Field and Stream - Bear Hunting Tips RSS

The 35 Best Photos From Field & Stream's 2012 Spring Trail Cam Contest: Round II

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:15:02 -0400

Who says trail cams are only fun in the fall? Set yours out this spring, then send us your best photos. You could win a new Bushnell Trophy Cam HD (MSRP $323.95).

Here's how it works. This contest will have three rounds. The first, Round I, began, March 12, and closed on April 12. Round II ran from April 12 to May 12, and Round III from May 14 to June 14. We're giving away three Bushnell Trophy Cam HDs (MSRP: $323.95) in each round, one cam each to the top three entries, as chosen by our editors.

Congrats to users luna, mod70 and Semibald, who each have won a Trophy Cam for their shots in Round II.

So go set your trail cams up already. And have fun! --The Editors

Click here for more info on the prizes.

Click here to enter ROUND III of the 2012 SPRING TRAIL CAM CONTEST

Cougars Coach Mike Leach to Hunt Bears in Canada

Online Editors — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:55:04 -0400

--Chad Love

Quick, without thinking, name the most interesting, entertaining man in college football today. If you didn’t say "Mike Leach" then you're just plain wrong. The eccentric, pirate-loving, sometimes-befuddled-acting, but always-entertaining new coach of the Washington State Cougars makes that "Dos Equis" dude look like an accountant.

He's the funniest, most bizarre, off-the-cuff and unpredictable sports personality out there. Just how entertaining is Mike Leach? While he was the coach at Texas Tech, he actually made Lubbock, Texas an interesting place. Hell, even Buddy Holly couldn’t do that.

Well, look out, hunting world it seems that Mike Leach is going bear hunting, at least according to his Twitter feed yesterday, which read "Watching the movie Grizzly Man. Going bear hunting in Canada on Tuesday with Mike Pawlawski."

From this story on cougcenter.com:
Mike Leach is going bear hunting. That headline is not a joke. It's not a play on words, either. Mike Leach is, apparently, going hunting for bears in Canada this week. It is the offseason after all. There is, however, a lot of irony here. You see, Mike Pawlawski is a former Cal Bear. Or maybe he's just a Cal Bear -- once a bear, always a bear. Also notice how Leach phrased that tweet. He's going bear hunting. Pawlawski is a "bear" in the sense of his college affiliation. What Pawlawski doesn't know is that Leach is hunting him. He'll release Pawlawski into the wilderness, give him a head-start and go hunting. But seriously, Leach is watching Grizzly Man -- remember, the "star" gets eaten by a bear -- to prepare for a bear hunting excursion. This is the Cougars' football coach. And this is awesome.

So that brings up an interesting question: who's the most interesting man in the hunting world today? Whoever it is, doesn't matter, because he may as well just step aside and hand the crown over to Mike Leach, if the crazy pirate decides he likes this hunting thing.

The 50 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos from April 2012

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 02 May 2012 09:25:49 -0400

Each month, Field & Stream editors review the hundreds of photos submitted by readers to our Trophy Room. If your photo is chosen to be printed in the Game Faces section of the magazine, you’ll win a Rapala Fish ‘N Fillet knife!

Submit your photos here!

Here are the other best reader photo collections from this year:

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

Would You Ever Put Your Head in a Polar Bear's Mouth?

Online Editors — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:36:29 -0400

--Chad Love

OK, a show of hands: How many of you think this guy is eventually going to end up being digested, and how many think this hand-reared polar bear will continue act like it's in a Coke commercial for the rest of its life?

From this story in the UK Sun:

Sixty-stone Agee has formed an amazing bond with tamer Mark Dumas after he plucked her from a zoo as a cub to star in films and television ads. The pair are so close they wrestle, kiss, nap and even go swimming with each other. Mark, of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, said: “If anyone else tried this they’d end up as Agee’s dinner. “The only people she likes are me and my wife Dawn. “I have worked with bears for 40 years, so I can read Agee’s body language and know how to behave safely.”

