Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2023-24 i Game & Fish West

I put the slow-cooker at the end of the long table next to dishes showcasing various other recipes and carefully gave it a stir. A small crowd had gathered, and a few folks were already filling their plates. “Did you make that chili?” asked a friend of a friend, noticing the steam rising from the crock and perhaps catching a whiff of the contents. Like me, she had been invited by our mutual connection to gather after work for a holiday cook-off. “Yep, I did,” I replied. “Would you like to try it?” “What’s in it?” she asked. “Pretty much your standard chili ingredients,” I said, “except I did add a little habanero, and the meat is bear.” “Bear?” she asked with surprise. “I didn’t know you could eat bear…

Hidden behind the blind’s branches, burlap and leaves, I watched as the group of five gadwalls angled toward us and started dropping lower. They were locked in on our winding pocket of water, located a few miles from our accommodations at Cypress Island Lodge in eastern Arkansas. Our decoy spread, comprising a smattering of mallards, wood ducks and ringnecks, drew the birds in like moths to a flame. As they pumped the brakes and dropped their landing gear some 20 yards in front of the blind, our guide Collin Hornbeck issued the command to take them. Four of us poked through the blind and unleashed a barrage of steel and bismuth. The outburst shattered the placid stillness of the small, meandering bayou, but we were too focused on the ducks…

When targeting winter steelhead, choosing a winner from the vast selection of flies available to anglers these days can be overwhelming. These chrome giants are elusive, and the wild rivers where they live add to the challenge. Long droughts between grabs on the fly test our mental fortitude and only increase our anxiety when choosing a fly. However, in my opinion, confidence in fishing a chosen fly far outweighs fly choice. This is a game of finding fish by covering water with a confident presentation to elicit a strike. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago, when I purchased my first spey rod and went on a few guided trips with Fish the Swing owner and head guide Jeff Hickman (fishtheswing.com), that I learned how to confidently swing flies down…

In 2021, Savage Arms introduced its first straight-pull bolt-action rifle, the Impulse. With the release of the Impulse Mountain Hunter, the company continues to push the envelope of innovation and accuracy. In addition to its unique straight-pull action, the Impulse Mountain Hunter features a Proof Research carbon-fiber-wrapped, stainless steel barrel and a durable polymer AccuStock with AccuFit capability. An aluminum receiver with an integral 20-MOA Picatinny rail allows for a variety of optics. Finally, the Mountain Hunter is equipped with the Savage AccuTrigger. The culmination is a lightweight, rugged, user-adjustable rifle designed for tough hunting conditions. While the straight-pull action has been a staple in European rifles for more than 100 years, it’s a newcomer to the American gun market. The premise of its design is speed. A traditional bolt…

Topping a knoll, my buddy Jody Smith and I watched in disbelief as three flocks of turkeys sprinted to the decoys. In the time between setting up two decoys and a pop-up blind, parking the ATV and walking back to the blind to start hunting, it was already too late. More than 45 turkeys attacked with a vengeance, and after nearly 10 minutes of pandemonium, with our decoys now scattered about the field, it was over. The birds dispersed, hens and jennies in one flock, jakes in another and mature toms in their bachelor group. “Did that just happen?” Smith asked. It was mid-January and the first year Oregon extended the fall turkey season through the end of the month. We reset the decoys, got in the blind and gave…

Wildlife fortunes in southeastern Colorado depend on moisture, and for the past half dozen years, drought has gripped the state. Thankfully, last year’s record snowfall in the mountains and timely rains have broken this drought and rejuvenated wildlife and habitats. Critters that live in the desert or extreme climates have evolved in this boom-or-bust environment, and when it rains or when snowmelt rushes down from the mountains, wildlife populations explode. That’s especially true with gamebirds. The last time southeast Colorado had appreciable moisture was 7 or 8 years ago. I was fortunate to join Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologist Jonathan Reitz and Pheasants Forever biologist Cody Strong back in 2014 when quail numbers were high. We chased blue quail for a few days, targeted bobwhite quail on another and experienced…

