Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2018 i Field & Stream

AS THIS, OUR “AMERICAN ICONS ISSUE,” was coming together, I couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about it. After all, a lot of hard work went into the stories you’re about to read. We interviewed 10 legendary outdoorsmen for their most lasting bits of wisdom (p. 68); we dusted off some classic and timeless outdoor tools, all made in the U.S.A., for a special gear section (p. 59); and most exciting, we sent writers and photographers to some of the most beautiful wild places in the country to celebrate and showcase the greatest resource we, as sportsmen, have—our public lands (p. 27). There was, and is, a lot to be proud of in these pages. But then on Dec. 4, 2017, just as we were wrapping the issue, President Trump…

DESTINATION DUCK “Study Abroad” (Hunting, Nov. 2017) was great. After reading about Brantley’s weeklong duck shooting adventure, Argentina is now on my bucket list. Gunner, via fieldandstream.com A RIGHTEOUS RITUAL Thank you, Bill Heavey, for “The World’s Greatest Stag Party,” a wonderful article that shows what everyday hunting means to those of us in the bush. The buck pole is a great tradition. Devon Craig, Plainfield, Vt. I’ve been to Pat & Gary’s buck pole extravaganza in Indian River, Mich., and memories of all those good times flooded my mind as I read this story. It captures the wholesome camaraderie and friendly fun there, that’s for sure. Thank you, Bill Heavey, for sharing your experience with one of northern Michigan’s greatest traditions. Scott Bazzani, Southgate, Mich. GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN…

Shock-gobbling is a weakness in the turkey’s armor, since it gives away a tom’s location on the roost. Hunters can use this to their advantage in areas they’ve never hunted; the technique is great in big woods like the Black Hills. The most common locator calls mimic an owl or crow and are most effective just before daylight. I like the H.S. Mega Hoot Owl Call ($12; hunterspec.com), which takes some practice but makes lifelike calls. If you’re able to get a tom to answer, move in on his turf and surprise him with a couple of hen yelps at daylight.…

Wading boots with interchangeable soles are all the rage right now. Of course, you’ll rage a lot when those soles come off at the wrong time during a wade. While I’ve had this issue with several boot makers, Hodgman’s new Aesis H-Lock boots with Boa laces (starting at $180; hodgman.com) have bucked the trend. A unique snap-and-turn locking mechanism keeps the soles solidly in place on any kind of bottom, while making swaps from studs to felt to rubber easy.…

I know of a place in the Madison Valley where ancient hunters hazed pronghorns over a small set of cliffs, to kill or cripple them and to give those hungry humans, who at the time had neither guns nor bows, an edge on an animal that can run 60 mph. There were, at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition, millions of pronghorns on the American plains. We managed to drive them almost to extinction by the 1920s, but we also managed—almost entirely through the conservation efforts of hunters—to recover the species to almost 1 million today. The pronghorn is a long-wandering, migratory animal, and we are just now, through decades of research by wildlife biologists, coming to understand how it lives and travels. Part of that understanding involves…

Bristol Bay, with its monstrous Bering Sea tides, is the gathering point for the world’s largest salmon run—an estimated 56 million sockeyes and countless kings, chums, silvers, and pinks. It is the most economically valuable salmon run on earth; $480 million worth of fish are caught here annually, providing thousands of jobs. But that figure cannot do real justice to the place or to its importance as one of the last and most intact wilderness regions left on the planet. Everything that we started with as human beings is still there, all of the oldest powers—the caribou herds, the wolves and grizzlies, lynx, wolverines, moose, waterfowl, pike, char, and grayling. Even though many of us in the Lower 48 might never see it, we rest easier knowing that such a…

WE HAVE A TENDENCY to use words to death, to the point where they lose their meaning, and foremost among these is iconic. Today, if something works reasonably well and keeps our attention for 15 minutes, it’s “iconic.” The dictionary says iconic means “widely known and acknowledged, especially for distinctive excellence.” In the case of hunting and fishing equipment, it also means gear that’s proved itself not over a few years but over half a century or so. In compiling this highly nonscientific list, the editors selected items that not only are still made in America, by American companies, but that also established a standard when they came out and maintain that standard today. Coming up with these selections was a brain-buster, because a great deal of the hunting and…

