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in reply to: Quiver options #17896

I absolutely love my SafariTuff Arrowmaster side quiver. I used it with my BisonGear pack during turkey season and it worked really well. I haven’t made my mind up yet if I am going to use it for the fall elk hunt. I use a Mystery Ranch Crewcab and I haven’t tried the Arrowmaster with it yet.Here is a picture of the quiver…

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in reply to: Who names their bows? #10012

“Elk Medicine” is the name on my heavy (65lb)
Black Widow Longbow.

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in reply to: New Shrew #62648

Ah, the return of dear Alex Bugnon! It is so good to see you on here once again and to announce that you have a sweet shooting Shrew, fantastic! Look forward to seeing you around here in the fall, chasing the magnificent wapiti… I took Dave’s tent off your hands but he sure has made up for it with a sweet camper…Good to see that all is well Alex, T

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in reply to: New bowhunter born today! #56369

Hey everyone, thank you so much for your kind words. Josh congrats on your new baby as well! RH, Happy Birthday bro…
We finally got some much needed rest and I wanted to get my Tradbow fix real quick and noticed that Dave had mentioned my little boy being born. Dave, it will only be a matter of time before he calls you Uncle like Isaiah…
Here is a picture of the future little TRADITIONAL bowhunter. T

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in reply to: Hunting & Spirituality #48303

Homer said, “No matter your religion or lack of, how you feel about hunting and the hunted makes me proud to be among you guys.”

Well said Homer, I couldn’t agree more. I too am extremely proud to be amongst this fine group of bowhunters…

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in reply to: Hunting & Spirituality #47399

Quite an interesting topic to say the least. I appreciate and respect all of the previous posts. One of the wonderful aspects of traditional bowhunting is how individual it is. This thread reminded me that spirituality should be an individual thing as well.
In regards to my spirituality, well I am a Christ follower who surrendered many years ago and as a result, have been transformed into a person far different than I was as a youth. I have seen this change in every facet of my life, particularly in my walk as a traditional bowhunter. I am more inclined to try to live out my faith as opposed to talking about it…
Every September, I head out into the mountains to enjoy every aspect of God’s creation. I also utilize this time as a means to restore my soul by being still and having God “walk with me quietly and walk with me slow.” I only experience this wonderful blessing by hunting alone or with my family. Seeing the sun rise and sun set for a month will do that to you…Yet, I see another side to this spirituality, I do acknowledge the predator/prey relationship and I do feel that there is profound spiritual aspect to taking an animal’s life and I thank the beautiful animal for giving its life to me. God is with me and guiding me but I have learned a long time ago that there is little or no justice within the natural/animal world. I don’t pray to take an animal’s life, I pray in gratitude and humility for the experience of the hunt. I do feel a sense of brotherhood to the animals we hunt, particularly elk, because they are the primary animal I have hunted most of my life. Simply, my beliefs are mine and the last thing I want to do is push them onto others as the only way to experience spirituality while hunting. I love that hunting is so personal and private. I thought I would share this side of me for a change…

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in reply to: Turkey season starts this saturday #36371

Dave–That is good news to hear you got into birds once again. I looked out the window and up the canyon a couple of hours ago, saw the snow and wondered if you were hunting up there this morning. Cool! Yeah those dekes can get you into trouble sometimes, I stopped carrying mine in my pack just so I wouldn’t even be tempted to use it. I believe it is better to have the Toms search for you within the canopy of the trees…

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in reply to: Turkey season starts this saturday #36364

One more picture that Trey took without me knowing.

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in reply to: Turkey season starts this saturday #36361

Yesterday morning, I headed out early to hunt the roost in a spot that is usually crawling with other hunters. Another friend of mine Trey, who also recently became a traditional bowhunter, joined me as we headed to a particular ridge where you can usually hear Toms gobbling in the roost. We were greeted almost immediately with a couple of birds gobbling their heads off, including one that was within 150 yards of us…I planted the seed and gave a few clucks to let the birds know that there were hens around. After the closest Tom headed off in another direction in search of the real thing, we pressed on, headed up the ridge towards another gobbling Tom. All of a sudden, He gobbled and it was so loud that I knew he was about to make an appearance. Trey and I scrambled to the quickest hiding place we could find. I crouched down behind two pine trees and gave a couple of clucks…The next moment, I heard the unmistakable sound of a strutting Tom…He was here but I had not seen him yet. I tapped on my leg at Trey and mouthed silently, “He is here!” The Tom gobbled again and I looked up and all I could see was the top of his feathers as he moved ghost like through the trees. I knew right away that he wasn’t coming in to us, he was on another course. I stood up and weaved through the trees looking for a shot opportunity. The Tom was following a hen that I didn’t see at first and they were within 25 yards. I finally cleared the final tree for a shot and I came to full draw at the strutting Tom, immediately the hen saw me and took off. The Tom came out of strut and I decided to take a head shot. I released the arrow and watched it go right by the bird’s head. The two birds headed off quickly to parts unknown. What a fun morning! A few minutes later Trey spotted two birds headed down a gully, we tried unsuccessfully to bring them in. Right after the latest bird sighting, I looked up and saw a Cross carved into a tree. Despite hunting this place for several years, I had never noticed the Cross. Awesome…As many of you know, yesterday was Good Friday. I thought I would share…

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in reply to: Turkey season starts this saturday #36330

Well after three straight years of the turkey hunting not being what it once was, this year has been an absolutely fantastic time chasing the Mountain Merriams. My time hunting them is almost over however as our family is expecting the birth of our third son any day now…I wanted to share a couple of experiences with all you fine folks.
A friend of mine Doug Krueger, who just recently started hunting turkey with his recurve, killed a beautiful Tom on the third day of the hunt! Doug is a turkey hunting fanatic and is simply the finest turkey hunter I have ever had the fortune of hunting with. Here is a picture of His Tom.

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in reply to: Turkey season starts this saturday #15134

Skeleton.

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in reply to: Turkey season starts this saturday #15133

Here are a few pictures of what Dave was talking about in regards to turkey vitals…

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in reply to: Black Widow Advise #9751

I own two of their Longbows and I definitely unstring them every time…My father also owns a 1990’s BW recurve and he unstings it when he isn’t shooting it regularly…I firmly believe that Black Widow is advising this practice with their recurves because they have seen a ton of bows come back to them with twisted limbs. Furthermore, they have confidence in their retaining their poundage when strung, so this is why they say this. Personally, with a good bow stringer, I would unstring the recurve most of the time. I probably wouldn’t unstring the bow during a 30 day hunt but other than that, I would unstring it as much as possible. My two cents…

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in reply to: Mule Deer Rut #54843

Dennis, around our parts here in southern Colorado, the mule deer rut is just getting started by Nov. 14th. It might be a little early but the rut is right around the corner. The bucks have shed their velvet by then and are engaging in the last of their pre-rut rituals. However, it might be a bit different up in Alberta…Valerius Geist has an excellent book called Mule Deer Country and he claims that the mule deer rut is usually in full swing by the 15th of Nov. I highly recommend this excellent book, it is a tremendous source of information on all things mule deer. T

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in reply to: atv riding #50612

Yeah Hiram, well said my friend! And then to show the final scene in Jeremiah Johnson, oh bro, those final scenes speak a thousand words in tribute to the mountain and those of us who are blessed enough to get there…

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