When you travel to hunt and fish as much as I do, you learn to prepare for each trip the best you can, then take whatever comes in stride, good or bad! As most of you know, I have a tremendous passion for bow hunting, and over the past several years hosting various hunting shows on Outdoor Channel has provided me the opportunity to travel and hunt in places I could have only dreamed of growing up.
Last week I traveled to Newfoundland to hunt Woodland Caribou with River Run Outfitting for Scent Lok's High Places. I had been there this time last year and had lots if opportunities, but couldn't close the deal. I honestly left there very disappointed in myself. That being said, I traveled there this year with cautious optimism trying not to get my hopes too high. My realistic goal with to take a good representative Woodland (the smallest antlered of all caribou species), get a good TV show and move one step closer to taking all 29 North American big game species with a bow.
On the first day of the hunt I got very close to a nice bull but high winds kept me from taking the shot. We quickly located more caribou in the distance. In this group was the largest Woodland Caribou any of us had ever seen! We closed the gap to within 100 yards. Then to 50 where I took the shot, which did the job. I couldn't contain myself (you'll see in the show) when I finally put my hands on what unofficially will be...the new archery world record eclipsing the old record set back in 1966 by 20 inches!