Bowhunter Interview - Thom Jorgensen

1. How long have you been a bowhunter?

In 2009 I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and I started rethinking my food system and how sedentary my daily life had become. I knew I had to get back out into the woods and start eating wild game again, but I really didn’t feel like shooting more animals with big boom sticks at long distances. I began researching seasons and tags in a few states and I soon realized that bowhunting could keep me in the woods twelve months of the year with opportunity to pursue many species of animals. I bought my first tags in 2010 and have been hooked ever since.

2. Do you hunt with traditional equipment, compound, crossbow, or a combination of these?

Having no practical archery knowledge at that time, I went to a pro shop to get a quick education and I was taken aback by all the different bows, sights, releases, rests, arrows, and broadheads. I left empty handed and frustrated. Luckily I saw a copy of Traditional Bowhunter magazine at the bookstore, then created an account on Trad Gang to start posting my newbie questions. Once I had a local bowhunting mentor and a good bow I knew I was on the right path. I dabbled with different types of bows the first couple years, but the ultimate hunting tool for me personally is a reflex/deflex laminated longbow.

3. What is/are your favorite animal(s) to hunt?

If I could only hunt one thing for the rest of my life, it would be hogs. I have hunted them on four continents so far, and I’m currently planning the other two. I hope to finish my pig tour with a return to Africa for a bushpig. Through an odd series of events I became a volunteer six weeks a year on a hunting property on the Savannah River that only allowed traditional bowhunters to hunt wild hogs. I would have thought I would get bored of observing a single species for hundreds of days, but they are so adaptable I felt like it was a never ending game of chess to get folks with trad gear well under 20 yards with wild animals with no fences. I know I would still be at it just as hard today if it weren’t for the untimely passing of my friend there. Still, I was just hunting a Georgia WMA with a young bowhunter looking across the river at that very property a few weeks ago.

4. What is/are your favorite bowhunting method(s): stands, still hunting, spot and stalk, pure stalking, or other?

I adapt my approach to the place and animals I am pursuing. I love moving from tree to tree with my stand all fall long for hunting deer. Over months it goes from too hot and green, to too cold and white. I love watching that change over the course of deer season in the upper Midwest. New Year marks the day I ditch the stand and start roving the hills for small game ahead of stalking the swamps for hogs. I will still use blinds or hides when mentoring a brand new hunter, or targeting a certain species over water. It’s a tool for the toolbox, and sometimes on a rainy day it’s better to sit in one and drink coffee with a book than do anything else.

5. What event(s) brought you to use Ashby-style arrow setups?

I am forever grateful that when I showed up to my very first hog hunt with 2117 aluminum arrows and Zwicky 175gr Delta broadheads I received a good sit down from an experienced guide. I don’t know if the gentleman would want to be named, but he inspected my arrow then asked me to pull one out of his quiver. It was high FOC, and it was the sharpest skinny blade I had ever seen. Over the next few days and nights we talked about the Ashby Reports and arrow performance on big boar hogs and bull elk with trad bows. I had a lot of homework to do when I got home. I shot my first hog on my next trip and killed it with a Tuffhead on the end of my arrow.

6. Could you describe your typical arrow setup(s) for hunting big game?

My normal arrow for my 64 pound longbow is a little ridiculous, 815 grains at 30.3% FOC. I start with a standard diameter .300 spine Black Eagle Outlaw carbon shaft with factory nock and four small feathers on the back either 2” or 3” long with a little helical. Up front I have a 225 grain Tuffhead epoxied onto a custom stainless steel adapter, with two inches of external footing. I have carried this arrow for everything from squirrels to moose over the last ten years
or so and it has performed amazingly well. I built an upgraded version of that arrow for my 87 pound longbow to hunt buffalo. I started that one with a .250 spine Black Eagle Carnivore shaft with four fletch, but I used an illuminated nock as required by my PH. From there I epoxied 16” of .400 spine micro diameter shaft to increase both the spine and FOC. I use the same combo stainless insert/glue on adapter and aluminum footing, but I go up to the Tuffhead 300 grain to top it off. They finished out plus or minus a few grains at 1070 grains at 30.7% FOC.

7. Overall, what has been your experience using Ashby-style arrow setups?

Most of my experiences have been very good, with a few that were truly unbelievable. I dropped one deer in its tracks by shooting through the near side scapular ridge, through the spine, and out through the opposite shoulder. That wasn’t the shot I was aiming at, but the whole point of that arrow is for when things go wrong.

I have only recovered four animals more than 100 yards from the shot location, the vast majority being under 50 yards. I have only failed to recover a couple animals, and I accept I was the shortcoming in tracking each of those in difficult conditions.

I did have one arrow failure where I failed to breach the near side rib, and on a cape buffalo of all things. I meticulously went over the remaining 11 arrows, and one year later nearly got a pass through on a Asiatic water buffalo after blowing apart a huge rib on the way in. A very good friend’s longbow was the perfect tune for my arrows and he killed his cape buffalo with another out of that same dozen.

8. Do you have any bowhunting tips you would like to pass along?

Instead of a practical tidbit I would like to offer something philosophical. Years ago I was sharing a camp with some gentlemen who had been bowhunting around the world since the 1960s, one of them said to me “Make a list of everything you want to hunt with a bow, then start with the biggest nastiest one. Pulling a heavy bow won’t get easier, and those kinds of hunts won’t get cheaper.”

(Contact us if you’d like to be interviewed for a newsletter. We are looking for bowhunters who are using the heavy arrow/broadhead combination recommended by the Ashby Bowhunting Foundation.)