UPDATED FEBRUARY 2010
February 2010
Greetings fellow hunters: It is finally getting close to time; my much anticipated book will be published this coming spring. I have been trying to wait until closer to the printing date to update my web page so I could tell you when the printing date will be. However, because of the many e-mails I am receiving inquiring about my book, I believe I should update you now. Later on when I know the exact printing date and the price I will put that information here. I am sorry this is taking so long. Most people have no idea what is involved in publishing a book. Since this is the first book I have self-published I did not realize the time involved either. I have an exhaustive schedule. Trying to complete this book with what little free time I have has been very demanding. I will be exceedingly glad to get this book completed so I can devote more time to my passion, pursuing trophy whitetails.
I started out intending to write a volume two of my first book, Bowhunting Trophy Whitetails. However, even though it has much of the first book in it, my new book has turned into a work of it’s on. The name of my new book is QUEST FOR PHANTOMS OF THE FOREST.
I have completed the writing phase and Duncan Dobie, the former editor of North American Whitetail Magazine, is in the middle of the editing process. I thank him very much for providing this service. I am now in the designing phase of Quest and I am working on it every day. I am really happy with the way it is turning out and I believe you will be also. Quest has a lot of new, in-depth, useful information in it that has not been published before.
Quest will be a large book. The page format will be 8 ½ by 11 inches. And it will have somewhere between 350 and 430 pages in it. The page count will depend on the number and size of photographs I include; I am still working on this.The text alone is over 300 pages.
At this time, I do not know what the price of Quest will be. However, I expect it to be over $60.00 for the regular edition copy and over $100 for the limited edition copy. I apologize for the cost; however, it is extremely expensive to print a book this large which has so many color photographs and color text in it. Take this for what it is worth; even at this price I will only be making a few dollars per copy. I could have designed a cheaper book and made a lot more money; however, that would have devalued it for you the customer.
My motive is not to make a lot of money on this book; it is to produce a bowhunting book that is second to none which you will be proud to own and pass down to the next generation. I do not believe you will be disappointed with the quality and content of this book at any price.
I am still looking into making the first 250 limited edition copies in leather binding. However, the cost is going to be much more than I anticipated. I am trying to find a reasonable way to do this. If the expense is going to be so much that I do not think it will be well received I will not follow through with this. And please remember for all of you who have requested a limited edition copy, just because I have your name down as requesting one that does not mean you’re obligated to purchase one. It simply means you will have a opportunity to purchase one and that I will notify you when they are available. There are a few limited edition copies not spoken for if you would like to reserve one. I believe a good way to further introduce Quest would be to allow you to read my dedication and introduction. Thank you so much for being a fellow bowhunter, for your interest in my new book and for your patience with me.
Also, I still have some of my first book BOWHUNTING TROPHY WHITETAILS for sale. You can order them here. Sincerly yours Bobby
Quest
Quest: the act of seeking, or pursuing. In medieval romance usage it involved “an adventurous journey.” This definition may best describe the quests we who are passionate about hunting mature bucks are on.
For
For: A function word, which in this case, indicates the object of the quest.
Phantoms of the Forest!
Phantoms of the forest – the object of our quest. What are phantoms of the forest? Well, I’ll tell you. In the context of this book it’s those very rare bucks which have been hunted by the human predator and survived to reach the age of 5 ½ years old and older. The 3 ½ and 4 ½ year old bucks are tough to get. This age class is plenty tough enough to challenge any hunter. They are mostly nocturnal; they have learned to work the wind and have finely honed survival instincts. But, I’m telling you -- once a buck makes it to 5 ½ he is sure enough a remarkable animal. It takes a buck with superior intelligence and cunning to reach this age class. Unlike a 4 ½ year old and younger buck, you can not pattern a 5 ½ year old at all; because there is no pattern to their movement. They do not move a lot compared to the movement of 3 ½ and 4 ½ year olds and when they do move they are wide ranging, reclusive nomads. A high percentage of this age group will die of old age. They are 98 percent nocturnal; and they know how to play the game of survival and win against all odds. They have won the game of life by living long enough to become THE PHANTOMS OF THE FOREST.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my late father, Arlis Clay Worthington. My Father had a second grade education but a master’s degree in psychology.
