Buck Tales and Bowhunting by Gordon Whittington January 14, 2008
Every January I attend the annual Archery Trade Association (ATA) show. And every time I do, I'm reminded just how healthy the bowhunting industry really is.
This year's event was Jan. 10-12, in Indianapolis, and as always, it drew thousands of manufacturers, industry representatives, pro staffers, outdoor writers and dealers. Seeing aisles filled with folks discussing the latest bows, arrows, broadheads, releases, sights, tree stands, boots, camouflage patterns and the like confirms that archery hunting -- especially archery hunting for whitetails -- is still going strong, with exciting innovations at every turn.
And for those of us here at North American Whitetail, this show offers another benefit: It's a great place to catch up with old hunting buddies and make new ones.
One new friend NAW editor Duncan Dobie and I made was Panu Hiidenmies, a Finnish hunter who traveled all the way to the ATA Show to gather support for bowhunting in his homeland. Currently it's illegal to bowhunt most big game in Finland, but Panu and sportsmen like him are working to change that. Here's hoping they're successful in the near future, so our counterparts in that part of the world can enjoy the thrill of bowhunting.
By the way, Panu graciously gave Duncan and me each a copy of the spectacular hardcover book, The White-Tailed Deer in Finland. As one who enjoys learning about the origins of various whitetail populations, I've found this book to be one of the best of its type. The Finnish herd originated from a handful of whitetails shipped there in 1934 from Minnesota, and today Finns annually harvest more than 20,000 deer from this transplanted population. Authors Juha K. Kairikko and Jaakko Ruola did a marvelous job of telling the detailed story of Europe's most notable whitetail introduction.
NAW editor Duncan Dobie (left) visits with Finnish hunter Panu Hiidenmies, who attended the ATA Show to gather support for legalized whitetail bowhunting back home in Finland.
Plenty of great deer stories from this side of the Atlantic also were told -- and retold -- in the span of those three days in Indianapolis. Not surprisingly, much of the talk was about Helgie Eymundson's Alberta megabuck, the 38-point monster that graces the cover of our February issue. (For those of you who don't have subscriptions, newsstand copies are scheduled to go on sale Jan. 22.)
I actually bumped into Helgie in Indianapolis, and as you might have figured, he was still wearing the big smile that was spread across his face in photos of him with his non-typical. As sales manager of Wild TV (www.wildtv.ca), Helgie already knew a ton of folks in the hunting industry, so it's no surprise he's been swamped with handshakes and "attaboys" since word of his monster buck began spreading through the whitetail community.
This amazingly palmated rack is set for official measuring later this month, and to this point, there seems little doubt he'll be recognized as 2007's top whitetail. The only real question is whether or not he'll rank as the highest-scoring deer ever from Canada. Currently, Neil Morin's 279 6/8-inch Alberta giant is No. 1, so if Helgie's amazing trophy breaks that monster's mark, he'll have Canada's national record as well.
While I doubt I'll ever lay eyes on a giant to match Helgie's, I naturally hold out hope that my next deer hunt will at least produce a mature buck. And that next hunt begins later this week, as Dr. James Kroll ("Dr. Deer") and I head to Mexico for a late-season run at some big bucks south of the border. We'll be hunting a couple of quality ranches with some of James' close friends in Mexico's cattle industry, and cameraman Mike Clerkin will be recording the action for what we hope is a future episode of North American Whitetail Television Presented by Arctic Cat. See you when we get back!
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