Editor’s Note: Paul Butski of Scio, New York, historically has been a turkey-call manufacturer, worked with Walker’s Game Ear, and is currently the sales manager for GSM Outdoors, owns Stealth Cam, Hawk Treestands, NAP Archery Products, American Hunter Feeders, Hunter Specialties, HME products, Birchwood Casey, Muddy and other outdoor brands. 

I love bowhunting and gun hunting for deer, but bowhunting allows me to spend more time in the woods than I would if I were only gun hunting. The woods are where I want to be. In New York, where I live, we get an extra month and a half to bowhunt before gun season arrives. (Generally, bow/deer season starts around the last week in September and runs through the end of January. Gun/deer season begins around the third week in October and ends about the second week of December.) I probably use more game cameras than most hunters to see the deer on the property and the trails they are using, coming from bedding and going to feeding areas, and then moving from feeding sites back to their bedding places. From that information, I can choose the most productive tree-stand site.

Another advantage that game cameras give me is that oftentimes, I’ll see a giant buck—maybe 50–100 yards away from my trail camera. If I don’t have the opportunity to take that older-age-class buck during bow season, I’ll know where he’s traveling. I’ll have a better opportunity to move my tree stand and get closer to him when gun season begins. Or, I may leave my stand where it is and take that rifle shot at 100 yards that I can’t take with my bow. With a bow, I don’t like to take more than 30 yards; however, with my rifle, I’m comfortable taking shots at 100–150 yards. Besides having a chance to hunt a month and a half earlier when I bow hunt than I do when I gun hunt, I also may have the opportunity to spot bucks I want to take during the gun season that are out of range. I like the Stealth camera NGX because of its trigger speed, the quality of pictures it produces, and its dependability. Also, when I’m going to and from my tree stand, I’ll be able to spot and pick out other places I may want to hunt during gun season that I can’t hunt during bow season.

Expert Guidebooks on BowHunting Deer: Best Sellers

How to Hunt Deer Up Close with Bows, Rifles, Muzzleloaders and Crossbows
To be more successful as a deer hunter, learn all you can about the animal, the wind, the temperature and the techniques required to get in close.

In this book, you’ll hear about some of the best hunters in the nation who know how to hunt deer close, including one of the greatest archers who ever lived, Howard Hill.

John E. Phillips also shares his own deer stories and hunting tips from 50 years of experience.

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Many deer hunters have told me: “I want a deer-hunting book with regular hunters who are just like me” and “I want a deer-hunting book with the best advice from the best professional deer hunters in the nation”. 

Mossy Oak’s Pro Staff is made up of some of the nation’s best deer hunters, professional deer hunters, and TV hosts whose names and advice often are heard in deer camps all over the nation. But many of the more than 1,000 Mossy Oak Pro Staff hunters are everyday, weekend, and vacation deer hunters just like you.

Whether you hunt private or public lands, you’ll find tips and tactics in this book from the Mossy Oak Pro Staff that will increase your odds for locating and taking the bucks of your dreams. 

If you’re serious about learning to hunt and take deer with a bow, if you’re looking for a different strategy that will help you identify and harvest big bucks, if you want to learn from your misses as well as from the shots that connect, and if you enjoy being in the great outdoors that the Good Lord has blessed us with, then this book is for you.

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Tomorrow: Paul Butski – Learning Deer Information When Bowhunting