Moving Up!
by David King

Some things just take time, which is kind of hard in today’s world. It always seems there is not enough time to go around – hence the reason I am typing up this very editorial at 1:00 a.m. However, to do things right, you need to make sure everything is in place. Well, things are really coming together to where you will start to see some great new things from King’s Outdoor World. Our new building is finally on its way. This 50,000 square foot facility should hopefully be ready for us to move in at the first of the year, providing much needed space for our warehousing, distribution and offices. But, some of the best news is the expansion of Hunting Illustrated and our web site www.huntingillustrated.com. We are just about to launch an all-new membership program that is amazing. This membership program will be like no other out there. It will give you the combination of a magazine, web site services, catalog, discounts, donations, free gear, rewards and more. Our King’s Hunting Illustrated will also take over the duties of our direct retail cataloging and bring together a force in the hunting industry. You will see not only a continued supply of our King’s ShadowCamo clothing and gear, but many more products that we are co-branding. This line will keep expanding as time goes on.

Our new web site at www.huntingillustrated.com will become the ultimate resource and community platform that all of you can enjoy and benefit from. You will be able to call www.huntingillustrated.com your home as you post photos, video, have your own blog to tell about your hunting adventures and shop online for great products. Moreover, the work has begun to eventually include within the membership side of the web site all past issues of Hunting Illustrated and all past calendars and custom re-creations dating back to 1995. There will also be video from TV shows, hunting DVDs and more from our sponsors, editors and team members that you will have access to.

Give us a little time and be patient. I know our trophy room hasn’t been updated in a while (that’s really bugging me too). But let us build the foundation so we can achieve the great heights this company has in store. Great things are happening and the beginning stages are now starting to unfold. Good luck in the hunts this fall and drop by www.huntingillustrated.com to share with us your great successes.

Q. What types of habitat do elk prefer to frequent in September, versus habitat preferences in October and November?
Jene Jensen – Gillette, WY

A. In order to answer your question, let’s first discuss bull behavior during the fall and winter months. In August, bulls rub the velvet from their rack, break away from bachelor groups and begin associating with cows. September is when the peak of the rut occurs. Throughout September, you will find bulls wherever there are cows and calves. If you hunt mountainous terrain, the cows may still be in the high country in September. As the weather grows colder in October, the rut slows down and the bulls are completely exhausted from fighting other bulls and chasing cows. Bulls are now vulnerable to extreme weather conditions and predators and they know it. At this time, bulls will leave the cows and search for heavy cover and nutrition. Old friends reunite in these “bull nests,” and apologize to one another for the severe belligerence that took place weeks earlier. October and November weather pushes the cows from the summer grounds in search of forage. The bigger bulls will soon follow, but tend to stick to heavy cover in the higher country a bit longer in order to recuperate in preparation for a long winter. If you’re hunting in October or November, glass the steep, remote slopes with plenty of cover from a distance to find these late-season bull nests.

Q. How do you field judge the weight of a mule deer on the hoof?
David Felton – Leggett, CA

A. By nature, hunters are inquisitive, but I’ve never heard anyone ask this question. Perhaps it is because this is a question no one really wants an answer to while packing out a deer carcass on their back. Mule deer weights vary throughout their range. For example, mule deer bodies are much larger in Canada than they are in the desert, so it is difficult to generalize an accurate method of weight measurement. A good rule of thumb is that a young mule deer buck will weigh approximately 125-150 pounds; a good mature buck’s weight in the fall will range from 150-240; and then there are the behemoth bucks that can weigh as much as 450! There is a weight formula if you are able to get a field-dressed carcass on a scale. Take the field-dressed weight and multiply it by 1.42 and that will provide you with a live-weight estimate. The only way to become accurate at judging weight in the field is to spend time practicing. Take the time to look at each deer and study their different physical characteristics.

Q. Can grouse really be found in the same habitat that bucks usually are? It seems every time I am bowhunting and see a nice buck, I spook up a lot of grouse around the same area.
Jason Barnett – Tremonton, UT

A. Jason, you may be on to something. The two mountain grouse in the lower Rocky Mountains are the blue grouse and ruffed grouse. Ruffed grouse are usually found in what I consider doe country – willow bottoms and aspen parks with plenty of understory brush. Blue grouse are usually found in what I consider big buck country – conifer stands and open meadows on steep slopes and rock outcroppings. I don’t believe the grouse are intentionally “hanging around” the bucks, but they naturally seek the same environment. Next time when I’m out deer hunting and I see a pine hen perched atop a rock, I’ll make sure I’m ready for a shot.

Q. I bowhunt California mulies during late August and early September, long before the rut. Will a buck’s curiosity allow him to respond to rattling or fawn bleating shortly after rubbing off the velvet?
Don Hinton – Paradise, CA

A. Don, occasionally a hunter is successful by thinking out of the box. On a few different occasions while calling coyotes in August and September, I have been surprised to see a buck following a doe to investigate the call to within bow range. It was always a young buck that was too small to hang with the big boys and still hanging with his momma. By using a call or rattling antlers early in the season, you could possibly bring in a curious, young muley, but I believe you would be better off using the early season mule deer tactics that have been proven to be effective through the generations.

Q. I’ve always hunted water holes in the evenings. Are mule deer as prone to water in the morning hours?
Jimmy King – Hobbs, NM

A. Evening is a good time to sit on water since deer regularly bed throughout the warm day, and the first thing they crave when they get up is to quench their thirst. However, many bucks have been killed around water in the early morning hours as well. Before hunting season begins, take your camera and go and sit at your favorite water hole and find out what the deer are doing. Mule deer that live in an undisturbed environment may visit water holes whenever they get thirsty – whether it is morning, afternoon, or evening. Once mule deer sense danger or have had some hunting pressure, their watering patterns are broken and it is difficult to predict when they will come to the water. By the time a buck has matured, he has learned that water holes are also danger zones that attract not only two-legged predators, but four-legged predators as well. These big bucks will use the tanks during the night when it is safest.

Q. When it is raining, do the deer still move around?
Koe Robertson – Deleon Sprints, FL

A. Some of my favorite memories include wet clothes and big bucks. If it is a mild or short rain that comes from an afternoon rainstorm rapidly cooling things down, deer will often get up to either switch beds or take advantage of the moisture on the plants and begin feeding a couple hours earlier than normal. If it is a substantial rainstorm, most deer prefer to stay dry and look for protection. Many times the deer will bed in a heavy canopy to protect them from the downpour. When it is really coming down hard, it is time for you to take advantage of the disruptive noises of rain and the soft ground, which make perfect stalking conditions.

Q. Is it true that mule deer are mostly grazers in the summer and browsers in the winter?
Ira Waldron – Dixon, WY

A. Ira, your statement is true to an extent. Most biologists would consider mule deer browsers primarily (they eat shrubs, forbs, trees). Their narrow muzzles and chisel-like teeth allow them to clip food off stems or forbs close to the ground. Grazers, such as cows, have wider muzzles and wider rows of teeth to mow the grass down. These “wide rows” muzzles make it difficult for grazers to be specific when selecting certain parts of plants. However, in order to survive, mule deer adapt to changing environments and alter their foraging behavior. Mule deer seem to forage on whatever is available seasonally. In the winter, the snow covers the dried-up grasses and deer tend to browse heavily. In the springtime, as green grass sprouts from the thawing ground, mule deer will decrease their browsing activity and increase their grass consumption. If there are rye-grass or wheat fields nearby, once again, the deer will graze and take advantage of the best nutrients around.