Bear Down: A Field & Stream Adventure on Prince of Wales Island

Online Editors — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:17:57 -0400

by Steve Rinella

Ronny and I were drifting in a Lund skiff 200 yards offshore along the coast of Southeast Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island, about 8 miles from my hunting and fishing shack. To my surprise, he’d just announced that it was no longer necessary for him to share in the duty of glassing for black bears.

“How do you figure that?” I asked.

He was kicked back on the bench seat, smoking a cigar. “Because I can tell without even looking that there are no bears within sight right now,” he said.

“How can you tell that?”
“Because if there was, you’d have said, ‘Uh-oh, there’s a bear!’”

There were limits to how far I could pursue this argument. Ronny’s a contractor, and I’m indebted to him for employing me all through college with higher-than-normal wages and lower-than--normal hours. So rather than pressing my case, I returned to my preferred position for observing bears: feet over the engine’s tiller, back against the gunwale, eyes on my binoculars. Ronny tried to return to his preferred position, but first he had to adjust his makeshift pillow of flotation jackets. As I scanned the shoreline, I noticed a black object emerging on a patch of sedges that grew along the seam where the coastal rain forest ended and the tidal zone began.

“Uh-oh,” I said. “There’s a bear!”
“See? I told you.”

The bear had a swayback, a potbelly, and a block-shaped head with ears that seemed short and rounded rather than tall and pointed. In other words, it looked like a good-size boar. But before we could form a plan, the bear fed its way back into the timber. I lifted the outboard out of the water and used an electric trolling motor to silently approach a point of land that would shield us from the bear’s last location. We beached the boat beneath a large cedar that had tipped into the water. A long stretch of shoreline reached away from us, and we watched it to see if the bear would reappear. If it did, the wind would be perfect for Ronny to climb out of the boat and make a stalk. (It’s illegal to shoot a bear from a boat on Prince of Wales Island.)

Maybe 15 minutes passed without anything happening. I assumed that the bear had either headed off into the forest or turned back the other way. I had a Knight & Hale predator call around my neck. I got to wondering if the plaintive bleats of a deer fawn might inspire the bear to come out and have a look. I cut loose on the call without mentioning my plan to Ronny, as I figured whatever happened would happen very far away. Instead I was answered by the sudden and close sound of claw on rock. Ronny and I both whirled our heads around to see a large male bear coming toward us like a pit bull crossing its yard to meet an uninvited intruder at the gate. If it had been a fish, we could have cast to it with a cane pole. I yelled at Ronny to jump out of the boat and shoot.

He glanced over the gunwale and gave a frantic announcement. “The water’s over my boots!”

“Your boots?” I yelled. “Who cares about your damn boots?”

By then the bear had realized that he was not approaching a wounded fawn after all. He spun around and vanished back into the timber. Without saying a word, Ronny and I started laughing so hard that it eventually became painful. It was his third close encounter with a boar in as many days.

A Bruin to Earn

While smart-asses do not generally make the best hunting partners, Ronny turns this generalization on its head. He’s an ambitious and dedicated grouse hunter, the kind who can turn a one-flush day into a one-bird day. He’s also a reliable friend who’s willing to make sacrifices for his buddies. One time, when I was down on my luck, he traded me a perfectly good Ford for a not-so-good chain saw. Though he didn’t realize it, I’d taken him on this bear hunt for reasons that went beyond my appreciation of his company. Years before, Ronny had been on a guided bear hunt in Canada that had left him with a bad, long-lasting impression. He’d gone up there as the guest of a business associate who’d arranged the trip. Their outfitter didn’t like to do anything in the morning. His clients would just sit around eating bacon and drinking coffee. In the afternoon he’d drive the hunters out to their stands, which were positioned near bait barrels along logging roads. The barrels had been filled with liquefied hard candy at a factory. Bears came in as though they were under a spell, like kids visiting their Halloween baskets the day after trick-or-treating. Later, Ronny remarked that the only thing he’d learned about bear biology or ecology was that bears behave in unusual ways when presented with a blend of refined sugar, corn syrup, artificial flavors and colors, emulsifiers, suspension agents, and preservatives. When Ronny killed a bear and inquired about the guide’s method of packaging meat, the guide behaved as though he’d never heard of something as outlandish as eating a bear.

