Innholdsfortegnelse for April - May 2017 i Petersen's Hunting

BULLET BASICS Arguably the most advanced development of the classic Barnes X bullet, the LRX (Long Range X) combines weight-retaining, deep-penetrating all-copper construction with a boattail and a long, sleek, aerodynamic profile. A deep nose cavity is inside-skived to ensure classic“X”shape expansion and topped with a polymer tip. TESTING GROUND The bullet pictured was fired into a red hartebeest. Impacting just inside the shoulder knuckle of the quartering-to 300-pound animal, it passed lengthwise through at an angle and came to rest against the hide on the far-side haunch. FIELD PERFORMANCE Exiting the muzzle of a handloaded 28 Nosler at 3,290 fps, the bullet impacted at a shocking 3,250 fps. Even though it lost all four of the X-shaped petals, the shank penetrated an estimated 38-plus inches of muscle, bone, and…

2017 SCHEDULE FEBRUARY 10 Bradford Sportsmen’s Farm Graham, Florida FEBRUARY 24 Quail Creek Plantation Okeechobee, Florida APRIL 8-9 Sun Mountain Gun Club Coarsegold, California MAY 19 Nemacolin Woodlands Farmington, Pennsylvania JUNE 3 Hermitage Farm Shooting Sports Camden, South Carolina JUNE 2–3 Black Dog Clays, Inc. Boise, Idaho JUNE 9 Evansville Gun Club Evansville, Indiana AUGUST 13–14 Strathalbyn Farms Club Saint Charles, Missouri AUGUST 25 Ten Mile River Preserve Dover Plains, New York SEPTEMBER 15–16 The Meadows Gun Club Forsyth, Georgia SEPTEMBER 16–17 Northbrook Sports Club Hainesville, Illinois SEPTEMBER 22 Fairfield Co. Game Protective Assoc. Southbury, Connecticut SEPTEMBER 22 Izaak Walton Gun Club Kokomo, Indiana SEPTEMBER 29–30 Mad River Sportsman’s Club Bellefontaine, Ohio SEPTEMBER 29 New Pioneer Gun Club Waukee, Iowa OCTOBER 6 Elk Creek Hunt Club Owenton, Kentucky OCTOBER 14…

SPEAK THE LANGUAGE of a lovely hen to sweep a long beard off his feet—literally. The new Primos Hensanity Tone Control Pot Call isn’t just another slate to add to your collection. Four sound ports make up the exotic hardwood pot and allow you to mimic an array of authentic tones ranging from soft purrs to loud yelps. Complete with a frictionite surface for easy control, you won’t have trouble bringing ol’ tom into your decoys. $30; primos.com Fool the KING OF SPRING with the new Thunder Creeper decoy from Flextone. The full-strut jake decoy is complete with lifelike paint; a short beard; and a realistic, folding tail fan (or compatible to use with your own). To make things even better, the Thunder Creeper is made to pack down for…

Arliss Reed, my genius redneck buddy, won a 20-gauge over-under at a Ducks Unlimited auction. He wanted to kill a turkey with it but was too cheap to buy two turkey chokes. Instead, he twisted a single Extra-Full tube in the top barrel and a factory Modified in the bottom. With a HEVI-Shot load up top, it patterned well out to 50 yards, and the Modified bottom barrel threw world-crushing impacts at 20 yards. It’s the killingest turkey gun any of us have ever shot, running up an eight-bird streak in a single season and dropping gobblers from seven yards out to 35 yards. Camo’ed up and with an optical sight, it’s worked especially well for new and youth hunters who need that reminder to keep their head down on…

Although black bears are found all over North America, they have an Old World aura around them. Not surprisingly, bear meat is a natural fit for many Central and Eastern European recipes. In this recipe, a bear roast gets the traditional sauerbraten treatment with a long marinade in red wine and vinegar, with a slightly sugary sauce that pairs with the natural sweetness of the meat. DIRECTIONS 1. Bring the red wine, vinegar, grated onion, carrot, and celery to a simmer in a Dutch oven set over medium-high heat. Tie the juniper berries, bay leaves, cloves, and peppercorns in a small cheesecloth bundle and add this bouquet garni to the pot. Remove the marinade from the heat and let cool completely before pouring over the bear roast. Marinade for a…

