Author's Note

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by timber, rain, and the kind of quiet that makes a kid notice birds and tracks without knowing why. Hunting was not handed to me. I did not grow up with opening-day camps and a freezer full of venison. I got interested after college. Restless, curious, and hungry for something real that a desk job and a grocery store could not deliver.

I learned the hard way. Trial and error. Bad shots I still think about. Good days that taught me more than any book. Then work pulled me south to Los Angeles. Suddenly the nearest public land was a drive, not a walk. My neighbors were not hanging deer from garage rafters. The closest thing to a hunting buddy was a guy at the archery range who nodded once and went back to his pins.

I kept hunting anyway.

From a one-bedroom in the urban sprawl of L.A., driving a Toyota Prius that made every trailhead parking lot do a double-take, I practiced at a city-park archery range on weekends and built hunts the way other people build vacations. With calendars, budgets, and a lot of map time at the kitchen table. Over the years I have successfully hunted bison, black bear, whitetail deer, and blacktail deer across the Western United States. Not because I had special access or a trust fund. Because I treated preparation like a second job and refused to accept that city living and hunting are mutually exclusive.

That is the point of this book.

If you live in an apartment, a condo, or a house on a street where the loudest animal is a neighbor's dog, you can still become a bowhunter. You can still put wild meat in your freezer. You can still stand in the dark before sunrise and feel your heart slow into something older than traffic and screens. It will take longer than you want. It took me six seasons before my first harvest. You will fail. You will get cold. You will question whether this is worth it. It is.

I wrote this guide for the man who has never hunted, knows almost no one who does, and still feels the pull. I wrote it the way I wish someone had talked to me. Straight, practical, without gatekeeping or romantic fog. You do not need to look like a magazine cover. You do not need a lifted truck. You need will, a plan, a decent bow setup, and the patience to get good.

This changed my life. It can change yours. Turn the page and start.

Jordan W. Lee Los Angeles, California

The Author Pacific Northwest roots · Los Angeles base · Western public lands

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