Pro Staff Articles

Meet WJ team member Jason Hutcheson from the state of Ohio in the United States. Not only is he a veteran of the United States Navy but has also competed professionally riding bulls as a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) and the Professional Bull Riders (PBR). Congratulations Jason on your 2013 spring [...]

My name is Greg Traynor and I am a hunter with a disability. In 1999, at the age of 31, I had a diving accident. As a result, I am paralyzed from the chest down with limited arm movement. I use a power wheelchair for mobility, adapted hunting equipment and a service dog. Of course, [...]

By Charles Moore It’s always a great feeling when you raise a young man to appreciate God’s words and his great outdoors. Levi asked me again today, how many days till I can go turkey hunting? I told him it starts tomorrow morning son. I got dressed and went to roost the turkeys. They flew [...]

  When someone is taken out of their culture and their comfort zone, they look for familiar things that make them feel comfortable. This helps to ease their apprehension with living in new surroundings. When I moved to Germany in September 2009, I searched for the local hunting community. I had read about the different [...]

By Peter Hochstein Although the Hungarian nation is traditionally an archery-nation, modern archery hunting is only 13 years old in our country. Only 5-10% of the Hungarian hunters use a bow for hunting purposes, which is no more than 3,000-5,000 people. If you want to hunt with a bow, in addition to the hunting license, [...]

By Adrian Banks Once again it was that time of year when I went up to the Highlands of Scotland for an all important and vital hunt, culling red hinds.   It was the end of October and my 4×4 was packed with all the essential gear, rifle in .308 calibre, ammo, binoculars, camo and a [...]

By Peter Hochstein   In Hungary winter time is traditionally the season for drive hunts in the big game areas of the country.  2012 was the third year that we organized a drive hunt with the hunting group where my parents are members. As in previous years, we invited a few good fellows to spend [...]

By Lindsay Bedwell Schmeltz We bought our property in the summer of 2007. It was a bank repossession that we got for what at the time, seemed like a steal. What we ended up buying was actually five acres of low quality ground, no mature timber, a house that was falling in, two garages that [...]

By Dason Lasater The beads of sweat ran down my forehead stinging my eyes with their salty touch. My fingers were doing their best impersonation of wiper blades trying desperately to keep the salty invaders from blocking any possible visual cue of my target. I continued uphill as fast as I possibly could. My intended [...]

By Peter Hochstein In November, an old friend invited me to hunt for wild boar and mouflon ram in northeast Hungary. The hunting territory was located in the heart of the mountains of Mátra and Bükk. Both mountains had a huge population of red deer, wild boar and mouflon. The first evening, we were sitting [...]

By Stephen Reed The 2009 deer season will stand out in my memory till the day I die! Not only did I kill my biggest firearm buck to date, but I started several great friendships. One in particular will last as long as the memory of that great season. I hadn’t been hunting in a [...]

By Mike Rundell Finally a clear evening, a great weather forecast and a full moon, the perfect storm was building for a great evening of Wildschwein hunting.  It was Wednesday the 1st of August and the Reh rut was in full gear. However, I was more interested in the Wildschwein running around our hunting area. After [...]

By Robert (Doc) Mann It was 0400 am, I had just woke up from a short night’s sleep and was getting ready to go out on a morning hunt at 0430 am. After a cup of coffee, I geared up (Rifle Blaser 93, Cal. 6.5X 55 Swiss, with Leupold VX-3 scope, bino’s and laser range [...]

By Pedro Ampuero Most of the stories people tell are usually about the nice parts of the hunt. Those fond experiences over time are the ones that end up staying in our memories. However, this article aims to tell the other side of the story. This does not mean that there were not endearing moments. [...]

By Craig Foreman Most seasoned hunters are well aware of the joys and disappointments of a successful harvest. But, if you are just starting out or considering taking up hunting, because it looked like fun on an overpriced DVD (to have 15 kill shots in 25 minutes) then read on. Everybody has to start somewhere. [...]

By Kyle Shaffer As I peered over the edge of the shelf on the side of Pyramid Mountain, I found what I had been looking for. My plan worked, I was finally above the orange colored Sitka Blacktail Buck that we had seen from below two hours earlier.  He had only fled around the side [...]