Hearing this story put me into the position of being a bear hunting ambassador. I felt obligated to show Ronny another side of bear hunting—a side where bears go about their natural business in a region that forces you to develop an appreciation for the land you’re on and the species you’re after. As it happened, I had the perfect setup for such a task: a shack on the southern end of Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island.

That I own the place is thanks to the fact that my two brothers and I, back in 2004, simultaneously entered that brief period of life when you have money but no spouse to tell you how to spend it. Along with a buddy, we made the largely impulsive decision to buy the lopsided and shoebox-shaped structure that sits on tilted pilings over the tideline of a remote cove. The cove is surrounded largely by Tongass National Forest, and is accessible only by plane or boat. It is completely off the grid. We get our water from a gravity-fed hose dunked into the creek that comes off the mountain behind the house and flows beneath the front right corner of the deck. For the most part, phones do not get a signal. Electricity is from a Honda generator. Our hot tub is a Rubbermaid livestock watering tank that we shipped up on a boat from Seattle; the water is heated by a woodburning stove. Instead of a flush toilet there’s a hole in the ground and a bucket of lime. Mink drag their catch into the workshop and leave the bones and scales where they fall. Old-growth spruce and hemlock lean menacingly over everything we own—including the three chain saws, three outboard engines, one skiff, and dozens of rusted oil drums and hundreds of even rustier tools that the previous owner abandoned when he walked away from the place and never returned.

Whenever I’m justifying my purchase of the shack to my wife, I remind her that Prince of Wales Island has one of the—or perhaps the—densest black bear populations on earth. The animals inhabit a crazily shaped island with a third less landmass than the island of Hawaii but over three times as much coastline. Since it’s difficult for a bear to get more than a few miles away from the shore, you tend to see a lot of them hanging out along the water’s edge. This is especially true during the salmon runs of mid to late summer, when it’s common to encounter a gang of three or four mature bears milling around a stream mouth. As easy as it is to find bears during the salmon season, it’s not a good time to hunt them. Alaska tourism brochures love to show bears eating chrome-colored salmon dragged fresh from the water, but it’s just as common for them to eat dead and rotten salmon that they dig out of the mud at low tide. This leaves their flesh tasting like…well, dead and rotten salmon.

Some hunters will happily kill these salmon-gorged bears, but that makes as much sense to me as raising a tomato garden and then collecting the fruit after it falls to the ground and turns moldy. Rather, the best time to kill bears is within the first couple of weeks after their emergence from hibernation. Their salmon-flavored fat has burned off, and they’re eating little besides the grass found along the tidal flats and stream mouths. This gives their meat a beefy goodness.

On Prince of Wales Island, bears can emerge as early as early April or as late as late May, depending on myriad factors such as snow depth, air temperature, fat reserves, and even the gender and size of the bear. Typically, though, you’ll start seeing mature males consistently during the first week of May, and that’s when Ronny and I landed in Ketchikan. The weather was typical for that time of year: low 40s to mid 50s, plenty of rain. The next morning we hopped a small floatplane that landed us at the cove. It took us a day to get ready: We cleaned up after the mink that had scattered a hundred dollars’ worth of freeze-dried food all over the place. We hauled in some firewood and split kindling. We wiped away the new layer of mold that had grown over most of the shack’s interior surfaces since my last visit. And we waited for a high tide so we could launch the skiff. We started hunting early the next morning.

