

A friend was coming to pick me up, and I stayed in my stand to await his arrival. His vehicle would spook away any deer, and it would help me avoid scaring off any deer within sight of my stand.

Having a friend walk or drive in to pick you up works great. They will be gone before you can get down.

Shooting light came and went, and I stowed my camera and sat quietly with binoculars in my hands. Two antlerless deer were seen 200 yards away, moving south and away from me, and as I sat waiting patiently, a buck slipped out of the brush and paused, 15 yards away.

I could see white atop his head, and what appeared to be a goodly amount of it. This buck came from out of nowhere, and he wasn't seen until he was spotted standing there. He was upwind of me, and where he paused was where the doe had stopped.

He sniffed around, sorted out the odors of the doe, the other bucks and fawns, and headed into the tag alder funnel and disappeared from sight. He may have went north or south, but it was too dark to tell.

My buddy soon arrived, picked me up, and we discussed what photo ops each of had had. He had seen more deer than me, and he didn't have a bow with him either.

Perhaps, another evening will be a bow night. I'm not terribly picky, but I'm always looking for something great. I may have to settle for an antlerless deer or two this year, but I don't care. I've taken too many smaller bucks, and I'd just as soon take a doe as a small rack.

I'm not a trophy hunter. I'm a realist, and would rather see those small bucks grow into big bucks. A doe eats as well or better than a buck, and in the meantime, I can always shoot photos.

An open tree stand like this means a hunter can't move a muscle. I prefer more cover, especially on both side and above me.

I've hunted from wide-open tree stands and from stands that have just enough room through which to shoot. Which do I like best?

The answer, for me at least, is obvious. It's easy for me to sit still, and I'm always positioned so a buck will never wind me, but the truth is, either tree stand will work if the hunter is downwind from deer and can sit still.

My preference leans heavily in favor of cover. I love cedar and pine trees, and have been known to fill in a few holey spots with boughs cut elsewhere on my property. I don't want to be entirely screened by brush in a tree, but my idea is to have enough limbs and branches nearby to provide what I need for enough cover to break up my silhouette.

Work to mute the light from dawn or dusk to create shadows.

I like a mix of shadows and light, and an unbroken dark blob can be as revealing to a deer as a wide-open area with a big blob in the middle. The trick is to achieve some sense of shadowy balance; not too much and not too little.

The hunter needs enough room to draw, aim and shoot with a bow. The hunter doesn't need to be worrying about bumping limbs or hitting them while taking a shot. It's possible to be so concealed you can't shoot.

On the other hand, it helps to have some background foliage behind you. A good stand needs some cover to the right and left sides, and some cover from cedar or pine boughs overhead will add to the shadowed effect that we need.

What a deer sees is what is most important to hunters. All trees, even thick cedars and pines, have gaps where light shows through. I just don't want too much light shining through where I'm sitting. I want the area to be shadowed but not completely blacked out.

Create your stands now & brush them in early for deer season.

One trick some hunters use is to prepare their stand now. Hopefully they know where deer will travel, where they come from and where they go, and then have one person stand on the ground at the ideal location for a shot.

Study the area like an artist studies a landscape, and determine what needs some help in the way of pine boughs and what doesn't. Be careful when adding boughs so the fresh-cut limb ends will not be visible by deer. Heavy twine can be used to tie the boughs in place.

Have a buddy climb into the stand and you hunker down in a squatting position at the height of a deer's head, and study it. Pay close attention to what looks like the proper blend of shadows and softer but lighter areas. Limbs placed horizontally three or four feet overhead will add to the shadowed effect, and sometimes it is just a matter of putting a clump of pine needles in the right spot to make it work.

My reason for loving cedar and pine trees is there is year 'round foliage plus the natural scent of the trees. One hour of work on a tree stand can improve its effectiveness.

Of special importance is to complete this job as soon as possible. Don't wait until mid-September to do it or you are liable to spook deer from this stand location.

Do it right & ways in and ways out & it can be a good stand for years.

A buddy of mine had a similar set-up, and hunted the same tree for 10 years until someone sneaked in and started hunting it when he was elsewhere or not hunting that day. They rearranged pine boughs to suit themselves, and soon the stand was worthless.

Should you decide to do this, treat the area like it is your private morel mushroom patch or your favorite ruffed grouse or woodcock covert. Don't breathe a word of it to anyone, and hunt it by yourself.

Good stands remain good only as long as no one else can climb into them when the hunter isn't looking. Trespass on private land is a major problem, and hunters who brag about shooting a big buck from a particular area are simply offering others an unwelcome invitation.

Keep quiet, don't tell anyone where it is, and have two or three ways to get into it and out of it after hunting. Sometimes it's worth hiking an extra half-mile to avoid detection. All's fair in love, war and hunting whitetails from a tree stand.

