Watering Hole Blog

From public land to private, early season to late, fully guided to DIY, the options of where and how to hunt can be overwhelming. On a bow hunt in Colorado, we take stock and break it down.

It’s a still, unseasonably warm late-September evening on a 12,000-acre Rocky Mountain ranch at the tail end of Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo range. A pair of bowhunters, including FORLOH owner Andy Techmanski, have been sitting on the fringes of a 9,800-foot meadow all afternoon. They are waiting for the nasal screech of a bull from the dark timber above the clearing, a sign that the animals’ have risen from their beds and might soon emerge. But the only break in the quiet is the occasional sweet trill of the hunters’ cow calls aimed at coaxing down the elk. Daylight fades to the ghostly dark of the gloaming, and it’s still silent as a morgue.

“Damn elk,” says Mike Barraclough, lead guide on this hunt. Then he adds, “Tomorrow.”

Barraclough never seems stressed nor speaks out of turn, but the slight edge in his voice is telling. It’s night two of a six-day elk hunt smack in the middle of a moonless stretch of typical peak rut dates — what should be prime conditions — and the four hunters and three guides on property have so far heard little more than the occasional feeble bugle.

Techmanski cut short a public land elk hunt in southern Montana, where the animals were active and his buddy harvested a bull, to travel here for this previously scheduled private-land hunt. The question of whether the trip down will be worthwhile has begun to hover. 

There’s a sense among public-land hunters that stalking on swathes of private property is like walking the Promised Land, with animals as abundant as tomatoes on the August vine. So it’s instructive to go from bugling elk on Montana public land to stagnation on a prized ranch in Colorado. No matter where we stalk or how much a tag costs, it’s still always the unpredictable, natural world. That’s why we hunt. On a private land tag, you are more likely to find better habitat and less hunting pressure. Then again, it’s not like big game understand boundaries with OnXMaps clarity.

“As a rule, there are more animals — and better-quality animals — on a private ranch than on public,” says Barraclough, the son of the owner of Raton, New Mexico–based Kiowa Hunting Services. “That’s all subject to unit and season, for sure. But what this land produces versus what you’ll get on neighboring public is considerably different.” Kiowa has a small, curated range of private land options for hunters, like this elk hunt, but its broad offerings of public-land hunts across New Mexico, Colorado, and Mexico are the company’s bread and butter.

Kiowa has made a name for itself in the Southwest with prodigious success rates on public-land ibex tags in southern New Mexico’s Florida Mountains, one of the most difficult and specialized hunts in the country. They also take above-average numbers of elk, deer, oryx, and other big game throughout the region. “We host every type of hunt you can think of in the places we serve,” says Barraclough. “From semi-guided tags with no accommodation across New Mexico to full-service private ranches throughout the Southwest.”

When choosing a hunt, there are more factors to consider than just cost and the quality of harvestable animals. Barraclough says many hunters use a guide service like Kiowa to increase their odds of hunting, as the outfitter pool is allotted a higher percentage of tags than DIY out-of-state entrants. Also, many private-land hunts are over-the-counter tags, meaning hunters can buy the license, pay the guide fee, and the hunt is guaranteed—an impossibility on public lands. And on hunts like this one in southern Colorado, there’s a ranch house with plush beds, scrumptious food every time you come in from hunting, and a sunny deck to sit on when you’re not in the field. Says Barraclough, “Ranches like this are pretty comfortable. It’s not important to all hunters, but it’s part of what attracts people.” 

In Montana, Techmanski was self-supported in the backcountry — tents, food, carrying if there was a harvest. He came south for the potential. “I’m happy to do the work. That’s the experience,” he says. “The hope here is there’s even more potential.”

On morning three, Barraclough, Techmanski, and crew hunt the dry, piñon and juniper lowlands to the west. Fresh track cuts the dusty, crackly-leafed plains, which are ordinarily damp and quiet from monsoon storms. This year the rains never materialized. It’s fascinating to see how the FORLOH’s Deep Cover camo blends against the trees in the clearings, while the Exposed almost disappears in the wide-open high desert. A bull bugles at first light at the pond below the hunters. After a short stalk and a few locator calls to pinpoint the animal, the team sets up in the rustle of golden aspens to call the bull across. He approaches, promisingly, then goes quiet. Damn elk. 

Three more days and nights of sitting wallows and meadows and tree stands ensue. The elk are doing what they do, which doesn’t include walking into clearings in daylight. On this ranch, the dark evergreen is so thick with downed timber and dead leaves crackling like empty candy wrappers underfoot that the primary option for getting in bow range of an elk is to call and wait. This can be frustrating. 

That’s lesson two about picking a hunt: It’s easy to think that all hunts, especially costly ones, are equal. But price doesn’t equate to style of hunt. Before you book, envision the type of hunt you want — from spot-and-stalk with lots of chasing to horses with wall tents and backcountry camps to sitting still on a blind and bringing them to you. The season and weapon will determine a lot. Kiowa Hunting does it all, with everything from blind hunts in the early season to run-and-gun for those who prefer to chase. Ask in advance so you get the experience you have in your head. 

The hunt brings three more quiet nights. Despite the sullen conditions, there are opportunities. A massive bull presents to one hunter at 80 yards on a meadow, but it’s too windy to shoot. Another hunter gets a sleeper shot at 18 yards on a 5x5, but he decides to wait for one of the far bigger bulls in these woods. The third hunter calls a monster to 72 yards, but it’s out of his range. 

