Western Optics 101

January has always been a big month for the bowhunting community, and in 2026 it's going to be bigger than ever thanks to the inaugural Archery and Bowhunting Super Show, a two-day consumer event being held on the heels of the annual Archery Trade Show in Indianapolis. ATA Chief Executive Officer Jeff Poole joins us to discuss this exciting new event, which will give bowhunters an opportunity to attend the archery industry's largest annual gathering to see all the new-for-2026 bows and bowhunting gear up close and personal. Add in the NFAA's Rushmore Rumble and S3DA Indoor Open tournaments happening in tandem with the show and you have the perfect recipe for an all-out stick and string celebration in Indy!

As November winds down and the holidays loom, the rut is waning across the northern two thirds of the whitetail range. Bowhunter Editor Christian Berg, Digital Editor Drew Pellman and Social Media  Manager Tony Jenniges recap their recent hunts, share observations and insights gleaned along the way and look ahead to late-season hunting and upcoming coverage of the 2026 Archery Trade Show in January.

With archery deer seasons now underway, what's the best way to make your trail cameras work for you. Moultrie's Mark Olis joins us to discuss how in-season trail-cam placement differs from pre-season placement and how you can make the most out of your trail-cam data to be a more efficient bowhunter this fall.

Derrick Dixon, founder of Whitetail Research, has been setting the deer-hunting world on fire of late, thanks to the amazing insights he has gathered on mature buck movement and behavior. Armed with a high-tech, infrared drone, the Missouri resident has literally been following mature bucks on the daily, recording their travels and interactions to piece together patterns and glean new understanding about arguably the greatest mystery in all of bowhunting – why mature bucks do what they do. Dixon joins us to discuss his amazing, ongoing research projects and how what he's learning can, and can't, benefit us as hunters. For more information, visit https://whitetailresearch.net

If you bowhunt long enough, it's going to happen. You hit an animal, and the shot placement is not ideal. The decisions you make after the shot are critical to maximize your odds of recovery. Noted Colorado bowhunter Jace Bauserman recounts his recent elk hunt and the multi-day, 30-mile effort to recover his bull.

Believe it or not, peak rut dates across the whitetail's range stretch all the way from July to February — an incredible span of eight months. But when is the peak of the rut where YOU hunt? Big-game biologists Brian Murphy and Jim Heffelfinger from HuntStand join us to discuss how they compiled breeding data from across North America to map peak whitetail breeding dates across more than 5,000 counties and parishes, along with peak breeding dates for mule deer, blacktail deer and elk.

The EHD virus is ravaging the whitetail herd in Southeast Ohio, where landowners are reporting hundreds of dead and dying deer across multiple counties. We discuss the current situation and the outlook for the upcoming archery season with noted Ohio deer hunter Emily Konkler and Zach Haas, an aquatic biologist and inventor of EHD-fense, a new tool in the fight against the virus.

After decades of effort, Pennsylvania has finally repealed its centuries-old ban on Sunday hunting. Travis Lau of the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Nick Pinozzotto of the National Deer Association join us to discuss this historic change, what it means for bowhunters and the future of deer management in the Keystone State.

Mock scrapes are a fantastic tool — not only for hunting but for taking an inventory of your local deer herd and patterning buck movements in advance of the season. This week, the crew from BuckStik joins us with tips on how to create, monitor and hunt mock scrapes, and how incorporating their innovative products into your scrape setups can attract more deer and keep them coming back to your scrape sites! For more information, visit https://www.litfoutdoors.com https://www.buckstik.com  

 In 1959, legendary bowhunter Harv Ebers used one of his self-made, left-handed, recurve bows to take down the world-record caribou in Alaska. Today, at age 90, Ebers is the last living original Pope and Young Club member — and he's still inspiring fellow bowhunters such as fellow lefty Tom Vanasche, who last year used the same bow to take a Wyoming whitetail, 65 years after its maiden hunt. Ebers and Vanasche discuss their special friendship and the ways traditional bowhunting transcends time.