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.
AS I WORK THROUGH the year assigning and buying articles for each issue of Bowhunter, I don’t necessarily look for a “theme,” unless I’m working on one of our special issues (DIY, Big Game, Whitetail). Mostly, I’m looking for a variety of articles that cover adventure bowhunting, how-to, exceptional animals, and the exploits of both highly accomplished and everyday bowhunters who have a story to tell. Occasionally, an underlying theme, woven into the collection of stories, will materialize. The theme that emerged in parts of this issue (read Adams, Bowhay, Gaul, and Brush) has to do with restraint. That is, restraint when it comes to deciding whether an approaching animal is worthy of wearing your tag. We all practice some degree of restraint based on sex, maturity, the size of…
I SPIED THE MULEY BUCK feeding out in the open with a group of does. With very little cover to hide behind, I had to move methodically, advancing only when deer eyes were solidly obscured by a patch of desert scrub or rock outcropping. After a two-hour cat-and-mouse chase with the buck and his harem, I finally closed the distance to legitimate archery range. Yet the buck wouldn’t stand still long enough for a solid shot, so I had to wait and hope for a better opportunity. Finally, as the sun began to dip near the horizon, the group of deer went over a small rise in the terrain, and I knew now was the time to strike. I hurried to the top of the hill and quickly spotted antler…
BEING IN DECENT SHAPE to hike is an advantage with most species of North American animals. More than two-dozen of our continent’s 29 types of big game are best hunted on foot. Only whitetail deer, pronghorn antelope, and baited black bears can consistently be taken from a stand. Foothunting is more complex than waiting for animals but can yield higher chances of success in many situations — if a bow-hunter knows how to hike. Sitting in one spot for mule deer, wild sheep, moose, elk, and other unpredictable critters might merely be waiting for an accident to happen. By comparison, smart hiking can deliberately place you inside close bow-shooting range. It seems to be a modern trend — almost an obsession — for some bowhunters to emphasize physical fitness and…
I AM ALWAYS anxiously awaiting the fall season to start. Like a lot of you, I chased some other stuff around this past spring and summer. Turkeys are fun to hunt, and bowfishing is a blast, but if I’m being honest, nothing quite compares to the fall. I find that when I daydream about bowhunting, it’s never about rabbits, hogs, or even turkeys. It’s always about some giant bull elk, a huge whitetail buck, or a mule deer buck with a rack so big he has to walk backwards and drag it. It’s fun to daydream and run fake scenarios like these through my head, even though I know that realistically, I will probably get a cow elk, a small muley buck, or a whitetail doe that most would let…
IF I HAD to pick one element that gave me the most fits early in my whitetail-hunting career, it would easily be my ability, or inability, to consistently grow lush, attractive food plots. Back then, food plots were the latest craze, and it seemed every article or video had something to share. Looking back, it wasn’t always my fault — Mother Nature was the culprit many times, with unseasonably warm and dry conditions or a deluge of rain. But if I were completely honest, bad planning and execution were also in the mix. However, as the science of food-plot management has developed over the years, and as seed blends, fertilizers, herbicides, and my knowledge has improved, producing a great food source has become relatively easy. Sure, the entire process still…
SEPTEMBER 10 is typically a lucky day for me. My son, Lane, and I had been hunting hard without much action, but the 10th always seems to be when things start to turn on. We woke to silence again that morning, but as we donned our packs to head out for the day, the silence was broken with one of the oddest sounds I’d ever heard in the elk woods: A pathetic attempt at an elk call that sounded more like a howl than the bugle of a bull. Assuming the ridiculous sound coming from not too far above our camp was a rookie elk hunter with a shiny new grunt tube, I immediately turned to Lane and said, “Great, we have company.” Come on man, just shut up, I…
