Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2023-24 i Petersen's Hunting

Like many people who grew up in the last half of the last millennium, my view of the world outside was informed by National Geographic magazines, as well as television programs like “Wild America” with Marty Stouffer and “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.” I also had access to a shelf full of Encyclopedia Brittanicas and subscriptions to several magazines, including Boy’s Life, Sports Afield and Backpacker. The nearby library, which I frequented often, kept other outdoor magazines on hand, including early issues of Petersen’s HUNTING. My mother always encouraged me to read whatever I wanted. Though, in my teenage years, she did draw the line at Hit Parader and Creem. Mom bought me books. Dad took me duck hunting. It’s these two basic facts that are at the core of…

SCI’S CONVENTION is just one month away. Building off last year’s record-breaking success, we are back in Nashville, Tenn. from January 31-February 3, 2024, at Music City Center. The annual Convention, called “the Super Bowl of hunting shows” by Forbes magazine, truly has something for everyone. Featuring the world’s premier outfitters, guides, hunters, entertainment, hunting lifestyle products and more, this is a show you won’t want to miss. This year’s theme “The Future of Hunting” reflects our commitment to the next generation of hunters. This means getting more people involved in hunting, and critically, fighting for the future. SCI Advocacy defends our freedom to hunt every day in the state, federal, legal and international arenas. The threats are constant, but SCI is everywhere we need to be and first in…

Whether you’re heading down the road in your rig or flying on a bush plane deep into wet, wild Alaska, a good soft gun case is a must. RUGID Gear’s 48-inch case fits a shotgun or scoped rifle and is fully waterproof to protect your firearm from the elements. It also floats if you end up taking a dip in the drink. The interior padding is ¾-inch thick and can be easily removed for cleaning if necessary. $150; rugidgear.com Looking for a new boot for your next adventure? Meindl’s EuroLight Hunters are designed for early to mid-season use and feature 9-inch nubuck leather uppers with reinforced toe caps. Flex-Zone Venting allows the boot to breathe and flex naturally with your foot for sustained all-day comfort, and the Meindl DUO-DUR III…

Why are some hunters still skeptical over chronic wasting disease? After all, CWD kills every deer it infects, it’s spreading across the country and it’s a major threat to the future of deer hunting. Anyone who doubts any of that is a fringe “CWD denier,” right? I haven’t heard many people deny that CWD is a real threat, but after decades of hysterics, some are asking valid questions about the control measures state agencies use to fight it. You know the ones: carcass transport restrictions, bans on minerals and bait, bans on deer urine and population control measures like increased bag limits and even government sharpshooting. Agencies enact these regulations and insist they’re for the good of the resource. Affected and disillusioned hunters ask in turn, “Is this really stopping…

FOR MORE than 20 years, hunting big Coues deer has been my obsession. As my drive to hunt these diminutive desert dwellers escalates, and my chances of being drawn in my home state of Arizona dwindle, I also apply for deer in New Mexico to “double” my odds. Truthfully, my chances of being drawn in the Land of Enchantment are just as slim as they are in Arizona; however, I have managed to draw a few tags to feed my addiction. From 2018 to 2022, I drew three tags in the same game management unit (GMU) in New Mexico. The first two hunting experiences were drastic in comparison and lessons learned on those first two hunts helped me garner success on the third, putting me back in the win column.…

THE MULE DEER doe lay on the highway, her body shattered from the collision with a vehicle. All of her legs were broken, blood issued from her ears and nose, yet she was able to hold her head up. I drove by slowly and our eyes made contact. As I continued by, her eyes followed mine and I was struck with a profound dose of sorrow I had never experienced before when confronted with a dying animal. I’m not embarrassed to say tears drained down my cheeks. I knew she was imploring me to put her out of her horrific pain. “Kill me,” she was saying. I didn’t have a firearm in my vehicle at the time, but I knew my buddy behind me had a gun in his truck.…

