Recoil presents : carnivore usa - issue 01 2017

WHAT ALL HUNTS where will kimber take you?

SHOULD BE

kimber mountain ascent™ starting at 4 pounds 13 ounces | 22-26 inch barrel available in 7mm-08 rem, .308 win, 6.5 creedmoor, .270 win, .280 ack imp, .30-06 sprg, 300 wsm, 270 wsm, .300 win mag, 7mm rem mag

SUB MOA a c c u r a c y s t a n d a r d

MADE IN A MERIC A

WHAT ALL GUNS SHOULD BE

TM

(888) 243-4522 kimberamerica.com

©2017, Kimber Mfg., Inc. All rights reserved. Information and specifications are for reference only and subject to change without notice.

THE MENU

ISSUE 01

SIDES

ENTRÉES

STARTER 06

GET YOUR ASS OFF THE BENCH 18 Practical Accuracy Tips for Off-Season Practice

VANTAGE POINT 08 Editor’s Letter

BARRETT FIELDCRAFT 32 Bridging the Gap Between Ultralight Custom and Off-the-Shelf

FRESH MEAT 12

Hunting Rifles

New Gear

PUBLIC LAND PROXY 38 RIDES 24

Hunters Have Moved En Masse to Help Keep Public Lands in

AEV Prospector XL Tray Bed

America in the Hands of the People

CUTLERY 28

6.5 GRENDEL — IT’S NOT JUST FOR ARs ANYMORE 46

Skinning Knives

Bill Alexander’s Creation Makes a Whole Lot of Sense for the Woods

PAIRINGS 52 Beer Suggestions for Rabbit and Elk

FARE GAME 56 The Unforgettable Fare Created by Chef Jesse Griffiths is All Local,

TRUE GRIT 94

Mostly Wild, and Undeniably Creative

Rachel Ahtila

GETTING THE LEAD OUT 62 REGIMEN 102

Is Nontoxic Still An Epithet When Talking About Hunting Ammo?

Backcountry Hunting Fitness

BULLS ABOVE THE RIM 68 MEAT LOCKER 106

Chasing Elk in the Arizona High Country

Using the Whole Animal

IN THE CHALICE OF OBELIX 76 FIELDCRAFT 110

Choosing Reds for Elk and Boar

5 Vital Survival Tips for Hunters

SHARP AS A ROCK 82 VISTA 114

Japanese Water Stones are the Key to Knives You’ll Want to Use

HUNTING IN GERMANY 88 Old World Traditions From a New World Perspective

FIREARM SAFETY IS TOP PRIORITY CARNIVORE reminds you to be safe and always obey firearms safety rules: 1. Treat every gun as if it were loaded.

2. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.

3. Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.

4. Be aware of your target’s foreground and background.

All contents in CARNIVORE Magazine are professionally photographed in a closed studio or range. Do not attempt to re-create any photographs depicted in this magazine.

PRODUCT DISCLAIMER Prices and details for items featured in CARNIVORE are set by the manufacturers and retailers, and are subject to change without notice.

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CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

Throughout this issue you will see certain images are labeled as being 1:1 Actual Size. This designation is for the print edition of this issue. Because of the various screen sizes on different tablets and computers, we cannot always provide actual life size images in digital versions.

We apologize if this causes any confusion and thank you for your understanding.

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5

STARTER

WILD BOAR PATTY MELT Jesse Grifiths Jody Horton

B

urgers can be made with just about anything that runs or flies, and are a great way to introduce the game palette to the epicurialy timid, as well as nourishing a hunter tired of the same old grilled backstrap.

The patty melt, a favorite of my youth stemming from my love of rye bread, is a great way to use feral hog or even larger and more strongly flavored boars. It can also be tweaked with different meats and cheeses,

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CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

though bicolor cheddars are visually appealing and traditional.

Do not, however, stray from using rye if at all possible. And use the best one you can get, cutting it fairly thick to hold up to the substantial illings of this sandwich. Though this recipe calls for the use of hot cast iron or a griddle for inal preparation, a hot charcoal, wood, or gas grill produces excellent results.

For more about Chef Jesse Griffiths, go to “Fare Game” on page 56.

Place the wild boar trim, bacon, and beef fat on a baking tray and freeze for 20 minutes. Grind through the medium die of a meat grinder into a chilled bowl and add the salt, Worcestershire, and black pepper.

Mix well. Form four equal patties and refrigerate.

In a small saucepan over low heat, heat 1 tablespoon of butter, a pinch of salt, and the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are caramelized, soft, and sweet, about 30 minutes. Set aside.

In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, mustard, and paprika and set aside.

In a medium sauté pan over high heat, add the remaining tablespoon of butter and the mushrooms. Cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are deeply browned. Once browned, season

with salt and pepper and set aside.

Set two cast iron pans or a large griddle over high heat.

In one pan or on one side of the griddle, sear the burger patties very well until deeply browned on one side. Flip the burger patty over and immediately top with ¼ of the onion mixture, ¼ of the mushrooms, and a slice each of the yellow and white cheddars.

Brush eight slices of bread with bacon fat or melted butter and toast on both sides in the other cast iron pan or on the griddle.

To assemble, spread the mayonnaise mixture onto two slices of bread and land the patty, onions, mushrooms, and cheese on top. Top with the second dressed and toasted slice of bread and serve with dill pickles on the side.

“THE PATTY MELT, A FAVORITE OF MY YOUTH STEMMING FROM MY LOVE OF RYE BREAD, IS A GREAT WAY TO USE FERAL HOG...”

WILD BOAR PATTY MELT SERVES:

4 people INGREDIENTS:

1 pound lean wild boar trim, in large chunks 4 ounces bacon, diced 4 ounces beef fat, diced 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce Freshly ground black pepper 2 large onions, sliced thinly 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced thinly 2 tablespoons butter Salt and pepper to taste 8 slices good quality rye bread 8 slices yellow cheddar 8 slices white cheddar 2 tablespoons bacon fat or melted butter 3 tablespoons mayonnaise 3 tablespoons yellow mustard 2 teaspoons smoked paprika

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VANTAGE POINT

W

elcome to the irst issue of CARNIVORE, in all its bloody glory. Our ancestors have been chasing and killing animals for the past two million years, and while these few pages pale into insigniicance next to the cave paintings at Lascaux, we’d like to think we’re continuing in a tradition of celebrating that most human of activities — the hunt.

In a society increasingly distant from its roots, hunters are one of the few groups of people who still maintain and cherish our links to a distant past, keeping alive the very essence of what makes us human.

According to Professor Henry Bunn’s address to the European Society for the study of Human Evolution, were it not for our apelike ancestors’ ability to hunt African plains game, we wouldn’t have developed our large brains, which led directly to mankind’s use of tools and the origins of civilization.

As Steve Rinella points out, to not hunt is a fairly new experiment, one which has only come to pass in the last 200 years due to the industrialization of our food supply. And to many, meat has only a nebulous, tangential relationship with the animal that died to produce it. We know the source of our food, and what it takes to get it.

While the Twitterati wring their hands over whether a particular grass-fed cow was humanely Temple-Grandinized and the lumpen proletariat tuck into mechanically separated white slime hot dogs, we at least have control over some portion of our family’s diet by taking matters into our own hands. It is, however, too easy to adopt a holier-than-thou attitude once we have a wild animal in the freezer, so let’s leave that unattractive trait to the vegans. Instead, celebrate the bounty we’ve been privileged to obtain and share it, hopefully with someone who’s been on the fence about hunting.

Once you’ve piled their plate with delicious wild fare, you can off-handedly drop into conversation a few facts and numbers, such as the $12 billion in taxes we contribute to the public purse annually, or the $1.6 billion for conservation efforts spent every year. Casually mention that the American model of public lands is admired the world over, due mainly to the efforts of our oldest conservation organization, the Boone and Crocket Club, responsible for the creation of the 8

CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

National Parks Service, National Forest Service, and National Wildlife Refuges. And you could slip into the after dinner banter that, as an economic force, hunting supports almost 700,000 jobs.

This summer, as you ire up the grill and crack open a cold one, give some thought as to how you’ll make your coming season the best one ever. In this irst issue of CARNIVORE, we’ve included a few ideas of our own and plan on implementing them over the next few months. We’ll let you know this fall how it turns out.

Cheers, Iain

Editorial Editor/ Iain Harrison Senior Editor/ Patrick Vuong Managing Editor/ Laura Peltakian Feature Editor/ Rob Curtis

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FRESH MEAT MYSTERY RANCH

1 METCALF PACK

MUCK BOOT

2 COMPANY

TIMNEY

3 CALVIN ELITE

WOODY ARCTIC ICE

CAPACITY:

4,300 cubic inches

RATING:

PRICE:

-60 degrees F

CUSTOM REMINGTON MODEL 700 TRIGGER

AIMPOINT

4 MICRO S-1 FITS:

Mossberg 500/835/9200 and Remington 1100/1187/870 at press time

$525

PRICE:

$200

PULL WEIGHT RANGE:

PRICE:

COLORS:

INFO:

8 ounces to 2.5 pounds

$804

Coyote, Foliage, MultiCam, Dissolve Bare

www.muckbootcompany.com

INFO:

NOTES:

www.mysteryranch.com

It’s warm out now; the frozen toes of last year’s November rifle season seem so distant that the memories could almost be described as wistful. Don’t spend another cold-toed season in the stand wishing you had one more pair of dry socks. Muck Boot’s new Woody Arctic Ice boot starts with the company’s solid foundation of uncompromising waterproofness and features 8mm foam walls, up from 5mm in the standard Woody boot, with a fleece lining and adds more thermal foam underfoot. Muck says the boot is rated for -60 degrees F, but we’re not willing to test that claim. The molded outsole is designed to grip wet or dry ice and the Mossy Oak Country camo is bound to be a hit with your new, fourlegged forest friends.

NOTES:

Mystery Ranch cut its teeth making hard-use packs for the U.S. military, so it’s no surprise it also makes some kick-ass hunting packs. The new Metcalf has the capacity of a minivan, the utility of a pickup, and the comfortable ride of a family sedan. With 3,700 cubes in the body and another 600 in the detachable lid, there’s room to ruck a week’s worth of gear to camp. Use the detachable lid as a day pack, or ditch it and cinch down the main pack for a smaller load. When it comes time to field dress and pack out, the pack’s Overload Shelf holds your game bag between the frame and pack body, keeping the load centered and your pack contents clean. Other features include a top-loading shroud plus full-length side-zip for easy access, compression straps for carrying a rifle or bow, and extra pockets for smaller items. It’s made of light-yetdurable 500D Cordura.

PRICE:

INFO:

$260

www.aimpointhunter.com

INFO:

NOTES:

www.timneytriggers.com

Eff-Your-Bead-Sight, says Aimpoint with the introduction of its Micro S-1 red-dot sight.

It’s a venerable Micro H-2 sight with a 6 MOA dot and a new base designed to sit as low as possible atop a shotgun, mounting directly to the vent rib. Aimpoint tells us it’ll have four interchangeable baseplates to fit the most popular shotguns, but at press time, it’s only listing Mossberg 500/835/9200 and Remington 1100/1187/870 compatibility. We can already imagine the tailgate ribbing over the use of a reddot on a shotgun, but whether you’re in for wing, water, game, or clay, the enhanced field of view and sighting confirmation that comes with a red-dot is worth checking out.

NOTES:

It’s just a few years old, but Timney’s Calvin Elite trigger has quickly become a popular drop-in replacement for the Remington 700 series rifle. Not resting on its success, Timney just released a new version of the trigger with a customizable shoe. The guts are the same as the standard Calvin Elite, but the new Custom version lets you choose between the included curved, flat, heeled, and knurled shoes and also lets you adjust the length of the trigger pull, cast, and height with the turn of a couple screws. As with the standard Calvin, its wear parts are made from A2 tool steel, and the sear surfaces and sear engagement, over-travel, and pull weight are all adjustable to your liking.

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SMARTWOOL

5 PHD HUNTING

CEDAR HILL

6 HUNTING PRODUCTS

SOCK

LEUPOLD

LOCKEDON 360 MOBILE GUN VISE KIT

OPTIONS:

Light, Medium, Heavy Crew, and Heavy Over-the-Calf

30.1 ounces

INTERFACE:

TUBE DIAMETER:

PRICE:

34 mm

www.lockedon360.com

When applying the twois-one-and-one-is-none packing philosophy to the socks we bring on an overnight hunt, lately, one of those pairs is the new Smartwool PhD Hunt medium weight socks we’ve been wear-testing since winter. These new dog sacks channel the company’s latest technologies from its technical mountaineering and hiking lines to keep you comfy all the way from the predawn push to the sunset pack out. Merino wool is already a scent blocker, and the new socks are made with a the company’s proprietary Indestructawool that combines Nylon, Lycra, and wool in a three-part formula that’s a step forward in moisture management, fit, and durability. We’ve abused the socks on a few long, spring slogs and have yet to notice them. And, that’s a good sign.

PRECISION RIFLE SCOPE WEIGHT:

¼-20 socket

INFO:

NOTES:

BINOCULAR TRIPOD ADAPTER TRAY

PRICE:

INFO:

www.smartwool.com

8 VUDU 3.5-18X SFP

$250

PRICE:

$24-$30

EOTECH

7 LEUPOLD

NOTES:

Folding yourself into a hide or a stand is painful enough, but the pain of missing a shot because you put your rifle down after spending hours on glass is just brutal. We like the idea of putting one of these LockedOn 360 saddles on the rail of a hide. It reduces fatigue while increasing stability and accuracy.

Smaller shooters running magnum calibers will definitely appreciate its ability to reduce recoil, too. Despite having “mobile gun vise” in its name, it’s more like “semi-mobile.”

The base needs to be screwed or bolted to wooden structures, while it comes with a V-block and bolts for mounting to metal railings. Once the base is installed, though, the head is removable by pulling just one cotter pin. The “mobile” aspect comes with the purchase and installation of accessory bases for $40 each. Install these mobile bases in a few of your hides, and the head moves between them very easily.

$20

BATTERY:

INFO:

CR2032 lasts 500 hours

www.leupold.com

PRICE:

NOTES:

$1,600

There’s no shortage of binocular to tripod adapters, but many are proprietary, and most of the universal variety are on the spendy side. Leupold’s new bino tray is universal, dead simple, durable, and dirt cheap. Screw it to any standard ¼-20 tripod head, place your binos on the non-slip tray and crank the Velcro straps down to secure them. It’s no big deal to use your hunting partner’s glass, or save a few bucks when you upgrade your specs without the need to buy a new adapter.

The noise of the Velcro might freak some readers out, but, really, you’re only going to be tearing the tray open to get your binos out once you’ve decided to change locations. So, we’re not concerned about it.

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INFO:

www.eotechinc.com NOTES:

We aren’t going to argue one way or the other when it comes to first versus second focal plane variable magnification optics. We’re just here to tell you that EOTech is adding a couple of SFP scopes to its Vudu lineup. If you’re unfamiliar with the Vudu line, it’s EOTech’s entry into the magnified optics market, and we think the balance of performance, features, and price make them a strong value.

The newest additions, 3.5-18x50mm SFP (shown) and 8-32x50mm SFP, are both aimed at mid- to long-range shooters who like the speed and clarity of a fixed reticle. The 3.5-18 SFP ranges at 18 power, and is a few ounces lighter and a couple hundred bucks cheaper than its FFP sibling.

Other differences include covered turrets and no zero-stops. The other specs are virtually identical. Like the FFP versions, these illuminated SFP scopes are an excellent value.

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FRESH MEAT VAPUR

9 AFTER HOURS FLEXIBLE FLASK

CAMP CHEF

10 WOODWIND PELLET GRILL

10 ounces

PRICE:

DIMENSIONS:

PRICE:

$700 ($900 with optional sear unit)

13.6 x12.7 inches

$7

INFO:

Taking libations in the field is a fine tradition, but there are times when packing a handle, or even a fifth is a bit too much. Instead of buying an expensive pint, you could down load into a Vapur 10-ounce flexible flask that’s lighter at least as durable than its glass and metal counterparts.

The Incognito also takes up no room on the trip out. It can also be used over and over, it’s freezable, boilable, BPA free, and even includes a pourer that makes it easy to fill the polymer flask from larger bottles.

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Black, Dry Earth, Conifer, FL Fusion, FL Cipher, ASAT camo

PRICE:

PRICE:

$225

INFO:

NOTES:

NOTES:

FUSION JACKET COLORS:

$40

www.campchef.com

INFO:

www.vapur.us

12 SAWTOOTH

DOCUMENT POUCH

TEMPERATURE RANGE:

160-500 F, grill. 900 F sear unit.

CAPACITY:

FIRST LIGHT

MAGPUL

11 DAKA WINDOW

You spend hours and hours preparing and hunting, but when it comes time to dine on the spoils too many of us limit our culinary enjoyment by using the flavorless gas grill or common kitchen appliances.

“But nothing’s as easy as the blue flame treatment,” you might say. And we might point out the new Woodwind pellet grill that has a damned computer in it. Instead of spending hours tending the coals, you dump a bag of hardwood pellets in, set the temp and the grill combines the power of math, and magic to maintain a steady, smoky temperature while you play with your kids, mow the lawn, or catch up on Bob’s Burgers. This thing is more than a smoker, though. It’s a grilling, smoking, baking, roasting, braising, barbecuing monster. And, because smoked meats reach perfection with a quick sear, the full-on Woodwind setup comes with a sideboard, propane-powered sear box that’ll lock in flavors with a 900 degrees F shot of heat. Camp Chef knows cleaning your grill is about as much fun as cleaning your rifles, so they designed a patented ash cleanout system, too.

www.magpul.com

INFO:

www.firstlite.com

NOTES:

GPS is awesome. Until it’s not. Then the maps come out. Yes, maps. You know, those frail paper things that filled the glove compartment of your parent’s car. Since most of us don’t have access to a laminator, a map case is the next best option for keeping maps from reverting back to their nature, pulpy state. Magpul’s DAKA pouch line now includes this flexible, windowed map case. It’s made of a tough, waterproof polymer fabric and features waterrepellent zippers with a heat-shrunk, paracord zipper pull, and a fillable dot matrix for identification.

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NOTES:

First Lite’s new Sawtooth Hybrid Jacket has you covered from east coast tree stands to the western mountains, valleys, and plains. This wearable wonder combines a bit of puffy insulation with merino fabric and water-resistant nylon panels arranged to provide warmth, venting, and weather protection where it’s needed most for comfort and durability.

The jacket takes on the early season, pre-dawn chill alone and can be worn as a breathable, insulated mid-layer when the days get short. We’ve shown it in First Lite’s new Cipher camo pattern, a lighter toned version of the company’s Fusion pattern.

LUTH-AR

13 THE CHUBBY GRIP

LIONG MAH DESIGNS

14 KUF

YETI

PARA’KITO USA

15 RAMBLER ONE

16 ORANGE BAND

GALLON JUG

PRICE:

PRICE:

$24

$350

DIMENSION:

INFO:

12.38 by 6.38 inches

INFO:

INFO:

PRICE:

us.parakito.com

$150

NOTES:

www.luth-ar.com

www.liongmah.com

NOTES:

NOTES:

Ambi, ambi, ambi. Two handedness is all the rage on the AR side of the house. But, luckily, hunters aren’t (usually) concerned with offside doorway clearing or fighting through an injury. If you’re hunting with a black gun, why not ditch the anemic pistol grip and get some real control of your rifle with a fully sculpted grabber like the new Chubby Grip from LuthAR. For comparison, it looks and feels similar to the Sierra Precision grip, but Luth-AR’s is a little thinner, more textured, and has serrations on the frontstrap. Guys who find the Sierra Precision grip a little too meaty will love the Chubby.

It’s not always practical to haul around your set of Wusthof blades.

Enter the KUF (or Kitchen Utility Knife), created by Liong Mah Designs and manufactured by Reate Knives.

This 9-inch-long folder can play double duty as a daily carry and as a versatile blade in any impromptu kitchen, whether at a campsite or in an RV. The 4-inch stainless S35VN blade — with a santoku (or sheepsfoot) profile reminiscent of Japanese cutlery — strikes a balance of sharpness, toughness, and corrosion resistance. It opens smoothly from a titanium framelock, which features either a Micarta or carbon-fiber scale (shown here) on the handle’s backside. Note: The custom knife design and premium materials mean you’ll be paying for what you get. But what you get is a quality folder with a smooth action, a lightweight but sturdy body, and a short but robust pocket clip.

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PRICE:

$20

Hunting isn’t just about INFO: bagging and tagging. It’s also www.yeti.com about enjoying the serenity of NOTES: the outdoors. Unfortunately, Like today’s politics, some things just that can sometimes mean can’t help but go to the extreme. YETI that skeeters are enjoying leans into this concept, especially with the taste of your blood. For its recently released Rambler One years that meant using insect Gallon Jug. Constructed from 18/8 repellent like DEET. But with stainless steel, this water bottle on recent fears of medical side steroids has a double-wall, vacuumeffects, people have turned insulated construction that’s rust and to alternatives. Para’Kito puncture resistant. This means your offers a variety of products gallon of water will stay cold for hours — including this band — that without making the outside of the bottle use natural active ingredients sweaty, or it’ll stay hot without heating bloodsuckers can’t stand. up your hands. The jug’s MagCap uses This band accepts a refillable magnets to keep the cap secured on pellet that’s free of DEET, the lid while you’re drinking or pouring, phthalates, and parabens, yet while the extra wide-mouth opening is packed with essential oils makes it easier to clean and refill. The like citronella and rosemary, ridiculously rugged and enormous which keep the mosquitos design comes with some heft, both in away. Wear it on your wrist or price and weight — it’s 4.5 pounds, costs attach it to your belt then head one and a half C-notes, and is about out into the field and forget the size of a small fire extinguisher. about it.

But there’s no question this beefed up Rambler can provide extreme amounts of hydration on your next hunt.

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18 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

GET YOUR ASS OFF THE BENCH Practical Accuracy Tips for Off-Season Practice Ryan Cleckner

S

top shooting pretty little groups at the range.

Believe it or not, it can hurt your chances of success while hunting. Sure, good groups are required to properly zero your rifle and to test the precision and accuracy of your rifle, scope, ammo, and the meathead driving it. It’s also fun to share your amazing groups on Instagram (of course, with a coin in the picture for scale and also to cover up that flier . . . Yes, we know your secret).

But the beneits stop there.

Practicing to Hunt As with any other important area of human endeavor, you should practice. Ask yourself, though, are you practicing to shoot pretty little groups, or are you practicing to hunt? If you only shoot at your zero distance from a bench, then you aren’t practicing to hunt. Your experience may be different, but I’ve never encountered a shooting bench in the ield.

When you’re hunting, the target decides the time and place for your shot. It’s likely you’ll need to take the shot when you aren’t ready and when you aren’t in a perfectly stable position. After you’ve zeroed your rifle and gained conidence in the capabilities of your equipment, it’s time to get conident in your ability to shoot in real-life hunting positions. Get your ass off the shooting bench!

Stable Platform One key element of making a good shot is working from a stable platform — this is why you shoot better groups off of a bench than while standing.

Shooting in the prone position is the most stable. If possible, I always prefer to take a shot from the prone position (depending on the amount of mud). However, shooting prone while in the ield often has you staring directly into grass, logs, or slight elevation changes in the terrain. While it’s the most stable position, it’s also the least used, as it’s often necessary to get your rifle higher off the ground.

Although you’ll be able to see more, the higher you get off the ground, the less stable you’ll be. So, let’s explore some ways to increase stability that don’t involve a shooting bench or shooting proned out.

Get Your Arm in a Sling Find and use any support you can. It may not be perfectly stable, but it’ll be better than simply holding your rifle while standing there with your heart trying to beat out of your chest as a bull elk bugles in front of you.

