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Entries for 'Gray Loon'
Thanks, Neighbor
By Jason Gray
Growing up on a Saskatchewan farm, I never found the time to go hunting. My dad was not a hunter, for one thing, and any spare time was spent feeding cows or doing other odd jobs. When I was just about out of high school, my close neighbor, Don Klippenstein, who has always been an avid hunter, asked me to go hunting with him and another n... READ MORE
Against All Odds
By Mike Handley
The BTR’s first and only entry from New Mexico! It’s obvious the late singer-songwriter Jim Croce never bowhunted New Mexico’s high plains. If he had, sneaking up on a deer would’ve rated right up there with tugging on Superman’s cape, spittin’ in the wind and pullin’ the mask off that ol’ Lone Ranger... READ MORE
Longest Sunday in the Bowhunting World
By Lisa L. Price
The dead deer might as well have been a Buick. Chris Edwards, only an inch shorter and 25 pounds heavier than NBA great Larry Bird, who used to frequent his family’s bait shop in French Lick, Ind., couldn’t budge it. Even a second set of arms and legs were of no use. “Go get Shirley,” he told his young bowhunting protege, Ja... READ MORE
Woozy Doesn’t Begin to Describe It
By Lisa L. Price
Arkansas man gets first taste of bowhunter’s aftershock Being in the presence of a slammer buck can do strange things to people. You might think your breathing rivals the ocean’s surf, or that your heartbeat echoes like the pounding of an ivory-billed woodpecker. And it’s inconceivable that the deer you’re watching, unless i... READ MORE
One Good Turn …
By Jill J. Easton
Happenstance and a snort-weeze are the undoing for Virginia’s State Bow Record. Had John Feazell not loaned his muzzleloader to his father on the eve of Virginia’s 2009 blackpowder season, you’d be looking at another whitetail on this page. The same goes for John’s aborted scouting trip, which might’ve resulted in his ... READ MORE
Good Things Come...
By Ed Waite
One of Ohio’s best-ever by crossbow. Jeff McCulley would’ve been elated to burn his 2009 buck tag on the wide and tall-tined 8-pointer that had given him the slip all season. It was the biggest he’d seen on the 25 acres for which he’d gained permission to hunt through a fishing buddy who knew the landowners. The 41-year-old ... READ MORE
Blambidextrous
By Lisa L. Price
Rather than spook the buck of his dreams, devout archer sacrifices bow range for a long poke. It’s a good thing Troy Tate packed his rifle when he returned to Kansas in December 2010, even though the avid bowhunter never intended to unsheathe it. The only reason he carried it afield that one day was because the wind’s direction was comp... READ MORE
Dripping With Bone
By Ed Waite
When Steve Esker knelt in the high weeds, he could’ve been looking for blood. Or not. From almost 180 yards away, a jittery Travis Vollmar couldn’t tell exactly what his friend was doing. But when Steve stood, raised his arms and clasped his hands over his head, Travis knew. This was better than blood. Better than tracks. He sprinted ba... READ MORE
Twenty Reasons to Rise and Shine
By Mike Handley
Remember that commercial in which the guy slips out of bed, hoping his wife doesn’t hear him sneak down creaky stairs to go hunting? Well, that wasn’t the case with Pastor Bob.
While a lot of deer hunters find sleep difficult on the eve of opening day, Bob Richardson made no effort to get out of bed when the alarm clock sounded. He mig... READ MORE
Ten Acres and a Mule
By Ed Waite
With land like this, there’s no such thing as a buyer’s market.
If Walt Fanthorp ever decides to quit deer hunting, it won’t be because of the price of gasoline or for the lack of a place to hunt.
Walking is cheap.
Walt’s 10 acres north of Cincinnati is mostly open ground, but there’s a wooded creek bottom at the re... READ MORE
When Shawn Says Jump...
By Lisa L. Price
The mail for which this postman waits bears no stamps. It wasn’t until Ryan Holthaus hung his newly mounted 19-pointer on the wall, right next to the 120-inch buck that was his first bowkill, that he realized just how big a deer he arrowed with his new Mathews bow last year in Osage County, Kan. Even though he knew the numbers, seeing the sta... READ MORE
King of Paparazzi
By Ed Waite
To J.T. Kreager, almost every buck has a familiar face.
Calling J.T. Kreager lucky within earshot of anyone who knows him would be like waking to discover you’ve inadvertently Tweeted photographs of your underwear to Oprah. You’re going to be left red-faced.
Yes, the Ohio bowhunter was in the right place at the right time to put an ar... READ MORE
Mother Knows Best
By Mike Handley
A bird’s-eye view isn’t necessary to pay a taxidermist Prior to last November, Chris Denniston had little use for and practically no confidence in pop-up blinds. Satisfied with climbing stands, the 33-year-old construction shop foreman and raiser of beagles would’ve never bought one of the tent-like contraptions for himself. But w... READ MORE
True Grit
By Mike Handley
Lesser men would’ve taken a road more easily traveled.
Central New York had its whitest December on record in 2010. Even before Dec. 21, the first official day of winter, six feet of snow had fallen, and lots more came those last 10 days, the worst following Christmas.
Prior to the Boxing Day blizzard that shut down much of the entire North... READ MORE
It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over
By Mike Handley
What’s the worst that could happen if you stay for the duration?
Nothing is more discomfiting to a deer hunter than the ill-timed squeak, ping or pop of a metal stand. Regardless of volume, the noise is as unwelcome and annoying as the chirping of a cell phone in a movie theater.
When some invisible joint on Tracy Butler’s 15-foot-hig... READ MORE
You’d Move to Kansas, Too
By Duncan Dobie
The first sighting of the buck that would come to be known as “Sneaky Pete” occurred during the 2008 hunting season, while Mark and Lacy Shomaker were scouting a piece of land they intended to lease the following year. While looking around, the landowner spotted a huge buck standing beside a main road in a CRP field. He rushed Lacy and ... READ MORE
Twenty-Four Minutes
By Mike Handley
That’s how much time elapsed from the moment Ryan Cox settled into his stand until he wanted to jump out of it. Neither nature’s call nor a need for fuel caused Ryan Cox to suddenly veer off the highway and pull into the nearest gas station on Oct. 16. The 18-year-old from Eagleville, Mo., was on his way back to Columbia from St. Louis,... READ MORE
Not All Holes Bleed
By Lisa L. Price
Tim Brawner hated to tell his buddies he’d missed “Big Mo.” Everyone had been obsessing over the deer since Tim’s father-in-law, Ronald Harrison, had seen and raved about it to anyone who would listen. Tim knew there would be no end to the ribbing dished out at camp, which was brimming with hunters who had been counting the ... READ MORE
Not the 7x7 He Wanted
By Troy Henderson
The temperature plummeted the night before the opener, however, and the wind was roaring. Figuring the neighborhood deer would remain in heavy cover and that walking would be warmer than sitting, I changed plans and decided to stalk the brushy draws and edges. Soon after parking my truck, I headed into the first east-west tree line and turned north... READ MORE
Sharing the Moment
By Ed Waite
Buck's path dictated which brother would smoke Ohio giant.
Throughout Ohio's 2009 archery season, Scott Doles made the 35-plus-mile trip to the family farm at least three times a week. He could hunt his place, the neighboring tract owned by the father of his best friend, Ryan, and a third piece of ground — totaling about 600 acres. Two-third... READ MORE