Table of contents for August 2019 - Big Game in Bowhunter

ONE OF THE great pleasures of my job here at Bowhunter is getting to meet and work with some of the best bowhunters on the planet. A common thread that binds these accomplished hunters is the setting of personal goals. First, let’s address the “personal” part of that equation. Alaska’s Frank Noska may be the best bowhunter I know of. Last fall, he became the first bowhunter to accomplish a second archery Super Slam of North American big game, and his story appears on page 26. Frank is one of our contributing writers, and a friend of mine. As we collaborated back and forth on this article submission, I asked him, “What are you going to do now? Start hunting internationally for big game?” In his typical low-key, humble manner,…

With mere seconds before legal shooting light expired, the Roosevelt’s elk herd bull started chasing some of his cows in my direction. They were on the farthest side of the meadow, but in an instant they were under 100 yards and closing. I could hardly believe what was happening as the bull chased and pushed three cows toward me. I just might get a shot at this six-point bull, I thought, so I quickly positioned myself behind two large blackberry bushes that had a gap to shoot through, and I nocked an arrow. When the first cow came through my shooting window, I estimated she was at 50 yards. In an instant, another cow passed through the opening. I came to full draw when I could see the bull approach…

LYING IN THE WATER-SOAKED BOG, I wondered if I could quietly dogpaddle across the brook, with my bowstring in my teeth, without damaging the string — or dying of hypothermia. Cameraman Matt Young was behind me, likely suspecting what was going through my head, and it was scaring him. Sometimes, I scare myself. Bedded on the other side of the seemingly bottomless brook was a huge woodland caribou stag I’d been shadowing for over six hours. Soaked from belly-crawling in the bogs, I figured if I could just get another 40 yards on the stag, I’d have a shot. But the brook served as a moat, protecting the stag. Even if I were to summon sufficient stupidity to take the swim, it could be hours before the stag stood up,…

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MONGOLIA — ALTAI MOUNTAINS At 3,500 meters, the air is thin and our breath is heavy. We’ve been hiking straight up for five hours, trying to get above a group of bedded ibex billies. It’s my second trip in a month to the Altai Mountains, and after so many hunting days, you look at the bow in your hand and wonder why we like to make hard things even harder. I try to get my head together and away from bad thoughts while I climb down a scary cliff to get within bow range of the oldest billy. At 80 meters, I reach a dead end. I cannot get any closer. I range the bedded billy and get a compensated distance of 52 meters. It’s a complicated shot, but you…

There are some great opportunities to chase velvet whitetails in several parts of the country, if you have the desire and are willing to do a little research. Many of those opportunities come in the Plains states from Eastern Montana and the Dakotas south through Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas. Another great thing about these open-prairie regions, is the decent amount of public land you’ll find to roam and seek out an early season velvet buck. In September 2018, Colin Hargens made his dream of killing a velvet buck on the open prairie a reality. A blue-collar bowhunter, 31-year-old Hargens has bow-hunted every season since he was 12 years old. His job as a railroad-track repairman and machine operator for a major Great Plains railroad company affords him a lot…

LIKE MANY YOUNG MEN from central Oklahoma, I grew up playing sports, farmi g, and hunting with friends and family each fall. While I love just about all forms of hunting, bowhunting is my ultimate passion. About 10 years ago, I was fortunate to start working in the bowhunting industry, and since that time I’ve rubbed shoulders with some of our sport’s foremost authorities — visionary bowhunters with the ambition needed to accomplish their goals. Watching them chase their dreams got me thinking hard about setting some bowhunting goals of my own. What are my bowhunting goals? Where should I focus my bowhunting ambition? Two years ago, it hit me. I’ve always been proud of the bowhunting opportunities that my home state has to offer. Oklahoma features hunt-able populations of…

IT ALL FINALLY SEEMED TO BE COMING TOGETHER. I’d been working this bull since yesterday afternoon. By circling around a knob, I was able to head off the herd and was now in a great position. I located the big bull in the group, which was broadside, but a cow was covering his vitals. I slowly eased forward a few yards to get just under that 40-yard range that I need to be to feel comfortable with the shot. Finally, the cow moved forward, giving me a clear shot at the bull. The arrow arced high, and to the inexperienced eye looked like it was going to hit high. Then it dropped right in over the sagebrush and disappeared. Did I shoot low? No, that felt like a perfect shot,…

HEAVY SMOKE surged the horizon, ghosting the not-so-distant mountaintops. A cast of threatening gray tones infused with shades of orange quickly brought an unerring belief that this wildfire was not something to be taken lightly. Meanwhile, U.S. Forest Service aircraft dotted the airspace, making early attempts to douse the flames and survey an already intense blaze — further confirming our dreadful thoughts. “It’s not updated yet,” I said to my hunting partner, Eric, referring to the InciWeb interagency all-risk incident information management system website, which I was refreshing on my cell phone every few seconds in an attempt to gather information about the exact size and location of the fire. Not an hour earlier, I was resting comfortably in our camp’s tent with the doors open, as warm September…