Reminder: Old Gear Can Kill a Deer
Russ Chastain 10.14.20
(Image: Dymee Wooten, used by permission)
AO readers may recall one of my posts from last year about a young lady hunter who’s been pursuing game for most of her life in spite of being right-handed and sightless in her right eye. Her name is Dymee Wooten and she’s pretty cool.
Click here to learn her story. She recently posted the following story about her first (and so far only) hunting bow, which has been serving her for a dozen years.
13 years old. A Dad takes a wide-eyed girl into the local bow shop because she had begged him for “that thing you can shoot deer with.” Her first time ever seeing or holding one in person and once it was handed to her she fell in love.
She went to the back to shoot it for the first time, the dad and bow shop worker showed her how to handle it and what to do. She shot and ended up bruising her forearm with the bow string, but despite that she was excited and ready to go home with her brand new fancy bow. $400 and some change later it became her left arm.
She wouldn’t just go hunting with this bow, she would create unforgettable memories with it. Like that time a big Tom came strutting across a wheat field all the way to her for her to shoot at 8 yards, or the time she sat out in her yard in the evening sun shooting squirrels as they ran across the lawn, or when she finally got her first deer with it and all the love she got from family showing their support while she showed off the deer, the countless hours spent shooting it to get ready for the day all hunters live for.
Looking at this bow now, she realizes something… it’s not as fancy as the bows most people have, it didn’t cost a lot of money, it doesn’t catch anyone’s eye and it’s small and old. But it has held up for 12 years, it has been through creeks, swamps, climbed up and down hills, has walked miles and has shot at tons of creatures and after 12 years it is still just as special as the day that girl walked into that shop.
I don’t know what Mathews Bows is doing but they know how to do it for sure when it comes to making bows, that girl is 25 now and shot her biggest bow buck last year with that same old raggedy bow that has been attached to her since she was a little girl.
Just a reminder that you don’t need the expensive “up to date” stuff to go out and do what you love or to start what you’ve been wanting to try. When you see this bow in person you can definitely tell it was once used by a young kid, but that young kid still uses it to this day and each time it comes out of that bow case, that little wide-eyed girl smiles and thinks about all she has been through with it hanging by her side.
I know what she means… I hearken back almost 4 decades to when I was 13 and was first entrusted with my first serious hunting tool; in my case the Ruger 44 magnum carbine which became my only deer rifle for the first 20 years or so of my deer hunting. I’ve carried and caressed that little game-getter uncounted miles and made so many great memories with it, all of which are linked to my late father who so generously gave it to me. And that little gun was already about 20 years old when I took it hunting for the first time.
First times can be pretty dang great, and you don’t need the latest and greatest stuff to take a critter. And sometimes, it means even more to hunt with the older stuff.
I thank Dymee Wooten for posting that reminder. Check out her Facebook page when you get a chance.
Happy hunting.
