RMSGear Blog

Bow Selling Statistics

2012-01-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

I have been keeping tract of the bows we sell in our store for a while now. My sample is quite large but only representative of my store, not the market as a whole.

I am including these statistics in my blog for a few reasons.

Primarily because it is just interesting to see for your own reference.
If you are a bow maker it is handy information.
Since most of our customers are hunters, it is interesting to note that they chose a length of 61.10". A nice compromise between shootability and maneuverability.
Not long ago quite a few people shot bows of 60# and up (only 8% of my customers today!). It took a while for people to realize that elk sized animals can be consistently and reliably killed with lighter bows. That old school mentality still exists among certain people, and can hurt a bowhunter's confidence in buying a light bow (when I say light I mean relative to what used to be normal, so in this case, 50# is "light"). I want a customer with a 50# bow to feel confident, knowing that he is not alone in his choice of bow weight.
If you are looking at selling your bow in the winter months, and are discouraged that nobody seems interested, it might be worth noting that their isn't as much demand in those months.

These stats do not include kid's bows, or "beginner" bows like the Samick.

The vast majority of all bows sold in this study were sold to hunters as opposed to target shooters (my observation). Only 3% of the bows we have sold have been under Colorado's legal hunting weight limit of 35#.

Average weight = 50.25# @ 28"
Average length = 61.10" AMO
Average price = $450.64
55% are recurves
45% are longbows
62% are 1 piece
37% are 3 piece takedowns
91% are right handed
64% are used

Here are the most popular makers in order. These include both new and used sales (these stats are skewed specifically towards my store and do not represent the market as a whole in any way, these numbers are more influenced by availability and price point rather than popularity) :
Spirit - 16%
Rampart - 13%
Bear - 12%
Wapiti - 6%
Mohawk - 6%
Hawk - 4%
Martin - 3%
Ben Pearson - 2%
Damon Howatt - 2%
Robertson - 2%
Bighorn - 2%
The other 32% is a mix between other production and custom bows.

Note the spikes in the graph in 5# increments at 40#, 45#, 50#, 55#, and 60#. Except for those points the graph is a pretty nice bell curve. The below percentages might be more relevant. By far the most common weights are from 46-55#. 51% of all bows we sell are within that range. Guys who shoot bows over 60# are only 8% of our market.

35# and under	5.3%
36-40#	7.0%
41-45#	14.2%
46-50#	22.0%
51-55#	28.7%
56-60#	14.2%
61-65#	5.6%
66-70#	2.2%
71# and up	0.3%

The first year I kept stats I did not include Jan. and Feb. (though they are still the slowest months). This graph is not a fair representation for that reason. Recently Jan. and Feb. look close to Nov. and Dec. April has sold more bows every single year except 2011, where it was a close second to March.

January	6.1%
February	6.1%
March	9.7%
April	11.2%
May	8.2%
June	9.3%
July	9.7%
August	8.5%
September	7.2%
October	8.9%
November	7.5%
December	7.6%

In my observation, tax returns often get spent on luxury items, like bows. I believe that is why April sees such a big spike in sales which then drops off quickly in May. Throughout the summer, when people are shooting more, they buy more bows. Peaking in July and tapering off as hunting season approaches. Sales regain speed when the hunting season ends. Here in Colorado, September is the most popular bowhunting month. I would assume that the monthly graph would look quite a bit different in "whitetail" states where October and November are the most popular bowhunting months. It is cold in Jan. and Feb. and not many people are outdoors shooting. I think customers buy fewer bows in those months because they aren't shooting as often, and bows aren't on their minds. Once spring rolls around, turkeys start gobbling, and people take to the outdoors to shoot, they start buying more bows.

A few things to keep in mind:

Buyers are heavily influenced by local forces. Colorado buyers like to support Colorado bowyers. I have sold many bows made by local bowyers simply for that reason. Also, there are forces within specific regions of the state that also effect bow sales. For example, in different parts of this state different bows are more or less popular. You can imagine how different separate parts of the country would look!
We sell more Spirit bows than anything else. Bryan Holley, the bowyer, builds mostly 1 piece longbows at 62". His bows are built very well and priced extremely fair. He also makes them readily available. These reasons combined equate to us selling a lot more of his bows. That skews the average length to be closer to 62" and increases the percentage of both longbows and 1 piece bows. I think (again, only my observation) that the market as a whole shoots more recurves than our stats represent, and more takedowns. Then again, Bryan does these things because he has a keen understanding of what the market desires...Are Spirit bows an anomaly based on availability and price point? Or is this what the market really desires? I suspect it is a combination of both.
Most of our customers are primarily elk hunters. Bow weight seems to be of more concern. In a state where whitetail deer are the primary target I think that the average weight would be at least 2-3 lbs lighter (my observation).

Statistics I would like to see for my own curiosity but that I have either not documented, or don't have the means to document:

Percentage of custom vs production
Primary use (hunting vs target)
Variance of preference regarding state (weight, length, month, etc)
Average price per bow of the market as whole
How many bows the average customer buys per year
How many bows the average customer currently owns
Bow length compared to the desired form of hunting (example: short bows for ground blinds)

Please read these statistics for what they are. One sample of the market based on the business I do here in Denver, CO. I do not wish for these statistics to be read as a popularity contest between bowyers or bow designs. These numbers don't lie, BUT they only tell a very small part of the story. There are only two things I feel are slightly indicative of the market in whole. 1) Bow weight. Even that is skewed by local demand for local purposes. And, 2) Average cost per bow. But that must be also be weighed against local incomes and local demands. I do sell quite a few bows out of state, which is why I think cost might be kind of relevant to the market as a whole.

We here at the shop all do our very best to remain as objective and neutral as possible with our customers. I do not believe that I am doing a customer justice by recommending a certain bow to him. We are very conscious of allowing the customer to shoot as many bows as he can, and to then make up his own mind based on his own criteria. Now obviously we have the most experience with the local bowyers that we represent, so when concerns over warranty or stability arise, we can answer with certainty about the bowyers we have dealt the most with. I know that impacts sales, leading to more sales for local bowyers, and less for bowyers in other parts of the state. Of the out-of-state bowyers that I deal with, the longer we carry their bows the more we sell for these same reasons.

So, while I realize that our personal opinions do persuade buyers, it is of minimal amount. We let the bows do their own talking. Any discussion of our own personal opinions are tempered by our encouragement to the customer to decide themselves by shooting various types.

I don't sell a significant amount of other styles of bows to even make a blip on my statistics. Horse bows and self bows are the two other most popular styles that I sell. I perused my list and could not find enough of both combined to account for even .02%.

In sum, I feel that this can be an interesting read if you like this stuff, with some useful information to bowyers. How it pertains to the entire country or other shops may or may not have relevance.

Point Blank Buck

2011-12-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

A good friend of ours, Ivan, demonstrated some fine hunting skills this year in Wyoming. We asked him to write a story for our blog which he was kind enough to do. Congrats Ivan, great story, great adventure, and even greater hunting!

Ivan used a Wapiti "Rick Duggan 28 Special" and a STOS broadhead on his hunt.

I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did.

~Tommy

by Ivan James

A couple of years ago a friend had invited me to hunt muledeer on his Wyoming ranch. We would be just a hop, skip and three jumps fromRiverton. It only took two years to draw the tag. I headed to Wyoming in earlySeptember, sandwiching the mule deer hunt between my own Colorado elk hunting andhelping out with a friend's Colorado moose hunt.

The first evening John gave me a tour of the ranch which consistedof irrigated alfalfa fields, creosote bush, sagebrush, winter pasture, andrough sandstone hills.

The first several days I focused on some irrigated alfalfa fieldsbeing utilized by quite a few does. I was able to glass does and bucks every morningand evening, though often on neighboring ranches. Stalking conditions were difficult in theopen fields. Glassing the winter pasture proved unrewarding due to the heightof the cover.

After spending quite a bitof time glassing, while perched in the sandstone bluffs, I finally decided toconcentrate on the alfalfa fields. I slowly moved westward through the morning, giving athorough glassing from each promontory. By noon I had reached the western boundary of the ranch. Having notbrought my lunch and nearly exhausting my water supply, I turned to work back towardsmy embarking point. Almost immediately Isaw two small bucks feeding a half mile to the east. Having no appreciable cover for the firstseveral hundred yards, I remained motionless glassing the bucks. A half hour later they bedded in a stalkablelocation, my hunt began!

A cliff to their right prevented me from approaching theirdownwind side. Therefore I had to passlow, about 150 yards to the north, and in front of them. That would enable me to circlefar enough upwind so as not to be detected. Then I would have to circle againto their south in order to approach from downwind.

By the time I had this figured out and placed myself infront of them they had resumed feeding. I was able to stay low enough to takeadvantage of the undulating sandstone rocks. Their racks were in view but theycould not see me. By now they werestanding in the shade of a rock with a concave north face. I had to lose sight of them as I circled farupwind and around to their southeast. I started to approach what I thoughtwas the rock providing them shade. Thelast 30 yards of the stalk included 20 yards of crunchy gravel and then a 10 yardclimb up the rock which shaded them.

Having not seen the bucks for some time, I slowly climbedthe rock, glancing in a 180 degree swath to pick them up should they havemoved. Nearing the crest of the rock, Isaw their antlers, but 20 yards to the west underneath a different rock. From this position they would see me before Ihad a clear shot on their vitals. I had to backtrack the 30 yards, shift over 20 yards, and again cross the crunchy gravel and climb up the correct rock.

As I came up to the top of the correct rock, the toes of myboots were directly over the shoulder of the larger of the buck, his antlersjust inches below the rock I was standing on. The smaller buck was about four yards to my left. I did not want to shoot straight down, unlessI made a spine shot I would probably only get one lung. I was not willing totake that chance.

I waited motionless for something to happen. Though it seemed like a long time, it wasprobably only seconds before the smaller buck started to spook. This alarmed the larger buck. The halftension in my bow string easily translated to full draw as the bucks spooked. Iswung up in one fluid motion, the arrow was released at three yards on therunning buck. This is a shot that Icould confidently take with my recurve, but would have passed if shooting acompound. The arrow entered high on thebuck’s left side taking out both lungs at it traversed down and forward. At 70 yards the buck’s rear legs began tobuckle, 10 yards more and he was down, it all happened in mere seconds.

It was a small 3X4, not a buck that some would get excitedabout. But the memory of my first stalk, let alone to point-blank range, willlast me a lifetime.

Thanks to my friend John for inviting me to hunt his ranch and for putting me up in their beautiful ranch house that he built himself, and to his son for helping me carry the deer off of the sandstone bluffs.

More Deer Hunting Pics

2011-11-18T11:18:00.000-08:00

Well Tom and Dan got back from Wisconsin/Nebraska last week. They had a great time but didn't shoot any bucks.

It seems Danny's luck has run out this year, at least for killing big animals. Four different times while hunting in Wisconsin somebody saw a big buck under the stand that he was NOT sitting in. I don't think anybody can say he deserves any different, but I would have loved to see him cap off his terrific season with a big whitetail. There is always the late season...

The action was pretty good in Nebraska. The deer were running pretty good and there was several big buck sightings.

One afternoon Danny and Blake spotted a buck and a doe bed down in the tall red grass atop one of the canyons. Blake took point on this stalk and closed the distance to less than 20 yards. When the buck stood up Blake made a lethal shot with his Robertson recurve.

Just before expiring

Well the season is winding down but there will be at least one or two more deer hunts coming up. Keep checking back!

Nebraska Deer Hunting

2011-10-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

I did not think I was going to get a chance to get to whitetail hunt this year before the gun hunters go in and get everything wound up. With a one year old son at home it is tough to get out that much, and I used up a lot of favors and kitchen points elk and moose hunting. I luckily found a day and a half to hunt though. I went to Nebraska with my cousin, Chad.

I love Nebraska, the open country is great for seeing a lot of deer. I love the canyons, the red grass, the bottoms, and the massive crop fields. In one and a half days I saw mule deer, whitetail deer, a badger, a coyote, an opossum, raccoons, and all sorts of birds.

Here is a field edge where I had a stand set up. I could have shot at a small buck here but I did not want to end my hunt so soon. I enjoying just watching the deer as much as anything. I spent this evening watching lots of deer and enjoying the sunset.

Looking out from my stand.

One evening Chad and I decided to hang a stand and sit next to each other. I don't know the farmer too well and he gave me permission to hunt as long as I only shot a doe. I am okay with that. I figured it would be a nice chance to sit and b.s. with Chad, and maybe watch him shoot a nice buck. The chances of shooting a doe here are very high. I knew it would be an enjoyable evening.

A doe right beneath Chad's feet.

