You might not know the man behind the products. But chances are, if you’re a serious bowhunter, both your hunting tactics and gear arsenal have been impacted by Andrae D’Acquisto, founder/owner of Lone Wolf Custom Gear.

Nearly two decades ago, Bowhunting World readers were introduced to D’Acquisto via a feature I penned that appeared in the Xtreme 2007 issue. (Click here to check out the online version of the article.) At the time, I felt readers needed to hear about the exploits of D’Acquisto, because I’d seen firsthand his unique dual-pronged abilities as a skilled product designer, and deft whitetail hunting wizard — for a few decades before that.

The fact is I grew up with Andrae — who is a bit more than 4 years my senior — and his younger brother Nick, a high school classmate. Even back then, the examples of Andrae’s uncanny hunting abilities were many.


The Early Years

I was with Andrae on a late-summer scouting mission back in 1996 when he proudly showed me, through a 10-power bino, an incredible velvet-racked buck he had located feeding in farm fields a few weeks earlier. Almost unbelievably, hanging with that jaw-dropping record book deer was a buck almost as large. He would later arrow that larger buck on opening day, Sept. 23, 1996. It netted 181 5/8 and at the time, was Wisconsin’s new No. 2 archery typical. On Nov. 10, 2005, he would add an even larger Wisconsin monster netting 184 1/8, which at that time was also named the state’s No. 2 archery typical.

During an earlier (circa mid-‘80s) hunt in far northeast Wisconsin, which I shared with Andrae and Nick, Andrae tipped me off to a prime-looking bigwoods bedding area he’d found; the sign told him held a good buck. (Andrae had already tagged out.) The next morning in the inky predawn, I used my original Lone Wolf climber (back then the platforms were made of .75-inch-thick marine plywood!) to set up on the edge of that thick marshy bedding cover. Shortly after first light, I watched as a beautiful bigwoods 4x4 emerged from the eerie ground fog and strolled beneath me — headed back to bed.

 The truth is Andrae’s entire sporting life has centered around finding the haunts of big bucks and hunting them aggressively. One more personal anecdote occurred as I returned home from college one year for Thanksgiving break in the late ‘80s. With an extra day to kill, I headed down to southeast Wisconsin’s Root River packing my fly rod for a chance at some late-fall steelhead. On the drive down, as dawn was breaking, I watched a brute of a 5x5 farm-country buck cross the road in front of me in a few inches of fresh late-November snow. Later that day, I happened to be on the phone with Andrae when I mentioned the buck. He wanted to know exactly where the encounter had occurred. The reason? He was there the next day to pick up the track and see if the buck was huntable. Unusual? For Andrae, it was commonplace.

Consistent Top-End Success

During our 2007 Bowhunting World interview, Andrae listed his record book-class buck tally at 27, already an amazing feat. In July 2025, he told me that number now stands in the mid-50s, sheepishly explaining that he did not know the exact number. If you knew Andrae, you’d know the reason is that his focus is elsewhere — on the pursuit of true top-end bucks that few ever encounter.

As testament to that, D’Acquisto has bow-bagged five net Boone and Crockett-qualifying deer, a feat he considers his proudest hunting accomplishment. Three bucks stretch the tape to more than 200 inches. And he says his fire to add several more continues to burn hotter than ever.

As a businessman, D’Acquisto is the quintessential self-made overachiever, a workaholic whose inquisitive mind and inner drive seem to know no bounds. He started Lone Wolf Treestands back in 1984, grew it to industry prominence with his ground-breaking cast-aluminum designs, then sold it in 2006, and began consulting for the new owners. When that period ended, early retirement didn’t take.

