By Scott Bestul

Sheyenne National Grassland
Location: southeast North Dakota
Size: 70,180 acres
ZIP: 58054

Prime whitetail range in North Dakota is north and east of the Missouri River, and the Sheyenne makes up that region's largest single plot of public land. One of the last remnants of tallgrass prairie in the state, these rolling sandhill grasslands are dotted with deer-sheltering stands of aspen and Russian olive. Riparian corridors along river bottoms may hold lots of whitetails, which raid nearby farmland planted in alfalfa, sunflower, soybeans and corn. Pay attention to boundaries: Private land is interspersed with the federal holdings and access can be hard to come by.

PLOTS: Private Land Open to Sportsmen

Only 5 percent of North Dakota is publicly owned, and nowhere is the dearth of hunting access felt more keenly than in the northeast. "There are lots of deer in the northeastern corner of the state, but most is private land," says Bill Jensen, deer biologist with North Dakota Game and Fish. "Much of it is being bought by nonresidential hunters, and people can't get access." The PLOTS (Private Land Open to Sportsmen) program leases private holdings-usually in 160 to 320-acre segments-and opens them to public hunting. Some 385 PLOTS sites covering 86,000... [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

After several tense moments, the buck finally walked within 30 yards and gave Justin a shot. “I thought I hit him pretty well, and we came back to track him that evening but we lost the blood trail,” he said. “I spent a pretty sleepless night, but we found him the next morning. He was my first deer ever!”

Justin was curious as to whether his monster deer would make Pope &Young. I assured him that the buck would have many inches to spare in that category! What a great first deer, and kudos to Justin for observing deer behavior and adjusting his stand site!

Hunt Stats:
Date: October 13, 2007
Location: White County, Indiana
Weight: 200 lbs., dressed
Points: 13
Green Score: unknown
Weapon: Mathews bow
Shot Distance: 30 yards
Method: Tree stand [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

     There are plenty of villains in the sporting world. Anti-hunting activists, wrong-headed policy-makers, PETA members, poachers - it's easy to find people who give other hunters grief or hunting itself a bad name. Think about those negative influences too much, and it's hard not to worry about the future of the sport.
     So in the spirit of focusing on the positives, who are the heroes in your hunting life? Specifically the women you've met who have had a positive impact on your field career. Maybe a female guide taught you a great deal. Or a fellow sportswoman turned into the world's best hunting partner. Or perhaps a mother, friend, or workshop leader got you into hunting in the first place?
     I know I've grown from the experience and plain old enthusiasm of plenty of females I've met along the way. I can think of women in the outdoors industry and female guides whose knowledge and passion definitely helped me grow as a hunter. Although I personally don't know any one woman who's had an overwhelming impact on my own hunting life, I've spoken to other people who credit mothers, friends, and even daughters... [ Read Full Post ]

By Scott Bestul

The photo above was sent to me by Illinios whitetail nut Tim Walmsley. Tim is an official measurer for B&C and P&Y. This picture shows the skulls of three trophy-class whitetail bucks, all found on the same farm and all assumed to have died from EHD. Obviously, losing more than one healthy, mature animal to a disease is a devastating loss. I’d be very interested to hear from other hunters in areas experiencing EHD outbreaks.

Here in Minnesota we rarely deal with EHD. Since the midges die when the weather becomes cold, it’s assumed that northern states don’t experience the disease as often. However, when EHD does strike northern deer, biologists feel the outbreak is often even more severe than in more traditional areas. Hope it never hits us here!

The next three photos—also sent in from Tim Walmsley—prove that EHD hasn’t affected all Illinois deer! A couple of truly impressive animals, indeed. I was particularly encouraged by these photos since I am leaving for an Illinois bowhunt this weekend. I have never experienced deer hunting in this great state, though I’ve obviously heard about it for years. And these bucks will show why I’m looking forward to it! Note that the... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

Reader Lou Alexander and her husband just returned from a Wyoming elk hunt, and she sent me the update below. The photo she included of this uncooperative pack horse is pretty great! –K. H.
      
      It was a great trip, but the weather was horrible. The elk weren't moving all week. The wind started to blow the first morning of the hunt, it snowed, the wind then really blew, it rained, did I mention the wind blew, and it snowed some more. We were in beautiful country. I got to ride horses five out of eight days. How can you feel discouraged when sitting on a beautiful mountain meadow, looking at a high country lake with bald eagles flying around you?! We'll get one next time.
      We met some characters in camp, and there was another female hunter. She was with her husband who was hunting elk. She had taken her first antelope earlier in the week and came to enjoy the hunt with him, so she went out just for fun. I enjoyed a camp with other women in it—usually I'm the only one.
 ... [ Read Full Post ]

By Kim Hiss

     Back in the summer of 2005, I met a woman from Keg River, Alberta. She said the upcoming season would be challenging because she’d be hunting while 4 months pregnant. I said, wow, that’s really interesting.
      I was still relatively new to the field and had never heard of a woman hunting while expecting. But I figured with the number of sportswomen out there (the National Sporting Goods Association was counting 2.5 million at the time) the issue had to come up on occasion.
      Curious, I called Karen Lee of Women in the Outdoors (I know, I mention Karen all the time), who offered to forward an email to her network of outdoorswomen, asking if anyone was hunting while pregnant that year. I wasn’t sure if I’d hear anything back.
      Long story short, by October I’d talked with 20 moms-to-be who were taking their rifles into the woods that season. They ranged in age from 22 to 39, in profession from attorney to game warden, and in stage of pregnancy from first to third trimester. Their stories — which included that of an 8-month-pregnant Idaho woman hunting elk with a... [ Read Full Post ]