Innehållsförteckning för December/January 2024-25 från Game & Fish West

I love to hear stories of hunters taking big late-season bucks. They provide inspiration while I do my own late-season hunting, which is typically less than productive in terms of tags filled. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun; the post-Christmas deer season in my home state of Pennsylvania is one of my favorite times to chase whitetails. Thing is, those same whitetails have been chased by other hunters almost nonstop for two and a half months by the time the late season rolls around, and the odds of getting the drop on any deer—let alone a good buck—are perhaps the lowest of the season. It can happen, however, and I’ve had a couple chances over the years to take nice deer in early January that almost resulted in success. Maybe…

I would love to write a piece about just how good late-season hunting can be, particularly when you get the type of weather patterns that drive bucks to feed well before sunset and fill ag fields to the brim with whitetails. When that takes place, the waning days of the season can certainly be some of the very best of the year. But, alas, I can’t do it. Why? Because I simply don’t have a whole lot of experience with that situation to relay. In fact, quite the opposite has shown to be true. Where I live and hunt, the late stages of deer season can be mighty tough indeed. This is, of course, due to significant and steady hunting pressure that’s been in place and building since early October.…

I currently have 104 trail cameras set out, and I run them year-round. More than three-quarters of these will capture cougars, some more than others. About half of the trail cameras are cellular, while the others are standard cams with SD cards. I’ve used many brands of trail cams over the decades. In areas too remote for cell coverage, I rely on Stealth Cam DS4K cameras. I set them on high-definition video mode and program them to capture at least 30 seconds of footage. When shooting down long trails, I’ll program the video to run a minute or two. A video clip reveals sights and sounds that still images will never capture. I run 64 MB cards, and during peak times of cat movement I check my cams twice a…

I’m glad we’re here. It’s five below zero and snowing at home,” I quipped, fully appreciating the 60-degree late-January day as the desert sun warmed our glassing vantage. Accomplishment from the previous day had bolstered our camp, as we had successfully spotted, stalked and harvested a young Barbary sheep ram, also known as an aoudad. With our group now brimming with confidence, it made peering through the spotting scope at the towering, burnished escarpment in search of khaki-colored movement that much more anticipatory. “Got ’em!” I exclaimed. “On the plateau directly below the nose of the cliff, 1,800 yards. Big group moving into the canyon. We’ve got to make a move and head up the wash to stay hidden, then up the tributary wash until we can get on the…

When we factor in the cost of going thermal, some of us go ahead and add in the price of a new rifle, too. Although it doesn’t take a lot of effort to remove and remount a couple optics when switching from a traditional riflescope to a thermal unit and back again, most of us would rather leave them alone so that we don’t have to zero them again. An efficient alternative comes in the form of the Burris Thermal Clip-on, or BTC, which clips onto the existing optic’s objective bell and can be removed in seconds without substantially altering point of impact. The BTC35 is now in its third generation and boasts more features than ever before. When it’s off the rifle, a rubber eye cup is included to…

BIG RACKS, 2024 Take a look at these great trophy whitetails tagged during 2024 hunting seasons all across the country. Read “Tagged Out: Big Bucks from 2024” for highlights. TALKIN’ TURKEY Whitetail fever settles down with the end of the holidays, but turkey talk will begin soon. Here’s a conversation-starter: “Top 20 U.S. Counties for Turkey Hunting.” SLAB-TASTIC CONTENT More than a half-million users searched for and found crappie content on gafmag.com in 2024. See what else was trending in “Top 10 Game & Fish Stories, 2024.” ALL ABOUT THE BASS A New Year’s resolution for many bass anglers is to catch more and bigger fish next season. Winter-binge on bass know-how with “Crash Course” videos, part of our “Special Collections” section. TICK TOCK ON HOLIDAY GIFTING Don’t wait until…

Unless you have access to private aircraft, there is no fast and easy way to get to Cibolo Creek Ranch outside of Marfa, Texas. If you don’t live within driving distance of this isolated corner of the Lone Star State, your best bet is to fly to El Paso, rent a vehicle, drive east on I-10 to Van Horn, head south on Highway 90 to Marfa, then pick up Highway 67 south to the entrance to the ranch. All told, the drive from the airport will take about 4 hours. If you arrive at the turnoff to the ranch after dark, it is advisable to turn on your high beams for the 4 1/2-mile drive to the 1800s-era fort that has been transformed into a magnificent hunting lodge. This is…

