Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2015 i Outdoor Life

Duck Commander / Shamrock, OK / 12:22 p.m. Every kid’s first year afield is a special one. At the age of 9, Madyson Osborne got to tag along with her dad and his buddies to the duck pond. “She’s always been a daddy’s girl,” says Tony After breakfast in the blind (eggs and bacon Osborne. “So anything I do, she’s by my side.” fried over a propane stove), Madyson used the calls slung around her neck to coax in a few birds. This camo-smeared smile appeared when the party shot its limit and called it a day.…

TIP Spray squeaky metal treestand platforms with rubber paint to dampen the creaks of screws, chains, and any metal-on-metal contact. Find America’s corn and soybean belt on a map. Then find the counties that have produced the most trophy whitetail bucks. The overlap between the two is striking. Whitetails have thrived in the presence of industrial grain production for decades, but some biologists and deer managers are suggesting that the newest farming practices aren’t universally good for deer. In part that’s because large-scale farms are so efficient that there’s lit le forage for wildlife once the crops are harvested, and partly it’s because farmers have become very good at killing weeds and other non-commodity vegetation, plants that wildlife biologists identify as habitat for everything from songbirds to whitetails. I’m not…

Off-the-shelf calls might not sound like an elk, and there are reasons for that. Some of those things are within your control and some aren’t, but you don’t have to be satisfied with the sound of a call right out of the package. Here’s what makes a call sound good and a few tips to make it sound great. Remember: If it doesn’t sound like an elk, change it. REED CALL PARTS AND FUNCTIONS TONE BOARD The shape of the tone board’s tip determines how easily the reed will freeze to it in cold weather. The board should taper down and away from the reed, but not so much that the reed can bend. The channel in the soundboard should create a back- pressure effect like that of a trumpet.…

BEN ZUERN CAN’T STOP talking about beans. We’re tromping through a small, hilly cornfield that had been planted with soybeans last year—the year he killed his biggest buck ever. “I had the farmer leave this stretch of beans standing,” Zuern says, pointing to the field edge where his stand is located. “By November, all the other crops were cut, and this little patch of beans had incredible drawing power.” It’s a warm June afternoon in southeastern Wisconsin, so we tuck beneath the shade of Zuern’s stand tree and he tells me the story behind his buck, Outdoor Life’s Deer of the Year. The monster whitetail with a forked G-2 first appeared in a single trail camera picture on September 21. The deer is in midair in the photo, leaping over…

TIP Carry a highpitched predator call on mule deer hunts. At midday, when bucks are bedded in shade or dense cover, blow the call to get them on their feet. A MATURE PUBLIC-LAND mule deer buck is arguably the most challenging trophy animal to harvest in the U.S. Habitat encroachment, fire suppression, and pressure from predators have resulted in dwindling deer numbers in recent years. Burgeoning hunter numbers mean fierce competition for permits, and modern technology (trail cams, satellite imagery, smart-phone apps) turns every techsavvy hunter into an expert. The days of buying an over-the-counter permit in a good area, pulling on a wool shirt, and pushing draws in search of a monster buck are gone. So what’s a hunter without a spare few thousand dollars to do? RECIPE FOR…

By now you’ve heard about the grand comeback of the Canada goose. In fact, the big birds are doing so well these days that it’s hard to find a state that doesn’t have a special early goose season for targeting resident Canadas. If you don’t yet take advantage of warm-weather goose hunts, this is the year to take the plunge. Happily, the gear needs are small, and the secrets to success are simple. THE SCOUTING A vehicle, a binocular, and some free time are all you need to scout a great spot to hunt earlyseason geese. Before the season, locate their roost water, station yourself between the birds and likely feeding fields, and follow the birds as they fly out for their evening feed. If you lose the birds, drive…

Whitetail bowhunters sit in trees and mule deer hunters spot and stalk. If you follow that mindset on your next Western mule deer bowhunt, you might be limiting yourself and your success. Use every strategy—muley-like or not—from your whitetail playbook to optimize your opportunities for success this fall. PARTNER UP ▪ Nothing suggests Western hunting more than spot-and-stalk mule deer hunting, but you can increase your stalking success by hunting with someone . First, two sets of eyes are better than one. During your initial spotting session, a partner’s eyes can help you cover more country with scrutiny. Face it: Some hunters have better spotting abilities than others. Next, a partner can keep an eye on a buck as you make your move. Whether it’s bedded or traveling, it’s commonplace…

BLACKLISTED I laughed out loud when I saw the cover of your June/July issue [“The Gun Test”]. It’s about as silly as a picture of a SWAT team member in full regalia holding a Winchester Model ’94. Are there not enough black-gun ads in your magazine that you still feel the need to hawk them on the front cover? Isn’t the pendulum swinging fast enough for you boys? JW Bookout Hartley, TX COVER MODEL JERON WESEN OF GLASGOW, MONTANA, REPLIES: That photo was taken in early March— calving season—and because I had come to the Outdoor Life Gun and Optics Test direct from checking my 2-year-old heifers, I didn’t have time to don my black ops garb. I’ll carry a Model ’94 when it lets me ring steel out to…

