For years I tried to find a lantern case that would protect my old Coleman Model 200A lantern. My father gave me this lantern over forty years ago, and it is dated as being made in 1957. The original metal cases are hard to come by, and expensive. The plastic cases of today [...]
Lots of hunters I know use surveyor's tape to mark the last known sign when trailing a wounded animal, but there's a better alternative: toilet paper. TP has several advantages in this situation: It's easy to attach to leaves and branches, even if your fingers are too cold to tie a knot. Just [...]
You’ve done your shooting homework by establishing a repeatable, torque-free grip on the bow and locating an anchor point that places the nock under your dominant eye, aligning your draw arm elbow with the arrow. You’ve mastered the proper method of pulling with your back muscles and following through after the shot. The [...]
I was cow-calling for a bull elk one September day deep in the bottom of a canyon. While there was daylight on the canyon rim 500 feet above, evening had come early to where I sat. I was well hidden in a little copse of saplings that grew by a meandering, almost silent [...]
I was working at my desk in mid-June when I got a call from my friend Virgil Vosse, who owns North Archery, from France. He said that he was one of four Parisian artisans who were being interviewed for a documentary to be aired on France’s largest television station. The kicker was he [...]
There are lots of hypotheses on how to determine the sex of a deer or elk from its footprints. The following technique was shown to me by my tracking mentors, and I have tested it on hundreds of deer, elk, hog, and a few bighorn sheep trails. When I encountered the trail of [...]
Paraffin wax, generally found near the home canning supplies, is an excellent thread-lock and “anti-seize” lubricant for steel or aluminum threads that are in contact with aluminum or brass. Most carbon and aluminum arrows have aluminum or brass inserts to add weight. Steel target points, field points, broadheads, and even aluminum screw-in or [...]
Since the age of six, Bob Swinehart had been daydreaming about bowhunting in Africa. By the time he’d reached adulthood and could make good on that childhood fantasy, he had become personal friends with a mentor who had plenty of experience hunting there—a man named Howard Hill. “As a youngster,” Swinehart writes, “I [...]
I sharpen my broadheads until they can pass what I refer to as the “sticky” test. I balance the edge and weight of the broadhead on a fingernail and apply a small amount of force. If the edge sticks in place and does not move, it’s “sticky” sharp. If the broadhead scoots off [...]
Buying targets and setting up an archery range can cost thousands of dollars. In this piece, I’d like to share how to create inexpensive targets and a fun way to set up a challenging archery range that can surely boost your hunting accuracy. A few years ago I read about the Muzzy Invitational [...]
