Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Outdoor Life

DID YOU KNOW Fift een of the top-20 American elk listed at pope-young.org have been killed since 2000. U nless you somehow missed the 430-inch elk on the cover of this magazine, you’ll have heard there’s a new record-book bull on the block (and on p. 34). Record animals will come and go in the rankings—it’s just a matter of time before one gets unseated from the top spot by another—but the stories of those magnificent animals endure long after their record status fades. Here’s a look at a few of the biggest archery elk that OL has ever covered. THE ELK THAT WAS KING / SEPTEMBER 1977 Although Arizona is widely known today for producing unbelievable bulls, Doug Kittredge of California had to be persuaded to bowhunt elk there…

Nothing Spoils a promising elk stalk like cows staring directly at you. The big bull was about 100 yards away, but happily I couldn’t see any cows or calves, or even foot-stomping mule deer, in the thinly timbered basin. Clear sailing between me and that bull. I glassed him again through my binocular, and as I watched him, a voice in my head grew more and more urgent. “Oh my God, he is massive!” Then, tension tightening with every step he took toward me, I heard my silent voice again, screaming this time. “He is going to walk right down to you! Be patient! Don’t look at his head! Do not call! He’s going to walk right to you! Be patient! Be patient!” I pulled my rangefinder from my pocket…

HIS M.O.: This buck will show up one day on all of your cameras at once. Odds are he’ll be cruising through quickly, following a doe, and you’ll only capture fleeting photos of him. Then he’ll disappear for a day or two, and your buddy a couple farms away will have him on his cameras. PROFILE: Some bucks shift ranges during the fall (we’ll get to that later), but many others go on what wildlife researchers call “excursions.” These are often short (less than 24 hours) walkabouts in which the bucks leave their usual range, likely in search of estrous does. “Two recent studies in which researchers were following collared bucks showed this tendency,” says Brian Murphy, CEO of the Quality Deer Management Association. “A study of 15 collared bucks…

HIS M.O.: You’ll see this buck all the time when he’s two and three years old. By the time he’s fully mature, sightings will be few and far between, and his trail cam photos will all be night shots. He’s still in the area. You just never see him at your regular stand sites. PROFILE: As bucks get older, their home range and core areas (the spots within their home range where they spend at least 50 percent of their time) tend to shrink. A study done by Dr. Mickey Hellickson, the chief wildlife biologist at the King Ranch in Texas, found that the home range of bucks shrunk from 2,278 acres at two and a half years old to 1,055 acres at seven and a half. Also, the bucks’…

IT SEEMS TO HAPPEN each summer, and the aft ermath is always unsett ling—at least initially. Wildfires race across thousands, if not millions, of acres of the Western United States leaving nothing behind but burnt forest. The eventual benefit, however—highly nutritious food, clean water, and places to hide—comes months or years later. Out of the bleakness arrives abundance, and that’s precisely what big muley bucks need in order to grow into trophy animals. Lush regrowth doesn’t happen every time forests go ablaze, but old burns are productive oft en enough to merit a place in your hunt destination notebook. Forested lands all across the intermountain West can hold big mule deer bucks, but you will need to begin narrowing your search by region, like the northern Rockies, which run from…

?Pennsylvania-based waterfowler Kevin Addy describes himself as a free guide: He’s done a little bit of professional guiding but mostly gave it up in favor of chasing birds on his own time, with buddies and whoever else wants to tag along. He targets everything from sea ducks to snows, and in September, Addy hunts hard for Canadas on public land and in fields where he’s secured permission. OL: When do you start scouting each year? KA: Usually I’m scouting year-round. And it’s not a big deal—when I say “scouting,” I mean I’m usually driving down the road and anytime I see birds, I look where they’re going and where they’re coming from. I’m not really dialed in, but I’m paying attention. After doing that for years, you pick up on…

I t’s hard to imagine the .45/70 Government as a brand-new round, untested and unproven either on big game or in battle. But that was the situation back in 1873, when it was introduced. That was a long time ago. Our country wasn’t even 100 years old, and the Civil War was fresher to Americans back then than 9/11 currently is to us . Giant herds of bison still darkened the Plains, but the great slaughter of these beasts was in full swing, and before long, fewer than 100 would remain in the wild. This was the era of the Old West, which, to this day, remains securely fixed in our collective psyche. Our nostalgia for this time seems boundless. We still yearn for the simplicity, romance, and sheer possibility…

