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.
IT MIGHT BE AKIN to choosing your favorite child, but the August/Big Game Special is possibly our favorite issue to produce, mostly because of the special adventures we feature. A good hunting story has value. We bowhunters often tend to focus so much on the how-to, the gear we use, and accomplishing specific goals, that we fail to deeply immerse ourselves in the adventure and wonder that comes with every hunt. When we surrender to the ambition of filling a tag, the romance of the hunt can get lost in the thick fog of pursuit. My feature, “Campfire Caribou,” on page 18, is an example. My first goal was to tag a barren ground caribou and complete my “caribou slam” — all five subspecies of that magnificent big game animal.…
TEDDY ROOSEVELT once said, “The farther one gets into the wilderness, the greater is the attraction of its lonely freedom.” As I packed past the wilderness boundary sign and began setting up camp a few miles later, I couldn’t help but reflect on how true a statement that was. I was literally the only one in this lonely alpine basin, and with several groups of bucks feeding around me, I knew that before long I’d cross paths with one of them. With each passing day, I watched several groups of bucks from my elevated perch. One buck in particular stood out from the rest. His 4x4 velvet crown towered overhead, and with a spread of nearly 28", he more than met my standards. On opening day, I hastily tried to…
The choice seemed simple — hypothermia or suffocation. To ward off the cold, my sleeping bag was cinched down tight. The only way I could maintain consciousness was to inhale and exhale through the “blowhole,” like a whale. Sleep came grudgingly as 40 mph winds raged and temperatures plummeted into the teens. The “kitchen” tarp outside was flapping like the wings of a dragon, and my tent shook like a river-soaked caribou. I’d packed my 20-degree bag instead of my 0-degree bag; a mistake that had me muttering bad words through chattering teeth. When my red tent mercifully began to absorb dawn’s glow, I reluctantly crawled out of my bag and got dressed. I hated that part. The tent was covered in frost, and water jugs and pump filters were…
After having a bunch of hunts cancelled during the past year, I couldn’t believe I was finally at the end of a road securing my bow to the outside of a fully loaded pack and getting ready to start climbing again. Typically, this is the moment when you feel the weight of your pack, you see the terrain in front of you, and you realize what you just got yourself into. It’s mid February, and with just a few weeks left in the season, we couldn’t delay our adventure any further. COVID and the amount of snow had already ruined our plans earlier this year, but this time, no matter the conditions, we agreed with Phillipe Simon, our guide, that we will go and give it a try. This time…
Sitting in my rental Jeep in the middle of the Colorado desert, I couldn't help but smile and laugh to myself. Here I was, out in the middle of nowhere, in a Jeep that would not start. To top that off, the sky above me had become increasingly dark, and now heavy rain was splattering down on the hood of the Jeep. My plan of a relaxing, rather easy, high-success bowhunt had changed quickly. As I sat there contemplating my next move, what came to mind was the article that my friend and Bowhunter Editor, Curt Wells, had asked me to write a few months earlier. Curt gave me an assignment to write about achieving my second archery Super Slam, and to rank the bowhunting difficulty of the North American…
MOST PEOPLE SPEND MID-DECEMBER huddled in front of the fireplace, making plans for the holidays. I am usually one of those people. That’s what made this past winter strange for me, because instead of being bundled up at home, I was sweating in a ground blind with the desert sun beating in through the small window of the blind. The reason: desert mule deer. Putting it lightly, this past year was a challenge. If anyone knew what 2020 was going to be like, we would have treated it like a Netflix show and hit the fast-forward button on our remotes until the next season. Due to the pandemic — and the fallout that resulted from it — the hunting year was flipped upside-down for tens of thousands of bowhunters. Travel…
