Spring Hunting Season 2020 is here and it has been one heck of a January! The first hunt of the year took me to southern Arizona in pursuit of javelina with my bow. I just love chasing these interesting little critters this time of year. The weather is fantastic, bucks are rutting, and javelina are absolutely tailor made for archery hunting. This is a great hunt to put on your radar!
On this hunt I was joined by my brother Jake and good friend Gabe. Hunting alone is something that I’ve truly grown to love over the years, but having good hunting partners goes a long way. The vibe was awesome the whole day and the jokes were flowing like a strong spring runoff. We spotted deer on and off the whole day, but never could make anything happen with them.
At 2 p.m., just as we were about to make ourselves a nice satisfying lunch, my brother spotted a herd of javelina not far off. In a mad dash, we threw our food back in our packs and cut the distance on them. Before we knew it, we were a mere 80 yards from them. I dropped my pack and left Jake and Gabe on camera duty. They did a great job and I can’t wait to hear what you all think of the video! After a short stalk, I was able to arrow a javelina at 30 yards broadside. 10 yards later the animal lay motionless. A quick and clean kill. So, here it is. Spring Hunting Season – Episode 1. Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my Youtube channel if you like what you see. Enjoy!
In the coming months, I’ll be continuing this video series as I start to scout for black bears here in Arizona. I drew an archery spring bear hunt this year, and can’t wait to get out to have a look around. If you know anything about me, you know I love bowhunting and black bears. Put the two together and I’m a happy hunter! I’ll be trying to document my progress as much as possible. Backcountry hunts are planned, trail camera adventures, and hopefully a big Arizona Black Bear with my tag wrapped around it! This is gonna be fun and I can’t wait to share the journey.
On top of this new series, I’ll also be trying to write up some of my hunts from 2019. Forgive me for the delay. Of course I’ll also be on the lookout for new gear items to review as well. I’ll be heading to the Western Hunting Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah coming up here next week, so I’ll have my eyes peeled for new toys. I’m hoping to bring you all some coverage from that event as well. 2020 is here. Let’s make it a good one!
Here is a short film of my 2019 archery deer/javelina hunt with my brother here in Arizona. Our December/January archery deer season here in Arizona is a hunt that has skyrocketed to the top of my favorites. The weather is generally great, the deer are rutting, and it’s just a phenomenal time to be out in the mountains here. The tags are over the counter and if you play your cards right, you can draw an archery javelina tag and be hunting them and rutting coues and mule deer at the same time! A great excuse to get off of the couch in the month of January! Each year my brother and I look forward to backpacking into some of our favorite units to chase deer with our bows and soak up that backcountry experience we long for. This hunt was a wild ride and one that I will never forget. You can read about it in depth at a few recent posts called 2019 January Archery Deer and Javelina Hunt (Part 1) and 2019 January Archery Deer and Javelina Hunt (Part 2) Hope you like it! I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below!
So, it began, or I should say continued. Another backpack hunt lay in front of us. This particular area has held a meaningful part in my heart for years. It is where I took my first archery deer and a place I have spent a good portion of my Dec/Jan archery deer seasons in the past. What the next few days would hold, we did not know. I did know that we would have a great time though chasing rutting bucks. On top of that, I had been seeing a herd of javelina regularly in the area. Lucky for us, Jake had a tag in his pocket.
I have many fond memories of sitting around a campfire and sharing hunting stories with friends and family. Sharing these stories is one of the reasons I created the site you are on right now. Every time I would get back from a hunt, people that were close to me wanted to hear how everything panned out. It was as if I were a feature film and they were watching me, waiting to see what happened next. Funnily enough, I find myself doing the same thing when people are telling me about their hunts. Even if I already know they filled their tags, I am at the edge of my seat. The excitement or disappointment in their eyes hits me deep in my chest. I know these feelings well. This is the part of hunting I think that many fail to see. The part that only us hunters recognize and appreciate. It’s the road to success, or failure for that matter, we share with others the most. For therein lies the bulk of the journey.
Let’s face it. Bowhunting can be and is an extremely difficult endeavor. It doesn’t matter if you are an expert or a beginner, life with the bow constantly challenges us. My biggest hurdle when I started out, and now for that matter, is getting close enough for a shot. This is why we hunt with a bow though, is it not? We love the intimate connection that is shared between predator and prey. Being close enough to hear every step that the animal takes is all too alluring. In order to get good at something though, we need to have ample opportunity to practice it. There are many days when I don’t even find a buck to stalk though. How can you practice something as much as you can, if you don’t have the opportunity to do so?
2015 was a pretty exciting year for me in the field filled with new experiences and opportunities. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago, when I stopped to think about it all. It was almost overwhelming reflecting back on everything, which is what I intend on doing here. Being relatively new to the hunting lifestyle(3 years), means a lot of things happened to me for the first time. The deeper and deeper that I dive into this, the more things that I want to experience someday and the things that I do get a chance to experience, seem to create new traditions that I can’t wait to take part in the following year. There were way to many firsts that happened during 2015 to list here, but I would like to take the time to reflect on the major ones.
The battle between fixed blade and mechanical broadheads is one that will be around as long as bowhunting exists. The decision on which to go with literally plagued me when I really got into bowhunting and archery. Talking to different hunters on the subject was helpful to a point, but kind of frustrating. The mechanical guys swore by mechanicals and the fixed guys swore by fixed blade. Each of them had their own reasons for why they decided to shoot what they shoot. It soon became apparent that I was going to have to figure this out on my own. With lots of reading up on both types of broadheads, the pros and cons of each started to show themselves.
Besides being born in Albuquerque, NM and living there for about a year, I spent the first 8 years of my life living in Queens, NY. Back then I couldn’t even tell you what a mountain looked like, let alone tell you what the biggest buck I had ever seen was. Even though we lived in the city, my dad made sure to include me in on his morning fishing trips over at a nearby bridge that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. This is where my love for the outdoors started. I can remember helping my dad dig up blood worms on the beach that we would use for bait and climbing the nearby trees while my dad watched our fishing poles in hopes that the rod tips would be summoned toward the big blue. Before heading out on these fishing trips we would always stop at Dunkin Donuts. This was definitely one of my favorite parts of the day.
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