SITKA Gear - INSIGHT 003 by SITKA Gear

SITKA INSIGHT ISSUE 003 2

ATHLETES COLE KRAMER & DUSTIN ROE DESCEND WITH LOADS IN TOW AFTER EXPERIENCING SUCCESS IN AZERBAIJAN. TO SEE MORE FROM THIS HUNT AND INSIGHTS ON COLE AND DUSTIN’S SYSTEM VISIT:

SITKAGEAR.com/Insight/Azerbaijan

SITKA FILMS — 04 #DIVERGE5 — 05 TRIBE GALLERY — 06 TECH CORNER OPTIFADE — 08 RESTORATION IN THE TENDOYS — 12 SECRET PRODUCT FEATURES — 20 THE MAN WITH THE PLAN — 22 THIS SEASON — 24 BEYOND THE LAYERS ZION PILGRIM — 32 ELK SHAPE — 36 BEYOND THE LAYERS JIM HOLE — 38 SET FOR SUCCESS — 42 RAISING HUNTERS TOM FOSS — 44 IN THE KITCHEN CHEF EDUARDO GARCIA — 46 THOUGHTS FROM THE HART — 50

FRONT COVER: Athlete Dustin Roe descending from 12,000 ft in the Caucasus Mountains of Azerbaijan with his Dagestan Tur. STEVEN DRAKE GORE-TEX®, GUARANTEED TO KEEP YOU DRY®, PACLITE®, WINDSTOPPER®, OPTIFADE® & designs are trademarks of W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

Tribe members Tony Larsen and Dustin Diefenderfer losing elevation in the Tendoys. Watch the story unfold in “Tendoys,” dropping August 1st.

DROPPING THIS SEASON AT

SITKAFILMS.COM Three months before the Arkansas duck opener, Fish and Game put out a new regulation: No boat should pass another on the way to a coveted public land timber hole. That meant the boat racing was officially over. But where the 25-horsepower motors of Dr. Duck and company once whined in competition with others, they now hum with the camaraderie and singular focus of chasing green through thick timber.

25 HORSE Fall 2016

TENDOYS

Dropping August 1st

BEYOND THE ROAR Premieres August 8

Beyond the Roar follows a paddler and a hunter who recently lost a mutual friend. Together, Aaron and Will launch out in a hard shell canoe, searching for moose on a remote river in the Yukon. They work to understand the meaning of risk in the face of loss, venturing further than they knew they could into territories unknown.

Four lifelong friends set out on an archery sheep hunt in the Tendoy Mountains of Montana, and they find themselves in a wild stalk. But the hunt is bigger than them. Repeated pneumoniarelated die-offs have led biologists to employ hunters to wipe out the entire herd, in order to restore it. If the program works, if the hunters are successful, it could become the blueprint for wild sheep restoration across North America. SITKA Rough Cuts are short videos from the archives hunting footage from the depths of the Tribe’s memory cards, dusted off and brought to light on your phones and your faces. These are the moments we’ll never forget and a glimpse into why we’re #SICKFORIT.

GO AHEAD. DIVERGE. It doesn’t require hunting uncommon species in uncommon places. It just takes being an uncommon human, seeing the world in uncommon ways.

SAM AVERETT

For the last four years, this uncommon Tribe has shaken the hunting world in ways we couldn’t have imagined. We’ve come together to share the very real things we have seen. The grit, the beauty, the truth of hunting. The expression is raw, and rawness is uncommon. It’s risky. It’s risky to show your cards, to try sharing what hunting truly means to you with people you don’t know. We’re honored to be a part of that rawness, and we want to reward those who take the risk. This year, the //DIVERGE// Photo Contest will run September 1 - December 1. We call it a contest because we’ll be giving away gear to those who surprise and inspire us most. But really, it’s a celebration of all who do things differently. Who see things differently. Who refuse to conform to too-small definitions of what it means to be a hunter.

WHAT’S AT STAKE? 300 UNCOMMON PHOTOS WIN 1 special edition SITKA Gear //DIVERGE// Cap

WADE JAMES

30 JURY-SELECTED PHOTOS WIN Special Edition SITKA //DIVERGE// Cap GoPro Hero4 $300 in SITKA Gear 3 GRAND PRIZE PHOTOS WIN Special Edition SITKA //DIVERGE// Cap GoPro Hero4 $3,000 in SITKA Gear All-expenses-paid trip with VIP access to the 2017 SITKA Gear Rendezvous in Bozeman, MT, for you and a friend Photos published in SITKA InSight Magazine, at SITKAGEAR.com, and in select national hunting publications

NICK SHERROD

Want in? Get your camera ready. Hunt a lot. Diverge. And tag your top pics with #Diverge5.

FOR FULL CONTEST DETAILS VISIT: SITKAGEAR.com/Diverge

INSIGHT BRANDON NEITZEL

TRIBE GALLERY

INSIGHT

#SICKFORIT #SICKFORIT PHOTOS: Left Page: Jason Jahnke, Top Left: Sam Soholt, Top Right: Sam Averett, Middle Left: John Mulligan, Middle right: Nick Sherrod, Bottom Left: Brandon Thome Neitzel

INSIGHT

TIMBER If you’ve stood with your face planted against a tree, water up to your knees, watching mallards wiggle their way through the branches and angle toward your spread, you know. It’s the experience that inspired us to create the first and only concealment pattern designed specifically for flooded timber. Introducing the new GORE® OPTIFADE® Concealment Waterfowl Timber Pattern. We’ve taken our scientific approach to waterfowl vision and created the most effective visual concealment ever built for this unique environment and style of hunting. It is optimized for engagement distances of 10 to 40 yards and designed to make you nothing in the eyes of ducks as they drop straight down into your hole through the canopy. In those moments, everything slows down. You won’t think about the technology in the fabrics keeping you comfortable, let alone the algorithmic pattern that keeps the birds from flaring. And that’s by design. But when the day is done, you’ll know exactly why we do what we do.

INSIGHT

NEW

CALLERS GLOVE An innovative glove sold in singles (not pairs), the Callers Glove lets you keep one hand free for better calling and trigger control. Between waves, keep your trigger hand warm in the highly insulated, Berber-lined hand muff, which is bonded to the back of an ultrawarm GORE-TEXÂŽ glove. NOTE: Right-handed shooters will need to purchase the left-handed glove, and vice versa.

Explore this product and all the new 2016 gear at: SITKAGEAR.com

INSIGHT

CALLERS GLOVE A NOTE FROM TRIBE MEMBER RICKY HART As an avid waterfowler that hunts in blistering cold weather, I have struggled with keeping my hands warm, calling effectively, and shooting efficiently with various types of gloves. The Callers Glove allows me to accomplish all of these things without removing gloves, and still keeps my hands warm during the coldest days of the season.

