Editor’s Note: We all want to learn how, where and when to take big deer with our bows, but bowhunting is more than just harvesting animals. Some of the greatest memories I’ve ever made have been while bowhunting with family and friends and remembering the crazy things that have happened then. Knowing how much time Mark Drury of Drury Outdoors spends bowhunting and working to improve habitat and food for deer, I felt confident he’d seen and participated in some of the funniest hunts ever. I asked Mark – who probably bleeds Mossy Oak – to tell us about some of his funniest bowhunts. Mark and his brother Terry Drury produce the TV shows “Wildlife Obsession,” “Dream Season,” “Bow Madness” and “Natural Born.”
Steve Stoltz and I are really-good friends. We have competed against each other in turkey-calling contests and have worked together filming and bowhunting. We’re almost like brothers, and Steve is as strong-willed as Terry and me. Once we were hunting in Louisiana and went in before daylight to hang an extra tree stand, so Steve could photograph as I tried to take a deer with my PSE EVO Max. In Steve’s opinion, hanging the tree stand was my responsibility. We always took turns on who would hang the tree stand, and who stayed on the ground and helped get all the camera gear, tree pods, bows and daypacks pulled up into the tree.
On this particular morning, Steve thought he had hung the tree stands the last time we had hunted together, but I was certain I had done it. Steve and I had been traveling and hunting together for three months without a break. We had spent more time with each other than with our families or friends. Regardless of how great a friendship you have with someone, too much time together, not enough sleep and working hard all day creates the problem of getting on each other’s nerves. Steve and I started pushing, shoving and screaming at each other as loudly as we could scream. We had forgotten we were at this site to get our tree stands up to try and take a deer with a bow for a TV show. Now we had this whisper-screaming and pushing battle going on at the bottom of our tree stand site.
The arguing and pushing was getting so intense that I finally just broke out laughing and said, “Steve, what are we doing? We’re in the middle of the Louisiana swamps screaming, pushing and shoving each other, instead of hunting.” As soon as I said that, Steve started laughing. We were laughing so hard, we almost came to tears. When we finally got over the fits of laughter, Steve and I high-fived and hugged each other like we do when we take a big whitetail. Then we packed-up our stuff and went back to camp. Neither one of us set-up a tree stand. Even today, when Steve and I are together, we still laugh about the fight before daylight.
Day 1: When Brothers Go To War in Trees While Hunting Deer
Tomorrow: Mark Drury Remembers the Explosion When His Broadhead Hit a Rock Instead of a Buck