Early in the evening a doe came out of a cornfield and started to feed away from us. No biggie, there are lots of deer here and we knew there would be more. A few minutes after leaving our sight she came bounding back towards us. She ran past us and never stopped long enough, or close enough for a shot. It wasn't long before we saw what spooked her - a beautiful coyote came trotting past us. Those dang things are everywhere...

That doe never really left, she just stood behind us looking at that coyote until he trotted off. Once he did she started making her way back towards us. I am sure she got a little whiff of the two hunters sitting 20 feet above her. She circled us twice, stomping her feet, and even blew a few times before she came close enough for a shot.

She was walking in to my shooting opening when I pulled my bow back. I never really noticed that I let go, nor did I notice that she was walking when I did. My anchor was solid and I felt zoned in on my aiming point. My first reaction after letting go of the string was good, I knew I had picked a spot and I had a good release. The initial arrow flight looked great. The arrow never slowed down when it hit her. One second it was there, the next it was gone. For a split second my stomach sank. That shot was too high. She ran off and I told Chad that the shot was too high. However, as you can see in the video, the doe died exactly 14 seconds after the arrow passed through her.

Upon examining the exit hole, the arrow came out below the center line of her body and closer to her front leg. The video is a bit misleading, the entrance looks further back than it was.

This was the first time I used the VPA Penetrator broadhead. I used the 200gr model. I was obviously very please with the results.

I shot this doe with a Rampart longbow, 62@28, and a Carbon Express Heritage 250 arrow. I shoot 200gr up front and my total arrow weight is about 550gr.

Dad and Danny leave for Wisconsin at the end of the week. We should have a lot more deer hunting stories and, if they're lucky, some success photos as well. Check back soon!

Ontario Moose Hunt

2011-10-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

We just got back from an Ontario moose hunt. We had an absolutely great time, caught lots of fish, and Danny continued his amazing season with a 53" bull moose. I'm going to cut his bowstring!

We have been to this place twice before. Wine Lake Camp near Parrault Falls. A few years ago Herb, owner of Wine Lake, was in our store to buy some archery supplies. Herb is a traditional archer who lives in Nederland, CO during the winters. Herb overheard Tom talking about moose hunting and told him about his camp.

Wine Lake is mostly a fishing camp, but Herb gets a few bear and moose tags a year. At the time he was sold out on bull moose tags, but we have been able to go on two cow hunts in the past four years. We are on the list for bull tags in 2013.

This year we got lucky, Herb called because he had a cancellation from one of his bull hunters. He asked if we would like the tag, which we jumped on! Herb offers the fairest price moose hunts that I have ever heard of. Party hunting is legal in Ontario, so Danny and I bought calf tags and Dad had the bull tag. We were all hunting for a bull though, we could kill one, and it was going to be a team effort. None of us care who gets the shot.

In Ontario, a non-resident moose hunter must be accommodated, he cannot go moose hunting on his own. A guide does not have to accompany the hunter in the field, but the hunter must purchase the license through a camp and sleep there. We were able to hunt on our own which we like. Herb gave us excellent advice on moose hunting strategy and also where he sees the most moose action.

Wine Lake Camp is a two hour boat drive from the nearest road. There are no roads for about ten miles in any direction from this camp. This makes for some excellent undisturbed fishing and hunting. Here we are boating in.

On the way in Herb showed us some rocks with some old Native paintings on them.

The water in Wine Lake is crystal clear

The first night out provided some excellent sights, but we heard no moose.

There was a lot of moose activity around one of the rivers connecting a few lakes. We spent the majority of our time listening from the boat. We heard a cow or two bawling almost every time we went out. We would locate ourselves on shore according to the wind and either call close to the water, or try to make our way through the dense forest to get in better calling position.

Sometime in the late 80's a massive tornado came through and wiped out all of the trees on this hillside, except one. This lone monarch stood out well above the rest. It was quite a sight.

Fishing in Canada cannot be beat. A limit of walleye after a few hours of fishing. We would hunt in the morning and evening, and fish all afternoon. What can beat that!?

We also caught a pile of smallmouth.

Lake trout are not easy to catch this time of the year, but Danny managed to catch a few.

I'm not a trophy hunter, but I am a trophy fisherman. While Danny and Dad were snapping up the walleye left and right my mission on this trip was to catch a 40"+ pike. This was the biggest I caught, 38.5".

The small hunting boat that we spent the majority of our time hunting from.

The moose action was pretty good. Like I said, we heard cows bawling on almost every outing. I called in a bull to Dad and Danny on the third day of the hunt. He was only 25 yards away from those two, with me another 20yds behind them. I don't like admitting the mistake I made, but it's too stupid not to share. I did not know the bull was only a few steps away from providing one of those two a shot. Between grunts a small black fly flew in to my mouth and hit the hangy ball thing. I tried to muffle my cough but it wasn't enough. When I coughed the bull turned on a dime and went back from where he came. Unreal. I'm sure they were a little annoyed with me, but they never said it.

The last evening of our hunt we slipped in to a bay where Herb heard a bull grunting that morning. We only had an hour of light left. I gave off two soft grunts and got an immediate reply. We drew straws to determine who the shooter would be every day. Danny was up. Dad and I sent him down the shore line 75 yards while we stayed back and called. When the bull wasn't grunting it sounded like he was tearing down the forest. He was hot!

I would give a few grunts and the bull would immediately respond every single time. When he was working towards us I stayed quiet. When he would stop I would grunt or Dad would rake a tree. It did not take long before we figured the bull was right on top of Danny. We could see him but we could not see the bull.

We watched as Danny came to full draw. Oh the thoughts that run through your head at those times! "It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen. What's going on? Why isn't he shooting? Is it too far? Should I grunt or would that screw him up? What's he doing? He's going to have to let down soon..." Danny sat there at full draw for no less than 15 seconds! We didn't know what to do, we just stood there watching through our binos for an eternity.

We did not know it, but the bull was only SIX YARDS from Danny. Danny had to draw his bow at the time he did because once the bull emerged from behind some trees there would be no other time for him to draw. Of course the bull stopped with his vitals covered and his head sticking out. The bull just stood there making soft grunts and smacking his big lips together.

Danny said he never even felt the weight of his bow. He didn't know if, or when the bull was going to walk out from those trees. Danny leaned out, just a little bit, so that he could get an arrow past the brush and in to the bulls vitals. Danny is a fine shot, but I think anybody can hit a moose at six yards. He shot.

From my perspective I could see Danny shoot but I still had no idea how far the shot was. In an instant the bull came crashing out of the brush, his head down. It looked to me like he ran right over the top of Danny (he missed him by four steps!). The bull ran out in to the middle of the lake. I'm looking at the bull now, I don't see an arrow and I don't see any blood. I bring up my binoculars to look and then I remember Danny. Oh crap, it had to have run him over. I look back to Danny and see him moving around. Okay good, he's alright. I look back to the bull, and as my eyes move from Danny to the bull a white streak practically follows their same path.

I heard the arrow in flight as much as I saw it. Zzzzzzzzzzzp, WHACK! "Nice!" I thought. If he missed him the first time that one was perfect. The second shot was about 50 yards, and Danny hit him as good as could be.

The bull's back legs buckled almost immediately as the second arrow hit him. Then I knew that the first shot was also right on the money. The sight that unfolded in the next 45 seconds was both the saddest, and most utterly spectacular thing I have ever seen. The bull died in the water but not without demonstrating a ferocious will to survive. The power of this moose, his head flying up, his legs kicking, the water and blood flying absolutely everywhere...I will have a crisp and clear memory of that sight for the rest of my life. I've never seen so much blood. It was not fun watching that moose die. After the water stopped flying and the moose lay motionless nobody moved, nobody looked at each other, nobody said anything - we all just stood there with our jaws open.

Then the emotion of what just happened flooded over us. Dad and I ran 75 yards over to Danny and Danny lifted me up in the air. We couldn't believe what just happened. Danny was trembling, "Did you see that thing?! Tell me you saw that! He was RIGHT HERE!" Danny said, pointing basically to his feet.

We recapped what had just happened and what we were thinking from our various view points. We all looked out in to the lake. What the heck are we going to do now!?

The second arrow - 50 yards is a far shot with a recurve. It couldn't have been better.

We went back to get Herb, he would know what to do. And he did. Herb grabbed some come-a-longs and some rope. We tied a rope around the bulls head and back legs and dragged him on shore as far as we could. Then we used the come-a-longs to inch him up the rest of the way.

What a year so far!

Danny used a Hawk recurve on this hunt. His first shot was with a Grizzly broadhead. He hit the moose directly above the leg and centered a big rib. The broadhead split the rib into three pieces and the arrow lodged in the far shoulder. The second arrow was tipped with a VPA Terminator broadhead. This arrow slipped between the ribs and also parked in the far shoulder. Neither arrow produced an exit hole but they both penetrated the entire cavity. Since the bull ran right in to a lake there was no blood trail. But I watched the blood coming out of the moose's sides and mouth, if we did have to trail this moose it would have been a bloodtrail to match all bloodtrails.

We go back to Wine Lake in 2013 with two bull tags in our pockets. I cannot wait. It is one of the most pristine and beautiful places I have ever been.

Up next - WHITETAILS!!!

stay tuned...

Danny's 2011 Elk

2011-10-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ol' Danny boy really worked his butt off this season. He spent a ton of time scouting this summer. Exploring some rugged new country, and of course checking in on some old haunts. Danny did some fine hunting to get this bull, being his older brother it can be hard to admit that he's better than me at anything. I will say this, he is a better elk hunter.

Danny covered more ground this season than I could do in two. The way he shot this bull amazes me (this is an older brother talking here). It was something I would have never done. I simply wouldn't have had the confidence in the plan, or in my sneakability.

Danny has a handful of good but not great bulls under his belt. He is not a trophy hunter by any means, but with all of the great bulls he was seeing this year he was hoping for something with 6 points. Opening weekend Danny passed up on a few nice 5 points, bulls he would have shot in a heart beat any other season. Throughout the year Danny was at full draw on a few other nice 6 point bulls, but the shot just wasn't there, so he never let go of the string.

Late on the evening of Sept. 15th Danny got on the edge of a big herd of elk that were out feeding in a thick willow bog. He got to within 50 yards of the herd bull that night. Because of thick cover he never got a clear look at the bull's rack, just enough to know it was a true monster. His bugle, though, was unmistakable. It was the nastiest bugle Danny has heard in his 16 years of elk hunting.

The next morning, Friday the 16th, Danny was back in that same vicinity hoping that the elk were still going to be there. As the sun was gaining height, with neither sight or sound of elk, Danny was about to dive off of this steep ridge and climb the next three ridges to the North looking for something.

Right before he started off he heard it. The bugle of bugles. The kind that makes your stomach turn over and your mouth hang open. It was the same bull. He knew where the bull was, and he knew it was likely the bull would come his way. Waiting a few minutes confirmed his hunch, the bull bugled again, closer. And then again, closer yet.

It was a very windy day, with the elk coming his way he decided not to call. Instead he got on the back side of the ridge he was on, opposite the elk. Herd bulls usually round up the back of the herd. Danny knew that if he stayed on the same side of the ridge as the elk he would be inundated with cows any moment. With strong swirly winds, and that many eyes, his chance of getting a shot at the bull would be very slim. There were too many cows. By getting on the back side of the hill, out of sight of the elk, he planned on using his ears to parallel the herd. He knew, after years of seeing the elk move along this ridge, that the elk would eventually pop on to his side where the shade was better.

Danny learned this trick from our Dad, who did the same thing with him when Danny was 14 years old - different ridge, same trick. It produced a shot on a monster bull. That was back before Dad was a deadeye (by his own admission).

So Danny sat and listened. Then he heard it. The pop of a branch that he was waiting for. He started paralleling the herd. Thinking that he was ahead of the elk he angled towards the top of the hill. All of the sudden Danny saw antlers, it was a nice 6 point satellite, but not the herd bull. The elk were moving too quick, and Danny had fallen behind. No shot presented itself on the satellite bull so Danny dropped back down his side of the ridge and quickly moved forward to get even with the main herd. As he got to where he thought he was close to the elk the big bull bugled a mere thirty yards away. The elk had popped the ridge and were now on his side!

Now he really slowed down. Take a step... look.... listen.

After a few minutes of this a cow rang out with a few whiny mews. Branches popped to his left and then he saw her trotting right towards him. A second later he caught a glimpse of the 4th tine of the big bull and his massive body right on her heels. It takes a certain amount of luck to get a shot at an animal like this, no matter how well your plan comes together. Danny got that luck.

Now he's got an arrow nocked, bow pointing right where the elk are headed.