Around the time of the Lone Wolf sale, Andrae started up his now-popular Whitetail Addictions television show, which continues. He also started consulting for treestand maker XOP, a relationship that ended in 2022. But maybe his most high-profile recent move was starting up Lone Wolf Custom Gear in 2020, an Iowa-based company that once again gave Andrae a chance to flex his knack for outside-the-box gear innovation. That business continues as a maker of premium, machined treestands many consider the best in the industry, as well as climbing sticks, saddle platforms, camera arms, and other accessories — which most recently includes some new mid-priced stands and sticks, and a unique new solid-aluminum broadhead.

We spoke with Andrae recently about the changes he’s weathered since that 2007 feature story, a few new things he’s learned, and now, at age 64, what the Lone Wolf’s future might hold.


BW: In the past 2 years, Lone Wolf Custom Gear has introduced more than a dozen new products, including, for 2025, two new cast-aluminum fixed stands — the Patriot series — price-point models that harken back to your original Lone Wolf designs. How do these fit into your current lineup?

Andrae: My idea was, we have several premium stand options at LWCG, but not everyone is looking for a high-end stand right out of the gate, and we didn't want to have those guys look to other companies to fill their needs. With the U.S.-made Patriot line, we knew we could get them into a very good stand within our brand. And the goal is, at some point, they might want to step up into one of our premium models. There were literally thousands of guys in the ‘80s and ‘90s who jumped into our U.S.-made cast-aluminum designs back then, but in recent years they’ve really had nowhere to go.


BW: Over your business career, you’ve been known as a true innovator, introducing not “me-too” products, but rather products that solve real problems with designs the industry has never really seen. How has that continued at LWCG?

Andrae: The fact of the matter is our products have always been about solving problems and giving serious hunters an edge not seen in other gear. They’re products I am proud to use and depend on myself, or they don’t happen. And that will just continue.

I’m in the final stages of developing a new rack to haul e-bikes that’s going to be handy for anyone using those valuable tools, and I recently got my patent approved for a trail camera design that I believe will revolutionize the industry. I’ve been involved in trail camera development for years, I’ve never been satisfied with current designs that either fail way too often, or spook deer. And that happens more than most hunters know. This new technology is going to change all that, deer will not even know they’re being watched. I don’t want to be in the trail camera business, but we’re going to start soliciting for licensees; this new technology is open for license, so we’ll be starting that process.

I’ve also got a new broadhead, the all-aluminum Arrowhead 3 blade, that I’ve been testing for the past couple years, and the results on big tough mature whitetails have been incredible. The unique parts of this design are its shape and volume, which produces unusual strength and penetration. If you watch the video of its performance, it hits and produces wound channels like a shotgun slug. There are guys who cannot tolerate a bent or broken blade on their heads, and this head is never going to bend or break. And if you don't like rusting? We’ve got it fixed. Accuracy with this head is incredible, and with its gasket, when you screw this head down on your arrow, it will not come loose.

BW: What makes you most proud of your long-running video series Whitetail Addictions, and what are plans for its future?

Andrae: We’re currently celebrating 20 years of that show, and at first, it was my way of giving back to our dedicated customer base — really showcasing a bunch of talented whitetail hunters rather than just focusing on myself. In the beginning, it seemed like any town you went into, you’d meet really serious whitetail hunters and almost to a man, they were running Lone Wolf equipment. So I ended up meeting a really good bunch of guys who were fanatical whitetailers like myself, and now we’ve got a nice core group of talented guys who are on the crew.

The nice thing is, lots of industry companies want to be associated with us. We opened the show up to sponsorships, and we’re now working with a lot of great companies including Hoyt, Vortex, Asio camo, Victory arrows, Buck Fever Synthetic scents, and Face-Off electric bikes —  which is introducing a special LWCG model. Last year, I scouted and hunted with that bike; I keep a LWCG .5 Treestand strapped to it at all times, with a set of Micro climbing sticks, and everything else I need to hunt, including a trim saw, and water bottle. I can just take it whenever and go, it’s silent and powerful, and it’s always ready. I’m an unstoppable beast with that bike right now.


