Sommaire pour October 2020 de Bowhunter

MOST ARCHERY HUNTERS know the basics of tuning a bow and arrow. I’ve written about tuning through paper in this column before, and companies like Hoyt and Easton offer directions on how to adjust and “tweak” their products. But I rarely encounter a hunter who knows the fine points of manipulating arrow configuration for perfect accuracy on targets and game. I was inspired to write this column just two weeks ago when a friend gave me a call. He had purchased a topnotch bow and pristine aluminum/carbon composite shafts. Yet he was not satisfied with his accuracy, despite his best tuning efforts. This fellow’s setup was typical of many that readers and acquaintances describe to me. With a perfect shooting situation — solid aim, smooth release, no wind, calm nerves…

I STARTED TRAPPING at a young age, and I still enjoy it today. Trapping taught me a lot about animals, their behavior, how to look for sign, and what each species I trapped preferred to eat and where they liked to hang out. I think it helped me become a more observant woodsman, and a better hunter. Trapping isn’t easy. The art of getting a predator to put its foot on the right square inch of ground where your pan is takes skill — and a good attractant. Most trappers use scent in conjunction with a visual attractant as well. I also use scent when I am predator hunting. Putting some scent on my call or on my decoy helps bring predators in close. So, it just made sense to…

The mobile hunting crowd is divided into two factions: saddle hunters and treestand hunters. For the latter crowd, a lightweight hang-on stand is ideal. Something like the new Hawk Helium Pro ($210/hawkhunting.com). This aluminum stand weighs 12 lbs. and is built with silent-use attachment hooks, noise-free Teflon washers, and a host of other ninja-stealth features. For the saddle crowd, it’s tough to beat Trophyline’s Tree Saddle ($159.99-$289.99/trophyline.com). With four models to choose from, the lightweight, packable Tree Saddle has a hammock-like feel for long hours in the woods, and it provides hunters 360-degree shooting versatility.…

Purchasing scents ahead of the rut requires you to keep them in a cool place away from direct sunlight to maintain their effectiveness. That’s just one hurdle with real urine scents. Another major hurdle is the fact some states and provinces are banning the use of real urine scents due to the scare of CWD. That argument is still debatable, but it is playing a major factor in restricting real urine usage. Fortunately, companies like Wildlife Research Center (wildlife. com) and others are stepping up with the production of synthetic scents. They smell and act like the real thing but pass the regulations for use that wildlife agencies have implemented for perceived safety in a CWD world. Testing by WRC reveals deer react with equal or increased response to the…

BIG GAME HUNTING TIP Arrow Clearance With Your Bow One tricky accuracy problem can be collision between arrow and bow. Most commonly, fletching impacts the rest, handle riser, or cables. This ruins clean flight and creates more game-spooking noise. Modern drop-away arrow rests reduce the chance of such a problem, but shaft and fletching interference can still occur. To make sure your shafts and fletching completely clear the bow, you can smear lipstick on the fletching to see if any has rubbed off on the bow or rest after a shot. Another option is dusting the rest and surrounding area with talcum powder. If arrow impacts bow, there will be telltale scuffs in the powder. A shaft too weak or stiff in spine increases the chance of impact with your…

WHITETAILS are really what drives most of us every season. Even for a guy like me who lives out west and gives other critters a fair shake, it’s the whitetail deer I enjoy bowhunting the most. They simply offer everything you could want in a big game animal. In fact, I’m of the opinion that a mature whitetail buck is the most challenging big game animal in the Lower 48, and last season was just one example. For several days, I watched the buck from a distance work a particular creek drainage, and every time I tried to figure him out and move into position, he would change his course slightly, putting him out of bow range. This went on for several days, but it wasn’t until a doe pulled…

FINDING THE FIRST RUB of the season is always special. The problem is, visitation rates of bucks at rub and scrape sites is primarily a nocturnal activity. Various research papers with trail cameras have shown an 85-percent nighttime visitation rate of bucks at scrapes. Buck visitation at rub sites is somewhat similar. One of the first studies on visitation rates at buck rubs was conducted by Dr. Grant Woods. While working on his doctorate at Clemson University, he used trail cameras to determine most of the deer behavior(s) at rubs occurred, you guessed it, at night. His results indicated that 74 percent of all buck, 60 percent of doe, and 51 percent of fawn photographs were taken between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Woods determined that all rubs are not…

When the year starts off with hip surgery, and you’re as old as me, there is a lot of uncertainty about the fall hunting season. I would turn 64 on the last day of my planned Sitka blacktail hunt on Kodiak Island. But I’ve always been goal-oriented, so I set two: One, find out whether I’d be able to pursue deer with the same tenacity I’ve had during my prior 36 years on Kodiak, and two, arrow three Pope and Young-qualifying bucks. Three days before I was to leave for Kodiak, my partner had to back out, which meant I’d be at my Buck Shack by myself for 10 days, putting my new hip equipment to the test. I would miss the company, but truth be told, I enjoy solo…

