Showing results by author "John E. Phillips" in All Categories

In Bowhunting Deer: The Secrets of the PSE Pros, these men will tell you how they set up to take them and how they choose a hunting bow and other hunting gear they feel with give them the best opportunities to take those bucks of their lifetimes. You'll also see how a serious deer hunter prepares to take a deer and the different strategies he utilizes to look for a big whitetail and grow a bigger whitetail on the property he hunts.

Using a black magic marker and a gray work jumpsuit, Jim Crumley of Buchanan, Virginia, drastically changed the nature and purpose of hunting camouflage when he created the first sportsman’s camouflage - Trebark. Throughout his life, Crumley has been a constant student of how to bowhunt better, and his desire to learn new and better techniques for bowhunting was one of the reasons he created Trebark camouflage. In this hunting guide, he shares the wisdom that he’s learned throughout his lifetime about how to be a hunter, how to find a deer lease, how to scout for deer, and more.

The quickest, easiest (if there is an easy way), and safest way to find and take that bull elk of a lifetime will be to hunt with a guide. Chad Schearer, a longtime Montana guide and TV personality, told me, “My hunter is my gun. If I get to the elk, and my hunter isn’t with me, then we don’t take the elk. My job is not only to find the elk but also to help the hunter get to the elk and make the experience as enjoyable as I can for him.” That’s the kind of fella with whom I want to go elk hunting.

On one elk hunt, I'd heard this bull bugle all morning. My guide had called him within 30 yards, and he was standing just inside black timber. I saw the smoke from his nose wafting out into the icy air less than 30-yards away. All the bull had to do was step out, and I could take the shot with my bow. But then, through no fault of my guide or me, the bull vanished. The only conclusion I could come up with to understand why the bull I wanted to take with my bow hadn't stepped out and given me a shot.

The father of the intelligent design movement, Phillip E. Johnson, thinks the new atheists are right! How? They’ve put serious discussion about God back on the public agenda. Despite their conclusions, folks like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett are asking the right questions. They’re making belief in any religion an issue again, especially in the university context where, for decades, questions about faith and reason have been taken off the table for serious discussion. Open debate is exactly what we need on the topics of God, evolution, and creation.

Years ago I learned that serving these two audiences in one book could be very difficult. However, in this book, I’ve tried to do just that. Mossy Oak’s Pro Staff is made up of some of the nation’s best deer hunters, professional deer hunters and TV hosts whose names and advice often are heard in deer camps all over the nation. But many of the more than 1,000 Mossy Oak Pro Staff hunters are every day, weekend and vacation deer hunters just like you. They’re dedicated to taking older-age-class bucks and keeping their deer herds in balance by harvesting does.

To be more successful as a deer hunter, learn all you can about the animal, the wind, the temperature and the techniques required to get in close. In this book, you'll hear about some of the best hunters in the nation who know how to hunt deer close, including one of the greatest archers who ever lived, Howard Hill. John E. Phillips shares his own deer stories and hunting tips from 50 years of experience.

The two ways to learn how to turkey-hunt both work. You can learn all about turkey hunting by yourself through trial and error, which is the slowest way to learn to turkey-hunt and means you’ll make the most mistakes. Or, you can hunt with the best turkey hunters anyone knows and learn from them what they do, why they do it, when they do what, and what not to do.

Deer hunting and deer hunters are drastically changing each year. To learn new techniques for hunting deer and have more places to hunt, I’ve interviewed some of the best deer hunters in the nation and share their tactics in How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro: Volume II.

Thirty-four of the nation’s best turkey hunters and turkey callers, past and present, have filled this book with their knowledge and wisdom. You’ll learn tactics from some of the early pioneers of the sport of turkey hunting, during the time that wild turkeys were just being reintroduced into many states. You’ll also learn, from some of the best turkey hunters of today, how to deal with too many gobblers and too many hens coming in at the same time, or one old tough tom that no one seems to be able to take.

Anyone who tells you that he or she knows everything there is to know about hunting elk will lie to you about something else. That’s why I’ve written this book, Elk: Keys to 23 More Hunters’ Success, and included more information to follow my highly-successful earlier book, Elk: Keys to 25 Hunters’ Success. The first two men in this new book, Ronnie Strickland and Will Primos, have a combined total of 78 years of elk hunting experience, often calling in several bulls in numerous states for other hunters each year. Not all these bulls have been taken.

In the outdoor world, the elk is the teacher; the hunter is the student. The bull elk, a stunning symbol of strength and power, is one of the most-elusive animals to hunt. The best way to learn how to hunt elk is to learn from the pros who have to take and film elk every year, like the Hunter's Specialties' Pros who produce elk videos every year for Hunter's Specialties' videos and TV shows. Wayne Carlton of Montrose, Colorado, has been hunting and guiding for elk for more than three decades.

Depth Finders: You need the latest and greatest depth finders available, since they’re the brains of a bass boat with maps, GPS, side scanning, down scanning, and forward scanning features that enable you to see underwater structures and fish 100-feet away with a 360-degree view. Today’s competitive bass anglers may have four or five depth finders located on the consoles and the bows of their boats.

To become a "PhD Whitetail", a whitetail deer has to have gone to school on hunters. He knows when to move, where to move, and how to move to avoid detection. Most deer hunters rely on luck to occasionally have the opportunity to see a PhD buck. But the professional hunters in this book have spent their lifetimes finding these bucks-with-doctorates and putting themselves in position to take these monster bucks using hunting strategies that few of us employ. The men who have learned their lesson from the PhD deer are videographers, producers, TV hosts, and/or professional hunters.

You’ll never encounter a more-maddening situation than hunting a turkey you can’t take. Turkeys that have earned their PhDs in the turkey-hunting wars pose problems to hunters because these birds know more about hunter-dodging than most hunters know about turkey hunting. You can learn how to take a tom like this by spending many days in the outdoors yourself - or, by learning from the experiences of turkey hunters who have been successful taking toms.

The Bowfishing Bible doesn't promise salvation or a ticket to heaven, but it does give you much of the information you need to be a happy, successful, productive, and winning bowfisherman. We've taken advice, recommendations, and principles that have led to successful careers for many different bowfishermen. We've also included bowfishermen of different ages and both sexes and with varying degrees of knowledge and experience.

The Briar Patch Philosopher is a collection of wise sayings that are simple to remember. One of my favorites that I learned from my dad was, “Even the good will of a bad dog is worth something.” We all face bad dogs in our work places, in our families and with our friends. By getting the good will of bad dogs on your side, you make the dog’s biting you very difficult.

Because river systems are so unpredictable, I’ve felt the best way to get the most useful information on how to fish rivers for crappie is to talk to numbers of anglers all over the nation to learn their best tactics. In this book, I’ve gleaned crappie-fishing wisdom from three dozen crappie anglers and guides from a dozen states, who consistently catch crappie at all times of the year. The tournament crappie fishermen in this book fish most of the country at different times of the year on various river systems and lakes.

I've learned so much on how hunters find trophy bucks, what they do to put themselves into positions to take those trophy bucks, and which hunters have the best chances of taking older, mature bucks. This audiobook is a celebration of the men and women who’ve taken their bucks of a lifetime.

Yes, you can catch and eat crappie during the fall and winter months. Often, at many places, you’ll catch more and bigger crappies in the fall and winter than you do in the spring and summer. To learn where to find and how to catch cooler weather speckled sides, we’ve interviewed a wide variety of some of the nation’s best tournament crappie fishermen and guides.