I spotted a story in the paper yesterday. A 12-year-old kid shot his first elk, a 6x6 bull. Now, I’m all for young folks hunting, but a royal bull his first time afield? I’ve been chasing elk for more than 25 years and haven’t shot anything so magnificent. I still remember the first elk I ever saw. It was half a mile away, plowing through snow up to its belly on the other side of the drainage. What a creature! I thought if I held high on his ears, perhaps the crosswind would bring my bullet to his chest. But I wasn’t confident I could hit him squarely at that distance. Plus, I’d have to push through feet of snow to drag him out. So I let him go. Everyone…

MIDWEST Ragweed, greenbrier, trumpet creeper SOUTHEAST Greenbrier, honeysuckle, pokeweed NORTHEAST Bracken fern, brambles, wild grape Obsessed food-plotters are really just small-scale farmers. And just like many of our commodity-scale neighbors, we instinctively abhor weeds. But just because a plant didn’t originate in a shiny plastic bag doesn’t mean it’s not deer food. In fact, some of the weeds that infiltrate your plots can be just as palatable and nutritious as that brassica blend. Above is a regional list of three species you may find sprouting up in your untreated food plots that a Quality Deer Management Association survey of state wildlife agencies revealed as important native browse for deer.…

FOR AS LONG as there has been war, students of humanity have examined why men have been drawn to it. Brett Ross of Mesa, Colo., has a simple, plain-folks explanation that makes pretty good sense: “Our public lands,” says Ross, a former Marine Corps infantryman. “They tie in to what I was fighting for as much as anything else—places where we hunters and our families can make memories we will cherish forever.” Ross’ family had been making memories in this precise place for three generations, always setting up camp a week prior to the big-game season. Ross’ family and friends were all on hand for the annual hunt last fall. After an unsuccessful morning and a brief lunch, Ross, his fiancee, Kirsty, and his best friend, Levi, headed out from…

WHILE WE HUNTERS may all share the dream of one day taking a near-heartattack-inducing buck, many of us would simply settle for having a great place to hunt. In whitetail-crazy, lease-centric states like Kansas and Illinois, however, most folks can neither find nor afford to gain access to hunting land, let alone a big slice of whitetail paradise. Then there are hunters like 28-year-old Tim Nichols, who has taken the maxim “it’s not where you hunt, but how you hunt it” to another level. “The property we have to hunt in Will County is pretty small,” says Nichols. “We have permission on 20 acres, but only 1 acre is huntable— the rest is fields.” On November 11, Tim and his dad, Robert, climbed into their stands more than an hour…

I DON’T RECALL if the idea started as a lost bet or an idle boast, but somewhere along the way it turned into an invitation to a group of friends: Come to my home in eastern Montana in October. Bring your dogs, your shotguns, and your appetite. And your sleeping bags. We will camp, I said, and hunt pheasants and prairie grouse, and we’ll sleep in a wall tent tucked under the cottonwoods. I never expected the idea to stick, but last year the crew arrived: Frank and his son few in from Pennsylvania; Mike came from Illinois; Warren brought his blockheaded Lab, Spencer, and pulled a camper all the way from Florida; Steve came from Missoula, on the other side of Montana, with his young Lab, Rio; and photographer…

BRACCO ITALIANO ALSO KNOWN AS: Bracco ORIGIN: Italy AVERAGE BUILD: 21 . to 26 . inches tall; 55 to 88 pounds. OVERVIEW: Braccos are popular gun dogs in Europe, and with recognition by the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association and the United Kennel Club in the U.S., they are experiencing a rise in popularity here. Heavyboned, with lanky legs and large feet, Braccos are pointing dogs that are also expected to retrieve to hand. Strong and energetic, they are slow to mature and can be stubborn. Trainers should be patient and expect to take a couple of seasons to finish the dog (and that’s with ample training time during the off-season), and should rely more on positive behavior modification than force training. When finished, the Bracco’s superb nose, staunch…

Few things in hunting are more frustrating than losing an injured animal. For most, an animal is “lost” when the blood trail dries up and they are left to search in vain for the next clue to the animal’s direction of travel. In reality, losing the blood trail marks the end of a long series of events that can include a bad shot, improper bullet or broadhead performance, flushing injured game from its bed, overlooking clues regarding the type of injury, and so forth. Quite often it is only at the end of an empty blood trail that we recognize the mistakes that were made, and at that point it’s too late to fix the problem. In many cases, hunters can prevent the loss of injured game from happening through…