Blacktail to Black Bear

Prince of Wales Island is surrounded by an intercoastal maze, where small islands are scattered across the ocean as thick as black pepper sprinkled on a fried egg. To find bears in such an area, you want to look at either a lot of shoreline very quickly or a small amount of shoreline very carefully. I tend toward the small and careful end of the spectrum, though to make this work you need to make sure that the small area is the right area. Bears are looking for grass when they come out of hibernation. It grows best where there are accumulations of soil without the towering stands of timber that block out the sun. These conditions are generally provided where streams come roaring down from the mountains to meet the ocean. The annual flood cycle prevents the growth of trees, and the streams’ sediments collect as wedge-shaped deltas and low-lying floodplains just inland from the tideline. These are known as grass flats in bear hunting lingo, and you’re doing the right thing if you can cut your boat engine and drift on the current through a place where it’s possible to see two or three of these grass flats all at once. That’s what Ronny and I had been doing when our argument about glassing etiquette was interrupted by the bear that gave us the slip, thanks to Ronny’s momentary fear of wet socks.

We tried a different tactic the next day, mainly so I could avoid any nagging feeling that I’m a complacent hunter who’s stuck in his ways. Instead of glassing likely areas from the boat, I figured that we ought to split up and try some still-hunting. I dropped Ronny near a large grass flat in the late afternoon and then motored to a network of meadows formed where a shallow, braided river flowed into the head of a fjord. The tide was all the way out when I got there. I tied an anchor line to the bow of the skiff and carried the anchor across a couple of hundred yards of mud and busted clamshells. I figured I had a couple of hours until the water came up that high.

I moved slowly as I entered the first meadow, paying special attention to the shadowy edges where the grass ended and the timber began. Maybe just a half hour later I got a glimpse of a bear—or at least a bear’s rump. It was about 200 yards away, ambling away from me along the edge of a meadow. It vanished before I could tell if it was a male or female.

Figuring that I might see the bear again if I moved forward a bit, I continued carefully in an upstream direction. As I eased along, I caught another glimpse of the bear, a little farther away. Again it was just the rump, and again it disappeared. I crept forward until I reached a large uprooted stump where I could see the entire meadow. I looked around for several minutes, but there was no bear to be found.

I gave a few bleats on my predator call, half expecting a bear to come busting out of the trees. Instead, a blacktail doe crashed out of the timber and headed right toward me. I thought that the deer had nothing but an expanse of flat ground to cross, and I was curious to see how far she’d come before she realized what I was. But all of a sudden she mysteriously dropped from view. Apparently there was a dip in the topography that was big enough to conceal a deer, so I crawled in that direction until I came into view of an agitated female deer staring at a completely unconcerned male black bear. Both were hidden in a large, soggy depression. All I could see of the bear was the upper third of its body, but I could tell it was a mature male. I hunkered back down, checked the wind again, and crawled forward. The next time I popped up, the bear was only 40 yards away. I was shooting a Carolina Custom Rifle in 7mm Rem. Mag. and put a round through both of its lungs. The bear entered the woods along a heavily used trail covered in moss and bear droppings. I followed for about 30 yards and found a dark shape lying in the middle of the trail. I watched the shape for any twitches or movement. It was dead still.

By now I was worried about my boat. It was fixed to a light mushroom anchor and I had visions of it drifting away. I gutted the bear quickly, doing a careful job not to spill any fluids on the exposed meat inside the chest cavity. With the guts out, the animal was light enough for me to move it a little bit. I dragged it out to the meadow and sprawled it out, belly side down, with the pelvis split open. It would cool quickly in the evening air. I put my jacket over the carcass to add a touch of human odor that might deter other bears. Then I went back into the woods and dragged the gut pile off in another direction. Any bear that came along would go for the guts first—they can eat soft tissues in a hurry, wolfing them down before a larger bear has a chance to come along and steal them.

With that taken care of, I raced down to my boat. When I got within sight of the inlet I was relieved to see that the boat was still anchored in place, though it was now floating in deep water. I waded out up to my chest, feeling around for the anchor with my feet. Just when I was thinking that I’d have to swim for the boat, my ankle hung up on the anchor line. I pulled the boat in and then picked up Ronny in the early moments of darkness. He hadn’t seen a thing.

