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TESTED: 22 NEW BINOCULARS

OCTOBER 2016

tag out now

wi ld wi n gs: 6 ex tr eme bi r d h unts

27 killer tac t i c s f o r o p e n i n g day

sweet - tal k c a ll - shy duc k s

pick the hot stand master the pinch - point push track a big - woods buck

plus th e m os t elk - c r a z y town i n th e west

VENISON CO OKOUT

A Hunter’s Guide to Succulent Scraps

CRUISE CONTROL: A pre-rut giant stakes out an apple orchard in northern Wisconsin.

OUTDOORLIFE.COM

october 2016

CONTENTS

vol. 223 • no. 8

DEPARTMENTS

Double exposed: A Colorado elk hunter glasses the timber, p. 57.

THE LIFE 7 8 10 11 12

Waypoint: elk-hunting legwork Leters Editor’s Journal Bucks or bust? The rise of doe hunting, from the archives This Happened to Me: “The bull elk I killed nearly killed me!”

GEAR 17

We test, review, and rank this year’s best hunting binoculars

HUNTING 29 32 33

Six killer public-land destinations for extreme wingshooters How to coax in call-shy ducks Are you a master tracker? Our quiz reveals the nuances of sign

FISHING 65 68 70

A beginner’s guide to fly-swinging for steelhead The fall bluefish blitz is about to hit. Are you ready for gators?

Catch big muskies from shore

SHOOTING 73 79 80

How to hit more ducks Fix It Sticks gun tools Bargain shooter tested: Thompson/Center Compass

OFFHAND SHOTS 90

What’s a gun worth? As a memory-maker, a whole lot

FEATURES OPENING ACT

Twenty-seven killer tactics to help you take a buck on the deer-season opener. by tony hansen 4 october 2016 outdoor life

47 THE UNDER CUTS

Six recipes transform the most underrated cuts of venison. by jamie carlson, josh dahlke, and krissie mason

57 BULL’S-EYE

All the reasons Colorado is an elk-hunter’s paradise. by andrew mckean and alex robinson

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL KINNEY

PETER BOHLER

36

Craig, CO / Oct. 21 / 11:13 a.m.

There’s a turning point in every hunt when someone tags out—or misses—that shits morale. This bull dropped late on the third day, and a half dozen guys hiked back the next morning to help pack out the meat, including guide Mat Moline, who worked double duty by fielding a call with the processor. “We had been at the point in the hunt where there hadn’t been much success yet,” says photographer Peter Bohler. “Suddenly it felt like there might be a ton of it.” (Read more about Colorado elk on p. 57.)

section edited by natalie krebs • photograph by peter bohler

outdoor life october 2016 7

L E TTE RS

strapped yourself in, she became a part of you. We took care of each other through scorching deserts, twisting mountain canyons, sandstorms, spins, and stalls. She did everything I ever asked and never let me down. So with all due respect to Blaser, I’m sure it’s a fine shotgun—but it’s no F-16.

Steve “Gus” Gustafson Phoenix, AZ

BUTTING HEADS ▶ As a lifelong Alaskan, I, too, enjoy hunt-

DREAM HUNT ▶ I loved the “North to Adventure” features

in the August 2016 issue. As a kid, I admired the moose antlers my grandpa had hanging in his garage. Seeing them always made me think about the adventures I could have hunting moose. “Beyond the Roar” solidified this fantasy, and I have promised myself I will chase a bull moose at least once in my life. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get a set of antlers to hang in my own garage one day.

Kyle Nerad Davenport, IA

OLD RAMS ▶ This latest issue [August 2016] really hit

home. My best friend and I will hunt Dall sheep for the first, and likely only, time in our lives next year. I will be just shy of my 60th birthday; my buddy, 58. We have also decided to drive from Nebraska to Alaska.

It should be an incredible adventure.

The Jack O’Connor quotes on sheep hunting [“Sheep Whisperer,” The Life] were not only priceless, but timely. I recall O’Connor describing sheep hunting as a young man’s game. And while I have never been accused of acting my age, I am certainly feeling it, so this may be my last great adventure. The problem with sheep hunting as a young man was that I didn’t have the money to go. Now that I can afford it, it may well kill me.

Mark Nelsen Sidney, NE

SOUL STIRRED ▶ Thank you for a fantastic Adventure Issue

[August 2016]. From the gorgeous photo of Northern Lights on p. 5 [“Waypoint,” The Life] to the stories that followed it, the whole issue made me crave wilderness. At one point I thought author Tyler Freel was describing my own mountain elk hunts [“12 Years, 10 Rams”]. Then he said something about a 23-mile pack out back to the airstrip. Oh, to be 20 again. Well done, lad.

My only beef is with Blaser naming its latest shotgun the F16 [“Gun Test: Blaser F16 Game,” Shooting]. I spent 20 years flying the mighty Viper in the Air Force. Fast and sexy, beautiful and deadly—when you ©2016 REMINGTON ARMS COMPANY, LLC.

ing and often relive hunts such as those described by Tyler Freel in “12 Years, 10 Rams.” I would add another lesson: You don’t have to pull the trigger. That was an embarrassingly small ram the author shot as his 10th. Five more years and it might have reached full curl—Alaska’s yardstick for sheep hunting.

Greg Miller Kenai, AK

TYLER FREEL REPLIES: ▶ The photograph that accompanied the story shows my 10th ram at an angle that doesn’t do him justice. When sealed, he was deemed full curl on the right and just shy of full curl on the left. His horn length was 36 ½ inches and 35 ½ inches, with 14 ¾-inch bases. If that’s small, you must have a wall full of 42- to 47-inchers. He was also eight years old, as determined by his growth rings—another one of Alaska’s accepted yardsticks for judging sheep.

BACK TO BASICS ▶ “Ordeal by Hunger” was an interesting

story [August 2016], but I can’t be the only reader who was surprised that any experienced outdoorsman would travel to a remote island without basic survival gear, even if the boat is “supposed” to return that night. What was the author thinking?

Huntfishtrap via outdoorlife.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ANDREW McKEAN REPLIES: I did list a few items that I had: a knife and my basic kit, containing a headlamp, a fire starter, wound dressings, and aspirin. What I didn’t mention, because of limited space, was that it also contained candy (which I distributed when my mates’ blood sugar got low), zip ties, a compass, parachute cord, and chemical hand warmers. Do I wish I had brought more? You bet. But I don’t leave any boat without my little pack of emergency survival items.

CORRECTION In Offhand Shots [Sept. 2016], we referred to a B-29 Liberator. The correct model is a B-24 Liberator.

THE LEGENDARY REMINGTON MODEL 700.

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PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA BY AMERICAN WORKERS

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Š2016 REMINGTON ARMS COMPANY, LLC.

THE LIFE EDITOR’S JOURNƒL ↘

Andrew McKean Editor-in-Chief Sean Johnston Design Director EDITORIAL Managing Editor Jean McKenna Executive Editor Gerry Bethge Senior Deputy Editor John B. Snow Senior Editor Natalie Krebs Assistant Managing Editor Margaret M. Nussey Editorial Assistant Hilary Ribons ART Art Director Brian Struble Associate Art Directors Russ Smith, James A. Walsh PHOTOGRAPHY Photography Director John Toolan Photo Editor Justin Appenzeller PRODUCTION Production Manager Judith Weber DEPARTMENTS Fishing Editor Gerry Bethge Hunting Editor Andrew McKean Shooting Editor John B. Snow WEB Digital Director Nate Matthews Online Content Editor Alex Robinson

Nose to Toes MAKING A MEAL FROM AN ANIMAL’S MORE OBSCURE PIECES AND PARTS

E

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR SPACE AND CLARITY. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND CITY/STATE. EMAIL US AT LETTERS@OUTDOORLIFE.COM (PREFERRED) OR WRITE TO US AT: OUTDOOR LIFE 2 PARK AVE. NEW YORK, NY 10016 REPRINTS & PERMISSIONS EMAIL REPRINTS@BONNIERCORP.COM

10 october 2016 outdoor life

Anthony Licata Editorial Director CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joe Arterburn, Michael Bane, Bill Buckley, Tom Carpenter, Josh Dahlke, Brad Fitzpatrick, Tyler Freel, Tony Hansen, John Haughey, John Haviland, Todd Kuhn, Ben Long, Tim MacWelch, Colin Moore, Michael Pearce, Ron Spomer, John M. Taylor, Bryce Towsley EDITORS EMERITI Jim Carmichel (Shooting), Jerry Gibbs (Fishing), Patrick F. McManus (Editor-at-Large), Bill McRae (Optics), Vin T. Sparano (Senior Field Editor) CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS & ILLUSTRATORS Nick Ferrari, John Hafner, Kevin Hand, Donald M. Jones, Mitch Kezar, Joel Kimmel, Ryan Kirby, Lance Krueger, John Phillips, John Rice, Tony Shasteen, Vincent Soyez, Jeff Wilson

Gregory D. Gatto Vice President, Publishing Director

the tongue and make a cured treat out of it.

Before you chalk me up as another “loco-vore” like Ward, check out our feature, “Under Cuts,” on p. 47. The goal of this story is to inspire you to keep and cook the parts of a deer that most of us discard. There are recipes for liver, tongue, shanks, and ribs. These dishes are modern twists on traditional fare; it’s just in the last generation or two that we saved only the prime cuts of venison for the table. If you can finish the story without your stomach rumbling, then you are a stronger reader than I am.

As for my doe, I also took the hide, ribs, and the tail, which I used to tie trout flies.

I briefly considered packing out the four dainty hooves. I had heard that when boiled down, hooves make adequate glue.

I left them behind. When I need to use glue, I want it to be more than merely adequate. Sorry, Ward.

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Tomas Franzén Chairman ANDREW M C KEAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ANDREW.M C KEAN@OUTDOORLIFE.COM

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MICHAEL FRIBERG

ven for a yearling doe, she was small. My first thought was that I could probably sling her over my back and carry her whole to my pickup. Then I started gutting her, and as I cut into the pink and tender meat, my next thought was of my friend Ward.

Ward is what I’d call a competitive eater.

Not in the mouth-cramming, hot dog binge-and-purge way you might be thinking. Instead, he tries to one-up his friends by cooking, eating, and over-celebrating the most obscure and appalling parts of the wild game he kills. Only Ward makes apparently inedible things look succulent.

Maybe you are happy grilling a venison steak, but to Ward you are not properly realizing the culinary potential of the wild gift unless you marinate the meat in the deer’s own stomach juices and season it with pituitary gland extract. And then show off your amazing dish to the world via Instagram.

According to Ward, most of us are wanton wasters when we take only the quarters, loins, and neck meat. Ward worships at the altar of organ meat, and there is no offal too awful for him to salvage.

With Ward’s “nose to toes” approach in mind, I reconsidered my perfect tender deer, shot clean through the lungs.

The kidney was webbed with a substance as white and delicate as tatted lace.

That suet would make an excellent wrap for a butterflied roast. I carefully removed it and tucked it in the plastic bag that had carried my sandwich earlier in the day.

Then I collected the heart and the liver and slipped them in the bag. I briefly considered the pancreas before cutting out the tongue and adding it my bag of unlikely meals. Maybe I’d smoke it. Maybe I’d brine

THE LIFE FROM THE ƒRCHIVES ↙

LADY KILLERS WE LOOK BACK TO A TIME WHEN IT WASN’T CONSIDERED FAIR FOR DEER HUNTERS TO KILL THE FAIRER SEX—AND HOW THAT BELIEF HAS EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS PRO AND CON OF PENNSYLVANIA DOE-KILLING LAW/JANUARY 1929 The controversy surrounding a new regulation rippled across the U.S. in 1929 and the following decades.

We published a pointcounterpoint from key players on a doe-only deer season in Pennsylvania. We noted that while OL has “stood traditionally against the killing of any female members of the deer family,” the problem presented by the overabundance of does was “too intricate to be settled without the full knowledgeof the facts.” We even printed a ballot for readers to fill out and mail in.*

SHALL WE KILL DOES?/MARCH 1907 Deer populations at the turn of the 20th century were at an all-time historical low in North America, so it follows that our editors were wary of regulations permiting a doe harvest. They wrote a short but impassioned editorial against the practice, which had been proposed and enacted in some regions to avoid the “decimation” of bucks.

Their position was sound at the time, but for some reason they further concluded that legal doe hunting would lead to runaway poaching from the majority of law-abiding hunters: “There is no part of the animal which one would keep as a trophy, and therefore when the meat is eaten all evidence of the killing of the animal has been destroyed. This means that if the hunter is allowed one animal of either sex and kills the doe first, in most cases he will kill a buck, too, if he gets a chance.”

WHY YOU SHOULD HUNT DOES/OCTOBER 1968 OL’s editors were finally sold on the matter. We explained that although doe harvests were previously not needed, they had become critical:“While deer were being re-established...game departments, sportsmen’s magazines, and outdoor columnists greatly oversold the idea of taking only bucks and leaving the does to replenish the herds...You cannot stockpile deer, or other game, as you do corn, wheat, and hay.”

We also supported state agencies as they fought the stigma by printing their messages (see box below).

excerpt from a 69-page booklet issued by the texas parks & wildlife department "we often forget that we shoot female quail, female squirrels, female javelina, female ducks, and female doves… selling only the bulls, the rams, or the billies from herds of domestic livestock is an impractical way to manage domestic livestock. harvesting only buck deer is an impossible way to manage a deer herd.” —reprinted in ol, october 1968

*See the results of that 1929 survey and read more about this topic at outdoorlife.com/ ladykillers. You can find all these original editorials in our archives at c2c.outdoorlife.com

THE SCHRADE SURE-LOCK. Self-sufficiency is more attainable with all your digits. Blade lock rated to 300 pounds. Razor-sharp high-carbon AUS-8 stainless steel blade. Aluminum handle.

Pocket clip.

THE LIFE THIS HƒPPENED TO ME ↘

A BULL’S REVENGE RONALD S. VEYO, HARRISON CITY, PA

I killed a nice bull elk on the opening day of rifle season in Colorado.

A ranch hand came to help load the elk. He chained it to the quad, and asked me to sit on the front for balance.

I tumbled through the air and landed right on an antler! the tine pierced my thigh, narrowly missing my femoral artery. i kept rolling downhill...

...and so did the quad. we came to a stop at last, and i could feel myself bleeding onto the snow.

we were both hurt. i bandaged my leg and slid downhill to find cell service. it was a while before i could admire the elk that now hangs in my home.

I was nervous as he sped up a steep hill in the slush. then Suddenly, i was airborne! the quad had flipped over backward.

IF WE USE YOUR STORY, WE’LL SEND YOU THIS BOOK!

STORYTIME

”THIS HAPPENED TO ME” HAS BEEN A FIXTURE OF OUTDOOR LIFE SINCE IT FIRST APPEARED IN 1940. WE’VE SINCE COMPILED SOME OF THE MOST HARROWING, HAIR-RAISING MISADVENTURES READERS HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN A SINGLE VOLUME. IF WE RUN YOUR STORY, YOU CAN PORE OVER THE 183 PAGES OF THIS AUTOGRAPHED, ACTION-PACKED BOOK KNOWING YOU’RE IN GOOD COMPANY. WANT TO BUY A COPY INSTEAD? THEY’RE AVAILABLE AT OUTDOORLIFE.COM/THTMBOOK 12 october 2016 outdoor life

We publish true adventures.

Only those used will be acknowledged. Send to THTM@ OutdoorLife.com (preferred), or Outdoor Life, THTM, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016.

Include a daytime phone number.

illustration by tony shasteen • colors by mike spicer

This Is The Most Important Election Ever With the balance of the Supreme Court at stake, this election will affect our constitutional rights. It is crucial that all gun owners and Second Amendment supporters register to vote, become informed about candidates’ positions, and on Election Day, #GUNVOTE. Follow #GUNVOTE on:

Learn more at gunvote.org gunvote.org

FULL-SIZE BINOS ♦ MID-SIZE BINOS

GEAR

BINOCULƒR TEST 2016

DOUBLE VISION THIS YEAR’S CROP OF HUNTING BINOCULARS FEATURES FAMILIAR BRANDS AND A RENEWED EMPHASIS ON AFFORDABILITY BY ANDREW McKEAN

Now we see you.

This year’s field of binoculars, ready for resolution testing.

section edited by andrew mckean • photographs by peter bohler

outdoor life october 2016 17

GEAR FULL-SIZE BINOS ↘

When I was a kid, a neighbor hunted so close to our farm’s boundary that his treestand practically hung across our fence line. Over the course of several deer seasons, I’d sometimes train my binocular on Willie’s stand and see him pointing his bolt-action rifle back at me.

“I don’t think he’d ever shoot you,” my dad said, a litle too casually. “Willie glasses with his riflescope because he can’t afford a binocular.”

He could now. Based on submissions to this year’s optics test, there is a binocular for almost any type of hunter and every budget. Affordability is relative, but most hunters would agree that a $3,000 binocular is expensive, no mater how good its glass. A $200 optic that makes your eyes hurt isn’t worth the money. It’s in that middle ground, with optics that range in price from $300 to $1,000, that we seek to balance performance with price. Our test is designed to reveal good optics at a reasonable cost.

The direct-to-consumer trend that we noted last year is gaining ground in the optics industry, with another premium brand bypassing the traditional retail model and using the internet to promote and deliver its product.

We’re also seeing established brands reach for the entrylevel market, introducing good all-around binoculars priced at such a point that there’s no excuse for using your riflescope to glass anything that you don’t intend to shoot.

18 october 2016 outdoor life

sig sauer

m av e n

ZULU9 11X45

B.2 9X45

this big, hand-filling binocular ran away with the top resolution score in our test, evidence of very good glass and coatings inside its stout magnesium chassis. Optically, it’s first-rate. Externally, it has a strong martial appearance. As its name suggests, it’s a tactical binocular, with angular controls and an aggressive style. It’s easy to imagine a field marshal using the Zulu9 to view enemy combatants approaching his position.

We liked the Zulu’s tacky rubber finish, comfortable balance, tight focus controls, and stylish graphite armor. score: 86 price: $1,200 upshot: aggressive tactical style

maven pioneered the bespoke binocular with last year’s B.1. For a few dozen dollars above the base price, online customers can add their own bling. The Wyoming company has extended the concept to this very good magnum-sized binocular, the B.2, which we dressed in Kuiu’s Verde camo.

The base optic is tight, built around bright Japanese glass. The configuration is optimized for Western hunters, but the 9x45, which won the low-light test, would serve any sportsman looking to maximize twilight viewing. If we have a ding, it’s that the Maven’s finish is a bit too slick. score: 85.75 price: $1,130 as shown upshot: customizable furniture

minox

leupold

BF 10X42

BX-3 MOJAVE PRO GUIDE HD 10X50

the bf by minox is a great example of the trend toward affordable Euro-branded optics. This entry-level binocular is priced within reach of almost any American sportsman, and the BF is worth every Lincoln penny. It achieved a surprisingly good resolution score, and the controls are tight and precise. How did Minox do it? By sourcing the BF in Asia and by building the optic around an aluminum chassis. This is a good value in a solid optic. We had some concerns about its durability, but if the BF doesn’t hold up to hard use, you have the company’s reliable warranty to fall back on.

leupold could be forgiven for casting about to find a binocular that’s as distinctive and as dead-nuts reliable as its Gold Ring riflescopes. Unfortunately, this Pro Guide HD is probably not it. There’s nothing wrong with the Japanese-sourced Mojave, but there’s nothing particularly distinctive about its performance, either. We liked the grippy hand feel of the angular open-bridge design, but the finish is a little slick. We liked the cool Kryptex Typhon camo pattern, but the optics disappointed. We detected flaring in harsh light, and the Mojave’s resolution score was one of the lowest in our test.

score: 71.8 price: $180 upshot: affordable german brand

score: 71.6 price: $810 upshot: disappointing optics

GEAR

leica

FULL-SIZE BINOS ↙

TRINOVID HD 10X42 with its trinovid hd, Leica has joined fellow European brands in producing a mid-priced optic that maintains the high quality of the company but is accessible to most American hunters. In this way, Leica is following the lead of Zeiss and Swarovski, whose Conquest and CL Companion lines, respectively, feature very good glass but are made in facilities where costs of production are lower than in the optical capitals of Europe. If these price-point products don’t have the optical horsepower of the premium lines, the majority of sportsmen won’t notice the difference

in most glassing situations.

There is every chance that hunters will never notice the shortcomings of this $1,000 Portugal-made Leica, because we could find very few. Although it didn’t win either the resolution or the low-light test, it scored near the top in those, and in every other attribute, making it the clear choice for the best full-size bino in this year’s field.

The center-hinge Trinovid has the solid, substantial feel and perfect balance of a premium Leica binocular, and the eyecups and focus controls are precise, smooth, and lovely.

steiner

HX 8X42 steiner lives in the shadow of its German neighbors, Zeiss and Leica. Maybe that’s because it’s something of a quirky brand, clinging to stylistic flourishes like its distinctive bat-wing eyecups and green-hued optical coatings.

Once you get past the HX’s “Steinerisms,” you’ll find it to be a very good hunting optic. The HX has a lively balance, thanks to its tough and light polycarbonate chassis and durable center-hinge design. Its glass is good and bright, and we detected no flaring or peripheral fuzziness. We liked its grippy rubber finish and its very good close focus.

score: 88.9 price: $1,000 upshot: excellent optics in a reasonably priced leica

score: 76.2 price: $800 upshot: quality german binocular

trijicon

HD 10X42

Leica’s $1,000 Trinovid HD turned in the top overall score in our fullsize-binocular field.

michigan-based trijicon has an established reputation in the riflescope industry as a company that produces very good scopes with battery-free illumination. And its ACOG combat optic is the industry standard for AR battle sights. This binocular is Trijicon’s first foray into passive viewing optics, and it’s a great effort. The glass is good, and the armor, with a handsome graphite finish, is striking. Once you acquire an image, it’s sharp and bright. Unfortunately, the binocular’s controls are its undoing. The focus is shallow and strays, and our sample’s eyecups tended to collapse under hard use. score: 71.3 price: $849 upshot: first bino from trijicon

outdoor life october 2016 19

GEAR FULL-SIZE BINOS ↘

tract

TORIC 10X42 if this freshman effort from a couple of veterans of the sports-optics industry is any indication of their intentions, you’ll be hearing about Tract for years to come. The Toric is a wonderfully bright and durable premium optic that prompted the most telling quote of our test: “I expected this binocular to cost several hundred dollars more than it does,” said panelist Dale Manning.

The rest of us testers nodded our heads in agreement; the Toric was the unanimous choice for our Great Buy award. If that endorsement has you rushing to the store to buy a Toric, I’ll save you the trip. You can only buy Tract optics through the company’s website. The system is designed to cut out retailers and their marked-up pricing, say Tract cofounders Jon LaCorte and John Allen, both alumni of Nikon’s sports-optics division.

The Tract shares the solid build, tight controls, and edge-to-edge clarity that defines Nikon’s higher-end optics. Internally, the Toric was a top performer in our test, turning in one of the best combined low-light and resolution scores, owing to its high-end Schott glass and premium coatings. It also won points for its stylish graphite-and-black finish and its classy packaging.

Hunters will appreciate the Toric’s compact frame; its grippy finish; its tack-sharp focus; and its face-fitting eyecups, which adjust as smoothly and positively as a fine watch. score: 88.2 price: $664 upshot: tremendous value

20 october 2016 outdoor life

at h lo n

bushnell

CRONUS ED 10X42

TROPHY XTREME 12X50

with a full line of spotting scopes, riflescopes, and binoculars, this new brand has an optic configured for nearly every outdoors pursuit. The 10x42 Cronus ED that Athlon submitted for our test is a decent inaugural effort. The compact, closed-hinge design is rugged and tight, and the grippy texturing grabs the hand and holds on. But the controls are sloppy and vague, and despite having extra-low-dispersion glass, the optics are disappointing, exhibiting flare and causing headaches during extended glassing sessions.

if you’re looking for an entry-level binocular for a beginning hunter or naturalist, this new Bushnell is worth considering—but just don’t go for the 12x50 configuration that was submitted for our test. This hefty binocular has good glass and tightenough focus controls, but it’s a little big for the beginning hunters for whom it’s intended. Instead, go with the 8x42, 10x42, or even 8x32 models. You will appreciate the sharp image, tight focus, and portability. If you’re looking for a bino to keep in your pickup or cabin, this 12x50 is a good choice.

score: 68.3 price: $500 upshot: stout build, average glass

score: 66.5 price: $200 upshot: solid price-point binocular

konus

nikon

KONUSREX 10X42

PROSTAFF 3S 8X42

this open-bridge binocular represents the pinnacle of Konus’ product line, and it’s not bad. The controls are relatively tight, and while testers didn’t care for the moss-green finish on the chassis, that’s a very minor criticism for a good entry-level optic. Optically, the Konusrex delivers an adequate image, even in the dim light beyond legal shooting hours. We’ve detected significant edge distortion and flaring on previous Konus products, but the Konusrex exhibited neither.

