BIO

Stu Osthoff has hunted "Big Woods Bucks" in the Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota for the past 33 years. He has taken 38 mature bucks in this area - mostly stillhunting during the November rut.  His party hunts from heated wall tent camps- paddling canoes into the BWCAW backcountry during mild conditions and hiking into the wilderness after freeze up.  The BWCAW is over 1 million acres of public land-  big wild country with no roads, no agriculture and no logging.  Marginal habitat, severe winters and the largest timber wolf population in the lower 48 make for low deer densities.  Yet good numbers of bucks reach the 4 - 5 year old stage, 200 lbs plus and 140 to 160 class antlers.  These bucks are super wary and wired.  Consistent success on good BWCAW bucks demands total physical, mental and emotional commitment.  Stu calls chasing BWCAW bucks "Real Hunting"-- hunting that delivers a deep personal connection with nature and a spiritual fulfillment like nothing else. 
 
Stu publishes a quarterly magazine- "THE BOUNDARY WATERS JOURNAL".  He also outfits / guides wilderness canoeing / fishing trips into the BWCAW, Quetico and rivers flowing into Hudson Bay.  He has written extensively about wilderness big game hunting in his own magazine as well as NORTH AMERICAN HUNTER, NORTH AMERICAN WHITETAIL, BOWHUNTING WORLD AND OUTDOOR LIFE.  Every fall he trades in his canoes for packhorses and guides elk hunters for 5 weeks in the Colorado high country.  He also guides canoe-in BWCAW archery deer hunts in late October. 
 
Stu is very proud of all his efforts to help others pursue their own "Big Woods Bucks" dreams.  It is his way of giving something back to the sport that has given him so much.