Are those headlights?” my buddy asked as we rolled down the snow-covered blacktop toward our favorite goose field. I answered by letting out a massive sigh and nodding my head. My buddy uttered a word I can’t write here and threw his gloves against the dash. It was the second time in a week that our goose hunting plans had been foiled. The only good news was it was 3 a.m., so there was still time to find another field far from this one and run traffic. Until recently, we never worried about the goose competition in my neck of southeast Colorado. The land was all private, and there weren’t many goose hunters, so our crew got to have our cake and eat it for more than a decade. That…

As a kid, I loved the little balsa plane kits that were “lighter than air” and could glide long distances while riding the breeze. Some decades later, I still have an affinity for balsa, though now mainly in the form of crankbaits made from this soft, porous, lightweight wood. The subtle action of a balsa lure has the unique ability to catch cold-water bass when other lures fail, yet the thing that makes balsa such great glider material also makes it a challenge to fish. Casting a balsa crank is often akin to throwing a potato chip in the wind. While some balsa crankbaits are internally weighted and offer improved casting, such as the Rapala DT Series or the Bagley Balsa B series, the balsa lures I like for shallow…

Quality glass is the Barbary sheep hunter’s linchpin, and any optics package should start with a spotting scope equipped with a sunshade and paired with a lightweight tripod. A good spotter should be sharp and not cause eye fatigue. I like my Maven S.1A. It’s crisp and is comparable to my buddy’s Swarovski at a more affordable price. Next is a good binocular, and again, I reach for Maven products—the B1.2 10x42 for closer range and the B.5 18x56 if I need a break from looking through the spotter. You’ll also want a long-distance rangefinder. Maven and SIG Sauer both make excellent units that scan far past shooting distances, which is paramount for establishing intervals when planning stalks. When it’s time to make a move, I’ll leave the spotter and…

Whitetail hunters appreciate good optics that are reliable, durable and offer clear views from dawn to dusk. Many also have limited budgets that preclude them from making a significant investment to acquire such capabilities. Rather, they tend to look for quality options that meet both their hunting needs and their financial requirements. Bushnell’s new R-Series optics perfectly fit this niche. The series currently consists of the R3 and R5 product lines, which include binoculars, riflescopes and laser rangefinders. All are purposefully designed to meet the demands of whitetail hunters while also remaining highly affordable. The R3 line is intended to offer the performance and features that whitetail aficionados need, while the R5 line is a step up, providing enhanced optical performance, upgraded materials, and advanced features and capabilities. For starters,…

Manufacturers build rifles by combining three primary components: the action, the barrel and the stock. These pieces must work together for the rifle to function and deliver accurate fire. They should also provide a comfortable and effective shooter interface. The chassis rifle is a modern take on combining these parts, and instead of a one-piece stock, most chassis rifles have a two- or three-piece configuration. The chassis holds the action and provides the solid base for the attachment of the fore-end and buttstock. A STURDY FOUNDATION Having a separate part of the stock hold the action allows manufacturers to use a very strong material—usually aluminum or magnesium—in its construction. This robust chassis will support the action and not allow it to shift between shots. Sometimes, the metal chassis is also…

Before my eye caught the brownish mass drifting irregularly through the thick tree line 200 yards away, I’d been seriously considering filling my doe tag. It was the first afternoon of Illinois’ second firearm season, and from my stand tucked inside a small woodlot, I could see five of them milling around in a harvested cornfield to my right. Earlier that morning, I’d stumbled my way through leftover snow to hunt a stand down in a timbered bottom, but I’d come up empty, seeing only one doe. That first sit’s minimal activity and the anticipation of bringing home meat had me contemplating shooting a doe. The large, russet-colored apparition in the trees changed that in an instant. With the does now forgotten, I watched what appeared to be a big-bodied…