While the Konus doesn’t render the image quality of a European optic, it doesn’t cost nearly as much as one, either.

consider the polycarbonate-chassis binocular. On the one hand, it can feel light and flimsy compared to magnesium construction. But on the other hand, after a long day of hiking steep country, the lightweight plastic won’t bog you down. Nikon’s new entry-level binocular has both those attributes. It’s light and a little fragile feeling, but after a hard week of testing, we couldn’t find any indication that it won’t hold up to tough treatment. The optics of the ProStaff 3S are adequate, but they’ll frustrate low-light glassers. Still, it’s a good price for an entry-level binocular from one of the most established brands in sports optics.

score: 65.2 price: $270 upshot: decent controls and glass

score: 64.1 price: $120 upshot: great price on average bino

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GEAR MID-SIZE BINOS ↘

S

ubmissions to this year’s mid-size binocular test gave us an unenviable challenge: comparing a $2,000 top-of-the-line European optic against knock-about binoculars that cost a fraction of that amount. Before we get into the specific performance of each, the unsurprising outcome: The brilliant Leica Ultravid won. What did catch us off guard was the affordable excellence of the rest of the field.

leica

ULTRAVID HD-PLUS 8X32

Leica’s Ultravid HD-Plus is one of the top-scoring binoculars in the history of our optics test.

HOW WE TEST Our binocular test is designed to determine the optical performance of submissions using measurable, repeatable criteria. But it’s also designed to capture those qualitative attributes familiar to most hunters: How does it feel in your hand? How responsive is the focus control?

We measure each binocular’s optical resolution using a standard Air Force resolution target. This test indicates the sharpness of the glass and uncovers any optical aberrations. Our low-light test, conducted over the course of several evenings, measures brightness. Our subjective testing rates the functionality and versatility of each binocular. The highest overall score gets our Editor’s Choice award. The binocular with the highest price/value score wins our Great Buy award.

22 october 2016 outdoor life

this is perhaps the finest midsize binocular we’ve ever tested.

It’s so good, in fact, that it would have scored quite high in our field of full-size binoculars, those built around objective lenses from 42mm to 50mm. The newest iteration of the venerable Ultravid line, the HD-Plus features a new prism design, a premium grade of Schott glass, and a new process that uses ultra-high temperatures to bake glare- and refractiontaming coatings onto external lens surfaces.

All that optical performance would be diminished in a clumsy body, but the Ultravid is compact, tight, and stylish. The magnesiumand-titanium chassis is balanced and tough, the center-hinge design is strong and durable, and the focus and diopter controls are smooth and tack-sharp. I normally lean toward 10x42 configurations for most big-game hunting, but I would not hesitate to use this 8x32 on an open-country hunt for pronghorn antelope or mule deer.

The Leica won our low-light test (tying with the Maven) and turned in one of the top resolution scores in the field. It won praise from testers for the wide range of subjective assessments, including ergonomics and durability. The only category where it left us wanting was price/value. It’s hard to justify spending $2,000 on a mid-size binocular, especially when there are so many other good choices available. But if you are looking to invest in a single 8x32 optic, you can’t do better than this outstanding, classleading Leica. score: 85.5 price: $1,950 upshot: a stunning optic

GEAR MID-SIZE BINOS

m av e n

B.3 8X30

↘

confession time: Since our optics test back in March, I’ve lived with this Maven binocular. It’s gone with me on hunting trips to New Zealand and Missouri, and it stays in my pickup to deploy for frequent impromptu glassing sessions.

The reason it’s become part of my kit is because it’s so handy. The oversize focus wheel and wide-set barrels fit a single hand perfectly, making it as easy to grab as a pint glass.

The controls are tight and sharp, and the B.3 is sized right for dropping in a lumbar pack or an overnight bag.

If we had a ding on the Maven, it’s that the B.3’s optical performance wasn’t quite up to the standard that we’ve come to expect from the company that specializes in higher-end Japanese-built products. While the 30mm B.3 excelled in low-light brilliance, its resolution score was middling, and we noted some flaring and peripheral distortion.

Still, this is a whopping bargain on a handy gem of a binocular. score: 84 price: $500 upshot: nimble binocular

sig sauer

zeiss

steiner

ZULU3 8X32

TERRA ED POCKET 8X25

WILDLIFE XP 8X24

with a great hand-feel and very good image, this open-hinge binocular from Sig Sauer is a quite good and affordable all-around optic.

While the binocular is aggressively styled, presumably to appeal to the “tacticool” market, its angular profile and grippy controls make it easy to hold and deploy.

Optically, it’s a decent performer, and the polymer frame is light and nimble— enhancing its capability as a one-hand optic.

The controls of the Zulu3 are a little fatiguing; the focus wheel is spongy, and the diopter and eyecup controls felt mushy. But this is a whale of a value in a good and handy binocular.

a pocket-size travel optic configured along the same lines as the Steiner, the Zeiss surprised us by turning in the top resolution score in our mid-size bino category. It also did better than we expected in our low-light test, evidence that the ED glass inside the petite chassis is up to the German company’s standards.

The tiny controls of the binocular make one-hand deployment difficult. But if you’re looking for a high-performance travel optic, you might consider the Terra ED Pocket. It would also be at home in a turkey vest and in a pared-down treestand kit, especially in woodland environments where visibility is limited.

to be fair, this binocular is more of a travel optic than one you’d use for hunting. Its size and features make it look like an opera glass, and scores for versatility and comfort reflect its limited utility. Our test team unanimously concluded the Steiner’s controls are puny and frustrating to use, its slick finish is difficult to hold, and its blingy silver furniture is bound to spook wildlife.

As you might expect from an optic with 24mm objectives, the Steiner fared poorly on our low-light test, even though its resolution score was higher than we expected. It won points for style and portability.

score: 77.75 price: $250 upshot: versatile, lightweight optic

score: 77.5 price: $300 upshot: pocket-size travel bino

score: 67 price: $350 upshot: compact and handy

24 october 2016 outdoor life

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GEAR RESULTS ↘

MECHA

8

9.74

9

9

8.25

9.5

8.75

9

8.75

9

88.9

GREAT BUY

$664

9

9.46

8.75

8.25

8

8

8.75

9

9

10

88.2

SIG SAUER ZULU9 11X45

$1,200

10

10

8.5

8.75

8.75

8.75

7.75

7.75

8

7.75

86

MAVEN B.2 9X45

$1,130

9

10

8.75

8.75

8.25

8

7.75

8.5

8.5

8.25

85.75

STEINER HX 8X42

$800

8

7.05

8

7.75

8

7.5

7.5

7.5

7.5

7.5

76.2

MINOX BF 10X42

$180

8

6.11

7.5

6.75

7

7.5

7.5

7

6.75

7.75

71.8

LEUPOLD BX-3 MOJAVE PRO GUIDE HD 10X50

$810

5

8.60

7.25

6.5

7.75

7.5

7.25

7.5

7.75

6.5

71.6

TRIJICON HD 10X42

$849

7

7.87

6.75

5.75

7.75

7.25

7.5

6.75

7.75

7

71.3

ATHLON CRONUS ED 10X42

$500

7

7.09

6

6.25

7

7

7.5

6.5

7

7

68.3

BUSHNELL TROPHY XTREME 12X50

$200

5

8.79

5.75

6.75

7

7

6.5

5.75

6.75

7.25

66.5

KONUS KONUSREX 10X42

$270

6

6.22

6.5

6.5

6.5

6.75

7

6

7

6.75

65.2

NIKON PROSTAFF 3S 8X42

$120

6

5.69

6.25

6.75

6.25

6.25

7

6.5

6.5

7

64.1

LEICA ULTRAVID HD-PLUS 8X32

CORE T O TA L S

PRICE/

VALUE

PURPOS MEETS

CORE T O TA L S

PRICE/

VALUE

PURPOS MEETS

RT

ILITY

COMFO

CONSTR

LITY DURABI

NICS MECHA

VERSAT

UCTION

E

COMFO

RT

ILITY VERSAT

UCTION CONSTR

LITY DURABI

NICS

Y QUALIT Y QUALIT IMAGE

MID-SIZE BINOCULAR TEST RESULTS

PRICE

TRACT TORIC 10X42

E IMAGE

$1,000

IMAGE R ESOLUT ION LOW LIG HT

EDITOR’S CHOICE

LEICA TRINOVID HD 10X42

PRICE

IMAGE R ESOLUT ION LOW LIG HT

FULL-SIZE BINOCULAR TEST RESULTS

EDITOR’S CHOICE

$1,950

9

10

9.5

8.25

8.5

8.75

8.25

8.5

8.75

6

85.5

GREAT BUY

$500

7

10

8

8.5

8.75

7.5

7.75

8.5

8.75

9.25

84

SIG SAUER ZULU3 8X32

$250

7

8

7.75

7.25

7.5

8

7.75

8

8

8.5

77.75

ZEISS TERRA ED POCKET 8X25

$300

10

7

8

7.5

7.5

7.25

7.25

7.25

8

7.75

77.5

STEINER WILDLIFE XP 8X24

$350

9

5

7

6.25

7

6.75

6

6.25

7

6.75

67

MAVEN B.3 8X30

26 october 2016 outdoor life

We find peace in the solitude of this lifestyle, and we thrive on all the great outdoors has to offer.

We are driven to improve the soil and create better habitat.

We are pursuing our passions in this space we call home.

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WƒTERFOWL ♦ BIG GƒME

Chukar hunters scale a steep slope in Utah’s West Desert.

TIP WINGSHOOTING Periodically blowing a hawk call as you hunt chukar will often keep the partridges from flushing wild, giving you closer shots.

UPLAND GOES EXTREME

JOHN HAFNER

A new breed of hunters applies backcountry gear and access strategies to public-land grouse and quail. BY BRAD FITZPATRICK

section edited by andrew mckean • hunting@outdoorlife.com

outdoor life october 2016 29

HUNTING WINGSHOOTING ↘

Y

+ GEAR FOR THE EXTREME BIRD HUNTER

An Idaho chukar hunter hikes the sagebrush ridges above Brownlee Reservoir.

Destination wingshooting has earned a reputation as being stodgy, a pastime for tweedjacketed dandies who aren’t willing to face the physical challenge of true mountain hunting.

But there’s a whole new generation of bird hunters who are top-tier athletes, happy to climb into steep country and cross crumbling slides or run for miles in open country behind a flushing dog. They’re likely to spend summer months riding mountain bikes or taking part in endurance races. But when the air cools and the leaves turn gold, you’ll find this new breed of hunter shooting birds in the most remote corners of public land.

While upland bird habitat in much of the country has been altered, and native birds have declined as a result, bird habitat in the West is largely intact. Species like prairie chickens and desert quail might not be concentrated in heavy densities, but they are generally common on public land, where hunters have a reasonable expectation of encountering them.

In addition, the establishment of populations of non-native upland species like Hungarian and chukar partridge in Western states has created a fantastic opportunity for a mixed-bag hunt. In higher elevations, you’ll find blue and spruce grouse, and in the northernmost part of the country, there’s the opportunity to hunt ptarmigan. The catch? If you want to find these birds on public land, you’ll likely have to walk. A lot.

Brian Koch, founder of Ultimate Upland (ultimateupland.com), is one of the pioneers of this extreme upland movement. Each fall, Koch hunts more than 100 days in seven or more states and travels in excess of 35,000 road miles in search of the best upland bird hunting that this country has to offer. And he does it all on public land, without hiring a guide.

“Most hunters don’t realize there are 27 different upland species to hunt in this country.

The National Forest has 193 million acres, the Bureau of Land Management owns 245 million acres, and National Wildlife Refuges have 150 million more acres,” says Koch. “All those public lands have one or more upland species residing within their boundaries, and if you walk far enough, you’ll have an opportunity to take them. And many states offer access to millions more acres.”

It’s not a hunt for everyone, but for a growing number of dedicated upland hunters, chasing wild birds on untrammeled public land has become a passion. It may just be America’s best-kept hunting secret.

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30 october 2016 outdoor life

Core4Element Assault ¼ Zip Shirt: Four-way stretch fabric makes this a lightweight, breathable shirt that keeps you warm on chilly mornings but won’t trap heat on long hikes. The athletic cut is nonbinding and perfect for long, steep climbs, and the lightweight design won’t bog you down while you’re chasing birds at high elevations. ($75; core4element.com)

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AARON BECK/IDAHO STOCK

You likely did not draw any of the special tags you applied for around the West for this fall’s biggame seasons. But even if you didn’t get called for a permit to hunt San Juan elk in Utah or bighorns in Oregon, you don’t have to spend the autumn wondering what to do with the refund from your unsuccessful big-game draw. The American West offers great hunting on public land, where the odds of success are high and hunting licenses are available over the counter.

If you’re looking for a highoutput, high-success hunt this year, consider joining the ranks of the nation’s newest breed of bird hunters—the upland extremists.

DID YOU KNOW One of the few places you can regularly see white-tailed ptarmigan outside of Alaska and Canada is Colorado’s Summit County.

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Top Public-Lƒnd Bird Hunts 1. ARIZONA DESERT QUAIL Hunt three species of quail—Gambel’s, scaled, and Mearns’—in a single day. Tripling on Arizona quail is difficult, given the steep, rocky, snake-infested country they call home, but a good place to atempt it is the Chiricahua Mountains of the Coronado National Forest in Arizona’s Unit 29. Expect to find Gambel’s quail in lower grasslands at elevations less than 4,700 feet, Mearns’ in the oak-juniper forests above 4,700 feet, and scalies in the middle. Season licenses: $37 for residents, $160 for nonresidents, or $20 for a one-day license.

2. HELLS CANYON CHUKAR America’s deepest river gorge was carved by the waters of the Snake River, which define the borders of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The steep, rough, unforgiving walls of the canyon inside the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area are home to a huge population of wild chukar partridges. In the winter, snow concentrates birds at lower elevations, but for most of the fall, you’ll find them in areas reachable only by hiking the treacherous lava-rock cliffs. Season licenses: $12.75 for residents, $97.75 for nonresidents, or $35.50 for a three-day nonresident license.

some indication of the type of extreme country you’ll encounter when chasing ptarmigan here. Focus your efforts on the highest elevations of the Chugach National Forest. Keep an eye out for bears, sheep, and extreme weather conditions. Season licenses: $25 for residents, $20 for nonresidents with small-game license.

4. NORTH DAKOTA MIXED BAG Seasons are long, species are varied, public land is plentiful, and the hunting pressure is relatively low. The northwest corner of the state along the Montana border is home to Huns, pheasants, and sharptailed grouse.

Hunt the 20,000 acres on Lewis and Clark and Killdeer Mountain wildlife management areas. The state’s PLOTS (Private Lands Open To Sportsmen) properties are oten rich in birds. Season licenses: $10 for residents, $100 (plus $20 habitat stamp) for nonresidents for a 14-day license.

5. NEVADA’S HIMALAYAN SNOWCOCK Many consider bagging one of these litleknown imports from central Asia in its adopted home, the highest elevations of Nevada’s Ruby Mountains, to be the pinnacle of Western bird hunting. Snowcock habitat starts at about 10,500 feet, so encounters are oten in the thin air accessible only ater hiking steep slopes for hours. Season licenses: $33 for residents, $142 for nonresidents, who can also opt for a one-day license for $21.

3. ALASKA WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN The Chugach Range in Alaska is known for Dall sheep hunting, so that should give you

6. WEST VIRGINIA RUFFED GROUSE Okay, it’s not out West, but the state has a healthy population of Appalachian ruffed grouse. Hunt the remote corners of the Monongahela National Forest. Season licenses: $19 for residents or $119 for nonresidents, or $27 for a six-day license.

Tenzing TZ BV15 Upland Vest: This is no traditional upland vest. It’s a pack cut to fit the mobile hunter for long hikes in rough country. It comes with a wraparound bird-carrying compartment and 13 pockets, and it allows you to carry 2 or 3 liters of water. Despite having 2,000 cubic inches of interior storage space, it weighs just over 3 pounds. ($219; tenzingoutdoors.com)

UA Ridge Reaper Extreme Hunting Boots: Light, comfortable, and featuring a breathable, waterproof Gore-Tex lining, these boots are built for hard hikes in hot weather. They provide extreme ankle support in uneven country, and the aggressive outsole offers great traction in uneven terrain, whether on desert boulders or mountain scree. ($225; underarmour.com)

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FIVE GUNS FOR EXTREME UPLAND HUNTS ▲ Benelli Ethos 28-Gauge: The Ethos

28 is light and nimble, features modern styling, and, yes, it’s Italian. The gun weighs just 5.3 pounds, making it one of the lightest autoloaders ever, and the addition of a 3-inch chamber makes it the most versatile 28-gauge ever. ($2,199; benelliusa.com)

▲ Savage 555: One of the criticisms

of this 5.5-pound 20-gauge is that the recoil is prety stiff. That’s true if you’re shooting clays all day, but for the foot hunter, who will cover a lot of miles to shoot two or three times, this over/under is perfect. It’s also affordable. ($692; savagearms.com)

▲ Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen: This new iteration of one of the most iconic upland guns ever has some improvements that make it a great option for modern bird hunters. It operates using the reliable Kinematic Drive System and weighs less than 6 pounds. ($1,700; browning.com)

▲

able inertia-driven semi-auto has garnered a strong following over the last decade. And ater wringing the 20-gauge M3020 out on Argentinian doves, I’m sold on its reliability. It weighs just 5.6 pounds with a 26-inch pipe. ($599; stoegerindustries.com)

▲ Savage Model 42 Takedown: The

takedown Savage has a shotgun barrel in .410 and a rifle barrel in either .22 LR or .22 WMR. The pack gun is a good choice for long, steep hikes into remote areas where shots won’t be long, but where you might have to pot some camp meat. ($500; savagearms.com) outdoor life october 2016 31

↘

COAXING CALL-SHY DUCKS SOFT-PEDDLE YOUR HAILS WITH SINGLE, SUBTLE QUACKS BY BRIAN RUZZO

S

pend much time chasing ducks and you’ll experience the empty promise of a flock of greenheads as it descends on your location, only to bank away as soon as you blow the first note on your duck call. As the season progresses and ducks get more wary, this scenario seems to repeat more times than not. The key to

calling call-shy ducks, says Duck Dynasty’s Justin Martin, is simply to call less.

Don’t blow if you don’t have to, says Martin. While this rule has been preached for years, it is oten hard to resist when a flock of ducks is headed your way. But not only do you risk warning wary ducks with imperfect calling, but you may also give away your position. If the

birds are cupped and coming, leave them alone. Only take action when ducks become suspicious, says Martin. But just don’t start hailing them.

“Begin with a light feeding call or single quacks,” he says. “Mix in some confidence calls too, such as mallard drake hums. These are the most natural sounds that ducks make when they are siting on the water.”

Single quacks should be spaced out.

“If you make too many single quacks too quickly, it sounds Jase Robertson blows a doublereed duck call.

to ducks like an alarm,” says Martin. “Just think of the times you have spooked ducks from ally make three to four quick quacks as they flush, and then a series of quacks as they elevate.”

If incoming ducks bank away from his location, Martin will use a greeting call. If they respond, turning back to his decoys, then he knows it’s okay to use that call again. But if the birds continue to fly away, he won’t use that call again.

His favorite call is a double-reed model, because of the style’s subtle, natural tones.

Single-reed calls are oten too loud and raspy for call-shy ducks, Martin says.

pair up rather than loaf in large flocks. Mimic this natural distribution by sizing down and adding motion to your spread.

The Mojo Rippler (above; $40; mojooutdoors.com) adds small waves similar to those produced by dabbling ducks.

Mojo’s Flock a Flickers ($100; mojooutdoors.com) includes six small spinning wings with timers that produce momentary, random pulses that mimic the wing flashes given off by a flock of real ducks.

Or add your own motion to decoys with the Step-Up Jerk Rig from Rig’Em Right ($40; rigemright.com).

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HUNTING WƒTERFOWL

HUNTING BIG GƒME ↙

TRACKING RIDDLES DECIPHERED CAN YOU SOLVE ALL THE SUBTLE VISUAL PUZZLES THAT YOU’LL ENCOUNTER ON A HUNT? TEST YOURSELF WITH THIS QUIZ BY BEN LONG

T

rail cameras are a wonderful tool, but in the heat of the moment, there is no substitute for trail-crat—using your five senses to unravel the clues let by whatever game you are pursuing and whatever else might be roaming the wilds. It’s called tracking, but tracks are just the start of it. Master trackers pay atention to every available clue, using all of their senses, a catalog of memories, and a dose of imagination.

Here are five tracking scenarios, all based on real-life situations I’ve experienced. In each case, subtle differences in sign make a big difference in how you might interpret the story let behind.

LANCE KRUEGER

A western Wisconsin bowhunter reads deer tracks in the snow.

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BEAR WITH ME

PREDATOR PAWS

ELK OR MOOSE?

OUT ON A LIMB

TELLTALE MARK

▶ You and a friend are hunting a ridge in the northern Rockies, climbing toward the timberline. It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and while you are looking for ruting mule deer bucks, you both have valid black bear tags.

As you work your way through a lodgepole pine stand, you cut smokinghot bear tracks in the snow—big ones, heading straight uphill. This is black bear country, but there are rumors of a few grizzly bears. Your friend wants to pursue the tracks, but you tell him to back off. Why?

▶ It’s late summer and you are scouting a local forest for fall deer and perhaps some winter predator-hunting spots.

You round a bend on your mountain bike to find a dead whitetail doe in the logging road.

The carcass is fresh enough that it is still limber. The deer is missing one foreleg, biten off at the shoulder, and there are puncture wounds on the throat.

You find one paw print in the road dust that confirms your hunch that it was a mountain lion. What clues led to your conclusion?

▶ It’s elk season and you’re huffing and puffing in the backcountry, working your way through fresh October snow. You cut a trail of a single, large-hooved mammal, made just this morning. The snow is ankle-deep dry powder, leaving individual tracks indistinct and a couple of broken hairs in the snow. The trail direction of travel is clear. If it’s a lone bull elk, your odds of tagging out have just gone up. Several clues confirm that you should not waste your time following this track. What is the clincher?

▶ It’s deer season. The snowless ground is frozen solid. Deer are shiting their diet from forbs to browse. Something has been munching— and munching hard—on the shrubs near a potential treestand site on the edge of your woodlot. You examine dogwood twigs, clipped clean as if with pruning sheers. Several twigs are nipped off nearly at waist-height. Try as you might, you cannot find any tracks or scat amid the dense vegetation on the ground. How do you know this is not a good site for a treestand?

▶ While still-hunting whitetails in New England, you cut the trail of a lone deer. The tracks are pressed perfectly into the wet snow. They are big and crisp, and the animal drags a fore toe a bit between steps.

Where the ground is sot, the steps are so deep that the marks from the dewclaws are visible. The footing is quiet; the wind is in your favor. You follow the trail to an empty bed, where you find a spot of urine in the middle of it and know you’re on the trail of a buck. What makes you so sure?

ANSWERS ON THE FOLLOWING PAGE ¬

outdoor life october 2016 33

HUNTING BIG GƒME ↘

ANSWERS TO TRACKING RIDDLES ON PREVIOUS PAGE

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GRIZ!

BEWARE A CAT

LOOK FOR HAIR

WILD-HARE CHASE

TELLTALE SPOT

Print size alone is not conclusive, but there are several clues here that point to a griz. Grizzlies tend to den later than black bears, sometimes as late as mid-December, and in the Rockies they oten den at high elevations. The clincher clues are the claws and toes.

Griz claws are long and their toes tend to be aligned in a straight row.

Black bear toes are more arched over the top of the pad. If you can connect the rightmost toe with the letmost toe in a straight line that does not intersect the pad, you are looking at a grizzly track.

Cougars are stealth predators, stalking close and then pouncing. Wolves are chasers, oten biting at the rear in pursuit and then tearing a prey animal to pieces once it is down. Bites on the throat and the torn-off shoulder point to a cougar kill, but the track is the confirming clue. Feline tracks can be distinguished from dog tracks by presence of claws and shape of the foot. Cat claws retract. Dog claws do not, so they will show up in a good print, even in dust.

