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The Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From January 2012

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

The 50 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos of January.

Turkey Hunting: How Danger Helps Keep You Safe

Sarah Smith — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:13:09 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

My post about the Haint gobble call made me think about turkey hunting safety. When I started turkey hunting back in the 80s it had the reputation for being very dangerous since it is an activity where you hide in the woods and make sounds like a turkey while others are doing the same. While you would think the use of gobble calls and strutter decoys might increase the danger, I’m not sure they do. According to the National Wild Turkey Federation, turkey hunting keeps getting safer. Accidents occurred at a rate of 8.1 per 100,000 participants in 1992 and had fallen to 2.95 per 100,000 by 2005.

I think turkey hunting is safe precisely because we know it’s dangerous and act accordingly. Hunters tend to be on their guard and most follow the rules of turkey hunting safety that have been drilled into our heads: don’t wear red, white and blue, be sure of your target, sit against a tree wider than your shoulders, and so on.

National Pheasant Fest and Quail Classic: A Hunting Expo Worth Attending

Sarah Smith — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:11:51 -0500

by Chad Love

The noted French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once famously opined that “Hell is other people.” As a lifelong misanthrope, I’ve found that little gem to be not only a great way to kill conversation at dinner parties, but a wholly satisfying life philosophy. It’s not that I don’t like people; it’s just that I try to avoid large numbers of them at all costs.

So when the website informed me that I would be attending SHOT this year with some 65,000 of my closest friends, and that I would even be allowed to wander the show floor unsupervised, I questioned the decision as either a gracious but misguided act of charity or the result of a lost bet.

I took pains to point out to my editors that in matters of tact, wit and other social graces I’m roughly on par with Bat Boy from the Weekly World News. I reminded them, too, that, frankly speaking, I prefer the company of dogs to outdoor industry types, and that as a preferred destination for the third week in January I’ll take a CRP field in Kansas over Las Vegas, Nevada, oh, about ten times out of ten.

The Best Shotguns of 2012

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

These are the best new shotguns of 2012.

Pop Decline Causes TX Officials to Consider Changes to Quail Season

Sarah Smith — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:26:09 -0500

--Chad Love

It's no secret among Texas (or Oklahoma, for that matter) quail hunters that the 2011-12 season has been about an order of magnitude worse than dismal. How bad was it? So bad that many Texas quail hunters--as hard-core a group of bird hunters as you'll find anywhere--voluntarily decided not to shoot anything at all.

In fact, the good folks at the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch (featured here in a recent F&S web gallery) have even sponsored a "Shoot the Covey Rise" photo contest for quail hunters who have decided to put down the shotgun and pick up only the camera this year. It's a really cool idea, and for more information on that click here.

In light of the ongoing issue of declining quail populations, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is considering changes to the Texas quail season. From this story in the Austin American-Statesman:

The Best New Rifles of 2012

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

The Best New Rifles of 2012.

U.S. House Passes e-Duck Stamp Bill

Sarah Smith — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:49:36 -0500

--Chad Love

The ability to buy your federal duck stamp online is one step closer to reality after a bill seeking to make the program permanent passed the U.S. House this week.

From this story in the Washington Post:

The e-Duck Stamp would become a permanent part of federal law under legislation passed by the House Monday. Since 1934, migratory waterfowl hunters over the age of 16 have been required to buy the federal migratory bird hunting and conservation stamps, or duck stamps, at post offices or sporting goods stores. But four years ago, eight states joined a pilot program allowing them to sell temporary duck stamps through the Internet. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said that program has been a success and it was time to make it federal law.

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day 3

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

Photos from the floor of SHOT Show 2012, Day 2.

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day 2

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

Photos from the floor of SHOT Show 2012, Day 2.

SHOT Show 2012 From The Floor: Day I

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

Photos from the floor of SHOT Show 2012, Day 1.

