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 [...]
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 [...]
Most folks do not like to carry guns when bowhunting. However, bowhunters can get into situations where more lethal weaponry is desirable, especially when hunting in bear country. The most common bear in North America is the black bear. While this species does not usually attack people, there are times when even they [...]
Some years back, a friend came out from the East Coast to go cougar hunting. The morning after he arrived, we set out early and were fortunate enough to strike a good track. By the time the hounds were out of hearing range, he was struggling to keep up with me as we [...]
Sliding through an opening in the underbrush with his delicate longbow and well-worn back quiver, the hunter eased into a clearing as he scanned his new surroundings with silent, determined intent. The dense, humid air caused a trickle of sweat to roll down from his sideburns as the buzz of mosquitoes and gnats [...]
Start with a reference photo and a ruler. Lay out and trim your foam to the approximate size of your completed target. Attach pieces with glue, expandable foam or tape. Over several decades of traditional bowhunting, I developed a strong desire to know as much as possible about my quarry. When [...]
The wide-racked herd bull stood facing me at six yards, moaning, drooling, and mooing like an Angus. A string of slobber nearly reached the ground as he rocked back and forth. I knelt behind a three-foot spruce with my longbow, hoping for a shot opportunity on this last morning of a long season. [...]
While a few of us still shoot with bare fingers, most traditional bowhunters soon learn that archery is a lot more accurate and comfortable with something between the fingers of your dominant arm and the bowstring. The choices are pretty simple: tab or glove? Once that decision is made, not many change, and [...]
The man on the Yukon trail wasn’t worried. “Fifty degrees below zero was to him nothing more than 50 degrees below zero.” He would be at camp, with friends and a fire, by evening. Winter’s sun was elsewhere, the whiteness oddly dark. Morning wore on without marking time. The man’s spit crackled in [...]
I was around 10 years old when I established some of my first campfire cooking skills. There were two distinct memories from those times which I suspect formed the basis of my campfire culinary career. The first was an early fall bowhunt for grouse in the pine sandhills a couple miles from our [...]