Your rifle better have a sling; it isn’t just for carrying your rifle over your shoulder. It’s an important shooting aid, and, if adjusted properly, almost any sling is useful as a hasty support.

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GET YOUR ASS OFF THE BENCH

Try to avoid unsupported kneeling if you have the option of using either a sling or sticks.

Switch knees if the front of the rifle is supported.

Although prone is the most stable position, realworld problems like vegetation prevent its use a lot of the time.

Using a hasty sling support involves placing your support arm under your rif le and through the sling far enough that the middle of the sling makes contact with your upper tricep.

Then, wrap your arm around the sling once and place your support hand on your stock on With your sling attached and the near-side of your front sling your rifle upside-down and attachment point. pointing away from you, detach The sling should be adjusted the rear of the sling and give it so it’s tight enough to provide a half turn counterclockwise support while the buttstock (for right-handed shooters) of the rifle is shouldered. It and reattach it. This will allow shouldn’t be painful on your the sling to wrap around your support arm, but it’ll likely be a support arm without any kinks. bit uncomfortable. If you doubt Note that slinging up tightly the effectiveness of a hasty may put pressure on your sling take your iring hand off barrel if the fore-end isn’t free the rifle (notice the rifle stays in floated. Check during a range your shoulder without needsession to see if your groups ing to pull it into position with shift and correct as necessary. your support hand) and grab

TIP:

20 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

the sling and give it a twist to simulate shortening the sling’s length. You’ll notice the rifle pulls even tighter into your shoulder.

Another component to making a good shot is to avoid muscling the rifle. With a hasty sling, your support hand no longer needs to grip the rifle. Instead, it can act as a shelf for the rifle to rest on.

For the ultimate stability with a sling, a cuff-style design grabs your support arm in a cuff and wraps around your arm the same way a hasty sling does. It’s more stable, but a strictly cuff-style sling takes longer to get into and out of. There are slings available that make the best of both worlds when the situation allows.

One thing to watch out for when using a sling around your arm: You may end up twisting the rifle away from your body because the rear sling attachment point is usually at the bottom of your buttstock. When using a cuff style sling, detaching the rear of the sling when getting into position will prevent this.

Another great use for a sling is to pinch the sling against a tree or pull down on the front of the sling when using something in the ield as support.

Take a Knee Often, kneeling is a great compromise in speed and stability while getting you high enough to see over obstacles. If the situation allows, I almost always drop to a knee to take an otherwise unsupported shot.

If you’re only using your knee for support, you should rest your support-arm elbow just past the knee on the same side of your body and sit on either your heel or the side of your foot from your shooting-side. For example, I shoot right-handed so I rest my left elbow just past my left knee and sit on my right heel or the side of my right foot, in order to get higher or lower, respectively.

Don’t put the bone of your elbow on top of your knee — it’ll wiggle around too much and won’t provide much stability. If the situation allows, a hasty-sling can be helpful in this position.

If you’re kneeling, but also using something else for support, switch your knees into a reverse kneeling position. To support the front of your rifle, you can use a horizontal branch or log, your pack, or even shooting sticks.

I like to bring trekking poles on long hikes with a heavy pack. By placing each pole’s strap over the other pole, it makes for a handy, height-adjustable shooting rest.

If the front of your rifle is supported by something, you might notice that movement in the rifle is mainly

caused by the rear of the rifle shifting — therefore, your support-side knee up front doesn’t provide any additional stability. Instead, rest your support-side knee on the ground and place your shooting-arm’s elbow on the knee of the same side. This switch makes all the difference, supporting both ends of your rifle.

Sit Down on the Job You can also ind stability by shooting from a seated position. However, if this is your only support, it sucks (even with a hasty-sling). It’s used in some shooting competitions but is often uncomfortable and hard to master.

The sitting position usually involves sitting crosslegged while facing 45 degrees toward your shooting side. Then, you place your elbows in the pocket of your knees, while the rifle points 45 degrees to your non-shooting side (toward the target). If you have to raise your knees to get this to work, then you aren’t really helping yourself because you’re using your muscles for support.

Instead, either use something else for support up front or use a Hugging your pack may seem weird at first, but it’s way more stable than a conventional sitting position.

RECOILWEB.COM 21

GET YOUR ASS OFF THE BENCH satisied with a hit on the very edge of that target, then you should deine a smaller acceptable target for yourself.

Once your reticle is within your acceptable target size, start applying pressure to the trigger and let the rifle ire.

Your rifle is likely to be moving slightly. As long as the rifle discharges when the reticle is somewhere within the target (yes, even the edge), then that’s a hit.

Be comfortable in shooting within your wobble zone. Accept it, and make a smooth trigger press, rather than forcing a miss.

seated variation I like more — the crossed-ankles position. Point your legs toward the target, cross your shooting side ankle over the other, bend your knees slightly, allow them to naturally fall to the side, and then rest your elbows past your knees.

Standing Above: Make sure the support is only touching your stock and not the barrel to avoid affecting your zero.

Top: The rifle’s stock is snugged against the tree, while the sling is used to pinch it tight.

This is the fastest, but least stable, position. If you can, use a stationary object to support your rifle. As with all supports, make sure it only touches your stock and not the barrel. Also, when using any support from any position, pull down on the front of your sling; the downward pressure adds stability to your position.

When using the side of a tree, irst make sure that you don’t shake the tree or you’ll just be waving a big I’mover-here flag. Next, try to pinch the rifle’s stock against the tree for added support. You can do this with your hand, or you can pinch your sling, or bipod leg, against the tree with your palm.

If you’re using shooting sticks, spread your legs out and push down on the sling with your support hand.

Acceptable Accuracy When you’re shooting in these alternate positions, don’t expect pretty little groups. Instead, practice these positions while trying to hit whatever you’ve deined as the acceptable target area at whatever distance you’re likely to take a shot.

For example, being able to hit something the size of a pie-plate at 200 yards is surely acceptable for elk hunting.

Therefore, try to hit a target that size at that distance and be happy with any hit — not just ones in the center. If you aren’t 22 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

Don’t try to hold the rifle perfectly still in the center of the target or shoot right when you think the reticle is in the center. When you try to do this, you’ll usually be thinking, “Almost there, a little left, a little more, NOW!” And then you smack the trigger. By trying to be perfect, you might very well jerk the rifle and send the round off the target.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have a conident hit somewhere within the zone I’ve determined is acceptable instead of trying to hit dead-center and ending up missing entirely.

Practice Now, dry-ire from these positions at home and use them while at the range. You’ll get more stable with practice, and you’ll learn what works best for you. Also, get out of the pretty little grouping mindset and start working for acceptable accuracy.

Of course, practicing for hunting doesn’t stop there.

Here’s some more questions to ask yourself: Are you spending money to shave ounces from your gear rather than hitting the gym to shave pounds from your body?

Are you hiking with your pack in the off-season?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ryan Cleckner is a former U.S. Army Special Operations Command sniper team leader (1/75 Rangers) and sniper instructor. He is the best-selling author of the Long Range Shooting Handbook. As an attorney specializing in firearms law, he helps people get and keep their Federal Firearms Licenses at RocketFFL.com

Wind, cold, and exhaustion are our constant companion.

Yet we keep coming back, year after year. Because on the other side of misery, something amazing is waiting.

Leupold®. American to the Core.

Learn more about the optics and gear that goes where others can’t at Leupold.com.

LEUPOLD FULL LIFETIME GUARANTEE

RIDES

WORKING CLASS AEV’s Prospector XL Tray Bed — Hunting Vehicle and Daily Driver All in One John Schwartze Iain Harrison

24 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

H

ave you ever been to a restaurant where the menu is the culinary version of War and Peace? When your options become too abundant, it’s easy to suffer from paralysis by analysis. So what exactly does one need in a vehicle that’ll serve as both your daily driver as well as withstand the rigors of an off-road hunting trip? Let’s face it, most of us aren’t

trust-fund babies, so we need a multipurpose vehicle.

After all, we just spent X amount of dollars on a rifle, optic, clothing, license, tags … you get the picture. If we want to avoid buying another vehicle used solely for hunting (and a subsequent divorce) then let’s deconstruct what’s really important.

AEV PROSPECTOR XL TRAY BED MAKE:

Ram URL:

www.aev-conversions.com

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RIDES

Top: With only a 3-inch lift, the Prospector XL Tray Bed is proportionally well balanced. You might not realize it’s sitting on a set of 17x10 AEV Katla wheels.

Middle: Retractable side steps are a nice touch and tuck up out of the way when you’re ascending some jagged terrain.

Bottom: Onboard air connections are a part of the ARB front and rear air lockers to help keep power to the wheels and put the “limited” back in limited slip.

Stop for a second and imagine you’re back in the 1950s on a hunting trip. You don’t have ATVs, UTVs, side-by-sides and all these vehicles that have become the new normal of off-road transportation, but did that ruin one’s ability to have a successful outing? Nope.

You just needed something that’d haul people, supplies, and game; work in a variety of settings; and be robust enough to take a beating. So fast-forward to 26 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

present day. While a vintage Chevy Thriftmaster may no longer be the best option, a vehicle that checks off the aforementioned prerequisites with some modern conveniences is deinitely worth a look.

If you haven’t heard of American Expeditions Vehicles, or AEV for short, it was born out of owner Dave Harriton’s irsthand experience in learning what off-road vehicles really needed to endure the brutal conditions of Montana. His need to improve upon his own personal YJ Jeep with a stretched wheelbase and add other custom touches didn’t go unnoticed, and he soon found himself taking orders when people caught on to his eye for engineering. From there the company snowballed into not only aftermarket parts, but also offers turnkey custom vehicles for sale.

The issue with most custom vehicles (and even firearms) is that you’re combining a bunch of parts from different companies who are operating in a vacuum about their product’s compatibility with other aftermarket offerings. People often discover when they’re thousands of dollars into a build that many parts just don’t play well together. That creates not only lots of experimentation and additional costs, but you end up sacrificing reliability and comfort. In order to avoid the “truckenstein” situation, AEV manufactures its parts to work together and virtually all are made right here in the U.S. to ensure quality control and unified function.

AEV’s latest creation is the Prospector XL Tray Bed. Ram has been churning out some of the best trucks on the market in recent years, and the addition of rear coil springs offers a variety of spring rate options for your overall package. The goal at AEV was not to deviate from the stock steering geometry and ride quality, which is the usual can of worms opened with larger tires, shocks, and other typical off-road add-ons. The focus is to retain the Dodge DNA in terms of appearance and parts versatility, but make it perform like it’s competing for the CrossFit Games.

Based on the Ram 2500 regular cab/longbed platform, a 3-inch lift courtesy of AEV’s DualSport SC suspension raises the roll center, allows more wheel travel for the huge 41-inch IROK rubber, and improves handling and stability. Dual ARB air lockers (with onboard air connections) provide additional grab and the gear ratio has been upped to 4.30. When our fearless editor Iain Harrison was out slogging the Prospector XL through the Flagstaff, Arizona, hill country, he conirmed it rode as smooth as a prom queen’s thighs.

The lightweight aluminum tray bed not only gives increased storage area for ATVs, a camper, ARB compressor, and larger fuel tank, but fold-down sides allow

for ease of loading and unloading. AEV’s mounts fasten the bed to the frame and the addition of flares and a steel bumper keep it looking like it was a factory option and not some aftermarket contraption designed to it any truck on the market.

While you might look at the snorkel and think, “I don’t need that,” it’s there for the obvious purpose of protecting your engine during water crossings as well as keeping the induction high to minimize the amount of dust getting into it. The steel front bumper incorporates plates to protect it from obstacles encountered at steep approach angles and also includes a Warn 16.5ti Winch and 30-inch Vision Xmitter lightbar.

At irst blush you might think it couldn’t possibly be practical as a grocery getter, but the Prospector XL can serve that purpose whether your groceries are store bought or obtained from hunting waterfowl, feral hogs of the Texas hill country, or mountain-dwelling elk. We liken it to a Swiss Army knife — it’s one thing capable of numerous duties. The standard features it offers alone were enough to whet our appetite, but additional touches like a rear vision system, leather package, and differential covers make it a very purpose-driven truck for driving to the ofice or your favorite honey hole.

With a tray bed, you’re not hampered by the usual limitations of a single side that opens and space usually occupied by the wheel humps.

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CUTLERY

2

Patrick Vuong

sing your tactical tanto knife to skin game is akin to using a hammer to open an Amazon package — it can be done, but it’ll be frustrating and could ruin the goodness inside.

Skinning blades are designed to precisely separate the, well, skin of an animal from its meat. No pierced hide, no burst innards. Just a smooth division between fur and flesh so you can eviscerate your trophy and get it on ice as quickly as possible.

What makes a good skinner?

Knife nuts debate whether the blade should be stainless steel or highcarbon steel. Each has pros and cons, revolving around ease of sharpening, edge retention, and corrosion resistance. Like irearms, it boils down to personal preference.

However, a skinner has three requisites: it needs a nonslip handle, a blade proile with a generous belly, and a razor sharp edge (since most of the work comes from pulling the hide back and letting the knife slice, not saw).

With this in mind, we’ve assembled a handful of the latest models available today. Read on to ind the right tool for your game.

28 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

1

3

1 BROWNING BUCKMARK

CAMILLUS 2 WESTERN KOTA

KNIVES 3 TOPS QUICK SKIN

7-INCH

HUNTER

OAL:

OAL:

OAL:

7 inches

7 inches

7.125 inches

BLADE LENGTH:

BLADE LENGTH:

BLADE LENGTH:

3.125 inches

3.25 inches

3.5 inches

BLADE MATERIAL:

BLADE MATERIAL:

BLADE MATERIAL:

8Cr13MoV stainless steel

420 stainless steel

1095 high-carbon steel

WEIGHT:

WEIGHT:

WEIGHT:

3.7 ounces

3.7 ounces

6.6 ounces

MSRP:

MSRP:

MSRP:

$35

$25

$160

URL:

URL:

URL:

www.browning.com

www.camillusknives.com

www.topsknives.com

CASE & SONS 4 W.R. CUTLERY CO. PATRIOT KIRINITE TRAPPER OAL:

7.125 inches BLADE LENGTH:

3 inches BLADE MATERIAL:

Tru-Sharp surgical steel WEIGHT:

4 ounces MSRP:

$72 URL:

www.wrcase.com

MOFFATT 5 GREG KNIVES KANIKSU

7 OAL:

8.125 inches BLADE LENGTH:

3.5 inches BLADE MATERIAL:

1095 high-carbon steel WEIGHT:

4.85 ounces

5

MSRP:

$260 URL:

www.gregmoffattknives.com

KNIVES 6 BUCK OPEN SEASON SKINNER KNIFE OAL:

8.25 inches BLADE LENGTH:

4.5 inches BLADE MATERIAL:

S30V stainless steel WEIGHT:

5.7 ounces MSRP:

$142 URL:

www.buckknives.com 6

7

RUGER KNIVES

BY CRKT ACCURATE

OAL:

9 inches BLADE LENGTH:

4.38 inches BLADE MATERIAL:

8Cr13MoV stainless steel WEIGHT:

9 ounces MSRP:

$100 URL:

4

www.crkt.com/collection/ ruger-knives.html

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CUTLERY

Trimming the Fat

TOPS KNIVES QUICK SKIN

CASE PATRIOT KIRINITE TRAPPER

GREG MOFFATT KNIVES KANIKSU

BUCK KNIVES OPEN SEASON SKINNER KNIFE

RUGER KNIVES ACCURATE

411:

411:

411:

411:

411:

411:

The Kota comes in both a 7-inch and an 8.25-inch version and is part of Camillus’ Western lineup, appealing to anglers, hunters, and cowboys.

As a budget model, it’s made from 420 stainless steel — the same kind used to make the butter knives found in your kitchen drawer. Yes, really. Fortunately, the blade is bonded with titanium to vastly improve its toughness and stain resistance. Comes with a nylon sheath.

This skinner has the most unique profile in this buyer’s guide — and that’s a good thing. The “all-belly” blade’s long and curved edge follows the arc of your stroke, meaning more continuous skinning with fewer movements. That’s a good thing when you want to field dress as quickly as possible. The design also allows for different grips (i.e. index finger on the blade’s spine) while the included sheath can be carried multiple ways.

Made in the USA.

The trapper genre is at least a century old and used to prep small game.

This type of jackknife features two blades of the same length — one that’s a clip-point and the other that’s usually a spey (used to castrate livestock). Being one of the oldest U.S. brands, Case has numerous variants of its Trapper series.

If you’re not into the red, white, and blue scheme, the Trapper comes in everything from from black buffalo horn to camo-pattern Zytel.

Greg Moffatt is a custom knife-designer who started as a classically trained furniture-maker.

This uncommon background for a bladesmith gives him the varied technical know-how of a craftsman but also the outside-the-box creativity in an industry known for its fair share of copycats. His Kaniksu is a perfect example of this, resulting in a unique skinner that works just as beautifully as it looks.

Sheath included. Made in the USA.

No buyer’s guide on skinners would be complete without a Buck knife.

For many, this brand is a hunter’s best friend and has been for more than a century. This particular model strikes a balance of vintage visuals, classic skinner design, and modern engineering to produce a highperforming, aesthetically pleasing knife. For an extra $5, you can get a version with an integrated guthook. Comes with leather sheath. Made in the USA.

If you have more Rugers in your safe than any other rifle, then this fixed blade will certainly strike your fancy. The Accurate is among a lineup of knives manufactured for Ruger by Columbia River Knife & Tool. Designed by famed knife-maker Bill Harsey, it’s more of an overall hunting knife than a skinner — but it’s no slouch in the slicing department thanks to its drop-point profile. Comes with a nylon sheath.

PROS:

PROS:

PROS:

PROS:

PROS:

PROS:

PROS:

Drop-point blade profile can handle various duties.

Well balanced in the hand Surprisingly, it retails for only 35 bucks.

Zebra-and-ebony wood scales and brass pins

Peels skin and fat with precision and has no problem fighting off stains, proving it’s more than the sum of its parts G-10 scales provide an assured grip, ergonomics, and durability.

The most inexpensive model of this bunch

The full belly blade allows for lightning-fast skinning and slicing.

Can be held multiple ways, including choking up and pinching the blade with your thumb and index finger Well-placed jimping on blade spine for traction Superior Kydex sheath

Clip-point is a proven skinner shape, but the spey works, too, because of its blunt tip.

Good size for field dressing Jackknife-style folder gives you a second blade option in the field.

The blade’s hamon is the side effect of making the edge harder than the spine. It’s functional and fashionable.

The clip-point blade is made of 1095 steel, which holds a razor’s edge and is easy to sharpen.

Outstanding Kydex sheath

The blade’s made of premium S30V, which cuts like a laser, maintains its edge, and beats back corrosion with ease.

A good-looking knife that can also perform Handle fits great in hand, with a finger choil that isn’t too deep

Though one of the heavier knives in this bunch, it has excellent balance and feel in hand.

Handle design features a non-obtrusive Ruger medallion and solid finger guard.

The drop-point blade is sharp out of the box and cuts skin with ease.

CONS:

CONS:

CONS:

CONS:

CONS:

CONS:

CONS:

Though charming, the two-tone hardwood isn’t the most long-lasting handle material.

Though affordable, the blade’s made from Chinese stainless steel.

The sheath swallows most of the knife handle, making it difficult to deploy the knife quickly.

Without the titanium bond, the blade’s 420 steel would do no better in the backcountry than a butter knife.

The sheath’s embroidery is the only thing of note; nylon makes for a subpar scabbard and the snap-button is an inferior retention method.

Quick Skin serves its single purpose superbly — but it isn’t versatile.

It won’t do anything else nearly as well, such as stabbing or bushcrafting.

The blade’s 1095 steel can stain quickly if not cleaned and oiled.

The Kirinite handle (a type of acrylic) looks pretty, but can get slick when wet.

Though it’s a folder, the Trapper follows an old-school style and doesn’t have a pocket clip or thumb-studs.

The above pro can also be a con, because this steel rusts quickly if not properly maintained.

Unless it’s kept in a display case, the wood handle won’t last forever.

The Dymondwood scales look great, but won’t last as long. Plus, when wet, they stained our hands and produced an odor almost stronger than the meat we were processing.

While nicely made, the leather sheath is a pain when inserting or removing the knife.

We expected a knife with a $100 price tag to come with at least a U.S. blade steel, not Chinese stainless.

A tad long for accurate skinning The sheath is rather ho-hum.

BROWNING BUCKMARK HUNTER

CAMILLUS WESTERN KOTA 7-INCH

411:

A fan of Browning firearms? This full-tang fixed blade’s for you, thanks in large part to its creator.

Having started off as a hunting guide first, knifemaker Ross Kommer is no stranger to pursuing big game. The Buckmark Hunter combines an old-school aesthetic with modern touches, resulting in a knife that’s versatile and attractive. If you have just one knife in the field, this drop-point blade could gut, skin, and debone. Comes with leather sheath.

30 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

Bridging the Gap Between Ultralight Custom and Off-the-Shelf Hunting Rifles Iain Harrison Kenda Lenseigne

32 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

W

hen Barrett announced their new Fieldcraft line of rifles at SHOT Show in 2016, it caused more than a few raised eyebrows.

What was the company, famous for its .50 BMGs and AR-pattern rifles, doing dabbling in the hunting world? Perhaps the question should have been, “What took you so long?”

Now that everyone who wanted an AR has an AR, companies who are one-trick ponies are inding the wind in their faces. The market for .50 BMG rifles was always a small one, even if it carried with it some degree of

notoriety, so diversiication for a manufacturer that already builds some of the best big-bore precision rifles makes a whole lot of sense. In order to both maintain the company’s reputation for quality and shorten the learning curve when it comes to building bolt guns for the woods, they reached an agreement with Melvin Forbes to use his designs.

While Forbes isn’t as widely known as he perhaps should be, in the past 30 years he’s almost singlehandedly redeined what a lightweight rifle should be. His company New Ultralight Arms, or NULA, makes some of the featheriest (and expensive) hard-core hunting boomsticks out there, to order, one at a time. In order

deimagine/istockphoto.com

RECOILWEB.COM 33

BARRETT FIELDCRAFT to bring the price tag into reach of us mere mortals, the company of Forbes Rifles was created and offered, for a short time at least, NULA rifles without the options available in a custom build. It folded in 2015 after various QC issues but established that there was indeed a market for an off-the-shelf, lightweight, and high-quality rifle. And this is where Barrett steps in.

Based on a Forbes action, the Barrett Fieldcraft is about as pared down as a bolt gun can get. Just long enough for the cartridge it’s designed around, there’s no excess metal in the action. There’s no magazine floorplate and catch either, another couple of ounces that could be saved. The bottom of the stock serves to keep the mag spring where it’s supposed to be, and if you want to unload, well, cartridges come out of the ejection port just as easily as they go in.

Two barrel lengths are offered in each caliber, both stainless and produced inhouse at Barrett. The irst, a No.1 proile that’s about as skinny as it’s possible to turn on a lathe and still contain the pressure of iring, is 21 inches long. With it, the rifle tips the scales at 4.75 pounds. The second option is shorter, stiffer, and heavier by about 5 ounces. Why would anyone burden this flyweight with the equivalent of a stick of butter? Simple. It’s threaded for use with a suppressor, so there’s extra meat to ensure POI shifts are minimized and give suficient integrity to support both 5/8x24 threads and the can that hangs from them. Smart folks, these guys from Tennessee.

