Innehållsförteckning för June/July 2019 från Field & Stream

THERE ARE CERTAIN used shotguns that I’ll pounce on like a bass hitting a topwater lure. Just twitch that walnut-and-blued form in front of me, low price tag dangling from the trigger guard, and I’ll blow up with my wallet wide open. It’s pure reflex. The reason why many great old shotguns are so affordable is because they languish on the used rack, neglected by those seeking guns with dubious modern “improvements,” like plastic stocks and 3½-inch chambers. Meanwhile, many bargain classics still perform well in the field. True, some of the old guns predate choke tubes and steel-shot compatibility. You might need to open a bore or use bismuth. But it’s well worth it. Below is a list of 10 irresistible classic shotguns. All sell for under $1,000,…

PICK A LETTER. IT DOESN’T MATTER WHICH ONE. You’re holding the ultimate reference book to summer awesomeness. It’s written by the finest experts in their field, because if anyone knows how to skirt deadlines, skip work, or call in sick when the fish are biting, it’s our writers and editors. When it comes to fun, they’re practically geniuses. So, pick a letter, any letter, and jump-start your summer with a new take on a classic outdoor skill or a crazy way to kill a long, hot afternoon. Steep yourself in the mythical properties of Funyuns as a survival tool. Explore brave new worlds of Crocs fashion. Learn about tree swings and mouse lures and the recipe for the perfect venison brat. But please note that this is all serious…

Beer Bath Sure, you can simply cook brats on the grill from start to finish, but for more evenly cooked meat, poach the links in a bath of simmering beer and chopped onions first. Once the brats are cooked through, sear them on a hot grill for some char. Bread Winner Concerning the bun, there is no debate—a Martin’s Potato Roll is the only suitable vessel for a brat. Top It Off When it comes to toppings, it’s best to keep things simple. The perfect combo is classic yellow mustard and sauerkraut. Double Down Plan on two brats per person. Inevitably, someone will overdo it on baked beans and potato salad and have room for only one bratwurst, which works out perfectly—because that means late-night leftovers for you.…

EVERY AMERICAN LIKES A NICE HARMLESS explosion at this time of year, and there’s no reason to wait for the Fourth. Fun as fireworks are, you don’t get to shoot at them. Firebird Targets (firebirdtargets.com), on the other hand, are nonbinary pyrotechnic discs that blow up when hit by a pellet or bullet. Peel and stick a few to the bottom of some clay targets, and you will see bombs bursting in air. (Check state regs.) For riflemen, Tannerite is easy to buy in most states, and homemade recipes abound on You-Tube. Attached to a nice tree stump and set off with your hunting rifle, it guarantees hootin’ and hollerin’. But be careful and know the law. It’s not allowed everywhere. Once mixed, this binary explosive becomes subject to…

THE LOW-WATER TROUT FISHING OF LATE summer demands that you turn back the clock. Not that you have to fish in bell-bottoms, but the upsides to casting a fiberglass fly rod have been lost in the graphite-rod arms race to faster, lighter, stronger sticks. The delicate casts that glass delivers will keep you from spooking fish and help you achieve the pinpoint accuracy that’s required to catch prey that won’t chase down a meal. Best of all, a glass rod makes catching even a small trout big fun. But many glass rods cast slow. Like, drink-a-beer-while-the-rod-loads slow. To fish them effectively, you need a longer rod stroke and different timing on the forward and backcasts. Before you hit the stream, take time to finetune your cast in the backyard…

SUMMER DAYS BURN HOT IN FLORIDA, South Texas, and other piggy places. And there are only so many fish you can reel in before you’re ready to shoot something. Might as well find a good farm, nestle in among the cow pies, and sweat it out until a hog trots past. Feedlots and active cattle pastures are good places to hunt pigs in the dark. Hogs are opportunists, and they’ll mix in with cows to clean up spilled grain. (I’ve seen entire sounders climb right into feed troughs.) There’s always water and usually plenty of mud too. Fresh rooting will tell you if pigs are around, but if you really want the scoop, just ask the farmer. Most ranchers won’t be crazy about gunfire around their livestock at night,…

