Close Range Hunter

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...

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 h...

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...

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 w...

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 h...

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 y...

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...

In this episode I breakdown some numbers and stats of the archery deer quota from 2024.  What units closed when, how many deer were killed by archers in 2024, how that compares to 2023, and what do these numbers tell us? At the end I did a little catching up and told some stories about a couple of crazy coincidences between big game hunting and meteorite hunting and a bit on drought and antler gro...

This is a long one, but a good one!  I've been wanting to get Zach Larsen on this podcast since before I even recorded the first episode.  Zach hunts with primitive bows, arrows, and even points he makes himself.  He's not just taking his bows for a walk in the woods either.  He's killed dozens of animals while getting stickbow close.  He is a legit close range hunter and doing it i...

My once in a lifetime desert bighorn sheep hunt is over!   I got the ram I wanted and could not be happier or more fulfilled.  This hunt built into a dream I didn't even have when it started, and the conclusion hit me like nothing I've ever experienced hunting.  Desert sheep hunting is just different. I decided the best way to tell the story was to tell it face to face with a hunting fri...

This episode is a recap of the second week or so of my desert bighorn sheep hunt.  This time I had some great company and experienced the full range of sheep hunting experiences.  From chasing a ghost ram to missing a dream ram. Lots of highs and lows and lessons learned.  Desert sheep country is beautiful this time of year so just being out watching sheep do sheep things was really enjoyable.  St...

Part 2 of my desert bighorn sheep hunt covers the last couple days of scouting and the first few days of the hunt.  Lots of sheep were seen and a gnarly one was killed. (Not by me.)  I'm learning a lot about sheep hunting and having fun.  Mostly. I'll be recording Part 3. soon and posting it when I get back into town.  It's going to be a good one.

I attempted to upload this episode a week ago, but the upload failed and I didn't know until I was already out in the desert again.  Sorry that it is a week out of date.  A lot has transpired since this was recorded, but you will have to wait for that.   Part 2 of my sheep hunt will follow next week, I hope.    I've been applying for desert bighorn sheep tags for over 30 years and honest...

This episode was recorded in Arizona archery deer camp with Lance Altherr.  I waited a long time to publish it because I wanted to get him on again for the season wrap up, but we couldn't get together, so that will have to come in a separate episode.  It will be worth listening to for sure!  This episode covers a lot of ground!  We caught up on how deer and bear season had been so far, archer...

I finally got my old friend Lance Altherr to stop by to record a podcast.  I've known Lance for over 25 years and he has some great stories to tell.  He is the guy I've been archery coues deer hunting with down by the border for the last couple years.  He's killed a bunch of big bucks and bears in the Borderlands and shares some of his secrets for both.   Lance is a former Border Pa...

It's been a long time again.  So long I forgot what episode I was on.  I said 15 in the podcast, but it is 16.  This one kind of rambles a bit because I just had to get one done so I sat down without notes or a plan and hit record.  There's been a lot going on around here with the biggest thing being that I had a "cardiac event".  That story is intertwined with the recap of a r...

I finally got back on the board with a nice velvet coues deer!  In this episode I explain a little about my history chasing velvet coues deer with a bow to explain why this was such an important success for me.   This hunt took place very close,  sometimes too close, to the southern border with the Border Hunter himself, my buddy Lance.  I'm very grateful to him for sharing this spot.  I reca...

Once again I've been too long in getting an episode out.  It's time to catch up and talk about Arizona archery deer season.  In this episode I talk about my daughter's bison hunt, other cool stuff I've been up to and go in depth about my approach to the early season archery deer hunt in Arizona.   I give some of my stories and tips about hunting tree stands and blinds, mostly g...

It's been quite a while since my last episode, but I'm back! Since Christmas Janice and I have been pretending to be retired, not just from our regular jobs, but also our pack llama business.  No social media, podcasts, or YouTube videos.  Just fun enjoying the Arizona backcountry.  In this episode I first catch up on some of the adventures we've had and tell a couple of hunting sto...

Josh has a wealth of knowledge, and more importantly, experience with backcountry search and rescue, whitewater and technical rescue, wilderness first aid, exercise physiology, and lots of other interesting and useful stuff.  He's a family man and very accomplished hunter, college professor, SAR and SWAT team member, and all around good guy.  He's one of the very few people I will hunt w...

For this episode I took my recorder into the field to document my 2022 rifle coues deer hunt.  I packed into the Arizona desert wilderness solo, but with a couple of my llamas carrying all my food and gear.   It was a great time to be hunting in the desert.  I go over some of the gear used as well as tactics I typically use for this type of hunt and recap the hunt as I go.  For the first time I ra...

They say the first step is admitting that you have a problem.  In this episode I do just that, and talk about my debilitating addiction to archery hunting for trophy coues deer.    This quest has caused 30 years years of frustration and unfilled tags not to mention the paranoia that came with finding and pursuing a true world record class buck.  Yes, I spent six of those years attempting to match...

Archery elk season is right on top of us!  In this episode I cover five big picture strategies that I think are the most important, overlooked, or misunderstood aspects of archery elk hunting during the rut,  especially if you are solo hunting.  This isn't meant to be a comprehensive treatment of elk calling, tactics, and gear.  There are already many sources for that kind of information.   I...

 As I said in my first episode, I hunt all kinds of things.  In this episode I give a brief introduction to meteorites and meteorite hunting and describe a couple of trips I took in June.  It's been a while since my last episode because I've been out of town and busy with some of the stuff in this episode.  If you ever wondered about how people can find meteorites listen up! 

For this episode I had originally planned to get into the details and pros and cons of changes coming to Arizona OTC archery deer seasons.  At the last minute, I decided to more generally address why they are happening.  Spoiler alert:  It's due to the increasing mainstream popularity of hunting, monetizing hunting, and rapid technological innovation.  These things are putting increasing pres...