I was sitting on a saddle over four miles into a small wilderness area in eastern Oregon, watching the sun descend in the sky. A brisk wind blew steadily in my face giving the thin air at 7,000 feet a little sting to my cheeks. Every half hour I let out a couple of [...]
Near the end of a long spit stretching out almost 4.5 miles into Kachemak Bay from the fishing town of Homer, Alaska near the tip of the Kenai peninsula sits a small, A-framed roofed building. This is the “World Headquarters” of Homer Ocean Charters, a well-known and highly respected charter and adventure company [...]
Getting kids involved in archery (particularly in bowhunting) is one of my life’s primary goals. As a single dad, I influence and mold my children in countless ways. Since they have no other parental role model, I really have to watch my Ps and Qs. There is no buffer. In front of my [...]
Mosquito wings screamed a high-pitched buzz in my ear and I expected to feel the insect’s bite at any second. I was frozen in a crouched position, looking like a scientist’s drawing of the missing link between primitive apes and modern man. Indeed, I felt primitive, drenched in sweat and stalking my quarry [...]
Like most bowhunters, I started out small; a hand-me-down recurve, a few scattered arrows, and limited knowledge passed down from my dad and an uncle. My dad was a traditional bowhunter, but back in the early '70s it seemed that everyone was. Although he wasn't a great hunter, he gave me a good [...]
There has been a controversy in bowhunting history circles since 1989 when Bill Negley published Archer in Africa. Two questions were central to Negley’s claims in the book, and there was a chapter dedicated to each: Would it Really be the First? What about Howard Hill? and What about Bob Swinehart? respectively. Who was [...]
In the fall of 1994, I received a phone call out of the blue from a man who identified himself as Dick in a rich Texas drawl that reminded me of my own parents, who had deep roots in the Lone Star State. He explained that he was in the area with family [...]
Growing up as one of four daughters in a family dedicated to traditional longbows, I have been shooting a bow since I was able to pull one back and have been an avid hunter since age thirteen. Most thirteen-year-old girls spent their fall weekends with friends at football games, but I spent mine [...]
All I can hear is my heart pounding in my chest, resonating into my head. My breathing is deep and shaky as I watch this huge figure emerge from the thick, wet scrub not ten yards away. Front on and roaring hard, the giant 14 point New Zealand wild red stag belts his [...]
"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." -Ernest Hemingway I'm sitting in our den next to the wood stove in what my wife, Valerie, and I fondly refer to as a "heat coma." The snow and bitter cold has me [...]
