Cameron Hanes

Quick Stats:
Specialty: DIY Bowhunting
Hometown: Eugene, Oregon
Greatest Love: Hardcore backcountry bowhunting. I love hunting the high country for mule deer or the deep timber for big bull elk.

Favorite UA Gear:
Cold Gear Camo 1/4 Zip, Camo Artic Beanie, Camo Idylwild Shell Armour® Stretch Camo Vest , UA Ayton Fleece Pant

>> Shop all of his favorite gear

Getting to know him

With a passion for hunting the wild, pure backcountry and a love of the written word, Cameron’s greatest love is bowhunting the remote wildernesses of the West and Alaska.

For a glimpse into Cameron’s passion for bowhunting, look no further than his training regimen for his backcountry bowhunts. To get ready for bow season, in addition to shooting every single day of the year, Cameron runs 100-mile ultra marathons in the mountains during the off-season, finishing in the top 10 in nearly every race. Setting this type of standard, raising the bar to this level, pushing his body to failure and beyond, inspires many and inspiration is basically what best defines Cameron Hanes.

Cameron has motivated thousands of hunters through his writing. “Hunters can be a tough crowd; they are savvy and can tell if what you write is real or if you’re trying to sell them a bill of goods,” says Cameron. He continues, “You can’t pull the wool over their eyes. I practice what I preach and the readers know I am genuine because I do a lot of my hunts just like they do, on my own and on public land. It is because of this common thread that they seem to trust my advice.” This type of hunting is tough, which is why Cameron’s life is devoted year-round to preparation, mentally and physically, for that one, split-second chance to land an arrow on the mark.

More often than not, one chance is all he gets when bowhunting in front of the camera. “The ‘one and done’ pressure is undeniable, but it is all a challenge I have come to crave and love’, says Cameron, host of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's "Elk Chronicles" on Outdoor Channel. “I have been lucky enough to capture some great bowhunting footage in the face of very steep odds over the years, from big bull elk to Dall sheep in the rugged mountains of Alaska.”

The motivation Cameron Hanes has is magnetic to hunters who read about and watch his undertakings. He has also been featured at widespread hunter’s gatherings including being the keynote speaker at many annual bowhunter banquets, and he has given seminars at many sportsmen’s shows throughout the West for years.

Devoting himself to learning and honing hunting techniques for his fellow bowhunters has made for an exhilarating career for Cameron. Outdoorsmen have come to respect his knowledge and look forward to his stories. Cameron has based his life and career around the things he loves writing, photography/filming, his family and bowhunting the backcountry.

THE LATEST FROM CAMERON

January 04, 2010
Bighorn 100
Posted: Cameron Hanes
Click on the link below and check out this video diary of my first 100 mile footrace, which took place in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. I did this all in the name of hunting.

http://www.vimeo.com/8539788

Bowhunting the mountains of the west takes dedication….I am not the best bowhunter or the best shot, but I work hard in training and on the hunt. And, while maybe not every time, many times blood & guts effort and a no limit attitude are enough to help me achieve my goals.

Dream bigger, achieve more.

Cam

PS…don’t let the video fool you…I am a good actor. Despite how it looks, I was hurting BIG TIME.

The greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward.
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- 805 Views
- Posted in In the Field

November 28, 2009
First Love
Posted: Cameron Hanes

I’ve been hunting blacktail deer in western Oregon for as long as I can remember. For years blacktail were all I hunted, it was the only hunt I could afford. At almost $20 elk tags were too expensive. An over the counter blacktail deer tag ran me $10.50 I think. I could hunt them basically right out of my back door. I don’t remember my first kiss, but I remember vividly arrowing my first blacktail buck. The passion hasn’t died down at all over the 26 years I have hunted the wary blacktail deer of my homeland.

After hours and hours in the stand, the scouting, trail camera monitoring, tree stand hanging, effort finally paid off and Chad Montgomery caught all the action on camera. I hammered this big dude at about 12 yards, he went 50, dying on the run. We have three years of trail camera photos of this beast. And, in three years, we’ve only seen him during the daylight one time, in 2007. This year we caught him on one of our three cameras one time on Nov. 5th, then nothing until I shot him on the 27th. He was a ghost.

