Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Game & Fish East

WHERE I live in Pennsylvania, it usually comes in early October: that first deliciously crisp, skin-chilling morning that erases all doubt summer is gone for good and fall is finally here. More than any date on a calendar, it signals to me that a new hunting season has arrived. While the state’s dove and resident goose seasons have been in for a month, I think of them as mere warm-ups. They’re great reasons to don camo and go afield with a gun and high hopes, but the real action begins in October. Game & Fish readers know October spells opportunity—and lots of it. Big-game seasons are in full swing throughout the country this month. Small-game, upland bird and duck seasons overlap them. Elk, whitetails, rabbits, pheasants, mallards… take your pick.…

PROBLEM 1: NO ROOM IN THE BED As an outdoorsman, you undoubtedly have lots of stuff: guns, rods, tents, sleeping bags, cook stoves, packs and more. It’s cool having a garage that looks like a mini Cabela’s until you try to load it into the truck to take it afield. Go theAmerican route and instead of downsizing, just buy one more piece of gear to help organize and, most importantly, secure it. DECKED storage solutions is a drop-in drawer bed system made from tough roto molded polymers. Two main drawers slide for easy content access, and integrated D-Box storage containers keep smaller items together. Best of all, you can still use your pickup for its intended purpose: hauling. With a 2,000-pound capacity on top of the DECKED system, bringing your…

THOUGH MANY hunters may regard chronic wasting disease, or CWD, as a problem primarily in Western deer herds, hunters in the East know better. Some Northeastern states have been managing CWD for a number of years and are doing a reasonably good job of keeping track of it and slowing the spread to other parts of the region. Although strict surveillance and reporting programs won’t eradicate the disease, they do give officials a powerful tool to help limit its spread. How and where CWD originated is something of a mystery. It was first identified in 1967, in research mule deer herds in Colorado. By the 1970s, researchers had become aware that CWD is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) similar to mad cow disease and the human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Gradually…

ONE THING that never ceases to amaze me is the destructive capabilities of an otherwise unengaged Labrador retriever. Anyone familiar with that lovable, lumbering breed knows immediately what I mean. Those that aren’t are both lucky… and horribly deprived. I mention this because we’re approaching duck season across much of the country and, this past winter, my dad received a new Lab puppy as a gift. He’s a sharp-looking chocolate Lab named Duke. After getting Duke, I think my dad’s realized why many folks have children relatively young. They’re a lot of work, require a great deal of energy and can, at times, be very frustrating. The same is true of puppies, particularly Labs from hunting stock. My dad loves duck hunting. He’s done it for many years. His father…

ONE OF the most frequent complaints I hear from outfitters all over the world is how often clients gut-shoot animals. I’ve long wondered if there is a specific reason for this problem; it seems too common to be coincidence. A whitetail deer cull-hunt in Texas gave me the opportunity to conduct an experiment and find the cause. Under the auspices of a scored contest, eight experienced hunters fired five shots at a 12-inch circular target with scoring rings, which was placed on top of a life-size cardboard deer target. Then they fired five shots at just the deer target. Unbeknownst to the hunters, on the back side of the deer target I’d placed another 12-inch circular target with scoring rings. Its center was positioned directly over the kill zone. All…

AS OCTOBER begins, hunters far and wide descend upon small rural towns in South Dakota buying up licenses at an alarming rate. For the past few decades, South Dakota has remained the mecca of pheasant hunting. Many know it as the pheasant hunting capital of the world, but for upland bird enthusiasts, it’s much more. THE FLURRY We were up before the dawn ready to go. The crunch of the frost on the grass and the howl of the dogs in the kennels down the road had everyone alert and eager to depart to the fields. With over 3,000 acres of prime private acreage to hunt, Scattergun Lodge has been in the pheasant business for more than 20 years. Owners, Chuck and Shelia Ross, have been in the outdoor business…

