Our church held a wild game feed last Saturday night. Once a year the sportsmen at Heartland EFC gather to embellish stories, show pictures, and feast on a variety of savory dishes--pheasant, bear, bison, deer, and goose. At one point, the discussion turned to bowhunting.

"I used to bowhunt, but my wife begged me for years to give it up, so I quit," an older man stated.

"Yeah, I gave it up too," replied another sportsman. "It became too hard to pull back my 60-pound bow."

Yet another man chimed in, "I took a nasty fall once from a tree stand and decided that's enough of that!"

Eight sportsmen in all divulged their previous passion for bowhunting. All eight had a different reason for abandoning the sport for easier hunting methods. As I listened, each story sunk my spirit lower and lower. Would I end up the same? Would bowhunting someday become too hard for me, too dangerous, or too annoying to my family?

Safety is the number one key to staying in the bowhunting game. Injuring yourself while hunting is a sure way to cut short your archery tenure.

The morning after the game feed I sat in a tree stand. It was a crisp, December day and I had one remaining doe tag. As I waited for the deer to wake up, my mind raced to put together a strategy for enduring in this sport known as a "young-man's game."

Avoid The Comparison Trap
Do you say things like, "I shot a 115-inch buck last year, but I should've waited for a bigger one." Or, "I shot my best deer ever, but it's not as big as I had hoped." If so, you've likely succumbed to the comparison trap.

Our enjoyment in bowhunting decreases when we stop accepting ourselves. When we compare our deer to the deer in hunting magazines and videos, we pressure ourselves to achieve that level of success. Pretty soon, no deer we shoot looks good. Karl Marx wrote, "A house may be large or small; as long as the surrounding houses are equally small, it satisfies… But let a palace arise beside the little house, and it shrinks from a little house to a hut." For most of us, our bucks will always look smaller than the ones on the videos.

The key to fighting the comparison trap is simple--stop caring. Stop caring about how big your buddy's deer was this year. Stop caring about measuring up to hunters on videos. Stop caring about clearing the bar that is set by the pros. Instead, allow yourself to rejoice in a 100-inch buck, or a doe, when you make an excellent, ethical shot. If you want to enjoy bowhunting for decades to come you must slay the comparison beast.

Cross Train
Bowhunting is a physically demanding sport. Archery hunters often hike long distances while carrying heavy gear, to reach their hunting haunts. We pull back and hold 50-, 60-, even 70-pound bows. A few times a year we drag a 150 to 200 pound deer up hills, over logs, and through cornfields. A typical hunting season stresses, strains, and challenges the ablest of bodies.

Weekly cross training will help you enjoy the rigors of bowhunting. Burning calories on a treadmill or an elliptical machine for 30 minutes a day, four days a week is sufficient for good cardio-health. One friend and archery hunter, Charlie Alsheimer, spends 30 minutes on a treadmill, seven days a week. At 60 years of age, Charlie credits these workouts as a key to his enduring enjoyment of bowhunting deer.