The Last Chance

Ronny’s bad luck continued. One day, for instance, we spotted a boar from the boat and hatched an initial plot to land on a small island just across the water from where the bear was feeding. After a short stalk, Ronny would be able to reach the bear by shooting across an expanse of water. But after we studied the layout of the island from a distance, we decided that the shot would be too far away. So, instead, we planned a convoluted stalk coming from down the beach and over a house-size outcropping of rock that jutted into the water—a stalk that somehow ended with me falling into a crevice in the rock and cutting my lip and biting my tongue and scratching my face. The bear was long gone by the time we got to where it had been. From there, though, we could see that the small island was actually only 200 yards away. It would have been easy pickings.

My concern about Ronny’s impression of bear hunting was quickly being replaced by a more worrisome concern that he’d come up empty-handed after a week of very hard and honest hunting. Those feelings were amplified even more when the last full day of our trip rolled around. We spent that morning still-hunting meadows along river mouths, and the rest of the day watching grass flats from the skiff. Toward dusk I announced that we were out of time, and we began the long trip back to the shack as the evening faded toward darkness. Ronny was at the tiller and I was up front, giving myself motion sickness by looking through binoculars as we cruised over the low swells. At one point I got a particularly long-ranging view down the length of the fjord, and I began a careful study of various blackish and roundish objects that littered the beaches far out ahead. Within seconds I blurted out the now familiar words.

“Uh-oh! There’s a bear!”

Killing a bear requires that a lot of things come together all at once, and this time the initial components all fell in place. The wind was right; the bear stayed on the shoreline and kept coming along; we found an out-of-sight place to land the boat where the stalk wouldn’t be interrupted by insurmountable outcroppings. Ronny climbed from the boat and made a careful upwind approach. He moved when the bear was occupied with feeding, and he held tight whenever the bear checked its surroundings. At 200 yards Ronny stopped behind a boulder to wait. From my vantage I could see that the bear was a solid boar. It moved another 30 yards toward Ronny and gave him a broadside shot. The bear went down hard and fast.

It was well past dark by the time we had the animal gutted and loaded into the skiff. Another hour would pass before we picked our way back to the shack through the dark and hazard-filled waters; another five hours would pass before we had both of our bears skinned and the boned-out meat packed for shipment. Toward dawn, as it started to drizzle, I watched Ronny kneel on the floor of the shop and run his hands through the thick and iridescent fur of his bear. He looked exhausted and relieved and rewarded, like a guy who’d just taken possession of something that he’d earned through hard work.

If you are interested in planning a bear hunt on Prince of Wales Island, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website to download maps and information on permits and regulations for bear hunting in Southeast Alaska.

Bear Down: A Field & Stream Adventure on Prince of Wales Island

Online Editors — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:17:57 -0400

by Steve Rinella

“How do you figure that?” I asked.

He was kicked back on the bench seat, smoking a cigar. “Because I can tell without even looking that there are no bears within sight right now,” he said.

“How can you tell that?”
“Because if there was, you’d have said, ‘Uh-oh, there’s a bear!’”

“Uh-oh,” I said. “There’s a bear!”
“See? I told you.”

He glanced over the gunwale and gave a frantic announcement. “The water’s over my boots!”

“Your boots?” I yelled. “Who cares about your damn boots?”

A Bruin to Earn

Blacktail to Black Bear

The Last Chance

“Uh-oh! There’s a bear!”

The 50 Best Photos From Field & Stream's 2012 Spring Trail Cam Contest: Round I

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:22:02 -0400

Who says trail cams are only fun in the fall? Set yours out this spring, then send us your best photos. You could win a new Bushnell Trophy Cam HD (MSRP $323.95).

Here's how it works. This contest will have three rounds. The first, Round I, starts today, March 12, and closes on April 12. Round II runs from April 12 to May 12, and Round III from May 12 to June 12. We're giving away three Bushnell Trophy Cam HDs (MSRP: $323.95) in each round, one cam each to the top three entries, as chosen by our editors.

Congratulations to users Kim Doucette Kelly, Isham C. Shelby and Stephen Schimacher who each will receive a camera for their entries in Round!

So go set your trail cams up already. And have fun! --The Editors

Click here for more info on the prizes.

Click here to enter ROUND II of the 2012 SPRING TRAIL CAM CONTEST

The 50 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos from March 2012

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:00:43 -0400

Submit your photos here!

