|
|
 |
 To help dedicated bowhunters everywhere celebrate their times afield and realize more success, Bowhunting World magazine has teamed up with Drury Outdoors and some of the industry’s Premium Gear Makers
to bring you
The Dream Season® Trophy Room
AND
The Ultimate Dream Season® Bowhunting Sweepstakes
1. Download your recent trophy pics (click the Dream Season® Trophy Room icon) along with a brief, detailed narrative of your memorable hunt
and you’ll become a member of the all-new Dream Season® Trophy Room.
2. Still looking for your Dream Season®? Everyone is eligible to enter the FREE
Ultimate Dream Season® Bowhunting Sweepstakes by simply registering.
(Click the Dream Season® Sweepstake icon)
Three lucky winners will receive a truly “ultimate” prize package that includes:
- PSE X-Force Dream Season® bow
- ScentBlocker Dream Season® camo suit
- Ameristep Dream Season® pop-up blind
- Nikon Sport Optics Monarch Dream Season® binocular
- One dozen Rage 2-Blade broadheads
- Set of M.A.D. Calls deer calls
- An autographed set of Drury Outdoors 2008 New Releases on DVD
Enter Now! Three separate grand prize drawings will be held during the course of the year. |
|
 |
| |
Networking Your Treestands
 It stinks getting old, and my age was showing this morning. I could not withstand the cold like I did as a teenager. After four hours of subzero wind chills, temperatures barely getting out of the single digits and, most importantly, no buck sightings, I knew it was time to ditch this stand. The midday walk would warm me up and I could wolf down my lunch to stoke my internal fire.
I had another treestand set up 600 yards away in an adjacent bend of the river and trudged toward it, each step warming my ice-cold limbs. The placement of the stand wasn’t an accident. Various factors, including the weather, modify the travel routine of whitetails in this stretch of the river. Cold temperatures often shortstop the deer closer to their food source, but other hunters, ranching activities and even coyotes alter the travel routes, causing bucks to dive into the nearest available cover. My targeted stand for the afternoon seemed like my next best option to spy a buck, but it was only one link to a network of stands I rely on throughout the bow season.
|
|
|
 |
| |
Lightning Strikes Bow Shop
 A New York archery shop and range burned down for the second time in its history after being struck by lightning over the weekend.
|
|
| |
How Many Pins For You?
 More is better. That’s the American way, so it’s no surprise that in the Cabela’s archery catalog you’ll find no fewer than 40 multi-pin bowsights, although there are fewer than 20 single-pin sights. Is it because the multi-pin sight is better? On a recent Western whitetail hunt, I’d have to say no. Breezy conditions hid the near-silent approach of the heavy-horned whitetail I’d been after all week. Glancing slowly to my farthest shooting lane, I was taken aback by the sight of the big buck already moving through that lane and heading for the next one. His fast-paced clip would put him slightly farther out that I had hoped. As he stepped again into a shooting lane, I had little time to compute the range, effects of the wind or calm my racing nerves. I tossed the bow up, anchored, and focused on one of my five pins for the shot. The outcome? I missed.
Whichever factor was the overriding reason for the miss isn’t important, but I do know that in a rapidly developing, short-range shot situation, the less you have to compute, the better your chance for success. In this case a single-pin sight would definitely have been to my advantage.
|
|
| |
Public Land Bonanza
 Can’t Find a Place to Hunt? Try Public Land!
The handwriting is on the wall. Each year more and more prime bowhunting land is put off-limits to bow benders. Some properties are developed into housing projects and shopping malls while others are sold off into increasingly smaller parcels for individual home ownership. The animal rights movement has also taken its toll by encouraging landowners to protect deer and other wildlife from hunters by posting their extensive holdings against trespass.
Indeed, 30 years ago I had three large private parcels all to myself just to bowhunt whitetails. Each was about 1,000 acres of mixed agriculture and abandoned farmland teeming with racked bucks. It was a paradise of sorts, allowing me to hunt a different section of each parcel every day. In fact, I rarely bowhunted the same cornfield or apple orchard more than once a week.
Unfortunately, each of these properties has been sold off one section at a time. Some acres have then been leased to small parties of hunters while others have been purchased for the sole purpose of providing hunting opportunities for their new owners. Of course a flood of new homes has also put a dent into the amount of available land until today I have less than 500 acres of the original 3,000-plus acres to bowhunt.
