Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i Petersen's Hunting

IMAGINE A WORLD without bowhunting. No deer camps. No intense, adrenaline-filled preshot jitters. No blood trails. No congratulatory high-fives, hugs or “good shot” comments. No venison. No wall mounts. A world without bowhunting sounds dull and ludicrous. Unfortunately, the right to bowhunt is constantly being challenged in today’s ever-changing society. Animal extremists want to make it illegal to kill game species. Some state governments are trying to cut hunting seasons. And Americans are moving to urban areas, watching screens more and disconnecting from nature. These things threaten bowhunting’s long-standing traditions, and we can’t just stand by. Bowhunters United, the premier bow-hunting organization in America today, protects and defends bowhunters’ rights and represents all bowhunters, regardless of why, how, when or where they participate. BU is owned and operated by the…

A good treestand delivers all-day comfort and should be easy to deploy. With Summit’s Viper Pro SD, hunters have the option to sit out a day for its duration or easily change ambush points when the situation dictates. The Quick Draw Pro cable system increases efficiency by allowing fast and easy attachment to the tree. This stand weighs 22 pounds and can support up to 300 pounds. The platform is 20-inches wide by 36-inches deep for plenty of foot room with a foam-padded seat and backrest to keep you comfortable. $480; summitstands.com Practice makes perfect, and having the right target to practice your archery skills is paramount to success. GlenDel’s Crossbow Buck can stop arrows from crossbows and vertical bows alike. It gives the archer five times the target surface…

It was a big herd, at least 800. Just a dark line moving across the short-grass savanna, along the edge of taller cover, maybe a mile away. We cut a sharp angle to keep the wind right, hoping to intercept the lead animals. By the time we got there, the herd had covered several hundred yards and the game changed. All buffalo hidden behind strands of high papyrus and sawgrass, with swirling cattle egrets just beyond telling us we were close. We didn’t know what part of the herd we’d hit, or where the bulls were, so we split up. Kansas City buddy Mike Hagen and Professional Hunter Bredger Thomason went left, either around or through a patch of papyrus; Mark Haldane and I went right, around the edge. Hagen’s…

ADVANCED SHOOTING capability is often crucial to making the most of opportunities when hunting the West. Unlike the East, South and Midwest, where most deer are killed inside 100 yards, shot distances in the West tend to be long, chances are often fleeting and shooting positions must be quickly improvised. This is dictated by the terrain, the habitat and the game populations. Let’s unpack these characteristics and take a closer look to understand what hunters are up against when prepping for a Western hunt. BIG SKY COUNTRY The country is big. Particularly in the Rocky Mountains and the arid high desert that makes up much of the remainder of the Western states. When hunting, you may find a trophy mule deer buck or bull elk 450 yards away across a…

Bowhunters spend all year getting ready for opening day. Summer begins to yield its high temperatures to cool breezes blowing in the evenings, spurring both animals and hunters to prepare for the coming fall. For those chasing an elusive whitetail buck, this time of year may be your best chance to punch a tag on the big one you’ve seen on game cameras all summer. Animals still follow a predictable feed-to-bed pattern. It’s time to put all the offseason preparations into practice. Don’t be fooled, though. These early mornings and late nights aren’t easy sits. Sweat beads on the brow and chills come quickly after the sun sets. As you walk to the stand those first few days of season, remember this is the time you’ve been longing for the…

BULLET BASICS Nosler’s AccuBond Long Range bullet is engineered for excellent aerodynamics, and to expand reliably at low (long-range) impact velocities. It’s built with a very streamlined shape and has a thin frontal jacket to ensure expansion. The pure-lead core is bonded in to prevent complete fragmentation on impact, ensuring the bullet provides adequate penetration. This particular bullet is one of the new crop of stretched-out, heavy-for-caliber .270 bullets designed for the 27 Nosler and 6.8 Western, both of which feature the fast-twist rifling necessary to stabilize such projectiles. TESTING GROUND Custom knifemaker Evan Siembida used this particular bullet to kill a 150-pound wild pig. Shot distance was 100 yards, and the hog was facing nearly straight on. Muzzle velocity in Siembida’s Browning X-Bolt is 2,830 fps; estimated impact velocity…

Times are changing. Over a century of development and innovation of the big-game rifle has led us to the modern sporter. These rifles wear trim stocks, relatively light contour barrels and handle well in field conditions. More recently, though, we’ve seen rifles that are heavily influenced by the precision shooting community with heavy barrels, chassis-style stocks, oversized bolt handles and the like. With the new Modern Hunting Rifle (MHR), Christensen Arms is bridging the gap between traditional and modular hunting rifles. It has many of the functional design elements of a precision rifle, but in a configuration that incorporates sporting rifle features. A NEW STOCK SOLUTION Let’s start with what is most unique about the MHR. Traditional sporters mate a steel action with a wood or synthetic stock. The interface…

I told Brodie, my client for opening day of bow season, to follow the worn roadbed for 100 yards and then hang a right at the toilet. I’m not sure why there was an abandoned porcelain throne sitting next to a cluster of maple and sweet gum saplings, upright, as if it were still used on occasion, but it was there, and there was no mistaking it as a waypoint to the stand. The wood lot was only 18 acres, but it was a perfect spot for an early season bait set—which, for better or worse, is how most big September whitetails are taken. The south side of the lot was bordered by hundreds of acres of cover and crops. It was flanked on the east and west by houses…

Ignoring all the excitement over modern cartridges, there’s a century-old round that’s not just relevant, it’s profoundly good. At practical hunting distances, and for all nondangerous North American game, the grand old .30-06 offers commanding performance. It’s more potent on elk and moose than any 6.5mm cartridge. And although the .30-06 is not an extreme-range rocket, it’s a sledgehammer of a round that doesn’t recoil excessively. It handles a broad range of bullet weights, including some heavy-for-caliber projectiles that give it genuine elk-thumping authority. Yes, modern cartridges are all the rage across America. In the wide-open West, where the long-range hunting movement has exploded, space-age cartridges are pivotal. The enthusiasm such rounds are whipping up has spread to most hunting demographics, from the big woods of Maine to the swamps…

CHEF. RESTAURATEUR. ADVENTURER. Add television personality to the list, and Mario Kalpou’s resumé reads like a modern-day renaissance man. Kalpou, who hosts the adventure-hunting show Man Eats Wild on the Outdoor Channel, grew up in Australia, helping his father on a rural farm and shadowing his waitress mother. The upbringing taught him both a love for the outdoors and the ways of a commercial kitchen, which has since reflected on his life’s journey in the hunting and hospitality worlds. Man Eats Wild follows Kalpou on adventures around the world as he dives deep into the cultures that connect all of us as hunters and spreads the gospel of wild game wherever he goes. What’s your first memory of hunting and eating wild game? I got started shooting at a really…

TO SAY I was excited about this hunt would be a colossal understatement. I was ecstatic. As I drove my pickup north into Canada, I pictured the mother of all elk hunts. I’d be hunting in a region where huge elk migrated out of Banff National Park. The No. 3 Boone & Crockett bull had been taken there a couple years before my hunt. All things considered, I might connect with my best bull ever. I was accompanying Steve, another hunter who had won this five-day hunt in a sweepstakes as part of a membership drive for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Steve and I would be hunting with Pat and Mike Bates, outfitters who knew the region well. As it turned out, publicity surrounding this hunt generated much local…