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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

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

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

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.

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

Using Wolves to Control Elk Population at CO Wildlife Refuge?

Sarah Smith — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:59:37 -0500

--Chad Love

Federal wildlife officials are considering using wolves to control the elk population at Colorado's Baca National Wildlife Refuge.

From this story in the Billings Gazette:

Federal officials are considering using wolves to control the number of elk in Baca National Wildlife Refuge, a proposal that is drawing criticism from hunters and ranchers and support from environmentalists. And a plan that is drawing comparisons to what has happened in Montana and Wyoming since wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone National Park. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service planner Laurie Shannon says the use of wolves in Colorado is not the preferred alternative, but it's an option for controlling elk herds that have taken a heavy toll on the cottonwoods and willows lining stream banks.

"Right now, it's a question. You have a lot of elk, a lot of people would say you need a large predator. We may not move forward with it, but right now it's on the table," she said. Federal officials have drafted four possible options for managing the Alamosa, Baca and Monte Vista national wildlife refuges as they develop a comprehensive conservation plan. The wolf proposal is one of four presented at public workshops this week, but wildlife officials don't expect to select one until 2014. Other options include largely keeping things as they are now, allowing hunting to help control elk populations and maximizing public uses.

Sure, why not? I mean, reintroducing wolves has gone over so well with elk hunters elsewhere with virtually no opposition or controversy at all, so why wouldn't we be on board with this?

If you've got an elk problem at a national wildlife refuge (not a national park, but a national wildlife refuge, you know, those places sportsmen helped pay for...) and you "need a large predator" to help control that population, forget about human hunters and instead focus on the more natural, holistic, warm-n-fuzzy, Gaia-friendly option, which apparently is to throw a bunch of wolves in there with them. It gets my power crystals humming just thinking about it. Yeah, no one's gonna have a problem with that one...

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.

Food Fight Friday: Elk Strap vs. Pheasant Marsala

Sarah Smith — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:58:49 -0500

by David Draper

Elk Strap vs. Pheasant Marsala

If your New Year’s resolutions include going on a diet, you might want to avert your eyes as this week’s Food Fight is guaranteed to get your stomach growling. I’m putting one of my favorite pheasant dishes up against Wild Chef reader Chris Johnson’s stunning elk strap. I have a pretty good feeling Johnson is going to run away with this one, but maybe you readers will surprise me with a win.

David’s Pheasant

I’ve been flush with pheasants this year, leading me to try all kinds of new rooster recipes. Most of them have been Asian inspired, but it’s always good to go back to a classic, such as this take on pheasant marsala. So simple, yet always delicious, the butterflied and browned pheasant breast got paired with a side of Boursin-creamed spinach and some artisan bread fresh from the oven.

Chris Johnson’s Elk

Here is a picture of a coffee-crusted backstrap I made for my family’s Christmas party to rave reviews. I was lucky enough to take my first elk this year and wanted to share the best part with my family for this special holiday meal. I did make a Cabernet demi glacé to serve with the elk.

If you’d like to see your best wild game or fish dish here, snap a pic and send it to fswildchef@gmail.com.

VOTE 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
July
August
September
October
November

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.

The 75 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From November 2011

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:13:59 -0500

Submit your photos here!

Here are the monthly Best Reader Photo Galleries of 2011:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October

Idaho Officials Nab Aussie Hunters For Taking Antlers, Leaving Meat To Rot

Sarah Smith — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:10:02 -0500

--Chad Love

Thanks to a group of wildlife officers who tracked their movements for days, three Austrialian hunters who used the idaho backcountry as their personal no-limit killing ground and garbage dump have been banned for life from hunting in Idaho.

From this story in the UK Daily Telegraph:

Dressed in camouflage, the three officers from Idaho Department of Fish and Game were deep undercover in the rugged mountains, living on rations, camping rough and for nine days intently watching their quarry: A group of Australian hunters. The game wardens were aware that Anton Kapeller, 58, from central Tasmania, had for 20 years been bringing other Australians and New Zealanders to Idaho to hunt elk, deer and wolves. They had long suspected him of illegally hunting elk out of season. But what really motivated them was that Kapeller left his camps, high in the beautiful mountains, littered with rubbish.

