On my very first Alaskan bowhunting adventure way back in September of 1977, I thought I had died and gone to hunting heaven!
Having been baptized into the magical world of bowhunting upon birth in 1948 by my bowhunting dad in the glowing shadow of his majesty Fred Bear, I lived and breathed the mystical flight of the arrow like a kid possessed. I simply couldn’t get enough of my dreamy time in the great outdoors doing my best to connect with critters.
Bowhunting small game and whitetails every year with my family in Michigan, I never imagined that I might someday hunt historical hunting grounds around the world. But eventually the planets aligned and I booked a hunt beyond dream hunts in the wilds of Alaska.
Hunting with master guide George Faerber, toting my brand-new Jennings Super-T Hunter compound bow with a quiver full of feather-fletched Bear aluminum arrows tipped with the ubiquitous and legendary 140-grain Bear Razorhead, something was gonna die!
At the tender age of 29, I was the figure of wiry athleticism, and figured I could probably run down a black bear, griz, caribou or moose.
Alright, so my confidence was a tad overblown, but hell I’ve made a career out of it and it beats the hell out of whining for someone to provide “self-esteem”!
George was a gung-ho lifetime rifle, handgun and archery hunter himself, so he truly understood the limitations of the bow and arrow on Alaskan big game. We landed in our tightly packed Super Cub on a barely capable, semi-flat spot deep in the inner tundra of central Alaska, set up our two-man pup tent, organized our minimalist hunting and camping gear, and waved good-bye to legendary wilderness pilot Hank Rust, ready for a self-sufficient, isolated two-week wilderness dream.
Having toured nationwide nonstop like a Rock-N-Roll madman for 20 years so far, the remoteness of this excursion was just what the good nature-as-healer doctor ordered, and needless to say, I was in my ultimate heaven of hunting heaven.
I shot a magnificent trophy barren ground caribou with my trusty Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum, a stunning moose with my Jennings and a great black bear in self-defense with the Dirty Harry special.
Such open-ground hunting was a far cry from my lifetime of Michigan deerwoods, treestand ambushing technique, and over the years from across North America, Africa, Britain and back to Alaska many times I reveled in the various hunting techniques and methodologies that each region and terrain inspired for the most effective success possibilities.
And I thoroughly enjoyed, and in fact thrilled, at each and every different style and approach.
Having stalked mountains, deserts, swamps, everglades, jungles, forests and beyond for a heart-pounding lifetime of hunting, I have come to cherish, and in fact crave, my addiction to Midwest farmland bow-and-arrow ambush hunting.
Each day of my life, I am more and more fascinated by the prospect of out-thinking the mighty white-tailed deer. And be it known to all good men everywhere, for some strange reason, the deer that I hunt on my Michigan and Texas sacred hunting grounds are the most berserk, insane, uppity, spooky, maniac, scared-of-their-own shadow deer that exist on planet Earth.
Strategizing the mythical right-place, right-time deerhunting mystery probably represents a good 80-90% of the hunt itself. Doesn’t matter how good a shot we are if we can’t figure out where to intercept our quarry.
Though the vast majority of American deerhunters already know the essential basics of choosing the most likely ambush setup, nonetheless, it is always good for the backstrappers amongst us to share lessons learned and secrets to success with each other.
Certainly, most diehard bowhunters are way better at it than I am, I at least take home the Gold each year for sheer relentless tenacity and compulsive-obsessive, never-give-up disorder syndrome.
My most important bowhunting accomplishment can be summarized in the fact that my right-place, right-time accomplishments pivot on the fact that my right-time element is so outrageously excessive that I will eventually stumble on the right place.
Just as a reminder, I hunt every day of the season, September to March, so mathematically I am predisposed to blunder into a meaningful ambush eventually.
On all my hunting grounds, I have literally dozens and dozens of killer treestands and ground blinds strategically positioned after more than 60 years of trial and error. That translates into a multitude of ambush choices no matter the wind, sun or current travel indicators, food plot conditions, and/or agriculture and acorn availability.
Guiding dozens of deerhunters each fall and winter, their 100% unsolicited testimonials rave about the consistency of critter encounters and shootability from every stand.
A few Nugent hunt KillRules101 include: 1-wind direction, 2-sun position, 3-background cover, 4-current travel spoor, 5-comfort of stand for right- or left-hand hunters, 6-background silhouette breaking cover, 7-sensible shooting lanes, 8-bait positioning, 9-rotated pressure per stand, 10-range to anticipated opportunity, 11-stealthy, non-intrusive approach to the stand, 12-comfort of the stand itself, 13-silence of the stand, 14-mental preparation for hunter to remain in KillMode throughout hunt, and of course, 15-proof at the range of the hunters’ accuracy and total familiarity with their weapon of choice, and 16- the promise of each hunter to remain quiet and motionless the entire sit to not educate the animals.
Oh yeah, and last but not least, some sort of apparatus like the Spare Bladder product in the event the hunter must relieve himself while on stand.
With that all being said, ambushing the miraculously evasive, master-of-escape white-tailed deer is as serious an endeavor and accomplishment as exists in the world of predator and prey. And failing to seriously and efficiently perfect each and every minor and major detail will render us backstrapless, and doomed to purchase chicken or some other inferior source of nonorganic protein.
With only two heartbreaking, yet thrilling days of whitetail hunting left here in Texas, I am as dedicated and focused as I can possibly be to wrap up the greatest hunting season of my life.
Of course in actuality, I’m not wrapping up diddly squat, for starting March 1st, the whitetails may be off-limits, but hogs, varmints, cougars, axis deer, fallow deer, sika deer, Pere David deer, Oryx, blackbuck, Aoudad and limitless herds of exotics will propel us gung-ho strappers to continue to pursue the beasts and the grand Spirit of the Wild throughout the year.
I’m heading out right now to ambush venison like I mean it. Let’s see if I can put it altogether and apply all of those lifetime lessons and ambush 101 for the never-ending mystical fight of the sacred backstrap zapping arrows of my life.
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Multi-platinum guitar legend TED NUGENT has a new full-length album THE MUSIC MADE ME DO IT, on Round Hill Records. The album is available now for order everywhere, and the title track “The Music Made Me Do It” is available to download and stream wherever music is sold.
With more than 40 million albums sold, rock legend Ted Nugent is equally well known as the nation’s most outspoken proponent of our 1st and 2nd Amendment rights, conducting thousands of pro-gun, pro-freedom, pro-American interviews in major media worldwide. Nugent is a New York Times best-selling author whose works include Ted, White & Blue —The Nugent Manifesto; God, Guns & Rock ‘n’ Roll and Kill It & Grill It.This year, his award-winning Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild TV show celebrates its 500th episode! For all things Nuge, visit www.tednugent.com