Con
by Ron Spomer

Hunting in the good old USA is undergoing a sea change, and I’m not sure it’s the best thing for our grand old heritage. Increasingly, dollars determine who gets to hunt and where. Tagging a trophy has more to do with how much you can spend than how well you can hunt.

You can’t argue that wildlife, or the right to pursue it, has value. That’s why the king chopped off peasant’s hands for poaching “his” deer – until we puny peasants rose up and lopped off some kingly crowns. This tradition of the aristocracy going hunting while the peasants went hungry ended with the radical idea of a democratic republic called the United States of America. Wildlife, like air and rivers, would belong to everyone. This was never a perfect system, but it gradually developed to save most species from exploitation and return them to abundance. The restoration of bison, elk, pronghorns, turkeys and other commonly hunted game became conservation’s high water mark. The system worked. Everyone shared in abundance and scarcity. Everyone contributed to restoration. Everyone got the same chances at hunting opportunities through limited seasons, bag limits and lottery selections for limited tags. A wealthy person could buy more guided hunts into the hinterlands, but never more tags for more game.

The rush nowadays is to buy a chunk of land, post it, maybe high-fence it, and farm it for wildlife. Most of these land purchases are 15 to 100-acre plots, but some are 10,000 to 100,000-acre ranches. Nearly all are posted. Nearly all used to be open to hunting. All you had to do was ask. This easy access increased hunter numbers which in turn increased license sales, pumping more money into hiring biologists and game wardens, restocking, habitat improvement and the like. This funding increased wildlife numbers and maintained high hunter participation which, in turn, increased sales of guns, ammunition, calls, decoys, boots and more.

Today, the average Joe finds “No Hunting” signs on private lands because most are reserved for hunting by the owner or leased to outfitters who take paying clients on canned adventures – “Sit in this box and when you hear the feeder go off, get ready.” This issue is contributing to the continuing decline in hunter numbers, a serious issue now causing concern among Fish & Game agencies. A decrease in hunter recruitment means fewer license sales to support conservation work. Recruitment of young people is poor. Not many kids can walk or bicycle from the house to a pheasant field or deer woods anymore. These youth have to wait for a rich uncle to take them to Real Life Hunting Adventures Lodge for a $5,000 deer hunt.

Fortunately, public lands such as our National and State Forests, grasslands, BLM lands, wildlife management units, etc. remain open to public hunting. However, so many of us commoners are squeezed into these public areas that trophy quality suffers. In many cases, experienced game flees public land at the first gunshot and camps on private ranchlands for the season where they are not hunted at all or selectively harvested by wealthy patrons. In some states, landowners are pressuring legislatures to give them licenses and tags to sell to the highest bidder.

I can understand a landowner charging a trespass fee to offset the costs of wildlife eating crops. Ditto someone trying to keep the deer he feeds and protects into old age (and trophy size) on his property so the neighbors can’t poach it, but not when this leads to privatization of wildlife.

One fairly equitable solution seems to be some sort of Block Management in which high-priced, non-resident tag fees are used to pay landowners to open their property to general hunters. A few ranches remain leased for wealthy clients, but many others, formerly posted against all hunting, are opened. Some tags are reserved for non-residents only, but residents still benefit because those who do get tags have more places to hunt.

Private control of public wildlife sounds like a good idea when you own the land on which that game lives and can manage it for maximum trophy size and “trespass” fees. It’s a bad idea when an anti-hunter buys the big ranch and closes it to all hunting. Either way, it’s a bad trend for average hunters and the future of hunting in general. Reasonable access to land and wildlife is essential to maintaining equitable distribution of hunting privileges to all citizens. Without this, real hunting for real, wild game will soon die out.

Pro
by Scott Grange

I have always disliked using the word “never.” It’s one of those universal qualifiers we all use, especially when we want to stress a point. However, every now and then an issue arises that demands the use of this awful adjective. So, here goes. The good old days of the general public hunting vast parcels of private land along with unlimited tracks of public acreage for trophy big game, for the mere cost of a license, will never be experienced again. Never!

The mentality that all game animals belong to the public and that we should all have free access to whatever ground they inhabit is as antiquated as black and white television. Anyone possessing such an attitude is dangerous. Why? Because such an individual has their head buried so deep in the sand that they have to be oblivious to everything around them, not just big game issues.

Thirty five years ago, I killed my first bull elk. It was a beautiful five-point and the best thing about it was that I took him on public ground. I’ll never forget the words of my older brother Steve.

“You’d better cherish this moment because you may never,” there’s that adjective again, “kill another bull like this as long as you live.”

For those of you who entered this world after 1971, I wouldn’t expect you to understand such foolish sounding words. But, back then, killing a bull elk of any kind in my home state of Utah was a big deal. And, to be lucky enough to harvest a mature bull put me on a pedestal among my teenage peers almost equal to that of Sandy Koufax. Okay, maybe not Koufax, but it was huge.

Thirty-six years and more big bulls than I care to admit later, I would no more shoot a bull like the one in 1971 than fly to the moon. My son just got his bull back from the taxidermist. He took it two years ago on public land and it scored 372! Last year he took a 325 bull on private property.

So, what happened in that twenty-five year period? Did a space ship come down and dump a boat load of wapiti in our mountains? I don’t think so. Did the animal rights freaks belly up to the bar and give wildlife a much needed hand? That will be the day. Or, did this phenomenon just happen, kind of like the big bang theory? This is where you need to remove your head from the sand.

With a few exceptions, hunters of today want to harvest trophy class animals, whether they’re hunting whitetail or wapiti, This type of hunting takes proper management, habitat improvements and a ton of money to produce such specimens. Add to that the fact that more and more folks are being forced to sell their ranches to greedy developers as they can no longer afford to pay the taxes, let alone make a living off the land.

Enter the necessary evil of private ranches, high-priced tags, and the privatization of wildlife. Do you think the two or three hundred dollars Bubba spends annually on hunting big game supports wildlife? It doesn’t support squat. It’s the millions of dollars that are shelled out by dedicated sportsmen and women along with organizations like FNAWS, RMEF, SFW, MDF and other conservation groups, coupled with wildlife agencies who can see the big picture, that make all this happen.

The tradition of the aristocracy going hunting while the peasants go hungry may have vanished with the creation of the democratic republic of the United States. However, with that democratic republic came taxes, free trade and greed. Like it or not, our society is changing. The good old days that our fathers and grandfathers enjoyed are gone forever. But hey, neither my dad nor his dad ever killed a 350-class bull elk or 160-class whitetail. So, what will it be, a handful of inferior bucks on over-hunted public ground for free? Or, trophy class animals on public and private ground for a fee? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

I can still remember following my dad as a very young boy, being his little shadow, on the deer hunts. Back then, I never even wondered why he walked where he walked or how he chose a location for each hunt. I just thought, “Wow,” I get to go deer hunting with my dad! More times than not, the day would get very exciting when a big buck showed up. I can still hear my dad working the lever action of his 30-30-94 as he got ready to shoot. At the end of the day, my dad would usually end up killing the biggest buck or, sometimes, the only buck. I can still remember my uncles and my grandpas saying as they were admiring my dad’s big buck, “Well, it looks like Dean was the lucky one once again.” Back then, I too thought my dad was the luckiest hunter alive. He always seemed to be the one in the spotlight at the end of the hunt. He just had to be one lucky man!

