Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i Game & Fish East

Game Commission Announces Updated CWD Response THE PENNSYLVANIA Game Commission announced regulation changes to address the increasing threat that chronic wasting disease (CWD) presents to the state’s deer and elk. Disease Management Area 2 will be expanded significantly eastward, increasing its area from 2,846 to 4,095 square miles. Within DMA 2, two new Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) units have been created to focus hunter effort in areas where multiple CWD-positive deer have been found. The Game Com- mission has dissolved DMA 1 in York and Adams counties. For complete details go to the Game Commission web site. Pennsylvania Hunters Play It Safe PENNSYLVANIA HUNTERS had one of their safest years on record in 2016. The number of hunting related shooting incidents statewide was the second-lowest ever, and for only…

IF YOU’RE looking to get into a.308 for around $1,000, then you might want to give a second look at Smith & Wesson’s M&P-10 Sport. If you saw these on your gun store racks last year, you saw a longer gun with a few different features and a much bigger price tag. Smith shaved $600-plus bucks off this gun by reducing the barrel length from 18 to 16 inches and adding a basic flash suppressor instead of an upgraded version. Most everything else is the same. I shot several three-round groups at 100 yards in the 1 1/4-inch and 1 1/2-inch range on a Lead Sled. The best groups of the day were tight 1-inchers. The gun, like all AR-10s, is on the heavy side at 8 pounds without optics…

NIKON BLACK X1000 These new models are made for long-distance shooting and AR rifles. Two — the 4-16x50mm and 6-25x50mm — are second-focal-plane 30mm tubes with MOA reticles or an advanced MRAD-style reticle, the choice of snipers. Like the Engage, they do not lock at zero and are second-plane, hence the lower price. MSRP, $499-$649 nikonsportoptics.com SIG SAUER WHISKEY5 The Whiskey5 has been around for a few years now, but this year, Sig unveiled a new digital leveler to the scope. They call it the LevelPlex, and it indicates if your scope is not level as you are about to take the shot. Of course, at long distances, a canted scope will not give you an accurate POI. Inside the scope you’ll see two small arrows in either side. When…

EACH MONTH we take a look at what hunting tools won their categories in our Readers’ Choice Awards. In the Shotgun Ammo category, we pretty much saw a three-way tie for first. Winchester’s AA Steel did edge out the others, but not by much. About 5,000 readers voted in total. So this is as close as it gets to a photo finish. The survey’s margin of error is +/- 1.7%. Winchester AA Steel, 18.4% Remington American Clays, 16.6% Federal Black Cloud FLEX, 16.1% Here’s what the voters had to say: Winchester: “I shoot Winchester AA all the time. I shoot about 400 rounds a week at clay targets.” —JOHN PERSON, WI Remington: “Sometimes I can reload them as many as six times with light loads.” —CAPT. DICK MURPHY, MI…

TWO TIMES the situation has been the same, and two times the result has been the same. That’s led to this. Pennsylvania bear hunters — buoyed by a statewide population that’s hit an all-time high of 20,000 animals — will have more opportunity afield this fall than ever before. The extra opportunites come in two forms. The statewide archery season has been extended by a day and, most importantly, moved up on the calendar, so that for the first time it falls within the archery deer season. At the same time, opportunities to shoot a bear within the firearms deer season have been expanded, too. It’s all because bear numbers have grown. The state was home to about 15,000 bears in 2000, says Mark Ternent, black bear biologist for the…

I HAD JUST found out that I was not socially acceptable. “Tell me something I don’t already know,” said my wife Dawn. “Why do you think we get so few invitations?” “I know I’ve always had trouble making meaningless small talk with people who don’t hunt or fish or shoot,” I said. “But I’m talking about this obsession my social circle has with pasting on social mediocrity. I feel I’m an outsider now because I’m a social illegitimate.” “I think you mean ‘social media’ and ‘social illiterate,’” she said. “Maybe just plain illiterate too.” I explained to her that all of my buddies were spending less time hunting and more time on their phones, pasting, chirping, taking selfishlies, running laps, and going on Instant Facial Recognition. “Do you mean that…

