A WOLF AT THE DOOR H Oceans Apart
BREAKING UP WITH ALASKA
Our Water Rug
Snow Birds
TIED TO NATURE
magazine
WHERE THE UNWRITTEN RULES Grain MEETS THE GOOD Grass MEDICINE
UPLAND
ISSUE
DOGMEN of the MARIPOSA HHH
HHH
FALL 2021 DISPLAY UNTIL DEC 9, 2021
INDEPENDENT, PASSIONATE, UNCOMPROMISING STRUNG MAGAZINE
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“One of the principal advantages of hunting, my dear readers, consists in its forcing you to be constantly moving from place to place, which is highly agreeable for a man of leisure.” —Ivan Turgenev, A Hunter’s Sketches South Dakota offers up a spectacular sunset to wrap up another good day in the pheasant fields. Allen Kidd takes a peak at the GPS to confirm the whereabouts of his bird dog and the truck. Photo: Mark Lance
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“A dog points, one foot raised, muscles quivering under shiny hide. You take another step. A cock is suddenly in the air, heading for a gap in the woods. Your reflexes resolve to blur, separate it from background, slow the violence. Gun-barrels struggle toward intersection with chance. The world narrows to a bird the color of autumn.” —Datus C. Proper, Pheasants of the Mind The rusty hues of autumn are reflected in the plumage of a pheasant. Photo: Mark Lance
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“You gaze at the mountains 80 miles away, and see the world between in wrinkles, in springs, in knife-edged ridges, in rimrock as strong as the gods and fragile as eggshells. And above, you’ll hear that rhythmic chuk...chuk...chukkerrr from the birds you pursue. Rookie chukar hunters consider it mocking laughter, but you’ll know better. You’ll know they’re talking to you, telling you: Hurry back, hurry back.” —Buddy Levy, Echoes on Rimrock Allen Kidd and his bird dog, Abby, survey an expansive Idaho landscape and the escape route used moments earlier by a covey of chortling chukar. Photo: Mark Lance
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Contents
DOGMEN OF THE MARIPOSA Ryan Sparks “There aren’t many places in the world as steeped in quail hunting history as the Mariposa Ranch of South Texas. Located between Corpus Christi and Matamoros, Mexico, it’s about as far south as you can get in the United States. Bordered on three sides by the King and Kenedy Ranches, the Mariposa spans over 45,000 acres across two counties. Owned by the Sullivan family for over 110 years, the Mariposa is synonymous with quailhunting culture and has attracted some of the best dog trainers of all time. If you love pointing dogs and wild quail, when you get invited to the Mariposa you go. Weather be damned.” OUR WATER RUG Words by E. Donnall Thomas Jr. Photos by Don and Lori Thomas “A digression into the arcane world of Shakespearean scholarship may seem out of place in what is at heart a hunting story. The thesis of this piece, however, is broader than either of those topics.”
SNOW BIRDS A Photo Essay by Adam Tangsrud “The pheasant opener is a day I wait for each year, but early season often means warm weather, dry fields, overheated dogs, and horrible scenting conditions. What I really look forward to is the first snow of the year when the landscape is cold and beautiful, and the crisp winter air holds the scent of birds for my springer spaniels.”
BREAKING UP WITH ALASKA Dave Zoby “I proclaimed often, and to anybody who would listen, that one day I would live in Alaska. I said it to my mother as a challenge—a dare. I said it to friends who were barely listening. It was one of my dreams, and the problem with dreams is that they ruin you when you solve them, or even if you just come close.”
HUNS: WHERE THE GRAIN MEETS THE GRASS Jim McLennan “An interesting evolution has been taking place in the dusty draws and windy corners of the plains over the last 20 years. The lowly Hungarian partridge, once little more than a consolation prize for dedicated pheasant hunters, has become almost—it pains me to say it—trendy.”
UNWRITTEN RULES Andrew McKean “As in any society, the cardinal laws aren’t written anywhere. You acquire them through osmosis and through time and experience. But I’ll detail four commandments—the statutes and penalties of which have endless variation—as a public service and atonement-seeking confession.”
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CHANGES IN DOG TRAINING Tom Keer “There’s nothing as permanent as change, and dog training methods are no different. Heavyhanded handling has progressed to include positive and clicker training, with refined gear and techniques leading to a more deliberate approach. A talk with some longtime veterans illustrates just how much dog training has changed.” THE STRUNG UPLAND GEAR GUIDE Strung Staff The best things in life are simple, and upland hunting certainly falls into that category. Outside of a good bird dog all you need are some boots, a shotgun, some shells, and a way to carry your birds. So, what little gear you carry should be excellent. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best upland gear that will make your days afield that much more enjoyable. RATIONS & INTOXICANTS Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley “For a first-time hunter, doves are a tough initiation. Although the dove symbolizes peace, don’t mistake that for frailty. These fast-flying birds can change direction on a dime, seemingly possessing a Matrix-like ability to dodge shot. And just when you think you’ve hit one, it keeps on sailing.” OCEANS APART Words by Callum Macgregor. Photos by Sammy Chang “For more than eight decades, retriever training and field trials in the United States and the United Kingdom have taken different paths from their once-common beginnings. Over that time, breeding objectives have tilted toward the characteristics of the champion dogs of their respective countries. It should not be surprising that, over many generations, different breeding and training priorities would produce dogs with different temperaments, abilities, and even physical characteristics.” GOOD MEDICINE Matt Wemple “In the photo, ducks winged their way across a prairie pond among fall shades of green and tan, bathed in brilliant sunlight. No mountains nearby—just rolling prairie. The ducks looked like mallards, maybe gadwall. I thought of Roxy, my Lab, and her gray chin whiskers. Opening weekend of duck season had been less than productive. The sight of those mallards in the prairie sunlight struck a deep chord. In less than 10 minutes I had talked to my wife, emailed my vacation request, and let Wade know I was in. Mentally, I was already there.” THE TUNGSTEN REVOLUTION Ryan Sparks “Though steel shot is certainly less harmful to the environment than lead, its effectiveness is far from perfect. […] The inadequacy of steel shot led hobbyist loaders to experiment with materials like bismuth, nickel, iron alloy, and eventually tungsten. Materials like bismuth and nickel were slight improvements over steel, but it was tungsten that changed the game when it comes to how we think about shotgun ballistics.” A WOLF AT THE DOOR: IMAGINING A FUTURE FOR AMERICA’S TOP PREDATOR Reed Knappe “In November 2020, […] the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially removed wolves from the Endangered Species List. A culmination of decades of debate, the delisting drew fierce criticism from scientists and environmentalists, and it is quickly transforming how wolf populations are managed. The termination of protections marks a unique inflection point in the wolf’s history: a moment for asking hard questions about the human-wolf relationship and for revisiting old dilemmas.”
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magazine Publisher: JOSEPH J. BALLARINI
Editor-in-Chief: RYAN SPARKS
Creative Director: SCOTT MORRISON
Photo Editor: SAMMY CHANG
Big Game Editor: ANDREW MCKEAN
Conservation Editor: REED KNAPPE Fly Fishing Editor: DAVE ZOBY
Upland Editor: TOM KEER
Waterfowl Editor: E. DONNALL THOMAS JR.
Wild Foods Editor: JENNY NGUYEN-WHEATLEY
Editors At Large: EHOR BOYANOWSKY
ALEXEI JD BOYANOWSKY JOE DOGGETT
MARK HATTER Copy Editor: LEILA BEASLEY
Website: MICHAEL DUCKWORTH
ALEXA SPARKS
CREATIVE CONTRIBUTORS Grant Johnson
Adam Tangsrud
Mark Lance
Lori Thomas
Callum Macgregor
Matt Wemple
Jim McLennan COVER
“You may think that your dog is hunting pheasants for you. He thinks that he is hunting them with you. He does not reason well, but he perceives what you want before you understand it yourself. He also runs beyond your aspirations, and he knows something at which you can only guess: where the bird is. You and dog mesh. You are strong in what he lacks, weak where he is strong. No other team has so little redundancy of skill, such economy of baggage.” — Datus C. Proper, Pheasants of the Mind Adam Tangsrud finishes a day of Nebraska pheasant hunting with his springer spaniels, Loki and Kona. Photo: Adam Tangsrud
Strung Magazine is a quarterly outdoor lifestyle publication focused on fly fishing, upland hunting, big game, waterfowl, wild foods, and conservation.
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letter from the EDITOR I always find it odd, writing these letters that won’t be read for several months. It feels like making a short-term time capsule. It’s mid-July, and fun to think about all the things that will have changed come mid-September when you read this. Yes, the leaves will have transformed to their autumnal glow, but we will also have changed. It happens every fall, as if on cue, usually on an almost-frosted morning: a feeling that springs from some deep and primal well inside us that signals the easy days of summer are over and hunting season has begun. If all goes to plan (and you know about the best laid schemes of mice and men), I will have an elk in the freezer early this fall, and my focus will shift entirely to hunting birds with my pointers. It’s laughable to consider the difference between my current hunting plans and what the realities will likely be. I had the same plan last year, but after eating elktag soup spent the better part of October and November perched in a tree hunting deer. My dogs looked at me accusingly when I strolled back in after dark. When I finally did notch my deer tags, I was thankful both for the meat and for the opportunity to finally follow my dogs through the country, rather than stare at it from a stationary roost. Sitting alone and waiting for a deer, I had plenty of time to daydream about the wonderful upland hunting to come: days filled with good dog work, beautiful country, and plenty of birds. Of course, that too was different from reality. The deluge of hunters trying to stay sane during the pandemic let me know my secret spots weren’t so secret anymore. There were a lot of last-minute audibles when I found other trucks already parked at my favorite spots, and I ended up hunting marginal places I hadn’t been
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before. Yet, I did get my wish: There was plenty of walking. In the early 2000s, when quail numbers in my home state of Nebraska dropped to the point where you were just as likely to jump Bigfoot out of a hedgerow as a covey of quail, my dad became fond of saying he was “just going out for a walk” rather than going hunting. Still, even on days when birds seem to be everywhere, you spend 99 percent of the time walking, with trigger pulls only punctuating long stanzas of hoofing it. I was fortunate to experience the luxury of hunting atop a “quail rig” this past year, and I hope to someday take part in what I imagine to be the pure romanticism of hunting by horseback, but I am proud to be a lowly foot hunter at heart. Walking is good for its own sake. It is exercise, yes, but I think real walking involves much more. I remember reading Thoreau’s Walking in college. “When we walk, we naturally go to the fields and woods: what would become of us, if we walked only in a garden or mall?” he writes. “Give me a wildness whose glance no civilization can endure—as if we lived on the marrow of koodoos devoured raw…. Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest…. All good things are wild and free.” Thoreau didn’t hunt, but I suspect that was more due to the absence of deer from his 1840s Massachusetts than a disapproval of hunting. Even so, his writing gets to the heart of what I suppose we are really chasing as we follow our dogs through the countryside: to experience that ancient wildness that lies dormant inside us and the ecstatic feeling of being alive and connected to the world when a bird rockets into the air. Walking is part of that experience. To feel the ground flow past. To reach places that no road leads to. I know I’ve often looked around—whether it be at the top of a hill overlooking wrinkles of rolling prairie or some deep, tangled grouse woods cover— and wondered, How the hell did I get here? By foot, that’s how.
Thoreau’s real agenda in Walking is to “regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society,” and who is more part of nature than a hunter? Hunters aren’t mere observers; to borrow a phrase from the author Pete Dunne, they are actors taking part in an incredible drama on a world stage in which all living things play a part. The importance of walking, then, is that it reminds us that the pleasure of hunting comes more from the process than the product—that shooting a limit of birds is not important; going hunting is what’s important. In this issue, Matt Wemple writes about appreciating the good times while they’re still good; Jim McLennan describes the pleasure of hunting Huns in southern Alberta; Tom Keer, Don Thomas, and Callum Macgregor write about the finer points of dog work; and Andrew McKean relates why you should never discipline someone else’s dog. Finally, Adam Tangsrud shows us the beauty of hunting late-season roosters in the snow. I hope these stories get you excited for your own upland seasons. Working on this issue has certainly fired me up. I’m ready for a walk. Keep Casting,
Ryan Sparks Editor-in-Chief
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ADAM TANGSRUD
Adam Tangsrud is a Colorado native who resides in Denver, Colorado. He grew up spending more time fishing than hunting, but today he is consumed with hunting year round. He enjoys hunting everything from spring turkey to big game, but his greatest enjoyment is upland hunting with his springer spaniels, Kona and Loki. This fall he will be adding another pup, Aksel, to the mix. For Adam it's hard to beat hunting with man's best friend! When he’s not in the field you’ll find Adam with his wife Brittany and their two children Boden and Lila. He enjoys getting his young family outdoors and instilling a love for all it has to offer.
CALLUM MACGREGOR
Callum Macgregor is the Chief Legal Officer of a private holding company that owns, among other assets, controlling interests in three NYSE-listed companies. He also oversees the habitat restoration and hunting operations at the company's 7,000 acre wingshooting paradise which houses the acclaimed Blue Cypress Kennels line of British Labradors. Callum personally trained Blue Cypress' Gus, the first ever American-bred, Americantrained dog to win a field trial in the United Kingdom in almost 120 years of competition. In his free time, Callum is a prolific fly angler and occasional author whose published works run the gamut from tarpon fishing to the economics of modern surgical techniques. More than anything, he enjoys spending time with his beautiful wife Laura and their two already legendary kids.
JIM MCLENNAN
Jim McLennan is a lifelong lover of the outdoors who indulges his twin passions of fly fishing and hunting upland birds with pointing dogs. He has written about both extensively, in magazines and in his four books about fly fishing. Jim and his wife Lynda live in southern Alberta where they split their time between fishing, hunting, photography, writing, and playing music. Together they own and operate McLennan Fly Fishing (mclennanflyfishing.com), a longstanding business offering fly fishing instruction to people of all ages and levels. This is Jim’s second contribution to Strung. His first piece, First and Last, appeared in Volume 2, Issue 4.
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A fourth generation Montanan and former registered nurse, Lori Thomas is a widely published outdoor photographer, supplying hundreds of photos in support of her husband Don’s writing. Her photographs appear in numerous books and magazines including Retriever Journal, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Big Sky Journal, Traditional Bowhunter, and Strung Magazine. She has turned following Don around the world with a fly rod, bow, shotgun, and camera into a fulltime job. She loves spending time with her kids, who are all grown up, and taking care of two Labs, two German wirehair pointers, and a Jack Russell terrier who thinks she’s a big dog too.
MARK LANCE
Mark Lance is a photographer and outdoor writer based in Colorado with his wife Sharon and bird dog Zeke. Mark is the founder of River Light Images, an outdoor lifestyle photography company founded in 1995. His photography is deeply entangled in the pursuit of trout and steelhead, upland wingshooting with versatile dogs, the great outdoors, and distant travels. He is constantly in search of compelling outdoor imagery and a good story. His photography has been the visual foundation for many fly fishing brand campaigns, lodges, and outfitters. He is a frequent contributor to fly fishing, wingshooting, and conservation focused publications. Mark’s previous work with Strung includes Field to Fly in Volume 2, Issue 4. See more of Mark’s work at www. riverlightimages.com.
MATT WEMPLE
Lifelong hunter and angler Matt Wemple is a freelance writer and photographer living in southwest Montana. He has written for a variety of outdoor publications including Backcountry Journal, Bugle, Fur-FishGame, Montana Sporting Journal, Sports Afield, and Traditional Bowhunter. His first book, The Duck Camp, published in 2018, tells the story of family hunting tradition in his native Louisiana. His next book To Hunt Ducks, soon to be released, is a collection of short stories about waterfowl hunting in the Mississippi, Central, and Pacific Flyways. Matt writes monthly for the Montana-based Lewis and Clark Journal. See more of his work at mattwempleoutdoors.com.
CONTRIBUTORS
LORI THOMAS
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THE DOGMEN OF THE MARIPOSA By Ryan Sparks
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I pulled into the Chick-fil-A parking lot in
changed. Merging back onto the highway,
wheel-drive, and set the cruise control to 35
a cold sweat. Fourteen hours on the road,
the SUV in front of me lost control, spun
mph with over 400 miles left to drive. What
freezing rain from Kansas City to Dallas,
sideways, flipped, and got walloped by a car
the hell am I doing? I wondered aloud.
and two near collisions: I’d had enough. I got
in the next lane. I swerved onto the shoulder,
People do stupid things for a variety of
lunch and put the seat back for a nap. When
missing the second vehicle by a couple feet.
reasons: love, sex, money, power. I was
I woke up an hour later the weather hadn’t
I got in the right lane, switched on the four-
risking my life for a 5-ounce bird.
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Through a combination of habitat loss,
has attracted some of the best dog trainers
the Mariposa cook for one another and
climate change, invasive fire ants, parasitic
of all time. If you love pointing dogs and wild
share a communal meal. Over a plate of
eyeworm, and their rank at the very bottom
quail, when you get invited to the Mariposa
mesquite smoked ribs, I was introduced to
of the food chain, wild bobwhite quail are
you go. Weather be damned.
Sonny Piekarz, founder of Hay Creek Kennel
increasingly rare. I grew up hunting quail
and head of the Mariposa’s quail-hunting
in Nebraska, where my dad and I could
operation; Mike Miller of Wisconsin’s Six
usually find a covey behind the farmhouse
Gun Kennel; and Mark Wagner of Border to
and several more in the surrounding plum
Border Bird Dogs. Along with Mulcahy, these
thickets and hedgerows. Depending on how
After 26 hours on the road, I arrived at
are the dogmen of the Mariposa. Crowded
you look at it, those experiences were either
the Mariposa’s front gate where I was met
into the small living room, I was sitting
a blessing or a curse. There is an intangible
by Ryan Mulcahy, guide and trainer at the
with a group of people who have well over
romanticism about hunting these fast-flying
ranch and founder of Born to Run Kennels.
a century’s worth of experience breeding,
birds with pointing dogs. Once you’ve walked
Dressed in blue jeans, a simple t-shirt, and
training, and handling bird dogs. Collectively
in on a statue-like point, felt the explosion of
work boots, Mulcahy was quiet. I would later
they produce some of the best wild bird dogs
wings at your feet, and connected with a bird
learn he ran cross country in college. He still
in the country. Guides at the Mariposa are
on the covey rise, there is no going back.
looked the part, tall and wiry.
held to a tradition of excellence originally
There aren’t many places in the world as
After a 15-minute drive down a crumbling
perhaps the most legendary figure in all
steeped in quail hunting history as the
ranch road we arrived at the guides’ lodging,
the bird dog world. These are dogmen, guys
Mariposa Ranch of South Texas. Located
a pair of cinder block houses tucked off
who spend their lives breeding, training,
between Corpus Christi and Matamoros,
the main road in a stand of live oak and
handling, and working with bird dogs.
