Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2017 i Bowhunter

OVER THE YEARS I have interviewed many champion archers, archery coaches, and successful bowhunters. And I personally have spent nearly 50 years trying to perfect my own archery and bowhunting skills. Here are four lessons I have learned from this background that have contributed in a big way to my bowhunting success. A NOSE FOR ACCURACY One summer, I could not shoot a tight group to save my life. Vertically my arrows were right on, but horizontally they were all over the place. No matter how carefully I released the string, my arrows inexplicably hit left or right of the bull’s-eye. In late summer, I was in a hunting camp with Randy Ulmer and did not hesitate to tap into his expertise. So at his direction, I lined up at…

YEARS AGO, choosing a vane was simple. You had target vanes and you had hunting vanes, with the latter being a mid-height, four or five-inch offering. Fairly large and stable hunting vanes were mandatory, since we pretty much all shot large to medium-sized, fixed-blade broadheads back then. However, today the rules have changed drastically. We have smoother, faster, easier-to-tune bows, and we have a plethora of broadhead options, with lethal mechanical designs and low-profile, fixed-blade heads. Really, the sky is the limit in terms of good broadhead choices for flat-shooting arrows. This “industry storm” of better bows and aerodynamic broadheads has greatly lessened the need for so-called hunting vanes to properly steer a broadhead-tipped arrow. In fact, the lines are now blurred between what constitutes a good hunting vane versus…

ACCORDING TO MY Facebook feed this past fall, I’d say that at least 75% of the people I know killed a buck that scores in the neighborhood of 200". I don’t know what’s going on out there, but an awful lot of giant bucks are hitting the dirt each fall. Sandwiched between posts of one-in-a-thousand-lifetimes bucks are the rest of the deer that the rest of us seem to encounter, and while they may not boast the same headgear, they do possess a trophy that I never turn down — venison. In my lifetime, I’ve taken exactly one deer to a processor, and that experience was enough to make me realize that I’d rather do things myself. I’ve got nothing against hunters taking their kills to be butchered by someone…

 Bowhunter Magazine has joined with Nelson Outfitters (Dave Nelson, 307/751-2262, huntwyoming.com) and a topnotch group of bowhunting equipment manufacturers to sponsor our 2017 Youth Hunter Essay Contest (see the list of sponsoring manufacturers below). This is our 21st annual essay contest, and we hope youth participants will make it another memorable one! Last year’s 1st Grand Prize Winner, Chloe Wolf, and her dad, Greg, from Sawyer, Kansas, spent three days chasing longbeards in South Dakota, and Chloe killed her first-ever turkey with a bow. Congratulations to young Chloe, as well as to the rest of the prizewinners from last year’s contest who we are confident are putting their new gear courtesy of our generous friends in the archery industry to good use. If you are in the market for new…

AS I PEERED into the valley below, vague shapes began to form. Some were bushes, trees, and rocks. Others were slowly moving across grass and sagebrush slopes. Dawn is always exciting for a mule deer hunter, and early October 2016 was no exception. I lifted my 10x42 Swarovski binoculars and glued them to my eyes. Like magic, fuzzy shapes of bucks and does snapped into crystal-clear focus. Of the more than three-dozen deer I saw, two were startling to behold. One had a mass of dark, heavy antlers above his head. The other’s rack was wider and taller, but thinner and lighter in coloration. As daylight crept across flats and ridges, details through my binos improved. The massive-antlered buck had deep forks, nice brow tines, and an extra point on…

AS THE WINTER sets in and the late seasons come to an end, one of our duties as stewards of our big game herd is to do our part in managing the predator population. Predators can be very hard on the fawn and calf recruitment efforts of our local herds, and they can largely influence the future of our big game hunting opportunities. For most of us this means chasing the wily coyote —the most predominant predator across our North American readership. These four-legged critters are extremely intelligent, sporting amazing senses of smell and sight that present a very challenging hunt. Properly concealing yourself is the crucial element of being successful in hunting these keen animals. While respecting the wind and applying scent-reduction techniques can address the coyote’s ability to…

I’VE BEEN CRYING wolf about chronic wasting disease (CWD) for 12 years, and a new study just released confirms my worst fears. My concern all along was the fact that prions were involved, and similar brain prion diseases have been around for decades without a solution found. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was first diagnosed in humans in 1920, and it is a brain prion disease. Here we are 97 years later, after millions of dollars have been spent on research, and humans still die from this prion disease. Chronic Wasting Disease in North America (as of November, 2016) Areas with CWD infected Cervid (various hooved animals that grow antlers: whitetail deer, mule deer, elk, moose) populations States/Provinces where CWD has been found in captive populations What is it about prions, those infectious…

