To my fellow archery hunters, as the season comes to an end there is growing concern about our past practice. And I feel that it has to do with the diminishing deer population. The past practice I am referring to is the courtesy to other hunters, another words we loosing our hunting ethics. This year I have seen or heard about how a archery hunter climbs a tree and someone climbs a tree next to him or watches him climb a tree without the cortousy of letting him know that your hunting there.
The biggest thing that has been hard for me to swallow is the loss of my best friend.You see during archery season your bow is your best friend. I have been archery hunting for almost 15 years and yet i have not harvested a buck mostly due to military and working a lot. I have retired from the military but still have a very demanding job during archery season. Which means working alot of hours plus trying to make the time to archery hunt. It also means your mind isn’t always into the game. On Oct. 29 I was hunting State Game Land 78, Allport cutoff. At the end of my hunt I set my best friend (my bow) on the ground so I could load up my tree stand and remove my hunting clothes. I then drove away and forgot my best friend and didn’t realize till 4 p.m. the next day. I then went back to that spot only to be disappointed. You see a courteous hunter picked up my bow and was going to return it to me by putting it behind his truck hoping i would return to retrieve it. He then went hunting. Upon my arrival I seen the truck parked there and proceeded to find the man. He had told me that he found it and it was behind the truck only to find that it was gone, my best friend was gone.Someone had picked it up. It is now considered stolen. I only hope it went to a needy child that would love to get into the game.
In the meantime I would love to know where my best friend is.
Don Knepp
Bigler