NATCHEZ — Is there really a way to make hunting more ethical and humane?

Homer Hewitt, owner of Hewitt’s Archery, seems to think so — and he’s trying to convince others as well.

Every two weeks Hewitt’s Archery provides free classes to try and teach hunters the ethics involved with bow hunting.

Upon completion of the eight-hour course, hunters are internationally certified.

“We teach ethical bow hunting and the history of bow hunting,” Hewitt said. “We show why we as hunters are fitting in today — because you can go to the grocery store and get any kind of meat you want.”

Hewitt’s quest to help hunters become more ethical and precise began in the 60s.

Hewitt said fifty years ago hunters would walk into a shop bragging about how they had nearly killed a deer, but because they had misfired, they had only wounded the animal.

Hewitt preaches in his classes how to shoot a deer so you can kill it without putting the animal through an extra amount of pain.

“Some guys think if you shoot a deer anywhere, it’ll kill them,” Hewitt said. “You have to hit a deer in a precise manner to harvest the deer.”

Hewitt said bow hunting is the most humane way to kill a deer because where a bullet shot shocks the deer; an arrow in the right area will kill a deer without it realizing it.

He said he has seen deer get shot with an arrow, walk around and then curl up as if they’re going to sleep.

Hewitt also said deer hunting is one the safest sports available, comparable with badminton and ping pong “until you get off the ground, 15 to 20 feet up in the air (in a tree stand.)”

“Sometimes people get so excited they walk right off the platform,” Hewitt said. “Or they go to sleep and fall out of the platform.”

Because these accidents can be avoided if hunters are prepared, Hewitt’s class also informs hunters how to protect themselves.

Why bow hunt?

There are several reasons people choose to bow hunt.

Some hunters like the challenge.

“You think that you’re a hunter because you sit there with a gun at 100 or 200 yards? You’ve really got a big advantage,” Hewitt said. “To me it’s like shooting a man’s cow with a gun. With a bow, you’d be amazed how hard it is to draw your bow and shoot.

“You can hunt for years and then when you pick that bow up, you learn how to hunt again because with a gun you can harvest a deer from 200 to 250 yards. With a bow, 20 yards is about the average (distance for a) kill.”

Another reason people choose to bow hunt is because the bow hunting season is longer.

According to Hewitt, the Bow Hunters Association lobbied for them to get into the woods earlier, starting in October and going through January.