Mexico, it’s about as far south as you can
mesquite. Stepping out of my truck I could
Needless to say, if you want to guide on the
get in the United States. Bordered on three
smell salt in the air: The Gulf of Mexico was
Mariposa you have to put in your time and
sides by the King and Kenedy Ranches,
just 20 miles away.
pay your dues.
across two counties. Owned by the Sullivan
Inside one of the spartan houses a half
“You came through Dallas?” Piekarz
family for over 110 years, the Mariposa is
dozen people shuffled in and out of the
interrupted my daydreaming. “Did you go
synonymous with quail-hunting culture and
kitchen. Much like firefighters, guides at
through that huge pileup?”
established by the likes of Delmar Smith,
the Mariposa spans over 45,000 acres
“THERE’S NO GLAMOUR HERE,” HE SAID AFTER A PAUSE. “JUST WAKE UP AND WORK AND GET BETTER THAN THE DAY BEFORE.”
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He pulled out his phone and showed me an
the day to let their dogs recover and train
article detailing the ordeal: six people dead,
client dogs. As we left the kennel and made
65 injured, and more than 130 cars, trucks,
our way across the ranch it didn’t take long
and 18-wheelers in a tangle of wreckage
for the enormity of the Mariposa to set in.
on the North Texas Expressway as a polar
With terrain ranging from thick stands of
vortex made its way south causing power
mesquite and live oaks to stretches of vast
outages, car crashes, and cancelling flights
open prairie and salt grass flats, I was out
across Texas. I had missed the wreckage by
of my element. In a 30-minute drive I saw
less than an hour.
nilgai—a type of Asian antelope—bound over the hill in the distance. A javelina in
“That’s not good, and it’s headed our way,”
the road dashed into the brush as the truck
said Miller, tracking the storm’s path on the
approached. Deer, turkeys, and wild hogs
radar. “It looks like it will get here tomorrow
were everywhere.
afternoon.” Nearly everything was foreign to me In the heat of the Texas night, snow and ice
including the vocabulary. We turned onto
in the forecast sounded far-fetched.
a clay and dirt road that Mulcahy referred to as a “caliche road.” He pointed out a low-lying stand of “sacahuista,” a type of salt grass that takes its name from Aztec words meaning “thorn grass,” and explained it makes excellent quail habitat. A few
When the alarm sounded at 5:30 the next
minutes later, Mulcahy put the truck in
morning I hobbled off my bunk to find
park, pointed to a stand of mesquite and
everyone already awake and loading their
whitebrush he referred to as a “mott,” and
trucks for the day. These trucks, or “quail
told me he had found a covey there a few
rigs” as the guides call them, are Ford
days before. He let an orange and white
“There’s no glamour here,” he said after
F-350s outfitted to carry a dozen dogs along
pointer named Huck out of the back, and it
a pause. “Just wake up and work and get
with water, shotguns, and other hunting
was game on.
better than the day before.”
four hunters can ride comfortably. On the
We found two coveys within 15 minutes
That evening everyone sat around a
front of each rig, a metal-framed handler’s
and then switched out dogs. As we
campfire, and there was incessant talk of
seat is welded to the chassis.
rotated through dogs, Mulcahy, quiet and
dogs. The guides talked about lineages,
reserved until then, talked in a stream of
training methodologies, and performance
I hopped in with Mulcahy, and we made the
consciousness, closely analyzing each dog.
dog diets. Piekarz showed me photos on his
short drive to the Mariposa’s kennel. As he
He noted both the physical and mental
phone of enormous pythons he had helped
loaded a string of dogs—some his own, and
obstacles they needed to overcome. While he
catch in Florida. It turns out that beyond
others he was training for clients—he noted
spoke, he never took his eyes off the dogs.
bird dogs, he has also been part of training
gear under a seating platform where up to
python detection dogs as well as developed
that this was the original kennel built for
explosives detection dogs.
the Mariposa’s quail-hunting operation in
After we ran the last dog and were driving
1970. I couldn’t help but think of the world-
back to the kennel, Mulcahy told me he splits
class dogs that had passed through that
the year training and guiding between Idaho,
“Once you really understand what makes a
kennel. Walking the newly renovated runs,
Montana, and Texas. Each year his dogs point
dog tick, you can train them to do almost
I guessed there were around 100 dogs, the
sharptails, pheasants, Huns, chukar, valley
anything,” he said.
majority of them English pointers with some
quail, blue grouse, ruffed grouse, sage grouse,
It made me realize that despite being around
setters mixed in along with an occasional
and bobwhites. He exclusively trains on wild
dogs my entire life, I don’t know anything.
English cocker that the guides use to find
birds, and that’s what originally attracted
dead birds or get running quail in the air.
him to the Mariposa.
Mulcahy explained that their current
“Of everywhere I train and guide, the
hunting clients were leaving that morning
Mariposa is my favorite,” he said. I could tell
In the morning, the temperature had fallen
and the next clients weren’t scheduled to
there was something more and pressed him
to 36, and a light freezing rain fell from the
arrive until tomorrow, so everyone was using
further.
sky. The radio said more than 4.5 million
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homes and businesses were without power
That evening Piekarz called everyone
the back. Each time we crossed a fence
across Texas. Miraculously, the ranch still
together. With temperatures forecasted to
line, Piekarz would tell me the name of
had power, but visiting hunters flying in
fall well below freezing everyone decided to
that section of the ranch and describe the
from out of state seemed unlikely. No one
take an hourly shift throughout the night
landscape contained within it. The Mariposa
was sure what the day would bring.
to check on the dogs and run the water at
is divided into 17 “pastures,” or fenced
the kennel to keep it from freezing. Extra
areas historically used for cattle grazing.
After breakfast I tagged along with guide
bedding was added in the kennels and dogs
That morning, Piekarz intended to hunt the
Mark Wagner. Wagner got started with bird
were doubled up for added warmth. In
Rodeo pasture—one of his favorites, he told
dogs hunting grouse and woodcock in his
the guide houses, we set the faucets and
me, because of the number of coveys and
home state of Minnesota. His passion for
showerheads to a slow trickle to keep them
the difficulty of the cover.
pointing dogs, especially setters, eventually
from freezing as well.
had him traveling the country to learn more
With a dog on the ground, Piekarz took his
about dog training. He told me about a
Piekarz told me that normally this time
position on the handler’s seat while I rode
training seminar he attended with Delmar
of year the temperature can soar to over
with the hunters above. Within 10 minutes
Smith. During lunch Smith sat down next to
100 degrees. “Our whole program is set
the dog hit scent and straightened into the
him and asked what he was going to do with
up to deal with the heat. We run one dog
classic pointer posture, head high with its
his dogs.
at a time and only for 15 minutes,” he
straight tail the only thing visible above the
said, shaking his head at the sound of
waist-high grass. The first covey of the day
“At first I was confused,” Wagner told me. “I
freezing rain pounding on the roof. “We are
was textbook: The truck came to a stop, and
had no idea what he meant.”
constantly watering the dogs. We ice the
the hunters grabbed their shotguns and
kennels. We ice the dog’s water. Everything
flanked Piekarz on either side as he worked
Smith went on to tell Wagner his dogs
is set up to deal with the heat, and now it’s
in front of the dog. When the covey burst
were good enough to take anywhere in the
freezing.”
from the grass, the shotguns barked and
country and guide.
two birds fell. Piekarz signaled back to the truck to release the cocker to pick up the
“I pointed out their weaknesses to him,
dead birds, and we moved on to look for
but he just kept encouraging me,” Wagner
another covey. That first covey, however,
remembered. “Everything Delmar ever said
would turn out to be the easiest of the day.
to me was encouraging.”
After a restless night listening to the sound of the guides coming and going to check
As we worked through the Rodeo, the
Later in 2017, Wagner met Piekarz at
on dogs, I stepped out on the porch and
terrain turned from open grassland
another training seminar, and Piekarz
nearly slipped on a sheet of ice. Icicles clung
with clusters of trees to a thick stand of
invited him to the Mariposa for a trial run.
to the edges of the cinder block houses.
mesquite that held plenty of birds but was
Four years later, and Wagner is living in
The thermometer on the porch read 16
tough to hunt. Each time a dog would go on
Texas and running dogs on the Mariposa.
degrees. Behind the guide houses laid the
point, Piekarz would go in to flush but spot
frozen carcass of a nilgai that didn’t make it
the birds running ahead. The dogs pointed
through the night.
several stragglers, which we shot, but the
As I watched Wagner’s setters work a patch of sacahuista, the CB radio in the truck
majority of the birds in each covey eluded
crackled with news from the front gate. The
Still, the sun was peeking through the
us. Sometimes the birds simply ran ahead,
hunters had arrived. Commercial flights were
clouds, and the rain was letting up. I jumped
and other times the covey would split in two
cancelled across Texas, but private jets were
in with Piekarz, and we drove to the lodge
directions. On one occasion a covey doubled
still flying. The Mariposa attracts a variety
to pick up the hunters. While dogs, guns,
back on us. Every encounter reinforced the
of hunters from different backgrounds,
and gear were loaded I took a look inside
fundamental contradiction of quail: They are
professions, and means, but one thing they
the main room at the lodge. On the walls
at once incredibly fragile and unbelievably
have in common is that they are all hardcore
were numerous framed copies of magazine
resilient. They survive in a rugged landscape
hunters. There are plenty of places in the
articles featuring the Mariposa; photos
where everything is trying to kill them.
country where you can shoot more quail, but
of Delmar, Rick, and Ronnie Smith; and
Individually they are weak and vulnerable,
they aren’t wild quail in their native habitat.
taxidermy of all kinds. The room was a
but as a population, they thrive.
The Mariposa is managed exclusively for wild
museum of the Mariposa’s storied history.
quail hunting—they don’t release pen-raised
Despite the tough terrain and running
birds, and they don’t spread feed near the
Back in the truck, we drove to the outskirts
quail, the dog work was impeccable. Piekarz
roads before hunts. Simply put, this is quail
of the ranch with two hunters—a father
would sometimes release a dog to relocate
hunting in its most natural form.
and son from South Carolina—riding on
a covey a half dozen times before the dog
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"ALL OUR TIME IS DEVOTED TO DOGS. IT’S A WAY OF LIFE." put enough pressure on the birds to make
said laughing. “All our time is dedicated to
enjoy good dog work. They are looking to
them hold. For the dogs it was no problem;
training dogs, and because of that our dogs
remember each covey, not just pull the trigger.
the problem was keeping up with the dogs
are a higher caliber of animal. All our time is
in the thick mesquite. This made for exciting
devoted to dogs. It’s a way of life.”
hunting each time we approached a point:
Hunting on foot during the warmer hours of the day we found eight coveys, never
We didn’t know if the birds had charged
Piekarz’s string of pointers are among
shooting more than three birds from a
ahead or were about to erupt at our feet.
the top wild bird dogs in the country, and
group—a standard policy at the Mariposa. As
he holds the other guides to the same
the hunt was drawing to an end, I watched
Between coveys I asked Piekarz about his
standard. Running the Mariposa’s quail
Wagner’s setter round a copse of trees in
years at the Mariposa. Originally Piekarz quit
operation requires over 100 bird dogs that
the distance and turn to stone. It took us a
his reliable job working for the railroad to
have to perform no matter the conditions
while to reach the dog on foot; when we did,
take a chance as a professional trainer and
over the duration of a three-month season.
a covey of nearly 20 birds swirled into the
handler. You don’t have to be around him
air. After the chaos of shotgun blasts and
long before you notice the fight in his eyes. I
As the afternoon sun began to sink, Piekarz
falling birds I looked back at Wagner’s dog,
could imagine those early days and assume
made the call to end the hunt early to let
still set up in a beautiful point.
Piekarz made it happen through sheer force
the birds regroup before the evening. I could
of will. He remembered 50-covey days in
feel the temperature dropping. It was going
Ending the day, the guides shook hands with
years when the quail numbers were high,
to be another cold night.
the hunters and wished them well. They
but he also remembered dry years with low
fed their dogs, put them up for the night,
bird numbers and terrible scent conditions.
and prepared for another day. After dinner
No matter what, he strives for repeatability
I walked across the yard to the other house
and consistency in his dogs.
left vacant while everyone visited next door. Sitting on the couch digesting the day
“The reason that people come back is the
On my final day at the Mariposa, we lost
I looked at the dust-coated dartboard on
quality of the animal,” he said. “With the
water in the guide houses when the worst
the wall. It looked like it hadn’t been used
history here I have a high standard to
of the storm hit and froze the water lines
in years. The guides work long days with
maintain. We can’t get complacent. We have
during the night. Listening to the news from
little time for anything but dogs. At the end
to strive to continue to get better.”
across Texas, the outside world sounded
of the day, it’s dinner, calls to clients and
like it was falling apart. Falfurrias, the
family, and sleep. Living with them for just a
The day before I had noticed a whiteboard in
closest town to the ranch, had been out of
few days made me realize that everyone had
the guide house that captured the dig-in-
power for four days. Fuel, water, and food
taken risks and made sacrifices to be there.
your-heels determination of the Mariposa
shortages, along with massive blackouts
Their lives revolve around bird dogs and the
dogmen that Piekarz was talking about.
across Texas, had caused over 100 deaths
heritage and traditions that come with that
Written on it in bold letters were the words,
and resulted in the costliest disaster in
life. To an outsider it probably looks insane,
“Use Your Will to Bend Reality and Get the
Texas history.
but these are dogmen with a passion for
Job Done!!!”
dogs that transcends logic. As I hopped in with Wagner, it seemed surreal
For Piekarz, striving for improvement means
to be hunting. We drove to the lodge and
little down time, training throughout the
picked up a couple from Colorado with a
summer, beginning the hunting season in
passion for bird hunting and an appreciation
the grouse woods of Wisconsin, and then
of good dog work. There is undoubtedly a
transitioning to the Mariposa where he
limited pool of hunters who seek what the
spends over 80 days a year running his
Mariposa has to offer, but most people who
string of pointers.
come to the Mariposa are the type looking for more than just shooting. They are looking
“We like to joke that we don’t fish,” Piekarz
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as Jr. By E. Donnall Thom Lori Thomas Photos by Don and
“…in the catalogue ye go for men; As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, water-rugs and demi-wolves are clept All by the name of dogs." William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act III, Scene I I knew as soon as we finished setting out
off as a nice problem to have, and I can’t
Before Lori and I could get ourselves
the decoys that December afternoon that
blame them. Mallards, after all, are wary,
organized inside the blind, I heard a chorus
we were about to enjoy a mallard shoot.
challenging, large, and delicious. On the
of distinctive mallard feeding chuckles
During the late season in the Northwest,
other hand, I have always enjoyed variety
overhead. After enduring several days of
it’s not unusual to have a steady diet of
on waterfowl hunts, even if that translates
gray ice fog that rendered photography
northern greenheads appear uninterrupted
into nothing more than a few flocks of teal
impossible, the gloom had lifted and left
over the decoys. On the one hand, most
to remind me that I’m not as good a shot as
the marsh bathed in golden light. Unable
duck hunters would write that development
the mallards made me think.
to resist, Lori chose to leave her shotgun
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unloaded in favor of her camera, leaving the
With birds in the air all around us I might
Rosy has been a terrific waterfowl dog
shooting to me, at least for the time being. I
well have delayed the retrieve, but I was
but is now beginning to show her age,
did not object.
there for the dogs as much as the shooting.
reminding me of the great tragedy inherent
Rather than fretting over flaring birds and
in the relationship between gun dogs and
The dogs—Rosy, our veteran female yellow
lost opportunities, I chose to enjoy watching
hunters: We live longer than they do. I now
Lab, and Max, the younger of our two
Max charge through the decoys leaving
anticipated one or two more seasons with
German wirehairs—settled quietly onto the
curtains of sunlit water drops suspended in
her at best. Maggie, our excellent female
dog platform as mallards circled repeatedly
his wake.
German wirehair, is heading to the geriatric
without committing to the decoy spread. Of Max wouldn’t fit most hunters’ stereotypical
Montana pheasant cover as hard as she
which we don’t shoot intentionally. Then one
image of a water dog. A large, powerful,
does at age 12 is beyond me, but I know
drake finally flew into range—or as we call it,
handsome wirehair, he had served us well
that isn’t going to last forever either.
the Circle of Death. When I rose and shot, it
in upland cover as both a pointer and a
plopped down uneventfully just beyond the
retriever. We had taken him along on some
Recognizing this inevitable development, I
decoys.
duck hunts just for fun, but now we needed
had already begun to groom replacements
to expand his job description considerably
for our two stalwarts. Max was meant to
because of some family drama in the kennel.
take over from Maggie in upland cover
I really wasn’t surprised when Max broke and saved me from a difficult decision.
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wing as well. How she keeps hunting tough
course, the first pair to drop in were hens,
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and was doing a fine job of it. I intended
to replace Rosy with the young female
took him along with us periodically during
read Macbeth before I noticed the passage
Lab we’d named Kiska. That idea looked
his first two seasons, he showed plenty of
cited at the beginning of this piece and
good on paper, but she proved to have one
enthusiasm for water (and certainly more
recognized it for what it was: a brief
totally unexpected flaw: She hates the
than Kiska did). Whatever rough edges
catalogue of Elizabethan-era dog breeds.
water. However, she hunted quite capably in
he now showed in the duck blind were
This insight should not have taken as long as
upland cover and between her and Max I felt
purely my own fault, since I’d poured all my
it did. In a high school honors English class
comfortable that we would be well served
waterfowl training energy into Kiska even
back in the 1960s, I wrote a well-received
on dry land even without Maggie. I will credit
though this now appeared to have been
essay titled “Canine Imagery in King Lear,”
Lori with the suggestion that we replace
a lost cause. So we resolved to spend our
and I rode that pony all the way through
Kiska as Rosy’s understudy with Max, which
Covid season duck-hunting time with Rosy
years of English literature classes in college.
turned out to be brilliant.
and Max.
