Close Range Hunter

I got a little behind on recording due to just being too tired and running around trying to find some elk.  This is a recap of days 7-13. Some tough hunting.  I guess that's why they call it a limited opportunity hunt.  Because it is limited opportunity they give us three weeks to hunt so now that the regular archery hunts are over I get another week.  I'll be hitting it as hard as I can.  Now about any bull is in danger, although I let three spikes go yesterday evening.

My 2026 Arizona archery elk hunt continues to be good with the exception of a very rainy 36 hours.   More bulls seen and some close encounters.  Enjoy.

Here we go! My 2026 Arizona archery elk hunt has begun and I'm trying to record daily updates.  Here's the first three days recorded in the field, complete with crickets, thunder, wind, and the sounds of me eating and drinking as background sounds.   Overall the hunt is going really well for a limited opportunity hunt.  I already had some close encounters and passed up a 6x6 at 20 yards. I'm currently home resupplying and showering in the middle of day 4 and had a close encounter with a bull again this morning.  You'll have to wait for the next episode to hear the details on that.   At the beginning I mistakenly said opening day was September 21st, it was really the 11th.  I hope you enjoy.  

Check my Instagram @closerangehunter for photos and a video.

Mark Sasser is a long time and very successful hunter and especially a tradbow and backcountry/backpack hunter.   As someone who has hunted the backcountry and with a stickbow for a long time myself, I know when someone knows what they are talking about on those subjects and Mark is that guy.  So often these days people become instant experts and Insta-heros and give advice without the real world experience, successes, and failures to backup their views.  Mark has had his share of all of those and is the real deal.  He's definitely qualified to share his experiences, thoughts, and stories and be taken seriously.  To that end, he recently published a book of essays about his life and experiences carrying a bow into the backcountry entitled, Alone Against the Mountains.  I had intended to read his book and then interview him for a podcast episode, but out of the blue he showed up in Prescott today, so we sat down for an impromptu visit.  

In this episode we talk about his book, our experiences backcountry hunting, social media, ethics, philosophy, traditional bowhunting organizations, and more. It was a totally organic spontaneous conversation with no notes or agenda. Just two guys talking about life and hunting.  It's a long one and we could have gone on forever.  I hope you enjoy it.  We will definitely do some more episodes in the future too.

Look up Mark on instagram as California Tradbow Hunter and buy his book on Amazon or wherever you can find it.  I've already read the first several chapters and its great.  He's also a partner at Bwana Bows which makes wide diversity of fine traditional bows. See what they are about at bwanabows.com

OK, It's been a long time.  It's been a struggle since the first of the year and I haven't had a lot of great or interesting stuff to talk about, but it's time to tell my story.  It's not always a good story and sorry about complaining, but I figure I might as well get it all off my chest.  Stuck in Limbo is where I've been for a while and here's why.  I'm hoping the next one will be more upbeat, or at least I will go on a rant about something hunting related.  If you stick it out I have some good news near the end.  

Its been a while and for good reason.  I've been dealing with more heart issues that finally culminated in a quadruple bypass surgery in early October.  Seven weeks later, with the help of my future son-in-law, Aaron I tested it out by packing into an Arizona Wilderness with my llamas for a rifle coues deer hunt.  In this episode Aaron and I talk about the hunt and a bunch of other stuff.  It was his first time on a big game hunt and he got the full experience.  

I apologize for some low quality audio.  I recorded it straight from the built in mics on a portable recorder outside in the wind.  We also captured llamas humming and birds chirping for ambiance.  

I hope you enjoy it and learn something as usual.  Thanks for listening, and feel free to comment and contact me at [email protected].

I managed to get down to the border for a couple days of archery hunting opening weekend. Lance showed up for an evening even though he isn't archery hunting this year.   We finally got around to the wrap up for last year's archery deer and bear hunt.  Spoiler alert animals were harmed!  We also talked a little early season archery bear from two weeks ago. The audio quality is a little wonky in spots because I was recording off the built-in microphones on the recorder.  The crickets in the background are a nice touch though.  I tried to get Lance's buddy Fabian, who was also hunting, to join in but he's too shy.  They guy is a very good bowhunter so I'll keep working on him. This was just a fun conversation. I hope you enjoy the stories.

In the last few years I've climbed out from under my rock and tried to engage more with the traditional bowhunting community.  In this episode I describe my experiences with the Colorado Traditional Archers Society High Country Shoot (it was fantastic!), and the Professional Bowhunters Society Odd Year Gathering in Wyoming.  These events and the Compton event I attended in March have really helped me get more psyched about tradbow hunting again.  In addition, myself and four other Arizona tradbow guys are trying to start a new state organization cleverly called, Traditional Bowhunters of Arizona. I also give my opinions on things like crossbows, the North Rim forest fires and a quick report on how archery deer season is shaping up for me.   I hope you enjoy.  Thanks.

I should have done this one a couple weeks ago, but better late than never.  In this episode I describe how the Arizona big game draw process works, and how to access and use previous draw data to improve your odds in the future. The main AZ draw deadline just passed, but this info applies to all draws.  I start by describing the draw and bonus point processes then do a deeper dive into the data you can find on the AZGFD website and how to use it to your advantage.  I give several simple tips you should use to help your chances of drawing a big game tag, and some warnings about things that might hurt your chances. Hopefully it's not too confusing without visual aids.  Maybe I'll make a YouTube video about this before the next draw so I can show exactly what to do. I hope you get something from this that will change the way you apply for AZ tags.  Enjoy.

This episode was supposed to be about my recent trip to Colorado for the Compton Traditional Bowhunters Big Game Classic, but thanks to listener PJ Selinski (and I do mean thanks PJ) it was confirmed that the numbers I used for the previous episode on the 2024 archery deer quotas were wrong.  I knew then that something was off, but I went with the numbers I got off the AZ Game and Fish website at that time.  So, in this episode the first 20 minutes are the new stats based on the hopefully correct numbers.  The rest of the episode is me gushing about how awesome the Compton event was and how great the people are.  I did a hard sell on joining Compton and teased the idea of starting our own traditional bowhunting organization in Arizona.  I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to contact me at my email: [email protected] or on Facebook or Instagram at Closerangehunter. Happy hunting!