By  Michael Boehme Figure-1 “Photo” Michael and his son Danny, with his trophy warthog. The day before this hunt, we hunted Ostriches for an African farmer on the southern edge of the Kalahari Desert who had too many ostriches.  Nasty creatures – covered with black flies the size of watermelon seeds – – – but [...]

By Pedro Ampuero My Dad and I started our hunt in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. We drove along the Karakoram highway for three full days. It was a 14 hour drive to Chilas, 12 more hours to Skardu, and after 9 more hours we finally arrived to Hushe. This was going to be our home [...]

By Yancy Chandler Note from the Author: Daddy, I am grateful for everything you taught me and I hope that I will be able to give my son everything you gave me. Happy Father’s Day to you and all the fathers across the world! Figure 1 “Photo” One of many hunts my Dad and I [...]

By Matt Sturtevant Hunting has been a passion of mine my entire life. I was raised on Maine Whitetails. My success rate was pretty standard for a flat lander, harvesting one doe over the course of 11 years. I was used to the cold, being patient, and little chance of even spotting deer. By the [...]

By Greg Traynor This year I again had the pleasure to go hunting with my brother John and two great friends, Chris and Guy. The quest started this year on Monday, May 14th 2012.  My family loaded my action track chair after work onto my 4×6 trailer. Of course it was raining while we loaded [...]

By Greg Traynor My name is Greg Traynor and I am a person with a disability. In 1999, I broke my neck at the C4/C5 vertebrae and became paralyzed from the chest down in a diving accident. I use an adapted gun brace and adapted crank trigger for hunting. I have limited arm movement and [...]

By Roger Pettersson Finland borders Russia to the east and Sweden to the west and stretches approximately 1200 km North/South and about 600 km wide East/West. This makes up for a total of 338,145 square kilometers of pristine nature. Finland is also known for its abundance of lakes which offers an exceptional water fowl environment [...]

By Ricky Mills Many people associate the nettle plant with pain, when it makes contact with your skin, as you are walking through a particularly moist section of woods on a hike, camping or hunting trip. Not many people would even consider putting this plant in their mouth and would rather stay as far away [...]

By Stephen Reed As temperatures rose inching higher in anticipation of spring, my 8 year old son, Tyler, started talking about his first turkey hunt. I had purchased a Remington 870 Wingmaster in 20 gauge the previous fall, so his gun and ground blind were ready to go. His camo was washed and folded just [...]

By Craig Foreman This year is my second season to hunt in Ohio. Last year I was able to tag a little four point on the property that my wife’s family owns and allows me to hunt. There is an old farm house that is uninhabited yet fully livable where we frequently stay on weekends. [...]

  By: Laura Heinrichs Where: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Last year, I had the pleasure of being drawn for an elk/moose archery tag. As an archery applicant I was able to enter the draw as a single hunter, whereas applicants for general seasons must apply in pairs. I wasn’t sure what my chances of being drawn [...]

By Kyle Shaffer When someone is taken out of their culture, their comfort zone, they look for things familiar to them that make them feel better about their surroundings and ease their apprehension about living someplace new. Upon moving to Germany in September 2009, I searched for the local hunting community. I had read about [...]

By Pedro Ampuero When deciding their next foreign hunting destination, most bowhunters will think of places like the US, Canada or South Africa. However, there are a wide variety of other destinations to be discovered. That is the case of Spain, a country which offers a wide range of opportunities and a great variety of [...]

By Yancy Chandler I wrote this little piece about three years ago. Our lease was almost bought by the US Military due to the expansion of Fort Polk Army Base, Louisiana. When mornings become cool and summer turns to fall, the leaves start to change. And once again, opening day of deer season is not [...]

By Dason Lasater My stepson Ryan and I received the good news that we were drawn for Antelope tags in June. From that point on, we prepared for a desert Antelope hunt. I prefer to hunt unguided and on public ground as much as possible, so this hunt perfectly fit the bill. We live in Idaho, which has [...]

By Amy Hern If you’re looking for a story about the conquests of mountain peaks or the chase of big trophy game across continents, this is not it. This is just a simple story of a girl who dared to dream and to venture into the horizons of her sights. I was born in Kuala [...]

By Stephen Reed This year’s hunting season came with mixed emotions. I wasn’t sure how to start without my brother. I was really excited about the new property and the chance to hunt with my son and nephew. It’s been trying at times and rewarding at others, but a good year so far. I leased [...]