Nowadays, someone would have stolen it, posted it on the Internet, and left me high
And why not? Max had already proven
and dry.
retrieving ability on sharptails and
One of the great pleasures of reading
pheasants. As out of place as he might
Shakespeare is discovering new language
What really caught my eye during that
look in a duck hunting camp populated by
gems every time I re-read one of his plays
moment of insight was the term “water-
Labs and the occasional Chessie, when we
(even the bad ones, and he did write
rugs.” Imagining Max emerging from a pond
some). I don’t know how many times I
dripping wet with a mallard in his mouth,
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Duck hunters, like those who pursue any passion, tend to rely on the familiar I could visualize exactly what Shakespeare
live on, however, in the American water
but that foresight provided no practical
had in mind. But what exactly was a
spaniel, the flat-coated retriever, and
advantage. As is so often the case with teal,
water-rug? Usage of the term appears to
possibly others.
they were over the decoys and out of range
be unique to Shakespeare, which is not
before I could raise my gun.
unusual. The origins of dozens if not
And, by way of Shakespeare, the English
hundreds of Shakespearean terms appear to
water spaniel has left me with a wonderfully
Another characteristic of teal behavior,
be without precedent and confound scholars
idiosyncratic term for my German wirehair
however, is their willingness to come back
to this day.
when he emerges from the water soaking
and take another look. When the flock
wet. He really does look like a water-rug,
performed an elegant high-speed turn a
whatever that might be.
hundred yards in front of the blind, they
After some investigation, I agreed with the consensus that Shakespeare was referring
gave me what I thought would be plenty
to the English water spaniel. We know he
of time to prepare for their second pass
was aware of the breed because in Act III,
One characteristic that has served to
through shotgun range. Actually, “plenty of
scene I of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the
distinguish Rosy from so many of the other
time” proved overly optimistic, for I never
character Launce refers to his love interest
good Labs I have trained is her consistent
even thought about my second barrel.
as having “more qualities than a water
ability to make really difficult retrieves—not
spaniel,” likely a comment on the breed’s
just those on birds that have fallen at a
Although my first shot connected, the
versatility. Since neither the Irish nor the
distance, but the kind involving live birds,
bird hit the water swimming hard and
American water spaniel existed at the time,
long ranges, obstructions, ice, thorns, and
immediately began a Michael Phelps sprint
he must have been referring to the English
enough other complications to put the
for the reeds on the far side of the pond. “I’d
breed.
estimated probability of recovery in the
better send Rosy,” I said as I broke my gun.
snowball-in-hell category. Those aren’t jobs
“Let Max try,” Lori said. “He needs to learn
The English water spaniel, alas, is with us
for dogs that are still learning, and I admit
sometime.” My wife has always served as
no more, the last known representatives
that during the first season Max began to
Max’s principal advocate, both around the
of the breed having disappeared around
accompany us on duck hunts, I saved the
house and in the field. I suspect this is
1930. It had a good, long run, though, with
tough stuff for Rosy, for three reasons: I
because she recognizes my special affection
written descriptions of the dog appearing
didn’t want Max to get frustrated; I wanted
for Rosy and like any good mother wants all
as early as 1570, right before Shakespeare
Rosy to live out her final seasons in the glory
the kids to get their fair share of attention.
wrote Two Gentlemen, one of his earliest
she deserved; and I hate losing game.
plays. The dog’s job description was right up
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When I gave Max the command to fetch,
our alley. Written in 1820, The Sportsman’s
On the afternoon in question, we had a
Rosy began to express her disappointment,
Repository advises that anyone interested
half-dozen greenheads hanging on the
not through loud obnoxious whining but by
in hunting waterfowl “had best use an
duck strap before we got a break from our
whimpering softly as if her heart had been
English Water Spaniel.”
steady diet of mallards. The tearing-silk
broken. “She’ll get over it,” Lori assured me
sound that arose suddenly behind the blind
as we watched Max charge across the pond.
As near as I can tell, the breed disappeared
was higher pitched and moving faster than
The water was shallow enough that he could
simply because its enthusiasts were
anything I’d heard from mallards’ setting
lunge faster than the wounded teal could
disorganized and more or less let it
wings all afternoon. I knew the new arrivals
swim, and he had marked the fall accurately.
disappear by neglect. Its genetics probably
were green-wings before I ever saw them,
Of course, when dog met duck the wounded
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teal began to dive, and the real rodeo began.
of tricks along to these contests between
returned to the blind with the bird in his
predator and prey. They usually change
mouth and his head held as high as if he’d
Different dogs handle this difficult situation
directions while underwater to throw the
just won the Westminster Dog Show.
in different ways. One of my early Labs
dog off-track, and when they surface, they
would dive completely underwater and
swim with the lowest possible profile above
As the light level began to drop, Lori finally
remain submerged for frighteningly long
water to make themselves hard to see. These
traded her camera for my shotgun. Her
lengths of time until he swam the duck
maneuvers can drive even veteran dogs to
first shot produced a banded drake mallard,
down in its own element. He was barely
distraction. Although I generally avoid setting
always a bonus on any duck hunt. Modern
more than a puppy the first time I saw
inexperienced dogs up to fail by giving them
technology—the Fish and Wildlife Service
him do that, and I was afraid that he had
difficult tasks, Lori was entirely right when
duck band app on her cell phone—quickly
tangled himself up in some underwater
she pointed out that Max was going to have
informed us that the bird had originated
obstruction and drowned until I saw him pop
to learn to deal with this situation eventually.
in the Northwest Territories. Thanks to
up 10 yards farther across the pond with the
pandemic travel restrictions, that mallard
duck in his mouth. The dog had obviously
Overall, Max handled the challenge well,
maintained visual contact with the bird
although he didn’t snag the duck until it had
had flown farther in 2020 than we had.
underwater. That trick wasn’t anything I
evaded him repeatedly. Standing up in the
By the time we left the blind just before
taught him. It was simply the way he dealt
blind, I could see the duck more clearly than
sunset, I was laboring under the weight of
instinctively with diving ducks, and I saw
the dog could when it tried to swim off just
two Pacific Flyway limits, mostly greenheads
him do it repeatedly over the course of his
below the water’s surface, with the tip of its
supplemented by three green-wings. Both
long career.
bill tracing a delicate “v” across the surface.
dogs seemed very happy, and I felt confident
While Max’s handling wasn’t fine-tuned,
that Max, our water-rug, would be capable
The common problem for retrievers is
he knew enough to turn in the general
of taking over from Rosy when the time
simply losing track of the duck when it
direction my arm indicated. The teal finally
came.
dives. Wounded ducks bring their own bag
zigged when it should have zagged, and Max
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A digression into the arcane world of Shakespearean scholarship may seem out of place in what is at heart a hunting story. The thesis of this piece, however, is broader than either of those topics. Duck hunters, like those who pursue any passion, tend to rely on the familiar while failing to appreciate the value of what lies outside the proverbial box. Ask a hundred waterfowl hunters to perform a quick word association test with the phrase “duck dog,” and 90-odd responses will likely be “Labrador retriever” (as would my own). You’ll hear about a few goldens from those who love the breed’s beauty, tractability, and utility in upland cover, along with a Chessie or two from folks who would probably own pit bulls if they didn’t hunt ducks. Any answers other than those drawn from the Big Three would definitely be outliers. In fact, people have been hunting waterfowl with all kinds of dogs for centuries, starting long before Labs, goldens, and Chessies even existed, at least in their current form. The English water spaniel may no longer be with us, but its utility as a waterfowl dog was documented in word and art centuries ago. In addition to Max and other GWPs, I have personally hunted ducks with shorthairs, “English” pointers, and Brittanies. I once spent a pleasant morning in Alaska sitting in a rudely constructed blind with a friend and his Boykin spaniel. And then there is the rest of the pack, the retrievers about which we hear too little: American and Irish water spaniels, flat coats, curly coats, and others even more obscure. Interestingly, most of these breeds, in contrast to Labs, have coats that could qualify them as water-rugs. Granted, most representatives of those alternate breeds with which I hunted didn’t perform as well in water as my better Labs, but most managed to provide good company and get the job done. We love the dogs we love, but that shouldn’t blind us to other possibilities.
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SNOW BIRDS
A Photo Essay by Adam Tangsrud Over the years, I’ve developed my own style
The pheasant opener is a day I wait for each
of upland hunting. I enjoy hunting alone
year, but early season often means warm
and find myself driving further and further
weather, dry fields, overheated dogs, and
out of town to explore the bird hunting
horrible scenting conditions. What I really
opportunities of northern Colorado. I love
look forward to is the first snow of the year
spending time alone on forgotten farmland
when the landscape is cold and beautiful, and
and abandoned homesteads and my
the crisp winter air holds the scent of birds
photography reflects this. These places have
for my springer spaniels. The first snowfall
become my refuge to escape the daily grind
of the season concentrates the pheasants in
and recharge.
groups and when they burst from cover and shatter the winter stillness, I feel a warmth I cannot describe.
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BREAKING UP
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WITH ALASKA By Dave Zoby In Alaska, I have so many options: I might
together someday, or did it ring with finality,
for her but didn’t. I proclaimed often, and
keep drinking at the bar, or I might walk
like the rot of salmon berries on the vine?
to anybody who would listen, that one day I
through the drizzle down to Beluga Lake
Incognito in Alaska, I quickly become a
would live in Alaska. I said it to my mother
and watch the float planes struggle off
regular at Fat Olives, settling myself at
as a challenge—a dare. I said it to friends
the water. Hobo Jim is playing the Frontier
the granite bar, tipping the wide-body
who were barely listening. It was one of my
Theater; I could go there. I might rent a surf
waitresses like a profligate. Customers talk
dreams, and the problem with dreams is
rod and cast for flounder; or just walk down
about the fish—ones they caught on their
that they ruin you when you solve them, or
the Spit and back, stopping here and there
half-day charters, and ones that snapped
even if you just come close.
to look at the glaciers across the bay; or
their lines. A bear has been seen on the
loiter by the cleaning tables with a society
beach digging for clams—they talk about
of simpletons, like me, who can stand next
that, and the minor earthquake that shook
to piles of fish guts and smile. There is
them awake in their RVs.
the scent of rough seas upon the air. And
This winter, in Wyoming, I felt as though it
light—always plenty of light—in the theme
SORE, BORED, OUT OF SORTS?—TRY THAI
was time for me to move on. All the signs
of landscape artists and paintings of whales.
MASSAGE TODAY MR. SUPERSTAR, reads
were there: the frozen river, the disorganized
But there is also this enduring thought
the sign at the new massage parlor. Its
fly box. Mid-December I was scanning online
that all this will soon crash to an end.
competitor down the road flies red and blue
databases for college teaching jobs when I
The weather is turning nasty, with sheets
balloons. They specialize in feet.
came upon an ad for a full-time gig in The
of broken mist scudding down from the
Last Frontier. Immediately I began to dust
cragged heights across Kachemak Bay. Like
I didn’t always go solo. I brought women up
off my resume and gather my references;
romance, the busy season is falling apart.
to the Kenai Peninsula—beautiful, green-
one colleague enthusiastically jumped at the
I’m always just in time to watch it collapse.
eyed women who seemed to need to be
chance to write a letter of recommendation
reunited with the sea and the glaciers. I was
for me. Alaska, he said, is where I ought to be.
I had been doing this for years, venturing to
just a facilitator, really, there on the pitching
the Kenai Peninsula in late July to fly fish
deck of a halibut boat, her hair whiplashing,
With this first application came many
for salmon or dredge the depths for halibut.
the rollers building to frightening heights,
others. I had to create a profile. My
Donning rubber boots, walking around
that same wind gnawing the edges of the
username was dogfish69. I began a daily
the gift shops with my hands plunged
vessel and making a daunting wail. We stood
routine of waking early, checking the web for
in my pockets—not buying but looking
amongst the masses slapping weighted flies
job announcements while I drank coffee, and
for something specific, creeping people
in the Kenai.
walking to work with new ideas about how
out when I arrived unannounced at their
to sell myself along with all my household
beach bonfires. I rented underperforming,
A habit of mine is trying to create
items. Washington, Northern California,
mildewed cars and drove the swales of my
enthusiasm where there is none. Winter was
Oregon—places with ragged coasts and
latest romantic loss: her hips, her long limbs,
on everyone’s mind, even as we queued at
raging tattoo parlors. Steelhead. Bottom
her wild gaze by Skilak Lake. As I marveled
the fish-processing plant with our filleted
fish. A fly shop of reputation. I dreamed of a
at the aquamarine colors of the glacier-fed
catch in a gray tub, or when we walked
gigantic garage sale that would set me free.
rivers—the brilliance and quirk of fireweed—I
in rain around the Spit, drizzle-touched,
All I wanted to keep were my black Labs
tried to remember those last conversations.
seagirt, saturated, beer on our breath,
and my fly rods. And those two expensive
Did she say we didn’t bond, or did she
caffeinated to the max. I looked over a piece
shotguns. But the rest should go.
just say she didn’t bond with me? Did she
of fossilized walrus tusk that had been
leave it open-ended about us getting back
carved into a heart. I thought of buying it
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Things had changed since I won my job
park, the Texas Roadhouse, and the newly
Despite my efforts, I bombed the phone
years ago. There were far fewer full-time
risen IHOP. College presidents, with not the
interview. Someone had told me to smile
positions. Most announcements asked for
slightest sense of irony, now referred to
while answering the questions, but it felt
online experience: experience teaching
themselves as CEOs. Sometime during the
ridiculous—more like I was sneering. I was
distance education. I had been hectoring
last decade or so, while I was learning to
in my office, alone, breathless as I was
online teachers for years, sometimes with
nymph the chilly North Platte, the academic
introduced to the panel, the scratch and
full knowledge that my audience included
landscape went to hell, and I never noticed.
static of so many wintry miles between us.
some recently awarded PhDs from online
“Must be able to sit for up to eight hours
Many of the questions were about online
degree factories. Now I had to pretend
in a semi-quiet environment/ must be able
teaching. I had avoided teaching online since
that I was kidding. When I read these
to lift up to 50 pounds/ must embrace local
a terrible composition class in the spring
announcements, I could tell right away that
business trends,” read one ad.
of ‘09, in which half the students dropped
these schools really valued experience in
and the other half threatened mutiny when
“asynchronous digital learning,” whatever
Alaska called in February. It was actually
I insisted they discuss Black Elk Speaks.
that meant. And they asked you to write
the Director of HR who called. She arranged
The interviewers asked me what I knew
supplemental essays—little jags about how
a phone interview for the following week.
about their institution. In truth, between
you would contribute to the community,
I did my best to prepare by scouring their
sessions on the Kenai, I had stopped by there
what you thought of dual enrollment. I
website. I practiced my answers in my
one summer and looked around, swatting
wondered about the people who wrote these
head as I walked my dog around the snow-
mosquitoes that seeped up from the soggy
announcements: Did they make love? Did
beaten city park. I asked him, “Want to go
college grounds. But I didn’t share that.
they dream?
to Alaska?” and he perked up and tilted his
I thought it was a wash, that I would never
head. But he did this for any question.
fulfill my long-held dream to live in Alaska.
Many postings came with chilly phrases
And yet I received a call two weeks later
such as “part-time,” “temporary,” “term,” or
Preparing for the interview, I told myself not
inviting me up for an interview. This was
even “dependent upon funding.” There were
to mention fly fishing too much. Otherwise
March 5, and the interview would not take
ads for three-quarter instructors. Various
I’d come off as one of those trout bums
place until April 19. I wondered what they
adjunct positions bloomed on every page,
you come across in Montana and Idaho: a
were hiding. Perhaps they wanted me to see
positions wherein the institutions wanted
permanently sunburned guy with $8,000
it in April, when the rivers break up and the
everything from you, and in return offered
in gear and no intimate relationships of
willows begin to bud, when the ravens grok
a shared office that overlooked a major
which to speak. I started looking at houses
from barren trees. When the reality show film
highway featuring a predictable ebb and
in Alaska via the internet. In my mind, I was
crews are in the bars getting their sea legs.
flow of traffic coming from the industrial
already gone.
All I wanted to keep were my black Labs and my fly rods. And those two expensive shotguns. But the rest should go.
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Soldotna had moldered since I last
another bite of salmon this winter,” said
saw it, three years back. Kenai seemed
the sociologist. “I have to trick my kids into
unredeemable, decaying. Many stores were
eating it.”
Mid-April, I flew out of Wyoming in a
boarded up for winter. There were tiny
blizzard. I brought my 6-weight and a box of
coffee kiosks steaming in the sunshine.
The next morning I killed the interview. I
sculpin patterns just in case there was time
There were two newish Thai massage
was deferential and prepared. I used all the
to fish. Eleven hours later, I watched glaciers
parlors, painted in neon and flying foil
tricks: PowerPoint, handouts, Langston
sail beneath the aircraft as we descended
balloons. The Safeway looked shipwrecked,
Hughes, and a sizzling, self-deprecating
into Anchorage. I was at my hotel in time to
the parking lot shelled with potholes. The
humor. I felt even better about them as we
drop my bags and go out for dinner. It was
realtor took me to a quaint coffee shop
got to know one another. In the afternoon
bright outside, almost too much to handle
by the mouth of the Kenai, and we drank
the Department Chair sprang for coffee, and
without dark shades. Anonymous and jet-
beautiful coffee and watched a few blocks
I was set free after a brief interview with
shocked, I ate wild king salmon at a small
of ice tumble out of the Kenai and into
HR, wherein she refused to talk specifically
bar where a guitarist with a white beard
Cook Inlet. The mudflats were latticed with
about anything. Instead, she gave me
played passable Buddy Guy tunes to an
runnels of melt. WAKE FOR SPRINGTIME MR.,
a handful of pamphlets describing local
audience of five. I saved the receipt with the
read the sign at the massage parlor. YOU
fishing and hunting outfitters: Goodtime
idea of being reimbursed.
OWE YOURSELF SUPERSTAR TREATMENT. I
Charley’s, Catch-a-Lot Charters, Kenai River
wish I could wake, I thought, superstar or
Run Outfitters. She said that the college
not.
contributed seven percent to retirement.
