Patience is Key

PATIENCE IS KEY 

Have you ever found yourself taking a shot on an animal and then immediately wishing that you could take it back?   You and I, along with everyone else who has taken this shot knows that once you pull the trigger or send that arrow down range there is no taking it back.  That’s why it is crucial that we, as ethical sportsmen and sportswomen take every shot with patience and purpose, as if that shot can never be taken back.

     My youngest daughter Alaina, who is 9 years old, recently passed the California Hunters Safety course.  It was just a week before The Jr. Spring Turkey opener, and let me tell you, she was excited.  The evening before the hunt my daughter kept softly saying to herself “A.C.T.T., A.C.T.T.” over and over again. When my curiosity finally got the better of me I asked her, “Alaina what is A.C.T.T.?”  She looked at me and said, 

“(A) Assume every firearms is loaded. 

 (C) Control your muzzle 

 (T) Trigger, keep your finger off the trigger and outside the  

       trigger guard until you are ready to shoot. 

 (T) Target, know your target and what lies beyond.” 

    Well, okay then, I guess that’s why she passed at the top of her class. She’s ready for the hunt. 

  The next morning we woke up early in order to get set up in the dark. Alaina looked at me and said, “I guess the early bird is getting the worm today?”  “No, that’s fishing.”  I told her. 

    The reason we get up so early is so that we can get our decoys set up and put ourselves in the perfect spot for the perfect shot. That’s what hunting is all about being prepared, and putting in the work so that when everything comes together we will have the highest chance for success. 

    As the sun started to rise and the birds began to call out to each other we had a strutting Tom in our setup before we knew it. I leaned over to Alaina and asked her if she wanted to shoot this bird, she looked at me like I was crazy, “Of course I do!” she said. “Okay, take your time and make a good shot.” I told her.  As this Tom strutted back and forth I whispered to her “shoot”. I figured she must not have heard me because she wasn’t shooting even though, over and over again I told her to “shoot, shoot that bird, right there get it.” Nothing……Finally the Tom knocked over one of the decoys and it stopped for just a second when “BANG!!!”  Alaina shoots. And down went the turkey.  Later I asked her why she didn’t shoot when I told her too and she said, “Dad, I was waiting for the perfect shot and it wouldn’t stop moving.”  Right then I knew my daughter was a strong little woman.  She knew what was right for her, even when I was pressuring her to take a shot she wasn’t comfortable taking. What a great lesson we can all learn from.   

1 Corinthians 15:58say’s,

“…stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

     Don’t give up in doing what is right and don’t give in to the pressures of this world. The Lord has given you strength to stand firm in this world no matter what others may be saying. Know who you are in Christ, and when the pressures come you will not be moved.

   Just like a little girl who couldn’t be pressured into taking a bad shot…. Stand strong in who you are in Christ, do what you know is right, and don’t conform to this world.

Written By, ProStaff Member

Kevin Ratliff

When Nobody Is Watching

    The word integrity is defined as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles and moral uprightness.

    The question is, “Does this definition change just because no one is watching you?”.

For most people, this is an absurd question. But, for many, the definition of what’s moral and what’s ethical changes as soon as they are alone, and no one is watching.

     I promise, I am not writing this because I think I’m perfect.  On the contrary, I’m writing this because I have personally struggled with this concept, just like, I’m sure many others have.  When it comes to hunting, we as hunters are often alone in the woods with no one around to make sure we’re making the right decisions. 

     This past hunting season I was able to get out in the field quite frequently. I had my eye on a few nice bucks that I had on a trail camera.  However, as the A-zone season was coming to an end, I was still without a punched deer tag. It is hard when you put in the time and you still come up empty.  This season was full of disappointments and frustrations.

     At one point during the season, I had one of my target bucks in front of me.  I was able to inch my way closer until I got within forty yards of this buck.  It had no idea I was there. The wind was perfect, the stalk was perfect, everything was perfect when all of a sudden, out of nowhere from the neighboring ranch, a dog came running out and barking, chasing off my buck before I even had a chance to draw back my bow.  It had been a long season with failed stalk after failed stalk.  I was beginning to think it wasn’t going to happen for me this year. 

     It’s not very often that I don’t get to notch my deer tag but, this year wasn’t looking very promising.  What made matters even worse was Every time I came home from a hunt, with anticipation in her voice, my wife would ask me if I shot something.  I knew she was sincere. There have been years when my wife didn’t necessarily care if I came home with a buck or not.  This year was different.  She wanted me to be successful as much as I wanted to be. This, of course, put even more pressure on me to get the job done.  I haven’t even mentioned my hunting buddies yet. These guys are relentless. If you don’t harvest a buck, you will never hear the end of it. In fact, this year, my man card was apparently taken from me (if there was ever such a thing).  

