I grew up chasing small game with my bow and arrows. Cottontail rabbits, snowshoe hare, grey squirrels, red squirrels and all sorts of birds were plentiful here in northern Wisconsin. No matter what the season, summer, fall or winter(mom and dad always made me back off in springtime to give the critters a break during breeding season) if I wasn’t in school I was out in the woods with my bow.
I continued hunting small game this way into my early twenties. At that point in my life I found myself married, with a mortgage, two kids, and a grocery bill. Arrows were getting more and more expensive and free time was getting more and more scarce. I could no longer afford to lose two or three arrows per weekend, and my outings were so limited that I couldn’t justify spending an hour looking for an arrow burrowed under the grass or snow. I can remember as a kid I spent a lot of hours on my hands and knees searching for the last arrow that I had.
I almost gave up small game hunting completely at that point in my life. Even after trying after trying a lot of the small game tips marketed at the time I still found myself losing too many arrows to keep my wife and my billfold impressed. I tried the blunts, I tried the heads with the add on springs, etc but it just wasn’t working out.
That all changed a few years ago when Brooks Johnson introduced me to the Snaro. Together we chased quail, pheasant, and chukar partridge in the summer. In the winter we would chase the rabbits and snowshoe hares. Shooting hundreds of arrows, it was seldom one would be lost. The wire loops of the Snaros kept our arrows from burrowing under grass or snow and some brightly colored flu flu feathers made finding arrows a breeze.
I found myself reliving the pleasures I enjoyed as a kid. Spending afternoons doing what I love, flingin’ arrows at any legal game I could find. While the wire loops of the Snaros prevented arrow loss the blunt heads of the Snaro proved quite lethal on squirrels and small birds. On aerial targets the wire loops also shined with wing or head shots, bringing the birds down quite nicely. Snaros turned back the clock for me. Give me a few hours of free time, abundant shot opportunities, and I am a kid again!
When Brooks and I started chasing some of the larger species of birds and small game we put our heads together and developed a design change for the Snaro that made them super lethal on these larger critters. The Spearo attachment for the Snaro made all the difference for us on direct body hits on birds as large as pheasants and on snowshoe hares. Rather than just a stunning blow we were delivering devastating hits on these animals! Headshots on chukar partridge and pheasant often delivers complete decapitation. Let me tell you, there is great satisfaction in taking a shot at a flushing pheasant, having that bird crumple and fall out of the sky, and realizing that you just shot the head off of a flying target!
An added benefit to all of the fun that I once again have chasing the small game is that it has made me a better hunter when it comes to big game as well. I find my focus and concentration improving, my stalking skills improving, and confidence levels soaring. When I know that I can consistently hit a flying quail, the stationary vitals on a standing whitetail buck suddenly seem like a walk in the park!