Innholdsfortegnelse for April/May 2022 i Bowhunter

IT WAS 1996. The place was Qikitaluk Island, Repulse Bay, Nunavut, smack dab on the Arctic Circle. Hunting buddy, Kendall Bauer, and I were standing slack-jawed, staring at a world-class central barren ground caribou standing on the horizon. I’d already arrowed a bull that still ranks Number 22 in the Pope and Young Record Book, so it was Kendall’s turn to stalk this bull, which was so big it didn’t even look real standing next to the young bull by his side. The tundra was featureless. All we could do was hunker down and hope to make a move when they dropped over the horizon. I laid face down on the lichen-covered ground 20 yards behind Kendall and waited. The young bull must have caught our movement and started down…

Hunt #1 I WAS HALFWAY DOWN the long ridge when a bugle erupted to my right. Far below, a 300-inch 6x6 was chasing cows in a timber-dotted draw. I craned my neck to locate the new bull in the dim predawn light. What I saw sent a shiver down my spine. A wide, massive rack floated above a ridge 400 yards to the south — a rack I thought I would never see again. Days earlier, I had dogged that very bull from dawn till dusk as he pushed three-dozen cows and calves across deep canyons and near-vertical slopes. When the sun finally sank, the large Wyoming six-point was still beyond bow range, surrounded by his harem and posing on a rugged point of rock. He bugled, grunted, and plunged…

I’M AMAZED with all the hype behind new bows each year. Much of the buzz revolves around things like reduced hand shock, increased speed and efficiency, and easier tuning capability. These are certainly all desirable traits to have in a new rig, but they are not necessarily the most important. Other elements, such as how the bow feels at full draw, how it handles and points in the woods, and whether or not it makes you more stable while aiming, are all attributes that make a huge difference in improving hunting accuracy. Yet these elements don’t seem to get as much attention. I consider the following four factors crucial when shopping for a new bow. Only by shooting a wide range of bows can you truly decipher the right model…

IT HAD BEEN a slow morning; and as I walked along the hedgerow toward my truck, contemplating my next move, a thunderous gobble sounded off. He was obviously close — less than 200 yards or so — but from the direction his gobble came from, I knew he was off limits. I had asked the landowner more than once for an opportunity to chase toms on his little quarter section of turkey paradise, but it was clear from his response both times that it wouldn’t happen in this lifetime. The other issue was the wide creek sandwiched by thick cover that separated the public and private land. Although I had deflated a few toms on this piece of public dirt in the past, it’s no secret that even hot gobblers…

HE CLIMBS HIGHER along the top of the behemoth ridge to its apex. His pace is slow, resolute, and unfaltering. Swiftness and alacrity are luxuries of the past; more capabilities stolen by his disease. What once was easy for him gets harder with each passing day. Reaching the summit, he stops to rest. In the predawn light, he can just make out the full breadth of the stunning country before him. Apparently, this sweep of terrain, not satisfied with merely being steep like its surroundings, insisted on being vertical. He fastens his bow to his pack, and then crawls methodically down through fissures in the cliff and onto a flat-bottomed, sheltered alcove. He gently lays his pack down amongst the crags and sits beside it. He has been here many…

SAFARI CLUB INTERNATIONAL recently held its 50th Convention in Las Vegas, and it is being considered a huge success. The annual fund-raising event broke a record for donations and auction sales, funds that will fuel SCI’s mission of protecting hunting and hunters worldwide. Hunters, outfitters, and taxidermists gathered to support this mission, which is becoming even more important in today’s political, and pandemic, climate. With all these challenges, hunters in North America and across the globe would be justified in feeling a bit like the leopard in the photo above (on display in Las Vegas) as it works to remove porcupine quills. Assaults on hunting are coming from every direction and SCI is there to represent hunters and meet those threats. Don’t let the word “Safari” lead you into thinking…

AN ANIMAL HIT SOLIDLY in the paunch with a sharp broadhead requires patience. It will always expire, but you must wait at least six to eight hours before beginning the search...preferably more if daylight allows. If it is pushed or smells you, it might travel much farther than the normal 400 to 800 yards. After waiting, you should look for blood, body fluid, and tracks. Try to predict the most likely travel routes, and remember that gut-shot animals sometimes move uphill. Proceed slowly with eyes peeled, in case you need to take a finishing shot. Beyond 24 hours, you should grid-search terrain, preferably with the help of friends. It is your responsibility to recover the animal, even if you lose the meat. Keep looking — it’s the ethical thing to…

ALTHOUGH not necessarily a whitetail destination, the South has a lot to offer when it comes to whitetail deer hunting. You just may have to adjust your strategy, gear, and expectations a bit. Don’t get me wrong, occasionally there are some whoppers that come out of the South, but as a rule, you shouldn’t count on it. As a boy, I grew up hunting hard-pressured whitetails on public land in north Florida. After 35 years of living in the West, I have now become spoiled by hunting whitetails in Colorado and nearby Midwestern states, where it is not uncommon to see multiple whitetail bucks every sit. Another plus is the bucks in this part of the country are traditionally much larger in both body and antler size. The more open…