“You know the difference between a great hunt and a shitty one?” deadpans Barraclough. “Ten seconds.” But even when you don’t get what you want on a hunt, you often walk away with incredible encounters. Bulls blaring face-melting bugles just out of range are nearly as gratifying as a harvest.

Night six, the last hunt, the team heads to a 10,400-foot ridge, where there have been elk sightings but few bugles. No hunter has so far harvested, and spirits are low. Barraclough is undaunted. “Tonight,” he says. “We’re getting it done tonight.”

Early in the evening, the elk are bugling on both sides of the knife-edge ridge. Barraclough calls a herd from the north, but it plows over the saddle like a coal-fired train. Here and gone. Barraclough continues his soft cow calls. The bull circles around. He’s just north of the road now. Techmanski shoots. The huge bull, with an arm’s reach antler spread, goes down. It’s a perfect shot on a perfect elk in the perfect situation. Expectations and hopes, public versus private, lodges or camping—none of it matters once an animal is on the ground. Making those decisions early, however, helps ensure you get the hunt you want.

Top tips for having your best season ever from hunting coaches Maranda Ratcliff and Travis Hough

Last fall, when Travis Hough drew a general season Idaho mule deer tag, he knew it was a tough hunt, but he never could have imagined just how difficult it would be. The remote unit had few roads and an EKG line of topography, and when Hough and his hunting partner, Maranda Ratcliff, arrived from their home in Montana, snow had already blanketed the mountains, with wet and cold forecast for the week.

Undeterred, the two proceeded to hunt the backcountry terrain they’d scouted, which meant slogging ten miles and 3,000 feet of elevation through mud and snow each day. Hough thought he’d connected with a nice four-pointer late on day four, but early dusk meant the couple had to make the arduous journey out and back in the next day only to discover he’d missed. When ten days passed without a harvest, Hough said the grind of early mornings, cold, and massive days was almost enough to shut down them down. “Obviously the fitness had to be on point to put together all of those huge days, day after day,” says Hough. “But I think what really kept us going was the mental aspect of our training. Pushing yourself hard in the gym in the off season gives you the strength to know you can push through and get it done.”

Hough and Ratcliff, both accomplished hunters who make their home in Billings, Montana, operate side-by-side coaching companies aimed at preparing hunters and outdoorspeople for the rigors of challenges just like the couples’ Idaho hunt. Ratcliff, an ex-collegiate power lifter, offers a formalized regimen called The Maranda Method, which combines gym work, cardio, and diet and lifestyle coaching for a holistic, full-year approach to health and mountain fitness. Much of her expertise is catered to women, whom Ratcliff feels are underserved in hunting circles, though she has plenty of men as clients, too. “As a three-sport athlete in high school, then a competitive weightlifter in college, I saw firsthand how gym work transformed my body and mind,” she says. “I realized that I wanted to use my knowledge and experience to help others perform and live their best lifestyles.”

Hough, a lifetime hunter who got his start as a personal trainer, crafts shorter term plans targeted to hunters’ specific needs and goals. “I had so many people who saw how far back we were hunting, the places we were going and the success we were having, and kept asking, ‘How are you doing it?’” says Hough. “I wanted to help them get there.”

We asked Ratcliff and Hough for their top tips for hunters chasing peak performance this season:

FITNESS IMPROVES SUCCESS

In the West, especially in general season or over-the-counter units where hunting pressure is high, the ability to go deeper into the woods than other hunters creates opportunities. “There are chances to be successful off the road,” says Ratcliff, “but if you’re able to walk, and especially if you are willing to walk farther than the hunters with horses, you get into places where animals are less pressured, which means more success.” Size up your hunt, then make a plan as early as possible to begin getting ready. The better your condition, the more land you’ll see. And the more country you can cover, the more opportunities you’ll have for success. 

THINK LIFESTYLE, NOT TRAINING PLAN

When do Ratcliff and Hough start training for hunting season? “We never stop,” says Hough. For many hunters, hunting is a year-round lifestyle, not just confined to a couple weeklong seasons. Ratcliff says the off season is the perfect time to work on body imbalances or personal structural challenges, as well as building general body strength. She contends with knee instability, for instance, so she spends the winter doing box step-ups, leg presses, and work that will build muscle and shore up strength. “It’s not always that fun to work on your weaknesses,” she says. “But weaknesses dealt with in winter turn into strengths and opportunities later.”

GO HIKE

“When people ask me how they can hunt better,” says Hough, “my first and most basic advice is, ‘Go hike!’” He recommends loading up a backpack with weight, say 25 to 30 pounds, or wearing a weighted vest, and spending at least two to three workouts per week hiking up the nearest mountain. And no matter how flat your home terrain, there’s always some option, Ratcliff says. “A short subdivision hill is great,” she says. “Hike it as hard as you can over and over. Don’t worry if the neighbors think you’re crazy.” And if time or terrain doesn’t permit allow for outside workouts, hit the Stair Climber at your local gym.

DON’T OVERLOOK STRENGTH

Both Ratcliff and Hough say that too often hunters’ training puts too much focus on cardio activity and not enough on weights. “You have to make your body adapt to hunting,” says Ratcliff, “and that means carrying weight in tough terrain.” The pair both recommend that, in addition to cardio work such as running or hiking (or treadmill sprints or stair climbers in the gym), hunters log at least a few days per week doing strength work. Their top five exercises for hunters: 1) Lunges, especially weighted walking lunges, 2) Shoulder Presses, barbell or dumbbell, 3) Dead Lifts using heavy weight, or Leg Presses for older hunters concerned with injury, 4) Pull-ups, 5) Box Step-ups and Step-Downs, and 6) High-Volume Calf Raises.

