Welcome to the Archer's Den. Here you will find a gathering of traditional archery stories, tips and techniques, trophy animals taken with traditional bows, and plenty more. Stay a while and learn something. We hope you enjoy and even submit a trophy of your own, or leave a comment on a post.
All posts by 3Rivers Archery
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Name: Abby McKinney
Country Harvested: United States
State/Province: North Carolina
Year: 2023
Type of Game: Whitetail Deer
Equipment Used:
Old Bear Kodiak magnum 46# gold tip traditional xt 400 spine 125 grain Magnus stinger head.
Additional Info:
First big deer, first one I got was my button Buck and I was oddly more happier with it because of the story, I got it out of out trespassers tree stand (no bait) froze near to death waiting for one to come by and got a decent shot on it, I had to carry it a mile downhill and the nice old feller next door let me drag it through his yard to our house. Me and my great granddaddy both got buttons as our firsts and I got to keep his picture.
Name: Calan Coleman
Country Harvested: United States
State/Province: Texas
Year: 2023
Type of Game: Whitetail Deer
Equipment Used:
Mad Dog Archery Mountaineer Longbow (50# @30″)
Port Orford Cedar Shaft with Grizzly 125 single bevel on 75 grain woody weight.
Additional Info:
shot this buck from a tree saddle on my first sit of the 2023 Texas archery only season along a right of way cut through the brush. He was harassing a doe and a fawn, grunting and putting on a show. He stopped at about 25 yards and gave me a clean shot.
Name: Ross Pennebaker
Country Harvested: United States
State/Province: Kentucky
Year: 2022
Type of Game: Whitetail Deer
Equipment Used:
Elburg’s archery longbow 51lbs a black eagle arrow and a 200 grain woodsmen elite broadhead
Additional Info:
I found a good trail in the woods and set up my chair behind a tree. I saw some deer across a creek and grunted a few times, this one came over and I couldn’t pass up a easy shot.
Name: Curtis Bennett
Country Harvested: Canada
State/Province: Ontario
Year: 2022
Type of Game: Whitetail Deer
Equipment Used:
1970s Bear Kodiak Hunter, AMO 60″ 50#
Black Eagle Outlaw carbon arrow-300 spine, 100 grain fixed blade broadhead (unknown).
No blind, no bait, no treestand. Shot from the ground.
Additional Info:
This is my very first deer ever and my 2nd year hunting with a trad bow.
Name: Ross Pennebaker
Country Harvested: United States
State/Province: Kentucky
Year: 2022
Type of Game: Whitetail Deer
Equipment Used:
51lb Elburg’s archery longbow, a black eagle instinct arrow, and a 200 gr woodsmen elite broadhead.
Additional Info:
I was hunting from the ground at the edge of a corn field and stood up to look around, as I did he came around right towards me, lucky he stopped broadside at about 15 yards and I sent the arrow throw his lungs.
A lot of fellow traditional bowhunters ask me what I do to get ready for hunting season or what my practice regimen is. In truth, practicing for the season never really stops for the guy that doesn’t want it to. What I mean is that it takes effort, dedication, and sacrifice to make the time to shoot. For those that want to be consistent with a traditional bow it takes muscle memory and practice. For me, I try to practice all year with my recurve. I know a few eyes are rolling thinking that’s not as easy as it sounds. I agree.
In a perfect world I would shoot my bow for thirty minutes to an hour every day. In reality, like everyone, I have a lot of things that are priorities in my life besides shooting my bow. I film hunts, I run an outfitting business; I do some farming, and run a few cows on our ranch. That all takes time away from my shooting. I also have a wife and three boys and am oftentimes busy with family activities. Sometimes finding an hour to practice is a difficult if not impossible proposition.
What I had to start doing is making some of my practice sessions really short. By short I mean an average of a minute and forty-five seconds. That’s how long it takes me to grab my recurve off the hook in my room, walk out the front door, shoot one arrow, retrieve my arrow, and put my bow back on the hook in my room.
I figured out a while back that one arrow is the best practice for a real hunting situation. When hunting, it’s only the first shot that counts. So I set up my practice to mirror a real life hunting situation. It also works better with my limited free time. I always shoot my one arrow at unmarked and different yardages every day. I still try to work in longer practice sessions but the one arrow in under two minutes oftentimes fits my schedule and is easier to work in.
I also try to coordinate family practice sessions. The whole family has fun and the side benefit is that everyone shoots better.
Target practice is an activity the entire family can enjoy.
Additionally, I try to take advantage of small game seasons whenever I can. We hunt frogs, squirrels, turkeys, rabbits, raccoons, hogs, or whatever I can chase when big game season is not going on in Colorado. By including the family, I get to enjoy some quality time with them and we all benefit from the additional shooting.
I use the so called “off season” to stay honed and also to keep my equipment ready. For example, when hunting I always like to carry a pre-stretched and pre-shot string with me on my trips in case my string breaks or accidentally gets cut. During the “off season” I try to swap a few different new strings on my bow so I always have a supply of pre-stretched strings that have already been used and are ready to go.
