Full draw on a big whitetail buck just 20 yards away — this is the moment you’ve waited for. Months — nay, years — of practice and preparation built to this one moment. And it’s the culmination of time invested, lessons learned, and honed skills.
Without question, bowhunters must know certain skills and tasks. While it isn’t an exhaustive list, here are things every bowhunter should know how to do.
1. Selecting the Right Bow
Most bows aren’t one-size-fits-all. Sure, there are certain bows that come with wide ranges of adjustability, especially regarding draw length and draw weight. Most of these bows are built for and marketed to youth.
In contrast, most adult bows come with less adjustability and tend to fall into certain profiles with unique characteristics. Therefore, visit an archery pro shop to learn how to best choose the right bow. Sure, you can ask social media friends for input on what’s hot and what’s not, but you need to get boots on the ground, visit the shops, demo the bows, and ask the questions you want to know.
What are your goals for buying a new bow? What bow fits best for the style of hunting you do? How much can you afford to spend on a bow? What are the different features of the bow and do you need them? What are the must-have features vs. luxury features? And lastly, but most importantly, does the bow properly fit you and your physical abilities?
2. Picking the Right Accessories
Archers need accessories for their bows. On-bow accessories include quivers, sights, rests, stabilizers, peep sights, kisser buttons, silencers (dampeners), and more.
Off-bow accessories include release aids, arrows, field points, broadheads, etc.
There are many variations of each, and shooters should learn which ones are best attuned to their needs, skill levels, shooting styles, and hunting styles.
3. Selecting the Best Release Aid
There are different release aid options, including trigger-based (index and thumb releases) and tension-based (resistance, hinge, and back tension releases).
Just remember, if you’re buying a new release to help you fix a bad habit, liking punching the trigger, you’ll eventually learned to punch the new release as well.
Visit an archery pro shop to test different models and determine what’s right for you.
4. Tuning a Bow
At some point in the archery journey, most learn how to self-tune their bow. This is a process that straightens arrow flight and improves overall archery. Various tuning methods include bare-shaft tuning, French tuning, paper tuning, and walk-back tuning.
Knowing how to tune your own buy saves you lots of time, money and hassle. You can learn a wealth of information from YouTube tutorials. Take the time to learn to tune. You’ll be glad you did.
5. Tuning Arrows and Broadheads
In addition to tuning your bow, it’s also good to tune your arrows and broadheads. Maximize the efficiency of each piece of the archery puzzle to ensure the best shooting and most ethical shot opportunities in the field.
Arrow technology continues to evolve each year, and the tunability of arrows is now more readily available than ever before. Knowing how to tune your own arrows is a great advantage for any bowhunter.
6. Practicing with Broadheads
Most of the time, it’s best to practice with your field points. Don’t forgo practicing with broadheads, though.
Oftentimes, even with a well-tuned bow, broadheads fly and impact differently than with field points.
Always practice with broadheads just before and during hunting trips and seasons.
7. Silencing Your Hunting Gear
Deer have excellent hearing, and they often react to the sound of a compound bow. It’s important to silence your archery rig as much as possible via sound and vibration dampeners.
It’s also important to silence other things, such as contact points on treestands, noise on backpacks, etc.
This task is easier than ever these days with products like Stealth Strips. Stealth Strips allow you to keep all your gear deer hunting gear whisper quiet. Consider it stealthy duct tape built for hunters.
8. Learning Shot Placement Details
A significant part of bowhunting is understanding whitetail anatomy. This directly impacts shot placement details.
Knowing the positioning of vital organs, and the entirety of whitetail internal anatomy, is an ethical requirement. Every bowhunter should know where – and where not – to shoot an animal.
Otherwise, bowhunters are apt to take low-odds shots and make poor hits (slowly kill) or wound (not kill) more deer.
9. Following a Relevant Workout Routine
Archery isn’t a macho sport, but good physical health matters. Being stronger helps. So, follow a relevant workout routine.
Key muscle groups throughout the draw process include the core (obliques), deltoids (anterior), deltoids (posterior), dorsi (lats), rhomboids, latissimus, pectorals, trapezius, triceps, and more.
But it’s your shoulder blades, and not your biceps, that carry the bulk of the load when drawing the bow.
For archery specific muscle groups, you might use restriction bands, cable presses, and more.
10. Shooting From Multiple Positions
Shooting on the archery range creates opportunities to use the ideal standing shooting form (as it should). But your preparation for the bowhunting scenario doesn’t begin – or end – there.
It isn’t always possible to use standing form in the field. Because of this, it’s crucial to practice and learn how to shoot from multiple positions and angles.
Can you execute the shot from a standing, sitting, kneeling, or twisted position? The off-season is the time to discover what you’re capable of, not when you have an animal in bow range.