There was also a suspicion he was committing the ultimate sin: Taking antlers and leaving the meat to rot. This year game officers Marshall Haynes, Brian Flatter and Brian Marek were determined. With the help of various agencies, they knew Kapeller's travel movements well in advance. He was travelling with his long-time friend and neighbour Darren Tubb, 43, and Tubb's nephew Samuel Henley, 18, both first-time guests on his hunt. Tubb and Henley bought tags which allowed them each to shoot one elk, one deer and one wolf. But for Kapeller, the rules didn't really matter. The place he was taking them to was so remote they could do as they pleased.

The officers positioned themselves in Kapeller's favourite spot - high in the Sawtooth National Forest. "We were dressed like hunters, in full camo, carrying rifles," Mr Flatter said. "So, if we were seen, it wouldn't be too surprising. But we worked extra hard not to be detected. We were hiking in the dark, and by day we were watching them." On October 26, the wardens watched as the party (which included another Tasmanian and a New Zealander, who were not convicted of any offence) set up base camp. Kapeller knew a spot where the elk liked to graze. He put Tubb and Henley in position and, on October 28 just before nightfall, a prized six-point bull elk appeared. So did the game wardens.

The elk was shot, the horns taken, the meat left to rot. Over the course of the next few days the officers watched as the three slobs dragged the elk carcass into a clearing to attract bears and wolves, illegally shooting two wolves. After their arrest the men spent six days in jail, were fined $5,000 apiece, lost their $75,000 bail bonds and their rifles, and two of the men were permanently banned from ever hunting or fishing in Idaho again--a punishment that thanks to the Interstate Wildlife Violators Compact--means they won’t ever be allowed to hunt in 35 other states as well.

Thoughts? Comments? Think we should just go ahead and permanently revoke their visas while we're at it?

Day One: Exploring Idaho’s Clearwater Basin

Online Editors — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:00:58 -0500

by Hal Herring

Gary Peters, a Montana outfitter, has been riding these trails in Clearwater country since 1989. He breeds, trains and maintains a string of some of the best hunting and packing mules in the West. Peters has the calm, soft-spoken demeanor that is the trademark of a true stockman—of a person who spent most of his life in the woods taking on the responsibility for caring for his guides, clients, and string when they’re far from any kind of help. It’s a burden that he seems to bear without much trouble. He and his crew have weathered some major adventures in Kelly Creek: from blizzards and aggressive bears to human mishaps and the shear challenge of making a living doing what they love. Some of Peters’ toughest times came with the recovery—some would call it an “explosion”—of wolves in Clearwater country.

“There were packs here with 20 wolves in them,” says Peters, with no trace of the fury that is often the norm when Idaho elk hunters discuss the wolf issue. “We’d come down the trail, and the snow would just be churned up with wolf tracks.” Elk numbers and hunter success plummeted during those years. The Clearwater elk herd was once Idaho’s largest. The wolf recovery came at a bad time for that herd, and the wolves hit them hard.

The open country and re-growth from the 1911 firestorm made this area an almost perfect habitat for elk. But time heals the country and when the timber came back, the canopy closed over the old burn scars and shaded out the forage. The good winter range shrank and the replacement range was far away through dangerous country. Elk hunting was tough, and got tougher. But for diehard Kelly Creek inhabitants like Peters, cutting and running was never an option. He and his crew held on. The number of elk is slowly coming back up and the number of wolves is declining. The mud in the trail shows the heavy splay footed tracks of a cow and calf moose on the move. Bear hunting, which was always good, has never been better. And the cutthroat fishing is among the best on earth. As with most people who make their living in the woods, Peters is wary of any new regulations or restrictions for the place he knows and loves best. “What I want,” Peters says, “is for this place to stay just like it is now.”

It’s late July and we’re riding in a long line across brush fields flush with Indian paintbrush, horsemint, purple cone and foam flowers. A doe flushes below us and draws a quick stare from my mule, a small and bombproof traveler named Ruby. As the doe leaps away, a giant buck in velvet stands up from the lush tangle of grass and flowers. Peters grins and says nothing. My other companions —Scott Stouder of Trout Unlimited and his wife Holly Endersby—and I stare drop jawed as the buck disappears into a little grove of Douglas fir down creek.

