Looking to notch your spring turkey tag with a crossbow? Add these notes to your playbook. A pack of jakes read the script, offering me numerous shot opportunities in the decoys. The tom, however, held tight in the pine forest bordering the field I was hunting. He gobbled constantly, and I waited him out even after the jakes had moved on, but he absolutely wouldn’t poke his beak into the field. Eventually, the gobbling fizzled along with my hopes. I packed up my gear, including my crossbow, and retreated to my truck. With permission to hunt across the road, I…
Author: Darron McDougal
Darron McDougal
Darron McDougal, a full-time freelance outdoor writer, has resided in central Wisconsin for his entire life, except for a 2-year jaunt during which he and his wife, Becca, traveled and lived in a fifth-wheel camper. Becca often hunts with Darron and is an integral part of his publishing success, capturing professional-grade photography that often accompanies his articles. The McDougals do minimal deer hunting around their home. Instead, they love to hunt DIY-style, primarily on public lands, out west. Hunting unfamiliar territory has its thrills and challenges, and it truly tests a hunter's prowess. Despite the low success odds of this hunting style, Darron has done very well, and he accredits his success and accomplishments to God. So far, he's hunted whitetails in 11 states and harvested deer in nine. He enjoys hunting all sorts of wild game from turkeys to hogs to elk. He also occasionally mentors youth or beginner hunters. While bowhunting is his preferred method, he doesn't think twice when a rifle, shotgun or muzzleloader hunt fits his schedule. He's been shooting archery for nearly three decades and has 20 years of hunting experience.
More involved than a firearm and less involved than a compound bow, crossbows are perhaps the ideal bridge between the two and a solid fit for lighter-framed hunters. The globe teems with way too many hunting opportunities to count, but there are only a handful of weapons to humanely hunt with: bows, cross- bows, firearms, spears and blowguns. Blowguns and spears aren’t practical for most, so that fundamentally narrows things down to bows, crossbows and firearms. I have absolutely nothing against firearms; I own a nice lot of guns and hunt with them whenever the opportunity presents itself. But, in…
40th Anniversary Bottomlands I believe most of us can agree that we live in a complicated world. Sometimes, technology is overdone, and things get more complex than necessary. That’s why there’s something refreshing—even captivating—about simplicity. Excalibur, a household name in crossbows, has embodied that concept since its inception 40 years ago. Most crossbows today flaunt more and more radical, futuristic styling, but not Excalibur. Its motto, “Different for a Reason,” says it all. Today’s wildest crossbow designs can be intimidating to beginner and intermediate hunters, but an Excalibur plucks a familiar chord with most because of its recurve design. Even…
Got the Itch to Hit the Road With Your Crossbow? Try Hunting in One of These States. “There’s no place like home,” Dorothy famously said in the 1939 film, “The Wizard of Oz.” Many hunters can relate to that statement because of the efforts and improvements to land that they’ve invested in their home hunting grounds. For some, there’s also a nostalgia for hunting in the same places where they did as a kid. In addition, hunting around home is usually convenient. Many hunters can sneak in hunts near where they live before or after work, or on the weekends,…