Cat tracks are rounded; dog tracks are more diamond-shaped.

I learned this trick ater many miles of wildmoose chases. Moose tracks tend to be a bit bigger and more pointed than elk tracks. However, those details are hard to see in sot snow. One overlooked clue is hair.

Moose have long, black guard hairs that are easily shed. Look for these hairs on the surface of the snow, particularly where the animal has bedded down or rubbed against tree boughs. I have never examined a moose bed that failed to have black hairs in it.

This can save you miles of wasted effort while hunting elk.

When the ground is frozen, feeding animals will not leave a track, so examine other clues, such as nipped twigs.

Ungulates—deer, elk, and moose—lack top front teeth. The lower incisors work against a thick pad at the top of the mouth. When they bite off a tender twig, they rip it off, leaving behind threads of bark.

Rabbits, hares, and porcupines have sharp incisors, top and bottom, allowing them to snip a twig cleanly. The height of the bite can be misleading. Rabbits will bend a tall shrub down to reach the tender tips.

Hunters oten insist they can identify a buck track at a glimpse of the hoof-mark. But in my experience, it is practically impossible to distinguish between a buck and a doe track by studying the print alone.

Big does have large hooves. The behavior of the animal is a partial clue to its gender. During the rut, bucks tend to move in a beeline, while does might dawdle and feed more. But the best clue is the urine spot in the bed. If the yellow spot is toward the center of the bed, it’s a buck; if it’s behind the tail, it was made by a doe.

TIM CHRISTIE

1

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TIP No 1

SIT THE HOT SEAT

Dawn of the gun-season opener may seem like controlled chaos to you, but deer begin to react to hunter movement even before the first shot is fired. When the shooting does start, they’ll be on the move. That’s what makes your stand selection so critical. Escape routes and feedto-bed trails may be your best bet. Deer that were on a food source during the night will beat a hasty retreat for thick cover once dawn arrives. Select your stand accordingly.

A mature buck makes a dash for security cover on opening day.

FIRST-LIGHT HOTSPOTS

TIP No 2 | GET TO BED

27 WAYS TO

SCORE THE ODDS ARE IN YOUR FAVOR. OPENING DAY IS HERE, AND STATISTICS PROVE THERE IS NO BETTER TIME TO GET YOUR BUCK. TRANSFORM YOUR LUCK-BASED SIT IN THE WOODS INTO A BONA FIDE HUNTING PLAN.

LET’S GET STARTED

Most deer, when pressured, are going to head for home. They’ll seek out those thick, nasty areas where they feel safe and secure.

And that’s where you must be waiting.

HOW T O HU NT IT

Sit the edge: Position your stand—an elevated a treestand is the way to go—on the outer edge of the best cover available in your hunting area. The key is to place the stand so that you have good visibility but are very near the thick tangle that deer are heading for. Edges are natural routes of travel for whitetails, and the added visibility will increase your efective shooting range. It’s critical to get into position long before first shooting light.

TIP No 3 | PINPOINT THE PINCH POINTS Not long after first light—when the guns get to cracking—deer will be seriously on the move. They’ll do it quickly and eiciently. That means they’re going to follow the path of least resistance, so pinch points and funnels located in cover can be dynamite on opening day.

HOW T O HU NT IT

Make like a rock: Locate your stand downwind of a prime terrain feature that will focus deer movement. Pack a lunch and stay put. When the pressure is on, you could see a shooter buck at any time of the day, either moving naturally (especially if the rut is on) or as a result of being bumped by neighboring hunters. Stay alert.

TIP No 4 | GET LOST It’s an old adage, but sometimes you have to hunt where no one else is willing to go. A recent Penn State study of radiocollared deer showed that whitetails change their patterns almost immediately on the day before the general firearms season opener due to increased human traic.

HOW T O HU NT IT

Pick a pocket: Go for broke and hunt an out-of-the-way location few others would consider. Small, obscure pockets of cover produce some of the biggest bucks each season. They may not look like much, but they are overlooked sanctuaries. A small ditch, a tiny ravine, a patch of grass in the middle of an open field. Hide and sit out the day.

BY TONY HANSEN ILLUSTRATIONS BY RYAN KIRBY outdoor life october 2016 37

LET THE WEATHER BE YOUR GUIDE Food-source abundance, hunting pressure, the influence of the rut, and the moon will all affect the action on opening day. Nothing, however, will impact the timing of when you’ll see that action more than the weather. Most of us are deer-season weather watchers, but you’d better pull your best Al Roker if you want to get it exactly right.

H IGH P RE SSURE WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR: A whirling mass of cool, dry air that generally

brings fair weather and light winds.

HOW TO HUNT IT: This is what everyone plans for—seasonable tempera-

tures, little to no wind, sunny days, clear nights. When the forecast calls for a stationary high-pressure influence, park your butt on stand or in a blind and sit it out.

THE WILDCARD TACTIC: If temperatures are subfreezing, hold of switching locations until after the sun has melted the morning’s frost.

H E AV Y WIND WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR: Wind speeds over 20 mph. Know that there’s

much more to whitetail hunting as it relates to wind than simply trying to stay downwind of a buck. Essentially, there are two diferent key factors to heed: wind direction and speed.

HOW TO HUNT IT: The stronger the wind speed, the quicker the barometric pressure will rise, and the time to be out is after it subsides—especially if the wind changes from east to west.

THE WILDCARD TACTIC: This can be prime time to still-hunt or plan a drive.

TIP No 6 | MAKE A CHARCOAL MASK

The point of wearing face paint isn’t to provide interesting selfie fodder—it’s to keep deer from seeing your shiny mug.

Greasy paints are a pain in the butt and difficult to remove. Charcoal is a simple but cheap alternative. Grab a briquette (avoid the quick-lighting kind) out of the bag next to your grill. Place it in a plastic bag and use a hammer to pulverize it into powder. Now you have face camo that’s a cinch to apply, washes off easily, and has the added benefit of providing some level of scent control (carbon is, after all, the key ingredient used in scenteating clothing).

TIP No 7 | SWEETEN THE PLOT

Ed Spinazzola is a Michigan legend renowned for his pioneering methods of food plotting. One of his favorite concepts is devilishly simple: Make the forage you’re hunting more attractive than any other in the area. This is done with fertilizers and a basic understanding of plant biology.

About two weeks prior to opening day, hit the forage you plan to hunt with a dose of urea (46-0-0 fertilizer).

Follow that up with an application of nitrogen. The urea will fuel the root system and the nitrogen will turn the foliage ultra-green. This only works on plants that are still green, of course. Doing this to soybeans makes them seem almost neon in color, and deer will pound them.

This sweetening process works on native vegetation as well. If state law allows it, you can do this sweetening process on public lands and existing natural browse.

TIP No 8 | ZIP IT UP

Always keep a stash of zip ties in your pack. You can use these slivers of plastic magic to quickly affix your tag to a deer, erect a ground blind, or add cover to a stand.

RA IN WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR : The lilting sound of droplets hitting the roof of deer camp. Rain on opening morning means more to hunters than it does to the deer. Precipitation will do little to slow down deer movement.

HOW TO HUNT IT: Grab your raingear. Bucks can neither hear you nor smell you. It’s a great time to go for a serious still-hunt.

THE WILDCARD TACTIC: Wait out a deluge in a covered blind or watch the radar back at camp. When the tailing edge is an hour away, hit the woods.

SNOW WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR: Your local weather forecaster predicting a

snowmageddon.

HOW TO HUNT IT: Whether it’s a heavy snowfall or just flurries, snow makes

deer hunting easier. Unless there’s a raging wind, you’ll be able to see animals better and, as with rain, they won’t be able to hear or smell you as well. Sit in a stand if you prefer, but snow is made for tracking.

THE WILDCARD TACTIC: The two hours prior to and the two hours just after are the absolute best times to hunt a snowstorm.

H E AT WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR : Daytime highs above 70 degrees.

HOW TO HUNT IT: Whether it’s opening day or the peak of the rut, you’d

almost be better of rescheduling—but, of course, you can’t. Whatever you do, don’t miss first and last light.

THE WILDCARD TACTIC: Post in a stand near a water hole.

38 oct october ober 2016 outdoor life

TIP No 9

DRIVE ’EM HOME

If you intend to do your own drive, learn from the mistakes of others. On the opener, a small group (see illustration at right) can produce better results than a big one. With so many hunters out, the goal isn’t to push deer but rather to nudge them into positions you can take advantage of.

Start with a small group—three to five hunters—and position a pair of standers on the downwind side of cover at least an hour before the drivers begin to work.

Once standers are in place, drivers drift along the upwind sides of deer-holding cover, moving slowly and quietly. The goal is to allow scent to sift into the cover, getting deer on their feet and sneaking away.

This does two things: First, it affords the standers shots at deer that are walking rather than running. Second, the drivers can often catch deer that are circling to identify the threat and eventually return right back to the cover they just left—something older bucks do more often than you’d think.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: DONALD M. JONES; FROM LEFT: MARK RAYCROFT (HUNTER); LANCE KRUEGER (DEER)

TIP No 5

An 8-point shadows a group of does during firearms season.

TIP No 11 | DON’T KILL YOUR HOTSPOTS

There should be one single goal when the sun rises on opening day: Be where the deer are. There is but one way to give yourself the very best odds of doing just that. You have to scout—but you have to do it correctly.

Gun season will bring out more hunters than all of bow season in most places, and, like most of us, they’ve not had enough time to properly do it. They hit the woods with gusto just days, or hours, before the new season dawns. They prep their blinds, clear shooting lanes, freshen up attractants. And they move deer. Don’t be one of those guys. Your scouting efforts should intensify as the season draws near, but your level of impact while in-season scouting should decrease.

TIP No 1O

LET THEIR DRIVE WORK FOR YOU

Deer drives may be controversial in some circles, but there’s little argument as to their effectiveness with regard to getting deer on their feet. An opening day drive can work if it’s done right—and you can also benefit from drives gone wrong on neighboring property by hanging a stand off the property line.

Many drives are done with too many hunters and too little planning, which means deer are up and moving long before standers or drivers are in place and subtle escape routes are overlooked. It’s those escape destinations that you want to target.

In farm country with small woodlots (above), brushy fencerows serve as travel corridors. Take that into account.

Long-range surveillance can work wonders in areas of open ground. Even though it’s gun season, this oft-used bowhunting tactic shines here. Jeff Danker, host of Major League Bowhunter, is one of the best observational hunters I’ve ever met. His lesson is worth heeding if you hunt open country.

“I’m not going in to kill a buck until I know I can actually kill it,” he says. “I’ll spend as much time as it takes just watching and observing from a distance. I want to learn that deer. Once I feel like I know what it’s doing, then I’ll move in.”

If you live in an area where cover is thick, like much of the Midwest and South, trail cameras can do the work for you. But check those cameras sparingly and carefully. Remember, as the season draws near, more and more hunters are going to be in the woods trying to find their own hot seat. That pressure will put deer on alert.

TIP No 15 | PICK THE RIGHT GUN

SHOTGUN COUNTRY T H IC K TIM B E R

12 GAUGE

CLOSE AND TIGHT • Go with a fast-handling pump or autoloader, topped with a 3–9X scope. Sight-through rings allow use of the rifle sights.

40 october 2016 outdoor life

OPEN T IMBER

2O GAUGE

GO LIGHT AND HIT HARD •When appointed with a slug barrel and ballistic drop-compensating scope, a 20-gauge is a fast-handling and accurate gun.

FIELDS

12 GAUGE

REACH OUT AND TOUCH ’EM •You may have to extend your range so make sure your slug gun has a rifled barrel sighted in at 100 yards.

MARK RAYCROFT

TIP No 12 | USE YOUR EYES

TIP No 13

HOP YOUR WAY TO OPENING DAY Sitting in the same spot for the entire day is the way to go for many serious deer hunters on the opener. But do you really need to stay in the spot all day long? Nope. Stand-hopping is a deadly tactic—if you can learn to think like a buck and make your move before he does.

TH E M ORNING SIT

Thanks to your preseason eforts, you’ve located your hotspot based on either natural or forced movement. That’s your starting point. Be there before sunup and sit tight.

By midmorning, however, that location will likely have cooled of. It’s time to move. If you opened by hunting a strict bed-to-feed pattern, you’ll want to move early. You were hunting deer that were coming of a food source and moving to a bedding area. By about 10 a.m., those deer are likely bedded. If, however, you are hunting closer to the bedding area or used terrain features, you might want to stay put until about 11 a.m.

TIP No 14

HEADS OR TAILS?

It is a debate as old as the rope in your granddad’s barn: Do you hang a deer head-up or head-down?

A head-high hang shows off antlers best and allows for easier gutting if you didn’t field dress the deer. But a head-down orientation makes butchering a whole lot easier and choice cuts more easily accessed. It might also allow meat to cool a bit faster.

Because I like to rinse my skinned deer with clean, cold water, I prefer the heads-up position.

It seems to make that chore a bit quicker and more efficient.

Hanging the buck by its hind legs is said to eliminate any excessive stretching of the cape, though I’ve not seen any evidence of the stretched-neck syndrome.

TH E M IDDAY M OVE

The first move of the day is one based on hunger. Not the hunger of whitetails but of hunters looking for a lunch break. By around 11:30, guys will begin to get antsy. A midday snack and a nap starts to sound pretty appealing once the euphoria of opening morning begins to wane. Make your move before other hunters do.

This is the time to shift toward the best holding cover available and a prime terrain feature that will funnel deer movement. So when other hunters begin to head back to camp, deer will be on the move, and they’ll be headed to you. Stick it out in your new location until about 2:30 or 3.

TH E E VE NING H A NGOUT

Your final move of the day should position you on the edge of a primary food source. The evening movement will be less pronounced than you might expect because of the bucks daylong exposure to gunshots and the increased level of human traffic in the woods. But in areas where the pressure is limited, you can still see some natural evening movement.

Older bucks will likely be the last to hit a food source, especially if it’s in the open. So position your stand as close to the food as possible to take advantage of every minute of legal shooting time.

RIFLE COUNTRY THICK TIMBER

.35 REMINGTON PUMP

TOTE TRADITION • You may have to wear red wool and a Stormy Kromer for the full effect, but this classic is top-notch in close quarters.

OP E N T IMBER

.3O/.3O LEVER ACTION

NEW LIFE FOR AN OLD FAVORITE • The lever gun has killed plenty of big-woods whitetails. With advances in ammunition, the .30/.30 is a great choice in mature forests.

FIELDS

.3O/O6

SUPER SHOOTER • There’s a reason the “aught six” is a favorite among deer hunters— many ammo options, terrific accuracy, and lots of rifle choices.

TIP No 17 | PUT THE “SMART” IN YOUR SMARTPHONE

A smartphone can be one of your most valuable assets when conducting a drive. Load up your phone with the onXmaps HUNT app and pair it with one of the company’s excellent map overlays showing private-public land boundaries and owner information. Now you not only can use the GPS system in the phone to know exactly where you are and what the cover ahead of you looks like, thanks to aerial imagery, but you’ll also know how far you are from neighboring property lines.

TIP No 18 | ASSESS AND REACT

The guys who consistently score on opening day are those who honestly evaluate the situation they’re hunting and behave accordingly. Are you hunting public land?

Are you hunting private land that will see plenty of other hunters in the area? Are you hunting ground that’s managed and tightly controlled?

You need to take any moderate to intense hunting pressure into account. Studies have shown deer react to that pressure and will seek out areas of cover.

They’ll choose locations where they can see or smell approaching danger. It doesn’t necessarily mean they will head to parts unknown.

Cut cornfields are a potential buck magnet at any time of day.

TIP No 19| TAKE THE RUT INTO ACCOUNT

TIP No 16

The rut has a way of changing everything—or does it?

While increased hunting pressure will certainly cause a change in the natural movement patterns of whitetails, it will not interfere greatly with their desire to breed, nor will it prevent breeding from taking place. Just because it’s firearms season doesn’t mean that you should neglect fresh buck sign. New rubs and scrapes will show up even when deer are in full-on survival mode. This sign can at least help point you in the right direction.

BUDDY-FREE LOADING

42 october 2016 outdoor life

TIP No 2O | HUNT THE BEDROOM

Hunting a bedding area is always risky, but it’s a strategy well worth considering if your opener falls during the rut. If you are in an area with moderate to intense hunting pressure, rut-driven bucks will head to doe-bedding areas—these isolated pieces of security cover are where undercover breeding will take place.

Don’t expect to see helter-skelter chasing. Bucks will not dog does from one valley to the next. All you have to do is find the spot where the action is taking place and stay put. Be mindful to not kick deer out of these sanctuaries—they might not ever come back.

That’s it. Put the truck in gear and slowly pull forward.

The deer will slide into the bed of the truck and you’ll have conquered the task without having to call in a single favor.

TIP No 21 | FOLLOW A BLOOD TRAIL GENTLY

He’s hit, but not down. Blood-trailing a wounded buck in crowded woods is a formidable experience. Push the trail too hard and you risk spooking your deer past another hunter. Don’t push it at all and you may never find it. The best advice is to assess the hit carefully before taking up the blood trail. If shots sound off in the direction that the deer fled, look for blood immediately and take up the trail if you find some. If all remains quiet, consider gathering a search committee.

F FROM O L LEFT: T LANCE A E KRUEGER; R G DONALD O L M M. JONES O S

You’ve just killed an openingday buck and need it loaded into the truck. Your buddies are hunting. So what are you to do?

Easy. Grab a pulley, a pair of stout ropes, and a hunk of plywood or a couple of wide boards. That’s all you need to load that deer by yourself.

First, take a rope and thread it through the tiedowns toward the front of your truck bed. Rig the pulley eye through the rope and locate it roughly in the center of the bed.

Now, run a rope through the pulley. Tie off one end on the deer (around the neck for does, antlers for bucks) and the other end around a stout tree or fence post.

With the planks, create a ramp from the tailgate to the ground and position the deer so that it will slide up the ramp and into the truck.

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FOOD SOURCE CHART Food should play a significant role in your opening day strategy. But what food is best? That depends on when your opening day falls and the stage each food source is in at that time. This chart should help eliminate some of the guesswork.

TIP No 22 | TUCK IN

CORN

Standing corn can hold a ton of deer when the pressure is on, but deer seem to prefer waste grain as a food source. The problem is that efficient farming implements mean there is less waste grain lying around harvested fields. What is left will draw deer.

BEST ST RAT EG Y

TIP No 23 | READ THE ROWS

S OY B E A NS

If you have an early opener, you may encounter bean fields that are still green. Deer will hit them hard. For later openers, you might have standing fields of brown, ready-toharvest beans. Deer will pound these as well.

Post-harvest bean fields are also prime.

BEST ST RAT EG Y

BEST ST RAT EG Y

BEST ST RAT EG Y

BEST ST RAT EG Y

44 october 2016 outdoor life

Clover patches seem to have a way of attracting plenty of does and fawns. If the rut is on, this can be a good thing. A spread of decoys in a clover patch can provide the coaxing required to pull a big buck out of cover. Be sure to use the decoys in a safe manner.

TIP No 27 | GET READY TO GO LONG

W I N T E R WH E AT

In regions where the gun season opens later in the year, winter wheat can play a pivotal role in hunting strategy. Wheat fields that have been out of rotation for a year are sometimes dressed with daikon radishes—the same ones featured in food plot blends.

For the most part, acorn-producing oaks are found in abundance in hilly terrain. But hills create thermals, eddies, and other windrelated issues that can give you fits. Using an ozone-generator, like an Ozonics unit, can help provide some scent control.

TIP No 26 | DUPE THEM WITH DEKES

C LOV E R

Deer will hit clover plots virtually yearround. Depending on weather conditions and the timing of your gun opener, clover can be a top draw. Although dry, warm conditions can limit clover’s attraction, if you have a lush, green patch of clover, hunt it.

Instead of checking your cameras in the days leading up to opening day, check them midday on the opener as you stand-hop to your afternoon location. You may just discover fresh images of a bruiser using a brassica plot and can then alter your afternoon plan accordingly.

TIP No 25 | CHEAT THE WIND

AC O RNS

Acorns may or may not play into your plans.

That decision is made by Mother Nature.

When oaks produce a bumper crop, you’ll find deer feeding on acorns well into winter.

In years of sparse production, acorns are usually cleaned up before mid-October.

Crops are coming down in earnest in most regions just about the time gun season arrives.

Every day means change. Make note of which crops are still standing—or which are long gone—and choose your opening day stand sites accordingly.

TIP No 24 | GET NEW INTEL

B R A S SIC A S

For many food plotters, the brassica is king.

These plants are easy to grow and produce tons of forage. But they aren’t super attractive to deer until after several hard frosts. If your opener falls in late October, or November or December, deer should be all over these plots.

In many cases, farmers will make a few combine passes around the perimeter of a cornfield to help standing corn dry prior to harvest.

Tuck into the standing corn about three rows deep. You’ll be well hidden and have an excellent view up and down the harvested rows.

BEST ST RAT EG Y

Western wheat fields are big. Hunting over one is a great opportunity, but it can mean longer-than-average shots. Use a gun rest, whether it’s the edge of a window in an elevated tower blind or a simple forked branch cut from a nearby sapling.

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SIX CREATIVE RECIPES SHOW HUNTERS HOW TO PREPARE THE MOST UNDERRATED PIECES OF VENISON P H OTO G R A P H S BY K R I S S I E M AS O N outdoor life october 2016 47

TAKING VENISON

from field to table is deeply rooted in tradition for most of us. As beginning hunters, we were taught how to cut around a diaphragm and carefully grill the tenderloins, and we pass that knowledge on. But sometimes, traditions need to be broken—or at least amended.

The growing popularity of wild meat has brought more creative recipes to the hunter’s table than ever before. In short, it’s time to look beyond tradition’s backstraps and burgers. So, our three wild-game writers have taken the pieces of meat that are usually left in the gut pile or the scrap bucket and turned them into some of the best venison dishes you’ll ever sink your teeth into.

BUTCHER BETTER 1

2 3

4

5

6

By removing the: 1 neck, 2 liver, 3 ribs, 4 tongue, 5 heart, and 6 shanks, we pulled an extra 15 pounds of venison from this deer. And each of these cuts makes for a unique meal—whether served in camp or for your family at home—to further celebrate the hunt.

48 october 2016 outdoor life

UNDER CUTS

PAN-FRIED LIVER

BY KRISSIE MASON

WHAT YOU’LL NEED Half a deer liver 1 cup milk Salt and pepper

Bring a fresh liver into deer camp and one of your buddies will likely argue that you can’t eat it because it filters toxins. But the fact is, venison liver is packed with vitamins and nutrients.

And most important, when prepared properly, it tastes delicious. So, here’s a hot take on liver venison (that doesn’t taste at all like traditional liver and onions). Serve it in camp and turn those skeptics into believers.

¼ cup flour 2 Tbsp. canola oil 2 Tbsp. butter 1 sprig fresh rosemary 10 chives, cut into 3-inch pieces

DIRECTIONS

MAKE THE CUT: When you dress your deer, be careful not to cut through any

major organs to keep the entrails clean. As you remove the guts, take care to keep the liver, which is a large deep-purple organ, out of the dirt. Cut the liver from the pile and clean it up with a fillet knife and fresh water.

1 Slice half the liver into strips about 1-inch wide and ¼-inch thick. Soak the liver strips in the milk overnight.

2 Pat the liver strips dry and season with salt and pepper. Then, coat those babies with the flour.

3 Heat the canola oil in a sauté pan and add the liver strips, cooking until they’re golden brown. Then remove the strips from the pan.

4 Place the butter in the pan. When it’s good and melted, throw the rosemary in too. Place the liver back in the pan and baste the strips with the butter. Remove the liver when blood stops collecting on the tops of the slices.

5 Put the chives in the pan and coat them with the remaining butter.

6 Dress the liver strips with the chives and dig in.

outdoor life october 2016 49

SMOKY DEER RIBS WITH DRUNKEN DECKHAND’S GLAZE

BY JOSH DAHLKE

OSSO BUCO AND GREMOLATA

BY JAMIE CARLSON

Osso buco is Italian for “bone with a hole.” Some recipes call for other cuts of meat, but a truly authentic osso buco is made with a cross-cut veal shank that is about 3 inches thick. We, of course, are going to swap the veal for venison.

I learned to hunt deer and make them into meat on my family’s farm in central Minnesota. It took years before I was finally confident with a blade, but a respect for utilizing every hunk of meat was instilled in me from the get-go. I’d painstakingly work around the backstraps to preserve every possible ounce of meat. But in all those years, we never kept the ribs.