Electricians were rewiring the hotel where I was staying—the Gold Rush—and early the next morning, I heard them crawling in the
“But if I don’t know the salary, I have no idea
ceilings and walls like packrats. The whole
what seven percent is,” I countered.
hotel was undergoing a makeover to prepare for the summer fishing season, the sockeye
At dinner with the hiring committee, I
run that people discussed in hushed, semi-
ordered a local beer. It was a sloppy move.
religious tones. The mighty Kenai River was
But several of the committee members
I had two days to drive around Alaska and
right there, within spitting distance, but so low
came to my rescue and ordered beer, too.
see if the place really was for me. Eschewing
that I hardly recognized it. The aquamarine
We were at the same place I had stumbled
the massage parlors, I chatted with my
color was missing because it was the dead of
into the night before: same guitarist,
countrymen at the Safeway about the
winter. There were blocks of ice the size of
same waitress, same salmon. Everyone
staggering price of milk and oranges. I
buses stacked against a tiny island.
else ordered chicken and beef. “I can’t eat
drove up the Kenai and looked back at the
She frowned.
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39
Chugach Mountains and wondered if those
boat wherein he trolled for king salmon and
tying a stately fly on a number two hook,
mountains and I could get along. I wondered
halibut on Cook Inlet. They bought rounds
with peacock feathers and jungle cock tied
if there were any gamebirds around for
for each other, though it was apparent they
into the collar. He placed it on the rim of
Henry to chase. I read up on ptarmigan. I
were rivals. One guy, who wasn’t talking,
his empty glass and left it for Amy as a tip.
parked near Skilak Lake and walked along
worked with scissors and feathers, tying a
She swooned when he walked out. I walked
the cobbles near the river. No one was
streamer at the bar.
out too, the April sunlight shocking me to stupidity. I was grinning for some reason.
fishing. I didn’t even take my rod from the case. Old and odd bits of tackle decorated
The boat captain said, “I took Amy,” and
the roots of fallen trees. I found a coho fly:
motioned with his chin to the beautiful
I woke up the next morning to the soft
simple with only some silver foil and a few
waitress, “and she caught one that went
voices of electricians. They were in the
strands of green bucktail. I freed it from the
nearly 150 pounds.” Amy smiled.
walls and the ceilings again. Little flakes of insulation snowed down upon my bed.
snag and put it in my visor. It turned out that Amy went on many
I walked out to the Kenai and threw some
I settled in at one of the microbreweries
adventures that past summer, camping in
stones. I couldn’t get any to skip. A pair of
and ordered a pale ale. The waitress was
the Brooks Range with one of the pilots,
mergansers were dipping in a back eddy,
shockingly beautiful. She had some sort
tagging fish with the game warden. Other
terrorizing salmon smolts, eating some
of duck feather hanging from a gold post
things too: prolonged campouts, long
whole and maiming others. I didn’t know
impaled through her ear. I noticed several
reflective trips into the backcountry with
my future, and it drove me mad. I had no
other men at the granite-topped bar. In
various beautiful and well-armed male
way of knowing I’d fly back to Wyoming,
fact, there were only men at the bar. All
models. Amy, a pilot herself, dabbled in
flush, smelling of massage oil, but hopeful
were about 10 years younger than me, wore
guiding and selling art she crafted out of
about my future. I had no idea I’d surprise
hats and goatees, and were in shape with
antlers, shells, and skulls. I could only envy
even myself and turn away from my most
slightly wind-burned, Irish faces. They were
their vibrant and free sex lives. Suddenly I
enduring fantasy.
pilots waiting for the fishing/bear-viewing
thought: You’ll never have sex again if you
season. They were game wardens and
move here. I would become irrelevant the
From then on I received one call after
wilderness firefighters. They were glacier
day I arrived.
another from colleges proposing to me: a two-year in Reno, a sprawling tech school
climbers. There was even a wildlife biologist who darted and collared Dall’s sheep. His
Still, I was willing to risk it; we had been at
in Saint Paul. I bought my own airfare
neck was ram-thick and he drank porters
this together for so long, Alaska and I. It
and saved piles of receipts. Then I’d do
and slapped the bar when someone made
seemed a pity to throw it all away. As I was
the unpardonable: I’d begin to think I had
a joke. One guy owned a six-pack fishing
about to leave, the quiet fellow finished
options. I’d indulge myself with online real
Still, I was willing to risk it; we had been at this together for so long, Alaska and I. It seemed a pity to throw it all away.
40
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2021
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41
estate searches. Can you imagine a guy
I toured the Kenai Peninsula, the rental
salmon came back. She said she’d make all
with an MFA in poetry thinking he had
car humming, fishing pamphlets splayed
her mortgage money in just a few weeks.
options? There would be a call from Eureka,
all over the dash. I was incredibly bored
There would be bumper-to-bumper traffic,
California, and I’d put on the Beach Boys
and unusually hungry. Perhaps you saw me
she said—groups of men stumbling from the
and try to imagine myself sitting at the
there in the hardware store: I was the one
bars to the river and back to their hotels, all
base of a dune, Henry and Rocket chasing
philosophically fondling various pliers and
because of the salmon.
seagulls. My pockets bulging with receipts,
fillet knives. I bought cans of smoked silver
I’d indulge myself in beautiful scenarios;
salmon. I stopped into the Game and Fish
“Mister, you have to be here to believe,” she
and I have to admit it, I would be happy for
office and talked to the woman dressed
said.
a while, believing I could leave Wyoming on
in a brown uniform about hunting and
my own terms.
fishing. I complimented the taxidermy on
I laid there fatly in my boxers while she
the walls: the five species of Pacific salmon,
insisted I was a superstar. I didn’t argue. She
the disinterested brown bear, the humdrum
had me flip over so she could do my flanks. I
caribou, and the moose—and the other
began to worry that I was breaking the law
moose, too. I went to the visitor center
just by being there. She told me to chill. Her
I got an offer from the college in Alaska:
to see the world-record Chinook salmon
body rolling over mine with a light dressing
$55,000 and all-you-can-eat red salmon. My
mount—97 pounds, four ounces—caught
of oil between us made me think about
contract was a three-year term. I would lose
by Les Anderson of Soldotna in 1985. Then,
the glaciers all around us. Except they had
lots of sleep but eventually turn the offer
as the day came to a close, I began to get
been at it forever, the glaciers and the rock
down, citing something about being too far
jittery about the flight home. I wandered
beneath them. I was just an interloper.
away from my family, or the salary being
into a Thai massage parlor. There was a
My time ran out. I put the receipt in my
too low—preferring to remain part-time,
fish tank swarming with ravenous tropical
pocket and headed out into the light.
uninterested viceroy of early-ending classes,
minnows whose job it was to eat the dead
Visiting Professor to my own life, adjunct to
skin off your feet. I was fitted into a fluffy
the universe of stars and man camps out
white robe that smelled of bleach and
on the vast plains of sage. I can’t remember
mangos. Hot tea was offered. I was directed
exactly why I turned it down.
into a darkened room where a boombox played soft foreign music. A tiny, beautiful
But I am too far ahead of the story. I still
woman kneaded my back with her knees
had a day to kill in Alaska.
and talked in my ear about how busy the season would be in a few months, when the
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HUNS
where the grain meets the grass By Jim McLennan
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An interesting evolution has been taking
Until this development, Huns were
Eastern Europe, and the first attempts to
place in the dusty draws and windy corners
always Miss Congeniality in spite of their
establish them in North America occurred
of the plains over the last 20 years. The
wide distribution throughout the grain
prior to the 20th century. The planting
lowly Hungarian partridge, once little more
country of the Northwest. That could be
that “stuck” and took hold, though, was
than a consolation prize for dedicated
because of their small size and somewhat
in southern Alberta in 1908. Two Calgary
pheasant hunters, has become almost—
demure personality—yet that’s never
sportsmen, who understood that native
it pains me to say it—trendy. Recently,
been a detriment to the status of any
sharp-tailed grouse populations would
a hunting partner and I were chasing
species of quail. Or maybe it’s because
decline with the extensive cultivation of the
pheasants in Montana and stopped to visit
they can humble the most experienced
western grasslands, brought in 15 pairs of
with two guys hunting a spot we also liked.
shotgunners—but that’s never been a
partridge from Hungary via Pennsylvania.
The apparent leader was from the South,
detriment to the reputation of ruffed
With additional releases of about 300 birds
a well-appointed sportsman who seemed
grouse. So I guess it has to be because
over the next few years, the little grey
a little embarrassed to have been caught
they often live in close proximity to and
beggars took hold indeed, climbing to a
hunting pheasants. “Don’ get the wrong
are overshadowed by that gaudy Archie
huntable population in just five years. In
impression, now,” he said. “Ah’m mainly a
Bunker of the berry patch, the ring-necked
1942 the bag limits on Huns in Alberta were
Hun man. Ah jes’ hunt pheasants occais’nly
pheasant.
20 per day and 250 per season. From there
as a concession to ma’ friend here.” Voila—a new category of sportsman: The Hun Snob.
the Huns’ range expanded to the places Hungarian (grey) partridge are native to
hunters pursue them today: Saskatchewan,
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Manitoba, Montana, Idaho, the Dakotas, and
and brush—that run through wheat or
other agricultural states.
barley fields. Though they might live within sight of the dense low cover that pheasants
When you’re hunting pheasants, one of the
Huns have done well for a number of
like, Huns are rarely right in the nasty stuff.
challenges can be making them fly. That’s
reasons—notably that the grain country of
If there’s a creek bottom running through
why many stalwart ring-neck chasers use
western North America is similar to their
a wheat field, the pheasants will be in the
Labs, springers, or close-working pointers.
native European habitat, so they arrived
heaviest cover near the bottom—but Huns
The flushing dog hunts within gun range,
here with the ability to withstand severe
will stick mainly to the sidehills and edges
and the pointer that knows about pheasants
winters. They’re a bit of an anomaly as an
where the lighter cover meets the grain.
works a little further out and points close
introduced species that flourished with no
They’ll feed some distance out in the grain
to the bird to make it sit tight and fly
detrimental effect on native species. Such
stubble, particularly in late fall. According
only when the hunter approaches. But if a
an introduction would not be made today.
to Ben Williams and Charley Waterman,
pointing dog crowds Huns like this, they’ll be
the two guys most responsible for the Grey
gone before the point is established. That’s
Though Huns can do well without grain,
Partridge Appreciation movement, Huns
why a dog that’s great on pheasants is often
much of the best hunting is around fields
prefer light cover because they want to see
not so great on Huns—and vice versa—
of wheat, barley, canola, and other cereal
what’s going on around them and who or
though good ones learn to adapt either way.
crops. The birds thrive in areas with a mix
what might be trying to sneak up on them.
of short, grassy ground cover and cultivated
46
twenty chicks in early summer.
With these birds the hunter’s problem is
fields. Two archetypical Hun headquarters
Hungarian partridges live in family groups
twofold: finding them and preventing them
are overgrown abandoned farmyards that
as coveys of eight to 20 birds. They split
from flying until you’re in gun range. Most
are surrounded by grain, and coulees or
up into breeding pairs in late winter, nest
Hun Snobs—er, Hun hunters—use wide-
draws—with a mix of uncut grass, weeds,
in spring, and hatch clutches of a dozen to
ranging pointing dogs that point from well
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And make no mistake: they’re his birds, not yours, and he’s standing out there with them, drinking in the wild intoxicant we can never know.
off and hold point till the shadows get
Carry on. On one of those casts, though,
shooting in short wheat stubble, but you
long. This canine Hun specialist is probably
he might disappear but not swing around
can—just not all the time. The dog-work
a German Shorthair, Brittany, setter, or
into sight again. This is good. Check that;
out there is usually either a sudden and
pointer. He’s mostly legs, lungs, and nose,
it’s better than good—it’s great. He’s doing
decisive win that leaves you gushing
because Hun country is big country, and his
what he was born to do: He’s found his birds.
with admiration or a sudden and decisive
job is to cover as much of it as possible as
And make no mistake: They’re his birds,
flushed-covey screw-up that makes you
quickly as possible. The human hunter is not
not yours, and he’s standing out there with
wonder how it could go so wrong so fast. I
really in charge of the operation; he’s mainly
them, drinking in the wild intoxicant we can
suppose Mike may have screwed up a few
there to drive the truck. The dog hunts the
never know.
times; if so, I’ve chosen to forget them.
An experienced Hun dog at work is at once a
Huns run, both before and after the point,
The Hun dog is a bit of a high-wire artist
thing of athleticism, grace, and beauty. One
not with the outright sprint of pheasants,
too, balancing a little to one side or the
of my best Hun dogs was a Brittany, a gift
but with more of a nervous head-down
other of his handler’s idea of acceptable
from Hun guru Ben Williams—and if that’s
scuttle. So the Hun dog must also be an
range. He’s sometimes out of sight but
not good karma, I don’t know what is. The
avian clairvoyant, knowing when the birds
never really out of control or out of touch.
dog was Mike, and my favorite memories
are running and when they’re not and
He’ll make a cast of 300 yards or more out
are of hunting Huns in the grain country. I’d
understanding that he must follow but
along the edge of the coulee, occasionally
often send him out across the wind because
can’t push.
breaking out through the stubble and
I liked to watch him hit scent, turn hard,
working the wind. When he disappears over
slam on the brakes, and throw a little puff
This running-bird business has some
a little rise, wait a minute and you’ll see
of stubble dust into the prairie breeze. Folks
interesting applications. They’ll
him swing around into view in front again.
will tell you that you can’t get dog-work or
sometimes run through light cover to
birds, and the hunter follows the dog.
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They were Mike's birds.
denser cover and sit tight there. And it’s
you know it’s coming, the suddenness of a
In one of Mike’s last seasons my partner
been reported, and occasionally observed
dozen birds flapping and squeaking produces
and I put him out for a late-day hunt that
even by me, that after flushing they’ll land
high-level discombobulation. Because they
we knew wouldn’t take too long, as we were
on the near side of a hill, run over the top
come out of light cover, there’s nothing to
required at home for a social event that
and down the other side a short distance,
inhibit acceleration; they get to top speed
evening. We quickly lost sight of Mike in a
and then hold tight there. But here’s my
in approximately four wingbeats. Try to pick
rolling field of barley stubble. Eventually
favorite: I walk out in front of a staunch,
one bird, shoot, and plan to shoot at that
we spotted a tiny, stationary, white speck
reliable dog that’s on point, but I can’t put
bird again on the usually-safe assumption
several hundred yards out. Was that the
up the birds. Sometimes this happens as a
that you missed the first time.
dog? We dropped into a low spot, and when
result of the quirks of scenting conditions,
48
we came up out of it, the speck was in the
like breeze or the lack thereof. But often
The good news is that once flushed, a covey
same place but appeared a little larger.
enough for it to mean something else, the
doesn’t usually fly too far (if 300 or 400
For several minutes we continued walking
mystery covey eventually flushes well off
yards can be considered not too far), and
through several more low spots. When we
to the side of the standing dog or even
you can sometimes see where they land
finally reached the dog, a lonely pair of Huns
directly behind it. I’ve concluded, with no
and follow them up for a second flush. Note
peeled out of the stubble, crossing in front
scientific confirmation, that the little devils
the inclusion of the word sometimes—for
of me. They were quite a way out, but I
sometimes run downwind to get to a spot
each time you find them right where you
scratched one down.
where they can no longer be scented. A
expect to find them and get that second
lesson learned from contact with coyotes
chance, there’s another time when you
and foxes, perhaps?
never see them again. “I know right where
Compared to the popcorn-like rise of a covey
they landed, boys. Let’s go get em’!” Except
of bobwhites, Huns all go up together, as if
they’re not there. They’re not anywhere.
the captain has given a firm command. This,
They’ve disappeared, and no one knows how
friends, is most unsettling. For even when
they do it.
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They were Mike’s birds.
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UNWRITTEN Hunters and anglers are governed by a thicket of
regulations, laws, and ordinances. But it’s the unspoken edicts that have the most authority over our behavior. By Andrew McKean
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RULES. Back before we started referring to this time
as unreadable as before.
as the Anthropocene, I served on a committee
ourselves were just as insistent on ensuring the booklet retained regulations defining
of Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks colleagues
As with any human endeavor, lawyers are
shooting hours, describing antlerless game,
tasked with reducing the complexity of the
partly to blame. The department’s game
and inadequately addressing the distinction
department’s hunting regulations.
wardens and attorneys wanted to ensure
between permits and licenses. Finally, and
that, should a wildlife violation go to court,
with a shrug of resignation, we reckoned
The mission was simple: Edit, condense,
the rule that was broken was there in
that no matter how much we distilled the
and simplify the 136-page hunting
black, white, and tedious detail. Then there
regulations, hunting would still be governed
annual so that an average hunter could
were field biologists, whose insistence on
by an even more complicated and fuzzy
understand and comply with the rules. Our
micro-seasons and place-specific restrictions
set of rules that you won’t see written
committee met every month for a year.
superseded statewide uniformity. But the
anywhere, but which dictate behaviors in
We cut six pages out of the booklet. It was
“rules simplification committee” members
the field.
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These cultural artifacts are older than
permission is perishable, if its terms are
disappointment.) He liked to hunt upland
states or wildlife agencies—or even game
not detailed somewhere in the transaction
birds almost as much as I did. He had formed
wardens. Their origins reach back to our
of securing it, it’s a little unclear how
a relationship with a farmer who let him hunt
European ancestors. Some are situational,
long it lasts. Assume that it’s for a single
pheasants, and after a couple of productive
others are absolute, and you may not even
outing, or at the most a single season. I’ve
trips I felt I needed to bring something to the
realize they are in force until you break one.
encountered hunters on my land whom
relationship. So I took him to one of my secret
Violations of these unwritten rules carry
I allowed to hunt one time, years earlier,
spots.
penalties harsher and more permanent than
when they had kids in tow. As I escorted
court fines or loss of hunting privileges.
these very chuffy—and very adult—hunters
It was a sleeper place for sharp-tailed grouse
They will cost you friends and hunting
to the gate, they repeatedly reminded me
and the occasional Hungarian partridge—a
partners and could get you drummed out
of my long-ago allowance. They know not to
sliver of state land accessible from a county
of our curiously hidebound community.
ask again.
road that connected to two sections of public
These unwritten rules run the gamut from
upland paradise, coulees cloaked with wild
misdemeanors (failure to share your harvest
I wasn’t overly hard on them, because
plum and buffaloberries below a bench that
with a buddy who helped you), to lapses of
I’ve done much the same thing. I once
was routinely planted in winter wheat. I never
decorum (shooting a duck on your partner’s
got permission from a friend’s friend
hunted there without shooting my limit of
side of the blind), all the way up to the most
who had some sweet duck water in
sharptails, and I never saw another hunter.
unforgivable of felonies: disciplining your
front of his summer cabin. He was never
partner’s dog.
around—besides, I didn’t have his contact
Ben had a ball.
information—so I reasoned that I could If you’ve hunted much, then you recognize
continue hunting the rest of that season.
