There is an avid deer hunter from Hampden who is doing his fair share to help improve the survival odds for Maine whitetails. He has taken up bow hunting.

A gun hunter for most of his life, this Hampden man decided that hunting deer with a bow might provide more of a challenge. The idea began to hold some appeal when Northwoods Sporting Journal’s bow writer Josh Cottrell told him that, indeed, bow hunting a deer is Ground Zero when it comes to hunting methods.

“There’s nothing quite like it. Not only is it more challenging than a gun hunt, because you must get close to your prey, it is truly the primal hunt, up close and personal, ” Cottrell told him.

After purchasing a high-tech compound bow and practicing all summer from a tree stand on a backyard target, the Hampden man accepted an invitation to bow hunt deer in Carroll County, Maryland, which is America’s deer central. For five days the Hampden hunter sat in a tree stand way up in a hickory tree within eye shot of a field of soybeans. He said that he had never seen anything quite like it in the deer woods. “There were deer everywhere,” he exclaimed.”Trouble is most of the deer I saw were either on my way to the stand in the morning or on my way out of the stand after sundown.” He said that on two separate occasions he jumped deer right out of the middle of a soybean field.” I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “These deer were bedded down mid-day right out in the middle of these soybeans! It was like flushing partridge out of a brush pile.”

He said that in four days he logged about 30 hours sitting in the hickory tree and experienced just two deer encounters. “I had a small buck come to my bleat call, and he hung around a while but never came close enough for a shot,” he recalled. “In the other heart-pumper, a small doe looked up at me just as I started to draw back the bow string. Yep, I got busted,” he said.

The Hampden man said that being a Maine hunter he was used to putting in long hours in a tree stand without seeing any deer. “The weather is milder during the bow season, which is nothing like trying to ward off a November chill. Late September in Maryland is really nice,” he says. “Song birds flit about. Fat gray squirrels root around for nuts and scold you for being in their tree. Turkey vultures hover above the canopy as though waiting for a new gut pile. The times goes by. You read some, and eat a lot of cookies.”

The Hampden hunter, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that he returned from Maryland without releasing an arrow. A few days after his return, he decided to take advantage of his bonus doe permit and give Maine a try. He erected his tree stand in a deer swamp he was familiar with in the Thomaston area.

He said that ironically during his two-day hunt back in Maine he came really close to finally releasing an arrow at a deer. “I had been sitting in this tree about four hours. I had eaten, oh I don’t know, maybe five or six cookies. The sun was down. It was very quiet. Nothing stirred. Good time for a bleat call, I thought,” he remembered. “Unknown to me, while I was rummaging around in my day pack for the bleat call, a doe was coming my way along the game trail that I was overlooking. You guessed it. Not 20 yards from me, she either heard me or saw me move. She bounded into the brush. A few snorts and she was long gone,” he said.

The following day the hapless Hampden bow hunter was walking down an access road at a state park. Dressed in full camo and toting a bow equipped with a quiver of arrows, he walked by an elderly couple strolling hand in hand. Obviously, leaf peakers getting some fresh air. He said that they looked startled.

“Good morning,” he greeted the strollers.

“Oh, is it bow season now?” the man asked.

“Yes,” the hunter replied, smiling.

“Then we better get out of here,” the stroller said and started to turn back, with his wife by the elbow.

“Oh, don’t do that,” the hunter said. “Nothing to be concerned about. I’m just a bow hunter. Very safe. I mostly just sit up in a tree all day and eat cookies.”

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal and has written his first book, A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].