Here are the other best reader photo collections from this year:

January 2012

February 2012

CT Drops Bear Hunt Lottery Plans

Online Editors — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:34:26 -0400

--Chad Love

The state of Connecticut has dropped plans to have a bear hunt lottery.

From this story in the Hartford Courant:

Connecticut's bears have dodged a bullet — at least for now. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has dropped plans for a bear-hunt lottery — a way of deciding who gets to shoot a limited number of the animals. An early version of DEEP's legislative proposal had language for how a bear-hunt-lottery would work, though it alone would not have allowed a hunt. The language was taken out before the legislative package made it to the General Assembly, getting only as far as Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office and the Office of Policy and Management in January. "Our thinking was this issue needed further study about the bear population, growth trends and population patterns before we went to the legislature," said DEEP spokesman Dennis Schain.

The state's largest hunting group is frustrated by the decision, and an animal-rights group is relieved. "The trends are obvious, and there's no place for the bears to go," said Chris Marino, secretary of Northwest Connecticut Sportsmen Council, which represents 32 clubs with 7,000 sportsmen.

Any Connecticut hunters care to sound off on the decision? Think Connecticut will ever have a bear season?

Kentucky Resists Animal Rights Groups, Votes to Expand Bear Hunting

Online Editors — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:53:36 -0400

--Chad Love

Resisting pressure from animal rights groups, the Kentucky Wildlife Commission just voted to expand bear hunting opportunities in the state.

From this story on kfvs.com:

The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission has voted to set aside a week each year for shooting a limited number of bears that dogs have chased up trees or cornered on the ground. Commissioners had scrapped that proposal two weeks ago after the Humane Society of the United States criticized the practice as cruel and unsporting. But they unanimously reversed themselves on Monday to set aside four weeks for hunters to chase bears with dogs and one week to allow them shoot some of those bears.

The hunting will be restricted to a 45,000-acre tract in Harlan County, a 43,000-acre tract in Bell County and a 20,000-acre tract in Letcher County. Kentucky becomes 1 of fewer than 20 states that allow hunters to chase bears with dogs.

Reaction?

Enter The 2012 Spring Trail Cam Photo Contest to Win a $323 Camera from Bushnell!

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:59:09 -0400

The 2012 Spring Trail Cam Photo Contest

Who says trail cams are only fun in the fall? Set yours out this spring, then send us your best photos. You could win a new Bushnell Trophy Cam HD (MSRP $323.95)!

Here's how it works. This contest will have three rounds. The first, Round I, started March 12, and closes on April 12. Round II runs from April 12 to May 12, and Round III from May 12 to June 12. We're giving away three Bushnell Trophy Cam HDs (MSRP: $323.95) in each round, one cam each to the top three entries, as chosen by our editors.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER YOUR PHOTO IN ROUND I!

Meanwhile, click through this gallery of the best photos from last year's Spring contest.

The 45 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos of February 2012

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:46:15 -0500

Submit your photos here!

Here is the gallery of the best reader photos from January 2012.

Record Year: Over 4,000 Pennsylvania Bears Taken in 2011

Online Editors — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:41:15 -0500

--Chad Love

2011 was a record year for Keystone State black bear hunters, with over 4,000 bears taken.

From this story on whptv.com:

The numbers are in and Pennsylvania game officials say last season was a record year for bear hunting. They state that two big factors played a role in the big year, there is a bigger bear population out there and more hunters are getting licenses to go after them than ever before. The numbers show that 4,350 bears were harvested in Pennsylvania during last year's hunting season. Part of the reason for the record number is the growing bear population, there were 18,000 to 20,000 last year.

The other reason is more hunters getting their licenses for bears. With an increased interest in hunting bears we wanted to know, what are people doing with those animals. “A lot or hunters use the bear meat for food, make some bear hamburger,” commented one official.

Any Pennsylvania readers here among the lucky 4,350?

