Russel Ferster is one heck of a bow shot is all I have to say.

Sporting Classics:

Ferster was hoping to put his archery skills to good use September 11, 2016, but not on a bear, and certainly not in a life-or-death situation. He and his 11-year-old brother, Lane, were elk hunting in Montana’s Crazy Mountains when a black bear responded to their cow call.

“We weren’t even fifteen minutes out of the pickup and I decided to cow call twice,” Ferster told the Billings Gazette.

The bear burst from nearby cover and closed to within 15 yards in an instant. Ferster said it appeared to be after the “elk” and not after he and his brother. Ferster has had this occur before while elk hunting, so he raised his hands and shouted at the bear as he had done in the past.

This bear, however, wasn’t deterred.

The bear began pouncing up and down on its front legs, much like a grizzly does when it presses down on a recently killed animal. Ferster is used to dealing with grizzlies, too, so much so that he has quit hunting in several areas that held the bigger bears. But despite his usual caution, he had failed to bring either a handgun or bear spray with him on this elk hunt.

He drew his bow in readiness for a possible attack, but his movement caused the bear to surge toward him.

“He came at 100 miles an hour,” Ferster said. “I had a split second to aim and hit him in the only place that would stop him in his tracks.”

That place was the eye. His arrow met the bear’s left eye, driving inward and upward through the bear’s head. It dropped the bear almost at Ferster’s feet, the broadhead lodged just inside its skull and the nock touching Ferster’s leg.

Read the whole thing.

From Bookwormroom & Bird Dog & Karen L. Myers.

Keep watching as it switches to credits.

Hat tip to Vanderleun.

The Hunger Games is inspiring young girls to take up archery. NPR

A 19th century Indo-Persian Steel Bow sold last year at Christie’s for £30,000 ($48,840).

Apparently, steel bows began replacing composite bows in Central Asia in the 16th century. Steel bows were superior with respect to having no need to be unstrung when not in use.

This take-down example is a remarkable piece of craftsmanship, made entirely of Damascus steel and completely inlaid on the front with 24 karat gold koftgari decoration.

From PaleoDirect.com

Hat tip to Sari Mantila.

Tule Elk

There were 28 categories of Big Game animals taken by archery in the Pope and Young record book before the Tule Elk (Cervus canadensis — or elaphus– nannodes), a subspecies of Roosevelt Elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti) was recently added.

The New York Times (of all sources) describes one hunter’s attempt to complete the new North American Archery Big Game Grand Slam.

I didn’t report on the giant pig story, because I didn’t believe it when I first encountered it. This one looks like it could well be authentic.

Bud Bolen of Jacksonville, Florida says he received the above photo from a friend (presumably the lady herself), and posted it on Archery Talk.

Bolen identifies the bow used to slay the elephant as a PSE X-Force.

He quotes her saying:

I was pulling 85 [38.64 kg.] on the bow before I left. When I got over there, I lowered it to 83 [37.73 kg.]. It was getting 103 ft lbs of kinetic energy at 83. The bow was awesome. I think it fit me well.

I had been hunting hard for 8 days before I got a chance to draw back. I had to hold the bow for a minute before I could take a shot. I shot the elephant at 12 yards with one arrow. It was shot near dark. We went back the next day and found him. I was in the middle of 37 elephants when I took my shot. This was my first bow kill and first woman to take an elie with a bow. The safari will be on Versus at the end of Sep or beginning of Oct. It is suppose to be the premiere show of the season. I will let you know the date when I find out.

The huntress is also quoted here:

The Outfitter was Tshabezi Safaris – Dudley Rogers. If anyone would like to book a safari with him, I can set it up.

The main camp was in Gokwe north.

As for the equipment, PSE set up the bow including stabalizer (sic), rest and site. I used a Little Goose release. The broadheads were also set up by PSE. They [the arrow shafts] were Black Mombas [sic] 550 grains. The broadheads were German Kinetics at 180 grains. The total grains equaled 730.

I wore Danner boots and Foxy Huntress clothing.

Mike Christianson was my bow mentor. Dr. Hugo Gibson was my chiropractor. I had to have him along because the heavy bow was pulling and pushing my shoulders out.

I trained for 14 months to be able to pull the big bows.

Her hunt probably cost $800 per day on a 10-16 day safari plus a trophy fee of $8000. Minimally $16,000 plus air fare.