Indice dei contenuti per October 2017 in Bowhunter

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS about bow-hunting is the opportunity it gives me to study the habits and idiosyncrasies of each species of game that I pursue. So far, I have bowhunted 30 species of big game across nine countries, and in doing so I’ve witnessed a lot of animal behavior. Certainly, there are exceptions, but after 36 years of observation, you get a decent assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each species. Pronghorns have legendary eyesight but don’t rely on their noses. Bears have unequaled olfactory skills but weak eyesight. Elk have an excellent blend of sensory acuteness but often exhibit a fatal hesitation when they see or hear something unusual. Some species don’t tolerate humans; others have never seen a human — and act like it. Mountain…

In his new book, “Can’t Lose Bowhunting,” Jeremy expands on all of these and other facets of his bowhunting skills. He details Plan A (all aspects of shot placement); Plan B (arrows and broadheads that guarantee clean kills, even with less-than-perfect hits); and Plan C (all aspects of game recovery). He offers in-depth analysis of kinetic energy versus momentum, broadhead design, shooting proficiency, physical conditioning, hunting methods, backpacking systems, equipment, game recovery, and meat care. Despite his enviable success, Jeremy’s writing shows no bravado or ego. By vocation, Jeremy is an auto mechanic, but by avocation he is simply a hard-working bowhunter. For a complete course in “lucky” bowhunting, with the emphasis on big animals like elk — and a fun read on top of it — you cannot beat…

TIME OF YEAR. With Alaska’s deer seasons running from August 1 through December, serious Sitka hunters focus on two key periods — early to mid-August, and late-October to mid-November. In August, the deer live in the alpine where, with their red summer coats, they are easy to spot on the open tundra. This is a fun time for spot-and-stalk hunting. The downside is that bucks are on high alert, and can be downright tough to stalk. In late-October and November, when bucks are in rut, they are not nearly as wary, and they respond well to grunt and bleat calls, rattling, and even to deer hats. If there’s a drawback, it’s that the deer move to lower elevations into brushier country, where they are not as visible. However, rutting bucks…

I stood motionless in the bedding area as the minutes faded away on the last morning of the Kansas archery season. Several hours into the hunt, I had does bedded to my right and left and was contemplating forcing the issue to manufacture a shot. I opted to hold tight for 20 more minutes before doing anything rash. A short while later, more deer began filtering into the bedding area. As they neared, I realized that I’d had previous encounters with two of the bucks in the group — a solid eight-point, and a very symmetrical 10. Statuesque, I waited for an opportunity to strike, but the does in the group had other ideas as several passed by within five yards. I was undecided about shooting the 10, since he’d…

My guide, Pete McKeen, had just let out one of his premier cow moose calls when we got an immediate response from the bull we’d been dogging. Umagh, umagh, we heard from up the hill, back in the timber, as the bull responded vocally to our enticement. Pete pointed to an eight-foot spruce tree about 40 yards up the hill and in the direction of the bull’s calls and asked if I could make it to there. Just as I was plotting my ascent, I noticed the four inches of new-fallen snow being shaken from the trees about 20 yards beyond my ambush tree. I looked at Pete, pointed toward the movement in the timber, and whispered, “I can’t make it.” “Oh crap, he’s coming,” Pete said. “Quick, get around…

“How much longer do you want to stick it out here?” my cameraman Lonnie Garland whispered from a second treestand placed strategically above my own. We were braving Kansas’ prairie winds and high humidity combined with typical November temperatures. The environment wasn’t completely miserable, but it was enough to provoke my teeth to chatter and Garland to question how long we had to brave the weather in the Sunflower State. Staying warm is just one aspect of sticking it out all day. We often talk about staying on stand all day, but do you actually do it? From my years of hunting with friends and outfitters, most of us jump ship at the midmorning or midday hour for a recharge break. Warming up, eating energizing food, and strategizing with friends…

#DEER WEEK Don’t miss Bowhunter Magazine Editor Curt Wells’ return to his favorite Kansas whitetail country, premiering on Wednesday, October 18, at 10 p.m. Eastern. For complete show listings, visit deerweek.com. I COULDN’T GET MY BINOCULARS to my eyes quick enough. A buck was chasing a doe on the open prairie about 500 yards out, and I was hoping it was Baby Booner. It wasn’t. But it looked like the 6x6 with the spike off his right main beam that we had a single trail-camera photo of. We hadn’t known of the buck long enough to give him a name. The doe was dodging and weaving, trying to escape into a wooded draw, but the buck wasn’t having it. She reluctantly bedded in the grass several times, only to get…

ON my aerial photos, the 80-acre parcel didn’t look all that impressive deer-wise. In fact, it looked an awful lot like the thousands of acres of big woods around it. What I didn’t realize as my grouse hunting buddies and I unloaded my black Lab and set out for our last hunt of the season, was that the property was different. It had been selectively logged three years earlier. As we hiked a creekbottom and picked up a few birds, I started noticing deer sign — a lot of deer sign. The new growth was thick, and it was clear that the deer were using the parcel frequently, which made sense considering the private land bordering it looked to be fairly open, older-growth forest. By the time we had three…