Why would we? Look at a rack of deer ribs and it appears there’s no meat to be salvaged. However, that’s just an illusion.

Every deer—doe or buck—carries a trophy rack of savory rib meat. Here’s how to prepare them. Side note: The glaze concoction is intellectual property stolen from a deckhand of an Alaskan fishing boat. It was originally intended for grilled halibut, but I reworked it slightly to make it thicker and richer.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED DIRECTIONS FOR THE RIBS

WHAT YOU’LL NEED DIRECTIONS 4 pieces of bone-in shank Salt and pepper ¼ cup olive oil ½ tsp. cinnamon 2 carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks 1 onion, diced 1 rib celery, diced 1 Tbsp. fresh thyme 1 Tbsp. rosemary 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 quart tomato sauce 2 cups chicken stock 2 cups white wine FOR THE GREMOLATA

½ cup chopped Italian parsley Grated lemon zest and lemon juice (from half a lemon) 1 clove garlic, minced ¼ cup chopped pecans

MAKE THE CUT: You want even pieces of meat

around the shank (upper leg bone). Each shank should be sawed into 3 pieces about 3 inches thick. You’ll end up with 12 cuts, so you can make this dish three times per deer (or just once for a hungry crew). A bone saw works, but a Sawzall is faster and cleaner. Done properly, those cross-cut shanks will be the prettiest cuts of meat you’ve ever seen.

1 Sprinkle the shanks with salt and pepper about 30 minutes before you start cooking.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy Dutch oven or other oven-proof pot over medium-high heat.

Right before you put the shanks in, sprinkle them with the cinnamon (for whatever reason, cinnamon and venison just work together).

2 Brown the shanks on all sides, then remove and set aside.

3 Add the carrots, onion, and celery to the pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the herbs and the garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.

4 Place the shanks back in the pot and add the tomato sauce, chicken stock, and white wine.

Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid and transfer to a preheated 325-degree oven for 2 to 3 hours. At the 2-hour mark, check to see if the meat is tender enough.

5 Mix the ingredients for the gremolata. When you are ready to serve, place a piece of shank on each plate and top with gremolata and some of the braising liquid. I serve mine with a parmesan polenta, but mashed potatoes are just as good.

2 Tbsp. olive oil Salt and pepper

50 october 2016 outdoor life

1 rack of deer ribs 2 pots coffee 4 Tbsp. soy sauce 1 cup brown sugar Your favorite mesquite or hickory dry rub FOR THE DRUNKEN DECKHAND’S GLAZE

3 Tbsp. butter 4 Tbsp. brown sugar 2 Tbsp. Wild Turkey American Honey liqueur 2 Tbsp. soy sauce 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 Tbsp. lemon juice 1 tsp. black pepper

MAKE THE CUT: Use a hatchet, ax, or bone saw to remove the ribs from your deer carcass. It’s easiest to do this after you’ve cut out the backstraps and removed each of the quarters from the deer. If you want to halve the rack so it fits in smaller pans, use a pruning lopper or a bone saw. A reciprocating saw, if you have one handy, gets the job done quickly. If you’re going for the Fred Flintstone effect, leave them whole.

1 Mix two pots of strong coffee, the soy sauce, and the brown sugar in a shallow roasting pan. You’ll need enough liquid to fully cover the ribs. Use water to top off the pan if you’re short on coffee.

2 Submerge the ribs in the coffee-sugar bath.

Cover the pan with foil and put it in a preheated 250-degree oven. Cook for about 5 hours.

3 Remove ribs from the oven, pat dry, and remove any grease or grime that might have accumulated. Coat thoroughly with your favorite dry rub. I’m a major fan of Olde Thompson Smokey Mesquite Rub. (Optional: Add a sprinkle of finely ground coffee beans to the rub to embolden the flavor.)

4 Smoke the ribs for 1 hour. A Camp Chef SmokePro Pellet Grill on the low-smoke setting is my go-to. If you don’t have a smoker, use a lidded grill with natural hardwood lump charcoal and add wood chips. Move the charcoal and wood chips to one side of the grill and smoke the ribs on the opposite side, being careful to not let the grill get too hot.

5 While the ribs are smoking, combine the glaze ingredients in a small pot. Simmer and stir on low heat for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat source and set aside until the solution becomes syrupy.

6 Pull the ribs off the smoker and drench them in the glaze.

UNDER CUTS

CUT

3

2

6

BEER-BRAISED NECK ROAST

UNDER CUTS

BY JAMIE CARLSON

This hearty dish is anchored by a giant chunk of neck meat and plenty of dark beer, which is the perfect combination after a long, cold sit in your deer stand.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED DIRECTIONS

1 whole neck roast Salt and pepper ¼ cup olive oil 5 strips bacon

MAKE THE CUT: Saw through as little of the neck as possible, so with a sturdy knife, work between the vertebrae at both ends of the neck. When you get as far as you can with the knife, finish with a bone saw.

8 oz. mushrooms

HEART SANDWICH WITH PICKLED ONION AND HORSERADISH SAUCE

BY KRISSIE MASON

8 oz. pearl onions 2 stalks celery, roughly chopped 2 large carrots, cut into large pieces 4 cloves garlic, chopped

Some camps initiate new hunters by having them chomp into a raw heart right after the kill. Here’s another idea: Fry the heart up for this sandwich and have the new guy do the dishes.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED DIRECTIONS

1 deer heart, trimmed, washed, and patted dry

¼ cup all-purpose flour 1 Tbsp. salt 1 tsp. pepper 1 tsp. thyme (fresh is best) 1 tsp. paprika ½ cup vegetable oil ½ cup mayonnaise 1 Tbsp. horseradish 1 Tbsp. lemon juice Crusty bread or buns 2 Tbsp. butter Pickled onions

MAKE THE CUT: The heart is a firm, fist-sized muscle found between the lungs. Be careful when removing the lungs and diaphragm to not cut into it. Slice the heart vertically so there are long, large pieces to fry. Using a sharp fillet knife, remove as many of the veins and arteries as you can.

1 Mix the flour, salt, pepper, thyme, and paprika, and add the heart slices to the mixture. Roll them in the flour mixture and let it settle. The flour will draw out water and help it fry better.

2 Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet until it’s shimmering. Swirl to coat the pan and add the first cut of heart. If the oil bubbles immediately, then add the other slices. Fry for 3 to 5 minutes per side, being very careful not to overcook. When the meat is crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside, remove it from the oil and let it rest.

3 Make the sauce by combining the mayo, horseradish, and lemon juice.

4 Cut the bread, and butter each side. Empty the oil from the skillet and add the bread for a quick browning. Slather a generous portion of horseradish aioli on each slice of bread, place a heaping pile of steaming fried deer heart on top, and finish it off with the pickled onions.

Crack a cold one and bust open a bag of chips.

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3 cups beer (Any dark, malty beer will work. My pick: wild rice beer made by Barley John’s called Wild Brunette.)

2 cups mushroom stock or vegetable stock 1 sprig rosemary 2 bay leaves 5 large sage leaves 1 cinnamon stick 2 sprigs thyme

1 Rub the neck roast with salt and pepper and set aside.

2 In a Dutch oven large enough to hold the roast, heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the bacon. Render the fat out of the bacon. Remove the cooked pieces of bacon, chop into small pieces, and set aside.

3 Leaving all the oil and bacon grease in the Dutch oven, place the neck roast in the hot oil and sear on all sides until it’s well browned.

Remove the roast and add the mushrooms, onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

4 Return the roast to the Dutch oven and pour in the beer and stock. Bring to a boil. Then add the herbs, cinnamon stick, and bacon. Cover the Dutch oven and place in a 325-degree oven and cook for 3 to 4 hours.

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UNDER CUTS

DEER TONGUE HASH

BY KRISSIE MASON

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

1 deer tongue

2 cups beef stock 1 bunch thyme

Tongue is a delicacy in many foodie circles, but deer camp isn’t one of them—until now. Tongue is very high in fat, which is unique for venison. That high fat content makes it taste delicous.

Any organ is best served fresh. So, after you tag out, make this dish for breakfast at your camp, and your buddies will soon be carefully extracting the tongues of their own deer.

The key to this dish is properly extracting the tongue, which is a bigger piece of meat than you might expect.

You need to remove the tongue shortly after the kill, before rigor mortis begins to set in.

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1 large carrot, diced 1 medium onion, diced (¹⁄₈ cup reserved) 1 Idaho potato, grated ¹⁄₈ cup red pepper, diced ¹⁄₈ cup jalapeño pepper, diced (remove the stem and seeds) Salt and pepper 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS

MAKE THE CUT: Carefully cut in a triangle shape along the bottom of the deer’s jawbone, from the outside. Start at the front of the deer’s jaw and cut toward the rear. Now you’ll be able to pull the tongue out through the bottom of the jaw. Cut the tongue out at the base, making sure to get as far back as possible. You’ll end up with a piece of meat about 10 inches long.

1 Place the tongue, stock, thyme, carrot, and onion in a sauce pan and simmer on medium heat for 90 minutes, or until the tongue is tender enough to shred.

2 Take the tongue out of the stock and peel off the taste buds—that’s the top layer of skin, which should peel away easily. Shred the tongue.

3 Rinse the potato after it’s grated to remove starch. Mix it with the tongue, red pepper, jalapeño pepper, reserved onion, and salt and pepper.

4 Heat the oil in a small sauté pan to medium-high heat. Place ingredients into the pan and turn pan STILL HUNGRY? to medium heat. (You want the hash to fill the pan, Go to outdoorlife. without stacking it too high.) Press the mixture com/undercuts to down with a spatula to help it stick together. When find more tips and the edges of the potatoes start to turn brown, flip video on how to the mixture over and brown the other side. prepare each dish.

Serve this crispy breakfast hash hot, with your choice of sour cream, ketchup, or hot sauce.

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BY A N D R E W M C K E A N A N D ALEX ROBINSON

A hunter packs a hindquarter out of the Elkhead Mountains north of Craig, Colorado.

P H O T O G R A P H S BY P E T E R B O H L E R

outdoor life october 2016 57

GOLDEN ASPENS AND DARK TIMBER MUSTY WITH THE SMELL OF RUTTING BULLS. CLEAR STREAMS RUNNING THROUGH LUSH MEADOWS. A LONELY MIDNIGHT BUGLE THAT SHAKES YOU AWAKE IN YOUR SLEEPING BAG. AN ARMY OF HUNTERS— ALL IN COMPETITION, BUT ALSO, SOMEHOW, STILL A BROTHERHOOD. THIS IS ELK HUNTING IN COLORADO. LAST YEAR, ALMOST A QUARTER MILLION HUNTERS BOUGHT ELK TAGS IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE, AND THEY KILLED 44,852 ELK, ACCORDING TO THE STATE WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT. BUT STILL, THE POST-HUNT ELK POPULATION WAS ESTIMATED AT 275,880 ANIMALS IN 2015. THAT’S A BIGGER ELK POPULATION THAN IN MONTANA AND IDAHO COMBINED. THE STATE IS HOME TO 11 NATIONAL FORESTS AND 42 NATIONAL WILDERNESS AREAS. THESE ARE LANDS WITH LEGENDARY NAMES: GUNNISON, FLAT TOPS, WHITE RIVER, AND SAN JUAN. ALL ARE OPEN TO PUBLIC HUNTING. YEAH, BUDDY, COLORADO IS STILL THE ELK HUNTER’S PARADISE—AND IT’S HIGH TIME YOU JOINED THE BROTHERHOOD. 58 october 2016 outdoor life

ELKTOWN, USA EVERY O CTOBER, CRAIG, COLORAD O, IS T R A N S F O R M E D BY E L K A N D E L K H U N T I N G

BY A N D R E W M C K E A N

JOHN PONIKVAR KNOWS when elk season starts in his hometown of Craig, Colorado, without looking at a calendar. The waits at gas pumps get long, as camo-clad hunters fuel muddy pickups. Restaurants that have plenty of open tables the rest of the year suddenly have lines that snake out the door. And Ponikvar sees a spike for automotive parts at his NAPA dealership a block off U.S. Highway 40 on Craig’s south side. Many of these autumnal customers speak in thick Southern drawls or clipped New England accents, and they’re mainly buying backcountry necessities: tow ropes, tire chains, and bungee cords.

The population of Craig, which has ho hovered around 9,000 for f a couple of decades, doubles during elk season—at least if y you count the occupants of all the hunting camps and rrental cabins that dot the mountainsides around this w western Colorado to town. Hotel rooms are book booked a year in advance of the season. It can be har hard to find a cooler to buy in the local W Walmart in November.

The hunting econom economy is so important ffor Craig that Ponikvar trademark trademarked the town’s motto: “Elk hunting capital of the w world.” You’ll find this simple declaration on the banner that hangs o over Main Street, and on ball caps, Tshirts, and bumper stick stickers.

“I just wanted to do something that w would put us on the map,” P Ponikvar says. “Everybody sa says Craig is the elk capital. I made it official.”

If there’s ther an evangelist for Craig and its elk cultur culture, it is Tony Bohr Bohrer. Owner and operator of Iv Ivory Tip Outfitters, pastor of Apostolic Images from Colorado’s elk ← country: A foothills road; a bull ready for the butcher; public-land signs; taxidermy; and a hunter glassing.

Lighthouse Church, and a member of Craig’s city council, Bohrer knows all about the multi-million dollar economic impact that hunting has on both the town’s bottom line and his own financial health. But instead of dollar signs, he thinks belly laughs and back slaps define the season.

“You walk into a restaurant most times of the year and everybody’s friendly and polite, but people keep mostly to themselves,” says Bohrer.

“During hunting season, you walk into a restaurant and it’s just humming. You see total strangers talking to everybody, moving from table to table. Hunters asking each other what they’re seeing, how they’re doing. It’s a party.”

The other way you know it’s elk season is by all the dead elk hanging from backyard meat poles or stacked up in the beds of pickups. The need to butcher them creates hundreds of seasonal jobs up and down the Yampa River valley. Brothers Custom Processing, one of the biggest operations in northwestern Colorado, runs aroundthe-clock shifts during the

height of elk season in order to butcher, trim, wrap, and freeze hunters’ meat within a 24-hour time period. In an average year, they’ll process more than 2,000 head of elk.

“I’ve been there on Sunday evenings in the third rifle season, and it’s nothing to see 30 to 40 trucks waiting in line to drop off critters,” says Bohrer. “And every pickup has two or three elk in it.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Jake Edson, a Minnesota hunter who shot a bull last year with one of Bohrer’s guides. “Within a couple hours of killing that bull, we had it off the mountain and to the processor.

Next day, it was wrapped, frozen, and packed in 50-pound coolers ready for the airport.”

HERD MENTALITY

→ELKTOWN, USA

tween the two largest wapiti herds in the world. The Bears Ears herd, estimated at 23,000 head, roams the Black Mountain plateau north of town. The White River herd—which runs the rough uplands and slopes south toward Meeker—is estimated at more than 41,000 head.

Elk are distributed across abundant public land, from National Forest and BLM to state wildlife management areas. While the region isn’t especially known for trophy bulls, harvest rates have averaged around 33 percent in the last five years. If you’re after a mature bull, apply for one of the coveted special permits in units 2 or 201.

“Besides the sheer number of elk, I think our access is the biggest drawing card for the area,” says Bohrer.

“And I don’t mean just public land. Our landscape has something for everybody. If

you want to pack in and go high to get away from other hunters, you can do that. But if you don’t get around so well and just want to post up on a point, you can do that, too. Both types of hunters will be into elk.”

Colorado is the only state in the West that offers overthe-counter bull tags to elk hunters, resident and nonresident alike. For Ponikvar, that hunter-friendly licensing is also family friendly.

“We see a lot of families hunting together here,” he says. “I think it’s because elk hunting in most places is expensive, the licenses are hard to draw, and the hunting is really hard, so you save up for years but only one or two members of a family can afford to do it, or even be in physical shape to do it. Here, you really can hunt elk as a family, and everybody has a fair chance of success.”

Even if you don’t kill a big bull every year, you’re probably going to see elk in the Craig area.

“That’s the thing with our elk,” says Ponikvar. “You’re going to see them. Now, you may only see them across the fence on a place you don’t have permission to hunt. But you’re going to see elk. I personally guarantee it.”

→IF YOU GO ○ While Craig rewards impulsive hunters with over-the-counter tags and good public-land hunting, it pays to work a little more deliberately into the area’s elk-hunting scene. One way to do that is to hire an outfitter to help you learn the area. Tony Bohrer of Ivory Tip Outfitters (ivorytip-outfitters.com) says most outfitters around Craig offer deer and antelope hunts in addition to elk.

Fully guided antelope hunts range in price from $2,500 to $3,500.

Deer hunts cost up to $6,000. And a fully guided elk hunt, which usually includes lodging, is roughly $5,500 to $6,500.

Consider a cow elk hunt, says Bohrer. “It’s generally a three-day hunt. Depending on whether you do it on your own or you hire a guide, it can range from $1,500 to $3,000. Or ask around about trespassfee hunts, where you are basically buying access to good-quality private land.” Check finandfield.com for a directory of Craig-area outfitters.

Search by species, location, or price.

60 october 2016 outdoor life

THE EVERYMAN’S ELK HUNT FORGET HUNTER SUCCESS S TAT I S T I C S . E L K H U N T I N G O N P U B L I C L A N D I N C O LO R A D O CA N B E B E T T E R T H A N YO U COULD EVER IMAGINE—IF Y O U K N O W W H E R E T O S TA R T

BY ALEX ROBINSON

WE DROPPED OFF THE STEEP rock slide and found our buddy Nate Mowry as the sun sunk low over the mountains. He had excitedly signaled us down the ridge toward him, waving his orange vest like he was signaling for air rescue. “How big is he?” my cousin Shawn Robinson asked.

“Big” is all Nate could get out.

We ducked into the timber and Nate led us to his dead bull. We stood in a half circle, listening to Nate recount how the hunt had played out, each taking turns to inspect the heavy 6x6 frame—the local taxidermist would later tell us that the rack scored more than 300 inches.

We’d been up since 3:30 a.m., and fatigue started to replace adrenaline as we caped and quartered the bull beneath headlamp beams.

We were three rookie elk hunters high on the mountain on the first night of the Colorado muzzleloader season. We’d killed a trophy bull.

We were out of food, low on water, and 4 miles from camp.

We started this hunt hoping for adventure.

Now we had found it.

THE DIY BLUEPRINT Even though we were new to elk hunting, Nate’s bull wasn’t just a lucky break. His success came through diligent scouting, patient hunting, and a deep knowledge of the area. The latter came secondhand from an elk guide-turnedinvestment sales trainer, TJ Rizzo.

Search party: Hunting the high country is always beter with buddies.

Rizzo grew up hunting Colorado’s national forests and wilderness areas, tagging along with his dad since he was five years old. He worked as an assistant guide in The Gunnison National Forest before deciding he couldn’t survive on a guide’s wages and got a desk job.

That’s where he met Shawn, a Wisconsin deer hunter who had relocated to Denver for a finance job of his own.

Every September for the last three seasons, I’ve traveled west to hunt elk on public land with Shawn and Nate (also a Midwesterner who moved to Colorado).

Each year we’ve followed Rizzo’s elk-hunting blueprint—he still chases elk like a maniac, and to date he’s personally killed or guided hunters to more than 20 bulls on public land. He won’t take us to his best spot (and I don’t blame him), but he coaches us through the season. And each season we kill elk, or at least have close encounters with bugling bulls.

And you can too.

What follows are the lessons Rizzo has learned from decades of elk hunting on Colorado’s public lands, and from what I’ve experienced firsthand on the mountain following his advice.

“I like helping guys who are going to hunt hard and are willing to learn on their own,” Rizzo says.

So, if you’re willing to do it the hard way, heed these words of elk wisdom.

lesson 1

COMMIT First, a reality check: If killing a bull elk is on your bucket list and you’re planning to do it in one hunt, forget the notion of DIY and book an outfitter. A Colorado DIY hunt’s main benefit is that you can go every year. There are plenty of over-the-counter tags available, and compared to outfitted elk hunts, the trip is relatively cheap.

With each season under your belt, you’ll learn more about the habitat, the elk, and yourself as a hunter. You’ll have run-ins with bulls, many of which you’ll screw up, and that’s

all part of the fun. That’s why success rates don’t do Colorado’s elk hunt justice. If you hunt hard, learn something, and come home safe, each season is a success.

So when you’re planning a trip, Rizzo says, look for units where you can hunt every year, or at least every couple of years, as your budget and vacation time allows. Use the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website (cpw.state. co.us/) to identify units that have higher success rates and lower hunter numbers in the season you intend to hunt. The website has a wealth of information and tools, including a hotline (303-291-7526) for hunters planning a trip.

For out-of-staters, Rizzo says the best option is during the mid-September muzzleloader season. Bulls are actively rutting then, there are fewer hunters than there are during the rifle seasons, and tags are plentiful.

lesson 2

GO DEEP It’s an undeniable fact that mature bulls flee from hunting pressure. So much so that Rizzo bases his whole strategy on avoiding areas with any hunting pressure.

outdoor life october 2016 61

62 october 2016 outdoor life

“If you can Google the name of the basin or drainage you intend to hunt and find information about it on hunting forums, look for somewhere else. That spot is burned,” he says. Escaping pressure will lead you to more elk, and will put you in an area where bulls are more responsive to calling.

In order to get deeper than other hunters, go with a buddy and rent a horse or two— many outfitters will rent a horse for about $500 per week, according to Rizzo. And you don’t have to be the Horse Whisperer, because the pony isn’t for riding. It’s for packing in your gear and packing out the bull. Spend time before the hunt learning how to properly load a pack horse and care for it during the hunt, and you’re good to go.

You also don’t need to be an all-American athlete to hike 10 miles into the Colorado backcountry. However, a certain level of physical fitness—and an honest assessment of your physical limits—is required.

Rizzo recommends checking out wilderness areas first because they restrict motor vehicle access. Once you decide on an area, study it on topo maps and Google Earth. Start by locating drainages that look steep and seem hard to get to.

“The fewer hunters you see, the more elk you’ll see. It’s that simple,” he says.

lesson 3

FIND AN ELK OASIS Here’s what you’re looking for specifically: a secluded, high-altitude basin with heavy north-side timber, easily accessible water, and knee-high green grass above the tree line.

“Every really good spot I’ve ever hunted in Colorado has these characteristics,” Rizzo says.

The dark north-side timber (which you can see if you zoom in close enough on Google Earth) is critical because it gives bulls a cool, safe place to bed during the day. If you are unsure that elk are using the basin during the time of your hunt, slip through the north-side timber. If bulls are in the area, you’ll find fresh droppings, tracks, wallows, and rubs. The sign will be impossible to miss. But exercise extreme caution here. Blow a bull herd from their beds, they’ll likely leave the drainage.

Rutting bulls will hit water every day, and take their cows to graze on green grass at the highest altitude available just about every night. Find an area in Colorado that has these features and minimal hunting pressure, and you’re almost guaranteed to find elk.

If you’re not in elk, look steeper and higher.

Scenes of success, clockwise from top: ← An elk caller’s arsenal; the author (right) and his cousin with a young satellite bull; TJ Rizzo with one of his biggest public-land elk.

lesson 4

HUNT LIKE A VAMPIRE

“That’s when you see fights,” he says. “Bugle at a big herd bull now and he’ll come out to defend himself.”

PACKING OUT Bull elk are most active during dawn and dusk, and under cover of darkness. You’ve got to hunt the same way. Ditch the idea of “sleeping with the elk,” Rizzo says. If you camp high, where elk are feeding and traveling, you’ll only spook them out of the area. Instead, camp low and hunt up each morning.

The objective is to cut off a bull between his feeding area and bedding area during the first hour or two of morning daylight. This means damn early mornings. The mountain thermals push air (and your scent) down the basin early in the morning until the sun gets high enough to heat the mountain. At that point, the thermals push air up the basin.

If you don’t get on a bull in the morning, hike to the peak to glass, have lunch, and take a long nap. The wind will blow up the mountain now, and from your high vantage point, your scent won’t contaminate the drainage below you. Pick a spot where you can glass big wallows and streams near heavy, north-side timber.

If you’re confident you’re hunting where the elk want to be, resist the urge to stalk the timber. Save your energy and let the elk come to you, Rizzo says.

