BowCast Blog

Here is a quick video (http://www.vimeo.com/12887396) on this year's bear hunt in Idaho,if you're ever interested in doing a bear hunt on your own in Idaho, I would be more than happy to give you any tips that I've learned over the years.  

 Yesterday, I paid my $5 and went shot a practice round of 3D targets, cannot wait for bowcast at the bird. 

Turkey hunting is admittedly on the bottom of my list, but when the bears are not hitting your baits, you gotta pick up your bow and take to the field.  I hunt Merriam's Turkey in Washington, these guys stick to the timber more so than a Rio so I don't have to bore myself to tears in a blind, run and gun is my method.  I go to this Tom by anticipating where he was headed, fortunately for me this bird was very concerned with strutting all over the place which allowed me to get into position and launch.  This is my first critter with the new Hoyt Maxxis, hopefully more to come...

Does this get you pumped or what.  This Tom is roosting and strutting 5 minutes from my house and little does he know that opening day is 8 days away.  Historically, all turkey preseason scouting goes this well only to have the turkeys read the regs and get really smart come opening day.  I will keep 'yall posted.  Also, bear opens up in 8 days as well.  I am out of town that weekend filming a fitness segment with Bowhunter Mag TV and Cam Hanes, so we'll see if I can get some hunting action the following weekend.  Good luck to all! 

Ok, just kidding on the bum part, but if you're getting a little lazy this winter then please do something about it.  Just be active, that's the overall message here.  Find something you'll do with minimal teeth grinding and go for it.  Here's what we do at CrossFit....

Web Link http://www.vimeo.com/9498630 

Got my new Rig set-up, Hoyt Maxxis 31!  Feels just like the alpha max, has the roller guards, beyond parallel limbs, trimmed up riser, wow!  I know Bowcaster's need details so here are some:

Just got back from the coldest archery elk hunt in my experience.  Montana had a week long storm: ice, snow, wind, and sub zero temps that made things interesting.  The hunt was captured on video for Bowhunter Magazine TV and my partner in crime was Larry D. Jones.  I am trying to convince that old codger to get on an episode of bowcast soon.  For more pics check out Sportsman's Fitness.

Peace 

Dirt Bikes and Long Hikes

$4,000 worth of over the counter out of state ID tags over the last 7 years, countless trips, bivy camps, spike camps, cutting trails, trail cameras, 4 missed shots, 1 well hit bull that I couldn’t recover, the list goes on.  I ate tag soup for the last six years and I finally punched my tag.  North Idaho is full of public land and dense numbers of intelligent bulls.  They get pounded by hunting pressure.  You need to find a single-track dirt bike trail, ride it very deep, and then drop into the deepest holes you can find.  Riding up steep single-track in the dark is extremely challenging.   I always change once I park the bike at the top of the mountain.  The brush is thick, you can call a bull into 10 yards and never even see what he looks like.  Steep, you betcha, weather is fickle as any place you go.  I guess every year I wasn’t able to get a bull, I learned more and more valuable information that lead to this bull’s demise. 

My new technique is simple.  Put the calls away, leave my big pack with my dirt bike, go deep, go silent.  I run feverishly at any bull who bugles.  I don’t care where he is, I can close hard and fast.  My heart rate never drops below 160 from the vertical or from the adrenaline. I had two herd bulls screaming at each other in the bottom of the hole.  I flanked them for a mile along their elk trails, closed the distance to about 50 yards and then stalked.  Every time a bull rang I moved about 5 yards through tangled brush.  Once I got in close I would scramble to find a shooting lane.  I pulled back on the biggest bull I’ve ever seen in Idaho, held 30 seconds as no shot materialized.  He slipped quietly away and I let down.  Then I run up 600 vertical feet to the other herd bull.  Cautiously, I side-hilled as cows fed all around me.  This bull kept on voicing himself in the basin until he could barely even get a chuckle out.  The wind blowing down to me I could smell that rutty bull, man, I love that smell!  I picked my lane and held my ground.  The bull read the script and started down the trail, at 30 yards he stopped behind a tree and bugled while I was at full draw once again.  Then he took two more steps and stopped as I cow called with my reed.  The arrow was gone and hammered him just above his heart.  100 yards later he piled up and I had my hands around my first 7x7.  This is my most coveted bull to date, public land, diy, solo, epic adventure. 
 