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE

Though fitness is best treated as a continuous pursuit, and pre-hunt conditioning will be most effective if you begin at least two to four months before your goals, don’t despair if you’ve fallen behind. Adding even a few weeks or a month of regular fitness work and movement will ease the transition of getting in the field. “Many people will be surprised how much difference even just an hour or two a day, a couple days a week will make,” says Ratcliff. And Hough stresses that it’s not only about the fitness but also the mental toughness. “Putting in hard work beforehand gets your mind okay with suffering,” he says. “When you’re in the field suffering, you’re ready for it.”

Back in Idaho, on day ten of the deer hunt, Hough was having second thoughts about making the long, hard walk again. Maybe it was time to pull the plug and head home. Ratcliff argued to give it one more shot, and the couple doubled down. “We were so exhausted,” Hough says. “But knowing all the work it had taken to get there, on the hunt but also in the months leading up to it, it just gives you the confidence that you can handle whatever else happens.” After a 2a.m. start and another brutal hike in, the two finally found a good herd of deer below them at dawn. Hough took a clean shot and dropped a nice buck at 200 yards.

Says Ratcliff, “That moment, when you have the success that you weren’t sure would come, that’s when you realize that all the training and preparation pays off.” Even with a deer on the ground, the couple still had to draw on their reserves. With a field butcher job plus five miles of steep hiking with huge loads remaining, the couple dropped their packs and got to work.

How the hunt consulting agency The Draw is using decades of experience and lots of math to help hunters win quality hunts every year 

For nearly two decades, Andy Techmanski, founder of FORLOH and a Montana resident, has entered New Mexico’s hunting lottery. His ambition was to draw one of the state’s exotics: oryx, barbary sheep, ibex. The odds for these public-land hunts are notoriously low, and Techmanski never connected. Then last year Techmanski met Jordan Christensen, a lifelong hunter and primary at the hunt consulting agency, The Draw. Christensen constructed a comprehensive, multi-state application for Techmanski and his wife, Mandie. When the New Mexico draw was announced on April 22, the Techmanskis were elated: Mandie had won not only a mule deer, but she’d also scored both the elusive oryx and barbary sheep hunts.

“I couldn’t believe it,” recalls Techmanski. “After so many years, I had almost decided those tags were a myth. Then in one try, Jordan got us two hunts of a lifetime.”

The Draw is a boutique consulting agency that helps hunters maximize their odds of getting the hunts they want by understanding the disparate state lottery systems and constructing a personalized, all-encompassing application strategy. That may sound grandiose, but really the company is a small group of extremely experienced hunters who were tired of seeing friends and acquaintances miss out on hunting opportunities year after year. “Half the time, people applying for hunts have no idea what they are doing, which is totally understandable because the systems are so different and arcane. We realized collectively we had a ton of knowledge that could help,” says The Draw founder Christensen, who, at 38, has accumulated 22 preference points in Utah’s desert bighorn draw. “My father was a bit of a visionary. He set me up and taught me a lot. I’m not sure he realized it would lead me to a career.”

Christensen describes the Techmanskis’ 2020 application as “extremely aggressive,” but he also says that approach paid off in the couples’ first year. A first-year application can be tricky because most states rely on some level of preference points, which are accumulated over time through multiple years of applications. The best way to overcome that obstacle is by putting in a large volume of applications, which stacks the lower odds in an applicant’s favor. The Techmanskis’ put in some 130 applications nationwide. “Lotteries are by definition random, but even in year two, with some points in place in many states, it will become a question of if they want to hunt, not just hoping for a hunt,” says Christensen. And though he admits there was some luck involved with Mandie’s draw (odds for the hunts she drew were 33 percent for the deer, 9 percent for the barbary sheep, and just 2.3 percent for the oryx), he also says part of the success came down to choosing the right codes for the couple’s rookie situation. “They had success in volume, but we also kissed the dice,” says Christensen. “From our 10,000-foot view of working with so many clients, we have a good idea what tags are actually possible. That pays off.”

 We asked Christensen for his top tips for hunters looking to maximize their hunting opportunities:

1. TAKE STOCK OF YOUR PRIORITIES

If you will only settle for high-quality, high-demand hunts on age-class animals, you can either expect to pay a lot of money (Christensen says a chance to shoot a 350-class bull elk or bigger ranges from $15,000 to $35,000, depending on success rates) or wait at least a few years between hunts. On the other hand, if simply being in the field and having some good chances and good opportunities is your priority, you can plan to hunt consistently every year. “I think many hunters get in the trap of thinking, ‘It’s this tag or nothing,” when there are so many great opportunities out there,” says Christensen. For his clients, he recommends a multi-tiered approach, with “unicorn hunts” that may produce only every 10 years or more in some states combined with “bread-and-butter” opportunities in a combination of places that should yield field time every year.