As the years passed me by, so did the deer hunts that I spent with my dad. A lot of that time was spent one-on-one, just my dad and me. Here again, I never really thought too much about why he did what he did. If he told me to walk over there, or go sit down and keep a sharp eye out on that hillside, I just did it because my dad told me to do it. The amazing thing about it all was that quite often a big buck would show up right before my eyes and I found myself becoming one of those lucky hunters also.

By the time I was thirty, I had a little black book full of “how to’s” on how to kill a big muley buck. My father had run me through, time and time again, every gauntlet he knew on killing a big muley buck. My dad was one of the best of the best in his style of hunting big desert mulies. Now when I look back, I appreciate even more the great privilege of being schooled by this great man. One of my father’s key tactics to killing a big buck was to always walk or put yourself in a spot so that if a big buck jumped out, you would get to see him and get some shooting. You can’t kill what you never see. Wow, being his shadow all those years has finally come full circle.

I have said it time and time again; there have probably been more big bucks killed running away from Joe and running into Fred than any other way. Being in the right place at the right time is a very important point. However, I have also come to know that most of the time it’s your brainpower that puts you in the right spot at the right time. My father was a hunter who liked to make pushes or drives. Once it was decided that a big buck was close by, he would give a shooter a chance to see him and make the shot. In the PJ’s and most desert terrain, you can never see very far, no matter what time of the day it is. Ninety-percent of the time, a big buck is always in the thick stuff laying down, feeding and doing what he does best – staying alive! Now, that’s a lot of a day to waste hunting isn’t it? Five-percent for the morning hunt and another five-percent for the evening hunt – that leaves ninety-percent of the day at camp sitting around doing nothing. Sounds like a lot of wasted hunting time to me. The harder I work, the luckier I get – imagine that! My dad and I made a great team. Sometimes I would be the pusher and sometimes I would be the sitter. But, most of the time, my dad liked to be the pusher. He would always tell me that he wanted the first go at him – always knowing that the sitter usually had a much better chance of killing old Mr. Big if he happened to sneak out ahead of the pusher. Over the many years I spent hunting with my dad, we killed many a big buck in the middle of the day by making drives and reading the land layouts. As you hunt or walk through any hunting area, always have your brain turned on and be recording all this input in your little black book. I guarantee you it will bring great results and big bucks hanging back at camp.

Just this spring, Nate Jacobsen, his son Hunter, and I went turkey hunting in Kansas. One afternoon after a zero for the morning, we followed our guide to a new area. I have never been to this area in Kansas before, so everything was a first. As we walked along a plowed field, there was a little river meandering off to one side. The river bottom was full of thick trees and dense vegetation to hide in. We walked for a mile or so, stopping here and there making a call – anything to get a gobble. But notta! Finally I said, “Let’s split up and work our way back to the truck.” I crossed the little river on my own, working my way back to the truck. Half-way up the river, I saw something running. A closer look told me it was a big Tom. I watched him cross the little river and work his way up the riverbank heading for the top. I had just walked up there only an hour ago and remembered that there was a big river turn on the land layout that would bring him to the end of the point. I ran to the point as fast as I could, crossed the river, and crawled up the bank on my hands and knees to the fence going into the big plowed grain field. With twelve-gauge in hand, I peeked through the weeds and, low and behold, walking right to me was a 10-inch beard Tom. I can still see the look on his face when I set up to shoot. When Nate and everyone else got up to where I was, they had not even heard me shoot because of the wind. As I told the group how I had got the Tom, Nate looked at me and said, “Way to go Wintch. You even use your deer hunting techniques to kill a big Tom.”

But, having been a guide for quite a few years, I know that my client’s greatest success always comes when I have him in the right place at the right time and old Mr. Big runs right to him unaware that he or she is there. You want to up your odds this year on killing a big muley buck? Then you should do a survey on the land layout. It doesn’t matter if you hunt high or low, there is and always are little saddles, passes, or trails that big bucks travel on and go through. But, you must use your brainpower to figure them out. If your guide tells you to go and sit on a hill or mesa, you need to be there, in that spot, looking the right way with 100% alertness until your guide comes and gets you or you kill old Mr. Big. Don’t ever let your guard down and start picking your nose or drawing lines in the sand if you don’t see a big buck after twenty minutes or so. Sometimes it takes hours for pushers to finish the drive and, if a big buck doesn’t run right by that rock or tree, you should be able to adjust to each situation as it unfolds. There have been many occasions over the years when one of my hunters should have had a big buck, but didn’t do the right things when the opportunity came their way. It’s not one big thing that kills old Mr. Big, but a whole lot of little things, and you had better learn to get most of them right most of the time. Mr. Big will always be on the cutting edge of staying alive, 24-7.

Stay alert and don’t find yourself among the hunters who, at the end of this ‘07 hunting season, will kick themselves in the pants because they quit, lost focus, got caught with their pants down, drawing lines in the sand or picking their nose just as old Mr. Big came their way. When your chance comes, be ready.

I don’t know what is more aggravating, a bugling bull at four yards in brush so thick that there is no shot possible or a bull in the wide open country, scoring 350-plus, that won’t come anywhere near you. I grew up hunting elk in the Northwest – mainly in Idaho, where the terrain is steep and filled with mountain maple, snow brush, and chaparral, mixed with timber so thick an ant would give up crawling through it. Several times other hunters in my area would tell me of their morning hunt, explaining that they had called in a 340, 6×6 but had no shot. I never did understand how that could happen, heck, most of the time I couldn’t tell if the animal had horns or not, until I shot one and tracked him down. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn some good techniques for hunting elk in the thick cover. This strategy can work in open country too; you just need to be aware of the elk seeing you move from a further distance. This is a trick I use a lot since I hunt by myself; I call it the “Half-Moon Drive.” Remember, elk can pinpoint where you are calling from to the inch and when they approach you they will almost always sweep downwind of you so the game is in their favor. Once you have a bull respond to your calling, try and locate him so you have a good idea of where he is coming from. You may need to bugle at him or cow/calf call to him. Another good rule of thumb is that if he responds and starts to advance towards you, stay with that sound. Obviously, the bull liked what he heard and, as long as he keeps coming, don’t change your call. Other sounds may be used to get the bull interested and can be used in different scenarios to make an elk come all the way in if he is being stubborn.

Picture this set up. You begin to call and a bull quickly responds back. Quickly check the wind with a good wind checker. Now, imagine the bull has bugled back from 300 yards out and at your same elevation. You are by yourself, doing all of the calling and the shooting. You determine the wind direction and, in this case, it is going downhill to your right. You would need to quickly move downhill and forward in a half-moon sweep and not straight-forward towards the bull. If you were to move straight-forward and turn off the trail to the right or left, you would leave a scent trail that the bull will cross. Once the bull picks up your scent, he will stop on a dime and take off. A more successful strategy would be to move ahead approximately 30 yards and look for a good set up with an open shot the bull may come through. Don’t get in behind a tree or brush pile; get alongside of it or out front and blend in with the surroundings. Do not call from this location and give up your position, wait a few minutes and see what the bull is doing. If you can hear or see the bull coming, let him come looking for you. Remember that the bull is going to the location where he last heard your calling. At this point, nock your arrow and check your yardages. Imagine in your mind that if the bull were to come…”I will do this” or “If he goes over there, I will have to do that.” Always check the wind. If the wind changes, you will have to move to adapt.

