JohnI finally have the time to recap my 2021 whitetail archery season. It was a pretty good season in my opinion considering I didn’t go out as much as the previous year. My wife and I were blessed with our first daughter and child Everly Ib Sim Xiong in August. You can probably guess that my daughter took precedence over anything else. Even so, my wife was gracious enough to let me get out more than I originally thought I would, so thanks boo!
Preseason
Practice
I did manage to get enough practice to become comfortable with my shooting. You’ll read later, but I decided to try out Iron Will single bevel broadheads to increase my FOC. I did have to re-fletch and retune all my arrows because of the weight differences, but completely worth it in my opinion. My groups were more consistent, and I did raise my level of confidence.
Funny story, one time while practicing at my parent’s house, Everly needed diapers, so my wife decided to go to the store. My wife drove off with my truck not knowing that my trunk was open. She made it down the driveway and about a mile down the road before turning. At that point my bow case flew off my truck. The fortunate thing was that I pulled my bow and arrows out of the case and onto the grass before she left. For whatever reason, when we went to look for the bow case, it was gone. Not sure if someone picked it up and tried to find my wife at Walmart or if they took, but at least I had the most important items.
Scouting
This past year, I’ll admit that 50% of my scouting was e-scouting and the other was in-season scouting. I probably looked at topo maps for no less than an hour a day. While in-season, I would usually use the afternoon hunts to scout a whole section. Other than that, I solely relied on past season experience and a ton of luck.
Equipment
As stated earlier, I changed up my broadheads to the Iron Will single bevels. I went with the SB125 Buffs because I knew I wouldn’t be able to add too much weight on the front of my arrows without having to purchase new ones. Maybe in the 22 year I’ll revisit changing it all up and going with a heavier arrow. However, for now, these have been dong well. Out of the box, these are razor sharp and oiled. The one thing is that if you’re a hunter like me and you go through the thick nasty stuff and constantly wet, make sure to take care of these. When wet and not taken care of, they’ll stain and you won’t have that nice finish and it’ll be harder to sharpen them as well:
Another item that I tried out this past year was the Cranford ring of steps (ROS) (called scaffold on their site). I wanted to give the ROS a go to see the pros and cons of using them. My first time using them was a struggle, as it usually is with anything the first time around. I was really loud, couldn’t get it set up right and it sat loose. It wasn’t as comfortable. After a few more times, I got the hang of it. If you can get it strapped tight and leveled the way you want it to, you’re golden:
I almost forgot, but I did have to buy a new wrist release. After hunting in the rain one time, I left my previous wrist release in my hunting bag so it didn’t completely dry. A couple of days later, I pulled it out and it had grown mold lol:
In Season
The season started out warmer than usual. I had no spot to go and no idea where to start. I ended up sitting my first sit on one of my buddy’s stand. I didn’t see anything but two big raccoons. I knew the evening sit was going to be hot so I didn’t have high hopes. I ended up going to a brand-new piece of land I’ve never been on. After rumbling around in the woods, I couldn’t find anything I liked and started making my way back to the truck. Long behold, on my way back, I bumped a doe around 50-60 yards. I had the sun to my back, so the doe didn’t know what I was. I slowly moved in 10-15 yards, ranged her, shot, and heard a huge pop. I knew that I hit her but why the loud noise? After looking around, I found that my arrow passed through the doe and smacked into a tree:
The tracking job was simple, and I found my first deer of the season laying 30 yards from where I shot her:
Being as hot as it was, I quickly gutted her and drove back to town to grab some ice to shove in the cavity. I ended up going back into a different section of the woods to test out the Cranford ROS. To my surprise, being as loud as I was, I didn’t spook any deer from the swamp. Near closing time, I had deer all around me but no shot.
After opening day, I had a decent rest of the season. I shot a couple of more does to gain confidence and put meat in the freezer. It wasn’t until around the end of October when I saw my first decent buck. Honestly, I was actually trying to shoot a doe because I knew the number of days I had left for the season was winding down. I was unfortunately wrapped up in my saddle trying to shoot my weakside but couldn’t get a shot off. I happened to reset my position and randomly look to my right. What do I find? I see this buck coming straight at me from 60 yards. At 20ish yards, with the buck still looking down on its trail, it picked up its head and looked dead at me. I was shocked – I was up 25+ feet in the air, wind in my favor and not moving. Though still quartering to me, I managed to pull back and shoot through a 10-inch cap.
I saw the buck take off 70 yards and bed. I looked through my binos to see it waving its antlers back and forth and thought I had it in the bag. I confidently waited another 10 minutes and heard it get up and run through some water; all my hopes were lost. Thinking for sure it was gone for miles by now, I decided to get down and look for it. It only went another 15 yards and died. It was an exciting moment to have harvested the biggest buck of my life with a bow:
In hindsight, I took another look at where I was in the tree, and it was obvious that even though I was high up, I stuck out like a sore thumb. Anyway, after that day, I saw a handful of deer but didn’t shoot much; I was content with my season. I had fun being out in the woods and seeing nature do its thing.
I have a video here if you want to view at a few clips of the season:
Post-Season
Post-season I didn’t do much. Even now. The only thing I really did was take inventory of my equipment, make sure things looked good, and revisit all the mistakes I made during the season.
Overall, it was a great season. I was able to get out more times than I thought I would, I got some meat in the freezer, and was able to shoot the biggest buck in my life so far. Wishing the best of luck to myself and you all for this upcoming season.
Happy hunting and stay safe!
