Bowcountry.com E_Journal Dec Issue

MY VERY OWN

ANCIENT ARROWHEADS 2011 SUCCESS STORIES

Editorial Staff Editor in Chief Chris Maroldy-Swamp Fox

Editorial

Bow Season

Managing Editors Mike McCombie & Jeff Sagehorn

contributing Editors “Jon” Jon Burgess “btmdeerslayer” Brett Mcguire “Bluecat” Jay Francis “TxHunter” Kevin Engler “Hunter_orange” Christian Gittens “Hunter” Ted Evans “Farmgirl” Jessica Calaway “BAA” Mark Lee Kenny Hollingsworth Ventilator “XJCraver”

Contributing Companies Bowfishingcountry.com American Eagle Bows Bowfishingassociation Gulf Coast Archery 5150 Bows Bowcountry.com Eagle Eye Archery

I

s starting to wind down for many of us and hopefully many of you were successful of at least putting some meat in the freezer. For those you that were lucky enough to bag that trophy youʼve seen so many times on your trail cameras, congrats!!

After reading a few threads on Bowcountry.com Iʼve learned a successful hunting season means different things to different people. For some itʼs all about bagging as many deer as they can before the final bell rings. For others itʼs about harvesting that trophy theyʼve been watching any way they possibly can. And for some itʼs about outwitting their prey and harvesting their deer with their preferred weapon of choice. My point is hunting means different things to different people, and we as hunters should respect other hunters point of views even if we donʼt alway agree with them.

For me personally hunting is about family and friends and the outdoors. The harvest is not the climax for me, itʼs journey. The harvest usually marks the end of the hunt, the end of time spent with family and friends. The Journey is where all the laughs, failures and memories take place.

I personally didnʼt get to do as much hunting as I would have liked, but I did manage to put a couple deer in the freezer while spending a little time with my family and friends. Even though it was shorter than I wanted, I made some great memories with my son and close hunting buddy Jeff and for me thatʼs a successful hunting season.

I hope however you gauge your success, you had a successful hunting season ;-) Mike McCombie Co~Founder & Managing Editor

Cover Photo by MARK LEE

bowcountry.com

s e r u t a e F s n m Colu

07 12 14 27 32 34 37 44

Hot Products

By Bowcountry.com

BC ~ Tech Tips

By Jon Burgess

AW’s Beer Review

By Awmiller

Scent Sense

By Jay Francis

On The Wall

By Jeff Sagehorn

Behind The Keyboard

By Jon Burgess

What’s Cooking

By Chris Maroldy

10 16 18 21 22 28 38 40

2010 Hunting Season I......

By KyHunter

The Point Is To Pay Attention

By OKY

The Misadventures Of Jen

By Woodsbaby

My Very Own Hogzilla

By Kevin Engler

Pronghorn Rutting Tips

By Elk Mountain Gear

So You Shot A Deer.....

By Kevin Engler

The Keystone Cops Go hunting

By Dana Denton

Hooters Hunts A Hoss

By Jim Grubba

Spy Cam Pics Of The Month

By Mike McCombie

Photo by Mark Lee

Cover Photo Contest To submit photos for cover photo contest send your photos to : Mike@bowcountry.com by submitting photos you authorize the Bowcountry.com to reproduce them

Bowcountry.com

-- A Sailor aboard the auxiliary command ship USS Coronado (AGF 11), command ship for U.S. Third Fleet, keeps a vigilant watch near the entrance of San Diego Harbor. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 1st Class Palmer Pinckney.

Bowcountry.com

http://youtu.be/ud-at_mpGSU

Bowcountry.com

Scorpyd Telson 165# Limbs Draw Weight: 165 Arrow Speed 425fps Kinetic Energy 160lbs Axle to Axle 15.5 (cocked) 20.5” Power Stroke 37.5” Overall Length

Winchester Quicksilver 34 It is possible to have it all. Smokin’ speed with rock-solid stability, no vibration or hand shock, and a shot so quiet it would make a church mouse blush. This well balanced bow will be a winner on the target line and a killer in the woods. The Quicksilver 34 is the ultimate bowhunter’s bow.

Tech Specs Axle to Axle 34" Brace Height 7" Speed 343 fps Draw Length 27" - 30" Draw Weight 50-60-70 Mass Weight 3.9 lbs.

Let-Off 55% - 80%

Bowcountry.com

Hawg Lite Marauder System The Marauder Lighting System is the most sophisticated lighting system ever designed with the bow hunter in mind! Powered by 3AAA batteries, it's 3watt LEDs provide light sufficient to shoot your bow up to 50 yards accurately at night!

Three interchangeable LED heads provide your choice of red, green or bright white light. Our unique bow mount allow the Marauder to be mounted and used on any bow, modern or traditional, that has a standard 5/16x24 threaded hole.

The Marauder is activated by a pressure sensitive switch mounted on the grip, this allows you to draw the bow and get set before turning on the light. You can also remove the Marauder from your bow and install the included tailcap switch which allows use of the Marauder as a premium quality flashlight! The Marauder also mounts on virtually any rifle with our rifle mounting kit

G5 T3 Expandable • • • • •

All-steel 3-blade mechanical broadhead Maintains the flight profile of a field tip 1-1/2" cutting diameter Full pass-through with most bows Spider Clips allow you to pre-tune blade deployment • No O-rings • No pre-deployment • Compatible with shoot-thru mesh.

All-steel 3-blade mechanical maintains the flight profile of a field tip yet does incredible damage: 1-1/2" cutting diameter plus full pass-through with most bows.

Spider Clips allow you to pre-tune blade deployment to your liking. No O-rings, no pre-deployment.

Compatible with shoot-thru mesh.

Bowcountry.com

Bowcountry.com

2010 A Hunting Season I won’t forget..........Or will I

By KYHUNTER

Last season, my wife showed me a notice that the water company had placed on our front door.

I’d seen the tag on the doorknob when I pulled in, but I forgot to grab it when I came in through the garage. “I told you we have a water leak,” she proclaimed. “See, 14,000 gallons this month!”

Honestly, I had forgotten that she’d mentioned it---four months prior. She called several local plumbers a few days later and asked what their rates were for repairs. When she told me she had contacted RH Plumbing, I told her we wouldn’t use his services. “He tried to rip us off about four years ago when we had the basement plumbing roughed in,” I informed her. “How in the world do you remember that?” she responded. “You forget everything.”

Ah, yes. She was right, though I’d never admit it to her. The whole season had been a year of forgetting “things.” Most of these things directly affected my ability to hunt, though. At one point, I actually had a list on the refrigerator titled “Hunting She-ot I’ve left somewhere.” If this is some kind of sick insight as to what my mind is going to be like in 20 years, I’m really screwed.

The first few weeks of the season went without incident. I actually had everything together and was able to kill a nice doe two days after the opener. A few weeks later, my buddy was walking me to his stand early one morning and “forgot” where he hung it. Lovely. No worries, though. I somehow settled in to my ambush before daybreak but forgot to take my screw in quiver mount out of the tree upon leaving. It remains there today.

Then, just days before Halloween, I forgot to put on rain pants as I left the truck in a moderate rain. That mistake ended up costing me a cell phone and about four inches of water in each boot. Fortunately, this made at least some impression on me, but it was hard to see any evidence of that for the next few weeks.

I hunted my lease hard and often over that time, and with the property slightly over an hour away from home, it was paramount that I not leave anything behind before getting on the road. I spent four days in early November hunting

Bowcountry.com

there, staying in my buddy’s camper. I stayed alone except for the first afternoon, when he joined me for a quick hunt. I arrived at mid-morning to hang a lock-on that should have been hung two or three weeks prior.

hour before I stood to stretch and heard a metal clang.

It was a carabiner hitting my stand, which clued me in that I had forgotten to attach it to my safety harness. But hell, at least I had it!

As luck would have it, however, “someone” had left the strap for the stand in the four-wheeler when he made a special trip out there to hang it. That turned out to be a good thing. Since he had to come out anyway, he was able to make a stop on the way and pick up the extra contacts, socks, sleeping bag and pillow for me that I had forgotten at home.

The morning of my last day out started predictably. I made it to my stand, and setting my compound bow down, I noticed it looked odd. Ah yes, the quiver. The quiver that I’d used the day before with my recurve was …(guess)… in the back cab of my truck. I rushed back as quickly and quietly as possible and found the quiver.

At least I had remembered to take the aluminum arrows out of it and put my carbons back in! I was so proud of myself that I didn’t beat myself up too much. I HAD remembered something (in time, that is)!

My mind continued to slip throughout the season. I have no idea how many times I set out without batteries and a memory card to switch out at one of my trail cameras. One evening I made it to my blind only to “remember” my chair was still in the back of the truck.

