Photo by Michael H. Francis

Donald Ray Sweetin makes his home along with his wife, Edith, way down in the small eastern Arkansas community of Tichnor. Mr. Sweetin, 77, says he has taken "a bunch" of deer over the years by a variety of means, but for the last 50 years or so, his passion has been bowhunting.

Just after New Year's Day 1996, Mr. Sweetin was hunting on private property west of the White River National Wildlife Refuge. "For two weeks I had been seeing a big buck in one particular area I was hunting, but I could just never seem to get him within bow range," he recalled. Then the big buck disappeared.

Thinking he had perhaps over-hunted the area, Mr. Sweetin moved to another spot a half-mile or so away. The early-January Arkansas weather was terrible -- gusting winds mixed with occasional snow flurries. But the morning of Jan. 7 dawned clear and cold, although gusty winds continued.

Mr. Sweetin was hunting in an area of planted wheat and oat fields. At about 4:30 that afternoon, a doe moved right in front of his stand.

"At one point she stopped to look back," he said, "and when I looked in the direction she was staring, I could see a large buck hooking a bush maybe 60 yards away. But after a while he turned and walked away, and I thought I had missed another chance.

"Then he turned and came straight back toward me, his head up, looking right at the doe! She turned and trotted parallel to my stand, about 30 yards out. The buck followed her, and I was able to get my PSE drawn when he stopped, no more than 20 steps away."

At the thunk of the shot, the buck bolted and ran about 20 yards, the arrow sticking out from behind his foreleg. Then he ran again, but only for another 20 yards or so before sinking to the ground. Donald Ray Sweetin had just killed Arkansas' first Boone and Crockett buck taken by bow!

That Arkansas County whitetail, which was later officially scored at 172 0/8 Pope & Young points, is one of the more graphic examples of what the serious archer may see if he remains in the Arkansas deer woods in January after most hunters have hung it up for the season. To the uninitiated it might seem that the remainder of the deer-hunting season after New Year's Day offers far fewer opportunities for taking a trophy whitetail, but in many cases the opposite is actually true, for a variety of reasons.

A GREAT TIME FOR BOWHUNTING
January is a great time for bowhunters to be in the Arkansas deer woods. By its very nature, bowhunting is a solitary sport, and after the gun-hunting deer season ends, the woods virtually empty. Without human intrusion, Arkansas whitetails return to their "normal" or basic travel patterns, which at this time of year primarily revolve around food and cover.

With the acorns largely gone, pastures brown and the crop fields harvested, virtually anything green can become a deer magnet. Honeysuckle thickets, greenbrier and the other various vines, along with the occasional planted fields and food plots, are typical examples of spots that may become late-season whitetail restaurants.