Here she comes, perfect, 8 yards right through a beautiful shooting lane. Any moment now and the bull will follow her. But he doesn't, of course. Instead of taking a few steps around a gnarled mess of trees the big bull walks right through them. Now he's through the opening and Danny has to improvise. With the bull at 15 yards Danny crouched down to his knees, his bow horizontal to, and about 6 inches off of the ground. The kind of shot you take at the range just for fun, but Danny had to do it to shoot underneath some branches that were covering the bull's vitals. He drew his bow, reached full draw, picked a spot, and loosed the arrow.

16 years of waiting for and dreaming of a shot like this. A monster bull at 15 yards, lip curling and grunting at the cow that just brought him over. The arrow is on it's way, no...NO! It barely nicked the bottom of a branch, the branch that he was trying to shoot under, and dove under nearth the bull's massive chest. Devastation doesn't begin to describe the feeling. How can that be, how can that happen? Thousands of arrows shot at the practice range in preparation for THIS MOMENT! NOOO!

But the wind was howling that day. The bull didn't have any idea that he'd been shot at he just stood there curling his upper lip. The desperation of the moment made taking out a second arrow pure reaction. It was on the string but the bull was moving again. This is a densely timbered hill side, he's behind a lot of trees now. Danny had to move. With the big herd close by it was risky, but he was able to go five or six steps. The bull is at 32 yards now, the exact distance that Danny has been shooting in the back yard. Hundreds and hundreds of arrows this summer at this distance. He doesn't even think twice. The shot opening was small. The elk's chest was framed between two trees, with limbs above his back.

The second arrow was on it's way. The shot was perfect, to the exact hair that Danny was aiming at. The bull was slightly quartered away, the arrow entered just above the elbow. Penetration was good, looked like it parked in the far shoulder (confirmed later).

The bull blasted across the mountain. The remainder of the herd jumped, but quickly calmed back down as Danny called to try and stop the big bull. Danny knew the shot was lethal, and he knew the bull would be piled up not very far away. He wanted so badly to go and find him but all of the cows were just standing around. So he waited. An hour later all of the cows had meandered away.

I sure would have loved to be with Danny when he killed this bull. But at least I got to be apart of the cleaning and the pack out. The pack out wasn't too horrible.

Danny and I with his bull

We did some pretty careful cleaning knowing that the dangerous end of the arrow was still somewhere inside the cavity. After removing the heart and lungs we still didn't see it. Peeling apart the lungs finally exposed the arrow, just like this.

The head and cape topped the scales right at 85 lbs. Not horrible, but walking through the brush was difficult. How elk remain silent when moving through the trees with this kind of headgear is beyond me.

Danny shot this elk with a Rampart recurve and a Grizzly broadhead. The bloodtrail was profuse and easy to follow. But with an arrow in the heart that would be expected. He is shooting a 225 grain broadhead and 630 grains of total arrow weight.

Nice job Danny! A fine mule deer, a monster bull elk, how could the season get any better? (oh, it does)

Danny's Elk

2011-09-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Danny shot a tremendous bull. Stay tuned for the story, we are leaving for a moose hunt in a few days and the rest of the pictures and story might be delayed. I had to post at least one picture before we left.

More Elk Hunting Pics

2011-09-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

Danny was hunting one of our favorite areas last week, an area that our Dad carried us on his back chasing bugles when we were growing up, and came upon this tree. It reads "Chris's 1st elk with a bow, 9/16/8.." I can't tell when it was but it was the late 80's. That was where my Mom killed an elk over 20 years ago. We pulled out some pictures of that elk.

Cutting up the elk that year. My Mom's parents are on the right, Dad and Danny in the middle, and my Dad's mom on the left. Getting an elk back then called for a family evening of processing.

Here I am watching somebody cut some meat. I think he's a cousin somewhere in there.

Now on to this years elk hunting!

It's still been a little slow but it is picking up fast. Here is a pine martin that Danny and Chad saw while hunting with our friend Matt. Matt had a muzzleloader tag. When they were heading in to the woods we all felt that Matt should be able to shoot a nice bull hunting with Danny and Chad, two very fine elk hunters.

Late one evening Danny and Matt glassed a herd of elk on a ridge across the drainage. Chad had a large 6X6 at 15 yards that night but did not get a shot. He was hoping for the elk to take that "one more step" that all bowhunters know so well. They made plans that night at camp to get an early start and try to get to those elk by first light.

1,800 vertical feet later they were below the elk and HOPING that they would come down towards them instead of going down the other side of the hill.

One the way up the hill Matt says, "There is NOTHING that is worth this hike". It was a ball buster of an ascent. Matt changed his mind in a little bit.

A view of the trees they were hiding in. The elk are making their way down.

One of the things that draws hunters towards traditional archery is the simplicity of it. Not much can go wrong in the field. With the bull at 100 yards Matt squeezed the trigger on his muzzleloader. Missfire! He squeezed again. Missfire! Five times Matt had a missfire while Danny is frantically trying to find a new primer.

The sixth time the gun went off.

I'm sure Matt had some mixed emotions at this moment. One of elation for shooting such a nice bull. And then the "AH CRAP" of knowing what kind of pack out was ahead of him.

Chad and Matt

Danny and Matt

This bull had 54" mainbeams

Must have been an old fighter

We have another week before we leave for a moose hunt in Canada. Hopefully one of the guys can shoot another elk with the stickbows. Last night we had a heck of a show and a monster bull at 22 yards. One more step...that's always the story.

2011 Elk - so far

2011-09-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

Even though the elk hunting was pretty tough this weekend we still managed to be in the right place at the right time at least once. The elk haven't got fired up yet, but I think they will be very soon. This whole weekend I only heard 4-6 bugles.

Danny got in to one bugling bull, a real dandy, and came to full draw three times but the shot was just never there. He also had some very close encounters with two other big bulls but luck has not been on his side yet this season...yet.

I hunted this unit a long time ago, but not very much of it. The vast majority of the hunting I've done this year is in places where I have never been, or have not been for many, many years. It is kind of a fluke that we ended up hunting in the drainage that has produced the most action this year. My Mom spotted a lone bull above timberline at around 9am on opening day, quite late in the morning to be out in the sun feeding. That was enough to make her and my Dad to go check it out. They should have shot a bull in that drainage opening day, at 2pm my Dad called him to 20 yards but just couldn't get a shot.

Saturday I hunted with my parents back in that same drainage. We saw probably 30 elk above timberline, including a few real nice bulls. I'm sure there were many more that we did not see. Not bad for this small area! They were feeding above timberline and going either to the left, right, or straight over the top of the hill, none came down. We slipped in on several elk that morning and did a little bit of calling. A gangly spike came running full tilt down the hill towards us. If he was a person he would be a perfect Napoleon Dynamite - all clumsy and goofy looking when he ran. At about 30 yards he threw on the brakes, looked around, and then cut in to the trees. There was something he did not like, ah well. Since all the elk were in huntable locations we slipped out knowing that they would be back the following morning. We would have done some more calling but the wind started swirling.

That evening I went out by myself and made a five mile hike in a different place, but it was all for naught. So I ran over to a spot where I could glass our drainage the last 20 minutes before dark. I only saw a few cows but I knew the elk were still all there. I ran in to another elk hunter who was camped back there with his wife and son. He was camped on one side of the drainage so we never went near him and hunted the very far side. We left the majority of the elk we saw for him to hunt.

We made some common sense observations about the drainage before we had ever seen what the elk do up there. There is a big saddle that runs right over to a very steep and nasty north facing ridge. We figured that they probably crossed through that saddle and bedded on that nasty hill. When we finally observed elk we saw them doing exactly what we had suspected.

The following morning, since we had seen a good number of elk moving towards that saddle, we planned on still hunting our way there, and then doing some blind calling once we got there. My brother-in-law Kelly was with us, so there were four total hunters. We usually split up when there is that many of us but we wanted to cover as much of that saddle as possible, so we all went in together.

We still hunted for the first hour or so of the morning until we reached our saddle. Once we got there we hung out for 30 minutes or so hoping to catch something coming through. We split up, about 40 yards apart, in line with the wind which was coming down the hill (that was fine because we did not expect elk to come from below us). I was the furthest up the hill, my Dad was the furthest down the hill. The two of us did the most calling with Kelly and my Mom chirping in as well. We started soft. About five minutes after we started calling I noticed an elk coming down fast. He was still 100 yds out so I made a few more very soft calls and waited. I knew my Dad would keep calling 100 or so yards down the hill.

Everything worked out just perfectly. The elk kept coming fast, looking downhill for the "elk" that he was hearing. His approach kept me concealed the entire time. There were shooting openings in all directions, but I was hidden enough so that he would never see me until he was in a shootable position. I kept looking ahead of his path, picking out places where I could shoot if he held course.

When he got to 25 yards he went behind some thick trees, I drew. He stepped out in to my opening, moving, but not fast. As soon as his front leg appeared I let go of the string. My arrow flew perfect, hitting him about an inch higher than my aim. He crashed out of there, he was mortally hit. I called to try and stop him, more out of habit than necessity, but he never stopped. I knew it would be a short track.

This is a screen shot of Google Earth so you can kind of see the terrain. I marked on my GPS where I was when I shot, and where we found him. I enjoy seeing exactly where I was and, sometimes, where I SHOULD have been.

A view from my shooting location.

I knew that everybody should have heard him crashing off. About five mintues later I heard my Dad whistling to locate me. We speak our own whistle language in the woods. We have a few distinct whistles, "where are you", "don't move a muscle", and "come here" are our most commonly used whistle communications. I have tried them with elk at 50 yards just to see if it alarms them and I have never seen an elk so much as turn an ear when I whistle.

We all got together and talked about the shot placement, the elk's reaction, how much arrow penetrated him, etc. We were all very confident that we would find the elk in a short amount of time.

About 30 yards from where the elk was standing at the shot we started seeing trees and stumps like this. Looking good!

To all of our surprise the heavy blood trail did not last very long. After 75 yards or so we were tracking his hoof prints and finding very little blood. It did not have me worried, but it was not what I expected.

About 100 yards or so down the trail my Mom said, "holy cow I sure can smell elk". I knew we were close. I took my eyes off of the ground and started scanning the woods ahead of us. There he is!

As he lay.

In all the years of elk hunting with my Dad this was the first time we were actually together when either of us killed an elk. Hugs went around.

I used my 56" Hawk recurve, 59@28, and a VPA Terminator broadhead. It was the first time I carried three blades hunting elk. Penetration was okay, there was a hole on the far side in the ribs but the broadhead did not poke through the skin. It went through the whole body cavity but I sure like to see an exit hole. The blood trail was less than average even though it started strong. I think the hit was a little higher than a good blood trail producing hit would be, but obviously still low enough to produce a very quick kill. I will be adding this broadhead to my arsenal, for sure.

The first human hand to touch this magnificent creature.

My mom had a knee replacement last year and this is the first time she has been able to walk the elk woods in quite a few years. Having her there made this hunt all the better!

I shot the elk at 7:35am. We had all day to take care of him, and with four of us doing the work we got the cleanest elk meat we've ever done. There was hardly a hair or speck of dust on any of it. Gonna eat good!

Three seasons ago I got a new day pack even though I was not in the market for one. We started selling Horn Hunter packs in our store back then, and I was really impressed with the idea of being able to strap meat to my day pack. That way I wouldn't have to walk all the way out for my frame pack, and then walk all the way back in to start carrying meat. It was the best decision I ever made. I have carried four animals out with it now and there is no other way to do it. I have not even touched my frame pack since buying this day pack. It is by far and away the best way I have ever packed meat.

I am using the Horn Hunter Mainbeam pack. I wish the hip belts were adjustable because I am a small guy and it rides a little low, but otherwise it took this load without problem. I guessed the weight of my pack afterwards at 70lbs +. Not an overly heavy pack, but it was still easy.

Kelly is a freak of a human being. He is carrying a front and a hind quarter, and he never even commented on the pack being heavy, light, uncomfortable, anything. Just smiles the whole way out, though I pretty much only saw his back the whole time.

Kelly used the Horn Hunter Full Curl pack. His pack was much heavier than mine and he was totally comfortable the whole time. I am totally sold on these packs.

We stopped about every tenth of a mile at first! Had to get our legs and mind geared up for the walk out. In all actuality it was all down hill, and pretty flat at that. It was not the easiest pack out I've been on but it was up there.

The season is not even half way done. Looks like I am covering the archery store for my Dad and brother the next few weeks and calling for them on the weekends. I still have a mule deer tag but they are not plentiful in this area and I do not expect to see one, much less shoot one. At least I still get to carry my bow.

Check back because I will be sure to have more pictures, and hopefully another successful hunting story or two!

Opening Weekend of Elk Season

2011-09-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Elk season has finally started. This weekend was slow for us and we did not hear any elk talk whatsoever. I was able to call in two bulls to 25 yards. When I had a shot at one the other was looking, and when neither was looking their vitals were covered by trees. They left un-spooked so we'll be able to get on them again.