INSIGHT

R E S TO R AT I O N IN THE TENDOYS

THE RISE, FALL & FUTURE OF SHEEP IN THE TENDOY MOUNTAINS HUNTING EDITOR OF BUGLE MAGAZINE PJ DELHOMME

THE

HUNT

Lyle Hebel lives in Bozeman, Montana – epicenter of a sportsman’s dream. A guy could spend every waking moment outdoors fishing, hunting, skiing, exploring. A single guy that is. With a full-time job, wife, and three young kids at home, Hebel’s time is measured. He takes one or two hunting trips every year. So when a childhood friend called Hebel to tell him about a fall 2015 bighorn sheep hunt in the Tendoy Mountains, he knew this would be one of his big trips. Hunters in Montana (myself included) can wait decades, sometimes even a lifetime, to draw a coveted sheep tag. But this wasn’t a special draw. This was open to everyone. Along with three of his closest childhood friends, Hebel took to the mountains during Montana’s September bow season. And they weren’t alone. Word had gotten out that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) was looking to hunters to kill every single bighorn in the area. With 311 licenses sold for 36 sheep, the odds were good bowhunters would encounter more than just some sheep. “I was a little concerned about the amount of campers on the road along the river,” Hebel says. “That’s why we chose to go back in. We’re willing to hunt a little farther than anyone else. That’s our mentality. How can we go to a spot where no one else wants to go?”

INSIGHT

ON ITS SURFACE, THE PLAN DEFIES LOGIC. TO SAVE A HERD OF BIGHORN SHEEP IN SOUTHWEST MONTANA’S TENDOY MOUNTAINS, MANAGERS HAVE EMPLOYED HUNTERS TO KILL AS MANY AS THEY CAN. DIG A LITTLE DEEPER THOUGH, AND IT ALL MAKES PERFECT SENSE.

Unless it’s hunting season, the Tendoys are typically devoid of people; they aren’t close to much. Yellowstone National Park’s west entrance sits 120 miles east. Dillon, Montana (pop 4,000) sits 40 miles to the north. The Tendoy’s 9,000-foot peaks sit in Beaverhead County, which has roughly 9,000 residents, twice as many domestic sheep, and more than 150,000 head of cattle. Along the southern edge of the landscape, grasslands uniquely transition directly to rocky peaks, without the usual band of conifers between the two. Along with bighorns, mule deer, moose, elk, and mountain goats roam here. The hills are dotted with caves, some of which were used by prehistoric Native American tribes dating back at least 12,000 years. A few days into the hunt, Hebel needed to hike around the mountain for cell reception to check in with his family. While he was gone, fellow hunter Tony Larsen arrowed a young ram. And while he didn’t get a sheep of his own, Hebel couldn’t have been happier. “We’ve all known each other a long time and the enthusiasm was there from everyone,” he says. All told, archery hunters took 10 sheep, while rifle hunters later in the fall killed 13. FWP went in this past winter and killed three more. There are likely eight sheep to go. Using hunters this way to take out an entire herd is a first for Montana FWP, and it begs the question: If FWP is tasked with conserving wildlife, why on earth would they unleash hunters to kill an entire herd?

INSIGHT

UNLESS IT’S HUNTING SEASON, THE TENDOYS ARE TYPICALLY DEVOID OF PEOPLE; THEY AREN’T CLOSE TO MUCH. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK’S WEST ENTRANCE SITS 120 MILES EAST. DILLON, MONTANA (POP 4,000) SITS 40 MILES TO THE NORTH.

INSIGHT

PATIENT

ZERO

Bighorns in Montana usually keep to themselves, content with wild grass and forbs near the timberline, reliable water sources, and wide, bare open spaces to both see predators and escape them. But during the November rut, young rams or “flyers” get kicked out of the herd by the big rams. “They are the outcasts who are going to explore,” says Craig Fager, a 25-year veteran biologist with Montana FWP. “They are the ones who tend to wander outside the established arbitrary unit boundary and mingle with domestic sheep.“ It makes sense: a young ram is heartbroken and outmuscled by being beat up by a bigger ram. He seeks out new avenues to sow his oats. But that’s where the romance ends. Once that flyer mingles with domestic sheep or goats and returns to his wild herd after the rut, he may trigger the herd’s eventual demise. You see, domestic sheep and wild bighorns have a bit of a checkered past, and it goes back 11,000 years. The goats and sheep of 4-H and merino wool fame originated in Asia and Europe, evolving with the bacterial and viral bugs that cause pneumonia. In doing so, they became immune to those pathogens. But Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, which also evolved in parts of Asia, migrated to North America between 2.6 million and 11,000 years ago. They didn’t evolve with the same pathogens. As a result, wild bighorns have little to no natural immunity. Biologists estimate that around 2 million bighorn sheep roamed North America before the mid 1800s. Once settlers began to take over habitat, overhunt, and move in their domestic livestock, wild bighorn numbers plummeted to about 1% of what they originally were. As for that lovesick flyer, when he returns to his herd after the rut, he passes on the pneumonia pathogens. Even if some older, stronger native bighorns resist pneumonia and survive, the pathogens stay in the herd and get passed on to lambs in the spring. Their tolerance to disease being next to nothing, they succumb. No lambs means no future rams. Even if there is no contact with domestic sheep for a few years, there is no going back once the pathogens are in the wild herd. “The science is irrefutable that domestic sheep infect wild sheep with the bacteria that causes pneumonia,” says Fager.

THE

CYCLE

Since 1984, 27 of 46 bighorn populations in Montana have gone through pneumonia-caused die-off events. The Tendoys are no different. By 1940, bighorn sheep in Beaverhead County were considered extinct. In 1985, FWP reintroduced 39 wild sheep back into the Tendoys. Another 14 came in 1986. By 1993, the herd was up to at least 154 animals. But that same winter, an allage pneumonia die off reduced the herd to 28 animals and no lambs survived. There are no eye-witnesses to account for contact between bighorns and domestic sheep that winter, but the area is prime wool country. There were two domestic sheep allotments then on public land plus domestic herds being run on private land, all within 14 miles of the bighorns. Hunting was suspended in the fall of 1994. More bighorn sheep were added to the herd and more died. The cycle continued into 2012 when 49 more sheep were added to the Tendoys. By February 2015 only 19 bighorns, including one lamb, were found. As for other herds in Montana, the story is similar. By the end of 2010, pneumonia in five western Montana herds killed at least 640 wild sheep—more than 10 percent of the state’s entire bighorn population. And the problem isn’t isolated to Montana. From Arizona to British Columbia, every state and province with a population of wild sheep has herds that have been and are infected with pneumonia pathogens. This past February in Nevada managers tracked down and killed 27 diseased wild sheep in the Montana Mountains with hopes of keeping a neighboring wild herd from contacting pneumonia.

INSIGHT

MAKING

SENSE OF IT ALL

Back in the Tendoys, Fager hopes that by 2017 the hills will be bare of bighorns. Once that is confirmed, managers move on to phase two: planting the hills with disease-free wild sheep. FWP will look for 50 sourced-sheep from around Montana to plant in the area. It seems logical enough: take out sick sheep and replace them with healthy sheep, but there is a catch. There are still some private domestic sheep allotments within range of roaming bighorns, which means wild sheep could once again become sick. This is where cooperation and separation are key. The two statewide sheep groups in Montana, the Montana Wild Sheep Foundation and the Montana Wool Growers, along with Wild Sheep Foundation representatives, sat down this past March in Choteau to answer this question: how can the best sheep hunting in the lower 48 coexist with one of the top 10 U.S. domestic sheep economies? The answer is hardly a slam dunk.

“ WE

SEE THE NEED FOR COLLABORATION, TO HELP MAP THE PATH FORWARD.

