Carruth is proof that women can be good bowhunters

Paula Carruth of Brandon has competed in bass tournaments with her husband, Jimmy Carruth, for many years, forming one of the most formidable and respected teams on Barnett Reservoir. You will find her standing shoulder to shoulder with him, flipping and pitching into heavy vegetation and horsing out any lunkers that mistakenly grab her lures.

That success has led her into becoming a successful bowhunter as well.

Paula Carruth has harvested many deer; her best buck was taken in the Delta with a .444 rifle, a trophy that increased her hunting passion and led to her picking up a bow.

“I’d never been bowhunting before a few years ago, but the more I got into the woods and hunted, I just wanted to get out even more, and it was just a natural progression to start hunting with a bow,” she said.

Carruth took that passion to another level during one late-morning bow hunt.

“I was hunting from an elevated stand and spotted a buck feeding towards my stand,” she said. “He actually came near my stand twice, but it just wasn’t right. The second time it fed past a stump near me. I could tell he had a tall rack and I said if he comes by me again, I’m going to shoot him. I learned to be patient and enjoy whatever you see. To me, every hunt is a successful hunt, and you usually don’t see the same thing twice.”

This time, however, she did. The buck continued feeding, and the next time, his path took him into range. Carruth pulled back her Matthews bow, took a fine bead on the buck, released her grip, and let the arrow fly.

Thwack! The Wasp broadhead struck home.

Carruth’s first bow buck was a tall-racked 8-pointer, indeed a trophy. The buck ran a scant 25 to 30 yards from the shot site.

Carruth gives a lot of credit to her success to scent-control device she learned about that has proven itself and gained an important place in her bag of tricks.

“It is an Ozonics Scent Eliminator; we heard about it from friends for quite a while before we tried it, “Carruth said. “I love it because it works when deer come downwind of me. After we used it several times and deer came downwind of us and didn’t spook, we knew it was for real.

“We put a Quick Connect on the tree we’re hunting and then attach the main unit to it. It’s portable, and I use it all the time.”

Last December, Carruth killed a 250-pound Delta buck that never had a clue about her presence.

Her scent control doesn’t start and end with the device.

“I’ll wash my clothes in a scent-control wash and then keep my outerwear in our mud room,” said Carruth. “Then I’ll spray myself down with Scent Away before I go into the woods. I try to keep my scent to a minimum, since that is what usually alerts a deer to your presence.”