Author: Thom

“Sometimes it isn’t being fast that counts, or even accurate; but willing.”

John Wayne

The air felt cold on my cheekbones as the light was beginning to fade. I was looking out into the Northern woods in that magic week between summer and winter that we call autumn. The pines stood fast with their green needles while the ferns wilted and the hardwoods unveiled their fall colors. 

I love bowhunting because it puts me in places like this. No phone signal, no people, no noise.  Instead my ears were filled with the music of nature with a babbling river just ahead of me, and all the birds and squirrels around me. Nothing to do but to sit quietly and be. 

This was my second day of the trip, my second day ever hunting black bears in the Northwoods. Over the previous few hours a little misting rain started and stopped a few times, the last time  it turned into tiny snow crystals before it stopped.  I enjoyed hours of just feeling those sensations on my skin, listening to those sounds, taking in the view, and tasting the delicious purity of the air.

I had booked this as a vacation and I had six more days to enjoy this hunt, as long as I didn’t screw that up by killing a bear. 

About half an hour before dark I watched a bear materialize just across the river. He was very close, and I still have no idea how he appeared there without me detecting his absolute blackness in woods devoid of that color.

Sometimes when I first see an animal I’m not sure if I will take a shot if one is presented or not. I usually get pretty philosophical about the local herd levels or the family structure of the group I’m looking at. Sometimes I know instantly that I will pass on a particular animal. I’d guess that for every hundred animals I see when hunting, only maybe ten get within my ethical range for my longbow. Of those ten I probably only draw an arrow once or twice. 

This was one of those very rare occasions where I knew instantly that this bear would be coming to me, and I would shoot him. The moments between the sighting and the shot can be long minutes sometimes.

I watched him cross the river. I watched the water drip off his long black hairs on the near bank. I watched him watch the woods. Through one squinted eye hiding under the brim of my hat, I watched him see me.  He sat and watched me for a long time, and I never let a muscle twitch. He started to circle around me to see me from different angles. We were sharing a connection. He circled around and after several minutes he walked straight to the base of the tree I was in, and he got up on his back legs to sniff the bottom of my boots. My stand was only eight feet off the ground. 

Part of me loved having another very close encounter with a bear in the wild. Especially being a black bear this time. That part of me wanted him to run away. That part knew I would soon kill this animal. 

Some hunters tell me that have no inner struggle with ending an animals life. I do. I hope I always grapple with it a little bit. To live on this planet, animals die for humans every day. I think the real tragedy is that so many humans will never understand what their impact is. 

As this bear walked out to my ideal range of eight yards and turned sideways, I felt he was offering me a gift. My duty was to make this as swift and painless as it could be. He lunged forward after my arrow went through him, after a couple bounds he looked around in circles trying to figure out what just happened. After not seeing any signs of immediate danger, he laid down and looked at his side where the exit wound was. He tried to stand up and fell over dead. 

Death in nature is usually prolonged and ugly.  Starvation, disease, injury, or being eaten alive by a predator. The part of me that struggles with killing animals also knows I must eat. That part of me is comforted by knowing that this bear died in the best way I can offer.

Steaks and roasts from this bear have now been served to more than ten different people, and has nourished my own body on several occasions. I find myself grateful with each bite. This connection to my food is why I went back to hunting. 

On the 4th of July I skipped the local parade and went to the airport. The only fireworks I saw were thousands of feet below my airplane in Charleston SC. I endured the longest leg that Delta flies at fifteen and a half hours and touched down at dusk on the 5th in Johannesburg. I should probably devote an entire blog post to long distance flying for hunting and international pitfalls, but who has time for that?

I found my one piece bow in oversized luggage as it looked like a fishing pole to security, but my two piece longbow once again got marked as a firearm and I had to stand it that line. Where I was chatting with the Safari Club crowd one remarkably clean cut gentleman made a remark about his bow. I asked the question and he was in fact the other person I would be sharing camp with over in Zululand. We had booked separate hotels so we bid farewell that evening and would meet again a little before 6am for the ride to camp.

At my hotel I enjoyed a nice springbok carpaccio as an appetizer with a glass of what was suggested to be one of the finest SA wines. I ran the Rand to USD converter and realized I was only into dinner about $7 so I went for the fillet and the rest of the bottle of wine. I figured inducing that level of sleep should cure any any jet-lag, whatever the experts say about that be damned. Off to bed early.