Now, let’s say the bull has not moved from where you first heard him but is still talking and responsive to your calls. Move back up the hill close to the level where you called from first. When the bull answers again, try the same half-moon drive again. Keep this up until you’ve reached the point when you feel you are close enough that you could be busted when the elk spots you. This is when you will have to change your calling sequences to get him to come in the rest of the way. A few tricks to consider are to try calling by throwing the sound further behind you. You can also point the tube into the ground or muffle the end so the bugle sounds further away.
Calling in the Thick Brush and Trees
Rockie Jacobsen likes to hunt the thick country for the close encounters it provides

This is a good time to put into action a combination of calling methods to make the bull think something is going on and that he doesn’t want to miss out on the action. For example, mimic a cow in heat making estrus sounds or maybe a younger bull sounding off chasing the cow around. Tell them a story and give them something to be interested in. Even moving just ten feet from where you first called can give you an advantage over the bull. This is where two-on-one hunting has its advantages; your calling partner can hang back calling while the shooter advances closer for the set up. The caller can direct a bull to his shooter by moving uphill or downhill, calling to get the bull to turn at the right time in front of the ambush set up. Once again, if the bull is within range but behind a tree, and you need to get him to move for a shot, try carefully picking up a rock or stick and throwing it towards the area that you would like to make the bull move to. The bull will possibly think that the sound came from another elk and move for a closer look in that direction. I have used this technique a few times and it has fooled elk. Just don’t let the bull see you move your arms as you throw. An important thing to consider in thick brush elk hunting is to always be aware of what’s in front of you when you are getting ready for a shot. Hidden twigs always seem to pop out from nowhere when the shot goes off. Remember, close in front of you is a common problem area. Your arrow will come off the rest in a lower sight pattern than what you are looking at through your sights. Shooting through small openings can arch your arrow and hit brush on the way out. A bow which has a flatter shooting trajectory is a good idea or, just wait for a better shot (which may sometimes result in you having to let the bull go.) A wounded animal isn’t worth it as there will always be another bull some other day.

Sportsmen hunt the thick country for the close encounters it provides. The bulls seem to be more aggressive which causes them to come in quicker and closer. Elk cannot see their target and have to get close to make things happen. The number one reason I like hunting in thick brush is because it is the terrain where I live and it is close to home. I have hunted in other types of terrain and the elk tend to respond a little differently; you just have to develop the instincts of a hunter and go with the flow. Make things happen and don’t be afraid to try something different in your calling or hunting tactics. You will learn from your mistakes and this is what develops your instincts. I have produced the DVD, Full of Bull III, which shows these sequences on true public land hunting. You can utilize this set up either by yourself or hunting with a calling partner.

I wish you the best in your hunting experiences and good luck.

Calling multiples in one stand.
by Ron Talbot

Have you ever had one of those magical days calling predators when every call leaves you with an intense anticipation of what might show up?  And then it happens, your vision instantly clears and your attention is focused on the predator in sight.  We all live for this moment.  It’s these intense feelings of accomplishment and the need to succeed that drives us to “just one more call.”  My brother Steve and I call it “Living the Dream.”

One morning last December as we sat in the pickup, the horizon and rim rocks started to take shape.  The sound of freezing rain was steady on the windshield as our breath began to fog the windows. “What should we do?”  We didn’t really want to get out into the rain. We would have been soaked in ten minutes!  I said to Steve, “Let’s wait it out.”  Thirty minutes later the rain slowed to a drizzle and we stepped out into the morning air and decided to go for it.  We set up on an elevated stand that overlooked a large basin of lava rock, cheatgrass and farmland in the distance.  After two short sequences of rabbit distress, I spotted a coyote standing like a silhouette on an outcrop of lava rock 400 yards below.  After some coaxing, he stepped off his perch and slowly trotted in our direction.  Ten minutes later he broke over the hill at 200 yards on a steady run. At 50 yards he pulled up to take a look, only to stare down the pipe of Steve’s 22-250.  Steve’s 55-grain V-max crushed the coyote’s left shoulder and it was over.  I motioned at Steve to stay put as I ripped off a howl and started into another sequence of jackrabbit distress.  The rain had now stopped and I could see another coyote a half-mile or more out in the bottom of the basin.  The coyote was not responding, so I howled again and used some feeding magpie sounds from our FoxPro caller.  The coyote then looked our way and started toward us.  I was concentrating on the approaching coyote when Steve suddenly wheeled his 22-250 in the opposite direction.  I spun my video camera from the coyote on the flat toward Steve.  His smoke pole cut loose again and echoed with a heavy bass-like report.  I knew he had connected but I hadn’t seen it.  Steve held up two fingers and smiled like he had just won the lottery.  He whispered that a second coyote had come from the same place as the first and he had shot it as it turned to leave.  I went back to the coyote on the flat, but he was heading off in the opposite direction. Twenty-five minutes into our call, I hit the howler again and went back to some magpie and raven sounds.  After two more sequences I spotted a coyote coming our way from yet another direction.  I whispered to Steve and told him to get ready.  Now, 45 minutes into calling, a fourth coyote crested the ridge below us at 70 yards only showing us his head and chest.  That was all Steve needed as his bullet ripped through the air connecting with a solid chest punch!  The third coyote was down.

This is the kind of hunting that we all live for.  The feelings and experiences we gain are worth the wait.  You have to stay put and keep calling in areas that might produce multiple dogs.  I have found that gunshots, vehicle traffic and other noises coyotes might hear do not always affect coyotes in a negative way.  Because coyotes trust their sense of smell more than anything else, they will often continue to investigate after a shot is fired.  Remember; don’t be in such a hurry to get to the next stand that you miss a second opportunity.  Unless a coyote sees you or smells you, you are still in the ballgame after the first, second or even third shot.  I realize this is not always the case, but when it feels good, keep on calling.  There are some good arguments to continue the call.  When coyotes are hunting they are always on the move.  A new coyote might move into your calling radius and decide to respond.  The wind might slow or change direction and your call might be able to reach areas that you didn’t previously hit.  Calling large flats and basins that cover a larger area are good places to keep on calling.  On many occasions we have picked up additional coyotes by continuing to call after the first kill, so don’t always be in a hurry to move on to your next stand.

Living in the West and hunting coyotes on the desert brings up one common problem – wind!  I have often heard people say to stay home when the wind is blowing.  I say, “Not so.”  You can call coyotes in the wind, but you may need to adjust your tactics.  Coyotes don’t like to stand out in a twenty mile an hour gale any more than you do.  They will head for cover where the conditions are more favorable.  When the wind blows at home, I’ve noticed that my German shorthaired pointers head for their doghouse.  Coyotes will also head for cover, but can easily be coaxed out, just as my dogs would if I threw a T-bone steak over the fence.  They are opportunistic animals!  Coyotes don’t care if the wind is blowing if they can get an easy meal.  In most situations, you had better be alert when you start calling in the wind because the coyote will likely be close if it responds.  Wind can be inconvenient, but don’t let it ruin a day in the field calling predators.  Some of us have limited opportunities to hunt, so if you happen to have a free day, take the chance.  Change up your tactics and call small draws and hilly terrain that give protection from the wind.  Move only a short distance and call again.  Make your stands shorter and cover smaller areas.  This can save the day if you have to deal with the wind. Don’t worry, the coyotes can hear you.  Remember that dogs have excellent hearing, over twice the range of frequency that humans have.  Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz), or the number of sound wave cycles per second.  Coyotes have erect ears that are run by eighteen or more muscles.  A coyote can tilt, raise, and move its ears to improve its hearing.  A coyote can hear even better than our floppy-eared hunting dogs.

In summary, as you prepare to go hunting this fall and pursue the Wiley Song Dog, consider the tactics discussed in this article.  Don’t be afraid to keep calling after the first, second or even third shot.  Learn to read the situation and experience “Living the Dream” for yourself.

