Brian had always used facemasks, preferring the convenience of masks to the mess and trouble of paint. However, all of that changed the first time Brian went bowhunting in Kansas, the ultimate whitetail hunting state. As a big buck came into his line of sight, Brian drew back on his bow only to have his facemask catch on his release! There was nothing for him to do except draw down and watch as the buck of a lifetime walked away. Determined to never experience a facemask mishap like this again, Brian purchased every face paint product on the market. No matter what he tried, the paint ended up feeling greasy, messy, and itchy. Some of the products smelled like crayons, and as any good bowhunter will tell you, it is imperative to be scent free on the hunt.

The purpose of the Mule Deer Foundation is to ensure the conservation of mule deer, black-tailed deer and their habitat.

Chris Stuckel, the inventor of the FieldTorq knife, saw a need for cleanly, easily, and safely field dressing big game animals and was tired of carrying multiple tools to achieve the task.  The final motivation was the tragic accident of a hunter who accidentally stabbed his femoral artery while field dressing his deer. He was using a traditional hunting knife with a pointed tip and exposed blade.

Ramcat is entirely different. All the proof is in the ferrule. We have a patented Concave Scoop tip on the front. We have our Cage Ripper broadhead. The beauty of this one is that the Concave Scoop in the front, which is our patented technology. What this allows you to do, whether you shoot with one blade, two blades, and three blades. It will always fly like your field tip, which is what you want. When you’re changing your setups and moving over three inches and up two inches, that throws your whole game off. You want to practice with what the scenario, same tips as you’re going to shoot with. When your field tips are matching your hunting arrows that is huge. From the Ramcat lineup, we have the original Hydroshock, which everybody knows and loves. It’s done great on all our testing.

Dead Down Wind, if you haven’t seen it, you’ll know it. The guy who was good at marketing, his name was Gary Reed back in the day. What he did a great job of is the packaging in my eyes. When you see orange in the frame, you usually can associate it with Dead Down Wind, a bottle on the shelf. You know it’s a complete system that you can trust. Hunters have been using it for years and there’s a reason why they’re using it. Dead Down Wind is a scientifically proven brand. It’s a complete system. We have three phases. Before every hunt, we’ve got the laundry, we’ve got the hygiene and we also have the field application. What a lot of people don’t realize is the system can be used year-round. It doesn’t matter if it’s for hunting. It can be used way outside the norm. I’ve worked with several groups when I was in the military and a couple of Special Force groups.

Tink’s, even though it’s a funny brand, at the same time it’s whitetail communication. In other words, communicating with whitetail, moose, bear, deer, all those animals communicate from the scent. Familiarity is a key. Natural or synthetic, natural urine is usually par for the course. If you have natural doe estrus, that’s familiar to a whitetail. Tink’s can be broken down by three different scents. You’ve got #1 Doe-P, you’ve got Tink’s #69 and then you’ve Trophy Buck. #1 Doe-P is a calming scent. This can be used year-round in any application. What this does, it creates a common scent unless you know that doe’s in the area. This makes whitetail feel a little more at home. They’re a little less alarmed when they’re walking through the woods. Usually, if they say to watch your stand. Use a boot pad or a drag rag or something of that nature, you’re acting like you’re a deer peeing through the woods on the way to your stand. It seems like an everyday thing for them.

His passion for the outdoors led to a career as an outdoor writer, photographer and videographer. Josh has been a regular contributor to Realtree.com since 2012 and came on board as the associate editor and deer hunting editor in July of 2015. He writes the Brow Tines and Backstrap blog. His work has been published in nearly 50 publications and websites including: Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, North American Whitetail, Whitetail Journal, Game & Fish, Fur-Fish-Game, and more.

XA was started in Yankton, SD 7 years ago. Mark Heck, President, acquired the company in June ’18 and moved the operation to Decorah, IA. XA are exclusively designed by Kevin Strother. XA builds purpose driven bows- New for 2019: Mako X, Mountaineer X, Xcursion 6 & 7 HD