Danny had a great opening weekend. He let his partners do the shooting and they both did. Though they did not come home with an elk. A little elk fever maybe?

Tom also had a little action. He called a bull in to 20 yards but was never able to get a shot. It was the only elk he saw this weekend.

The pack in.

Some beautiful elk country. Surprisingly to us, not an elk was around. We invested a lot of time getting in to this area, but without any elk sign we bailed to try other areas.

We spotted a few bulls on that furthest ridge. Getting to them would have been a couple day adventure and we weren't feeling that spirited.

This was one of the prettiest places I have pumped water.

A couple of small bulls sparring through the spotting scope.

Danny, our cousin Chad, and friend Blake had a great opening weekend. They were in to elk every day and saw some tremendous bulls. They elk were responsive to calling but did not call much themselves.

Hopefully much more to come!

Utah Mule Deer Hunt

2011-08-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I got back from Utah just in time to head right up into the mountains and chase some elk around for opening weekend here in CO. My hunting partners missed a few nice 5x5's, and we had several other close calls. A great weekend in the mountains! I was fortunate enough to take a great muley buck in UT. Here are a few pictures from my hunt, and a little on the story. Hope you enjoy looking through them as much as I enjoyed taking them!

A view of the beautiful muley country I was hunting..

It took a few days to get the deer dialed in, but once we figured out where to look for the bucks we were seeing 12-15 every morning and evening. Here is a view of a hillside that a group of bucks were regularly bedding on. The next few pictures will zoom in on this picture.

A little closer, you can see two of the bucks in this picture...

A big 2x2 in his bed. The bucks were tucking in under any shady bush they could find on these west facing steep sagebrush hillsides...

This beautiful little trout stream ran through the bottom of the valley. I should have brought my fly rod. Guess I am going to have to go back!

This draw was a honey hole for big bucks.

Here is where I ended up after my first stalk. I was just 17 yards from a great buck with no more cover to get closer. If you look closely you can see the top of the bucks rack on the right side of the tree, below my broadhead. I sat right where I was in this picture for two and a half hours waiting for the deer to get out of his bed and give me a shot. He stood up once after an hour and I got almost to full draw before he took a step and covered his vitals with that Mahogany tree, then he bedded right back down.

Eventually the wind shifted, and allowed me to painstakingly and slowly ease my way down the hill about ten yards. I had to put my arrow right next to the trunk of the tree to get into the buck's vitals. As you can see, I got a little too close to the tree - haha! My arrow hit that tree and deflected up and to the left, over the deer's back. He lit out of his bed unscathed, stopping only once at 75 yards to look back and see what the heck almost got him!

Here are some of the bucks we were seeing every day. I took these pictures with my cell phone through a friend's Swarovski spotting scope.

This buck had a cool little bed under a giant rock...

We saw coyotes everywhere...

A huge 2x2 we saw a few times throughout the hunt, but could never get on...

This is the end of the stalk on the deer that I killed. He was feeding his way up through this sage draw, and I was able to cut him off. He had to clear one more bush, to give me a shot, and guess what, he layed down behind that bush! I sat him out for an hour, but with the fading evening light I had to do something to stand him up for a shot. I tried whistling, grunting, and every other noise I could think of. He would look around, but not stand up. I finally chucked a rock down the draw, and immediately upon it hitting the ground he stood up and looked down. I was already at full draw when he got to his feet, shortly after my arrow was on it's way.

The end of a great hunt! I was hooked on Mule Deer hunting after my trip to Utah last year, I am even more hooked now!

-Dan-

Utah Mule Deer

2011-08-24T16:00:00.000-07:00

Dan killed a great muley in Utah. So far we have only received a text message picture, be sure to check back soon as we will have the story and more pictures up as soon as possible.

Dan used a Rampart recurve and a VPA Terminator broadhead on this hunt.

Antelope Hunting

2011-08-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

I drew a very good antelope tag this year. The chance of killing an exceptional buck were high, and if not for some bad luck that may have happened. It takes about 10 preference points to draw this unit, and it just so happened that a few other good friends were also sitting on a pile of points. So we all put in as a group.

Two weeks before the season we went up and picked out some water holes. Then set up mock blinds with t-posts and burlap to give the antelope a chance to get used to seeing "something" by their waterhole. Two days before the season we swapped out our mock blinds for our real blinds and then just waited...and waited, and waited, which can often times be the whole story when antelope hunting!

Another hunter in my group killed this buck

One of the greatest things you can do if you're going to spend time in a hot blind is lay down a carpet! It keeps the dust down, keeps the bugs out, and allows you to lay or kneel down comfortabley. It also tremendously helps you to move about quietly. I bought this carpet at Home Depot for $17.95. It turned out to be the best thing I did on this entire trip. When you're in a 100 degree blind for 15 hours a day you need all the comfort you can get!

There was an incredible amount of does and fawns coming in to the water hole.

I had antelope bedded within 50 yards for the majority of the day.

The wind was howling the first day. It was blowing so hard that water was coming out of the top of the water tank and pooling on the ground. Some of the spookier antelope chose to drink off of the ground, as far away from the blind as they could get. This turned out to be a problem, as you'll see in a little bit.

I had a better shot to one side of the blind so I put up a wire, hoping to drive the antelope to the side that gave me the best shooting opportunity. It didn't always work...

At the end of the first day this great buck came in to my waterhole. He drank out the puddle on the ground like the small buck in the above pictures. I had to get off of my chair and reposition myself in the blind, I had to shoot off of my knees, which is not a problem. I had taken off my boots and set them against the wall of the blind. I did not know that one of my boots fell off of the wall, and when I shot at this buck my bottom limb hit the boot. My arrow about did cartwheels and thankfully it missed this buck without wounding him. So I just watched him walk away.

I also had some other visitors come to water.

I rarely go two minutes without checking what's coming in, and I almost NEVER sleep. But on the third morning of the hunt I was getting tired. Before it was light enough to shoot I thought I'd just lie down for a bit and then get back up. Well I have no idea how long I slept for, but when I woke up I had this guy bedded down about 30 yards away. Did the big one come in while I slept??? I guess I'll never know.

Three days in a hot blind can do crazy things to a guys mind. With a busy archery store to get back to and a ten month old son at home I started to look a little harder at some of the smaller bucks.

When this guy came in to the water hole I asked myself if I would be happy to shoot him and the answer was a resounding YES!

So I shot at the 41st antelope to drink from my tank in two and a half days. 100 yards later there he lay.

This was my first antelope. I used a 59# Hawk recurve and a Snuffer broadhead. 200 grains up front, and 550grains of total arrow weight. My arrow passed through the antelope and never slowed down. The antelope only ran about 100 yards. I was pleased with my results.

Tracy was one of the other hunters that came on this trip. He had maybe the worst luck of all of us. For three straight days, 15 hours a day, Tracy sat in a 100 degree blind without a single antelope coming within 500 yards of him. On the fourth day, after everybody but him had killed a buck, Tracy went and sat on the waterhole I was on. About noon this great buck came in, and Tracy's long wait was over.

Tracy was shooting a Hummingbird bow by Ben Graham.

So there was this other guy, a friend of a friend type of thing who drew the same tag as us. He ended up sharing camp with us. It was a great surprise to see that Todd was a traditional shooter. I wound up immensely enjoying his company. We talked all sorts of bows, broadheads, you name it. Todd shot this on the 5th day of the hunt. Todd shot a Voodoo longbow, the riser was actually made out of an elk antler of all things.

On this first day of the hunt Brandon shot this great buck. He was the first in our group who was done, about 4pm on the first day. Brandon is one of the most accomplished hunters and best shots around. He shoots a Matthews.

Elk Scouting

2011-08-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

Danny got out and did a little elk scouting. He managed to find a nice big bull that he will be going after on opening day. He also found something even more rare, a dead big horn ram.

The bull is a 6X7

Danny thinks that this ram was killed in an avalanche this winter. The trees below him were all plowed over and the ram was right in the middle of a snowfield. He had just thawed out and has barely start stinking.

Antelope season is so close I can smell the sage

2011-08-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

Antelope have seriously kicked my butt in the past. I hope that changes this year. I used up my 12 preference points for a good tag this year. This weekend we went up and did some scouting. Antelope were everywhere!

You cannot put up blinds until Aug 1st on the state wildlife area where I will be antelope hunting this year. So on July 31st we did some walking and found our water holes. In the very wee morning hours of Aug 1st we were putting up our blinds.

I snapped a few pictures on our trip. The big guys were all a little too far for good pictures, but these little ones were kind enough to pose for the camera. I am not a trophy hunter by any means, and I think the chance for an opportunity are more than good based on the amount of goats we saw.

Be sure to check back in a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll have a successful antelope story or two to share!

I love this country!

The Broadhead Debate

2011-06-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

I wrote an extensive article on choosing broadheads that you can view on our website: http://rmsgear.com/broadhead_debate.html

The article discusses the important aspects of broadhead integrity, positives and negatives about two and three blade broadheads, and other factors that you need to consider when choosing a broadhead. Be sure to check it out!

Wyoming Fly Fishing

2011-06-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Danny made his way North with our cousin and two good friends to wet some flies and catch some fish this weekend in Wyoming. They brought up the wall tent and had a great time and caught some good fish.

Danny with a couple of good rainbows

Loading up the drift boat

Our cousin Chad and his friend Blake. You can see these two later in our blog with a couple of fine bull elk they killed last season.

Danny and our good friend Todd, with camp in the background.

April Turkey Hunting

2011-04-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks of turkey hunting. After a rough first few weeks of weather we finally caught a little break. It was still raining part of the day while we hunted but the birds were much more responsive.

Danny has been using the Magnus Bullhead this season, and after a few near misses he finally connected on a jake.

You can see the down jake just beyond the decoys. The Bullheads really work! This jake did not travel two steps from the shot.
The other jakes stuck around after the shot and even came back to the decoys, if Danny had bought two tags he could have had a chance for a double.
Danny used a Rampart longbow and a Magnus Bullhead to take this Nebraska jake.

I personally got a little redemption after I missed a chip shot from a few weeks before. I was hunting with my brother-in-law Kelly. We were not very optimistic for this evening hunt and decided to flip a coin to see who got to be the shooter in the morning, which we figured would be real good. I lost the coin toss for the morning, but it turns out I was the big winner. This tom came in spitting and drumming and gobbling his head off at 6pm. We don't often get toms to commit like this that late in the day. He was making a b-line towards our decoy when I started my draw. He either heard or saw me start to draw, and as he started to move off I hit the exact feather I was aiming at. I shot him with a Hawk recurve, and a Simmons broadhead. He did not travel 75 yards before expiring.

The next morning Kelly was up to shoot. After watching no less than 50 turkeys, and 10 big strutting toms enter the field we were sitting by a group of three jakes came to check us out. Kelly made a perfect 20 yard shot. We had friends from Wisconsin at the other end of the field with many hens around their decoys, and toms fast approaching. After Kelly shot this jake he flew over all the turkeys and essentially cut them off from going to our Wisconsin friends. We felt horrible but still got a good chuckle out of the fact that it ruined their hunt so perfectly.

This was Kelly's first turkey, and second kill with a traditional bow. Kelly used his Chastain Wapiti recurve and a Bear broadhead with the bleeder blades ground flat. The turkey expired very quickly.

I think it is officially the smallest jake on record! But it serves Kelly right after his first big game animal was a big 6X6 bull. You can read about that hunt later on this blog.

Later in the evening Kelly and I returned to our blind, which we had moved slightly after the morning. We took a lot of time brushing in the blind. We have noticed that turkeys are starting to become very skeptical of blinds in the past few years and we did not want to take any chances.

A group of three jakes spotted our decoys (which had some live hens around) from a few hundred yards away. They marched straight towards us at a fast pace. I shot this jake with a Bear takedown and a Simmons broadhead. I hit him square in the back as he was facing away, a shot that I prefer on turkeys.
Turkeys have always been hard to hit for me. Last year Kelly was devastated after missing a few close shots. This year he didn't mess around. We took three shots and killed three birds. It was a very fun trip.

Next up, COLORADO TURKEYS!

Shot Placement & Broadheads for Turkeys

2011-04-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

We have experimented with different heads for turkeys over the years and talked to many hunters about what has worked for them. The purpose of this blog is to share my favorites and observations as to what is best for the traditional bow hunter.

I have been really lucky to not have lost a bird "yet". I have been on many unsuccessful searches for lost birds and have heard many heart breaking stories about hard hit turkeys that were never found. One key to success that I have consistently found is that if the arrow is still in the bird the chances of finding that bird go way up. It is a lot harder for a bird to effectively burrow/hide when he has a protruding arrow slowing his progress. For this reason, my favorite broad head is a large four blade from any maker, with the cutting edges of the bleeder blades ground flat. The large main blade is of course made razor sharp. In this manner the arrow is much less likely to just zip through the bird. The flat ground bleeder blades really slow the progress of the arrow, and most of my birds hit like this have had the arrow half way out either side.