Another evening I started my climb up a nice red oak overlooking a huge field and “remembered” my entire safety harness was…wait for it…still in the truck. At least at this point I still HAD my safety harness. A few weeks later, I left the rope you wrap around the tree and tie into…let’s see...Yep, at the base of another tree, on another farm. I regained possession of this for only a few days before I forgot the entire harness in a cornfield when helping my buddy drag out a buck. I got it back about a full month later.

Things progressively got worse. In December I made a trip to another farm 45 miles from home only to “remember” my hunting boots were still in the garage.

That hunt turned out to be just a modest donation to the oil companies. Days later I nearly cost myself a small fortune when I loaded my four-wheeler onto the trailer and forgot to put the pin through the tongue to keep everything from tilting backwards. I drove it to camp a full mile in blissful ignorance, without incident, and just happened to catch my mistake as I was loading everything up to leave for home. (Everything, that is, except my sleeping bag, which is still back there, in the camper.)

The hunt was un-eventful with the exception of a few squirrels running laps around me. After a few hours, the light mist turned into a heavier rain. I was in no mood for cell phone shopping again, so I decided to call it quits. I began to remove my lock-on, and my thin, puny, good-for-nothing but very-nicely camouflaged gloves had to come off to untie the haul rope. A few moments later I was finished and headed out, hunting/stalking/ scouting on way. Now, where had I put those gloves?

I searched frantically. If I looked for two minutes I looked for thirty. I turned leaves over and looked everywhere! Man, was I aggravated! And disappointed.

These gloves weren’t great for anything, but I wasn’t going to let my slipping mind win another one, not on the last day. Not after my small victory replacing the aluminum arrows with carbon, matching my arrows to my bow. Finally, though, I caved. Life is short, and half an hour is enough to spend on a pair of gloves, right?

They had holes in them, anyway, and I had a nice new pair in my pack. I grabbed my gear and set out.in the rain.

Later, I patted my pockets down. Gloves! I’d stashed them in a safe place under my rain pants, inside my bib pockets. Smart, huh? But hey, at least I remembered to put my rain pants on that day!

One Saturday I climbed all the way up to my perch only to pull my bow rope up with nothing in tow. This is hardly fun, and even worse when using a climber!

Another time I was sitting in my stand for a full half-

Bowcountry.com

Basic Bow Tuning.....

By Jon Burgess

Following the first installment of Tech Tips, where we discussed initial setup of your new bow, we will go over basic bow tuning. In the first volume, I described how to get your new bow set-up to the point of going to the range and dialing it in, which is where weʼll head now.

Please keep in mind, there are many ways to perform bow tuning. I will explain the procedure I use which I hope helps you to get your new bow ready to shoot and shoot well.

You will need a few things before you get started: access to a range where you can shoot at least 30 yards, an Allen wrench to adjust your sight and rest, a target with a large round bullseye, a papertuning rack, and about 45 minutes.

To get started, you need to get the top pin of your sight adjusted well enough so that you are hitting paper when standing approximately 10 yards away from the target. Start off up close, maybe 10ʼ away from the target, and shoot an arrow into the bullseye. Adjust your sight pin so the arrow is near the center. The rule of thumb is move the pin in the direction that the arrow is away from the bullseye: that is, “follow the arrow.” If the arrow is hitting high and right, move the pin up and right. Get the arrow in the middle

BowCountry.com

of the target at 10 yards and leave the pin alone for now.

The next step is to shoot the arrow through the papertuner. Tthis will tell you what your arrow is doing when it leaves the bow. Set up the paper-tuner with the target as a backstop. You should be 6-10ʼ away from the paper when shooting. Iʼve found that being closer doesnʼt give a very good picture of the arrowʼs flight because itʼsl too close to the string , and being further away allows the fletching to correct arrow flight to the point of giving you the feeling that your arrow is leaving the bow much better than it really is.

Results from the paper will tell you what is going on with arrow flight and give a good idea of what needs to be adjusted and by how much. I try to make adjust for one direction at a time so I can see the results immediately. If the arrow is pushing through paper with a high right tear, I will adjust the right/left first until I have a straight up/down tear and then I will proceed with that adjustment.

Tweaking the rest is how you will ensure bullet hole tears through paper, and thatʼs your goal.

If you are standing at the correct distance away from the paper and the hole in the paper shows that the flecthing is ripping the paper to the right of the field point, this indicates that the rest is adjusted too close to the riser (on a right hand bow) and needs to be moved to the left. I like to make small adjustments to make sure the hole in the paper is getting better, rather than one large adjustment. In a case where you are standing too far away from the paper, the whip of the arrow could be coming back the opposite way due to the correction that the fletching creates, and that would cause the exact opposite tear which would drive you to adjust the rest the wrong way.

At this point, when you have the left/right tear corrected and are left with only an up/down tear, you have options whether to adjust the rest or adjust the nock point/loop height. My personal prescription for this is based on where the top of the arrow sits when it is on the rest. If the top of the arrow lies parallel with the top of the Berger button holes (as I described in the first article), you should adjust the height of the nock point or loop.

If there is room to adjust the rest so as to not disturb the relationship of the arrow and the Berger button holes, then I adjust the rest.

The same rule of small applies to fixing up/down tears. If the fletching is ripping the paper above the field point, the rest should be adjusted down.

Again, the goal is a perfect bullethole. This procedure should be as simple as described, but some scenarios can (and will) give you fits. If the arrow you are using is of the incorrect spine, adjustments might not work as planned: they might go the opposite way! If you have a grip problem where you are torqueing the bow, you will have a very difficult time adjusting left/right tears out of a bow. There are several other scenarios that could create a nightmare during paper tuning.

You are on your own for those--I donʼt have enough patience to write about them!

Once you are done with paper tuning, itʼs time for walk-back tuning. This is a simple and basic procedure used to determine if the “centershot adjustment” on your rest is correct. Start off at 10 yards from the target. Using the top pin to aim at the center of the bullseye, shoot an arrow. Walk back 5 yards and do this again, still using the top pin. Continue this in five-yard increments until you get back to 30 yards or run out of arrows! When youʼre done, the arrows should be stuck in the target in a straight line down the target. If the arrows drift off to the right or left, the rest needs to be adjusted a very slight amount in the opposite direction from the drift. Once you have the rest adjusted properly and you have a line of arrows straight down the target after performing the walkback tune, you are ready for one more quick shoot through the paper tuner. This last step verifies that what should be a minor adjustment of the rest during walk-back hasnʼt thrown off the tear on paper.

So, congratulations! You have now tuned your new bow! You are now ready to sight it in.

Sighting in procedures are the same for each distance you choose so just repeat the following steps for the different pins on your sight. Starting off with the top pin, which most hunters use as their 20-yard pin (but this is your decision; it could be used for 15 or 25 or whatever suits your needs), shoot an arrow with the best form you can muster. The impact point of the arrow dictates what direction to adjust the pin. Again, “follow the arrow” is the key. If the arrow is impacting high and right, adjust the pin up and right. As with the paper-tune adjustments, I like to make one adjustment at a time so I know it is working.

Adjust the pin up in small increments until the

height of impact is correct and then start moving the sight to the right until the arrow is dead center.

Once you have the top pin adjusted, proceed to the next pin at the next yardage you want to sight in for.

Simple, right? I should note that while tuning and sighting in your bow, you should pay serious attention to fatigue. Attempting to tune and sight in your bow as you tire will result in frustration. If you are noticing inconsistent arrow flight or point of impact, take a break before proceeding.

Especially during the walk back tuning, fatigue will give inconsistent results and it will be difficult to get centershot adjusted correctly. Take a lot of breaks. Maybe even spread you work over two days so you are fresh.

I hope that these procedures have been helpful and have given simple ways to tune your new bow. As I stated in the opening paragraph, these are procedures that I have found to be useful and mine is not the only way to tune a bow. It is an effective way, however. Please let me know if what I have shared has helped you or even if you have a better, simpler way to get your bow tuned.

Let me know if youʼd like to hear about another tech tip for the next edition of the Bow Country Journal. Contact me at eagleeyearchery@aol.com Thanks!

Jon Burgess

BowCountry.com

Belhaven Scottish Stout Belhaven Brewery Company Ltd. | Dunbar, East Lothian, United Kingdom (Scotland) Purchased @ Beer & Wine World - Mansfield, Texas USA Style: Stout If ever a smooth drinking dessert brew, this is it! I was hesitant getting this beer due to the clear glass bottle but this one came through in flying colors. Full of coffee and dark chocolate flavors from start to finish with some licorice in the aftertaste. I can only imagine how great this brew would taste at a pub in Ireland! Pour a few into a ‘combat-mug’, sit back, relax and enjoy!!

For my 'beer-nerd' details on this brew, please click here.