Nosler Partition Bullet Because very few objects made by the hand of man work all the time—and Partitions are one. They always expand and they always penetrate. —D.E.P. Lodge Cast-Iron Skillet Because it’s been making perfect campfire eggs and backstrap since before the West was won. —M.R.S. Leatherman Multitool Because Yankee ingenuity beats the Swiss Army. The Leatherman put a tool kit on our belts. The original PST has evolved into the Rebar, one of a zillion tools Leatherman makes in Portland, Ore. —P.B. Case Trapper Knife Because with a clip point for gutting and a spey blade for skinning, it’s the original hunter’s pocket knife. Some elk guides still break down bulls with a Trapper and an ax. —M.R.S. Ka-Bar USMC Fighting Knife Because it was good enough for…

March is a big month for our resident Wild Chef, Jonathan Miles. His third novel, Anatomy of a Miracle, hits stores (and Amazon) on the 18th. The book tells the story of Cameron Harris, a paraplegic veteran living in Mississippi who, one day, inexplicably stands up—and then steps into the celebrity spotlight as people from all over begin to debate his miraculous recovery. I haven’t read the book yet, but I loved Miles’s previous novels—and his writing for F&S, of course—and while I know you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can trust me this time: We’re all in for a hell of a story.…

IT WAS HIS jackleg float tube that really drove me crazy. I’d bought a brand-new camo belly boat for duck hunting—one of the first models that involved more than a Cordura-covered truck-tire inner tube— and my buddy Lee Davis and I had scouted the perfect duck swamp to give belly-boat hunting a whirl. When Davis showed up in the dark, however, he toted a Beverly Hillbillies version of my ride. He’d lashed a sky-blue boat cushion into the donut hole of a used inner tube from an 18-wheeler. “Really, dude?” I said. “I got up at three o’clock in the morning for this hunt, and you show up with a yard-sale boat?” He just grinned and easily bore it. Davis was used to being chided for leaning on gumption rather…

The greater sage grouse was once an iconic feature of the western sagebrush steppes. As late as the 1970s, there were an estimated half million of the big native grouse left. Today, there are maybe 200,000, and those numbers are falling fast. Why? Mostly because the sagebrush steppe has never been valued for the treasure it is—a vast system of native grasses and forbs that supports everything from pronghorns to the mightiest mule deer bucks. We’ve poisoned it, grazed it, plowed it, drilled it. There are still opportunities to hunt these birds, but if their numbers continue to fall, of course, and if the sage grouse becomes federally protected as an endangered species, hunting them will end. What would be most sad about that? The fact that we have just…

At the bow of the canoe, I dug my paddle into the last stretch of broken water and pushed hard toward the sheet ice. Rising up onto the frozen water, the boat teetered, as if deciding which way to tip. My stomach twisted, knowing the rest of me was going for a swim. As the canoe began to go over, I instinctively threw my arms over my head, paddle in the air. With that, a loud crack erupted under and before us. The ice broke, the boat settled, and I was still dry. I looked back at my buddy Clay Tietjen in the stern, his arms still in the air, and we had a good laugh. Behind us our friend Mike Bard and photographer Christopher Testani were in a 12-foot…

Realtree and Mossy Oak Because virtually every American hunter (and many nonhunters) owns something decked in one of these two patterns— a gun or a coat, or just as likely, a cellphone case or bedspread. —Will Brantley Filson Tin Chaps Because frayed, worn, hard-loved chaps say you are neither a greenhorn nor a poser. But start early. Takes a solid decade to get them right. —T. Edward Nickens Stormy Kromer Hat Because you’ll look like a dork, but your head will be warm and the sun will be out of your eyes, so who cares? —D.E.P. L.L. Bean Boots Because while 90 percent go to people who would faint at the sight of a downed grouse, they cost just $120, keep your feet dry, and wear literally forever. —D.E.P. Carhartt…

Cortland Fly Line Because anyone who’s been flyfishing for 30 years or more probably made his first loops with a spool of Cortland’s classic 333 Trout line. —J.C Snag Proof Frog Because every one of today’s flashy topwater amphibians is ultimately a spin-off of this original hollowbody frog—and because it still smashes bass. —J.C. Eagle Claw Hooks Because if you have hooks, there’s a very good chance this company made them, in Denver, as they have since 1925. —J.C. Orvis Superfine Because these smallstream rods have been beating cutthroats in canyon trickles and brookies in pocket water since long before you ever heard the word tenkara. —J.C. Simms Waders Because they’ll take a beating for years, and if you finally bust them, the same American hands that made them in…