By Lindsay Schmeltz After the first 3 weeks of early archery season in Indiana, I started to wonder if this would be another disappointing year. My stand was set up on a few hundred acres of field. There was a small, 10 acre strip of woods that ran the entire property from north to south [...]

By Roger Pettersson Aland (Åland) is a small autonomous region situated in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden with approximately 26,000 people, 30% are hunters. Aland is a part of Finland, but we consider ourselves “Alandics” rather than Finnish. Both hunting and fishing are a great part of our traditions. We have fairly liberal [...]

By Stephen Reed One of the greatest joys of hunting for me is to introduce the sport to new hunters of all ages and genders, but nothing is quite as special as when it’s family. This year was extra special. It was the second year I took my son Tyler out, plus I had the [...]

By Mat Sturtevant Elk hunting has been a passion of mine for the last 4 years and by passion, I mean total obsession. In 2008, on a whim, I began elk hunting again. Originally a whitetail hunter from Maine, I dropped out of the sport after only harvesting one dear (a doe) in 12 years. [...]

By Stephen Reed This year I lost my brother Scott Smith. He was more than my brother, he was my best friend and my hunting partner. It’s been a rough year to say the least, my brother Scott and I have known each other since we were 7 years old. We were born two months [...]

By Nicholas Oliver When I arrived at combined Armed Forces installation Lewis-McCord in Washington State in early summer this year, I immediately thought of hunting in Europe. After having an open hunting season throughout the summer months there, being in the US was a transition to say the least. I could hardly wait to get [...]

By Stephen Reed This weekend I was supposed to move stands and set up ground blinds on my property in Southern Missouri. I made plans to meet a buddy who was in town from Indiana. We planned to pick up a ladder stand I left on some public ground last year and move it to [...]

By Barry Parsons I could not be happier with my first Rehbock (Roe Deer buck) harvested in Germany. The bock was 3 to 4 years old weighing 17.5 kilos with a very atypical set of antlers, one side 5 cm long and the other barely 2 cm long. The taking of this buck fits into [...]

By Chris Norris It was late July and I was hunting over a 20 acre wheat field. It had been raining all day, not a heavy rain, just a very light drizzle. I got to the stand early like I always do. I took my gear out of my rucksack and removed my gun sling, [...]

By Henry Browning  At about 1830 on 3 July 2011, my daughter (Lorelai) and I left home, heading to the closest patch of forest that might reveal a few interesting critters. We grabbed our camo rain gear, video as well as my still camera and headed about a half a mile past the Graf Sports [...]

By John Clark As hunters we all measure success in different ways. There is a fairly broad, almost universal “process” that hunters go through. In the beginning any deer will do. After that, we want more deer, any size big or small. We are not looking for quality trophy deer, quantity is what matters. We [...]

By Chris Yasher Figure 1 “Photo” Chris Yasher on his remote Canadian black bear hunt. Introduction You have done your research and called references, spoke to friends and watched all the shows.  You have decided this is the year that you will spend the money that you have been hiding away in the hopes that [...]

By Robert Hembrook In 2009, while hunting in South Africa, I took a Springbok and my next target was a Blesbok. At 70 kilos, a Blesbok is a step up from a Springbok. They are purplish brown all over, with white bellies and a very distinctive white blaze on their face, which is what gives them [...]

By Robert Hembrook When hunting in Africa, it is always good to start out with something small, easy and plentiful. Springbok hunting certainly fills this need.  Springbok are plentiful and they make a challenging target. Males are around 70-87cm (28-34 inches) high and weigh 33-50 kg (75-100 lbs), similar to the diminutive, overpopulated whitetails of [...]

By Robert Hembrook In November 2006, I took the hunter’s safety course in Heidelberg, Germany.  Time and circumstances kept me from hunting until fall 2008. I took a couple trips to Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels to hunt Rehwild (Roe Deer).  My first hunt was on a private Revier near Grafenwoehr. Despite a good setup, we just [...]

By Nicholas Oliver The 2011 Rehwild (Roe deer) hunting season got off with a bang for me. I had the opportunity to attend a guided hunt conducted by one of the leading outfitters in Hungary. I felt that excitement and anxiousness that builds up inside me each year as it gets closer to the first [...]

