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.
DEPENDING ON where you live, archery deer season is either already here or so close you are counting down to opening day. Although I enjoy all kinds of bowhunting, chasing whitetails is how I started, and I doubt anything will ever top the excitement I feel when the sound of hooves pounding through crunchy leaves precedes the majestic sight of a mature buck approaching my stand. Over the course of nearly three decades, I’ve certainly accumulated plenty of bowhunting history, though relatively little of it could rightly be described as historic. After all, everything that happens in the past is history, but to be historic, you need some kind of drama, tension or extraordinary circumstance that really makes the moment stand out, for better or worse. Like most bowhunters, I…
A SHARP BROADHEAD in the vitals can be incredibly lethal. Most often, the animal falls quickly and close to the shooter. But all archery shots are not perfect, and some truly bizarre outcomes occur, even when an arrow seems to hit the mark exactly. Take, for example, a nice 4x4 mule deer my friend Wes Hart shot three years ago. Wes stalked that buck near sundown and nailed him with a 35-yard shot. The deer bounded 125 yards and bedded with the exit wound clearly visible, just in front of the shoulder. Wes waited until dark, but the buck’s head was still up. He drove home and gave me a call. Late October temperatures were dipping below freezing, so we decided to recover the animal at dawn — the meat…
IT WAS PERHAPS the largest bullfrog I had ever seen. If not, this particular specimen was certainly in the Top 5. I consider myself somewhat of an expert on trophy frogs, since I have been hunting them and eating frog legs for more than four decades. My father spotted the frog, and I watched him make a great shot, pinning it to the riverbank with an arrow, preventing its strong legs from taking it to deep water and safety. Thanks to my dad, we ate frog legs for dinner that night. My dad, who is 78, operates under the mantra that he would rather wear out than rust out. Fred Bear had his greatest and most physically challenging hunts later in his life. Custom bowyer Mike Palmer is still making…
IT WAS MID-SEASON, and I was practicing on my backyard range when I noticed my arrows were hitting low. I pulled the three broadhead-tipped shafts from the block target, then re-shot two more groups. Same result. As I inspected my bow and string harnesses, I recognized the culprit. Beneath the D-loop, I could see serving separation that caused the loop to move slightly upward. I felt somewhat deflated, as I’d been shooting lights-out until now. Fortunately, I’d been in this situation several times before. I shrugged off the irritation and went to work. I removed the loop and carefully stripped the ruined thread. Then I installed new center serving using my BCY Bearpaw serving tool. I rechecked the tuning marks I had made on the bow’s cams to ensure the…
VIRUSES AREN’T JUST a problem for humans; they cause issues for wildlife, too — including the game species we pursue as bowhunters. While it seems viruses are more common in wildlife today than they were years ago, it’s also true that modern science pays a lot more attention to them as we seek to better understand these illnesses and how to respond from a management perspective. This month, I thought it would be interesting to share updates on four viruses that impact wildlife (and possibly humans), as well as discuss the potential impact on hunters. Rustrela Virus A report recently published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases cited an unusual incident. A female yearling mountain lion was found in Douglas County, Colo. The lion could not move its hind legs…
AS YOU READ THIS, archery deer seasons are opening across North America. Right now, most of our freezers are void of venison, so a need to tip something over resurfaces from seasons past. When it comes to bowhunting, early-season harvests can be troublesome, especially if you get home late and the need for refrigeration becomes paramount in saving your hard-earned venison. Although there’s no data on how many hunters butcher their own deer, I’m assuming it’s a fairly high percentage. Obviously, this depends on where you live (urban vs. rural), time of season (early vs, late season), proximity to butcher shops and the number of deer you harvest annually. But no matter the circumstances, the differences in taste and quality of your meat are significant, depending on whether you age…
