Easy Field Clean Up
After field dressing game, whether a deer or a couple of squirrels, it's nice to have some soap and water handy for washing.
Adjustable Bow Rack
I have a nice traditional bow and arrow rack in my office for off-season display. However, when the whitetail deer bowhunting season approaches, I want to have my hunting equipment out of harm’s way, but handy in the garage so I can easily step out the door and practice in my backyard archery [...]
A Fungus Among Us — Mushroom Hunting
Among the most delectable meals I've ever enjoyed was a roast jake turkey with a creamed morel-wine sauce, brewed up by Chef Don Thomas using wild ingredients he'd harvested himself. Every spring across much of America, in parallel with turkey season, foragers are blessed with the brief annual return of the exquisite morel [...]
Smooth Leading Edge
If you shoot a selfbow without an arrow shelf, you may have experienced feathers cutting your finger. Worse, you may have run a quill a ways into your finger. This happens when the leading edge of the lower hen feather is slightly lifted off the arrow or has a sharp edge to it. [...]
Straighten That Arrow
On occasion, I need to straighten an arrow. Since necessity is the mother of invention, I made an arrow straightening tool. I used a 36" piece of 1x6" pine and about 7" of a 1-inch diameter dowel. I made the body about 24" long, and I ripped the remaining 12" to make two [...]
Bear Aware
Anyone who spends time afield in Alaska should be acutely aware that they are sharing the environment with black, brown, and grizzly bears, prevalent along any stream that has a salmon run, in the alpine blueberry patches, and from the tidelines of the Southeast panhandle to the slopes of the Brooks Range. Not [...]
Donning Rain Pants
During hunting season in Indiana, the weather changes constantly. In order to be prepared for anything, I pack a light rain suit (Frogg Toggs) that takes up very little space and is easy to carry. However, when the rain starts to fall, pulling the rain pants over my boots can be a problem. [...]
Natural Ground Cover
Don't treat fallen trees like this as mere obstacles to be circumnavigated. They can make terrific blinds. I used this one to call in a bull elk. He never saw me. I am a big believer in utilizing available cover. When I find some, I tend to sit on a stump or a [...]
Thoughts On Turkey Shots
As hunting wild turkeys becomes more popular, I talk to quite a few folks who really like to pursue the big birds with bow and arrow. After hunting turkeys for thirty or so years, I think they are the finest game birds that a bowhunter can hunt. They can be extremely tough once [...]
Brace Height Check
In the field, and especially while hunting, I rarely carry my bow square. A while back I got into the habit of putting a thin black line at my brace height when I crest my arrows. No matter where I go, or what the weather conditions may be, I always have a fast [...]