You can see Steve’s amazing triple unfold along with many other exciting hunts on Ron’s new DVD, Varmint Control  Officer, Coyotes Vol. 1.  The DVD contains over 75 kills with 2_ hours of intense coyote calling without all the filler.

Ghostly whiffs of movement through the stunted pines did little to betray the animals’ presence. However, the occasional yips and yaps of wolf pack communication did. Suddenly, I realized that I was not the only predator stalking the herd of caribou bedded down on the barren, wind-scoured ridge above. Just as suddenly, I switched my intended quarry from herbivores to carnivores. I strained my eyes to glimpse one of the fleeting, smoky apparitions. I knew this particular ridge from a decade of previous hunts in the area; I quickened my pace and remained on my pre-chosen course.

Lagging behind my intended target, I hurried toward the tree line which ended about 300 meters from the top of the ridge. I carefully made my way through the stunted pines and spruce – ragged and torn shapes twisted into hideous forms by extreme arctic weather systems over the centuries. These trees, perhaps three meters tall, would easily have growth rings of a couple hundred years or more, yet they were barely large enough to make suitable Christmas trees. My newly formulated plan was to reach the edge of these trees and perhaps ambush one of the wolves who were now out in the open skulking around the tree line edge. The fresh snow was deep, soft and quiet and acted as a sponge to absorb the sound of my footfalls. Between the quiet conditions and the gusting north winds, I managed to get among the preoccupied wolf pack undetected, easily within shooting range. It became increasingly difficult to cover that last few hundred meters as the trees became smaller and more sparse as I approached the tree line. I finally ascended to the last of the scruffy trees and held up within the cover of a small thicket of spruce. I immediately spotted my original target bedded down and enveloped by the rocky, cornice rimmed basin some 300 meters up the slope. The tips of the bull’s 360-class rack were the only visible hint of his location. Glassing the ground which lay between us, I noticed that the wolf pack had split ranks. Tracks indicated that they had circled around the ridge top in an attempt to get behind the dozing and unsuspecting caribou. One set of tracks angled up toward the basin refuge of the caribou herd of thirty-odd head.

I suppose that I felt it as much as I saw it. The huge, bluish-grey wolf moved with the speed of a lightning flash and was instantly among the astonished, scrambling caribou. When last I saw the wolf, he was hot on the tail of some poor yearling caribou calf, as the entire herd bailed over the ridge top and down the other side. The unsuspecting herd had no idea that their escape route would lead them headlong into the main pack of wolves which had circled around behind the ridge. By the time I reached the summit, the hunt had already unfolded. I spotted the caribou herd as it single-filed over the next ridge top across the small valley. I heard the howling of the wolves below as they sang of their successful hunt. I sat and took it all in, smiling at the turn of events and my good fortune to have been witness to them. These two most ancient of enemies playing out the timeless life and death ritual as repeated countless times over the eons. I sat resting, tired by my climb, and allowed my soul to devour and savor the moment…this time…this place.

The solitude allowed me a moment to reminisce. November 20, 1987. This was the time of my first excursion to the Arctic Circle and it would prove to be one of the most extreme of hunts. We had -38 to -40 degree temperatures and 70 km winds for the duration of that hunt. If extreme hunting is your game, you won’t find hunting more difficult than late-November caribou hunting on the Arctic Circle. Our hunting party of three all worked on the same crew at the mine and consisted of myself, big John Hayes and Trevor Harding. All of us were new to the Yukon within the last couple of years. We had heard the tales of this Northern realm and the humongous herds of caribou contained therein. We were going to the Arctic Circle to hunt for Barren Ground Caribou. The Richardson/Ogilvie Mountains of the North Yukon Territory – the winter range of the Porcupine Caribou herd. This herd numbers up to 200,000- plus individuals. They range in all three Alaska, Yukon Territory and Northwest Territory areas, the latter two being winter range, the former being summer range and calving grounds.

John, Trevor and I had gotten off work at 7:00 a.m. and had packed all the gear into the 4×4 for the trip the previous night. We were immediately on our way. The road north proved to be wicked, indeed. The road was iced over and falling and blowing snow was piling up steadily as we traveled north. By the time we reached the Dempster Highway, the fresh snow was 30 cm deep and drifting badly on some of the more exposed portions of the road. Crashing through one meter high snow drifts, some of which were probably 30 meters across, definitely added to the extreme conditions we were already faced with. We soon began second-guessing our very sanity; the anxiety in the cab of the truck was as thick as the accumulating snow outside the cab. But, undaunted, we continued our journey north. Some fifteen hours after leaving Faro, Yukon, we finally arrived at the Eagle Plains Lodge, our destination. The Eagle Plains Lodge is located about 20 km south of the Arctic Circle, perched high on a mountain top like some lone sentinel watching over the Eagle River in the valley below. Upon entering the lodge, we instantly caught sight of a beautiful, full-mount, double shovel, 400-class Barren Ground caribou bull which was the centerpiece of the common room. With much ooohing and awing, we all but forgot about our ordeal at just arriving here at the lodge. We once again commenced to go over our weekend hunting plans for the thousandth time. Having finally awoken the manager, Stan, we got signed in and received keys to our rooms. As wiped out as we were, we still unloaded the truck and got our gear to our rooms to thaw out and then crashed soundly in our beds.

In November, in this frozen north country, the first shooting light is not until around 9:30 a.m. Last light is around 3:00 p.m. To say that hunting time is at a premium would really be an understatement. Fortunately, by sheer numbers of caribou alone, hunting is generally not difficult. Finding a trophy class, 350- plus bull, however, can be difficult and challenging. One can observe a great many caribou before finding that sought after trophy. The largest bulls drop their antlers first, generally by the middle of November. Big bulls are very plentiful, their antlers unfortunately are not! November 21st, and my birthday to boot, we each packed two caribou tags and we literally had thousands of caribou to choose from. Within a couple of hours we had six fat, young bulls down and gutted, awaiting the drag out to the truck. Packing up to go, we looked at our bluish, black and blistered fingers (our trigger fingers took frostbite from our triggers in the extreme cold weather). We vowed never to make the trip after the first week in November ever again!

The trip home that year was just as spooky as the trip up, due to continued extreme cold, snow and wind. Happily, the trip home was basically uneventful save for a few encounters with monster snow drifts. We made it home with lot of caribou meat, frostbite and jubilation. This hunt had been one of the most challenging that I had ever encountered both physically and environmentally.

Physically due to the two kilometer no shooting corridor and the no snowmobile laws – one must drag the caribou by hand and toboggan, extremely difficult work to be sure. Environmentally due to the aforementioned weather conditions persistent throughout the entire hunt. However, this hunt was one of the most personally rewarding and the first of a decade of similar hunts and pilgrimages to the Arctic Circle.
Skulking, resting on that lonely ridge top, I could see no sign of wolf or the caribou. I sighed a tired sigh, laid back in the snow and thought back again, only a couple years back now, the first and only time that I observed and hunted in what is known as a major herd. A major herd is a large herd of caribou which could conceivably number at 30,000 to 40,000 individuals. Thousands of smaller herds comprise the major. These smaller herds are everywhere and 200 in a group on an open ridge is an ideal hunting situation and very common in the open ridges. Lines of caribou kilometers long seem to trail endlessly down off of every ridge and drainage and creek bottom, everywhere! As was usual for me, I was hunting with four fellows from my crew at work. First timers to the Arctic Circle, all of them. This year the weather was extremely mild, unseasonably so. This trip proved to be the only time we didn’t utilize the lodge. We had brought a big camper along and I set up a three-man tent and tarp, sleeping in my ten-star bag, two five-stars tucked into one another! At any rate, I was quite comfortable with the addition of the propane heater. As far as weather was concerned, this trip was at the total opposite end of the spectrum.