11. Shooting with Hunting Clothing and Gear
Hunting situations are different than range practice conditions. Oftentimes, hunters wear different things, such as different clothing, more layers, additional items (bino and safety harnesses), and more.
This almost always impacts shooting form. It’s crucial to practice shooting with hunting clothing and gear to prepare for the hunt.
Think about. The gloves you wear during a hunt can result in a blown shot if you’ve not practiced with them ahead of time and become familiar with the fit and feel on the bow grip. Eliminate those surprises ahead of time! Practice with your gear.
12. Using Safety Gear, Such as Harnesses and Safety Lines
Every bowhunter should use the proper safety gear. These include harnesses, safety lines, and more. Those who hunt from elevated positions should be safely tethered from the time they leave the ground until they reach the ground again.
Remember, accidents typically happen when climbing in and out of the treestand. A harness alone won’t save you there. Always stay connected to the Lifeline.
13. Learning Various Hunting Styles
Bowhunting is a highly variable and nuanced activity. Hunting in general can look different. From a treestand, tree saddle, hunting blind, on the ground with no blind — these and more are examples of hunting styles.
Learning various methods opens bowhunters up to new possibilities and increases their effectiveness, effectively deploying the right styles at the right times and conditions.
Sure, you’re gonna have your favorite style and method for hunting. But a well-rounded bowhunter will be adept at a wide range of methods to employ when the time and place is right.
14. Maintaining Treestands, Hunting Blinds, and Other Gear
Treestands, hunting blinds, and other bowhunting gear require routine maintenance. These are necessary for safety and effectiveness reasons.
Check for rusting and breakages on treestand bolts, cables, platforms, etc. Repair breaks and tears in blinds. Replace gear as needed.
The gear we use is often neglected until the moment we need it. And this can be how accidents happen. Don’t procrastinate in maintaining the gear that your life is depending on, life treestands. Know how to check out, repair, and replace faulty gear in the off-season.
15. Managing Scent Control and Wind Direction
There is no such thing as being scent-free. However, you can manage scent control and wind direction. Follow a scent regimen, including washing clothing, treating gear, and taking showers with scent-reduction soap.
Spray boots and gear in the field. Then, monitor wind direction and hunt accordingly. But don’t forget about your treestand access. A lot of hunters blow the hunt before they ever get into the treestand due to a poorly accessed approach.
A full slate of these efforts can make the difference in deer smelling you or not, them thinking you’re at 40 yards or 400 yards, or even perhaps thinking a hunter is there now versus days ago.
16. Scouting for Deer
Scouting is a very detailed and multi-faceted process. Various scouting types include e-scouting (such as with HuntStand), boots-on-the-ground (in the field), glassing from afar, observation treestand sits, traditional SD trail cameras, modern cellular trail cameras, and more.
Digital scouting is great, but don’t let it end there. Boots on the ground is priceless. Know how to break down a property, what sign to look for, what sign matters most, and how you can apply that intel to your hunt in the fall.
Where and when legal, each of these, and more, have a place and should be learned.
17. Determining Deer Patterns
Learning whitetail patterns is part of bowhunting. Understanding what deer do, where they do it, and when they do it is important.
Then, learning why they do it will take you even further. It’s all about consistently positioning yourself for shot opportunities.
Don’t get frustrated here. This level of know-how takes time. It can take years to get a grasp of how deer do what they do. The key is to journal this movement so you have a reference for patterns season after season.
18. Deploying Situational Deer Hunting Tactics
Every hunt is unique. No two are the same. It’s crucial to remember that deer hunting is situational, and decisions made, deployed tactics, and otherwise, are situational as well. This is something you can try to prepare for, but experience delivers in time.
Wisdom is gleaned from time in the woods, wins, losses, and lessons learned the hard way. The more you are exposed to a wide range of hunting scenarios, the better bowhunter you’ll become.
19. Field-Dressing and Processing a Deer
The primary reason for bowhunting for a lot of folks is to procure meat. Once the animal is down, it must be field dressed. Then, it must be processed. These are processes that follow specific rules and best practices. Study these elements of hunting before pursuing whitetails.
There are plenty of how-to videos and tutorials available online to get you started. You can learn a lot by simply observing. But once the time comes, you’ll have to sharpen the knives and jump in for yourself to get real-world experience. However, the payoff for tackling your own butchering chores is priceless!
20. Implementing Patience, Composure, and Other Virtues
Bowhunting is an endeavor of patience. It requires composure. Many other virtues come into play as well. Exercise these characteristics, and more, to be a better bowhunter.
Virtues matter in all aspects of life, bowhunting not excluded.
There are many other things that every bowhunter should know how to do. But this list will get aspiring stick and string carriers started.
Keep learning, continue improving, and you’ll become the best bowhunting version of yourself.