“

The top issue for Montana’s bighorns is pneumonia, and the goals of domestic sheep producers and bighorn-loving sportsmen are not mutually exclusive, says Shane Clouse, vice-president of the Montana Wild Sheep Foundation. The two sides hammered out an agreement that called for collaboration between all parties. It specifically rallied against the use of lawsuits as a means to an end. The meeting between the two groups came at the same time a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2010 U.S. Forest Service decision to close 70 percent of the domestic grazing allotments on Idaho’s Payette National Forest, safeguarding bighorns but putting grazing permittees off long-held allotments. Today, the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF), now based in Bozeman, has a seat at the management table in Montana, as well as Wyoming, Washington, Idaho, Utah–wherever wild sheep roam. They support removing sheep to save sheep as long as there are long-term plans to transplant new sheep, the right sheep. “You want to transplant ‘round sheep’ into ‘round habitat’, not ‘square sheep’ into ‘round habitat,’” says Kevin Hurley, WSF’s conservation director. “By that, we mean there needs to be careful evaluation and analysis of source stock to target habitat.” Furthermore, “FWP and others need to address and seek resolution to other factors that contributed to the roller-coaster population swings exhibited by the Tendoy herd,” added Hurley. Montana is fortunate to have healthy wild sheep populations from which to pull seed sheep, and that makes sheep selection the easy part. The tough part, the part that takes the most energy, is getting everyone who has a stake in the game on the same page. For now, that seems to be going in the right direction. “Without addressing potential contact issues on private lands, without support and willingness from agricultural and woolgrower interests and concerned legislators to work on these issues, it is an uphill push for FWP to not only maintain and restore current herds but also come up with suitable transplant locales,” says Kurt Alt, WSF staff biologist. “We see the need for collaboration, to help map the path forward.”

INSIGHT

For the time-being, all sides agree that the best method to prevent disease transmission is separation in time and space. No one is talking about building a giant fence around any sheep population, so keeping the sheep separate isn’t guaranteed. FWP is looking to ranchers for help. “If they do get any flyers [in with their domestic flocks] we rely on being contacted by the producers so we can kill any bighorns that might be mingling,” says Fager. “Private-land flocks are an inherent risk of being in the bighorn business. There is some risk around the Tendoys, but it’s as good as it’s going to get in terms of domestic flocks in the area.” It’s a risk Fager and FWP are willing to take. As to the future of the Tendoys, time will tell if hunters get to pack in with their buddies to chase bighorns there again. “I hope that we see success in what we were called in to do,” says Hebel recounting the hunt. “It would be great to see the herd grow to a sustainable level. You’re helping someone to go in five years from now and give them a chance to harvest a healthy sheep. We took that meat home and it became the meat for family and friends. Even if we hadn’t killed a sheep, we’d still be talking about that trip for long time.”

SUPPORT ADDITIONAL PROJECTS LIKE THE TENDOYS, BECOME A MEMBER OF THE WILD SHEEP FOUNDATION. VISIT WILDSHEEPFOUNDATION.ORG TO JOIN TODAY

INSIGHT

FILM PREVIEW BY BEN POTTER, DIRECTOR We left the central coast of California and arrived just south of Dillon, Montana, a few days later. Departing from 200ft elevation and arriving at over 5000ft elevation had us feeling the altitude, but all the more anxious to get after the Tendoy Mountain Range. No, we weren’t Californians after our own sheep hunt pipe dream. We didn’t buy the $750 out-of-state sheep tag like the other hunters who ventured into the state for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Joel and I were on assignment by SITKA to capture the hunt, as well as the conservation story surrounding it. We first heard about the hunt while following up on some work at the SITKA headquarters in Bozeman. Bumping into a handful of friends, we kept hearing about a sheep hunt taking place in the Tendoys. The hunt would kick off during the first weekend of September 2015. It offered unlimited over-the-counter sheep tags: $125 for residents and $750 for nonresidents. If you have spent time hunting sheep or considering the adventure, you know that this opportunity was unheard of in the lower 48 states. In addition to its affordability, hunters were provided the opportunity to partner with the Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) to help play a part in the removal of the 30-to-40-head sheep herd. From a filmmaker’s perspective, this was far more than another hunt to capture, but a story about conservation history that we had the great honor to tell. After a day and half of scouting, we got up the mountain and gained another four thousand feet. Outdoor filmmaking offers endless challenges: unpredictable weather, battery power, equipment weight (in addition to typical backcountry gear), and ultimately, staying sharp and concealed for that one moment we all live for. After 30 years in the field, I’ve learned that hunters invest countless hours in hopes of experiencing a split-second of excitement; all hunters live for these brief moments. Since taking our creative team to the outdoors in 2012, I quickly learned that these moments can feel even more powerful and nerve-racking when burdened with the responsibility of capturing them through a lens. Opening day was busy. Things were looking pretty grim for our bow hunt, and our goal of capturing a stalk on a ram seemed hopeless. Around every corner we ran into another hunter, and I have the feeling that the sheep were dealing with the same thing. Weather moved in and gave a typical Montana fall welcome with heavy wind, rain, fog, then snow, and fog again. Running low on water and keeping an eye on our battery usage, we had a couple hard days seeing so many fellow hunters and so few sheep. I’m not asking for sympathy; on the contrary, I’ll admit that I loved the challenge as a director. These factors are what distinguish projects like the Tendoys from any other film production we are involved in. Taking your gear, physical endurance, and your mental game to the limit fuels inspiration. I’ve learned that if your project doesn’t involve risk, it might not be worth the effort, or the very least, it won’t be memorable.

INSIGHT

Day three of the hunt came and we decided to follow two of our four hunters back up to the top of the ridge. Weaving in and out of canyons, my trusty assistant, Joel, spotted a ram. The film tells the rest. You won’t be disappointed with the epic moments that we were given and captured through the lens. We’ve all experienced a hunt that goes from zero to one hundred in a moment. The Tendoys hit a hundred and offered us one of the most exciting stalks we have ever captured. Following up with Craig Fager, the FWP Dillion Biologist, we gathered some incredible interviews, building our story and reminding us of just how special this story will be for years to come. During that archery season, there were 10 sheep harvested, and four of those were rams. We felt incredibly blessed by the opportunity to have captured one of the four. The project has inspired me to continue to watch the process of reintroduction of sheep into the Tendoys, and to explore the facets of the pneumonia issues that are affecting the bighorn populations. It is a story that deserves continued documentation, and we hope that this film will help promote that documentary pursuit of these majestic animals.

Tendoys Director Ben Potter in his element at 8000 ft. JOEL WILSON

BEHIND THE LENSE

Tools of the trade for CANA Outdoors. BEN POTTER

Joel Wilson pulls the long lens to scope a distant ram. BEN POTTER

Everything in its place. JOEL WILSON

INSIGHT

ROLL IT UP. The Dewpoint Jacket packs down into its own hood, helping to keep your pack organized. Pro-tip: use the cinch cords for compression.

INSIGHT

PINCH TO ZOOM. Built with conductive thread technology, the Shooter Glove wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get between you and your GPS or smartphone.

AIR IT OUT. The Ascent Pant cuffs roll up and stay up with the integrated button tab just below the knee.

