By Scott Bestul

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for losing legends. Only a few days after learning we’d lost our own John Merwin, I found out that Tom Jennings, member of the Archery Hall of Fame, passed away last Monday. He was 88.

An acclaimed compound-bow pioneer, Jennings was the technical editor for The Archery Magazine when Missourian W.H. Allen sent him a wheel bow to test in 1966. Allen had just applied for a patent on the product and was shopping a prototype around to several companies, but no one was interested in the odd-looking mix of limbs, strings, and cables. But when Jennings shot this early compound—a bow that was only 20 fps faster than a recurve and offered only 15 percent let-off—he realized he was holding the future. Already a custom bowyer and co-owner of S&J Archery, Jennings immediately abandoned production of recurve bows and threw himself into building and marketing a better compound. [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

Below is the next buck in our latest scoring contest. In case you’ve been busy shed antler hunting, visiting a deer show, or (insert pathetic excuse for not visiting this blog here), you might have missed the announcement that you could win yourself a brand new Bear Motive 6, the company’s flagship compound bow for 2013. All you have to do is score some bucks. [ Read Full Post ]

By Steven Hill

The deer hunts behind these bucks from the 2012 season show just how varied—and good—whitetail hunting in North America is right now. Tagged on the opener or the last day of the season, from deep South to coldest Canada, on a five-star lease or a family farm or public land, every buck in our countdown—be it a state record or personal best, a first buck or a first Booner—has one thing in common: Each is a trophy tale worth retelling.

20. Tadpole Buck
Hunting Louisiana’s Tensas National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 7, Alton “Tadpole” McLeod was playing a hunch when he decided to sleep in.

“I’ve hunted Tensas for 25 years and always had good luck at midday on a full moon,” McLeod says, “so me and my buddies started late. It was 10 a.m. before I reached my spot, an area where I’d seen a couple of big-bodied bucks crossing a week before.”

Several hours after he settled into his stand, a flock of buzzards roosted nearby and raised a ruckus that, Tadpole thought, surely ruined any chance of seeing a wary buck.

“If I’d been alone, I’d have left,” McLeod recalls, “but I didn’t want to mess up... [ Read Full Post ]

By Dave Hurteau

Okay fine, a trade show may not the best place to thoroughly test new bows. It’s noisy and you only get to shoot each model a handful of times before having to pass it off to the next person in line. But you can get back in line as many times as you want, and you can absolutely get a solid first look at every bow at the show.

And so we did. At this week’s ATA show in Louisville, Kentucky, Bestul and I focused on the new flagship models for 2013. We shot, and waited to shoot, and shot, and got in line again…until we had a firm enough grasp of the new crop of compounds to share our first impressions with you. Here they are, in alphabetical order by manufacturer:

Bowtech Experience ($899; bowtecharchery)
Specs: 335 fps IBO; 32 inches axle-to-axle; Brace Height 7; 4.2 pounds
Skinny: After playing the speed game—and playing it very well—for the last couple of years, Bowtech has touched the brakes a little to offer everyday hunters a smoother, easier shooting experience.
Hits: Smooth draw cycle. Excellent valley; you can relax a little at full... [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

Overall activity status: I encountered a strange mix of deer observations last week. There were areas with excellent feeding activity, thanks to the first significant snowfall of the season. Then those reports turned less than stellar as warm temperatures and rain moved in. Iowa’s second gun season ended last weekend, which should wrap up the major firearms pressure in the region for the year. Whitetails will be back in “natural” movement mode.

[ Read Full Post ]

By Chad Love

A massive non-typical whitetail deer arrowed by an Oklahoma woman may be the largest buck ever taken by a female bowhunter in the Sooner State.

From this story on newsok.com:
Linet Navarro of Chandler likes to bake cakes and kill deer. On Nov. 8, Navarro killed the biggest whitetail of her life and perhaps the largest ever by a woman with a bow in Oklahoma. Her non-typical buck has a net green score of 175 2/8. A check of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation's Cy Curtis records — a listing of big deer killed by Oklahoma hunters — show that larger non-typical bucks have been killed by female hunters with a gun, although it appears none have with a bow. The Wildlife Department does not distinguish between male and female hunters in the Cy Curtis record book. “Maybe they should,” Navarro said. “They could start it this year.” [ Read Full Post ]