Bowcountry.com

Bowcountry.com

By OKY

Ever had that feeling in the woods or on the water that you were 100% focused on getting something, and on what was going on around you? That’s a good thing. But if you’re like me, there have probably been times that you were so keyed in on something that you missed something else---sometimes something you’d never willingly ignore.

You probably spend a lot of time on the land you hunt, and you focus on some things like a laser beam. The tools of ancient hunters are probably not in that category, but they are all around you, waiting for you to discover them. The excitement you feel when you find one tells the story of how special they are, and it makes you wonder why you’re not looking for them all the time.

These unique artifacts offer you a window into the lives of a people that hunted to survive! Imagine if you had to start with a chunk of metal and fabricate your own broadhead. Each tool was handknapped (which I will write about at a later date) and highly valued.

So valuable, in fact, that most all points that were chipped or broken during use were either re-sharpened or made into another tool such as a drill, knife or spokeshave. These were not throw-away societies.

Stone tools and projectiles come in many forms. Some are as simple as scrapers, others are complex hunting points. It's a common misconception to call them all "arrow heads," as the bow didn't come along until much later in the stone tool age. Most points ofany size were either spear points, atlatl dart points, or knives.

Many of the large, heavy points you may find, were used as close range weapons. As the Indians discovered, being in spear range of big animals wasn't exactly in their best interest. The atlatl was a device used to throw a two-part projectile consisting of a fore-shaft or dart, and a long, fletched shaft. Think of a five-foot long arrow.

The idea was to have the head or dart stay in the animal while the rear section would fall away, as it was the most valuable and time consuming part to make. This also gave hunters the ability to be farther from their prey and add a measure of cushion to their safety.

The heads of these hunting tools come in literally hundreds of styles and vary from regionto region. Speaking of variations, the materials used are about as unique as the styles of the points themselves, and include

Bowcountry.com

petrified wood, coral and obsidian. Chert is the most common material you will find for projectile points, as it occurs commonly across the country.

As you spend your time outdoors, you are probably in close contact with these artifacts more than you think. Fields, streams, rivers, ditches, even wash-outs in the woods provide fertile ground to find artifacts. Sandbars and river banks are a hotbed for artifacts and fossils as well. People have found some of the most remarkable points while doing groundwork around home improvement projects and road construction. Creeks and ditches, compared to farm fields, are the best places to find unharmed points as they have not been subjected to countless years of farm implement abuse. Anywhere the soil is disturbed may yield a discovery.

There are some key times and places to check for points throughout the year. If you know any farm ground that is still tilled in the spring, this can provide ample opportunities for coming home with a trophy other than a gobbler. Worked fields are becoming harder to find with no-till farming becoming the norm, but any farm field hunting is best done after thefirst rain when the soil has been worked with a disk. The loose dirt makes solid objects sit on “plateaus” after the rain.

Rivers, creeks, ditches and the like are great places to lookbecause they are constantly changing from flooding and erosion. Hit these places after heavy rains, paying close attention to collapsed bank edges. They make for large sections of dirt that have yet to be picked over by any other collectors. In dry months, when the water level drops below normal, you will start to find artifacts at the water line. All the dirt that was washed in during floods has been filtered downstream, hopefully leaving behind a find for you.

Hunting for artifacts can be as complex as you make it and as easy as paying attention to your surroundings. Whether you are doing something as simple as weeding a garden or as gung-ho as a full-blown “arrowhead expedition,” the possibilities for success are there, if you keep your eyes open. .

There is a market for genuine artifacts, but for me their value comes from the find itself. Think about it: You are the first person to see and hold this relic in many hundreds or thousands of years. At some point in history, some person knapped this tool from stone to survive, whether it was for protection or for food.

The next time you are heading out to hunt, fish, or work in the garden, pay attention. You might find a connection to our hunting past.

Bowcountry.com

The Misadventures of Jen

By Woodsbaby

How it all got started Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to hunt. But nobody in the family hunted.

Luckily, we had a close family friend who was a hunter, so when we would go up north to visit he would layer me up in his sonʼs clothes to the point I could hardly move and we would go afield. Well, I would waddle behind him (imagine the kid from A Christmas Story here) and he would hide me in a brush pile while he climbed an old metal ladder to a wooden platform with a log for a seat in the last snowy days of Northern Indianaʼs bow season. This became our yearly tradition until time and family obligations separated us. I never did see a deer.

Fast-forward to 2005. Iʼm 25 now, graduated college, and my aunt just married a state wildlife biologist who offered me a trade. He needed help collecting samples for CWD monitoring at the deer check stations, and in return he would teach me to shoot a gun and take me on my first real hunt.

Deal! With the help of my very supportive mother, I picked up a 12-gauge Mossberg slug-barreled shotgun from a local pawn shop. My camo was a couple yards of Realtree that I picked up at fabric store and cut a hole in for my head. I tied it together with a belt worn over my favorite green winter coat. After my uncle took me to the range to shoot, I was ready to hit the woods.

I could hardly sleep the night before my first hunt. We spent the hour-long drive to public land that morning in silence, but I didnʼt mind as my imagination raced with all the scenarios of how my first kill would go down. To get to our hunting spot we had to scramble out of a valley and climb up a steep leaf-littered cliff. Upon finding a small clearing, my uncle told me to sit in the corner and wait and he would be on the other side. And so I waited. And waited. And waited. And then music to my ears! I hear my uncleʼs old muzzleloader boom!

Bowcountry.com

A doe, panting and running with her head low, is making a beeline right for me. I scramble to my feet expecting to get run over, but she comes to a skidding halt and falls over. Dead. I figure the hunt is over and stand over her to admire the animal and the shot. Then I hear more running and grunting coming from where the doe first appeared. A large buck bulls his way through the grass and shrubs and runs up to the doe. He doesnʼt even notice me as he proceeds to sniff and nudge the doe at my feet.

More running and grunting. Another buck of equal size runs up to the doe and stands shoulder to shoulder with the first buck. They both go back and forth sniffing at doe, now looking at me, now looking at each other. And here I stand. Within armsʼ reach. Gun over my shoulder. Afraid to move. I had no idea what to do in that situation.

Finally, I realize the bucks arenʼt going anywhere and I start to slowly sling my gun back over my shoulder and bring it to shooting position. The bucks watch the movement of the gun intently. I now have the gun up, safety off.

But, which buck do I want? They are both equally big but one is more silver than the other. Iʻll take him. He stretches his neck to sniff the muzzle of the gun as I slowly take aim.

Okay! The doe suddenly makes a loud death croak and the three of us jump! The two bucks turn and run back the way they came. I hear my uncle screaming as they narrowly miss running over him. He finally walks into the clearing to find me standing over his doe. Now the hunt is over! I might not have shot a deer on my first hunting trip, but I had an exciting day and we went home triumphant with a deer in the back of the truck!

The next day I drive back to the hunting area alone as my uncle had to work. I sit farther down the small field and wait for daylight. A few minutes after first light and a large doe walks through. I slowly raise my gun. Take careful aim. Flip off the safety. Pull the trigger. The gun goes off and I am falling backwards! I regain my composure, pull the leaves and sticks from my

hair, and check out the area the doe was last standing. The area is painted red, and the doe is dead 30 yards away.

Now the work begins. After gutting the doe, I drag her inch by painful inch; she gets heavier with each minute. I find it easier to loop the rope over my shoulders but am mindful of my right shoulder as it is now bruised from the kick of a poorly-anchored 12-gauge shotgun. An hour or so later and I have finally dragged Arnold Schwartza-doe to the edge of the valley where the truck is parked. I can see its rusted white paint at the bottom of the valley through the trees. The sight gives me a second wind and I put my shoulder into the rope and pull onward. Aaaah.... she is so light now that I canʼt even feel her weight anymore.

I hear a noise to my right. It is my doe rolling past me down the hill. Everything makes sense now! Just as I realize that Iʼm still attached, I am yanked off my feet and tumbling down with her. We finally get hung up on some trees and stop. In the end, I was able to get Doe-Zilla all the way to the truck but lacked the strength to heft her. So I crawled into the back and waited in the parking area for the other hunters to finish whatever they were doing and meander back to help me with my monster.

It is now 2011. Iʼm in Maryland now, wiser, with many more kills under my belt. Iʼve since sold that 12- gauge shoulder buster, and these days hit the woods armed with my Bowtech Heartbreaker. Our old family friend is coming here to visit me soon. This time I will be putting him in a tree to watch me hunt, and I hope we will at least see a deer.

Bowcountry.com

Bowcountry.com

By Kevin Engler (TXHunter)

H

ogs down at our place are a problem to put it nicely. Theyʼre a destructive, invasive species that costs farmers and ranchers across the state millions of dollars per year in lost crops, torn up fences and other damage. They also taste really, really good. So, itʼs a doubly beneficial deal when one of the ill-tempered swine takes a dirt nap. A corn plant gets saved and I get pork chops.