INSIGHT

THE MAN WITH THE PLAN UNLOCKING THE CODE TO SHOT CONTROL WITH JOEL TURNER Your success in the moment of truth is not dictated by your shooting ability. It depends solely on your ability to make decisions within your shot. It is your thoughts that control your actions, so controlling your arrow in high-stress situations is all about controlling your mind. Rather than practicing the physical components of your shot, what you should really be practicing is your concentration and decision making. That’s easier said than done. Most archers I meet can’t answer questions like: Do you have a plan for how you are going to shoot a controlled arrow on a buck or bull of a lifetime? Do you know what decisions you need to make in order to make that shot? Do you know when you need to make those decisions? Do you know how you will carry them out? How would you stop a bad shot before it happened? I can only answer these questions because of years of experience with terrible archery shooting. I have won a couple elk calling championships, and have a lot of experience calling in bulls, but it took 13 years of hunting elk and missing shots before I learned how to control my arrow during high-stress events. To answer the questions above, I developed a methodology first with firearms. I am a police officer and a sniper team leader on a SWAT Team. When I fire a round in those environments, I am not allowed to miss. I needed to develop a systematic way of thinking that would allow me to carry out a precision shot process under stress. I observed myself and thousands of other police officers in the process of the shot, and found that my system of thinking transfers from person to person, weapon to weapon, and scenario to scenario. Because of my passions, I have the most fun teaching it in the context of archery hunting. The process starts with a decision that, if you are going to release an arrow, you will do it perfectly or not at all. I don’t make that decision until I am at half-draw. If I decide to go from half draw to full draw, I will start by saying to myself, “I am going to do this right.” Once I am at my anchor point, I have another decision to make, so I slow down and inspect the feedback I’m getting. If my mind is distracted and I cannot get focused, it’s easy to recognize, and I let down. If I am able to focus and everything about the shot scenario is going perfectly, I say, “Here I go.” Then, and only then, do I begin my release process, telling my muscles exactly what they should do. Even at this point, I am getting feedback, and I can abort the shot if anything internally or externally isn’t going right. But if everything is correct, I will allow the shot. This is a high-level overview, but you can still put these ideas into practice. I will tell you, though, that my system does not work for you, you have to work for it.

INSIGHT

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROCESS VISIT: WWW.IRONMINDHUNTING.COM

INSIGHT

THIS SEASON I only come once a year, but you can find me in every state. There are 364 like me, but they are not my equal. They do not cause you to lose sleep or make your mind wander. They are not the reason for your extra time at the range, days spent in the dirt or behind the map. They do not deserve your sweat, blood, adulation, or preparation. But I do. I am opening day. Get ready. Here I come.

INSIGHT

Cody Skinner doing his best to prepare for the season to come in Southern Iowa and following advice from his older brother Nick. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In order to kill a 200-inch deer you need to hunt where a 200-inch deer lives.â&#x20AC;? DUSTIN LUTT

Matt Krekelberg and crew hold tight in the blind as lightning lights up the North Dakota plains. MATT MCCORMICK

Tom Foss grinding through the shale and fog in the NWT, Canada. ADAM FOSS

View from the top of Kiviok’s Hight’s New Mexico Bull last September. JAY BEYER

Kiviok Hight making meat the old-fashioned way, New Mexico. JAY BEYER

INSIGHT

Whether blood related or not... those who hunt together will always be brothers. DUSTY LUTT

Tribe Member David Felt and crew battle the unpredictability of spring snows in South Dakota. MATT MCCORMICK

INSIGHT

WHITETAIL IMAGE

TOP LEFT: Tribe Member Jason Peak’s first moments with his first mountain caribou. Mackenzie Mountains, NWT, Canada. STEVEN DRAKE

BOTTOM LEFT: Tribe Member Matt Dorweiler is all business between flocks in North Dakota. MATT MCCORMICK

RIGHT: SITKA Gear’s own Brad Christian takes to work at the meatpole after a successful morning in Kansas. CHRIS HOOD

INSIGHT

Dennis Loosier – AKA Dr Duck – cutting some green in the Northern Arkansas timber during opening weekend of the 2015/2016 season. BEN POTTER

Kiviok getting ready for the afternoon session in New Mexico. JAY BEYER

Sitting in the tent, listening to bugling bulls, making coffee, and waiting for shooting light. JAY BEYER

INSIGHT

SITKA Athlete Jeff Simpson’s place of peace. JEFF SIMPSON

Over 200 miles from the nearest town, the northern Mackenzie Mountains in the Northwest Territories, Canada, are as remote as it gets. We’ve tested much of our mountain hunting gear in this rugged range over the years. STEVEN DRAKE

Tribe Member Jason Peak in awe of his first Dallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sheep. Mackenzie Mountains, NWT, Canada. STEVEN DRAKE

THIS SEASON

INSIGHT

Welcome to guide Zion Pilgrimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Office. Southern Alps, New Zealand. ADAM FOSS

BEYOND THE LAYERS OUTFITTER PROFILE – ZION PILGRIM BY ELLIOTT WOODS

Non-native mammals have been running amok in New Zealand and Australia since at least the thirteenth century, when humans first settled the islands with rats stowed away in their cargo. The fourlegged newcomers flourished, in some cases to the point of posing a grave threat to native flora and fauna. New Zealand’s weasel woes are known throughout the globe. The slender predators, introduced by European settlers in the nineteenth century, are killing off the iconic kiwi bird, for example. Lesser known is New Zealand’s deer and red stag problem—which, if you’re one of a handful of trophy hunting outfitters lucky enough to guide clients in that country, is not a problem at all. Zion Pilgrim’s outfitting operation is based in the Haupiri Valley, on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island, an hour’s drive away from Greymouth, a coastal enclave of some 10,000 residents. About a hundred inches of rain falls annually on the region, combining with warm ocean winds to create a temperate rainforest habitat replete with dense vegetation, massive tree ferns, and rocky peaks looming above the canopy. Mount Uriah, the South Island’s tallest peak at nearly 5,000 feet, is just twenty miles away as the crow flies. In this prehistoric bush flanked by steep alpine terrain, Pilgrim guides clients from all over the world in pursuit of fallow deer and red stag in the forested lowlands, and tahr and chamois on the rocky slopes. There are no government-imposed hunting seasons for big game, which means all ungulates are in season 365 days a year—a real bonus when you rely on tourists flying halfway around the globe to hunt, as Pilgrim does.

INSIGHT

“ IT’S THE LAST FRONTIER, THE WEST COAST IS VERY UNIQUE FOR NZ AND THE SOUTH ISLAND.

His new home was a primordial forest brimming with game, but poorly managed. “The habitat is perfect. With no predators, the game populations took off, and in no time, overpopulation occurred and led to stunting. The government recognized that and deregulated the industry, classified all game animals as pests, and so there’s been about 80 years of pest control mentality, and most of my generation grew up with the mentality that killing as many as you could is doing the country a favor.” The “If it’s brown, it’s down” attitude that Pilgrim recollects from his youth is still reflected in the Department of Conservation’s approach toward big game management, which relies on eradication teams and involves “Judas” tracking collars that will follow an animal as it betrays its herd. “Now that I’m trophy hunting, I’m much more aware of game management and good management, and much more aware of the U.S. model, as far as running a guide business.” The encouraging news is that game animals are abundant in the Haupiri Valley and all the terrain that Pilgrim shares with his clients. “It’s a lush rainforest. As far as animals go, there’s a lot of feed and cover. We get good trophy quality,” Pilgrim told me over the phone from New Zealand. “The west coast is very unique for NZ and the South Island. It’s the last frontier, the least populated and developed area in all of NZ.” As far as clients who come to NZ to hunt, they come in several varieties. “New Zealand is a destination everyone wants to visit and must visit. Some guys bring their wives or hunting buddies. A lot of them want a comfortable lodge and great meals, so we have all that, and then we get a lot of guys who want to hunt like they hunt elk at home—backpacking, sleeping in a tent,” he says. For the latter group, high fence hunts—which Pilgrim does offer—are out. Scrambling up the scree fields of the mountains, chasing tahr and chamois, is in.