2. APPLY FOR MORE THINGS

“A lot of guys put in for elk and deer every year and that’s the end of the story,” says Christensen. But that only covers a tiny proportion of domestic, big-game hunting opportunities if you consider species such as pronghorn antelope, turkey, bear, javelina, bighorn and Dall sheep, mountain goats, mountain lion, oryx, barbary sheep, ibex, and other exotics. “If your priority is to hunt, you’re leaving so many opportunities on the table if you only put in for that same old deer tag you’ve been trying to get for years,” he says. Of course more applications means more money down, with most states refunding unsuccessful applicants after the lottery. For those interested in applying for more but not willing to make the upfront investment, The Draw has a “Floated” pricing scheme option that covers the application costs for a 9 percent fee.

3. NOT ALL STATES ARE EQUAL

The more states you can apply in, the more opportunities for successful hunt draws you’ll have. But given varying rules, regulations, and game densities, not every state is created equal. “Because of how its system works, other than desert bighorns Nevada is probably not a great basket for all your eggs,” says Christensen. On the other hand, he says that states like Idaho and New Mexico, which have no preference points, are great bets for everyone. And while Arizona and Utah offer excellent quality but difficult-to-draw tags, which suits aspirational hunters, Colorado and Wyoming’s prolific herds and more egalitarian systems make for more frequent drawing opportunities.

4. PLAY THE LONG GAME

The chances of you drawing on your first go in many states is just that … a game of chance. Christensen advises that it’s best to look at applications as a multi-year investment. By accruing preference points several years in a row in multiple states, a hunter can line up hunt options that can be cashed in on an alternating basis to assure quality time in the field every year. “If you play the points right, after a year or two you can have a great draw hunt in Colorado or Wyoming virtually every year,” he says. And these aren’t just low-percentage, over-the-counter units. “The general tag in Wyoming lets you hunt over half the state, including parts in the west that I believe currently have some of the best elk hunting anywhere in the U.S.”

5. CRUNCH THE NUMBERS

All tag opportunities are not equal. Every Game & Fish department in the country publishes both draw statistics and harvest reports. By poring over this data and cross-referencing one to another, it’s possible to identify tags with a convergence of high draw and harvest success rates. And while it might be tempting to chase units with the highest draw success rates, if field time is a priority, look for units with large entry pools. “A unit with 300 successful applicants means there’s more chances of drawing — and probably more game — than a unit with only 25 successful applicants,” says Christensen. “I see hunters fed up with not drawing, yet they put in for the same low-odds units year after year. If you’re tired of not hunting, be willing to look at new places.”

6. CONSIDER OUTLYING EXPERIENCES

While it’s tempting to gravitate to units with classic elk and deer terrain, Christensen says that unlikely habitats with low hunter demand can also provide interesting opportunities. Flatlands and deserts, for instance, generally have few tag offerings, but they can be easier to come by because demand is low. “And low hunter pressure means, even though there might not be a lot of animals around, the ones that are there can reach a more mature age,” says Christensen. On a hunt in a lowland unit in central New Mexico, which is not known for elk and has only a few tags a year on offer, he and a client didn’t see a single elk for days, then harvested one of the biggest trophies he’s ever taken. “It’s the worst place in the world to hunt elk because there’s no elk,” he says. “Except for all the big bulls.” 

For those without the time or interest in taking on the research themselves, The Draw charges a flat fee of $45 per application, though that drops to $27 per app plus 9 percent the cost of the tag if The Draw floats the tag fee. In addition to hunt planning services, which are available to outfitted hunters and DIYers alike, The Draw works hard to connect clients with the preeminent guide services in a region based on the company’s massive network of outfitting contacts. And though Christensen says most hunters contact him in the last few weeks leading up to application deadlines, he loves taking calls in the late summer and early fall as it allows time to cultivate a relationship with a client and craft a tailored plan. Says Christensen, “The most gratifying thing for me is to help people figure out what they want from a hunt and then develop a strategy that will get them into the field to fulfill that.”

It’s a tricky moment for the hunting industry, but it isn’t all bad news

COVID-19 has torched the economy and upended almost every aspect of modern existence, but hunting—with its wide-open spaces and small-scale, low-risk situations—is one aspect of life you’d think would have been unaffected.

You’d be wrong.

The pandemic has turned the hunting world on its head, from all but shuttering international outfitters to spiking costs for landowner and auction tags and driving up demand for domestic hunts. That reads like very bad news for an industry that was already seeing declining numbers, but there’s still good news and opportunities for hunters.

Hardest hit so far are the international outfitters, with travel to popular hunting destinations including South America, Europe, and New Zealand almost 100 percent shuttered by travel restrictions. New Zealand, fabled for free-range opportunities on red stag and Himalayan tahr among other species, closed its borders in late March and is unlikely to reopen them until there’s a vaccine. The stag and bird-hunting ranches are similarly shuttered in Argentina, where a total travel ban is in place through at least September 1 — and likely well beyond. And mainland Europe has completely sealed off its borders to Americans until the US brings down its infection rate, meaning no ibex or fallow deer in Spain and no roe deer, wild boar, or pheasant in France.

“Argentina closed its borders in the middle of March, so we lost our big game and bird hunting seasons,” says Patrick Geijo of Argentina Big Game Hunting. “So far we have done about one percent of the business we expected to do in 2020.” Joelle Weynants of Hunt Trip Spain says it’s the same in Europe: “The borders are closed and probably will remain so. If we can’t do our autumn season, we’re looking at a 90 percent loss on the year.” She adds that the pandemic is even affecting last year’s business, as severe flight shortages have made it difficult for the company to ship trophies from the 2019 season to successful clients. “It’s been extremely difficult, so we all just have to be patient,” says Weynants.

