@stark_outdoors: I started deer hunting when I was 13 years old. Opening morning of gun season, I took an old single shot shotgun and a five gallon bucket and headed behind the house. Around 9:45 that morning, my first time ever deer hunting, a six point came running through the field and I dropped him at 105 yards. I called my dad and told him I got a six point, and my uncle came over with his four wheeler to help haul him out. To his surprise, it was a giant six point. Still to this day, it’s the biggest six point I’ve personally seen. That morning I fell in love with deer hunting. Naturally, my next thought was that I wanted to try bow hunting. I started with a used $75 crossbow that I was just hoping would consistently hit a paper plate at 10 yards. Later that fall, I killed a small eight point with it. I remember recovering that buck and immediately thinking, “Now I need to get a compound bow.” I hunted with a Bear Archery compound for years and had tremendous success, taking multiple deer at less than 10 yards. Eventually, though, I wanted another challenge. I picked up a longbow. Now, all these years after sitting on that five gallon bucket behind the house, I find myself in my studio with Tony beside me, putting together a wood arrow test kit from 3Rivers Archery as I begin the process of building and tuning my first wooden hunting arrows. There has always been something about doing things the old way that appeals to me. Not because newer is necessarily wrong or easier is necessarily bad, but because I enjoy the process of learning a skill and knowing that I still have room to improve. Doing things the right way and continuing to grow as a husband, father, woodsman, and mentor has always been paramount to how I try to live my life. Maybe that’s why I find so much peace turning an old reliable Bluetick loose at night and sitting in a tree with a simple bow in my hand. Traditions matter to me. The process matters to me. Continuing to learn matters to me. I have a feeling that whenever I finally walk up to my first deer taken with a stick, a string, and a wooden arrow, a 13 year old kid carrying an old single shot shotgun is going to come rushing back to me. And I think that deer is going to mean every bit as much as the first one did. #StarkOutdoors #fyp #fypシ #foryou #foryoupage @3RiversArchery @Bear Archery

Clayton Stark

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Region: US

Tuesday 18 August 2026 18:37:56 GMT