Bowhunter of the Year

If the aldeer award did exist, JD Bowhunter would have my vote. I've been on this site a few years now and have been lazy bout posting kills and LFTTs but from what I've seen, JD gets it done on PUBLIC land every year. I hunt all private and I know how the deer move on my properties. With that being said, it's still difficult so multiply the difficulty times bout 4 and that's where JD hunts. Tip my hat to you dude.

I'd have to agree with you. Ol JD doesn't cut them any slack.

Pretty true dude does get after them. I hunt public land too. I usually get to hunt a lot but I haven't got it done on a big one on Alabama public land. I have 9 more hunts and I hope I can get a decent buck down before the end. It's really impressive that he can kill good bucks every year on public land.

He hates them more than anyone I know, and keeps everyone on here up to date on the hatred. I enjoy reading his failures and success. Keep it up JD! One of those bigguns out there at Bankhead are gonna mess up sooner or later.

I'd vote for JD. He inspires me.

Outstanding where do I pick my prize up. Lol. I usually Bounce around on public land more than I did this year. I focused on Bankhead and did have a pretty good season. I really do hate hunting that hell hole. If you don't scout that place will beat you down. The woods are wide open and it's hard to find a good funnel area, so I focused 90% of my hunting on food and it worked out. The primary reason I stayed mostly in Bankhead this year was my uncle. He has always had a friend to hunt with him if I was not there. Well this year our friend didn't hunt due to age creeping up on him (74). My uncle is 67 and we have bow hunted together since I was 9 years old. He didn't leave me behind when I was a kid, so I'm not going to leave him behind. The last few years he had to go to a crossbow due to shoulder issues, but he still climbs a tree and kills great bucks every year. If you have a chance to hook up with an old bow hunter and go scouting you would be surprised at what you will learn. I have never been in gun hunting club so I had to learn how to get close and without the guidance from old timers it would have been tough. With all this said find you an old bow hunter and beg him to carry you scouting and I could be passing this award off to one of you fellas next year. By the way I'm only 39 so I wouldn't be able to teach you half of the stuff these old timers could teach you.

JD,
You are absolutely right. I'm 28 years old and majority of my knowledge comes from my grandpa. His hunting days are nearing an end, but his ability to scout and find deer still amaze me. I killed my first deer with his old recurve. Pay attention to them old timers!

Maybe the Uncle and friend need to put up a little advice on here. Sounds like we all could learn a little?

I learned everything from reading and studying books as far as the technical side of bowhunting. Most of my knowledge of where deer move comes from trial and error. That first year was rough! I didn't hardly see anything. Since then, I've taken multiple deer each year , 3, 5,4 in consecutive years. I've made some bad shots and lost a couple, but you learn and move on.

To get that much experience in a room I'd be inclined to smoke some back strap, a cooler full of beer, and a nice fire!

I would be inclined to set those ol'timers up on the ground and let them shoot me a deer with a rifle. Probably give me a bigger smile than if I shot it myself.