Outdoor Life Nr. 4 - 2020

letters@outdoorlife.com Mike Stock (left) serves as the rudder for our improvised toboggan as we careen down a hill in northeast Montana. We could barely hold on, sliding our way to retrieve Stock’s buck, the culmination of an “old-school” mule deer hunt (see the full story on p. 82). We hunted in blue jeans with vintage rifles, and rediscovered the beauty of minimalist deer hunting is its priority on the hunt, not the gear. But with a buck down and no meat-toting packs—and fresh snow cloaking the plains—we decided to deploy an equally old-school packing tool: a roll of sheet plastic. The mile-long drag with the heavy buck strapped to the slippery and directionless tarp took nearly as long as the hunt itself.…

When most of us think about our hunting heritage, we flash back to the folks who taught us how to hunt in the first place—the close friends or relatives who helped us learn the skills and customs required to be accepted among the tribe of hunters. For me, that was my dad, uncle, and grandpa, who are all dyed-in-the-wool Wisconsin deer hunters. As a kid, I wanted nothing more than to join their deer camp. I had to wait until I was 11, when, finally, I would get to leave our Thanksgiving dinner party early with the other Robinson hunters (p. 64) and spend the rest of the weekend at camp. Forget the second helping of pumpkin pie, Mom—the wilderness is calling. That three-hour drive north felt like a rite…

SLEEPING IN I’ve been using a Tiger Wall 2 Platinum three-season tent from Big Agnes’ Crazylight line during recent backcountry hunts. It’s superbly constructed using space-age materials and is crazy light, weighing in right around 2 pounds. It’s simple to set up, sturdy, and easy to carry. It can be combined with the optional footprint or pitched with poles and fly for an even lighter shelter. —Aram von Benedikt, contributor CARRYING Siembida’s Meadowlark is about as good as it gets for backcountry hunters. I use this strong, full-tang fixed-blade knife to skin, field-dress, and quarter out wild game. It’s small and light, and the AEB-L stainless-steel blade holds a sharp edge. The handle and 3-inch blade (the knife is 6 inches long) are designed perfectly to provide excellent control for…

EAGLE RIVER, WI WRITE US! WE PUBLISH TRUE ADVENTURES. SEND YOURS TO THTM@OUTDOORLIFE.COM.…

hunting@outdoorlife.com RYAN WILLIAMS WANTS TO BE CLEAR. He’s not a wolf-hunting expert. Though he spends the majority of the year around wolves and hunts them nearly all winter out of his family’s lodge in the remote Idaho wilderness, he says he’s more a perpetual student than a knowledgeable teacher. “You could hunt these things for a lifetime and never learn all there is to know,” says Williams, who works as a U.S. Forest Service smoke jumper during the summer, bowhunts elk in the tangled pine jungles of Idaho’s high country through the fall, and then calls wolves all winter. “Even when you think you have them figured out, they’ll pull some shenanigans that make you second-guess what you know. My friends have gotten so used to me coming back with…

An Idaho nonprofit is promoting wolf harvest by reimbursing hunters and trappers for expenses accrued while killing wolves. It’s not a bounty, exactly, but the group will issue cash payments of up to $1,000 to members who submit receipts “purchased in relation to the scouting, hunting, or trapping of wolves.” These can include fuel, guns, ammunition, traps, game cameras, and even license fees. Hunters and trappers keep the wolves they harvest. In order to be eligible for reimbursements, which vary depending on season and region of Idaho, recipients must be members of the organization. Membership levels vary from $35 annually to $1,500 for lifetime membership. “We work with sportsmen and Idaho’s biologists to determine what areas have been most negatively impacted by wolves” to establish reimbursement zones, according to the…