This last hunting season Iʼd been watching a big, black boar repeatedly show up at my bow feeder. He was always alone…and he was HUGE. We have the feeder staked town with metal t-posts to keep the hogs from knocking the feeder over and destroying it, and the top of his back nearly came up to one of the intersections of feeder leg and t-post. Weʼre talking close to 3 feet up. He quickly earned the nickname “Hogzilla.” I realize that he may not stand up to “THE Hogzilla” of recent fame, but he was my Hogzilla, He was a nocturnal beast, and was a regular diner at Chez Bow Feeder from the hours of 11 PM through 2 AM. I love bow hunting hogs, but I was neither equipped nor motivated enough to go hunt this porker at midnight… especially when there was a huge 10 pointer that weʼd been watching for the last three years roaming the ranch. I left it up to fate for him to show up

Bowcountry.com

sometime during daylight so I could get a shot off.

That shot---the first one, anyway--came from a Smith & Wesson Airweight 642 .38 Special revolver on a Friday night after my buddy Wade and I had rolled in to camp after a long drive after work. Our normal routine when we get down for a weekend hunt is to go in the front gate and drive around and pick up SD cards from the game cams. That way, when we get back to camp, we can bust out the laptop and have a look at what is happening where and work out a strategy for the next morning.

Wade drives a big Dodge diesel truck and itʼs not what you would call “quiet,” so when we rolled around the corner and saw a big, black,

hulking beast underneath my bow feeder, we were a little surprised. We were even more surprised when we rolled up on what we now realized was Hogzilla, and he didnʼt even twitch an ear. I mean, we didnʼt even exist in his world of pigging out on corn. I decided to make this a long evening and shoot my prized pig with my pistol at literally point blank range. Hereʼs where things got interesting. Because my place is in deep South Texas, we have snakes…and they bite. I carry snake shot in the first two chambers of my cylinder. No problem: the other three rounds are nasty self-defense hollow points, so just rotate the cylinder two clicks and fire away.

Simple. I took careful aim right behind his left eye and began the long heavy double action trigger pull. The gun went off and a huge cloud of dust erupted where the big pig used to be nonchalantly eating dinner.

To the surprise of both of us, he wasnʼt laying there deader than a tree stump. Nope, he was making a mad dash right for the truck. A truck I was very glad I had decided to stay in to make the shot. He swerved away at the last minute and charged into the brush, very irritated. Ok, he was flat-out mad!

A quick examination of my weapon revealed a perfect little dimple right in the center of a snake shot primer. HUH? I know…I asked myself the same thing, “You rotated it two shots over, why didnʼt it fire the hollow point?” After further examination, I realized that the cylinder rotated in the opposite direction that I thought it did. Iʼd simply lined it up to shoot the very first round of snake shot, when as it was set originally it would have fired a hollow point. Dang it.

We picked up the SD cards, unpacked, had a few adult beverages and perused a mountain of trail cam pictures. There were some good bucks, including my big 10, and he was showing up at the feeder where Hogzilla had just received his lead shower. We strategized that I would hunt there in the morning and then assess again for the evening hunt. I slept well and was pumped the next morning when I snuck into my blind, but it was a javelina fest all

morning and I went back to camp relatively dejected.

I was optimistic that the evening hunt would go better, though. The wind was good, although it was a bit on the warm side. I think it was somewhere around 115 inside the blind.

The feeder went off around 6PM, and literally within 15 seconds it sounded like a mini bulldozer was coming out of the thick mesquite brush that covers our ranch. Lo and behold!

Look who decided to show up early to finish his meal from the night before: Hogzilla was back and very contently eating when the two-blade Rage blew through his ribcage, right behind his left front shoulder. I watched the arrow go skipping down the road and could see the blood on the ground as he barreled into the brush from whence he came mere minutes before.

Success! I was stoked. The cell phone came out and the texts started flying back and forth between my buddy and me.

After about 30 minutes, I decided to go check my arrow and see how serious the blood trail

was. The arrow was covered in good blood, and the trail looked like someone had poured it out of a bucket. It was easy tracking on the lightcolored South Texas clay. I made it about 30 yards back into the thick and nasty stuff when I heard a pig bellowing at me from off to my left--a really, really big pig that sounded like it was charging! Out

Bowcountry.com

came the S&W, which now contained nothing but hollow points, and I slowly backed out of the brush and decided to wait for reinforcements.

Armed reinforcements.

Wade showed up well after dark on that hot, humid October evening and the track resumed.

Once again, it was easy tracking, even with flashlights, and we were 20 yards past my last spot when we reached a fork in the road where the blood trail dribbled out. Hogs tend to be fat, and when shot and running, the fat can plug the hole…even a Rage hole, evidently. So now, the real tracking began. But the weather and place being what it was, the mosquitoes were hitting us like F-16ʼs and Wade decided to back out after about an hour and supervise from the sendero.

I didnʼt give up so easily. I KNEW that boar was back there somewhere and I kept coming back to the spot weʼd marked where the trail had dried up. Left, right, or straight ahead through the underbrush; if I were a fatally hit hog, where would I go?

Iʼd keep going straight ahead as fast as I could, I told myself, and on further inspection of that dense undergrowth, I saw that it had been run through: broken branches and some coarse black hair. Progress. I followed a different trail around to the spot on the opposite side of that particular clump of brush and began a slow scan with my light. No blood, no hog. I scanned and scanned underneath the mesquites, looking for a telltale big black mass and found nothing.

He had flat out disappeared. There was no way he was simply wounded based on the amount of blood heʼd spilled, but I was losing blood by the gallon as well by this point. Mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds convinced me to get out of there and resume the search in the cool of the morning.

It took me about 10 minutes to find him after the morning hunt. From the last spot of blood, I retraced my steps to where Iʼd called it off the night before – the spot on the other side of the brush tunnel heʼd made on his beeline of death.

I saw my boot prints in the soil from the night

Bowcountry.com

before, and as my eyes followed my own tracks to the right, I saw him. He had buried himself under a mesquite tree with lots of smaller brush and pencil cactus around it. It would have been next to impossible to see him in that position that night. In fact, he lay only 4 or 5 feet from the last set of boot prints I could see. I pulled him out of his last lair and looked at the shot placement. It was good; it was just one of those situations where you simply donʼt find ʻem til the next day. Unfortunately, in the October heat, there werenʼt going to be any ham steaks for me this trip. The other carnivores on the ranch, however, ate well: the coyotes had already found him and begun their feast.

Sometimes you donʼt have to pay for your meal at the Circle of Life Café.

Rut Hunting Tips with the Elk Mountain Gear Pronghorn Buck Decoy Product Highlight courtesy of Jeff Ervin, Elk Mountain Gear Pronghorn antelope can be tough to hunt. With “speed goats,” it is all about timing, and you have to adjust your hunting methods to adapt to their behavior at any given time. There is a short window each season when the bigger bucks get very aggressive working at double speed to round up as many does as they can collect,and protect them from rivals. This is when the Elk Mountain Gear Pronghorn Buck Decoy can be a very effective tool.

This revolutionary new product is fast becoming the go-to gear for spot-and-stalk hunters, and it has been

featured on several TV Shows, including TNT Outdoor Explosion with Mossy Oak Pro Staffer Kenny Hollingsworth.

With decoying, like elk hunting, the rule of thumb is never give up. You might get one successful encounter out of every 10 attempts, but it beats the heck out of sitting in a blind all day! Typically, the peak of the rut activity runs the last half of September, and these high-strung critters waste no time doing what needs to be done to re-populate the herd.

In the peak rut, antelope bucks will be seen running circles around groups of does, vocalizing challenge “roars”, posturing, and physically engaging other males that get too close to their ladies. If you can find a herd buck with any of these behaviors, it is time to make a move.

“Buck in Rut” Photo courtesy of Bill Allard One of the biggest challenges of antelope hunting, is trying to get

Bowcountry.com

within shooting range when there is nothing to hide behind. Fortunately, the SLIP System can provide frontal shielding, to allow an approach in the sparsest of cover. In fact, if you have two hunters, one of the most effective methods, is to have the shooter walk directly behind the “decoy guy”, and when the buck comes in aggressively, the decoy guy instructs the shooter to draw his bow, and the decoy guy drops to his knees, and the shot is taken over his head.

High Winds are a big factor on the plains, and the unit works very well when moving into the wind, holding its shape and providing a windbreak for the shooter. Typically, it is best to crawl within 100 yards of the herd buck if possible, and then pop open the decoy, and quickly re-assemble it into a stalking blind and stake it down. If you need to move in, it is best to approach in a semi-circle into the wind, rather that walking directly in. A subdominant buck will always attempt to circle the herd to find an approach and it is this subdominant behavior you are trying to simulate.