Another good idea was to offer these barrels in fasterthan-usual twist rates, across the board. For example, the 22-250 has always been handicapped by the factory-standard 1/12 twist, which means that in varmint-’sploding form, it can send .22-caliber, 40-grain bullets toward burrowing rodents at a mind-boggling 4,100 fps. But these days, we’re no longer limited to the cup and core projectiles of our grandfathers. Heavyweight monolithics such as the Barnes 70-grain TSX are phenomenally effective killers and elevate the deuce-deuce into a tool for taking medium game. But unless they’re spun quickly, they’ll be going sideways shortly after they leave the muzzle. The Fieldcraft’s 1/7 barrel will spin them, and heavier pills, just ine.

For those who handload, the combination of fast twist barrels and a 3-inch magazine box is uniquely appealing. Oftentimes, we hit a wall when exploiting a cartridge’s full potential, as heavyweight bullets with high ballistic coeficients have to be seated deeply into the

BASED ON A FORBES ACTION, THE BARRETT FIELDCRAFT IS ABOUT AS PARED DOWN AS A BOLT GUN CAN GET.

34 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

case, if they’re to be fed though a typical magazine. This limits the amount of powder that can be crammed in.

More powder, more power, more better. With a 3-inch mag box, bullets can be seated forward in the case, freeing up more volume and letting our freak flag fly. Note that if you want to take advantage of this extra capacity, you’ll need to run a throating reamer into the barrel. We checked, and our 140-grain Nosler BTHPs couldn’t be loaded longer than 2.810 without jamming into the lands..

6.5 Creedmoor, or Less Our sample Fieldcraft came chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor, and you may detect a .264 diameter theme running through this issue of CARNIVORE. Although it’s only recently become a thing in the U.S., 6.5mm caliber bullets have been stacking bodies since 1891 and have a long history of effectiveness on animals up and including moose. The Creedmoor is a ballistic equivalent of the 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser cartridge, but able to take advantage of modern propellants to achieve the same performance in a shorter case — and therefore a shorter, lighter action.

Both it, and the near-identical .260 Rem, are in the running to become SOCOM’s new sniper round. They handily curb stomp 7.62 NATO when it comes to making hits on man-sized targets out to 1,000 yards, offering a flatter trajectory, more retained energy, and less recoil.

Having witnessed irst-hand a novice shooter use a 6.5 Creed to drop a zebra at 450 yards, we have no doubts as to the effectiveness of the latest generation of high-

ballistic coeficient bullets. Zebras are way tougher to kill than any North American game species, as anyone who’s been to Africa will attest, so we’d have no hesitation using it on elk.

The Fieldcraft’s bolt features a few improvements over the industry benchmark of the Remington 700. A Sako-style extractor is one of them; positioned further forward in the bolt head, it allows the cartridge case to sit deeper into the barrel, giving additional support to the case web. Sako extractor conversions in M700 actions have gotten a bad rap due to the way they compromise the action’s ability to handle ruptured cases, but in this instance, gas is vented through the bolt’s extractor cut and into the magazine well.

Any debris blown into the left raceway will be channeled out into the ejection port by spiral flutes cut into the bolt body, and although the bolt shroud lacks the huge flange typically seen on Mauser actions (or for that matter, the smaller one found on original NULA rifles), it its tightly into the action to limit any gas exposure.

We’re slightly concerned by the lack of a vent hole in the right side of the receiver ring, though there’s one present at the 6 o’clock position on the bolt body.

One other improvement is in the manner by which the bolt handle is attached to the bolt body. In most middle of the road guns, it’s simply silver soldered in place, which is ine until the user encounters a stuck case. Tapping the bolt handle with a soft mallet (or a chunk of irewood, if

We opted for the 18, rather than 20, inch barrel as we’re can fans. The stiffer pipe comes threaded 5/8-24, and we wish all rifles did.

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BARRETT FIELDCRAFT

Though SIG Optics’ Tango 4 might at first glance look more at home on a precision rifle, at 26 ounces it’s not insanely heavy and allowed us to wring out the 6.5 Creedmoor at extended ranges.

we’re being honest) can result in the two parting ways.

But in the case of the Fieldcraft, the union is made by means of a mechanical joint, secured by a pin. While we haven’t veriied it, there’s a good chance the bolt handle will bend long before it separates from the body. Stripping the bolt requires a 1/16-inch punch in order to hold the cocking piece back against mainspring pressure, but is otherwise straightforward.

Keeping the bolt in place at the end of its stroke is a bolt stop modeled after the Winchester Model 70s.

Pressing down on the tail located to the left of the bolt shroud allows the bolt to be removed for cleaning, and we found it to be suficiently robust for its intended purpose. Despite slamming the bolt against it several times as hard as we could, there was no perceptible peening, and the pivot pin held up without murmur.

In keeping with the original design, as much thought has gone into the stock as the metal components. A carbon-iber shell is hand-laid into a mold and illed with resin compound to produce something that’s as lightweight as it’s indestructible. It’s then full-length bedded to the barreled action; it’s probably a good thing that you’ll almost never need to separate the two, as the joint between them is about as tight as that on a S&W revolver’s lockplate — i.e., hermetic.

Doing so allows use of an ultralight barrel, without the inickiness normally associated with them, as it’s stiffness is plussed-up by the very rigid stock — during testing at 200 yards, we found that all three of the 140-grain loads we used impacted the

WHILE WE HAVEN’T VERIFIED IT, THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE THE BOLT HANDLE WILL BEND LONG BEFORE IT SEPARATES FROM THE BODY.

36 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

same place on the target. Some groups were bigger than others, ranging from 2.1 inches for Hornady’s 140-grain A-Max to 4.5 inches for Federal’s Fusion, but all hit in the same area, which isn’t something we’re used to when testing whippy, sportier weight tubes. If there’s a downside to this anti-freefloat approach, it’s in its resistance to mechanization. Full-length bedding requires the intervention of a skilled craftsman, and they’re not known for working for free.

Taking Stock Overall, the stock follows Jack O’Connor’s prescriptions, featuring a straight comb and narrow pistol grip. It’s minimalist, in order to save weight, but doesn’t scrimp where rifle and shooter make contact, with a generous cheekpiece and full-sized fore end. There’s plenty of space to avoid jamming the middle inger against the trigger guard under recoil, the two-position safety can be accessed without shifting the master grip, and its 13.75-inch length of pull will it the majority of male users. Although there’s nothing in the way of palm swells or fore end flat spots, we had no problems shooting off of our pack out to a lased 640 yards, making irst round hits on 10-inch steel plates.

Normally, shooting ultralight rifles requires a change in technique, as they’re not as steady on target and can shift in recoil while the bullet is still in the bore; off a pack, we usually drape a hand over the scope in order dampen things out, especially with .30 cals. The 6.5 Creedmoor doesn’t generate nearly as much recoil in a flyweight gun as the ubiquitous .30-06, making for both pleasant range sessions and something else that caught us off guard. Instead of making allowances for the Fieldcraft’s lack of poundage, we just shot the damn thing like

a regular rifle and didn’t notice until all our ammo had gone that no change in approach were needed.

While we liked the Fieldcraft, it’s not without its niggles.

Regarding performance, we managed to get the bolt to bind at the end of its throw, so a little more polishing in the raceways under the rear receiver bridge wouldn’t go amiss. And at an MSRP of $1,700, it’s a big chunk of change for such a little rifle. Still, as with most consumer goods, losing weight costs a lot of money, and it’s certainly cheaper than paying a ’smith to come up with an alternative.

The closest factory option to our test model in terms of specs is probably the Remington Model Seven stainless in .260 Rem. In order to it a suppressor, its barrel would need to be cut back and sleeved, assuming you were to thread it 5/8-24. Figure on a bill of around $250. After all that, you’d still wind up with a rifle that was a pound heavier and wore an ugly Tupperware stock that feels like it’s made from 72 cents worth of plastic. Because it is.

Although you’d try to convince yourself life was just ine, you know that living a lie would eventually wear you down, and you’d have to replace it. Figure another 500 bucks for a McMillan, add 50 for the Talley rings that Barrett includes, and you’ve doubled Remington’s asking price. In fact, you’re now within range of a decent lunch of what Barrett charges without the wait.

We’d consider this rifle to be a “one and done” affair.

You could buy it, hunt with it for the next 30 years, and not ever feel like you’d need to upgrade. The 6.5 Creed is capable of taking any species in North America up to brown bear, and in the Fieldcraft, it’s as close to a onegun solution as you’re likely to ind.

BARRETT FIELDCRAFT CALIBER:

6.5 Creedmoor BARREL LENGTH:

18 inches OVERALL LENGTH:

38 inches WEIGHT, EMPTY:

5.1 pounds MAGAZINE CAPACITY:

4 MSRP:

$1,700 URL:

www.barrett.net

ACCESSORIES SIG Tango 4 4-16x44 Scope: $1,100 PRICE AS FEATURED:

$2,800

RECOILWEB.COM 37

Photo Credit/Rob Curtis

38 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

PUBLIC LAND PROXY

Hunters Have Moved En Masse to Help Keep Public Lands in America in the Hands of the People Ben O’Brien

R

emi Warren is a public lands advocate.

He’s not a politician or lobbyist, and he wouldn’t it well in most suit-and-tie legislative hearings. He’s more at home in the mountains as a user. It’s been that way since he was old enough to hike, climb, and glass.

Growing up in the harsh high desert of Nevada, Warren spent countless hours exploring the millions of acres of public access in his home state. After high school he jumped head irst into guiding and outitting, opening up Montana Outwest Outitters at the age of 22. Located in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, Warren specializes in elk and deer hunts on public land.

The vast tracks of western land that he calls home have shaped him, and he’s used his experiences to

help introduce others to the beneits of the lands we share. In short, Warren is invested in our public lands, and those lands have invested in him. Last February, Warren had a chance to pay back what he’s been afforded, to help keep Nevada lands in the hands of folks like him.

It started in a previous session of congress on March 19, 2015, when Nevada Republican Congressman Mark Amodei introduced a measure known as the Honor the Nevada Enabling of 1864 Act. The legislation wasn’t the irst of its kind in Nevada, but it was deinitely the most aggressive. The bill moved “to direct the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain federal lands to the state of Nevada ….” The simple term used for this premise is “land transfer.”

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PUBLIC LAND PROXY

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The bill included a massive transfer of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service property that would have, in its irst phase, given control of 7.2 million acres parallel to Interstate 80, the Union Paciic Railroad, and the Humboldt River back to the state.

In its second phase, Amodei’s Bill would champion a much more substantial transfer that would eliminate much of the land managed by the federal government in Nevada. This would exclude wilderness, wildlife refuges, national parks, and tribal land.

Amodei and his fellow Republicans listed their reasoning in an eight-point argument summarizing why, in their minds, land transfer was the only way forward. The local economy, they said, is severely constrained in size and diversity by the paucity of state land and privately controlled land.

The federal government controls over 80 percent of all of the land within the state of Nevada, a greater percentage than any other state, and Nevada could generate signiicant net revenue for the beneit of its lands and people if it were afforded the opportunity to manage an expanded statecontrolled land portfolio.

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Supporters of the Bill claim that the federal government does a poor job of oversight on these lands, and that the ranchers, recreationalists, anglers, and hunters would beneit from local leadership calling the shots.

Warren thinks otherwise — and he’s not the only one. A broad opposition to the land transfer movement had already formed before he made his plan to attend a hearing of the Nevada Wildlife Commission in Carson City on February 9. But the Commission, which oversees the Nevada Department of Wildlife, needed to hear that opposition loud and clear from the people their decisions would affect most tangibly.

So Warren rented a bus, illed it full of like-minded advocates, and drove from Reno to Carson City. His plan was to lay out the opposition platform, summed up by the fact that land transfers can only lead to the sale and privatization of these lands and, eventually, the end of public access. States can’t afford the cost of managing large tracts, placing them in danger.

“I just wanted to get across to them the value of these lands,” he said. “The value to me and to future generations. I wanted them to see us all together.”

In total, 15 people spoke to the commission that evening; only one was in favor of the transfer. Most of the opponents were backcountry hunters.

The plan worked. The commission voted unanimously to summarize Warren and his fellow hunters’ concerns in a letter to Amodei. It was a powerful step in the ight to kill the bill.

“In my opinion we should look at preserving these high value habitats and movement corridors as public lands,” said Commissioner Jeremy Drew, one of the members that signed off on the letter.

The letter detailed the concerns voiced at the meeting: “There was nearly unanimous opposition to the transfer of most ‘Phase 1’ lands … The primary reasons for concern with such a transfer of Phase 1 lands include, but are not limited to: The state of Nevada does not have adequate resources (funding, staff, or programming) to administer large tracts of transfer lands; it is unclear as to how funding for the actual transfer (short-term) and management (long-term) of such lands would be secured; and, the use of lands for ‘long-term maximization of net revenue,’ including potential sale to private parties, was a concept that was very clearly opposed.”

The letter might as well have been a template for land transfer oppositions in the recent and distant past. The stage was set for a ight that would decide the fate of millions of acres of land.

A Long History These kind of battles go way back. Back to the conception of America’s public lands. Teddy Roosevelt found staunch opposition to his ight to save our Nation’s wildlife and wild places at the turn of the century. At the height of market hunting and commercialization, Roosevelt took over the presidency with a mission to

JonHuelskamp/istockphoto.com

save our lands from industrialization and to promote a naturalist’s approach to land use across the West.

During his time in ofice, Roosevelt was able to conserve and protect about 230 million acres of land for public use and help create The North American Model of Wildlife Management, setting in stone that wildlife resources are a public trust, markets for game are eliminated, allocation of wildlife is by law, and science is the proper tool to discharge wildlife policy. Concern about the administration of public resources also led the Roosevelt administration to appoint a Public Lands Commission to study and report on public lands issues in 1903.

Who opposed Roosevelt? Industrialists, robber barons, and those who stood to proit from the privatization of those lands. The early 20th century was marked by proiteers like John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, other titans of industry, and railroad magnates. In many ways this was the antithesis of a free market; rather, crony capitalism reigned supreme.

Throughout the next century our public lands continued to be a divisive issue among politicians and businessmen alike, but Roosevelt and his conservation contemporaries’ values have held mostly true.

Fast-forward to earlier this year and the cousin to Amodei’s the Honor the Nevada Enabling of 1864 Act, House Resolution 621. The Bill was sponsored by nowinfamous Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, calling for the disposal of 3.3 million acres of federal land in 10 western states. The concept was a carbon copy of Amodei’s Nevada efforts.

Chaffetz, a hardline republican, had hopes to ind public support for his land transfer bill. He was met with the fervor of a movement that he never expected.

In the days that followed the bill’s introduction, Outside Magazine, Men’s Journal, The Guardian, and other media outlets panned it, driving huge opposition. HR 621

chrispecoraro/istockphoto.com

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PUBLIC LAND PROXY become a rallying cry for hunters and anglers. The congressman’s Instagram and Facebook pages were full of comments opposing his bill, and the outpouring of anger seemed to swell.

He was pushed into a corner and had to respond.

Only a week after the HR 621 made its appearance Chaffetz posted on Instagram: “I’m a proud gun owner, hunter, and love our public lands. The bill would have disposed of small parcels of lands President Clinton identiied as serving no public purpose, but groups I support and care about fear it sends the wrong message … I hear you and HR 621 dies tomorrow.”

The hashtag “keepitpublic” boomed.

A New Movement Just over 13 years ago a group of dedicated hunters and anglers gathered together around a campire. Mike Beagle, Dick Hentze, Tim Lillebo, James Montieth, Tony Heckard, Michelle Halle, and Brian Maguire saw a problem in this country that needed to be ixed. Habitat loss, pollution of waters, and dwindling public access to wild places was a scary proposition for the group. They decided to act.

In March of 2004, a group dubbed Backcountry Hunters & Anglers was born. The mission: Be the voice for public lands, wildlife, and waters. It was a pretty simple cause to get behind, more important than any single local issue.

The members called back to public land pioneers like Roosevelt and Leopold, aiming their message at hunters and anglers who grew up knowing the freedom that wild places provide. Most only needed to be made

PeopleImages/istockphoto.com

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aware of the threats facing their way of life to jump in and help.

“When I was a kid I just thought everyone in the world had what we had,” Warren said. “But I slowly found out how special this land was.”

Today the organization is booming, growing by thousands of members a month and enjoying a growing influence on The Hill. With over 35 state chapters, they got the attention of avid users like Warren.

“I’m a member of BHA because I care about the future of public access,” he said. “They are the future of public lands, and I will do all that I can to help this cause.”

The group’s #keepitpublic has become a staple of the movement. Celebrities and activists don “Public Land Owner” shirts on social media, turning the opposition into a trending topic, injecting relevance and energy.

Driving the machine is CEO Land Tawney, a ifth-generation Montanan who was tapped to lead the organization and has turned up the dial on the organizations relevance. He’s appeared on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations show, on CNN with Joe Rogan talking about the issues, and on national TV with several interviews regarding Rep. Ryan Zinke’s conirmation as Secretary of the Interior.

“We are starting to feel this groundswell,” he told me. “We might not be a big group, but we are vocal, and we are relentless.”

Thousands of members flooded into Missoula, Montana, with Tawney this past April for the 2017 Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Rendezvous. They drank beer, ate wild game, and celebrated their

Jim_Pintar/istockphoto.com

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PUBLIC LAND PROXY

local, regional, and national efforts to shine a light on public lands. Twenty-year-old college kids joined with 65-year-old ranchers, van-living hipsters stood beside hard-core DIY elk hunters, and politicians ate locally sourced wild game with leaders of industry.

The core of the movement was represented there, a breed of activists multiplying in every corner of the nation.

This reawakening has brought together animalloving mountain bikers, hikers, and campers with even the most hard-core hunters and anglers. It’s inspired rallies at state capitals in Montana, Idaho, and Utah. The Montana rally, coauthored by the Montana Wilderness Association and BHA, saw 1,000-plus gather in Helena.

Last year, Colorado oficially coined the third Saturday in May America’s irst-ever “Public Lands Day” to bring together all that hope to push back on the idea that our lands are for sale. The Outdoor Retailer trade show pulled its influence and dollars out of Utah in opposition to the state’s public land politics. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, a titanic and unifying industry voice, penned an open letter helping to push that idea forward. The list goes on.

The movement has shot down just about every attempt from this small band of politicians hoping to reverse the course of history. The simple values of the #keepitpublic campaign have uniied in a way that few thought possible.

Battles Won On May 16, only three months after Warren sat in front of the Nevada Wildlife Commission, Rep. Amodei 44 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

changed his message during an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal editorial board.

“Transferring millions of acres of public lands ... is not something I think the majority of people think is a good idea,” he said.

Amodei is right. According to Colorado College’s 2017 State of the Rockies poll, 56 percent of people in seven western states oppose transferring national lands to state ownership. Pair public sentiment with the strong opinion of the Wildlife Commission, and it seemed there was no path forward.

With that, the Honor the Nevada Enabling of 1864 Act was dead. It would not return to congress.

In the long history of America’s public land ight, hunters and anglers marked this as another win. The integrity of these lands, though, will only stand as long as like-minded users like Warren speak out as advocates.

Just as the idea of shared resources deines our Nation, so does the premise of a people’s republic. Warren’s bus trip may seem small in the scope of this issue, but its message was strong enough to be heard in halls of Congress. The people would not consent in this case.

With the killing of Amodei and Chaffetz’s bills and the rise of organizations like Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the underpinnings of a movement have taken hold. Hunters and anglers now understand their political clout and have become leaders in the ight against land transfer. Now emboldened, their collective voice promises to only get louder.

Millions of acres of public lands are off the market … for now. The battles have been won, but the war is just getting started.

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6.5 GRENDEL IT’S NOT JUST FOR Bill Alexander’s Creation Makes a Whole Lot of Sense for the Woods Iain Harrison Kenda Lenseigne

I

’m starting this article with some assertions — feel free to shoot me down here, as there’s a lot of personal opinion interjected within these few lines. First, the vast majority, let’s say 95 percent, of shots on big game east of the Mississippi (and a lot of those in the west) are taken at less than 300 yards.

Second, most hunters don’t practice nearly as much as they’d like to, or should, due to a combination of factors such as range availability, time, and, let’s be honest here, lighting off a couple hundred rounds of hard-kicking big game rounds in the afternoon just isn’t much fun.

Third, there’s a commonly accepted maxim that it’s necessary for a bullet to deliver 1,000 foot-pounds of energy to a deer-sized animal in order to ensure its humane dispatch. Why not 950 ft-lbs or 1,086, and who came up with this arbitrary number in the irst place?

Some gun writer up against a deadline probably pulled it out of his ass and it stuck.

The irearms press must also take a large portion of the blame for hype and hoopla surrounding the launch of the various short and ultra mags, cartridges that address the needs of a microscopic fraction of the hunting community and yet received gallons of ink. No doubt, some poor saps were gulled into believing that if they could just push that 200-grain bullet a couple hundred feet per second faster, it would make up for their shooting like old people f*ck.

If we do actually accept the above three assertions, then why, other than for sake of pig-headed tradition, do we head aield each fall with calibers that were designed to kill a horse at a mile? It’s kinda like using a monster truck as a grocery getter.

RECOILWEB.COM 47

6.5 GRENDEL

Compact, capable, and lightweight.

What’s not to like?

If we plug the 1K at 300 model into a ballistic calculator, then we’d probably arrive at a solution that’s lighter to carry, easier on the shoulder (and therefore more likely to promote both practice and good marksmanship), cheaper, and just as effective.

I haven’t worn a uniform in long time, but I do recall there being a lot of validity to the military doctrine of training with the same equipment you use for realsies. If you’re carrying a 300 RUM to drop whitetails, then there’s a better-than-even chance that you’ll either skip practicing

altogether, curtail it in order to avoid burning up your barrel’s throat three bucks a pop, or else substitute another rifle and cartridge for this essential duty.

I’d go so far as to lay cash money that the main reason hunters miss isn’t due to any deiciency of their equipment; it’s because at the moment of truth they don’t know their gear half as well as they should. And the only way to gain that familiarity is to train.

Now, I’ll come clean here. The most memorable shot I’ve taken while hunting was on a flat-out, running hog

at around 200 yards, offhand with a .50 BMG. I’ve also chased jackrabbits at night with the same caliber. I like shooting the big bores, and there’s nothing quite like whacking steel at over a mile with something that starts with a 3 and ends with an 8. But for something that’ll be carried for miles through the woods and called upon to put meat on the table, I might sacriice a little horsepower.

There’s a round that checks all the above boxes: mildrecoiling, fun to shoot, accurate, suficiently powerful

and, thanks to the advent of steel-cased ammo, cheap to practice with. Until recently, it’s only been adopted by AR-15 owners, but at 23 cents a round, there’s no reason why anyone who wants to hunt with a bolt gun can’t take advantage of it, too.

There are currently two manufacturers building micro-length, bolt-action rifles around the 6.5 Grendel cartridge, namely CZ and Howa. Zastava briefly flirted with idea, but then changed distributors and now no longer offers it in the U.S. It’s a pity, as they provided a lower cost, if rougher, alternative to the other two.

Hailing from Japan, Howa rifles are once again being marketed under their own brand after years of masquerading as Weatherby and Smith & Wesson products.

They’re essentially an upgraded M700 and offer a better trigger and extractor than their Ilion counterparts. For anyone who wants to build their own semi-custom rifle, they’re available as barreled actions, and the aftermarket is slowly adding options with regards to stocks.

The Czech irm of CZ makes a micro-length Mauser 98 action, previously only available chambered in .223 Rem, 7.62x39, and .22 Hornet, but for 2017 they’ve added a 6.5 Grendel factory version. Back when I irst started flirting with the Grendel as a serious cartridge, the only way to lay hands on one was to start with an action and

then build out from there, which is as satisfying as it is expensive. Before signing checks, it was worth iguring out just what the goal was for this new venture.