RONALD KIRK, WEISER, IDAHO IF WE USE YOUR STORY, WE’LL SEND YOU THIS BOOK! ”THIS HAPPENED TO ME” HAS BEEN A FIXTURE OF OUTDOOR LIFE SINCE IT FIRST APPEARED IN ????. WE’VE SINCE COMPILED SOME OF THE MOST HARROWING, HAIR-RAISING MISADVENTURES READERS HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN A SINGLE VOLUME. IF WE RUN YOUR STORY, YOU CAN PORE OVER THE ??? PAGES OF THIS ACTION-PACKED BOOK KNOWING YOU’RE IN GOOD COMPANY. WANT TO BUY A COPY INSTEAD? THEY’RE AVAILABLE AT OUTDOORLIFE.COM/THTMBOOK STORYTIME We publish true adventures. Only those used will be acknowledged. Send to THTM@ OutdoorLife.com (preferred), or Outdoor Life, THTM, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Include a daytime phone number.…

WHITETAIL OBSESSIONS seem to always begin with a fleeting glimpse, or maybe a story from a hunter who claims to have seen the biggest buck of their life. And I guess my story is no different—at least, it wasn’t at the outset. With his crossing main beams that gave the appearance of a sideways figure eight, Infinity’s nickname seemed fitting. He was likely only a three-year-old, but with his unique rack, I knew that it would be hard to pass him up if he ever came in to range of my farmcountry treestand in southern Indiana. I had a trail camera photo of him in 2014, and saw him once in mid-October and again late in the bow season. He didn’t present me with a shot either time. In 2015,…

THE LATE-NOVEMBER firearms season opener in Wisconsin always seems to provide challenging weather, and last fall it was no different. The forecast was not great—sustained 30 mph winds, gusting to 45 mph, with rain changing over to snow by morning. For once, though, I was prepared, having bought an enclosed box blind during the summer. I had a lot of help getting it into the proper position, but I was ready for an all-day sit. The only thing I was really looking forward to was spending some quality time in my blind and hoping to get a glimpse of a deer . Big flakes of snow began to fall before daybreak and piled up fast. As it became light, the only thing flying past my stand was a sheet of…

?Rabbit hunting runs in North America’s sporting blood. And what says “rabbits” more than a baying beagle—or maybe even a whole pack of them? Yes, beagles may be the world’s de facto bunny dogs, but they’re just one of the canine breeds that can help you fill a game bag with cottontails. BEAGLE ○ BREED NOTES Standard beagles stand 13 to 16 inches tall and weigh 20 to 25 pounds. They usually come in the typical black, tan, and white hound colors. ○ HUNTING STYLE The classic rabbit dog, beagles yowl and howl on the merry chase. This baying marks the hunt’s progress as rabbits circle back home. Beagles are perfectly sized for cruising through brushy rabbit cover. ○ BONUS POINTS You can’t beat a beagle as a family pet—their…

J ust as summer turns to fall, I knew the day would arrive for Berett a to roll out a scaled-down version of its 690 Field I series of shotguns. And as much as I enjoy summer, and have enjoyed shooting the 12-gauge 690, I’ve been looking forward to the 20-gauge version with the same sense of anticipation that any bird hunter has for the first crisp autumn mornings. The Field designation is no lie. This is a true upland gun from butt to muzzle—and one that will resonate with American hunters. It is an exceptionally easy gun to carry, a quality that is nearly as important as how a gun shoots for those who stalk expanses of wild grass in search of Huns, or who stomp through catt ails…

Abig four-door car pulled into the sandy driveway that circled past our farmhouse and stopped in front of our corrugatedtin shop. Except for a bumpy two-track that ran just west of our barnyard and dwindled to graded sand before intersecting the next northsouth gravel road near the Colorado line, you could say we lived at the end of the road. Company, especially in unfamiliar cars, was rare at our Nebraska farm. Big, boat-like cars like this Ford weren’t so unusual back then. Pickups were not widely used off the farm, and the proliferation of four-door extended-cab pickups capable of hauling four hunters was still a generation away. I could see four people in the car, which had Colorado license plates, not unusual because of our proximity to the border. The…