Garbage Brings Bears to Alberta's Oilsands Region, 145 Shot By Wildlife Officers

Sarah Smith — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:53:20 -0500

--Chad Love

Oil extraction in Alberta's tar sands region has long been a contentious subject, with many decrying the industry's impact on the region's fragile environment. But the region's oil boom and subsequent influx of people is now apparently taking a toll on the region's bears, not through loss of habitat, but the proliferation of garbage.

From this story in the Edmonton Journal:

Alberta Sustainable Resource Development says 145 black bears were killed by Fish and Wildlife conservation officers last year after being habituated to garbage in the oilsands region. The number of bears shot in the Fort McMurray district was nearly three times the count the previous year and the highest in recent history, said spokesman Darcy Whiteside. Nearly half — 68 bears — were shot in oilsands camps and facilities after being attracted to the camp by food, garbage or other attractants, Whiteside said Tuesday. Another 51 were shot on residential properties.

No individual or company was charged with improper storage of food or other attractants, Whiteside said. Environment and wildlife conservation groups were outraged by the number of black bear killings. They immediately blamed the deaths on lax garbage management and a lack of proper monitoring and regulation by the provincial government. “It’s a very disturbing fact to hear and it’s one more cost of oilsands development that we need to look at,” said Mike Hudema of Greenpeace.

“The fact that these numbers are so high is definitely very worrying,” Hudema said. Alberta Wilderness Association conservation specialist Carolyn Campbell said it suggests Albertans are far from using best practices “or even a modern attitude” toward wildlife management. “There needs to be much more responsible behaviour by companies running these camps to really get serious about reducing food and other attractants. . . . The attitude of ‘attract them, feed them and then shoot’ them is really repugnant to most Albertans.”

An unavoidable by-product of needed energy development, or sloppy, irresponsible refuse management?

The 50 Best Shots From The 2011 Field & Stream Fall Trail Cam Contest

Online Editors — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:03:25 -0500

Here are the editors' picks for the 50 best entries in our 2011 Fall Trail Cam Photo Contest. Congrats to KSwhitetails who took first place with his "Bobcat catches a turkey in flight" shot and will receive the grand prize: a pair of Steiner 10x42 Predator Xtreme binoculars.

Congratulations to all this year's winners and thanks to everyone for the hundreds of great submissions.

You can check out the top photos from each round of the contest here:
ROUND I
ROUND II
ROUND III
ROUND IV

The Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From January 2012

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:06:52 -0500

Submit your photos here!

Here are the monthly Best Reader Photo Galleries from last year:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November

The Best Shotguns of 2012

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:56:43 -0500

The Best New Rifles of 2012

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:41:18 -0500

There were more exhibitors and more atendees at this year's SHOT Show than ever before. That means more guns than one could ever see, but we did our best to find the best. Here are David E. Petzal and John Snow's picks for the best rifles from the show floor.

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day 3

Online Editors — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:48:52 -0500

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day 2

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:34:22 -0500

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day I

Dave_Maccar — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:48:40 -0500

The Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From 2011

Dave_Maccar — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:15:14 -0500

Every month readers submit hundreds of photos to our Trophy Room. They include everything from grip and grin shots of some beautiful animals and fish to remarkable nature shots taken on fishing and hunting trips. These are the web editors' picks for the best reader photos of 2011.

Our Trophy Room is always open, so Submit your photos here!

Here are the monthly Best Reader Photo Galleries of 2011:

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Field & Stream's Best Photo Galleries and Blogs of 2011

Dave_Maccar — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:53:52 -0500

A lot of interesting stories came across the web desk at Field & Stream last year. These are the web editors' picks for the 25 best stories of 2011, in both photo gallery and blog form. Click through this gallery to see what you missed or take another look at a personal favorite.

For all past blogs, click here.

For all past photo galleries, click here.

The Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From December 2011

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 09:44:10 -0500

Submit your photos here!

Here are the monthly Best Reader Photo Galleries of 2011:
January
February
March
April
May
June
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First Shots Photo Collection

Online Editors — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:59:48 -0500

A collection of jaw-dropping hunting and fishing photos from Field & Stream's "First Shots" magazine section, updated with the most recent shots.