There is everything to love about teal. Mini nasally quacks and whooshing wings fill the starlit darkness as you toss decoys into the pungent marsh air. At pink dawn, a squadron of teal jets in, careening into your setup like a twisting, turning swarm of bees. Guns boom, a few birds fall, and laughter abounds. Later, there is no finer eating. Whether you hunt them during a special early season or in the regular duck season, our littlest ducks are tops in hunters’ bags across North America. They might be small in stature and abundant in number, but they are not dumb. They won’t stick to traditional water once the shooting starts, which is why you need to set up for “rebound” teal that retreat to tiny water and secluded…

TIP Fire up pre-rut mock scrape hotspots by mixing equal parts of ammonia, kosher salt, and mineral oil and pouring it under overhanging branches on a field edge. As ubiquitous as it is in many regions of the country, black bear sign can be hugely confounding and hard to interpret. Here are three bits of black bear evidence that many hunters overlook, but that are bona fide indicators of the presence of big bruins. 1 LOCATE STAGING AREAS Whitetail hunters might be familiar with deer staging areas, but black bears have such hangout zones as well. Bears will often keep tabs on a feeding area from a safe distance—along a hilltop or a brush-covered ledge—for an hour or so before committing themselves to feeding in the open. Here, they will…

TIP When shooting a break-action rifle for accuracy off a rest, apply minimal cheek pressure to the stock to keep the action from flexing. The scope hit Marc Amos with such force that his ears rippled from the impact. This was our first test shot from a Thompson/Center Pro Hunter fitted with a Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum Katahdin barrel. Before judging the recoil too harshly, though, know that Amos—a 47-yearold gun nut from Columbus, Miss.— did fail to grab the forearm of the rifle prior to squeezing the trigger. Still, watching the video of the shot in slow motion was like viewing frame-byframe footage of Mike Tyson landing a right hook to the belly of Jabba the Hut. Awesome. Our goal was to gather data on the S&W .500’s…

MOST FIELD GUNS have a single brass bead near the muzzle. White beads are also popular and are easier to pick up than brass. But you don’t want to take your focus off the target, so if the bead distracts you, blot it out with a black marker or remove it altogether. The same can be said for fiber-optic beads, which purport to be brighter and easier to see. If the white or fiberoptic bead doesn’t distract you, it’s fine to leave it on the gun, but it’s not going to help you kill more doves or break more clays than any other front bead. If your upland gun doubles as a turkey gun, you have an argument for a fiber-optic bead, as it makes aiming in low light (which…

1 BLACK HILLS 5.56 70-GRAIN GMX This year, Black Hills is adding a new heavy-bullet load to its 5.56 NATO lineup. The 70-grain Hornady GMX is a monolithic expanding bullet that’s earned a good reputation among hunters for reliable expansion and nearly 100 percent weight retention. With this heavy-for- caliber bullet, the 5.56 will penetrate deep and create a large wound cavity on deer and hogs. Black Hills says that penetration in ballistic gelatin consistently runs 17 to 22 inches, with a wound diameter in the 5-inch range. Recovered bullet diameter averages nearly half an inch. The bullet needs a rifing twist of 1-in-8 inches or faster to stabilize. ($80/50 rounds) 2 BARNES PRECISION MATCH Barnes has been loading precision ammo for military snipers for several years. That ammo is…

Rumors of big bucks are as unreliable and as perishable as deer-camp mayonnaise. Even when we hear about the sighting of a monster buck from a hunting buddy or a rural-route driver, the “news” tends to be suspect. How big? How long ago? Where? The details get thinner and less certain the more we inquire. The reason is as old as the law of supply and demand. The scarcer the commodity—in this case, whopper bucks—the higher the interest, and, consequently, the more precious the information about it. A big buck isn’t a commodity, of course. For the hunters who encounter one, it’s more like a yardstick. Every other buck will be measured against that giant. Every other hunting experience will be compared to that moment of anxiety and euphoria that…

ONLINE Learn more about these binos, watch videos from our test, and read reviews of the newest guns and riflescopes at outdoorlife.com/test2015 Humans’ binocular vision is called stereopsis. Two widely spaced eyeballs allow us to scan our periphery, but our eyes are close enough together to double the resolution of objects in our gaze. Two eyes enable us to judge distance and to see the depth of objects. Stereoptic vision also helps us keep our balance. So it’s no wonder that the tool best configured to help modern hunters navigate and understand our world is modeled aft er our own anatomy. Binoculars are versatile generalists, designed to magnify distant objects while providing a generous field of view, and delivering a bright, crisp image in a durable, portable package. Submissions to…

