Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från Game & Fish West

Deer hunting is so steeped in tradition that it’s tangible. I feel it whenever I heft a plaid Woolrich coat or open my late grandfather’s Case Trapper. Any time I cycle a lever-action rifle, I sense deer season. I grew up with these things, items that a younger generation might view as outdated and even I would admit may not perform as well as newer gear. That doesn’t, however, make them any less useful or diminish their relevance to custom. It only makes them traditional. Deer camp activities are also rooted in tradition. It wouldn’t be deer season without poker games and spaghetti suppers on the night before Opening Day, for example. Shirttails are cut for missing, cheeks are smeared with blood for killing, the kindling is always stacked in…

The rut is a magical time. It’s also a time that can be filled with frustration, missteps and blunders. Trust me, I know. The focus of this column is simple: highlight three rut hunts that went awry. The tough part? Narrowing down my myriad of errors to just three. Let’s dive in. There are lessons to be learned. MAKE A DECISION I have always considered myself to be a fairly aggressive type of hunter. Long before the “mobile” movement was in full swing, I had a penchant for wasting no time in changing stand locations if I had any good (and sometimes not-so-good) reason to do so. I could be down from a stand setup and relocated in a hurry, and I would do exactly that any time I saw…

Here are some rules that researchers call “outliers,” regulations that could easily be missed in a close reading of the proclamation or that are needlessly confusing to a hunter of any experience. • Hunters in one state must use firearms weighing less than 16 pounds.• One state requires a $20 permit to use a deer stand on wildlife management areas.• In one state hunters using slugs must use a shotgun with an adjustable, open iron sight, peep sight or scope.• Four states do not allow hunting from horseback.• One state requires that hunters retain the head of a harvested deer until 15 days after the close of the season.• Some states require immediate online reporting of harvest, while others have varying limits on the number of deer a hunter can…

I spotted the 4-by-4 muley at first light and decided to make a move. There was snow on the ground and it was 13 degrees. The closer I got to the buck in the bottom of a draw laced with tall sage brush, I realized I couldn’t get within bow range. The ground was crunchy in the still morning air, and there were six does with the buck. Too many eyeballs and noisy footsteps forced me to abort. I moved on but didn’t see another mule deer all morning, so at midday I returned to where I’d seen the buck. He and does were gone, but I picked up their tracks and followed them in the snow for a quarter mile. Eventually, I found them bedded on a barren hillside…

Make no mistake: The epitome of elk hunting occurs in early fall when the leaves are turning and frosty mountain meadows ring with the sound of bugling bulls. It’s a magical time, and no one who longs to hunt elk should miss it. However, the bugling period, and the often-dead time immediately following the rut when many general rifle seasons occur, are not necessarily the best time of year to take a mature bull elk. In fact, they may not be the best time of year to take any elk, be it bull or cow. Prime time to harvest an elk is late in the year, after temperatures have dropped to near or below freezing, the snows of winter have begun to fall and the elk have begun moving down…

Just 10 miles from downtown Portland and northwest of Vancouver, Wash., Sauvie Island is within rock-throwing distance of dozens of lodging, dining and entertainment options. The town of Scappoose sits just to the west of the WMA and offers both the Scappoose RV Park and the wonderful Scappoose Creek Inn bed-and-breakfast (scappoosecreekinn.com). South of Scappoose is the Rosebud Café, a family-owned eatery featuring live bluegrass music most evenings and a hot Firehouse Burger, complete with tater tots, that’s not to be missed. While the Sauvie Island region isn’t necessarily cold in November—think low 40s to mid-50s—there’s an excellent chance it’s going to be wet. Good rain gear should be on the packing list, along with chest waders, gloves and a well-stocked blind bag with plenty of No. 3 and No.…

Shane had waited an entire year for the moment, and in an instant it was all over. He’d scouted diligently, battling ticks and chiggers in the dog days of summer. He’d helped plant food plots, doing most of the dirty work as his father drove the tractor. He’d hung treestands, cleared shooting lanes and practiced with his rifle. Shane had sat in his favorite stand for exactly 18 minutes after first light on the opening day of deer rifle season before he pulled the trigger. He was embarrassed for the feelings he now had as he looked down at the yearling deer and tried not to cry. He petted the deer’s head just to make sure again, but he only verified what he already knew: inch-and-a-half-long antlers protruded from the…

REGIONAL RUT UPDATE Our annual from-the-field rut reports begin Oct. 19 with weekly expert info on whitetail activity, big-buck harvests and how to tag a trophy in your area during all stages of the rut. Find “Regional Rut Update” at the top of the homepage. BELLS WILL BE RINGING Get a jump on holiday gift-buying for your favorite hunter or angler. Find cool ideas in our annual “Holiday Gift Guide,” launching in November. AVOID DEER MISSES It’s the question hunters hate to ask: How did I blow that shot? Craig Boddington tells you why and how to fix it in “Don’t Miss Your Next Shot at a Trophy Buck.” DIAL IN WITH NEW OPTICS Our survey of top hunting optics will satisfy the most discerning hunter. Read more at…

Allow me a confession, first rattle out of the box. Growing up in northeast Ohio, my formative years were not spent off-roading with family. Oh, we had four-wheel-drive pickups. We had snow and mud. My father and I hunted in both, but we just didn’t off-road. Didn’t need to, which, looking back now, was a good thing. When I moved to rural southwest Washington, I soon learned off-roading would become a way of life, so to speak, if I wanted to access the very best places to hunt, fish, camp, gather mushrooms ... . To put it mildly, it was a learning curve for me. The majority of my off-road “instruction,” came via the School of Hard Knocks. Get stuck ... get unstuck. Get stuck worse ... call someone, or…

