Bowhunterの July 2025 の目次

HONOR and bowhunting go hand in hand. Most often, we think of honoring the sport and the animals we pursue by hunting legally and ethically, always giving our best effort and doing everything in our power to follow up on the shot. We also can honor our bowhunting passion through conservation efforts, working for the betterment of the game species we love and the wild places they call home. Generally speaking, I believe it is good that we maintain an outward focus on the sport, the animals and the habitat when thinking about honor and bowhunting. However, it’s also proper for the bowhunting community to honor our own when accomplishments are worthy of such honor. While I certainly do not want to diminish the various bowhunting awards programs that honor…

TAKE YOUR AIM! Morrell Targets Kinetic X If you shoot one of today’s high-speed crossbows, you absolutely must own a target capable of stopping your shots and allowing you to retrieve the bolt without getting a hernia! Enter the Kinetic X from Morrell Targets, a durable and affordable bag target designed to stop shots traveling up to 500 fps, along with super easy arrow and bolt removal. This fieldpoint-only target is a 16x16x16-inch cube that weighs 51 pounds and offers more than 50 shooting spots spread across four sides for long target life. The target features a weather-resistant polypropylene cover and a built-in carry handle. $109.99 | morrelltargets.com Big Shot Targets X-Ray Series Mule Deer Realistic practice is one of the keys to bowhunting success, and practice doesn’t get any…

BOWTECH JUMPED into the premium bow market as part of its 25th Anniversary celebration in 2024 with the Honor, a limited-edition rig made with high-end materials, sold with advanced accessories and contributing a portion of the proceeds to the Folds of Honor Foundation. This year, Bowtech made a big splash at the 2025 ATA show when they introduced a similar premium bow — the Virtue. Built using the same AeroMag magnesium material found in the Honor, the Virtue’s lightweight frame features Bowtech’s signature Center Pivot design with updated CenterMass Technology. A set of carbon/glass split limbs work with the DeadLock cam system to generate advertised arrow speeds of 341 fps, while the GripLock grip offers a custom shooter-to-bow interface. Bowtech tops off the Virtue with all titanium fasteners. Let’s dive…

WHAT CAN YOU SAY that gives enough credit to a living bowhunting icon? After more than five decades of writing for Bowhunter Magazine, Conservation Editor Dr. David Samuel — long known affectionately to many simply as “Dr. Dave” — has decided it is time to finish his writing career on his terms. Born in Johnstown, Pa., in 1940, Dr. Dave started bowhunting with his trusty Bear Grizzly recurve when he was 12 years old. It was 1952, and only one year after Pennsylvania held its first archery deer season, a bucks-only season for which 5,542 hunters bought licenses. Four years later, in 1956, Dr. Dave shot his first deer, a spike. Now, nearly seven full decades later, there’s no telling how many deer and other big-game animals Dr. Dave has…

TENPOINT approached the design of its new-for-2025 TX 28 with a laser focus on accuracy, bringing all the company’s top technologies together to create a high-performance rig that is powerful and precise. The TX 28’s lethality begins with TenPoint’s dual-plate, Twin-Riser Technology working in harmony with the Zero-Trac Barrel and GUIDElock bolt rest. A no-look flip of the AR-style thumb safety and light pressure on the Trigger Tech Trigger sets the machine in motion and sends 410-grain bolts burning down range at an advertised 410 fps. Double Plated At the heart of TenPoint’s new TX 28 is Twin-Riser Technology (TRT) that employs symmetrical twin aluminum riser plates, top and bottom, that take the place of a traditional, single-piece riser. A reduction in mass weight, significant increase in stiffness and 70…

“THERE WERE NO EMBRACES, BECAUSE WHERE THERE IS GREAT LOVE THERE IS OFTEN LITTLE DISPLAY OF IT.” — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote IN PART ONE of this column, I mentioned that if I were asked to give one piece of advice to a novice bowhunter and told my recommendations could not be about hunting techniques, equipment or shooting, I would counsel him to choose your hunting buddies wisely. I have been fortunate to have a core group of old, good friends. These are folks I would trust with my life. For this I am a little astounded, and profoundly grateful! I am astonished only because, most of the time, I could (and should) be a better friend. Perhaps I am just good at choosing “givers” instead of “takers”…

