“Hi Chris, I think I hit a doe tonight. Give me a call when you get a chance.” That was the message on my phone. My dad, who had finally retired from a job of 46 years the previous spring, was enjoying the well-deserved reprieve bowhunting with his favorite longbow. At the close [...]
November 17th was a blustery day in the hardwood hills of northern New Jersey. Good conditions to hide my noise and movement by the rustling leaves. However, it was getting a little late into the rut to have an un-punched tag in my pocket. Not only does the rut activity start to wane, [...]
I could barely walk. How was I going to scout, bow hunt and possibly recover a deer? What about the fact that there happened to be bear on the property? I managed to hunt hard one to two days a week for nearly three painful months and finally bagged a small buck at [...]
After a short four hours of sleep, I walked in under the grey light of a Friday morning. Halfway around the hill I froze, as I could hear antlers clicking together as a couple of young bucks sized each other up. I wanted to see them, so I slowly continued around the waist [...]
Many years ago legendary bowyer and hunter Dick Robertson wrote an article focused on defining what constitutes traditional bow hunting. No doubt the article ruffled some feathers in the traditional bow hunting community. I was relatively new to traditional bow hunting so I did not understand the importance of the topic and frankly [...]
"Dad, I think I’m ready,” Victor said one morning after shooting his recurve. “Is that a fact?” I asked with a tinge of incredulity. Lately, he had been neglecting his archery practice, preferring to play Clash of Clans with his buddies. “Show me.” We strolled out to the range behind the house, and [...]
The Santa Cruz Mountains, which run north-south just to the west of the Silicon Valley and south of San Francisco, are pinched in between the tech capital of the world and the Pacific Ocean. These mountains, which top out at a modest 3,800 feet, can be surprisingly rugged with deep canyons and steep [...]
There aren’t many bridges in the backcountry. Travel around much there and you’ll eventually have to cross some flowing water to get where you want to go, a process that can range from mildly inconvenient to outright dangerous. Experience eventually teaches that some ways are better than others. In smaller streams, the only [...]
The largest area of growth within the bowhunting community is the female contingent. Lady archers are coming on strong. That’s no surprise to me. As a fan of competitive archery, I’ve seen some impressive scores laid down by women over the years. If you happen to know a woman who has shown interest [...]
A cow elk drifted silently past, her spring calf romping along behind. Head down feeding, she was within longbow range. I watched, breathed, and relaxed as she made her way out of sight. Soon another followed her path, filling its belly in preparation for the chill high-country night to come. The main herd [...]
