I watched as the animal meandered through the dense brush, disappearing occasionally only to reappear closer than it was before.  Suddenly I thought that I saw sun glinting off an antler.  I raised my crossbow to my shoulder, located the deer in the scope and was delighted to discover that the fat doe I had been watching was a “Poke `em Young” buck.  It was show time!  Immediately the context of the moment changed.  The first surge of adrenaline immediately swept over my system causing tremors to ripple through my body as an increase in blood pressure made my eyes feel like they were being squeezed in a vice.  Oh how I love the very instant the decision is made to shoot!  It is the point in time that all hunters work towards and live for, the moment of truth and ultimate test.  And as the buck continued to close the gap that separated us, I prepared for my final exam.

The nearer the animal came, the more it angled directly towards my position.  Straight out in front of me was a 4-wheeler trail that would give me a clear shot out to forty yards, but as the animal angled closer, I knew that it would probably be under twenty when the it cleared the brush.  As luck would have it, the whitetail stepped onto the trail right in front of my twenty-yard marker and then started to turn away from me.  I had been focused on the spot even before the fledgling buck entered the kill zone so when it began to turn, my finger quickly applied pressure to the trigger of my bow.  As the bow’s bark shattered the quiet landscape, the arrow was launched, entered the hapless whitetail at mid-body, just short of the rib cage, exiting behind the scapula on the opposite side of the animal and buried its head deeply into the rich, black soil...

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Africa for many of us is still an unfulfilled dream that simmers in our mind overpowering our nostrils with the heavy aroma of mystery and adventure. It is my fondest hope to travel there someday before my stay on this magnificent earth is ended by that final punching of life’s daily time clock. I do not feel compelled to harvest a kaleidoscope of the unique and exotic animals that call that strange land home, but instead would rather capture their magnificence on camera. My chance may never come to visit the Dark Continent, but in the meantime, I sate my thirst for Africa through other people’s adventurers that have been captured by the movie camera and then chronicled on DVD.

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As the crossbow and crossbow hunting becomes more commonplace, we are seeing a surge of quality hunting videos appearing on the market featuring our favorite tool for procuring excellent table fare. Crossbow Compulsion, which is produced by Team Backwoods and stars Bill & Kath Troubridge from Excalibur Crossbows along with some of their many friends, is an excellent addition to your crossbow-hunting DVD collection. There are eighteen hunts with a ton of different species from all across the North American Continent. All of the hunts are entertaining and well filmed, documenting some great encounters with handsome animals, in beautiful places and along with some terribly excited hunters as well. We all participate in this sport for that one magic moment when the hunter is in the right place at the right time and suddenly it is “show time”. This production captures that “show time” moment over and over again allowing the viewer to share the adventure of our on-screen hunters. A dark room and a big screen television put you right there in the middle of it all. You can almost smell the action as you pulse speeds up and you feel your muscles tense in excitement.

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About 10 years ago, Paul injured his left arm during S.W.A.T. training classes. Paul could pull his vertical bow back, but doing so resulted in a weeks of pain. He continued to hunt with a vertical bow in NJ, but because of his inability to practice, his shots were limited to 20-yards or less and his confidence lagged. He applied for a New Jersey Handicap permit, but was denied, so turned to PA for a crossbow permit under their more liberal requirements for a handicap. He still wanted to hunt in New Jersey with a crossbow, however.

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As hunters who pay hunting license fees and game managers whose programs come from those licenses, we are blessed by the ability of the whitetail deer to adjust to the continued encroachment on its habitat by man and still multiply. If it I were not for the far sighted sportsmen who preceded us and insisted upon scientific management practices, most modern deer hunting today would be very costly and conducted on preserves, behind high-fences.

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Since the inception of the American Crossbow Federation’s Individual Membership program in 2001, one question regarding ACF benefits has overshadowed all of the rest combined – “When are we going to have a crossbow record book?” We are pleased to announce that work has finally begun to establish the ACF BIG GAME REGISTER, which will document and record the harvest of big game animals with the crossbow.

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