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.
BACK IN THE DAY, learning bowhunting skills was difficult. Sources of information were limited to mentors, seminars at gatherings, and, of course, Bowhunter Magazine. We learned the hard way compared to today, where you can find an unlimited number of online “experts.” Many of the skills we developed were rooted in trial and error with a little help from our friends. Most of my hunts were do-it-yourself adventures that came packaged with equal parts frustration and satisfaction. That last one was the driving force because of the self-pride that is felt when you get it done on your own. Today, bowhunters can embark on their first DIY hunt equipped with much of the “canned” knowledge and appropriate gear necessary to get the job done. They can feel somewhat confident they…
AT THE RECENT Pope & Young Club Convention (pope-young.org) in Reno, Nevada, several hundred gathered and found ample reasons to see and believe that the modern era of b bowhunting is alive and well, and in some ways, as big as ever. Surely, somewhere in eternity, the late, great father of modern bowhunting, Fred Bear, and the late P&Y Club Founder, Glenn St. Charles, are sharing a heavenly campfire and smiling big. And I’ll bet the late, great Dwight Schuh, a longtime P&Y member and former Editor of Bowhunter, is enjoying that campfire, too (bow-hunter.com/editorial/the-laststanddwight-schuhs-final-buck/367818). That trio of bowhunters would have certainly grinned at the lineup of bow-killed animals recently displayed at the 2023 P&Y Convention. In fact, when I asked Bowhunter Publisher Jeff Waring what his takeaway was from…
I CROUCHED BEHIND a fringe of sagebrush and let go another series of calls. The critter I was after answered immediately, and I realized he had cut the distance between us in half. I called again, nocked an arrow, and peeked beyond the bushes. The big tom turkey was strutting along a ravine in front of me, his colorful head and fully fanned tail glistening in the morning sunlight. I snapped a quick reading with my rangefinding binoculars and then drew my Bear Alaskan bow as the gobbler disappeared behind a bush. When the bird stepped back into full view, I settled my 30-yard pin on his wing butt. An instant later, my Easton FMJ shaft and G5 Striker V2 broadhead smacked the bird with a mighty thump. He dropped…
IT WAS PITCH-BLACK when we left the truck and started hiking along the ridge before dropping into the thick brush along the river. Our pace quickened when we heard a bugle in the dark, upriver from our position. There is just something about a bugle that makes you want to get into position or want to close the distance quickly, but my plan for that day wasn’t to be mobile, but rather to sit and wait, and hope the elk came to us. Tim, who was running the camera on this hunt, climbed up the Millennium double ladder stand in front of me. It was still pretty dark, but the Eastern sky was starting to light up on the horizon. The ladder stand was made for two, but when both…
HOW YOU GRIP the bow is paramount to shooting consistency. If you position your hand one way for a shot and a slightly different way the next shot, your arrow’s impact will vary. The logic is simple: Once the position of the hand changes, the distribution of pressure across the palm area changes as well, causing the handle to torque differently as the arrow cycles through the bow. To be deadly consistent as an archer, you must learn to place your hand on the grip exactly the same way for every shot. Of course, this is easier said than done. Even with a good pre-shot checklist where you put a lot of emphasis on gripping the bow correctly, subtle variances in bow-hand pressure can still occur. The culprit could be…
Successfully harvesting a big-game animal with a bow can be an incredible experience, but what happens when things don’t go your way and you don’t make a quick recovery? Sleepless nights trying to reconstruct a shot in your mind can drive you crazy. Worse yet, going back to the scene of your shot can further disturb the area with human scent and noises. Years ago, a good friend of mine made a “perfect” shot on a 200-class buck. But his 30-plus years of bowhunting experience was challenged when he couldn’t find the deer. After two days of searching, and still convinced he had killed the buck, he rented an airplane to search for his deer. It only took an hour of flight time to find his buck. When my friend…