First of all, don’t call them jorts. That’s what yuppies say. They are cutoffs or, when worn by ladies, Daisy Dukes. Speaking of you, ladies: Do not read one more word of this because you have already elevated the wearing of cutoff jeans to high art and don’t need any fashion advice from me. Guys, you do. So heed this: Proper cutoffs require a surgeon’s precision to create. In a way, each pair is like a custom-tailored suit. They must be long enough to just meet your knees, like any other pair of shorts. That said, make damned sure they don’t go past the knees either, because that’s the point at which they become capris. Men should not wear capris. If your cutoff jeans do not meet your knees,…

I SPENT A WEEK LAST FALL chasing blacktail deer in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. My hunting grounds weren’t far from Portland’s throngs of man buns, so there were plenty of other people cruising around for deer. But I was able to leave them well behind and have what amounted to a remote hunting experience because of my mountain bike. Plenty of public land across the country is located behind gates that don’t allow motorized transport. Although there’s absolutely nothing wrong with humping it on foot, a bike can get you deeper into the woods in a fraction of the time. It didn’t take much effort to gear up. I took my stock Diamondback Overdrive 29C, added a basic rear bike rack from Walmart behind the saddle, and bolted on a…

THE DRIVE TO MODIFY BAITS AND RIGS IS STRONG for many anglers, which comes as no surprise. Anything we can do to achieve some kind of edge on the water or present something with better than out-of-the-box performance is worth a shot, even if it only leads to one or two more bites. Some tinker because they’ve genuinely come up with better or smarter mousetraps, while others do it simply for the personal satisfaction of fooling a fish with something they devised. Both are perfectly sound reasons to toil away in the garage. And it’s fair to say that no group of anglers spends more time garage-tinkering than professional bass anglers, because for them, any edge can spell the difference between a big payday and being miles from the…

WHEN NEARSHORE WATER temperatures reach their summertime peaks, species such as striped bass, big bluefish, and red drum leave the surf until the fall. What many surf anglers don’t realize, however, is that the same sweltering temperatures that drive out the stripers and reds draw in brown sharks, blacktips, and spinners. From July 4th to Labor Day, these sharks swim within casting range of beaches from Massachusetts to North Carolina. If you’re willing to put in the time, these toothy surf prowlers can provide some of the most memorable battles of your life. Here’s how to play. 1. Beach-Bum Tackle • The surf sharks of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast average 3 to 6 feet long and top out at around 100 pounds, making them the perfect size for the…

Nothing beats the magic hours of summer. If only those periods of low light at sunup and sundown could last all day. Unfortunately, those perfect feeding windows don’t stick around long, which is why it pays to maximize your success while you have the chance. Most anglers associate these windows with topwater action for bass, or evening hatches for trout, but the truth is that while magic hours produce memorable surface hits, there are likely more fish, and bigger fish to boot, that you’re not seeing feeding subsurface at these times. One way to capitalize—if you can break away from the fun of popping that popper—is to lean on ultraviolet lures and flies. Human eyes can’t see UV light, but fish eyes register it clearly, and they use that…

I honed my six-gun fanning skills solely by watching a ridiculous amount of Gunsmoke reruns during summer break, but shooting groundhogs is how I learned to run a rifle. These porky rodents are about the size of a deer’s vitals, and hunting them doesn’t require a 4 A.M. wake-up call. Plus, you can do it in summer. The best time to hunt groundhogs is after farmers have mowed their fields and pastures. You’ll be able to spot them more easily in the short grass, and the animals definitely like to soak up the sunlight. But the expansion of coyotes has moved a lot of groundhogs out of the open and up against old barns, fences, tractor sheds, and other structures that give them a security boost. So glass these…

BEFORE GOING TO HAWAII, THE IDEA OF DEER hunting there struck me as akin to pineapple on pizza—an odd combination that contradicts the natural order of things. Proper pizza is topped with meat, not fruit (and, no, tomatoes don’t count), and deer are hunted in timber, mountains, deserts, and swamps—not in a tropical honeymoon getaway like Lanai. The flight from Honolulu didn’t take long, for which I was grateful. The gentleman in the seat next to me was friendly but large. I’m not built like a Milanese runway model either, so we both tried to make the best of it as our forearms jostled for the center armrest. He was wearing flip-flops, shorts, and a T-shirt, and his carry-on consisted of a Daiwa spinning rod and reel. He said…