At the beginning of the pandemic, there was talk of possible workarounds for hunters to bypass travel restrictions, but most operators say that’s a bad idea. “There were suggestions early on of loopholes visitors could use,” says Niall Rowantree, the sporting manager at West Highland Hunting in Scotland. Like many other international outfitters, the company is looking at 90 percent lost bookings on the year. “But I think it's important to work with our local communities and government to remain totally inside the law,” in order to keep everyone safe and stop the advance of this disease.

The silver lining is that a year of rest for the wildlife should mean that populations will be even more profuse and trophies even larger in 2021. Travel restrictions went into place as the rut was just about to start in the Southern Hemisphere. New Zealand even shut all hunting to locals. So animals are very likely to be more relaxed and even bigger next year. “Undoubtedly, many estates and governments will simply reduce their cull in the hope of having more resources in the coming years,” says Rowantree. That’s a good thing for hunters in the long run. And every outfitter we spoke with said they will roll pandemic-affected hunts into 2021 and 2022 without penalties.

The restrictions abroad are raising a different and converse set of challenges for domestic hunters in the United States. Shortages abroad are leading to demand at home. “We’ve seen an absolute frenzied surge of hunting domestically,” says Jordan Christensen, who owns the hunt-consulting agency The Draw. “In a normal year, you’d have a large number of hunters who choose to invest in international opportunities. Because of travel restrictions, a lot of people are doubling down on domestic goals they’ve maybe been sitting on for years.” Christensen says landowner tags nationwide are selling for double and triple what they normally would, and auction tags went for record high prices.

Anxious hunters may have snapped up tags, but the uncertainty of the crisis is also creating opportunities. Though we are all hoping that everyone will remain healthy through this time, the virus means the situation remains volatile. “There are still going to be some very good hunts out there. One day to the next, you can have a guy testing positive for Covid, and he either can’t or will not be permitted to go on his hunt,” says Christensen. “I think cancellation hunts are going to be huge this year.” Christensen advises either scouring the sites of your favorite outfitters daily for opportunities, or, better still, keeping in touch with an agency like his that has relationships with hundreds of outfitters. “They’re going to want to fill vacancies as quickly as possible, so acting fast is going to yield the best chances,” he says. 

For those who booked overseas who can’t take advantage of scheduled tags, the situation presents opportunities, too. “It’s a great time for self-reflection. If your goal was Africa or Europe or Asia, maybe step back and realize your passion is as much around the adventure as the actual hunting,” says Christensen. He says that there are still quality hunts in Alaska or remote parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho that will feed that passion. At the very least, many states sell over-the-counter licenses, including solid public land options in states like Colorado and Idaho, which means that hunters who have been shut down by restrictions can still get out to chase game. And thanks to hunt consultants like The Draw and subscription services such as Go Hunt, it’s much easier to parse the data on where to start.

Beyond the current situation, the best bet is to postpone international bookings to the coming season so outfitters can make it through, support organizations like the Dallas Safari Club, which is raising money for guide services up against hard times, and think about future seasons. “Hunts from this year are going to roll over to next, and there’s likely discounts for coming seasons too,” says Rowantree. “We have to keep looking ahead.” The game is going nowhere, and the desire will just keep growing. 

FORLOH sees optimism and fresh energy in the hunting world.

Most hunters have likely heard the truism that our pastime is in decline. There’s plenty of speculation as to why—urbanization, modern-day food security, youth disinterest, the loss of family traditions—but the bottom-line worry is that hunter numbers are precipitously shrinking. Much of the concern boils down to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. In 2016, the most recent study, the total number of hunters in the US had decreased by more than 16 percent over five years. That’s startling on the face of it. But a closer look at the statistics and trends reveals plenty of bright spots.

“Our industry faces challenges, no doubt, but at FORLOH we believe that hunting and fishing are more in flux than in crisis,” says FORLOH founder Andy Techmanski. “From hunters who have been chasing animals for decades to those just starting out, we see a collective passion that’s redefining what it means to be a hunter.”

For one thing, the numbers aren’t all bad. Since the now four-year-old USFWS study, applications for hunting tags have exploded in some Western states, including Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico, and this season Idaho’s non-resident over-the-counter elk and deer tags sold out at a record pace. “It would be really tough to put enough data to extrapolate for the entire US, but it certainly seems as though demand for hunts in the West have been on the rise in recent years,” says James Barnett, research manager at GoHunt.com.

Across the country, hunting license numbers have also increased year over year in many states, according to the USFWS.

The picture is even rosier if you include angling, an activity in which numbers are growing outright. In 2016, 35.5 million Americans went fishing, a 16 percent increase in participation over 10 years and the highest number of anglers since 1985. That upward trend has continued according to a 2019 Outdoor Industry Association study, which showed angler numbers at a decade-long max and all-time high participation rates among minorities and women, and industry vets were expecting a banner year in 2020 before the pandemic hit. “It continues to grow because people ultimately find solace and healing on the water,” says Kurt Deeter, editor of the Angling Trade, which covers the fly fishing industry. “It’s a family activity. It’s free (or close). And it’s an antidote for people starved for adventure and outdoors.”

Women are also a major bright spot in hunting. The total number of female hunters surged by nearly 84 percent between 2001 and 2014, with even more staggering gains in specific disciplines, including 87 percent growth in those hunting with a firearm and 167 percent in bowhunting. Women now account for nearly 20 percent of all US hunters, which has led to the growth of education and training opportunities geared specifically to women such as She Hunts Skills Camps as well as female-specific advocacy groups that help promote hunting and conservation.