It was sweet to finally catch up with the buck we’ve always called simply, “Big Fork”. Big, old mature blacktail, and amazingly, just as I guessed, it looks like he will make Pope & Young as a straight two point. Not that it matters to me…I love his uniqueness….he looked 3 feet tall coming down the trail dogging that doe. I love me some blacktail hunting. Keep hunting hard. Thanks to Chad’s support and dedication, we’ve now teamed up and captured big blacktail bow kills on film three years in a row. Cam

Cameron R. Hanes
www.cameronhanes.com
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- Posted in In the Field

November 15, 2009
The UA Generation Goes Hunting
Posted: Cameron Hanes

My two sons, Tanner, age 16, and Truett, age 12, have seemingly grown up with Under Armour. Over the years they have experienced some good success in the field on really tough western hunts. I think having higher quality gear than I had growing up has played a huge role in their success. They have both hunted in extreme conditions, where if not for UA’s superior fabric and hardcore construction they simply couldn’t have been in the field as long as they were or hunted as rugged and unforgiving country has they have. Comfort is one thing, but survival is another. Getting cold and wet, when exhaustingly tired puts you at risk.

Last year on his Hell’s Canyon elk hunt, Tanner was everything I mentioned, cold and wet (it was raining and windy), we were in deep, 8 or 9 miles from the trailhead, and he was tired after having played in a Friday night football game from which we drove clear a cross the state of Oregon and packed in deep to base camp at first light Saturday morning without sleeping even one minute. Season ended on Sunday so we had two days to find him a backcountry bull. That’s a lot to ask. We got soaked that first day, got back to camp at about 10 at night, woke up early the next morning, headed out and he killed his first bull elk. That hunt would have broke many of men, but as a 15 year old he got it done. I think if not for UA gear, he would have been battling hypothermia on this early November hunt and instead of downing his first bull elk, he would have been struggling to stay warm.

Truett, this past spring, on a tough rugged spring bear hunt relied on Under Armour gear as well. Again we were in deep, putting on many miles each day trying to find him a bear. The morning’s were cold, that first day we were in snowshoes, then the afternoons were hot. As soon as the sun dropped, temps dropped dramatically. In such conditions you must have clothing that helps regulate your body temp. In the old days, you would just pile on a bunch of whatever you had, cotton, wool, flannel. You would usually be freezing, then get hot and sweat while hiking the mountains, where of course your clothes would get sweaty and wet, which meant when you stopped you’d freeze again. On Truett’s hunt our UA gear acted as a thermostat almost, keeping us warm when it was cool and cool when it was hot. This allowed us to be at our best the entire hunt and we needed to be. Truett killed his bear the very last evening of his bust-your-butt week long backcountry hunt.

And then, just yesterday, Tanner got it done yet again on a tough backcountry hunt in the snow. After a long, uphill four mile hike we found a nice 4×4 blacktail buck. Tanner made a great shot on him and tagged his best blacktail buck to date in the steep mountains of western Oregon. This wasn’t an easy hunt in any regard. Getting to where this buck lived was tough enough. And then, back there, once the animal hits the ground it gets tougher yet. We broke the buck down, quartered him up, and loaded one heavy packframe with deer meat. The other pack hauled all of our gear and off the hill we came. Two tough, quad crushing hours later we were at the truck. Having UA’s best gear made this hunt a relatively enjoyable experience as opposed to a miserable one, which is how I came up. Yup, instead of old-school misery, me and Tanner had the best father and son day I can remember!

Yes, the Under Armour generation is a lucky lot….UA is helping legions of young hunters achieve their hunting dreams. Keep hunting hard, Cam

Cameron R. Hanes
www.cameronhanes.com
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- 3,147 Views
- Posted in In the Field

Iowa 2009
Posted: Cameron Hanes

Lots of time in the stand pays off. On almost all my hunts, which typically take place in the rugged mountains, my edge is pushing hard, enduring pain and getting it done in the face of great hardship. On this hunt, for Midwest whitetail there is only so much pushing a guy can do. To earn my edge my plan was to simply spend as much time in the treestand as I could. As the saying goes, “You can’t kill from the couch.” Instead of heading back to camp at midday, I opted to stay in the tree from dark to dark, 12 hours a day.

Bill Jackson was filming my hunt for Ralph and Vicki’s Archer’s Choice TV show and luckily he was as committed as I was to achieving our goal…arrowing a bomber Iowa whitetail.

In the end, after passing up a number of marginal, Pope & Young bucks, rattling in a bunch of bucks as well as spending many of idle hours overlooking a sweet looking creek bottom that rutting bucks like to cruise looking for hot does….I earned the chance I’d wait for.

On day four of my hunt, as Bill filmed, I arrowed a big, gnarly-antlered buck at 30 yards on the button. Patience paid off. My first Midwest whitetail and a good one at that. Look for the hunt to air on Archer’s Choice which run on Outdoor Channel.

Keep hunting hard!!! Cam
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- Posted in In the Field