My equal favorite has come to be the Magnus Bullhead. The Gobbler Guillotine I am sure is just as good or better, but without an effective carrying system. And with the need to put the little straws over the blades they are not as convenient in my opinion. I think it is at least as easy, and maybe easier, to hit the head or neck as opposed to the softball sized kill area in the body of the bird. The huge benefits to the Bullhead in my opinion is that the bird is either dead right there, or just fine. My son and nephew have both shot low and body hit Tom turkeys with these Bullheads. In both cases the birds were rolled over and ran off. One was seen strutting within minutes and the other the next day (he was identified by an unusual tail feather). I am quite sure this doesn't do the turkey any good, but it seems preferable to a poor hit with a broad head. The common misses that are high, left, or right obviously are great because they only hurt the pride of the hunter (and maybe the bird). So small misses in three of the four directions definitely do not result in a wound, and the low misses probably do not have long term effects.

(Tommy Clum shooting the Bullhead on a mountain turkey)

Now, for my thoughts on shot placement. For me, it is really, really hard to ensure the "shot placement" that you prefer on an animal the size of a turkey with a longbow or recurve. An inch or three really makes a difference. However, the one consistent factor that makes the most difference is which way the bird is facing. If the bird is facing toward you, or away from you, the fairly flat rib cage (and lung area) of the bird will be most exposed to your shot. If the bird is broad side, the lungs are a thin slice facing the wrong way. Think of a slab that is 4" x 4" x 1" turned thin ways toward you. Then think of this same slab with the flat side toward you. From my observation a turkey hit in the lungs will go down right away. A turkey shot in the breast or other areas will be hard to find.

(This frontal shot turkey did not travel more than ten yards

from the place he was shot)

(Another frontal shot that resulted in immediate death)

(This quartering away shot allowed the arrow to penetrate almost all of

the bird's cavity taking out all of the vital organs and slicing the heart)

(entrance hole)

(exit hole in the breast, with finger pointing to entrance hole)

I hit a turkey broadside, right in the middle of him, and the arrow stuck in the breast bone. Fortunately the arrow did not pass through, and the protruding arrow prevented the bird from getting deep into the brush. We knew where the bird ended up by the terrible noise the other birds made while harassing their poor wounded comrade. We gave the bird 45 minutes then started our search. We went to the area 75 yards away, where all the commotion was coming from, and found the bird stuck under a tree where the arrow prevented him from burrowing further. I was shocked to see that bird get out of there and take off running again. My friend John, my son Tommy, my son in-law Kelly, and I were in hot pursuit and finally were able to get another arrow in that bird. Luck was on our side. First, the broad head stayed in the bird, and second the vocalizations from the other bullying birds gave his location away. We have found birds that left a blood trail I wouldn’t mind seeing from a deer, we have found birds by dead reckoning, and we have found birds by pure dumb luck. Persistence along with luck many times pays off.

Now, I have a short word about shooting timing and tactics. I have noticed that when the bird hears a stray yelp, or sees or hears something he doesn’t like, he will stick his head up alertly. I have used this moment to my advantage a few times. Once I caught a huge Tom just over a hill from me and he was in the middle of a bunch of hens. When I peeked up over the hill with the arrow nocked and tension on the string, I got the shot off during that time when he stuck his head straight up and was thinking “what the heck is that” and obviously just before he started his sprint.

(the turkey I killed by peeking over a hill as
described in the above paragraph)

Another time I was in a blind with Danny and waiting to get a shot at a nearby Tom. I had a Bullhead on the end of my arrow. The bird was walking and jerking his head back and forth. I came to full draw when he stopped, but he started walking again. As I was following him while aiming at full draw, I was twirling a diaphragm in my mouth to make a yelp. When Danny noticed that I was full draw, he came to my rescue and let out a couple of crisp yelps and that Tom stuck his head up to listen. With that bright red head sticking up and catching my full focus, I let fly and that Bullhead smacked him right under the chin. He was 23 yards away and he hit the ground like someone dropped a sack of rocks.

(Where the bird lay, 23 yards from the blind)

If you are ready, you can actually be seen or create that two seconds when the head goes up and the bird is standing still, to get a perfect shot opportunity. Use a yelp in the same manner a hunter grunts at a deer or mews at an elk to get them to stop.

A bow hunter can get a good shot even when a bird is facing him (and I sure like that angle as described above). If drawing the bow catches the attention of the tom, he most often will stick his head up in alarm. This is the time. Take advantage of this great forward on angle (when the bird is facing you), in the short window of opportunity created by your movement and just before the bird hauls tail out of there. Watch any turkeys that accidentally get a glimpse of you. Unless you really blunder into them, they usually stop what they are doing and stick their head up to assess the situation. You will notice that they check things out for about a quick count to three. Just enough time to draw, aim, release, and provide your family a great turkey dinner.

(This picture was snapped in that moment before the shot but after
a quiet yelp caused the turkeys to stop and stick their head up)

So in sum, I like a big 4 blade broadhead with the bleeder blades ground flat, or a Magnus Bullhead. I like shot angles that have the bird facing to or facing away from me as opposed to broadside shots. And I take advantage of the short shooting window that turkeys provide through their natural inclination to stop and stick their head up before bolting. These things have served me and my boys well in our experience (about 15-20 bow kills between the three of us).

Hunting Turkeys before the "rut"

2011-04-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

My boys and I felt like we were hunting deer before the rut. All the conditions that make spring turkey hunting easier had not started yet. Cold weather, rain, snow, and wind made conditions really tough. The birds stayed in highly sheltered wooded areas where they were harder to find, and they would not come to our calling. In addition, many of the birds seemed to still be in big winter flocks or family groups. We had one tom split off of to our calling, but he stopped fifty yards from Chad and Andy's strutting decoy to do his own strutting for twenty minutes without committing. He then just walked off.

We did find birds very vocal and located them that way. The hens were yakking away and the toms would sound off once in a while. We get our share of birds but I would not necessarily say we are expert turkey hunters. I just don't know how to call in turkeys when conditions are like this. We experimented with different calling sequences to at least try and learn something, but couldn't find the right noise to entice the toms to us. When conditions are easier, we usually get plenty of toms to split off from a flock, or call a more lonely bird near to check us out.

The tactics we did find effective were just basic "hunting" techniques. We would locate a big flock of birds (mostly by listening or using our binos) and move with them, unseen from a distance. When we finally got to the right terrain features, we would really book it to get around and in front of them, then set up in some kind of a funnel or dead end. We would do some calling and though it didn't get any toms running in, it seemed to give the hens and toms some confidence and they would continue our way . This hit and miss tactic did work to get us some shots. Dan must have missed a tom’s neck by width of the skin on a turkey’s teeth (with his Magnus Bullhead) and Tommy had the lowzies. I ended up taking one out of a flock of jakes that unexpectedly ran in from the other direction.

The one thing that I do know is that it was still worth being out there. I got a couple of precious few days out of the shop to hunt with my sons and got to visit by nephew Chad, his wife Katie and play with their two beautiful sons Cole and Brody. I got to spend some time with Andy (big bird) and trade a little teasing with all of them. And by adapting to the conditions given, we still gave ourselves a chance to harvest a bird and learned a little in the meantime. The cold conditions put a small damper on the normal level of enjoyment, and a big damper on the bird behavior, but I have a turkey dinner to show for our efforts.

I killed this turkey with a Hawk recurve made by Mike Beckwith and a Muzzy Phantom 4 blade broadhead. I hit him quarted away right above the thigh and exited through his far breast. My broadhead severed this turkey's heart and resulted in an immediate death. The turkey did not even run two steps.

You can see my thoughts on turkey shot placement in my next blog post.

Feather Splicing

2011-02-04T12:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick video on how to splice feathers. This is a membrane splice method. It takes only a little bit of practice to get very good, and quite quick.

2010 Whitetail Deer Season

2011-01-06T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well I didn't put up these pictures in a timely matter, but better late than never...

Travis Grozis started the season off nicely with this great public land buck in late October. This buck came down a scrape line and Travis made a perfect 30 yard shot with a Zephyr broadhead and his Pronghorn longbow.

Turkey surrounded Danny early one morning in November. The birds actually covered up the sound of an approaching bruiser of a buck. Needless to say...Danny didn't get the bruiser.

Danny shot this buck as he lay in his bed with a doe. Danny snuck up on him and made a great shot. He spotted the buck in the point of a finger of trees and made his way to within 1o yards of the buck and doe. Danny used a Rampart recurve and VPA Terminator broadhead.

Pictures of the buck in his final bed.

Tom Clum in stand with deer beneath him.

Maybe next year...

This swamp holds some dandies. Lots of deer action is almost a guarantee. Sunrises are the best, pretty to look at, and they bring the excitement of not knowing what the day has in store.

See the two arrows? Danny missed a doe, but not ten minutes later got to make the same shot on a different deer.

Tom capped off the trip on the last evening with his biggest whitetail deer to date. He used his Hawk recurve and a VPA Terminator broadhead.

Traditional Archery in The Netherlands

2010-10-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

These pictures and this Email were sent to me from Hans via the Netherlands. As you will read, bowhunting is not allowed in their country. Should bowhunting ever be outlawed in American I wonder how many people would keep up with our wonderful sport? Sadly, probably not very many. How great it was to see the passion that these folks have for traditional archery!

Hans' Email and pics:

"Dear rmsgear,

Bowhunting is not allowed in our country, The Netherlands, Europe, so I send you some pictures of our 3d-tournament called: Rondje in de Wei, which means as much as: Round around the meadow. Targets are placed on distances from 10meter up to 60 meters. Badger was on 25m and the black bear about 50 meters, shooting over water! It was one of the first times I was shooting my Spirit Longbow made by Bryan Holley, which I recently bought. It is a fine shooting longbow, fast and very nice looking! Don't see them very often, overhere in Europe! But I know where to get them now: at RMS Gear!!! You have a very nice internet-site, which I visit very often to read, look at the photo gallery and all the beautifull bows you have for sale! Might buy an other Spirit Longbow from you next year!

Best regards from a traditional bowhunter from The Netherlands,

Hans"

On fire for trad!

2010-10-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

Jarod is a Jr at Cuba City HS in Wisconsin. I wrestled with his older brother in college and have known him since he was 7 years old. Jarod is a fantastic wrestler and in his two years of high school wrestling he has yet to lose a match and has won two state titles.

Jarod has come out to Colorado a few times to train for wrestling at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. While he was here he came to our shop to shoot some bows and hang out. Already a hunting fool, Jarod immediately fell in love with the longbow and got all set up with a Rampart longbow. We showed him how to fletch and crest his own arrows, which he did. He is doing everything on his own now.

This year he has been hunting hard with his longbow. He killed two does in one evening, for his first deer with a traditional bow. A few nights later he made a perfect shot on this beautiful Wisconsin buck.

Jarod is a driven young man. His archery form is near perfect and he practices daily. He has been hunting on his own this year. Quite impressive for a 17 year old kid to take his skill and his hunting into his own hands and have such great success.

Jarod used a Rampart longbow with a Gold Tip Traditional arrow and a STOS broadhead.

Way to go Jan!

2010-10-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

Way to go Jan! Jan just moved to N. Carolina and sent me this Email of her first deer.

Morning gentlemen,
Well, I got my first whitetail deer here in central North Carolina last night. The weather was perfect yesterday and I got in a 15' treestand in a white pine by a soybean field around 5:30pm. At 6:40pm or so, a group of three does, a baby and a spike buck trickled out into the field. Luckily I was standing up at the time so I could shoot at a variety of targets. The deer were spread out from about 15 yards to 25 yards. I let them all get into the field and get situated and feeding calmly. My best shot was at a doe who presented quartered away from me at about 18-20 yards. I took that shot and saw my arrow strike true.

I made that arrow myself from supplies that I bought at your shop, with plenty of advice from Tom and the gang. I believe it was three years ago that I found your shop. I remember coming in and telling Tom about my 45# Mongolian horsebow and how I wanted to get back into traditional bowhunting to carry on the family tradition. It took me a while to get into the field, but after three hunts, I'm successful and just as thrilled as I could be. This will be the first of many hunting seasons to come! I want to thank you so much for all the support and encouragement you guys have given me over the last few years. I couldn't have done this without your help and I truly appreciate it.

Happy hunting!

Best regards,
Jan

P.S. Feel free to post this letter and my photos. I'm proud to tell everyone I meet about your fantastic shop because I believe there isn't another place like it anywhere. To whoever may be reading this - these guys are extremely knowledgeable, courteous and just good people. If you want to bowhunt, you need to go to Rocky Mountain Specialty Gear - they will take care of you and help you make your hunt successful. I miss you guys and can't wait to come in and visit when I get home to Colorado!