     Why am I telling you all of this?  Because the pressure of being a provider for me is very real.  Sure, I could go to the store and buy meat like a lot of people do, but my family really likes organic meat, if you know what I mean.  

    Well, on the very last day of the season this year, in the last five minutes of shooting light, I stood thirty yards from a monster 3x3 black tail buck. If you’ve ever been bow hunting, you know this is pretty close proximity.  I could see mass for days. This buck was huge. His antlers were a dark chocolate brown with trash all over its base.  I mean this was the buck of a lifetime.  And here I was, thirty yards from it.  I pulled back my bow and stood at full draw for about ten seconds. Should I shoot?  There was only one problem, there was a bush between me and this buck.  I knew that, if I let an arrow fly, there was a pretty good chance of hitting this buck.  The question I had to ask myself was if it would be a fatal shot.  In my heart the answer was, probably not. This is where integrity comes in. If I shoot and kill this buck it will be one of the biggest bucks, I had ever shot.  However, if I shoot and just wound this buck it would be such a waste.  I asked myself, “What’s the worst that could happen?” I don’t recover the deer and it dies later giving the coyotes and buzzards a free meal.  But then I remembered the scripture in James 4:17 that says, “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”  

     God has given us, as hunters, a responsibility.  Genesis 1:28 says“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground”.”

     In other words, we must be responsible for the care and harvest of every living animal. As hunters, I believe it is our responsibility to make moral and ethical choices both in and out of the field, whether people are watching us, or not. 

Theodore Roosevelt, said,“Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”

     Before I even had the time to say, “Please Jesus, let me kill this buck”, it turned and ran out of sight and out of my life forever.  In just a matter of seconds, never giving me an ethical shot opportunity, and just like that, my season was over. Do I regret not taking the shot?  Not really. Although I do replay that moment over and over in my head.  Do I hope to see this buck next year?  You bet I do!  So, until then, aim straight and make good choices.  

Written by Pro Staff, Kevin Ratliff

Trophy Room

Sitting in my recliner in our family room……OK, my Trophy room, as my wonderful wife of 35 years would call it.   She would also tell you that it ceased to be OUR family room 25 years ago when the first three pheasants went on the wall over the fireplace and that she had fought valiantly to keep it just pheasants on the wall.  Yet, after a beautiful remodel of our master bedroom and bathroom, (that she had been promised by me years before, when we first bought the house) had finally been completed, her attitude toward mounts on the wall changed. Her argument of limiting the family room to the pheasants on the wall softened within months of having her dream remodel completed.   Shoot, if I knew that all it was going to take was an expensive remodel of my sweetheart’s sanctuary to be able to convert the family room into my trophy room, I would have forked out the bucks years ago. 

Now, as I was saying….Sitting in my recliner, in my trophy room, with the TV off, the room quiet and peaceful, and the sun just about to set on the horizon, I began to scan the room wondering where my Eland mount was going to fit into this already crowded, yet tastefully decorated trophy room.  Now, for clarification, when I say trophy room, please don't misunderstand me. Any seasoned trophy hunter viewing this room would probably chuckle that I call my mounts trophies. In fact, there is honestly only one animal I have that could be considered a trophy, and that is the Eland that I took on a recent archery trip to Africa.  That baby made the SCI books.  Well, even a blind squirrel finds and acorn now and then.  All the other mounts in this room aren't trophies in the typical hunting vernacular, but they are all trophies to me.   Let me explain. 

