OK. So it’s supposed to be an eye-catching headline. But all it means is this; country boy (me) goes to archery show crammed with people (the Archery Trade Association’s annual show) and gets whopped with flu bug. Returned last weekend and have been flat on my back since. For those who’ve been looking for fresh material here, I apologize for my tardy return.

Generally, I thought the ATA show was good, and the organization’s own stats seem to bear this out. There were 478 exhibitors (25 more than last year), including 90 first-timers and 24 start-up companies. CEO Jay McAninch called the mood at the show—held in Columbus, Ohio Jan 13-15—“the most upbeat” he’d seen in his 10 years with the organization. ATA’s post-show press release stated they hoped the robust show was sign that “the bowhunting industry is cautiously optimistic about 2010.” Hope they’re right.

I’m not much of a crowd person (see paragraph one), but I enjoy attending this show every year to catch up with old friends, look for interesting/innovative new items, and keep track of trends. I’ll use the next couple of posts to tell you what I saw, especially in the last category.

One trend that has been growing for the last couple of years is the popularity of ladder stands. As a long-time hang-and-hunt guy, I was dismissive of this movement at first, but after last-year’s show—and having hunted from more ladders—I could no longer stick my head in the sand. Ladders are not only here to stay, but they’re getting better and better. Frankly, I’m tickled to see it.

I’ve long admired Gorilla for their commitment to making safe, effective and affordable products. Pictured here is their new King Kong Expedition Ladder Stand, a comfy two-seater (another trend, by the way) that’s perfect for hunting with a kid or spouse. Its 15’ to the seat, attaches to the tree with four ratchet straps, weighs 80 pounds, and sports welded steel construction. And one of my favorite features of all Gorilla stands? Nylon washers at every bolted connection. There’s no metal-to-metal contact here folks, just a solid, comfortable stand that won’t squeak even when it gets cold. I like it...a lot.

The last few years I’ve developed a thing for hunting the last day of the deer season. Sure, I get jacked for the opener like everyone else, but as I’ve grown older it’s become just as important to me to watch the sun set on the hunt. Of course it helps that I’ve usually got a tag to fill and some empty freezer space. But I honestly think I’d go even if that wasn’t the case.

So Sunday was the close of the Iowa archery hunt. I felt compelled to go, and it wasn’t just because I had a spendy nonresident tag in my pocket. I’d been sick for the better part of two days, and still wasn’t feeling the best. And by the time we got home from church it was past noon. I had a 90-minute drive, hadn’t scouted the public ground I wanted to hunt, and really didn’t want to hang a stand or even tote a ground blind. But I asked Shari if she’d mind and, in her ever-patient way, she said “just go. And have fun.”

It was pushing three o’clock when I parked the truck. I fired up some handwarmers, grabbed my bow and a little stool, and just started walking. The cold had me breathing hard and the snow was deep. I walked over a half-mile and—taking Shari’s advice—
was truly enjoying myself. I wasn’t hunting...I was taking a walk in the woods with my bow in hand. It felt wonderful.

And then, like a desert traveler spotting a mirage, I saw a standing cornfield. I’d hunted this management area before and had never seen one there before. So I trudged toward it and walked the perimeter, which was pounded by deer trails. Just when I’d picked the trail with the most tracks, I saw where a big willow tree had blown over. I shook my head at my good fortune, brushed out a little spot against the tree, and stuck the stool in the snow.

Twenty minutes before dusk, 8 deer came walking in. The doe in this picture was standing broadside at 7 steps when I shot her. It was one of the neatest hunts I’ve ever enjoyed. And I was just out there, having fun…saying goodbye to the season.

Virtually every mile I’ve driven since age 16 has been logged in whitetail country. Somehow I’ve managed to hit only two deer during that span. Actually both of those whitetails ran into me, but this is a technicality insurance companies don’t recognize.

Statistically, I’ve been pretty lucky. According to State Farm Insurance, the nation’s leading auto insurer, the number of deer/vehicle collisions is on the rise; an estimated 2.4 million deer were hit by vehicles from July 2007 to July 2009. That averages out to 100,000 incidents per month, or one every 26 seconds.

Some 35 states will notch at least 7,000 deer/car collisions each year. States with the top increases in deer wrecks were New Jersey and Nebraska, up 54% from the previous recording period. Kansas wasn’t far behind with a 41% increase, followed by 38% jumps in Florida, Mississippi and Arkansas.

The state where you’re most likely to whack a whitetail? West Virginia! State Farm says your chances of bonking a deer there in a one-year period is 1 in 39. Michigan is distant second; Wolverine State drivers have a 1 in 78 chance of striking a whitetail. Pennsylvania tallied a 1 in 94 chance, Montana and Iowa tied at 1 in104, and rounding out the top five was Arkansas with the odds at 1 in 106. The least likely state for a deer to wreck a car is predictable; Hawaiian drivers stand only a 1 in 9,931 chance, about the same odds they enjoy for finding a four-leaf clover.

So how ‘bout you guys? Have you managed to avoid deer wrecks, or do you somehow figure into the statistics in the State Farm report?

If you’ve ever hunted over a decoy, you know that a whitetail buck will attack inanimate objects that resemble other male deer. My cousin has had two different 3-D targets—left out in his yard overnight—thrashed by rutting bucks. But a whitetail in Viroqua, Wisconsin, learned the hard way that sometimes those impostor bucks will fight back.

One morning in early November, Mark Brye looked out from his rural home and noticed the elk sculpture that decorates his lawn was lying on its side. Laying 20 feet away was a very dead whitetail buck. Apparently the buck had wandered into the Brye yard during the night, spotted the “bull”, and mistook it for another rutting whitetail. The buck paid dearly for his courageous challenge, as the statue—which weighs 640 pounds—fell on the buck as he sparred with it. After getting body-slammed, the buck staggered off a few yards and died.

Brye and his wife Carol got the lawn ornament as a Christmas gift from their children four years ago. Brye is a devoted elk hunter and enjoys rising in the morning and looking out his window at the sculpture that reminds him of his western hunts. After seeing the dead buck and the tipped-over statue, Brye called a conservation warden to report the incident. The warden issued a tag to Brye that allowed him to keep the whitetail. The warden’s note on the tag read “lawn ornament fight-lost.”