4am I get up and start pack/repack/shower/etc. Part of me wonders if I will miss the big city fancy food and posh lodging, but most of me knows better. Standing in the lobby drinking coffee at 5:20am local when the driver arrives early, we go fetch my hunting buddy for the week and head across SA. Great to see the folks from last year and the camp in great shape. We clear up some business in camp, have a little food, and get our bows together and on the practice range.  Since all is so well and the weather is fine, the PHs decide to take the two of us out for a bonus sit on day zero.

I settled into my hide with my PH and we got our bearings with footing, longbow clearance, etc. It was our first time in a hide together, and it was a bit on the small side at that. We seemed to sync up pretty quick, and he burned a little zebra dung. I don’t know if that was really more for neutralizing scent, good luck, or for the “tourist” factor but I did find it pleasing. I feared the breeze might be too high for game to move comfortably, but pushing towards sunset a group of female warthogs came in and took a drink in the water hole right in front of the blind. A boar shows up that nobody had ever seen and had never been on camera before. Even with high fences, pigs are unpredictable.

He comes in and is lower than I expected (hoping for blesbok or wildebeest), so when he laid down to drink the vitals were very low. My PH held my camera in video mode with one hand and the shooting window open with the other. My arrow must have been within inches of his fingers when it cleared the window. It did hit high and penetration was much less than I hoped for. We tracked a short ways that night, then pulled back to resume in the morning. In the end we had stopped just short of where he fell that night, but no predators found him before we did.  Here I am with my first pig outside of North America:

The next few days were focused on Wildebeest and they were tough hunting days. Long days… I had seem some good bulls, but on the 4th day it finally all came together and I had a shot opportunity. I had not practiced on any targets of Wildebeests who were laying down and drinking, only standing targets. The forward legs playing into me shooting the animal much farther back than ideal. We backed out and discussed our possible courses of action. I accepted that we should take a rifle so we could put it down at a great distance should it be required. We were much relieved to find that the razor sharp broadhead had performed much better than expected.

The next few days I had a Blesbok to hunt, with a tag for an Impala as well. Given I had taken such a grand Impala the year before I thought it best to focus on the Blesbok and only take an Impala if an ideal opportunity presented itself to collect meat for the camp or for the locals. Since such an opportunity didn’t arise I just kept sticking out for the right shot on a Blesbok. On my first day I saw 16 of them in the evening, I waited through the first 15 hoping for the biggest ram, but he was the only one in the herd who did not come in at all. He circled 70 yards out and left my life forever. The second day I only saw the Blesbok in the distance, and only a few of them all day at that. The third morning I had an old Ram walk within 3 yards of my hide on it’s way to water, everything was right and I made the shot before lunch. After lunch we recovered the beautiful animal.

I’m sad to say this was the only animal I’d shot in Africa that I hadn’t had at least some meat off of to eat myself. I’m glad to know that it fed the camp and some of it went to town. I’ve had a few cuts of Blesbok before, and I’m glad to know the hunters to follow me would have a chance to eat some of mine. Things go in circles naturally, and I’m glad to participate in the circle of life.

At this time I don’t think I’ll be going back to Africa anytime soon, but that doesn’t take away anything from my trips and adventures there. I am thankful to see that landscape, and to have had the opportunity to pursue those animals with my longbow!

And who knows, maybe someday….

I was emotionally crushed by the loss of my bow. It had been a constant through some years of my life filled with shifts and changes. Several times a week I would practice with it while looking forward to the dream of future hunts around the globe. I could always imagine it hanging in camp along side the bows of my hunting partners. Like a bud on a tree being the promise of spring, looking at my bow on it’s peg next to my door was promise of the next big adventure. Now it lay broken in my lap.

My friend Charlie came in and found me, he had an idea. He was actually quite insistent that he drive to town and retrieve our late friend Andrew’s longbow and bring it for me to hunt with the rest of the week. I objected in pretty much every way I could, I knew if anything happened to that bow it would be more than my heart could take. He went and got the bow anyway.

I slid that bow out of it’s case and took a long hard look at it. It was a stout straight end longbow, one that Andrew had told me he wanted to return to Africa and hunt with someday. I looked and found it had a brand new string that I had made for him, I had forgotten even doing that years ago but recognized it in a second. The string didn’t have a nock point on it, it had never been shot. My friend had just had a wrist surgery when I delivered it to him and he hadn’t moved up to this draw weight again after that.

