Episode #12: Through Her Eyes

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Code of Traditional Archery, brought to you by Primitive Stone Archery and the founder Grant Richardson. Welcome to the Code of Traditional Archery. I'm Grant Richardson, the founder of Primitive Stone Archery, and your host for the Code of Traditional Archery. This is episode 12 in our Lessons Learned series and the final episode of season one for us. We want to welcome all the new folks who are listening in for the first time and all our dedicated followers as well. Involving our kids learning and having the direct knowledge and responsibility in where at least some of their food comes from has been important to raising our kids. From teaching them how to fish, both with modern and improvised tackle, to foraging for what they have in wild greens, berries, and even nuts and tubers locally. And if memory serves me correctly, I was learning to set traps, collect shoots, greens, and berries, build stick bows and fishing rods as well as Tommy owned flies by the time I was around six years old, and it made sense that our own kids would as well. Embracing the wilds should be a part of every child's growing up. In one form or another, it gives them a sense of respect and appreciation for their space that is far more raw and real than any classroom sanitized learning environment. I've come to appreciate just how blessed I was, raised in a family that hunted, fished, and foraged from the land where we and my relatives lived. And as a result, I developed a deep sense of belonging in the woods, fields, and swamps in my formative years, which I'm now sharing with our own children, and I feel much more content and safer in the wild than I have in any city I've lived in or walked in. Watching them emerge into this connection has been humbling, as they're now walking, hunting, fishing, and foraging, and finding their own path as individuals. I'm learning from watching them, and I hope it gives them the same tenacity, perseverance, and resiliency in doing those things that have them being self-sufficient as much as they have given me through the years as well. Bow hunting has been embraced by our youngest fully now, and she is learning that the way of the arrow is not the path to instant success. The time it takes to be competent and maintain that competency in shooting as well as hunting, and that part of hunting, having to get close enough to use a bow to hunt with has made its mark on her heart. I dare say the difficulty is 99% of the enjoyment and journey for her, setting all the pieces in motion and striving through the challenges that hunting with a traditional bow is bringing to her young life. Through this, she is becoming a better person, focused, driven, and able to tackle tasks with planning and insight, all attributes related to hunting the hard way. I firmly believe that all youth should be taught to be intimately familiar with the woods and the areas in which they live near, to walk, endure, and thrive, not just survive in those wild spaces. Teaching kids that it's okay to be cold, a little hungry, and be comfortable, being uncomfortable in the wild is a good thing. It develops heart and intestinal fortitude. Today, in a world of medals given for participation and everyone being a winner, more than ever connecting kids to their environment even occasionally will center them in the true reality the world exists in that is now shielded from most youngsters' formal education in many modern educational streams. The following story is one of lessons learned from both father and daughter, myself and her. Walking together side by side, and I hope she does the same with her own children, so that these ways are not lost to the plastic world that is spreading around us many times like a disease to Mother Earth. It was a quiet walkout that night, almost a half mile trudge through a half a foot of snow to where myself and my ten year old daughter had our ground blind situated. She hadn't spoken much on that walkout, and as we got closer to the truck she asked me to unlock the doors while she opened the lift gate. Finally she turned to me and said Why, Dad? Why didn't you shoot? I had sensed her frustration before we'd even left the blind, and it had grown since only an hour and a half later. I had no decent shot, dear, I said, trying to close the door on the issue. She jumped in the front seat and just sat there, cold and staring into the darkness of the pine trees, as the moon crept through their branches and reflected off the snow, sending dancing shadows on the bush trail in front of the truck. She looked older in that moment and retorted, I'm freezing my butt out here, Dad. She never complained, I thought to myself, as we drove out onto the gravel road, leading out of our property. She had asked to hold on to my hand as she had done, on occasion walking out in the dark for the past two years she'd been trudging along behind me, and I could tell she was frustrated. She fell asleep quickly en route home, and