INSIGHT

Tahr, a longhorn goat originally from the Himalayas, wears a coat of long blond fur and a pair of curled, swept-back horns. The chamois, a nimble little mountain goat with a lively, contrasted dark and light face, originally from the European Alps, is smaller than the tahr and no easier to hunt. For these hunts, Pilgrim often flies hunters by helicopter into a spike camp above treeline. Early mornings are the time to glass the brushline, looking for movement in the snow grass and tussock. “Typically you’re hunting the animals in or near the belt of grasses and shrubs where they like to feed. The tahr are a mountain goat, so they’re eating what goats eat, but they’ll go up on the rocks during the rut.” Weather can change in an instant, but Pilgrim, who has over a decade of experience as a bush pilot, says he’s able to read the weather well enough to keep out of trouble for the most part. In the mountains, Pilgrim tries to keep his load as light as possible. He carries a Stone Glacier backpack with a full set of rain gear, a light Kelvin Active puffy jacket, a lightweight warming layer, and his rifle mounted with a scope, tripod, and bipod. His rifle of choice is a Gunworks 7mm LRM with a suppressor for long-range shooting. “It’s a lot gentler on the guide’s ears, which is good. Much better than muzzle-breaks,” he told me. “Three hundred yards distance is an average shot, with the distance acting as a safeguard against alerting the animals, and close enough that we can make a good shot.” For Pilgrim, the thrill is in the terrain as much as in hunting the animals that live in it, and his clients tend to agree. “A lot of our hunters comment that our area is so beautiful, it’s worth the whole trip just to be here and experience this place, regardless of whether they harvest an animal or not. Obviously the pressure is on us to take animals and 90 or 95% of the time we do, but people just love the way the hunt goes. They love putting in the effort, climbing the mountains, and working for it.

“ IFTOOSOMETHING’S EASY, YOU DON’T VALUE IT.

“

Pilgrim’s ancestors emigrated from Ireland to New Zealand around the turn of the twentieth century. They settled on the west coast, amidst a typically poor demographic of miners and timber workers. Pilgrim grew up near Christchurch, on the east coast, and his introduction to hunting was typical of a farm kid on the flat plains of the South Island. Farmland, hedgerows, and flat pasture were the closest thing Pilgrim had to wilderness in those days, and overpopulated fallow deer were a threat to crops. Pilgrim’s family moved to the west coast, which was a watershed event for the growing hunter. “It was like moving to the wild west. I spent days rustling cattle and deer. It was very exciting,” he recalls.

“

THE LEAST POPULATED AND DEVELOPED AREA IN ALL OF NZ.

That’s a comment we get from a lot of people, and that’s why I love it—because these are all things I love to do, and to be able to share them with other people is the most rewarding thing of the whole experience, just to see the look on their faces and know that it’s a memory they’re going to hold dear for the rest of their lives, that makes it all worth it right there.”

A LOOK INSIDE ZIONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PACK GEAR

EQUIPMENT

CAMERAS

Lightweight Crew LS Lightweight Bottom CORE Silkweight Boxer CORE Midweight Zip-T Timberline Pants Jetstream Vest Jetstream Jacket Stormfront Jacket Stormfront Pants Kelvin Light Hoody Kelvin Down Hoody Mountain Gloves GTX SITKA Cap Jetstream Beanie Kenetrek Mountain Extreme 400 Boots Stormfront Gaiters Kenetrek Glacier Socks High Visibility Vest Bino Bivy

Stone Glacier Cirque 6400 Backpack Mathews Halon Bow w/ Black Gold Ascent Verdict Sight Gunwerks LR-1000 Rifle - 7mm LRM (Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x50 scope) Blaser R-93 rifle - 300 win mag (Swarovski Z6 2.5-15x44 BT Illum scope) Hornady Ammunition Pouch Atlas Bipod Rear Bag G7 BR2 Rangefinder Kestrel Wind Meter Slik PRO 624 CFL Carbon Fiber Tripod Manfrotto 700RC2 Mini Video Head Swarovski ATX-65 Spotting Scope Swarovski EL Range Binocular 10x42 Stubai Telescoping Walking Axe Cascade Carbon Fibre Walking Poles Black Diamond Sabretooth Crampons Thermarest Z-seat Electrical Tape Havalon Skinning Knife Boresnake for cleaning rifle LED LENSER H7 headlamp Petzl Headlamp First Aid Kit Jetboil Stove Dehydrated Meal (emergency) Water

Sony A72 Camera Sony FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Lens Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G OSS Lens Phoneskope iPhone Adapter Neoprene Cover for camera Canon G40 Video Camera

COMMUNICATIONS Iridium GO Satellite Phone Tait FM Radio (Helicopter) Kannad XS-4 Personal Locator Beacon

INSIGHT

ELK

TRAINING WITH YOUR HUNTING BACKPACK

Fitness guide or brands we love TRIBE MEMBER DAN STATON

You don’t have to be fit to kill an elk. But to get the full experience of limitless exploration, moving quick to get in range, and straining under multiple loads of meat, your body has to do some work. And the more accustomed it is to work, the more you’ll enjoy the experience. Being in elk shape for me means being able to hike farther, hunt longer, and experience more. My goal every year is to kill a six-point herd bull, but the reality is my wife and family don’t care how much bone I pack out of the mountains. They love elk meat, and we go through a couple of elk each year. So leaving them for weeks at a time means I need to come home with food. When measuring success by the inventory of our freezer, being in top-tier shape really helps. It’s never too late to get into elk shape, and you probably already have everything you need to do it. It’s all about backpack intervals. Here’s how: 1. Train with your hunting backpack. This will give you sport-specific exercise that translates directly to your time in the field. 2. Raise the intensity. Hauling meat and chasing elk are not aerobic endurance exercises. They are anaerobic, with short bursts of high-output effort mixed in with periods of lower output and rest. To train for your physical needs during hunting, your best bet is to work out in intervals. 3. Add weight and move. Load your pack up with sand or salt, and just start hiking. 4. Keep it varied. Everyone wants to know how much weight they should use, how fast to go, for how long, and how long to rest. But hunting isn’t like that. Its far more random. That’s why I recommend the interval method known as Fartlek (Swedish for “Speed Play”) training, in which you alternate paces of fast, medium, and slow without a structured regimen. For more variation, constantly change up the terrain, because you never know when you’ll need to hustle to a ridge to cut off a big herd bull, or slow down and get stealth on a steep decline. Seek out elevation, sand, uneven ground, varying degrees of incline, sidehills, and even stadium stairs. 5. Bring your partners along. Work out with a group of friends and alternate leaders so that you push each other. That way, you’ll be able to keep up with each other in the field. 6. Keep it short. This doesn’t have to be an all-day affair. Get in a 20-minute hike interval whenever you can, and when time allows, go for somewhat longer sessions. But remember, less time with more intensity is more effective — yes for your fitness, but also for injury prevention. The season is right around the corner, so be smart. Don’t be nursing an injury when you should be chasing elk.