I couldn’t bring myself to even string it just in case it had any unseen damage over the past few years, luckily my friend Bud grabbed a stringer and slid the loop into the upper groves and handed it to me. I tied on a nock point and went out to test some arrows. The bow and the arrows were in remarkable tune, the only problems were in the head and the heart of the hunter. I sat out the evening hunt and instead just watched the alligators in the pond and listened to owls for a while.

I woke up in the morning and took that old Elburg longbow out into the swamp for a walkabout. It was wonderfully light in my hand, and it felt incredible to have an American style semi-longbow in the woods again. I took it into a ground blind late in the afternoon and setup just the way I did with my old bow the morning before. After spending a few hours with deer, turkeys, and hogs parading back and forth in front of me, I found a nice young boar hog walking perfectly broadside in front of my shooting window at less than ten feet. I raised the bow up, and he stopped walking. He looked straight away from me to see what some more distant hogs were up to, and I drew back my arrow. I said a silent prayer at full draw, and I released the string looking at a wet black hair on his side.

In spite of it being very wet, and having another rain storm start immediately after the shot, the arrow had passed perfectly through the spot it needed to go. The string attached to the string tracker lead straight down the trail he departed on. A very short distance later, I found what I was looking for.  Bud came along to help me recover the animal after dark, and snapped the picture of me and this boar along with Andrew’s old bow.

I have had many beautiful experiences in my time hunting with longbows, and I have been lucky to harvest some wonderful animals, but nothing I’ve ever done felt so good in my heart as this hunt. Holding Andrew’s bow was a powerful connection to my friend now one year gone on the day I write this.

Rest in peace my friend, you are sorely missed.

The last picture of my strung longbow.

May twenty-second was an especially hot morning to be sitting in a ground blind in a muggy South Carolina swamp.  Approaching the blind I could see the mosquitoes were thick coming out of ten days of rain. Standing water was everywhere, and the moving water was much deeper and running faster than usual.

I opened up the forward facing window on the blind wide open, then fired up my Thermacell before going into the door at the back. I dropped my backpack and quiver into a corner, then I setup my tripod seat and got comfortable. I did my little routine for ground blind hunting by lining up my coffee cup, thermos, binoculars, cell phone, and quiver so it’s all within an easy reach. Finally I setup an arrow on my rest and connected my string tracker, being this wet it could come in very handy. Soon the buzzing of wings inside the blind died down so I switched off the Thermacell and zipped closed the shoot-thru mesh. All buttoned up and ready to hunt as the sun began to rise on the first morning of my five day hunt.

I wondered if this day could be any more perfect? I got out my thermos and poured another cup of coffee. Apparently, yes it could.

I sit and watch the birds and squirrels a few hours, then watch three longbeard turkeys pass right in front of my blind. I have always loved watching and listening to wild turkeys in close, it’s a nice treat but the climbing temperature is beginning to distract me.

At 10:30 my hunting partner for this trip shows up at my blind. Bud and I both had hunted this property a bunch, and it was good to finally be hunting it at the same time again. He had shot a young boar that sounded about perfect for putting some good meat in the freezer. The rain was close enough to hear coming and we agreed better to go while we had good blood and risk pushing it rather than to wait and have no trail to follow. A good rain was already falling by the time we got to the shot location, but good blood carried us down into a flooded flat about 250 yards away. We tracked into the palmettos slowly knowing we had favorable wind and cover noise. Just a question of if we would see a bit of hair before it could make us out and flee. Unfortunately 30 yards later we bumped him out. At the end of our pursuit we did not have a hog, and we had no more blood. Bud would come back later for walking more circles and a unsuccessful grid search.

It was a bad piece of luck,  I hoped there was no more bad luck in store for us!

We went back to camp for an amazing potjie lunch of which I had two large helpings and a bunch of water to rehydrate from the morning sauna, I mean ground blind sit. The rain stopped and we had some good spots we wanted to hunt so we loaded up the Gator and took off to go hunting.  Then I heard a “snap” sound from behind me…

I was driving the Gator, and I had put my bow in the bed. My upper limb had stuck out of the bed and got caught up before snapping. I guess this day did hold a little more bad luck.

I wasn’t ready for what came next. I own a bunch of bows, and I’ve had bows break in my hand before. I knew it would sting, but I was entirely unready for the wave of emotions that was about to wash over me.

I had recently realized that somehow over the past 3 years it had become my “one bow”. When I finally caught up with that monster boar hog, it was this bow I used to make that shot. On only it’s second trip it closed that saga. The next summer I took an incredible solo adventure and bagged another nice boar on the evening of the 4th of July. Barely a month later I finally had the opportunity to harvest a beautiful pronghorn buck. For a long time this would have been the answer to the “if you had to flee a fire and could only take one thing” question.