Since he was 12, Shane had shot a youth model Savage chambered in .243 Winchester. Now that he was four years older, he felt the rifle was too short for him. He wanted a man’s rifle in .270 or .30-06, a brand-new Browning A-Bolt, Remington 700 or, his dream gun, a Winchester Model 70 Featherweight. Christmas was right around the corner, and so began his not-so-subtle lobbying campaign. “Last time I shot my rifle, Dad,” said Shane one evening at the dinner table, “the scope whacked my forehead.” “Yeah, I remember,” said his father. “You’re lucky it didn’t cut you good. We’ll have to slide the scope up an inch for you.” “Dad, I’m 5-foot-9 now. I love my rifle, but it fit me perfectly when I was 4-foot-9.” “It…

On a hunt last year, an outfitter told me he would not allow clients to hunt aoudad with the 6.5 Creedmoor, but that he would permit them to use the 6.5 PRC. An aoudad is a goat-like antelope from northern Africa that was imported into Texas in the 1950s, and a big, free-ranging aoudad ram will weigh about 300 pounds. I found the outfitter’s cartridge restriction surprising and puzzling because the difference between the two cartridges is not that much and might best be represented in yards. Yardage probably seems like an odd way to stipulate the differences between two cartridges, but it makes perfect sense when both cartridges shoot the same bullet. VELOCITY AND RANGE The 6.5 PRC has about a 200 fps (7 percent) velocity advantage over the…

Do you know your wildlife commissioner? If I asked about your state senator or congressman, I bet you’d have a ready answer, but few people know who represents them on state fish-and-game commissions. Because of that blind spot, and because wildlife management—like every other area of public policy—is becoming increasingly politicized, wildlife commissions are the newest front in our ongoing culture war. Here are two recent examples. In 2022, Washington’s Fish and Wildlife Commission surprised resident hunters when it voted to end the state’s long-running spring bear season. The hunt had been managed by fairly restrictive quotas and was intended to target black bears in areas with chronically problematic bear populations. Nonetheless, commissioners cited little scientific basis for the season along with vocal opposition to the hunt in voting to…

Isn’t that why you have four-wheel drive?” my friend Dave taunted. We were looking at the foreboding, snow-covered hump between us and the canyon rumored to harbor the mother of all chukar coveys. He was right. Going deep means adventure, the stuff of campfire stories and social media posts. Four-wheel drive will get you even deeper, especially in winter, but it’s the getting back out that matters most. Along with death and taxes, there’s one more absolute certainty in life: Unless your favorite seat is in front of the TV, someday you’ll get in an off-road pickle. I’ve watched trucks drift downstream, winched cars from ditches and hauled shivering tourists to town. And, yes, I’ve even been stuck a time or two myself. Oscar Wilde said, “Experience is simply the…

I had called myself hoarse, blowing rabbit-in-distress and fawn bleats into every coulee and creek valley in the township. In some of my coyote sets, I had my electronic caller shrieking magpie calls and serenading the prairie with whimpers and yips. But in a half-day of calling, I had seen only two coyotes. One was running flat-out and straight away. The other was hung up on a ridge a half-mile out, looking my way with that twitchy, suspicious posture that coyotes have perfected over a thousand years of persecution. The coyote dropped out of sight, and I moved on. But I didn’t move out. Instead, I traded my heavy coat for a lighter jacket, tucked water and a snack in my fanny pack and cinched my boot laces. I took…

I like open-country mule deer hunting like the kind that’s found in West Texas down near the border. It’s dynamically different than the whitetail hunting I do at home in the Alleghany Mountains, partly because I spend a lot of time behind a binocular and a spotting scope, trying to pick a buck out of the black bush and honey mesquite that litters the landscape. Then, once I find a buck, I still need to size him up at distance to determine if a stalk is worth the effort. I did a lot of that last January while hunting with High West Outfitters just outside of Presidio, Texas, only about 10 miles from the Mexico border. The ranch was immense and butted up against Big Bend Ranch State Park. We…