If you’ve been bowhunting elk for years without success, Clint Stone has come to your rescue. In Elk Blitz, he advises that patience is not a virtue. Haste doesn’t make waste. When bulls prove tight lipped because of warm weather or unrelenting hunting pressure, you might be better off with an aggressive spot & stalk approach. Stone shows you how to mount a commanding vantage, use your optics, and get close.
Did you know that three of last fall’s biggest, baddest bow bucks were not shot by big-name bowhunters? In 3 Big Bucks, Mike Hanback tells the stories of how average Joes scored on bruisers measuring 183 6/8, 233 6/8, and 188 in their local hunting woods, then provides the steps and analysis to help you do the same.
Steve Bartylla in When Things Go Wrong says that a clear head and the right attitude are vital in recovering from a bad bowhunting situation. No matter how well we prepare for season, how tightly we have a buck patterned, how perfectly the stand is set, or how much we practice, hunting has a way of turning everything upside-down in a heartbeat. Learn why desperation is your enemy and what you should do to ensure positive results.
Houdini Bucks change their routines many times during the season, disappearing and reappearing seemingly at will. Mark Hicks profiles expert bowhunter Adam Hays, who says that finding them depends more on locating their “core” area, less on locating food sources. Hays shares advice on finding these secretive, hard-to-locate hidey-holes as well as other techniques for connecting with Mr. Big.
In Getting The Edge, Mark Hicks also talks to Mike Rex, an Ohio bowhunter with 20 P&Y whitetails to his credit. How does he do it? It’s a combination of constantly locating and getting access to promising whitetail properties, fanatical scent control, setting shooter size goals, and hunting only where he knows big bucks live. It’s a combination for putting racks on the walls and meat in the freezer.
Hunting in extreme cold weather? Then don’t store your bow indoors, says Alaska resident Paul D. Atkins in Bowhunting The Extreme. Bow limbs and risers suddenly taken from a warm environment to extreme cold can crack or, even worse, explode. Instead, store gear outside where it can acclimate to the cold. Atkins offers more valuable advice on clothing, bow storage and transport, and hunting expectations in extremely cold conditions.
First-time visitors to South Africa, including Bowhunting World’s own Lee Hethington, realize their dreams and create memories with an incredible, exotic, exciting safari in Dick Scorzafava’s Bowhunting The Veld. Dare to dream? The good news is that bowhunting Africa may be less expensive than a whitetail or mule deer hunt in The States. It is economical because you get the opportunity to bag several trophies, capitalizing on airfare and lodging fees.
Grizzlies are stronger than Superman and faster than Seabiscuit, says Bob Robb in Close Encounters Of The Grizzly Kind. Every year grizzlies chase hunters from their preferred hunting areas, take their game meat, or even attack. So what do you do when you come face-to-face with one? Robb, a veteran of bear hunts both in Alaska and the Lower 48, recounts the tactics that worked for him.
It’s an experience every bowhunter should have, but Joe Byers tells you that an idyllic bowhunt takes work in Bulls Above The Clouds. Although climbing above the clouds first with horses, then on foot was lung-busting, slipping along the ridge lines more than two miles high was a pure adrenalin rush.
Decoys are a bowhunter’s best friend for fooling wary pronghorn. Two-dimensional cutouts have become very popular, but have you considered using a real live horse? Mark Kayser tells you how in The Ultimate Rush: Decoying Pronghorns.
“What’s the worst thing that can happen?” Rick Sapp asserts that no bowhunter ever asked that in Bowhunters In Trouble because in bowhunting so much can go wrong so quickly. Sapp tells three tales of bowhunters who, unfortunately, found that out the hard way.
Finally, in his Back Country column Bob Robb shares the basics of Wilderness Survival. The first thing to do when something goes wrong is to STOP—Stop, Think, Observe, and Plan. Then Robb explains the “Rules of Three”: You may be doomed in three seconds if you let panic rule; you cannot live more than three minutes without oxygen; you cannot live much more than three hours in extreme temperatures without body shelter (warmth); you cannot live much more than three days without water; you can live up to three weeks without food.
What else should you know? Read Bowhunting World’s Xtreme 2011 and find out!