It’s funny where and how life will take you. Stouder grew up in a logging family in Oregon and was a professional logger most of his life. He ended his professional logging career when he was 41 years old, after a long stint cutting big timber on steep ground in Alaska. “I just decided that it was time, after all those years, to try something new,” he says. He became a freelance writer, ran some hay ground, built up a small packstring of his own and spent a heck of a lot of time hunting and roaming Idaho’s backcountry. He then focused on conservation work, which seemed a natural progression for someone who had been a subsistence hunter his entire life; he depended on the country for both a job in timber and for food.

“One fall weekend, when my brother and I were in high school,” he tells me, “my dad came to us and asked us, ‘Okay boys, are we going duck hunting in the morning, or fishing for steelhead?’ Then he made some quick calculations. The limit on ducks was six, and there were three of us, so that would be 18 ducks, or maybe 36 pounds of meat. The limit of steelhead was 10, and they’d weigh maybe six or eight pounds apiece. Well, that would be 50 or so pounds of fish. ‘So, boys, we’re going steelheading!’”

Endersby was a high school principle when she started hunting 13 years ago, at age 50. “I started thinking a lot about where my food came from about then,” she says. “And I was driving all the way to the city to buy grass-fed beef or free-ranges chicken or whatever, and then paying all that money for it. I decided that was not right for me on several levels. I was still kind of passing the responsibility on to somebody else to do my killing for me. So I decided to take up hunting, and I found out that it was perfect for me. I loved it, and I still do.”

She strongly believes that wilderness and wilderness hunting is “the gold standard” for the hunting and conservation of watersheds and landscapes that provide the best fish and game. Her work at Backcountry Hunters and Anglers seemed a natural fit. “I’m a 63-year-old grandmother, and I’ve made a personal decision to stay in shape so I can do these things that I love—to hunt way back in, handle the stock, hike a long way. I know it can’t last forever.” Like Stouder, she says, “When I can’t do it anymore, I’ll be more than happy to pass it on to the hunters and fishermen that can.”

The opposition by some hunters against increased wilderness protection baffles her sometimes. “Even if you don’t go far into these areas,” she says, “they still serve as the refuge for game herds that then travel across more accessible hunting lands. Wilderness is the pump that puts bigger herds out there where people who only hunt closer to roads will have a chance to take an animal. Without it, you lose hunting opportunities across the board.”

I first came to Kelly Creek in 1993, the year without a summer, when it sleeted on us on the Fourth of July. I was working as a contract sawyer, cutting down yew trees down for an anti-cancer ingredient found in their bark. I was living in a camp on Lolo Creek, 25 miles of winding dirt road from the nearest cold beer in the town of Pierce. A buddy of mine told me about Kelly Creek’s crystal clear water, monster cutthroats and vast unspoiled river down from the confluence of Cayuse Creek. I drove there on a rare day off, gazed at the waters from the bridge and watched some grand hatch of bugs swirl in clouds over the water and high into the air. I never forgot.

Now I’m back—on a good mule, with good people and a flyrod. We rode for the better part of the day, about 12 miles or so. Peters’ camp on the North Fork of Kelly Creek is about 15 miles upstream from that bridge I stood on many years ago. I can smell the cold water, the hot sun on the lodgepole pines, the mint crushed under the mules’ hooves and the osier dogwood. It felt like I was coming home.

Hunting Amidst Grizzlies: Always Respect the Bruin, and Remember Your Bear Spray

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:05:38 -0500

by Hal Herring

Hunter shoots charging griz in Badger-Two Medicine area
By Karl Puckett

A Kalispell elk hunter shot and killed a charging grizzly bear in the Badger-Two Medicine Area of the Rocky Mountain Front on Wednesday. It was the third instance of hunters shooting grizzly bears in self defense on the Front — and at least the eighth in northwestern Montana — since big-game rifle hunting season began three weeks ago.

In an interview, Ben Laster, 28, described the shooting of the female grizzly as "the worst thing I've had to do in my life."