FISHING FROM A FLOAT TUBE UNDER THE summer stars puts you on the water when the fish are most active and your competition is tucked safely in the sack. But float smart. Stick to waters that are closed to boat traffic, or familiar waters where you know few motor-boaters venture after nightfall. Carry at least two headlamps or flashlights—one with a dimmable colored light to preserve your night vision, and one white safety light. And night anglers should always wear a life jacket. If you think you’ll freak out every time you brush against a weed patch, then wear lightweight breathable waders. Otherwise, pull on a pair of synthetic long pants, strap on float-tubing fins, and resist the temptation to launch right at sunset. Give the fish an hour…

WELL PAST MIDNIGHT, Tim Reed and Rodney Smith paddle down a skinny stretch of water in northern New York, to a spot where the high-cut riverbank transitions to flood plain. As Smith makes one last quiet push, gliding the yard-sale canoe toward a tangle of lily pads and skunk cabbage, Reed leans over the bow. The wide-set eyes of a big bullfrog glow in the beam of his headlamp, and just as the canoe reaches the jack-lighted frog, Reed strikes. “Argh!” he yells through a splash of river water. Then he holds up his prize: A meaty bullfrog is mashed between his index and middle fingers, its long legs dangling almost to his elbow. “Gave him the ol’ kung-fu grip!” Reed says. Smith laughs. Reed gives the frog a…

IT’S EASY TO WALK INTO A BAIT SHOP AND GET SUCKED right in by duckling lures that look so real, they do everything but quack. And, sure, I own trout lures that swim more naturally than a wild rainbow, flies with more plastic components than a jointed crankbait, and crawfish so lifelike, you might accidentally sprinkle them with Old Bay. Technology in the lure and fly arena is all well and good, but there are countless patterns and baits that haven’t changed in decades—and for good reason: They’ve never stopped pounding fish. If I had a buck for every time I clipped off a new-school streamer in favor of a white Clouser Minnow on a smallie stream, or switched from a modern propbait to a Hula Popper on a…

LEVER GUNS ARE FOR SHOOTERS WHO don’t tolerate shenanigans. Chicken-eating coyotes, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, sagebrush jackrabbits, and sly heavy-horned bucks are all are fair game for a shooter with a lever action. But if you’re going to tote a Model 94 or a Marlin 336, you’d better know how to run one. Sadly, these days most shooters who shoulder a .45/70 have no idea what they’re doing and probably shouldn’t be shooting a Daisy Red Ryder, let alone a big bore. To improve your cowboy cred, we reached out to Deuce Stevens for his top shooting tips. In case you just fell off the 3:10 to Yuma, Stevens is a world-champion cowboy-action shooter who has set several records, including getting 10 shots on target with a lever action…

I swung just past the bird’s head, pulled the trigger, and immediately thought, Oh crap. Not because I had missed, but because the swan I’d just knocked out of the sky was now sailing toward our blind. A mallard dropping onto your head is a hazard. Falling geese have cold-cocked grown men. But an adult black swan plummeting into your lap would be like getting walloped by a runty Labrador. I shielded my head to hollers from the other hunters—half warnings, half whoops—as the 20-pound bird thumped into the muck beside our A-frame. I checked for more birds before stepping out of the blind. The swan was monochrome except for the red of its beak, eyes, and a little blood: black plumage, white flight feathers, webbed gray feet. I…

Some people aren’t allergic to poison ivy. Me, I get itchy just looking at a vine. So I follow a strict routine every summer to limit my exposure. I observe the four-hour rule for washing away urushiol—the irritating oil in poison ivy, oak, and sumac—after coming into contact with it. (Note: The window varies with your sensitivity. Some sources suggest you have only five minutes; others say up to 10 hours.) Keep water and soap in the truck to clean your arms and face periodically. After returning from the woods, unlace your boots and wash your hands. Strip down in the laundry room, stuff everything into the washer, then shower. Use plenty of soap and scrub everywhere. If you do break out, go to a pharmacy for a tube…