Shot opportunities can happen quickly: you should expect an aggressive buck to suddenly try to circle you to get your wind, and it is at this point that he will come into bow range. If you are hunting alone, spike down the decoy firmly with the front angled to the downwind side, and be ready. With two guys, it is easy to spin with the buck as he comes in, and just drop when the buck gets in range, allowing your shooter to smoke him over your back.

Using land contours to get under the 100 yard mark is a great technique. You can see in the video that John from Sage Buck Productions did not really have that option from his position, there was absolutely no cover, on flat ground. But, using the buck decoy as a shield, allowed him to get within 100 yards of this buck, which was just starting to exhibit the aggressive behavior of the rut. If small land contours exist, belly crawling with the SLIP System folded up is a great way to get into a position to “flash” the buck with the Pronghorn Decoy.

And if you simply want to ambush, you can always quickly switch the cover to our Open Country Camo pattern, and you have a mobile blind ready to use instantly, and you can safely use it to rifle hunt when you apply the rifle rest to the top of the blind!

In conclusion, keep trying, and have fun. Eventually, you are going to get the right buck in the right conditions, and you will have success with this decoy!

Watch a Video Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ydbINOTpxEg

http://www.bowfishingassociation.com

Join

Today

Protecting The Rights Of Bowfishermen For Over Twenty Years

Bowcountry.com

Bowcountry.com

East Texas Archery

Bowcountry.com

By Jay Francis (BlueCat)

Hunters know that their success is due in large part to remaining unnoticed. The hunting scent industry is a large and growing industry that may be just as effective at removing money from your wallet as it is removing dirt and odor from your clothes and skin. It plays upon the hunterʼs fear that only its products are 100% effective and that without them, you just canʼt be as successful as you might be.

There are suitable alternatives that are easily obtainable and wonʼt break your budget or reveal your whereabouts, though. You donʼt need to feel guilty that your cleaning solutions are so easy and affordable.

To work effectively, shampoo, soap and laundry detergent should remove existing dirt, oils and odor without imparting any additional odor to skin or clothes . Deodorant is largely geared toward the suppression of odor producing compounds and the masking of existing odor. Ideally, whatever you use is cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

Here are several products that work for me:

Deodorant Crystal is a deodorant brand composed of mineral salts. It works by creating a thin barrier on your skin that prohibits bacterial growth. When you prohibit bacterial growth you prohibit odor. Crystal deodorants are hypoallergenic, non-sticky, non-staining, dry instantly and leave no white residue. Furthermore, Crystal deodorants contain no artificial coloring, chemicals, dyes or alcohol. They contain no harmful aluminums, are not tested on animals and are safe for the environment. They are available in scented and unscented versions. Choose the unscented, of course.

You can get Crystal is at health food stores, grocery stores, drugstores or from their website. It is extremely cost effective because it should last you many years, depending on how much you hunt. Just dampen the applicator and apply anywhere on your body you want to control odor. For more information, or to order, you can access Chrystalʼs website: http://www.thecrystal.com

Bowcountry.com

Shampoo and Soap Ivory Soap has been around for more than 125 years and claims to be 99.4% pure. Heck, the stuff even floats. In my pre-game ritual I use it for body and hair. Make sure you get the original bar as it is scent- free.

It is available at any grocery store.

Laundry Detergent In addition to the normal requirements for a good laundry detergent, hunters should insist their wash contain no ultra-violet or optical brighteners. Manufacturers use these in most detergents to enhance fabric appearance and maintain whiteness or brightness. Thatʼs good for church socials, but not good for remaining undetected by critters.

Instead of plunking down the extra money products marketed to hunters often demand, you can find a simple mass-marketed laundry detergent for much less if youʼll just do a little homework. If you call a company to determine if UV brighteners have been added, customer service may or may not know the answer and might refer you to an MSDS (materials and safety data sheet) document. This document lists all the ingredients by their chemical and common names. The onus is on you to determine which chemical additive is responsible for brightening clothes if any. Good luck.

Perhaps you can benefit from my experience. You can thank me later: Cheer Free and Gentle claims no dyes or perfumes. In addition, the powder form is optical brightener free.

I called their hotline number and confirmed that the powder does not contain these brighteners. However, the liquid does contain these brighteners, so make sure you stay with the powder. I wash all my hunting clothes (outerwear and underwear) with this. Itʼs available online and at select grocery stores.

Arm and Hammer is a trusted brand that has been around for years, creating baking soda and (more recently) laundry detergent. Baking sodaʼs scent-squashing abilities are well known, and it works well as a detergent additive. Their detergent is fragrance-free and eliminates odors does but does contain optical brighteners.

There are a number of other scent-control products that donʼt wear the “for hunters” label, but these are my trusted candidates in terms of being cost-effective, easy to find, scent-free, easy on the environment, and containing no UV brighteners. They are at least as effective as anything out there, in my opinion. They have kept me under the scent radar of inquiring noses, and thatʼs what I want out of any scent-killer product.

By Swamp Fox Check your rangefinder if you plan to use it through mesh in a blind. Unless it has a rain or zip mode, it might not work.

Try shooting a beam right up close to the mesh if you need to, to see if that's the ticket. Be aware that it's possible for any rangefinder to have an issue from time to time while shooting through brush, rain or mesh, depending on light conditions. You will minimize those problems, though, by buying quality and/or a multi-mode model. Just don’t leave whether it will work or not at the moment of truth to chance, or you might wind up kicking yourself over and over through a long off-season.

Bowcountry.com

So You Shot a Deer…Now What?

By Jay Francis Kevin Engler (TXHunter

Sausage-Making, Part 1

I

t was a great season. You filled your tag, or tags. Now, what the heck are you going to do with all that meat?

You have a couple of options.

Option One: take it to a meat processor and have a butcher process the meat, cut it into steaks, ground meat, or whatever you want. You will probably pay big bucks to do this, depending on how you take your deer in and what you order. Option Two is to process it yourself. The easiest and tastiest method, in my opinion, is to make sausage.

I know, I know. Some of you have had some awful “venison” sausage before that was probably full of sage and other non-essential ingredients. What Iʼd like to do is get you started with some basic sausage processing tips, give you a list of equipment and supplies, and then in Parts 2 and 3 of this series weʼll go into a step-by-step process of making what I would term “Germanstyle” venison sausage.

Along the way, Iʼll also tell you the history of the German sausage-making tradition in the central part of Texas. To paraphrase Joe Biden on another matter, this is a big deal, and I think youʼre going to enjoy hearing about it. The teacher and historian in me always wants to answer the “Why are we doing this and where did it come from?” questions, and I think a lot of hunters wonder about these things, too.

Getting down to business, the first thing you are going to need to process your deer is a clean place to quarter it and bone out the meat. If you quarter the deer in the field or in camp away from refrigeration, keep the meat clean and cool. Avoid letting it sit in water or blood in your cooler or any other jerry-rigged stock tank or tarp system you use. When I get to where the magic really happens,

Bowcountry.com

I use a large 24” x 36” cutting board made out of synthetic cutting board material. It is about •••-inch thick and will handle a deer ham perfectly. If you have access to a stainless table, thatʼs even better.

The one thing you donʼt want to do is take a big piece of plywood and slap it across two sawhorses, as a lot of guys do. Think of whatʼs in that plywood, and now think of it leeching into your meat. Do you want to eat that? Neither do I. For holding meat as it comes off the bone, some big stainless steel bowls are tops. Food-grade plastic tubs from a restaurant supply store work great as well. Some guys meticulously separate each individual muscle or large muscle group, but honestly--youʼre going to be grinding it all up anyway. However, the hams do have a couple nice big muscles that rival backstraps when cooked correctly, so if you want those, cut them out and set them aside.

On all venison, take a little time to remove as much of the silver skin from the meat as possible, along with bits of fat and gristle. If you donʼt cut it out,

youʼll be eating it later. If it doesnʼt look appetizing or edible, cut it off and toss it out.

I keep a five-gallon bucket sitting next to me with a big 30-gallon trash bag in it for bones and inedible scraps. Your dog might appreciate some of these scraps if your wife approves and your dog likes raw meat, but heʼs not a garbage disposal. The majority of the scraps should go into the trash, unless you want to be cleaning them up off your carpet at 3 AM that night oncer Olʼ Blue finishes his own “processing” through one end or another.

After youʼve boned out the meat and have a big pile of large cuts, you have to take those cuts and reduce them to smaller, more manageable chunks that your meat grinder will be able to handle.