We never had “the talk,” that awkward
these codes of conduct. You’ll see them
And the next. The best indication that I
conversation in which one hunter asks
expressed in the way we communicate,
knew precisely the status of my curdled
another to never reveal the secret spot. I
congratulating one another on a successful
permission was in the way I’d get nervous
didn’t think we needed to. After all, I’d never
hunt and finding something positive to say
any time I saw a vehicle approach. After a
ask the farmer where we pheasant hunted for
about the size or palatability of the game
few outings, hunting there just wasn’t any
permission if I wasn’t with Ben. And I figured
taken. You’ll see them in our manners, which
fun because I was so edgy in my knowledge
he felt the same way about the spot I had
can seem quaintly chivalrous. And you can
that I was violating such a basic and obvious
shown him.
see them in the way we offer assistance to
rule.
members of our own tribe, whether it’s the
I went back to my grouse paradise late in the
loan of a gun or knife, or help gutting or
THOU SHALT NOT REVEAL SECRET SPOTS
season, and was surprised to find Ben’s pickup
packing out an animal.
There may be no greater expectation
parked at the access point. I drove past and
in the field sports than the unspoken
puttered around on some nearby unproductive
As in any society, the cardinal laws aren’t
acknowledgement that you must never
BLM land; a few hours later, I drove past Ben’s
written anywhere. You acquire them through
reveal a special place shown to you by a
truck again. On the tailgate sat three hunters
osmosis and through time and experience.
buddy. That understanding is the foundation
I had never seen before, each holding up
But I’ll detail four commandments—the
of fishing and hunting friendships, traditions,
handfuls of sharptails for Ben’s camera.
statutes and penalties of which have
and sacred waypoints. So you can understand
endless variation—as a public service and
why I still smart from a particularly brazen
I haven’t talked to Ben since then. Neither
atonement-seeking confession.
violation early in my career.
have I ever hunted that tainted place again. It would be like sleeping in the bed of an
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THOU SHALL SEEK PERMISSION EVERY TIME
I had befriended an acquaintance—we’ll
I’ve been both the victim and perpetrator
call him Ben—who was the husband of my
of one of the most common transgressions:
wife’s friend. (As an aside, that arms’-length
THOU SHALT NOT INCRIMINATE YOUR BUDDY
abuse of landowner permission. Because
relationship fairly trembles with potential
I had only been hunting a year or two on
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adulterous spouse.
I’LL DETAIL FOUR COMMANDMENTS—the statutes and penalties of which have endless variation—as a public service and atonement-seeking confession.
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my own when I struck up a friendship
It turned out to be the worst-tasting deer
killed a pronghorn, so I had the weekend
with a work colleague who routinely killed
I’ve ever eaten.
open. He rented a tiny farmhouse and we
big bucks. I was thrilled when he told me
rode up together, Ruger whining on the back
he’d introduce me to one of his spots. We
THOU SHALT NEVER DISCIPLINE ANOTHER
seat the whole way. The hunting was just as
went out in the final week of the season,
HUNTER’S DOG
I expected, but at least I got in some wind
a few days after he had killed a heavy 5x5
I’ve hunted over some truly inspired—and
sprints. That night, we cooked birds and
whitetail.
inspiring—dogs. Most, though, are as fallible
drank whiskey as rain lashed the farmhouse
as the humans who claim to own them.
windows.
We pulled into a cut cornfield, and he
Because my own dog pulls some appalling
pointed to a stand of timber away at the
shenanigans from time to time, I tend to
At some point I noticed my favorite gloves
end. I was to sit on its edge while he pushed
have a permissive view of gun dog behavior.
were missing. They had belonged to my
some brush and cattails and moved deer my
As long as it doesn’t piss on my boots or eat
father, who had died the previous August—
way. He took his rifle in case he decided to
my birds, I’m pretty relaxed.
light calfskin leather gloves that I wore for
fill a doe tag, he said. A stream of does and smaller bucks passed my stand, and then I heard a shot, and a few more deer sprinted by. I figured he had killed his doe, but when I got back to the pickup after dark, my buddy was there waiting. No deer. “You still have your tag, right?” he asked, a little nervously. We hiked back into the brush, and there was a freshly dead buck, a nice 4x5. What followed was one of the most awkward moments of my hunting life, as he asked me to tag it. I refused. Then he told me that we didn’t have permission to hunt the property.
What followed was one of the most awkward moments of my hunting life, as he asked me to tag it. I refused.
suited to any task, and partly because they reminded me of him and our farm. I recalled Ruger had been especially interested in them, maybe because they smelled of antelope blood. Sure enough: There was one glove in Ruger’s bed, a finger missing. The other was nothing more than part of the thumb and fretted cuff. Before I knew what I was doing, I snatched up the more intact glove and swatted Ruger across the snout with it, punctuating the lesson with a sharp, “Nooooo!” My buddy was on his feet instantly. Though
I could have sworn Ruger was instead named
instead of joining me in upbraiding his
“You’re already trespassing, so you might
“Goddammit!” The curly-haired retriever
dog, he raised his hand as if to strike me.
as well just go all-in,” was his argument.
roamed so wide that my buddy spent far
Trembling, he pointed to the door.
I asked if he shot the buck accidentally,
more time on our hunts cursing in a vain
mistaking it for a doe. I’ll never forget his
effort to rein him in than actually hunting.
“What in the hell!” he boomed. “Get out! Go.
dismissive laugh. “Yeah, something like
It got so that I learned to locate Ruger by
Nobody touches my dog. Ever!”
that,” he grinned.
the flushing birds a couple ridges over. The only way I managed to shoot birds over him
I had no choice but to walk out into the
Though I knew I had the moral high ground,
was by sprinting when he got birdy, hoping
penciling rain. I slept in his pickup that
there was the matter of a dead buck that
I could reach the wild flush while they were
night, and the next day we drove home,
would probably be wasted unless I tagged it. I
still in range and I still had oxygen to swing
mostly in silence.
needed the meat and wasn’t sure I’d get back
my shotgun.
out before the season ended, especially now
Ruger is long gone. I still see my buddy
that my guide turned out to be a poacher.
But my buddy was good company, and he
every now and again, but not once has he
I’m not proud to report that I tagged that
asked me to join him on his annual pheasant
mentioned my greatest transgression.
buck in a futile effort to correct a whole
camp. I was between dogs and had just
litany of wrongs. I was terrified of getting caught as we dragged it to the truck.
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almost everything, partly because they were
STRUNG MAGAZINE
FALL 2021 2021
Hunting Apparel • Fine Guns • Lifestyle Products kevinscatalog.com (800) 953-8467 Kevin’s Gunroom • kevinsguns.com • For Gun Inquiries (229) 226-7766 STRUNG MAGAZINE
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Changes in Dog Training For some, dog training has changed over the past 50 years. For others, not so much. By Tom Keer
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The modest farmhouse had a wide plank front
My face was new to the dogs, and they had
About half an hour later, I heard a Mule
porch that wrapped far around both corners.
bright eyes. Their tails wagged, they crowded
puttering in the distance. When he pulled up,
The dogs were in the kennel in the back, and
the gates, and some even jumped up to greet
the dog I was rubbing on made a beeline for
there were about 50 of them. Just bird dogs,
me. I was early—I always am—and to kill time I
his box. Another did the same, and before
pointers and setters, pacing back and forth in
stepped into the runs and gave them all a pat.
I knew it all the dogs once clamoring for
squeaky clean runs. Water buckets were fresh,
Dogs always love a good pat, and these dogs
attention had disappeared in an instant. There
the bowls from the morning feeding were
seemed to especially enjoy them.
were no barks or whines. Even the wind settled
spotless and neatly stacked. It was as clean,
down, and the rattling leaves hung quietly at
neat, and tidy a kennel as I’ve ever seen.
attention.
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Mark Fulmer of Sarahsetter Kennels in Aikin, South Carolina, with a red setter pup. Fulmer uses positive training methods on all of his bird dogs and versatile breeds.
Something wasn’t right, and it got worse
much to know the dogs were afraid of him.
approach. A talk with some longtime veterans
when the handler called the names of a few
Scared dogs don’t learn much, and they don’t
illustrates just how much dog training has
pointers. One dog wouldn’t come out of his
enjoy their workload, either.
changed.
the dog’s collar, and dragged him to the Mule.
There’s nothing as permanent as change, and
Steve Smith first noticed a dramatic shift in
Another wouldn’t load up, so the handler
dog training methods are no different. Heavy-
gun dog training in the late 1970s. He saw it
picked him up and tossed him in; the only
handed handling has progressed to include
in the magazines he launched or edited like
thing missing was a football-like spiral. It got
positive and clicker training, with refined gear
Gun Dog, Wildfowl, Shooting Sportsman,
worse after the training, and it didn’t take
and techniques leading to a more deliberate
Retriever Journal, The Pointing Dog Journal,
box, so the handler reached right in, grabbed
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If the timing of your correction is right, then your voice can be quiet. In fact, I believe timing is a big difference between pro and amateur handlers.
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and others. “Compulsion training has always
number of excellent dogs like Cracklin Tail Doc,
For 40 years, South Carolina’s Mark Fulmer has
been a common method, but many handlers
Heidi, and Diesel, but he might be best known
developed pups and dogs in his Sarahsetter
took it to an extreme,” he says. “Dogs that
for 6xCH Cracklin Tail Speed.
Kennels. The Eukanuba pro trainer is credited
broke point, busted birds, or were generally
with introducing clickers and positive training
disobedient were beaten or whipped. The
“I got into bird dogs by training pleasure
methods for bird dogs, both of which came
theory was that punishment corrected
horses,” Moore says. “Training a horse is all
from a personal experience: "Back in 1978,"
problems, and negative reinforcement gave
about the timing, and that’s similar to dogs.
says Fulmer. "I started with a Tritronics hot
dogs something to remember.”
You’ve got to correct the mistake at the time.
collar with vibration. There were rapid changes
If there is any delay the animal has no idea
in e-collars in the early eighties which included
“E-collars revolutionized the way we train
why he’s being corrected. Some handlers yell
variable intensities, vibration, and tone. I
dogs,” continues Smith, “because they really
to try and get a dog back on track, but the
had a dog that was taught with positive
are a check cord with a quarter-mile, half-mile,
louder you yell or the harder you hit, the more
reinforcement methods using the tone button
or mile-long reach.” Chart the development
scared you make the dog. Yelling and hitting
on the collar long before I knew of clickers.
of e-collars, Smith says, and one finds that
might make a handler believe he’s doing
One afternoon I took this dog Leigh out to
initially they were big, heavy, and carried
something constructive when he’s not. If the
run on my neighbors farm from horseback.
a lot of voltage delivered in a single blast.
timing of your correction is right, then your
It was warm and we had strayed too far
“These days collars offer tone and vibration
voice can be quiet. In fact, I believe timing is
and Leigh was tired as we rode towards the
along with [electronic] stimulation. And
a big difference between pro and amateur
house. As she went around the last field on
many handlers rely on tone or vibration only.”
handlers.”
the way home she was pacing herself and for
Perhaps, reasons Smith, this is why we no
some unknown reason I toned her and she
longer call them “shock collars” but rather the
In the past, Moore used barrels and chains
kicked her heels up and hit passing gear to
far more accurate e-collars.
to steady up the dogs. He no longer fools
finish the edge. I was awe struck that I was
with them because there are a lot of other
able to influence a dog like that at a couple
Smith notes that current handlers seem
shortcuts that can be used. “It’s the same
hundred yards. That episode changed to way I
far more interested in understanding dog
when training all animals,” Moore insists. “A
approached training."
psychology. “The camp of kennel dogs versus
ring in a bull’s nose makes him cooperate just
house dogs continues to be split,” he says,
as a bit in a horse’s mouth makes him come
Positive reinforcement is a progressive system
“but they all focus heavily on a strong bond.
around. E-collars, when used correctly, are the
of rewards for good behavior, says Fulmer, and
And it goes both ways, these days. It’s just as
ring and bit for dogs.”
praise comes at the completion of the task.
important for a dog to be man’s best friend
“Clicker training is conditioned reinforcement,
as it is for a man to be a dog’s best friend. Or
“In the past I would use woah posts and
just like what I saw on the dog hundreds of
a woman’s best friend, because there are a lot
pinch collars with check cords,” says Moore.
yards away. Dogs equate the sound of the click
more women trainers and handlers than there
“Today an e-collar around the neck and a belly
with a desired behavior, and a treat coming as
were 50 years ago as well.”
band are easier. Add a check cord with a half
the reward for that behavior. It’s a proactive
hitch around their waist to keep them from
approach to training that rewards good
Randall Moore of Cracklin Tail Kennels in
spinning, and you’re good for training the two
behavior instead of punishing bad behavior.
Beckley, West Virginia, has been training bird
most important commands, recall and woah.
That’s a big change in training for me, because
dogs for about four decades. Moore has had a
E-collars have made a lot of the training gear
when it’s done correctly, there aren’t a lot of
we used to use obsolete.”
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"Watts has always focused on puppy development, so while some techniques may change, his overall approach has not."
Left: Bob Watts, co-owner of Pennsylvania’s Cover Dog setters, with pups from a recent Maximum Resistance x Deciding Point litter. Right: Steve Smith, the legendary editor and writer, enjoys a Michigan duck hunt with his Labrador retriever, Murphy. mistakes that need to be corrected.”
and Woodcock Invitational. Watts has always
intense composure through the flight of the
focused on puppy development, so while some
bird and shot. Decades back, those quail trials
Pennsylvania’s Bob Watts, a co-owner of
techniques may change, his overall approach
didn’t emphasize composure after the flush.
Cover Dog Setters with Dick Brenneman and
has not.
Today, it’s essential. So now, and in developing
Thor Kain, has produced some of the top
60
pups for today’s quail trials, we start pups on
performance cover dog setters in history. Their
“Over the decades,” says Watts, “the training
the bench or barrel and teach them to stand
dogs are the only bird dogs to win the Big Four
and development of pups for grouse and quail
tall and motionless. Most pups like to do this
of Cover Dog field trials: The Grand National
trials has changed, so that’s led us to change
almost daily starting at between six and eight
Grouse Puppy Classic, The Grand National
our methods. Today, a competitive bird dog is
weeks of age. They like the time with the
Grouse Futurity, The Grand National Grouse
expected to point with a straight 12 o’clock
trainer, and the trainer gets his hands on the
Championship, and the Grand National Grouse
tail, show great intensity, and maintain that
pup, building the relationship and confidence
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Mark Fulmer pets Holly, his retired, nine-year old English setter.
the pup will benefit from throughout his
prefer to let the pups range to the front in
Just as genetics have improved, so have
training and life. Some are more natural at
a pattern that’s more natural and objective-
training methods and gear. Today some
doing this than others.”
focused. We plant birds in specific places
kennels are impeccably state-of-the-art. Keep
to teach pups where birds can be found. In
a winning game plan, change a losing game
Running patterns are different, too. “Grouse
contrast, quail dogs need an edge-running
plan. Most important of all, these top handlers
dogs run a different pattern than quail dogs,”
pattern. They need to be able to take an edge
always focus on doing what’s right by their
Watts says. “Some describe a ‘figure eight’
while looking for quail that have come to the
dogs.
pattern, so some trainers put their pups on
field edges to feed. The dogs run big, which
a 20-foot lead and get them to swing from
makes the use of ATVs and UTVs necessary,
side-to-side out in front. We do not use this
too. They weren’t around when we got started
method as it is a bit mechanical. Instead, we
back in the 1960s.”
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strung magazine
UPLAND
Each year, Strung’s editors choose outstanding products within their area of expertise as Blue-Ribbon Selections. While we stand by every item we recommend in our gear guides, these are the products we believe represent the best of the best. Strung’s Blue-Ribbon Selections not only work well—they enhance our outdoor experiences.
WREN AND IVY FOWLING PIECE CASE - $495 (WRENANDIVY.COM)
Wren and Ivy makes some of nicest sporting gear we’ve ever used, and their Fowling Piece Case is no exception. Its classic styling of bridle leather and waxed filter twill canvas is a relief from the current trend of “tactical” gear. But don’t be mistaken, this case is as much about function as style. Designed to protect your firearm, choke tubes, and other accessories, the Fowling Piece Case has lockable solid brass zippers for security and a closed cell foam liner keeps the case afloat if dropped overboard. The majority of the inside is lined with fleece, but the front is reinforced with pack cloth to keep your shotgun bead from snagging. Along with a detachable shoulder strap and reinforced handles, everything about this case is of the highest quality. This is an heirloom case you will pass down to your grandchildren.
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BROWNING CITORI WHITE LIGHTNING 16-GAUGE $2,739.99 (BROWNING.COM)
We put Browning’s new 16-gauge offering in their Citori lineup through its paces. We used it on quail and pheasant hunts throughout the Midwest, and over the summer we took it to the sporting clays course and put several cases of shells through it. We particularly liked that the Citori is built on a receiver sized to match 16-gauge shells rather than the common practice of building a 16-gauge on a 12-gauge sized frame which makes them too bulky for the fast-pointing upland hunting a 16-gauge is perfect for. The “White Lightning” designation refers to the silver nitride finish on the receiver and trigger guard. This, along with the engraving, provides a nice contrast to the gun’s walnut stock. Despite its updated look, this new iteration stays true to the principles that have given the Citori a reputation for durability.
APEX AMMUNITION UPLAND BIRD TUNGSTEN SUPER SHOT - $49.99 (APEXMUNITION.COM)
After a year of shooting Apex Ammunition’s Tungsten Super Shot (TSS) we can say without question they are the most effective shells we’ve ever used. TSS has traditionally been associated with turkey and waterfowl hunting, but Apex’s line of upland rounds showcase the versatility of TSS. Available in 12-,20-, and 28-gauge and shot sizes ranging from 7.5 to 9, there is a load available for everything from late-season roosters to fast flying quail. Better yet, being non-toxic, TSS won’t harm other wildlife and can be used in places like waterfowl production areas where lead is not allowed.
SAGE AND BRAKER GUN CLEANING MAT - $245 (SAGEANDBRAKER.COM)
Sage and Braker’s gun cleaning mat is a beautiful, functional, and durable tool for cleaning your firearm. Made of wool, waxed canvas, and leather, with four large pouches to store gun cleaning supplies like brushes, rods, bore snakes, and swabs, this mat holds everything you need to service your gun after a hunt. It’s also portable—just roll it up, buckle it down, and toss it in your vehicle. We used it hard and enjoyed the convenience of having everything in one spot. At the end of the day, cleaning our shotguns was a pleasure instead of a chore.