I went through the checklist several times since passing up the shot on the very large and only buck we had seen in almost two months of hunting. He was only twelve paces away at one point, but presented only a head on shot, and he sauntered quickly through my only clear shooting lane, stood for a moment facing us, then disappeared into the gloom of the tight cedars as the light had faded, no doubt following the young doe that had run by us earlier in the evening. I knew exactly how she felt, and it brought me back to my own youth out with my father for hours in the cold. Her frustration was heartfelt for many reasons, the let down and heart wrenching feeling after hunting hard in the cold and snow for so many hours already. And I could tell her patience was wearing thin. I had been where she was, just like anyone who hunts the hard way and knows what happens if you take low percentage shots. Low percentage recoveries soon follow. The weather had been harsh lately, and we had sat for hours and below zero temperatures sneaking into our setup day after day with great care to avoid the bedding areas nearby. I was firm that I wanted her first experiences to be self-learned teaching points, much the way I'd been raised. Bow hunting with a stick and string is challenging. Each moment we carry that recurve longbow or self bow into the woods, in the footsteps of cultures from all over the world who embraced that challenge for life and death going back thousands of years. It connects us all in its tedious, unforgiving process. She was connecting to this as well, something deeper than taking an animal's life for food. I could see it growing in her, an understanding of what we were doing out in the woods, hunting with bow and arrow. We need to get back out there, Dad, she exclaimed the following morning. I've got an idea. I think we should move down a little further. We haven't checked closer to the other bedding area in two weeks, and I bet the patterns have changed since the snow's gotten deeper. I'm happy you didn't try to shoot him, she said, as she explained her plan of moving our blind to an area closer to the main bedding area in the swamp edge we were hunting. Her perseverance, I admit, was inspiring. We moved the blind and less than a week later, on the last day of our whitale archery season, we shared a memorable afternoon sit. A cold front had moved through and brought a bright sunny day with it. On our way down to the property we'd seen several deer browsing along field edges, and she was very excited. We snuck in and saw snow covering the fresh tracks of deer that had been browsing on swamp maple and cedars leading into the area we had set up. She now, after two years of hunting with me, walked in the snow like a cat and pointed at each deer track like shimmering heart shaped diamonds glistening in the snow, her face a large crease smile as bright as the sun shining. It was a long wait again in the last day of the whitetail season. It was one of those utterly cold, sunny days that generated gratitude for a warm house and a waiting coffee, and the sun had begun to hang low in the sky when branches broke directly behind us. The snapping branches sounded like gunshots in the crisp air. A group of deer was heading directly to our left. I balanced my recurve across my lap, looked over at her, and winked. A decent size eight point stepped out thirty yards away and stared towards us, covered and screened by some cedar branches, then one by one a train of does walked by us some only yards away, until a large one stepped out at fifteen paces and stopped to grab a cedar bow. The string on the recurve sang. The shot was solid, and I knew the deer wouldn't go far. I looked over at my daughter, and she whispered, Did you get one? Yes, I said, continuing my excitement. We have a good hit. I waited even though I'd heard the crash of the deer seconds after the shot. As much as I wanted to go straight to the deer, it was important to teach her that the process of the whole experience was what mattered more. She checked her watch, and seeing that thirty minutes had gone by, stared at me without making a sound, with an urgency in her eyes. We found the arrow right away. I had her study it, the hair and blood left on it, the hair where the shot was made, and the tracks of the deer as it ran. Nervously she stepped forward with me as we traced the path the big deer had taken into the thicket piled up less than thirty yards from the shot. There it is, she exclaimed, as we approached her together. We both knelt slowly and she hugged me. Then she put her hands on the deer. She was speechless and looked both happy and sad at the same time. And in that moment we connected. I watched her grow beyond her ten years as she closed her eyes and said a prayer of thanks for the deer. She stood as the work began to get the deer to the truck. We walked out that night in the dark, dragging the deer on the snow to the trail we walked in on, and it was a long trek back. Our tracks of earlier that day were already