Petersen's Bowhunting November/December 2018

I’ll never forget the first time I witnessed the pandemonium of a mature whitetail buck hot on the heels of an estrous doe. It happened more than 20 years ago on a chilly, late-October morning in Pennsylvania. Guided by the light of a headlamp, I walked into the woods surrounded by pre-dawn darkness, climbed into my stand and eagerly awaited the sunrise. At first, all was quiet. But it wasn’t long before the silence was broken by the frantic hoof-beats in the dry leaves that covered the forest floor. Like an approaching freight train, the sound grew louder and louder, and I strained my eyes in the direction of the commotion until finally its source appeared. Running at a furious pace, a doe — followed closely by a large, wide,…

Advice for New Bowhunters Back in the September issue, we asked you to share the most important piece of advice you would offer a new bowhunter. Below is a sampling of your responses. If I could give a new bowhunter just one piece of advice, I would tell them to compete in 3-D tournaments. In Arizona, the clubs set up a shoot similar to a golf course, where you walk from station to station and shoot at various targets at different distances. Most clubs have these in their states, and it is a great way to learn to shoot how to shoot in a hunting environment and have fun at the same time. In Arizona, there are some great clubs that put on these tournaments for shooters of all ages…

During my 17 years of working with private landowners, I’ve spent more time discussing doe-harvest philosophy than any other deer-management topic. Like politics, it gets emotional. Are we taking too many? Can we each kill a doe for the freezer without denting the population? When should we be harvesting our does? Should we kill older does or younger does? We have way too many deer, and we need to kill as many does this year as possible. These are all great questions and comments, and you’ve read articles that dealt with the why, how and when of doe harvest. It’s fun to talk about shooting critters when the ultimate goal of hunting is to do just that. It’s a lot less exciting to talk about investing sweat equity and hard-earned…

Mechanical heads are dominating the broad-head market nowadays, and for good reason. They fly a lot better than traditional fixed heads, they cut bigger holes and, depending on the style, do a better job of killing the animal quickly. Back in the day when we only had fixed heads, we had to tune them and really spend time with our setup, mak ing sure we were dialed in with our broadheads. But I think mechanical heads and the expectation that they will “hit right with my fieldpoints” has made a lot of us lazy when it comes to tuning. For the most part, people don’t even shoot their broadheads in practice anymore. They just screw them on right before they go out to hunt. This is a huge mistake, and…

Patterning a buck can be the most enjoyable part of the season. I really enjoy putting the puzzle pieces together. It can be a real mind-bender with some bucks, because they are all different. You never know what you are getting into. Your hunting area is a chess board, and you are chess master Bobby Fischer trying to anticipate the opponent’s next move. To illustrate the moves needed, I am going to use my experiences with a buck I followed from 2013-2015. I nicknamed him Big Jr. I will focus on just the 2015 season. Big Jr. was 6 years old that year. I tried to kill him the year before but was unsuccessful. I saw him three times in daylight in 2014, but I never spent the time needed…

Over the past three installments of this series, we’ve established the fact that drop-away rests are the preferred rest for bowhunters. The real question becomes; what style of drop-away rest is better, limb-driven or cable-driven? On the surface, the differences between these two methods of activation may seem insignificant. However, I believe there is a big difference when comparing the practical functionality of the two. Activation Differences The first cable-driven arrow rests were activated directly by a cord attached to the bus or control cable. When the bow was drawn, the cord was pulled by the cable and the launcher arm would rise into position, tightening a spring inside the rest. When the bow was shot, the spring would snap the launcher arm back down. Nowadays, many cable-driven rests are…