Successful Hunter January-February 2018

Having hunted in many parts of the West for all species of native deer, I find it peculiar that pursuing Coues deer (O. v. couesi, or Coues’) is not more popular. This little Southwest whitetail is a very unique and somewhat secretive deer, dainty in appearance, and it can be found in northern Mexico, in roughly two-thirds of Arizona and a portion of western New Mexico. Depending on who is doing the talking, the Carmen Mountain whitetail – named for the Sierra Del Carmen mountains in Coahuila, Mexico – is more or less the same deer as the Coues and can be hunted in parts of West Texas, but since I’m no scientist the “lumpers” and “splitters” can argue over that. ...Read More >

I remember as a kid lining up rows of dominos over and over just to watch them fall in predictable fashion, as each tumbling piece affected the momentum and direction of the next. This domino effect – or chain reaction, I learned later in life – is the cumulative result of one event setting off a succession of other related events. I also learned that similar chain reactions occur in nature, both randomly and by design, and are neither inherently good nor bad – they simply exist. ...Read More >

It is a statement I’ve heard in various forms and numerous settings my entire adult life: “You’re from Montana? You must love the cold.” It is also a severely misguided assumption. For although I do live in the Treasure State and spend many days outdoors in recreational pursuits each fall and winter, I do not like the cold. In fact, on a cold hardiness scale from “cold wimp” to “cold warrior,” I’m decidedly on the wimpy side. But before some reader interprets this condition as a personal deficiency, let me hasten to explain there are several reasons for it over which I have no control. ...Read More >

Being an inveterate coffee drinker – it is my last remaining vice, and I’m not giving it up – I spend an inordinate amount of time before any trip calculating how I’m to get my life-giving dose of the sublime elixir each morning, regardless of circumstances. Normally I start each day by grinding some French roast beans into fine powder, then let my electric drip coffeemaker do the rest. Obviously, this is out of the question in any situation where there is no electricity – as, for example, during a backpack sheep hunt in the Yukon. ...Read More >

In grade school I had a difficult time concentrating on anything except the girls in my homeroom class and my duty to the rest of my Little League team, for which I usually played third base. I let the girls at school know why my elbows were often skinned up on Monday mornings – diving after line drives during weekend games, a few of which were satisfyingly shagged from the air. Admittedly, I was sweet on some of those schoolgirls, but I took baseball very seriously. ...Read More >

Cindi Baudhuin is the first to admit that she is a lucky lady to live in Wyoming. She feels fortunate to live in a state where general season tags are actually a good thing! Cindi also plays the odds, and after putting in for a hard-to-draw deer tag and not being successful, she hunted with a general license. It was opening morning when Cindi caught the first glance of the big mule deer buck. ...Read More >

After days of heavy snowfall, the towering mountains framing the Montana landscape were surreal, like Terry Redlin had painted the landscape with all the details and warmth of the rising sun. The snow on the ground was almost waist deep in spots, leaving small pine trees looking like softly roasted marshmallows. The sky was painted in vibrant pinks and purples that highlighted the puffy snow with soft reflections of the sky. It was hard not to just stand there and stare at the incredible beauty. ...Read More >

Tyler Dennison was going against conventional wisdom. The young hunter didn’t buy into the idea that all the big bucks that wintered on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada migrated back over the crest of the mountains and into Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, living there from late spring through fall, staying where they were protected during the early fall hunting seasons. That is what everyone else believes. ...Read More >

Childhood friends enthusiastically shared their birthday plans with me, having parents who offered parties, picnics and play dates as options for celebrating their arrival on Earth. “What would you like to do on your birthday?” wasn’t a question I recall hearing until adulthood. Born just a few days before Christmas into a family of seven children, to a mother who canned enough fruit and vegetables to feed her entire brood and labored 12 hours or more a day to keep the household ticking, meant the youngest son’s birthday was gratefully rolled into the December holidays. ...Read More >

One early mid-November morning I sat in the front seat of my father’s truck while we drove up a mountain. I was 12 and had a special permit that allowed me to hunt for a mule deer doe in a unit a few miles from our home in northcentral Washington. As we came around the bend in the road I saw a doe up on the hillside as my dad pulled the truck over and set the parking brake. ...Read More >

Trent Swanson Early January in Arizona is usually a perfect time for hunters from the rest of the country to travel south for a warm-weather winter hunt. A few years ago, however, Arizona felt more like the upper Midwest. My friend Matt Sheterom flew out to Arizona from Ohio for some warm weather and archery hunting for javelina and mule deer, but the weather did not cooperate – it was 20 degrees colder in Phoenix than in it was in Columbus, and single digits at my house in northern Arizona. ...Read More >

The new Edge TLR line of rifle ammunition combines the features of good bullet design with bonding technology. The result is match accuracy and reliable expansion at extremely long range, with high weight retention, deep penetration and lethal terminal performance at shorter distances. ...Read More >