DURING THE fall, smallies are on the move in response to their rapidly changing environment. To catch them, you’ve got to first find them. To increase your chances of locating these often reclusive fish, tie on some of the following search baits and collect your fair share of autumn bronze. JERKBAITS Jerkbaits, both hard and soft, provide a stop-n-go look that often provokes a small-mouth into hitting, while efficiently covering the water at the same time. Depending on the inherent qualities of the particular bait, as well as the method in which it’s fished, a jerkbait can cover depths from the near surface to over 10 feet plus. “Soft” jerkbaits, like the Zoom Super Fluke, are collectively called “flukes” regardless of the maker. “Hard” jerkbaits include Rapala’s X-Rap, Lucky Craft’s…

THE SHOTGUN is perhaps the most versatile of all hunting tools, perfect for everything from bagging doves to harvesting a big buck. What’s more, shotguns are useful all year round: When the fall and winter seasons close, spring turkey hunting is right around the corner, and the summer is a great time to enjoy a few rounds of trap, skeet and sporting clays at your local range. If you have a good shotgun there’s no reason why it should be collecting dust in your gun safe. Over the course of the last 12 months there have been dozens of new shotgun designs introduced, and we’ve whittled that long list down to six models that are superb for hunters. They vary in price, function and purpose, but regardless of where you…

OCTOBER USHERS in dramatic changes to the landscape as temperatures drop. Fall’s beauty abounds, as the foliage is ablaze, and trees begin their annual shed. However, for many bowhunters, this time can turn ugly, as deer seemingly become rationed and frustration sets in. While often referred to as the “October lull,” don’t be fooled—now is one of the best times of the year to be settled in behind a bowstring. THE GAME CHANGES, ABRUPTLY October is a time of radical change for whitetails, too. Internal and external variables affect their disposition, things like lunar phase, weather, hunter pressure, food availability and other factors are all affecting a deer’s temperament. While most of these are directly under the control of the hunter, all are contributing factors determining when, where and how…

REMEMBER THE story from Shel Silverstein, “The Giving Tree”? It’s a classic childhood story, inspiring the importance giving back. The tree provided fruit, limbs for building a house and lastly, her trunk for a boat. In the end, all that was left was a stump. The tree was tapped out. Today, the future of fish and wildlife face a similar tale. Older generations of hunters and anglers are not being replaced to fill the needs for adequate management of the resource. NORTH AMERICAN MODEL In the United States, we’re blessed with the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. License fees, stamps and permits help fund state and federal fish and wildlife management agencies. Purchases of select equipment and fuel for boats are taxed by the federal government then redistributed to…

FEW BIG-GAME hunters have not dreamed about putting their skills to test among the majesty of the American West. Some reside there and are able to live the dream every season (some of those moved there for that very reason). Others across the prairie and the Mississippi and the Appalachians have planned and saved and burned hundreds of gallons of gas to convert the dream into a memory. The rest of us, most of us, are still contemplating our first Western big-game hunt with varying degrees of seriousness. For us, there is the pronghorn, and there is Wyoming. Elk seem to capture the majority of aspiring Western hunters’ souls, and for good reason, but I argue the pronghorn is a truer representative of Western big game. It exists only in…

BARNETT HYPERGHOST 425 Crossbow seasons are opening or well underway in many places. Take advantage of them with Barnett’s new HyperGhost 425. Equipped with a 1.5-5x32mm illuminated scope and exclusive HyperFlite .204-inch small-diameter arrows, the HyperGhost 425 could serve in any hunter’s fall arsenal. Other features include a CNC-machined aluminum flight track, retractable counterbalance underarm support, Soft Lok floating bristle arrow retainer and anti-dry-fire TriggerTech trigger system. MSRP: $1,300; barnettcrossbows.com CZ 457 Early fall is prime time for small game. Hunters chasing squirrels would be well served with any of CZ’s 457 rimfire rifles. Improved handling and ergonomics are key points with these new guns. An American-style push-to-fire safety has been added, and actions have been trimmed for reduced weight. Bolt throws are now 60 degrees for faster operation and…