The longest day of the year...

2010-09-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sept 27th is the longest day of 2010. It is the first day after elk season, and the first day we have to wait for the next one...I hate it.

This is what it's all about...

This has been one of the best hunting years in memory for ourselves and our customers. NOT because of how good the hunting action was, just because so many connected on bulls - and nice bulls at that. I don't remember a year when my customers did so well, or my own personal hunting partners. Even with all the success it was a tough season. Those animals came with lots and lots of hard work. Neither my brother Danny or I killed an elk this season but it will still go down as one of the best.

Let me tell you about my brother-in-law, Kelly. Nine years ago I was a freshmen in college and my sister called me to say hey. My roommate and wrestling teammate answered my phone thinking he was going to be funny and talk to my little sister. Joke was on him because 5 years later they got married.

Kelly is a super competitive guy, like me, so we are always finding something to best each other at. He never had any interest in hunting. The year after we graduated college we were both still living in Wisconsin and I killed a big whitetail buck. For some reason that peaked Kelly's interest in hunting and he said he wanted to start hunting to kill a bigger deer than me.

Two years ago we all moved to Colorado, my home state, and Kelly got really interested in traditional archery. My Dad and our good friend chipped in and got him a Wapiti recurve. He was so excited that he had to shoot it right away because he thought that that might be what it was like to shoot at an animal. Since then Kelly has had the fire for traditional archery as much as anybody. He shoots daily and makes his own arrows, from the crown dip to the cresting. We showed him how to mount his broadheads a few weeks ago, which I guess is about the final step in preparation.

This was his first hunting season in his life and he started with traditional archery. Earlier this spring I got to watch Kelly miss a few turkeys in Nebraska (story here). There's nothing like being with somebody when they get those first hunting shots. He was devastated for missing and started to understand the excitement that keeps us all coming back to the field.

Kelly finally got to go elk hunting with Danny and our good friend, and elk killing machine, Del Jolly. Del and Danny are two of the finest elk hunters out there, thanks in large part to the fact that they have the legs to cover more distance than any person I've hunted with. So Kelly was getting an introduction not only to elk hunting, but to misery like you cannot experience unless chasing elk in the Rocky Mountains (especially with Danny and Del).

Del, Danny, Kelly, and Jared Hammen packed 6miles into the wilderness to their spike camp. Jared is an exciting UFC fighter but did not carry a bow on this trip, he was just there for the beautiful view, clean air, and awesome experience.

Early in the hunt they came across this magnificent bull grazing in an open meadow. He had no cows and paid little attention to the bugling going on around him.

Del is pretty picky on shooting an elk, which is why he's known around here as an elk snob. Usually small bulls and cows are not worth all the effort he puts into getting in the back country. But with three days left in the season and this cow at 12 yards Del decided he'd like to try and eat something a little more tender this year.

Del has some very unconventional elk hunting methods. With a cow and calf feeding nearby and a bull bugling in the distance Danny and Del had a bit of a miscommunication. Danny told Del to "shoot that cow". Del thought that Danny said to "shoo" that cow, like shoo it away. So Del took off running at the cow, thinking that by splitting up the herd they could call in the bull. Danny and Kelly watched in horror as a few of the elk turned inside-out running away. But Danny immediately started calling, which to his surprise and Del's plan, the majority of the herd ran right to them. Del shot this cow and then dodged out of the way of other elk running into them, at one point using his bow to poke one that tried to run through him.

The following day Danny, Del and Kelly made a hike that would put most hunters 6 feet under. On their way out of Diablo Bowl (as Del fittingly named this hellish bowl) they came across a small herd. A few of the cows walked along the edge of a cliff just 12 yards from Kelly. Drawing his bow on a big game animal for the first time, and sure of his skill at that distance, Kelly did what ALL of us have done at one point or another - he shot right over her back. His arrow kept on sailing off that cliff and out into the wilderness. A mistake which he would be thankful for in another 24 hours.

One tired hunter

On the final evening of their hunt Danny and Kelly put on a monster all-day hike. Later in the evening they heard a bugle towards camp, and the wind was perfect. Luck was on their side that night.

Sneaking as close as they could they spotted a big herd out in the open. Elk were running everywhere, making every noise an elk makes, and doing all the cool things that elk do. Kelly got to see the herd bull do everything and make every noise that they make for almost an hour.

With shooting hours winding down they feared ambushing these elk would run them out of time. Danny picked up his call and this big bull came in looking for blood (or love, either one he wanted RIGHT NOW). Kelly was drawn on a cow, but not knowing where Danny was exactly he did not shoot. As soon as he let down this bull ripped off the loudest, nastiest scream that Kelly said made his legs shake uncontrollably. He was only 20 yards away. Kelly drew his bow as the bull walked behind some trees and as he stepped into the open Kelly made a perfect shot.

Having never hunted, and never seeing anything get shot by his own hand, Kelly didn't know what to do. The bull didn't act like it was hit. Kelly said he knew that you don't chase an animal, especially if it was hit, but the urge to get another shot over took him and he stumbled a few steps trying to get another shot at the animal, which of course scared some of the animals and the big bull. He only ran ten more yards and fell over.

Good thing Kelly missed that cow earlier in this hunt because the only thing running through his mind as he drew on this big bull was "pick a spot, pick a spot, pick a spot". The top part of his arrow was lodged in the heart, exactly like this, when they dressed the bull.

Since the llamas were packed down with two elk the guys had to carry out a lot of their own gear. Kelly's pack weighed close to 90 lbs and it took the guys about 4 hours to walk out - thankfully all down hill.

Del shot that cow with a Spirit longbow, 48@28 but drawing around 30, and a Snuffer broadhead. 250 up front and arrow weight of around 625. His arrow was a CX Heritage 150. His blood trail was huge and she died very quickly. His arrow exited out the other side but did not pass entirely through.

Kelly shot his bull with a Wapiti recurve, 64@28 and drawing 30.5, and a STOS broadhead. Kelly shoots 225 up front and his arrow weight is around 625. His arrow was a CX Heritage 250. Kelly's arrow was about 3/4 out of the other side and directly hit one of those big elk ribs. The feather end of his arrow was left stuck in the heart. The blood trail was massive...of course with a heart shot.

The season is winding down

2010-09-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of our elk season so far. My personal hunting has been pretty slow, two bulls have been within shooting distance but neither presented a shot. The wind is my eternal enemy.

Tom got a nice big cow on the opening week of the season. His three blade VPA Terminator broadhead slipped between the ribs on the near side and obliterated a rib on the far side, resulting in an almost complete passthrough. Tom used his Hawk recurve to kill this cow.

Dale (left) was leading the three man procession through the woods when Danny spotted a group of elk coming straight towards them. Danny was in the middle, and Tom was in the back of the group which allowed him to slip an arrow out. Dale is a lot of things, but he also makes a pretty good tree because he had elk within three feet of him. He just spotted antlers coming up and over the hill when he heard a bow go off behind him. Elk scattered everywhere. He must have been a little peeved for a second but even a tree would have had a hard time getting an arrow out in that circumstance. With the erratic winds they were experiencing they all agreed it was a miracle to get a shot off anyway.

A pretty cozy little home when it comes to elk camps.

Unbelievably - a tree fell directly on the tent in the middle of the night. It sounded like a .44 being shot which jolted Dale out of bed. The top of the tree smashed into the tent's crossbuck and landed right in the bed that Dale just got out of. The crossbuck broke in two and landed 5 inches from Tom's head. Danny's side of the tent was totally unaffected and so was his sleeping. Miraculously nobody got hurt.

Wallows like this were everywhere.

The mountain's bounty, including wild strawberries, grouse berries, goose berries and brook trout.

Not an elk to be seen but the view itself was worth the hike.

Just a few miles from where I saw lots of old tracks and only a few live elk my cousin Chad was having the time of his life. In just two evenings of hunting Chad and his cornhusking companion Blake tagged out with two fine bulls.

Blake isn't much for gambling, he likes sure things - like six foot shots. And he'll get them when hunting with Chad because Chad has a rabbit's foot shov....well, lets just say I've seen him in his longjohns so I have a good idea where he keeps it. Nice job to both of you guys!

Chad (above) used a Bassett recurve and a Magnus Stinger 4 blade broadhead. Blake killed his elk with a Robertson recurve and a Grizzly broadhead. Both had excellent bloodtrails.

Nice job Jacob!

2010-08-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

Jacob Haynes of Pagosa Springs, Colorado was our first customer of the 2010 Colorado Big Game season to score on his hunt. This was Jacobs first big game bow kill and he did it by sneaking up on this antelope with a cow decoy...truly one of the most difficult animals to kill by stalking. Jacob used a Bighorn Ramhunter longbow and a STOS broadhead on a hexpine wooden arrow shaft. Congrats Jacob!

Be sure to check out our Photo Gallery this season for more pictures of successful hunters!

2010-08-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

“Elk Hunting”

By Del Jolly

The words “Elk hunting” conjure up a lot of different emotions for lots of different people. For some, visions of sitting around the camp fire on a cool fall night swapping stories may arise. For others the idea of squeezing off a round while shaking from excitement rather than the cold mountain air, might manifest. And for me personally, I think of hard work paying off when there’s a bull screaming 20 yards away after you’ve climbed what seems to be Mt. Everest.

Ever since I was a little kid, I thought killing a bull elk with a bow was comparable to winning an Olympic Gold Medal. My dad held a special place in his heart for anyone who has done it. The statement “Yeah, I’m sure Johnny’s dad single handedly solved the mid-east conflict, but has he ever killed an elk with a bow?” may have come out of his mouth.

As time passed I grew further away from the outdoors and further away from my dad, as many young people do. Then in 2005 I got a wonderful opportunity working for the U.S. fish and wildlife service. For one summer I captured whitetail and Mule deer fawns and studied their mortality rates in the Rocky Mountain arsenal. This intimacy with wildlife rekindled my spirit for the outdoors. That summer my dad and I trained two llamas, and decided to do a 10 day archery elk hunting trip. I ended up killing a great 6 X 6 that was big enough to make Pope and Young. When I brought those antlers into camp that night, things changed. I remember walking up to my dad who had a camp fire going and couldn’t see into the night and dropping the antlers in front of him. Now I know I could have put a cow on the ground and he would have been proud, but I just so happened to put the biggest antlers he’s seen on the ground in front of him. My dad shook my hand, said congratulations, and for the first time I felt like my dad looked at me as a man rather than a boy.

Luckily for my dad's ego he killed an even bigger bull three days later. After all, I can’t upstage my dad on my very first year. But prior to his scoring on a big bull, with the days passing and the trip getting shorter with no elk on the ground for him, the BS began. My dad let me know who had taught me everything I knew, and whos idea it was to acquire the llamas. And for this, I am very grateful.

The following year I knocked down another great bull. My dad spent a lot of his time trying to get my grandpa a bull, then he got stuck in a freak snow storm that trapped him in the wilderness for several days, so he didn’t kill an elk that year. But he again reminded me the who’s of who. The following year I finally became a real elk hunter. I didn’t get an elk. I had multiple opportunities, five shots in the season with three in about a half hour. I was defeated. I almost bought a longbow this year, but chickened out. I wanted an undefeated title, and looking back I may have gotten it if I was shooting instinctively with a longbow.

Enough was enough. I decided to go with the primitive weapon. I took from the knowledge my dad bestowed on me and went with simplicity. It doesn’t get much more simple than a longbow. No sights to knock lose, no peep holes to fill with mud, no trigger release to forget in the woods. None of the tons of gadgets that go wrong on the modern compound. Besides I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by going with the longbow. I didn’t have a streak to maintain, and most importantly, I would be the first guy my dad knew who killed an elk with a longbow. Then I could give him some advice on how to kill elk with a longbow.

The 2008 season was upon us, and I had my new Brian Holly Spirit longbow in hand. I had practiced religiously all summer. I was confident in my weapon, and honestly felt like I was much more capable with “the Spirit” than my old compound. Shooting through my hallway in my house every night for a month leading to the season paid off. It’s only about an eleven yard shot, but this would be of importance later in the season.

The first morning, I found myself slipping in on a large herd of grazing elk. None of them responded to my bugle, yet a 4X4 came to my call. It was opening morning and I had a bull at 20 yards broadside. But after training all year, I didn’t want to attempted to end my season on a small bull the in first hours. I have found I am a real elk snob the first week of the season.

The next morning was raining and the ground was soft and quiet. I slipped in on a bachelor group of bulls and had a small 5X5 picked out. There were more elk in the group that I had suspected and was picked off by a bull I hadn’t seen. That evening I went back in camp and told my partner Lee, I was going into a real hell hole and won’t be back for two days. I loaded all the gear I needed for my journey on my back, and left towards my spot for the evening hunt.