Think about the diameter of your grinderʼs throat and donʼt go much bigger than that. The grinder we use can handle chunks around 2 x 2 inches.

If itʼs going to be a while before you will have time for sausage-making, youʼre going need to freeze the meat. I use two-gallon Ziplock™ freezer bags and fill them about ••• full, seal them almost all the way and then squeeze all the air out before locking

them down. This will give you semi-flat packs that you can stack in your freezer for a decent amount of time before you have to start worrying about freezer burn.

Ok, now letʼs talk equipment. The two main pieces of equipment youʼre going to need are a grinder and a stuffer. There are some combos on the market, but we use separate units. You can go as simple as one of those grinder attachments for your KitchenAid™ mixer, or spend big bucks and buy an $1800 commercial grinder. Ideally, youʼre going to want to look for something with at least a ••• horsepower motor (3/4 hp. is better), and a decentsized pan for holding meat as you grind. Northern Tool & Equipment has some good models and decent prices. We use a Tor-Rey™ M-12-FS grinder. It has a ••• hp motor, large stainless pan, a large throat, and two grinding plates (coarse and fine). Itʼs is a little pricey, but you have to consider this an investment over time. Iʼve been making sausage with my fatherin-law going on 11 seasons now. Before that, I was paying over $250 to have a deer processed into sausage.

Letʼs do the math. 11 years x $250 = $2750.

Iʼm not paying someone else to process my

Bowcountry.com

venison anymore. So now $740 for a grinder doesnʼt sound so bad if you average it over 11 years, and of course Iʼm not done hunting yet!

You can go the same route with stuffers as with grinders. The skyʼs the limit. You can go KitchenAid™, hand crank, or all the way up to commercial-grade. Weʼre old-school and use an old Enterprise cast iron stuffer. Thatʼs what my fatherin-lawʼs dad used, so thatʼs whatw we use, and thatʼs what my kids will use. Itʼs simple and bulletproof and set us back about $200 from eBay. If you go this route, realize that most of these oldschool stuffers are antiques. As far as I know, youʼre only going to be able to buy a complete unit in used condition. The nice thing is that they are still making parts for them.

If you want to go a different way, there are some very nice stainless stuffers out there as well. Once more, the internet is your friend. With any model, the larger capacity you get, the fewer times you have to crank it up and refill it.

Once youʼre all geared up, itʼs time to combine your venison with pork. Yes, pork. We donʼt make straight venison sausage, and I think if youʼve ever had venison sausage that tasted bad, it might have been because it needed mixing. You can mix whatever ratio you want, but we try to go with 60/40 (60% venison, 40% pork) or 50/50. Most of the time, it depends on how much venison you have.

The recipe we use is based on 50 pounds of meat, so if I end up with 30 pounds of venison, Iʼm going to get 20 pounds of pork trimmings from the local meat market and cut that up into 2x2-inch chunks to add to my venison.

If you want to follow your recipe ratios precisely, you might feel you have to bust out the calculator and adjust your seasoning mix to the meat. Usually, though, sausage-making is not an exact science.

We use an aluminum washtub and mix the seasoning and meat together BEFORE we grind everything together. In my opinion, you get a better blend of meat and spices this way. Your local hardware store will have the tub. If you donʼt want aluminum, a non-reactive plastic tub would work as well, as long as it is big enough to hold 50 pounds of meat and still have room for you to mix it.

To hold the ground sausage in shape, we use beef casings that we get from the local meat market.

Traditionally, casings are made from the large intestine of a cow or hog, but if that makes you squeamish, they make collagen casings that you donʼt have to flush, etc. A good place to get either fresh or collagen cases on-line would be

www.sausagemaker.com. They actually have a lot of good sausage-making supplies all around, if you look through their site.

Finally, for smoked (fresh) sausage, we utilize a smokehouse. This sausage is not cooked when it comes out. It is more of a cold smoke, to add flavor. Do you HAVE to smoke it in a smokehouse?

Nope. If you have a backyard BBQ smoker, you can cook your sausage on that and get the same basic taste. The benefit of using a smokehouse is that it imparts a smoke flavor but allows you to use other cooking methods in the end (grilling, boiling, pan frying, etc.) It also starts the drying process should you desire dried sausage.

A smokehouse can be as simple as a 4x8-foot shed or as fancy as an insulated stainless model from the world-wide web. I have a buddy with a smokehouse that was built on his grandfatherʼs property close to 100 years ago, and thatʼs what we use. If youʼre carpentry inclined and want to build your own smokehouse, hereʼs a link to some plans: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/aben-plans/ 5695.pdf.

I hope that gets you started toward sausagemaking on your own. Next issue, in Part Two, Iʼll go over some recipes and ingredient variations, and give you a step-by-step (with pictures and videos) of how we do it in my family and my part of Texas.

In the end, I hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as I have, carrying on this tradition.

Bowcountry.com

u Kyh

nter

OK Y

Ve n

tila

to

r

Firemanj

Pa Bowh

To submit photos for the wall, follow me to Bowcountry.com and post them here. Wall Pics

Bowcountry.com

unter

AT RED NECK AIRBOATS WE STRIVE TO PROVIDE THE BEST BOAT POSSIBLE TO THE CUSTOMER. What we build -Airboats-Flats Boats-John Boats-Fan boats-Any custom aluminum boat hull you can design

We offer boats built to the customers specs. We can provide bare hulls or fully rigged boats to meet your needs.

Custom options include

Red Neck Airboats, LLC Sales Team: Garrett B. - 817-319-9522 Chad C. - 817-312-9245 Management: Shawn - 405-514-5836 Deanna - 903-357-0604

-light rails-side or center consoles-seats-walk arounds-fan stands-aluminum tanks-front steering-

Bowcountry.com

Bowcountry.com

Mike Real Name: Mike McCombie Nickname: Mink, Mike Home State: New York/Georgia States you hunt: Georgia, New York, and occasionally Virginia Years hunting: I started Big game hunting at the age of 14, but have been hunting with my father and grand father since I was a little boy.

Tell us about yourself. Hmmmmm? A little about myself?? Well, my name is Mike McCombie, I am one of the Co-Founders of Bowcountry.com and Bowfishingcountry.com. Along with the Online stuff, Bowunting has been a huge part of who am and my life as a whole.

I started hunting at a very young age. Rabbit hunting to be specific with my grandfather. My dad got me into archery well before I was able to legally big game hunt. Even at a young age I loved to bowhunt. I would shoot anything I could get close enough to, including my older brother Alex. Luckily for him my little recurve didn’t do too much damage. ;-) My love for the sport grew with every year and eventually progressed into big game bowhunting, competition shooting, and eventually a job in the Archery Industry. At the time I thought I landed my dream job, and in many ways it was. I landed a job with Oneida Eagle Bows as a General Manager. Being my bow of choice at the time made the job all that much sweeter. I spent my days developing new products and building bows, it doesn’t get much better than that......or so you would think. It was short lived though as Oneida was sold to a company in Michigan. At that point not having many opportunities in NY, I decided to move to Georgia to start a new career. The Archery industry was fun while it lasted but as I soon found out, very unstable. I still stay active in the industry but more as consultant than an active player. And I like it this way ;-) Any heroes? I never looked up to TV celebrities, like some kids did. For me my hero was my dad and later in life my brother got added to the list. They were both hard working and self motivated individuals with family values at there core.

What/who got you started bowhunting? My dad got me into bowhunting, well before I could legally bowhunt big game. He introduced me in archery and hunting.

Do you have any favorite memories or kills that stand out? I’ve killed a lot of deer, hogs, fish and small game over the years, but the one that sticks out the most was my very first deer bow kill. I was 14 hunting with my dad and brother. I was using an old bear 53# recurve, and like most kids that age I couldn’t sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time so I decided to try my hand a still hunting.

I knew where my father and brother were so I went to the other end of the property and still hunted a standing corn field. There was a slight breeze that worked out perfectly for covering my noise while slipping through the corn. I spotted a doe (lol Fawn) and started my stalk. It seemed like it took forever but looking back it probably only took 15 or 20 minutes. I managed to sneak within 20 yards before I shot. Having some serious first time jitters the shot ended up being way back(guts). I tracked it as far as I could but finally gave up at dark. I didn’t mention it to my dad as I knew we were coming back the next morning coupled with the fact I thought I would have let him down by making a poor shot. Looking back at it now I know that wouldn’t have been the case.

Bowcountry.com

Hindsight being just it turns out that was probably the best thing to do anyhow. The next morning we returned and I was back on the trail. The small had made the traditional circle most dying deer do and ended up not 30 yards from where I had shot her.

Can you tell us a bit about your preferred equipment combo? I really don’t have one preferred set up. I have several bows with everything from pin sights to red dots mounted on them. I am a bit of a performance nut but other than that, it’s whatever I feel like taking before the hunt.