OCTOBER 28 FIRST FALL TURKEY SEASON IN SELECT WMUS Oct. 28 is the opening of fall turkey season in some — but not all — WMUs. Season dates in each WMU vary. See regulations for exact dates. pgc.state.pa.us OCTOBER 30 - NOVEMBER 4 ARCHERY BEAR SEASON STATEWIDE To hunt bears during the bear bow season, hunters need a general hunting license and a bear hunting license. Only 1 bear may be taken. pgc.state.pa.us NOVEMBER 18-22 FIREARMS BLACK BEAR STATEWIDE To hunt bears during the statewide season, hunters need a general hunting license and a bear hunting license. Only 1 bear may be taken during the license year. pgc.state.pa.us NOVEMBER 25 – 26 SCRANTON GUN SHOW The Scranton Gun Show will be held at Scranton Ice Box and hosted by Jaeger…

SAVAGE INTRODUCED a new bolt-action rimfire series in 12 calibers earlier this year, but added a new model just recently. The B-Series Hardwood is one of the few wood-stock bolt rimfires on the market. It has a classic look yet fits right into the modern-looking B-Series line. All of these B-Series guns have a high Monte Carlo-style stock, which makes them useful for iron sight or mounted optics. The B-Series Hardwood shot well, and was hitting torso targets center-mass at 200 yards out with a Bushnell Rimfire scope attached. The bolt cycled well and had a quality feel. The 10-round rotary mag is the one Savage has used for a few years now in their semi-auto A Series. It’s proven quite trouble-free, is easy to reload and snaps in flush…

WE GET reader feedback in lots of ways. For one, you can vote in our Readers’ Choice Awards. Go ahead and sign up now for our e-newsletter at gafmag.com, and we’ll tell you when it’s time to vote. We want to know about the gear you use. And there’s Facebook and Instagram, where we get thousands of comments and posts. Phone or snail mail are always options too. But, right now, I am inviting you to contribute in a very specific way. This month we looked at new rifles. In December, it’ll be travel gear. February, boats. We have our ideas of what kind of gear you want to read about, but they are only our ideas. I want to know what you want us to check out. What are…

SHOULD I set up watch on a timbered ridge or in the corn- field below? That thought was going through my mind as I mulled options on locating whitetails that, prior to the season, had not been shy about appearing in full view. Even with the rut charging ahead, bucks had withdrawn into secluded hideouts from my hunting pressure and that of neighbor- ing hunters. Because whitetails rarely abandon a home territory, I knew the big boys were likely close, hugging shadows and holing up in overlooked hideouts. I just had to decipher their whereabouts to adjust my ambush. When the pressure is on and your whitetail sightings drop, start looking in those cottontail hidey holes for a chance at your missing buck. WETLAND SAFE PLACES Whether you call them…

IN BETWEEN focusing my eyes on the trees silhouetted in the early-morning darkness and my mind as it registered the occasional noises of wildlife around me, I was prepar- ing for my first deer hunt and what I thought was going to be a long day of quiet waiting. Set up in my blind, all essentials within an arm’s reach, I was ready at a moment’s notice to draw my rifle on a potential trophy. “Woe is the deer that wanders into my scope this day,” I thought. With adrenaline going, I was ready to take my place at the top of the food chain. As the sun cast its first morning glow over the dense woods, shots started to echo through the trees, and the presence of a new…

YOU’VE SEEN the Ruger American Rimfires. Game & Fish readers actually voted them their favorite rimfire in our Readers’ Choice Awards this year. But you weren’t satisfied with just two dozen or so models. “People ask all the time for new variations of our guns,” Ruger’s Jeff Willson told Game & Fish Magazine. “We can’t make them all, but this one makes sense.” After a lot of requests, Ruger just added to the line with the new American Rimfire Stainless. This is a smart-looking bolt-action that will come in .22 LR, .22 WMR and.17 HMR calibers. The stock is synthetic and shaped just like the other Americans. The 18-inch barrel is 416 stainless steel, is threaded to 1/2-28 and comes with a thread-protector. It’s a good-looking gun that shot and…

UMAREX, THE AIR-GUN people, are pushing into many other segments of the hunting industry with innovative new products. The Axeon Absolute Zero caught our eye as a new tool that uses technology to make us better shooters. There’s a way to sight in your gun by aiming at the bull’seye, shooting a bullet and then having a buddy dial the elevation and windage to put the crosshairs on the point of impact. It will get you in the area of a sighted-in gun, but there are too many variables involved to make it right for any kind of longer-range shooting. The Absolute Zero takes away a few variables. Specifically, cant. Cant will rob your accuracy. If you don’t keep the gun perfectly vertical when sighting, POI won’t be repeatable. This…