When a hunter goes into the woods, he is at a disadvantage. The game he pursues has better eyesight, an ability to hear at greater distances, and a far more acute nose. Game animals also have a natural instinct to sense danger. One way a hunter tries to tilt the odds in his [...]
I call this story “Alaska on Layaway” because that’s the best way I can describe how a blue-collar guy like myself could afford such an Alaskan adventure. It all started with a call to Denis Zadra with Lonesome Dove Outfitters in Cordova, Alaska during the winter of 2016. I knew I couldn’t afford [...]
I hate not having something I need when I’m hunting. Unfortunately, the choice often seems to be either toting around a good-sized pack or doing without something I need. By finding compact, light gear that still gets the job done, though, you can have both mobility and the stuff you wish you had [...]
“Woof!” The sound sent a chill down my spine. I looked over my shoulder to see a large, hungry looking grizzly bear watching me intently from directly across the river. I turned my head momentarily to warn Mike. “Bear!” I whispered. As I looked back at the bear, he stood up on his [...]
I have read a lot of stories in outdoor magazines (including the unbeatable Traditional Bowhunter Magazine) that shout high praise for the merits of hunting feral hogs. I agree with the praise for hunting them, but they come with downsides. Growing up in south-central Oklahoma, I did not realize until recently how well [...]
Grizzly tracks paved the dusty mule trails, in places erasing all sign of the heavy camp traffic. As dusk pulled shadows from the forest, I saw my first elk print. We’d been more than 20 miles in the saddle when we dismounted and tugged panniers, then pack-saddles, into the tack tent. To find [...]
The alarm had been going off for some time when I finally reached around to hit the snooze button. I should have been bouncing out of bed. It was the second week of November, and for a bowhunter, this is the time of year dreamt about during those other 50 weeks. The whitetail [...]
"I will never go back to that place!” had barely slipped past my lips before my buddy, Fink, and I started debating our September hunt. The past three springs I had hunted bears in central Idaho. The short version is that I’d just spent two weeks hunting bears, saw a boar on the [...]
Target panic is one of those topics sure to elicit a wide range of responses. Some people will perk to attention, while others will run like a little girl being chased by a spider. There are people who know it exists—usually because they suffer from it—and others who consider it a fairy tale. [...]
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 [...]