LAST SUMMER, my friend Russ Mason from Michigan wrote a great article for Michigan Out-of-Doors. It was about “branding.” For hunters, branding means giving the nonhunting public a positive perception of hunting. How does the nonhunting public see us? How do antihunters see us? How do we see ourselves? How are we “branded” by the public and by ourselves? Hunters see themselves as conservationists when it comes to wildlife and their environment. While that is true, what is also true is that a lot of the general public doesn’t see hunters that way. If an industry is threatening a local wetland by some type of construction, and citizens come together to discuss how that negatively impacts that wetland, how many hunters are in that group? In most cases, not very…

AS THE Bowhunter Magazine & TV team heads into its 18th season of video field production, it’s the perfect time to look back and count our many blessings when it comes to our sponsors, partners, and friends — the folks who have made it possible for us to enjoy success in the field. Without a doubt, our bowsight sponsor, Spot Hogg, from Harrisburg, Oregon, has been a rock-solid contributor to countless great days afield, whether during preparation and practice, or on hunts across this great country, or even far-flung international adventures. As any hunting archer can attest, there’s no better feeling than arriving at a hunt destination, pulling the bow out of the case, giving everything the once-over, and then sending an arrow downrange, spot on. A bowhunter with confidence…

IHAVEN’T ALWAYS been superstitious, but the deeper into my bowhunting career I get, the more I can’t help but notice how strange coincidences seem to repeat themselves. For instance, many of my most successful hunts seem to begin with something bad happening. Take the best turkey hunt I’ve ever been on, for example. It occurred about 10 years ago. Hoyt’s Marketing Director, Jeremy Eldredge, and I have sons that are roughly the same age, and for several years he and I had been taking them to Nebraska each spring to hunt turkeys. That particular year, the two of us were packed in with four of our young boys, driving through the middle of nowhere in Eastern Colorado, when my shiny new SUV broke down on us. We barely made it…

BACK IN THE late 1970s, my hunting buddy bought a Bear Whitetail Hunter compound bow. This was one of the first compound bows on the market, and his purchase made me jealous. Within a few weeks, I purchased my first bow — a used Bear Kodiak Magnum recurve. Since we were now bowhunters, we needed a place to shoot. As luck would have it, our local gun club had set up a couple haybales for bowhunters. A problem developed when we noticed a sign that read, “NO compounds allowed!” Even though we hunted together, the Club would not let us practice together. Go figure? Nowadays, it’s not uncommon in many states for “vertical bowhunters” to regularly share the woods with crossbow hunters, and even our firearms friends. Obviously, things have…

LEAVES FELL LIKE GOLDEN SNOW through the October sky, the final leg of a journey that began long ago, when spring rains and warmer weather promised a season of bounty and growth. Now, the sand had run out on that promise, leaving its casualties on the forest floor while the hardwoods prepared for its deep slumber. Although inevitable, the wind had catalyzed these events, blowing from the southeast with blustery gusts that rocked the oak tree I was nestled in like a buoy on the ocean. It was October 27, 2021, and I was on my own journey of sorts. It had been 30 years since I first climbed an oak tree, nocked an arrow, and settled in for my first season as a bowhunter. Much had changed since then…

COVERT ®  OPTICS THERMX™ HS1 The ThermX HS1 ($999.99) is a thermal scanner for game recovery and predator detection. The interface has various palette and brightness options for different lighting/ambient temperatures. High-contrast images are shown on the 1.5" OLED color display in 160x128 resolution and four color modes. Weapons’ mountable with adjustable windage/elevation. Covert Optics, feradyne.com/covert-optics/. TENPOINT ® NITRO 505™ The Nitro 505 ($2,999.99–$3,099.99) is a reverse-draw crossbow that delivers speeds of 505 fps. Measuring 6.5"W x 30.7"L and weighing 7.9 lbs., it features the ACUslide™ safe cocking/de-cocking system. The RX8-Cam™ system rotates 404 degrees. Its riser is balanced and the trigger is crisp. Available in a Ready-To-Hunt package. TenPoint, tenpointcrossbows.com . BROWNING ® STRIKE FORCE™ FHD The Strike Force FHD ($149.99) is a 22MP camera with…

Q A FRIEND AND I are looking for a guided black bear hunt. One bit of information we requested in our search was the distance between baits. We’ve narrowed our search down to two camps, and both are very remote, with baits spaced off of a dirt road. Is there a rule of thumb about how far apart baits should be to help increase our chances of taking a good boar? Wyatt F., via e-mail A THEREARENO hard and fast rules on this, but there are several things to consider. A study done in Pennsylvania showed that black bear boars had home ranges of 67 square miles, while that of females was 16 square miles. Note that food availability in Pennsylvania is very good compared to other regions, such as…