INSIGHT

Good luck to you all as you prepare for the 2016 season. Please show up to camp in elk shape and may it be as memorable and enjoyable as you hoped.

SHAPE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dan Staton is an avid bowhunter from Washington state. He owns CrossFit Spokane Valley and loves spending time in the outdoors with his family and friends. You can learn more by checking out ELKSHAPE.COM, @danthefitnessman on Instagram, or Youtube.com/ElkShape.

INSIGHT

BEYOND THE LAYERS ATHLETE PROFILE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; JIM HOLE

INSIGHT

In the deep freeze of winter in the Alberta Bowzone, where late November temperatures can reach forty below, there’s one consideration that legendary whitetail outfitter and SITKA athlete Jim Hole, Jr., prioritizes above all others when he’s selecting and rigging his gear: silence. And we’re not just talking about stealth on the way to the stand — that’s important, too — we’re talking about the silence of an owl perched in a tree. “You can easily hear a car on a gravel road five miles away, and that’s nothing compared to what the deer hear. It’s similar to being in an empty concrete warehouse with nothing to absorb sound,” he explains. In the coldest temperatures, the sound of a zipper or a bow clinking against a treestand can spook far-away deer before they even make their presence known. “It’s a very unforgiving place to hunt, and a lot of that is the nature of what you’re hunting, which is mature animals.” The Alberta Bowzone, an archery-only trophy whitetail region, surrounds Edmonton, a city of about a million residents. In keeping with Bergmann’s rule — which states that the colder the climate, and the higher one gets in terms of latitude, the bigger the animals get — the whitetails in the Bowzone are monsters, and they don’t hang around long enough to make it into the 150inch range by being dumb. To keep himself as quiet as possible, Hole soundproofs his gear with hockey tape, usually printed with the Canadian flag. His water bottle, every part of his tree stand, his release, the bases of the mid-size antlers he carries for rattling—everything gets a layer of hockey tape. Anything likely to freeze to the point of feeling like dry ice, like the grip of his bow, also gets a layer of tape to protect his hands.

Hole, 53, has been outfitting for thirty-three years, and he’s credited with pioneering the most effective tactics for taking trophy whitetails in the Bowzone. In November 1999, Hole’s mastery resulted in a 192-inch buck that ranked fourth in the world at the time for North American whitetails. Clients come from all over the United States and Canada for a shot at a trophy Bowzone buck, and Hole expects them to hold themselves to his standards of discipline. He compares hunting the Bowzone to being in Stanley Cup playoffs: “You can’t be up here without your A-game. You don’t have a warm-up time. You’re in the third round, and it’s expected you’re hunting at a certain level, and if you’re not at that level, you’re just on a cold-weather vacation.” A normal day during the November rut involves hunting a morning stand and an evening stand, though depending on the moon phase, which influences peak animal movement, Hole may set up a client in a single stand in the middle of the day. Scent is crucial, which means Hole’s hunters aren’t allowed to bring food or coffee to keep them company in the stand. “Does a football player have a hamburger at halftime? No. If you can’t eat or drink enough in camp so you can do your hunt, you’re doing something wrong.” Hole is the first to admit that hunting the Bowzone is a labor of love. “Actually it isn’t fun — it’s awesome, but it’s really tough, and it’ll show you who’s who. I don’t care where you come from or what you’ve got, because when the game starts, it’s very clear who’s got it and who doesn’t.

INSIGHT

PACK BREAK ATHLETE JIM HOLE FILLS US IN ON WHAT IS IN HIS TOOLBOX

PACK “When I’m hiking in with my whitetail pack with clothes, antlers, binos—my pack weighs between 15-20 pounds, but I’m dressed lightly. When I’m going in I’ve got that pack jammed full and I’m wearing a light hat and my pant zips are open. I’ve got my stand on my right hip and my bow on my left hip, and I could walk 100 yds like that or a 1,000 yards. Everything is based on the efficiency of being organized, having the right gear, and being athletic.” HATS “I walk in with just a skull cap, and then I pull the medium one on when I start to get cold, then pull the heavy one on when I’m in the stand. The great thing about SITKA gear is it’s very dynamic. I don’t take a hat off to put a hat on—I put one hat over an existing hat, and then I might put a third hat on over the second hat.” GLOVES Hole carries five gloves, which he layers as it gets colder. First layer is a merino wool glove to walk and work in, for both hands. Then a medium glove for both hands to go over that as he gets colder in the stand. Finally, one Incinerator mitt for his left hand, which is his bow hand. “When you have to hold your bow at my latitude, you need the Incinerator mitt to hold the bow for a long time when you’re on lockdown, and you have to wait, wait, wait, when you have a deer in front of you. But your other hand can be on a warming pack in the SITKA hand muff, keeping your trigger finger warm. You can pull out your shooting hand at the last minute, but you can’t reach for your bow with a deer in front of you.” PANTS “In the cold-cold I’ll wear the Fanatic bibs. In the medium cold I’ll wear the Fanatic light bibs. And when it’s not very cold I’ll wear the Stratus pants with the rubber waistband to hold in my shirt.”

INSIGHT

BINOS “8x30 are perfect for up here. You’re in the woods, generally you don’t want 10 power. You want bright glasses because this is a game of low-light a lot of times.” SAWS & SHEARS “A lot of hunting big whitetails is versatility, being able to bounce here, there, and the other place. My hunting tactic is to try to magically be in any tree anywhere, hunting spots that are fresh and clean so big bucks are comfortable walking near them. If there’s a branch in the way that shouldn’t be there, I remove it. The difference between a shear and a saw is that a shear is quiet. If you can use a shear, you’re better off from a stealth standpoint.”

TREE STAND Hole hangs his treestand off of his right hip when he’s walking in, and climbs trees that he’s already fitted with self-auguring bolts. He insists that his clients move straight up the tree, to an average height of about 18 feet, as soon as they get to the stand to minimize ground scent. As for his safety harness, “I want a seat harness because it allows me to adjust my clothing dynamically, not to sweat walking in, and to switch jackets and layers. I can’t sweat, or I’m gonna freeze to death, and I’m gonna stink.”

“ “I DON’T TAKE A HAT OFF TO PUT A HAT ON — I PUT ONE HAT OVER AN EXISTING HAT, AND THEN I MIGHT PUT A THIRD HAT ON OVER THE SECOND HAT.”

+ MERINO BEANIE

+ STRATUS BEANIE

FANATIC BEANIE

INSIGHT

THE EARLY BIRD TRIBE MEMBER MATT ELDER

I LOVE THE RUT AS MUCH AS ANYBODY, BUT I TOOK THE TWO BIGGEST BUCKS Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;VE EVER KILLED IN THE FIRST COUPLE DAYS OF THE SEASON. HERE ARE A FEW THINGS I DO EACH YEAR TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. INSIGHT

1. CHOOSE ONE I start scouting in the middle of summer as soon as bucks have enough growth to be able to judge how big they will be. When it’s hot, most bucks live close to food and water, so that’s where I focus my attention. A lot of guys think spotting scopes are just for the mountains, but I find using them to glass bean fields and food plots from a distance is the best way to get eyes on the deer and decide on a target. But remember, choose one. You’ll be most effective if you focus your time and energy.