I was hunting just east of the Scapegoat Wilderness boundary, about a week ago. In the half-light before dawn, the tracks in the snow on the game trail looked like they might be human. As the light came up, though, it was clear that they were grizzly tracks, the improbably huge mitten-like print with the perfectly round toes, the frozen steep ground scored by the big diggers, like a badger print blown up, a badger from an old black and white Godzilla movie. Most of the tracks were blurred—there was more than one bear traveling here, and it looked like we were all going to the same place, a little pass about a mile and half off.

My friend and I had glassed a hundred head of elk over there the morning before, and some other hunters had gotten in on them in the afternoon, firing four times, so there were gutpiles somewhere. We had seen no bear tracks in here the day before. That day, they were everywhere. But I wanted to get into those elk real bad, and leave my own gutpile. I was not about to turn around because of a couple of bears. Or because I had left my bear spray crammed into my saddlebags…a mile away.

I know a lot of bear-humbled hunters who have probably felt the same way. We’re all gunfighters, quick on the trigger, sight picture perfect, until we actually hear the “huff!” and see the bear coming from ten yards out. How many times have we said it? “My .454 Casull (7mm Mag, 300 WSM, .338…etc, etc.) is my bear spray…”

We’ll say this even while we’re crawling through deadfall with our rifles on our shoulder. We’ll say it even when our rifles are jammed in the scabbard, or when our pistols are in a belt holster that is covered by our thick wool jacket and wedged under our daypack, chafing the bloody Beelzebub out of our backside, as accessible as it would be if it were on the nightstand at home. I carry my .308 Safari-style, with a BooniePacker sling, and I practice a lot with my rifle. In my mind, I always come out on top in a confrontation with a grizzly bear. In real life, I’ve interviewed at least a dozen people who’ve been beat up by grizzly bears. Almost none gunned down the bear, and the most recent one who did—in the story linked above—felt terrible about it.

In September, in Idaho, a hunter killed his buddy while trying to shoot a grizz off of him. I’ve interviewed a man who ran ‘round and ‘round a little burnt up fir tree with a bear right behind him (it got him), and a man who crawled over a steep ridge, rifle slung on his back, and looked a big sow right in the face (it got him). A bowhunter who was calling elk in the Gallatin Range and called up a sow and two giant yearlings instead, was caught, ragdolled ferociously, skull fractured, leg broken, and finally drew his sidearm only to find out, with a dislocated shoulder, he couldn’t raise it up or pull the trigger (his buddy used bear spray to run the bears off and save his life). And so on.

There’s a general consensus among those who’ve actually been attacked by bears, or almost attacked by bears, or that spend a lot of time around bears, that bear spray is a real good thing. An eight-foot-wide cloud of choking, red-hot pepper vapor sprayed into the nasal passages of a giant beast that can smell a carcass 18 miles away offers a better percentage of success than a thumbnail sized chunk of copper and lead that may or may not ever get clear of the barrel before the fight starts.

And bear spray is just the right, non-lethal response, in a world that has just celebrated its 7 billionth human baby, where we’ve confined the last of the magnificent monstrous top level predators to the smallest slivers of the harshest lands. Who among us is so callous that, all other considerations aside, they would feel good about killing one of the last grizzlies in the last little corner of their once vast domain? No one that I want to hunt with.

Last week, when I got on that trail with those bears, I figured that in all that country, the chance of running into them was pretty small. I fought my way through a thicket of young lodgepole, jackstrawed with deadfall from the ’88 fires, and finally came out in some open, unburned timber. Whew. About fifty feet away I noticed a little piece of orange flagging flickering in the freezing wind, which was in my face, just like I wanted it. I was still elk hunting until I stepped up on a big deadfall and looked at the flagging. It marked an elk carcass, and the hunters had packed out most of the meat. The bears had taken care of the rest. There was a big patch of blood blackened ground and numerous huge piles of bear scat, well-picked elk bones scattered, a rib cage smashed and sundered. I backed up until I couldn’t back up any more. Eased out sideways, talking loudly.

Where was my bear spray, the bear spray that I had written about so many times, the bear spray that all my interviews had pounded into my head that I must carry, the bear spray that I so often told my fellow hunters that they must carry? Yep, back in my saddle bags. I put my .308 to my shoulder (finger straight!/safety on!) and I bashed my way along the edge of the open timber, wide-eyed. The smell of grizzly bear was strong, in short puffs and whiffs, coming from who-knows-where on a whipping, confused wind. I reached higher ground and relaxed. But there, right at my feet, one of the bears had dragged part of the carcass, or another carcass, and had literally torn it to pieces, defecating copiously all the while.