This trend is nationwide, especially around suburban and large metropolitan centers. Indeed, unless you can maintain exclusive access to private holdings, I can tell you that your bowhunting opportunities on private land are going to continue to shrink.
|
|
| |
Notes On Marginal Shots
 When Stan saw the giant buck, his mind went numb. The 8x10 antlers glittered in the golden morning sun—a maze of massive points. This was the deer of a lifetime.
The animal strutted down a trail, stopped to paw a scrape, and then veered directly toward my friend. Stan was aiming downward from his stand when the buck stopped 20 yards away. The orange, fiber optic sight settled above the deer’s elbow, and the arrow was gone in a flash. A split-instant later, the buck was racing through the hardwoods like a turpentined tomcat. It looked to be the perfect hit.
Thirty minutes later, Stan was out of his tree and snooping for his arrow. The whole fast-paced episode seemed like a distant dream. He could not remember much about the shot, but he knew it had felt good. Then he found the shaft, buried deep in the black Illinois soil. Enthusiasm turned to worry.
|
|
| |
Holt Dodges Arrow in Fraud Case
 Bowhunting personality David Holt, a former Denver police officer who left the department on disability, faced 54 years in prison and $2.5 million in fines for charges that he lied about being disabled. Instead, he will only have to pay back $135,000 and stay out of trouble for four years.
|
|
| |
Fun With Draw Length
 Archers are often advised to let their sight pins “float,” or wander over the bull’s-eye, and let the precise moment of release come as a surprise. The subconscious, or so goes the theory, is constantly attempting to center the sights on the target, and any conscious attempt to center the sights or time the release will result in flinching, punching the release, target panic, or other accuracy-robbing problems.
This approach works very well for a great many bowhunters, but it is based on the major assumption that it is impossible to hold a bow steady. Bowhunters are not machines, of course, and holding a bow immobile for any period of time, shot after shot, probably is impossible. On the other hand, it is certainly possible to hold a bow steady for short periods, or (if you can’t buy the notion of complete steadiness) to at least minimize the size of the wobble. Look at it however you like, but holding a bow steadier is a very good thing for accuracy.
A major factor in that steadiness is correct draw length. If you find that you have a difficult time keeping your sight pin on a 3-inch bull’s-eye at 20 yards, and if you are not pulling a draw weight that is too heavy for you, there is a very good chance that the problem is incorrect draw length. |
|
| |
Feeders to be Legal for Deer in Mississippi
State's deer hunters will soon be able to hunt over feeders after governor likely signs bill into law.
|
|
| |
Breaking News: NWTF Chief Rob Keck Steps Down
 The
National Wild Turkey Federation’s CEO turns in his resignation in
conjunction with firings of some high level members
(Photo courtesy of
NWTF).
|
|
| |
In Step With Mother Nature
 Changing weather conditions can help put meat in the freezer—if you know how to use them.
The cliché, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it” is as true as magnetic north. By that I mean it’s just a little off. Recent developments in monitoring, reporting and predicting weather patterns challenge the way we view the outdoors. And that’s especially good news for hunters, who are about as vulnerable to weather conditions as anyone. Today’s bowhunter can be a more effective predator by mastering two subjects: following the weather and responding to its effects. While these are vast subjects, we can do better on both “fronts” (pun intended). |
|
| |
Western Bowhunting Basics
A guide to tactics and gear for elk, mule deer, and antelope.
The West has a magnetic pull on bowhunters. It’s a place where a hunter can stretch his legs and hike through wild country without feeling crowded. The landscapes vary from short sage and prickly cactus to snow-capped mountains and aspen-covered hillsides. Hunting out West is different for many reasons.
For the Eastern whitetail hunter confined to hunting an 80-acre woodlot, the West offers thousands of acres of public land to roam. The woodlot deer hunter might have 50 yards of visibility from his stand. Out West the horizon seems endless. While an Eastern deer hunter might see a turkey or deer on an evening hunt, out West the variety of wildlife reads like Noah’s ark. Elk, mule deer, antelope, black bear, mountain lion, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, and moose are just a few of the four-legged critters roaming the Rockies. The West has much to offer, but first-timers need to go prepared. These are the basics both in technique and equipment for hunting the West’s most commonly hunted big game: elk, mule deer and antelope.
|
|
|
|
|