GEAR REVIEWS YOU CAN TRUST WE’VE COME A LONG WAY from the cane pole and bobber. So, too, have the manufacturers of fishing gear, whether it’s a bomb proof reel, a cooler built like a brick outhouse, or a portable sonar for a kayak. You may be part of the dawn patrol for stripers or prefer to cast to small, rock-strewn pools for leadershy brown trout. No matter. Here are 24 products and 25 lures designed to help you make the most of your days on the water. Maybe most important, each one bears the stamp of approval from the FIELD & STREAM editor who tested it where it counts. SHIMANO TRANX 300 & 400 $280–$300 • fish.shimano.com The Tranx 500 has been a staple among muskie fishermen and inshore…

For the assignment that resulted in this issue’s cover and the images for “Hills to Die On” (p. 46), photographer Andrew Hetherington got to experience his first elk hunt. CK: What was the toughest part of the trip? AH: It was certainly physically challenging covering the terrain with all of my gear and taking photos as we went along. This region is called the Durfee Hills for a reason — there was plenty of elevation. CK: How were the wildgame suppers at camp? AH: Very good. We had moose sausages one night and ate elk loin only hours after it had been killed another night. The preparation wasn’t fancy, but it was tasty. CK: What was the most satisfying part of the trip? AH: What struck me most was the…

In a world roaring with our machinery, paved with our roads, and running on the dings and buzzes of cellphones, there is a lot to be said for a vast expanse of nothingness. But to call central Wyoming’s Red Desert “nothingness” is to miss one of the most overlooked parts of the American West. Quiet, yes. Isolated, to the nth degree. Empty, it is not. The country will unfold before you. North, there are the dramatic mountain ranges—the Wind Rivers, the Tetons, the Absarokas. South, the Colorado Rockies explode. There are sage grouse aplenty here. The nation’s largest migratory pronghorn herd, 50,000 strong, roams here along with the nation’s only true desert elk herd. Thousands of mule deer live here, too, as nomadic as the wind, moving with the seasons.…

We have been born into the greatest, freest nation on earth, with the most wildlife, the best fishing, and the most access to forest, desert, swamp, and river. But to whom much is given, much is expected. There will be no way to keep our hunting and fishing—our American icons of wilderness and wildlife—if we are not willing to fight for them. If we cannot set aside our smaller differences of opinion and present a united front to fight for the things we cannot live without, we will be forced to learn to live without them. We will be told that we cannot have jobs and energy development if we protect the migration routes of pronghorns, the winter ranges of mule deer, or the dancing grounds of sage grouse. That’s…

Marlin Model 336 Because there’s one in just about every big-woods deer camp—and because of all the classic lever deer guns, the 336 is the only one still made here by the original company. —D.H. Colt M1911 Because the 107-year-old design is the American fighting pistol, having proved itself from the trenches to the jungles to the deserts. Nothing points like it. And it rides pretty well on your hip while you’re checking trail cameras, too. —W.B. Smith & Wesson Model 29 Because for decades Dirty Harry’s hand cannon, which introduced the .44 Magnum cartridge, was the most powerful handgun in the world—and it still makes an impressive boom. —W.B. Ithaca Model 37 Because it’s been made for 80 years, first in New York, now in Ohio, and there are…

THEY SAY there’s a fine line between stubbornness and stupidity, but I’ve never seen it. I’ve already whiffed twice on big Kansas bucks. So when Steve Stucky, son of my old friend Richard, invites me to Pretty Prairie for early muzzleloader, I jump on it. Now, talking with him outside his farmhouse, he wants to show me the rack of the buck his oldest son, Carter, 9, took last year. The boy scampers off and returns wobbling under the weight of what looks like two bonsai sycamore trees, riots of tines elbowing each other in the surge skyward. The rack looks like frozen violence, at once huge and compressed, as if it were meant for two bucks but somebody screwed up the paperwork. I fall in love on the spot.…