This was to be a rifle that was capable of ringing steel at 1,000 yards, could drop deer, hogs, coyotes, and black bear out our 300-yard maximum, and would allow for lots and lots of practice in ield conditions. It was to be lightweight (having humped many 15-pound precision rifles around, they’re way more fun to shoot than they are to carry), but here we run into a conflict

Howa’s version of their micro action Grendel, all dressed up in a chassis.

THERE’S A ROUND THAT CHECKS ALL THE ABOVE BOXES: MILD-RECOILING, FUN TO SHOOT, ACCURATE, SUFFICIENTLY POWERFUL... between barrel weight and the ability of pencil-thin barrels to hold a group, once a practice session gets underway. A good trigger would be non-negotiable, as would a stock that was impervious to the elements while not feeling like it was made out of recycled grocery bags.

Proof Research was enlisted to address the barrel heating problem, and their 18-inch carbon-iber– wrapped tube was screwed onto a CZ 527 action that started out life mated to an x39 steel pipe. CZ sends

.308 Win (right) 6.5 Grendel (left)

RECOILWEB.COM 49

6.5 GRENDEL

CZ 527 CALIBER:

6.5 Grendel BARREL LENGTH:

18 inches OVERALL LENGTH:

38.5 inches WEIGHT UNLOADED (W/MAG):

6 pounds MAGAZINE CAPACITY:

5 MSRP:

$1,300 URL:

www.cz-usa.com

ACCESSORIES Proof Research Barrel: $900 Leupold VX-R 2-7x33 FireDot scope: $715 Harris bipod, DIP base: $39 Warne Mountain Tech Low Rings: $137 PRICE AS FEATURED:

$3,091 50

their bolt guns out into the world with one of the best factory triggers available, once you take the trouble to set them up.

While we toyed with the idea of adding a Rifle Basix unit to the buildsheet, after twiddling some adjustment screws we got a 3-pound, creep-free, single-stage break that brought a smile to everyone’s face. Pressing the trigger blade forward activates the set trigger and drops the poundage. If you take it to extremes you can wind up with a hilarious 4-ounce pull, but we wouldn’t recommend it for a hunting situation.

Our barreled action was mated to an HS Precision stock, but as their barrel channel arrives cut for a varmint, rather than bull, proile, we had to open it up slightly. Using an aluminum bedding block gives repeatable accuracy from the get-go, but giving in to our OCD side we also skim bedded it with epoxy, most of which oozed out during installation due to the preexisting tight it. The stock itself is a blend of traditional and tactical styling, with a wider fore end than typically found on a deer rifle and ambi palm swells that work well if you favor laying your iring thumb along the strong-side of the pistol grip.

Rather annoyingly, CZ elects to cut the top of the 527 receiver for 16mm rings, severely limiting your

CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

choices when it comes to scope mounting, as almost all the available options are either high or medium height.

Fortunately, by using a set of standard low rings in conjunction with a DIP Inc. 20MOA base, you can add a little versatility in terms of ring placement and scope choice, as almost any optic in the safe will then have the 40 minutes of elevation adjustment needed to reach the 1,000-yard mark.

We teamed the tiny bolty with a Leupold VX-R 2-7x33 scope, in keeping with its diminutive stature. With a 250-yard zero, bullets never drop or rise beyond 5 inches from the point of aim out to 300 yards, and the BDC’s hash marks correspond within 0.5 MOA of the actual impact at 300, 400, and 500 yards.

Due to its origins as a gas gun cartridge, the 6.5 Grendel has a somewhat conservative pressure limit of 50,000 psi, necessary to avoid the problem of sheared AR-15 bolt lugs, and exacerbated by the requirement of removing material from the bolt face in order to accommodate a fatter case head. Despite this, it’s one of the most eficient rounds out there, burning less than 30 grains of powder to launch a 123-grain bullet at around 2,500 fps.

Due to the mini Mauser’s stronger action, it’s possible to wring out another 125 fps through judicious hand loading, but that’s beyond the scope of this article

and should be attempted only by those with a thorough understanding of the risks involved. That comparatively diminutive powder charge, along with a low bore/ case diameter ratio is the main reason for the Grendel’s stellar barrel life — 5,000 rounds of sub-MOA group sizes isn’t uncommon in an AR. We suspect, given that no one will be doing mag dumps with a bolt gun, that our 527 will easily surpass that number.

Sticking to commercially available ammo, the shooter isn’t short of choices. We used Hornady’s loadings with both the 123-grain A-Max and SST bullets, and the accuracy results were both around 1 MOA. Although the SST has a reputation for varmint bullet performance when shot at velocities associated with a .260 Rem or 6.5 Swede, at the speeds generated from the milder Grendel, it should have no problem holding together and punching through both sides of a deer at up to our maximum range.

We’d like to see Barnes offer their 100-grain TTSX bullet as a factory load, as penetration and expansion are both excellent with this devastating little pill, which should still open up all the way out to 400 yards.

For now, only the 120-grain TSX is available in factory ammo though it, along with Nosler’s 130-grain Accubond, give good results on game.

Having waded through the turgid prose above, you might conclude that we’re pretty enamored with this this little bolt gun. You’d be right. It’s the one that gets pulled out of the safe when there’s a spare hour in the schedule, thrown in the ATV rack and taken to the range behind the house. Because it’s now well into its second, 1,000-round case of ammo, it’s the rifle that’ll be taken on the majority of our hunts this fall, as there’s no question about where it hits at various ranges and positions — I know, rather than guess at, what I can hit and how big of a target must be presented for a one-shot kill.

Howa and CZ both make owning a 6.5 Grendel way easier than it used to be. Off-the-rack versions are readily available and in the case of the Czech offerings, feature some of the nicest walnut stocks of any production guns — just in case you want to go the whole “traditional, blued steel and walnut” route. With luck, we might just start a movement for easy-to-use calibers and get Savage, Remington, and Ruger on board. And, of course, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with swapping out the upper on your 5.56 AR, should you prefer hunting with a semi auto. Whatever you choose, we’ll bet that your practical marksmanship improves, as will your chances of punching a tag this year.

Micro Mauser bolt next to a M98 original. With its low gas volume, the Grendel is easy to suppress — the Proof barrel comes threaded 5/8-28 for a variety of cans.

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PAIRINGS

BECAUSE GAME IS FOR EATING David Merrill Iain Harrison and Dave Merrill

Braised Young Rabbit with Sweet Pea Mash and a Simple Salad (aka Rabbits with Rabbit Food) Recipe by Dave Merrill Historically, in America at least, rabbits have been considered “poor people’s food.” And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, especially when you ponder the fact that dishes from the least affluent segment of the population often become symbols of a national culture. My great-grandfather kept his family fed through the Great Depression with a steady diet of squirrel, rabbit, and (poached) deer.

If you fry it or slather it in barbecue, even the least desirable of animals can usually be made palatable. But screw that, we want to taste what we eat, not mask it. To that end, this dish is best paired with a nice American Pale ale or similar. In this case, a Wolf’s Ridge Brewing Clear Sky cream ale. This craft brew isn’t illed to the brim with hops, which is annoyingly rare these days.

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INGREDIENTS: 1 whole young rabbit, cleaned and quartered (the old bastards are too tough, at least for this recipe) 1 yellow onion, sliced 1 garlic bulb, separated into cloves and peeled 1/4 cup white wine vinegar Olive oil Coarse salt Coarsely ground pepper

SALAD: Spring mix Cherry tomatoes

1 Shallot Coarse salt Olive oil

SWEET PEA MASH: 10 oz. sweet peas (you can cheat with frozen) Salt

Small shallot ½ tbsp. lemon juice 2 tbsp. sour cream

DIRECTIONS: Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

For the most authentic feel, this should be cooked in a cast iron dutch oven, but this author opted for a deep nonstick pan with a lid. We know, hang him from the rafters. Preheat your cooking receptacle of choice on medium-high with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Give your rabbit a generous dose of salt and pepper.

Once the pan is fully heated, brown the quartered rabbit on each side. The real trick is to brown but not burn.

When well browned, remove and set aside on a plate.

Toss the onion into the pan, scraping the bottom and stirring occasionally until it begins to caramelize. This will take 10 to 15 minutes to do properly. And if you scorch it, it’ll be terrible.

Add water to the pan until the rabbit is half-covered — we’re braising, not boiling. Cover and place in the oven until fork-tender, approximately two hours.

If you can’t figure out how to assemble the salad, we can’t help you here.

When the rabbit is fully cooked and tender, remove from the oven, set aside the meat, and cover. While the meat is resting, start steaming your sweet peas. Break out your food processor and add the salt, peeled shallot, lemon juice, and sour cream. Pulse until you reach your desired texture — don’t do it too much or it’ll look like baby food like the example pictured below.

For bonus points, reduce the remaining liquid for a sauce. Top the entire dish with fresh cracked black pepper.

Add the garlic, browned rabbit, and white wine vinegar back into the pan.

Be sure to add any liquid that released from the rabbit while it was set aside.

RECOILWEB.COM 53

PAIRINGS

54

Pan-Seared Elk Medallions Recipe by Iain Harrison With elk, simpler is better. Yes, there are plenty of ways to cook the tougher cuts — we’ll explore many of them over the next few issues of CARNIVORE. But when you want to reduce everything to its primal elements, there’s nothing iner than an inch-thick slice across a backstrap seasoned with salt and pepper, then pan seared in melted butter.

I serve this on a bed of quinoa salad, but you can add whatever you want to the mix — just don’t allow the rhythm section to drown out the maestro of meats. Ballsto-the-wall IPAs and hot reds are too overpowering on this one. Instead, either follow our advice on page 78 and pair with a subtle, earthy Pinot or for a beer ix try Tank 7 farmhouse ale from Boulevard Brewing Co. INGREDIENTS: 1- to 1.5-inch-thick elk backstrap medallions

Salt Pepper

QUINOA SALAD: 1/3 cup organic quinoa Handful of shiitake mushrooms 1/3 cup chicken stock 1/3 cup mung beans 1 cup spinach, coarsely chopped

¼ cup red onion, finely chopped 2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped ¼ cup Asiago or blue cheese

BASIL CHIMICHURRI DRESSING: 1.5 cups fresh basil 2 cloves garlic 3 green onions 3 red poblanos

Olive oil White vinegar Salt & pepper

DIRECTIONS: Prepare your salad and dressing by first boiling the mung beans for 10 minutes or until al dente. Bring chicken stock and mushrooms to a boil, and then add the quinoa. Boil for another couple of minutes, then kill the heat and add the spinach, onion, and tomatoes. Cover and leave to cool.

While you’re waiting, dump all the dressing ingredients into a food processor and pulse until they’re smooth but still recognizable.

When the salad ingredients have cooled to blood temperature, fire up the stove, melt some butter, and get it almost to the smoke point. Sear your seasoned elk steaks. Keep them moving and seal each side and edge. Once you have a good char going, remove from the heat and set aside to rest for a minute. May a thousand leeches infest your asshole if you overcook it. Add cheese to the salad, serve the medallions on top, and bask in their magnificence.

Got a wild game recipe you’d like to share? Please send it, along with some welllit, high-resolution photos to recoil@ enthusiastnetwork. com, along with your name, the name of the dish, ingredients, and directions on how to cook it. By sending in submissions, you grant TEN: The Enthusiast Network the unrestricted, transferable and sub-licensable, irrevocable, royaltyfree, world-wide, and perpetual license to reproduce, distribute, publicly display, make derivative works of, and otherwise use the submissions in any media whatsoever now known or later invented throughout the world for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or not.

RECOILWEB.COM 55

56 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

FARE GAME The Unforgettable Food Created by Chef Jesse Grifiths is All Local, Mostly Wild, and Undeniably Creative Ben O’Brien Jody Horton

J

esse Grifiths pokes his head into his walk-in freezer and cracks a wry smile. The small space is bursting at the seams, illed to the brim with crates, barrels, and trays harboring Grifiths’ favorite things.

“Oh man, check this out,” he said, eyes going wide as he

examines a fresh package. “Check out these fresh lemons. Just came in. That’s awesome.”

The red-bearded chef gives a tour of the shelves that wrap around the cold storage, a library of categorized ingredients ready to be plucked by one of his kitchen staffers — fresh in-season vegetables, locally killed wild boar hams, and freshly caught Pompano from the Texas coast. Grifiths knows every item, where it came from, and how it its into one of his culinary adaptions.

He quickly shifts gears and dodges a few passing workers, breaking out into an open kitchen and bar. Grifiths is subdued and focused amidst the frantic pace of the restaurant, dialed in to the smallest details of each dish.

“It’s busy,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t make something different, a real meal that tells a story.”

There’s the Wild Boar Burger with pickled grilled mushrooms, boar pancetta, bibb, and red eye mayonnaise. There’s Mike’s Butcher Shop Hash featuring cured and smoked meats, home fries, turnip, two eggs, and beet ketchup. And be sure to try the Bison Lettuce Wraps.

Grifiths’ Austin, Texas-based Dai Due is transitioning from lunch to dinner on a Friday afternoon, all while planning for a demanding catering job the same evening.

Wild pork simmers on a grill tucked into an all-brick ireplace, glowing with coals. Some rather elegant-looking guinea fowl schnitzel sits ready for the same treatment. The supper club and butcher shop is a picture of organic fare. Its lighting, décor, and even the energy of the place seems evolved. As if Grifiths created it all at once, born out of the idea that food can only be truly rich if the space where it’s created has a sense of purpose.

“Everything here is done with care,” he said. “It all comes from our region, it all basically comes in from Texas. We live in a diverse state that touches the ocean to the south for seafood and stretches to the hill country, which has some damn good wine.”

Dai Due has gained fame as of late, both for Grifiths and his everyman approach to ine cuisine as well as its wild plates. One lunchtime tour of his living, breathing handiwork, and it’s not hard to see why.

RECOILWEB.COM 57

FARE GAME

The Beginning It all started with a crappie. Grifiths grew up in Denton,

ate very, very simply,” he says. “Biscuits and gravy, pot pies, fried chicken, catish. I loved to eat. I’d save up money and

a mid-sized college town north of Dallas. It was a decidedly

ride my bike and eat lunch at a restaurant by myself when I

typical upbringing, he said, with a mix of “redneck and hippie.”

was like 10.”

“My dad and I ished very often,” Grifiths says. “We

As soon as he was old enough, Grifiths started working in

didn’t have a boat, so it was a lot of white bass and crappie

restaurants doing the grunt work, a gritty and fundamental

and catish ….”

way to learn food. He didn’t take the traditional route to learn

Just as his life was genuinely Texas early on, so too was

his craft. There would be no college, no culinary school, no

the way he fell in love with food. “My friend, Blake, and I

fancy résumé-building training. It was raw experience that built

ished Lake Ray Roberts one morning,” Grifiths says. “We

Grifiths, working with great people at great places.

couldn’t have been very old — just old enough for him to

Given his upbringing, it’s easy to question how he ended

drive. Anyway, I caught the only ish that day. It was a big

up a creative leader in Austin’s trendy and well-established

female crappie, and I caught it on a red and white jig. I still

culinary scene. It seems strange to Grifiths that ield-to-table

remember that. Brought it home and fried bacon, cooked

or farm-to-table is an idea that’s elevated (if not overused) in

potatoes in the bacon fat, and rolled the illets in cornmeal

today’s food culture. Before modern processed food, there was

and fried those, too. This is still something I will make.”

no other way to make a meal. You ate what the land and people

His love for food was born with that side of ketchup. “We 58 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

around you provided — it goes to the history of our culture.

Grifiths took his exploration of the idea to another level.

“I was always enamored with Chez Panisse in California, and this idea of using local ingredients to express food,” he says. “Funny thing is that the rest of the entire world functions, or functioned, on this premise. I traveled a bit to Europe and Mexico and became obsessed with using only the resources found in our region, and also the cultural traditions.

Central Texas is pretty much far northern Mexico, plus we have a lot of Germans and Czechs here, which makes it really cool. And the Gulf.”

As the premise took root, so did the need to do something about it. To create a place where the food was familiar, comfortable, and honored in a way most can’t fathom. Grifiths wanted a simple kitchen with a ire for cooking and lots of local meat and vegetables. He knew if he did it this way, his career would also support his community, resident ranchers and farmers among them. In this model, Dai Due was born.

“We’ve been in business for almost 11 years,” he says. “We started as a supper club — kind of a mobile restaurant. Then, we had a booth at the farmers’ market and started hunting schools where we would take people out hunting and show them how to do everything. We opened the brick and mortar three years ago. Weather was a big issue early on, as everything we did was outside and, well, this is Texas, and it can be pretty harsh here sometimes.”

In his mission to create something different there was the inherent challenge of sourcing. It would be a constant struggle.

It’s a puzzle that needs to be put together every single day, a challenge that the whole staff at Dai Due relishes.

“Explaining to people why we don’t have onions or lemons at certain times of year can be a challenge, and some people just think it’s stupid,” he said. “I recently heard someone describe the restaurant as ‘controversial,’ and that we were ‘unapologetic’ about our stance on ingredients. I guess I’ll take that. It’s funny that doing something that’s possibly the oldest concept known to humans is controversial.”

There’s no secret behind why people have noticed Dai Due and its affable but determined owner. The place makes a statement, driving home the point that nothing worth doing is ever reined. It should be raw and real, never synthetic. That’s why you’ll never see anything other than Texas olive oil, animal fats from hogs, beef, chicken, and duck, and organic butter simmering in a pan at Dai Due. It’s more work for a better output.

“If I won’t feed it to my kid, I won’t serve it here,” he says.

“We have a responsibility as a community to look beyond proits and do the right thing. I personally believe that buying really good, fresh products from people in the community, and not relying on the resources of other communities, is something that I can do to effectively make a little difference.”

RECOILWEB.COM 59

FARE GAME Grifiths said with a dry, purposeful delivery: “Owning a restaurant is a daily struggle. It will not make me rich.”

The New Meat School Today, more and more regular folks are recognizing that hunting is as integral to how we eat as a farmer’s cornield.

Grifiths didn’t get into hunting until later in his life, when it was a way to expand his horizons in the culinary world and learn more about the land. He seems annoyed, though, that ield-to-table is even a necessary moniker.

“It’s greatly overused these days, for sure,” he says.

“But people in general are more interested in the connections with food, which leads them to make better and more informed food choices. Hunting could be a dirty word ive years ago; now it’s being seen for what it should be.”

Many outsiders have called Dai Due’s use of feral hogs for their dishes “adventurous” or “risky,” but Grifiths wouldn’t have it any other way. His affection for the wild swine that have overrun his home state is absolute.

“I’m obsessed with feral hogs,” he says. “I love them to death. I think they’re really cool, and I want to kill every one I see. And eat it. They’re total survivors, and they can taste really good. Many people just don’t know how to deal with them.”

MANY OUTSIDERS HAVE CALLED DAI DUE’S USE OF FERAL HOGS FOR THEIR DISHES “ADVENTUROUS” OR “RISKY,” BUT GRIFFITHS WOULDN’T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY. The result of his affair with hogs is some good hunting stories and a few mind-bendingly good plates at Dai Due. (You have to try the wild boar patty melt recipe on page 6.) Hogs have become a reluctant cash crop for the state and a slice of home on each plate for willing restaurateurs like Grifiths.

“Most of our hogs are trapped live in the Hill Country, then transported live to a processor in Fredericksburg, right down the road,” he says. “Here, they’re killed under inspection and the carcasses are brought to us.”

To satisfy his hunting itch and to help teach others how to properly approach eating wild pork, Grifiths hosts butchering classes each month (or whenever he has time), a total immersion in what he does.

“We were doing classes on domestic hogs, and I wanted to tie hunting into it,” he says. “And there’s a very distinct lack of information about butchering and cooking feral hogs.

It’s the elephant in the room.”

While he’s out there training and educating, Grifiths is also leading people back to what they have lost — a sense

another conversion made; mission accomplished.

Besides his classroom work, Grifiths’ other, more notable,

of purpose in their food … and sweat equity. The aim of his

expression of his love for wild eats is his book Aield: A

“New School of Traditional Cookery” is to educate, train,

Chef’s Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish.

and empower people within their communities to utilize

With more than 80 recipes, it’s likely one of the best ef-

local foods to their fullest. Sign up and you’ll hunt with the

forts of its kind. It’s gained great acclaim for its stories of

chef, head back to the butcher shop for a seminar on how

the chase and stunningly effective step-by-step photos of

to cook it, and then learn how to utilize it in any number

processing game. It’s the ield-to-table bible for those look-

of dishes. It’s a profound experience for most and a useful

ing to reine and sharpen their skills. Any method and any

experience for all. As with his restaurant, a huge part of his

meat you can think of are included. It’s a bible for getting

side job as a meat professor is the people he meets.

your wild fare right.

“We had a guy come down from New York City,” he says.

The collective presence of his book, classes, and daily

“Really cool guy. He brought the tiniest cooler ever, maybe

grind of the restaurant have made Grifiths a thought

8 quarts or something like that. It was carry-on luggage.

leader in his world. People know him for his consistent and

He didn’t get a hog in the irst couple of hunts, but got one

relentless presence. They want to learn what he knows.

on the very last day and he had to fly out that afternoon. I was concerned about how we would pack it, and he showed me the hog. It was tiny. He picked out the smallest one

Jesse Grifiths www.daidue.com

What’s the one question Grifiths gets asked the most?

“They want to know what the hell Dai Due means,” he said.

There’s a deinition to the term for sure, but to Grifiths,

out of the sounder and killed it. We packed it in his cooler

his staff, family, and the people who know him, it’s a

and he sent us a picture that night of his cut-up hog with

phrase that means honest food and honest ingredients — a

the Statue of Liberty in the background.” To Grifiths it’s

fresh, extraordinarily wild take on how we eat.

RECOILWEB.COM 61

GETTING THE LEAD OUT Is Nontoxic Still An Epithet When Talking About Hunting Ammo?

Rob Curtis

T

here’s a persistent perception that lead-free hunting rounds will pass through game like a sewing needle and foul barrels with copper diarrhea.

While new non-lead monolithic bullets produce debilitating wound channels, and foul far less than their premillennial brethren, they’re still lighter-forcaliber and have a velocity floor that must be met in order to perform.

Why Lead-Free?

The most obvious reason hunters turn to nontoxic ammunition is because they have to. While all shot used to hunt waterfowl in the U.S. has been lead-free since the ’90s, there’s only a patchwork of areas in the country that require the use of lead-free rifle bullets at the moment. Its use is mandated to protect the environment and animals from lead contamination in the California Condor ranges in the west, and in various wildlife management areas and national wildlife refuges spread throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Iowa, and South Dakota, to name a few.

But the slow shift away from lead continues and, in 2019, all hunting

62 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

in California will be lead-free. We can see the many state wildlife management agencies across the nation that now “encourage” the use of lead-free ammunition someday mandating its use, much like the decadeslong awakening that turned cool cigarette smokers into gazebo-huddling outcasts.

Aside from the still relatively few folks who don’t have the choice of using traditional leaded hunting bullets, nontoxic ammo is becoming more popular with hunters who appreciate the performance of all-copper bullets and want to eliminate the chance of ingesting lead in their game meals.

A study published in 2010 by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources shows lead from bullet fragments travels way further inside game than anyone previously thought. In the study titled Bullet Fragmentation and Lead Deposition in White Tailed Deer and Domestic Sheep, it’s revealed there’s surprisingly more lead in shot game than we can see or taste. The study found simply carving out the bullet fragments and avoiding the use of meat from the wound channel wasn’t enough to eliminate lead exposure.

In fact, an earlier

study performed in 2008 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the North Dakota Department of Health found a link between eating wild game shot with lead bullets and higher blood lead levels. Google it, if you can remember after putting this issue down. If you forget, though, know short-term memory loss is a symptom of lead exposure.