Around noon on our second day of hunting, things were looking grim. We hadn’t seen a single caribou, nor a solitary fresh track. We had made our way north and were just below the Northwest Territory border. Trucks parked, we talked, contemplating our next move when along came our saint, our angel. It was the game warden, the all-knowing game warden. After a check of our hunting licenses, tags and rifles (all was in order), he seemed to relax and questioned as to why we were hunting up this far north when a major herd of caribou was crossing the highway approximately 20 km south of our location. Astonished, we commenced to barrage the poor fellow with a million questions simultaneously. How many? Where were they crossing? Any big bulls? Etc, etc, etc. He just giggled to himself and as he started to drive away he said, Just drive south, you can’t miss them!

Upon arriving at the area, we were totally amazed because, just three hours previously, we had not seen a track anywhere. But now, Whoa! It looked like a barnyard for about an 8 km stretch of the highway. Caribou were literally everywhere. We dispersed from the vehicles and split up, going after various herds on the ridges that surrounded us. I stalked my way through the herd on one of my own favorite ridges and passed by a dozen different size bulls. As I continued my stalk, I hoped to find a stick antler bull, as I call them. A stick antler bull has a faded greybrown coat of fur and long, white mane flowing down his entire cape. Not much for top points or bez, but 70-inch main beams with 50-inch spreads can surely look incredible and uniquely Òbarren ground. That is what I hoped for and that is precisely what I found that afternoon. I will never forget the sight that followed. About 200 meters from my fallen bull was an ancient caribou trail. On this trail, the caribou traveled single file before me. As far south as I could see, about 6 km, the line of caribou moved steadily. Photographing my kill, cleaning, caping and halving the carcass took about one hour. That line of caribou streamed on past the entire time.

One of my partners arrived to help and we each dragged half a caribou, easily arriving at the truck within another half hour. Glassing the hill, I could see the line of caribou trudging along, seemingly infinite in their procession. This is a sight few have witnessed I would suspect.

Another howl from a wolf jarred me from my thoughts; it was the miserable wail of a subordinate young wolf awaiting its turn at the kill. Standing, I stretch my tired legs and thighs, and looked about me and shivered. It was colder this afternoon, I mused, and daylight was running out. With the day’s hunting nearly done, I descended to my truck. I was content even though the wolves had taken the day and my caribou tag remained in my pocket. The big 360- class bull was now just a memory in my minds eye. Tomorrow…yes, perhaps tomorrow, I would find a bull caribou. That holy grail of all caribou, the 400-class, rarest of the bulls from the barren grounds.

I had been greatly anticipating the 2006 archery mule deer season, as had my three hunting partners Ryan Jones, Marc Wahl and Jay Becker. We started scouting in mid-July, which gave us six weeks to prepare for the hunt of our lives. Ryan Jones, my good friend of sixteen years, was the one who first got me interested in hunting back in high school. Ryan is an accomplished bowhunter and has taken down two monster mulies over the 200-inch mark, one in 2004 and another in 2005. Ryan was determined that this was my year and he was ready to take the back seat in order for me to get my golden opportunity.

As the hunt approached, each day we went out scouting proved to be more exciting than the previous one. Giant buck after giant buck began coming out of the woodwork to feed in the canola fields. The anticipation of opening morning was almost too much to bear.

Finally, we located a buck that everyone agreed that I should pursue. My good friend and veteran deer hunter, Jay Becker, had spotted a giant buck and called me to come and have a look. Unfortunately, the buck left prior to my arrival. After four days of scouting, we finally relocated the buck two miles from where he was originally spotted. This deer was awesome! He was heavy with lots of junk which was complimented by a 190-typical frame. I estimated that he would score in the 210-class. The buck became #1 on our hit list as we looked him over on video back at home that night.

Before we knew it, opening morning was one week away and my good friend Nate Jacobson would soon be arriving. Nate was driving up from Utah with his family to prepare for his hunt for a mule deer. I met Nate while guiding three years ago and we have chased some pretty big bucks together but with no success. Nate’s knowledge has brought our mule deer hunting to a whole new level. He also introduced us to King’s camouflage. If you don’t have some, get it. Any serious bowhunter knows what I am talking about. King’s definitely has it figured out.

The first week of hunting was full of action, but with no success. Finally, Nate connected on a 205-inch typical that we had chased together the previous year. Two days later, Jay tagged a nice 180-inch and Marc, on his first bow hunt, tagged a 203-inch typical. I was beginning to wonder if Lady Luck would rub off on me. Could it be possible to harvest four great deer in one hunt? I kept thinking about that 210-inch buck and wondering where he was. Nate had chased him for the first four days of the hunt, but the buck was one step ahead of him each time. Pressure had the buck patterning us and soon he disappeared.

The following morning Ryan and I set up on the edge of a canola field to wait for the deer to filter by us to their bedding area. As I glassed the field at dusk, I spotted a group of bucks heading towards Ryan single-file. Dink, dink, good buck and, “Whoa!” There he was! The big non-typical had once again reappeared. I was excited that Ryan might have a chance at him but, because he was the last buck in the line-up, Ryan ended up being busted by the little guys in front. The group ran out into the field directly past me and then continued about 60 yards into the woods. Ryan and I decided that we would have to try again that night.

That evening, we set up a ground blind downwind from the trail the bucks escaped on earlier that morning. Ryan let me sit in the blind and I was filled with hopeful anticipation. A half hour before dusk, I heard the sound of deer making their way out of the woods. One by one the bucks came out on the trail just seventeen yards from me and began to feed. One was a giant 4×3 with a big kicker. He was heavy and all bladed up. Was this the opportunity I had been waiting for? Or, was the big non-typical going to show? The big 4×3 was in the 190-class, but he could use another year to grow. I decided to take a chance and to wait. It was definitely a good choice because moments later I heard a sudden noise behind me. Out walked the big guy. WHAP! The arrow zipped through his chest. I barely remember coming to full draw, it was so natural.

The shot felt good, but the arrow said otherwise – liver. Not bad, but not good either. The guys and I decided to leave the buck for an hour or so just to be sure. Walking up to this deer was incredible. I fought the tears with high-fives and realized that my sixteen-year quest had just been achieved. The buck officially grosses 215 3/8 and nets 207 2/8 non-typical.

I would like to thank my good friends Ryan Jones, Marc Wahl, Jay Becker and Nate Jacobson. They were all a big part of this hunt coming together. And, most of all, I would like to show my gratitude to my family, Kendra, Damon and Alex, for their patience and support – without it this hunt would not have been possible.

Xtended Info

Hunter: Chris Gilbert • Location: Alberta • Area: Private land • Guide: Self • Date: September 7, 2006 • Time: 7:30pm • Days scouted: 45 • Days hunted: 14 • Weather: Sunny & warm • Temperature: 70s • Moon: Full • Terrain: Open fields • Camouflage: King’s Desert Shadow • Bow: Matthews Switchback LD • Draw Weight: 70 lbs • Site: Cobra • Rest: Ripcord • Quiver: Catquiver • Arrows: Easton Axis • Broadheads: Montec G5 • Stabilizer: Limbsaver • Silencers: Limbsaver • Spotting Scope: Steiner 20×80 • Binoculars: Ziess 10x • Range Finder: Leica • Footwear: Moose leather moccassins • ATV: Kawasaki Brute Force 750

Whisper Creek Archery
www.whispercreekarchery.com

Tell me a little about the history of Whisper Creek Archery.

