Successful Hunter Jan-Feb 2019

Who among big-game hunters would pass up an opportunity to shoot the largest-antlered elk or deer that walks freely on public and/or private land unencumbered by high fencing? The answer to that question should be obvious: Nobody. However, in my experience a giant set of antlers (or horns for that matter) is not usually the ultimate goal of most hunters – this in spite of many contrary portrayals seen on television. ...Read More >

Brandon Baudhuin started his elk season on September 1, checking his honey holes that had produced elk in previous years. Hunting in south-central Wyoming, he hoped to arrow an elk. There were several close encounters with the bow, but Brandon didn’t end up with a shot opportunity. ...Read More >

That a hunter can outwit an old buck pronghorn outright on a regular basis is an impractical assumption. With perhaps the exception of sitting in a blind over water during early bow seasons, when midday temperatures can strain the 100-degree mark in some parts of the West, and on the more rare occasion when animals can later be patterned on agriculture such as winter wheat fields, North America’s fastest and most sharp-sighted game animal is no pushover. ...Read More >

Riflemen spend the majority of their range time each year punching paper at the shooting bench. That might not translate to a lot of success in the field when it comes time to put the hammer down on a coyote. A great deal of satisfaction can be had in knowing a favorite fur rifle can put three shots inside an inch at 100 yards, but what these hunters and shooters don’t seem to realize is that it could cost them big if they’re forced to make quick and unexpected shots in the field from positions from which they have never practiced. ...Read More >

A half hour into a whitetail hunt in South Dakota, my young guide nudged my attention from a yonder hillside to the steep draw below our lookout. In it, a buck of some age with a heavy, 8-point rack swaggered down a well-trodden deer trail. I let it walk, in part because of the animal’s modest tine count and the early hour in a multiday hunt in trophy whitetail country. “I don’t know,” the young man mused. “That’s a nice buck.” ...Read More >

Here is a little-known fact: Your boots fit you differently when you are carrying an 80-pound pack than they do when you are walking around the living room. A mountain boot that is firm in the sole, and cradles your foot like a maiden’s hand when you are not burdened by a pack, may squish down and press on your toes with every step when you increase the weight by 60 or 70 pounds. This is no small thing when you are on top of a mountain or facing a five-mile hike across rocky desert with a deer on your back. The time to find out is not when you are on the mountain, but long before you ever get there. ...Read More >

Given their high drama, baseball’s “grand slam” and “triple play” concepts have worked their way into other sporting pursuits. Saltwater fly fishermen in Florida may pursue an “Everglades slam” – catching a tarpon, redfish, snook and seatrout in a single day. Affluent big-game hunters can pursue a “grand slam” of North American sheep, the Dall, Stone, Rocky Mountain bighorn and desert bighorn varieties. Anglers on Wyoming’s Bighorn River near Thermopolis have a “triple play” in the making, the netting of a rainbow, cutthroat and brown trout in a single outing. ...Read More >

My brother-in-law Michael shut off his truck as we sat and waited for daylight at a turn-around on a logging road that had been blocked with a dirt berm. It was Sunday morning, the final day of Washington’s four-day blacktail season in mid-November. I had been invited along for a last chance to fill my deer tag on this annual hunt with Michael and his buddies. Nearly 20 years ago, we were all young and without kids. ...Read More >

Mike Davis, a retired state policeman who lives on the Oregon/Washington border, has become perhaps one of the most successful mountain lion hunters in the West – and he does not hunt with hounds. Over the past decade, Davis has called in and shot more than 20 lions. He will not say exactly how many mountain lions he has shot because “People can go crazy when you put numbers to something,” Davis said, but he hunts each year in both Oregon and Washington, which means he buys three tags each season (two in Oregon, one in Washington). He mostly hunts within 50 miles of his home in Walla Walla, and he hunts as often as possible; that can be seven days a week. ...Read More >

A long white cloud settled on the mountain. It was snowing by nightfall. We were as far from a lonely two-track road and the truck as we had been all day. Pog Cameron, our 24-year-old guide, had his eye to the spotting scope. He had two fallow bucks spotted with a band of does in a small canyon. The closest was the smaller one; the farthest was bigger. I handed the rifle off to Sam Pyke. “There are four rounds in the magazine. Remember to put one in the pipe if you get a shot.” I handed Pyke extra cartridges. ...Read More >

Elk hunting weather in the North Park region of northern Colorado in early October can be like an Indian Summer, or snowy and cold. I found the latter on October 1 when I arrived in camp near Walden. Three to 5 inches of wet snow was on the ground, and it kept snowing. As we got out of the truck the following morning there was 8 to 10 inches of snow, and the temperature was a frosty 5 degrees above zero; more like a late November hunt than a rut hunt. ...Read More >

The two-way T800 radio can be paired via bluetooth with a mobile smartphone app enabling hunters to share and track their locations over radio frequencies for up to 35 miles plus send messages with others in their group while off the cellular grid. This function makes it easy to share current location and send group messages to alert others of a safety concern or potential meet-up spot. Hunters can send messages silently. Additionally, users can set up a designated area and alert others when they are about to leave the area. The radios meet IPX4 weatherproof standards, withstanding splashing water from any direction. In the event of a storm, users can access up to seven weather channels and four VHF channels that receive continuous broadcasts of local and regional weather updates. ...Read More >