A Toast on the Last Day of the Season

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:08:42 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

I rarely hunt opening day but I always try to go on the last day of the season. Seeing it out to the end is an important ceremony. Besides, if you have hunted enough, you’re relieved when the season ends. If you haven’t, it’s still a relief to be able to stop stressing about not getting out. It’s an occasion worth marking.

Although some of my closing day hunts are nothing more freezing walks with little expectation of success, more often they have been memorable.

Washington Waterfowlers Pushing for Electronic Decoy Legalization

Online Editors — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:39:52 -0500

--Chad Love

Electronic duck decoys. You see them virtually everywhere now, but the ethics of using them remains a point of never-ending debate among waterfowlers. These devices are legal in 47 states, and the state of Washington is not one of them. But now some Washington State waterfowlers are pushing to get the electronic motion decoys legalized. 

From this story in the Spokane Spokesman-Review:

If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck and flaps its wings like a duck, conventional wisdom dictates that it is, in fact, a duck. But not always. Not when the duck in question is really a Mojo Duck, RoboDuk or any other brand of spinning-wing decoy that waterfowl hunters use to lure real birds into shooting range.

Good Gear: The Haint Gobble Call

Sarah Smith — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:05:12 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

My family does not give me hunting and shooting gear for Christmas, as they believe, incorrectly, that I already have everything. (I don’t, I just have more stuff than I have room for). One thing I didn’t have was a gobble call, but right before Christmas a box showed up from Down n Dirty Outdoors containing a gift bag with the Haint, a gobble call, inside. I don’t use a gobble call and I would have to be careful with it in the public woods I hunt, but that said, the Haint is tremendous fun to fool with. A lot of people send me new turkey calls that are gimmicky and sound bad. The Haint sounds really good with some practice.

It’s a reeded call that requires a “tooka-tooka” breath sort of like a mallard feed call. You have to use a lot of hand pressure to make it sound right, too. I’m still learning, and only about 60% of my gobbles sound good, but when turkey season finally gets here I should be pretty decent with it. Whether I use it much in the woods is a different question, but I’ll have it in my vest.

Hand-shaken gobble calls have been around for a while and most people who use them use them as locators. Down N Dirty is promoting this call as a method of bringing gobblers to the gun by challenging their dominance. There’s no reason it won’t work. It’s exactly the same as the concenpt behind strutter decoys, which have become very popular and successful.

The Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From 2011

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

The 60 best photos submitted by readers in 2011.

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

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

The 25 best online stories from F&S in 2011.

The End of an Era: South Dakota Bird Hunting is Changing

Sarah Smith — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:18:34 -0500

--Chad Love

Are hunters in our top pheasant hunting state witnessing the end of an era? Maybe so, according to this excellent story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

In the nearly half-century he's lived in South Dakota, John Cooper has seen countless beautiful prairie sunsets. But none perhaps prettier than one on a recent late afternoon that arched wild hues of orange, red, yellow and crimson across a darkening sky. "I never get tired of that,'' Cooper said, nodding toward the colorful horizon, a 12 gauge double-gun slung over one shoulder and his Labrador retriever walking ahead. However barren in appearance, South Dakota prairies pulse with life.

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The Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From December 2011

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

The 50 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos of December.
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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.

Why You Should Watch "My Life As a Turkey"

Sarah Smith — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:44:31 -0500

by Hal Herring

It has always been my belief that every real and lasting conservation victory comes not from anger or a sense of loss but out of love for a place or a heritage, something powerful and positive. That kind of love is based in deep experience, and I wanted to make sure that Field and Stream readers are aware of a new (and free for viewing) movie made from one of my all-time favorite books, Illumination in the Flatwoods, by outdoorsman and wildlife biologist Joe Hutto. He grew up steeped in the turkey hunting traditions of the north Florida woods, and then, as a young man, embarked upon one of the most intense and unusual research projects ever undertaken.

In the first chapter of the book, he writes of a hunt taken when he was twelve-years-old, his first time alone in the pre-dawn springtime woods, of listening to the world as it awakens, and realizing that a lone gobbler is stalking and studying him. “I never saw that great bird on that cool spring morning, but he inadvertently shared something important with me, and I would ever be the same. A wild turkey had changed my life.” Indeed, it did. And that was just the very beginning.