The best place to start Whisper Creek’s history is probably with my own background in archery. I have been making archery components and doing archery design work for about twenty years now. We were Browning Archery’s primary injection molding company. We did a lot of work for Browning and some other companies in the industry, so we had already established a lot of archery contacts and associations prior to the formation of Whisper Creek. That is actually how I met the original inventor, Andy Andrews, whom I partnered up with in 2004. After Andy and I partnered up, we worked hard on developing the suspension system, which we call the Axle Suspension System.

How did these ideas come about, that one day you decided to put together a bow?

Andy is a brilliant engineer, but didn’t have any manufacturing capabilities. In 2004, I went to the ATA shows as a vendor and Andy and I got to talking. Andy had some great ideas and, after the show, Andy called me. He had realized that he was never going to get his ideas off the ground unless he found someone to do the manufacturing. Through a series of deals, we decided to team up. Andy lives in Tennessee and I live in Utah. We started doing all of the manufacturing in Utah and we were shuttling Andy back and forth to help with the design work. Andy has a high-level job at Duracell. In 2006, it got to be a real hardship for Andy to keep everything going. I ended up buying Andy out and, at the same time, merged with Milltree Outdoors from Ohio. This gave us some strength in the financial area and gave us some resources we were lacking in sales and marketing. The merge also gave us a bigger team of business analysts that could look at the market and say, “These are the sectors we need to go after.” This is a very highly competitive business and not for the weak of heart. This is a family operation. My son Jonathon is Vice President and my wife runs the administrative side for the manufacturing facility. We work long and hard hours for our customers.

What makes a Whisper Creek bow different than the competition’s bows?

What makes our bows different from any other bow on the market is that we have decoupled the axle away from the limb on our pro series. On a bow, all of the strength vibration and all of the cam oscillation has to transfer through the axle. Whisper Creek is the only company that has a suspension system that the axle rides in. We try to equate it to a four-wheel drive truck and an independent suspension. We have a bushing inside our axle system that is isolated inside a special bow jam material that we have developed. So, the vibration now has to travel through that bow jam material in order to get to the limb, which gets to the riser and which gets to your hand.

What our company is really about is vibration technology. There are a lot of vibration after-market companies out there. Bolt on this, bolt on that. We are a bow company that’s known for attacking at the source and dealing with vibration on the bow, in our system.

We have technology that we have not released to the market yet. When Whisper Creek first began, we did what many small companies do; we tried to move in too fast. We ended up putting too much technology on the market at one time and it was overwhelming to the market. We were so radical. Our look was so radical. Our dealers were afraid that they might not be able to sell our product. Then Bowtech put the Guardian out there which made us look mainstream. All of a sudden, the market began to change. People were willing to say, “Hey, that does look different. But, wow, feel how it shoots.” Bowhunters are now looking for more technology, looking for more speed. If there is one thing Whisper Creek has done, it is to open people’s eyes that sound makes a difference. We were the first company to ever publish decibel ratings. At the time, everyone was concentrating on speed and how fast their bows were. Now, just about every company publishes decibel ratings. We forced the issue that it is not all about speed. It is about how quiet that bow is. When does the animal hear the release? We were also the first company to list “hunting speed.”

So, let’s get into the speed question then. Is the fastest bow the best bow and how does Whisper Creek handle the “need for speed” mentality of bowhunters today?

Let’s take a look at the 340 to 350-plus fps bows. We were recently experimenting with one of our competitor’s bows the other day. They a have a very nice, fast bow. The brace height is extremely small. It is approximately four inches. Any time you start reducing brace height, you start to reduce accuracy. To get the speed numbers up you have to sacrifice brace height. We are very honest about the speed of our bows. We were the first company to bring in an independent engineer that was not working for our firm. That engineer came in, ran tests and certified that those tests were done and then put his stamp in our catalog.

This is also the reason why we listed our “hunting speed.” We teamed up with Keith “Doc” Ainsley who is a world renowned big game hunter. I sat down with Doc and put together a realistic hunting situation bow setup. We ended up publishing our real world hunting speeds. I think that is really important to the customer. The customer pulls that bow out of the box and shoots it and says, “I should be at 280 feet per second.” He looks and he is. He knows his bow is performing optimally. If he thinks he is supposed to be shooting 330 fps and he can never achieve that, he is wondering why.

What is your relationship with Marlow Larson and how has it affected Whisper Creek?

Marlow and I go back thirty years. He was the primary designer on the original Browning bows. He also has his own bow called the Continental that he shoots in tournaments, but is not available to the public. Marlow has over fifty archery patents. He has taught me a ton over the years. After Andy left to concentrate on his Duracell thing and we became shorthanded, I called Marlow. Marlow is 74 years old and retired, but he still shoots competitively in tournaments. I asked him if he would be willing to come sit down and look at my product line and give me some pointers. He is a brilliant designer and we are working on some new systems and technology that we will be releasing. Marlow is a big part of our team. I am lobbying that Marlow be inducted into the Archery Hall of Fame. He has been a huge contributor to the industry.

So, what does the future hold?

Whisper Creek is entering into its fifth year in production. We are getting to the point where people are just starting to recognize our company. This business is about sustaining yourself. This is a hard market to stay in, with getting into the major retailers and building your dealer network. It is only through staying power, and the merge with Milltree Outdoors, that we have now signed on new rep groups for 2008. We have also launched our new youth bow product, which we are proud to say will have the King’s Mountain Shadow pattern. Those bows will be released for the upcoming Christmas holiday. That is a whole market segment we were not in before. We are releasing a new bow at ATA that should be phenomenal. We have learned a lot over the last four years about what our dealers need and have used this information to refine our product line. We expect 2008 to be our breakout year. We now have dealers who are exclusive Whisper Creak dealers and we are their primary line. That is huge for us. Getting this company going has been a lot of hard work, but I couldn’t be more proud and proud of the people we are involved with. Sure, we have had our struggles, but we have battled through it and taken care of our dealers and consumers. My goal is to be the best customer service bow company in the industry. We are here to help archers until their problem is resolved.

What would be your dream hunt with a bow?

My dream hunt would be hunting in Africa. My passion is design, development and manufacturing. My son Jonathan’s passion would be to take that bow and test it out on as many hunts as he can. Early in my youth, I was a professional race car driver and was captain of the United States Racing Team in South Africa. We went over for two months and raced all over the southern tip of that country. It would be nice to go back to that country and hunt.

The State of Hunting in 2007
the Good, Bad, and Ugly

Just as our President provides a report to the American people in a State of the Union speech each year in January, good ol’ WhackMaster Nuge is here to report on hunting’s good, bad and ugly in 2007 and beyond.

Stewardship:
Hunters are the true stewards of wildlife. Though just fifteen percent of the population, hunters provided well over 50% of the funds for state wildlife agencies in 2007. The funds from our licensing fees, habitat stamps, etc., continue to provide much needed resources for both game and non-game species such as song birds and even endangered species. Without money from sportsmen, America would not be envied around the world for our flourishing wildlife as we are today.

Game On:
These are the good ole days of hunting! Thanks to generations of hunters who imposed mostly intelligent regulations on ourselves, there are more deer, turkey, geese, black bear and cougars across North America today than at any time in recorded history. There are more elk, buffalo, moose, grizzly bear, and assorted big and small game and waterfowl in many instances than in over 150 years. If it gets any better than this, be sure to call me. I want in!

