Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2018-19 i Petersen's Hunting

WHERE: Ontario WHEN: October 2017 RIFLE: Remington Model 7600 HUNTER: Mike Cook That’s thanks almost entirely to Haldane’s efforts, which focused on habitat restoration, anti-poaching efforts, limited hunting, and supporting villagers. He spent a great deal of personal money on the recovery projects. As hunters returned to the area, the income they generated provided funding for him to hire local people, and today more than 90 full-time and 50 seasonal workers receive income from his company: Zambeze Delta Safaris. In the 1990s, Haldane pieced together a small anti-poaching team that has since become a formidable anti-poaching task force everywhere on the continent. A fast-reaction team uses motorcycles to quickly apprehend criminals, and a Robinson helicopter, funded by the Dallas Safari Club, now patrols the area daily looking for signs of…

IT’S EASY to imagine Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Bierstadt, and George Bird Grinnell gathered around a roaring campfire, sharing a sip of whiskey as they planned the beginning of America’s conservation movement. In fact, it might have been a bottle much like these that gave Teddy and friends the grit to found the Boone and Crockett Club back in 1887. Now you can tip a toast to wildlife, and support B&C in the process, with three new whiskeys bottled under the Boone and Crockett brand. Boone and Crockett Whiskeys are available in three varieties: Straight Rye, Straight Bourbon, and an American Blend. All are aged two years, so they are a bit young, but they are smoothly sippable and will warm cold bones after a long day in the field. B&C…

It happens to me every season, sometime in mid-December. What just a week before was a roiling hub of buck activity in the middle of a white oak funnel suddenly morphs into a leafy brown moonscape devoid of all deer. But my favorite stand is tough to surrender because it’s produced all year and is darn comfortable. I must remind myself that now isn’t November, when any social media star can stumble into the woods and bag a rut-discombulated buck. Nope, this challenging time is called the “post-rut,” and if you don’t adapt to the bucks’ altered behavior, your chances will plummet like the value of Bitcoin. So follow this advice to score when the winter winds turn bitter. FIND THE GRUB You’ve likely heard it before, but I’m going…

The abundance of pepperoncini and a splash of the pepper’s brine creates a next-level tanginess that works surprisingly well with the richness of roast venison. DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. 2. Season the roast on all sides with kosher salt and black pepper. Dust with flour. 3. Make the ranch dressing by whisking the mayo, brine, dill, and paprika together in a small bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk and let chill for a few minutes to allow the flavors to incorporate. 4. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven set over medium-high heat. When the oil is just smoking, add the roast to the Dutch oven and brown well, about five minutes per side. 5. Pour the ranch dressing over the roast. Cut the butter into eight…

THE RAM was in no hurry. He was picking his way along the top of a ridge while my wife and I were easing up a ridge parallel to his. We were only 200 yards apart, and I wanted a good look at his horns. He seemed oblivious to our presence and never looked in our direction. Finally, he turned his head, and I saw all I needed to see. “Cover your ears,” I said. I settled my rifle on my backpack, which I had arranged on a rock, and found a comfortable prone position. After flicking off the safety, I started the trigger squeeze when a shot rang out from far below. I saw a bullet hit two feet under the ram. The animal took one bound and disappeared.…

In June of 2018, three Land Cruisers rushed through the sand forest of Mozambique at a rapid clip. I was in the back of the second Cruiser, bracing myself against the side rails, when the vehicle hit a low spot in the two-track road and very nearly threw me facedown into the bed. I managed to stay upright, and that was a good thing. Two lionesses were sleeping at my feet. Our frantic rush through the forests with the lions was the final step in an ambitious relocation project that had taken five years to complete. It was the largest international wild lion transfer in Africa’s history and involved bringing 24 free-ranging adult cats from game reserves in South Africa to two million acres of the most intact wild country…

HISTORY When introduced in 1925, the .300 Holland & Holland was the only factory magnum .30 in existence, and many early rifles were simply stamped “30 Magnum.” Holland & Holland dubbed the cartridge the “Super-Thirty.” Ben Comfort won Camp Perrys prestigious 1,000-yard Wimbledon Cup with it during the 1935 National Matches, and for almost 40 years—until the 1963 introduction of the .300 Win. Mag.—the cartridge reigned as the preeminent magnum. Made somewhat obsolete today by its long, shallow shoulder (designed to provide reliable, easy extraction in tropical climes) and belted case, the .300 H&H lives on among sportsmen with a taste for panache. APPLICATION Like any other powerful 30-caliber magnum, with the appropriate bullet choice the .300 H&H is suitable for any North American big game and is an outstanding…