“The moment we went live, it was like drinking from a firehose. Women from everywhere told us, ‘This is so needed,’” says Jessi Johnson, founder and advisory board member for one such organization, Artemis. She says that the role-modeling that her organization and others are doing is an illustration of how the industry can bring more hunters to the sport. “Women have always been here, but by acknowledging them and depicting them, it opens the door wide for more to come in.”

Archery is another flourishing segment of the market. According to a study commissioned by the Archery Trade Association (ATA), archery and bowhunting participation jumped over 20 percent between 2012 and 2015. The growth has since flattened, but total participation in 2017 was still 30 percent higher than a decade earlier. And Business Wire estimates that the market will continue to expand by 9 percent annually through 2022.

“We're optimistic about new and renewed bowhunting participation due to the current climate,” says Matt, president and CEO of the ATA. “The challenge to find commercial meats on store shelves, the need to get outside as a means to stay healthy, and the longer-term transition toward sustainable and healthy harvest all make bowhunting incredibly attractive.”

Kormann’s comments hint at some of the cultural trends that are drawing in new sportsman. A growing awareness of quality food and sustainable agriculture is motivating many first timers into the field in pursuit of their own harvest. “The overall trend is down … but we actually see a lot of interest especially in the locavore movements, field-to-table, field-to-fork-type movements—people wanting to know where their food comes from,” says Brian Lynn, vice president of marketing and communications for the hunting advocacy group Sportsman’s Alliance.

These culinary aspects of hunting have inspired everything from cookbooks, such as The Wild Chef by Jonathan Miles and A Mindful Carnivore by Tovar Cerulli, to outreach programs including the Quality Deer Management Association’s Field to Forks.

Says Miles, “Those of us who hunt and fish can boast that we’ve been eating free-range organic and local since the very beginning.”

The convergence between traditional hunting and fishing and the broader outdoor markets of hiking, camping, skiing, and mountain biking is also helping to deepen the pool. From companies like Mystery Ranch, started by Dana Gleason, who is widely considered to be the father of modern-day backpacking, to Maven, founded by an alpinist and Brunton defector, mountain sports are increasingly cross-pollinating  the hunting and fishing realms—and bringing new enthusiasts along with them. “

As technology and gear has improved and hunting has taken on a more backcountry mindset, it’s pulling in people who are more oriented to athletics and endurance sports,” says Justin Diefenderfer, whose Bozeman, Montana-based MtnTough Fitness Lab specializes in conditioning for athletes.

Ironically, even the Covid-19 crisis, a negative in so many ways, looks as if it could bolster hunting and fishing participation. With grocery store shelves picked over, domestic meat processing plants closed or working at reduced capacity, and job losses crunching budgets, some families are considering hunting to supplement their food supply. Says Kormman, “Many people will now be looking at hunting’s range of benefits coupled with the need to feed their families in a more efficient way.”

From New Mexico and Colorado to Indiana and Georgia, game and fish agencies have reported a spike in license sales and permit applications since the beginning of the pandemic. Meanwhile, The Today Show even aired a segment on the therapeutic benefits of fishing titled, “How Fishing Became the Pandemic’s Hottest Sport.”

“It’s clearly not the easiest time, both in our market and the broader scope of the world,” says FORLOH president Techmanski. “But we see so much optimism and fresh energy in hunting that it feels like the perfect salve for the times.”

How FORLOH is using leading game research and cutting-edge technology to make you invisible to prey.

There’s a good chance that the camouflage apparel you’ve been wearing is undermining your hunts. From the photorealistic patterns of sticks, leaves, and bark to colorful outdoorsy palettes, much of the camo on the market is created with people in mind, not animals.

“The truth is, most camouflage isn’t designed to work in the field but instead to look good to the human eye,” says Andy Techmanski, founder of FORLOH.

Case in point, University of Washington animal vision expert Dr. Jay Neitz was commissioned and discovered back in 1980 that blaze pink is the optimal safety color for hunting as it’s less detectable to ungulates and more visible to the human eye, yet due to male hunter preferences blaze orange was chosen and remains the standard today. Says Techmanski, “We don’t care what our apparel looks like under the bright fluorescent lights of a retail store. We are building gear to make you undetectable in the field.”

To accomplish that, FORLOH shrugged off conventional wisdom about blending into the landscape and enlisted some of the foremost experts in the science of animal vision to rethink how to make hunters as invisible as possible. “We threw out the notion of what looks good to the human eye and replaced it with the science of how and what ungulates and birds see,” says James Dodkin, who was instrumental in developing FORLOH’s Crypsis Technology™. Crypsis is the term for an animal’s ability to avoid detection in nature. The company also expanded its development to address all the senses, not just sight. “If an animal smells or hears you, it’s never going to get close enough to make the camouflage you’re wearing matter,” says Dodkin. “The other senses aren’t as sexy to talk about, but they are actually the most important, especially smell. We realized we had to address the system as a whole.”