By Henry Browning Figure 1 “Photo” A Kuna Indian tribe village in the jungles of Panama, South America. Kuna grass, black  palm, triple canopy, and bushmaster vipers aren’t exactly what you think of  when one thinks of hunting turkey. But if you are in the Darien Province of the  Republic of Panama, you might need to [...]

By Ricky Mills Wild onions, garlic, chives, mushrooms and the leaves of many plants can be used in a variety of recipes. April is Bärlauch (Wild Garlic) season in Germany, coinciding annually with the weather getting better and many people starting to get out and about in the woods. This wild garlic grows mainly on the shady [...]

By Chris Norris After completing Infantry Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia, I was one of four lucky soldiers that got the privilege of being shipped overseas. With orders for Baumholder, Germany I hit the ground running and got the lay of the land. I immediately signed up for the next hunting course, 10 weeks [...]

By Ricky Mills The day you call in your first turkey, and finish the deal, is a special day in the life  and development of hunting as a hobby, sport or profession. I have hunted  turkeys since the spring of 2000 and can tell you that one of the keys to  success is mental preparation [...]

By John MacCallum While growing up in Central NY, near Syracuse, in a small town called Elbridge, there was nothing to do except  go to school,  play sports and oh yeah hunt. And hunt we did! There was a set of railroad tracks right next to my house. They were about one hundred fifty yards [...]

By Chris Norris Figure 1 “Photo” Chris Norris is an accomplished Boar hunter after many years of trial and error. I remember how cold it was sitting in my stand; it was the kind of cold that passes right through the layers of your clothing and into the core of your body. It was at [...]

By Robert (Doc) Mann It was 6 February 2011 and I had just gotten out of bed. I had a smile on my face because I was getting ready to go hunting. 0600 in the morning and I was preparing to leave home to go to the meeting location of a social hunt. We would [...]

By Robert (Doc) Mann As the European hunting season comes to an end each year, Revier holders review the level of success achieved in the management of the game population (Harvest /Abschuess plan) within their respective hunting land. The directors of State and Federal forest land also conduct the same review, to determine if the [...]

By Christie Bonniwell I can still remember the first time my dad took me hunting. The excitement of getting up early and waving good bye to my mom as we pulled out of the driveway, I felt like such a grown up! I listened eagerly to my dad explain everything with anticipation and excitement of [...]

By Christie Bonniwell There it was again, the high shrill of a bugle.  It was not a deep bugle so it had to be a younger Sika stag.   I hear the splashing of something crossing the water. Anxiously I wait, looking for movement in the brush.  Finally the brush starts moving, I start shaking, and [...]

By Robert Mann The Hunting trip started on 8 October 2011 in a forest on the Germany/Czechoslovakia (CZ) Border with a party of six hunters. We had all gathered to hunt Sika deer, Roe deer and wild boar. We hunted hard for three days, through rain, high winds and cold temperatures. On the last day [...]

By John MacCallum Hunting is a great way to stay in touch with friends. I have been an active duty Navy Seabee for 18 years now and have moved around the country quite a bit. We have made many friends both military and civilian everywhere we go. Staying in touch with friends and finding new [...]

By Dason Lasater Sweat ran down my back as I made my way almost to the top of the ridge through the tall moist grass and brush. I knew the buck was close and I knew the only way I would get an acceptable shot with my bow was to find him before he saw [...]

By Mathew J. Cervantes The woods, wild game, a rifle, and your dog. What more could a man ask for? As I train my new hunting dog, I am flooded with boyhood memories. The memories of  yesteryear, when the responsibilities of manhood were far away and the lure of new adventures were at hand. When I brought [...]

The Hunting Horn – By Erich Held   Audio Samples Horn Sample 1 - Sammeln des Jaegers (Gather the Hunters) Horn Sample 2 - Rehwild Tot (Deer Dead) Horn Sample 3 - Fuchs Tot (Fox Dead) Horn Sample 4 - Auf, Auf zum Fröhlich Jagen (On to Happy Hunting)   The sounds of the hunting horns (Jagd Horns) have [...]

Elk Hunt to the Max – By Dason Lasater I summon all the air I am able to for one last high pitched piercing bugle. As we have done so many times this season, Jeff and I hold absolutely still, hardly breathing, hoping to hear a response. Our silence is rewarded with a faint barely [...]