Performance So, yeah. Aside from knowing you’re not effectively feeding your family lead paint chips and the vaguely warm-fuzzy from protecting the environment, there’s the simple fact that lead-free ammo is as deadly as a pissedoff leprechaun on a pogo stick in a B-movie horror flick.

Horse Creek Outitters guide Adam Beaupre sees about 15 to 20 big-game rifle kills a year working out west, and of that, he estimates three or four of them are from lead-free bullets.

“I’ve had guys shoot the Barnes copper bullets,” he says, “and what I’ve seen is not a whole lot of difference between lead and non-lead kills inside of 400 yards.

I’ve had wounded animals with lead bullets and with non-lead bullets. From a performance standpoint, given good shot placement at the appropriate range, I can tell you both of them work.”

It’s up to you to decide if a long shot is ethical, but if there’s a limiting factor, it’s not bullet performance as long as you’ve chosen and doped out the right round for the distance and game.

“Out past 400 yards,” says Beaupre, “I’d think twice about shooting an animal with a lead-free bullet... Heck, I’d think twice anyway at 400 yards with any round, but in general, you lose enough velocity at those distances that expansion in those lead-free rounds becomes a problem, and you really jeopardize killing power.”

Copper Lore There’s a litany of arguments against non-lead rounds debated over the gun counter, nearly all of them borne from ignorance or fealty to the leaded status quo.

• “It requires a long barrel.” We ran the numbers, challenged a range of lead-free ammo to

RECOILWEB.COM 63

GET THE LEAD OUT expand with our own 16-inch, low velocity test, and talked to hunters who report have taken large game with monolithic copper ammo.

• “It’s not accurate.” Our testing says otherwise.

We made holes with some of these rounds that seemed like they were magnetically drawn to each other.

• “It’ll over-penetrate.” Modern bullet manufacturing techniques have caught up with monolithic projectiles, giving bullet-makers great control over the expansion characteristics of its projectiles. Witness the Lehigh Defense .308 Win 79-grain Close Quarters ammunition shown on page 67. It dumped nearly all of its energy in a 16-inch 10-percent FBI block of Clear Ballistics gel. (We surmise it would have been 100-percent contained in the gel, but our shot was a little left of center.)

• “It’s a government/left-wing/gun control/tree hugger conspiracy to take away our hunting rights and/or our guns.” It might be. But when it comes to hunting, we’ve heard woodsmen crying that lead-free hunting regulations will make ammunition too expensive to buy, resulting in a de-facto hunting ban for all but the wealthy. How much premium hunting ammo do you buy? Sure, the copper ammo is more, but not twice the price, and most of us only use a few boxes of premium hunting ammo per season.

always present a clean, quartering shot. There are times when a lead bullet that expands early could stop short of the vitals, leaving a suffering animal to bolt and disappear. Some hunters prefer having penetration to spare, and lighter, faster projectiles are the answer. Exit wounds also aid in tracking wounded animals.

• Lighter weight: Copper’s lower sectional density compared to lead means copper bullets are lighter than lead for rounds of the same caliber and size. This leads to higher velocity and less recoil. Thanks to that velocity, you can generally drop a bullet weight or two in a given caliber and achieve the same terminal effects of the larger, lead round.

• Stewardship: There’s no known level of lead exposure that’s considered safe. Reducing lead in the environment contributes to a healthy, verdant ecosystem — and that’s an outcome we all desire.

Testing We began with a wide array of non-lead ammunition, shooting groups and chronoing about 25 products.

We chose .308 Win because it’s the Ford Taurus of ammo. Using accuracy as the basis of performance, we focused on the rounds that produced the tightest groups in our rifle.

We thought about using granpappy’s 24-inch .308.

But after taking an Idaho black bear with an 18-inch .308 Winchester at 328 yards, the desire to hike, climb, and possibly stalk with a wizard staff was in the rearview when hunting all but the largest game in the most wideopen landscapes.

We’d already planned on using Q LLC’s The Fix to fill the freezer this fall, so we figured why not test the 16-inch, 1:10 twist, Bartlein barrel so the rest of you Joes looking to go lighter and shorter have an idea what you’re getting — or giving up — with a 16-incher.

Mathematically, using a shorter barrel means giving up between 20 and 30 percent of the range we’d expect going off the data printed on the ammo

On The Plus Side We’re sure there are more ways to hate on lead-free ammo, but there are also good reasons to consider copper and other non-lead ammunition for hunting.

• Lack of fragmentation: Nearly all copper and gilded metal ammo maintains its mass after expansion, even when hitting bone. No metal chunks to pick out of your steaks. But some rounds can fragment when pushed too fast, and manufacturers let you know where the speed limit is on those rounds right on the box.

• Controlled expansion: Manufacturers of machined bullets, such as those made by Lehigh Defense, can bestow all manner of properties by using intricate designs imparted through the use of Swiss sliding headstock lathes.

Manufacturers such as SIG SAUER using traditional methods, such as swaging and dies, are learning to apply advancements in metallurgy and material science to make incredibly accurate and deadly projectiles.

• Dependable penetration: Big game animals don’t 64 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

It might not look like much, because it’s not. We screwed a few 2x sticks together to make a channel to hold the backstop water bottles consistently in place against the gel. We shot the gel at 100 yards.

box. With the aim of a humane kill, we wanted to see what that reduced performance might look like, and if these nontoxic bullets could really be coaxed into service at the edge of their performance envelope.

Once we narrowed the ield, we shot 6x6x18-inch blocks of Clear Ballistics 10-percent gelatin at 100 yards, recording each bullet strike with a slow motion video camera. Scrubbing the footage, we found the frame for each strike that shows the fully expanded wound cavity. This allowed us to roughly compare each bullet’s cavitation. Not only do we get an idea of how large the temporary wound channel is, we also see how far the round travels into the gel before it begins to expand.

We lined up water jugs behind the gel to get a rough measurement of remaining energy and to trap the bullet so we could get the recovered weight. All the bullets stopped in the fourth gallon jug, except the Lehigh, which didn’t puncture any, as it’s designed not to penetrate.

Max Effective Range The threshold for reliable expansion for most copper and copper alloy projectiles is between 1,800 and 2,000 fps. Some manufacturers might say its bullet will open when travelling under 1,800 fps, but tip expansion under those circumstances will be limited. We generated range cards for each of the rounds on the next pages using Applied Ballistics Analytics software to estimate ranges where each bullet passes through the 2,000 fps and, worst-case scenario (in our opinion), 1,800 fps threshold when shot from our 16-inch, suppressed, .308 test rif le.

We used the BC’s provided by the manufacturers (which could be optimistic) and the G1 drag model across the board to keep the playing field level. The calculations were performed using 0-foot density

Cavitation Analysis Clear Ballistics gel gives us great viewing clarity, but nothing can truly illustrate the violence that follows a bullet’s passage through a living body. Bones, organs, lunch… all these things affect the path of a bullet in unpredictable ways. So, all we can do is look at the permanent wound channel and compare it to the temporary cavity. One trick we applied when measuring the starting point of the cavity was illing the wound channel with a bit of compressed air. This made it much easier to intimate the limits and 3D shape of the wound channel. It also made it easy to see how far into the gel a bullet traveled before it began to expand.

RECOILWEB.COM 65

GET THE LEAD OUT altitude; keep in mind that the minimum distances will increase as DA increases.

Takeaway After shooting groups, chronoing, blasting gel, and modeling trajectories, we’re conident the current crop of copper, copper alloy, and lead-free ammunition will deliver clean kills, even with a shorter barrel, when

Nosler’s 168-grain E-Tip left the largest permanent wound channel of our test group.

1 BARNES BULLETS .308 WIN 150-GRAIN VOR-TX TIPPED TSX BT BULLET BC (G1):

.420 RECOVERED WEIGHT:

149.1 grains FACE EXPANSION:

.55 inch GROUP SIZE:

.478 MOA AVERAGE VELOCITY:

2,661 fps (8.2) CAVITY INITIATION:

1.5 inches WOUND CHANNEL LENGTH:

5.5 inches CALCULATED DISTANCE &ENERGY @ 2,000 FPS:

1,334 ft-lb @ 327 yards CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 1,800 FPS:

1,080 ft-lb @ 439 yards MSRP:

Barnes’ copper bullet designs were some of the first to bring reliable, deadly performance to the nontoxic bullet category.

The annular rings, or relief bands, cut at the base give displaced copper someplace to collect, reducing fouling considerably and aiding in bullet obturation, increasing accuracy.

These relief bands are now a fixture on nearly all copper bullets, likely first used on hunting bullets by Barnes back in the late 1980s. The wound track is straight and highlighted with a large initial cavitation that starts early, perhaps within an inch and a half of entry, and trails out. Expansion is even, but incomplete.

The blue plastic tip remained in the sound channel in small, visible pieces.

FEDERAL 2 PREMIUM AMMUNITION .308 WIN 150-GRAIN VITAL-SHOK TROPHY COPPER BULLET BC (G1):

.469 RECOVERED WEIGHT:

148.5 grains FACE EXPANSION:

.57 inch GROUP SIZE:

.223 MOA AVERAGE VELOCITY:

2,671 fps (27) CAVITY INITIATION:

1.5 inches WOUND CHANNEL LENGTH:

14.5 inches

Wound channel sustained a long wide cavity that appears devastatingly even, sprouting many expansion pockets 360 degrees around the central axis. The most accurate bullet in this guide, it was also among the fastest and should have the greatest range, according to our calculations using Applied Ballistics trajectory modeling.

It also displayed the widest face expansion.

Oddly, the SD was very high, but didn’t seem to have a meaningful effect on accuracy. Velocity ranged from 2,629 to 2,717 fps.

3 HORNDAY MANUFACTURING .308 WIN 165-GRAIN FULL BOAR BMX BULLET BC (G1):

.447 RECOVERED WEIGHT:

164.2 grains FACE EXPANSION:

.53 inch GROUP SIZE:

.432 MOA AVERAGE VELOCITY:

2,499 fps (10.8) CAVITY INITIATION:

1 inch WOUND CHANNEL LENGTH:

6 inches CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 2,000 FPS:

CALCULATED DISTANCE &

1,467 ft-lb @ 269 yards

ENERGY @ 2,000 FPS:

1,333 ft-lb @ 371 yards

CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 1,800 FPS:

CALCULATED DISTANCE &

1,188 ft-lb @ 387 yards

ENERGY @ 1,800 FPS:

1,079 ft-lb @ 496 yards

MSRP:

$46/20

MSRP:

URL:

$46/20

URL:

URL:

www.hornady.com

www.barnes bullets.com

$51/20

www.federal premium.com

3 2 1

66 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

The Full Boar began to cavitate almost immediately upon contact with the gel block. The wound channel cavity is asymmetric but tracks true through the gel. The initial, wide temporary cavity collapsed after about 6 inches, leaving a good tail that trails to the end of the block and into the water jugs, where it veered hard left. Water does that to bullets. Expansion was incomplete, likely due to the lower velocity (as is the case with all the rounds). The 6-petals of the expansion tip curled back harder on the bullet base than others in the group, possibly presenting a rounder face to the gel, leading to a slightly slimmer permanent wound cavity. Seems to have dumped more energy up front.

While shooting 6-inch gel blocks might’ve been more exciting with a 4-12 scope, we practically set the rifle on autopilot by using this Nightforce Competition 1555x52 optic.

the appropriate caliber and distances are applied. We plan on feeding our .308 a limited diet of copper this fall, fully expecting to be rewarded with clean, ethically harvested northeast venison.

If we were out west, hunting in the open at greater distances, we’ve no doubt larger, nontoxic bullets would do the same when it comes to larger game when employed with skill and sense.

LEHIGH 4 DEFENSE .308 WIN 79-GRAIN HIGH VELOCITY CLOSE QUARTERS BULLET BC (G1):

.249 RECOVERED WEIGHT:

78.5 grains FACE EXPANSION:

N/A GROUP SIZE:

.741 MOA AVERAGE VELOCITY:

3,587 fps (14.3) CAVITY INITIATION:

4 inches WOUND CHANNEL LENGTH:

5 inches CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 2,000 FPS:

702 ft-lb @ 418 yards CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 1,800 FPS:

568 ft-lb @ 486 yards MSRP:

$38 URL:

www.lehigh defense.com

4

This one has the most going on and is clearly the most specialized round in the group.

The Close Quarters projectile is made of a brass bass cup and fitted with an aluminum penetrator that jams back into the cup on impact. The delayed expansion aids in making sure the energy dump hits deep enough to engage vitals. The cup splits along pre-scored lines, sending four blade-like fragments to create their own wound channels in search of vitals organs to slice. The beauty of this round is its ability to dump all of its energy and mass into a small space without causing collateral damage.

While it’s an ideal round for manhunting in confined spaces, its much higher velocity should lend itself to picking off coyotes in urban areas. We’re fairly certain it’ll take down a deer, but digging six, or more, bullet parts from a carcass doesn’t seem like fun. Two of the projectile’s components, an arm and the base, fell out of the side of the block, likely due to a slightly off-center shot.

5 NOSLER AMMUNITION .308 WIN 168-GRAIN E-TIP AMMUNITON BULLET BC (G1):

.503 RECOVERED WEIGHT:

166.6 grains FACE EXPANSION:

.54 inch GROUP SIZE:

.483 MOA AVERAGE VELOCITY:

2,570 fps (25.3) CAVITY INITIATION:

1 inch WOUND CHANNEL LENGTH:

12.5 inches CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 2,000 FPS:

1,393 ft-lb @ 342 yards CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 1,800 FPS:

1,209 ft-lb @ 475 yards MSRP:

$38 URL:

www.nosler.com

The E-Tip created a large temporary cavity that tapered a bit toward the rear of the gel block. It was similar in shape, but larger than Hornady GMX. Cavitation began quickly and the temporary cavity appears the largest, supported by the most spiral, jagged, and nasty permanent wound channel, second to the Federal Vital-Shok’s hella cavitation.

Expansion was average and also incomplete. The E-Tip carried the most energy into the block. It hit dead on and tracked straight through the gel, as if it were moving through air.

Visible in the block is also the largest deposit of charring in the group, evidence of a large sonoluminescent explosion — again, serving as evidence of the Nosler E-Tip’s effectiveness in creating a massive temporary cavity.

6

6 SIG SAUER .308 WIN 150-GRAIN SIG HT HUNTING AMMUNITION BULLET BC (G1):

.400 RECOVERED WEIGHT:

149.9 grains FACE EXPANSION:

.50 inch GROUP SIZE:

.328 MOA AVERAGE VELOCITY:

2,670 fps (9.1) CAVITY INITIATION:

2 inches WOUND CHANNEL LENGTH:

17 inches CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 2,000 FPS:

1,332 ft-lb @ 316 yards CALCULATED DISTANCE & ENERGY @ 1,800 FPS:

1,080 ft-lb @ 422 yards MSRP:

$43 URL:

www.sigsauer.com

SIG is only a few years into the ammunition business, but the company is putting out products worthy of a legacy brand. Already fans of SIG’s handgun rounds, when we caught wind they were developing an all-copper hunting round and worked hard to get you a first look at their efforts. The new round is still in development, but SIG shared preproduction samples with us to whet our appetite. By the numbers, the round is a performer. It was the second most accurate with the second lowest SD of our test group. We noticed right away the wound channel was enormous. The special sauce is the way SIG controls expansion. Instead of relying solely on internal geometry to facilitate bullet tip expansion, SIG’s engineers exploit the bullet’s metallurgic properties, harnessing the hardness of the bullet’s walls instead of the thickness. We noted some asymmetry in the bullet’s expansion, but the wound channel is dead straight and the double-pump cavity extends nearly to the end of the gel block.

SIG tells us they’re still perfecting the technology used in the bullet and will have it sorted by the time it’s released.

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BULLS ABOVE THE RIM Chasing Elk in the Arizona High Country Keith Wood

T

he irst light of sunrise iltered over the valley, as we began painstakingly glassing the broken timber. While half of the country was ransacking retail stores in search of “Black Friday” deals, we were picking the valley apart looking for a speciic bull elk. Sam spotted the irst bull, a mature six-by-six who would be considered a shooter anywhere but Arizona. The next bull was bigger yet, exceeding the size that outitters, guides, and even the local wildlife biologist told me I should hope for in this area. Having gone home empty-handed after 20-hour hiking days on previous hunts, I was certainly tempted to put a stalk on him. Local knowledge is a powerful tool, though, and the best guy in the area was standing next to me in the snow. “That old bull has been with these guys, let’s just wait.”

Hunting elk in Arizona isn’t something that you just decide to do. Because the state is home to some of the biggest bulls in the world in terms of antler size, the demand for elk tags far exceeds the supply. Certain geographical units require decades of applications in order to draw a tag through a lottery system — even

the less-desirable areas take several years if you’re a non-resident like me. Needless to say, after drawing a late-season rifle tag in the Pinetop region near the New Mexico line, I wanted to do it right.

“Trophy hunting” has become a pair of dirty words, a term that conjures up images of fat, old rich guys standing over rare species. Like the term “assault weapons,” these words are carefully chosen by PR irms to divide us, to gin up anger among the non-hunting public and to cultivate anti-hunting vitriol on social media. Let’s talk for a minute about chasing big antlers. All things being equal, big antlers mean age, and age means more muscle mass.

A bull elk with a giant rack is a survivor who has used his cunning to avoid death year after year. To hunt game with the greatest antlers is to hunt the smartest and most experienced animals in the toughest terrain.

When it comes to chasing mountain game, inches of horn are often measured in days spent scouting, miles hiked, and sweat produced. To hunt a true trophy animal is to play a chess game with a beast who has come out on top every time; it’s the very deinition of a mental and physical challenge.

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BULLS ABOVE THE RIM

Spotting elk can take hours on glass, so beg, borrow, or steal good optics.

Buy once, cry once.

A do-it-yourself hunt in this area is very much within reason, but it wasn’t in the cards for me. The eastern border of the hunting unit is more than 1,500 miles from my home: I have a real job and three kids in diapers — scouting wasn’t an option. Not wanting to eat such a coveted tag, I set out to ind the best set of local eyes in the unit, inding them with Sam Stephens of Beaver Creek Guides & Outitters (www.beavercreekguidesandoutitters.com). Sam has lived his entire life in those mountains and knows the area as well as any human. While I went about my daily rituals, Sam spent countless hours on the mountain scouting for bulls. My job was to be sure that my body and my gear were ready when the time came to perform.

It’s the preparation for such a trip that gets me out of bed every morning, a simmering fire that forces me to the gym and onto the range. I approach a hunt like this with the planning mindset of a wilderness expedition: Every piece of gear is carefully selected, each item weighed, and each tool’s suitability assessed and reassessed.

As much research as possible goes into studying local conditions — I talked to everyone I could who’d stepped foot in that unit. Each person told me the same things: Be prepared for nasty terrain, freezing cold temperatures, and the potential for very long shots.

Besides making some gear tweaks to account for the

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speciic weather and environment, I came to the conclusion that a mission-speciic rile was in order.

Everything is a trade-off in the mountains. Going in light gives you mobility, but you might freeze and starve as a result. Riles are no different; a featherweight long gun is great for packing but can be a liability when it comes to making really tough shots from ield positions.

With the research indicating that precision shooting could be a key element in the success or failure of this hunt, I chose to go light on my gear and a tad heavier on the rile. Most of all, the setup needed to be utterly reliable under any conditions. I’m fortunate that one of the most talented gunmakers on the planet is a friend.

The Right Tool for the Job D’Arcy Echols, himself a hard-core mountain hunter and former guide, approaches the construction of riles with a goal of absolute perfection. He takes no shortcuts, cuts no corners, and leaves nothing to chance.

His desire to build the perfect hunting tool led to the development of his Legend rile, many examples of which have been around the globe and back. He took the same approach to designing a iberglass stock for the Remington 700 and the Shrike was the result.

The Shrike is designed by Echols and produced by McMillan, a trim stock built in the American classic

style — perfect for shooting from the various ield positions that mountain hunting can require. D’Arcy doesn’t usually build on Remington 700s, but he had the action in his safe that he’d used to make the prototype Shrike stock from scratch. When I drew the tag, he offered to inish out the rifle to my specs.

We decided on the 7mm Remington Magnum, with a long throat cut speciically to accommodate heavy 175-grain bullets. Krieger got us a contoured barrel blank in record time, and D’Arcy it, chambered, and bedded it into the irst Shrike to come out of McMillan’s mold. Our irst scope went tits up during load development, so I pulled my indestructible Nightforce off of a MK-12 carbine, while on the way to meet up with the rifle at FTW Ranch in Texas for some pre-hunt training.

Running the rifle through their course built conidence in the hardware, but a proper elk load was still elusive — I couldn’t count on a long-range bullet in this terrain. The bullet needed to would work at 25 yards in the thick timber and equally well across a canyon. Nosler’s old standby is hard to beat in this role. Last year saw a shortage of 175-grain partitions, but a small supply arrived just in time.

A last-minute change in powder shrunk my groups down to one ragged hole, and it was time to head west.

The White Mountains of east central Arizona would look more at home in Montana than what you might think when someone mentions Scottsdale or Sedona.

Massive stands of Ponderosa Pine cover the mountainsides, and the steep Mogollon Rim plunges from 8,000 feet down to half that in the course of a few miles.

In 2011, an abandoned campire burned 841 square miles of pristine timber in this area, making it the largest conflagration in the state’s recorded history.

Because of the ire, entire mountains are covered in a patchwork of burnt and blackened pines, like thousands of charred matchsticks. The ire was a boon for elk populations, however, allowing light to permeate the dark forests and grow fresh grasses. But the terrain is a nightmare in which to shoot and stalk. In this impossibly exposed terrain, spotting elk wasn’t the issue, getting close enough for an ethical shot was.

We were hunting at the top of the escarpment, among the unit’s highest elevations. The late-season hunt falls well after the breeding rut, and the bulls have fled the large herds for solitary lives or to be among small bachelor groups. With no chance to woo them into range with cow calls, they must be spotted from afar and stalked.

As I sat glassing two bulls as they fed along the ridge, I seriously considered going after the larger one. I’ve seen this movie before — you pass on an animal only to decide days later that he’s the one.

D’ARCY ECHOLS & CO. SHRIKE PROTOTYPE CALIBER:

7mm Remington Magnum BARREL LENGTH:

24 inches OVERALL LENGTH:

44.5 inches WEIGHT, EMPTY:

8.73 pounds MAGAZINE CAPACITY:

3+1 MSRP:

N/A URL:

www.echolsrifles.com MSRP:

N/A

ACCESSORIES SCOPE:

Zeiss Conquest HD5 3-15x42mm SLING:

Dick Murray Custom A-1 RINGS:

Leupold 30mm Dual Dovetail

BULLS ABOVE THE RIM On cue, the giant we were after emerged and began weaving his way through the broken timber. His massive rack, six points on his right side and eight on his left, sat like an impossibly large crown atop his powerful body. We could see him, but, in the dense tangle of broken and burnt pines, it was impossible to shoot him without risking a deflection. To risk wounding him was unconscionable and, if we missed, he wouldn’t give us a second chance.

We closed the distance as he fed, running out of terrain at just over 400 yards — a chip shot from prone, but an impossible position in the brushy tangle. If he kept to his path, he’d present a small window of opportunity where there appeared to be a 10-inch slot through the branches. FTW trains you to build a bridge for such shots, and that’s exactly what I did.

From a seated position, I braced the Shrike’s foreend across my collapsible shooting sticks and shoved my pack under my right armpit to tie everything together. I dialed 1.8 MILS of elevation and checked the wind, which, fortunately, was a non-factor. He paused long enough for the trigger to break, and Sam called the shot a hit through 15x of his Austrian glass. The bull turned to face uphill but didn’t take a step, the Partition having bisected his heart. The magniicence of this elk was awe-inspiring as we made our hour-long circuitous approach to where he fell. Even in death, he still commanded reverence.

