Sunday Bow is a lot more than just a bowhunting bill, or now a bowhunting law; it’s a land-use and access law. Landowners that bowhunt can now bowhunt their properties everyday during bow seasons, and landowners that have deer issues are now free to allow bowhunting on their properties seven days a week. State Wildlife Management Areas, areas that hunters and anglers pay to maintain, are now open to bowhunting seven days a week! This is an access boon for the average bowhunter, the ability to bowhunt on Sundays almost immediately doubles the amount of time that can be spent bowhunting. This is especially true for bowhunters that have children that participate in organized sports during the year (weekends and usually Saturdays) who now have time to introduce their children to bowhunting without sacrificing the social growth that participating in organized sports gives their children. Sunday Bow is a law that makes sense for many reasons, and it’s about time that it was passed.

On a personal note; I have just returned from a 10-day African plains game hunt, where I was able to hunt on Sundays by the way! This was a hunt that I won at auction at the 2008 UBNJ/TANJ Bowhunters Game Dinner and that was donated by Christophe Beau and Grand-Safari byway of their American agent Duane Watlington of Watlington Outdoors. I was joined by my Father (Joe Dolobacs), and friends Sam Yarosh and Rob Barrett on the hunt. It was a fantastic time, although the weather did its best not to cooperate with us. Gale force winds for three days coupled with the loss of power and extremely cold temperatures made for some tough hunting; but we were all successful and made memories, and new friends, that will last us a life time. The accommodations, food, and people and personal associated with Grad Safari on this hunt were all top shelf! Christophe and Grand-Safari have been kind enough to pledge another Safari for the 2010 Bowhunters Game Dinner…hopefully I will see you there and be bidding against you for this African Plains Game Safari because it’s truly like they say…Africa gets in your blood, and I will be going back!

This is the age of the hunter-activist, and Trenton has started to take notice. We now have a Sportsmen’s Caucus in Trenton comprised of legislators from both sides of the aisle that promote and support sportsmen’s issues! That said, it is our job to make sure that the people that we elect to represent us on the local, state, and federal level do just that; promote and support outdoor issues! A phone call, email, or office visit from YOU, their constituent, carries a lot of weight and they will remember that you care enough to take time out of your busy day to contact them about issues that are important to you! So keep up the good work!!!

This is my third Campfire, and the realization dawned on me that while I am well-known in the circles I travel, there are many of you who know little about me. So if you will indulge me, I’ll give you a brief glimpse into my world…My outdoor “heritage” began when I was introduced to hunting and fishing by my Father. I can remember walking cornfields with my Dad and our beagle Daisy when I was a young boy, and later hunting birds and rabbits by my Dad’s side. Pheasants, rabbits, and shotguns were my start in this sport, a sport that has been a part of my life for the past 28 years. Then, about 18 years ago, a good friend of mine introduced me to bowhunting. I haven’t looked back since. To me there is no feeling like being in the middle of nature and watching it unfold, and the only way to truly experience it is to be a bowhunter. The ability to sit in the middle of nature undetected while life happens around you is awe-inspiring; from squirrels chasing each other back and forth to a buck on a doe’s trail, from the changing colors of autumn’s leaves to winter’s first gentle snow; I've never felt closer to the Creator then when I'm sitting in the woods enjoying nature.

Daisy has long since passed away and most of the cornfields I roamed through my adolescent years are now houses, but my love of the outdoors is as strong as the memory of that first November walk through the corn. I don’t get out for birds or hunt with a gun as much as I used to. In recent years it’s been a conscience decision not to; it gives me more time with my bow in the fall woods and a certain personal satisfaction that only a bowhunter would know. When you’re hunting and a deer is so close that you can see its eyelashes, and in your minds-eye you make that perfect shot, while you simply watch it wander off mesmerized by nature’s sheer beauty; you know that you have arrived as a bowhunter. For me the thrill is not in the catch or the kill; the thrill is nature itself. 

Semper Fidelis…

Brian Dolobacs