When you land a sucker or a sheepshead, it’s customary to say, “Aw, damn, it’s just a trash fish,” while secretly enjoying the fight. Truth is, trash fish, or rough fish, often save the day when more civilized species like bass and trout won’t cooper ate. Hell, even when those species are biting, trash fish make for a nice heretical change of pace and some good lowbrow fun. Some species get big enough to shred light tackle, and they fry up good as anything. So when the fishing gets tough, or when you’re feeling rebellious, go land as many different rough fish as you can and call it a Trash Fish Slam. Then make sure to broadcast your success to any trout snobs you know. Here are my favorites…

I get almost as excited about hitting a flea market in search of vintage tackle as I do hitting the water. Gear deserving of shelf space is cool, but what I want is stuff that can still fish. I asked my friend and veteran tackle collector Mike Kalafut for his top three picks of vintage gear worth grabbing—and fishing. French-Made Garcia-Mitchell 300 Kalafut says the number of Garcia-Mitchell 300 spinning reels produced was staggering, which is why they’re so easy to find. But look for the ones made in France. Those models feature more metal components than later Chinese reels, making them rock-solid. Fenwick Fenglass Fly Rod Vintage Fenglass rods are easy to find and often cheaper than today’s newer models. What’s more, Kalafut says, a lot of older…

YOU MIGHT THINK OF FRIED BLUEGILLS AND sticky s’mores fingers when you think of the dog days, but for a long stretch, my family’s summer memories were laced with the smell of alcohol prep pads and Betadine. Summer seems to inspire recklessness and broken digits with my crowd. There’s simply too much fun to be had to overthink how quickly you can snatch the flaming marshmallow from the fire or the approach angle to a bicycle jump made out of old bricks. Which is why our summer season never really kicked in until Jack met his ER deductible. That boy would break a bone or lay open a cheek every time we unloaded the truck. He suffered a 7-stitch surfboard gash and never whimpered. His sister pelted him on…

FROM THE BANK, I pulled the knot tight on my dropper fly and looked out over the river, which sent a quick shiver of fear knifing through my excitement, like the feeling you have before you get on a carnival ride. The river was up, hurtling foam over the boulders after one of those long summer rainstorms that leaves wisps of steam spiraling above the fields—exactly how it looked when my grade-school buddy Jo and I first fished the spot, years ago. Jo had a reputation as a tough kid. (Nobody pointed out to Jo, for example, that only girls spell that name without the e.) The river didn’t scare him. He hiked the worm box—filled with night crawlers we’d pinched in the rain the night before—from his waist…

I’ve been a huge fan of Spyderco knives for more than a decade, so when I found out they were teaming up with Abel to produce a series of fish-themed blades, I was giddy. At $495, these works of art aren’t cheap, but each handle is hand-painted, which means no two patterns will ever be exactly alike. The knife model is Spyderco’s popular Native 5, and it features a blade made of LC200N steel, which the company claims is aerospace-grade and ultra-corrosion-resistant. These knives are currently available in brown trout, rainbow trout, and bonefish finishes (abelreels.com).…

It began last summer. I just wanted a nice squirrel rifle. Three high-end German-made Anschutz rimfire rifles later, my wife has threatened separate bank accounts. That first Annie, as the guns are known, was a .17 Mach 2 that I found for a song on gunbroker.com. It took three rounds to sight it in, then I settled in at 25 yards. Walking up on my target, I thought I missed the whole thing. Then I realized that one shot in the bull was actually five. That rifle does nearly as well at 50, as does my .22 LR Annie and my .22 Mag. My obsession only intensifies when summer rimfire competitions get underway. My wife is wise to it all now. At night in bed—her reading a book, me…

You’ve never really chased ducks and geese until you volunteer to help your regional waterfowl biologist net and band them in summer. Banding helps researchers and wildlife agencies collect the data they need to set waterfowl seasons and to learn, among other things, how habitat conditions and climate are affecting migration patterns. Plus, you get to put your hands on live ducks and geese for a change, which is awesome. Banding typically take place in June and July, when birds molt and are flightless, making them easy marks for wranglers. At its simplest, the process begins by erecting capture structures—usually net pens—and then herding birds inside. This is often done by volunteers on foot, but helicopters, ATVs, and other motorized vehicles are sometimes used too. Once captured, ducks and…