Taking a big buck like this one shot by David Hale is a matter of staying focused

Shooting a whitetail buck is easy. Actually, the more deer a hunter shoots with a bow, the easier and more focused the hunter becomes.

People ask what my secret to shooting is. One of these days I may write a book and share all of my secrets, but maintaining our focus from beginning to end of the shooting process is a major item and there is no way to shortcut this process.

It must be stated that being very familiar with the bow, and knowing where the arrow will hit on each and every shot, is a must. People who have no clue where the arrow will hit will not be very proficient.

Focus on total concentration and making arrow contact with the proper location

Hunters who have the ability to concentrate are the ones who make wise decisions, don't get overly excited, have the ability to stay focused and not lose their cool, and they end up making a good shot.

Practice at shooting from various angles and heights will help. Shooting often enough to make a smooth and easy draw and releasae is important, and it's of the utmost importance to maintain a constant anchor point. Allow your anchor point to creep forward while aiming will not lead to consistent arrow placement.

Focus on just one point on the deer. Don't focus on the entire deer. Once you decide the buck has antlers, and they are what you want, forget about the bone growing out of the buck's head. If your mind stays focused on the antlers, the chances of hitting the deer in the antlers is not very good.

Forget about the antlers. Instead, watch the deer closely and be prepared to draw, aim and shoot on a moments notice. Wait for the deer to turn and offer a high-percentage shot. I've lectured on this many times, and it continues to bear repeating: wait for a high-percentage shot. Don't take a marginal or low-percentage shot.

Wait, and when the buck turns to offer the ideal shot, begin the draw. Make it smooth, and concentrate on nothing else but where the arrow must go to kill the deer.

A smooth draw, and arrow release, is the result to staying focused at all times

I tell people to pick a precise spot. Behind the front shoulder is the standard advice people give other hunters. That is fine, up to a point, but concentrate on a precise spot. If your vision is keen, pick out a specific hair and aim to hit that hair at the right point behind the shoulder. Good things will happen when you do it right.

People must guard against losing their focus. They get to thinking so much about the fact that here is a deer, a buck with fine antlers and it is standing in front of them, they go through the motions of aiming at the proper spot to kill that deer, but they loose focus. If they are not careful, it's very possible that the arrow could hit several inches from where they want it to go. Go after that precise spot like that deer owes you money and the only way to collect is to shoot the animal.

We've all seen these sorry situations. A hunter shoots a deer, and when asked where it hit the animal, they almost always say in the heart or lungs. It's where they think they were aiming, but upon recovery after a lengthy trailing job, they find the deer.

It was hit through the intestines, and may have traveled a mile before succumbing. The reason for the arrow hit in that location was because the hunter lost his focus.

Like all things, accurately shooting a bow is a matter of total concentration

This is some pretty heady stuff, this shooting of deer, and the great anticipation, adrenaline rush, the heavy breathing, the jerk-back-and-shoot philosophy often takes over, and the buck is wounded. The hunter can't understand why it was hit there when they were aiming right behind the front shoulder.

Somewhere between the bow being drawn, and the shot being taken, the hunter forgot what he was doing. A lack of total concentration and focus make it nearly impossible to accurately place an arrow.

Some hunters, on thinking back on the shot, were thinking of the bragging rights they would have over their hunting buddies. Some were already viewing the mounted rack on their den wall. They went into the hunt with everything in their favor, and came away from the hunt knowing full well they messed up a golden opportunity.

Concentration is a so critical to success. I can tell you what to do, but I can't crawl inside your skin and make you do it right. This is where self-training becomes so important, and only you can do that.

Focus, concentrate on maintaining your focus, and with luck and a newly acquired skill, when that shot comes this fall, you will be willing and able to do it right.

Kay Richey with a jake gobbler she shot with bow and arrow.

There are any number of ways to hunt these sharp-eyed birds, but one thing is a constant. Hunters must have some way of concealing the movements necessary when drawing a bow on a strutting gobbler.

Trust me, it's not easy. Turkeys see well, hear well, and there often is enough of them around a gobbler that coming to full draw isn't easy.

One way of doing it, and the most effective way, is to use a pop-up ground blind of camouflage material. These blinds take hardly any time to set up, and a bit of natural grasses or broken tree branches can allow a hunter and his blind to blend right in.

One way to do it is to locate a gobbler or two the night before, watch them fly up to roost, and return the next morning well before dawn. Set up the blind in the dark as quietly as possible, climb inside, sit down and stay quiet.

Sometimes gobblers will gobble first, but often small birds will be chirping and then the crows start to fly. The cawing of crows often triggers a spirited gobble.

Don't get impatient and hurry a bow shot before it's time.

I prefer to let the birds gobble two or three times before making a soft and short yelp. That's it, just one very soft call. Gobblers aren't deaf, and if they hear it and haven't been spooked, they will answer.

