thank you team bhna

Thank You Team BHNA

Jerry Corder

Pro Staff

Bowhunting North America, LLC

First, I would like to say thank you to James and Donna for asking me aboard as a team member of Bowhunting North America. Second, I want to express gratitude to James for his excitement and enthusiasm for the sport of bowhunting and “drawing” me in. I haven’t hunted since I was a teenager mainly because my dad wasn’t a big hunter. I’ve spent a lot of time in the woods growing up in the country, just didn’t hunt it. Around August of 2005 after hearing James talking to me day after day for a year about his bowhunting adventures, I finally caved in and expressed a slight interest. That was all the opportunity James needed. He asked me to stop by his house one day to shoot his Mathews Switchback to see what I thought. Well, that was all it took! I had shot bows in Boy Scout camp as a child and even had a recurve bow (that I knew nothing about) up until I was 25 and enjoyed shooting them. Never hit much, but enjoyed it all the same.

After one shot with the Switchback, I was hooked and had to know more. James gave me one of his first videos and I took it home and quickly became excited about bowhunting and could finally relate a little to how he felt. James helped me locate a Mathews LX already equipped and ready to hunt, I got some arrows shortly after that and a cheap target so I could start practicing. I realized bowhunting could be an expensive hobby, but I couldn't afford all the best equipment, so I started looking for bargains. I sold the golf clubs (wasn’t that good anyway) and a couple of pistols and I was set to at least have enough to get into the field and hunt.

A friend of mine told me he had some hogs on his land and he would let me hunt it. Well, I listened to James and read the articles on the BHNA website and learned what I needed to do to “brush in” my new ground blind. I put a lot of work into the area I was going to hunt. The day finally came for my first bow hunt. As luck would have it, I woke up early excited to finally be a bow hunter and realized the rain was pouring down. It didn’t take long for me to decide that this was my first opportunity and I wasn’t going to let it pass. I dressed and headed to the field (still hadn’t bought the rain gear). Lucky for me the rain slowed as I reached the hunting site. I got settled down in the blind and got ready for my first hunt. That hunt lasted about 4 hours and I didn’t see anything, but it was great just being in the woods.

For the next 8 months I practiced and practiced and got real comfortable with my equipment and was excited about the upcoming deer season. This same friend that had the hogs on his property also had deer. He is not a hunter and was kind enough to let me hunt his deer. I spent many hours up in a ladder stand wearing my ScentLok Realtree Max-1 camo, saw a few deer, but never got a shot.

In late October of 2006 I finally took a shot at a 6 point buck in Canton, TX. After this shot, I realized John Shelly was right on with his article Aim Low. I was about 18 foot up a tree and put the pin on the vitals and let the arrow fly. I MISSED! My arrow went over his back. That first shot was so exciting it took me several minutes to catch my breath and settle down. I finally climbed down and retrieved my arrow and went home.

I never did take an animal off of my kind friends land, but I did have great game camera pictures of a lot of does and one really nice buck that was featured on the front of the BHNA website about two months ago. The last day of deer season I found this buck’s rub and I was very impressed. This land is 15 minutes from my house and I look forward to seeing this buck sometime this 2007 season when I can’t make it to my lease.

I am a new bowhunter and I look forward to bringing our readers many new articles in the future. If you are a new bow hunter and want to share your bowhunting stories with me I am on the Forum as Jimmyjack. I recently took my first animal with a bow and he is a beauty. Our picture will accompany this article and I am working on that story now. It should be posted soon so keep your eyes open for it. Once again I would like to express my thanks for James and Donna and I look forward to contributing many pictures, video and stories to the website.

This hunt was made possible in part by our sponsors:

Mathews, Inc., The Gean-Edwards Company, DoskoSport, Lumenok, Tru Fire Corp.,
Limbsaver, Huntin' Hoist, Sure Grip Gun & Bow Racks, Advantage Max-1 Camoflauge, Nikon Sport Optics, Barnett Crossbows,

Muzzy Products Corp., Wildlife Research Center, Whitetail Pro Log, Thompson Center, The Armory, Display It Hardwood Cases