Periodically, I’ll be washing dishes, and among the beer glasses and suds I’ll notice a pink cloud and smile. I’ve cut my finger—again—on a sharp knife. While that’s not the best reason to keep your knives, axes, swords and spears sharp, it’s pretty cool to see the gory results of a workmanlike effort. You probably use a blade more often than a riflescope or trolling motor, yet it languishes, dull and neglected, in your pocket when it could be serving you so much better with a little care. The downside of dullness is clear: hacking at rope like a character in a horror movie, arm-wrestling an elk quarter or making a mess of a mess of crappies. With a dull edge, you’ll work too hard and risk cutting yourself, and…

At any time of year, weather in the West can vary drastically from east to west and north to south. The primary culprits, of course, are the mountain ranges, which create terrain funnels, extreme pressure gradients and lee-side troughs that influence the climate. While a blizzard rages in the mountains during the fall, it can be Indian summer to the south, and this plays right into the hands of the West’s diehard bass anglers. Here, we’ll highlight some of the best waters to hit this fall, though the tactics should work anywhere the bass are biting. COLORADO Colorado’s Pueblo Reservoir has made the B.A.S.S. Top 100 bass fisheries list in the past, and autumn is prime time to sample its bounty. With irrigation demands met, the reservoir’s level is usually…

Hunkered down, we peeked over the gunnel at a pair of drake canvasbacks locked on the decoys. Bucking a stiff wind, the two ducks seemed to take forever to get within range, but when they did my buddies were ready. They simultaneously arose and shot. Each dropped a bird. My friends looked in admiration at the sleek, white ducks cradled in their hands. Water rolled off the drakes’ velvety feathers as the coastal rain showed no remorse. “I’m having this one mounted,” said Scott Turner, shotshell product line manager for HEVI-Shot and Federal, with a smile. It was our best canvasback drake of the day ... and our last. We motored to another spot on the lake, where we filled mixed bag limits of other diving ducks. Then we headed…

Can a classic be improved? Literature buffs and car enthusiasts will likely argue no; there is no such thing as a better Moby Dick or finer ’67 Corvette. A classic is appreciated for what it is, and any changes to its form or function detract from the original. That may be true for novels and hot rods. Hunters, however, can now point to at least one example where a new version of a classic firearm has, indeed, improved upon its predecessor. The Marlin Model 336 Classic, manufactured by Ruger, remains true to the lines of the legendary lever gun but includes refinements that increase both quality and performance. Before we take a look at the 336 Classic’s features, it’s worth reflecting on how Marlin got here. Remington Arms acquired the…

Your rifle’s barrel length affects the muzzle velocity of the ammunition you shoot, your ability to interface with the rifle and the rifle’s capabilities in various hunting and shooting situations. Today, many manufacturers are offering rifles with shorter barrels, and lots of hunters are choosing them. The reasons are twofold. A shorter barrel often pairs better with a suppressor, and shorter rifles typically tend to make for easier-handling rifles. Suppressors have become very popular with hunters, but a suppressor can add 6 to 10 inches to a rifle’s length. A common 22-inch-barreled bolt-action rifle is about 42 inches long. Add a suppressor, and it can be 50 inches long—almost as long as Daniel Boone’s Kentucky long rifle. Hunting from portable blinds has also become more common, and there are more…

You’ve heard it from your buddies and maybe from your cranky uncle: “You have to be a lawyer to understand these deer hunting regs!” A few of the grumblers prone to conspiracy theories insist that state agencies make regulations needlessly complicated to ensnare otherwise law-abiding hunters. Why else would annual proclamations (as the published hunting regulations are called in many states) run nearly 200 pages of tiny print and obscure terminology? A new study of all 50 states’ hunting regulations suggests that, while published rules aren’t intentionally problematic, they can be hard to both comprehend and obey, and they may be keeping some would-be hunters out of the field. Researchers of the report, which was released earlier this year by the Council to Advance the Hunting and Shooting Sports, note…

Rather than abrading the blade, V-shaped carbide sharpeners peel back a microscopic amount of metal—both sides at once, and always at the correct angle. An adjacent ceramic V functions like the fine side of a stone or a ceramic rod. The style of sharpener is great for in-the-field touch-ups, and my favorite, the Work Sharp Pivot Pro ($14.95; worksharptools.com), is lightweight, versatile and idiot-proof (no wonder I like it). Pull your blade through the carbide V a couple times, polish it in the ceramic V, and you’re ready for the next hindquarter. There are modules for garden tools and scissors too. You can even touch up your ax on the diamond plate.…

Ducks skirted the decoys all morning. I could have shot birds as they swung wide or flew overhead, but to pass shoot would be giving in. I shot a couple teal and went home, flustered. Three days later I was back and the wigeons were thick. In addition to the dozen floating decoys used last time I hunted the little pond, I added five dozen Big Al’s wigeon silhouettes. Down the center of the pond, I set the floaters in two parallel lines, 10 yards apart. On the shallow end, 15 yards from one line of floaters, I pegged a dozen silhouettes in the water. I spread the other four dozen in two groups on the shoreline, between my one-man blind and the floating decoys. A dozen of the silhouettes…

A year ago I tested HEVI-Shot’s HEVI-Metal Xtreme on clay pigeons. I missed the first shot then busted 24 clays in a row, and I’m not a clay-bird shooter. The next day I went duck hunting with the same load, fired eight times and killed seven mallards. From that first box of 25 shells I killed 19 ducks. The next two hunts I fired 15 shots and killed 14 ducks. I take my time when drawing conclusions on gear because I believe in thorough field-testing, but this new load quickly impressed me. I consider myself a good shot, not great. I was shooting a Browning 20 gauge and was dazzled by the accuracy and lethality of the new HEVI-Metal Xtreme loads, which consist of 70 percent HEVI-Shot precision steel topped…