Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2020 i Bowhunter

Transporting Really Big Game Recovering a deer is one thing. Transporting an elk, moose, or buffalo is quite another. You need to plan salvage in advance to preserve quality meat and comply with the law. You might get lucky and shoot a large animal where you can drive your pickup, side-by-side, or quad close to it. More often, you will need to de-bone and backpack the meat, have a professional packer with horses or mules lined up in advance, or otherwise adopt a feasible transport plan. In the case of bison, I have moved the meat in just about every imaginable way. I de-boned and backpacked my Henry Mountains buffalo in 15 body-torturing trips. I do not recommend it. On another hunt, I had a meat packer on call to…

FROM THE SECOND I realized it was a bear, I got nervous. It wasn’t the bear that had me apprehensive. It was my equipment and my making the shot. I was hunting public land in the Appalachian Mountains in North Georgia. I was hunting with my friend Steven, a fellow traditional bowhunter who goes by “Tee” and who was going to film my hunt if we found a bear. To be honest, I didn’t think we would see a bear. A public-land, spot-and-stalk bear hunt with a traditional bow is a tough hunt, especially when the season had already been open for a few weeks, and I was shooting a super-light recurve that was not my normal go-to draw weight. I was nervous because as I have written about in…

I did all that, but this couldn’t possibly be the treestand he meant. It was positioned at the bottom of a hill below a field edge, and it was only 15 yards from the road. There were no visible, well-used trails, no scrapes, no rubs, no funnel, and no convergence of ridges. Nothing that triggered one of those internal judgements that whispers, This is a hotspot. The shooting lanes were sparse, and I had no shot to the road, even if a buck did stroll past me. Any deer that walked the adjacent hillside would be at eye level and would surely pick me off. I couldn’t see the field above me, which was slightly annoying, but I knew it was only grass. There were no crops for miles. Why…

The tree was marginal, but it was in a stand of timber that featured a few fresh rubs and some piles of buck droppings. It was the first decent deer sign I’d come across in a spot that was huntable after five hours of hiking with a stand and sticks on my back. I was sweaty, bleeding from various thorn encounters, and at a loss for where to hunt. It was the second day of a rut hunt on public land in Oklahoma, and aside from jumping a few random does and small bucks, I had yet to see a deer. I looked the tree up and down and was about ready to work my way into it when I noticed a brown wasp tucked into a crevice in the…

Bowhunter Magazine has joined with Nelson Outfitters (Dave Nelson, 307/751-2262, nelsonoutfitters. ), onX Maps, and a topnotch group of bowhunting equipment manufacturers to sponsor our 2020 Youth Hunter Essay Contest (see the list of sponsoring manufacturers below). This is our 24th annual essay contest, and we hope youth participants will make it another great one! Last year’s 1st Grand Prize Winner, Hans Miller, and his adult sponsor, Jonathan Miller, from La Grange, California, spent three days chasing longbeards in Wyoming, and Hans made a great shot on a beautiful turkey with his bow. Congratulations to young Hans, 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…

IT ARRIVED every year on the last Friday of October: opening day of deer season. We lived in a very small town in the mountains of Arizona. They closed school for the day, and euphemistically called it “teacher preparation day.” There wasn’t much point in holding class when no one would show up — neither the students nor the teachers! We owned a 1955 Chevy Stepside pickup truck — primer red with a wood-slat bed. You couldn’t touch the body of that truck, lest you come away from the encounter the same color as the primer. If the old rig ever possessed seat belts, they’d long since disappeared. Our passenger safety apparatus was Dad’s right arm thrust across our chests when he hit the brakes. Mom birthed five kids in…

THIS PAST SEASON, I sat in temperatures that ranged from 90 degrees to below zero. Although both ends of the spectrum can make for miserable conditions, I’ll still take the days when the mercury drops versus sweltering beach weather. That’s provided, of course, that I have the right gear. The thing about hunting in the early season when it’s scorching hot is that you can layer down to a t-shirt and light pants and still suffer. Add in the inevitable bugs, and you’re really in for a treat. With cold weather, you can do a good job of staving it off. But you’ve got to layer accordingly, and plan each sit correctly. I’ll never forget heading out in December seven or eight years ago to hunt whitetails near my house…

“THIS IS LIKE watching paint dry,” I grumbled to myself as I scanned the high slopes with my binoculars. The scenic vistas were beautiful but completely devoid of game. It was early October 2019, and I had a rare Wyoming wild bison tag in my pocket. I had taken six Pope and Young fair-chase bison in the past, and I dearly loved hunting these difficult and underrated animals. As I glassed on the third day of my latest bison adventure, my mind wandered to silly things I had heard about the American buffalo. One fellow, who offered awards to hunters through his trophy club, was typical of the nonsense. He claimed there was no difference between a high-fence bison and the wild, free-ranging variety recognized by Pope and Young. “Bison…

Resistance to rotational force prevents hand torque from preventing an accurate shot, while a bow’s overall balance allows for improved aiming and shooting form. A backbar and stabilizer combo provides two points of stabilization, instead of just one, delivering the best combination to properly balance and control a bow’s movement. With a backbar, you can equalize a forward-tipping bow with ease, since the bar and counterweight extend to the rear and away from the riser near the bowstring. This quickly equalizes weight distribution and forces the bow into a plumb position by adjusting the position of the bar and its weight. One thing I’ve noticed while testing various setups is the faster, lighter, and shorter a bow is, the more prone it is to hand torque, certainly causing an inconsistency…

THE WORLD IS CHANGING, hunter numbers are decreasing, and more citizens and potential hunters live in suburban and urban areas. One would think that if we’re to recruit hunters we need to somehow reach younger millennials who live in cities or suburbs. But is that really true? A survey conducted by Responsive Management and Southwick Associates for the National Shooting Sports Foundation gives us some interesting data to consider. They compared hunters in the Millennial group, those aged 18-34, and hunters in the Gen X and Baby Boomer group, those over 34 years of age. In other words, they compared younger-generation hunters to older-generation hunters, with the purpose of getting a better understanding of who the younger hunters are in order to be able to recruit and retain them. Since…

1. Realize that you are not the hunter you once were. Don’t blame the guide for your lack of success, if you were the cause. 2. Get in the best shape you can before the hunt. This is true for hunters of all ages, but it is especially true for older, aging hunters. 3. Do not go into a guide’s camp with equipment you cannot handle. Being over-bowed is not good. After a long drive, or flight, you may not be able to shoot your bow as easily as you did in your backyard. Not being able to shoot well can frustrate your guide, and it could affect how you are treated. 4. If you require special help, and don’t feel you’re getting it, discuss it with the guide in…

QUESTION I’ve accumulated a pretty good arsenal of trail cameras, and I’m wondering if you have any tips on storage and keeping my photos organized? Troy Gerber, via e-mail ANSWER The number-one threat to the health of your array of trail cameras is leaking batteries. All batteries can leak potassium hydroxide which, if left unchecked, can destroy the electronics in your camera. This can happen whether your camera is on a tree and switched on, or sitting on the shelf turned off. If you discover corrosion in the battery compartment, all is not lost. If the corrosion has not penetrated the electronics, it is possible to repair the damage. But first, the corrosion can be harmful to your skin and eyes, so wear latex gloves and safety glasses, and properly…