Just sit tight. It's not necessary to answer every gobble. In fact, let them gobble one or two more times, and make one more soft tree yelp. Listen for the birds to gobble from the roost, and then beat old turkey wing feathers against tree branches like a hen flying to the ground.

The gobblers will hear that, and often gobble again, and one more soft yelp is usually all it takes. If you are using decoys, there are different schools of thought on decoy placement.

I like to use two hen decoys and one jake decoy. I like the jake decoy facing the blind and the hens five or six yards farther out. When the gobblers come to the decoys, it's best to place the jake about 18 to 20 yards away and facing the pop-up blind. This will normally put the live gobbler between the jake decoy and you.

Gobblers almost always will head for the jake decoy, and I've watched adult gobblers jump up on the jake decoy, knock it over, and start putting the spurs to the decoy.

Shooting the gobbler is pretty easy with a shotgun, but it is much more difficult with a bow. Gobblers can stand still for long minutes, but when they come to the call and decoys, they are moving around.

Two certain shots are possible. A shot taken at a gobbler facing directly at the hunter is fairly easy but I know many people who wind up killing the bird but slicing off the beard in the process.

Wait for the bird to drop his wing-tips, spread his tail feathers, and prance around. Once the bird stops, aim for a spot just below where the beard comes out of the chest, lower the sight three or four inches, and try to hit just to one side or other of the beard. Done properly, this will kill the bird quickly.

The other way is to wait for the bird to start strutting, and let the gobbler turn all the way around to face the jake decoy. Aim for the center where all the tail-feather quills go into the back end of the turkey, and take a well-aimed shot.

Place the jake decoy in front of you and shoot when the gobbler goes to it.

A mortally wounded turkey will almost always shoot 10 to 12 feet straight up into the air, and fall back dead. I strongly suggest using a Game Tracker unit, because if the bird is not mortally wounded, it will fly or run off. The bird may not travel too far, but if it goes out of sight, they can become nearly impossible to find. A  string tracker can be a big help in recovering the bird.

Do not take side shots at a gobbler. The wing bones and feathers are heavy, and it's difficult to place an arrow through the wing feathers. I've talked to a few turkey hunters who say they shoot their bird at the juncture of the head and neck with an arrow, but it would be a difficult shot because a gobbler's head is always moving.

Of utmost importance is to position the blind so a shot can be taken sitting down. If the tent has horizontal and vertical windows, position a vertical window in front of you. Sit back, with full camouflage on, and wait for the bird to get into the proper position for a shot.

My wife has shot two gobblers with a bow.

My wife has shot two nice gobblers with her bow, and everything must into place in order to be successful. It is even more of a heart-pounder if a longbeard is taken with stick and string.

Turkey hunting with a bow is a major challenge. It's not easy with a bow, but when it works, it offers a surge of adrenaline that will be hard to forget.

Patience and avoiding those little things that may go wrong can lead to success.

Many hunters think of bow hunting as a huge-antlered buck standing motionless at 20 yard with nothing but a few low-growing weeds and air between them and the deer.

This so-called calendar pose is what many short-term bow hunters expect to see while hunting. They've been conditioned over many years to expect such a shot, no matter how unrealistic it may be.

The same hunters seldom think of spotting a nice buck, his head held low, as it ghosts through a cedar swamp or tag alder tangle. The truth is that while an occasional shot is taken at a broadside, head-in-the-air buck, the reality is much different than what our imagination delivers.

It's often the little things than determine success or failure while bow hunting.

The little things about bow hunting reveal that more often than not a buck seldom offers easy, open shots. Often, the animal is partially screened by brush or is standing in thick cover. Deer often stop when their vitals are screened by thick brush.

One of the little things that hunters must learn, and practice faithfully, is patience. Hunters who get strung out by a motionless buck that doesn't move are usually unprepared for a shot when the deer does.

Patience is something all of us must believe in. It's always better to sit motionless, and if the buck doesn't move before shooting time ends, chalk it up to another night when the deer outsmarted the hunter. Such things happen far more often than we care to think about.

Sitting motionless and silent is the best alternative to trying a Hail Mary shot that may make it through the brush to the buck's vitals, but for whatever reason, it never does. Taking a low-percentage shot only educates or wounds the deer.

There have been countless times when I've spent 30 minutes to one hour waiting for a buck to move that last 10 feet to offer an open shot. More often than not, they refuse to budge and shooting time ends with the animal still standing motionless in thick cover.

Patience is a virtue when bow hunting for whitetail bucks.

Another little thing to remember is to stay in your stand until the buck moves off by himself. Start crawling down out of a tree, and you'll have ruined that stand for the rest of the year. Just hang tight, remain silent, and let him move when the mood strikes him.