Say you crossed a muskrat with a spring lizard and an eel. The creature you’d create is actually called a hellbender, aka snot otter, and it is real—a fully aquatic salamander with a wide mouth, wrinkled body, tiny beady eyes, and a tail that looks like it belongs on a platypus. Hellbenders grow to 2 feet long and live in a few clean streams in Arkansas and Missouri, but they are more widespread across quality mountain waters in the Appalachians, from southwestern New York to northern Alabama. A snot otter can live under a single rock for years, but if you move it, this fragile creature is at a much greater risk of being eaten by a predator and failing to raise a new generation. Here’s a better way…

Kevin Hughes is a Miami-based kayak guide for South Florida Uncharted. He knows his way around fresh water, but his real specialty is chasing big, bad saltwater species inshore and offshore. Hughes has battled 70-pound sailfish, 50-pound king mackerel, and 100-plus-pound tarpon, to name a few species, from his kayak. Here are some of the hard (and soggy) lessons he’s learned along the way. Sleigh Ride: Hughes says novice anglers have a habit of wanting to fight big fish quickly when the reality is that slow and steady always wins. Big fish will tow your kayak—known as the “sleigh ride”—and that’s exactly what you want. Let a big fish wear itself out dragging you rather than wearing yourself out pulling on it, which often ends in broken knots and…

While largemouth bass survive largely on a diet of baitfish, crawfish, and the occasional frog, they’ll never pass up an easy—and protein-rich—target such as a swimming mouse. The trick to replicating these rodents on the water with a mouse lure is resisting the temptation to work the bait like a frog, which confidently hops from pad to pad, or a snake, which slithers effortlessly. Instead, the idea is to make the mouse look like it’s struggling in the water and vulnerable to predators. In heavy cover, cast a soft weedless mouse lure, such as a Livetarget Hollow Body Mouse, and move it erratically with all the grace and balance of a drunken ballerina. In open water, tie on a wakebait like the one-piece CL8 Bait Mighty Mouse or the…

GOOD NEWS, PARENTS! AFTER THE WEEK AT the beach, the summer-camp stint, the two-a-day baseball tryouts, the lake weekends, and the visits with cousins and Gramps, there are only 10,463 more days of summer left to fill with fun activities for your larvae. Even though we all roamed around like feral cats when we were growing up, you can’t just let your kids out in the cul-de-sac with nothing to do anymore. These days, that’s practically child abandonment. If we were designing an easy, home-grown summer camp for kids, these activities would be on the list. Deer-Sign Scavenger Hunt: Gather the family and a few neighborhood kids from non-hunting families, head out to your deer lease or public land, and hand out copies of a scavenger-hunt list. Have a…

Rimfire squirrel sniping when it’s still hot enough to skinny-dip requires serious rifle skills. At best, you’ll have just a glimpse of a squirrel’s head to aim at and no margin for error when you try to thread a bullet through a leafed-out oak. A sturdy rifle rest makes it easier, but you want it to be lightweight and handy. For that, a kid’s slingshot is just the trick. Remove the power band and pouch from the slingshot, set them aside, and then toss the frame into a pocket. When you spot a treetop squirrel, move to a stout sapling or a tree branch no thicker than your wrist. Grasp the tree while pressing the side of the slingshot frame firmly against the wood, with the V extending above…

Tuna fishing, no matter where you’re doing it, takes effort. In the Northeast, it means long runs offshore. On the West Coast, you often spend a week on a long-range boat. In the Gulf, success may involve bartering beers with shrimp boats for bags of their bycatch to use as chum. Then, once you hook up to a tuna, the fight is grueling. So, why go to all that trouble? Because tuna tastes divine. The trick to maximizing the decadence of the meat, though, boils down to what you do between that arm-wrenching battle and the table. Capt. Dave Marciano is a veteran commercial tuna captain based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He’s also well known for his role in all eight seasons of the show Wicked Tuna. To earn top…