AUTHOR’S PHOTOYour best approach is to fnd your card
or get certifed, which costs about $30. I
visited the Bowhunter Ed website (www.
bowhunter-ed.com) and found four states
— Alabama, Iowa, Minnesota, and South
Dakota — that ofer online courses with
no feld day, but currently those classes
are available to residents only. All other
states require a feld day for certifcation.
If you need to be certifed, which is a great
idea even if you never go to Alaska, start
by visiting the Bowhunter Ed website.
Fortunately for those who hope to
bowhunt Alaska, the National Bowhunt-
er Education Foundation (NBEF, http://www.
nbef.org), which provides the Bowhunter
Ed curriculum but is independent of the
states, is working toward a solution.
“We are aware of the new Alaska rule,
and we’re actively working toward in-
creasing the availability of classes in all
states,” said NBEF Executive Director
Marilyn Bentz. “For example, the world
of online learning is rapidly changing.
Programmers can create real-life sce-
narios with which the student can inter-
act directly online. While online learning
may appeal to the experienced individual
who just needs a refresher course, otherstudents may beneft from the actual feld
experience of a more traditional class. We
try to ofer a choice of learning formats.”
Certainly, young and inexperienced
bowhunters will beneft from the feld
day portion of the class. Te best-case sce-
nario would be an internationally avail-
able, online-only Bowhunter Ed course
for the older, experienced bowhunter.
Tat may happen through the eforts of
NBEF, but in the meantime, if you have
any thoughts of bowhunting Alaska, get
certifed in Bowhunter Education. Don’t
wait because you can’t get certifed at the
last minute and you never know when the
Last Frontier may call your name. You
need to be prepared to answer that call.
Contributed by Curt Wells, EditorP&Y Announces Potential New
#1 Typical Muley
When it comes to killing world-class
animals with bow and arrow, patience
truly is a virtue. Just ask Arizona bow-
hunter John McClendon, whose pa-
tience and bowhunting savvy helped
him kill what may end up being the Pope
and Young Club’s (pope-young.org) new
World’s Record typical mule deer.With an initial entry score of 207^5 ⁄ 8 ,
McClendon’s Mohave County, Arizona,
muley bests the George Harms’ cur-
rent World’s Record typical muley by
25 ⁄ 8 inches. Mr. Harms’ incredible buck
scored 205^0 ⁄ 8 , and was killed in Her-
mosillo, Mexico, in 2009.
McClendon didn’t just luck into his
whopper muley. He had observed this
buck multiple times and knew the buck ’s
home range was. McClendon fgured his
best chance at killing the buck would be
to hunt him over a waterhole. McClen-
don had to patiently wait several days for
the standing water lef by recent rains to
dry out before he could even consider
sitting the waterhole. And when the op-
portunity fnally came on September 1,
2014, John made a perfect 25-yard shot
on the buck of a lifetime!
McClendon’s buck is entered into the
29 th Recording Period — the biennium
representing entries accepted into the
P&Y Records Program from January 1,
2013, to December 31, 2014. Te fnal
score of McClendon’s muley is subject to
Panel Judging verifcation, which could
change the fnal accepted score for a va-
riety of reasons. Panel Judging will take
place prior to the P&Y Club’s 29th Bien-
nium Convention in Phoenix, Arizona,
April 15–18, 2015.
We here at Bowhunter would like to
extend a tip of the camo cap to John Mc-
Clendon for his exceptional buck. ❮❮❮Alert: Alaska Bowhunters!
New 2016 bowhunting regulation requires your attention
Bowhunter’s Journal
A LOG OF BOWHUNTING NEWS, ISSUES, & EVENTSI
F YOU HUNT IN ALASKA, as a resident or a nonresident, or hope to
bowhunt there someday (who doesn’t?), then this is a serious heads-up.
I received an e-mail alert from Mark Buehrer at Bowhunting Safari Con-
sultants that must be passed along. Beginning July 1, 2016, ALL hunters car-
rying a bow and arrow on ANY hunt in Alaska must be Bowhunter Educa-
tion certifed, and must carry their Bowhunter Ed card with them in the feld. No
exceptions, and surprisingly, no “born afer” date! It’s clear to me this regulation was
poorly conceived, with little regard for the consequences.
“I have hunted Alaska 23 times, and now, at the age of 61, I will be required to get
certifed in Bowhunter Education,” lamented Buehrer. “I have fnished the online
course but still have to schedule a feld day, which is a three-hour drive for me, to
complete the certifcation.”
I have my Bowhunter Ed card, but I see problems for others, like those who have
lost their cards. Tey will either have to get a duplicate, which may not be a sure
thing in states where records were poorly kept, or retake the course. And what about
bowhunters from Canada and other foreign countries who don’t have access to
Bowhunter Ed? I can also see uninformed bowhunters, both resident and nonresi-
dent, getting tripped up by this regulation. Of course, they could always switch to
a rife and wouldn’t even need a Hunter Ed card in their pocket. Strange, indeed,
but unless something changes, that will be the law in Alaska next year, like it or not.30 >BOWHUNTER APRIL/MAY 2015John McClendon’s
2014 buck could
just be the P&Y Club’s
new World’s Record
typical mule deer.