Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i Game & Fish West

Allow me to be the first to wish you a very Merry Rutvember. As I type this, the lush greenery and bright midday sun of early September outside my office window make the deer rut feel impossibly distant, though I take comfort in knowing that before long we’ll be heading to the woods to partake of the most exciting and unpredictable stage of deer season. Within these pages, you’ll find loads of practical info to help you make the most of the rut where you live. In addition to the deer coverage in your respective regional section, Tony Hansen uses this month’s Bowhunting column to offer his best tips for maintaining your composure and executing the perfect shot when a buck wanders within range of your stand. In the second…

If ever there was a month made of anticipation, it is November, when there is potential in every sunrise. Big deer are on the move, and if we play our cards right, we might get a shot at one. Many of those shots, however, will be missed. Plenty of hunters know how to set stands, scout sign and run trail cams. But all that means little if you can’t make the shot when the moment of truth arrives. Call it buck fever, nerves or just plain panic, it’s the one factor that separates filled tags from stories told with empty hands. The good news? You can prepare for it. You can condition yourself to make the shot when it matters most. Let’s walk through how to keep yourself from choking…

Sooner or later, almost every whitetail neighborhood has a legendary local buck that somehow beats the odds and evades hunters season after season. Especially nowadays with the proliferation of trail cameras, everyone who hunts in the area knows about him and hopes to tag him. Usually, he’s a big boy. Ours was not. Ours was Old Spike, who sported two long, single-tined antlers, each as thick as a shillelagh. One opening morning, thanks to a lucky trail cam photo, I changed my plan and went to the Creek Stand, which features a well-worn creek crossing in front of the stand and a steep ridge behind it. There’s a small oxbow to the left. Shortly after sunrise I heard crunching in the frozen grass behind me, craned my neck and saw…

Muffling the loud snap of the sidelock hammer as it was moved into the firing position was the first step. Pulling the set trigger and deadening its similar deer-alerting click was next. Drips from the melting snow still hanging in the trees provided harmonic cover while the mature blacktail buck continued his nose-to-ground trot straight toward the popup blind I had set up a few weeks earlier. Appearing in my peripheral vision 40 yards to my left, five minutes after the third rattling sequence of the morning, this buck was on the move. Thankfully, he veered away, offering a broadside shot at 21 paces. Raising the stock to my cheek, I settled the freshly scraped steel of the front sight, a bright spot my eye could quickly reference in the…

Browning has a long history of producing quality over/under shotguns dating back to legendary gun designer John M. Browning’s final design, the Superposed shotgun. One of the first affordable—and commercially successful—over/unders, the Superposed was quite popular until rising manufacturing costs in Belgium made it too expensive, and U.S. distribution was eventually discontinued. (Custom Superposed shotguns are still available from Browning’s Custom Shop.) The Citori, introduced in 1973 and produced in Japan, drew heavily from the Superposed and proved to be a fantastic gun itself, ultimately replacing the Superposed within the company’s lineup. With more than 2 million sold since its introduction, the Citori remains one of the most popular over/unders ever. Many variations have followed, each offering new styles and improvements. One of the more significant arrived in 2012 with…

REGIONAL RUT UPDATE Game & Fish’s annual rut updates from the field are in full swing. Check out what is happening in your area and learn how to game-plan for your deer hunts this month. DEAR, SANTA … Can’t decide what to put on your Christmas list? Need ideas for what to get the hunters and anglers in your life? Check out this list of great gifts for people who enjoy the outdoors. TIPS AND TRICKS TO BAG BIG BUCKS Read how to set yourself up for success this deer hunting season. Find out how and where to tag your best buck ever in the “Learn” section. TOP WHITETAIL STATES See how the deer hunting stacks up from state to state based on hard data, including historical harvest records, trophy…

As much as we all look forward to the annual whitetail rut and the potential for a big-buck encounter at any moment during a hunt, the breeding season can often be feast or famine for hunters. I’ve had mornings—you probably have as well—when bucks run does this way and that, grunt, snort-wheeze and lock horns. I’ve also hunted from dawn to dark for days on end without seeing a single deer during what should’ve been the peak of the rut. One way to win the rut game, or at least improve your chances, is through the strategic placement of trail cameras to keep tabs on target bucks during a time when their movements are almost completely unpredictable. SURVEIL SCRAPES Scrapes are an excellent location to capture photos and videos of…

Pacific Northwest muzzleloader hunters seeking space to roam for blacktails encounter less hunting pressure than those who hunt during the more popular archery and rifle seasons. Oregon offers eight limited-entry muzzleloader hunts for blacktails during the November and early-December rut. The Applegate unit, located in the southwest part of the state, and the McKenzie unit in the central Cascade Mountains, provide extensive public-land access and attract the most applicants. The Trask and Chetco units also include large public areas, giving hunters a chance to observe rut activity in the Coast Range mountains. Washington offers both general and limited-entry, late-season hunts for blacktails across most hunt units in the western part of the state. Non-residents can use a general deer license to access many blacktail hunts. Similar to Oregon, the muzzleloader…

