I’ve spent a lot of time tracking animals in snow, ranging from cougars that I want to catch to whitetails that I’m hoping to find piled up a hundred yards downhill. (Wounded deer always seem to run downhill just so you can enjoy packing them uphill once you’ve found them.) Under most conditions, [...]
As dawn broke slowly over the Maui Channel, Doug Borland and I faced a dilemma. Cooped up by torrential rain for the previous two days, we really needed to get into the hills and go hunting. The weather was beautiful now, but the downpour had left the ranch road we planned to travel [...]
Between November whitetails and late season mallards along Montana spring creeks, I spend a lot of time giving cold weather clothing its sternest test: holding still in sub-zero temperatures. Here are some points my experience has taught me. A friend recently returned early to our kitchen after "freezing out" in a stand near [...]
Understanding Hypothermia Back when I was young, when someone got lost in the woods and was found dead three weeks later the cause of death was usually listed as “exposure.” I didn’t know what that meant, and neither did anyone else. Nowadays we would more accurately ascribe most such deaths to hypothermia, a [...]
Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of my long run as Co-editor of this magazine (and yes, I’m still deeply involved although not in that capacity) was working with our fine contributors, many of whom became friends. Some of them were established writers who consistently submitted well-written material on appropriate topics, making my job [...]
Since it's whitetail season and a lot of us are hunting from trees, do you ever wonder why it's so easy to shoot too high from a treestand? Sure, bucks do jump the string sometimes, and their first movement is downward, but 3-D targets don't move and most of us tend to shoot [...]
Wood, aluminum, or carbon? What broadhead? How about draw weight? Over time, traditionalists will face a long list of choices, some to be decided quickly and others never at all. Beginners will have plenty of time to consider them as they consult books and videos, argue (politely) with friends, listen to veterans, and [...]
I usually don’t waste hunting time chasing turkeys in an area where I haven’t previously confirmed their presence, but this season was different. Two freak spring blizzards had driven the birds from their usual haunts, and I had no idea where they were. On opening morning, I headed to an ordinarily reliable location, [...]
As all my regular backcountry hunting partners know, I have never, ever been lost. However, I will admit that I’ve come close. Years ago, Lori and I were hunting hogs and turkeys in Florida with our old friend Don Davis. Late one afternoon, Don dropped me off on a road several miles from [...]
Nowadays, I don’t leave home without them. Years ago, I was several miles into a tough cougar chase when things went from bad to worse. Bright sun had caused evaporating scent conditions on the snow, and only one of our three hounds was still on the lion track when I started a long, [...]