I spent a bit of the afternoon holding it in my lap and thinking back of everyplace it had accompanied me. I soon realized that the broken bow was a small thing, it was the broken heart that wasn’t going to be quick to mend.

I opened up my latest issue of Traditional Bowhunter magazine over the weekend and started off by reading the Co-Editors Note penned by Don Thomas about the movie Trophy. As soon as I hit the end I made another cup of coffee and read it again from the top. Apparently Don Thomas and I feel the exact same way about the movie and about the state of hunting in the world today. He closes with this:

“We need to do better. The whole world is watching. Literally.”

I had seen this movie either two or three times before reading the article, and I will probably watch it again as I am a documentary junkie. I can’t think of anyone I wouldn’t recommend the movie to. Not because it’s a grand-slam that aligns perfectly to what I think of hunt. Actually quite the opposite, it gives a glimpse into just how confusing the entire state of affairs really is! While I’ve heard it argued both as an anti-hunting film by some, and a pro-hunting film by others, I think it’s really a good amount of information about both pros and cons as well as really a good spotlight on the slippery slope of either argument in general.

Here are my predictions if you are about to watch it for the first time.

• If you are a hunter you will be proud of some successes we’ve had keeping animals from going extinct. You will probably also be disgusted by some of the things said and done by our fellow hunters on film.
• If someone is an anti-hunter there are some things that will probably reinforce the negative stereotypes held about hunters and hunting, but it also clearly shows where hunters have supported the saving of species where other methods have failed.
• Most importantly in my mind would be what a non-hunter would see in all this: It is a complex situation with a whole lot of grey in the middle and very little black and white.

I will be going back to Africa soon to pursue some plains game and try again for the African Buffalo that has haunted my dreams for so many years. For me the movie reinforced the importance I have as a hunter being a very small percentage of the population on the survival of several species. It along with the article in TBM also reminds me of the importance of my actions while I’m in the pursuit, and how I represent myself as a hunter.

To my hunting peers, I close with this; “We need to do better…”

Hello Steve,

March is typically a crazy month for me, and this one proved a little more frantic than most. I actually spent 4 days at home in the entire month! Between not being around, and trying to unpack boxes in my new home on the few days I was around, I have accomplished very little in regards to this hunt’s prep.

I was very glad a few days in there I was able to come down South and enjoy my birthday with you and yours, and that we got to do a little hog hunting!!! I snagged that picture above from that video of us walking up on, then away from that little sounder. Glad we didn’t anger momma in the dark!

I’m glad to see you have sorted out your optics and sleeping system, I’ve done a ton of research from different hotel’s wifi around the country but haven’t done much as far as checking things off my list. Here is my outstanding To Do list from this month:

• Prepare 6-8 dehydrated meals, re-hydrate and eat. Modify recipe as needed.
• Buy Exo Mountain pack, get adjusted.
• Buy new sleeping bag so I don’t freeze!
• Call local biologist contact after draw.
• Seal seams on my tipi, pitch it before a rain storm to test.
• Find local taxidermist within WY borders to drop skulls if needed.

You can see I’ve got a few biggies in there, but they are mostly things I can catch up on quickly now that I’m home for at least most of April.

We hit quite a snafu with our cow elk draw. I didn’t realize that as nonresidents we have different application dates than residents, and we missed our deadline to apply. Good news is that we won’t be distracted from pursuing mule deer, and if we tag out we can go fly fishing!  This also means we won’t have to worry about cooler space for several hundred extra pounds of meat.

My items planned for April include moving up from 64# longbow into 87# longbow, confirm tune on heavy arrows, prep for May hog hunt, and do everything I should have done in March! I will work on coordinating that call with the biologist for a time you can be on too. Let’s recap our list of questions a day or two before.

All the best my friend!

Thom

Hello Steve,
Well since my last letter/blog post I’ve had a bunch going on. I bought a house and started the move, and at the same time took several out-of-state business trips. One wiped out a fair bit of my bank account, and the other soaked up a lot of my time. Knowing our hunt is coming up I figured it best to re-prioritize my preparations accordingly.

Since my “one hour per day” preparation plan has been taking place mostly from hotel wifi, I’ve focused on buying a few small things I wouldn’t have to be home to sign for and building up knowledge I will need to tap into for later.

First up is my stove setup. You know I’ve got that wood burning Solo Stove Lite and the Pot 900 I planned to bring. I found out they released an Alcohol Burner that I can add into that and provide me a dual-fuel setup.