When the sun starts to cast long shadows across the basin, glass those grassy meadows hard and be ready to move. The trick to an evening hunt is timing. If you spot a bull, you’ve got to get into shooting range before it gets dark and before the thermals shift and start blowing down the mountain again. Elk or no elk, glass until dark.

lesson 5

CALL CONSERVATIVELY Unless you’re a true pro, keep your calling simple, Rizzo says. Even if you’re deep in the backcountry, you’re still hunting pressured elk that aren’t going to react like the private ranch bulls you might have seen on hunting shows. Rizzo recommends bowhunters and muzzleloader hunters use simple, lost-cow calls from early September until about September 20. Bulls are usually establishing their herds during this time, and if you aggressively bugle at a herd bull, he might scream back at you, but then he’ll just round up his cows and walk off.

The exception here is bugling at satellite bulls in early to mid-September. If you glass a jacked-up bull on his own—thrashing sapling pines and bugling—get as close as you can and give him a simple challenge bugle.

After September 20, the elk are usually herded up, and bugling becomes more effective, Rizzo says.

It took us until 1 a.m. to pack out Nate’s bull.

Nate ran the meat to the butcher and Shawn and I headed back up the mountain.

On the fourth day of the hunt, we were positioned at the foot of a high-mountain valley watching the sun come up. Soon enough, a couple of cows poked over a ridge to our north, about a mile away.

Then came the herd bull. He topped the ridge behind his cows, 12 long tines gleaming.

We strapped on our packs, grabbed our muzzleloaders, and took off toward the steep ridge. We plowed through a patch of alders, and started climbing through the timber. The elk were above the tree line but were headed down toward the timber. Our plan was to cut them off before they reached the cover.

“THE FEWER HUNTERS YOU SEE, THE MORE ELK YOU’LL SEE. IT’S THAT SIMPLE.” If you’ve ever competed in a middle-distance track event, then you understand what it feels like to chase elk at altitude: burning legs, dizziness, and high-pitched, desperate breaths.

About three-quarters of the way up the ridge, we heard the bull bugle, almost directly above us.

We were just about to poke through the timberline when a cow and a calf nearly ran us over. They bounded in from our left and dropped straight downhill. Shawn brought his gun up just in time to find the bull that had flushed the cows. He stopped at 10 yards and spotted us just as the hammer dropped.

The bull went down in a cloud of smoke, kicked for a minute, and then lay dead.

Shawn and I sat there speechless. He wasn’t the big bull we had first spotted—it was a young satellite bull. But neither of us cared about that.

The royal bull rounded up his cows with angry bugles and headed down to the middle of the valley. He gave one more guttural scream, as if to say, “Try again next year,” and then disappeared into the timber. outdoor life october 2016 63

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BLUEfiSH ♦ MUSKIES

FISHING

DAVID KARCZYNSKI

Steve Cornetet raises a healthy fall tributary fish just upstream of Lake Michigan.

STEELHEƒD

SWINGING FOR STEEL

THE STEELHEAD and the swung fly: It’s one of fishing’s greatest combinations. So electric is the moment of the tug that just one arm-jarring take is enough to recast a slow day as an exciting one. Throw in the fact that the ensuing fight can consist of cartwheels, tail-walks, and 100-yard runs around river bends, and you can see why a significant faction of fly anglers look forward to the cold rains of October the way dry-fly anglers pine for the warmth of May. How do you get from zero to hero? It’s not as tough as you might think. BY DAVID KARCZYNSKI

section edited by gerry bethge • fishing@outdoorlife.com

outdoor life october 2016 65

FISHING STEELHEƒD ↘ That said, even curious fish will not follow a fly into inches of water, so choose casting positions that will allow the fly to come to rest in fishfriendly depths of at least 2 ½ feet.

If you find you’re never hanging up on the bottom and losing the occasional fly, you might need to get deeper—just add two split shot to the middle of your mono leader. If the shot keeps slipping down the line, put a connecting knot like a blood knot or Albright knot, or even a small barrel swivel, in the middle of your leader, and position the shot above that.

This fish required three fly changes before eating 20 yards downstream of where he was first encountered—the back of deep bend hole.

F

MANAGE YOUR SWING ▪ First off, you need a balanced setup consisting of an 8-weight, two-handed rod in the 11- to 12-foot class (smaller two-handed rods are often referred to as “switch rods”) and a reel loaded with backing, running line, and a shorter (21- to 23foot) Skagit head of an appropriate grain weight. Spend some time on internet discussion boards and you’ll see how complicated dialing in your outfit can get. But you don’t need all that intel to get started.

Many companies, such as Redington, have gone to great lengths to take the guesswork out of gearing

66 october 2016 outdoor life

▪ This should be the simplest part

up. Its Chromer series rod comes with recommended grain weights written on the blank so you can stop scratching your head and start swinging with confidence.

The business end of your rig will consist of 10 feet of tungsten core-sink tip like T-11 or T-14 (tie perfection loops directly into the material on both ends) connected to 4 feet of straight 10-pound-test mono leader. As far as flies go, you really only need a handful. Look to unweighted sculpin patterns and Intruder-style flies in two or three color schemes, ranging from natural olive to unnatural fuchsia. These needn’t be big. Size 4 or 6—just a bit larger than a stonefly nymph— will do, and they’ll be easy to cast.

More important than size is the movement of the materials. Good swing flies have excellent passive movement that results from the interplay of natural materials and current. Flies built with marabou, ostrich herl, rhea feathers, rabbit strips, and arctic fox make great steelhead flies. Tie them on with a loop knot to further maximize appeal.

practice on the nearest river, or book a one-hour fly-casting lesson with a local casting instructor. It’ll be money well spent.

In presenting the swung fly to steelhead, you’re generally looking to quarter downstream through holes from 3 to 6 feet deep.

Because getting your fly down to the proper depth is important, your cast can be divided into two parts: preparation and fishing. The former consists of casting upstream of the water you’d like to fish, then stack mending to allow the tip to sink on slack line down to the fish’s level. This preparatory part of the cast ends when you come tight to the fly. At this point, it will begin its cross-current motion— aka “the swing”—until it comes to a stop directly downriver of you.

This moment when the fly waffles around on a tight line is called “hang down,” and it’s an important part of the cast. Many fish that follow a fly out of curiosity actually make their attack once the fly has stopped.

CREATIVE PRESENTATIONS ▪ Double Speys, Circle C’s, Snake Rolls—these are complicated, beautiful casts, and one day you may have them all in your quiver.

But when it comes down to it, Spey casting is really nothing more than tricked-out roll-casting, and you only need one to get started: the single Spey. Watch a few videos,

Light on materials but heavy on action— Senyo’s Tropic Thunder.

of swinging flies for steelhead, because the best way to set the hook is by doing little to nothing. Let the fish turn with the fly and move downstream on a very light drag setting, then come tight and raise the rod tip. If for some reason your tug doesn’t result in a solid hookset, don’t despair. Steelhead have a preternatural ability to yank on a swung fly without getting stung by the hook. If you got bit but didn’t hook up, it’s time to rest the pool and change flies. Try offering something in a smaller size and different color scheme.

THE CHEAT SHEET ▪ There are a number of things

the beginning swinger can do to shorten the learning curve and get more quickly to that hallowed first swung fish.

1. Try to time your trips around the days following rain. An increase in current flow brings new fish into the river system.

2. Stick around for the evening bite. Even on colder days in December or January, evening is prime time to be on the water.

3. When you approach quality holding water, don’t neglect the very head of the hole. Fish in this part of the hole are only there for one reason: to whack something.

4. Stick with it. As with any new technique, part of the battle will be the human tendency to attribute failure to the inability to grasp something new. When you do connect, it’ll put every other take to shame. Tens of thousands of swinging junkies can’t be wrong.

DAVID KARCZYNSKI (2)

or my brother, an elite spinning angler who looks upon the fly rod with a reasonable degree of suspicion, the swung fly yielded not only his first steelhead, but his very first fish on a fly rod. Of the first six seconds of the fight, that fish spent roughly 5.9 of them in the air—a self-skipping stone I chased ater so frantically that I lost my hat, sunglasses, and gloves in the process. Despite having virtually no understanding of the physics of the fly reel—I was just about to explain the drag system when the fish hit—my brother somehow managed to land the steelhead, a dime-bright 12-pounder.

We released the fish and my brother looked straight into my eyes, his pupils as big as grapes, and said, “What just happened?”

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FISHING BLUEfiSH ↘

instincts, and large 3-ounce topwater poppers incite a severe strike reaction. Work composite pencil or chugging poppers hard in an effort to create serious splash and commotion. Leave the wooden lures at home— they’ll just be destroyed.

3

BLUES TRAVELERS THE WILDEST FALL FISH BLITZ IS ABOUT TO HIT. THE BLUEFISH BITE IS ON BY NICK HONACHEFSKY

D

ATELINE: OCTOBER 13, 2007: East Coast surfcasters remember it well. It was a bluefish blitz for the ages. John Bushell Jr., proprietor of Betty and Nick’s Bait and Tackle in Seaside Park, New Jersey, still gushes when he speaks of the event.

“It was the biggest fall bluefish blitz I have ever seen,” says Bushell, who has owned the renowned bait shop for 47 years. “It lasted three days straight. All I saw were thousands of beached blues, dozens of broken rods and reels, and an untold number of snapped lines.”

“I was visiting from California that week,” says Sportfishing magazine photographer Tom Lynch. “That blitz made me move back to New Jersey. It was a 24-hour sustained show.”

Precisely why it happened remains something of a mystery.

What is sure, though, are the conditions: bluebird skies, gin-clear water, and one-foot swells. The crisp fall air and light, westerly winds pushed baitfish schools of round herring, peanut bunker, spearing, and sandeels into the undertow by the millions.

At 1 p.m. on the 13th, a fellow surfcaster, Guy Jackson, called. All I heard was some sort of insane screaming and muffled words that sounded vaguely like: “Holy s*%!, dude! Get up to your beach now!” As I crossed the dunes, surf stick in hand, an amazing scene 68 october 2016 outdoor life

unfolded. For 15 miles, from Point Pleasant to Island Beach State Park, lay a mass of frenzied blackness—hundreds of diving birds, and boiling water that looked for all the world like multiple depth charges going off at once. It was an invasion.

After losing most of my gear landing and breaking off 15- to 18-pound gators, I cast my last Ava 17 metal and came tight with a bluefish of knee-buckling proportions. It later taped out at 46 inches, with a basketball-sized mouth lined with teeth that would give a mako shark pause.

Legendary tales were born that day. This fall, the gators will be on the prowl once again along the Eastern Seaboard. It may not be as historic as 2007, but the fall blitz always features the biggest blues of the year. Want to target

gorilla-sized blues? Here are five tricks to use by boat or surf.

1

FIND THE RIGHT PACK

You won’t find 3-pound cocktail blues hanging with 15-pound gators. It’s not good for their survival, as there is no love lost among these cannibals. Once you encounter a few big blues in the 15- to 20-pound bracket, there will be more of the same class in the area. If you’re into small fish, leave and hunt down the bigger ones.

2

GO BIG OR GO HOME

You’ve got to stir up action in the surf. Gorilla blues act on ambush

Gators are looking for a hearty meal. Start a well-defined bunker chum slick on any inshore ridge. Use a short length of steel leader with a size 6/0 to 8/0 baitholder hook, and rig up a large 3- to 4-inch chunk of backcut bunker chunk. Apply the appropriate egg sinkers from ½ to 6 ounces to get the bait in the zone. Dish out the line so the chunk sinks naturally with the chum slick.

4

DIG THE JIG

Sandeels, herring, and menhaden are the predominant fall bait species, so do your best to imitate them with large metal lures. Drop Ava jigs with green, red, or yellow tails to mimic sandeels, or go with wideprofile, Crippled Herring jigs in 4- to 6-ounce sizes if herring and bunker are around. Let the lure hit the bottom, then reel it up as fast as you can. Note the depth and count the cranks to assess the fish-holding depth until you get hit. Then repeat the process.

Bigger blues usually lie below the smaller ones.

5

TAKE THE TEMPERATURE

Water temperature (58 to 65 degrees) triggers baitfish school movement, which entices the bluefish down the Eastern Seaboard. In October and November, look for big blues to be off the New York and New Jersey coasts. From December into January, blues make their move off Maryland and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

NICK HONACHEFSKY

The author with a New Jersey surfcaught alligator bluefish.

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FISHING MUSKIES ↘ the technique—which includes beaching a boat, canoe, or kayak nearby.

George Jackson with a late-fall muskie on the bank of Litle Saint Germain Lake.

THE SHORE SCORE

MUSKIES FOR SHORE IT’S PRIME TIME FOR MUSKIES. NOW, GET OFF THE BOAT BY STEVE HEITING

S

kim ice sealed Litle Saint Germain Lake in northern Wisconsin, but Ken Jackson had the itch to go muskie fishing. Looking for a friend to join him on what would most assuredly be a lark, he called fellow muskie nut Rick Mai. “Well, I needed someone whose weight could help me make some open water,” says Jackson with a smile.

“We used my boat like an icebreaker to create an open piece of water,” he explains. “It was the only fishable spot on the entire lake—and we caught a 40-inch muskie. Don’t know that I’ve ever worked harder to reel in a fish.” What makes the catch even more surprising was the location where it was caught.

Jackson—a full-time guide whose family owns Jackson’s Lakeside Cottages on the lake—broke the ice in front of the resort in order to fish from shore. As he and his buddy proved, shore-fishing for muskies need not simply be a passing

impulse in late fall or early spring—it can be a very effective strategy to use on the days when the weather is bad.

“As a guide, I can still take people shorefishing who don’t have the physical or mental toughness for the weather on an all-day boat trip,” says Jackson. “I can build a fire and cook food to warm everybody up.

But the bottom line is, it’s an effective way to catch fish.”

Jackson certainly isn’t the first shorebound angler to catch a huge muskie on a miserable day, but he may be one of the few to actually concentrate on refining

○ In late fall, after turnover, much of a lake’s fish population begins to relate heavily to bottom structure. Muskies, in particular, use breaklines as travel routes, so Jackson looks for places with a steep breakline not far from shore. Typically, he wants to fish 18 to 32 feet deep, with some kind of woody cover nearby.

“Utilizing side-imaging electronics, I hunt for potential fishing spots all year,” he says. “I’ll bookmark them for later use. Then, in the fall, I use an underwater camera to pinpoint the exact location of those cribs and logs.”

Jackson baits his lines with big suckers measuring at least 13 inches. He prefers quick-strike rigs and uses his boat to place the suckers a short distance from the cribs or logs to best prevent hang-ups. A ½-ounce sinker keeps each sucker in place.

“If you don’t know the cribs’ and logs’ exact location, you’ll be snagged,” he warns.

A line-counter reel ensures the correct distance from shore. When a muskie hits, seconds matter.

“Run to the boat with the rod,” says Jackson. “Get away from shore, and if the muskie is moving away from you, set the hook hard. If the muskie is not swimming, lift with the rod tip to pressure it. At some point it will want to swim away, and that’s when to set the hook.”

The exact bait placement required for shore-fishing has its advantages. Jackson recalls several times when he and his partners had a successful day, and then compared notes with boat anglers. “Their reaction is, ‘You caught how many?!’”

Jackson says with a smile.

RIGHTEOUS RIGGING

70 october 2016 outdoor life

of deeply hooking the fish. Even if you’re doing things right, a good hook-up rate is around 50 percent. ▫ Fish in a group of at least three anglers— while two are tending lines in the boat, someone is available to watch lines on shore. ▫ If the muskie is hooked in deep water, take your time fighting it to allow it to acclimate itself to the change of depth. ▫ After netting a muskie, leave the net bag in the water and unhook the fish there. Only lift it from the water for a quick photo.

Muskie quick-strike rigs typically consist of a single hook through a sucker’s nose plus one or two trebles.

STEVE HEITING (2)

STUDIES BY the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources have proven that a swallowed live bait rig is usually a death sentence for a muskie. When used properly, however, a live bait rig causes no more harm to the fish than a bucktail. Since all serious muskie anglers want to safely release their fish, Ken Jackson advises they do the following: ▫ Use only quick-strike rigs. ▫ React quickly to a bite and set the hook as soon as the fish is moving away. Waiting longer does nothing but increase the odds

TRƒINING ♦ BLƒDE CRƒFT ♦ GUN TEST ♦ ƒMMUNITION

TIP Periodically check and clean your carry gun even if you haven’t shot it in a while. Lint and other debris can accumulate in the action and impede function.

JEWEL SAMAD/GETTY IMAGES

Take advantage of the shakedown period of a new pistol by working on marksmanship fundamentals.

ACCESSING A HANDGUN YOU JUST BOUGHT A NEW PISTOL. IS IT SOMETHING YOU CAN RELY ON TO SAVE YOUR LIFE? HERE’S HOW TO FIND OUT BY SAMMY REESE

section edited by john b. snow

S

SO YOU HAVE in your possession a quality semi-auto pistol and you need to verify that it shoots accurately and functions properly every time you press the trigger. Anything less is unacceptable for a personal defense weapon. I have purchased more handguns over the years than I can remember, and in the course of my training I have seen countless students show up with new sidearms. I’ve distilled my experiences into a simple routine in order to see if a new gun is worth carrying on your hip. outdoor life october 2016 P1

HƒNDGUNS ↘

When evaluating a revolver for personal protection, put the same number of practice and duty rounds through it as you would a semi.

make sure the magazine release works. After this is done, it is time for live fire.

AMMO SELECTION ▪ SINCE THIS IS a personal defense pistol, you are going to need ammunition designed for that type of shooting.

My advice is to purchase the best personal defense ammunition you can afford. But before buying a thousand rounds, try a few types with different bullet styles to see what your gun likes.

Some handguns function better and shoot more accurately with certain brands and bullet weights.

Practice ammo or ball ammo is usually the least expensive and most readily available.

SERVICEABILITY TESTING

BREAK IT DOWN ▪ THE FIRST THING I do is take the gun apart and conduct a thorough inspection of all the parts.

This isn’t a full armorer breakdown, just the basic components. I do a thorough cleaning and lubricate what needs lubing and verify that the safety and the de-cocker, if it has one, works, and that the trigger functions properly and resets. I also

▪ FOR ME, the minimum number of breakin rounds I put through a new gun is 300 ball rounds and 100 personal defense rounds. In most cases, no pun intended, my actual round count ends up closer to 500.

If something is going to fall off the gun—like the sights—it’ll happen in the first 100 rounds or so. This isn’t a hard-and-fast figure, of course, but it is a good rule of thumb. The initial 100 rounds is also a great time to verify that your sights are on and that you’re hitting where you’re aiming. The point of impact may change when you switch from

practice ammo to duty or defense rounds, requiring additional adjustment, so keep that in mind.

Use the rest of this break-in time to work on your marksmanship skills and drills as well.

It’s also a good time to make sure the magazines are working properly. I number all of mine with a silver Sharpie so I can identify problem mags and fix or get rid of them. There’s no reason to keep a bad magazine in the inventory.

Remember, you purchased this pistol to potentially save your life. In the greater scheme of things, magazines are relatively inexpensive.

When evaluating a new pistol, I shoot it from awkward positions and with different gripping techniques to see if anything causes it to malfunction. I also have other people shoot it so I can watch how it functions. Most modern firearms gobble up ammo like Pac Man, but occasionally one comes my way that will malfunction when fired from a certain angle (like the rollover prone used to shoot under a vehicle) or when used with a particular type of ammunition. I’d rather find out if something isn’t right on the range than when my life depends on it.

The verification process can seem a little expensive, especially after you just dropped a big pile of hard-earned money on a pistol.

But it is a necessary procedure for a defensive weapon.

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TRƒINING ↘ ★ SHOOTING DRILLS

Cheap and Easy Drills ― DRY-FIRING AND DOT TORTURE ARE TWO GREAT WAYS TO BUILD SKILLS BY SAMMY REESE ―

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DRY RUN ▶ Dry practice is a training tool I use with all types of firearms. It costs nothing but time and can be done almost anywhere. Dry practice allows you to work on sight alignment, trigger control, draws from concealment, and reloading—with dummy ammo only.

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no. 1: five shots slow fire. no. 2: draw from holster and shoot once (5 reps). nos. 3 & 4: draw, place one shot on 3, one shot on 4 (5 reps). no. 5: draw, five shots with strong hand.

nos. 6 & 7: draw, shoot 6 twice, then shoot 7 twice (4 reps). no. 8: from lowready, shoot five shots with weak hand. nos. 9 & 10: draw, one shot on 9, speed reload, on shot on 10 (3 reps).

some hard and fast rules: All live ammo must be removed from the training area—no exceptions.

The “target” should be something you’d be willing to shoot and destroy in the case of an accident. I prop an old bulletproof vest against the fireplace.

The number of reps you do is up to you.

Don’t forget to practice with your nondominant hand. The last thing I do when I’m done with my dry practice is to say out loud, “No more dry practice.” I then reload and holster the gun, and go about my business.

SHOOTIN’ DOTS ▶ Dot torture is another drill I like because it covers a lot of the fundamentals for running a handgun for defensive purposes.

There are plenty of different-size dot targets, and the distance from the target can be varied to increase the level of difficulty.

I use a timer so I can push myself faster while maintaining accurate fire.

Course of Fire: The target has 10 dots arranged in three rows of three with a single dot at the top. The drills become progressively more difficult as you move through the numbers.

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BLƒDE CRƒFT ↙

blade shape Helm went with a “kitchen knife” shape for the blade. which does a better job of penetrating. “The sweeping curve of the blade is better at cutting and slicing, and this shape makes the blade more effective as an everyday carry tool,” Helm says.

finger choil Helm made the finger choil especially deep so that the knife is easier to hold onto while you’re wearing gloves, or when your hands are wet or bloody. It also helps ensure that your fingers won’t slip up onto the blade when stabbing.

swedge The stylized swedge is made by lowering the spine just ahead of the handle.

It allows purchase for the index finger and gives better dexterity for fine manipulation of the blade or a spot for leverage for your thumb to apply extra force.

materials Helm uses 01 tool steel, a basic carbon steel, which is simple to maintain. “It has a Rockwell harness around 58, so guys in the field can sharpen it easily,” Helm says. The grips are made of G10. hammer pattern handle The bird’s beak shape allows for excellent weapon retention. Even with a sloppy grip— say, when scrambling to get to the knife in a scuffle—where you’re unable to get all your fingers around the handle, you can draw it from the scabbard.

Also, with just two or three fingers around the grip, you can still cut and stab effectively. photographs by bill buckley

Using a handheld grinder, Helm adds this pattern to the knife along the spine and on the butt and underside of the grip.

It creates extra texture for a better grip.

It’s known as a rock pattern for its resemblance to chipped flint.

HELM TACTICAL KNIFE A GREAT BLADE FOR PERSONAL PROTECTION, AND MORE BY JOHN B. SNOW As a knife enthusiast, Mat Helm talks about how he “went through the Rambo knife phase and the shiny knife phase” in terms of what he liked. But in his late 20s, his sensibilities shited, and inspired by blade smiths like Andy Roy, Dan Koster, and Rich Marchand, he developed a love for practical, well-made tools of understated cratsmanship.

“Their knives didn’t have the feel of something you’d set aside in a velvet-lined case, but something that you would go out and use,” Helm says. When he decided to try his hand at knife making in early 2011, that was the aesthetic he aspired to. And since then, his knives have been in great demand among serious blade aficionados.

One of his latest designs is this tactical knife, which he developed with input from William Petty, a cop and LE trainer who specializes in close-quarters fighting in and around vehicles. I spent several weeks carrying and using this knife, and while it looks basic, there’s a lot of intelligence built into it. I used it for normal knife duties: opening boxes, preparing and cutting food while camping, and cutting rope. But I also carried it concealed along my waistband in places where carrying a gun was either impractical or prohibited.

It is an outstanding blade that reminds me of a treasured family heirloom that’s been carried and used and passed down through the decades. Its functionality and its inviting aesthetic make it a blade I loved to keep by my side.

Small wonder Helm’s blades are so sought after.

STATS Blade Length: 3 ⁷⁄₈ in.

Overall Length: 7 ¾ in.

Weight: 6 oz.

Price: $400–$450

outdoor life october 2016 P7

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GUN TEST ↙

SIG P229 LEGION GUNS BEARING THE LEGION NAME ARE READY TO ROLL OUT OF THE BOX

BY JOHN B. SNOW

T

HE IDEA BEHIND the Sig Legion pistols is prety simple. Sig took a couple of their most highly regarded firearms and gave them a series of professional-level upgrades.

The P226 and P229 already had reputations that put them among the elite handguns on the market.

But Sig recognized that many of their users were modifying the stock guns to squeeze even beter performance out of them.

It wasn’t unusual for individuals who carry pistols as part of their job description to invest an extra $1,000 to $1,500 into a P226 or P229 to get it “just right.”