The foundation of Crypsis is FORLOH’s hyper-breathable fabrics. Thanks to cutting-edge technologies, including micro-venting Pulse-Plasma waterproofing, all three of the system layers—base, insulation, and protection—allow dramatically more moisture transfer than anything on the market. Rather than dipping, painting, or spraying a waterproofing chemical (DWR) onto its textiles, the traditional method for keeping out the elements, FORLOH’s with Airadigm’s Pulse-Plasma technology is applied at the molecular level by running a charge through the yarn before it’s even woven into fabric. FORLOH is first-to-market with this exclusive technology. It’s a similar method to plating microchips, and, because it requires only 1 percent the volume of DWR compared to standard treatments, it produces fabrics that are both more waterproof and significantly more breathable than anything on the market. That’s important for comfort but even more so for scent control, as removing sweat means removing odor.

FORLOH’s apparel uses two additional technologies to reduce a hunter’s odor footprint. Polygiene Stays Fresh™ is a natural, silver salt antimicrobial applied into the garment threads to neutralize the bacteria created by sweat that causes body odor. Polygiene Odor Crunch™ is a treatment of silica, the same stuff in the stamp-size bags in new shoes, that’s applied at the yarn level to absorb and break down external odors such as campfire smoke and foods. FORLOH is the only brand in the industry to offer these odor-killing technologies in tandem. The combination of the two with Pulse-Plasma waterproofing technology ensures that your apparel remains odor-free for longer. This is critical, as one study has shown that a predator’s scent can make ungulates over half as likely to graze and double as vigilant for predators, i.e. a lot more difficult to find, stalk, and harvest.

“Based on scent, an animal will avoid you by up to a half mile. You’re never even going to see them, which renders the visual camo useless.” says Dodkin. Stays Fresh™ and Odor Crunch™ are guaranteed for the life of a garment. 

An added benefit of Pulse-Plasma technology is the soft, quiet fabrics that it produces. Compared to standard waterproof breathable shells, which are noisy and stiff like a starched shirt, FORLOH’s Pulse-Plasma treated layers are plush like silk or satin. 

Combined with the most silent zippers available, this creates garments that are virtually silent, another often-overlooked component of concealment.

With a hunter’s scent and sound eliminated, animals are more likely to approach within sight range. That’s when FORLOH’s Crypsis patterns are essential. We started from the understanding that ungulates see differently than people. Not only are they limited to colors on the blue and yellow spectrums (not reds, like humans), ungulates’ side-of-the-head eyes aren’t as attuned to detail as they are motion.

“It’s like the resolution of a digital picture in megapixels,” Dr. Neitz explains in a paper written for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. “Deer are analyzing more visual area at fewer megapixels.”

Though camouflage attempted, until a decade ago, to mimic a hunter’s surroundings—leaves and branches for thick cover, brush and grasses for open country, bright whites for snow—the latest research shows that irregular, non-representative patterning is more effective in removing an animal’s ability to determine shape and movement. Two approaches are most common. Disruptive Coloration takes advantage of large, high-contrast swathes to break up the outline of a figure, normally at closer range. This is similar to how the stripes of a tiger or patches of an African wild dog obscures the animals’ form. Spatial Orientation, which relies on the smaller, squared patterns known as “texture match” in the military, basically allows a form to fade into the landscape at distance. Crypsis uses the two approaches in tandem. “We’ve taken the best of both approaches by blending the two: high-contrast blotches to break up your outline, and digital camo to basically make you look like nothing,” says Dodkin.

FORLOH offers three primary designs. With its larger, higher-contrast swatches of color, Deep Cover’s darker hues are intended for use in heavy canopy and should absolutely disappear at 40 yards or less. This is the choice for bowhunters and early-season rifle, where you must go undetected at proximity. Exposed, which is lighter in tones with a smaller pattern and less contrast, is best for open country and grasslands. It is virtually invisible at 75 yards or more, blurring forms into the landscape at distance, which is why it’s also optimal for bird hunters. And while most people believe that snow is bright white, Snowfall matches true winter landscapes with light gray hues and faint brushes of contrast. This will allow hunters to disappear into the landscape above tree line and pursue animals from where the creatures wouldn’t normally suspect.

According to research out of the University of Oxford, it takes deer and elk less than three seconds once they’ve sensed you to decide whether to flee. It’s those few instants when the right camouflage means the difference between a successful hunt or not. If an animal perceives a hunter as a risk, it’s game over. But if it can’t smell, hear, or see the risk clearly, as is the case for a hunter in FORLOH Crypsis, the creature is more likely to calm down and stay put, offering more opportunities for a shot. “We don’t just want to help people blend in with the environment. We want to make them completely undetectable,” says Techmanski. “We believe that making hunters undetectable in the backcountry is the foundation of every successful hunt.”

But as much as it’s about providing jobs in the U.S., it’s also about changing the overall manufacturing process for a larger positive gain. Done right, manufacturing in the U.S. can lead to better innovation and it can help shorten the standard timelines for building products so that they can get to market faster. Ultimately, that means more jobs in America as well as consumers getting more up-to-date technologies more quickly. When building a hunting, fishing, and outdoor apparel brand from the ground up, made in America was one aspect that FORLOH was not willing to cut corners on. 

One might ask: “if that’s true, then why aren’t most U.S. brands aren’t doing it?” Let’s be clear – manufacturing specialized products like high-end technical apparel in the U.S. is not without its challenges. The supply chain has evolved over the last several decades in a certain way, with most outdoor apparel products today made overseas. Getting away from “the way things are done” often presents roadblocks to doing them in a different way.  

FORLOH, however, is committed to doing them differently – and to creating a greater role for U.S. manufacturing of technical apparel in the process. 