I never saw those bears. One of the guides that was hiking not far away did see them, from a glassing perch up high—two big grizzlies, out in the open, grazing along not 50 yards from a bachelor group of four bull elk. I lucked out, but I didn’t deserve that luck. I crashed out of the thicket right into a carcass, like a clown. I didn’t have my bear spray. If the bear had been on that carcass, I’d have been in trouble. Would I have tried to shoot a grizzly that was charging me? Yes. One of the effects of all my interviews is that I know how truly awful it is to get caught by an enraged grizzly bear (and how expensive it is to, say, fix a broken femur or stitch on a scalp). So I would have shot it if I could. But it would have been failure on my part, a failure of awareness, one of the key aspects of being a good hunter, and a failure of preparedness, the fundamental of traveling in wild places.

It has been my good fortune to be able to hunt some of the places that I dreamed of when I was younger, places like the Scapegoat Wilderness of Montana, one of the last places on earth where human beings are not quite at the top of the food chain. From Loma, Montana (where the Marias River meets the Missouri) where a grizz on walkabout killed a sheep last year- 140 miles from the Rockies, to Key West, Florida, there’s not another grizzly bear. From southern Idaho all the way to the high sierra along the Yaqui River in Mexico, where a shipment of 1080 predator poison from the US killed the last grizzlies in the 1970’s, there’s not another grizzly bear beyond the one printed on the state flag of California, where the last grizz was killed in 1924, and where the human population is now around 37.5 million souls.

There are an estimated 800-1,000 grizzlies left in the lower 48, and the fact that there are that many is among the greatest success stories of wildlife recovery and conservation on earth. If we ever want to see a hunting season on grizzlies, we have to try to stop killing them in conflicts over meat, or because we run into them by accident. (We covered some of the basic grizz cautions in the 2006 Field & Stream story “Surprise Attack!” and the advice we offered there still holds true.) I don’t worry that non-hunting wildlife advocacy groups will someday try to restrict hunting big game in grizzly habitat, although I think someone will do that, if enough bears die from our self-defense shootings.

We’ll fight any attempts to run us out of the wilderness, and we’ll prevail. But we won’t be 100% in the right, will we? We might walk around still saying ‘My .308 is my bearspray,” even then, but it won’t sound quite so good anymore, not when it’s clear that top-notch woodsmanship- the kind once practiced by American frontiersmen traveling in Indian country - would make such self-defense killings rare, as would a fresh canister of bearspray for when that woodsmanship failed.

To have the opportunity to hunt this kind of intact, hyper-wild country, in this modern day, implies a profound responsibility, not to be careless in way that makes it necessary to kill these bears and leave the country less wild than we found it. A bluff charge turned by pepper spray leaves a live, educated bear, but there’s not a hunter on earth who is going to wait and see whether they are facing a a bluff or a full-out bite-your-face-off assault before pulling the trigger on a rifle. To move carefully in grizz country, to carry bear spray where you can get at it in a millisecond- to try to minimize these conflicts - is to possess the very kind of respect for wildlife and wild places that we often talk about, the respect that is our heritage as hunters and can be our legacy.

I’m talking to myself here. I walked into the gutpile. My bear spray was in my saddlebags. My rifle was at my shoulder. I can do better.

The 50 Best Photos from Round II of the 2011 F&S Fall Trail Cam Contest

Online Editors — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:51:21 -0500

Here are the editors' picks for the 50 best entries in the second round of our 2011 Fall Trail Cam Photo Contest. Congrats to Dufhuntin who took first place with is "Owl spooking a doe" shot and will receive a Bushnell Trophy Cam; and to second-place winner, Bull80, who gets a Hide 'N Hunt Blind from Hunter's Specialties.

Don't forget to vote for the readers choice winners in Round II. The top three will each win a Freeman Guide Folding Knife from Gerber. And keep entering your great trail cam photos in Round III for more chances to win. You've got until Midnight on December 8th to enter.

Ohio Bowhunter Tags Back-To-Back Boone & Crockett Bucks

Sarah Smith — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:10:44 -0500