Category Archives: Bowhunting

Rage Broadheads Protected From Chinese Knockoffs

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hanback w rage buck

FeraDyne Outdoors announces that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued a powerful General Exclusion Order (GEO) that will protect FeraDyne’s popular Rage broadheads from foreign patent and trademark infringement. The GEO, which takes effect immediately, empowers more than 20,000 Customs & Border Protection Officers at more than 300 U.S. ports of entry to identify and bar from entry all foreign-made broadheads that violate Rage patents and trademarks.

rage close up

In 2006 FeraDyne released the original slip-cam Rage (pictured), which changed the face of the archery-broadhead business, especially as pertains to deer hunting. The original Rage quickly became the market leader and has since been joined by a growing line of patented Rage broadheads, all of which are designed and manufactured by American workers in the United States.

It didn’t take long for Chinese counterfeiters to begin creating cheap knock-offs of the Rage that illegally copied FeraDyne’s patented designs. Wisconsin-based FeraDyne filed a complaint with the ITC in November 2015. The ITC’s investigation found infringement on the Rage design and trademark by at least 9 foreign companies.

The ITC recently issued the GEO to close the U.S. market to all foreign-made broadheads that infringe on the Rage, regardless where the knock-offs are made or the identity of the party seeking to import them. The GEO, which covers both direct copies of Rage broadheads as well as other infringing designs, will be in place indefinitely.

“We are pleased to see (our) intellectual property rights affirmed by the U.S. International Trade Commission, and we are grateful that the dedicated law enforcement officers of Customs & Border Protection have joined in the fight to keep our company and customers safe from counterfeiters,” said Todd Seyfert, president and CEO of FeraDyne. “While we don’t ever want to see customers lured into buying a foreign knock-off in the first place, (hunters) should know that now those orders might not arrive (in the U.S.) at all.”

A solid ruling and another good reason to buy American and #Make America Great Again.

Pre-Season Tip: How to Hang a Tree Stand in the Woods

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wool plaid luke

While Montana bowhunter Luke Strommen prefers to hunt big bucks on the fringes of fields when possible, he realizes that hanging sets back in the woods is an integral part of the game.

“In mid-season, by hunting back in the woods a ways, you can catch the bucks that come off a field early and first in the morning–these are usually the most mature and the largest deer. And these stands can be anytime-of-day stands, where you might shoot a buck morning, midday or evening.”

In a woods-hunting situation, you have to get to your stand very early, morning or afternoon advises Luke. “You have to pick your poison because it is difficult to pick a trail to your stand where whitetails won’t pass and wind the scent you left with your feet.”

Luke notes that after a hunt, it can sometimes be tough to get out of a woods stand without deer seeing or hearing you, thus contaminating the area for future hunts. “One trick is just before you climb down, blow a coyote howl or a light yap. An old friend from Idaho told me that years ago, and it works. Any deer close by will clear out, and then you leave unnoticed.

“Also, if by chance you hunt near train tracks or highway, move fast out of the stand when a train rumbles through or a big rig roars past. Out here in Montana we call that ‘noise camo.’”

You Can Shoot a 20-Year-Old Whitetail Doe

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matt ross old doeMost of us who shoot a 5- or 6-year-old doe with bow and arrow think we’ve done something, and we have. A doe that lives that long in the wild is crafty, one of the smartest deer in the woods.

Imagine a doe that lives 10 or 15 years longer yet!

This Instagram post from wildlife biologist @MattRossqdma caught my eye:

Camel Doe…throwback to the absolute oldest deer I will ever kill. September 18, 2002. She was easily in her late teens, if not older…my friends said she looked just like a camel. She tasted fine to me!

Matt went on to say that he based the New York doe’s age on his experience of having aged thousands of jawbones from the Northeast over the past 15 years, “including many that I have also gotten cementum annuli analysis on.”

“Plus, the overall appearance of the doe was pretty rough,” he noted. “Cataracts, both ears missing significant portions of the tips, etc.” She was skinny and boney, hence the camel look.

This begs the question: What is the lifespan of a whitetail doe? In captivity does have been documented to live 18 to 25 years (14 years for a buck).

What about the wild whitetails you hunt? Recent data from Pennsylvania confirms 3 does to have lived at least 13 years, maybe longer.

While I wouldn’t hold my breath, you could conceivably see an old, skinny doe that resembles a camel sneaking toward your stand this fall. That would be pretty cool.

Tough Buck: Arrow Is Splint for Deer’s Ribcage

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arrow in deer ribI saw this unique trophy on the Drury Outdoors Instagram, here’s the gist of it:

The section of ribs shown belonged to a buck that was shot with a bow by Jackie Stegall in North Carolina 30 years ago.  Jackie had no idea what he would find when the skinned the 4-pointer, which looked healthy and acted normally. But sometime at the mid-point of skinning, Jackie saw that he was not the first archer to shoot the buck! Notice how the ribs had healed and grown around the arrow shaft, which had in effect become a splint for the broken ribs. Jackie recently gifted this amazing trophy to his son, Robert, for his 30th birthday.

Amazing. The broadhead looks like the Bear Razorhead I used to sharpen and shoot way back when (fyi, I didn’t use the bleeder inserts).

How to Bowhunt City Bucks

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MT kevin robinsn bucks

People are shooting huge whitetail bucks in small tracts in cities and suburbs where bowhunting is permitted. In Connecticut, northern Virginia, New York—and out in Missoula, Montana.

Last week I filmed a TV segment with Kevin Robinson; the heavy 8-point rack with killer brow tines is from his 2016 Montana suburbs buck. Kevin will tell his story on an episode of BIG DEER TV later this fall, but here are a few of tricks.

When archery season opens in early September, Kevin hunts high in a draw that overlooks town in the evenings. His tree stand is tight to one of two deer trails that run up and down the mountain. He knows these suburban bucks, and if a big deer has not passed his stand by a certain time in the evening, he knows he is not coming on the first trail, but should be walking the second trail. So he gets down, gets the wind and thermals right and sneaks over to one of three ground spots to watch the second trail. That’s how he got the three-beamed buck on the left side of the photo.

Kevin said, “It’s all about scouting and watching early-season deer on their tight and predictable summer pattern.”

MT film kevin

He hunts fairly hard in September, but when October and the “lull” roll around he stops hunting and leaves the local deer alone until later in November. “Not hunting for 4 or 5 weeks, that’s hard to do, but I know how good the hunting will be as the rut comes on,” Kevin says.

In November he typically hunts from a tree stand set lower in the draw and much nearer houses, roads and developments. “Local town bucks that I hardly ever see up high start moving around and looking for does, and the action really gets good.”

For city bucks, Kevin says grunting works well, and a drag line with doe scent can be good in the rut.