Robert Ruark famously wrote: “[The Cape buffalo] looked as if I had despoiled his fiancé, murdered his mother, and burned down his house. He looked at me as if I owed him money. I never saw such malevolence in the eyes of any animal or human being, before or since.” That assessment rings as true today as it has for as long as man and beast have coexisted on the African plains. A dagga boy, as old, solitary bulls are called, has a well-earned reputation for toughness and meanness that makes them one of the Africa’s most dangerous game animals. A bull’s attitude, and the courage it takes to face it, also makes Cape buffalo one of the most sought-after trophies among hunters. Even sportsmen who don’t have that itch…

BULLET BASICS ELD-X is an acronym for Extremely Low Drag—eXpanding. A state-of-the-art, highly aerodynamic bullet designed for long-range hunting, it features a profile optimized by in-flight Doppler Radar testing. A “Heat Shield” composite tip enhances flight characteristics, resists in-flight erosion to maintain consistent, minimal drag and initiates immediate, dramatic expansion on impact. The jacket is thin at the front and becomes thicker near the base to arrest expansion. When designed, the protocol Hornady engineers worked under required target-bullet accuracy; as a result, the ELD-X is one of the most forgivingly accurate hunting bullets ever designed. TESTING GROUND A friend used the bullet shown to take a sable bull in South Africa, using a Kimber rifle chambered in .280 Ackley Improved. Mature bulls weigh about 500 pounds and are relatively heavy…

It didn’t take very long for the 6.5 Creedmoor, which was designed as a target round, to take the hunting world by storm. Part of this popularity was practical while much of it was pure hype. This little cartridge ate up market share quickly, robbing much of it from the .270 Winchester. The .270 originally made its hay with its light recoil (relative to the .30-06) and flat trajectory. The Creedmoor took the light recoil factor further and, thanks to modern ballistic software and elevation turrets, trajectory isn’t the big deal that it was in the mid-20th Century. I won’t say the .270 Winchester is ever going away, but it is certainly losing popularity when it came to newly built rifles. Some important folks decided that the .270 was too…

IT WAS MIDMORNING when my binoculars found a young bull elk in the bottom of the coulee. Using the terrain, we snuck to a vantage point, and instead of a single bull, there was a bachelor herd of seven hidden there. A quick analysis of wind, sun and terrain took us in a big circle around the bulls to sneak into position. A couple of tall antlers were in the group, leaving no doubt of a chance at a trophy prairie bull. The bulls were less than a half mile from a larger herd of 40 elk. Two hours after sunrise found us between the groups of elk. I could feel the wind change and hit the back of my neck. The big elk herd was now directly downwind, and…

I couldn’t even guess how many miles my Cabela’s Bullet-Proof Gun Case has traveled. Tens of thousands surely, maybe even into the hundreds of thousands. It’s rolled through countless airports on skate-style wheels, been tossed by hundreds of baggage handlers and bumped around in the back of pickups on dusty trails the world over. It’s carried my rifles to every continent other than Antarctica and every gun cradled in the dense, closed-cell foam interior has made it across the globe and back unscathed (and almost always still on target). What may even be more impressive is the aluminum shell shows minimal wear after 20+ years of traveling. Sure, it’s scratched and dirty, and covered with a few security stickers, but otherwise, appears unscathed without even a dent. The handles still…

August 29, 2023. An early fall day in the Arctic. We caught the bear on the beach just a couple miles from the village. About 80 yards away, my son-in-law Brad Jannenga knelt beside a stout boulder, then shot the bear carefully (and effectively) with his Heym .375 H&H. A few days earlier, we saw a smaller bear along the shoreline. Later, we found another bedded up on a rocky ridge far from the bay, out of the wind. The largest of the three, this third bear was not a giant, just a nice polar bear. My call would have been the same. Texan Phil Bryant was in camp when we arrived. Phil shot his bear the day before Brad. He’d waited out some weather and also saw several bears…