What is the one piece of advice you would give a new hunter to aid him on his hunting ventures?

I’ve never been good at giving advise so the only thing I will say is forget about marketing hype. Shoot what feels good to you............and practice, practice, practice.

What is your favorite animal to hunt? Hogs would be my favorite. They are smart, have an amazing sense of smell, and they could really mess you up if your not careful. After hogs it would be bowfishing for bi fish and whitetails bringing up the rear.

Best birthday present? Ruger Mark 77 target Rifle Secret to Life? Secret to life? Being happy with who you are and just try to life life to it’s fullest.

Does any of your family hunt or fish? All of them, it’s really a family tradition.

Do you have any hunting goals or plans for the immediate future? I’d still like to shoot and Elk. I saved up the money for an elk hunt a few years back and ended up buying my stepson a dirt bike instead.....I’ve always been a sucker for my boys and now my daughter. One of these days I’ll get to stick an Elk :-) Where is the one place you would really just love to hunt? I’ve been lucky enough to hunt a lot of places but out west on an Elk hunt would be a dream.

Do you primarily hunt private or public ground? I’ve hunted both over the years but I’ve been hunting more private land lately. Public land down south has turned into a huge fiasco the last few times I’ve gone. The land is becoming more and more over crowded and some of the hunters I’ve run into on public land have been very inconsiderate and in some cases down right dangerous Do you normally use anything like scent covers or attractants, camouflage, or calls I have used everything over the years. But as I’ve gotten older I’m leaning back towards the days when I first started out. Back then we didn’t use scents, calls etc, we tried to out wit the deer. We studied them more, learned there behaviors and set up ambushes. And honestly I think we were more productive, heck back then we didn’t even wear camo, just dark clothing that blended into our surroundings.

Do you do any small game or waterfowl hunting? I do enjoy taking the .17 out blasting squirrels and I really do miss long range woodchuck hunting up north. But nowadays It’s bowhunting and Bowfishing. Bowfishing is probably one of the most addicting aspects of Bowhunting I’ve ever encountered.

Tell us what your dream hunt would be. My dream hunt would be an elk hunt out west somewhere with my dad, my brother and my son. A week long pack in style hunt.

And if that’s not possible a regular deer hunt with my dad my brother and my boys would make my year :-)

Bowcountry.com

\

Pinto Beans Submitted by Kevin Engler (TXHunter) From his grandpa Emo Weyel

1 pound Pinto Beans 6 cups Water Bring to a boil 2 minutes, let stand 1 hour, or overnight (better if you have time). **hint** Do not drain water and put in fresh if you want a thick broth.

Ingredients: 1/2 teaspoon cumin seed (ground) 1 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon black pepper 2 Talespoon instant chopped onion 1 teaspoon vinegar 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder Bacon or salt pork if desired (however much you want) simmer 2 hours ADD: 8 oz. canned tomato sauce simmer hour longer Variations: Throw in a couple chipotle peppers (dried jalepenos) and chop up after they've softened. Also, try a smoked ham hock: Cook it for 2 hours, then strip the meat off and chop it up and add it back to the beans. ***NOTE*** If you absolutely HAVE to put beans in your chili, make the chili and beans separately (use my recipes) THEN add the beans to the chili when serving.

Bowcountry.com

Salisbury Steak Submitted by AWMiller

Ingredients: • • • • •

cubed steak 1 medium yellow onion flour 2 cans (8 oz. each) cream of mushroom soup shredded cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Cut onion in half and then cut into thin slices. Caramelize onions in skillet and then set aside. Dust cubed steaks with flour and cook in skillet until desired done-ness.

In baking dish, pour in soup and add cheese (optional); use a whisk to blend well. Put in steaks and top with caramelized onions. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until soup is bubbly. Serve with your favorite sides.

If there’s any extra “gravy” … sop it up with some warm biscuits!!

Bowcountry.com

The Keystone Cops Go Huntin’

By Dana Denton - BGKYARCHER

Back in the day, there were but a few deer in Kentucky. By far, the largest population was around Mammoth Cave National Park. My dad, James Denton, and his buddies hunted religiously. According to my dad, they typically hunted within spittin' distance of the park's boundary. Hunting on the park was prohibited, and still is.

One afternoon while bow hunting, a spike ventured out of the park and under the tree that Dad was in. It was nearly dark when Dad took his shot, only to see the deer retreat into the park.

After the gang gathered at their vehicles, they decided to trail the deer. Dad thought he had made a clean shot and expected they would find the buck close to his stand. It was about 6 p.m. when Dad and his five hunting companions started their hilarious journey to find the deer.

They trailed the deer down into a deep holler and spotted it bedded down. Junior Payne, who only had one eye, said he would sneak up and cut its throat with a knife. He stuck a small pocket knife in his teeth and began to crawl towards the deer Indian-style. The other guys trained their flashlights on the deer, and as Junior slithered up to the deer and came around a tree, his glass eye caught the flashlights’ glow and was shining like a lighthouse beacon. The deer promptly trampled

Bowcountry.com

him like a rag and left him bloodied and bruised.

My dad and his friends got on the trail once more, and found the buck lying down again.

This time, two of the larger guys (Bobby Wade and Stanley Polson) said they would try to overpower the deer. The plan was to sneak up on the deer from opposite sides with clubs.

Rather than taking the deer down, they somehow managed only to clobber each other, leaving both men with sore ribs.

At this point, someone decided a simple chase was in order, and so it began (Keystone Cops music in the background). They ran that deer up and down that holler like a bunch of kids chasing chickens. At one point, Dad had it by the tail, but it got away from him. It took a while, but the guys finally decided the buck wasn’t as weakened as they thought, so they agreed to give it some time.

When the time came, the group again found the deer bedded down. This time they could tell it was about done. They turned their lights off and let the spike expire.

After the deer was field-dressed, Dad asked which way was out.

Each person in the group pointed in a different direction. Someone finally convinced the others he was right, so off they went with Dad's trophy. After hiking for a while, they decided to take a rest. Dad looked down, and there was a cigarette butt on the ground. They had been walking in a circle. At this point, they realized they were lost, and Junior decided that he would yell as loud as he could. He reasoned that dogs at a nearby house would bark or howl, and the group would head in that direction.

He let out the most God-awful scream you ever heard, only to be answered by something that sounded very big and very bad. They were sure it was a cougar, or a bobcat at the very least.

And it was close. One of the men, Les Toms, said, "You make another sound you one-eyed SOB, and I'll field-dress your ass right here."

Leonard Rogers piped up just then. “Right there is the north star. If we follow it, we should head right back to the trucks.” So that’s what they did. Miraculously, it led them directly out of the park to their vehicles at 12:30 A.M. As they neared the edge of the woods, flashlight beams hit them, and they were surrounded by park rangers.

The rangers searched them and discovered they had no weapons. One of the rangers went to Dad's church. Dad told him the story, and the rangers decided to not give the group any kind of citation. However, the rangers told the group to get a ranger to accompany them in that situation in the future.

until I went to college in the early '80s. It always made me smile when I looked at it.

Dana Denton Bowling Green, Kentucky

Photo: James Denton with his wayward buck.

The suspects identified in the story are: Junior "One-Eye" Payne; Les "Shut Up One-Eye" Toms; Leonard "North Star" Rogers; Bobby "Missed Anniversary" Wade; Stanley "Bruised Ribs" Polson and James "Ringleader" Denton.

Sadly, only Dad and Stanley Polson are still alive. RIP to the others, and to all the great men I was privileged to have known in my youth.

All of them caught it from their wives, though, since none of the ladies had a clue where they were. It was Bobby Wades’ anniversary, and he really got an earful when he got home. The whole ordeal was so comical, though, that Dad had that spike mounted. It was on our den wall

Bowcountry.com

Early October…

I headed down to southeastern Ohio to stay with some good friends while hunting their family farm. This would be my third year hunting with them, and I was looking forward to the opportunity. I had three full days to hunt before I had to get back to the graveyard shift.

A couple of things said this trip wasnʼt going to be a banner expedition. The weatherman was being mean and coming up with summer-like temps in the mid-80s. Deer movement prior to my arrival had been minimal.

The trip down from Michigan was a borderline fiasco after stopping for a late lunch with a buddy in Columbus. Two wrong turns, two expressway

parking lot breaks and a too-long 35-minute stop for tags at Mouth-Breathers Bait and Tackle had me arriving two hours later than I had planned, and it was well after dark. I dragged my bow out, set up a flashlight on a target and double-checked my pin settings---all was good to go.

Friday morningʼs hunt produced a few does moving through the area, none within shooting range. Friday night was uneventful. I passed the

Bowcountry.com

time making jokes and jawing with buddies hunting around the country via text messaging, in-between scanning the woods for movement.

