You can buy all this stuff for less than $100 total. It won’t take up much space in your day pack. It’s must carry hunting gear. --The best bow holder I’ve ever used is the long EZ Hanger. The tapered, self-tapping screw makes it easy to fairly drive into a hard tree. (I say "fairly" because all trees are different.) Adjust the hanger’s elbow up to 180 degrees to position your bow precisely where you want it. Later in the season, screwed into a tree at just the right height and angle, it doubles as a convenient gun rest if you need to fire at a deer off to the side and slightly behind you. --Buy a few rubber-coated hardware [...]

Today’s guest blog from Iowa hunter Marianne Kooker: Hi Mike: My husband, Joe, and I had been planning the October 15th weekend as "our hunting weekend." We lease some land with 2 other families about 1 1/2 hours from our hometown in Iowa, so we decided to rent a cabin down there and hunt Saturday night and Sunday morning. We headed down about 2 p.m and were in our stands by 4:00. Joe's stand is about 600 yards from mine, so he drops me off on the 4-wheeler first and up I go. It was a very warm evening and I guess I really didn't expect to see much, which I didn't, not even a squirrel. I had prayed several [...]