2. BE A STUDENT OF HIS HABITS Once I determine my target, I watch to see which trails he uses to come and go from the fields, and that informs my key trail camera placements. I use multiple cameras, both to figure out where my buck goes, as well as where he doesn’t go. I pay attention to what time of day he is entering the field, where he’s coming from, and what the temperature and wind direction are. I also take note of his friends. I have had a big buck disappear from my cameras, but his buddies showed up elsewhere. I focused in on their location, and he showed up with them a few days later. So it pays to know everything about your deer.

3. GO WHERE HE IS NOT From my time spent studying his patterns, I have a good idea of where he is bedding during the day. Knowing that, I can check the wind and enter the area to hang stands without him catching my scent. If he hasn’t shown up on a particular trail cam, and I’ve never seen him go a certain way, these are the paths I take to access his area. I hang my stands quickly and quietly, on a day with the right wind, and I do so around the same time of day that I have been checking trail cameras.

4. STAY AWAY Once my buck is patterned and stands are hung, I leave him alone. Whenever I can, I use cellular trail cameras, which give me real-time information on his whereabouts with minimal contamination. However, in areas of poor cell service, I check them every 7-10 days. Any more than that puts unnecessary pressure on the deer, and since the buck’s probably camped out pretty close to my cameras, especially if he’s on a food source, I need to be there as little as possible.

5. BE DISCIPLINED In the days before opener, I make my final game plan. If I’m hunting over a food source, I only hunt the evenings. It’s too risky to enter a food source in the morning and possibly spook the deer, and in the early season, the deer in my area bed pretty quickly after sunrise. But above all, it’s a game of wind, especially when it’s warm. So if the wind is wrong on opening day, I remain disciplined and I don’t hunt. It drives me crazy knowing the buck I’m after could be walking under my stand, but, if that buck smells me, he’s liable to go nocturnal or worse, leave and never come back. So I stick to the plan...as hard as that may be.

INSIGHT

TOM FOSS AND THE WAYPOINTS TO

RAISING HUNTERS

SUMMER. BRITISH COLUMBIA. Tom Foss and his oldest son Cam sat atop a ridge behind a spotting scope, chasing their very first wild sheep. “Hey Cam,” joked Tom, his eye glued to the scope, “I’ll give you 50 bucks if you can spot our ram.” Cam squinted at the opposing ridge. Nothing. “Here. Look in here,” said Tom. Cam scooted over and pressed his eye to the scope. And there he was, glowing in the sun, his dark cape contrasting with the mountainside. An hour later they were inching toward the 12-year-old Stone. Cam pulled a janky rangefinder to his eyes. “30 yards,” he mouthed to his dad. Tom drew back his bow, let go his arrow, and the ram toppled to the ground. It was the first of many rams for Tom. With over four decades of hunting experience, he’s taken 25 out of the 29 North American big game species, and is working on his fourth FNAWS. And his sons Adam and Cam are right there with him.

INSIGHT

Tom worked hard to expose his sons to hunting early. Still, they are truly products of their environment and the journey that was their childhood.

HERE ARE THE WAYPOINTS AS TOM REMEMBERS THEM:

1. OSMOSIS IS KEY “Adam and Cam were both born in autumn, during hunting season, so they were exposed to that right from birth. The sight of me slinging arrows both left- and right-handed with a kid in my backpack was probably something to see. For my sons, that was normal. They always saw me going hunting or coming home from hunting. They were around mounts, and crawling on bearskin rugs, and sitting in the garage when I cleaned my kills. They never knew how to live differently.”

2. YOU CAN’T FORCE IT – THEY HAVE TO WANT IT “Bottom line, kids have to want to hunt. You can’t force it, but sometimes you have to push a little bit so they reach that point of enjoyment. I would say, ‘Boys, I’m going hunting tomorrow and leaving at six.’ If they were packed and waiting by the door, they came with me. If not, that was their choice. But most of the time they were up and ready before me.”

3. MOTIVATION & COMPETITION “I always did solo sports, but Adam and Cam both had a healthy competitive spirit. Though this competitive nature drove them in team sports, it really helped them in hunting, even though hunting isn’t about beating others – it’s about relishing and cherishing the experience. But, I still competed against myself to be better, and I think that rubbed off on my kids. Hunting became a way for them to compete with themselves, and the drive to win turned into a drive to just be better. Better hunters, better students, better humans.”

4. SOLID GEAR “There’s no denying that Adam and Cam enjoyed hunting with me – in fact they almost always chose to come. And this is where solid equipment would have come into play. Twenty years ago, good gear didn’t exist in hunting. So I made do with what was available and hoped for the best. But if I could do it over again with the gear that’s available now, I would, because good equipment is the best way to make sure kids think walking through a rainstorm is fun.”

Cam (left) and Adam (right) starting their archery skills young.

FALL. FRIDAY AFTERNOON. ALBERTA Adam and Tom were hiking on a popular trail, approaching base camp for their weekend hunt. At a crossroads, they met two others and stopped to chat. One of the hikers looked at Adam, who was clearly school aged and remarked, “Shouldn’t you be in school?” Yes. Adam should have been in school. But the fact was, when hunting season rolled around he inevitably hit the mountains equally as hard as the books – if not harder. Unabashed, Adam looked the man in the eye and said, “Look pal, I’m a good student. I can learn all I need to in three days, and I learn way more out here with my dad than I do in class.” Stunned, the hikers (who just happened to be Adam’s school principal and superintendent) turned to Tom. “And what do you think about that?” they asked. “That sounds pretty good to me,” Tom said with a smile.

5. CONSERVATION

– GET YOUR KIDS INVOLVED “Even though most of the learning happened through living a hunting lifestyle, I was very proactive about involving my sons in conservation organizations early – and before that, I encouraged them to think about how they affected the environment as humans and hunters. Once my sons were old enough to get their hunting licenses, I bought them a membership to the local archery club and the provincial conservation organization. One of the big benefits of these groups was they gave Adam and Cam access to the larger hunting community, and exposed them to other hunters they could look up to and aspire to be like.”

INSIGHT

IN THE KITCHEN WITH CHEF EDUARDO GARCIA

INSIGHT

The whitetail needed a bit more time in the wood oven, so Garcia and I took a stroll around his garden, which takes up about an acre and seasonally provides the bulk of Garcia’s vegetables, greens, and herbs for the year. Instead of neat rows in tilled beds, Garcia’s garden has a wild look to it, with vegetable stalks shooting up from clusters of lamb’s quarters and spinach. “It’s called permaculture,” Garcia told me, chewing on a stalk of lovage, a perennial from the celery family. “You can just throw anything anywhere and it will decompose and fertilize the other stuff. It’s pretty laid back, my kind of garden,” he said, throwing the lovage into an empty patch of topsoil. Back in the kitchen, we sipped a fine reposado tequila while Garcia carved steaming bits of meat off the whitetail shoulder, preparing to add them to the sofrito. Pozole is a Latin version of hominy, a light broth made with whole kernels of corn. Garcia had already prepared a fresh batch of chicken broth that morning, which he then used to make a purée of toasted and simmered guajillo peppers. “This is the most important step,” he said, adding the purée to hot avocado oil in the bottom of the terracotta bowl. “Frying the pepper purée will concentrate the flavors and enhance the color.” To the frying purée, he added more broth, a couple of bay leaves, and the meat, and then he left it to simmer on the flame for another hour.