Sig took many of these ideas— based on numerous interviews with military, law enforcement, and security personnel—and cut out the middlemen, doing the work themselves. The only ones losing out on this deal are the custom gunsmiths who specialized in making these mods.

Shooters who own and carry guns for protection, however, came out smelling like a rose with this arrangement. The additional cost of owning one of these Legion series guns is about $300 to $400

UPGRADES TO THE LEGION Features on the P229 Legion include: 1) contoured beavertail grip; 2) finer checkering on the upper portion of the stock; 3) Grayguns trigger; 4) checkering on the trigger guard; 5) relieved frame; 6) rear night sight with cocking hook.

more than the stock version. At $1,428 MSRP, the Legion pistols are a great value.

GOODIE BAG SO WHAT DO you get with a Legion pistol? Quite a bit. Most of the upgrades improve the ergonomics of the pistol and allow it to be carried more easily.

The checkering on the G-10 grips is fabulous, with varying densities of the diamond pattern on different parts of the stock. The upper portion of the stock has smaller diamonds than the lower portion.

Sig added fine checkering underneath the trigger guard and on the front of the frame and along the

rear backstrap.

Sig also slimmed down the grip by removing some material from the frame just below the trigger guard.

These pistols also have a contoured beavertail on them that allows for a good high-hand position on the gun. The effect of these changes is that the P226 and P229, which are a bit bulky, are much easier to grip and shoot.

The slide catch and decocking lever have both been reduced in size and are less likely to snag on clothing or other gear.

The trigger has been replaced with the well-regarded Intermediate Reach Adjustable Trigger by Grayguns.

A set of excellent contrasting night sights rides on top of the gun for use under all lighting conditions. The rear sight also has a cocking hook built into it so the user can rack the slide with only one hand.

The pistol shoots great too.

I’m not the biggest fan of the DA/ SA (double action/single action) system, but I warmed up to this pistol and have been carrying it with me for the last several months.

Sig also makes a SAO (single-action only) Legion model, and I plan to trade my P229 for one of those.

I just happen to like it when every trigger press is the same as the others.

BILL BUCKLEY (4)

The P229 Legion Eats Ammo Like Potato Chips SINCE ACQUIRING MY P229 Legion earlier this year, I’ve made a point of running as many types of ammo as I can through it.

This has included a couple thousand rounds of training ammo like American Eagle Syntech, Remington/

UMC, and Winchester white box, and several hundred rounds of premium personal protection loads as well. The P229, which ships with three 15-round magazines, gobbled up everything with gusto.

Hornady Critical Defense?

Check. Nosler Defense?

Check. Federal HydraShok? Yep. Ultimately I setled on Winchester’s PDX1 124grain +P as my protection round. It is accurate and, like all the ammo I tried in the P229, dead-nuts reliable.

outdoor life october 2016 P9

ƒMMUNITION ↘

THE BEST DEFENSIVE HANDGUN LOADS WE PUT FIVE TOP LOADS TO THE TEST BY JEFF JOHNSTON

L LOADING TARGET AMMO in your defensive handgun is like installing slicks on your 4x4: They’re good at leading you into a jam but poor at getting you out.

While premium ammo is pricey, I challenge you to name a better bargain than a $1 cartridge that could actually save your life.

Here are five that were developed to do just that.

THE TEST: I fired each 9mm test bullet into bundles of wet, dry, and damp newspapers at 5 yards from a 5-inch-barrel Smith & Wesson M&P. Each folded newspaper was roughly 1-inch thick and much tougher than a single layer of clothing, including denim. The bundles were bound tightly with plastic ties. (Note that dry newspaper bundles are tougher than flesh and hard on bullets, and represent a torture test of sorts.) I analyzed the results of both wet and dry tests, then compared each bullet to the others.

Over the course of several days and lots of trigger pulling, here’s what I found.

WINCHESTER

ELITE PDX1 DEFENDER 147 GR. ▶ The PDX1 Defender has a “notched,” or scored, jacket

that peels back into deadly petals as it encounters resistance, but its lead core is bonded to the jacket. It averaged 971 fps, penetrated 19 papers, and expanded to .799 inch, effectively doubling its size. It retained 96 percent of its weight and had zero feeding issues. In dry newspapers, the jacket expanded rather wildly but did not separate from its core. It is the least expensive of the loads tested. ($21/20; winchester.com)

E

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B I

C F

D

SOG Knives SlimJim Assisted Folder Fox Labs OC (Pepper) Spray ProTac® 1AAA Flashlight Magpul - Tejas Gun Belt “El Original” Oakley SI Flak Jacket XLJ™ Sunglasses Dale Fricke Archangel Holster for Glock® 43 Ruger ARX 9mm Luger +P Self-Defense Ammo Glock® G43 9mm Pistol Glock® G43 6-Rd Magazine

H

JUSTIN APPENZELLER (3)

ƒMMUNITION ↙

FEDERAL PREMIUM

BARNES

PERSONAL DEFENSE HST 124 GR.

TAC XPD 115 GR.

▶ Federal began developing its HST load in 2000 for law

▶ Remaining true to its roots, Barnes took another route

enforcement. It’s finally available to the public, only now it’s called “Personal Defense.” Like all cartridges here, it was specifically engineered to pass the FBI’s rigorous “barrier test,” which mandates bullets traverse layers of denim, windshields, and other torturous mediums while holding together and expanding inside the target.

Fired at 1,118 fps, it penetrated 16 newspapers, expanded to .879 inch (the most), and retained 78 percent of its weight (the least). (In the wet test, it retained 100 percent.) Feeding was perfect. ($31/20; federalpremium.com)

through the FBI’s protocol. Its TAC-XP bullet eliminates the possibility of the core separating from the jacket because the entire bullet is produced from one monolithic billet of copper. Its hollowpoint peels back into petals, which increases its diameter for stopping power.

It averaged 1,060 fps, penetrated 19.3 newspapers (the most), expanded to .573 inch (the least), and retained 100 percent of its weight. It fed perfectly. I tend to put more value on penetration than expansion, so I really like this ammo. ($24/20; barnesbullets.com)

ƒMMUNITION ↘

HORNADY

CRITICAL DEFENSE FTX 115 GR. ▶ The Hornady FTX bullet’s hollowpoint contains a sot polymer material that blocks debris while

applying steady pressure to the cavity to control expansion. The bullet also features Hornady’s Interlock band, which mechanically crimps the copper jacket around the lead core.

The test bullets averaged 1,019 fps, penetrated 16.3 papers, expanded to .659 inch, and retained 90 percent of its mass. It fed perfectly and was light recoiling. ($28/25; hornady.com)

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See LiNQ in action at thelinqsystem.com

new, its V-Crown bullet design is similar to most premium, lead-core projectiles. It features a shallow hollowpoint that’s scored for expansion and a lead core that’s mechanically affixed to the jacket via cannelure.

At 1,149 fps (the fastest), it plowed through 14 newspapers (the fewest), expanded to .775 inch, and retained 83.9 percent of its weight. (In wet tests, it retained 100 percent.) It had zero feeding issues. ($22/20; sigsauer.com)

Note: All loads are available in various calibers.

JUSTIN APPENZELLER (2)

▶ While Sig Sauer ammo is brand-

SKILLS ♦ FOOD PREP ♦ BƒLLISTICS

TIP

Ater a hunt, remove all loose shells from your parka and bags and wipe them dry with a cloth to prevent rust from forming on the brass.

FIVE STEPS TO

BECOMING A BETTER CALLER

BILL BUCKLEY

NONE OF WHICH INCLUDES DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN WITHOUT GETTING THE DESIRED RESULTS

BY BILL BUCKLEY

You don’t get this many leg bands without understanding the subtleties of calling.

section edited by john b. snow

WHEREAS A SQUEAKY wheel might get the grease, rarely will incessant calling get a limit of ducks or geese. If last season you found yourself blowing the same old tune with little to show for it, here are five tips for greater success.

outdoor life october 2016 W1

SKILLS ↘

HYPERSONIC STEEL.® THE WORLD’S FASTEST, HARDEST-HITTING STEEL.

Unless your musical aspirations begin and end with a kazoo, you wouldn’t expect to play an instrument well within a few weeks or months. Duck and goose calls may seem like simple instruments, but they’re not easily mastered.

If you’re new to waterfowling, check out videos on call-manufacturers’ websites or YouTube and learn from the best callers in the country. Bad habits like grunting into your call can be avoided by starting off right. If you think you’re pretty good, record yourself and then follow the above advice. I hit the play button years ago and am still in recovery.

The more you can mimic waterfowl with different sounds and inflections, the more you’re going to fool real birds. The more notes and sequences you can string together, the less you’ll sound like a broken record.

2

QUICKER KILLS. FEWER MISSES. MORE HEAD & NECK SHOTS.

PATENTED XELERATOR® WAD TECHNOLOGY

How will you know what sounds to make? The birds will tell you. Let’s say you see a flock crossing 150 yards away.

You start calling, and their wingbeats remain steady and constant. You’re not connecting.

So you get a bit more aggressive and add in a few different calls. Suddenly one of the birds misses a wingbeat, cranes its neck, or briefly turns its back toward you. That’s your sign.

Now you concentrate on that bird, repeating the same notes while not sounding like a broken record. If it waivers again, continue until it turns your way. Chances are the rest will follow.

Having a repertoire of various sounds and intensity is critical to everyday success, because what birds react to one day may be completely ineffective the next. The more variations you can reproduce, the better your chances of hitting the right combination on any given day.

Even before you call, a bird’s body language will indicate how receptive it is. An irregular wingbeat or craning head and neck shows a bird is looking to set down—an easy mark. A flock where all the birds are looking straight ahead, wingbeats steady and unchanging, is a much tougher sell.

Another cue is if they’re talking. Talkative birds should react well to calling; silent birds often won’t, so start off with sparse calling or, for geese, intermittent flagging.

3 ©2016 REMINGTON ARMS COMPANY, LLC.

READ THE BIRDS

BE PASSIVE—OR AGGRESSIVE

After turning a flock, your calling should depend on the birds. If they continue your way, a few confidence feed calls or clucks might suffice. If they start veering off course, it’s time to pick up your tempo and intensity.

Give them only as much calling as necessary to keep them in line. Sometimes waterfowl will break away anytime you let up. Or in the case of hard-hunted public land, there’s enough competition that flocks often lock onto the loudest and most constant calling.

Most days, though, you’ll want to reserve your most aggressive sounds for when flocks seem intent on going elsewhere.

4

MANAGE CIRCLING BIRDS

Calling nonstop to circling flocks is self-defeating. As long as birds are anywhere but downwind, they won’t break to come in. Birds land into the wind, so wait until they’re downwind of your landing zone, then hit them with a sharp greeting call for ducks or excited clucks for geese. They should react instantly.

The only other time to call is when birds start breaking away. Then your reaction must be immediate and demanding—a second too late and you’ll lose them.

5

LET THEM SLIDE

Having a flock fly high over your spread is a surefire way to have them see every imperfection in your spread, which can be problematic when flocks originate upwind or crosswind. How do you draw their attention and keep them coming, yet still have them approach from downwind?

The answer is to let them “slide.” The trick is to get them committed to your spread, but to lay off the call when they’re 80 to 120 yards out so they start drifting downwind.

Let them get far enough below your spread to where, when you hit the call again, they can turn immediately and coast in.

It’s a bit of a balancing act, making sure they stay interested in your decoys but letting them slip farther away. And the windier it is, the farther downwind they need to be before you start calling, since it will take them longer to lose altitude. Once you learn this technique, though, and have perfected a repertoire of duck and goose calls, limits will be the rule, not the exception.

BILL BUCKLEY

1

LEARN HOW TO BLOW YOUR CALLS

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HIT ’EM WITH YOUR BEST SHOT.

browning.com

FOOD PREP ↙

FROM WING TO TABLE IF YOUR DUCKS AND GEESE TASTE GAMY OR GREASY, IT’S YOUR OWN DAMNED FAULT. HERE’S HOW TO KEEP THAT FROM HAPPENING BY BILL BUCKLEY

O

OF ALL THE GAME HUNTERS BRING HOME TO THEIR FAMILY, NONE INCITES MORE DREAD— AND THE LARGEST EXPENDITURE ON KRAFT ITALIAN SALAD DRESSING—THAN WATERFOWL. FRANKLY, SOME SPECIES DESERVE A BAD RAP, BUT FOR MOST WATERFOWL, TRAUMATIC DINING EXPERIENCES CAN BE LAID SQUARELY AT THE HUNTER’S FEET. IF YOU WANT GOOD-TASTING BIRDS, YOU NEED TO BE DISCRIMINATING. HERE’S A QUICK GUIDE TO BETTER DINING ON FEATHERED FARE.

BUY A VACUUM SEALER ▶ This is the best waterfowling accessory you can own. Seriously. Because even 10-month-old goose breasts, when thawed, are swimming in clear red blood, untainted and not burned by the freezer. And that makes all the difference in flavor.

BILL BUCKLEY

SHOOT DELIBERATELY ▶ Good meat comes to those who think before pulling the trigger. Consider: • Blowing up birds wastes good meat, driving feathers, guts, and dirt throughout whatever’s left to salvage. Lay off birds closer than 18 to 20 yards.

• Don’t expect mature geese to be tender.

For light geese, shoot gray- or beige-colored birds (they taste like premium beef); target the smaller Canadas with dingier cheek patches—this isn’t foolproof, but it’s a good rule of thumb.

• Pass up all ducks you don’t like to eat.

Just because one flies over doesn’t mean you have to shoot. But don’t trust someone else’s potentially ill-informed opinion. You could be passing up a lot of excellent meals.

FIELD AND TRIP CARE ▶ Treat your birds like you would a downed deer and cool the meat. If you’re afield, place birds in shade and never in a pile, which will help retain body heat. Even on cold days, bigbodied birds like geese can spoil if they’re not gutted after the hunt. Store them breastup and separated until cooled. Field dress all gut-shot birds. Once the meat’s cold, pile the birds to retain that, and shield them from direct sunlight until you get home.

AT-HOME PREPARATION ▶ Most hunters skin and breast waterfowl.

This might be fast, but for grain-fed birds it

The author seared this Canada goose breast at a high heat before serving.

is a waste of the flavorful fat underneath the skin. Pluck a few mallards or immature geese and grill the breasts over high heat. If that doesn’t persuade you to invest in a plucker, stop reading this—you’re a lost cause. If you’re still with me, skin out those goose legs; they have lots of excellent meat.

Wash the meat and brine it for up to a day prior to vacuum-sealing. Be sure to clean feathers and shot out of wound channels, and to remove blood clots. Separating birds by species will help you decipher their different flavors and learn which are your favorites.

FROM FREEZER TO TABLE ▶ For the best flavor, don’t quick-thaw your birds in warm water or the microwave; let them thaw naturally at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

There are a thousand ways to cook waterfowl, but in general, avoid cooking the meat beyond medium rare, unless you like the flavor of liver (goose legs are an exception), and make good use of your grill. High heat works well for most waterfowl, rendering the fat and crisping up the skin.

As beautiful as they look out of an oven, leave roasted whole geese to the experts, or at least use only young birds. Most trauma associated with “greasy,” tough goose meat can be traced back to roasting the biggest goose of the season.

If you’ve taken good care of your meat, you can relegate that Italian dressing strictly to salads. outdoor life october 2016 W5

BƒLLISTICS ↙

OPEN UP THE TIDE IS TURNING ON THE “TIGHTER IS BETTER” THEORY OF CHOKES BY BRAD FITZPATRICK

The general consensus on choke selection for waterfowl is that tighter patterns kill more birds.

But that truly is a generalization.

Sometimes it works, and sometimes the opposite is true.

There are a growing number of waterfowl hunters that are fighting back against the old notion that tight chokes aid in long shots on birds, and there is science to back up their claims. Before you screw in your usual tube for

BILL BUCKLEY

T

the opening day of duck and goose season, take the time to evaluate just how choked up you really need to be.

Rod Haydel of Haydel Game Calls in Louisiana spends, as you might imagine, much of his time on the water hunting ducks. His go-to tube? Improved Cylinder. He says that he uses that choke about 90 percent of the time.

“A lot of hunters are overchoked,” Haydel says. It’s been his experience that tighter patterns work especially well on windy days, but for the majority of hunting situations, lighter constrictions are more effective. For years it was widely accepted that tighter chokes produced longer shot strings, which simplified hard crossing shots—especially at long range. But that may not be true.

The majority of the time, the best choke to use for ducks is an Improved Cylinder.

outdoor life october 2016 W7

BƒLLISTICS ↘ WIDER CAN MEAN LONGER It seems logical that a tighter pattern would squeeze a shot string into a smaller window like sand through an hourglass, and would, in effect, create a longer string of pellets that increases your odds of killing a bird. But there’s credible evidence—backed by many ballisticians’ testing—that shows that a wider shot string reduces the “drafting” effect of a tight shot swarm. This means that as the shot pattern opens up, those pellets at the perimeter slow down and curl backwards, lengthening the shot column as the pellets move forward. You can picture this curling in the same way that a bullet jacket peels back from a lead core after striking an animal.

This would indicate that more open chokes actually create a longer pattern than tighter chokes at equal distances. These

variations were most notable with soft shot. Hard steel shot showed very little difference in shot string, so the theory that tight constriction increases the odds of hitting hard crossers at moderate ranges appears to be without merit.

Haydel believes—and many hunters are starting to agree— that more open chokes produce wider patterns and better results. Plus, more open chokes might prompt you to wait just a few seconds longer for the birds to get closer, and the number of misses and cripples increases exponentially as distance increases.

GO TIGHT IN THE WIND There is plenty of evidence to show that Haydel’s theory of tighter chokes for windy days holds water. Tight chokes maintain a more unified pattern that helps reduce the resistance on lagging pellets, and this can

MORE OPEN CHOKES ACTUALLY CREATE A LONGER PATTERN THAN TIGHTER CHOKES AT EQUAL DISTANCES. THESE VARIATIONS WERE MOST NOTABLE WITH SOFT SHOT. make a big difference on windy days in terms of range and energy. On average, though, most hunters will be better served hunting with a more open choke.

Patterns are wider, shot string length is the same or perhaps slightly greater than with tighter chokes, and hunters are inclined not to jump until the birds are closer at hand.

NOT ALL CHOKES ARE CREATED EQUAL Shotgun patterning has become duckdom’s proverbial dead horse, but the directive

bears repeating. Factory choke tubes from various manufacturers might vary by as much as .003 inch. That doesn’t seem like much, but it can cause a significant change in lethal range.

There’s a good chance that you’ll find at least 75 percent of your shot in the lethal 30-inch zone out to at least 25 yards with most factory choke tubes, and aftermarket tubes can beat that. That’s compelling evidence to question whether your nontoxic shot will run out of gas before the tightest constriction is necessary.

ELK ♦ BOW TUNING

TIP Don’t stow your elk calls once the rut draws to a close. An occasional cow call while stalking will help calm skitish elk.

It’s important not to overdo it, however.

WHEN THE BUGLING DIES

MARK RAYCROFT

THE BOWHUNTING MIGHT GET TOUGHER, BUT YOU CAN STILL FILL THAT UNPUNCHED TAG ONCE ELK COUNTRY GROWS QUIET BY TONY HANSEN

A solitary bull bedded for the day on a Montana ridgetop.

section edited by gerry bethge

WHEN THE TIMING is just right, all things seem possible for September elk hunting— probable, even. Bulls are practically screaming from every ridge and hollow. It’s not a matter of whether you’ll hear a bull, it’s which bugle you should go to first. Anticipation is high, and it’s simply a matter of time before you run an arrow through one of the brutes. outdoor life october 2016 B1

ELK ↘

Then reality sets in. The bulls don’t bugle on cue and September days begin to wane.

October is here, and you’ve still got an unpunched archery tag. Now what?

In some elk-rich states, such as Montana, bow season runs into October, while others reserve this month for rifle hunters. If tagging a bull (or any elk) with your bow is a priority, you can still get it done. In those states where bow season is still open, you need to keep at it. In those where archery season has come to a close, you may be able to opt for a rifle tag, don the requisite orange apparel, and tote your bow instead of a rifle—just be sure to check the state regs first. Then, prepare for things to be tough—a change in tactics might be in order.

REVISE THE PLAN “It’s a totally different hunt,” says Colorado guide Miles Fedinec of October bowhunting for elk. “If I had a choice, I’d pick September every time. The bulls are so much easier to find because they’re vocal. But it’s far

from the only way to hunt them. A bunch of the biggest bulls I’ve guided hunters to were killed later in the season. It can definitely be done. But it’s not easy.”

The key to scoring in October seems simple in theory: See the elk before they see you.

“In October, it can feel like you’re just wandering around in the woods blind and hoping you run into an elk,” says Fedinec. “You can do that. But you’re going to have a lot more success if you see the elk long before it can see you. You have to get high and glass. That’s the game now.”

If you’re looking for an entire animal out in the middle of a clearing, you’ll likely be disappointed. Shapes, colors, or shadows that don’t look quite right are typically giveaways. An antler tip, a rump, or an ear may be all that you’ll see. When you spot something that looks out of place, study it some more in search of movement.

But don’t give up on the rut entirely, especially if you’re hunting early in the month.

“Early in October, the rut can actually

This huge bull is headed for the timber ater first light.

ALAMY

still be pretty good,” says Fedinec. “You may hear a little less bugling, but those bulls are sometimes a little more willing to come to a call because there are fewer cows in heat at that time. I definitely wouldn’t be afraid to call and use some rut tactics in early October.”

But as the month fades, so, too, does the rut.

“You’ll start to see those big, old bulls breaking off from the herds. They might be in bachelor groups, but a lot of times the biggest bulls are loners,” Fedinec says. To find them, you have to understand what they’re doing: Fueling up.

“They’re hitting the feed. They’re trying to recover from the rut and do whatever they can to get ready to make it through winter,” Fedinec explains. Start your search in areas of abundant food—think green meadows up high and agricultural sources down low.

“If the cows are feeding in alfalfa fields or crops during the rut, you will often see the bulls come down too, and you can get on them that way.”

PRESSURE RELIEF Another challenge to bowhunting for elk in October is hunting pressure.

“There are a lot of hunters out there in October—more than at any other time,” Fedinec says. “Rifle season is what most Western hunters live for, and they’re going to take advantage of it.”

Indeed, this can be the toughest time to be in the elk woods. The additional human pressure will drive elk into survival mode and into deep timber. It also causes them to become nocturnal.

During the day, they will bed where they feel most secure—thickets, blowdowns, and dense spruces.

Is there an upside to October hunts? Easier access—maybe.

“It’s really weather-dependent, but if we start to see cold and snow, the elk will start to come down. It’s always easier to hunt them at lower elevations, and that can happen in late October sometimes.”

The snow can serve as another major advantage as well.

“Just old-school tracking in the snow can really be effective,” Fedinec says. “Find a fresh track and stay on it. Take your time.

Use the wind. Be patient. I’ve walked up on a ton of elk doing that.”

Be aware, however, that elk can walk many miles in the course of a day, so it might take a while to catch up.

If you find where elk fed during the night, follow them to where they entered the timber to bed for the day. Take up the trail cautiously and evaluate tracks for freshness. You’re looking for tracks with sharp edges with no debris in them.

A fresh tracking snow in October may be just the way to punch your tag when the bugling dies.

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BOW TUNING ↘

THE MAGIC OF MOMENTUM IF YOU’RE A SPEED FREAK WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR BOW AND ARROWS, YOU MIGHT JUST HAVE IT ALL WRONG BY TONY HANSEN am not a math major. Nor have I played one on TV. That said, numbers do mater to me, particularly now that bow season is here.

I’ve never fully understood the arrow speed craze. To me, it’s sort of like a lifted truck. It’s all about flash and sizzle, but little about practicality in the field. I’m a bowhunter. I’m going to assume that you are as well. What’s our goal? Our objective? To kill things.

An arrow kills critters by delivering a broadhead into vital organs. Death is the result of hemorrhage as the blades of the broadhead cut and cause bleeding. The objective is not to tell our buddies that our bow is faster than theirs. The goal is not to shoot through a chronograph and take a selfie with the number. The true goal is momentum.

Arrow speed absolutely has an impact on that goal, but it is simply one factor. This is where the math comes in. Thankfully, the internet has made math little more than a nuisance, and there are some terrific online tools available to make things easy. One of these is archerycalculator.com. But first, a quick physics lesson.

I

ENERGY TO KILL Momentum is the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity. We find momentum by using the formula of mass multiplied by velocity. (In the case of arrows, we then divide by 225,400. Why? I have no idea. But that’s how it’s done.)

