Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Outdoor Life

DID YOU KNOW? Rangefinders for shooting and hunting have optical coatings that diminish light transmission but boost visibility of the display. HOW WE TEST LASER RANGEFINDERS ARE really just intricate timepieces, designed to measure the length of time an emitted beam of light takes to return to the unit from a reflected surface. Because the speed of light is constant, the time lapse reveals the distance to the target. Our test determined each unit’s sensitivity and maximum range capability by lasing three types of targets: reflective (steel barn roofs from 1,200 to 2,400 yards), non-reflective (a bear hide at 100 yards), and a series of shrubs anywhere from 400 to 1,200 yards. We also measured each unit’s minimum-distance capability. Then we judged accuracy by lasing a series of targets at…

It was just an hour into our all-night hog-hunting marathon, and I was nauseous. Half-empty Red Bulls and Monsters were parked in every cup holder of Brett Jepsen’s pickup, and the sweet stench of warm energy drinks hung in the Texas air. It was going to be a long night. “Hang in there. It’s the stalking and the shooting between the driving and spotting that makes you forget all about being sick and tired,” said Jepsen, co-owner of Three Curl Outfitters in Midlothian, Texas. “Pigs are smart, but ARs with thermals are too.” In those places where wild hogs are taking over the countryside, hunters and land managers say that 70 percent of feral hogs must be killed each year to simply keep their numbers stable. Thermal-imaging riflescopes and spotting…

We need to know if you’re with us or against us.” Stern. Accusatory. Ominous. The email came from a group advocating for mandatory antler point restrictions here in Michigan. They were “fed up” with those who would “work against them” (including me, apparently) and tried to make it clear they had the backing to impose their will. Resistance, they implied, is not only futile but may result in public humiliation, banishment from their social media community, and, perhaps, an effort to end the careers of any who speak out against them. The topic at hand? Deer hunting. Seriously. Very, very seriously. Used to be talking politics was the quickest way to raise hackles. Now, deer hunting debates can cause similar reactions. Another measure of the seriousness of hunting: the “swagger.”…

Few hunts are more exciting than chasing fall turkeys with a well-trained dog. Turn one loose in a block of woods and he’ll find and scatter every flock on the landscape. All you have to do is call the birds back in as they try to regroup Don’t have a dog? Don’t fret. You don’t need a setter to find and bust a flock of turkeys in the fall. Be your own dog. BUST THE ROOST There’s no better way for you to bust up a flock of fall turkeys than by walking under their roost. That’s usually all it takes. You don’t need to yell or shoot or wave your arms, but it is helpful to move quickly through the roost site once you flush the first bird. Catching…

IT SEEMED MORE like an eruption of dried brush and leaves than the classic flight path of a fleeing buck. I’d blown it big time, and by the time I’d regained my wits, the big 8-point had jumped a creek and was zigzagging his way up a wooded hillside before disappearing into a thick stand of hemlocks. The unmistakable noise of his wide rack snapping dead branches suddenly stopped, however, as if the buck had either broken into an opening or had stopped dead. But I knew that there were no openings. I immediately dropped to my knees and slowly brought my binocular up to my face. The buck had indeed stopped behind a fallen tree and was staring at his backtrack. He remained still as a statue for several…

WE PAY ALL KINDS OF ATTENTION to the bows we carry afield—their cams, accessories, strings. We spend hours tuning and fussing and refining. We affix high-dollar sights and stabilizers and quivers to them. We revere the finished product as a tool of performance and precision. Then we toss it in the back seat of a truck and go bouncing along to the woods. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? A utilitarian tool and the first line of defense (in many instances, the only line) against snapped sight pins, crushed quivers, and other hazards, a case is also one of the most overlooked pieces of gear in a bowhunter’s arsenal. Don’t make that mistake. Here’s a primer on case options and the features to look for in each. SOFT CASES When…

There’s a little lever on the side of most semi-automatic handguns. It’s called the slide stop. It’s there for a reason. When you’ve fired the last round in your pistol’s magazine, the magazine’s follower pushes up against the slide stop and causes it to catch in a recess in the pistol’s slide. This, in turn, causes the slide to be locked back. When you see and/or feel this, it’s a good indication your pistol is out of ammo. A slide stop can also be handy when you’re conducting maintenance or trying to clear a particularly stubborn stoppage. Some firearms instructors teach that the slide stop should be used as a slide release. Now, I’m not going to say this is wrong, unsafe, or even immoral. What I want is to…

When Wayne Shelby isn’t guiding for turkeys, hogs, or gators on his employer’s ranch, he’s fattening cattle and fixing fences. For him, finding spare time is like finding a pot o’ gold. But I asked him if he’d like to go fishing one evening anyway. “I think I’ll go,” he said as he wiped his sweaty brow with a forearm and glanced at the baitcaster in my hand. “If we can fish my way.” “Sure,” I said, surprised and unsure whether it was a joke. “And what way is that?” “Let me run and get the crickets.” A few minutes later, Shelby reappeared with a pot full of crickets, a cooler of beer, and cane poles lying in the back of his flatbed. “Ever caught a pounder bluegill?” he asked.…