The mounts in my trophy room are trophies because of the memories and fellowship associated with them. Not every animal I have ever taken is on those walls, but every animal on those walls has a story and a memory attached to it.  Each of these result from time spent in fellowship hunting with friends and family.  One such memory is from the bear hunt I went on with Pastor Kevin, my partner in Hunters for Christ. We hunted up in Northern California and stayed with his grandparents the first night. That evening before the hunt I had an awesome time of fellowship with Kevin and his grandparents. That was an evening that I’ll not soon forget, not to mention the great hunt for a bear with my .44 mag the very next day.  Another memory is my first left handed rifle hunt, which was a hog hunt. I had just recently begun shooting left handed because a few months earlier I had lost the sight in my right eye due to an unfortunate medical condition.  I shared that hunt with my very good friend Jesse Mendoza, and that was his first ever hunt with a rifle.  Talk about two firsts, I don't know which one of us was more stoked.  Other great memories are from the Ram I got with a bow on the very first Hunters for Christ big game hunt, that our entire Pro Staff attended. Then there was the first Whitetail that I took in Texas with one of my best friends, Rick Tonkin, and his dad, Jim. We had a blast at that hunting camp and almost as much fun driving from Gilroy to West Texas and back again.  Another mount memory is from the first banded mallard that I shot was while hunting with my Dad, Frank Rossini.  Dad insisted he shot that bird but that was hard to believe at the time since his autoloader still had three shells in it when the dog got back with the bird. Then, remember those three pheasants I spoke about that are mounted over the fireplace?  I tripled on up those in Northeastern Oregon on a hunt in the snow with some business associates.  Some of those guys I didn't know very well but by the end of that hunt we became very good friends.  I was even able to minister to them about Jesus.  One of my first, of many turkeys taken with a bow, was in a blind with my best buddy Rene Vargas.   If turkeys could smell, we would have never gotten a bird.  Let’s just say I had to lay hands on Rene a time or two as well as rebuke him to just go clear the air (as a result of the dinner he ate the night before). 

These mounts and others on my walls are not in any record books, and they would certainly not impress any big time, world traveling, trophy hunters, but they all hold a very special place in my memory banks. They all have a special story of fellowship attached to them. There are also pictures of some unsuccessful hunts on those same walls and those hunts are trophies as well.  There are pics of the Bull Elk archery hunt, where I came home empty handed after 10 days.  Despite that, I had the best time fellowshipping with the greatest bunch of guys. That trip pushed me to the limits physically but, as a group, we kept each other encouraged and motivated to push on. The pics of my Black Tail archery hunt up in Northern California depict another unsuccessful hunt but are still a trophy on the wall in the form of a picture.  On this hunt I spent four days sweating my patootie off with my Uncle Tony, who was in his 60's at the time.  I was only in my 30's yet he would threaten to carry me up the next hill if I didn't get my butt in gear. 

As I sit in my recliner and look around the room, I see all of these “trophies” remembering the fun and fellowship shared with friends and family along with the failures that gave me the drive to keep hunting.  I am blessed to relive those hunts, experiences and great times with people who have influenced me and that I share my love of Jesus with. 

If you are ever unlucky enough to be in that room with me some day, you will most likely hear a slightly exaggerated story of those experiences (unless of course there is a buddy in the room along with us that was on one of those hunts with me), then I will have to tell the gospel truth, for sure.

The trophies on my walls are not those of record book animals, but of record book memories.  Memories of fellowshipping, encouraging, listening, and sharing the “Good News”.   I look at these mounts and daydream of those hunts and dream of the hunts, memories, and fellowship still to come.

Psalm 55:14  

”We who had fellowship together walked in the house of God in the throng.”

God Bless You and good trophy hunting!  Go out and fellowship making memories. 

Gian Rossini     

Provider

   What does it mean to provide? I often see other outdoorsmen who look like they should be on the cover of a hunting magazine with their perfectly matching, name brand, camo and I think, “I wish I could look as good as they do”.  

  I don’t know about you, but I find myself often comparing myself to others. I have a friend who loves to hunt, but he refuses to shoot a buck in California unless it’s a Boon & Crockett scoring deer.  Now, on the flip side, my buck last year was a whopping 1x2, which, in California is barely legal. 

    I used to be embarrassed to show people pictures of the deer I shot because the size of the antlers didn’t measure up to our social media standard.  But then, I always come back to why I started hunting in the first place.  It’s not always about the size of the deer’s rack, even though I would be lying if I said this wasn’t a constant struggle for me.  This is especially true when I’m seeing guys on social media killing it with monster scoring bucks.  However, I remind myself that it is about the memories I make with my friends and family, and the food I get to put on my table to provide for my family. 

   1 Timothy 5:8says “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”.

   Now, I know provision comes in many forms, but for the sake of conversation, hunting gives me a way to provide sustenance for my family.  Sure, I could go to the local store and buy some steroid infused beef which ate who knows what, and lived its entire life in you know what, but I don’t.  Instead, I provide clean, organic meat which my family thrives on.  I don’t want to be a hypocrite and say I never eat meat from the store, because on occasion, when I have guests over, I do like to buy a big fat ribeye from Costco.  But, let’s be honest.  Who can afford that on a regular basis at $45 for two steaks?  Not me.