This is where the TV shows end and where the real work begins, as 800-pound elk don’t magically transform themselves into steaks in your freezer. We spent the next eight hours butchering the bull into quarters and hauling the meat out on our backs. The rack came out last. Too big to carry horns-down among the twisted piles of blown-down timber, I gained an appreciation for what it must be like to navigate a dense pine forest with 370 inches of antler attached to your head.

Sam lives a frontier lifestyle, far from the conveniences of modern life, so we shared in the hundreds of pounds of delicious organic protein that the bull yielded us. His antlers hang in my home as a testament to his years of turf battles, hard winters, and human pursuit and are a daily reminder of man’s role in the food chain.

I hunt because my DNA tells me that I must, and when I watch my family consume the fruits of my labor, I feel the same satisfaction as my red-bearded, axwielding ancestors. Back in the daily grind, I wait for the next tag to arrive so that I once again can tap into that primal place inside myself. For me, real life is the precious time spent as a hunter, not the mundane days in between.

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BULLS ABOVE THE RIM

GEAR FOR THE HUNT My gear loadout varies significantly from hunt to hunt based on terrain, season, expected activity level, and the animal we’re pursuing. This was a late-season hunt at reasonably high altitude so the ability to layer clothing was a must. Because we were hunting out of a cabin, camping/sleeping gear was not part of the equation.

CASE:

BIPOD:

STOCKING CAP:

PANTS:

Red Oxx/Souza Custom

Harris

Aimpoint

KUIU Guide

CAMERA:

VEST:

WIND INDICATOR:

INSULATION:

Fuji X100S

Sitka Gear Jetstream

Dead Downwind

KUIU Super Down jacket/pants

GAME BAGS:

GLOVES:

SHOOTING STICKS:

BASE LAYER TOP:

T.A.G.

USGI wool glove liners

KUIU Ultra Merino 210 KUIU Ultra Merino 210 zip-off

BINOCULAR/RANGEFINDER:

ACCESSORY POUCH:

Primos/Stoney Point Steady Stix

Zeiss Victory 10x56mm RF (KUIU harness)

Kifaru G2

SUNGLASSES:

HEADLAMP:

Costa Del Mar Cabalito

GAITERS:

AMMUNITION:

Petzl Reactik

TREKKING POLES:

175gr. Partition handloads

LIGHT:

DOPE CARD:

Surefire LED

Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork

Outdoor Research Rocky Mountain High

FTW/SAAM

KNIFE:

PACK:

Nalgene

KUIU ICON Pro 1850 w/Frame

Salomon Quest 4D GTX

CARTRIDGE HOLDER:

5.11 folder, Havalon Piranta

Dick Murray Custom

STOVE:

BASE LAYER BOTTOM:

WATER BOTTLE: BOOTS:

LICENSE/ELK TAG:

MSR PocketRocket

HYDRATION SYSTEM:

NOT SHOWN:

AZ Game & Fish

SURVIVAL KIT:

Platypus

BALL CAP:

Includes matches, duct tape, fire starter, first aid items

Blister kit, food, baby wipes, iPhone, various personal items

KUIU Guide DCS

D’Arcy Echols & Co.

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JACKET:

karandaev/istockphoto.com

Choosing Reds for Elk and Boar Rick and Dewi Rainey

T

here’ve been many dinners at our Finger Lakes farmhouse featuring wild boar leg, boar cassoulet, and boar sausage. These were typically blurry evenings with foodie friends crowded around a rough wood table that easily seats 10, but can manage a chummy 14.

Back in those days, we could acquire D’Artagnan boar through our local restaurant food wholesaler.

At some point, these convivial banquets became too rich and decadent and memorable to ignore in moments of sobriety, and big-talking conversations led us to book a boar-hunting trip at a central Florida ranch. Growing up in the Sunshine State, there were plenty of encounters with feral pigs out in the orange groves along with our gun-packing cousins, but this time around we were hellbent on using an arrow.

For those who have bow hunted feral pigs and come out with a win, this article is dedicated to you. Because after an empty-handed, sweaty day in the ield, we’ll admit procuring boar is a touch-and-go operation requiring more than a puny little broad head and a glint in your eye.

Boar are pesky, ugly beasts, not easy to sneak up on, or kill, with one arrow. Even if you come within shot, and even if that shot pierces the snarly little sprinter, he may end up on the other side of hell’s half acre before he ends up on your plate. These dense, muscular, thick-skinned hogs are like bodybuilders on hooves — strong as steel, muscular as gymnasts, and skitzy as relay runners. They spend their days constantly on the 76

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move, hunting freely through the scrub of Texas and Florida on ranch-farms in the American South.

Boar have proliferated throughout the world with various sub-species found widely across Asia, Central Europe, and the Mediterranean; in the latter region, they seem to easily ind their way onto our favorite bar and bistro menus. Though our irst stab at hunting the buggers wasn’t triumphant, when it comes to eating them, we’ve been wildly successful.

In travels as a wine buyer, we’ve spent a good amount of time in the Rhone Valley of France where an army of these grape-eating machines are a nuisance to vignerons. Having enjoyed wild boar prepared in all manner of ways, we ind braising it to be the triedand-true cooking method. Boar meat is lean, so upping the juiciness factor with slow cooking is vital for full enjoyment of its robust flavor, which is comparable to a cross between pork and something richer, like duck.

Boar has more depth, earthiness, and dark meat flavor than the comparatively milk-and-water whiteness of even the best heritage farm pig.

While feral hogs might be considered pests by many people, our other subject here is usually regarded as the most regal of deer. Elk is often described as sweeter and less gamey than whitetail and much leaner than beef, and it’s all of those. However, it also has an umami, savory flavor as if it was marinated with soy and offers a depth that is intensely satisfying. The texture of a panseared, thin-sliced loin steak is medium to dense, yet reined, delicate, silky, and just moist.

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IN THE CHALICE OF OBELIX PAIRING WINE: What should you put in your chalice?

Being the wine people we are, here’s what we recommend drinking with these beasts, should one wind up near your stove: Now, you could wash it down with a Coors Light (and we’ve done that more times than we care to remember), but if you really want to impress your date or family, go ahead and drop some knowledge about how you picked a truly memorable wine for the meal you laid in front of them.

First, a few fundamentals ...

Just because something is wild doesn’t mean you have to have “big” wines with it. That’s a myth that’s absolutely bore out (get it?) in our wine pairing trials.

Wild meat doesn’t have much fat. These mammals are hunter-foragers 24/7/365. Imagine how svelte you’d be if you were too. So restrained red wines, meaning lighter than you’d think, with more delicate flavors, are in order here. Remember, the thing’s already dead. You don’t need to beat it to death with a wine.

Oaky wines aren’t your friend with these meats.

At least, not wines made with heavy-handed new oak.

It easily becomes the dominatrix, overpowering the subtlety and purity of elk, especially. Your preparation method can be a game-changer though, so if you’ve spiced up your boar braise, there are some elements of oak that might harmonize just ine, but overall, less is more.

Big wines are usually the ones put into new oak for

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aging. Grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Syrah have more likely seen a newer oak regimen, as have most Spanish wines, as well as many expensive Bordeaux. These can be delicious with a fatty hunk of steak, grilled lamb, or thick beef stews, but remember, rule No. 1 above; we’re working with lean, nuanced meats here. Oak provides flavors like toastiness, smoke, clove, and black pepper. We’re looking for a balanced back-and-forth conversation between food and wine, not for these elements to take over.

Patience rewards. Hunting wild game goes completely against the M.O. of our modern world.

It’s the opposite of Facebook and instant messaging, and can involve being patiently parked in a tree stand or blind for 10 hours a day, upward of a dozen days a year, just to put dinner in the freezer. Deinitely not in keeping with the eficiencies of our multitasking world. Growing grapes throughout an entire growing season and transforming them into delicious, balanced, expressive wine is another labor of love with a thousand actions and decisions going into just one shot at each vintage.

You don’t want to take these two time-intensive endeavors and spoil them with a rushed and lousy pairing. Plan your wine buying ahead of time. Chances are that any occasion to eat boar or elk is a precious one. Allow yourself time to visit a proper wine store or order from a passionate outit online. If you have a cellar full of wine, put some thought into your selection and

get it on deck with the same consideration as the rest of your spread. Use our wine buying basics to guide you in understanding the genres that work to enhance hardfought, wild-harvested game instead of selling yourself short when it comes to wine.

Choose artisanal wines over commercial wines.

Your meat didn’t come from a factory farm and neither should your wine. Big brands from a supermarket might be essential if you’re shopping last minute and live in a rural setting, but if you have access, the best wine options are from family owned, estate-grown grapes that express a sense of place. Again, this goes back to taking the time to locate a good retailer, who curates interesting wines, knows them intimately, and likely values good cooking too. With proper lead time, the Internet has plenty of these types behind the scenes in their virtual stores, so reach for wines with real stories behind them, like the ones you’ll be telling at dinner.

WINE BUYING GUIDE: So which grapes and wines work?

We had our best successes with medium to lighterbodied reds with lifted acidity and polished textures from wines such as these: Pinot Noir fraom Burgundy, France Burgundian Pinot works beautifully for elk because the intensity level is a match, the wines are elegant, and they have complementary, underlying earth notes.

Burgundy is a complex wine region that’s dificult to dissect without a map and a wine encyclopedia, but you can ind wines at the regional or village level to match game dishes without breaking the bank.

Regional wines would be labeled “Bourgogne”

(rouge) and would run you around $25 to $30 and village level wines named after their town of origin start at around double that. Look for values from Givry, seduction from Volnay, and class from Nuits-St-George.

Red Burgundy is one of the holy grails of the wine world.

It can be ethereal or it can disappoint for the money you shelled out. Consult your merchant in this territory.

Pinot Noir from other cool-climate regions We tasted a Pinot from the Central Coast of California, which was naturally riper and richer due to its warmer climate. Though delicious, it was more suitable to the deeper wild boar flavors than more delicate elk meat. Options from cooler places such as Oregon, New Zealand, or Patagonia can be more restrained, so the fresh, delicate red fruits and forest notes will better mirror the elk. Pinot is a fussy grape to grow and never cheap. Wines begin around $18. Oregon’s world-class versions have gotten bolder and denser with recent warmer vintages and better farming, which concentrates flavors. You can easily drop $35 to $55 on wines from the Willamette Valley, but there are sub $20 bargains to be had, too.

Barbera or Dolcetto from Piedmont, Italy Piedmont literally means the “foot of the mountains,” so it’s another cool-climate region (think Winter Olympics 2006 in Torino). These two grapes are the less expensive reds of the region for immediate drinking while you wait for the more tannic, Nebbiolobased Barolo and Barbaresco to age. For one-third the price, you can enjoy perfect game pairings with the bright raspberry-tart and blackberry notes in these wines. Expect to spend $15 to $22.

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IN THE CHALICE OF OBELIX

WINES WE THOUGHT REALLY HIT THE TARGET ELK PAIRINGS: CYPRIEN ARLAUD BROURGOGNE HAUTESCÔTES DE NUITS 2014

DASHE ZINFANDEL 2014 (DRY CREEK VALLEY, CA)

CHAPELLE ST. THEODORIC CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE, LES SABLON, 2014

COST:

COST:

COST:

$31

$26

$40

TASTE:

TASTE:

TASTE:

Sleek, vibrant, mineral-tinge and layered with raspberry and truffle

Grilled wild mixed berries, spice, fresh acidity and a hint of chocolate

Macerated raspberries and plums, licorice, roses, baked earth, fine tannins

BOAR PARINGS: ELIO PERRONE TASMORCAN BARBERA D’ASTI 2015, (PIEDMONT, ITALY)

RAMIREZ DE LA PISCINA RESERVA 2011 (RIOJA, SPAIN)

FOXEN PINOT NOIR 2014 (SANTA MARIA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA)

COST:

COST:

COST:

$37

$20

$20

TASTE:

TASTE:

TASTE:

Modern-style Barbera meaning saturated, fleshy and fruit-forward with blackberry pie, vanilla

Faded, dusty red cherry, cedar, cinnamon, smoke, and roasted plums

Supple and velvety, black cherry, savory dried herbs, baking spices

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Châteauneuf-du-Pape from Rhone, France The alcohol is admittedly higher in wines from this former papal village, which means “new castle of the pope,” but the reason they suit so perfectly is that they are dominated by the Grenache grape (which gives attractive red fruit flavors and ine tannins), they are blends of up to 13 varieties meant to harmonize smoothly, and they’re typically aged in older, neutral barrels.

These wines allow you to get your “big” ix on, if you typically like fuller-bodied wines. Gigondas is a nearby appellation (or named winemaking place) that provides similar depth along with minerality, complex gaminess, and refreshment. If you’ve drawn a once-in-a-lifetime tag like Keith Wood as seen elsewhere in this issue, then these puppies are worth the splurge at $45 and up.

Zinfandel (Sonoma County, California) Sonoma is blessed by maritime influences such as cooling fogs and sea breezes that moderate its sunny climate. A fruity Zinfandel that’s done in a fresher style can be an excellent pairing, but don’t veer toward the ultra-rich, dried fruit, raisin-ated styles from too far inland. Save those for a cool night by the campire instead of Port. $20 to $25 should cover this category.

Extrapolating from our successes above (though we didn’t actually pair them with a meal), you could also try Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley (from appellations such as Chinon, Bourgueuil, or SaumurChampigny) or Gamay made from Cru Beaujolais villages in France such as Morgon, Côte de Brouilly, or Fleurie (there are 10 named crus in all). These wines it the fresh, crisp, medium-bodied, lightly earthy proile that’s dead-nuts delicious on the game front. Prices range from $20 to $25.

Rioja Reserva from Rioja, Spain The boar was able to take slightly heftier wines than the elk, and a heartier preparation would allow this even more. High off a recent Jamaican trip, we snuck some Caribbean spices into a cast iron skillet while braising rough-cut boar pieces. A 2011 Rioja was still a bit youthful, but headed in the right direction with notes of dusty cedar beginning to fade and integrate into the licorice-tinged fruit. We’d venture into even older Rioja next time, maybe closer to eight years old, or opt for a recipe that works in concert with it a bit more — a stew with black olives and anchovies perhaps.

What about an older California Cab? We tried one!

We were on the right track with the age thing here, because the softening and mellowing had begun, but

again, the amount of oak was obtrusive and the wine too in-your-face. That dominatrix was cracking her whip again.

Parting Shot Would you shoot squirrels with a 10 gauge? You probably could, but a .410 might be more appropriate.

Keep that in mind when you ire up your wine choice. No matter where you live, you ought to be able to take these grape/wine thoughts to a store and choose a wine that plays well with your hard-earned game.

After you’ve harvested your wild thing, put a tame wine beside it, and regale your company with captivating conversation about the hunt, inish off the night with a sturdy snifter of Bache-Gabrielson American Oak Cognac, aged in new Tennessee oak barrels. It’s a new twist on a traditional digestif that builds a bridge for Bourbon drinkers to cross over to Cognac. Notes of maple, nutmeg, hazelnuts, and wood spice are bold and brash. This is Cognac unshaven and telling tall tales.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Rick Rainey owns a winery called Forge Cellars in New York’s Finger Lakes that specializes in making bone-dry Riesling and cool-climate Pinot Noir, while also working (for over 20 years) for a wine importer-distributor.

He loves nothing more than perching in the woods all day waiting to harvest wild game and then doing it justice with fine cooking and French wines.

Dewi Rainey owns Red Feet Wine Market & Spirit Provisions, a terroir-driven wine shop in Ithaca, New York. She loves traveling the globe, buying fine linens, hiking, skiing, and gardening. They live with their son Hendrix in a 200-year-old farmhouse surrounded on three sides by cornfields.

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AS A ROCK Japanese Water Stones are the Key to Knives You’ll Want to Use Iain Harrison Kenda Lenseigne

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s a younger man, I earned a living not as a scribe, but as a craftsman. My vocation centered around a construction method that, at its core, was an anachronistic holdover from another age, and in the U.S. had been superseded even before the advent of the internal combustion engine.

The practice of itting enormous timbers together like ine furniture, using mortise and tennon joinery and an almost complete absence of metal fasteners, traces its North American lineage back to medieval Europe, though it developed even earlier in Japan. Timber framing, as a craft, is well over 1,000 years old, and the badge of the timber framer is his mallet and chisels.

There’s a certain mystique about these tools, even in the age of the CNC machine. The 1½- and 2-inch framing chisels are the artisan’s mainstay — sheathed when not in use and always laid down on their backs to preserve the edge, they’re kept razor sharp at all times. It’s easy to identify a timber framer by the bald patch on their left forearm, as the tools are tested every day and honed whenever they fail to pop hairs.

Having to maintain a ine edge every working day taught me how to sharpen just about anything. While there are numerous electrically powered, labor-saving devices available, each has its own set of limitations. There’s nothing quite like being able to sharpen the dullest knife 82 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

entirely by hand — if you want to show off to your friends, tell them that this is how everyone from Musashi to Morimoto sharpened their blades One caveat: If you’re the kind of person who stores their knives in a kitchen drawer, then this article is a waste of your time. Spending the effort to learn a skill, putting it into practice, and then banging your blades around against other pieces of steel so that the edges look like hammered dog sh*t is utterly pointless. So if you’re subsequently moved to give it a try, then the irst item on your shopping list shouldn’t be a set of stones, but a knife block.

Now, it’s important to understand how a knife actually cuts in organic matter, so hold tight, here’s the science-y bit. By their nature, the majority of materials we deal with in the kitchen are held together by weak intermolecular forces, such as hydrogen bonds. By putting pressure on them, we can force them apart.

Pressure is deined as force/area, so if we can decrease the area of our blade in contact with the stuff we’re trying to cut, the pressure we can exert on it with the same amount of force increases. Dull edges are wider than sharp ones, so the amount of pressure they exert is less. Sharpening simply removes a tiny amount of steel so that the edge is narrower and can therefore put more pressure on our ingredients. Don’t believe me? Try cutting something with the spine of your blade.

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SHARP AS A ROCK Buy This Japanese water stones aren’t stones at all; rather, they’re clay blocks that have been ired like pottery. If you’ve ever used the trick of turning over a coffee cup and honing a blade on the unglazed bottom, you’ll be familiar with the abrasive nature of clay. They’re available in various grit sizes, ranging from sandpapery coarse to smooth-as-a-baby’s-butt, and you’ll need a small selection in order to create the desired inish.

If you work in a commercial kitchen, full-size stones are a good idea, but for domestic use, you can save a few dollars by buying combination stones that are half as thick, taking up 50-percent less space, but lasting half as long. They’re a wear item, but even if you hone your knives weekly, they’ll last the better part of a decade. My favored combos are a 400/1,500 stone and an 800/3,000 — with them, you can go from a coarse, quick, and dirty edge to a mirror inish in short order.

The other item you want on your shopping list is a coarse diamond sharpening stone of the same size. It’s impossible to put a ine edge on a knife unless your water stones are completely flat, and you’ll use this diamondimpregnated piece of steel to flatten them. There are flattening stones made from the same kind of abrasive as the stones you’re trying to level, but I prefer diamond — A), you need a flat surface to produce a flat stone and manufacturing imperfections are less common with diamond sharpeners; and B), a lot of the cutting action generated by water stones is through the clay slurry that forms on their surface as they’re used. You want a slurry that’s free of the coarser grit from the flattening stone.

How To Unsurprisingly, water stones need water. Soak your stones for a few minutes while you assemble the rest of the items required for a sharpening session. I like to process several blades at once, as it’s more eficient.

Plus, there’s a Zen-like quality to the work, which you can enjoy with a glass of your favorite libation.

Place a cloth on the work surface to protect steel and stone, and lay out your blades. Choose the water stones you want to use depending on how badly dulled your edges have become and flatten them by rubbing with the diamond sharpener. If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll need the 400- and 800-grit surfaces of your combo stones. Once flat, don’t rinse off the slurry you’ve created and instead lay them gently into their holders.

You want to create a 35- to 40-degree angle between the two sides of the cutting edge, so starting with the coarse stone, hold the blade at 17 to 20 degrees from the surface of the stone. Using irm pressure, push it away 84 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

1. Good stones come with their own protective cases.

As you can see, this one gets used a lot.

2. Flatten the stones using your diamond sharpener.

3. Start with the most coarse of the stones you’ve selected, in this case 400 grit.

4. Using a 17- to 20-degree angle, push and pull the blade against the stone.

1

2

5. Flip it over and do the same on the other side.

6. Now move to the Ć‚PGT UVQPG KP VJKU case an 800 grit.

7. Note: Water stones need water, so keep them wet.

3

4

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SHARP AS A ROCK

9GoTG ƂPKUJKPI WR here with a 3,000grit stone that feels completely smooth to the touch. At this point, the blade will shave hairs in one pass, so random veggies are no problem.

from you as if you were trying to cut off a slice. At the end of the stroke, don’t lift the blade, instead pull it back toward you and repeat the process. Depending on blade hardness and condition, continue for 20 to 40 strokes, taking care to cover the entire blade and the whole surface of the stone. Keep the stone wet throughout the process by sprinkling it with water.

This irst stone is the one that creates the edge, so pay attention, do it right, and don’t skimp. If you don’t generate a sharp (though rough) edge here, any subsequent steps are wasted, as all you’ll do is polish the sides of a dull knife. The reason most people don’t get the desired results is they either fail to create an edge with the coarse stone, or they change angles throughout the sharpening stroke. Don’t do that.

Next, move over to the second stone that’s been waiting patiently for your attention and repeat the process using the same angle. Then turn the knife over and do the same thing to the opposite side, starting with the coarse stone. Test the edge with your thumbnail. If you feel a tiny burr on one side (it’ll almost always be on the

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side you started with) you’ve created a wire edge and will need to flip the blade one more time for a couple of strokes on the second stone.

If all’s gone well, congratulations! You’ve just sharpened your blade to the point where it’ll slice a tomato under its own weight. If you want more (and who doesn’t want more?) then turn your combination stones over and hone your blade with the 1,500- and 3,000-grit stones. If you’re feeling froggy, tip the blade up a couple of degrees when using the inest stone, but be careful not to go too far or you’ll dig into the stone’s surface and ruin everything you’ve done so far.

Once your knives are sharpened to your satisfaction, wipe them down and store them carefully so their edges don’t contact anything harder than themselves.

Your stones should be rinsed and placed in storage boxes; they’re fragile, so don’t just sling them in a drawer where utensils can be dropped on them, damaging the surface you’ve worked to create. And inally, your diamond sharpener should be thoroughly dried, so the steel substrate doesn’t rust.

Spending a little time to learn the process of sharpening can be incredibly rewarding, especially when you use good gear. If you’ve tried in the past and been frustrated by your results, give a set of Japanese water stones a try – they’re less expensive than an electric sharpener, therapeutic to use, and will work on anything from your favorite chef’s knife to that ax head you picked up at a garage sale. Best of all, you’ve invested in a timeless process that’s been appreciated by humans since the invention of cutting tools.

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HUNTING IN GERMANY Old World Traditions from a New World Perspective Iain Harrison Kenda Lenseigne

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he irst rays of light struggled through a hardwood canopy that in just a couple of weeks would be bare, while people milled around, speaking in hushed tones. Dogs ran around excitedly, doing the usual dog things. Blaze orange over muted greens and browns was the preferred palette, in a scene that could have played out anywhere across the Midwest or Northeast USA. It wasn’t until the onlooker paid closer attention to the nuances of vehicles and weapons that certain distinctions were revealed.

The complete absence of half-ton pickups was one clue, while the presence of Porsche and Audi SUVs, Blaser and SAUER, rather than Savage and Remington 88 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

was another. This was my irst hunting experience in Germany, and while the differences between this and my adopted country were apparent, the bond formed between those who share the pursuit of wild game proved to be the same across both cultures.