BW: Maybe the two most ground-breaking hunt strategies you talked about during our 2007 interview were scouting every day throughout the season to stay on the hottest sign, and “bumping and dumping” — scouting a property until you jump a big buck in its bed, then immediately hanging a stand and waiting to ambush that deer on its return. Since that interview, that type of ultra-mobile “hang and hunt” technique you were among the first to popularize has virtually exploded; it’s one of the factors behind the current saddle hunting craze. In the years since that story hit, what are some other things you’ve learned about hunting top-end bucks?

Andrae: One of those would be treestand height. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve found that there is a zone, somewhere in that 11- to 12-foot range, where you can become almost invisible to those bucks. If you could see the caliber of some of the bucks that come through and look right through me at that height, you would hardly believe it. But when you’re hunting low like that, you have to be very still, and I’m always wearing a headnet. You also have to do your due diligence with scouting and know which trail that buck is using, and be smart with picking your tree. One of the keys is this: Wherever you think that deer is going, his concentration is on that trail. And if it bends to the right, you don't want to be hanging from a tree in that right curve — he’ll bust you there most every time. You want to be out to the left, or perpendicular to the trail.

BW: You’ve talked recently about the possibility of retiring from day-to-day operations of LWCG. Have you set a retirement date, and what does retirement for Andrae D’Acquisto look like?

Andrae: I’m trying to do that in a gradual movement, but there are responsibilities right now that I can’t just hand off. I wanted to get to the point where I can just design gear, and consult, but I’ve come to the realization I can never actually retire. My head just won’t go there. I can’t sit still for a single moment. After I sold Lone Wolf Treestands in 2006, I was vacationing in Jamaica, on the side of a pool, listening to Bob Marley; I was 100-percent relaxed and at peace — and then that feeling went away and never came back. I’ve got to keep busy, it’s just my nature.

So now I’m 64, will be 65 in January, and now the challenge for the future is, the physical and mental side of things. I had a run-in with a sleep apnea issue a few years ago that really rocked me. I’m a guy who needs his sleep to be at my best, and that condition was draining me, and I didn’t realize it. It got to the point that I ended up passing out twice on stand, and once walking along on the ground while hunting. That was scary; luckily up in the stand I was strapped in securely.

My perfect retirement would be if I could get some of the business-related baggage out of my head, and hunt one whole deer season, 4 straight months, every morning and evening, without ever having to stop and go back to the shop and put out fires and make calls. When you run a business, things come up. In the recent past, I’d be on stand, it’s prime time, the field would be filling up with deer, and all of a sudden a truck is there ready to unload, and the employee handling that didn’t show up. Time to climb down. That kind of stuff happens continually.

Sidebar: Why Many Hunters Don’t Close the Deal

According to Andrae D’Acquisto, the biggest factor holding back many otherwise serious whitetail hunters from consistently closing the deal on mature bucks is they’re too passive in their approach.

“I am just so adamant about hunting red-hot sign,” Andrae said. “Fresh rubs, licking branches. And even if it’s just a couple of huge tracks likely made the day before. If you’re constantly on fresh stuff, you’re always in the game. And that’s why I think a big trend of picking a hunting spot based solely on using maps is missing the boat. Many people can pick potentially good spots off a topo, but most of those spots will get hot for maybe 1 week during the rut. I want to be in the game every day of the season.

“So many hunters are still hung up on the notion that putting too much pressure on bucks is bad. To me, that is much less of an evil than sitting in the same spots and seeing nothing. I tell many guys to go out this year and purposefully screw up a couple spots; go do what I do — get down out of your treestand and look around; do more scouting in season. But you have to know what you’re looking for.

“When I find those fresh rub lines, licking branches, I just know that buck’s dying. If you can’t do that, then even going to a fresh new spot is better than sitting there seeing nothing. Maybe you switch to a spot where you can see a long way, where you can watch that open cover. And then when you see something happen, slide over there and hunt it right now. You have to take a swing, to get a hit.”