   When it comes to being a provider, I want to give my family the best that I can.  I won’t always be able to give them everything they may want, but what they will never run short of is my love for them, and red meat.

   When God led His people out of Egypt and into the desert he provided for them in the most grueling conditions.  He provided manna which was a type of bread that tasted like honey and you’ll never guess what the main course was. That’s right, it was quail.  

Exodus 16:13says,  “That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.”

   I find it very interesting that when God provided for His People He didn’t provide vegan tacos, or even tofu soup.  In fact, out of all the possibilities in the world to feed His people, God chose wild game.   Can I just say, if wild game is good enough for God, then it's good enough for me and my family!  Just some food for thought.

Written by, ProStaff Member Kevin Ratliff

Africa! Anything but "The Dark Continent"

Africa! Anything but "The Dark Continent"


Africa was referred too in Europe as "The Dark continent" in the 1800's, because they did not know much about Africa's interior until the 1900's. It was known as "The Dark Continent" because of the mysteries and the savagery they expected to find in the interior. 

What I experienced in my recent hunting trip to South Africa with my fellow Pro Staffer Rick Tonkin and several other archery hunting friends was, that Africa is not mysterious at all, but instead very alive and full of the exotic and of beauty. The only savagery I experienced was the bush itself, with all it thorns and thistles. I will step out on a limp and risk using the word magical, to describe my 10 days of archery hunting for plains game. Magical, because it was a place like nothing I had ever experienced before. After watching years of hunting shows on Africa, and even after the descriptions and stories shared with me by friends that had hunted South Africa several times before, it was much more than I had imagined and had hoped for. You know how friends will described an experience to you? And  then you have the chance to have the same experience, but it turns out that they overstated that place or experience? Well, in my case, and in the case of my South African hunt, it exceeded all my expectations, and was so much better than anyone’s experience that was shared with me. 

I literally had easily written over a thousand words in this article describing my trip to you, the reader. Then I proofed it before sending it off to be put on our website, and thought to myself, nobody is going to want to read all this, there was just to much to read. So let me just say this, archery hunting in Africa is not easy. Yes, I know the TV shows show guys hunting out of blinds and scoring on some incredible animals. Even on my hunt, a few of my buddy’s cleaned up and harvested 4 and 5 awesome animals, but the fact is, that out of a 10 day hunt with two sits a day, one in the morning and one in the evening, with an average of 5 hours at each sit, the average number of animals taken is 3, yep! 3. Archery hunting accounts for only 1% of hunting in Africa. Everything else is rifle hunting, why? Because it’s a challenge, that’s why. I can confirm personally it’s not that easy. I’ve been shooting a bow for 20 years now, and I’ve deer hunted, elk hunted, hog hunted and even Pheasant hunted with a bow. The success rate is just not as good as it is with a rifle. Then you go to Africa, and throw in animals that are also being hunted by leopards, hyenas and cheetahs, and you think whitetail or blacktail deer are skittish? 

I shot three arrows in Africa, one was at a warthog at 33 yards. Hit him well, lots of blood, but I never recovered him. The second at an impala ram, missed him, because my arrow deflected on a branch that was a part of the exterior of my blind. The third was at an Eland that I shot at 17 yards. I had my 20 yard pin right on the crease of the inside of his shoulder right at the heart. I released the arrow, and in a span of 17 yards with a bow shooting over 300 feet per second, we found that Eland hours later with a hole at the base of his neck. That’s how quick these animals reaction time is, and that was a thousand pound plus Eland for crying out loud. I learned so much about hunting African plains game on those 10 days. I learned that no matter how much confidence you have or how good of an archer you think you are, harvesting one of these animals is not easy. Am I going back to try to come home with more than one animal next time? You bet your shinny sharp broad head I am. And when I get there and get in that blind, I’m going to know exactly what I’m up against, and I’m going to be a lot more aggressive. Until then, practice practice practice and dream dream dream. 

God was so good to allow me not only to afford the time away from my business and the expense to go on this trip, but he kept my family safe while I was gone, he blessed me with a good nights sleep each and every night as well as the patience to stick it out for 21 hours on a plane. I not only experienced the beauty of Gods creation and majesty on this trip, I experienced His Grace. I left a lot of Hunters for Christ T-Shirts and Hats with the PH and his staff over there as well as got several opportunities to witness and share the good news of My Savior Jesus Christ. God is SO GOOD! All the time. 

God bless and good hunting!!

Written By, ProStaff Member Gian Rossini