I camped about a mile above my spot and was awakened by the sweet sound of a bull screaming. I was hoping to get a chance at the bull by my tent because I knew what was in store if I had to go down into my spot and possible kill. The bull up top was a great bull. He had about twenty cows with him and grew so big because he was wise. The hunt only lasted about 10 minutes total and the bull must have winded me. He was gone in no time and I soon found myself packing up my sheep tent and beginning my journey into “Diablo Bowl.”

We call this honey hole Diablo Bowl because it is hell in there. A burn went through it and scorched the earth and knocked everything down. You don’t hike this area as much as you crawl it. It is hell, and that’s why it’s so good. As I make my way up this monster, I can smell that magic scent only an elk hunter can appreciate. The scent many of us wish could be converted into a air freshener that we can smell when we need an elk fix. A smell most people would quickly run from. I let out a bugle and quickly get a response. The excitement of these moments are comparable to few things in life. Delivering your first born, or maybe winning the lottery or the Super Bowl. Again, only an elk hunter can relate.

As I run to close as much distance to this elk, I can see about 10 elk filing through the woods. Most of them are bulls. I quickly set up on the downhill side of a ridge and call. The bull responds and is only about 50 yards but won’t come in. I call again and know from the response he’s not coming in. He’s just not that fired up. I can hear him racking a tree, more of a habit than a “I’m sharpening my sword to come to war”. I climb to the top just high enough to peek over and see that he is just over the ridge. I set my “Spirit” on my backpack and crawl to some knocked down trees while he’s racking.

This is the tree that the bull was raking when I shot from 11 yards.

Once I am in my position, I know it’s pretty much over for this elk. I have two trees in front of me that I crawled to, and the way they have laid down, I can see through them without giving away my position. I wait for the bull to put his head down to rake and I stood up. Full draw with the bull completely unaware of what’s about to happen. I release the arrow and the shot feels as good as any I have ever taken. The arrow finds it’s mark and the bull tears away. I quickly call and stop the bull at about thirty yards. As he looks back to try and figure out where the bull that just gored him came from, I send another arrow through space and hit him far back in the body. He tears off again only to be stopped a third time by my call. I know from the very first shot he is dead. I sent the second arrow for insurance and know a third is unnecessary. The bull takes a couple more steps downhill and out of site, and I hear him crash.

All the commotion has brought in a 5 X 5 who quickly inspects the dying bull. When he figures something is wrong he turns and runs right towards me stopping less then twenty yards from me. We both look down the hill towards the expiring bull for about five minutes until the wind brings my scent to the young bull.

I always drop my pack from where ever I shoot to get my bearing. As I pace off the distance from my position to where the bull was raking, I smile and realize the distance is vaguely familiar. 11 yards. The same distance from my front door, through the hall, into my bedroom.

The 60 yard blood trail leading to my bull could be followed by a blind man. The Snuffers have done their job. I find my bull piled up exactly where I assumed he would be. Quickly I realize I have taken this great bull with a longbow. The sense of pride was great, and the conversion to a true primitive weapon was now etched in stone. I had now done something all my own. I had challenged myself to use a primitive weapon to take an all magical elk.

My first traditional elk was now the new beginning of an old way of doing things. My dad was very proud, and just possibly a bit humbled. I have even converted him to use a longbow. I gave him my Spirit bow, and had a gorgeous takedown Rampart custom made for myself. As far as the old way of complicated neon sights, stabilizer bars and all the other bells and whistles of a compound go, when I hear the words “elk Hunting” I think of a challenge. The challenge of putting yourself against once of God’s most magnificent creatures. I believe in challenge yourself to see what you can accomplish. After all, your thoughts and feelings may change next time someone says those magic words “Elk Hunting”.

Gear: This story makes me thankful for my Brian Holly Spirit longbow. The bow I bought was 48 @ 28, not a lot of weight to pull, which I think helped my confidence in shooting a longbow. The Spirit bow was also an affordable brand new bow. At $400 I was very happy with my investment, that has now become a family heirloom. This bow has bird’s-eye maple limbs and a coca boa riser. Although the draw weight isn’t that much, this bow had no problem putting a large 175 grain Snuffer deep into the elk. I recommend Brian Holly bows to anyone interested in getting into traditional hunting.

The baddest dude on the hill

2010-08-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

don't know how rare a true 7X7 elk is to see in the wild, on public land, in a huntable location, but if I had to guess I'd say the chances are just above seeing a bigfoot. Danny took an overnight trip into the hills last night and he was rewarded with the sight of this beauty. Having his dog at his side, Danny still crept to within 50 yards of this magnificent bull to get a couple of pictures.

This bull was literally bedded in some cliffs. He came into the grass to feed, and went back to the cliffs to bed. He was all alone in a totally isolated and very small drainage.

The Columbines were in full bloom.

More Elk Scouting Pictures

2010-08-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures from our elk scouting adventures this season. The flowers were in full bloom up in the high country. The grass is green and lush. This country is truly awesome.

Silvery Lupines

This bear was hanging out in the middle of the sage brush.

An old cabin

Columbines - the Colorado state flower

There isn't a better place for lunch on the planet.

Indian Paintbrush

High country basin

Alpine Sunflowers

Time to scout some elk!

2010-08-07T17:20:00.000-07:00

There isn't much that beats time spent in the woods scouting elk. Here are a few pictures from this year, and a couple from last year. More to come...

Turkey Season Begins

2010-04-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

Turkey season has started or is about to start in many states across the country. The Nebraska season began last Thursday and I was fortunate enough to get to go hunting. Early season is always a special time to hunt because the turkeys are still in their large winter groups. Later in the season when mating occurs more frequently it can be difficult to call toms away from their hens. But early in the spring those big gobblers are more apt to investigate a call because receptive hens are not as abundant.

So we set out with quite a bit of confidence for the opening day of the season. On this particular property the turkeys began roosting in the power line towers this year, which they had never done so before. With over 100 birds roosted in one of those towers, we snuck as close as we could without being seen and set up our blind and our chintzy little decoy. This early in the year I am not too concerned with the looks of my decoy. In my observation, later in the season when the birds have been hunted they seem to be a little more picky about the decoys.

The gobbling that morning started off intense. Not only did we have that flock of over 100 birds sounding off, but we had groups of toms from all directions coming towards all the commotion. There were, at times, no less than 50 toms all gobbling at once. We figured it wouldn't take long before a group or two decided to come check out our calling, which paled in comparison to the noise that the real turkeys were making.

After about an hour we had a group of four toms come by. I killed this turkey with my Mohawk longbow, a CX Heritage 150 arrow, and a Simmons Shark broadhead.

If we could have recovered the turkey we probably would have had many more shot opportunities that morning. Groups of toms continued to come to our calling but got nervous seeing the dead turkey and never came close enough for any shots.

Below are some more pictures of the hunt.

The power line tower in the background is just like what the turkeys were roosting in.

The big tom on the right is the bird that I killed.

One of the many groups that came no closer because of the dead turkey.

Gamemaster Jet

2010-01-27T16:58:00.000-08:00

Over the years I have had the privilege to meet a lot of the great men and women in traditional archery. Though I never met Jack Howard, I received a letter from him in the later years of his life. As you can read in the letter, he was near the end of his bow making days and looking to sell bows outside of his own shop. He sent me this letter along with information about his bows and a newsletter. I just came across this letter as I have had a few of the old Jack Howard bows come through my shop lately. As I write this I just sold a 60# Gamemaster Jet in beautiful condition. It is truly one of the best bows ever made.

One of my biggest regrets over the past 16 years of owning this business is that I didn't sell bows for Jack Howard. At the time I simply did not have the money to stock his bows. It was a shame. Anyway, I am sure that you will get as much joy in reading Jack's words as I did when I came across this package.

You can download the entire package in a .pdf by clicking here.

-Tom Clum

Congrats Keith!

2010-01-23T16:54:00.000-08:00

I would like to congratulate Wapiti bowyer Keith Chastain for completing a 15 year quest to kill an Arizona coues deer with his bow. Keith used his own "Duggan Special" Wapiti takedown and Woodsman broadheads for his hunt. Congrats on finally getting your coues deer Keith!

Bow Stats

2010-01-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

With the start of the new year I figured it would be fun to share some of the bow statistics from 2009. In the past year we sold 330 recurves and longbows, not including kids bows or novelty bows. Though I don't have complete stats for all 330 bows, it still gives us a decent sample to look at.

Average weight: 50.63lbs @ 28inches
Average length: 61.05inches
52% recurves, 48% longbows
54% were used, 46% new
10% were left handed
58% were one piece
April is the busiest bow selling month, December is the slowest
We sold more Spirit bows than anything else, followed by Rampart, Mohawk, Wapiti, Bear, Hawk

Below is a graph representing the # of bows we sold at each pound of draw weight, from 29lbs up to 72lbs.

Feather Splicing

2009-11-16T16:46:00.000-08:00

Make sure to check out the Tutorials page and see the new walk through about splicing feathers. Nothing can add the kind of personal touch or good looks to your arrows.

Decoying Deer

2009-10-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

This was sent to me by my good friend Tom McCormick down in Iowa. We have exchanged many Emails about a lot of different topics. When it comes to whitetail deer hunting, this man flat out knows his stuff! Below is an Email that he sent to me about decoying deer.

Check out our website specials page for a great deal on Montana Buck decoys! You will not find a better price on this discontinued model of Montana Decoy.

Enjoy...

Decoying Deer
Tommy,

I wanted to send you information on my decoy "strategies". First some background info.I have been using a decoy for 17 years now. I started off simply using a Delta 3-D target (with good success!). I have tried to read everything I can on the subject and have attended EVERY seminar on decoying at the Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois deer classics. I'm not doing to go into great detail on the "why's" of doing things a certain way.just trust me and do it!

Best decoys: Carry-Lite and Montana Buck. ALWAYS use them as a buck. If you use the doe decoy, often other does will stomp, snort and blow everything out of the woods. I have NEVER shot a buck over a doe decoy, but I have shot at least 6-7 does over a doe decoy (two in one afternoon back in 1998). I have used only a buck for the last ten years, with no negative results. It was about 50/50 when using the doe with positive vs negative reactions.

I have experimented A LOT with the various urine based scents on the market and using them with the decoy. Bottom line.don't waste your money.

When getting your new decoy, wash it very well with scent free soap and let it sit outside for a few days. Using rubber gloves, give it a "mud-bath" two or three times and simply wash off the mud with the hose. After a few days spray it down two or three times with a scent killer spray. When I transport the decoy I wrap the main body with a large plastic garbage bag so that I NEVER touch it with my bare hands. I keep the bag around the main body of the decoy when I carry it into the woods and take it off and put in my backpack when setting up. The Carry-Lite is a real pain to set-up, however, once its set up it stays that way always.

It is next to impossible to take your Carry-Lite into the field and put it together. It is very time consuming and noisy to do so. I put it together and leave it assembled all the time. I never use it as a doe, so I glued the antlers in place.

You WILL LOSE the ears and tail carrying into the woods. I always remove the ears and tail and carry them with my foot stakes in my cloth bowcase. I have a little mesh bag I store the ears and tail in and the stakes fit well in a "double" scent free athletic sock bundle. Keeps everything quiet that way. I carry the decoy over my shoulder with a blaze orange vest over his head and neck so I don't get shot.

I thought the Montana decoy was a "joke" when I first saw them. After several years of my friends using them I gave one a try. On my very first hunt, a 150 class buck came into it. I have been sold ever since. I use the Carry-Lite on most hunts due to the "full-body" look. On long walks I use the Montana. The Montana will smell "new" when you get it. Let the sun bake it. I let it sit outside for a few days and spray it down with no scent spray. I store it in cedar chips so it has a cedar smell to it instead of a "cloth smell". Always use gloves when handling the decoys.

My Montana folds up nicely and slips into my cloth bowcase with my bow. I use scent free tube socks to store the stakes inside the case.

Most "EXPERTS" don't use decoys until November. I start early, due to experimentation over the years. I shot a 157inch buck on October 12th that wanted to KILL the decoy. Most early season encounters are friendly, such as "who is this new guy". In November, however, it gets personal.they want to destroy the thing!

Set-up: Set the decoy UPWIND from your stand and have it face directly at you. I set mine EXACTLY at 20 yards so the buck with circle down-wind of him to face him head-on. This gives me a 10-15 yard shot. They come into the decoy at around a 45 degree angle, never directly "head-on". If you remove the antlers from one side, they will attack the "weak-side". My Carry-Lite has been knocked over at least 6 times over the years! I have shot three bucks that jumped and turned and came back to fight the decoy again with blood pouring out of them, not knowing that they had been arrowed. One of those I shot a second time because I thought I must have missed!