There’s no mystery to growing big bucks,” explained Uncle Chuck. “They need food, good genetics and a chance to age.” Shane listened intently. He’d heard about the bucks his uncle had taken over the years, and now he and his father had made the drive to Kansas to hopefully collect a wall-hanger of his own. “As for the food, that’s why I spend so much time working my plots. With genetics, either you’ve got them or you don’t. But as you can see, we’re blessed here,” he said, nodding at the mounts on the cabin’s wall. “And if a buck gets shot before he’s mature, he can’t reach full potential. That’s why we don’t shoot any bucks younger than six years old.” “Six years at least. Got it,” said Shane.…

Veterans have always driven the popularity of hunting rifles. World War I veterans moved us away from the lever gun toward the bolt action while also cementing the legend of the .30-06. After World War II and Korea, semi-auto rifles like Remington’s Model 742 and Winchester’s Model 100 were wildly popular. The AR-15 flourished after the recent Middle East conflicts, especially as the platform’s modularity grew. Thus, for the past several decades, we’ve seen many new AR-15-compatible cartridges introduced, and all of them have hunting applications. With more than a dozen such cartridges, hunters wanting to use a modern sporting rifle have many choices. Maybe the best way to select one is to think of the end purpose. There are four basic applications to consider: recreational shooting, varmint/predator hunting, deer-sized…

You might recall the heated debate back in June over whether to include the sale of millions of acres of federal land in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Utah Senator Mike Lee, along with several of his Republican colleagues, had proposed selling up to 1 percent of BLM and Forest Service land to help balance the federal budget. That idea so riled up hunters and anglers that Lee eventually abandoned his idea of selling public lands across the West, which he said would have been used for affordable housing. You may have participated in this legislative drama by calling your senator or representative to tell them that, as we’re losing traditional access to private lands, and as more hunters and anglers crowd our existing public lands and waters, the idea…

A big storm was forecast, and with it more than three inches of rain. My buddy and I hiked to a slough on the river and set three cellular trail cameras pointing over water that was barely ankle deep. The storm hit the following afternoon, and within 24 hours the river came up 11 feet. More rain fell than expected. When the river began rising, wood ducks quickly moved in, followed by green-winged teal and ring-neck ducks. When the river hit its peak, it floated logs onto each shoreline, and when those logs became jammed with preening and roosting mallards, it was game on. Two days after the storm hit, four of us hiked to the slough. We tossed a dozen floating decoys into the hole and spread another dozen…

I don’t think tight family groups are going to draw them in this time,” I said to my cohorts. “We’ll have to run a U formation to finish them close or a J hook to at least get them passing left to right.” Late-season waterfowl hunting poses unique challenges. By now, the birds have seen every decoy spread, heard every call and flared at every poorly concealed blind. Once the late season rolls around, the key is adapting your spread, calling strategy and blind placement to outwit increasingly wary birds. Let’s tackle the first on the list and dive into some late-season decoy strategies that may help you pack out full straps while other hunters are packing it in. SKINNY-WATER SPREAD By the time the late season rolls around, most…

Wherever chukar hunters come together, at feed stores, veterinarian’s offices and more often over burgers and beers, the talk eventually turns to the boom-and-bust nature of our favorite bird. Chukar hunting, by its very nature, is an up-and-down game, and right now the weather patterns have lined up with healthy bird populations to shoot chukar numbers to historic highs. Most of the Western states keep track of chukar harvest, and a careful look at the statistics suggests that chukar populations seem to run in 10-year cycles. If the chukar population could be plotted on an ogive line graph, it might show a blow-off top once every third decade or so. One Western state in particular, is enjoying a chukar boom some hunters are saying will be the best of our…

In its nearly 80-year history, Ruger has introduced many rifles and handguns that have become revered by hunters and gun aficionados. The Ruger Precision Rifle (RPR), a factory chassis rifle introduced in 2015 and offering 1-MOA-or-better accuracy, is often overlooked. Now in its tenth year of production, the RPR received a facelift in early 2025 based on feedback from competitive shooters and other end users. The most notable enhancement is the redesigned foldable buttstock, which allows for intuitive and secure adjustment to conform to any shooter or style. The length of pull, cheek rest height, horizontal position and butt pad height can all be adjusted, and the new buttstock is available for current RPR owners to purchase separately ($350). Other new features include a heavier contour barrel (.850 inch), a…