One of the things I love most about hunting is its intimacy. Not only the life-and-death relationship we hunters have with the animals we pursue, but also the privacy of the experience. Hunting is something that happens without an audience. At least, that’s how it’s been for most of human existence. But as technology intrudes on this most primal activity, hunting has become more public, observed, scrutinized, and judged by people far removed from the experience. We at Outdoor Life are as guilty of focusing the lens of scrutiny as anyone. After all, our business is to promote hunting, fishing, and other outdoor sports. We are hardly alone. A whole industry has grown up around providing an audience— of television and social-media viewers, and magazine readers— to hunters who have…

The daily patterns and seasonal behaviors that we use to scout whitetails so effectively have limited value when it comes to mule deer. Across most of their range, public-land mule deer do not live out their lives in 3 or 4 square miles. Nor do they follow easily predictable patterns. Mule deer are, for the most part, wilderness animals roaming where they wish from day to day, seldom leaving a hoofprint in the same piece of ground from one week to another. However, one constant informs where you’re likely to find mule deer from month to month: elevation. Vertical topography dictates where deer travel to feed, water, and rest. Elevation preferences change based on a number of factors, primarily seasonal weather but also hunting pressure, predation, and non-hunting human disturbance.…

I was on the phone not long ago with one of my buddies and I asked him what he was up to. He told me he was at the range “turning gunpowder into smiles.” Maybe I was in a particularly foul mood that day, but his sappy pronouncement made me want to slap him. I enjoy pulling triggers as much as the next guy—but c’mon, have a little dignity Well, fate can be kind of funny. I’ve been shooting the new Henry .410 Lever Action for the past few months and have been utterly charmed by it. But when I think about what the gun is actually good for, only a couple of things come to mind. First off, it makes for a terrific thick-cover small-game gun. Secondly, it would…

The oldest known waterfowl to be banded and recovered in North America was a Canada goose that lived for 30 years and four months. That’s 30 autumns of avoiding predators and hunters’ guns. The point: Geese are waterfowling’s ultimate survivalists. We might have a bounty of birds—both resident and migratory populations of geese are either stable or increasing in almost every flyway—but consistently taking geese has never been more challenging. That’s because over just a few generations, honkers have adapted to evade standard hunting tactics. Other forces working against the modern-day goose hunter include more efficient farming practices, unpredictable fall weather, and changing migration patterns. To kill educated geese, hunters must adapt as well. HARDCORE TACTICS By Alex Robinson 1. SCOUTING: WATCH AND WAIT Ryan Breish, an accomplished waterfowler…

DRIVES ARE A PROVEN way to get deer up and moving, especially later in the season when they’ve gone nocturnal. Assembling a platoon of buddies and orchestrating a big drive can be more work than fun, though. There’s a better, more efficient way that involves just you and a trusted buddy— and it’s not effective only late in the season. In the right situations, the two of you can punch all the tags you want by making a few wellplanned drives. The Nudge IT’S JUST ABOUT IMPOSSIBLE to drive deer with only one other hunter, but you aren’t really driving them as much as you are encouraging them to move in the right direction. Call it a soft push. The last thing you want to do is spook deer. Some…

HUNTING ACROBATIC teal, early-season geese, and beautifully plumed wood ducks is great. But for most of us, real waterfowling starts when the weather turns cold—when those big northern greenheads start making their way south. They show up in waves, bombing backwaters and picking through farm fields. And then, they’re gone. Here’s how to make the most of the migration. TIP Don’t over-call late-season mallards. Instead, call to them at the far ends of their circle as they loop around your spread. TIME THE FLIGHT ▪ THE FIRST STEP to success is being in the right spot during the peak of the migration. There are two types of mallard migrants: those that trickle down throughout the season and the coldweather holdouts. If you scout diligently, you can have good shoots on…

BETWEEN THE ACTION of opening weekend and the cold-weather migration in November, there’s often a doldrums in the duck season. During this week (or two), you can either sit it out and wait for fresh migrators, or you can pull yourself up by the wader straps and scratch out a few birds by jump-shooting. Here’s how to make sure that belly crawling is worthwhile. SLEEP IN • JUMP-SHOOTING is a midday tactic. It’s poor form to try to jump birds while other hunters are set up with their decoys. Besides, ducks are more likely to be moving in the morning and evening. FIND THE HIDEOUT • YOU’VE GOT to locate birds that are resting in a spot you can sneak to undetected. For jump-shooters, smaller is usually better. Find out-of-the-way…

“YOU HAVE THE greatest computer in existence sitting on your shoulders. You just need to get out of the way and let it work!” That advice was given to me about 30 years ago from a shotgun shooting coach, and I never forgot it. When I stopped trying to “aim” my shotgun and started pointing it, the clay birds broke. Point shooting, also called instinctive shooting, is also a very useful defensive handgun skill. But like any skill, you need to practice to develop it. 20 FEET AND IN ▪ BRUCE PIATT is one of the top shooters in the world and was a trainer for the New Jersey State Police. He told me everything within 20 feet should be point shooting with a defensive handgun. In a defensive situation,…

