BlackOvis MTN Journal

Just a quick intro to Mark and Jeff Skousen.  We are twin brothers that live in Utah. We both have 5 kids and busy careers. We have been hunting together from a young age and have had a lot of success over the years because of hard work, dedication, and being in top shape.  For us, preparing for hunting season is a 365 endeavor.  Just as the four seasons come and go each year, we likewise break our fitness training into a calendar cycle.  There is nothing really scientific to our approach, but the end goal is to be in elk shape come September. It is no secret that our preferred weapon and species is bowhunting Elk.  So, every available moment from the end of August through the end of September is spent in the mountains chasing elk. Continue reading →

Ahhhh it's finally spring time. The sun is shining, kind of. It’s pretty much stopped snowing and draw results are slowly starting to trickle in. Hopefully you have already been out looking for sheds, turkey hunting or maybe setting baits for spring bear. As the temperatures and snow line keep rising, the mud dries out and the runoff slows down. Most of us are cleaning and storing our late season and winter equipment so we can start pulling out warm weather gear. The right warm weather equipment can take you from late spring shed, turkey and bear hunts, into summer scouting and the early archery season. Continue reading →

Hunting backpacks have come a long way in recent years.  They are stronger, lighter, and more customizable than ever before.  A good pack is one of my most utilized and important pieces of gear, second only to a quality pair of boots that fit me well.  Packs these days come in all sorts of varieties and sizes, from day packs to expedition packs.  You can go ultralight, or with a stouter, heavier pack.  The world is your oyster when it comes to choosing a hunting pack.  But what you need to decide first and foremost is what am I looking for in a pack?  What will your main use cases be: day hunts?  Extended backpack hunts?  Any and all of the above?  Also, what criteria must the pack satisfy to meet your needs (and not anyone else’s)? Continue reading →

A BlackOvis Utah Archery Mountain Goat Hunt I believe chasing your dreams is worth every bit of the chase. In fact, when it comes right down to it, chasing your dreams is often more about the chase than the realization of the dream itself. Some dreams take years to obtain, others take a lifetime, while some remain forever just outside of our grasp. Continue reading →

Spring bear is one of the best times to test and try out new backpacking gear for the year. I am always eager to test all the gear that I have upgraded during the winter. Below is my gear that I use for my backcountry spring bear hunt. Typically, I will try and be in the mountains for 5-7 days and follow a nomad style of hunting for spring bears. This style of hunting allows me to be light and mobile which is critical to find bears in rugged terrain. My bag weight will depend heavily on the weather forecast but I will try and keep it as light as possible for this style of hunting. I will be glassing most of the day during this hunt so a glassing chair will be worth its weight in gold. Depending on how stable the weather is, I will leave clothing at the truck or pack more clothing in my pack.  Continue reading →

With Turkey season on the horizon I couldn’t be more excited to dive into an article about turkey hunting. Just a few years ago I never understood what all the hype about turkey hunting was. After some convincing from a good buddy of mine, I agreed to tag along with him on my first turkey hunt. It only took a few moments of walking along the field edge that first morning and hearing my first gobble that I knew I was going to be hooked.  Continue reading →

Is camo really necessary to harvest animals? This is a question I have had running through my mind over the last couple of years. Recently I have noticed that more and more hunters, including myself, wear solid earth tones and camo apparel. I have hunted in full camo, full solid earth tones, a mix of camo and solid colors through various types of hunts and environments. Throughout this article we will look at historical data, personal stories and the science behind camouflage.  Continue reading →

As the long, cold days of winter come to an end, the need to scratch the “Cabin Fever Itch” is stronger than ever. My favorite outdoor activity during from February to June is looking for antlers that deer and elk have shed.  As a shed hunter, I catch myself as my efforts are mostly focused on where I am going to hike, which hillsides the animals wintered on, and dreaming of how many sheds I am going to find. And rightly so! These factors are crucial in increasing the success of a shed hunt.  Continue reading →

Why I hunt for my own meat Growing up in a deer hunting family was a blessing. For many years it was always in my eyes about killing the biggest buck in the woods. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy pursuing and chasing mature bucks, but today there is so much more beyond that. Let me give you a few examples. Deer hunting to me is more than going out one weekend a year and shooting a deer. In my eyes there is something you can be doing 365 days a year to be preparing yourself for a better opportunity of being successful. Spring time is a great time to shed hunt, scout new and old areas, and to learn how deer move and use a specific piece of land. There is so much you can learn from simple observations and just being in the woods. Continue reading →

I love being a hunter these days because there are so many great advancements in technology that make life in the backcountry more efficient and more comfortable.  Packs are no different.  It seems like right when I get settled into a pack that works great, someone comes up with a cool new concept to make them function better. When it comes to fitting a pack, I think it’s important to first determine your intended use of the pack.  Are you the type of hunter that carries camp around on your back for 5-7 days? Or do you usually hunt from a truck or spike camp where a lot less gear to haul on your back is required?  Fortunately, there is more than a few packs out there that are dual purpose packs.  Meaning they can be used as a day pack as well as an extended backcountry hunt. Continue reading →

Who is Alaska Guide Creations? Recently, there was a viral video of a Utah man being escorted out of a canyon by a mama-mountain lion. While watching the video I could not help but think, “where is this guy’s gun?”. Whether that would have been the right decision or not is up for debate, but regardless of views, my .38 Special would have been at my side. Or my front. Or my back. How? The Alaska Guide Creations Holster.  Continue reading →

One of my favorite things to do each fall is chase bugling bulls with my bow.  From the moment the last light fades on my last hunt, I start tinkering with my bow and arrow setup to see how it can be improved.  Over the years I have done a lot of research on what I think makes the best Elk hunting arrow. I have also looked at a lot of “Game Film” in the offseason from the hunts of others’ trying to determine what set-ups seem to work best.  Continue reading →

The first word that comes to my mind when I hear the word “wool” is a memory from my first rifle deer hunt. Slipping my dad’s big, itchy, bright red sweater that had “RUGER” stitched in black across the front. Sure, it was warm, and I knew I wasn’t going to get shot, but man, I couldn’t wait to take that thing off. When I first considered buying Merino wool, I had flashbacks to that particular sweater. Little did I know at the time, Merino wool was the fabric that would soon take up the majority of space in my hunting closet.  Continue reading →

What comes to mind when you think layers? Maybe, onions? Maybe, perhaps a 7-layer dip on game day (mmm………7-layer dip)? Or maybe layers of clothing? For the sake of this article, I am going to discuss clothing layers. More specifically, the XKG layer system from King’s Camo. My intention for this article is to dive into the system I have put together and discuss what XKG is, why I chose what I have, and the conditions I have experienced with it.  Continue reading →

Out of all of the places that I hiked in 2020, the weather, terrain, and distances hiked varied EXTREMELY. In January, I started in the desert in Arizona. I then shed hunted a handful of locations in Utah, Idaho, and Nevada. During the summer months, I looked for velvet mule deer at the top of mountain peaks, and hiked all over those same peaks in September and October. I wrapped up the late season in November and December chasing elk and mule deer with a bow in Northern Utah.  My takeaway from hiking in all of these locations was this: Dress accordingly, boots included.  Continue reading →

If you’re hiking outdoors for hours or even days on end, every ounce and every inch of your pack matters. So when Vanguard created the VEO 2, they wanted to fix one critical flaw: tons of wasted space. That goal alone made this tripod a breeze to carry anywhere with you in the field. Compared to other tripods, the Vanguard VEO 2  is one of the most compact out there. There’s no wasted space in its design. Every square inch of this tripod serves a purpose, but outside of space, what else does this beauty have to offer? Continue reading →