I can still remember five little boys standing at the kitchen table. We were watching our father sitting on an empty upside-down lard can (we could not afford store-bought chairs) practicing with large steady hands writing his name over and over. I can still remember him desperately trying to spell out the simplest four-letter words on road signs in an attempt to learn to read while he drove down a country road. I can also remember throughout my life how people marveled at the things he could draw, build, and fix with the same steady hands. Most of all, I remember a man who loved his sons very much.
This was the man who instilled in me a love for the outdoors. He made my first bow, a hickory recurve, when I was 10 years old. My father was always ready and willing to take me hunting every time I wanted to go. For the many, many hunts I had with him I will always be thankful. I would gladly give all I have and know to go on one more hunt with him. In this thought lies the most profound lesson in this work. If you don't learn anything else from this book -- learn this!
Introduction
“I guess the writing of this book sure enough makes it official -- my role as a bowhunter has changed. Although I'm not sure when this transition took place, I do know when it was conceived. My passion for bowhunting was fueled in the late '60s as I watched Fred Bear bowhunting on The American Sportsman TV Show. In my early years of bowhunting I devoured every word of The Archer‘s Bible and The Bow Hunter Digest, learning from every page. A short few years later, I found myself reading just hoping to find one or two tidbits of knowledge. As time passed, I read primarily to travel with the writer on an enjoyable and exciting hunt. Then, one day it dawned on me that a large number of the phone calls coming into my home were from strangers telling me how much they enjoyed reading my writings in outdoor magazines. It has been a lifetime romance which has established my intimacy with the flight of the arrow and the chase of monster bucks. Sometime during that courtship my role changed: But when -- I cannot tell for sure.” Bobby Worthington
You should not know my name; that is, if you live outside my area of residents. You should not be reading this book; because, as you already know after reading the acknowledgment, I am not suppose to have written a book, let alone two. And because I am a working man who lives from paycheck to paycheck, neither should I have had the finances to print a book (North American Whitetail Magazine paid for the printing of my first book) but, somehow, through the grace of God, since you are reading it -- I guess it happened.
I started out intending to write a volume two of my first book, Bowhunting Trophy Whitetails. However, even though it has much of the first book in it, this has turned into a book of it’s on and will no doubt be the last book I ever write -- at least on this subject.
Looking back at my life, I guess I would do things somewhat differently if I could. I would dedicate myself more too useful and beneficial endeavors such as helping those who are in need and telling others the "Good news.” Serving others makes a person more useful than being famous-- it makes him important. If I could start over, I would as Mary of Bethany (who we read about in the Bible) in the long ago did, “choose the good part” to dedicate my life to.
Do not misunderstand me; I realize we all need recreation and pastime activities. If I could start over, bowhunting mature bucks would still be the pastime I would choose. It is in my blood; a bowhunter is what I am. I would probably also write about my chosen activity. I guess, helping people succeed in their chosen pastime and excelling at anything we choose to do in life is better than most will do. However, I believe the true heroes of this life, and the ones who deserve recognition are those who have really made a difference by selfishly dedicating their lives to the service of others. Some need help more than others however; everyone needs help in some ways. As Plato well said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Along these lines I want to speak on chapter 21 first. I believe chapter 21 is the most important and needed chapter in this book. In chapter 21 I go in-depth into the future of hunting by addressing animal rights activism, atheism, the liberal media, the state of our country, evolution and the existence of God. The teaching of evolution is affecting our right to hunt more than any other one thing. In my opinion, sport hunting will be over if society as a whole comes to believe the lie that we are merely an evolved animal.
When I decided to place this chapter in my book I was looking beyond today at the big and important picture. I would rather convince one of your children that atheism is a lie than I had to teach thousands of you how to kill a big buck because the future of hunting is more important than this generation’s hunting ability.
