Bowhunter

ONE OF THE PECULIARITIES of writing for an “old-school” print publication is that our deadlines come long before the magazine reaches your mailbox or local newsstand. As I sit here typing this column, it’s the week before Halloween, and I’m spending a few hours in my home office between morning and evening pre-rut hunts. Buck activity on my Moultrie trail cameras has picked up markedly in recent days, with the rut’s “seeking” phase seemingly now fully underway. In fact, at 8 o’clock this morning, I had the season’s first encounter with a “shooter,” getting to full draw on a tall, wide-racked buck as it stood broadside at 27 yards. Alas, just as I was settling my pin on the buck’s chest and preparing to increase the tension on my release…

WOODY WAS PERCHED on the edge of a cliff with bow balanced across his knees and binoculars glued to his eyes. Five hundred yards away, a lone white dot was moving up a vertical face of rock. Only a mountain goat, with its spongy hooves, could maneuver such a place without plunging to certain death. My friend Ron Niziolek was on a mission. Months before, he had checked the big-game lottery section of the Wyoming Game & Fish Department website. You could have scraped his eyes off with a stick. After 43 years of applying for a coveted Rocky Mountain goat tag, Ron had finally drawn! The odds varied by hunt unit from one in 150 to one in 1,000. That tag was special. Ron is a well-known and respected…

I ASKED MY DAD to explain to me what it was like donning a parachute and jumping out of an airplane that was on fire, at night. He tried his best. I even asked a lot of questions about the other Green Berets with him on that routine flight in Florida, when the C-119 engine caught fire. The truth is, I couldn’t relate to any of it — the adrenaline rush, the panic, the chaos or even the relief when he realized the next day, as he was getting picked up in the woods, that all had made it out alive. It’s not that he didn’t try to explain. I’ve just never been in that situation. Other than a single tandem jump with a pro strapped to me, I had…

SCOUTING & SHOOTING TOOLS Slatra Archery Draugr Slatra’s broadheads are built using a patented design that eliminates the planing issues found on other fixed-blade heads. As a result, tuning Slatra Archery broadheads is as easy as dialing in your bow with fieldpoints and then screwing your Slatra heads onto your arrows — they’ll hit the same spot. The 3-blade Draugr head features a 1.6-inch cutting diameter and thick, durable, hardened blades that can be replaced without tools. They are also affordable and come in a small storage box for easy transport. $42 per 3 | slatraarchery.com Ripcord RAK The RAK is a high-quality, drop-away arrow rest that delivers premium performance at an affordable price. This cable-driven rest features a padded launcher cradle that can be locked in the upright position,…

THERE’S SOMETHING SPECIAL about finding a shed antler. It’s not just about the bone itself. It’s about the story behind it. The place you found it. The trail that led you there. The deer that carried it and the hope you have for crossing paths with that buck in the future. I wish I could say I’m a big shed hunter, but I’m not. By the time spring rolls around, I’m caught up in other activities. Most of the sheds I find are by happenstance while I’m hunting during the fall, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not interested in becoming more serious about it one day. Many of the biggest shed heads I know also happen to be some of the best hunters I know, and that’s no accident.…

WHEN IT COMES to crossbows, one of the most important features is the limb design. The limbs are the arms of the crossbow that store and release energy when the bowstring is released. Limbs come in two main styles, best known as recurve and compound, each with its own advantages, characteristics and best-use scenarios. The high-tech magic of modern crossbow limbs is challenging to understand, as the 36-inch limbs of yesteryear cannot produce as much energy as today’s limbs measuring only 7 inches. Knowing your options ensures you make informed decisions about accuracy, energy, durability, noise and maneuverability. Recurve Limbs Recurve crossbows are the more traditional design, with limbs that curve away from the shooter at the ends. The long, curving shape stores more energy than a straight-limbed design, and…