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Write a Caption, Win Some Remington Nitro Steel Ammo!

Sarah Smith — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:53:56 -0500

by Chad Love

Remember when I told you the drought earlier this year had dried up virtually all the dog training and duck hunting water in my part of the world and that things were definitely not looking good for waterfowl season? I wasn't kidding.

Yep, you guessed it: it's time for another Man's Best Friend Caption Contest. You know the drill: best caption to the picture above take the prize, which in this case happens to be pretty sweet, and appropriate to the picture. One lucky wit will get two boxes of Remington 12 gauge Nitro Steel duck loads, which the guy in the picture (no, it's not me, really) looks like he could use a few of.

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Don’t Blame Predators For the Lack of Birds

Sarah Smith — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:38:33 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

Usually, I post about hunting and shooting things with a shotgun, but in order to do that, I need birds to shoot at and those are in short supply in Iowa’s uplands* these days. So instead I will vent. One of my many frustrations with our lack of birds is listening to people--often people who spend a lot of time outdoors and should know better--blame predators alone for our lack of birds. I have heard all the following and more this season:

There are more birds south of the interstate ‘cause the guys down there do a better job of killing coyotes.

All these bald eagles along the river are eating the pheasants.

I saw a mountain lion the other day. I bet they eat pheasants.

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Gun Dog Tips: Take Caution on the Ice This Season

Sarah Smith — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:01:23 -0500

by Chad Love

Yesterday morning my old chessie and I hunkered down among the cattails, eyes lifted to a perfectly brilliant, deep azure sky almost completely devoid of waterfowl. Almost.

Just after first light a pair of gadwall pitched into the decoys and went on the strap. And that was it. No wind, no chill, no clouds, no ducks. Warm sunshine on my skin, flies buzzing around my head. It's as warm a late-season duck hunt as I can remember.

This morning we're in a winter storm warning, temperatures are dropping like a rock and by Wednesday we're supposed to have single-digit windchills, six inches of snow, and, hopefully, a big push of new ducks into the area. Go figure. We'll also have something that I --and many other more southerly duck hunters (and their dogs)--haven't had to deal with thus far this year: ice.

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Do You Age Your Gamebirds?

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:21:19 -0500

by David Draper

If any of you are Pheasants Forever members, you might have seen an article I wrote about aging pheasants in the most recent issue of their PF Journal. In my research for the article, I found there is no consensus among hunters or cooks neither on whether or not it’s necessary nor the details of how long and at what temperature to hang birds.

The science behind aging says that enzymes start to break down the meat as the time after death increases, tenderizing the meat and making it more flavorful. According to the North Dakota State university’s Wild Side of the Menu guide to wild game, when aged at 34 to 37 degrees, meat increases in tenderness at a constant rate from one to 14 days—then plateaus. I don’t know anyone who hangs birds that long, or at that cool of temperature. Most sources I’ve found set the ideal temperature anywhere from 40 to 50 degrees. Aging birds in temperatures warmer than 60 degrees invites the risk of introducing harmful bacteria into the process.

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The 75 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos From November 2011

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

The 50 Best Field & Stream Reader Photos of October.
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Chukar Hunter Accidentally Flushes UFO in Nevada

Sarah Smith — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:51:06 -0500

--Chad Love

When bird hunting in the Nevada desert, it's always advisable to bring along a few of Federal's new "Area 51" loads* in case you happen to flush something a little larger than a chukar.

From this story on msnbc.com:

While hunting alone in a remote part of Western Nevada recently, Robert Pitzer bagged himself a UFO. In fact, there wasn't much of a chase: The unidentified flying object touched down almost on top of him. Pitzer was lugging a 12-gauge shotgun across the hardscrabble Nevada landscape when he looked up to see a bizarre object descending slowly toward the ground.

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