Whether bowhunting in the Rockies of Colorado or the rolling hills of Missouri, a full-time archery hunter should be in peak physical condition.

I thoroughly scout every nook and cranny of the habitat, recording all pertinent data. I also locate and prepare new stand locations, effectively trimming surrounding vegetation. Finally, whenever I've finished all this "field work," I take the landowner a gift and offer to help him with any work that he might need help doing. At this point, as you can easily see, my "next season" has long-since begun in earnest.

As the next autumn approaches, I take up where I left off the preceding winter. I make a trip to the landowner's residence to make sure that I'm still welcome on his property. I once again offer my services as a laborer, and leave a gift whenever I depart.

If I'm going to hunt during the early season, I'll return to the property shortly before the season opener and make another thorough scouting trip of the area. By combining a little bit of foot scouting and some long distance glassing of feeding areas from afar, I can get an excellent idea of the current patterns of the local deer herd.

I use my early season hunts as a means of getting my "woods smarts" about me, while at the same time, I'll go ahead and "spill blood" on a few does. After all, a freezer full of meat can go a long ways toward making you a more patient hunter later in the season when you'll be holding out for a trophy.

Another thing that I accomplish on these early season junkets is to make quick checks of the stand sites that I'll be hunting during the rut. Make sure that last winter's pruning efforts were adequate, because the new growth from the past summer can pose some serious problems with shooting lanes. In addition to all the dividends I receive from my early season time afield, I also spend midday times driving back roads in search of new hunting areas--you can't have too many of those you know!

Even though I expend a lot of time and work during the early whitetail season, all this sacrifice is focused around one primary goal--bow-killing a whopper buck (or two) in the month of November. Since we all know that probably 90-percent of the big bucks harvested each autumn are taken during the peak breeding season, be sure to not burn yourself out, and/or use up most of your time off, during the early bow season. Get mentally and physically prepared for the "gonzo" effort soon to come. Take a lunch--and maybe a book--and stay all day when "crunch time" hits in early November.

No Down Time
Even serious archery hunters often consider the spring and summer months to be "downtime" in relation to bowhunting efforts. For the full-time enthusiast, nothing could be farther from the truth. For instance, in early spring there's shed-antler hunting and turkey hunting. Here is an excellent chance to bowhunt, while at the same time, acquiring an even better understanding of some of your deer hunting areas.