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strung magazine
UPLAND
DUCK CAMP LIGHTWEIGHT HUNTING SHIRT - $89 (DUCKCAMP.COM)
This is the Strung crew’s go-to upland hunting shirt! The shirt is lightweight with a built-in mesh venting system for hunting in the heat, but still manages to keep you warm on cool mornings. In colder temperatures, it’s a tough outer layer to throw over a thermal (Duck Camp also makes awesome merino base layers). It’s comfortable, quick drying, and looks good. We also wore the woodland camo version for turkey season and loved it. This is the best upland hunting shirt we’ve come across.
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UNDER ARMOUR CH1 GTX HUNTING BOOTS - $300 (UNDERARMOUR.COM)
Under Armour realizes that while hunters don’t play a big four sport, they are still athletes. They recruited Cameron Hanes to help design their CH1 GTX boots. Well designed and mindful of fit and pressure points, these boots feel like athletic shoes with the stability of hunting boots—perfect for fast paced hunting. Traditional laces have been replaced by the locking BOA system which is a small network of fine cables that tighten in two places for a perfect fit. The mid-foot control provides additional fit and comfort by allowing for quick adjustments during steep mountain ascents. The Vibram soles are sturdy and grip well in a variety of environments. The Under Armour team definitely put some thought into these backcountry boots.
TOM BECKBE TENSAW ES COAT - $495 (TOMBECKBE.COM)
The “ES” in Tom Beckbe’s Tensaw ES coat stands for “early season” and is a lighter version of their popular Tensaw jacket. We wore this jacket throughout hunting season and found it to be durable and highly versatile. The cut of the coat allows a full range of motion, and the ample amount of thoughtfully placed pockets hold everything from loose shotgun shells to your wallet and phone. We also liked that it looks as good around town as it does in the field— no need to pack multiple jackets. Beautifully tailored, the perfect weight, and built to last, the Tensaw ES is a testament to Americanmade craftsmanship.
FIDO PRO AIRLIFT EMERGENCY DOG SLING - $75 (FIDOPROTECTION.COM)
Would you carry another 8-ounces in your bird vest to save your dog’s life? The Fido Pro Airlift is a lightweight packable harness that fits into a small stuff sack. In an emergency, the harness folds out to secure a 35-to-100-pound dog, and shoulder straps along with a chest clip allow you to carry a dog hands-free. We brought the Airlift on hunts across multiple states and enjoyed the peace of mind knowing it was there. Thankfully, we never had to use it, but we tested it at home and found it quick and simple to use.
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strung magazine
UPLAND
GARMIN ALPHA 200I - $749.99 (GARMIN.COM)
Getting your dog out of the field in an emergency is one thing— getting yourself out is another. The Garmin Alpha 200i is a dog tracking handheld that doubles as a backup plan if something goes wrong in the field. Two-way SMS messaging, as well as an emergency SOS trigger that operates on a global satellite service, means you can call for help whether your truck breaks down out of cell service or you break your leg 10 miles from the trailhead. Throw in mapping software that includes public land boundaries, topographic maps, satellite imagery, and hunt metrics, and the 200i is a solid choice for anyone who spends time in the outdoors. Pair the handheld with Garmin’s TT 15 collar and you have the ability to track multiple dogs as well as stimulation, tone, and vibration controls with intuitive quick keys.
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EUKANUBA ACTIVTRAINERS - $6.99 (EUKANUBASPORTINGDOG.COM)
Whether you are clicker training your dog or just want to give them a treat, Eukanuba ActivTrainers are an excellent choice. Why ruin your performance dog’s diet by giving them junk food treats? At less than 2 kcal per treat, ActivTrainers won’t cause weight gain and are formulated with high-quality animal protein like salmon and chicken to support lean muscles and a healthy coat. ActivTrainers also contain DHA for healthy brain function. The Strung dog team loves them (two English setters, two English pointers, two Labrador retrievers, and a golden doodle) and we like that the resealable top keeps the treats fresh.
RUFF LAND KENNELS - $147-$340 (RUFFLANDKENNELS.COM)
Our editors are fortunate to hunt with some of the top dog trainers in the country. We noticed they almost all use Ruff Land Kennels so we decided to try them out ourselves. After a year of use we like that they are lightweight, yet tough and stackable. They are also well ventilated with tapered walls so even when the kennel is against a wall there is still air circulation. The floor of the kennel is slightly raised so that hair, dirt, and liquids fall to the side and collect in a recessed groove. This makes them easy to clean. We like that the ambidextrous doors that swing either way. With a variety of sizes there is a kennel for every vehicle and situation. We’ve also enjoyed the top tray add on that stacks above the kennel and holds collars, shotgun shells, and our hunting vests as we drive from spot to spot.
FIRST LITE SAWBUCK BRUSH PANTS - $150 (FIRSTLITE.COM)
In the past we have had to pick between comfort and durability in our upland hunting pants. Pants that are tough are usually stiff and hot while pants we actually enjoy wearing get shredded by brush and briars. First Lite, a company who has made their name in the big game hunting arena, has come up with a brush pant that combines the best of both worlds. Their Sawbuck Brush Pants combine a 4-way stretch nylon with double-reinforced brush panels on the legs. They are durable, comfortable, and don’t have you sweating after the first mile. These feel like the comfortable lightweight pants we enjoy while fishing, but are hardwearing like a pair or chaps.
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RATIONS & INTOXICANTS By Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley
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My first hunt, 10 seasons ago, was a
a recipe—unfortunately, there wouldn’t be
compared to my first dove hunt a decade
dove hunt. On the invitation of my
a dove recipe for a long while. Perhaps it
ago. And best of all, I now had enough doves
then-boyfriend, now-husband’s friends,
was lack of opportunity—but more likely
in the freezer for several recipes, one of
we tagged along to hunt on an Indian
embarrassment—that prevented me from
which I’m offering here.
reservation in Arizona somewhere on the
pursuing doves again for several years, at
Colorado River. It was September, and
least not seriously.
As we enter another hunting season, the September dove opener is a reminder to aim
daytime temperatures hit 114 degrees that weekend—a heat so dry that it made our
Then finally, during the summer of 2019, I
small to miss small. For the meat hunter, it
lungs feel like brown paper sacks.
decided to pull my head out of the sand. I
also means you get to eat more.
was going to become a better wingshooter. For a first-time hunter, doves are a tough
I connected with a local shooting instructor,
initiation. Although the dove symbolizes
and once a week during the summers of
peace, don’t mistake that for frailty. These
2019 and 2020 I was out on the range
fast-flying birds can change direction on a
familiarizing myself with my 20-gauge
dime, seemingly possessing a Matrix-like
over/under.
Servings: 4 appetizers
Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes Ingredients:
- 16 whole plucked doves
ability to dodge shot. And just when you think you’ve hit one, it keeps on sailing.
DOVE AND SHOESTRING FRIES
I still suck, but I’m glad to suck a little less.
- 1 cup of milk
And my time in the field has become so
- Sea salt, to taste
I’m still not sure if I actually hit the dove
much more enjoyable and rewarding. All that
- 2/3 cup of cornmeal, plus extra
that Rick let me claim on that hunt. What
practice culminated in an early-September
- 1 tablespoon of paprika, to taste
I do know for sure is that I burned more
dove hunt in the Nebraska Sandhills with
- Mild curry powder, to taste
shells than the number of birds I could share
new friends. I didn’t shoot my limit, but I
- 5 large russet potatoes
with my party for the grill that night. And
came as close as I could, and I was happy
- Frying oil (peanut, canola, corn, etc.)
I certainly didn’t take home any meat for
with it. The difference was night and day
- Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, to taste
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1. Peel potatoes and slice thinly with a
mandoline, about 1/4 to 1/3-inch thick. Then cut slices into matchsticks. Rinse potato sticks and then submerge in a bowl of ice water for one hour. Next, drain potatoes and spread them onto a large cookie sheet lined with paper towels. Dab the top side dry with paper towels. Potatoes must be dry before frying, which will prevent splattering and allow them to crisp.
2. Turn oven to warm setting. In a
saucepan or fryer, heat oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, rinse doves in cold water and allow to sit in milk and set aside.
3. When the oil comes to temperature, cook potatoes in batches until golden and crispy. Drain and immediately toss with seasoned salt. Keep shoestring fries warm in the oven as you fry the remaining potatoes. Always allow oil to return to 350 degrees before adding a new batch of raw potato. Remove oil from heat while you prepare the doves for frying.
4. Combine cornmeal and paprika. Remove doves from milk and do not pat dry. Season doves with sea salt—including inside the cavity—and coat with cornmeal mixture; the milk helps the cornmeal adhere to the birds, so rewet birds if the cornmeal isn’t sticking.
5. Return oil to 350 degrees and fry doves in batches for four to five minutes, or
until cornmeal coating becomes golden and crispy all over, flipping doves halfway through. Carefully remove doves from oil and immediately dust with curry powder while still hot and wet from the oil. Serve immediately with shoestring fries and desired condiments.
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SALTED CARAMEL APPLE CIDER Ingredients:
- 2 ounces Smirnoff Kissed Caramel Vodka, or to taste - Apple cider - 1 wedge of lemon or lime - Kosher salt - Ice - Whipped cream - Hershey’s caramel syrup - Diced fresh apple, for garnish (optional) Moisten the rim of a pint-size Mason jar with a lemon or lime wedge, and then salt the rim. Fill the jar three-quarters of the way with ice. Add caramel-flavored vodka and fill the rest of the way with apple cider. Add whipped cream on top and drizzle with caramel syrup. Garnish with pieces of apple on a toothpick (optional).
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OCEANS APART by Callum Macgregor Photos by Sammy Chang
74
Perhaps no other subject in the retriever
dog, a natural marker,” says Criscoe of the
Frankly, I am not here to argue for one over
world provokes as much controversy as the
differences between the breeds, “because
the other. Anyone who has had the privilege
American-versus-British-Labrador debate.
marking often wins the day in an American
of owning a dog capable of winning a field
Proponents of American Labs say they are
field trial. American dogs also tend to be
trial in either country knows such animals
fire-breathing athletes capable of holding a
leggy to cover the long distances in American
are to be treasured as much for their
line over land and sea at hundreds of yards,
trials, and they have to be able to handle
courage and honesty as for their rarity.
while fans of their British counterparts
the pressure of training, which in turn can
Instead of debating the relative merits
proclaim that British Labs are easy-to-train,
create a dog too hot for the average hunter.
of either line of Labradors, exploring the
even-tempered, game-finding machines.
With British Labradors, even field trial ones,
reasons why American Labs and British Labs
Jeremy Criscoe, Director of Training at Blue
the priority is still the hunt and the natural
have developed in different ways yields a
Cypress Kennels, is one of the very few
ability of the dog. The UK lines tend to be
deeper understanding of the true nature
trainers in the world to have competed at
nose-strong because the game finder often
of both. More than any other single factor,
a high level in both the United States and
wins their trials. The dogs tend to be smaller,
the divergence in field trial competitions
Britain. “Americans need a sight-driven
quieter, and easier to handle.”
on both sides of the Atlantic over the past
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80 years has resulted in Labradors bred
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
began importing Labradors and recruiting
with different working priorities. The skills
At their inception, field trials in the United
British gamekeeper/trainers to work on their
required to win a field trial influence the
States and the United Kingdom were very
own properties. On December 21, 1931, the
training for those field trials, which in turn
similar and involved the same lines of
first retriever field trial in the United States
informs the type of dog that excels at that
dogs. The first retriever field trial in the
was held at the 8,000-acre Glenmere Court
work. Those same select dogs win the field
United Kingdom took place in 1899 and,
estate of Robert Goelet in Chester, New
trials and subsequently are in high demand
not surprisingly, by 1911 Labradors were
York. Although the event is considered to
for breeding the next generation of field
dominating the British competitions.
be the first American retriever field trial, all
trial competitors, thereby completing
Those early British field trials were held
accounts of the competition reflect that it
the cycle. American field trials are very
on an actual day’s shoot, and the best gun
was held under British rules. The Labradors
different competitions from their British
dog was judged to be the winner. Wealthy
running in this inaugural event were either
counterparts, so should we be surprised that
Americans—mainly from the Northeast—
direct imports from Britain or offspring of
breeders for each have focused on different
who travelled to the United Kingdom to
those direct imports.
qualities in their dogs?
attend lavish shoots on British estates
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The exclusive nature of those early
Competitive American dogs are expected to
American field trials, held on expansive
display tremendous discipline in maintaining
private estates with imported gamekeepers
whatever line the handler indicates—
handling imported dogs for wealthy clients,
regardless of factors like wind, cover, or
meant they were destined for failure
slope of the ground—and carry that line
considering the exploding popularity of
out over long distances. On blind retrieves
retriever breeds, access to hunting on
in particular, the handler’s control of the
public land, and our persistently American
dog is paramount. The dog is expected to
belief in egalitarian competition. Before
“challenge the blind” by maintaining a tight
long, the American approach to field trials
line all the way to the bird—the location of
moved away from an exclusive estate
which is indicated by a visual marker like a
shoot to a series of tests open to all in
stake or survey tape—even if that means
which every dog running was judged on the
making a long swim when a nearby bank
same set of retrieves. Over time, as the
would be faster and easier.
number of competitors increased and the sophistication of the training advanced, the
Meanwhile, field trials in the United
tests became increasingly more technical
Kingdom have remained remarkably
and difficult until they no longer reflected
unchanged from those held decades before.
actual hunting scenarios. As the American
The United Kingdom Kennel Club’s infamous
Kennel Club’s own History of Retriever Trials
J Regulations, which govern field trials,
notes, “Today’s trials for retrievers, in spite
state, “A field trial should be run as nearly
of the dictates of the AKC rules, no longer
as possible to an ordinary day’s shooting
represent practical hunting situations.”
[…] The task of the judges is to find the
(Note that as a reaction to the move away
dog which, on the day, pleases them most
from hunting scenarios, disgruntled American
by the quality of its work from the shooting
retriever handlers developed hunt tests as a
point of view. They must, therefore, take
way to retain elements of actual hunts. The
natural game-finding to be of the first
first AKC hunt test was run in 1984.)
importance in field trials.” Interestingly, the regulations also specifically direct the
The American move to more difficult,
field trial judges to take into consideration
technical trials makes sense if the goal is
the award-winners’ impact on future
to run a large number of dogs on the same
generations: “[F]inal placings may influence
series of tests. Imagine 80 or so highly
breeding plans and so determine the course
trained retrievers competing in a field trial
of breeding development.”
in which they are required to pick up a single thrown mark at 100 yards. Every dog would
The British competitions are still, for the
make short work of the retrieve, leaving
most part, held on large, private estates
no significant separation between any one
with a limited field (24 dogs for an
dog and the rest of the field. Take those
open level, two-day trial); amateurs and
same 80 dogs and run them on four to six
professionals compete against one another
retrieves at a time over combinations of
on a traditional day’s shooting. Any legal
land and water at distances of upwards of
game that is shot during the competition,
400 yards. Then throw in distractions like
whether pheasant, duck, woodcock, or
“poison birds” and gunners in white coats,
rabbit, is expected to be retrieved as
some of whom stay in the field and some
directed by the judges. The goal is to get
of whom disappear back into holding blinds.
the dog to the area of the fall, make short
Narrow the angles between the birds to
work of the hunt, and gently retrieve the
a small wedge, and run series after series
game back to hand as quickly as possible.
until you winnow the field down to the best
In keeping with the formality of British
dog. That is the evolution of the modern
shooting, proper etiquette is mandatory.
American retriever field trial.
Any noise, poor heel work, or breaking or hard mouthing of the game by the dog results in an automatic disqualification.
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That all sounds simple enough, but consider
to pressure and to controlling the dog at
yards before making the retrieve. There is
a driven shoot: Dozens of pheasants fall
vast distances. Conversely, almost none
no corollary command to the hunt whistle
around dogs that must remain calm and
of the top British trainers use e-collars in
in the American field trial world, in which
quiet—dogs that are expected by judges
their training. In fact, e-collars are illegal
the birds are located at predetermined
to ignore the dead birds in plain view and
in parts of the United Kingdom and are on
positions, and the dog is expected to work
instead find a runner that has disappeared
the chopping block in the remaining parts
under control of the handler at all times.
into the woods 200 yards away. On a walk up
of the country. In other words, e-collars
shoot, the dog is asked to ignore the healthy
are either an essential tool in training your
For more than eight decades, retriever
birds flushing around him and distinguish,
field trial dog to the highest level, or they
training and field trials in the United
at a full sprint through cover crops, the one
are completely unnecessary, depending on
States and the United Kingdom have
shot bird in the area.
where the trainer is competing.
taken different paths from their oncecommon beginnings. Over that time,
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A WORD ON TRAINING
The second significant indicator of the
breeding objectives have tilted toward the
The differences in field trials in the United
differences between British and American
characteristics of the champion dogs of
States and the United Kingdom have also
training methods is the use of the hunt
their respective countries. It should not be
resulted in significantly different approaches
whistle command. The hunt whistle
surprising that, over many generations,
to training for the respective competitions.
command essentially tells the dog that
different breeding and training priorities
In fact, books could be written on the gulf
he is in the right area and should start
would produce dogs with different
between the different training styles today.
a thorough hunt of that location to
temperaments, abilities, and even
However, two key distinctions may be useful
recover the bird. It is as commonplace at
physical characteristics.
in illustrating the basic philosophical divide
a British field trial as a stop whistle or
between trainers in each country: e-collars
back command. In essence, the handler
When choosing a dog for your own family, it
and the hunt whistle command.
who uses the hunt whistle command is
is important to recognize these differences
The use of electric collars (also known as
turning things over to the dog to use its
to find the appropriate match for your own
e-collars or shock collars) is ubiquitous
natural ability to locate the game, which
objectives and situation. The pedigree of
among American field trial trainers. If
may have run from the place where it
your prospective pup will contain valuable
anyone in the United States has trained a
originally went down. David Latham, four-
clues about what traits and temperament
field trial champion retriever without the
time winner of the International Gundog
you may expect from a full-grown dog.
use of an e-collar in recent memory, it is
League Championship (essentially the
Use those clues wisely. Unlike most other
the most well-guarded secret in the gun
British national championship), famously
investments your family might make, in
dog world. American professionals consider
recounts putting his hands in his pockets
this case past performance is very likely to
these electronic training devices essential
and watching silently as his dog Beiley
indicate future results.
to instilling the appropriate responses
trailed a wounded bird for several hundred
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Not Just a Dog, A Hunting Companion.
