Close Range Hunter

My 2026 Arizona archery elk hunt continues to be good with the exception of a very rainy 36 hours. More bulls seen and some close encounters. Enjoy.

Here we go! My 2026 Arizona archery elk hunt has begun and I'm trying to record daily updates. Here's the first three days recorded in the field, complete with crickets, thunder, wind, and the sounds of me eating and drinking as background sounds. Overall the hunt is going really well for a limited opportunity hunt. I already had some close encounters and passed up a 6x6 at 20 yards. I'm currently home resupplying and showering in the middle of day 4 and had a close encounter with a bull again this morning. You'll have to wait for the next episode to hear the details on that. At the beginning I mistakenly said opening day was September 21st, it was really the 11th. I hope you enjoy. Check my Instagram @closerangehunter for photos and a video.

Mark Sasser is a long time and very successful hunter and especially a tradbow and backcountry/backpack hunter. As someone who has hunted the backcountry and with a stickbow for a long time myself, I know when someone knows what they are talking about on those subjects and Mark is that guy. So often these days people become instant experts and Insta-heros and give advice without the real world experience, successes, and failures to backup their views. Mark has had his share of all of those and is the real deal. He's definitely qualified to share his experiences, thoughts, and stories and be taken seriously. To that end, he recently published a book of essays about his life and experiences carrying a bow into the backcountry entitled, Alone Against the Mountains. I had intended to read his book and then interview him for a podcast episode, but out of the blue he showed up in Prescott today, so we sat down for an impromptu visit. In this episode we talk about his book, our experiences backcountry hunting, social media, ethics, philosophy, traditional bowhunting organizations, and more. It was a totally organic spontaneous conversation with no notes or agenda. Just two guys talking about life and hunting. It's a long one and we could have gone on forever. I hope you enjoy it. We will definitely do some more episodes in the future too. Look up Mark on instagram as California Tradbow Hunter and buy his book on Amazon or wherever you can find it. I've already read the first several chapters and its great. He's also a partner at Bwana Bows which makes wide diversity of fine traditional bows. See what they are about at bwanabows.com

OK, It's been a long time. It's been a struggle since the first of the year and I haven't had a lot of great or interesting stuff to talk about, but it's time to tell my story. It's not always a good story and sorry about complaining, but I figure I might as well get it all off my chest. Stuck in Limbo is where I've been for a while and here's why. I'm hoping the next one will be more upbeat, or at least I will go on a rant about something hunting related. If you stick it out I have some good news near the end.

Its been a while and for good reason. I've been dealing with more heart issues that finally culminated in a quadruple bypass surgery in early October. Seven weeks later, with the help of my future son-in-law, Aaron I tested it out by packing into an Arizona Wilderness with my llamas for a rifle coues deer hunt. In this episode Aaron and I talk about the hunt and a bunch of other stuff. It was his first time on a big game hunt and he got the full experience. I apologize for some low quality audio. I recorded it straight from the built in mics on a portable recorder outside in the wind. We also captured llamas humming and birds chirping for ambiance. I hope you enjoy it and learn something as usual. Thanks for listening, and feel free to comment and contact me at closerangehunter@gmail.com.

I managed to get down to the border for a couple days of archery hunting opening weekend. Lance showed up for an evening even though he isn't archery hunting this year. We finally got around to the wrap up for last year's archery deer and bear hunt. Spoiler alert animals were harmed! We also talked a little early season archery bear from two weeks ago. The audio quality is a little wonky in spots because I was recording off the built-in microphones on the recorder. The crickets in the background are a nice touch though. I tried to get Lance's buddy Fabian, who was also hunting, to join in but he's too shy. They guy is a very good bowhunter so I'll keep working on him. This was just a fun conversation. I hope you enjoy the stories.

In the last few years I've climbed out from under my rock and tried to engage more with the traditional bowhunting community. In this episode I describe my experiences with the Colorado Traditional Archers Society High Country Shoot (it was fantastic!), and the Professional Bowhunters Society Odd Year Gathering in Wyoming. These events and the Compton event I attended in March have really helped me get more psyched about tradbow hunting again. In addition, myself and four other Arizona tradbow guys are trying to start a new state organization cleverly called, Traditional Bowhunters of Arizona. I also give my opinions on things like crossbows, the North Rim forest fires and a quick report on how archery deer season is shaping up for me. I hope you enjoy. Thanks.

I should have done this one a couple weeks ago, but better late than never. In this episode I describe how the Arizona big game draw process works, and how to access and use previous draw data to improve your odds in the future. The main AZ draw deadline just passed, but this info applies to all draws. I start by describing the draw and bonus point processes then do a deeper dive into the data you can find on the AZGFD website and how to use it to your advantage. I give several simple tips you should use to help your chances of drawing a big game tag, and some warnings about things that might hurt your chances. Hopefully it's not too confusing without visual aids. Maybe I'll make a YouTube video about this before the next draw so I can show exactly what to do. I hope you get something from this that will change the way you apply for AZ tags. Enjoy.

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.

My once in a lifetime desert bighorn sheep hunt is over! I got the ram I wanted and could not be happier or more fulfilled. This hunt built into a dream I didn't even have when it started, and the conclusion hit me like nothing I've ever experienced hunting. Desert sheep hunting is just different. I decided the best way to tell the story was to tell it face to face with a hunting friend, so I invited Josh Schmidt back for another session. No more words needed here. This is a long one, but there is a lot to unpack. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks, Chris

This episode is a recap of the second week or so of my desert bighorn sheep hunt. This time I had some great company and experienced the full range of sheep hunting experiences. From chasing a ghost ram to missing a dream ram. Lots of highs and lows and lessons learned. Desert sheep country is beautiful this time of year so just being out watching sheep do sheep things was really enjoyable. Stay tuned for the conclusion of my hunt in Part 4.