I peeled the airline luggage tag off my bow case and flopped the case open on the zebra rug in my office. Then I pulled out some gear and musty-smelling hunting clothes, unbuckled some straps and lifted out my very trusty and very old PSE Scorpion, abused and battered but still perfectly functional. I had just flown home from a January whitetail hunt in Ohio, where I’d killed a doe and a 149-inch 4x4 buck. Those two deer marked the 100 th  and 101st animals I’d taken over the past 12 seasons with my reliable PSE Scorpion. Random memories came to mind as I attached my quiver and replaced my numbered arrows. There was the big bull elk in Utah that stomped in through the oak brush to 13 yards;…

I WAS RUNNING LATE, but there was nothing I could do. My original destination was a bust because the farmer was picking corn literally under my treestand, and my Plan B fell through when I pulled in to park and found a group of kids riding dirt bikes in the field right behind my hunting spot. With the evening shadows already lengthening, I hurriedly pulled into a small public-hunting area that I had never hunted before, and hastily walked in to set up beside a tiny pond. I knew this area held deer from earlier scouting trips, but it was so small and so close to town that I’d never actually hunted it. The only other option was to head home, and that really wasn’t an option at all. Easing…

What’s next? It’s a question that quickly preoccupies any bowhunter who has been fortunate enough to complete the archery Super Slam — the taking of all 29 species of North American big game. I am blessed to be one of those bowhunters, and since most of us are goal-setters, I needed another goal to concentrate on. My answer to the question was to focus on becoming a member of the 650 Club. What is the 650 Club? First, let’s clear up the meaning of the Grand Slam. There are four species of North American sheep — Dall, Stone, Rocky Mountain bighorn, and Desert bighorn. Taking all four is called the Grand Slam of sheep. As bowhunters, we recognize the Pope and Young Club as our official record-keeping organization, and we…

I FIRST MET Jeremy Johnson deep in the Oregon wilderness. I was staying at my friend Shay Mann’s base camp, and when Shay and Jeremy showed up late one afternoon, Shay immediately took off downstream to hunt while Jeremy and I chatted to get acquainted. As sundown came and went, I figured Jeremy would just spend the night there and head out in the morning. But he continued to organize his bivy pack as we talked, and at about 10 p.m. he set off upstream, prepared to stay out for several days. I got up early the next morning, hunted all day, and returned to camp after dark. After a quick dinner, I hit the sleeping bag. Then, about midnight, I heard rustling in the tent. It was Jeremy. “What’s…

MY INTRODUCTION to Sitka deer hunting came in 2004 on Prince of Wales Island (POW), where I met Bob Ameen and his brother Loren. Bob owns a cabin on POW and knows the area well, and I could think of no one better to learn the Sitka ropes from than him. A number of islands make up the POW Archipelago. The season opens on August 1 on all of the islands except the main POW Island, where subsistence hunting opens first and sport hunting later. All of the islands have deer, so we took Bob’s boat to a neighboring island. The inside waterways are well-protected, making them safe for navigation in a small boat. During August in Southeast Alaska, the deer live above timberline, some 1,500 vertical feet above sea…

Packing in and hanging treestands demands consideration toward scent control, and I’ve got three distinct steps to my scent-control routine for nearly all of my public-land whitetail forays. The first is to play the wind — always. No matter what, you’ll tip the odds of not getting busted in your favor if you’re cognizant of wind direction. It’s old-school, but necessary. The second part involves spraying down with a scent-eliminator like Code Blue’s (codebluescents.com) D/Code Field Spray ($7/12 oz.) before setting foot in the woods. I wear knee-high rubber boots, and I douse them with scent-eliminating spray before each hunt to seriously cut down on any evidence that I was ever in the area. Lastly, I lean pretty heavily on Ozonics (ozonicshunting.com). Ozone is one of the only ways I…

FIRST OFF, let me personally give a tip of the Bowhunter cap and a sincere thank you to all the state and provincial biologists who helped compile this year’s “Deer Forecast.” Without them, none of this would be possible. Last year, Arkansas and Missouri completely eliminated antler-point restrictions (three or four points per side) due to growing concerns about CWD. Why would they change something that the majority of hunters supported? The reason is simple. By the time a buck is 1½ years old, he will have dispersed from his maternal home range. For that reason, harvesting yearling bucks may be the only management option a wildlife department has to help minimize the spread of CWD. Many outfitters/hunters were not happy with this management decision. But surprisingly, negative outcry was…

The purples, reds and yellows of the Eastern Shore autumn were still vibrant as Jeffrey Wolfe climbed into his treestand. It was the afternoon of November 5, 2016, and the 10-acre woodlot he was hunting was surrounded by fields of harvested corn and soybeans. With only 10 minutes of legal shooting light remaining, Jeffrey heard distinctive footfalls in the leaves behind him. He was hunting with his son Ryan on his family’s 196-acre farm, located in Queen Anne County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The farm has been in the family since his grandfather’s grandfather tilled the soil. Over the years the crops have transitioned from vegetables to primarily corn, soybeans, and wheat. The transition was predicated by the ever-growing poultry industry on the Delmarva Peninsula (Delmarva is an abbreviation of…

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