HUNTERS THAT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE CALL BORN TO RUN KENNELS. PUPS & PROPERLY STARTED DOGS DEVELOPED ON WILD BIRDS MONTANA | IDAHO | SOUTH TEXAS www.BORNTORUNKENNELS.com STRUNG MAGAZINE
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by Matt Wemple
Sipping coffee in the mildly cool air, the sound of a rooster pheasant echoed among the Russian olive shelterbelts.
Fall is a coveted time—more so with each
seems criminal. Even the pessimist in us
Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. This is the
passing year. Its warm, gentle, angular
seeks what is good about life this time of
middle of the prairie pothole region which
light soothes in ways we can’t fully know
year and soaks up every drop.
produces much of the continent’s waterfowl.
but feel. As each day wanes shorter, the
In addition to being prime waterfowl
feeling of time slipping away is ever present,
Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge sits
habitat, this is also the beginning of the
intimating glimpses of your own autumn.
in the far northeastern corner of Montana.
pheasant breadbasket that stretches into
You realize there might be more time behind
North Dakota is minutes away. Not far across
the Dakotas. While waterfowl and pheasants
you than in front of you. Wasting a moment
the state line lies the confluence of the
are abundant, people are scarce.
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Medicine Lake had been on my to-do list for
those mallards in the prairie sunlight struck
driving. Roxy and I settled in for a few hours
a long time, but it isn’t a place you go on a
a deep chord. In less than 10 minutes I had
of sleep.
whim. I put it on the backburner for years,
talked to my wife, emailed my vacation
despite the fact that my friend Wade invited
request, and let Wade know I was in.
me each year. I always came up with an excuse, knowing that by the time I got home
here—a long line of light infinitely spanning Mentally, I was already there.
an additional thousand miles would be on the odometer—all without leaving the state.
You can see dawn coming for miles out the horizon that is visible more than an hour before sunrise. Spirits were high as we
Two days later Roxy and I were in the truck
stood around the trucks at the ranch sign-in
heading east. Leaving straight from work
box. Wade, Jamie, and the rest of the crew
Then finally, a photograph did it. In Missoula
with a vault of music and a thermos of
had hunted this place the last several years.
for work, I was sitting in my hotel room
coffee, we made the 460-mile trek east. We
Sipping coffee in the mildly cool air, the
when a photo came through from Wade. In
pulled into camp a little before midnight.
sound of a rooster pheasant echoed among
the photo, ducks winged their way across
Wade and his friend Jamie were still up and
the Russian olive shelterbelts.
a prairie pond among fall shades of green
came walking out of the horse trailer, which
and tan, bathed in brilliant sunlight. No
doubled as a cook shack. Wade handed me a
Shooting time upon us, we staged at the
mountains nearby—just rolling prairie. The
cold beer. They’d been taking in the prairie
head of our respective shelterbelts. Jamie,
ducks looked like mallards, maybe gadwall. I
night while everyone else had turned in.
his wife Rae Lynn, and I would walk together
thought of Roxy, my Lab, and her gray chin
They gave me the rundown: Wake-up was
with Roxy. Roosters were crowing feet
whiskers. Opening weekend of duck season
at 4:30 a.m. Wade’s dad Larry would have
away as we stepped off. Roxy got birdy
had been less than productive. The sight of
breakfast going. At 5:30 we would roll out
right off the bat, her nose leading her into
to a block management area down the road
the shelterbelt. Wings fluttered among
and lock up the front gate with four trucks.
the Russian olives. Pheasant flushed from
Any hunter in their right mind would keep
multiple directions and shotguns thumped across the prairie. The first two birds in front of me were hens; then a long-tailed rooster flushed. I folded him on the first
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shot. Roxy fetched it up, hard mouthing it a
shelterbelt walking both sides. Some hens
We drove toward Swanson Lake. Pulling up I
bit before bringing him in.
flushed but no roosters. Roxy was starting
could see a few scattered rafts of ducks on
to look a little tuckered, her stamina shorter
the far end of the pond. Just short of the
Shotguns sounded in all directions as birds
with age. I figured it was probably time for
lake I spotted a small boulder with a plaque
took off in disarray and confusion. I bagged
us to head toward the truck. Rae Lynn and I
that read, “Swanson Lake. Dedicated to
a second rooster. The heft in my game vest
were walking opposite sides of an irrigation
the memory of Shannon Swanson, 1963-
felt good. The smarter birds were staying
ditch; as Roxy went down into it, several
2007. Husband, Friend, Naturalist, Wildland
in the shelterbelts and running to the far
roosters got up. Rae Lynn scored a double
Firefighter. We will always remember your
end. Often they will bunch up at the end
and I dropped one on my second shot, the
quick wit, easy smile, contagious laugh,
of the belt and when the hunters arrive
two of us limited out. Jamie, right behind us,
and optimistic outlook on life.” I paused
they flush in mass. At the end of these
couldn’t shoot. It was 8:15 in the morning.
after reading and took in the lake and its
belts was a long irrigation ditch lined with
surroundings while Roxy probed the grass
tall grass and cattails—the final refuge for
The prairie sprawled to the horizon in all
beyond in a zigzag fashion, nose to the wind.
pheasants before they were forced to take
directions. Isolated stands of cottonwood
Clearly Swanson had spent a lot of time
flight. Walking the next shelterbelt over, we
popped gold intermittently, the leaves
here, touched peoples’ hearts, and loved
met up with Jim and Joe back on the road
gently shaking in the breeze that had been
life. The plaque was etched with a hunter
who had the water bowls out to hydrate
picking up since mid-morning. With the
gazing skyward at ducks, shotgun resting
their dogs. Roxy sidled up next to them for
day ahead of us, Roxy and I went scouting
on his right shoulder and a brace of two big
a drink. We talked while the dogs drank
for ducks. Nearing the refuge, I could see
ducks in his left hand. This place was special
their fill, their noses overwhelmed with the
faint slivers of blue cutting open the tan
to Swanson. I can relate. Most times the
number of birds present.
prairie. Bulrush and cattail lined the edge of
good medicine we need doesn’t come from a
Medicine Lake. I picked up a map from the
pharmacy.
Roxy, head up now, lifted her nose toward
kiosk. The place is big; scouting it effectively
a clump of grass maybe 20 yards away. She
requires a vehicle and binoculars. An initial
Back in camp the mood was light as we
moseyed casually over to it. Poking her head
inspection of the water didn’t turn up large
kicked back while Nicki walked around
in the grass a rooster flushed a foot from
numbers of ducks. Not far in, I crossed paths
offering up barbequed pheasant morsels
her head. We headed back to the nearest
with the refuge warden. He confirmed what
bathed in a tangy mustard sauce. Meanwhile
I saw: the ducks just weren’t here yet.
Larry was in the horse trailer grilling up New York strips to order. Nothing too good
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for this bird camp. While everyone else was
Backs to the sun, we pitched out a hasty
could have meant a couple of things: I’ll
talking of pheasant, Jamie and I were quietly
spread and hunkered into the cattails.
never let that dog loose again, or I’ll never
having a conversation about duck hunting
see another drake canvasback that close.
prospects for tomorrow. I had soaked up
Soon there were blue-winged teal zipping by,
every ounce of this day, but thoughts of
which we missed, unable to connect in the
We picked up our decoys as the sun winked
Medicine Lake’s shoreline and the possibility
gale. Then a moment came—one of those
good day below the western horizon. The
of arriving ducks kept intruding on the
moments that only lasts a few seconds but
sandhills’ staccato continued to echo at
present moment. We agreed that Swanson
is what you’ve come for. In these moments
dusk. Walking away, all I could think about
Lake was our best option.
you have to do everything right. It is the
was the canvasback and the scene that
Dusk came on, the prairie sun well below the
culminating event of a trip—though you
surrounded us. Some hunts just whet the
western horizon. Our focus shifted north. As
never know it in the moment.
appetite for more. This was one of them.
dark settled in, an aurora appeared where
Driving back to camp Jamie talked of a
the prairie met the sky. With a fresh belt
Jamie and I were hunkered down from the
November trip. He said that was when it
of single malt in my tin cup, I stared at the
wind. The evening sun was sitting low and
could really be good.
undulating light show and stroked Roxy’s
casting a brilliant light
head. A moment of silence overtook the
across the water.
The next morning I snuck out of camp
camp as this miracle of nature performed.
To the southeast
before dawn, alone, back to Swanson Lake.
Among all the blessings we had this day,
the crescendo
Just me and Roxy. We set up on the opposite
what could be a better end?
of thousands
shoreline. The wind had gone. I managed
of sandhill cranes’ Of course, I’d looked at the wrong sunrise/
primordial staccato
sunset table. Naturally worn out—and with
echoed eerily across the
a couple of glasses of Glenfiddich—I checked
land. They slowly winged
the time zone covering my home range. Luckily it all worked out. Setting up a little after shooting time, nobody seemed upset that we’d started off late. It had been a later night for some than for others so we pitched decoys in
across the sky, staging for their
broad daylight.
migration south.
Dark clouds soon hung over us; rain and high
As if the sandhills weren’t enough, a lone
mallard. By
winds were forecast after mid-morning. The
drake canvasback came buzzing along a
the time we
birds we saw were well out of range on the
couple of feet off the water. His burgundy
were picking up, the prairie was
opposite shoreline. The rest were rafted up
shaded head, black breast collar, white body,
bathed in a gentle October glow.
in a far corner. A single flew by, and I took
and gray-tipped wings couldn’t have looked
Back on the tailgate, shimmying
the only shot, missing well behind it.
more brilliant in the setting sun. He was
out of my waders, I took a good
everything you’d look for in a wall specimen,
look around.
to score on a gadwall and a
As pheasants began crowing in the cattails
and he was the first one I’d ever seen up
it didn’t take much convincing for the crew
close—maybe even too close to shoot. I
to switch from ducks to pheasants. I was
raised my shotgun at a range I couldn’t miss.
content to sit in the blind a bit longer with
At that moment Roxy was up and running
Sometimes you just throw caution
Roxy and take in the expanse of prairie
smack dab between me in the bird. I couldn’t
to the wind and dive in. Two years
surrounding the lake. Hunting in solitude
shoot for fear of hitting her. I lowered my
later a rooster pheasant’s crow
seemed more appropriate anyway. We sat
gun, cursing beneath my breath.
couldn’t be heard within a hundred
watching the empty sky.
Jamie and I watched the lone drake, in
miles. Hard winters the likes of which
all his fall splendor, sail out over the lake
we hadn’t seen for 20 years decimated the
Later in the day Jamie and I loaded up for
and disappear into the creeping dusk. He
population. In that same time, I had lost
the evening duck hunt. The skies were
might as well have been a bighorn ram
Roxy. If you wait for things to be perfect,
clearing to the west as the wind buffeted
disappearing over the ridgeline. I wanted
you’ll never get anything done that’s worth
the prairie. Arriving at the lake we settled
him badly.
doing. The trip was one of the best moves
on a narrow channel that flowed between
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Timing is everything in life.
I’ve made—and it made me wish I had done
Swanson and Medicine Lakes. Here we had
Jamie looked over at me with a slight grin.
tall grass for cover as well as a windbreak.
“You’ll never have that happen again!” He
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so more often.
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by Ryan Sparks
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In 1991, the federal government banned lead shot for waterfowl hunting. Initially the ban motivated a transition from lead to steel shot, and steel remained the only option for waterfowl hunters for many years. Though steel shot is certainly less harmful to the environment than lead, its effectiveness is far from perfect. While steel is harder than lead, it is also less dense (around 8 grams per cubic centimeter versus lead’s 11 g/cc), which means less kinetic energy downrange. Simply put, hunters who had grown up shooting lead quickly noticed that steel didn’t kill as effectively, and they complained of wounding and losing more birds than in the days of lead. The inadequacy of steel shot led hobbyist loaders to experiment with materials like bismuth, nickel, iron alloy, and eventually tungsten. Materials like bismuth and nickel were slight improvements over steel, but it was tungsten that changed the game when it comes to how we think about shotgun ballistics. Having a density of 19.3 g/ cc (nearly 70 percent denser than lead), tungsten is a great option for hunting ammunition. However, tungsten was a thorn in the side of metallurgists for hundreds of years after its discovery. With a tensile strength of 1,510 megapascals, tungsten is the strongest naturally occurring metal on Earth. This strength, along with its brittleness and an extremely high melting point (over 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit), makes tungsten very difficult to work with. Ammo manufacturers experimented with different alloys until they came across what we now refer to as Tungsten Super Shot (TSS), a composition of 95 percent tungsten and 5 percent nickel and iron powder. TSS isn’t just an alternative to other nontoxic shot materials, it’s a vast improvement over anything that’s ever existed.
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TSS IS UNDENIABLY BETTER THAN LEAD IN ITS EFFECTIVENESS, BUT IT IS ALSO BETTER FOR THE PLACES WHERE WE HUNT AND FISH.
One company that has been leading the
The higher density of TSS means it can
“is that my sons can shoot them and be as
tungsten revolution is Mississippi-based
deliver killing blows at longer distances.
effective at 40 and 50 yards as a guy with a
Apex Ammunition. Founded, owned, and
Moreover, smaller pellet sizes mean better
12-gauge shooting steel.”
operated by three friends and military
penetration and more lethal shots. Smaller
veterans, Nick Charney, Jared Lewis, and
pellets are also less affected by wind
“The number of kids who have shot their
Jason Lonsberry, Apex hand-loads a variety
because of their smaller surface area—which
first bird with our .410 loads is incredible,”
of TSS shells for everything from turkeys to
leads to greater accuracy, especially at
adds Charney. “It’s great to introduce
waterfowl to predator hunting.
longer distances. Perhaps more important,
someone to hunting because of the lower
smaller, denser pellets slow less quickly, and
recoil, and it has also allowed children,
“There are a ton of advantages to TSS,” says
thus maintain speed and energy for a longer
the elderly, and people with disabilities to
Lewis. “First, being 60 percent denser than
distance. “[TSS] doesn’t hit and smush like
drop to sub-gauges and have that hunting
lead and over twice the density of steel (18.5
lead,” says Lewis. “It hits and drives through
experience, but still do it responsibly.”
g/cc), hunters can get more kinetic energy
the target. It’s like the difference between
out of a smaller shot size. Second, with the
throwing a ping pong ball and a marble.”
drop in shot size more pellets can fit into a single shell.”
Realizing the effectiveness of TSS, many states are changing their regulations to allow
Then there is what might be the greatest
turkey hunting with smaller bore shotguns
advantage of TSS: the opportunity to drop
like a .410 as well as allowing smaller shot
For example, a single No. 9 pellet of TSS has
the payload weight, enjoy the corresponding
sizes to be used. TSS also means you can
a similar mass to a No. 5 lead pellet—and
drop in recoil, and still retain the ability to
get away with carrying a lighter gun like a
because No. 9 pellets are much smaller, you
drop birds at long distances. A hunter can
28-gauge for pheasants and still be effective
can stuff a lot more pellets into a shotgun
now carry a sub-gauge shotgun and enjoy
at traditional 12-gauge ranges.
shell. Imagine a traditional 2 ¾-inch shell of
the effectiveness of a larger load without
No. 5 lead pellets with over twice as many
the punishing recoil.
pellets inside, and you start to understand
Because of its high cost, TSS has traditionally been associated with turkey
the extreme effectiveness of TSS. Still, the
“What I love about our shells, and
hunting, in which outside of patterning a
advantages go on.
specifically our .410 shells,” says Lonsberry,
shotgun, a hunter might only need a few
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shots per season. Apex, however, is quickly
many people are going to be shooting TSS at
expanding TSS outside of turkey hunting. In
the sporting clays course or the dove field.
many states, the limit for upland birds like
Still, when you take all the costs of a hunt
grouse and pheasants is two per day—hardly
into consideration, ammo is probably one of
high-volume shooting. “Hunting pheasants
the cheapest components.
with TSS makes perfect sense,” says Lewis. “If you are putting on some miles, you
“You might spend more per shell, but
want to make the shots you get count.”
you aren’t shooting as many shells,” says
Moreover, many states are making nontoxic
Charney. “You are killing birds on impact
shot mandatory on public lands. Choosing
instead of having to take follow-up shots.”
to shoot TSS means you don’t have to worry about matching your shot material to where
Apex also offers shells through their custom
you are hunting.
shop, so you can have a TSS load made to your exact specifications. Even better, every
Apex also has a line of shells designed for
shell is handmade and goes through a level
waterfowl hunting that blends TSS with
of quality control not found elsewhere.
their plated S3 steel shot. These shells give you the benefit of TSS but are more
“It’s a hands-on process with everything we
affordable for days when you need more
do,” says Lewis. “By the time a shell gets
than just a handful of shells. TSS especially
boxed, it has been touched seven times.
shines for waterfowl hunting because of its
We want everything to be consistent.
consistent patterning. Unlike lead, which is
Every Apex shell is plus or minus one pellet
quite soft, TSS shot doesn’t deform when
because we measure based on weight, not
it collides with other pellets in the shot
volume. Every box is hand-signed and dated
column. This deformation is what causes
by the builder to ensure quality. It’s hard to
fliers, holes in patterns, and fewer pellets on
understand how well it works until you see it
target. In ballistics tests TSS consistently
for yourself.”
offers full and predictable patterns out to 60 and even 70 yards.