THEY ARE EASY TO SPOT—dozens of them, silhouetted against the starry night sky, with cold, wet neoprene waders clinging to their bodies. They launch cast aft er cast from the surf out past the breakers or along rock jetties. They have come for the fall striper run, and the commitment is no joke. From September to December, from Massachusetts to the Jersey Shore, people lose jobs, break commitments, and fall off the grid in the dogged pursuit of striped bass. To them, absolutely nothing matters but the drive to catch a giant striped bass. THE CRAZY ONE ▪ Montauk, known as the mecca of striped bass fishing, is where “Crazy” Alberto Knie has spent more than 40 autumns building his reputation as a preeminent striper sharpie. For a surfcaster, a…

Waterfowl shotguns must be reliable and tough. Synthetic stocks are mandatory, camo finishes preferable. The extra firepower of a 3 ½-inch chamber is also nice. They shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, either, becauseyou don’t want to cry over the first scratch, and scratch it you invariably will. For semi-autos, that means a cost of around $1,000 (or less); pumps should be under $500. Here are four affordable scatterguns to check out this season that fit the bill. The new SX4 is the fourth generation in Winchester’s Super X semi-auto series. Outward upgrades include a thicker recoil pad and a larger bolt handle, bolt release button, trigger guard, and safety for easier manipulation with gloves. The gun’s ergonomics have also been improved, with a smaller pistol grip and a…

Waves of black, honking Vs pointing south, riding a cold tailwind, is a harbinger of winter. But fewer southern and midcountry states are seeing the massive migrations of Canada geese that they used to, according to Dr. Tom Moorman, chief scientist for Ducks Unlimited. Canada geese are big-bodied, hardy birds, and they can store plenty of fat to survive in cold weather. Mississippi Flyway geese, for example, breed around James Bay and Hudson Bay and will migrate only as far south as necessary to find open water and a good food source. So, easier winters with minimal snowfall and farming practices that leave more food in the field up north means that geese don’t have to migrate as far south. “It takes a tough winter to push them south,” Moorman…

The big boar pulled his head out of a garbage can and turned to face me. I had blundered into his personal space, and I knew that I was in trouble. His legs stiffened, his head began to swing side to side, and he popped his jaw. I took the hint, backed away, and let him go on his merry way. In my 36 years as a West Virginia conservation officer, I’ve watched black bears do some crazy and downright scary things. I’ve also learned that a black bear’s posture can transmit its mood and intentions. Understanding a bear’s body language and vocalizations can help you decide your next move, whether you are hunting them or simply trying to avoid a confrontation. THE CURIOUS BEAR A curious, non-defensive bear will…

A hardworking dog is going to get a little banged up during a long waterfowl season. But it’s not just physical wear and tear that will degrade your dog’s effectiveness. In the excitement of the hunt, the finer points of training—like steadiness in the blind or refusing to retrieve to hand—often get overlooked. As a trainer, it’s easy to let these mistakes slide when more birds are working the decoys. But over a full season, these errors will be compounded. If you don’t correct them, your polished retriever could turn into an unruly hound by January. “Nothing is worse for dog training than hunting your dog,” says Barton Ramsey, a pro trainer and founder of an online retriever-training resource called Cornerstone Academy. (The online program includes all the info you…

THE .38 SPECIAL isn’t a round that grabs many headlines these days, but it is still a workhorse that plenty of people rely on when they’re carrying a handgun for personal protection. Recognizing that, ammo companies Federal and Polycase have thrown their weight behind some interesting products for the .38, giving shooters a couple more options for loading up their wheelguns. FEDERAL PREMIUM HST MICRO TO HELP ACHIEVE consistent velocities, Federal seated the bullets deep into the case in order to take up air space and promote even powder burn. The 130-grain HST bullet is one of the better personal-protection projectiles on the market, and according to Federal’s testing, this +P load has a muzzle velocity of about 825 fps—generating 227 ft.-lb. of energy—when shot from compact snubbies like…

It’s just you, a fly, and the fish. There is nothing to get in the way of telling The Great Lie in the most transparent way possible. The lie, of course, being that the fly is not real. “The essence of deceit is found in the bite.” This is how Paul Vertrees answers the question of why he adopted the Japanese tenkara approach to flyfishing. “Tenkara allows you to rid yourself of everything that is not essential to catching a fish. You have no gear in the way and are unencumbered by gadgets. When you declutter your effort, only you and the fish remain.” In case tenkara is foreign to you , the system is simple: a long rod (between 10 to 14 feet), line attached to the tip of…

Idon’t care what my GPS says. From where Scott Olmsted and I sit on the side of this mountain (Alaskans call these the Trimokish Hills, but they’re mountains to me) to camp where the Super Cub dropped us off a few days ago, it’s much, much more than 1.46 miles. Similarly, the distance to the spot where we cached waders aft er crossing two rivers is much more than the 681 vertical feet indicated by my Garmin. Each leg-tiring step in the spongy tundra is like walking in a foot of heavy snow. And each step here usually includes one or more of these hazards: tripping tangles of alders, bootsucking bogs, muscle-screaming climbs up steep trails, and ankle-turning sidehills as we inch from one alder-choked, rocky ravine to the next.…