“Bowhunting connects me to the ways of the past and my ancestors.” “I choose to bowhunt for the more primitive aspect.” Hearing those statements from a modern day bowhunter may make you shake your head and chuckle. It’s not an altogether inaccurate statement, as there is certainly some truth behind it. However, it [...]
Eight doe antelope streamed by 12 yards from the shooting hole in the ground blind, heading straight to my decoy. I jerked the black face mask down over my face in the sweltering 99-degree heat. The buck had to be close. Losing patience, I lowered my head to peek through a slit in [...]
There have been specific scenarios after hiking into a particular area that contained a lake or stream system that I’ve found myself wishing I had some sort of watercraft to maximize the area’s potential. However, the majority of the time a traditional canoe or kayak is just out of the question. But what [...]
Many archers like to use a back quiver for roving or the 3-D range, but dislike them for hunting. Their reasons are numerous: My arrows rattle around and make noise. My heads get dull from banging together. When I bend over, my arrows fall out. Withdrawing an arrow flags game. My exposed arrows [...]
A multitude of emotions and thoughts besiege a bowhunter in the immediate aftermath of the successful strike of an arrow; elation, a sense of accomplishment, an appreciation of the animal and the experience, maybe even shakiness as the adrenaline rush recedes. Usually too, concerns about the length and difficulty of the trail pop [...]
When you’re daydreaming it never seems like it ought to be all that difficult to get an arrow into a decent mule deer, but the fact is very few animals are what you would call easy with a bow and arrow. I shot a decent one a couple of years ago, but I [...]
For hundreds and probably thousands of years, native people of the southeastern United States used river cane for many important material goods. It was used to make dwellings, it was split and woven into strong mats and baskets, it was shaved on one side to make razor-sharp knives, and made into blowguns, spears, [...]
When people think of bowfishing, the image most will conjure up in their heads involves a boat and spotlights, trolling along a lake or river in the dead of night. Yet, that wasn’t how I began bowfishing and to this day is not my preferred method of shooting fish. I started out bowfishing [...]
It was just after 5 p.m. on Halloween when I slipped into the tall grass on the edge of a 30-acre cut corn field. A strong wind gusted from the north and gave me a clean entry from the southeastern edge of the field. The noise of my steps was covered, and my [...]
I am not a gadget guy or an equipment junkie. I usually settle on a good solid tool for the job and stick with it until it wears out. For instance, I’ve been shooting the same bow for eleven years. I have others, but they are sitting on a bow rack gathering dust. [...]