TSS is undeniably better than lead in its effectiveness, but it is also better for the
“As long as you have patterned your gun
places where we hunt and fish. As hunters
with the choke you intend to hunt with and
and anglers, we care about clean water and
know the load you are shooting,” says Lewis,
healthy ecosystems. Switching to nontoxic
“the days of shooting 3 ½-inch BB steel
TSS is a no-brainer. When you combine the
loads for ducks and geese are over.”
level of detail Apex brings to shotgun shells with the undeniable effectiveness of TSS,
Of course, how much you are willing to
you have the greatest advance in shotshell
spend on shotgun shells depends on your
performance in recent history.
budget and how much shooting you do. Not
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A Wolf at the Door 92
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Imagining a Future for America’s Top Predator by Reed Knappe
In all the animal kingdom, no species is
estimated 6,000 gray wolves. Likewise in
more contradictory than the gray wolf
the Northern Rocky Mountains (Montana,
(Canis lupus): divisive and celebrated, iconic
Idaho, and Wyoming), where reintroduced
but despised, persecuted yet undisputed
wolves have thrived beyond expectations,
sovereign over remote parts of the earth.
the animals have been delisted and hunted
No animals have caused more blood and
intensively since 2011. Love it or hate it,
ink to be spilled than wolves, where merely
the process of prying wolves away from
writing about them is an invitation to
Endangered Species protections has been
calumny. And nowhere on earth is the
underway for decades, without seeming to
animal’s status—its very existence—more
reverse a steady growth in wolf numbers.
charged than in the United States, where
In immediate terms, delisting alters only
the wolf issue melds animosities born on the
the status of wolves in their most populous
historical frontier with the cynical polarities
stronghold: the Western Great Lakes
of contemporary politics. In November 2020,
region (northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and
spurred on by an eleventh-hour nudge from
Michigan), where modest hunting seasons
the Trump Administration, the U.S. Fish and
are now in the offing and where some three-
Wildlife Service (USFWS) officially removed
quarters of (non-Alaskan) American wolves
wolves from the Endangered Species List.
reside.
1
A culmination of decades of debate, the delisting drew fierce criticism from scientists
If, for the sake of argument, we set aside
and environmentalists, and it is quickly
the wolf’s mystique and charisma (features
transforming how wolf populations are
not universally recognized anyway), there
managed. The termination of protections
is a certain cold logic to arguments for
marks a unique inflection point in the wolf’s
delisting. The original conservation goals,
history: a moment for asking hard questions
dreamt up haphazardly in the early days
about the human-wolf relationship and for
of the Endangered Species Act (ESA, 1973),
revisiting old dilemmas.
have been met and exceeded. Wolves have done better than anyone expected, both by
Viewed from a certain distance, the change
recolonizing habitat from the Canadian side
in legal status doesn’t change much:
of the border and in a handful of successful
Wolf hunting has continued unabated
reintroductions. Supporters of delisting
for decades in Alaska and Canada, whose
point out that turning responsibility over to
respective populations of 11,000 and 50,000
individual states will free up federal funding
to 60,000 animals dwarf the lower 48’s
for more seriously threatened organisms.
The Eastern red wolf and the Mexican wolf subspecies are exceptions, still protected in small populations in the Southeast and Southwest, respectively. This article focuses on the more numerous and contentious gray wolf. 1
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Brutal weather, disease, livestock rustling, market fluctuations, and poverty stalked the rancher, and the wolf paid in blood for the rancher’s misery.
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If wolves are no longer dying out, why not
To another, more numerous brand of hunter,
and merciless. The struggle reached its
focus on species facing real extinction—and
steeped in a particular relationship to
apex with the sheep and cattle boom that
let states manage their own wolves? For
the landscape and its animals, the wolf is
remade the intermountain West (roughly
delisting advocates, including many USFWS
something else: a menace to a cherished
1875 to 1895), when bounties were paid on
officials, doing so seems consistent with
way of life. For such men and women,
hundreds of thousands of wolf pelts. Lopez,
both the letter and spirit of the law.
often the descendants of homesteaders,
like many authors, acknowledges that early
the notion of protecting or reintroducing
ranchers had no choice but to kill wolves,
Take a closer look at the wolf, however, and
wolves—undoing the hard bloody work of
but the intensity and cruelty of the killing,
things get more complicated. Questions
past generations—is madness. Their belief
and its continuation for decades and into
multiply, simple answers evaporate, and
that wolves should be confined to a few
regions far beyond the necessities of the
unplanned consequences start to unfold.
wilderness redoubts or wiped out altogether
ranching economy, have puzzled scholars
The ESA, put in place as a legal mechanism
is amazingly tenacious across the American
and naturalists ever since. It is, arguably, the
for stemming the decline of American
West. (Sporting the silhouette of a wolf
only planned extinction on record.
biodiversity, has always been an awkward
framed by crosshairs, a popular bumper
fit for the wolf, a geographically diffuse
sticker in Montana reads, “Smoke a Pack a
In these years of heroic conquest, wolves
top predator that once ruled over much of
Day.”) And the attitude has deep historical
were inscribed in the Western mind as
the continent. Most of the United States
roots.
nemesis: cruel, gluttonous, indolent villains
is former wolf habitat; how much of it can
unworthy of a place in the natural world.
still sustain wolves? How much of it should?
The historical frontier was a place of
They were shot, beaten to death, trapped,
The ESA offers little concrete guidance on
astonishing upheaval, and much of its
poisoned, burned, and tortured in countless
these questions, beyond the vague mission
spectacular violence was waged through
ways, pursued into desolate reaches far
statement of protecting species “in danger
and for control over the environment. The
from humans and livestock. As Lopez and
of extinction throughout all or a significant
destruction of the great buffalo herds
others have recounted, the big predators
portion of its range.” By 1973, after more
is broadly familiar to many Americans,
came to function as a scapegoat for all the
than a century of vigorous extermination,
but the related, century-long campaign
cruel hardships of life on the frontier: Brutal
the wolf was confined to two small,
against the wolf is less well known. Yet it
weather, disease, livestock rustling, market
precarious populations on the Great Lakes—
was every bit as thorough as—and waged
fluctuations, and poverty stalked the
in other words, unambiguously endangered.
far more creatively than—what befell the
rancher, and the wolf paid in blood for the
American Bison. As it happens, states being
rancher’s misery. By the turn of the century,
Today, however, that metapopulation is
recolonized by wolves today once hosted
the animals were all but wiped out in the
stable and growing, and wolves have an
the most sophisticated and successful
heart of the ranching empire, but state
increased presence in the Northern Rockies
predator killing spree in history, sparked
legislators continued doling out exorbitant
and the Pacific Northwest. At the heart
by an ecological collision course between
bounties for a handful of lonely stragglers.
of the matter is the question of where
settlers and wolves. In the classic account
By midcentury, they were gone.
(if anywhere) Americans are willing to let
of human-wolf history, Of Wolves and Men,
wolves expand and multiply—and buried
the late Barry Lopez traces the progress
While hostility to wolves is rooted in
within that, the deeper and still more
of wolf extermination from its earliest
history and geography, handed down
intractable problem of how we understand
colonial roots through to the 1970s. As
across generations of rural families, it is
the animal.
trappers and settlers entered the West,
also colored by present-day politics: Rural
they slaughtered prey animals—buffalo,
communities have weathered the vagaries
A certain kind of hunter won’t linger on
elk, moose, antelope, and deer—by the
of economic globalization and the ebbing of
these questions. To them, the wolf is only an
millions while bringing their own, more
traditional ways of life (chief among them
exotic quarry—something to kill and mount
vulnerable beasts to multiply across the
ranching), and politicians have made good
as a trophy. Methodically gunning down a
emptied land. The inevitable outcome was
business out of harnessing their pain and
pack from a helicopter offers them a kind
a virtual war between wolves and humans.
frustration. For many in the intermountain
of unreflective thrill, not unlike playing out
First glutted on the countless carcasses
West, the hated figures of autocratic feds,
a video game or action movie in real life.
of bison, then increasingly desperate as
tree-hugging coastal elites, and wolves
I invite anyone who finds this caricature
traditional prey disappeared, packs of
form a baleful triumvirate dedicated to the
unfair to spend five minutes Googling
wolves fell upon the settlers’ slow-moving,
destruction of rural liberty and prosperity.
trophy wolf hunts.
guileless livestock. Retribution was swift
An often-theatrical resistance to those
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forces has cultivated a widespread, potent
in significant numbers using traditional
Likewise, claims that Idaho’s elk need
antipathy to wolves over the past 30 years.
hunting methods, so all possible means are
protection from wolves are unsupported by
back on the table: unlimited bags; hunting
basic facts: Idaho’s present population of
from aircraft, snowmobiles, and ATVs;
120,000 elk is significantly higher than it
A turning point in this synthesis arrived with
night vision; poison; baiting; and traps. The
was when the wolves were reintroduced. As
the wolf reintroductions of the mid ‘90s.
frenzy of legal restructuring has extended
conservationists are fond of pointing out,
In 1995 and 1996, the USFWS released two
to adjacent states like Utah and South
all biological evidence suggests that wolves
small populations of Canadian wolves: one
Dakota, where any wolf that strays over the
are good for ecosystems. Detailed studies
in Yellowstone National Park and another
state border may be shot on sight, putting
conducted in Yellowstone over the past 20
in Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return
a significant brake on recolonization of
years have produced overwhelming evidence
Wilderness. The projects were greeted with
further habitat.
that wolf predation culls diseased animals
intense hostility by ranchers across the
from the population (notably, individuals
region, whose fear that the wolves would
Most extreme among the laws passed so far
suffering from Chronic Wasting Disease)
multiply was soon borne out. Protected
is SB 1211, introduced by Idaho Governor
and disperses herds across the landscape
for roughly 15 years in prime habitat, the
Brad Little. The law mandates extermination
in a way that benefits the health of the
reintroduced wolves quickly increased
of 90 percent of Idaho’s 1,500 wolves,
entire ecosystem. By the same token,
their numbers by an order of magnitude,
drawing the population back down to the
wolves almost certainly make elk and
expanding beyond the protected areas
original reintroduction goal of 150 animals.
other ungulates appear more scarce: more
even before 2000. Their legal standing was
Although opposed by the Idaho Fish and
wary, less vocal, less concentrated, and less
ambiguous, however: A 1982 revision to
Game Commission and the USFWS, the
conspicuous along roadways. For hunters
the wolf’s ESA status had categorized any
bill passed the state house in May, with
this can be a real frustration that is easily
reintroduced populations as “experimental
lawmakers citing the urgency of defending
misconstrued as a decline in the target
and nonessential,” paving the way for state
game populations (particularly elk) and
species.
management in the Rockies and ensuring
Idaho’s ranchers from wolf depredations.
that deliberations over ESA delisting
These rationales, although grounded in
considered only the larger, Western Great
While the most dramatic immediate impacts on wolf populations are certain to
Lakes population. While the measure of recovery was thus pinned to the Eastern population, the consequences of last year’s delisting have come down most dramatically in the mountains. The struggle to delist Rocky Mountain wolves got underway around 2000, finally succeeding in 2011 in Montana and Idaho
96
(and a few years later in Wyoming). In the
historical memory, cannot withstand even
meantime, environmental organizations
casual scrutiny. On average, 118 livestock
unfold in the Northern Rockies, the larger,
used the ESA to challenge the delistings,
were killed by Idaho’s wolves each year
foundational population in the Western
and when the region’s wolves were returned
between 2018 and 2020. Compared with the
Great Lakes also faces consequences from
to state management it was agreed that
roughly 40,000 animals claimed annually
delisting. In Wisconsin, the most anti-wolf of
states would abide by relatively restrained
by bad weather and disease, the deaths
the region’s states, this year’s trial hunting
conservation plans—written in collaboration
represent a tiny drop in the state’s 2.8 million
season ended in an uproar symptomatic
with the USFWS—that would preserve wolf
livestock—certainly not enough to justify
of the contradictions at the heart of
numbers roughly at contemporary levels. In
spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer
wolf management. In just three days this
2021, with the wolf now fully delisted, those
dollars on bounties. Moreover, unlike livestock
February, Wisconsin hunters killed some 216
management plans are dead letters, and
killed by other predators or by weather, the
wolves—nearly twice the 119 specified in
Western politicians have already enacted
USFWS compensates ranchers for half of the
the state plan. The federation of 11 Ojibwe
a flurry of legislation to put the wolf back
value of livestock that fall prey to wolves.
tribes, which elected to forgo hunting its
“in its place.” Common features of the new
In a further ironic wrinkle, strong scientific
allotted 81 wolves on behalf of conservation,
laws are expanded (or unlimited) hunting
evidence suggests that killing wolves disrupts
condemned the overkill and criticized the
seasons, liberalization of hunting methods,
the ability of packs to coordinate in taking
decision to open the hunt during breeding
and new versions of the old bounty systems.
natural prey, leading directly to increased
season. The wolves killed represented
It is virtually impossible to eradicate wolves
predation on livestock.
roughly 20 percent of Wisconsin’s total
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population—nearly double the proportion
point—hunters who insist that they value
once encompassed much of the continent,
hunted in Canada or Alaska, and potentially
the existence of the wolf “in its place” and
but many of the wild landscapes that
a high enough rate to drive the population
do not seek its ultimate destruction. Ask
made up that habitat mosaic are gone—
down significantly within a decade, if
any gathering of interested parties to define
bulldozed into fields, highways, suburbs,
continued.
that place, however, and responses quickly
and parklands of all kinds. By and large, the
disintegrate into a babel of contradictory
few big remaining tracts suitable for wolf
In some ways, the explosion of enthusiastic
positions and recrimination. Nobody seems to
recolonization are home to rural communities
wolf killing since November is misleading.
have a clear or practical vision of where the
that are ambivalent about or hostile to the
There are numerous examples of formerly
line might be drawn, and this impasse hints
prospect of sharing fields and valleys with
anti-wolf individuals coming around to more
at intractable tensions at the heart of the
toothy, unpredictable neighbors. Which brings
nuanced positions, and communities where
modern human-wolf relationship.
us to the second, more abstract sense of
antagonism has given way to something
place: What place are we willing to give the
else. In countless local instances, ranchers
The matter of the wolf’s future in the United
wolf in the natural world, and in relation to
and rural folk have been instrumental in
States boils down to questions of place, in
our society?
wolf conservation. And of course there
two distinct but related ways. In the literal
Like humans, wolves are apex predators
are hunters who pursue the animals from
sense, Americans have yet to resolve the
who kill to live, inscribing their supremacy
a more thoughtful, respectful vantage
question of where the wolf belongs. Its range
all the way down the food chain. Though
Detailed studies conducted in Yellowstone over the past 20 years have produced overwhelming evidence that wolf predation culls diseased animals from the population (notably, individuals suffering from Chronic Wasting Disease) and disperses herds across the landscape in a way that benefits the health of the entire ecosystem. STRUNG MAGAZINE
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industrial meat production and tidy
of documents surrounding last year’s
recognizes that we have transformed most
packaging conceal this reality from most
delisting and its consequences, I cannot
of this continent into environments built
consumers, it is something hunters and
escape the impression that recent shifts
around the satisfaction of human needs,
ranchers grasp intuitively. Unlike most
in wolf policy are motivated mainly by
and that having wolves alongside us—free
humans (excepting those who fill their
hatred of the animal—originating in the
roaming, intelligent predators capable of
own freezers or otherwise contribute to
wolf’s challenge to the human prerogative
travelling hundreds of miles and adapting to
maintaining healthy wildlife populations),
of ruling over nature and perpetuated by
diverse habitats—means making coherent
wolves have an inborn capacity to make
profoundly cynical politics. The legislation
decisions about where they live and taking
some ecosystems healthier and wilder. Also
being written in Idaho, Wyoming, and
tough steps to implement those decisions.
unlike humans, wolves cannot adapt the
Montana reflects a desire to destroy
If the ESA was a flawed instrument for
fulfillment of their metabolic needs or place
the animal, or if that proves legally
defining the wolf’s present and future
themselves in a position to accommodate
impracticable, to confine it in populations so
reality, we desperately need some kind
other living beings. They are at once too
small and remote as to be little more than
of wolf-specific replacement: a coherent
near to us and too alien, and the wages of
open-air zoo exhibits. Personally, I would
national policy. This sense of responsibility
this unhappy intimacy are historical cycles
not hunt a wolf, but the issue at stake is
also entails working closely with rural
of cruel violence and burning hatred. The
not wolf hunting per se. The problem is
communities, so that wolf management
wolf’s removal from the Endangered Species
what one might call exterminationism: an
isn’t autocratic or indifferent to local
List seems poised to set in motion another
unquenchable hostility fed by a thousand
concerns. The second kind of supremacy,
round of this dismal cycle.
fears and insults that have little or nothing
which insists man must have perfect,
to do with actual wolves. It is difficult, but
absolute dominion over all the earth—has to
To most hunters, hatred of the quarry
worthwhile, to continue imagining new ways
go. It is out of touch not only with the realities
is an unwelcome and unfamiliar feeling.
of transcending this attitude.
of coexisting with wolves but also with the
The frequent metaphorical slippages
98
larger planetary context, in which balancing
aside, hunting is neither warfare nor
To hammer out a working relationship
human needs with the preservation of natural
extermination. When the killing of animals
with the wolf, Americans may need to
systems is now more difficult than ever.
approaches those extremes, it becomes
simultaneously embrace one kind of human
something else. Having read through reams
supremacy and abdicate another. The first
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Certain consequences of the state
They are at once too near to us and too alien, and the wages of this unhappy intimacy are historical cycles of cruel violence and burning hatred.
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management of wolves may be positive.
of the wolf in the Southern Rockies looks
In such places, ironically some of our wildest
Probably if wolves continue expanding into
promising.
landscapes, we will have decided that there
coastal states where citizens are more
100
is room for only one top predator—and that
sympathetic (or from another standpoint,
Whatever positive outcomes might arise
a place for wolves can exist only when they
naïve), we may see bold experiments in
from returning wolves to the mercies of
have effectively ceased to be wolves. It is a
carving out new-old places for the wolf.
state control, the negative outcomes are
hard-hearted, small-minded way of treating
There is certainly still room in the West. The
more predictable and swifter to arrive.
nature, one that dresses up a loathing of
same month the USFWS delisted the wolf,
Environmental groups have lost their
real wildness in the phony livery of a rugged,
Coloradoans voted by a narrow margin to
major legal recourse, and it is unclear how
nostalgic frontier spirit. Inside today’s
begin reintroducing wolves to the Southern
the wolves in several of the recovered
Western state houses one can see the
Rockies, America’s greatest remaining
populations will survive. In places where
jealous fulfillment of an old, familiar desire
expanse of quality wolf habitat and home
politicized anti-wolf sentiment reigns, packs
to see nature wholly subjugated and the
to the world’s largest elk population. It
will be whittled back down to scattered,
howling wilderness converted to a garden, a
remains to be seen how the tensions
dysfunctional fragments, killing the odd
feedlot, or a zoo.
arising from this decision will be negotiated
lamb or calf but ceasing to contribute to a
(and how they will be influenced by the
larger, national wolf presence that crosses
recent delisting), but for now, the future
borders and exists within larger ecosystems.
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