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 that time. So, in this episode the first 20 minutes are the new stats based on the hopefully correct numbers. The rest of the episode is me gushing about how awesome the Compton event was and how great the people are. I did a hard sell on joining Compton and teased the idea of starting our own traditional bowhunting organization in Arizona. I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to contact me at my email: closerangehunter@gmail.com or on Facebook or Instagram at Closerangehunter. Happy hunting!

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 growth. I also made another pitch for traditional archery seasons. I thought I had uploaded a podcast in February, but I guess I didn't. I recorded this a few weeks ago, but the audio was not up to par. So, here is my second attempt. I will follow up soon with another podcast about my experience at the Compton Traditional Bowhunters Big Game Classic I attended in Golden Colorado in March. As always I hope you get some useful info out of this one.

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 in the West where getting close ain't so easy. He's also a great husband, father, and an environmental scientist. Zach is very humble about his accomplishments, but I got some stories out of him. We even got a little sidetracked talking about crossbows and other technology and how they threaten bowhunting opportunities, which is sure to ruffle some feathers. We both did a quick recap of our successful archery javelina hunts from this week too. Two hours was not enough to do more than scratch the surface on Zach and some of the other subjects we covered. I definitely plan to get him on again ASAP. Let me know what you think about this one. I hope you enjoy it.