Field & Stream August/September 2019

I STRUGGLED TO STABILIZE the shaking pronghorn in the lens of the magnified-to-the-max spotting scope. The buck was more than a mile away, but it was clear that he was big enough for a closer look. So my buddy and I got to hatching a stalk plan. That hunt—a DIY trip on state land in Wyoming—went down in 2014, before today’s long-range shooting trend had fully taken hold. My rifle was a well-used, wood-stocked Model 700 chambered in .270. I hadn’t yet heard the words 6.5 Creedmoor, and my scope didn’t have a built-in rangefinder. Given that only five years has passed since that hunt, it is staggering to consider how far shooting technology has come. As you’ll read in “The Long Game” (p. 30), the guns, ammo, and…

Writer and flyfishing guide John Fedorka wrote “Extra Terrestrials” (p. 86), his first-ever story for this magazine. CK: Congrats on your F&S debut, John. JF: Thanks. I like to think of F&S as the Yankees of magazines. Gene Hill is Babe Ruth, Heavey is Don Mattingly, and Cermele is Derek Jeter, you know? My grandfather was a longtime reader. I wish he was around to see my name in it. CK: You guide on the upper Delaware River, which is the unofficial home water of the staff here. How’s the terrestrial bite there? JF: Terrestrials here are a match-the-hatch game—it’s technical. But we have some giant browns, and they love ants, so the fishing can be great. CK: What do you enjoy most about fishing these bugs? JF: I…

•THE SEASON • THE TOTAL OUTDOORSMAN • THE WILD CHEF • ASK PETZAL • SHOTGUNS • FISHING • HUNTING VELVET CAN MAKE THE antlers of even a midsize buck look huge, and make a true monster seem like a mythical creature—which was exactly the vibe I got a few years ago when my neighbor Dave showed me the first trail-cam picture of a giant 10-pointer in late July. Silhouetted against early-morning fog, the buck looked like he had a live oak draped in Spanish moss rooted on his head. His body so dwarfed the doe standing beside him that it looked like he could scoop her up in his rack and flip her over the fence in the background. “What do you think that deer will score?” Dave asked.…

I WENT FROM SERIOUSLY pissed off to a murderous rage at some point in the wee hours of the morning. This was after I’d given up all hope of sleep. My cognitive function was frazzled. My grip on sanity had slipped. By then, my buddy Lee Davis and I had pulled everything out of the back of the truck. We booted the dog. We shoveled sleeping bags and pads, shotguns, dove stools, a cooler, drink cans, bags of chips, and candy bar wrappers into a heaping pile in the cornfield. We pulled out the spare tire and toolbox, and flung them on the ground. There was nothing left but a bare-metal camper shell overhead and the bare-metal bed of a ’73 Chevy pickup below. We scoured every inch with…

At this time of year, you shouldn’t walk out of your house without a pair of binoculars and a rangefinder. Or, if you want to simplify things by throwing money at the problem, the new Vortex Fury HD 5000 rangefinding binoculars ($1,599; vortexoptics.com). The newest Vortex glass ranges out to an incredible 5,000 yards and includes a scan function with which you can actively pan a scene for a continuously updated range reading. It’s useful for dialing in on small targets.…

Often while fishing at a cabin, I eat way too much trout cooked over fire or cast iron,” says Doug Adams, chef at Bullard restaurant in Portland, Oregon. “I love it, but then all I have for breakfast before heading to the river is black coffee. This has a couple of results: an early lunch when I should still be on the river, or a few beers catching up way too quickly in midafternoon.” The solution Adams devised for his morning deprivation: curing the trout he’s caught with a salt, sugar, and dill rub using the ancient Scandinavian method for gravlax. “I can carry it in the truck and eat it on a bagel for a light breakfast,” he says. “And because it’s cured, I can bring the trout…