After I ordered the burner I did a ton of research on different fuels to burn and I purchased several to test myself. After lighting them all off fire steel and boiling water indoors, I think Everclear 190 proof is what I will carry for my fuel. I got a little light headed and had to air the house out with a few fuels, and some left a ton of soot on my pot.  I am calculating approximately 18 ounces needed for 6 days in the back country for me.  I have a 24 ounce stainless steel water container, I think that is what I will carry just to have a little extra fuel. Good thing in my deal is that I can drop back into wood sticks if needed and save us both fuel if we want to spend the time.

Next bit of research took me into pot cozies. I learned a ton and did some experimenting with these too. This could save us a ton of fuel. I assume you will be taking your Vargo Bot, why don’t you bring it up when you come to Michigan and we will build you a cozy for it as there is a significant amount of surplus in materials.

Once the cooking part was figured out, I started looking into food. You know with my diet I need to be very careful about things like Mountain House or MREs.  I stumbled into a YouTube Channel where a guy prepares all sorts of things I can dehydrate and vacuum seal with the eqiupment I already have.  I especially like his ground meat setup. My plan is to do a bunch of tests through Feb and Mar preparing lots of vegetables, meats, minute rice, and spices  into single serving pouches and then rehydrating and eating them using my Solo setup. I will give you an update as I get these dialed in. Should be pennies on the dollar and plenty light and healthy.

Last thing food wise, you know I love my coffee in the morning. I fell in love with these in Africa and I ordered a bunch of unsweetened cappuccino packets to give a test run with. I can always drop back to Nescafe or VIA packets, but I might take some of these instead. Sometimes when it’s extra crappy out, a little comfort like these can go a long way for morale.

Feb 22 we get our draw results for bucks and bulls, I’m crossing my fingers for us! Will get you another update as I finish my move and make progress on my pack and arrow setup.

Thom

Hello Steve,

I’m just going to write this blog post like it’s a normal email to you. As real as it gets. I’ve been doing an average of one hour per day of hunt prep. I’d offer updates on all different aspects of my efforts, but it would probably appear too scattered to be useful. Instead I’ll tell you my #1 focus and that is ironing out our application strategy.  Because we are going to try for elk tags, our application will be due Jan 31 instead of May 31 if we were just doing deer or pronghorn.  Non-resident schedule in the second table HERE.

Given that deadline, we have to be 100% sure of where we want to hunt and more importantly how we want to fill out the application. You and I have used mytopo, gohunt, and Wyoming DNR resources to narrow down where we think we are going so that part is in good shape. We can sort out camping sites, glassing tips, and trails after we get our tags.  The big question is how to apply our points. Ive been studying up and I have a strategy to propose. I better break up our application strategy into two sections.

Mule Deer

With our current deer Preference Points we can both draw archery tags this year if we want, but next year we would each have about a 50% chance. Instead of us hunting every-other-year, I’m thinking you should put in for the tag as your first choice and know you will be our go-to guy for stalking mule deer. I will put in for something like area 119 where there was one Random Draw tag for 77 applicants. This should preserve my points and still give me a 40% chance of getting a tag for our area this year. Next year I will plan to cash in my points and you will be trying for the lottery win. This should ensure at least one of us can hunt deer every year.

So it would look like this for 2018:

Steve #1 – archery tag, you would get this based on points.

Steve #2 – doesn’t matter, see #1

Steve #3 – doesn’t matter, see #1

Thom #1 – some impossible to draw tag, will preserve points.

Thom #2 – same tag as your #1, I will not draw with points. 40% odds I get one on luck.

Thom #3 – point only

Then in 2019 it would be like this:

 

Thom #1 -archery tag, I would get this based on points.

Thom #2 – doesn’t matter, see #1

Thom #3 – doesn’t matter, see #1

Steve #1 – same tag as my #1, you will not draw with points. 40% odds you get one on luck. You will get a point if you don’t get it.

Steve #2 – point only

Steve #3 – point only

If things stay about the same with tag allocations and point creep, we could plan on 2020 working like 2018.

Elk

This plays into the elk situation. If we want to hunt elk in that area we both can get a cow tag, or I could get a bull tag on preference points. I think I want to go for a one-in-a-million tag as my first choice to preserve points. My second choice will put me into a random drawing for one of only a few bull tags, low odds but why not?

So it would look like this for 2018:

Steve #1 – Our unit for Any Elk. You won’t have enough points to draw, but you will have a 1% chance to get a tag good for bull. At least you will get a point when you don’t hit this one.

