Speak The Language – Grunt Calls Can Work!

Jim KushnerBucks n Bears, Friends of ELO

By:  Jim Kushner. Years ago I was looking through an archery magazine and saw a photo of a very happy hunter posing with a huge buck he had taken. The caption stated that he had called it in during early bow season. I don’t recall the date but I do remember thinking that I had not heard of a grunt call working during anything but the rut & pre-rut.  Sometime later a nice buck walked by my stand in early October. It was clear he was not coming close enough for a shot. I figured … Read More

It Is Why We Hunt

Jim KushnerBucks n Bears, Friends of ELO

By:  Jim Kushner. In my opinion it’s really about the enjoyment of hunting and what really makes it fun for you, not what someone else thinks is fun. In my younger days just seeing a deer while hunting was heart pounding excitement for me. I wanted a buck so bad I could taste it, but my opportunities were few and when they did come I usually messed up ! There were a lot of reasons for that but the lack of success only increased my enthusiasm and drove me to try harder. As the years … Read More

Bear Hunting When Conventional Wisdom Ain’t Workin’

Wild Game DynastyBucks n Bears

Michigan’s bear hunting permit system can challenge anyone’s patience ..including mine.  After all, it is managed by the Dept. of Natural Resources.  Most of us spent years reading the online results: “try again next year”.  For one mid-Michigan hunter, Tony Dodak, he knew his efforts of getting a permit inside of the Red Oak bear management unit (BMU) was a work in progress.  Nine years to be exact.  He and his (hunting partner) brother, Aaron, began the planning process of unsuccessful permit draws back when the U.S. was in the midst of a financial crisis … Read More

For The Love Of Bow Hunting!

Jim KushnerBucks n Bears

When I was a kid, maybe six or seven years old, my Dad took up bow hunting. I remember watching him shoot his Bear recurve in the back yard and I was hooked.  I couldn’t wait to start shooting a bow. My first real bow was a green, fiberglass recurve with a white rubber handle that doubled as an arrow rest. I think it was all of 30 or 35lbs. draw weight. We shot wood arrows with glue on tips and feather fletching. I don’t remember there being any particular attention paid to matching arrows … Read More

Bow hunting at a fever pitch.

Wild Game DynastyFriends of ELO

By:  Tom Lounsbury. When August arrives I can feel an annual bout of bow season fever coming on, because with summer winding down, I know the Michigan archery deer season which opens October 1 isn’t all that far away (and the older I get, the faster time seems to fly). It is the key preseason time frame to get all of my archery equipment checked over and start doing some dedicated shooting practice. I’ve been avidly bowhunting local whitetails for quite some time now, mostly with traditional archery tackle involving recurve bows and longbows, and … Read More