Sighting elk ears and antlers coming over the rise toward me, I collapsed into the sage, taking a frantic glance behind me at the tree line. Much too far away—I’d never make it. Turning back to the elk, I watched 12 cows and one really nice 5x6 bull high-step it over the crest and into full view. I needed to raise myself to my knees and then get drawn on the elk without alerting them. In slow motion, I worked myself upright, shivering from the cold. Ever so slowly, I raised my bow from the Utah sage. The elk continued to graze, and my confidence grew. Clipping my release to the string, I slowly tried to draw my bow. Hmm, that’s odd. I tried again, harder this time. No luck.…

9,224 TOTAL number of votes cast for the Online People’s Choice award 1152 NUMBER of votes cast for the winner, Mariah Ebert (p. 54). NICOLESTETTLER 176INCHES CACHE CO.,UT JEREMYKNIGHT 1903/8INCHES SIMPSON CO.,KYT JASON McCANLESS 155 INCHES TRINITY CO., CA HUNTERJIM LONG SCORE175 INCHES TAGGED IN HOUSTON CO., TX RYAN CAMPBELL 174 INCHES MOFFAT CO., CO RANDY PLATZ 1657/8 INCHES CHICKASAW CO., IA HUNTERCHARLIE BUNDE SCORE1925/ 8 IN . TAGGED INMAHNOMEN CO., MN HUNTERDAVE BURKE SCORE176 INCHES TAGGED INFAIRFAX CO., VA JOE SCAVONE 1633/8 INCHES SUFFOLK CO., NY WILL HARTZELL 150 INCHES FAUQUIER CO., VA MIKE CHAMBERLAIN 198 INCHES WASHINGTON CO., MNA 2015 YOUTH RECOGNITION ODALE TAYLOR 190 INCHES UINTA CO., WY BO DYLAK 1863/8 INCHES BOONE CO., IL JOEY CARAGATA EST.140 IN. SASKATCHEWAN…

Over my years of hunting out of a backpack, I’ve come to favor one knife for all of my game-processing chores: the Havalon Piranta ($47; havalon.com). This knife is relatively cheap and very lightweight, and the replaceable blades (also inexpensive) make carrying a sharpening stone unnecessary. It is great for skinning, caping, and cutting up game. I have taken care of brown bears, grizzly bears, black bears, moose, caribou, wolves, wolverines, deer, and Dall sheep with this one lit le knife. It’s lightweight, and if you get one with an orange handle, it’ll be easy to find if you set it down.…

TIP If you trailer hundreds of decoys, consider ditching the slotted deke bags in favor of a few large, handled grain bags. They make setup and pick up a lot easier. THERE ARE FEW things more enjoyable than sharing a duck blind with your favorite hunting partners. Over the course of a long season, though, there are bound to be days when you just have to hunt but can’t find anyone to join you. While a successful day of flying solo can be very rewarding, it’s also considerably more work than sharing duties with a buddy or two. This is because you’re accountable for all stages from start to finish. There’s no one else to rely on if your headlamp batteries die at 4 a.m., and you’ll be the only…

Trying to select a new duck call can be an overwhelming experience, causing you to slowly go cross-eyed as you thumb through page after page of a sporting-goods catalog and read umpteen product descriptions that all sound the same. Luckily, you don’t have to weed through the merits of dozens of calls. I’ve narrowed it down to five that have served me well over the years. Each has something different to offer and deserves a look. DUCK COMMANDER DUCK PICKER ▶THIS EASY-BLOWING double-reed has hung around my neck for many years. It’s a great call for novices and has a very small learning curve. Some calls require many hours to master, but not the Duck Picker. It has a true ducky sound and is incredibly versatile. ($35; duck commander.com) HAYDEL’S…

Slowly and steadily whipping yourself into peak physical condition over a several-month period is just one of the smart ways to tip the odds in your favor on your next DIY backpack elk bowhunt. Another? Carrying truly ultralight hunting gear. The reason is simple physics. When the terrain gets vertical and the air gets thin, the lighter your pack and arsenal are, the faster and farther you can range per day. All else being equal, that increased quickness and mobility translates into more wapiti encounters—and, ultimately, more success. How light can you go and still pack all the necessary gear? That’s a question all serious elk hunters must consider. There are few downsides to quality featherweight gear, but one is cost: You’ll pay—in some cases, dearly—for the lightest premium designs.…

A few decades ago, shotgun designers figured out that a hot barrel creates waves of distortion, and that those waves make it hard to shoot well. The answer to the problem was simple: a raised rib, sometimes ventilated, on the top of the shotgun to keep heat waves from messing up the sight picture. Raised ribs have become commonplace, but they differ in design and purpose. Here’s a look at the three most common rib types and what they can do for you. RAISED RIB These ventilated ribs are very tall and designed primarily for use on trap guns, though they are gaining in popularity for skeet and sporting clays. The raised-rib design allows the shooter to sustain a more comfortable head-up profile when shooting. And since the barrel is…