Rattling: I only rattled in two bucks during a 10 year period. I simply quit doing it because I was convinced rattling "didn't work". I now use a rattle bag with the decoy and have had OK success. Morning seems to be the best time and the decoy will give the buck a "visual" to bring him the "rest of the way".

Grunting: I use a Rod Benson grunt call made in Michigan. I have called in over 50 bucks with that call and use it a lot. The use of the decoy really brings them in close with the grunt call. Did I give you a grunt call when you were at the Clinton wrestling camp?

Set-up: Most hunters use a decoy in the open fields. It works the best when deer can see it from a distance. I use it in the deep woods also. Just as long as it doesn't startle them when coming down the trail.

VERY IMPORTANT: Tail position.you can't change it on the Montana, but you can adjust it on the Cary-Lite. Have the tail positioned at a 90 degree angle to the body (pointing straight back from the deer). I have used real deer tails and have used white plastic strips on the tail to produce "movement" in the wind. Just use the tail that comes with it and don't bother with other options. The use of tail movement was "big" several years ago, but most experts are now recommending no movement. It seem to drive the buck "nuts" when the decoy doesn't move.

You will be amazed how many deer don't see your decoy. That's when grunting will help. I have friends who tie fish line to a bush by the decoy and tug on it if the buck doesn't see it. The movement of the bush and noise causes the buck to look.

Ground blinds: The deer will never pay attention to you in the Double Bull when you have a decoy placed 20 yards upwind.

Summary: My 2nd, 4th and 5th biggest bucks were all shot over a decoy. They add a ton of fun to your hunts just by observing the reactions of the deer that see them. It can be a REAL PAIN to lug the Carry-Lite into the woods at times. But when they work all the effort pays off. I have had friends drop arrows, have stands "creak" at the wrong time, miss the deer with the first shot and still get the buck due to their "fixation" on the decoy. From October 10th to January 13th, 99% of my hunts are with a decoy!!!! I have at least 10 friends who now use them with the great success.

Please pass the above info on to Tom Sr. and Danny.

Good hunting Tommy!

Tom McCormick

Blood, Sweat & Llamas

2009-10-10T15:56:00.000-07:00

By Del Jolly:

To say my elk hunting career isn't the typical beginning to this long tradition would be an understatement. It pains me to say it, but I could be considered the trust fund kid of elk hunting. Which my Dad takes pleasure in reminding me of every year.

Each year my Dad, Lee (a long time friend and original member of our 3 man hunting group), myself and the occasional elk hunter who has seen the product of our hard work, go on a 10 day elk hunting trip with llamas. We (and when I say we I mean my Dad and Lee) own 4 llamas. The four llamas, Dante, Scooter, Feathers, and Licorice are truly great animals. Each has their own personality uniquely different from each other. Dante is our lead animal, very stoic and strong. Scooter is the powerhouse, sometimes I think he can haul as much as a Clydesdale. Licorice reminds me of Andre The Giant in the movie A Princess Bride, a little slow yet very lovable. And finally Feathers who is happy to regurgitate his cud and spray it on anyone who even ponders the idea of approaching him. Each animal is a gilded male (neutered) and each has his place in the pecking order.

In the beginning we only had two llamas, Dante and Scooter. It took one full spring and summer to train them to pack. The beginning of the process was very difficult considering I had no experience with llamas in the past. Little things, like making sure their backs we clear of debris before putting on the saddles, took weeks to master. But after a whole summer of continuous work (a minimum of several hours a day 3 to 4 days a week) Dante and Scooter ended their first season packing out TWO Pope & Young bulls.

Having successfully used our two llamas for the first time we jumped on the chance to acquire two more. You would be surprised how easy it is to find people giving away llamas. A co-worker of my mother-in-law owned Licorice and Feathers, he was as pleased to get rid of them as we were to have them. The new, untrained llamas saw how hard Dante and Scooter worked, which made their own training a breeze.

The benefits of being born to a elk hunting legend (in his own mind) are brought up annually. Even if they weren't I can't help but think of how lucky I am. Without the llamas we wouldn't be able to responsibly hunt as far back in the wilderness as we do. I simply would not have the confidence to hunt where ever, and I do mean where ever my body can take me. With a split hoof made much like an elk's, llamas can go almost anywhere an elk can. This completely alleviates the little devil that pops up on your shoulder saying "Do you really think we should kill an elk all the way back in this hell hole?"

Another great benefit is the maintenance free aspect of llamas. Once we arrive at base camp and stake out the llamas (which takes a total of five minutes), we do not have to feed or water them after a long day of hunting. Only every three days do we move the llamas to a new grazing area. We also take them to water every few days, but more for our own conscience than their needs. Being kin the the camel, we have seen them not drink for over 14 days even though we've brought them to water several times. Most the areas we hunt have plenty of moisture in the vegetation.

Some people have asked "Why llamas and not horses?" In our opinion, the two biggest reasons are the cost, and 1000lbs of nervous muscle. The year round maintenance costs for a llama is less than half that of a horse. If the cost of a horse isn't a problem (remember I am just a blue blood of elk hunting, my bank account could bring a grown man to tears) then maybe riding a horse that spooks will convert you to llamas. Over the years I have known plenty of hunters whose horse has spooked, tossing them for a loop.

Horses are big and strong enough to do what they please with their rider. Llamas on the other hand are roughly 400 lbs and don't spook easily. Since you can not ride a llama there is no chance they will buck you off. I have personally seen a sow and her two cubs walk within 100 yards of our llamas, the only thing they did was an alarm call. The best way I've heard a llama alarm call described is that it sounds like a lunatic laughing uncontrollably.

Just to be clear, I am not saying that getting hurt by a llama hasn't happened, I have just not personally heard of it or seen it. I also understand that not every horse spooks, but unless you are fortunate enough to use good horses, they can be flat out dangerous.

I owe much of my elk hunting success to the animals that make hunting deep in the wilderness a possibility. Using our 4 llamas is a privilege that I am thankful for. I always try to remember how lucky I am to have these great animals. And if I ever forget, all I have to do is wait until the following bow season for my dad, "a guy from Detroit", who early in his hunting career thought wild elk to be as elusive as the unicorn, to remind me of my inheritance of his blood, sweat and llamas.

~Del Jolly

Several other thoughts: Even though we train our llamas to pack all our gear, I always carry my bow and arrows in my hand. Losing the most important tools for dispatching elk on an elk hunting trip can bring rain to any parade. I also learned the hard way to spend the extra money on quality arrows that don't break if they ricochet off a dandelion. I bought dozens of the cheap arrows under the mind set that arrows break (only because I buy the cheap ones) when they hit the ground. Now I only shoot Carbon Express Heritage 250s. The extra money spent up front far exceeds the money lost in the long run. These arrows are by far the best I've found. Of the thousands of arrows I've shot this summer I can only remember breaking two. One at the Colorado Traditional Archers Society shoot on the Iron target course, which breaks any arrow if you miss, and one was scratched pretty deep off of a rock while shooting at my local range in Golden.

So when packing with llamas, I suggest caring your bow. It is also well worth the extra money for quality arrows, such as the Carbon Express Heritage shafts.

The Practice Really Paid Off

2009-10-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

By Tommy Clum:

Danny, my brother, and Del, a good friend, are two of the elk killinest guys that I know. Each has killed 4 bull elk in the past 5 seasons. They are part of the 20% in the saying, "20% of the guys kill 80% of the elk". We met Del early in 2009 and immediately became good friends. The shared love of elk has a way of creating friendships.

From the time we met until the opening weekend of elk season, the three of us hit the range several times a week. We started at 7am and were usually the only ones on the range. We loosed thousands of arrows together - Danny shooting a recurve, and Del and I shooting longbows. We really grew as archers, but not as fast as we grew as friends. Danny, who has always been a good shot, had a shoulder surgery which forced him to become a left handed archer for the time being. In the 5 months as a lefty he caught up to me on the score card (which really irks me, and Danny wallows in the satisfaction of knowing that too). By the end of the summer we were all shooting better than ever and feeling pretty cocky about the upcoming season.

Two weeks in to the season Danny and Del continued on their elk killing ways. Each taking one shot, each shot resulting in a dead bull elk (this year they both got their smallest bulls ever).

Danny used a Rampart recurve with a Grizzly broadhead, 600 grain CX Rebel Hunter arrow with 200 grains up front. He obtained a complete passthrough on a double lung shot. Danny followed a 200 yard heavy blood trail. Del used a Rampart longbow with a Snuffer broadhead, 620 grain CX Heritage arrow with 200 grains up front.

Del took a quartering away shot, received about 20 inches of penetration, and had a 300 yard sparse blood trail.

Me? Well...I was biding my time (right). The final evening of my 2009 hunt the three of us finally got to elk hunt together for the first time.

Del, who plays the bugle like a magical flute, and Danny were calling behind me as I slowly moved towards a large herd of elk. I will admit that I flat out missed a cow earlier that evening. I was mad at myself and embarrassed that that would happen in front of my new hunting buddy. But I didn't have too much time to be mad. A spike was making his way right to me. I tried to clear my mind of the earlier miss as I drew my bow on this spike, who was quartered away at a steep angle. The snow was coming down and my hands were freezing. It was hard to let go of the bowstring. I stared at the point on his side which would bring my arrow to the far front shoulder. I was telling my fingers to let go but they were so cold and stiff that it was hard to do. The shot was a little further back than I was wanted, but not by much. The arrow was steeply angling towards the front shoulder, it was still a good shot.

The spike hauled the mail when I shot but none of the other elk around seemed to care. With the shot placement where it was we all agreed that I probably got one lung, and that it would be wise to allow the elk time. We decided that instead of blowing all the elk out, who might take the spike with them, we would come back and look in the morning. We didn't spend much time looking. 200 yards from where I shot we found him.

I used a Mohawk longbow, Grizzly broadhead, 550 grain arrow with 200 grains up front.

The pack out was short and sweet. We talked and joked on the way out and had a good time. It meant a lot to me that Del came back the next morning to help look for the elk and pack him out.

The practice really paid off this season. The three of us all felt a great deal of satisfaction knowing that we put in the time before the season and that it served us well. We have started hitting the range again, and probably will several times a week until the next elk season.

~Tommy Clum

On another note, I used some new game bags this year from Caribou Gear. They pack very small, are ultra light, and kept 100% of the bugs off. We will have them listed on our website in the near future. In the meantime check out their website: http://www.biggamebags.com/ . I have not seen another game bag out there that has it all, light, small, 100% bug free, and still be as tough as these bags were.

Blog Intro: Colorado Antelope

2009-08-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

What better way to start off the RMSG blog than with a successful hunting story. In the future this blog will serve as a way for RMSG to write up about anything we think is interesting. Including hunting stories from ourselves and our customers, product reviews, tutorials, you name it.

Anyway, on to the antelope...

Just south of a little town that nobody wants to visit, and over a little hill that nothing seems to live on - there lies a water tank. Danny and our good friend George (left) found the tank after driving for hours without seeing a single antelope. Except for one little stretch, far off the main road, there is not many antelope in this area. Danny and George got lucky to find this little honey-hole. Their exploring paid off, and hopefully this place will make for excellent hunts in the years to come.

On their first day of hunting Danny and George had a herd of antelope come in to their Double Bull blind set up. George won the coin flip that night, meaning he got to be the shooter. With his Gary Bassett recurve George made a great shot, and killed a beautiful "over-the-counter" public land buck.

It is really nice find a low-pressured hunting area on public land. But it's even better when you have a successful hunt. Congrats to George on his beautiful buck! ~Tommy

RMSGear Blog

Bow Selling Statistics

Point Blank Buck

More Deer Hunting Pics

Nebraska Deer Hunting

Ontario Moose Hunt

Danny's 2011 Elk

Danny's Elk

More Elk Hunting Pics

2011 Elk - so far

Opening Weekend of Elk Season

Utah Mule Deer Hunt

Utah Mule Deer

Antelope Hunting

Elk Scouting

Antelope season is so close I can smell the sage

The Broadhead Debate

Wyoming Fly Fishing

April Turkey Hunting

Shot Placement & Broadheads for Turkeys

Hunting Turkeys before the "rut"

Feather Splicing

2010 Whitetail Deer Season

Traditional Archery in The Netherlands

On fire for trad!

Way to go Jan!

The longest day of the year...

The season is winding down

Nice job Jacob!

The baddest dude on the hill

More Elk Scouting Pictures

Time to scout some elk!

More Turkey Stories

Turkey Season Begins

Gamemaster Jet

Congrats Keith!

Bow Stats

Feather Splicing

Decoying Deer

Blood, Sweat & Llamas

The Practice Really Paid Off

Blog Intro: Colorado Antelope