I see Petersen’s Hunting is banging the drum (“Modern-Day Robber Barons,” November 2016) to not turn over federal lands to the states. I completely disagree. The feds never run anything right, and locals could probably do a better job of managing the land. GREG FELDERMAN Via email Thanks, Greg. I appreciate you reading PH as well as taking the time to comment. As much as I like localized small government, history doesn’t support the idea that states can do a better job of managing public lands. Not to mention hunters have the mistaken view that when people say “state” or “local” ownership they think of management through their state game department. This is not the case. When politicians talk about turning federal land over to the states, they generally don’t…

HISTORY Created by necking the .222 Remington Magnum down to accept .204-diameter projectiles and introduced in 2004, the .204 Ruger was both the fastest factory cartridge in existence and the only .20-caliber factory round. While no bullet actually shoots as flat as a laser, Hornady’s original 32-grain loading at 4,225 fps comes pretty close. Because the factory powder is proprietary and unavailable as a component, handloaders can’t quite match the factory speeds. However, Hornady’s manual provides data that produces velocities just shy of 4,200 fps—still shockingly fast. APPLICATION Although a few hunters have taken deer with the .204 Ruger, it’s really a very poor choice for anything much bigger than a stout coyote because the light, speedy bullets break up on impact and provide very little penetration. However, as a…

The triumphant songs of spring’s eager longbeards will soon replace the cold silence of winter’s woods. Spurs will be flying as gobblers fight for boss status and coveted breeding rights. But the stakes are even higher in another battle that looms on the horizon: man vs. bird. You’ll rely on a precise arsenal of tools to get a leading edge on tom. Whether you plan to run and gun or set up an ambush, these well-built turkey vests will keep you organized, comfortable, and ready to rock when it’s time to make strategic moves this spring. PRIMOS ROCKER VEST Will Primos has been helping hunters drop gobblers for 41 years—when he started selling homemade calls crafted from beer cans. The new Rocker Vest reflects Primos’s long-standing dedication to producing top-notch…

The javelina is probably one of America’s most misunderstood creatures. Commonly referred to as “pigs,” javelina are actually New World creatures only distantly related to the true pigs of the Old World. Their teeth are different, their stomachs are different, their breeding habitats are different…and they have scent glands on both face and back that are totally absent in true pigs. The scent glands are used to mark their territory, and the odor is strong and pungent—you’ll know if javelina are nearby. The strong scent gives them other names—including skunk pig and musk pig—but their real name is collared peccary, thus distinguishing them from other peccaries. The collared peccary, or javelina, is a salt-and-pepper gray animal with a distinctive “collar” of yellowish-white hair running diagonally from the middle of the…

According to a statistic I read many years ago, black bears kill more people every year than do grizzly bears. Not necessarily because they’re more prone to attack—they’re not—but because there are a lot more encounters between black bears and humans each year, owing to the greater distribution and population of the smaller bears, and because when they do attack, a black bear is more likely to finish the job and actually kill rather than “just” maul. Hunting black bears is often fraught with tension, excitement, and, frequently, a little fright, but black bears correctly aren’t categorized as true dangerous game, so they’re not particularly daunting to hunt. It’s much easier to convince one’s significant other to be okay with a black bear hunt than with a grizzly hunt. That…

The nose of a good dog can be your best friend when a blood trail goes cold. I had been hunting the giant, 9-point non-typical for several years without getting close, and now he was almost too close: seven yards, quartering heavily toward me on a path into my wind. I figured it was now or never. Thwack! My arrow was buried to the fletching in what was surely a mortal hit between his sternum and shoulder. He ran off, and I almost fainted. Then it started sprinkling rain. I found no blood for the first 100 yards, and with no exit wound, I was lucky to find any at all. The only clue was a speck of lung mist in a field of tall grass, but even that was…