Our trip started — as so many good things do — over a beer. Chatting with Walther’s marketing guy at the end of a shooting competition, a plan was hashed out to take a peek behind the curtain at their production facility in Ulm. Checking calendars, a few days were identiied in November where there was some overlap, which just happened to coincide with their annual staff hunt. Bags and passports were packed, plane tickets booked, and the anticipation of a new adventure grew with each passing week.

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HUNTING IN GERMANY A Seriously Strict Tradition

Below left: Weimaraners and Wirehaired Pointers represented the German hunting dog tradition

Below center: FranzJoseph Bischoff kept a wary eye on his transatlantic visitors, but our welcome was a warm one.

Below right: A little coffee, a little exercise, and a lot of excited anticipation of the drive to come.

Hunting in Germany is a serious business. Unlike the USA with its tradition of rugged individualism, there’s much more emphasis on hunting as a community pursuit, and there are many additional layers of bureaucracy before an aspiring hunter can take to the ield. Just qualifying for a hunting license requires almost a year of mandated courses, followed by a rigorous four-hour exam covering everything from forest ecology and plant recognition to carcass care and irearms law.

Once you have a hunting license, there’s the small problem of obtaining a irearm with which to hunt.

Another license is required to acquire any type of gun, and you must demonstrate a good reason for possession. And no, self-defense isn’t regarded as an adequate justiication for owning a weapon — unless, of course, you happen to be a member of the protected class of celebrity or politician.

Once the legal niceties are taken care of, inding a place to hunt can be a challenge. If you don’t own a signiicant chunk of land, then you’ll either need to lease hunting rights for a nine-year stretch or else befriend someone who does. Even if you’ve got a few acres to your name, unless your property is over a certain size, you still don’t own the hunting rights, which instead are managed by local government.

Leases, like boats, come with signiicant costs attached to them over and above the initial investment, so having connections helps. For example, if the leaseholder doesn’t cull the state-mandated number of animals from his leasehold, then he can incur a signiicant inancial penalty. He’s likewise liable for any damage caused to agricultural crops by the animals he’s entitled to hunt, so being able to call in a few buddies to help out with managing populations is a big help.

Despite a multitude of barriers erected by the state, the shooting sports in Germany have a long and rich

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tradition. There’s a saying that in the USA, there are gun owners — but in Germany, there are shooters. The reason for this assertion is that unless you can demonstrate active participation at a recognized range, you’ll forfeit your irearms license in short order.

Most communities have a shutzenhalle, which is a combination of indoor range, party venue, and social club. This being Germany, beer and schnapps feature heavily in most gatherings, particularly at the annual shutzenfest, which is a three-day excuse to hang out with the guys, eat traditional fare, shoot a pretty elementary competition, and drink copious amounts of ale. And I can’t think of a single thing wrong with that.

So much for the local citizenry. What of the visitor from across the pond? The day after our arrival and while still suffering the effects of jetlag, we headed to a local range to qualify for a temporary hunting license.

Supervised by Franz-Joseph Bischoff, one of the Jagermeisters controlling that weekend’s events, we illed out paperwork that allowed us to borrow a rifle. Then we qualiied with our loaner from the bench, from offhand, and on a running boar target at 50 meters.

Once scores had been tallied, the necessary certiicates were awarded, along with a silver lapel pin, indicating that we’d qualiied to go aield. Noting my license was missing my date of birth, Franz-Joseph Bischoff tut-tutted and explained in a heavy accent that, “In Germany, all is correct,” admonishing my lack of attention to detail.

Once all was indeed correct, it was time for dinner.

Our hosts whisked us off to a restaurant that had been in continuous use since its doors opened in the 13th century to serve tired and thirsty pilgrims on their way to Rome. Wild game featured prominently on the menu, and the chef made good use of seasonal ingredients from the local area, one of which was goose fat from birds traditionally slaughtered in late fall. When com-

bined with bacon and salt, it magically transforms into schmaltze, served instead of butter on dense rye bread.

Rich, decadent, and utterly delicious.

In late 1800s America, the excesses of market gunning resulted in a prohibition on the sale of wild game.

Not so in Europe, where it’s a staple in the kind of restaurants where people still dress up to go eat. As a result, we have a sneaking suspicion that there are more people per capita in Germany familiar with the delights of venison and wild boar than there are here — a great shame given the rich variety of our resources.

We made it a point to continue the tradition and support the local hunting economy wherever possible — meat sales offset some of the costs of running a hunt.

Hunt Day The hunt location in the northern state of NorrheinWestphalia was a poignant reminder of a different time and another life — years ago, as a freshly minted platoon commander, I was stationed just 12 kilometers down the road. The chance to hunt in the woods surrounding the base never presented itself, so in a world

with few second chances, the opportunity to revisit the area was especially treasured.

Joining the other 150 or so participants in muted, pre-dawn light, the expectancy of the hunt was palpable. Around 40 beaters were going to push through a mixture of hardwoods and pine forest, driving game toward upward of 70 hunters in tree stands, positioned throughout the hillsides.

Dogs of all breeds and sizes accompanied them, dressed in florescent Cordura jackets. Hunters were allocated to small groups by the hunt organizers; after a 15-minute brieing the designated leaders gathered their flocks before heading off to designated areas. Before the assembled throng dispersed, a dozen buglers strode out and, standing shoulder to shoulder, blew the traditional “Gather the Hunter” on their brass jagdhorns.

There were to be two drives that day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It’s considered exceptionally bad etiquette (not to say dangerous) to leave your allocated stand until after the inal hunting horn is sounded, but once it’s heard, everyone congregates for a hearty lunch around a campire.

Frost on the ground, colorful leaves on the trees, and watching your own breath in the air.

The same scene has played out here for hundreds of years.

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HUNTING IN GERMANY

Above left: Average-sized Roe doe is no match for a .300 Win Mag.

The idea of lunch occupied my thoughts as the morning sun burned off a light fog. Being too excited to eat, I’d skipped breakfast and my decision was coming back to bite me. A combination of lack of calories and freezing temperatures left me wishing I’d packed warmer boots.

My exposed position meant any kind of calisthenics to keep warm was out of the question, so I just soaked in the beauty of the woods around me and shivered.

It wasn’t long before movement caught my eye. About 120 yards away, on the other side of a small ravine, a roe doe and fawn nervously emerged from the treeline and crossed a small opening. In Germany, it’s considered the ethical choice to shoot the fawn irst — if it escape after mom bites the dust, its chances of survival are slim and it’ll probably wind up either starving to death or, more likely, being chased down and eaten alive by predators. I took the shot.

While dragging what might have been the smallest deer I’ve ever killed back to a dirt road where it would be picked up, our photographer pointed out the spot where she’d seen a large pig make its leisurely way through a stream. Despite frantic waving from an adjacent stand, she’d been unable to attract my attention, and it had escaped, unmolested. Needless to say, comments regarding age, virility, eyesight, powers of observation, and mental acuity weren’t slow in coming …

Lunch turned out to be every bit as good as I’d imagined. Cheery frauleins ladled hearty bean soup into bowls, accompanied by huge chunks of fresh bread, while the morning’s haul was brought to the center of camp and hung from an improvised butcher station. Volunteers ield dressed animals as a team, before reverently laying them

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out on a bed of pine boughs. While my Teutonic language skills are limited to profanity and ordering beer, it was obvious from the amount of laughter and back slapping that everyone around the various campires was retelling hunting stories from the past few hours.

As soon as everyone had reilled their bellies, we jumped into cars for a short ride to the next stands.

Horns signaled the start of the second drive, bolts cycled, and once again eyes scanned the woods for signs of approaching game. Before long, a yearling doe made the poor life decision to run parallel to a line of tree stands and was treated to a 21-gun salute. She ran unscathed past all of them before ducking back into the woods, no doubt considerably wiser for the experience and fortunate that, like in the U.S., magnumitis is endemic in the local hunting population.

The most popular caliber carried by members of our party was .300 Win Mag, with several 9.3x62 Mausers and at least one .375 H&H. A big roe deer is around 70 pounds and none of the wild boar seemed bigger than 200, so this would seem to be overkill and probably results in more missed shots due to flinching than might otherwise be the case with smaller, more easily managed calibers.

An hour or so following the doe’s escape, a dark, hairy form crept up to a tree line to our front and toyed with the idea of breaking cover, before thinking better of it and slinking away. Pigs are notoriously smart. Pigs that have been shot at regularly are smarter still and will circle back through a line of beaters, rather than compliantly run from them. Deer, on the other hand, while faster, don’t quite have the level of smarts their porcine neighbors do. As if to prove it, a couple of min-

utes after the boar’s non-appearance, a doe emerged from the same spot and stood blinking in the sunlight, unsure what to do next. While she was thinking about it, a 180-grain bullet ended her internal dialogue.

This time back at the camp, beer flowed freely while our harvest was brought in and embers rode the smoke into a dark evening sky. As the sun set, everyone present assembled around the magniicent tableau we’d created, and the same buglers who’d sent us off into the ield that morning gathered to recognize the game we’d killed. Different species are commemorated by their own tune, with the inal salute going to the forest itself for providing food and habitat for both humans and animals alike. Each successful hunter was rewarded with a sprig of pine by the Jagermeister, new initiates to the fellowship wearing it proudly in their lapels.

The evening was far from over. Traditional loden jackets replaced utilitarian hunting clothes, and the entire group made its way to the shutzenhalle where a celebratory feast had been prepared for a couple hundred guests. After dinner and speeches, medals were awarded to the king of the woods and each newbie called up on stage for a kind of gameshow/summer camp-style roast, where their shortcomings as hunters were roundly mocked.

After agreeing to remedial action involving numerous shots of Jagermeister — the liquor, not the dude; that would be weird — they were knighted with a scary-sharp, short sword and welcomed into the hunting community. Revelers poured out into the chill November air well past a reasonable bedtime, arms around shoulders, swaying slightly. Yes, there’s

a strong commitment to the social aspects of hunting.

But everyone I spoke to, from guys in their 20s who’d crammed into a minivan for a ive-hour drive to get there, to white-haired elders with equally senior dogs on leather leashes, was illed with a sense of community and the knowledge that they were very much responsible for keeping ancient traditions alive.

There are certain aspects of hunting in Germany that we as Americans could learn from. Reforming our laws to permit the sale of in-season game to restaurants would allow more people to become aware of its beneits and further the wild food cause. We have a strong management system in place, and I’m not convinced that poaching would increase, so long as we made the penalties for stealing from our shared resources hurt both the buyer and vendor. And by hurt, I mean jail time, signiicant ines, and forfeiture of both irearms and hunting rights. The very public way in which their hunting legacy is celebrated is another aspect that would be beneicial. As JR Young points out elsewhere in CARNIVORE, sharing the bounty we’re privileged to harvest is a great way to win friends and influence people.

For any of our readers inclined to follow our footsteps through the forest, we recommend using a guide service to negotiate the myriad complexities of German hunting and irearms laws, rather than going the DIY route. We were fortunate to have great hosts who took care of the paperwork, as well as made travel arrangements on both sides of the Atlantic. For that, as well as the genuine warmth and hospitality of the German people, we are grateful.

Above right: Jagdhorn and Pils from the local brewery

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TRUE GRIT

INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN Rachel Ahtila: Guide, Hunter, Renaissance Woman Mike Landers Philip Quade

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merican naturalist and environmental philosopher John Muir once wrote, “The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” Having to get lost to ind oneself is perhaps one of the great human ironies … and one of the more true statements, just ask renowned guide and hunter Rachel Ahtila. “It is a big game of trust; these people are basically putting their life in your hands. Communication is key,” she says, regarding her exploits of guiding hunters through the Great White North.

Having grown up with an afinity for the Old West, and feeling the same sentiment as Muir at just 11 years old, this product of Kelowna, British Columbia, was bound to subscribe to the pastoral lifestyle. The Northwest Territories remain her favorite area to take clients, and the pure remoteness of the area never fails to impress them, or her. “It’s amazing to feel so isolated and small. I think some of the clients underestimate it until they get dropped off in a Super Cub, and there isn’t civilization for hundreds of miles.”

That same isolation gives Rachel the focus to track game and guide at a level that not only satisies her clients, but it has also put her name on the map as one of the go-to guides for the Northwest Territories, Yukon, the United States, and even New Zealand.

Rachel also writes for Eastman’s Hunting Journal, and has had an influential hand in the creation of the Women of Weatherby, offering her expertise in creating hunting clothing for women as well as the creation of the Weatherby Vanguard Camilla Rifle.

While she has accomplished much in her career, she’s excited about an upcoming hunting trip with a very special hunting partner — her father. “It’s gonna be fun,” she says with a tinge of Canadian accent. Indeed hers is a life on the road, on the plains, on the mountain, on the riverbanks, on the cliffs, and well, anywhere else.

One conversation with Rachel would make you want to envision that type of lifestyle within your own collection of personal experiences. Until then, you can always read along to envy the woman who simply, “wants to live like they do in the movies.”

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TRUE GRIT

IT’S A VERY PASTORAL LIFESTYLE. IN THE 21st CENTURY, YOU CAN GIVE SOMEONE A 200-YEAR-OLD EXPERIENCE. YOU CAN STRIP THEM OF THEIR IPHONES, HIGHTECH GADGETS, AND FANCY SHOES. YOU JUST THROW THEM ON THE BACK OF THE HORSE AND SAY, “HAVE A GOOD TIME.” CARNIVORE: What is your earliest hunting memory?

Rachel Ahtila: It was actually a guiding memory, as I learned to guide before I learned to hunt. I was 15 or 16 and was out with my mentor, who was a gentleman who lived the pastoral lifestyle, John Devries. At that stage, you’re still trying to igure out yourself and what you want to do in life, but there was something about sitting there on the side of that hill with people who wanted to be there with you and appreciate animals and live like they do in the movies. I’ve always been fascinated by the Old West.

What initially made you want to become a guide?

RA: It started when I began chasing horses in the valley. They wintered north at the outit I grew up in, and I was one of the only girls who showed an interest in helping to do the gather. When you’re a teenager, you have to prove you aren’t just going to go out there and get lost. With the rise of oil and gas, a lot of the boys didn’t come up to the mountain anymore. That whole irst year when I came back from New Zealand, my mentor, John, had been my wingman, but he let me kind of go through it. I felt like it was a game. As a kid, you had to work your way up, and once you made it to sheep guide status, you really accomplished something of yourself in camp.

Where are you from?

RA: Kelowna, British Columbia.

What are some of your more memorable experiences as a guide?

RA: My more memorable experiences come from my experi96 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

ences as a sheep guide, I had no idea how special they would become to me. My irst memory was guiding my irst Stone sheep hunt by myself at 22 — and it was the same valley that the gentleman I mentioned earlier, John DeVries, had taken me on as a kid.

We were cresting the valley, which we were calling “Eastman’s Valley” as Gordon Eastman had trucked through there in the ’60s, and at this point, I had guided moose and goat, but never sheep.

An Italian client and I spotted two rams after lunch, and we tracked them and sealed the deal. John had let me go on my own, and I saw through my binoculars that he had set up a camp. He heard the gunshot and had his binoculars focused on our hillside.

When he saw me crest the ridge, I held up the horns over my shoulders, and he started hooting and hollering. I could hear him across the valley. It was so cool.

Sounds like a full-circle situation.

RA: Absolutely! John and I have stayed friends over the years.

He’s in his late 70s. He won the 2013 GCF Dalziel Outstanding Guide Award for his recognition as a top hand and guide who carried a career for almost 40 years in the ield. A year and a half ago, Eastman’s had asked me to write for them, so it truly was a full circle.

What makes a successful guide?

RA: You have to wager that on the satisfaction of your client — because as a guide you’re offering a service. So if a guide can show the client a good time, whether they are seeing game, harvesting the right game, or just tending to their needs, guides are

still very much in customer service. I think the most successful guides can tell good stories. They are knowledgeable of the land and are able to share that information in a safe way, and share the experience to have the clients go home and go, “Wow, I had an amazing time and I was really a part of it.” A lot of the guides who have long careers and are sought after are the ones who can provide their client with the most memorable experience.

marketing tool.” Now that we are, it’s good to see how the industry is responding. Traditionally, women’s gear was of the mind of “pink it and shrink it.” Now they’re really making the clothes for women. We don’t just want to look cute; we need it to be functional. We are also seeing a change in irearms, and the various tools that we require, which is equally as encouraging.

Are there differences in the way women are involved in hunting than the way men are?

RA: See, I think that’s such a taboo question. With social media and modern influences, they’d have you believe we’re pioneering a new frontier. When really, there’ve been women like Yukon Belle, there were women of the Klondike who right there with the guys in the mining camps. When it comes to the hunting side, women have always played a huge part in hunting camps. Whether they took on the role of wrangler, trail cook, or camp jack, now we’re seeing women more recognized in the role of a “guide.” We certainly are built differently, but we learn to utilize our bodies differently and maximize our strengths.

What differences do you see between guiding and hunting Canada and the U.S.?

RA: We’re spoiled in the North, I will admit. It breaks down into the population and terrain. Don’t get me wrong, there’s deinitely much of the U.S. that’s wild and rogue country, but for the most part, you can drive or walk a certain lateral and run into a road or an interstate — whereas you can walk several hundred miles in Canada, especially in the northwest, and you won’t hit a road, you’ll hit a river, or a lake, or a valley. The big misconception I see in the clients who come up is that they don’t realize how remote they are. It’s humbling to feel so insigniicant in the grand scheme of things. It’s crazy how in tune your senses become. It’s awe-inspiring.

What about on the gear side of things?

Have you seen improvement for women’s gear?

RA: Ten years ago, when I irst started as a guide I was told by a lot of industry people that “women would never be accepted as a

What was your most intimidating moment as a guide?

Were there any times you felt overwhelmed?

RA: In 2012, at the height of living on the road for 10 and a half months a year, I went from trade show season to spring bear

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TRUE GRIT camp, and then up to the Northwest Territories and up to the Yukon. I hadn’t met the outitter we were meeting, and I sat there with my backpack and my gun case and got picked up at midnight on the side of the Alaska highway, drove in, got in the plane at irst light, and then I found out that the job was to go guide a goat hunter. At that point I was a bit overwhelmed, as I had just come from three other seasons, and felt stripped of all my senses. The whole essence of being a guide is having knowledge of where you’re going, and I had to take it like any other day, one hour at a time. I didn’t know the stock, I didn’t know the trails; I just had to trust myself.

The biggest misconception about hunting?

RA: People don’t see the use. They see hunters as bloodthirsty trophy mongers who just want to put a head and shoulders on our walls. But maybe the biggest misconception comes from where the funds from tags and licenses go, and how they are appropriated for the future of wildlife. We’re learning how to do it better, certain conservation organizations are sending out newsletters and showing where the dollars are going, but I still feel a big disconnect between us as hunters.

We can’t preach to the choir, we already know we’re putting up every tag bought, X amount is going to the government biologists and then X amount is going into husbandry and the development of roads and access. I think we need to be doing a better job to help abolish that misconception that we’re just bloodthirsty trophy chasers. There is trophy to it, but we do use parts of the animal, and if we don’t use it, someone else will. A trophy to one person, is meat in the freezer. To another, it is meat and an old mature animal. I think most outitters do an exceptional job of sharing in the harvest. When we have moose clients, all of our moose meat that the client doesn’t want goes to the First Nations, and that’s their subsistence meat that they use throughout winter.

Given that such a large part of the world is made up of carnivores, why do you think hunting gets such a backlash?

RA: It’s disconnect. They didn’t kill the steaks sitting on their plate. It’s an awesome and wonderful power to be able to provide for yourself. There’s not a lot of people who like the actual killing side — nobody likes to see anything suffer. I will work with clients to ensure a good, clean, kill shot, but it’s of the most importance that that animal doesn’t suffer. I think that’s the part people don’t understand anymore because they’re so disconnected to their food sources.

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Are there any other misconceptions you hear about when you tell people what you do?

RA: Many people have the misconception of how far, how remote, and how hard physical and manual labor can be. If you have a great team, and everyone shares in the work load, it can be minimized. The biggest stereotype would be overcoming the misconception that you have to have a big burly beard and look like Robert Redford in Jeremiah Johnson to be a guide. I still rock my pearls in the mountains and hold on to some forms of my femininity.

Do you see any change in motivation for the government’s regulation of open space and hunting grounds?

RA: I know in the U.S. you’re having a heck of a time with your public lands and with them being all bought up and not being able to go in there and hunt, I think that’s a huge problem.

For us in the North, especially out of B.C., we have a lot of soapboxes. We don’t have the population outside our metropolitan areas to support the hunt. Over 90 percent of votes come from people who don’t hunt or live outside of Vancouver. Our government has decided that they’re going to go ahead, and the money from our hunting tags is going to be put directly back into conservation. The external funding is going be vamped up quite a bit. We have certain organizations here that are getting more political; the battle is about how can we accomplish change by demonstrating what we can give through our service as opposed to just standing for our rights. We need to show how we’re helping wildlife, how we’re helping the community and delivering that message for the betterment of our future.

Do you think there is as much illegal hunting in the world as our governments or media think?

RA: I think that’s a very regional problem. You’re always going to have dishonest people, unfortunately. Will we have dishonesty to the extent that they’re seeing in Africa and Namibia with the parks and the rhinos? I think not, we have so many more rules and regulations here in Canada and in the States as opposed to other places. I think as soon as you give ownership to a thing, whether it’s an animal or land to the people, there’s a pride there and they want to protect it. We’re seeing a disconnect in those regions where the connection isn’t strong enough for them to want to stop it, for whatever reason. There are illegal harvests that go on for sheep, bears, etc., using gallbladders for the black

market, but it’s not on a huge commercial level, as far as I understand. I think we can all learn from our international counterparts on their failures and successes.

What trends are you seeing in the hunting industry?

RA: Your Midwest hunting will always be popular — turkey and deer — because it’s very affordable and accessible. The biggest trend we’re seeing in the younger generation is that of the it, healthy provider. The term is “locavore” — they’re a little bit open to hunting, and they’re trying to source food within 100 miles of where they are, and are trying to reconnect with their hunter-and-gatherer roots. The real trophy is the steak you can provide for your kids; it’s an openness to subsistence hunting, which is encouraging.

Have you ever taken someone out for the first time and changed their minds?

RA: I wouldn’t say on one of the bigger trips, as for the most part they’re seasoned and know what they’re getting into. My mom grew up ishing off the coast and growing up in the lower mainland around Vancouver, British Columbia. We had a conversation one day and she said, “If the world goes mad I’m coming to you for food.” She recognizes that hunting isn’t in her and I said, “Well, if you get hungry enough, it might be [laughs].”

What about first-time hunters?

RA: A lot of them come in from the shooting disciplines or archery, and they slowly get more and more acquainted with hunting and eventually get their irst tag. It’s a wicked emotional experience especially to someone who has never been in that position. There’s a lot of learning that goes on for those irst-time hunters, but it’s something we all do, then we go from there. I ind that it really makes them more open and more aware of the provider in them.

As a hunting guide, what are some of your favorite experiences?

RA: One of the more enjoyable processes is to see the people actually unwind. They have that epiphany moment like, “I can’t worry about the deadline I have on Monday … I’m just going to sit on the side of this mountain and enjoy the view.”

If you could only have one firearm for the rest of your life, what would it be?

RA: I would probably have my .45-70. It its well in my saddle; it’s a good defense gun. But if I got a cheater second, it would probably be a 7mm; it’s a great flat-shooting rifle. You can get a hot enough load that as long as you have great shot placement, you can take most things down with it. It’s nice to shoot. I’ve got a Tikka T3 that I have had for years, which is my go-to.

