Petersen's Bowhunting is the source for the tactics, tools, and techniques necessary for successful bowhunting. Get practical shooting tips and useful information on archery, equipment tests, clothing, and product evaluations.
I’ve seen plenty of unprepared bowhunters over the years, but one particular individual I recall really takes the cake. It was about five years ago in Wyoming, and this guy rolled into camp mid-way through my deer hunt. As is often the case, the outfitter liked to watch his clients sling a few practice arrows before heading afield, just to make sure the shooter and the bow were dialed in. Well, this particular guy was more than a little bit off. Not only could he not hit the bull’s-eye with his bow — he couldn’t even hit the target! Mind you, this hunt was booked months in advance and cost several thousand dollars. How anyone could show up so woefully ill prepared is beyond me, but this guy was hopeless!…
Taking Back Sunday As a lifelong Pennsylvania resident and member of the Pennsylvania Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, I, like many others, have become very familiar with the issue of whether or not to end the ban on Sunday hunting. For years, I have seen the triangular debate among the three parties involved — hunters, non-hunting outdoors enthusiasts and farmers — go around in public forums and media outlets with no clear decision being made by the state legislature. The one thing we have seen for certain is a decline in hunting license sales in recent years. When asked, hunters cite a simple lack of free time to go, so they stop altogether. It always confused me, because all parties benefit from legalized and regulated Sunday hunting. The reason…
Everyone has their reason for shooting the pin setup they choose. Some people get confused with multi colored pins in the heat of the moment. Others, like me, hate having to constantly move a single pin as the animal moves. I use a 5-pin setup and feel that if used properly, it is the best choice. However, both options have their pros and cons. The single pin is a pretty popular choice among bowhunters, especially ones who seem to get flustered under pressure. A big buck or bugling elk can make us do funny things at the moment of truth, and going completely blank is one of them. This is why many hunters have chosen a single pin as their go-to in a hunting situation. You only have to worry…
Do you really think you’re an effective predator? As a wildlife biologist, I’ve studied the calculated stalking and ambushing methods of effective predators such as wolves, bears and mountain lions. Let’s face it; they know how to find their prey in compromising situations. For this column, I decided to interview one modern-day, mountain lion-like bowhunter and dig deep inside his systematic — and grossly successful — approach to patterning and ambushing mature, high-scoring bucks. Adam Hays is one of the first guys I think of when it comes to a bow-toting whitetail predator. Hays, an Ohio native and co-owner of the MoonGuide and Team 200, has killed 36 Pope and Young bucks and 10 Boone and Crockett-caliber bucks with his bow, including four that grossed more than 200 inches! To…
Most bowhunters these days use drop-away arrow rests. People tend to believe this style of rest is a fairly recent invention, but these arrow rests have been around for quite some time. In fact, I used what I believe to be the first commercially available drop-away arrow rest, the Barner, to win the FITA World Championships in Norway in 1990. The Barner was a momentum-driven arrow rest. As the bow’s limbs and the arrow moved forward, the bow’s handle was forced back against the archer’s hand. The reaction was similar to the kick of a rifle as the bullet accelerates forward (remember Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction). As the bow kicked back, a free-floating square of heavy metal on the…
Several years ago, a fellow outdoor writer and I were chatting about the state of crossbows and the need for standards — not unlike the IBO/ATA standards for compound bows — to evaluate performance. At the time, crossbow manufacturers were claiming their products could shoot this fast and produce this much kinetic energy. Those claims were likely legitimate, but without any standards regarding the bolt weight and/or draw weight used to achieve those speed and energy measurements, you couldn’t objectively compare one crossbow to another. Meanwhile, state regulations were all over the place. Crossbows were still relatively new, and with no standards, states were struggling with how to define what should and shouldn’t be considered legal hunting equipment, particularly with regard to minimum requirements. Some states used speed ratings, some…
