By Scott Bestul

In one of my recent posts, I discussed using a chainsaw to create deer habitat. This time our tool will be something equally effective; fire. Whitetails are, of course, primarily woodland animals, but they’ve also adapted marvelously to prairies, marshes and other treeless environments. And even where forests grow, deer will use tall grass for bedding, fawning, and escape cover.

Just as logging maintains the young-growth forests where whitetails thrive, fire is what rejuvenates prairie grass. In earlier times, prairie fires were a fairly common natural occurrence, and Native Americans also set them on purpose, realizing full well the benefits that fire held for grasslands and wildlife.

By Dave Hurteau

About a month ago, we started with The Sweet Sixteen of Whitetail Brush Rifles—a March Madness-style tourney to decide the top deer gun in the thick woods. In four rounds of head-to-head matchups, you voted the great Savage 99 out in the Elite Eight and sent the North Woods staple Remington 7600 packing in the Final Four. So it came down to the top seeds: Winchester 94 vs. Marlin 336.

And now, with more than 800 votes cast in the final matchup, it is all over—and it wasn’t even that close. While I admit I was rooting for the 94, my sentimental choice, I’m not surprised the 336 came out on top. I am mildly shocked, however, that it trounced the venerable 94, which got only about 40 percent of the vote.

By Dave Hurteau

by Dave Hurteau
So this is it—the final game, for all the marbles. And although I’m mildly shocked that the 7600 did not give the 336 a better run (maybe it’s a Northeastern thing), I don’t think any of us can be very surprised that it has come down to the all-time king of deer rifles vs. the people’s favorite 336.

By Dave Hurteau

Well things are getting interesting now, aren’t they? Not to mention a little upsetting as one of the stars in my cabinet, the venerable 99, goes down in flames. (Oh well, I’ve got two more still in the running.) Meanwhile, who’d have guessed that a bolt—even one so popular as the Model Seven—would get this deep into the tourney? But it has, and we now have our final four matchups.

First is the aforementioned Seven vs. the most popular deer rifle ever made. I think we can at least pencil that one in. But second is a far more interesting matchup: the 336 vs. the 7600. A few years back, I traded a 760 in .35 Rem. for a 336 in .35 Rem.—and am still not sure who got the better gun in the deal. I know this: At the Adirondack camps I where I’ve hunted, there are more of the two-seed 7600 than the one-seed 336.