1. Run & Bow: Set up to glass near a large food source right at first light. Once a mature buck is located, move quickly without detection to intercept him. Position yourself as close to the buck as the terrain and cover will allow, and then challenge him with the decoy. If you are not particular, this approach is a fun way to shoot a whitetail buck at close range on the ground. All shapes and sizes of bucks will respond to the decoy, and the size and color of the Heads Up Decoy are important for visibility and dominance. During the rut, every square inch of your property can produce action. 2. The Blind Approach: Best used during the midday lull, slip in next to small hidey-holes adjacent to…

TURKEYS HAVE GROWN on me over the years. Not in the weird way that requires a surgeon to remove a growth. More like a dog that you don’t think much of at first, but he kind of grows on you because he is around all the time and you start to see his redeeming qualities. It took a while for me to see what some fellow hunters were so passionate about when it came to turkeys, but eventually I figured it out. It was about 36 years ago when I shot my first turkey. I was in my early teens, and to me it was a bonus animal. I was happy to have harvested it, and I was tickled with the meat. But through my young eyes, it was just…

Choosing Your Binoculars Every bowhunter would be well served by quality binoculars. You generally get what you pay for with optics, and top-quality glass is perhaps the single best hunting investment you will ever make. Spend as much as you can possibly afford, and you will never regret the clear, eye-easy viewing that results. Cheap optics produce eye strain, fuzzy looking, and poor light gathering early and late in the day. Most bowhunters are best off with full-size 8X or 10X binoculars weighing between 20 and 30 ounces. Smaller “compact” binoculars might be handy, but they sacrifice light gathering, wide field of view, and steady glassing. Compact, porroprism binocular design is better for bowhunting than a more conventional roof-prism shape with bulky, dogleg-shaped twin viewing barrels. The larger the binoculars…

Concealed from game and would-be thieves by Mossy Oak ®  Break-Up Country® camo, the Covert Code Black 12.1 scouting camera ($409.99) now has the ability to send texts and e-mails within the Covert Wireless Mobile App and web portal. Improvements to the app’s functionality include guest access, and the ability to retrieve high-resolution images. Nighttime photos are now better than ever due to the addition of more LEDs. Pictures can be sent instantly via AT&T’s approved cellular network. The Code Black 12.1 has a 52-degree field of view, 100' flash range and a .65-second trigger speed, so you won’t miss anything that walks by it. Maximum Silence™ image capture and an invisible flash guarantee it won’t spook game. Three other notables include 1–10 Turbo Shot Burst™, image stamping, and a…

WHEREVER YOU HUNT, knowing how deer respond to hunting pressure is paramount to finding the best stand locations. Although every stand should have food, water, and cover components nearby, screening or escape routes are also critical. Finding all these stand elements can mean the difference between posing for a hero shot and eating tag soup. Every bowhunter knows hunting a stand too often can significantly reduce deer observation rates. Obviously, habitat and pressure from adjoining properties can also play into this equation. Many factors affect deer activity and movement patterns, but exactly how much hunting pressure is too much? And if your time in the woods is limited, what day of the week is best? Researcher Kevyn Wiskirchen, from Auburn University, found deer alter their movement patterns due to hunting…

QUESTION I spend a lot of time looking for shed antlers each spring with little success. What can I do to find more antlers? J. Carter, via e-mail ANSWER Over the years, I’ve learned that the number-one key to shed hunting is looking for antlers where deer are plentiful. It seems logical, but if deer don’t winter on your property, it will be tough to find many antlers. You will occasionally find a random antler, but finding piles of bone will never happen. However, even in areas with a low deer density you can hone in on certain features that will improve your odds. Bedding areas are excellent places for finding antlers. Once you locate a preferred bedding location, be sure to check it every year, and really comb for…

IN THE OCTOBER 2016 ISSUE, I wrote about my dream of becoming an outdoor writer and my great fortune in achieving that dream. For the first 25 years of my writing career I made my living as a freelance writer, selling stories to a variety of magazines. Then, in 1996, Bowhunter Founder M.R. James hired me to replace him as Editor. Talk about a dream job! Most amazingly, I did not apply for this job. I would never have presumed it was available — or that I was worthy of it. Yet, out of the blue, M.R. wrote me to say he was retiring and wanted to hire me to replace him. I was his only consideration. That seemed impossible, yet I believe it was no accident, and over my…