Countless training hours, tuning, shooting, visualizing, scouting, researching... and simply getting my rear out of the bed at 3:30am. I love bowhunting, especially during the openers while the critters have not been pressured and especially during weekdays when most folks are at their 9-to-5's. After a short 2 mile hike in on public land, I had 11 bucks in my glass from first light. I put the group to bed in the sage brush flats by late morning just as the temps reached the 80's. A 200 yard hands and knees crawl with my bow resting on top of my back through sage, scrubs, scabs, and dirt. Glassed every 10 yards until finally I could find antler tips and ears, it was tough to sort through the 11 bucks since there was really only was decent shooter in the bunch. As luck would have it, I finally found my buck, but the gig was just about up as his buddy pretty much had me pegged. I grabbed my bow, ranged the little buck and just as the rest of the summer brothers stood up, I launched my Easton FMJ arrow tipped with a shuttle-t broadhead and it hammered home.... a very short recovery. This is my 4th critter with the Hoyt AlphaMax and man I'm loving it. It feels good to take a muley in the Evergreen state. I had to get the deer cleaned out and drag it over a mile to a road, dude, if you don't train year round, this would be a daunting task. Thank you CrossFit for my conditioning.

-Hoyt AlphaMax 32, Easton FMJ, Shuttle T-Lock Broadheads, Scott Release, Fuse Accessories, Badlands SuperDay, Nikon Archer's Choice Rangefinder, Nikon Monarchs, Buck Ergo Knife, Sitka Optifade Clothing, UA base layers.

Ok, so here's some details.  Drew this tag on my 4th choice in NV.  No time to scout due to some life stuff ( IE wedding, honemyoon, vacation banking, opened up second crossfit location, blah, blah).  Left Spokane 6pm on Wed. night with my old man as the camera man (video for Sportsman's Warehouse News DVD).  I drove 11 hours straight and was on top of a northern NV mountain.  Changed clothes and threw our packs on and bam... within one hour I had 165 and 170 inch bucks in my Nikon Spotting scope.  Watched those bucks ALL day (traded off with my dad so I could mix in a few cat naps).  Put on stalk on them with one hour left of light, which is contrary to lot of experienced bowhunters, but we simply had 3 days to get it done.  Had both bucks feeding right towards me with 30 minutes left of legal shooting light when out of nowhere a damn spike bull materialized and then proceeded to practically step on us.  BARK, BARK, and the gig was up.  Day 2 had three blown stalks due to erratic wind changes and finally in the evening of day 2 we ambushed this buck and his homies feeding up a draw, a perfect pinch point.  58 yard shot, quartering away, Hoyt AlphaMax, Easton Axis Arrows, Shuttle-T Broadheads, Scott Release, Badlands 4500 Pack, Buck Knives (ERGO), Sitka Clothing with Optifade, Nikon optics (Archer's Choice Rangefinder), and CrossFit conditioning baby!

Bowcasters...

Bad news, cannot make it to the Bird...this epic event will go on without me; damn!  I will be on my honeymoon up in Banff with Alicia.  If you can't understand why I am marrying this girl, then look at this pic below...yes that's a Hoyt with Winner's Choice Custom Pink Strings!

Here is my bear hunt from last weekend.  It's about 10 min or so, rough cut trailer for a Sportsman's Warehouse News DVD.

Here is my bear hunt from last weekend.  It's about 10 min or so, rough cut trailer for a Sportsman's Warehouse News DVD.

 Well, we got er done this weekend.  1,200 miles of driving over the last three weeks back and forth from Spokane to N. Idaho finally paid off.  Burning gas, sweating, sacrificing sleep...it all was worth it.  We also got it on video so I might throw a little trailer vid to bowcast soon so be looking for that.  We got some big bears coming in on the baits, but as expected, they're smart bears and usually very cautious.  This was all DIY and the numbers of bears was pretty good.  The boar I harvested was my first color phase, I had a bigger boar coming in to the bait, but basically he never would commit to coming in all the way.  I enjoy bear hunting over bait, we would always bait 2x per week and sit our sites based on what the trail cam told.  This particular bear bait was getting slammed early in the morning, mid-day, and evening so we would sit for 5 to 6 hours at a time, which is way too long.  Here are a few supporting pics from this weekend.