Building your patience seldom happens overnight. It takes time and a great deal of practice, and blowing many possible opportunities, before you acquire the necessary skills to wait out the deer.

Don't do something stupid if the buck is slowly making his way to you. Perhaps you are in his travel route, and if you sit patiently, the buck will move to you. If you haven't been calling, and suddenly start calling to a nearby deer, the animal may turn away. It may or may not spook, but if the deer keeps coming to silence, don't introduce something new into the situation becauses things could backfire.

Be very cautious about dropping things. I've seen bucks and does stop 50 yards away because they have seen something they don't like. I once watched a buck come a long ways only to stop just out of easy bow range.

Why the buck stopped was beyond me, but stop he did, and he kept looking on the ground along the edge of a tag alder run between him and me. I studied him through binoculars, and tried to see what he was looking at, and it remained a big mystery.

Pay attention to the little things in your hunting area.

He left without coming the final 20 yards necessary to provide me with a clean shot within my established shooting distance. He walked off and soon disappear, and as shooting time fell, I eased from the stand and walked over to that spot.

It took a moment of looking around but I found what had spooked the deer. A hunter had moved through that area while hunting grouse and woodcock near the alders, and apparently had shot at a bird.

I found an empty 12 gauge shotshell, and it was laying somewhat in the open where the setting sun would glint off the brass. It wasn't much, but from where the buck had stood, there was still a tiny glint of sunlight there. The buck knew something was different, and turned and traveled another route.

It's the little things that can make or break a bow hunt. Always be aware of what is going on around you during a hunt because if can affect how deer react.

This big buck, framed between two maples, was patterned right.

A few of my friends have bet me with a friendly verbal wager that they would shoot a buck that night. I'd prod them a bit, and ask just how certain they are that a good buck would fall to their well-placed arrow.

Those who were staunch in their opinion said they could feel it in their bones. Now me, feeling something in my bones usually means a touch of arthritis is flaring up.

They continued to plunge on saying the wind was right, they were planning to hunt such and such a ground blind or tree stand. They had this dream formed in their mind, and I wasn't about to try swaying their thoughts.

Wishing for and planning to shoot a buck are two different things.

Their big buck, framed between hope and desire in their day-dreams, was due to show up that day at 20 yards, while accompanied by a wagon-load of luck.

Off they would go, a big sillygrin of anticipation on their face. Over many years of hunting whitetail bucks, more often than not, a hunter with such a no-fail plan would be the first to fold Double Bull tent blind when the deer decided to go elsewhere.

It's my nature to let them natter on and on, and if they ask for my opinion, I offer it for what it is worth. Some pay attention, and others just fritter away an evening of hunting without ever being within 100 yards of any kind of a buck.

Deer operate on instincts, and getting too hyped up in advance can make a hunter careless.  In their rush to get settled into the stand, something falls out of their pocket and is left laying on the ground where every nearby deer will see or smell it.

Their giddy mood often makes them a bit antsy. The beat goes on, running through their brain, and in breathless anticipation of the shot they simply know is coming, their toes are tapping the stand in time with the music playing in their head.

A buck stands back in the brush, hears a faint sound, and eventually the animal locates it high in a cedar, pine or oak tree, and heads off to visit his girlfriend 300 yards away.

Bucks may show up on schedule but they are usually young ones.

Or, our hero sits in the tree, looking a bit southwest with binoculars to his eyes, scanning the terrain for a buck. Every so often, sunlight will glint off the lens and sends a flash of light on its way. A deer that looks up just in time to see the flash of light will be suspicious and approach that area with extreme caution, if at all.

Sometimes the buck does show, and after hours of dreaming of a close and deadly shot, the bow hunter becomes all fumble-fingered, and creates too much movement as he prepares for a shot. Or, he turns slightly in the stand for a close shot, and something falls out of his pocket and goes clattering across the stand.

It could be a wallet or anything. The bow limb could rub against the tree, and some bark or pine needles could go drifting to the ground. A sharp-eyed buck will spot the falling stuff, wonder why he'd never seen it happen in that spot before, and before we know it, the buck is two fields away and still running, scared plumb out of his wits.

These things happen. I've learned never to predict a buck at the end of my hunting day. First of all, I'd have to see one I wanted to shoot, and that never happens on a regular basis.

Optimism is a great quality but keep such thoughts realistic.

I do believe in being optimistic. Feeling confident is much different than almost bragging about a buck that may not come within two miles of the hunter.

Respect for the animals we hunt is important. It's far more important than bragging about an animal that as yet has not been seen or shot. It may be time for some hunters to critically analyze the reasons why they hunt, and those who have true convictions, hunt for the sake of hunting. A buck or doe is only a bonus.

Killing a buck or doe proves very little other than the hunter was in the right place at the right time, and made a good shot. It rarely proves anything else.