Table of contents for August 2020 - Big Game Special in Bowhunter

I AM NOT ALONE when I pose the rhetorical question, “What’s going to happen in the fall of 2020?” I could follow that question with a long, political rant regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, but I will spare you the pain. Suffice it to say, the so-called experts have been wrong about pretty much everything. And the doomsday media isn’t helping. As we all try to dig out of this crisis and work back toward some kind of normalcy, many of you have fall hunting plans in danger of being deemed “nonessential.” The other end of this two-sided equation: The outfitters, lodges, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that depend on hunting, do not consider hunters to be nonessential. They are the ones that are really hurting. Most outfitters and lodges have…

When Editor Curt Wells first gave me the assignment to write this article, I was really looking forward to it. For me, the most rewarding part of writing any magazine article is it allows me to reflect on past bowhunts and adventures. When I construct an article, I begin by looking back at photos and reading my notes about past hunts. This rekindles memories as I relive the hunt all over again. However, on this assignment, I have to admit that I had a tough time getting started. My instructions were to reflect on the adventures I’ve experienced while completing the archery Super Slam, which I have done twice, and to rank each of the 29 species of big game according to degree of difficulty. I was to disregard the…

IT’S AN INTERESTING FEELING BEING PERCHED ATOP A MOUNTAIN, LOOKING DOWN ON A WILD SHEEP, WITHIN BOW RANGE, THE MATURE RAM’S LONG, SWEEPING HORNS JETTING TOWARD THE SKY AS HE LIES IN HIS BED FOR HOURS. I’d been in this situation before. Although I found the thrill of surviving a successful 10-day backpack sheep hunt an amazing experience, I also considered it a once-in-a-lifetime event. After returning from my first sheep hunt back in 2017, I told everyone how much I enjoyed it, but that I would never do it again. The vastness of the Northwest Territories was something I would always remember, but I came back from that hunt with a battered body. I had proven to myself I could do it once. That was enough. That sentiment bounced…

September 20, 2019, I raised my head inches at a time to peer over the small rise. Busted The bull was staring right at me from only 35 yards An arrow on the string, I waited, hunched over, snow pelting my face with rivulets of water running down my neck Stalemate After a minute long stare down he bolted I stepped forward and came to full draw thinking Holy crap, that’s a lot of elk! The bull and 47 cows were trotting perpendicular to me I cow called loudly, and the bull looked and slowed to a stop I figured there was no way I could shoot with that many cows surrounding him but as he stopped so did the cows behind him The ones covering him up moved ahead…

FROM OVER a half-mile away, I could tell the buck was worth a closer look. His velvet rack seemed enormous as he fed across the open alpine slope, and with a quick view through the spotter, I knew in an instant this was the buck I wanted to hang my tag on. I watched from a distance for the next few days, waiting for him to make a wrong move. More than once I planned a stalk, but a capricious mountain breeze or the buck’s sixth sense kept me well out of bow range. However, time is often a bow-hunter’s best friend, and on the morning of the fifth day, all the hours of glassing finally started to show some promise. With the buck feeding toward a crease in the…

Ultimately, the most difficult species to hunt is the one that gives you the most trouble Some bowhunters are successful on their first attempt at a particular species, while the next bowhunter has to hunt several times to get it done. For example, the Dall sheep was the last of the four sheep species that I killed. It was my “nemesis” animal To make matters worse, and even harder to explain, I am an Alaska resident and I fly my own Super Cub, and it still took me several tries to get my first Dall ram. After I arrowed that first one, I tagged seven more Dall rams over the following nine years. As mentioned earlier, Gary Martin had to hunt Roosevelt elk several times to get one, while I…

Optics are an open-country mule deer bowhunter’s best friend. The trick to using them is learning to look for ants instead of elephants. Searching for large, grey bodies seldom yields results. More often than not, bucks are given away by small details that look a little out of place, like a white spot that turns out to be a rump or throat patch. The buck we were watching was given away by glare off an antler as he disappeared into a tangle. It had been a quick, distant glance, but I saw enough to know I wanted another look. I was hunting the Eastern Plains of Colorado with my son, Lane, and for an hour or so we waited patiently, but only a couple of does emerged from the tangle.…

The bull moose was a mere 15 yards away and slowly closing the distance between us. My guide and I quickly maneuvered into a position that placed a six-inch-diameter spruce tree between us and the angry bull. I could see the bull’s eyes rolling back under his eyelids as he slowly tilted his head back and forth. He was coming for us, and he wasn’t happy! This was Day Seven of a 10-day moose hunt in the Yukon. It was my first visit to the Yukon, and my second attempt at hunting one of these giant animals. My goal was to take a Pope and Young-class bull. I flew into Whitehorse, where I was met by the outfitter’s wife, Sandra, who then drove me to a downtown hotel. After a…

MY EYES RACED through the inky-black alders try ing see the brown bear before it saw me. A life the bear’s or mine — could easily depend on who won that race My guide, Chet, was behind me whispering but I couldn’t make out what he was saying, so with uneasy tension on the bowstring, I crept toward the spot where a nine foot brown bear had been fishing moments earlier. I could see nothing. Hear nothing. Except a salmon flop pin h w a d ha It seems Chet tho w o yomhimandhis.375 H&H. When cameraman Mike Emery joined the whisper chorus to declare that camera light was gone, I slowly backped d n n e w er n wed my compatriots back t e b In the twilight,…

Looking out the window as we drove out of Karachi, Pakistan, I could only think about how much of a stranger I am to places like this, and how much more comfortable I feel in remote and wild places. The traffic was crazy. Cars, trucks, rickshaws, donkey carts in every direction, and despite no one seeming to follow any kind of driving rules, there were no accidents. Experiencing this chaos firsthand makes you understand a lot of things. What a lot of people would consider scary uncertainty, is a normal way of life here. Ejaz Ali, one of the main guides in Pakistan from Shikar Safaris, picked us up at the airport and drove us three hours north to the town of Dureji. Located in the province of Baluchistan, Dureji…

MY VIGILANCE broke under the distraction of quaking leaves tinted in a chroma of amber light. Fractals and flutters moved in rap ture as the combination of late-day October sun and a chilly northwest wind expressed the onset of fall’s embrace. The contrasting fluid movement of an advancing brown silhouette broke the visual cadence snapping me back to reality. Just moments before, I watched as a young buck thrusted and thrashed a nearby licking branch, pawing the ground with incredible might while asserting his presence in the area. With this scene on the top of my mind, I couldn’t help but presume the deer striding in my direction was him. A screen of fo liage concealed a full visual of his body and rack. Moving across the broken flag of…

QUESTION I am an avid reader of Bowhunter Magazine, and I look forward to each issue and the information and hunting stories you and the other writers contribute! I am planning an elk hunt in Montana with my brother, nephew, and close friend. Could you make some recommendations on arrow/broadhead choices for the hunt? Scott Cool, via e-mail ANSWER Thanks for your e-mail. First, let’s establish the number-one goal of every elk hunter — a bilateral pneumothorax — otherwise known as a double-lung collapse. If you only puncture one lung on an elk, the odds of recovery are close to zero. That makes maximum, and hopefully two-hole, penetration more important than on just about any other North American big game animal. There are many factors to consider: draw weight/length, arrow…