There is a period after the second estrus when elk country goes silent and still. Cows huddle in nursery herds and move to wintering areas. Bulls, thin and drained from rutting, move into thickets near water and easy forage and, in the words of one old-timer, lean on a tree to catch their breath. Winter winds are yet to rise, and bachelor groups of bulls are yet to form and begin wandering in search of feed. Sometimes brief, sometimes lasting a few weeks, it’s one of the hardest times of all to find and kill a bull. But sometimes hunters have no choice. It’s the open season specified on their tag. Or it’s the only time they can get off work. That doesn’t mean taking a bull is an impossible…

The shorthair went on point in thorny brush above a little dirt stock tank, a perfect place for Gambel’s quail. Everyone set, somebody stepped forward and kicked a dry cactus. The brush exploded, but not with whirring wings. A gorgeous 4x4 mule deer buck burst out and vanished into the desert horizon. I reckon that was 25 years ago, hunting quail not far from Tucson with the late Gary Sitton, a former editor of this magazine. The buck was a desert mule deer. Slightly smaller than his Rocky Mountain cousin, the desert mule deer tends to be paler in body color with a lighter forehead cap. Together with the desert bighorn and Coues whitetail, the desert mule deer is part and parcel to the arid Southwest, occupying a huge range…

BULLET BASICS Of cutting-edge design, this bullet features an aggressive boattail and long, fine-entry nose to maximize aerodynamics. A heat-resistant composite tip shrugs off BC-degrading, in-flight erosion. Thin at the nose to enable dramatic, immediate expansion, the jacket is thicker at the rear to arrest expansion. Hornady’s trademark InterLock ring helps mechanically lock the alloy lead core into the copper jacket. TESTING GROUND Known for excellent accuracy and fast, dramatic kills, the ELD-X has a reputation for bullet/jacket separation, which is concerning to some hunters. However, separation almost always occurs after the bullet comes to rest against the offside hide, making it a non-issue.The expanded bullet pictured was recovered from a giant free-range nyala bull hunted with Crusader Safaris in South Africa. FIELD PERFORMANCE Nothing stress-tests a bullet like a…

The GOAL ZERO Venture 30 Power Bank + Nomad 7 Solar Kit keeps you at full charge when you’re off the grid. The Venture 30 has two high-speed USB ports and one Micro-USB cable to power your GPS, headlamp, phone, and other electronics. The rugged weatherproof design lets users focus on the hunt rather than unexpected rainstorms, and at 8.8 ounces it doesn’t weigh down your pack. When low on juice, plug the Venture 30 into the foldable Nomad 7 Solar Panel and set it in a sunny spot to charge. $180; goalzero.com The KLYMIT 0° Sleeping Bag was designed for warmth in extreme conditions and comfort even if you’re shorter than the Average Joe. Stuffed with 650 fill power white duck down, the KSB doesn’t sacrifice weight for warmth.…

It had been raining since dawn, alternating between a fine, foggy mist and a let’sbuild-an-Ark deluge. It was midafternoon before we got into the big herd, the herd with the stag we wanted. I settled into a prone position, resting on the stalker’s pack, and settled the crosshair about four inches above where I wanted the bullet to strike, allowing a bit of elevation for the 245-yard distance. When the trigger broke, the stag folded where he stood, and my new friend offered sincere congratulations. The “where” was the Scottish Highlands; the “who” was Ronnie Hepburn, game stalker for a considerable portion of the Blair Atholl Estate; and the deer was an eleven-point red stag, replete with double crowns. The rifle was a Rigby Highland Stalker, the latest release from…

What comes to mind when you hear the words “comfort food”? Is it Mom’s meatloaf ? A heaping bowl of mac and cheese? Savory Sunday gravy or a pile of stroganoff over hot, buttered noodles? Or maybe your abuelita’s enmoladas or a rich bulgogi of the kind only a Korean mother can make. No matter the point on the globe, more than any other meal, comfort foods are as personal and individual as our fingerprints, each tied to thoughts of family dinners or perhaps a singular time and place where we sat down to a memorable meal. While we may be able to conjure up our own idea of what we consider comfort foods, defining them is a bit more difficult. Why are those particular foods so tied to our soul…