The thread secured to the base of my broadhead reaffirmed the dropping thermals were still pushing my scent away from where the buck had bedded. Carefully slipping forward, I stepped over my broken arrow shaft as I followed the path of frosted, red droplets marking his final trek. My nocked arrow seemingly searched the thicket’s edge, much in the way a divining rod searches for hidden water. Reaching the field’s edge, my fingers held tension on the string as I stepped down into the cedar thicket he had sought as his last refuge. With my half-drawn bow raised, I carefully peered down into the cedars to see my recurve’s shadow silhouetted on the silver-gray mass of the downed buck’s back. An uncontrollable shudder nearly toppled the nocked arrow from the…

I FIRMLY BELIEVE in following The Golden Rule. To me, the vast majority of moral choices are relatively black and white. However, when it comes to the ethics of secret hunting spots, things get very gray, very quickly. In this particular regard, my moral compass has drifted so far off True North, that I’ve been lying to my wife about where I hunt! I don’t lie to her because I think she’ll go to my secret spot and shoot a bigger buck than me. I do it so she doesn’t slip up when talking to other hunters. I’ve seen men come on to my wife many times at various gatherings we attend together. She has also told me of other such encounters having occurred when I wasn’t around. These unscrupulous,…

THE TERRAIN WAS gnarly for a caribou hunt — 50-degree inclines, shale slopes, rocky cliffs, and huge crevasses that all needed careful navigation in order to reach prominent ridgetops. This is where these surefooted caribou escaped the misery of black flies, which were so prevalent in the willow-thick valleys below. For several days in a row, and dozens of hard-walking miles later, my guide and I hadn’t seen much more than a dozen or so of these tall-racked nomads — with zero shooting opportunities. For many reasons, I felt like I was on a Dall sheep adventure, not a caribou hunt. So, when one nice bull suddenly materialized out of nowhere — nearly a mile away — I knew this was the one. After all, I hadn’t flown 2,500 miles…

OBVIOUSLY, COVID-19 has dominated our news for the past six months. But it has also brought our attention to some wildlife diseases and problems that must be resolved. The debate about how this pandemic got started has tailed off in the past few months. Initially, there was all kinds of news on how COVID-19 got started. Was it “created” in a lab in Wuhan, China? Did China release it by accident (or on purpose) to impact the United States? Or did it spread from wildlife, in particular bats, in an open market where people in Wuhan go to buy meat and other foods? Bats carry other COVID strains, and humans who consume those species can become infected, so the idea that it came from bats to humans who ate them…

BANKS BLINDS STUMP 2 VISION SERIES Banks Outdoors of Canyon Falls, Minn., without-question is a pioneer in the hard-sided hunting-blind industry. For 2020, Banks introduces the Stump 2 Vision Series Whitetail Properties Pro Edition. ASSEMBLY & TRANSPORT The Stump 2 is delivered fully assembled. That means the only labor required is platform installation, leveling and setting it in the field. Those tasks should take roughly two hours, depending on the platform plan. Platform designs can vary, and that’s exactly what the folks at Banks intended. Thanks to the product’s heavy-duty, steel-plate base, platform leg length is up to you. Many users elect to outfit their blinds with sleds for easy transport. Banks offers steel ladders in 4-, 8- and 12-foot lengths. Once the Stump 2 is successfully attached to its…

In your daily, weekly, and annual planning of everyday life, you must consider your family, career, future retirement, and, of course, upcoming vacation escapes. Some of you tweak that planning even further: You plan ahead for the whitetail rut. That’s a solid strategy, and if you’re not doing detailed planning to be rut ready, you might miss out on the best window of time in which to tag a mature whitetail buck. Don’t get lost in a scramble to put together a game plan at the last minute. A PHASED APPROACH Most bowhunters break the rut down into three phases: pre-rut, breeding, and post-rut. Each has its own peculiarities and requires planning for the tactic that works best in that time period. The window may seem large, but most likely…

1 WASP® MORTEM™ • Stainless-steel construction • Low-profile design • Great performance, great price Wasp makes great heads, and the new Mortem ($32.99/ 3-pack) should make fans of affordable fixed-blade heads happy. The ferrule, TROCAR™ tip, and three .032"-thick blades are all stainless steel. Minimal tuning, maximum accuracy out of a low-profile, fixed head was the goal of Wasp’s engineers when creating the Mortem, and they achieved it. Cutting diameter of this 100-grain head is 1 1/8". Look for them at your local pro shop. Contact: Wasp Archery, (860) 283-0246, wasparchery.com. 2 FOGGY MOUNTAIN® HOTDOE™ • Premium estrous doe scent • Great for real/mock scrapes • Use it anytime during the rut Want to put a buck where you need him to be for an ethical bow shot? Then give…