BowCast Blog

Bowcast at the Bird 2010 is in the books and it was a smokin good time!  My hats off to the FMP boys Anthony and Launch for setting up a killer course.  I was able to shoot the smoker round a few times with some fellow BowCasters and we had a blast!  Hanging out and shooting with these guys and gals made my weekend.  Thanks for the good times and I can't wait until next year.

 

What an adventure!!!!  I survived but if I was on “Survivor Southwest” I would have been voted off the island!!!!  As many of you know I didn’t draw any fall hunting tags this year so I need to find other options, for years I have been talking about hunting AZ for velvet Coues deer.  Last year I went but it was kind of a bust. I spent 5 days, 12 hours a day straight in a ground blind that didn’t see any action.  It was poor planning on my part.

SOOOO this year the plan was to put in my own work and if I failed at least I would have a good story to tell.    As a general rule, there are a lot more Coues deer in AZ and they can just about be found everywhere. They aren’t in little pockets like they are in NM. So I want to find a place close to home.  Unit 27 in AZ has some good deer and it is close so I figured that would be a good start.  I started talking to people and looking at a few maps just to get familiar with the area and everybody basically said, “Those are  BIG MOUNTAINS”.

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. 

Well, I plan to keep up with this a lot more than I have been, aside from this past week...keep it updated, so if you aren't out scouting, or aren't seeing bucks, you can live vicariously :)

Checked the ground tonight again...whatta ya know...two new good lookin' bucks! 

This is funny!!!! 

 Follow this link!!!

Gettin' the FMJ rockets prepped for launch!

Later
Cima

Well, it's that time already...scouting starts to heat up (since if never does stop) and bucks are really starting to grow!

Checked out a small property I have for deer; very similar to urban whitetails. It is a small, thin strip of ground that the muleys usually use as a travel route between bed and feed (alfalfa). Sure enough, I found 6 bucks...3 of which were familiar faces: Splits, Tripod and Lefty.


It'll be here before we know it!

I look at the calendar and realize the Bird is only about a month away, I reserved my room at Snowbird a few weeks ago but I have been holding off on booking my flight.  I am a big fan of traveling on a dime and look for the best deals wherever I can.

I have read and heard from several people that they are not attending because it is too for or too expensive.

While I can't see into everyone's checkbook to see if this is the case or if it's a case of thinking you can't afford it.

Well… it is almost game time… The big game results should be out in about 9 days… Hopefully, we will get notified earlier but this is last time I will check my cameras before I get my results.  Once I figure out where I will be hunting then I am switching my cameras to that unit.  In the meantime, I pulled some cameras from a unit that I don’t really hunt…  I got some good pictures, one thing that I did find out is that there are very few mulies in this area… All Coues Deer.. hmm…. except for the Lion, Coyotes,  and Foxes!!!! 

So how about some pictures????

  Two inches and counting - it'slooking like another waterlogged spring here in the Dakotas.

O dark 30 dawned dark and early on Friday, the alarm went off and I eagerly jumped out of bed, Pat was there in the motel parking lot at 4 am to pick me up and we made the quick 15 minute drive to a sprawling cattle farm. 

The wind was whipping and it was a brisk 45 degrees as we made our way across field to a small island of trees.  At which point Pat began cursing as we realized the blind he had set the night before had blown away sometime during the night!  Making the best of it, we set up inside the trees and waited for dawn to break.

Well, tis the season for elk sheds. My buddy and I threw together a plan Thursday night to leave at O-dark thirty Friday morning and hit the hills for two days in search of elk bone.

We met up at 6 and hit it for two days in the high country! 

Sorry for the long delay guys, I have been a road warrior for the last few months.  Everything is great but I really haven’t had a chance to get to some of my cameras.  I tried a few weeks ago and I just ended up burying the Duramax in a huge snow drift…

All I have to say is that there are a ton of nice mulies on this flat… DANG… There are about 16 does cruising the area so I am sure they are just checking out the ladies…

Hi BowCasters, 

A few guys have requested some more pictues of the BowCast Benches.  Here are a few with more to come throughout the year.  I still have to get an arrow saw, press, and vice.  Any suggestions BowCasters on what brand and why??

I have had several requests for the list of materials I used to make my BowCast Benches.  Here is the list and a few more details of how I put it together.  See the pictures in my previous blog.  BowCast Benches

 

When you think of Elk, what comes to mind? Great beasts with massive racks, the haunting sound of a bull elk screaming into the silence, sweeping New Mexico vistas and rugged Colorado mountains.

Midwesterners tend to forget that while limited, there are a few opportunities much closer to home.

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! 

With turkey season in full swing for some, and gearing up for the rest of us, there's not much that gets us fired up more than talking about it.

A few weeks ago I started building two archery benches for my home bow shop.  I thought about what I wanted in a bench and looked at many pictures online of other home made bow benches.  Here is a breakdown of the benches.  I will be posting more pictures over the summer as I start using them.