Innholdsfortegnelse for April - May 2017 i Bowhunter

FOR MANY, bowhunting means crisp fall mornings, drifting leaves, and rutting elk or whitetails. The fact is, spring can be a busy time for the active bowhunter. Let me count the ways: * Spring shed-hunting trips get the family outdoors, show you which bucks or bulls survived winter, and provide critical intel on your hunting grounds. * Spring is the time to launch experiments with shooting form and techniques, try new releases, sighting systems, arrow weights, broadheads, and other gear. Effective change takes time. * Spring is perfect for beginning your preparations for the fall hunts you have planned, whether at home or away. * Spring is primetime for bowfishing, Whether you’re walking a flooded field with bow in hand or in a fully-rigged boat, shooting arrows at fish is…

1 ALPS OUTDOORZ® NWTF® SUPER ELITE 4.0™ • Twenty-two specialized pockets • Plush, removable foldaway seat • Quiet cotton liner with breathable mesh panels The National Wild Turkey Federation partnered with ALPS OutdoorZ to create the Super Elite 4.0 turkey vest (M/L – $99.99, XL/XXL – $109.99). Clad in Mossy Oak® Obsession® camo, the 4.0 has a whopping 22 pockets, including two for slate/glass calls, three for strikers, one for a box call, two mesh mouth call pockets, and one for your cell phone. Your backside will appreciate the removable 2.5"-thick foldaway seat. The breathable, blood-proof game pocket can be used for toting gear into the field and your gobbler back to your vehicle. Contact: ALPS OutdoorZ, 1-800-344-2577, alpsoutdoorz.com. 2 MUCK BOOTS® WOODY BLAZE COOL SNAKE BOOT™ • Warm-weather, snake-proof…

WHEN I ENTERED the U.S. Army in 1966, the draft was in full swing, meaning most guys in the Army were draftees. They did not want to be there, and they would do anything possible to avoid work. They forever tried to beat the system, and their reward was forever to be on KP on weekends and to languish at the rank of E-1 or E-2. I did not want to be in the Army either. I was not a soldier at heart, and I did not like military life. But I was smart enough to know I could not beat The Man. Above all, I did not want to waste any of my free time on KP. Stationed in Arizona for a year, I wanted to spend my days…

Letters From Readers KUDOS TO DWIGHT Dear Bowhunter, I am a Dwight Schuh fan, and his Wildside article “Farther, Harder, Longer” in your Jan/Feb 2017 issue is a prime example why. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in print or on video, Dwight gives you honesty. It comes across in all he does, and I appreciate that. It doesn’t matter whether he is writing about his friends here or gone, yesterday’s hunt or one from 20 years ago, or if he is on video after nearly being run over by a giant moose he just put an arrow into. As for that article, I am sure his friend Mr. Hummel appreciated Dwight just as much as Dwight did him. Way to honor your friend! Thanks, Dwight, for just being you! Kenny,…

ALL VARIETIES of North American big game are special for one reason or another. But they certainly are not created equal. And, no two bowhunters I know will rank the 29 species recognized by Pope and Young exactly the same. But I have definite opinions about which are more difficult to hunt than others. Stand hunting is certainly easier in some respects than stalking or still-hunting. The archer who waits for game has every advantage, provided that person is quiet and well-concealed. For that reason, I do not regard largely stand-hunted species like whitetails, black bears, and pronghorns as unusually hard to bowhunt. That being said, a whitetail is one of our toughest critters to bowhunt on foot. There is no more “switched-on” animal in the woods. Likewise pronghorns, with…

One of the fascinating aspects of the whitetail rut is that it never unfolds in quite the same way every year. While it may be the most analyzed phenomenon in North American wildlife biology, nature always finds ways of throwing curve-balls to those who think they have it all figured out. Such was the case in 2016. During the decades that my wife, Lori, and I have owned the Montana property where we lived when we weren’t in Alaska, Arizona, or somewhere else, I’ve spent a lot of time observing the local deer and their behavior. I could almost always count on the whitetail rut beginning near the end of the second week of November. Since the fall weather had been unseasonably balmy that year, I saw no reason to…

IT WAS SOMEWHERE ON THE FAR SIDE of midnight when my hunting partner, Ryan Hawkins, and I finished setting up our tents. A bitter north wind blew in off the Missouri River, and when our alarms went off a short time later we awoke to a world blanketed in white. At first light we drove slowly along a gravel road as the snow blew sideways. I’ve probably encountered worse turkey hunting conditions in the past, but I can’t remember when. We knew our early April bowhunt in South Dakota was destined to be a rough one. After listening for any signs of a gobble on a parcel of public land, we drove to a different tract that I knew contained a feedlot. It also contained at least 75 birds, and…

FOR 12 DAYS WE’D been hunting daylight to dark. My hunting partner, Bowhunter Publisher Jeff Waring, had taken a five-point elk on the 11th day, and we had spent from sunrise until midnight of the 12th day packing out his bull. That gave me one last morning to kill an elk, but after the previous long days, I hardly felt like climbing another mountain in the dark. Besides, if I could not kill an elk in 12 days, what made me think I could kill one the last morning? Still, one thing was for sure — I could not kill one in camp. So, well before daylight, I grudgingly rolled out of my sleeping bag and followed the beam of my headlamp up the mountain. By daylight, I was virtually…

A MISTY MORNING turned the forest floor quiet, making my footsteps undetectable. I slipped down the trail feeling like a camo-clad ninja. My time spent admiring the beautiful orange sunrise came to an abrupt ending when movement to my left caught my eye. A single, mature doe was making her way through the oak flat. She turned broadside at 30 yards, and without a single conscious thought I reached my anchor point. The arrow was gone, and I immediately knew it wasn’t going to find its mark. The arrow sailed high, but the doe didn’t run off — she actually bounded closer. Stunned and confused, she stood at 25 yards. I sent another arrow her way. This one went low, and again she stepped closer. At 20 yards I shot…

QUESTION I own and hunt a small, 22-acre property that seems to be a transition area for deer. Any suggestions on how to make it a bigger destination for the whitetails living on the neighboring properties? B. Stiles, via e-mail ANSWER Yours is a problem that I know well. I spend quite a bit of time each year working on a few different small-acre parcels in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. In your case, the first step is to accept reality. You’ll probably never have an overabundance of deer living on, or even using, a small piece of ground. You can, however, encourage a lot more deer to feel comfortable using your land. Here’s how: The first step is to address the needs of your deer herd. I always consider cover…