Tucked away in a remote corner of West Texas, Cibolo Creek Ranch (cibolocreekranch.com) effortlessly marries modern luxury and 19th-century history. The ranch’s buildings were originally erected as forts that served as the headquarters of ranch settler Milton Faver’s cattle operation, as well as strongholds against local bandits and Native American raiders. Much of the history of the place has been preserved, and museums on the premises are dedicated to artifacts and works of art from the region. Comfortable, well-appointed guest rooms offer respite after a long day of hunting, and the flavorful southwestern and Mexican food, prepared on-site by chef Metzli Rodriguez and her team, is exceptional. In addition to Carmen Mountain whitetails, Cibolo Creek is home to mule deer, elk, aoudad and numerous exotic species, including axis deer, blackbuck,…

Lee was on the high side, Tim was in the middle because we were hunting over his dogs and I was on the slope below when the dogs pointed. Suddenly, chukars took off from spots where there had seemingly been no birds a moment before. Pick one out, I told myself. Swing, squeeze, boom. Keep swinging. Boom. A bird tumbled. Two spent hulls popped out and I slapped two more from my vest, plunked them in the steel tubes and locked the gun shut in time to see one more bird cross like a rocket. Got him. Every time we bumped birds on that hunt they swung ahead, going to ground somewhere close to the same elevation at which we had found them. Before long, I figured out Tim’s strategy.…

I had just finished a 20-minute-long phone call and decided to check my Moultrie Mobile app. Two minutes before the end of the call, a cougar appeared on one of my trail cameras. Within three minutes I was in my camo and driving to the site. Less than 15 minutes later, I had a FoxPro X24 set 30 yards from me on the other side of the trail the cat had been traveling. Knowing the cougar was close, I started with subtle rabbit distress sounds (there had been a lot of cottontails and gray squirrels in the area). By the 2-minute mark, the call was blaring. The trails in this location are narrow, and the overgrown, dilapidated logging roads I hunt are surrounded by 15-year-old stands of dense Douglas fir…

Finesse cranking with small balsa crankbaits is the perfect remedy for bass in frigid, clear water. Rock and gravel substrate makes the ideal shoreline cover for this technique and a number of reservoirs across the western U.S. fit these criteria. In New Mexico, Ute Reservoir and Elephant Butte may lack national renown but exemplify the right mix of water clarity and miles of rocky shorelines to hold bass throughout the winter. Looking farther west, Lake Powell along the Arizona/Utah border and Lake Havasu in Arizona also have an abundance of creeks and tributaries with steep, rocky shorelines, as does Lake Meade along the Arizona/Nevada border. Of course, the big bass within the waters of the California Delta and Clear Lake in northern California offer opportunities for connecting with a giant…

PACIFIC SAILFISH ARE THE MAIN ATTRACTION OF COSTA RICA’S CROCODILE BAY, BUT TUNA, ROOSTERFISH AND A VARIETY OF INSHORE SPECIES ADD TO THE TROPICAL ADVENTURE. We blasted away from the marina and roared through Costa Rica’s Golfo Dulce toward our offshore target about 15 miles into the Pacific. Tame seas met us near Matapalo Rock just off Osa Peninsula’s point. Nevertheless, the crew and I held on tightly to any nearby flybridge support structure, grab rail or seat arm as Capt. Manuel Rodriguez opened up the four screaming outboards powering the boat. We were after big Pacific sailfish. It took us about 20 minutes aboard the 39-foot Front Runner to reach the captain’s favored fishing grounds. The crew quickly set out an enticing spread of ballyhoo rigs, giant lures and squid teasers in the cobalt…

TShane was 16 when he began to discover he had other interests than just hunting and fishing. One Friday evening his father caught up with him before Shane left to watch the high-school basketball game. Shane wasn’t going so much for the game as for a certain young lady whom he knew would be there. “If you plan to go duck hunting in the morning,” his father said, “you need to be back at a decent hour. I need help loading the boat in the morning, and I don’t want you to be dog-tired and worthless.” “Dad,” said Shane, with embarrassment in his voice, “would you be upset if I sat this one out? You know I really want to go, but Charlie and I are supposed to meet up…