Bowhunter brings you expert advice from legendary Bowhunters! Each issue is filled with updates from major bowhunting organizations, coverage of bowhunting locations across North America, complete coverage of the sport and much more.
I AM NOT ALONE when I pose the rhetorical question, “What’s going to happen in the fall of 2020?” I could follow that question with a long, political rant regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, but I will spare you the pain. Suffice it to say, the so-called experts have been wrong about pretty much everything. And the doomsday media isn’t helping. As we all try to dig out of this crisis and work back toward some kind of normalcy, many of you have fall hunting plans in danger of being deemed “nonessential.” The other end of this two-sided equation: The outfitters, lodges, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that depend on hunting, do not consider hunters to be nonessential. They are the ones that are really hurting. Most outfitters and lodges have…
FROM OVER a half-mile away, I could tell the buck was worth a closer look. His velvet rack seemed enormous as he fed across the open alpine slope, and with a quick view through the spotter, I knew in an instant this was the buck I wanted to hang my tag on. I watched from a distance for the next few days, waiting for him to make a wrong move. More than once I planned a stalk, but a capricious mountain breeze or the buck’s sixth sense kept me well out of bow range. However, time is often a bow-hunter’s best friend, and on the morning of the fifth day, all the hours of glassing finally started to show some promise. With the buck feeding toward a crease in the…
MY EYES RACED through the inky-black alders try ing see the brown bear before it saw me. A life the bear’s or mine — could easily depend on who won that race My guide, Chet, was behind me whispering but I couldn’t make out what he was saying, so with uneasy tension on the bowstring, I crept toward the spot where a nine foot brown bear had been fishing moments earlier. I could see nothing. Hear nothing. Except a salmon flop pin h w a d ha It seems Chet tho w o yomhimandhis.375 H&H. When cameraman Mike Emery joined the whisper chorus to declare that camera light was gone, I slowly backped d n n e w er n wed my compatriots back t e b In the twilight,…
When Editor Curt Wells first gave me the assignment to write this article, I was really looking forward to it. For me, the most rewarding part of writing any magazine article is it allows me to reflect on past bowhunts and adventures. When I construct an article, I begin by looking back at photos and reading my notes about past hunts. This rekindles memories as I relive the hunt all over again. However, on this assignment, I have to admit that I had a tough time getting started. My instructions were to reflect on the adventures I’ve experienced while completing the archery Super Slam, which I have done twice, and to rank each of the 29 species of big game according to degree of difficulty. I was to disregard the…
Ultimately, the most difficult species to hunt is the one that gives you the most trouble Some bowhunters are successful on their first attempt at a particular species, while the next bowhunter has to hunt several times to get it done. For example, the Dall sheep was the last of the four sheep species that I killed. It was my “nemesis” animal To make matters worse, and even harder to explain, I am an Alaska resident and I fly my own Super Cub, and it still took me several tries to get my first Dall ram. After I arrowed that first one, I tagged seven more Dall rams over the following nine years. As mentioned earlier, Gary Martin had to hunt Roosevelt elk several times to get one, while I…
Looking out the window as we drove out of Karachi, Pakistan, I could only think about how much of a stranger I am to places like this, and how much more comfortable I feel in remote and wild places. The traffic was crazy. Cars, trucks, rickshaws, donkey carts in every direction, and despite no one seeming to follow any kind of driving rules, there were no accidents. Experiencing this chaos firsthand makes you understand a lot of things. What a lot of people would consider scary uncertainty, is a normal way of life here. Ejaz Ali, one of the main guides in Pakistan from Shikar Safaris, picked us up at the airport and drove us three hours north to the town of Dureji. Located in the province of Baluchistan, Dureji…