Tuesday night I left Spokane after a long day of work and drove 100 miles one way to replenish the baits.  Both baits were slammed so I reloaded them with remaining light.  We ran out of light so we hung our tree stands and trail camera in the dark.  We got home around 1am and had to be back at work by 7am.  Great sacrifice will foster great reward...let's hope!  Check out the track we found, about a 5 inch pad baby!

I have until June 30th to try to harvest a mature bore in north Idaho with a bow of course.  I am a little busy juggling an existing CrossFit, a new CrossFit location, and oh ya, a wedding in July.  Mix some outdoor writing in there and some training and my plate is loaded; just the way I like it.  Here's the nitty gritty  on bear baiting in general:

 Different states...In Alaska; bears can be seen by boat on the shore feeding; and you can land the skiff and go after them on foot. I have done that and would argue that spot and stalk is way more exciting, but it's not the only way to hunt; and baiting is not absolutely necessary.  If you have ever watched a hunting show that involved baiting, they really seem to leave out a lot of the details.

This is why I like baiting...Bears are smart and wary. In areas that have been baited ; they can become more than your equal at figuring out your stand location; and how to figure out your in the stand - or not.  Bears use their noses; their eyes; their ears - and they are very cautious animals.  A worthy adversary!  Where you hunt them is a factor. I hunt bears in steep, steep, rugged, thick, brush and lush country where spot and stalk doesn't exist.

Food - well bears are territorial; a boar will take over an area with lots of natural food; and chase off other bears. So, bears are on the move finding food sources and eating all they can and moving on.  Finding the areas where they are feeding can be extremely difficult- compared to bears feeding along shorelines where abundant food always is.  Baiting allows me to be selective; in that I know that in all probability more than one bear will come to a bait.  It allows me not to shoot a sow with cubs as well.  Bears are also used to sharing food...for example, if an elk dies - every bear in the area can end up on that elk.  Its common for them to do this; so putting out a bait; well the bait itself might be a bit 'exotic' but the evolution of the bear has taught it how to act around a food source.

Time must be invested: What you don't see on the tv - is how hard it is to put out a bait; and to maintain it. And to trick the bears into thinking your not there...perhaps outsmarting them is the best term.  I walk back in over a half mile; to an area I have baited before. I carry my bait in on my back, I carry in my stands, and my equipment, and I set them up to fool the senses of the bears.  I should also mention that I bait 2x per week and only hunt every other week due to time constraints, my drive is a 100 miles one way so dedication is an understatement.You can hunt bears with bait; and not get a bear; and still have a fantastic hunt that you learn from.

Outfitters:  If you put down $3,000 or more; and have a guide put out bait for you, figure out the wind, figure out where the bears are, keep the bait there everyday, and then be dropped off by an ATV, and climb up waiting for a bear to come in.  A little more cash will let you have a guide that can tell you to quit moving so much, and to see a bear you didn't notice, tell you the exact yardage, and if the bear is big or just appears big. Then they might whisper in your ear when to 'draw' - 'which pin to use, where to aim, and then when to shoot...there's nothing wrong with this approach, but it is not for me.  Doing it on your own is going to be something you work hard for and look back on as a learning and growing experience.

Sows: I know that sows come into heat in the spring; and that will attract boars. So you must watch and learn the behavior of the bears and the way they interact with other animals. I note how birds react to the presence of a bear; and that helps your hunting, and I see so many other animals and birds up close.  Plus, my bear hunting country is the same as the elk I hunt so it's great to get out in the woods I will be sharing come early fall.  I will keep 'yall posted on my trials and tribulations.

I am thankfully tapering down this week with little exercise and lots of rest.  Yesterday I did a practice run at the events for the CrossFit Games in Seattle on Saturday, damn!  Here's the lineup for the contest:

# 1 Max Power Clean and Press (strict press with 3 judges)

8 Days out from the CrossFit Games Qualifier.  I am going to train for 4 more days and taper out the last four.  We find out what the events will be tomorrow so we'll have a week to prepare, come up with strategy, and sharpen technique.

I am really pumped about the workouts lately, we've been employing functional exercises...IE deadlifts, squats, cleans...Functional movements are moving large loads over long distances as fast as possible.  Here is my little highlight video !