Part 2 of my desert bighorn sheep hunt covers the last couple days of scouting and the first few days of the hunt. Lots of sheep were seen and a gnarly one was killed. (Not by me.) I'm learning a lot about sheep hunting and having fun. Mostly. I'll be recording Part 3. soon and posting it when I get back into town. It's going to be a good one.

I attempted to upload this episode a week ago, but the upload failed and I didn't know until I was already out in the desert again. Sorry that it is a week out of date. A lot has transpired since this was recorded, but you will have to wait for that. Part 2 of my sheep hunt will follow next week, I hope. I've been applying for desert bighorn sheep tags for over 30 years and honestly never thought I'd draw one, so never even dreamed of hunting desert sheep in Arizona, but lady luck smiled on me and I'm going sheep hunting! I've never even been on a sheep hunt! I recorded this episode sitting in my truck out in the desert on my third scouting trip. I talk about the draw and how to play it to your advantage, and how I somehow managed to draw my second choice sheep tag. You'd think I am the luckiest guy in the world, but even when I'm lucky bad luck seems to find me and I talk about that too. Spoiler alert, this is still pre-hunt, so I go over my scouting so far and some of my plans for the hunt, but no sheep have been harmed yet. I've done one more scouting trip since this was recorded and have some things to be excited about, but that will have to wait for the next episode which I will probably record while in my sheep camp. By the time this is uploaded I'll be there and hopefully have a ram picked out for opening day December 1st. At this point I still plan to bowhunt, but that might go flying out the window if I get too excited about a ram! I hope you enjoy this one and are looking forward to the next update. I've got the whole month of December to hunt, but I'll post it as soon as I return. Wish me luck! Thanks for listening!

This episode was recorded in Arizona archery deer camp with Lance Altherr. I waited a long time to publish it because I wanted to get him on again for the season wrap up, but we couldn't get together, so that will have to come in a separate episode. It will be worth listening to for sure! This episode covers a lot of ground! We caught up on how deer and bear season had been so far, archery deer quotas, our plans for more hunting this season, bear hunting, hunting in New Zealand, more border talk, some fishing talk, and I probably talked too much about my recent trip to Australia. As always there's some good info in here if you pay attention and listen closely. See if you can catch where I edited out a top secret slip. Thanks for listening!

I finally got my old friend Lance Altherr to stop by to record a podcast. I've known Lance for over 25 years and he has some great stories to tell. He is the guy I've been archery coues deer hunting with down by the border for the last couple years. He's killed a bunch of big bucks and bears in the Borderlands and shares some of his secrets for both. Lance is a former Border Patrol officer and is currently a BLM Special Investigator. (Bureau of Land Management not the other BLM!) So, he has some first hand stories to tell about what goes on at our southern border too. This one is a little over two hours long, but there is some great info and some great stories, like when he treed a bear by barking like a dog while wearing nothing but his underwear! I hope you enjoy it and get some valuable info to help on your hunts. Bonus fishing stories at the end too.

It's been a long time again. So long I forgot what episode I was on. I said 15 in the podcast, but it is 16. This one kind of rambles a bit because I just had to get one done so I sat down without notes or a plan and hit record. There's been a lot going on around here with the biggest thing being that I had a "cardiac event". That story is intertwined with the recap of a rifle coues deer hunt I guided in November and a brief bit about my archery javelina hunting so far this month. There's a good tip hidden in the coues deer story so listen up. I'm still amazed that I'm getting downloads every week even though I haven't made a podcast in four months. I'm going to try to be more reliable and regular. Hopefully about once a month. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy it.

I finally got back on the board with a nice velvet coues deer! In this episode I explain a little about my history chasing velvet coues deer with a bow to explain why this was such an important success for me. This hunt took place very close, sometimes too close, to the southern border with the Border Hunter himself, my buddy Lance. I'm very grateful to him for sharing this spot. I recap the hunt, including the vicious doe mosh pit, and go in detail about how I preserved the velvet and still made a Euro mount of the skull. I think this is a game changer for velvet antlers. I hope you enjoy it and maybe learn a little to help your hunting game.

Once again I've been too long in getting an episode out. It's time to catch up and talk about Arizona archery deer season. In this episode I talk about my daughter's bison hunt, other cool stuff I've been up to and go in depth about my approach to the early season archery deer hunt in Arizona. I give some of my stories and tips about hunting tree stands and blinds, mostly geared towards coues deer in Arizona, but applicable no matter where you are. I even throw in a story about my recent death march hike. I have been planning to do another episode for a while and really wanted to do one specifically on my daughter's bison hunt called The Truth About Hunting Bison in Arizona. I needed some time to reflect on some of the drama from that hunt and finally decided to hold off on that. Since then I've encountered several people who have said how much they have enjoyed my previous podcasts and wondering what I was going to do next. I'm really quite flattered and surprised by the positive feedback I've received. Getting weekly emails from my podcast hosting site telling me how many more downloads it receives each week has been prodding me to do another. I really appreciate the fact that people are listening and reaching out even though I haven't uploaded an episode in almost four months! Thanks for listening. I don't make any money doing these and don't intend to, but I do enjoy sharing some of my thoughts and experiences to people who want to hear them. Please feel free to contact me through my Instagram at Closerangehunter or by email at closerangehunter@gmail.com. I hope you enjoy this one. Thanks, Chris