The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the third largest cat species in the world (after the African lion and tiger) and the largest feline in the Western hemisphere, tipping the scales at upwards of 300 pounds. Jaguars inhabit a vast range and a wide diversity of habitats that include most of South America, from the Patagonia region of Argentina through the marshes of Brazil’s Pantanal, and into the rainforest jungles of Central America and Mexico, even crossing the border into the arid regions of the southwestern United States where remnant populations are still found in Arizona today. Historically, hunting for jaguars has been considered one of the great quests in the Americas, one Teddy Roosevelt enjoyed on his 1913 expedition through Brazil. But due to a rapidly declining population—attributed mainly to…

At first glance, the numbers didn’t add up. A Wyoming rancher wanted to swap 295 acres of his own land for 1,040 acres of state-owned land. It wasn’t an unusual request. Land swaps occur regularly. What caught Jeff Muratore’s attention more than anything, though, was its location in the game-rich Laramie Mountains, a popular destination for resident and non-resident hunters alike. An avid elk hunter and self-proclaimed public lands advocate, Muratore almost lost access to a large tract of public land seven years ago under a similar proposed land swap. He rallied a group of sportsmen who succeeded in stopping the deal. Had it gone through, it would have blocked him and other hunters from thousands of acres of previously accessible land. “Since then, I look through the state website…

POPULATION Populations are unknown, but javelina are probably densest in Texas and least dense in South America, where unregulated subsistence hunting continues in remote areas. With such a large range, total numbers easily run into the hundreds of thousands and most probably into the millions. MOST EXPENSIVE HUNTS Texas, where the majority of land is private and “fee hunting” is a way of life. Although javelina are largely harmless, most private landowners don’t want too many of them, so fees for javelina hunting, especially during the off-season, are generally reasonable (certainly more reasonable than for deer hunting). LEAST EXPENSIVE HUNTS Arizona, where javelina are fairly plentiful and can be readily hunted on public land. Tags are by drawing, but Arizona’s late winter/early spring “HAM” (Handgun, Archery, Muzzleloader) tags are relatively…

The best bear I ever ate ambled out of a New Mexican oak mott, as if it were more curious about my squealing predator call than actually interested in eating. Pulling back its tawny, blonde-tipped fur revealed a layer of exquisite fat, the consistency of jelly and white like a piano’s ivory keys. No animal with backfat like that could taste bad, and the meat from this bear was amazing—a sweet, yes, almost nutty, flavor that lent itself well to a whole host of recipes, from simple grilled steaks to slow braises that really pulled out the taste of the acorns it had been feeding on. The second-best bear I ever ate dropped at the shot, nose first into the high-tide line of kelp and seaweed it was feasting on…

Taking advantage of the fact that whitetail hunters will do nearly anything to recover a buck they’ve hit, blood tracking for hire is a growing trend. United Blood Trackers is a nonprofit group that promotes tracking breeds, offers breeder information, training tips, and a list of professional trackers in your area that can assist in finding your deer. Often times they’ll charge a fee, say $200, to come out and then another $200 if the animal is found—or something similar. Go to unitedbloodtrackers.org, click on “find a tracker,” and give the person listed in your area a call. Then keep that person on speed dial for the next time you need to borrow a dog’s trophy nose. Want a Tracking Dog? Go to unitedbloodtracker.org or give Jeff Richardson a call…

Backpacking for bears is a rewarding experience but can be brutal. Going light is the key to success so you can focus on the hunt and not your aching back and muscles. It also can be dangerous. Here are our picks for lightweight gear and backcountry communication. KUIU This performance gear company prides itself on making the most lightweight equipment on the market. Opting for their Merino wool clothing, ULTRA 6000 pack, Super Down sleeping bag, and the ULTRA Star 1P tent, the core of my equipment weighed a little over six pounds. —kuiu.com SAVAGE 11/111 LIGHTWEIGHT HUNTER Opt for a hard-hitting, durable, lightweight rifle when backpack hunting. This rifle weighs six pounds before scoped, and .270 is more than enough bruin-stopping power. —savagearms.com BUSHNELL TROPHY XTREME This laser rangefinder…