TRUE GRIT RACHEL AHTILA AGE:

29 HOMETOWN:

Kelowna, British Columbia STATUS:

In a relationship PERSONALLY OWNED FIREARMS:

Tikka T3, .300 Ruger, .300 Weatherby Mag, 6.5-300 Weatherby, .243 Vanguard Camilla Weatherby, Marlin Triple 4 (.444), Henry .45-70, Weatherby SA-08 12-gauge, and Ithaca Turkey Slayer 12-gauge ACHIEVEMENTS/AWARDS:

2013 Fan Voted Prois Hunting Award Winner FAVORITE BOOK:

Great Rams III (street) PETS:

Two horses FAVORITE MOVIE:

The Man From Snowy River FAVORITE GAME:

Sheep FAVORITE PLACE TO HUNT:

NW territories URL:

www.findyournomadi.com

HUNTING GEAR Schnee’s Granite hiking boots Outdoor Research Hardcore Extreme gaiter Sitka Raingear Icebreaker Merino base layers Wrangler and Cowgirl Tuff jeans Mystery Ranch 6500 Marshall Tripods: Outdoorsman for hunting, Manfrotto for spotting Swarovski 25x80 HD Swarovski EL Range 20x42 FHF Gear binoculars case Sil field tarp Adventure Medical Kits Hilleberg Nallo GT 3 Havalon Knives MEC Asgaard Windstopper sleeping bag -20C Smartwool socks

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REGIMEN

FIT TO HUNT? Physical Preparation for Backcountry Hunting Ryne Gioviano, M.S.Ed.

WARNING! The exercises and content expressed in this column are for illustrative purposes only. Consult your physician before trying any physical activity or nutritional plan. RECOIL and its contributors are not responsible for any harm or injuries sustained while attempting these techniques.

W

hether hunting on the tundra of Alaska or the savannas of South Africa, there’s a good chance you’ll face formidable terrain and weather conditions.

Then add in long periods of hiking, stalking, and lying prone, punctuated by bursts of squatting, crouching, and sitting, and you’ll no doubt tax your body. The good news is we can prepare you for this. Learn the right way to train for a wide range of positions you’ll need for backcountry hunting.

Yes, You Need to Be in Great Shape Hunting can be very physically demanding, and you can’t let a lack of itness limit your ability to catch your own food or your enjoyment of the sport. Missed opportunities due to exhaustion can be extremely disappointing.

Worse yet, heart attacks can happen if you’re in rough shape. Many people every year succumb to heart attacks simply by shoveling a driveway, a far easier task than dragging a deer out of the woods.

Our earlier ancestors were in much better shape for this type of activity. They regularly walked, ran, lifted,

Kichigin/istockphoto.com

fought, and just had much more overall activity. Hunting was no problem. Nowadays, we all sit most of our days.

Obesity rates continue to rise, and we’re just becoming less it overall.

If you’re going to be successful in hunting, it’ll involve a lot of slower, continuous movement over varying terrain.

Even low-intensity activities, like moving from one spot to the next, low-level climbing, and stalking your prey, can take a toll. This is especially arduous with a rifle and gear. After all, if you’re not it enough to get to the prey, you’ll never be a good hunter. This requires a good deal of aerobic conditioning as well as general strength and the mobility to get into potentially awkward positions and postures based on an array of different situations.

If all goes well on the hunt, you’ll transport the animal back to your vehicle. Dragging a large body any appreciable distance represents a signiicant challenge, even for relatively it people. And we all hope our kill isn’t a scrawny specimen! But that’s not all. You’ll still need to pick it up, load it, secure it, and reverse the whole process to prepare it. That pretty much touches on all areas of itness.

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES DUE TO EXHAUSTION CAN BE EXTREMELY COSTLY. WORSE YET, HEART ATTACKS CAN HAPPEN IF YOU’RE IN ROUGH SHAPE.

We Have A Plan For That There’s clearly a great beneit to being in good enough shape to hunt, but what exactly does a program for a hunter look like? Much of the time, training for a particular sport doesn’t have to be extremely unique; attempting to mimic every nuance it has to offer is usually a fool’s errand. General athleticism is vital to every athlete. Hunting is no different.

Being a well-balanced athlete is all you need. That being said, there are some speciic positions that hunters need to be able to get into. For these positions, there are exercises and movements from which you’ll beneit. Speciically, we’ll look at squatting, hiking, stalking, crouching, and lying prone as positions to train for.

Being able to get into and out of these positions is important. We’ll touch on each of them below, providing one mobility or movement preparation exercise and one strength exercise that aids the position. Speciically for hiking, we’ve included a conditioning exercise to make the most aggressive terrain seem like a walk in the park.

MOVEMENT AND STRENGTH SQUATTING Squatting is a critical movement to learn for everyday life and can be a decent resting and shooting position. It requires a significant amount of mobility in the ankles and hips.

SQUAT TO STAND

TWO KETTLEBELL FRONT SQUAT Begin by holding

Fully exhale to bring

Stay tall throughout

two kettlebells in

your ribs toward

the movement.

the rack position —

your hips. This

Exhale as you press

close to the chest,

properly sets up the

your feet through

gripped firmly in the

ribcage and pelvis to

the floor, returning

Start in a standing

If this is difficult,

Keep holding

palm, and resting on

best stabilize.

to the starting

position.

soften your knees.

your toes as you

the forearm and up-

Sniff air in, and

position.

Bend forward and

While holding your

straighten your

per arm. Your wrists

slowly sit down

Complete three sets

grab your toes.

toes, sit down

knees and move

should be straight.

between your knees.

of eight repetitions.

between your knees

your hips high. You

into a squat. Use

should feel your

your elbows to push

hamstrings stretch.

your knees apart at

Continue for 10 total

the bottom.

repetitions.

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REGIMEN HIKING WITH LOAD

STALKING AND CROUCHING

If you’re going hunting, you’ll need to be able to hike for a decent amount of time. Not only are strength and mobility important for this, but also conditioning, as you’ll be carrying equipment and, hopefully, dinner.

BARBELL STEP-UP

BOX HIP FLEXOR STRETCH

Begin with a barbell

to create 90-degree

Begin at an angle

Put your other foot

across your upper

angles at your knee

(roughly 45 degrees)

on the box and

back to simulate a

and hips.

to a small box or

squeeze your butt.

You’ll spending some time waiting, crouched behind cover, and slowly moving closer and closer to your prey.

Building strength and mobility to make this position easier will absolutely be a plus next time you’re out on a hunt.

heavy pack. Pull the

Step up on top of the

step with both

Hold this position for

bar into your back.

box using your front

knees down.

five full exhales.

Your grip width

foot; don’t push off

Keep your inside leg

Complete one set on

should be dictated

of your back foot.

down, and rotate

each side.

by your shoulders’

Slowly step back

your body around

forward and place your hands on the

range of motion. If

down to the starting

that bottom knee

ground next to your front foot.

your shoulders are

position.

to face the box

Straighten your back knee, squeeze

tighter, move your

Complete three sets

straight on.

your butt, and sink your hips down

hands wider.

of eight repetitions

toward the floor.

Place one foot on top

per side.

Reach the hand closest to your front

SPIDERMAN WITH OVERHEAD REACH From a standing position, lunge

foot to the ceiling. Follow your hand

of a box tall enough

with your eyes.

Bring your arm down, and take a large step forward to the standing position.

Complete six repetitions on each side.

SLED DRAG While a sled works

Make sure to lean

this exercise can be

Complete this for

great for this, you

forward enough that

rough on the front of

six to 10 sets with

can also drag tires,

your arms aren’t

your shoulders.

45- to 60-second

sandbags, or any

very far past your

March 20 to 30

rests between.

other heavy object.

body. Otherwise,

yards.

Use a rope or other strap to connect to the sled and grip it firmly.

Facing away from the sled or object, lean forward, and begin to march.

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ONE KETTLEBELL TALL KNEELING OVERHEAD PRESS TO STAND Begin with both knees

the kettlebell up and

floor and stand up.

down, with kettlebell in

place your foot on the

Reverse these steps to

the rack position. Your

ground.

return to the starting

wrist should be straight,

Press the kettlebell

position.

and your arm should be

overhead.

Complete three sets of

tight against your body.

Holding it overhead,

five repetitions on each

Bring the knee opposite

drive your foot into the

side.

PRONE Hitting the dirt and creeping around, or just waiting for the perfect shot, requires you to be comfortable on your stomach. Not only that, but getting into and out of the position quickly and effortlessly is very beneficial.

ONE LEG PLANK Begin by lying on your stomach with your elbows on the floor.

Straighten your legs and bring your

INCHWORM

hips off the ground.

From a standing position,

further forward while

to walk your feet closer

While staying in this position, raise

bend forward and walk

holding a brace with your

to your hands. You should

one leg off the ground. Your hips

out with your hands to

abs.

feel a stretch in your

shouldn’t rotate.

push-up position. If you

Keeping your knees

hamstrings.

Hold for 10 to 15 seconds per side.

can, walk your hands

straight, use your ankles

Repeat for six repetitions.

Complete three sets per side.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Conclusion Hunting can absolutely be a dificult task. Putting in some time to get in better shape will make much of the more challenging aspects a piece of cake. After all, there are many aspects of hunting that are out of your control, but physical preparation isn’t one of them.

Ryne Gioviano holds a master’s degree in exercise physiology and is a certified personal trainer through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He’s the owner of Achieve Personal Training & Lifestyle Design in Aurora, Illinois. @rgioviano www.achieve-personaltraining.com

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Game Isn’t Just Burgers and Steaks J.R. Young

I

f you asked 10 hunters what caliber of rifle or which bow and arrow combination is the best for taking game, you’ll not only get 42 different answers, but you’ll also get an entertaining debate where folks trip over themselves trying to say the same thing. We, as hunters, can be an obsessive bunch when it comes to our gear and which hunts to choose (particularly in the west). It’s a Ford-versus-Chevy type of thing.

When it comes to gear, folks will focus down to every detail. Once an animal is killed, though, too often the details of processing and expanding on culinary opportunities presented to us are missed. Often I talk with people, or anecdotally see discussions on social media, where someone’s wondering what to do with yet another package of frozen ground venison, and they’re tired of burgers or classic meat sauce. This article is the irst in a series to help you get more out of your wild game.

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For me, using the whole animal has a lot to do with respect for the animal, nature, and the life I’ve taken to sustain my own. That respect is realized through expressing the animal to its fullest potential from both a nutritional and culinary perspective. If we’re at a party talking about the bounty, I’ll usually describe the decadent meals I’ve prepared using whole animals. What I don’t share is how I got there; often people will glaze over the details — yeah, I learned that lesson.

Butchering, both in the ield and back at home, are the irst steps needed to yield more from your game.

Butchering isn’t a complex process, but it’s time consuming and requires a bit of attention to detail at some key moments. It is, however, incredibly rewarding. If in seasons past you’ve simply dropped off your animal at a processor, we’d encourage you next time to take matters into your own hands. The results are worth it.

Fundamentals There are several great resources, like Hank Shaw or Steven Rinella, as well as YouTube videos to help you understand the basics. Please take advantage of them for more details; here, we’ll get you thinking about what else you should be doing with your game.

My mother used to say, “Reduce, recycle, reuse.”

She was an amazing woman who kept well away from the kitchen, so it was early in life that I learned I’d have to igure out how to feed myself. There were, and still are, many culinary failures. I grew up in Seattle and would frequent Pike Place Market in search of the freshest ingredients. I’ve always enjoyed using cooking as a creative outlet. It was in my 30s when my love for cooking met my love for hunting.

I quickly realized the way in which I processed my meat and what I chose to harvest could deine the most unique dishes. When I begin planning for a hunt in the spring and summer, I scout, evaluate my gear, shoot my rifle or bow, and think about what dishes I’d like to make in anticipation of success in the ield. This is especially true with the rarer species available to us, like moose, sheep, and mountain goat.

I always try to do something new, but I haven’t found this to be true with many of my best hunting buddies.

I’m not sure if it’s a lack of knowledge on the part of some other hunters, or a sense of complacency mixed with a dash of fear of screwing things up. Hopefully, we can encourage you to challenge yourself and try new things. A dead deer is full of treasures from the basic soft tissues to organs to the skeleton.

A DEAD DEER IS FULL OF TREASURES...

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MEAT LOCKER

Consommé made from moose bones. Parisian chefs stay up at night dreaming of this stuff — you can make it for free.

fers to the inedible or inconsumable portions of animals, or the part that falls off. I feel sad for the guy who came up with that thought process.

The liver, heart, tongue, and thymus have all contributed to some of my favorite dishes.

Getting over our aversion to eating anything that isn’t skeletal muscle is a big step, but it isn’t impossible. In my experience, you just have to offer the inished product — once it’s on people’s plates, most folks will come back for seconds. In this series, we’ll introduce you to a distinct thought process and tips on the more unusual topics. We’ll cover an introduction to non-steaks and burgers, which comprise flank and rib meat, neck meat, and shanks. Next, we’ll use bones and stock, and end on an offal note.

Expand Your Horizons

And here we have the start of a hearty meal.

It’s Good for Ya Since the dawn of time, stories and meals shared are part of being human. If you dig into history, you’ll ind the use of animal parts to heal the body and strengthen the spirit. In my house, I’m blessed with the knowledge of my wife, Dr. Renee Young, a naturopathic doctor, hunter, and angler. She often talks about how organ meats have been traditionally used in cultures for healing purposes — some of the irst hormone replacement therapies came from eating organs.

Whether it worked or not is another topic, but eating testicles didn’t just spontaneously start — it came from some type of tradition.

Although using the whole animal is a more of a spiritual part of the hunt, you’re probably happy to know that organ meats pack a nutritional punch, as do the bones (a “low hanging fruit” means of enhancing your health and cooking is to make stock from them). Bone stock contains 19 amino acids and is high in glucosamine and chondroitin, great for your joint health.

Don’t Squirm Americans, in particular, are a bit prudish about their food, and it’s not clear exactly how we came to this place. Certainly, our ancestors relished the variety of meats available from just one carcass, and some organ meats were highly prized. The word “offal” re108 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

We invite you to take the information in the upcoming articles of this series and expand on it. Using the whole animal is part of who we are. If you’re lucky enough to source an animal, then enjoy the whole bounty. Open your house to friends, family, and even people you’ve just met to share in connecting with where this incredible food came from. Interest in the ield to table movement is strong, and many people don’t know where to start or how to source their meat. Make it your mission to have as many people as possible try something deliciously wild.

Remember that like ine wines, every animal is different. Sommeliers talk earnestly about terroire, and like wine, where an animal lived has a huge impact on the flavor of its meat. An elk I shot in Arizona this past year — my irst from an area loaded with pinyon and juniper — is very different from the elk I took previously in Montana. I made the mistake of trying to cook them both the same way, with the same flavor proile. It hasn’t always turned out well.

If you’re a little tentative about the prospects of ruining your favorite game with potentially bad cooking skills, then why not try your recipe on a store-bought animal? There’s no shame building up some conidence irst before you try something new, especially with an animal you worked so hard to get.

We hope that your next hunting plan involves iguring out how you’ll use the whole animal. Take it slow, start with the easy stuff, work your way up, and don’t get discouraged.

5 Vital Survival Tips for Hunters Kevin Estela

H

unters are in a class of their own as skilled outdoorsmen. Far from the neon clothingand-gear-carrying granola crowd, hunters are generally more in tune with the environment, seeking to blend in rather than stand out. And we must know the environment and understand our surroundings to be successful.

While hunters are likely better equipped to survive in the wild than your average hiker, trail runner, or mountain biker, accidents can very easily thrust even an experienced outdoorsman into a serious survival situation.

We’ve assembled the top ive survival tips for hunters to keep you in pursuit of game and out of harm’s way.

1. Don’t Get Lost All it takes for a hunter to lose his bearings is to lose track of what’s important. Instead of focusing on returning to the truck at the end of the day, a newly discovered set of game tracks through uncharted territory can quickly pull you off the beaten path and closer to an unexpected night out.

The excitement of a successful hunt can overshadow the urgency of getting out of the woods before dark. A hunter can quickly become lost or disoriented during dawn or dusk hours, without proper gear such as a reliable compass, map, and flashlight, as well as the knowledge to use them.

Prior to any hunt, you should perform map reconnaissance of your hunting area. Study, identify, and document routes to and from the trailhead, potential water sources, and alternative travel routes in the event of inclement weather. Mark possible assets in the ield such as ire watchtowers, ranger stations, and game check-in stations.

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This author in the north slope of the Brooks Range in Alaska.

Once this essential knowledge is gathered, stick to your plan and don’t stray from your predetermined hunting ground. Relay your departure times to someone who can start making inquiries if time frames and communication go awry. (Think Aron Ralston.) Be aware of how much chaos you’ll sow should something go wrong after hitting mountain X when you told family members you’d be on mountain Y. Have a plan and stick to it.

Map and compass skills will prevent a hunter from becoming lost in the backcountry. Learn to read a map and anticipate what the terrain will look like before you get in country.

2. Plan from Success Backwards Before stepping off into the backwoods, a hunter should have and follow a plan for success. This usually means zeroing your rifle, utilizing appropriate camouflage, and carrying the right gear to observe your prey, such as binoculars and spotting scopes. You can have all the right gear with you to harvest game and forget what you need to process it. As previously stated, when a hunter gets into a survival situation, it’s usually due to an accident.

Not being able to effectively drag a deer safely can result in a trip or fall. Processing game with the wrong knife or a dull knife can lead to a cut hand or worse. Not having the right resources such as clean cloth meat bags or enough salt to preserve meat in the ield can lead to ruined meat.

Always plan from success backward. Think of the gear needed to effectively bring game out of the ield, the gear needed to process it, and what it’ll take to keep predators away. Mentally prepare for a successful hunt and visualize what it takes to avoid injury. The irst time you harvest game needn’t be the same day you actually do it in the ield — visualization is a powerful tool; use it.

If it’s the little things that cause hunters the most trouble, this is one way to tie up loose ends before they ruin your day.

Every hunter should carry emergency bivouac equipment and have layers of emergency gear organized on his person. An emergency blanket can be packaged with a fire-starter and hand warmer to increase your odds of survival.

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FIELDCRAFT

3. Emergency, Now What?

Falling out of tree stands is a very common accident and can result in life-threatening injuries. Hunters get tired from waking up early and being hyper vigilant.

They get sore from sitting too long and let their muscles cramp up. A fall from a tree stand can lead to a broken bone, puncture wound, or head injury.

Just as a irearms enthusiast should carry a trauma kit for shooting-related medical incidents, a hunter should have a kit to deal with injuries that go beyond the obvious.

You must become your own medic, as help might not ind you in time. Carrying a tourniquet, hemostatic bandage, and pressure bandage could save your life. If you’re a tree-stand hunter, wear a good harness. If you think it looks goofy, consider this: You look a hell of a lot better wearing a harness than you do on the ground in a pool of your own blood.

4. Layer Levels of Preparedness While the average hunter probably has a basic gear list they carry in the outdoors, they may not have redundant layers of preparedness. For instance, a small 112 CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

metal water bottle kit can provide the means to make ire, signal for help, set up a shelter, and treat water by boiling it.

Warm drinks not only prevent dehydration, but also keep the body warm from the inside out. Building on basic kit, you can tuck extra lighters in pockets and even some basic emergency gear on a rif le sling or buttstock pouch. If one layer fails, another layer backs it up.

Layers of preparedness are also layers of protection. You should think about how to stay warm in layers. Clothing (worn in layers), dedicated rain gear to protect from the elements, insulation from the ground, warm liquids in a thermos (limit caffeinated f luids to slow dehydration), and plenty of high-calorie foods to keep the internal furnace going. Exposure is a real killer, but with layered preparedness, you can survive the night.

Levels of preparedness exist for signaling methods as well, including a whistle, a charged cellphone, two-way radios, and a f lashlight. Whenever possible, the old adage of “one is none, two is one” should be applied. This includes hunters as well. While hunt-

Above: Warm drinks are a great morale booster. A good metal canteen or bottle paired with a reliable fire-starter and tinder can be used to warm the body in more than one way.

Top: Layers of preparedness increase the odds of survival. In case you’re separated from your pack, the gear tucked in your pockets, like this Benchmade Ritter Griptilian and Exotac NanoSPARK, might be all you have to survive the night.

Above left: A small backpack weighing less than 10 pounds can be the difference between life and death while hunting far from civilization.

WHEN EMERGENCY BLANKETS KILL Avoid possible life-threatening malfunctions by making maintenance of your firearms and optics a regular habit.

Accidents happen.

A small trauma kit, including a tourniquet, weighs very little and can save a life, maybe your own.

ing alone is an escape for some, a hunting buddy can watch your back and vice versa.

5. Be a Camper Posing as a Hunter When you go hunting, always be prepared to spend the night in the clothes you’re wearing. Mentally and physically prepare for that night out by doing dry runs within reach of a warm place of refuge. An unexpected night out can induce fear from many angles; with the correct attitude, you can reprogram your mind.

There’s nothing to be afraid of if you view the unexpected bivouac as a temporary hunting camp rather than an emergency shelter.

The long hunters, like Hugh Glass who inspired The Revenant, spent many nights out in hostile environments and became legendary. Remain calm and remember that panic is a killer. Darkness will eventually turn into daylight. Those noises in the dark are just the natural sounds of the woods. Those expecting you will know you’re trained and give you time to contact them.

Trust your training; it won’t fail you. Remaining calm during an emergency will prevent it from becoming a full-fledged survival situation.

Emergency blankets, carried by hunters and often purchased at the last minute, are effective when used correctly — and dangerous when misunderstood. Emergency blankets aren’t magical, and they don’t provide any insulation. What they do well is reflect heat. This reflective property is negated when draped closely over the body. Ideally, a space blanket should be used with an external heat source when the body isn’t providing much of its own.

The ideal setup for using an emergency blanket with minimal other equipment is in front of a roaring fire. Hold the blanket around your back loosely and the fire’s heat will be trapped by the reflective side and directed back to your body. If you don’t have a roaring fire, perhaps just a small votive candle, you can sit cross-legged on an insulating surface like a stadium seat and trap the heat of the candle burning between your legs. If fire isn’t an option, another effective way of using emergency blankets is with disposable hand warmers. A couple placed under the armpits and by the kidneys will help the body warm up and produce enough heat to be trapped by the reflective surface.

Emergency blankets can’t warm the body if no warmth is present. They also won’t stop convection cooling if placed directly against your body in a stiff wind. If you’re going to carry an emergency blanket, rubber band a fire starter to it to better your odds of survival. Include a hand warmer to bring some dexterity back to your fingers if there’s little left.

Don’t trust emergency blankets to save you unless you fully understand how to use them effectively.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kevin Estela is the owner/head instructor of Estela Wilderness Education, a bushcraft and survival school in New England. He’s a Sayoc Kali associate instructor, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, and an avid marksman. As a “survival athlete,” he can be found regularly testing his physical and mental limitations in the gym, woods, and urban landscape preparing for the fight. www.kevinestela.com

RECOILWEB.COM 113

VISTA

Hochsauerland district of Norrhein-Westphalia, Germany Kenda Lenseigne 114

CARNIVORE ISSUE01°

MA DE BY

SI GNATUR E R EDUCTION DEVICES R IFLE SUPPR ESSOR

SIG SRD762

REDUCED SIGNATURE

ENHANCED ACCURACY

Maximum sound reduction is achieved by an innovative tubeless design, which helps preserve the hearing of shooter and bystander

Accuracy is enhanced and point of impact shift is nearly eliminated by the Taper-Lok system that centers suppressor to barrel

LESS RECOIL Recoil is cut in half as high-pressure gases are redirected by the Inconel bales, making even lightweight 300 Win Mags easy to shoot

Go to sigsauer.com/ownership to learn which 40 states allow suppressed hunting.

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