Kinetic energy (often referred to as KE) is the energy that an object possesses by virtue of being in motion. We find that by taking one half the arrow’s mass times velocity squared.

To simplify, think of it this way: KE is the energy an arrow stores while in flight.

Momentum is the ability to maintain energy upon meeting resistance.

A sports car traveling 120 miles an hour has B4 october 2016 outdoor life

plenty of KE but minimal momentum in relation to a semi traveling 90 miles an hour that may have less KE but a whole lot more more momentum. When each vehicle hits a barrier, which is going to take longer to stop?

High kinetic energy is a good thing because it means your arrow has plenty of energy. But without sufficient momentum, that energy quickly erodes upon meeting resistance—the rib cage of a deer, for example.

You can vastly increase kinetic energy by increasing arrow speed. But if you’re increasing arrow speed by reducing arrow weight, well, you might not be doing as much good as you think. This is especially critical when dealing with light-poundage bows.

The unofficial rule regarding minimum KE

to push an arrow through a deer is about 40 foot-pounds.

Lower-poundage bows are slower than higher-poundage models. So, let’s say the bow is pushing a 350-grain arrow at 265 feet per second. That setup is delivering roughly 54 foot-pounds of KE and .411 slugs of momentum.

But you want more speed. So you shave the arrow weight to 310 and the speed jumps to 272. The result? KE drops to about 52 and momentum falls to .378. But you pull 70 pounds and your bow is the fastest on the planet. None of this has any bearing on you, right? Wrong. A fast bow isn’t a bad thing.

The key is to use that speed to deliver an arrow with the best combination of KE and momentum.

Where I hunt, a long shot is about 40 yards.

Thus, I’m not terribly worried about wind drift or arrow drop past 50 yards. So I’m going to use a heavy arrow that delivers maximum momentum without going too far overboard.

With the online calculators and the array of options for arrow shafts and broadheads, tweaking arrow weight is a pretty simple deal.

If you hunt areas where shots longer than 40 yards are the norm and you can see real benefit from increased arrow speed, it may make sense to sacrifice a bit of momentum, so long as you keep in mind that the farther an arrow travels, the less energy it retains.

You may hit that elk at 70 yards, but will your arrow retain enough momentum to do its job?

Speed kills? Perhaps. But momentum does it better.

JOHN HAFNER/WINDIGO IMAGES

Tune your hunting bow for maximum momentum— not speed.

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TIP Pheasant hunters are known to hit the fields early, but the last hours of legal shooting time—as the birds head to roost—can be equally good.

A Kansas rooster in deep trouble.

THREE WAYS TO HIT MORE PHEASANTS FLUSHING ROOSTERS CAN OVERWHELM EVEN THE MOST EXPERIENCED WINGSHOOTER, BUT THESE THREE KEYS WILL HELP YOU KILL MORE BIRDS THIS SEASON

BY BRAD FITZPATRICK

BILL BUCKLEY

THE FLASH OF COLOR and cackle of a rising rooster is an unforgettable moment, but hard-flying wild pheasants make a tough target. Focusing on these three key elements of shotgunning can help you put more birds in the bag.

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outdoor life october 2016 H1

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PHEƒSƒNTS ↙

The author with a late fall cock bird.

1

2

BRAD FITZPATRICK

CHANGE YOUR AIM POINT

Many hunters become so flustered when a bird flushes in front of them that they lose track of their aiming point. The natural inclination for some is to aim for the center of the bird’s body, focusing on the whole target instead of a single strike point.

The result is almost always a miss behind or perhaps a few cropped tail feathers for the rooster.

The better option—and this takes discipline in the chaos of an unexpected flush—is to focus your attention on the bird’s head. Specifically, look for the eye on crossing or quartering shots. In doing so, you maintain a focal point near the front of the bird and in the same direction as its flight.

Improved focus and a consistent point of aim will dramatically increase your odds of killing more pheasants.

“

FOCUS ON YOUR SWING AND CONTINUE MOVING THE GUN REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU HIT OR MISS. MOST IMPORTANT, MAINTAIN THAT SOLID CHEEK WELD ON THE STOCK.

SLOW DOWN

Don’t let the pounding winds and raucous cackle of a rising pheasant cause you to rush your shot. That’s easier said than done, since most shooters feel the need to get on target before the bird is up to beat their hunting buddies to the punch. That perceived sense of urgency often results in terrible shooting. The objective isn’t to shoot slowly, but rather to ensure that your gun mount, swing, and shot delivery are precise and controlled. The best way to improve these skills is on the skeet field. Shoot a few rounds prior to pheasant season from a low gun position, with the muzzle up and the recoil pad close to your hip—the same position you will be in when it flushes. You’ll soon realize that a consistent gun mount and proper body movement are far more effective than throwing the gun to your shoulder and slapping the trigger.

3

FOLLOW THROUGH

Most hunters shoot at a flushing pheasant, pause to see if they hit it, then quickly deliver a follow-up if the bird is still in the air. We all have a way of letting instinct take over, but in this case it is not helpful. It results in a broken, choppy start-and-stop swing that leaves the hunter trying desperately to catch up to the bird with each successive shot. Most of the time the bird comes out ahead. Even the best clays shooters are sometimes prone to dropping the muzzle when shooting wild birds. Instead, you want to focus on your swing and continue moving the gun regardless of whether you hit or miss. Most important, maintain that solid cheek weld on the stock and keep the muzzle moving in a steady, smooth forward motion after the bird drops. Work on perfecting your swing with every single shot you take. outdoor life october 2016 H3

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STOP THE ROT YOUR GAME IS DOWN. NOW YOU’VE GOT TO GET IT ALL OUT BEFORE IT SPOILS BY MARK KAYSER

I

MARK KAYSER

Packs with large cargo pockets, a meat shelf, or ample compression straps help secure a floppy load. Ditch the day pack and consider packs in the neighborhood of 4,000 cubic inches of capacity. In addition to meat, you’ll be able to carry butchering equipment, survival items, raingear, water, and other needed items without the zipper splitting.

If you have ever lost game meat to spoilage, you know the pain—it’s agonizing and you don’t ever want to go through it again.

That’s why, before frost coats the pumpkin, you need to be prepared to get meat from field to freezer quickly and efficiently. That begins with the right equipment. My meatcare pack includes: at least one sharp knife, a sharpener, mesh game bags, latex gloves, and a compact saw. I stow this gear in a backpack that doubles as your meat tote.

Even if you employ an alternative method of removing meat from the field, you’ll still need a sturdy pack to lash a cape or antlers to for one less trip in and out.

1. PACK IT OUT Even a medium-size deer will leave you with an ibuprofenneeding load of 60 pounds or more of deboned meat. That

doesn’t include a cape or antlers. With an elk, you’ll be closer to triple-digit pack loads. Backpacking meat from the woods is doable, but be sure you have the physical stamina before making it the only option.

You’ll definitely want to visit a physician months in advance and receive a recommended workout program for backpacking fitness.

The author prepares to pack out an early-season Montana bull elk.

As you achieve workout results, begin to integrate hikes with a loaded pack. Start out with 30 pounds and work up.

2. WHEEL IT OUT Consider a wheeled game cart to move meat from a kill site. These handy contraptions include a metal deck, two heavy-duty wheels, and handles to maneuver the cart through rugged terrain.

They offer ideal transportation for hunters with back issues in terrain that doesn’t include boulders and vertical slopes.

Game carts also provide a handy means of moving camp and comfort items to a backcountry location. Be sure to review various models for durability. Having a cart break down on a whitetail hunt in Illinois is one thing, but having a wheel fall off 5 miles into elk country is a meat disaster.

3. ACQUIRE HORSEPOWER Terrain may cancel wheels and your chiropractor may nix backpacking. Search for a packer whose horses do the work for you. Primarily a Western fallback, horse outfitters advertise their services to pack in your camp and pack out your game.

Do your research well ahead of time and be ready for a day’s delay after your high-country call.

You may need to stash meat in the shade or even across a handmade log bridge spanning a cool creek as you wait.

Of course, there’s always the “I owe you one” backup plan. If you hunt near home, put your friends on notice. Four or five buddies can reduce an elk or deer into manageable portions that don’t require an onsite masseuse for knotted muscles.

Early-season hunters must have one huge priority—taking care of their game meat. outdoor life october 2016 H5

BLƒCK BEƒRS ↘

THE BIGGEST BEARS OF ALL WHERE TO FIND BLACK BEARS THAT GROW TO THE SIZE OF GRIZZLIES BY DAVID HART

HERE ARE BEARS; there are big bears; and then there are the kind of bears you find only in eastern North Carolina. A 500-pounder? Meh. A 600-pounder might draw a handful of onlookers. But these days it takes a bear pushing 700 pounds to get the attention of locals and out-of-towners alike.

But it isn’t just the size of some of the bears that hunters kill here every year. It’s the sheer number of giants that come from coastal Carolina. In 2013, hunters killed more than 100 bruins weighing more than 500 pounds, including one at 720 and one at 780.

“It used to be one 700-pounder every three or four years,” says North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission bear biologist Colleen Olfenbuttel. “Now it’s at least one every year—sometimes two or three.”

Olfenbuttel credits the surge in huge bears to a number of

This giant North Carolina black bear was taken in an uncut cornfield.

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DID YOU KNOW The largest black bear ever killed in North Carolina weighed 880 pounds.

things, including sound management and a relatively conservative season. Hunters in most of eastern North Carolina are limited to a week in early November and two weeks in mid-December.

“It’s really been a perfect storm of factors. Now that our bear population has grown, hunters are being much more selective.

Many are holding out for a 500-pounder,” she explains. “There are also a lot of de facto sanctuaries, either national wildlife refuges or state sanctuaries, along with some very large private farms that limit hunting. Bears have an opportunity to grow old and big. We see quite a few over 15 years old.”

Olfenbuttal says some bears put on more than 100 pounds per year, thanks in part to vast fields of carb-laden beans, corn, and wheat. Bears can gorge all summer and fall, and some outfitters and bear clubs have also started year-round feeding programs.

It’s now also legal to hunt over non-processed bait like corn and peanuts, but the biggest bears are typically taken in front of dogs.

Spot-and-stalk hunters also tag some brutes in the first and last minutes of daylight; bears emerge from refuge land to feed on corn and beans all night before slipping back to their sanctuaries at first light.

Super-Size Them ▶ Eastern North Carolina outfitter Culley Wilson says if you want a truly big bear, don’t shoot a little one. Sounds obvious, of course, but inexperienced bear hunters often don’t know what they are looking at.

“A lot of my clients who have never hunted bears see a 300-pounder and they want to shoot it because it looks huge— it’s not. You’ve got to learn how to recognize big bears,” he says.

The largest bears will visit bait, but they are often the last ones

?

to come in. That means the last moments of legal shooting light are your best bet. But even that doesn’t always pan out. The biggest bears on Wilson’s farms rarely come in during legal shooting hours, even if the stand hasn’t been hunted.

“I like to put out enough bait that I only have to replenish it about once a week. That keeps my scent to a minimum. The big ones are real shy and will stop coming in if they catch a whiff of human scent. The less traffic, the better,” he says. “I make sure I only hunt a stand when the wind is right, too. That’s real important.”

Private land adjoining North Carolina’s refuges tend to produce the giants, but some public lands also surrender some impressive bruins. Alligator River, Croatan, and Buckridge state game lands give up the most bears, but any ground in northeastern North Carolina has potential.

As the region’s bear population continues to inch upward, hunting on public ground will only get better. Olfenbuttel says her agency is looking for ways to provide more hunting opportunities on private land, too.

Don’t expect a Carolina giant to make the record books, though. Despite their massive weight, few of the bears have skulls large enough to qualify for Boone & Crockett.

That doesn’t bother most local hunters. What matters most in eastern North Carolina is weight, because nothing draws a crowd like a 700-pound bear.

THE LARGEST BEARS WILL VISIT BAIT, BUT THEY ARE OFTEN THE LAST ONES TO COME IN.

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MULE DEER ↙

The spot portion of a spot-and-stalk mule deer hunt.

SCOUTON-THE-GO MULEYS

JOHN HAFNER

YOU THOUGHT THAT DRAWING A MULE DEER TAG WAS THE HARD PART. BUT TO MAKE THOSE HIGH HOPES TURN INTO SUCCESSFUL REALITY, YOU NEED TO GET TO WORK NOW BY MARK KAYSER

Despite noble efforts, sometimes your mule deer scouting plans fall flat due to lack of time and distance to a hunting location. Lots of hunters have been fortunate enough to pull tags in western units far, far away, but to be successful on a DIY Western hunt you need to scout smart on the go. Here’s how.

1 KEEP UP TO DATE This process begins before you ever stow gear in your rig. Skip one night on Facebook. Instead, look at the online lay of the land and scour recent wildlife department information, including hunting success and mule deer density. Keep in mind that virtual flyovers

don’t always reflect the actual steepness and ruggedness of a locale.

If it looks challenging on your screen, it may be unfeasible in reality. Have backup spots in mind.

2 GET YOUR TIRES ON THE GROUND Once you hit your first locale, analyze road traffic, trailhead buzz, and occupancy at nearby campgrounds. This will give you a sense of how much pressure mule deer may be experiencing. Packed trailheads and campgrounds don’t necessarily mean hunters are accessing remote locations, but it does mean mule deer will likely be a mile or more from the bustle.

As you inventory hunting pressure, use your truck or ATV to circle as much of the hunting area as possible. Why the windshield time? You need to see terrain, access trails, farming activities, and ranching goings-on firsthand. Satellite images are dated and may not reflect a new, green hayfield on the opposite side of a public hunting parcel.

Even though you may not have permission to hunt private land, knowing what’s in play on adjoining properties and their proximity to public borders gives you ambush possibilities. Oftentimes, low-lying fields attract mule deer for feeding opportunities, outdoor life october 2016 H9

but the deer, especially a cagey old-timer, may slip back to rugged public ground for refuge before sunrise. You may also stumble across a landowner along the route.

With a friendly introduction, it might be possible to gain access across a private holding to landlocked public land.

The biggest mule deer seek out solitude as the season draws near.

3 TAKE A HIKE Now it’s time to park the truck and start a bootleather approach. Your first goal should be to move beyond the average hunter. This requires getting up earlier and hiking farther. Push past the 1-mile mark and try for 2.

At dawn you want to be at an interception point. Target a location halfway between assumed feeding and bedding areas. Pick a high spot and scan for mule deer leaving fields to

bed in rough country.

If you don’t have a location confirmed, leave the trailhead early and circle the obvious trail by a wide margin. Then wait for the late risers to move deer to you. Saddles, canyon rims, and basin overlooks all provide surveillance options for you to look for mule deer movement instigated by the masses.

Unless you have reason to return to the trailhead and survey another option, begin an inventory of the surrounding backcountry. Search for secluded meadows where antisocial bucks might feed. Investigate heavy cover such as cedar-choked slopes and dense aspen stands that bucks could retire to for seclusion. Look for shaded beds in the dirt.

Scout on the go toward a successful end to your muley hunt.

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LAWN MAINTENANCE

Grasslands provide accommodations for a coyote-menu favorite: rodents. Mice, voles, moles, and rabbits all thrive in such places. Look for fallow pastures from coast to coast and you’ve located a rodent factory with a coyote holed up nearby. ▶ GREEN

ACRES

Coyotes steer clear of farms and ranches during the bustling daylight hours, but after dark it’s a different story altogether. Dogs will invade the barnyard scavenging for pet food, sniffing for dead livestock, dumpster diving, and even nabbing vegetables from the garden. Get in place for an ambush between the domicile and where you expect the coyote to be a dawn. ▶

A coyote that came in looking for an easy meal in Wyoming.

COYOTE CROSSINGS FIGURE OUT PRECISELY WHERE COYOTES LIVE TO KNOW WHERE TO SHOOT ONE BY MARK KAYSER

C MARK KAYSER

▶ ROUGH

Coyotes are not so different from you and me.

They like a comfortable home, favorite foods, and a don’t-tread-on-me existence. Look for these qualities in your coyote-hunting territory and you’ll be one shot closer to a prime pelt.

AND RUGGED

In the East or West, coyotes retreat to rough country that features a rugged exterior. Search for eroded canyons, vertical slopes, and rocky landscapes.

Any terrain that challenges

your foothold looks like home to a coyote. ▶ THICK

AND NASTY

Coyotes have no aversion to diving into a briar patch or thicket. It breaks the wind and

may provide a meal in the form of Br’er Rabbit, if luck avails.

Coyotes also bed in dog-hairthick stands of pines and under the canopy of dense shrubbery. ▶

CITY LIGHTS

It’s not uncommon to see coyotes parading around town, but city elders frown upon citylimit gunfire. Scout for undeveloped tracts, marshy areas, nearby private estates, and, of course, adjacent farmlands where coyotes retreat to for napping outside city limits. ▶

CAN’T-DRIVE-55 SPOTS

Car and deer collisions, and the resulting 1.2 million annual dead deer, don’t go unnoticed by coyotes. Any deer crossing sign indicates an area of high deer accidents. Contact owners of land adjacent to these carcass corridors for permission to hunt.

LIVESTOCK FRIENDLY

While they might not tackle a fullgrown cow, coyotes will hang out near them hoping one tips over.

Coyotes also scrounge droppings for grain and cruise calving pastures for afterbirth—and unlucky calves. Don’t forget other livestock offerings such as goats, pigs, sheep, and poultry.

▶ WATER

▶ SAFE

▶

ZONES

State parks, waterfowl refuges, and other no-hunting zones offer protection and prey buffets. Opportunistic coyotes quickly locate these havens and claim the territory. Find adjacent access and you’ve found coyotes.

Water isn’t always in short supply, but if you pursue coyotes in arid zones, you can bet they’ll visit a regular water hole. Look for tracks in the mud or monitor areas with trail cameras. You can waylay coyotes as they drink, or call them from nearby cover.

GO DEEP

Lastly, scour maps and locate blocks of country that have limited or zero motorized access.

Coyotes, especially the pressured sort, habitually withdraw to these safe havens to be left in peace. outdoor life october 2016 H13

HUNTING DOGS ↘

Older hunting dogs are adept at hiding pain. Be vigilant for telltale signs.

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MANAGE CANINE PAIN THINK YOUR HUNTING DOG IS JUST GETTING OLD? PAIN MIGHT BE HAMPERING HIS ABILITY TO HUNT, BUT THERE MAY BE SOMETHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT BY BRAD FITZPATRICK

THERE ARE FEW THINGS harder than watching your aging hunting dog slow down, but it’s possible that your canine companion’s reduced activity is caused not by age but by persistent—and sometimes treatable—pain. That’s according to Dr. Mark Hayes of the Mount Orab Veterinary Clinic. Pain stimuli are transmitted through sensory nerve cells known as nociceptors, and chronic pain can have the same debilitating effect on dogs that it does on humans, though dogs are far more adept at hiding that pain, likely a holdover from pack life, wherein being viewed as weak or vulnerable could prove fatal.

T

“A lot of what hunters chalk up to normal aging is actually a result of pain from old injuries, arthritis, or some other issue,” says Hayes. Paying close attention to your dog’s behavior at home and in the field can help you diagnose this discomfort.

“Oftentimes the first sign of a pain problem is that a dog won’t want to engage in activities that he once enjoyed.” This could

be hesitating to jump in a vehicle at the beginning of a hunt, refusing to fetch a dummy on land or in water, and so forth. More obvious signs are limping, stiff movement, or an unwillingness to stand for long periods, as well as excessive panting.

“If your dog is showing signs of pain, it’s worth taking him to the vet for an assessment and X-rays,” says Hayes. Anti-inflammatories

may help, and a glucosamine regiment might improve joint health, but it’s best to have your veterinarian prescribe a proper course of treatment. And, Hayes says, what works for one dog may not work for another, so canine pain must be treated on a caseby-case basis. Proper treatment can help extend your dog’s time in the field, but more important, it will help improve his quality of life.

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WHITETƒILS ↙

The key to a buddy drive is to nudge deer rather than push them hard.

circling behind your partner on the other side of the hill.

There’s no way you can coordinate one hunter’s movements with the other’s pauses, so you’re hunting independently.

But know that there’s someone on the other side moving deer to you that might be benefiting from your movements.

2

In big woods areas, where it would be impossible to move a deer predictably for any distance, conduct small circle pushes in the cover. One hunter sets up in an area with decent visibility, then the other hunter moves out to still-hunt a slow circle around that spot. Whitetails evading the moving hunter might wander past the posted hunter, who must pay close attention in all directions for sneaking deer.

The radius of the circle depends on the thickness of the cover. In dense timber or cutover, the circling hunter may be only 50 to 75 yards away. In thinner, mature timber, the distance of that spoke may be 100 to 150 yards.

After one circle is complete, trade duties and hunt the next section of cover in a similar fashion.

BUDDY-UP A BUCK TWO HUNTERS ARE BETTER THAN 10 WHEN IT COMES TO DRIVING DEER

BY TOM CARPENTER

LON E. LAUBER

A

An autumn filled with hunting pressure can make deer hunker in and move little. Instead, head out with a trusted partner to help you nudge a whitetail into your sights. Here are three deer-killing approaches.

FLATLAND ROUNDUP

1

RIDGETOP FLANKERS

In hilly country, pick a ridge and a day when the breeze is blowing along its spine. One hunter still-hunts slowly along one side of the ridge, pausing frequently, while the other hunter follows the same process on the other side.

Pause near saddles, drainages, side draws, and other natural travel funnels. Whitetails will sneak up and over to avoid one hunter or the other. Take some time to look behind yourself too, during pauses to spot whitetails

3

THE WOODLOT TRAILER

If they could laugh, whitetails in woodlot country would do just that at seeing a lone hunter entering the small patch of woods.

Deer just sneak off and circle around behind him, never even bothering to leave the cover.

That’s why you need to employ a silent trailer.

Approach the woodlot together. The first hunter heads into cover, working slowly into the wind and hunting a zigzag course to cover more territory.

This hunter doesn’t bother much with stealth. He may get a shot, but his main job is getting whitetails to skulk or sidle off.

The trailing hunter moves silently, watching for whitetails that might be sneaking out the back door. outdoor life october 2016 H17

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DID YOU KNOW Fred Bear’s record brown bear (now No. 9) stood 10 feet tall and weighed more than 1,000 pounds.

BOWHUNTING BEƒRS ↙

GRIZZLY ENCOUNTERS MANY BOWHUNTERS DREAM OF GETTING A CHANCE TO DRAW BACK ON A GRIZZLY BEAR. THINK YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES? BY TYLER FREEL

s So you’ve got quite a few deer under your belt, and you’re confident with a bow in your hands.

But when we’re talking about an animal with a nose better than a whitetail’s, that’s born with a bad attitude, and that can eat you, things change a bit.

Your archery setup needs to be good, but to take on a bear, you need to be mentally prepared.

THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT 1USE

TYLER FREEL

▶ Grizzly and brown bears carry

Grizzly and brown bears possess paws and claws for concern.

a status that, in a lot of ways, is completely mythical. They are just as mortal as any other animal. In Alaska, a bow with a peak draw weight of at least 50 pounds and arrows that weigh at least 300 grains are required.

A 50-pound bow is totally adequate but may limit your shot opportunities. More important is your arrow and broadhead outdoor life october 2016 H19

BOWHUNTING ↘

selection. You want to maximize your effectiveness by selecting a heavy arrow (ideally more than 600 grains), and a solid, tough, and deep-penetrating broadhead. Bears are killed every year with lighter arrows and flimsier expandable broadheads, but it’s a good idea to use equipment that will give you the best performance when circumstances are less than ideal.

BEAR ANATOMY 2KNOW ▶ If you’re more used to hunting deer or elk,

you might be surprised to know that the anatomy of a grizzly or brown bear is significantly different. You can find all sorts of diagrams online. Most important to know is that a bear’s lungs sit a bit farther back than they do in ungulates. Bears offer a pretty

sizeable kill zone to shoot at, but don’t let that cause you to be a sloppy shooter—your life can depend on it. Learn the anatomy, and practice with a 3D target in order to choose the right shot placement for different angles you might encounter.

IT ALL TOGETHER 3HOLD ▶ Having the right equipment and under-

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▲ The author with his Pope and Young record-book grizzly.

competitions is a great way to kick your brain into high gear while learning to tame your emotions at the same time.

The vast majority of the time, grizzlies do not charge after a good shot. If they do charge, though, you need to be prepared to deal with it. Because their speed is hard to exaggerate, you need to be completely focused. A double-lunged grizzly will usually be dead within 50 yards or so, but a poorly placed shot can be disastrous.