If I had not made the decision to write chapter 21 most of you, my readers, would not have gained this important information. Most hunters and average Americans simply don’t have or take the time to look up this important material. Most Americans only get one side of the issue in school classrooms and from the liberal, mainstream media. With the liberal media challenging our beliefs on every corner, we believers sometimes need to reinsure ourselves that what we have believed all our lives about creation is true. And most important, we need this information because many of us have children who are entering high school and college. Parents, listen to me, if you do not have the knowledge to teach your yunnings the truth about creation, they will be gobbled-up by the evolutionists. It is not enough these days just to tell them there is a God; because lies and fabricated evidence will be forced on them every where they turn.
I have gone to a lot of time and expense to put this research together and including it in my book. Please, do not criticize me for writing it because it does not deal directly with hunting techniques until you read it (not just read over it). When you have completely read chapter 21, I believe you will find it is the most needed, informative, and useful part of this work.
In the first few pages of chapter 21, I show beyond a doubt, to any reasonable thinking person that all pure animal activists are atheists. You simply cannot believe in the God of the Bible and believe otherwise. I will show why you can not believe the Bible and be an anti-hunter, although you may choose to be a non-hunter.
In the remaining part of chapter 21 I show that atheism is mathematically and scientifically impossible. I am not trying to convert or influence anyone to be religious in this chapter. What I am doing is giving the facts on the other side of the evolution issue. Facts other than what most people hear. The only way we can know the truth about the creation / evolution issue is by examining both sides of the evidence. Anytime we have two opposing points (or in any human endeavor for that matter) there are basic rules which should govern the thought process. The philosophical law of rationality states that a person should draw only conclusions substantiated by adequate evidence. In other words, there is no way a person can know the truth about the evolution issue without adequate evidence. Emotions and hunches are not adequate evidence. Neither are the half truths, outright lies and one sided picture that has been force-fed to Americans.
In chapter 21 I will tell you why I believe (and give you the information to make up your own mind) that evolution is the greatest hoax to ever be foisted upon the human mind. It is destructive to the future of hunting and to the future of our society. This chapter is my “good part” I give to all who chooses to read it.
ü “My nature must be the spirit of a hunter. What else would prompt me to so readily take to the bow and to the woods in pursuit of a cunning old buck? If I could help myself surely I would have engaged an endeavor wherein more often I would have indulged in the delight of success!” Bobby Worthington
Now about the rest of my book: Trophy whitetail bowhunting is a vast subject. I’m not going to pretend to cover everything about this subject in this work; however, my goal is to reveal some points that you might not have read or considered before. Hopefully, this information will give you a fresh look at trophy whitetail bowhunting, thereby enabling you to become more successful in your quest for phantoms of the forest with archery equipment.
Sometimes I wonder what separates those of us who are successful at this sport from the ones who are not. I know, in my case anyway, we are not smarter than the average hunter. Anyone can get lucky and shoot one trophy class buck in their lifetime. He can just be in the right place at the right time. That is different for those of us who have legally taking multiple mature bucks. Most of the time, success has to do with where a lot of successful trophy hunters hunt. However, this is not always the case. Most of my biggest bucks were taken on overly hunted, public hunting State Parks and on Tennessee State Forest Land; and all my bucks were shot where several other individuals hunt.
While looking for a stand location, maybe we who are successful see the landscape differently than others. Maybe we hunt longer during the right time of year, and, just maybe, we work harder at it than the average guy. It may go beyond that. We who are successful are dedicated life-long students of the whitetail’s life style. I guess we, to some degree, have begun to understand how they think. We can not understand what deer think, but we may understand what senses they used to govern their thought process as it relates to their desires, priorities, comfort zone, survival, movement and fears. These are the things we will look at in the following chapters.
There is nothing a hunter can do to improve his odds more on mature bucks than to hunt undisturbed deer with good age structure. Whether we have this situation or not (most do not) I believe the information in this book, and the specific techniques I outlined in the hunting section will improve your odds no matter where you are hunting.
However, keep in mind, no technique will work outside forced movement (which is not the way I choose to hunt) when deer are not moving. There are periods consisting of days and sometimes weeks when the majority of deer just simply do not move.