covered in a skim of fresh snow. We said nothing to one another while we did so, and we didn't have to. We loaded the deer onto the truck with the rest of our gear, and as I looked over, she said, Wow, that's a lot of work. It is a lot dragging them out, isn't it? I remarked. No, Dad, she said. I mean the whole thing. Getting ready in September, shooting practice and scouting to find a place to sit to, all those cold days waiting, shooting and prepping all year long. The whole thing is a lot of work. Yes, it is, I thought, the whole process, not a product. Several days later, while I watched her skinning out the deer for processing, I realized the impact of what we'd experienced together. She had learned in her second year coming out with me how to scout, track, prepare, and more importantly, how to be patient and develop a strong sense of resilience that only traditional bowling brings out as a true hunting process in its efforts and difficulty. She connected with an older part of herself, her ancestors, and the hunter-gatherers that came before us. We are not born of big box stores and parking lots. We are children of the wild, and I had felt it all over again. The familiar feeling I had in my youth now through her eyes. She has stopped holding my hands on the walkout of bush now and the woods. And she has a deeper understanding and confidence to match. Connecting to that ancient process is vital for us as traditional bow hunters and our children in today's world. And that was a first for her and I together that day. And this year we saw more firsts. For Christmas in 2021, she received her first hunting weight recurve bow, 42 pound, a 26-inch Bodnick Kiowa recurve. She shot that bow all year and had just passed her hunter safety course in late October of this past fall, 2022. She scouted her own spot and set up a ground blind as well for herself. Then the very first evening she sat for Whittail, she had a huge buck come in through the area, and it just didn't give her the shot she wanted. I was happy that she didn't take that shot, and there'll be more to follow on that. I've been asked by many how she at 12 years of age is able to shoot a bow of that weight effectively endure hunting in cold, miserable weather for long periods of time. And it all starts with immersion, and that does not include making me outing something otherworldly. In other words, these things, hunting, shooting a traditional bow as well, are very normal and routine for her, and they're integrated into her life as a whole part of her upbringing. The experiences and the changes they bring are what make the process special, her input. Same goes with her bow. She was Ray shooting a stick bow around two years of age, and she's gradually increased that weight and has been shooting prior to getting that 42-pound bow, a 35-pound recurve for the past two years at her draw length. And as it increased, so did the bow weight. And she has no problem shooting it. I'll also point out that allowed her to shoot without being overly critical of her, with the exception of maintaining her form for safety and development kinesthetically. Shooting should be fun. I can get, you know, someone who's not shot traditional hunting effective in around 30 days or so, and I've said that before, but it's going to take some foundation and practice, good practice, and the commitment is up to them. At that point, I'm merely a guide for that person to walk their own path and find. It's important as a priority when teaching kids to shoot the one, let them go and learn good structure and how to apply that to learn their own way. And I dare say her ability to shoot at her age is far better than mine when I was twelve. She's lethal with her bow at twenty yardage, which is her effective range currently. Working up to that bow took time and years of practice, but it was routine, not part-time, and she's now experiencing the results of her efforts and continuing to improve her self-shooting. Traditional bow hunting, accompanied by bushcraft, has become a part of her life, not a hobby, but a challenging process that will no doubt evolve and grow as she does in her own life. Take a kid hunting. It will change your world and theirs. More to follow on her first hunting adventures in an upcoming episode in season two of our Lessons Learned podcast series. And we're going to be adding more conversations with boyers and other subject matter experts related to bow hunting with traditional gear. And I must say I get frequent questions about shooting effectively. And I'm going to answer that a little bit constructively through this podcast episode. Shooting effectively for me, you know, is something different. And something different because it means something different for everyone. And I promise you, you'll never hear me disparage another person's shooting method or system, whether I agree or not with them. Why? It works for them. We have a couple of very prominent groups right now in the stickball shooting community that frequently use their platforms to