“

THIS SHOULDER COMES FROM A TWO-YEAR-OLD WHITETAIL BUCK. MY

FRIENDS

LAUGHED

WHEN I SHOT THAT DEER, BUT I TOLD THEM, ‘I’M NOT TROPHY HUNTING, I’M GROCERY SHOPPING’.

“

Chef Eduardo Garcia’s home, east of Bozeman, Montana, sits in a meadow that backs up to Ted Turner’s legendary Flying D Ranch, in the foothills of the Gallatin River Valley. By the time I arrived at lunchtime on a warm day in late May, Eduardo had already been at work in the kitchen for several hours. Tomatoes, garlic, white onion, and thyme were braising in olive oil in a terracotta bowl on top of the gas range. Garcia’s expansive kitchen was filled with the aroma of the sofrito, the Latin American sauce that Garcia was preparing as a base for the main course — a pozole made with fire-roasted whitetail shoulder.

Garcia grew up hunting the hills around Emigrant, in Montana’s Paradise Valley, south of Livingston, where he moved with his family from Mexico in 1986, when he was six years old. “I’ve been cooking deer longer than any other meat, and roasted whitetail shoulder is my favorite wild game dish because it takes me back to my roots, hunting deer and butchering them on the spot with very little adult supervision, cooking whole quarters on the bone over an open flame with my buddies,” he told me. The pozole is a tribute to his family’s roots south of the border, and I was fortunate to share this particular batch with Garcia’s father, Manuel Garcia, 68, who taught Garcia to cook with the recipes and spices of his native village in the Yucatan Peninsula, Isla Mujeres. Manuel Garcia was taking a nap when I showed up, but he roused himself to guide me and a couple of other lunch guests through the proper method of hand-pressing and cooking corn tortilllas on a comal or griddle as we know it here in the states. When the pozole was finished, Garcia set the table with plates of radishes, chopped white onion, avocado, cilantro, and lime for garnish. Manuel Garcia sat at the head, and Garcia served him first. “What would you like, Dad, more broth or more meat?” he asked. “Just dip a ladle in and see what comes out,” his dad replied. Garcia dished up a steaming ladleful and garnished his father’s bowl. The old man ate a spoonful and his eyes closed halfway,

“QUE RICO,” HE SAID. HOW DELICIOUS.

INSIGHT

VENISON POZOLE 10 # venison shoulder 1 GAL chicken broth 2 CUPS dry hominy, cooked or 1x29 oz can of cooked hominy, drained & rinsed 12 dry guajillo chiles ½ CUP lard ¼ CUP avocado oil 1 BUNCH fresh thyme ½ BUNCH fresh marjoram 1 white onion, diced 5 garlic teeth, minced 8 black peppercorns 3 bay leaves 1 TSP dry Mexican oregano »»» sea salt to taste, (approximately 4 tablespoons)

TO MAKE: Lightly oil and season the venison with salt and pepper. Grill over hardwood coals or gas grill until meat is evenly browned on all sides for approx 1 hr. Let the meat rest off the heat. For the chile puree, gently toast the chiles, then cut them open and remove the seeds and ribs. Submerge chiles in a bowl of hot water for 1 hr. Drain chiles and puree till smooth in a blender with 1 cup of the chicken broth. In a large pot heat oil and lard over med heat. Add onion, garlic and fresh herbs and sauté, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Next add dry herbs for a quick 5 seconds and immediately add chile puree (watch out for the splatter, liquids and hot oil is tricky, so be careful). Stir continuously for the first minute and then lower the heat to a simmer and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Cut venison into very large 4” pieces. Add hominy, remaining chicken broth and venison. Cook for 1-2 hours over low heat or until meat is tender. Season to taste with salt and serve piping hot! TO SERVE: I like to add the below items to a family-style plate for my guests to add as they like to taste.

Warm tortillas, sliced radishes, diced avocado, diced Serrano chiles, diced white onion, chopped cilantro, quartered limes – yield: 8 people

INSIGHT

CONSERVATION THOUGHTS FROM THE HART

HOW WE DO ANYTHING IS HOW WE DO EVERYTHING . That principle didn’t originate with SITKA, but we practice it. Some companies arise because clever people stumble upon some better mousetrap and get dragged into business. Others arise selfishly, and focus on driving revenue for oneself. But probably the most exciting businesses are the ones driven by a vision for change, a “why,” and are therefore poised to bring others along and make an impact. Take any of these types of companies, hit fast forward on success, and you start to see the kinds of brands that take shape. With success comes responsibility. It seems the earlier people see that, the more impactful they become. So how do we do things? Are we driven by a vision for change? And what are we doing with our success? I like to think in terms of sustainability – methods that do not completely use up available resources, but instead grow the very resources necessary to run. I believe it’s a healthy long-term strategy, and it can also be a profitable one. Creating a sustainable business means being mindful of the economic, environmental, social, and cultural impacts, not just within the business, but within the community. Our community is you, our fellow hunters, and our environment is the wild places we hunt. From inception, we have been steadfast in our support of conservation and conservation organizations. It has helped us drive our mission, and it has helped others build their businesses and organizations. We are part of the community, and we respect and take very seriously our role as stewards.

SITKA is not alone in this. The community of hunters already invests more in our future than most groups. We self tax, we donate, we participate, we congregate. But our scale is limited because it’s based on people, and the population of conscientious hunters is finite. What if that scale was based on dollars instead? Alone, SITKA is not going to solve fundraising for every conservation agency and organization. It is simply not possible to sell enough gear. But as part of the greater community of hunters, scale takes on a whole new perspective. We are given a whole new opportunity to really influence. For example, SITKA is a founding member of the non-profit 2% For Conservation. We give 1% of our revenue and 1% of our time to conservation initiatives, and we are third-partycertified to be doing so. If we were alone in this, the impact would be small. But the wisdom of 2% For Conservation is that it opens the door for other companies to do likewise, and for hunters to know about it. This isn’t a new idea. It’s based on some intuitive principles that have been adopted successfully in the general outdoor space. But the impact for our community and our environment could be even larger, conserving and improving many more wild places than any single company or conservation organization ever could. All of us, every day, are faced with many decisions. The decision to move forward with 2% For Conservation and make our community and business more sustainable was easy. Because how we do anything is how we do everything. JONATHAN HART SITKA Gear Founder

To date, we’ve put dollars into dirt and dollars into the hands of professional conservationists. We are not the experts, so we support those who are.

INSIGHT

TO LEARN MORE VISIT: WWW.FISHANDWILDLIFE.ORG

INSIGHT SITKA founder Jonathan Hart, braced for impact. BEN POTTER

SITKA Gear 1285 N. Rouse Ave., Suite 2A Bozeman, MT 59715

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID SITKA GEAR

Ph: 877-SITKA-GR info@SITKAGEAR.com SITKAGEAR.com

Guide and Athlete Dustin Roe taking a plunge into frigid northern British Columbia water after ten days of sheep hunting footage took a swim to the bottom of the lake. Seconds later Dustin emerged drenched but with assets in hand! STEVEN DRAKE

TURNING CLOTHING INTO GEAR