Reducing Hunger:
Hunters killed, grilled and dished out over 250 million hot, perfect, maximum protein, nutritional meals of renewable venison health food for our fellow needy Americans this past hunting season via the various Hunters for the Hungry, Sportsmen Against Hunger, and Hunters and Farmers Feeding the Hungry charities. The generosity of hunters to share the abundance of our annual harvest makes me glow with pride and proves once again that hunters are the good guys. Donate to one of these wonderful causes or start your own and celebrate your hunt with everybody, everywhere you can!

Safety First:
Hunting continues to be one of America’s safest forms of recreation. In fact, the 2006 hunting season was the safest on record. Firearm-related deaths and injuries, along with heart attacks
and asphyxiations, were at an all-time low. More and more hunters are wearing fall-restraint safety harnesses when hunting from elevated stands. Certainly our united goal must be zero casualties and zero accidents, and we are improving all the time. All of us must get much more vocal in demanding basic safety requirements from all our fellow hunters to reduce injuries. It can be done if we all turn up the safety heat. Do it.

Public Relations:
The Boone and Crocket Club, Pope and Young, SCI and other various respected big game record keeping organizations in every state and around the world scramble maniacally to process the mountains of paperwork turned in by successful hunters everywhere as record books burst at the seams with new animal entries and new world records continuing to be broken every year. These organizations should be dedicated to better using their resources to relate these irrefutable modern wildlife management successes to the public. It is called public relations. If, indeed, any non-hunting Americans actually knew what B&C, P&Y, NWTF, FNAWS, RMEF, DU, and SCI stood for, they would then know clearly that we, the hunters of America, are all about healthier wildlife populations, biodiversity, habitat and balance. Bursting record books contain irrefutable evidence and proof that modern wildlife management and hunting creates bigger, healthier wildlife. This should be our battle cry. B&C, P&Y, DU, RMEF, NWTF, FNAWS, NRA and SCI need to get on this ASAP.

Members:
Too few of us are members of a local, state or national organization that is seeking to recruit new hunters, promote hunting and lobby elected officials to expand hunting opportunities. There is strength in numbers. Politicians will surely pay attention to multitudes of hunters united under one banner. I encourage all hunters to join a hunting organization and get involved. Do not expect others to do your bidding for you.

Activism:
It continues to baffle me why the “Letters to the Editor” sections of newspapers and talk radio programs are not flooded with pro-hunting letters and calls. While the culture war wages all around us, too few of us are doing our part to ensure the overwhelming positive message of hunting is shared with our fellow non-hunting Americans. We can and must be better at celebrating and promoting hunting. No one should ever waste any time defending hunting. It needs no defending. What it needs is promoting, celebrating and unshackling – period. In sheer family hours of recreation, massively increasing tonnage of healthy venison provided, exploding acreage of sporting goods stores going up and goods sold, incalculable conservation revenues generated, entire ecosystems of environmental benefits inventoried and habitats safeguarded and rehabilitated, there is no entity nor activity available on planet earth that is so positive in its successes and flourishing in its entrepreneurial grandiosity as is hunting in the modern world. Spread that word. Crush an anti.

Insanity:
If we want to kill enthusiasm for attracting new hunters then we should stay on course by endorsing Sunday hunting bans, minimum age restrictions, bow and gun case laws, one box of shells on person limits, shooting hours, disabled bows and guns while walking to and from our stands, no scopes on muzzleloaders in Colorado and elsewhere, no in-line muzzleloaders in Pennsylvania, no semi-auto deer rifles in Pennsylvania, a week off between bow & gun season, no release aid for Washington bow hunters, no crossbows in archery seasons, red and white suits required when hunting in Canada, no turkey hunting after noon, no bear baiting or use of hounds in some bear and cougar rich regions, etc. Netters get to haul in tons of fish, but sportsmen have a ridiculously reduced limit. All of this is the sheer self-imposed insanity in our sport and these counterproductive rules, requirements and regulations need to be overturned asap.

Public Access:
Some existing regulations are suicidal against recruitment and detrimental to basic American rights and “wise use” conservation. A glaring example is the outrageous policy that charges tax dollars to kill surplus and “nuisance” big game animals in our federal lands and in National and State Parks. After all, just who is it, do you think, that owns these lands and animals? Does “we the people” ring any bells? The irony that the USDA would be allowed to budget American tax dollars to kill bears, moose, deer, elk, buffalo, wild sheep and other critters while forbidding “we the people” to properly utilize them, thereby generating critically needed conservation revenues, is so viciously anti-American as to be off the charts. Tens of thousands of majestic elk run wild in Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes State Park in Colorado, dangerously overpopulated to the extent that they are destroying the ecosystem. Not only are American hunters forbidden to hunt them, but the bureaucrats have the audacity to actually rape and pillage our hard-earned tax dollars to hire others to kill them for us. It is as if a stoned, dirty hippy was writing these policies. This goes on all over the country. Gettysburg, Yosemite, Gatlin, Smokey Mountain – our land, our resources, our rights, our family recreational ops, all off limits due to some illogical, anti-American policy written in stone as if science and biology and freedom don’t exist within certain designated public lands in this country. Meanwhile, not only are American families denied access to our public properties and resources, but God knows how many majestic big game animals are systematically slaughtered. This is currently being done to California bears and cougars, then these precious creatures are unceremoniously buried in a pit somewhere. This is the most offensive, callous and anti-American waste and insult to “we the people” I could ever have imagined. And it must stop now. American hunters and conservationists everywhere must insist upon this. “Give us back our land and wildlife, no more waste!” Access to quality hunting lands has always been a critical issue for the inspiring of families to take up hunting and the shooting sports. Without a good, un-crowded place to go with the family, many people simply don’t go through the extensive effort to get their hunter safety certificate, the incredible expense to purchase all the necessary gear and put in the necessary time that it takes to get out there and become “hands-on” conservationists. By opening up the vast acreage of these public lands that American families already own, this issue would become moot overnight. I hear a thunderous “DUH!” out there! Anybody with me? Let us raise some hell my friends. Hammer your elected officials and demand logic into policy immediately.

Summary
The insanity of Sunday hunting bans are ending slowly but surely, improved and more sensible hunting regulations based on science and logic continue to expand, and the foolishness of minimum hunting age restrictions are going the way of the dodo bird. Good. I hang with hunters everyday. There are many happy, smiling faces out here. Things are very good in the world of hunting right here and now, and well-deserved celebrations throttle on. My hunting buddies and I would give a solid “B” grade to hunting ‘07, and the same for fishing and trapping. These are all related conservation issues, and we must all stand together. Though clearly pleased at the State of Hunting today, for those of us who hold disdain for all things status quo and know that quality of life prioritization demands constant activism and vigilance for upgrade on all fronts, there is much work to be done. These are the issues facing the American hunter today – the good, the bad and the ugly. From my early days in the 1950s trying to find a deer to shoot, to this past season where I was literally surrounded by deer in every state I hunted, I know hunting is never a gimme, but I sure like the way things are today better than in my youth. Celebrate this with everybody you know. Fight for upgrade, recruit, promote and get everyone you possibly can to join the American BloodBrother campfire of the Great Spirit of the Wild. I’ve already got my fall and winter hunt season planned for the upcoming year, and I have a wonderful feeling it’s going to be grand – truly grand.

Goodluck, be safe, enjoy and BBQ like ya’ mean it!