Same goes for breaking in a new finger tab. Instead of waiting until I lose the broken in one during the season, I try to break in a few during the “off season” so I am always ready with a pre-shot tab. Maybe it’s just me, but a new tab or glove always feels too stiff, and I don’t seem to shoot as well until it is broken in.
On my longer practice sessions that last more than one shot I will often try and wear the same clothes I hunt in. For example, I have struggled at times shooting my recurve or my longbow in cold weather because of the additional clothes. To avoid getting a string slapping on my clothes I practice in a larger jacket or sweatshirt. I often hold down my sleeve with a couple of rubber bands spaced a few inches apart or with an armguard.
It’s important to practice under all conditions.
Other things I have found that practice has helped me with is struggling with a safety harness. They are way better now than they used to be but the added material outside my clothes has caused me some issues. To combat the safety harness struggles I often put a long sleeve shirt on over my harness to help keep it in close to my chest.
Another thing that I use my practice session to help me with is shooting with a head net. I always felt like I wasn’t quite anchoring the same and had to experiment with different head nets to find one that felt right and that I could shoot comfortably with. Now, most of the time, I don’t even notice that I have one on.
“Getting Ready for the Season” is a misleading title. I prefer to always be ready for any season and I do that by making time to shoot. Even if it’s just one arrow.
I am often asked my opinion on what the most challenging animal to hunt with a traditional bow is. It is not an easy answer. I have had some hunts where the most difficult animal to hunt were the ones everyone told me would be easy. Caribou for example have been super tough for me in the past simply because I didn’t time the migration and the caribou were as scarce as hen’s teeth. It is hard to shoot something that is not there.
So the word challenging can mean a lot of different things to different people based on personal experience. A species that may seem like a relatively easy one to harvest one day may be super difficult the next. Lady luck sometimes plays a factor on hunts as does Murphy’s Law. For example, Antelope hunting is easy if you hunt an area with limited waterholes and the weather is hot.
Fred with a nice Antelope doe.
If a hunter goes antelope hunting on a week where there is excess water or it happens to rain that hunter could sit a week without having an antelope come within good binocular range. Those two hunters would have very different opinions on the difficulty level of antelope hunting.
It seems I often have challenging hunts in locations where everybody tells me it is going to be a super easy hunt and things just don’t turn out that way. Like the Sitka blacktail hunt in Alaska with my good friend Mike Palmer a few years back. We left with high expectations of harvesting Sitka blacktail. I even purchased 3 tags because everyone I talked to said it was a super easy hunt and that the blacktails would be everywhere. Turns out the island we hunted had been hammered by the locals and a freak snowstorm left huge drifts that made it tough to get around. Needless to say neither of us shot a deer on that trip and I only spotted one buck that managed to elude me despite the deep snow we were both struggling with.
Sometimes I read articles or watch TV shows where I am convinced I am just a bad hunter because sometimes others make it look easy. I cut my teeth watching Larry Jones and Dwight Schuh on VHS tapes where Larry would shoot Roosevelt elk at spitting distance. My success rate on public land Roosevelt is one out of four. Talk about taking a guy down a few notches.
Fred and his Roosevelt Elk.
I am not complaining mind you. I love bowhunting and it doesn’t take an animal harvested for me to count a hunt as successful. However, if I was completely honest, I do occasionally use success, shot opportunities or lack thereof as a barometer of how good a hunt is.
I go on some hunts that I expect to be tough. Coues deer for example is one that I go on and fully expect not to get something. When I do it is a huge bonus.
Fred and an Arizona Couse Deer.
I should probably switch my way of thinking and always plan on not harvesting an animal on any hunt I go on but my optimistic nature just won’t let me do that. The hunts where everyone says it’s soooo easy and the description I get is, “It’s just like shooting fish in a barrel” are the type hunts that when I leave empty handed I feel like a goober.
Sometimes hunts are challenging due to weather conditions like on my blacktail hunt. I have also been on hunts where terrain or lack of cover made getting in close to an animal dangerous or difficult. Public land hunts can also be challenging due to both hunting pressure and other hunters. I have even had four-legged predators blow stalks for me that seemed like a done deal.
So for my simple answer to the question, what is the most challenging species to hunt with a traditional bow? For me, my answer is all the species of sheep. Mostly because of the difficulty getting to where sheep live and because once you get there the cover is usually sparse. They are also sharp-eyed and sheep avoid predators by going to even rougher country that is often impossible to follow them into.
My more complex answer on the most challenging species would be all the animals I was told would be easy that didn’t end up that way. I hope I am not alone in my feelings of ineptitude on hunts that no one seems to have trouble with but me. If I am alone and no one else has had tough hunts for so-called “easy” animals to hunt like javelina, caribou, Sitka blacktail, Kansas whitetails or spring black bear, please don’t tell me.
Fred and the Sitka Blacktail he eventually harvested in Alaska.
As my wife often says to me when I have a confused look on my face when I don’t understand something, “Ignorance is bliss.”
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