A lot of people will blame their lick of success on their stand location or their hunting knowledge, when it is not always the case. Many times deer simply are not on their feet moving day or night. If this happens to coincide with the particular time you are hunting, it would be easy to misunderstand why you are not seeing deer. I do not think we will ever be able to unlock all the mysteries that surround a whitetail’s movement as it pertains to their life style. However, in chapter 13 we will, among other things, a take a very in-depth look at the subject of whitetail movement. I personally believe this will be the most detailed and informative discussion on this subject to date.
This book takes you beyond the basics. While the beginner can gain a wealth of knowledge from reading Quest, it was not written to be a primer for the beginning bowhunter. This book goes beyond that stage. It was written to enable the average bowhunter to take his / her hunting to the next level.
Quest reveals advanced hunting techniques which hopefully will help you arrow an animal very few hunters have had the privilege to harvest. That animal is the mature whitetail buck. He truly is the phantom of the forest.
Although Quest gives you advance advice, the information is still practical. I believe a lot of material written on this subject is not practical or useful and sometimes adds confusion and mystery to the sport. However, as I see it, there is no mystery to trophy bowhunting. Mystery simply fills the void created by the absence of practical knowledge. I realized it is easy to get lost in all of the technical and scientific stuff which a lot of writers put into the mix. Therefore, my intent is to strip trophy bowhunting of a lot of the cosmetic modifiers and to simplify it where the average hunter can understand it.
We will, in the 4 parts of this book, cover a broad range of study. I believe by reading this work you can go from having a basic knowledge of bowhunting, to a hunter who has a better than average chance of harvesting a mature buck -- if -- you will go to the effort to apply this information.
In Part 1, we will take a look at some of the most important and misunderstood points on setting a bow up and shooting it. We will also, in part 1, discuss a step by step process to introduce a newcomer to archery.
We will next look at how to become mechanically and mentally prepared to take the shot when the opportunity presents itself. This topic will be covered in Part 2.
Even though Parts 1 and 2 of this book deal with the mechanical part of bowhunting (shooting the bow) they are directly critical in your quest to arrow a mature buck. If you do not have the confidence in your equipment and your shooting ability when a phantom of the forest walks up you will not be able to fight off buck fever and make a relaxed, confidence shot. Also realize, trophy bowhunting is a percentage game. If you increase your effective shooting range from 20 yards to 40 yards, then you have doubled your chances of success on a mature buck if one comes in the vicinity of your stand.
In Part 3 of Quest, we will look at the hunting part of trophy whitetail bowhunting. In this section we will study everything from scouting for a stand from which to arrow a mature whitetail buck, to scent control. In addition to this, we will also have a review of scrapes and rubs, whitetail vocalization, deer movement and some fine points on hunting. I hope the advanced, in-depth discussions in this section will give you the ammunition you need to harvest a truly mature buck, a phantom of the forest.
I will tell the story of four great bucks I was lucky enough to harvest in part 3. The chapters in my first edition book, which contained three of my successful hunts, were some of the most talked about chapters of that book. I have added new details to each of these hunting stories.
I have another great hunting story to tell you about. In chapter 17 you will read a story about a great, 5 ½ year-old, 160 class 8 point that I arrowed on November 23, 2007 in my home state of Tennessee.
In the final section, Part 4, I will tell the story of how I took my “Greatest Trophy” and discuss some personal thoughts on poaching, and, as I have already discussed, I will discuss in-depth at the future of hunting.
I realize everyone will not agree with all the things I have written here. If everyone did, there would be something too vague and generic about my writings. Also, some of these principles may not apply to your particular area or style of hunting. However, when we are discussing a mature whitetail buck, we are talking about the same cunning animal no matter where he lives or how you are hunting him. In this book, I will reveal some major points that have put the odds in my favor on many mature whitetails over the years.
This work is a culmination of a lifetime spend in the deer woods, as well put to paper as the laboring pen of my illiterate soul is able. I pray it easier read than written.
Bobby Worthington
The first five links are comments about Bobby's book from five of the best professionals in the business!
Burly Hall Roger Rothhaar Gene Wensel Gordon Whittington Don Higgins