If you’re shooting the right setup, and ice runs through your veins, you are probably ready for the challenge. But keep practicing, because that one shot will make the difference between a dream trip of a lifetime and a potential nightmare.

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standing anatomy are the first steps in being ready to sling a sharp stick at these big bears. The final step is being able to put your arrow where it needs to go at the moment of truth. Being within bow range of a giant bear is intense. Buck fever is nothing like this, and you need to be able to focus through your excitement and make a good shot. Practice is key, but practice in situations that introduce stress. Shooting in 3D

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WƒTERFOWLING

BRAD FITZPATRICK

HIT MORE DUCKS Killing ducks isn’t the sole reason to be in the blind on opening morning, but I think we can all agree that it’s more fun to make shots than to miss them.

Here are five key steps to up your percentage and bag more ducks. BY BRAD FITZPATRICK

section edited by john b. snow • shooting@outdoorlife.com

A hunter strikes an epic pose with a pintail drake from Matagorda Island, Texas.

outdoor life october 2016 73

SHOOTING WƒTERFOWLING ↘

O

1

TUNE YOUR GUN AND LOADS

Rifle shooters love to tune their loads, but you rarely hear shotgun hunters discuss details about load choice. That’s because very few shotgunners realize the value of experimenting with different loads and chokes to find what works best in their gun. The simplest method is to buy several brands of shells and patern each one with your shotgun, a practice that not only tells you which load performs best, but also gives you an indication of your shotgun’s true point of impact. Perhaps more important than load choice is constriction. Instead of randomly swapping chokes in the blind in a fit of miss-induced frustration, invest a litle time at the range figuring out which choke constriction works best.

Experiment with atermarket choke tubes. They cost a litle bit extra, but the results are typically worth the money.

2

SHOOT DOUBLES

Every duck hunter should spend time prior to the season shooting doubles on the clays course. Why doubles specifically? Because they help you train your brain to focus on one target at a time. If you doubt the importance of this skill, keep score the next time you’re in the blind. Invariably, when larger groups of ducks approach, the hit percentage drops. The reason for this is that hunters tend to rush shots as they shit focus from one bird to the next instead of zeroing in on a single duck and remaining with it until the end.

Killing more ducks is all about being target-focused.

As an added bonus, ater shooting the second clay, practice following the largest chunk of it as it falls toward the ground.

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Hunters swinging on late-season ducks in northern Ohio.

74 october 2016 outdoor life

▶ The new Stevens S1200 is an inertia-driven shotgun built in Turkey that comes with a nearly irresistible price tag. The synthetic versions, either in plain black ($517) or in one of two camo paterns ($626), are among the best values for a waterfowl gun of this type.

The price includes five choke tubes and a shim kit. You can get them with either 26- or 28-inch barrels. They are chambered for 3-inch shells. The Stevens also comes in a wood-stocked version for $681.

Their performance and fit and finish put them in a league of their own for a value-priced semi. —John B. Snow

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: BRAD HERNDON/WINDIGO IMAGES; DENVER BRYAN/IMAGES ON THE WILDSIDE; BILL BUCKLEY

kay, if you’re a waterfowler, it’s a safe bet you’ve circled the first day of duck season in red on your calendar, the day when all those birds that have been trickling down from the far north become fair game. Only a die-hard duck hunter would burn a sick day at work to rise at four in the morning, slog through the mud, and face a biter northwest wind in the hopes of seeing a group of wayfaring mallards cup up and drop into a decoy spread. Only a waterfowler would consider that a good way to spend a day off. In order to make the most of that precious morning, make sure your shooting form is up to snuff and that your gun is delivering optimal performance.

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SHOOTING WƒTERFOWLING ↘

5 3 4

CHANGE THE FOCAL POINT

It’s absurd to think about a whitetail hunter aiming for the center of the deer and pulling the trigger, but that’s the approach most duck hunters adopt. But you don’t aim a shotgun in the traditional sense of the word; instead, you choose a focal point that becomes, in essence, your aiming point. Shooting for the front of the bird forces you to swing harder and helps you avoid shooting behind the bird, which is the most common way to miss.

ESTIMATE RANGE CORRECTLY

Not all of those annoying hunters that jump up to shoot before the ducks are in range are doing so simply to beat you to the bird.

Many are genuinely terrible at judging distance. Hopefully you aren’t one of them. But, in your defense, judging range to ducks can be very tough. Both horizontal and vertical range must be determined, and otentimes—especially over water—there are few visual reference points.

The key? Learning the relative sizes of the birds themselves, which don’t change. This is more of an art than a science, and experience is the best education. I find that on a clear or slightly overcast day, when I can see detail on the birds, they are in range. That means identifying the colors of a wing speculum or recognizing individual primary feathers. Another trick: Place a couple decoys 25 yards from your shooting position for reference.

Another big mistake that most hunters make is shooting too quickly. This means they rush their first shot, then rush subsequent shots in an effort to make up in ounces of steel shot what they lack in patience.

Odds are you have more time to shoot than you think you do, so make sure that your mount and swing is smooth, remain small-target-focused, and don’t lose muzzle movement. Rushing a shot leads to missing, as the fundamentals of good shooting form are jetisoned in a misguided atempt to fill the sky with pellets.

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WINCHESTER’S 150TH AUCTIONING OFF A PIECE OF HISTORY BY JOHN B. SNOW

I

t started in 1866, when Oliver Winchester founded Winchester Repeating Arms. That same year, the Model 1866 “Yellow Boy” was the first rifle to bear the Winchester name. To celebrate its 150th anniversary, Winchester has created a series of five bullet boards, one of which was presented to Outdoor Life and will be auctioned off to support Tread Lightly, a not-for-profit that protects outdoor recreation.

Each of the bullet boards is a unique piece of art, and the one we are puting up for bid features a Model 1894 leveraction Winchester chambered in .30 WCF—widely considered

the greatest deer rifle of all time. The board also displays examples of ammunition that the 1894 was chambered in, historic ammunition packaging, and a special medallion in honor of the 150th anniversary milestone.

The auction is being hosted by Gunbroker.com and will run for 28 days, starting November 1. Proceeds from the sale will go directly to Tread Lightly’s efforts to support access to public hunting and shooting.

Start siting through your sofa cushions now for spare change for a crack at this auction. There won’t be another like it until 2166.

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SHOOTING GUNSMITHING ↙

FROM

TM

FIX IT STICKS A HANDY SYSTEM THAT TORQUES DOWN SCREWS EVENLY

BY JOHN B. SNOW

I

BILL BUCKLEY

don’t casually add tools to my gun bench. New gizmos get manufactured all the time, and most of them fail to meet the lofty claims of their promotional materials and end up in the recycle bin. Not so Fix It Sticks (fixitsticks.com).

These are a collection of standard ¼-inch screw and fastener bits, handles with adapters to hold the bits, and color-coded torque limiters that allow the user to tighten fasteners to a precise degree.

I’ve advocated the use of torque wrenches for working on guns for years. All the fasteners on a firearm should be torqued to correct and consistent degrees of tightness. The limiters in the Fix It Sticks kit come preset to various torque levels. They can be had in the following values (all in inch-pounds): 15, 25, 45, 49, 65, 70, and 80. This is more than adequate for nearly every gunsmithing chore.

Generally speaking, scope rings should be torqued to 25 inch-pounds; the guard screws that secure the stock to the action to 65 to 70 inch-pounds; and scope bases to either 25 inch-pounds for small-diameter fasteners that are about the same size as the fasteners in scope rings, or to 45 inch-pounds for more robust fasteners.

The guy who invented this system, Brian Davis, is an avid cyclist who originally created it to replace the clunky multitools he carried to do repairs to his road bike. Ater making a few modifications for use on guns, Davis started to market it to hunters and shooters. The portability of the kit makes it ideal for a range bag. I use my kit at my gun bench but take it along any time I head afield with firearms, whether to the range, to a competition, or to hunt.

The T-handle configuration gives the user enough leverage to tighten down even large fasteners, but the torque limiters can be used with standard drivers as well. When a limiter hits the proper level of torque, it slips and emits a sot click, leting the user know the fastener is tight.

The basic kit, which comes with two torque limiters, is $112. The combo kit pictured here runs $167. Additional pieces can also be purchased à la carte from the company’s website.

There are other accessories, too, like a front-sight adjustment tool for ARs, which can also be bought individually.

Fix It Sticks are easy to use, portable, and a smart way to make sure everything on your firearm is screwed together correctly.

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SHOOTING GUN TEST ↘

T/C COMPASS THE MOST AFFORDABLE BOLT GUN YET FROM THOMPSON/CENTER BY JOHN B. SNOW ifles like the new Thompson/Center Compass are the unAny Color You Want… sung heros of shooting and hunting. Firearms snobs love The Compass doesn’t look like those wood-stocked guns of yore, to hate entry-level guns such as the Compass, which has naturally. As with Henry Ford’s Model T, you can have it in any color a suggested retail price of $399. With a critical eye, these you like—as long as it’s black. The barrel and receiver are black, the aficionados can inspect a budget-priced firearm and stock is black, the bolt handle and body are black. reel off a list of faults. They don’t like plastic stocks.

The silver-hued bolt-release tab and three-position The fit-and-finish isn’t up to snuff. The rifle should safety, and the mate gold letering indicating the STATS have more metal, less polymer. “They don’t make ’em model name and caliber, offer the only splashes of Caliber: .30/06 like they used to,” they’ll say. contrast.

Capacity: 5+1 No, they don’t. With advances in machining techBut all things considered, the Compass isn’t a Weight: 6 lb. 15 oz. niques, new types of alloys, resins, and polymers to bad-looking rifle. There’s a certain elegance and work with, and years of industry efforts to create personality contained within the rakish angles at Trigger Pull: 3 lb. 3 oz. the best possible gun for the least amount of cash, the rear of the receiver and the prow of the forend, Accuracy: 1.595 in. the Compass and other members of the budgetwhich juts out like Jay Leno’s chin. The slightly Smallest Group: .854 in. friendly tribe represent a remarkable achievement curved chevrons molded into the stock along the in terms of what they deliver for the money. You’d forend and grip are functional—they provide a Barrel Length: 21 ½ in. have to turn the clock back many decades— satisfying degree of grip—and visually striking. And Overall Length: 41 ⁵⁄₈ in. probably to the years before World War I, when speaking of grip, the stock is surfaced with what’s skilled labor was absurdly cheap—to find equivalent Price: $399 best described as “micro pebbling,” making it much Contact: tcarms.com performance for the price. These rifles deliver topless slick than a typical plastic stock. notch accuracy with monotonous regularity.

The stock has a raised cheekpiece for right-

R

PERFORMANCE Handling

Reliability

Accuracy

8

8

7

80 october 2016 outdoor life

DESIGN

Meets Purpose Versatility Cratsmanship Ergonomics 9

8

7

9

Durability

Aesthetics

9

7

VALUE

TOTAL

10

82

photographs by bill buckley

The slender barrel on the Compass helps it point quickly but makes it a litle whippy.

NOTABLE FEATURES

handed shooters. It fit my face well, and in general I found the Compass quite comfortable. By this I mean that it pointed naturally when brought to the shoulder and handled recoil really well. I never felt that I had to fight the rifle while sending lead downrange.

The trigger in the T/C Compass is a bit of a throwback. Yes, it adjusts, but the user has to gain access to (and manipulate) the hex nuts at the trigger’s rear. The classic open design of the trigger, however, is one that lends itself to easy cleaning and maintenance.

Trouble-Free Performance The action is similar to that of other T/C rifles. It’s a three-lug design with a short bolt throw. I put the gun through a batery of shooting drills for the evaluation and it ran smoothly. The bolt cocks easily on the upstroke and kicked brass clear of the oval-shaped port with no issues. It fed, cycled, and ejected without a hitch.

The flush-mounted rotary magazine is made of plastic as well, and is solidly built. I stomped on mine a few times in an atempt to break it but couldn’t. It loaded easily and holds 5 rounds of .30/06.

The small release tab at the front end of the magazine is simple to manipulate but is recessed, making it unlikely to snag and dump the mag at an inopportune moment. Like other rifles with magazines flush to the stock, the Compass carried nicely in one hand.

If the .30/06 doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can get a Compass in nine other calibers: .204 Rug., .22/250 Rem., .223 Rem., .243 Win., .270 Win., 7mm-07, 7mm Rem. Mag., .308 Win., and .300 Win. Mag. I really liked the trigger on my sample. It broke at 3 pounds 3 ounces and had minimal uptake and overtravel. T/C says the trigger is adjustable, which is technically true, but it isn’t particularly user-friendly. You need to separate the action from the stock for starters, and then adjust two small hex nuts at the rear of the trigger. For those of us who have been spoiled by triggers that adjust with a simple Allen wrench, this feels like a step backward.

That’s about the only miscue on this rifle, however. It comes with a couple of other slick features, including a threaded muzzle and pre-mounted scope bases.

Instead of having the recoil lug attached to the barrel, the T/C Compass embeds one into the stock. The lug then nestles into a cut in the receiver. This is one of the ways Thompson/Center was able to reduce costs and keep the price low.

A True Bargain The Compass’ accuracy was good as well. Five-shot groups averaged 1.595 inches, with sub-MOA groups coming from Hornady’s excellent M1 Garand load, the smallest of which was .854 inch.

As a hunting tool, the Compass will serve any sportsman well.

Which brings me back to my first point—that this category of gun deserves a lot more recognition than it typically garners. Given that one of the perennial concerns among hunters is the need to get new participants into the sport, the fact that someone can acquire a quality rifle that doesn’t need any modifications for so litle money is a real blessing. outdoor life october 2016 81

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5 DRAWER TOOL CART

R PE ON SU UP O 30", C

$

SAVE $337

Customer Rating

61454/61693/62803

2.5 HP, 21 GALLON 125 PSI VERTICAL AIR COMPRESSOR

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R PE ON SU UP CO

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8

comp at $ 99 $31.47

Customer Rating

ITEM 62340/62546 63104/96289 shown

1500 WATT DUAL TEMPERATURE HEAT GUN (572°/1112°)

We have invested millions of dollars in our own state-of-the-art quality test labs and millions more in our factories, so our tools will go toe-to-toe with the top professional brands.

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Come visit one of our 700+ Stores Nationwide.

How Does Harbor Freight Sell GREAT QUALITY Tools at the LOWEST Prices?

71%

R PE SU

Limit 1 coupon per customer per day. Save 20% on any 1 item purchased. *Cannot be used with other discount, coupon or any of the following items or brands: Inside Track Club membership, Extended Service Plan, gift card, open box item, 3 day Parking Lot Sale item, automotive lifts, compressors, floor jacks, saw mills, storage cabinets, chests or carts, trailers, trenchers, welders, Admiral, Badland, CoverPro, Daytona, Diablo, Earthquake, Franklin, Grant’s, Holt, Jupiter, Lynxx, Maddox, Portland, Predator, StikTek, StormCat, Union, Vanguard, Viking. Not valid on prior purchases. Nontransferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 1/27/17.

ANY SINGLE ITEM

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QUALITY TOOLS

R PE ON Customer Rating SU UP CO

• 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed • Over 30 Million Satisfied Customers • No Hassle Return Policy

On All Hand Tools

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5

Customer Rating

ITEM 61259/90764 shown

$5999 comp at

$189

ITEM 93897 shown 69265/62344

46411 shown

4

$ 49 $7comp.49at

Customer Rating

SAVE 40%

Customer Rating

99 $57.55

19 comp at

$

ITEM 62515 66911 shown

• HarborFreight.com • 800-423-2567

$

9999

comp at

$328

SAVE $670

$1029.99

99

359 comp at

$

ITEM 69387/62744 63271/68784 shown

• Weighs 245 lbs.

44", 13 DRAWER INDUSTRIAL QUALITY ROLLER CABINET

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$115.56

5499 comp at

$

ITEM 62520/60238 shown

Customer Rating

SAVE $60

8", 5 SPEED BENCHTOP DRILL PRESS

At Harbor Freight Tools, the “comp at” price means that the same item or a similar functioning item was advertised for sale at or above the "comp at" price by another retailer in the U.S. within the past 180 days. Prices advertised by others may vary by location.

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65%

• 350 lb. capacity

STEP STOOL/

228

ITEM 68121/69727 shown CALIFORNIA ONLY

ITEM 60363/69730

6.5 HP (212 CC) OHV HORIZONTAL SHAFT GAS ENGINES

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$

Customer Rating

R PE ON SU UP CO

7 FT. 4" x 9 FT. 6" ER N CAMOUFLAGE TARP SUP PO U ITEM 61765 CO

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32 PIECE ER SCREWDRIVER SET SUP

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$49.99

2799

comp at

SAVE 44% $

4-1/4" grinding wheel included.

ITEM 61613 68221 shown

$199

comp at

89

99

129

LIMIT 3 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt. Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 1/27/17. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

$

RETRACTABLE AIR HOSE REEL Customer Rating WITH 3/8" x 50 FT. HOSE

SUPER COUPON

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ITEM 61971/61972 98199 shown

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179

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$

ITEM 62860/62859 63055/69039 shown

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10 FT. x 17 FT. PORTABLE GARAGE

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Customer Rating

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10" SLIDING ER N COMPOUND SUP PO U MITER SAW CO

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$18.85

7

$ 99

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SAVE 57%

R 4 PIECE 1" x 15 FT. PE ON RATCHETING TIE DOWNS SU UP Customer Rating ITEM 63056/63057/60405/63094 CO 63150/61524/62322/90984 shown

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VALUE

$ 97

4

ITEM 69052 shown 69111/62522/62573

3-1/2" SUPER BRIGHT NINE LED ALUMINUM FLASHLIGHT

WITH ANY PURCHASE

FREE

SUPER COUPON

$20.26

$179.99

8999 comp at

$

SAVE $90

ITEM 61523 shown 60395/62325/62493 Customer Rating

• 300 lb. capacity

HIGH LIFT RIDING LAWN MOWER / ATV LIFT

3

Item 62429 shown

Customer Rating

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comp at

$27

$799

ITEM 61733 90714 shown

WITH SURVIVAL KIT

with original receipt. from original purchase purchases after 30 dayss last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be Offer good while supplie 1/27/17. Limit one coupon per customer per day. presented. Valid through

LIMIT 8 -

Customer Rating

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WOW SUP8" ERHUNCOUTINGPONKNIFE

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Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be

$14.97

comp at

$ 99

ITEM 62434/62426 62433/62428 62432/62429

MECHANIC'S GLOVES SIZE MED LG X-LG

YOUR CHOICE

R PE ON SU UP CO

LIMIT 5 - Good at our stores or HarborFreight.com or by calling 800-423-2567. Cannot be used with other discount or coupon or prior purchases after 30 days from original purchase with original receipt.

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R PE SU

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Offer good while supplies last. Non-transferable. Original coupon must be presented. Valid through 1/27/17. Limit one coupon per customer per day.

comp at

1199

SAVE 40%

ITEM 60625 shown 95578/69645

4-1/2" ANGLE GRINDER

Customer Rating

R PE ON SU UP CO

THE LAST AIR FILTER YOU’LL EVER BUY! K&N AIR FILTERS The washable and reusable pleated and oiled cotton gauze filtration medium runs up to 50,000 miles between cleanings, depending on highway conditions. Backed by a 10-year / 1,000,000 Mile Warranty. Installs in minutes.

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Outdoor Life reserves the right to refuse any advertising order. Only publication of an advertisePHQW VKDOO FRQVWLWXWH ¿QDO DFFHSWDQFH RI DQ RUGHU Publication does not constitute an agreement for continued publication. All orders are subject to the applicable rate card, copies of which are available upon request sent to the address provided. Outdoor Life, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016

THE VALUE OF A GUN

BY JOE ARTERBURN

o ofense to Jerry Lee, but he has underestimated the value of my shotgun. ¶ Lee compiles The Official Gun Digest Book of Guns & Prices, the 10th edition of which I am looking at right here. ¶ Sam, our youngest son, texted he was planning to come home for fall break. He suggested I round up “some clays and shells, other guns, especially pistols, and stuf to do some shooting.”

N

Carrying an armload of shotshells through my basement office (which my wife calls a cross between a badly organized library and a decrepit sporting-goods warehouse), I noticed my old double-barrel hanging in its honored place of semi-retirement.

Why not? I took it down, flicked it open, removed the two snap-caps, held the muzzle toward the light, and looked up its gleaming barrels. It’s been a while.

In the workshop, I pulled off the forend, opened the action, and detached the barrels. I sprayed rust-preventative on a piece of old white T-shirt I took from a bag of old white T-shirts I save for just this kind of work, and with a rod I worked the oily rag back and forth through each barrel. I sprayed a litle oil at the base of the extractors, remembering how the right one balked at ejecting spent shells that one year, so David Orten replaced the spring.

I used the rag to polish the exterior of the barrels, then wiped down the metal

parts of the forend and action. For the wooden parts, I dribbled Clenzoil, with its alarming green color and rich smell, on another rag and polished the old wood. I took particular care to work oil into places where the glossy finish has been breached by dings and scratches, and the dark area of the pistol grip where sweaty hands and snow-wet gloves have worn away the finish.

I carefully reassembled it, then slipped it, fingerprint-free, into its old leather case.

Dad gave me that shotgun for Christmas.

I don’t remember how old I was, but I remember it being one of the best Christmases ever.

It’s a Savage Fox Model B 12-gauge, 2 ¾-inch chamber, single trigger, doublebead sights, blued finish with a few worn spots. It has a checkered stock and a firm hand-filling forend. It was used when I got it. I don’t know how much Dad paid for it, nor who owned it before me, but now I wonder who it was, how he treated it, what he used it for.

I used it for everything. It was my pheasant gun, my duck gun, my goose gun.

It wasn’t my go-to shotgun, it was my only shotgun. It’s a clays breaker, though our trapshoots were mostly informal affairs of hand-thrown pigeons or sot watermelons we threw off the deck of the cabin and tried to blast before they hit the ground.

I am probably to blame for most of the dings and scratches, honestly earned while hunting with Tod or Dan or John or Owen or Pat or Jeff or Kevin or Litle Mary—whose real name, in case you’re wondering, is Doug.

The wear and tear might detract from the value for other people, but to me it adds in the way of memories.

Though it’s difficult, I try to be objective when grading this shotgun. I’ll call it “good.”

Checking Lee’s book, that puts the value at $400. For my first shotgun, the shotgun I used as a farm kid, high-school student, college student, newspaper reporter, married guy with no kids, married guy with kids. My gun for hunting pheasants by myself in Nebraska and with Ed and Don and Joe in Iowa; for ducks along Frenchman Creek, including the time when John, wearing waders, atempted to carry waderless me piggyback across, lost his balance, and dumped me and the shotgun in about 2 feet of November river water. The run to the vehicle as my clothes froze is part of the value-enhancing memory.

The book says it’s worth 400 bucks.

I’ll save us both time. Don’t bother making an offer.

Vol. 223, No. 8. OUTDOOR LIFE magazine (ISSN 0030-7076, USPS 577-230) is published monthly, except combined December/January, February/March, and June/July issues, by Bonnier Corporation, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Copyright © 2016 by Bonnier Corporation. All rights reserved.

Reprinting in whole or part is forbidden except by permission of Bonnier Corporation. We make a portion of our mailing list available to reputable firms. If you would prefer that we don’t include your name, please write us at the Harlan, IA, address below. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. Non-postal and military facilities: Send address changes to Outdoor Life, PO Box 6364, Harlan, IA 51593-1864. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Subscription rates: $19.97 for 1 year. Please add $8 per year for Canadian addresses and $16 per year for all other international addresses. Canada Post Publications agreement number #40612608. Canada Post Returns: IMEX Global Solutions, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2 Canada. Printed in the USA.

90 october 2016 outdoor life

illustration by joel kimmel

ALL-NEW CARHARTT HUNT GEAR. Three generations of Cabana men stand proud. Each hunter ready to carry the torch of tradition through any rugged condition.

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WARNING: The Polaris RANGER® can be hazardous to operate and is not intended for on-road use. Driver must be at least 16 years old with a valid driver’s license to operate. Passengers must be at least 12 years old. Drivers and passengers should always wear helmets, eye protection, and seat belts. Always use cab nets or doors (as equipped). Never engage in stunt driving, and avoid excessive speeds and sharp turns. Riding and alcohol/drugs don’t mix. All drivers should take a safety training course.

Call 800-342-3764 for additional information. Check local laws before riding on trails. ©2016 Polaris Industries Inc.