FAT BROWN antlers appeared above a ridge 40 yards away. The rack glittered like a flame in the sunlight. I grabbed an arrow from my hip quiver and snapped it on the bowstring. My heart was in my throat. This was my third trip for Montana mule deer in 2024. September had been a bust, with very few bucks sighted — and no big ones. I shot a huge bull elk late in the month but headed home to Wyoming with an unfilled deer tag in my pocket. I tried again in mid-October, near the end of Montana’s archery season. Six days of glassing and hiking steep slopes turned up a dozen mature bucks, but nothing I wanted to shoot. I am a challenge-oriented guy, and I had set my…

MANY MODERN CROSSBOWS come fully assembled and pre-sighted, with all the essential equipment and accessories to get started. Upon opening the box, it takes only minutes to get organized and start shooting. While it is recommended you review the owner’s manual or look up an online video for proper use, the convenience of not having to set up and tune the bow is a significant benefit to horizontal hunters. However, that does not mean you can get away without practicing. Knowing your crossbow intimately helps ensure positive hunting results. Archery is a game of good form, consistency and practice. There are shortcuts in life, but the little details you can practice often make the difference between success and heartache in the field. Before heading out to hunt, it’s crucial to…

WHEN I WAS in my early 20s, I went hunting with Mike Palmer in Texas. I was a sponge and trying to learn as much as I could from this amazing bowyer and traditional hunter. After hunting one evening, when we got back to the lodge, I watched as Mike unstrung his recurve and hung it up. I asked Mike, “Do I need to unstring my bow?” Mike responded, “No, it’s OK to leave yours strung.” Trying to learn, but not wanting to be a pain, I asked Mike, “Why did you unstring yours?” Mike responded with a straight face, “If I don’t unstring mine, it will sneak out and kill something tonight!” After Mike and his friends (all fellow traditional bowhunters) had a good laugh at my expense, I…

ES VERY ONCE in a while, something truly novel comes along in the hunting world. Compound bows, treestands, trail cameras and laser rangefinders changed the way we hunt. Now, a new tool is poised to change the way hunters recover game. Track’n Trail is an app that uses the digital imaging capabilities of your smartphone to see blood you can’t and generate real-time alerts when blood is detected. That’s right — your phone can now help you track wounded game. Bill Pelligrino, owner of the legendary Archery Hut in Colorado Springs, Colo., said Track’n Trail is “like a metal detector for blood.” Track’n Trail isn’t just another GPS or mapping app. It’s a full game-recovery system powered by patent-pending technology that helps hunters ethically recover downed animals by giving them…

“YOU DREW THAT UNIT FOR ANTELOPE?” my brother quipped. It wasn’t a reply of optimism but rather a passive way of asking why I ever applied for the hunt. This particular New Mexico Game Management Unit was vast, with scant numbers of pronghorns. Unlike most antelope hunts, finding animals was not going to be a simple task. Adding in the reality that I would be spot-and-stalk bowhunting made the odds of tagging a buck seem even bleaker. Acknowledging my brother, I said, “It’s not going to be easy, but it only takes one.” The Search Begins With brilliant cracks of lightning littering the night sky, I made the solo drive to my unit. Getting to where I wanted to start in the morning, I pulled off the two-track road and…

JUST BECAUSE most binoculars come with a strap doesn’t mean you should use it. After all, bowhunting isn’t a walk in the park or a bird-watching expedition; it’s a high-impact action sport that often involves not just strenuous hiking and tree climbing but rock scrambling, sprinting, fence jumping, belly crawling and shooting. If you’ve ever attempted such activities with binoculars dangling from a strap around your neck, you know it’s a serious safety hazard — for your binos and for you! That’s why most modern bowhunters employ a bino harness of some sort, allowing you to keep your optic at the ready while also protecting it and holding it securely against your body. The number of high-quality bino harness options has exploded in recent years, but the latest offering from…