Steve #2 – point only

Steve #3 – NA see #2

Steve Type 6 – cow/calf tag for our area. You will get this one.

Thom #1 – some impossible to draw tag, will preserve points.

Thom #2 – Our unit for Any Elk, again a 1% chance to hunt a bull.

Thom #3 – point only

Thom Type 6 – cow/calf tag for our area. I will get this one.

Then in 2019 it could be like this:

Thom #1 -Our unit for Any Elk. I will get it on preference points.

Thom #2 – doesn’t matter, see #1

Thom #3 – doesn’t matter, see #1

Steve #1 – Same as my #1, your odds will be about 1%. You will get a point when you don’t draw which should be enough to get you a bull tag in 2020 with your existing points.

Steve #2 – point only

Steve #3 – NA see #2

Steve Type 6 – Cow/calf the same unit. You will get this one.

So to summarize this strategy:

• We will trade off the opportunity to hunt deer every other year.
• We can both get a cow elk tag every year if we want it.
• We will get a bull tag every 4 or 5 years, or we can build points and go for a big trophy potential unit down the road.

With the strategy set, we will submit for drawing at the end of the month. Then I can double down on other gear and logistics in update #2. All my best!

Thom

 

If you poke around this site or have read any of my old magazine articles you might know that I have been running Muddy Pro Sticks since they hit the market back around 2012. I love the rope system enough to use them despite being 4 short sticks instead of the 3 long sticks I prefer. Well, then I found out that they were recalled and I didn’t know it. I did reach out to Muddy via their website to try to buy replacement tree cleats but I have never received any response from the company.

I was really hoping that Dan Infalt’s much rumored sticks would already be available on the market, but in the wake of the recall I think it might be OK to let other hunters do a season on them before buying. It’s hard to imagine a model of climbing stick with more man hours of use worldwide than the Long Wolf ones.

In the above picture you can see there are two sticks as they came out of the box on the bottom. Build quality was very good, and they feel very sturdy. I’ve used this model on and off over the years and have never heard anything bad about them from anyone.

I have been using Yak Grips on my treestand buckles for several seasons now and like the way they keep buckles from clanging on metal. I bought an extra pair of these that I cut in half and installed on all 4 buckles.

I decided to try out Stealth Strips instead of doing a hockey tape wrap. I must say I’m very impressed with the material and I think I’m going to like them. It did take me a little time to install them the way that I approached the project, but the results are phenomenal!

I really liked the double steps and rope/cam system on the Muddy sticks, but I think this setup is going to serve me well. Now with one off-season project done, on to the other million on my list of things to do before my next hunt in a few months….

*** Skip to bottom for the update ***

I need to replace some old gear, and base layers made my list for things to look for on Black Friday. Specifically I was looking for First Lite Llano 170 gram tops and bottoms in ASAT pattern. Sure enough they were on sale, but everything in my size was sold out. Internet rumors indicating that it might be a closeout of ASAT entirely.

At this point I wanted to be VERY sure of the system I would be investing in. KUIU Vias and First Lite Fusion were my 2nd and 3rd choices. I came up with a brilliant idea: I would buy one plain t shirt of each material in street friendly colors and plan to wear them exclusively at home for the entire winter. I will wear one every evening and weekend, then after 7 days wash and dry, then switch to the alternate brand. I figured if I could ever catch a whiff of body odor, or if one started wearing out faster than the other it would solidify what base layer system to go with.

I ordered my second choice from KUIU, a 125 gram 85% wool/15% nylon T shirt in gray. It looks pretty sharp in my book.

Then I went to order my third choice from First Lite, a 170 gram 100% wool T shirt in green.  Too bad they are also out of my size  for this like the ASAT so I didn’t order anything.

I guess at this point my business is KUIU’s to lose. The shirt fits PERFECTLY and the material feels really good on my skin. I hope it holds up! As of today the experiment has begun, we’ll see what the results are this coming spring!

*** Update***

I’ve worn this shirt at least 5 hours a day for 31 of the last 32 days (sometimes as much as 24 hours straight.) I have washed it by hand each Sunday, and had a woman with a sensitive nose check it each Saturday to see if she could detect any odor. Never once could she smell anything on this shirt. I slept in it 3 nights along the way just to see if I might stretch it out some way or another, but it didn’t. No little wool balls forming, and no thin wear spots yet. At this point I plan to run this material as my base layer for early season hunts in 2018.