tell anyone who will listen, if you don't shoot the way you do, you're taking chances and risks. Sounds a lot like car sales, doesn't it? These same groups tend to talk out of both sides of the mouth, I find. One minute judging and putting down folks for shooting one way, and then the next broadcasting for the world, how much they appreciate the same fellow the next. And I'm speaking very specifically. A very prominent bow hunter who passed away last year was the feature of one such podcast after he passed away. And I get they want to pay, you know, some cred to him. But this podcast and group are very much opposed to instinctive shooting ability and tout it as being less effective and ran the entire show on that late bow hunter they were speaking of, who literally was one of the icons of instinctive shooting and bow hunting in the States. I met him when I was young at a black bear camp. He just wanted to take a bear and share a campfire. And as good as he was, and as effective an instinctive archery he was, he never spoke down about other folks. His advice after watching me shoot my recurve as a kid, wait for it. It's a revelation. You ready? Keep shooting. Imagine that. Keep shooting. Don't have a zero sum mentality. It helps no one. Commonly I will have someone out shooting and they ask, what am I doing wrong? You know, what am I doing wrong? Apart from some common basics, I will often tell them, time. It's time that you need, not correction. Apart from, as I said, common small correction, what folks need more so than being taught to shoot is how to train to shoot. I've said it before, hunting situations are different than foam. Having folks overcomplicate their shooting, I find ultimately leads to overanalysis. That quite often is where the problems start. Instead of staying with what worked for them, they jump all over the map trying to find the solution with gadgets, quick fix techniques, or blaming the bow or the release, or this method, or that. And I could go on and on. But it is time. Flight time and shooting drills to simulate hunting shot and hunting shooting is what most folks need. And once again, if you're not having fun, what's the point? Who is the best coach and teacher in the world? Who is it? You are. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. We have venison in our freezer with a nice block I took on the second last day of our whitetail season on a very challenging stock and still hunt that took about an hour or so to actually get a shot off on them. An all-day hunt. And I took that deer shooting instinctive. Was it magic? Nope. Just work and applied shooting. One arrow at a time. It's time for us to start prepping for string turkey, and I hope to chase some snowshoe hares as well in the next couple of weeks. Look for some tips and tricks to locate and hunt both these species on our YouTube channel and on Instagram in the next couple weeks. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate all the positive feedback we've been getting from folks for our courses and our content from all over the world. This confirms for us the intent we have in our platform message based on the three pillars of the code of traditional archery. Weapon proficiency with a stick bow, ethics to guide us on our collective journey, and conservation and stewardship in order to protect the wildlife, woods, fields, and waterways we hunt as our themes are resonating. You can now find us on Amazon Podcast and Audible. Please go check us out there. If you're looking for a great bow, check out how it traditional archery. They're under new ownership. Around in the archery community as a top builder for 85 years, the company is now ready to release a new platform. I've been a fan and dedicated shooter of these bows my entire life. In fact, I've hunted with nothing but howits all my years around the sun. They're truly much more of a custom than a factory bow. And I can shoot my howitz alongside many of the modern customs still to this day, and they equal them in performance and build. A press release and website is coming out, and you can find them on Facebook or Instagram at Damon Howitt. We're excited to announce our new training courses and learning platform is nearing completion to be launched, and we're completing our accuracy course for improving your shooting for bow hunting specific conditions coming soon as well. You'll find some great information and tips on our YouTube channel, the Code of Traditional Archery. Check the links in the comments. If you haven't already, check out Compton Traditional Bow Hunters, a great organization that ensures the traditions of bow hunting with a stick and string is alive and well, not only now, but for generations to come. They have a fantastic dream raffle for 2023 that includes a Kodiak Sitka blacktail hunt package, and you can find them at www.compton traditional bowhunters.com or on Facebook or Instagram. Thanks again for listening in. We encourage you to immerse yourself in the art of the stick bow. Shoot straight and walk with us.