“We got fed up with how things were done, so we’re using FORLOH to help create the change that we want to see,” said Robert Yturri, who heads the company’s product development efforts. “Don’t think of us as just a hunting apparel company. We want to offer a premium product made in the USA that really does come from the heart of systematic change.” 

Yturri has seen a lot in his 30-plus years in the outdoor and hunting apparel industries. He’s worked with brands as varied as The North Face, Black Diamond, KUIU, Spyder, and Obermeyer, creating cutting-edge products for all manner of outdoor activities – skiing to hunting, hiking to climbing. 

He had a front-row seat through the late 1980's and 1990's as the vast majority of the technical apparel industry in the U.S. shifted production from American factories to overseas production. At the time it was largely for cost reasons, namely the availability of less-expensive labor in other parts of the world. But that shift also led to overseas manufacturers being the ones leading the way in offering leading-edge apparel technologies and manufacturing processes. As they became the de facto places where brands made products, they naturally were the ones coming up with the most up-to-date product advancements. 

But overseas production comes with some downsides. Those include lower environmental standards for pollution as well as lower labor standards for workers in other countries. And, when shipping products from other parts of the world, tariffs add costs, so brands then have to pay much more attention to the ever-shifting dynamics of international politics. Many are caught in that quagmire today. Overseas production also means longer timelines for products to get to market. 

Because most brands manufacture in places that are far from the U.S., it takes a long time for prototypes to make their way back and forth, for finished products to be shipped to market, and to secure manufacturing capacity in the same production facilities where many of your competitors’ products are also being made. The standard production cycle for new products is 18 months or more from conception to being available for consumers to purchase. 

That means by the time consumers get new products, they are 18 months behind the most current technology. Moreover, brands working on these long production cycles have to take their best guess at the amount of products they need to have available to meet demand. They place an order long before they know actual demand, and then ship that product to a warehouse to store it, hoping the demand will be there. If demand is less than the amount of product they made - common in all aspects of the apparel business – that creates waste. 

FORLOH founder Andy Techmanski doesn’t have Yturri’s background with apparel supply chains, but he shares the belief that – given all the downsides to making products overseas  – bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. offers a better path forward. 

“When we started, Andy said to me, I want to be 100 percent made in the USA – no shortcuts,” said Yturri. “He’s from the mentality that if it’s easy, it’s probably not worth doing. He’s a great partner in that he’s uncompromising. He pushes us to do better. Andy likes to say ‘we’re not a hunting company, we are a technology company that makes hunting products.’ And that is true.” 

Along with the manufacturing itself, a lot of the fabrics and technology manufacturers for technical apparel are also in other parts of the world. Yturri said apparel brands often come to those manufacturers and tell them what they are looking to achieve in a particular product. They are then presented a range of options they can choose from. 

Because so much of technical apparel manufacturing has moved offshore one of the challenges was that the “off-the-shelf” technology options for FORLOH within the U.S. were limited. So the team had to pivot and look outside of the apparel manufacturing world. Instead, through Yturri and other FORLOH product managers’ deep rolodex of supply chain contacts, FORLOH looked to bring in technologies from other companies located in the U.S. that had the innovation capabilities, but didn’t operate in the apparel industry. 

Those included companies that knew how to work with things like waterproof membranes or fabric, but instead worked with such materials for industrial uses or other applications. It also sourced technologies from the automotive and aerospace sectors. In some cases, FORLOH found unique options that left the team scratching their heads and asking, why isn’t anyone already using this? 

The case of the waterproof membrane is an interesting one, according to Yturri, because it was a co-development process that led to an entirely new way to apply water-repellent treatments to waterproof fabric packages in incredibly small amounts – a technology not on the market until now. Similar to a process called Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD), the technology uses a dry vacuum chamber with an electrical charge to bond DWR to the fabric, resulting in a higher-performing waterproof fabric. The benefit is that FORLOH is able to achieve a very high waterproof measurement paired with top-level breathability and air permeability ratings – things that have previously been mutually exclusive in outdoor apparel. 

“These kinds of collaborative partnerships, you don’t get them offshore,” Yturri said. “In this case, we co-invented this technology for apparel working with our manufacturing partner. So in situations like this, we can make what we want to make, versus having to choose from off-the-shelf options, and also not knowing what other contracts they may have in place and thus who else might be using that technology. I feel like we’ve unearthed this Pandora’s box.” 

FORLOH’s unique manufacturing structure in the U.S. also means less of the red tape associated with working overseas. FORLOH can purchase the raw materials it needs for its products, store them, and produce closer to home as demand warrants, versus having to produce and sit on a large stock of pre-made inventory. 

That means that FORLOH is able to be more nimble, turning around new products in the span of a couple months versus the typical year-and-a-half development cycle. So it can respond to feedback and demands from consumers for new kinds of products, as well as new technologies that are available, much more quickly. This also means they produce less waste by creating a surplus of product that is not needed.

As FORLOH grows, Yturri envisions working with the technology providers and manufacturers in the U.S. to continue to push the level of innovation, and grow the overall amount of technology available through the U.S. supply chain. To him, that will be a win for both the brand and for America. 

“Made in the USA is just the beginning,” he says. “I’ve seen more in this past year than I’ve seen in a long career. We’ve made the most of what is here in the U.S. today, and we’re going to improve on it. This is really about reinventing made in the USA. This is the next step beyond made in the USA.”