There are few pieces of outdoor gear that cost as much—or are intended to be kept in service for as long—as ATVs and UTVs. The world of utility vehicles is far larger than it once was, and this year’s ATV and UTV test was a testament to the breadth and depth of the field. Our mission was simple: Find the units that are the best fit for those who work and play in the outdoors. We evaluated tech-laden units that boasted features and gadgets not dissimilar to those found in high-end cars and trucks (with price tags to match), and we checked out basic workfocused utility vehicles that made up in value and function what they lacked in bells and whistles. All told, we put a field of 18 new…

HIS M.O.: This buck regularly shows up on camera right after other deer arrive at a food source. He displays dominant posture, runs off smaller bucks, and has busted-up tines. PROFILE: A dominant buck looking for a fight is one of the best types of deer to target, says Dr. Grant Woods, a wellregarded wildlife biologist who specializes in helping landowners set up properties for deer hunting. Woods sets the majority of his cameras to capture video clips of bucks at food plots, salt licks, and other areas where deer congregate because he wants to read individual buck behavior. It’s easier to interpret that behavior through video than it is through a series of photos. The ideal scenario is identifying a mature brawler buck early in the fall. “When I…

MY BREATH STOPPED, as if someone had knocked the air out of me. I had only glanced at the buck for a fraction of a second, yet I knew instantly that he was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on—his thick mass of antlers towering above the grass from his bedded position . “How many inches do you think he is?” I asked my boyfriend, Cory Hill, under my breath. “Probably 115 to 120,” he responded casually. By now I was shaking. My hand holding up the gun ached, so I used the other to support the rifle’s weight. My eyes were still pinned to my target. “I got this,” I muttered to myself, trying to keep self-doubt at bay. It was our third day out hunting…

AT ITS BEST, teal hunting can be downright easy. Find some water in teal country, throw out a few decoys, and enjoy fast shooting and great fun, right? Yes, early-season teal hunting is all about good times. But a laid-back approach only works for so long on bluewings, cinnamons, and greenwings. Real teal hunting success comes down to understanding the birds better and micromanaging your setup site. You need to find the zone within the teal zone. MAKING SENSE OF TEAL ?Once hunting season starts, puddle-loving bluewings and cinnamons shift to smaller and smaller water, where hunters rarely go. Once, in a hard-hunted western Minnesota pothole complex, one of my sons and I set up on a 20-foot-wide ditch holding maybe 6 inches of water, and we shot a nice…

W ATCHING A FLOCK of Canada geese maple-leaf down into a massive spread of decoys while a dozen gunners wait for the “Take ’em!” call is something every waterfowler should experience. But a lot of us don’t have the space or budget for a huge spread of full-bodies. And, it can be tough organizing the platoon of hunters required to set such a spread. Thanks to new decoy designs, a solo goose hunter now has a real opportunity to set a realistic goose spread of four or five dozen lightweight decoys that fits into the bed of a single pickup truck. Following are four types that will get the job done. Mix and match them to fit your needs, and leave the trailer at home. WHITE ROCK COLLAPSIBLE FULL BODIES…

Anglers from Cape Lookout to Cape Cod are about to lose their collective mind. That’s because the mercurial false albacore—the scale-model tuna that’s bonefish-fast—is set to hit the surf. From September through November, albies will be blasting shoals of silversides and sand eels within casting distance of the shoreline, and otherwise stoic surfmen will resemble a mob in Times Square chasing 100- dollar bills. The false albacore’s stratospheric rise from obscure bycatch to target species has spawned a litany of do’s and don’ts espoused by albie sharpies. Some are obviously true—such as don’t try to slow one down on its blistering first run. But there are enough false albacore untruths out there that some myth-busting is in order. MYTH 1: FALSE ALBACORE ARE INEDIBLE ?I’ve heard it all: “Worst fish…

Recoil from years of shooting upland birds with heavy payloads of shot at speeds as fast as possible finally knocked some sense into me. Now I recognize that a light load of shot at a standard velocity cleanly kills birds ranging in size from quail to big blue grouse. The benefits of these light shotshell loads include reduced recoil, quicker follow-up shots, and better shot patterns. Most shots at upland birds are no farther than 30 yards. In September, leaves are still on the brush and shield ruffed grouse like a church door. While blue grouse are a more opencountry bird than ruffs, they hold tight. And early in the season, Huns and sharptail grouse flush close. The logic behind the effectiveness of light loads might seem counterintuitive, but the…