Saturday morning proved to be just the opposite. I decided to tick a Rack Pack rattling device a few times, more or less just playing with it. To my surprise, a decent buck crested the hill behind me and appeared more than interested in coming in.

He was a solid 50 yards out, plenty of time to get the heart going. At 40 yards, he glanced behind himself and bolted instantly. A few seconds later, a ʻyote crossed the hill. I could only assume the little opportunist decided he was going to check out the scrap I was mimicking, but he moved through the area and stayed on the buckʼs tail.

I spent Saturday afternoon moving an insanely over-built stand to a different location, at the risk of a hernia. We got set in the stands late, but that didnʼt seem to affect the outcome for one of us. My friend Dave hadnʼt been in the stand but two minutes when an old doe come out. She apparently didnʼt like Daveʼs company, and was going to make the entire county aware of him by blowing incessantly. Her mistake. Dave ran an arrow through her. She piled up pretty quickly and all was quiet again before the request to help drag went out.

Sunday morning was absolutely beautiful. I watched the woods wake up, but no deer. This was my last full day, and while I certainly was looking forward to seeing my family again, I was down to one more hunt and just didnʼt want to call it quits yet. Maybe I would have to look forward to the next trip, much closer to the rut.

The hunt that had a bonus…

In the afternoon, we headed to the stands about 4:30 or so. Earlier in the day we had half-guessed which stands we were going to sit in. Both were on the top of a ridge, at opposite ends of a food plot.

On the way up the hill, we passed by a buck, and although he wasn't completely spooked, he certainly wasn't going to watch us go by all calm-like. Rough translation: .he skedaddled at a reasonable clip. He wasnʼt around long enough for me to get a tine count, but it was

Bowcountry.com

obvious he was loaded up top. Certainly a shooter in my book! Now if I could get to the stand without dehydrating: the weather was a cool 85 degrees or so.

After a bit in the stand, I could hear the ruckus of deer moving off my right side, some 100 yards away. I never caught a glimpse of the bigger buck I was sure was in there, but did see a button buck and a fork horn, also known as a Michigan wall-hanger.

Finally, I caught antlers moving around over there, and--to put it politely--what looked like a very decent buck was stomping a mudhole in the forkieʼs fanny for the better part of 20 minutes. Apparently, these two boys didn't get along too well. Twice I saw the bigger buck stuff his antlers into the forkie, more or less bighorn sheep-style, driving his rear end to the ground. Each time, the little guy let out the equivalent of a holler. Sometime during all this, the nubbin buck worked his way over to within 15 yards or so of me, probably glad he slipped through the cracks on the butt whoopins.

I did a quick check of the time, and shot a text to Dave that I had a nice buck on me. By this time Iʼd enough time to figure out how nice he was, and I had about two hours of daylight for him to present a shot. Plenty of time, I felt. Half an hour later and about 50 beats per minute off my heart, the big guy had maneuvered within 40 yards and stood broadside. It wasnʼt exactly a great shot opportunity, but it was worth looking at. I decided that I REALLY didn't want to slip an arrow next to the sapling he was standing by, and opted to pass.

Then he disappeared. Not like gone, obviously, but I couldn't find him. I knew he didn't leave; I hadn't heard him moving around. Iʼd taken my eyes off'n him to see what was coming up the hill to my left (an old fat doe), and when I looked back he was gone! The first thought in my head when she arrived was “Great, another set of eyeballs to get over on”…and the little guy was still on my left milling around, as well.

An anxious fifteen-minute wait, a few text messages to Dave regarding my nerves and the buckʼs possible whereabouts, and two snort-wheezes from Dave in response (from more than 200 yards away) all produce nothing. I start wondering if the buck bailed on me. I check the nubbin buck and doe for their locations. Then I noticed the old girl looking at something, and she tipped me off to where he was. He was much closer now: 32 yards.

I knew the trail he was on would carry him around to a few different shot opportunities but had made up my mind that I was shooting on the first REAL one. Those that know me know I don't play with the risky shots---there is already toooooo damn much to go wrong. Why add to the pile?

I carefully drew the bow, fully conscious I had to remain undetected by all three deer. The big buck changed positions. “Damn! Let down and wait it out...”

A Thank You to a Gobbler…

The old doe was less than 20 yards away and preoccupied with a tom turkey wandering the food plot. The nubbin buck had moved out to a whopping 15 yards and was facing away.

The motion of drawing the bow would be much easier now.…

Big Boy moves in closer. I see a spot he is going to cross, which the old Yardage Pro had pinned at 26 yards earlier. I drew the bow and settled in. Two more steps and heʼd be in the clear. He starts forward, gives me the two steps, and I have solid look at his shoulder…

Damn!

What he presented was sufficient at best.

Very slightly quartering towards me.…

I settle my 20 yard pin at the buckʼs elbow. I can feel my heart as it thunders away in my throat. I try to aim low, due to the angle I had.

This shot is coming from a long way up. Dave and I figure now that I was in the nose-bleed

Bowcountry.com

section compared to where the buck stood on the slope below me. In my mind, though, I had a front-row view, best seat in the house.

I set the trigger on my release, and heard a voice in my head asking if that is the shot I am taking...

I donʼt recall letting that arrow fly. It was a complete surprise to me. The nock was like a laser dropping in on him. CRACK! And off he goes! Heʼs running the edge of the ridge, and I see the nock making an oval pattern in the air a few times before it flips into space and falls out of sight.

The old doe splits in the same direction and stops close enough to the buck that I can see both deer in the binoculars. The button runs off into the distance. My buckʼs front end is hidden, covered by the foliage between us. I can make out his head, and most of his rump.

The old doe is clearly staring at me. Three minutes pass, and he is still standing. He begins to walk off.

A single text message from Dave was like a slap on the head, and confirms what Iʼd heard.

“What did you shoot?” The implication was clear. The impact was loud, like hitting-a-tree loud!

I call Dave and start cussing myself out for making a horrible shot. Iʼm pretty hard on myself at this point. We come up with a plan that basically involves me NOT getting out of the tree and requires me to keep the bow in my hands. I see the buck two more times over the next fifteen minutes, each time farther away. This is not good.…

We inspect the exact area where he stood when I shot. No hair, no blood. We locate the broken arrow shaft, and itʼs bloody with some 11 inches of shaft and broadhead missing.

Darkness sets in and we decide to back out and let me gather my wits so I can answer as many questions as possible and we can think this through.

I replay the shot in my head as if itʼs on repeat on a portable video player. Each time, the

impact is high-- very high. I cover the facts with Dave, and those same facts three more times with Daveʼs wife Jess and another friend. We conclude that arrow canʼt be anywhere but in the boiler room—itʼs just not on the best path for it to get there. We are back to the woods a couple hours later.…

The emotional highs and lows of a blood trail are worse than the video loop of the shot in my brain. We find blood almost instantly at the last place I saw the buck moving. The second spot of blood has a fairly large chunk of lung material. Off we go, with smiles on.

Two hours later, we ainʼt smiling. Weʼve lost the blood, and after a quick check of a known bedding area we call it a night. We hope the ʻyotes donʼt find him before we will be back in the morning.

Daybreak brings a new perspective, urgency, and a much better view. (LED lights are cool, but they canʼt compare to sunlight.) We find blood not a foot from our last location. After trailing on our hind legs a good distance, we are back to hands and knees. We repeat this process two more times over the next 80 yards or so.

Jess hears some noise on the field edge we were painfully and slowly approaching, and figures it might be worth the walk. The field edge ends and becomes a densely wooded hillside. She is not there 30 seconds and I hear her call out “White belly!” It takes a few seconds to register between my ears and few more for my brain to make my body move. I am pretty sure I manage to run over there, using the verb very loosely.

The buck was down…

Somehow this buck managed to travel some 200 yards on a shot that did damage to one lung and destroyed the other. A quick inspection of the animal and I start the cleaning process. The shot I took wasnʼt nearly as horrible as Iʼd thought. I did clip the scapula, which explains the loud crack at

Bowcountry.com

impact. Clearly, it could have been much better, but also much worse.

Back at the house, we snapped some the permanent digital memories, loaded the deer up, and I was off on the road, smiling from ear to ear. I had a six-hour drive to reflect on what I had learned, and to enjoy the many calls of congrats from friends and family.

I donʼt know what the buckʼs antlers score, I might someday, but at this point itʼs not important if he scores 100 or 150. He is a solid ten-point with impressive 11-inch-plus G3s, over 18” inches of spread and dressed out in the 200-pound range. A truly magnificent, mature Ohio whitetail.

Thanks again to Dave and Jess, a couple I am glad to have as friends.…

Bowcountry.com

http://youtu.be/3ScuolCX0uc