Sportsmans News

By D.M. Zumbaugh

By my definition, there are three indicators of cold. Uncomfortable happens at about 30 degrees Fahrenheit, with a damp wind of around 10 knots. The demarcation of cold itself is initiated at 15 and at 5 degrees or below the real battle with the “old man”, begins. This is when your hands and feet cannot be kept in statia, no matter what high tech fiber is in your mittens or socks. If you are not in motion, you are freezing. Continue Reading

By Vance Ruggels

It started as a favor to a good friend.  Curt Counts was selling raffle tickets for a “Dream Hunt of a Lifetime” with the proceeds to benefit the Pheasants Forever organization.  Reluctantly, I gave him one hundred dollars, expecting nothing but poverty and heartache in return. Continue Reading

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Ryan Dethlefsen

Deer season brings with it an aura that can’t be found anywhere else.  The Dethlefsen household  is no exception to this rule.  There is an attitude change in the members of our tiny clan as the time stretches on into the fall, closer and closer to the rifle deer season.   Every year brings with it a plethora of memories that will undoubtedly last a lifetime.  Though we kids are slowly leaving the house in pursuit of lives of our own, deer season is one of the constants that bring us all back together year after year.  The 2011 Nebraska deer hunt is without a doubt one of the most memorable to date. Continue Reading

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By Craig E. Kimball

Normally, an over the counter hunter, I decided to use my preference points and hunt public land in Colorado near my longtime friend and former student, Mark Alward. He had described this area as tough to get to with plenty of elk and a fair number of bulls in the 250 to 300 class. Having shot a few bulls already in that range, I was hoping for something bigger. As always, the preparation began long before the hunt with tuning, shooting from various positions in varying conditions, calling practice; and, of course, antelope hunting. Spot and stalking speed goats in open terrain sharpens the senses and skills. Continue Reading

By Seth Holcomb

Last June I received a phone call from my excited 16 year old cousin, Preston, who explained to me that he had finally drawn the youth only either sex elk hunt in October.  This was a hunt that he unsuccessfully tried to draw for five years.  Preston has been hunting with me for the last eight years and has become one of my regular hunting partners.  The first time I took him hunting he was just eight years old and it was one of the coldest hunts I’d ever been on. It was a late December cow hunt, and despite the cold he stuck right by my side without complaint for three days. Although we did not see any elk for those three days, the sparkle in his eye and his excitement never wavered.  Preston had to return to school, so he missed seeing me bring down a cow the next day, but when I called him with the good news I could tell by his excitement he was hooked! Continue Reading

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By Ken Judd

When my good friend Dan called and asked, “How about coming out to my place and shooting a buck this Fall?” there was only one possible answer.  The arrangements were quickly made.  I got lucky in the draw so I was all set for a good hunt in December. Continue Reading

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By Grant Olsen

A light rain drizzled around us when we arrived at the airport in Juneau. The family friend who had come to pick us up informed me that this was one of the wettest summers in the past forty years. I heard the roar of engines overhead and looked up in time to see a column of helicopters heading off to the east. Continue Reading

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By Mark Gardner

It was October and an acquaintance of mine from Indiana by way of California said he’d like to try elk hunting. I knew him from church and he was referred to as Crazy Dave. After some inquiry I found that he got his nickname after nailing a deacon’s toolbelt to the floor during a work party at church. Doesn’t matter if you’re a rocket scientist, have conquered world hunger or what you’ve done up to that point, one small indiscretion and the rest of your life you’re Crazy Dave.

Believing he was somewhat harmless (I would find out just how harmless later) I agreed to take him elk hunting. He would have to hunt in Colorado’s general over the counter season which is crowded. The success rates are dismally low especially for trophy bulls which he planned on shooting because of my reputation. He really was crazy! Continue Reading

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By Andrew Scott
My wife and I like a good adventure.  To qualify as a good adventure, it needs to have breathtaking scenery, lots of excitement, some unexpected events, good company, good food and be somewhat gentle on the budget.  We are always on the lookout for a good hunting or fishing trip that we can also include some other type of adventure.   After exploring  the internet and devouring articles from the Sportsman’s News for most of 2009, I boldly announced to my wife we were heading  back to Alaska to stock up on halibut and salmon and whatever else the ocean might  feel charitable to give up.   Our first trip together there in 2007 filled our freezer with wonderful Homer halibut fillets, but the supply was running low. Continue Reading

By Sue Bashista

I never wanted to go north and “freeze to death” on a vacation, but I agreed to go with my husband on a Wild Alaska Cruise; in other words, a fishing trip.  If Larry Csonka and Tred Barta did it, then it was enough endorsement for my husband, Steve and brother-in-law, John.  The arrangements were made a year and a half before at a Sportsman’s Show in Reno, Nevada.  However, this first trip is not the one I want to talk about.  Believe it or not, the first cruise was so great we did it again two years later with our grandsons. Continue Reading

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By Dave Wardell

I grew up in Denver and my first memories of hunting were with my dad when he took me pheasant hunting in Eastern Colorado when I was eight years old.  During my growing up years, and into high school I began archery hunting for mule deer, elk, antelope, and mountain lion with a friend whose dad was a lion-bear outfitter.  In fact, that leads me to the title of this article “shed hunting”.  During many of my trips into the mountains hunting big game, I would find elk and deer antler sheds.  Also along the waterways when waterfowl hunting, I would pick up whitetail deer antlers.  But this story is really about turkey hunting from the “shed”. Wild turkey is my favorite game bird to hunt.  I’ve been blessed to harvest a significant number of turkeys, and completed my Grand Slam when I killed an Osceola in Central Florida in 1996.   Continue Reading

By Robert Bryant

Growing up in an area blessed with great fishing, it was only natural that both my boys became as avid fishermen as I. If you ask my wife she would say that we fish more than what most people consider socially acceptable. I’m still not sure what that means…I ponder it occasionally, usually while fishing. Both of my sons have become excellent fly fisherman, a skill that I only wished for at their age. As a wise man once said, “Sometimes fishing is not about the fish at all” and that is how it was for all of us growing up together, kids and parents alike. Fishing gradually morphed into fly fishing and the fishing trips were just what we did naturally as a family. The trips were as often a spur of the moment idea as they were well planned events. We just fish and that is who we are. Our trips took us to beautiful lakes and streams, but the real beauty I found was in the comfortable companionship I found with my family on these trips. And yes we eventually got my wife to understand why we fish more than what others consider socially acceptable. Continue Reading

By Stephen B. Owen

Can there be any greater dream for a southern boy than to hunt the wilds of Alaska? That is exactly where I found myself recently when my best friend Chris invited me to go on a moose hunt with him southeast of Fairbanks. While in Fairbanks buying a new scope at Sportsman’s Wharehouse (I just love airline baggage handlers) I picked up a copy of the Sportsman’s News. On my return trip to Tennessee from the moose hunt I began reading my copy of the Sportsman’s News. The articles led me to thinking about my greatest hunts of all time. The hunt I had just completed had to rank right at the top. After re-sighting my rifle, Chris and I flew into base camp on August 31, 2010 the day before the season opener. We awoke to fresh coffee and blue berry pancakes on what looked to be a very promising day as moose were spotted from camp. Four days of at a spike camp, 13 miles of up, over and around mountains and tundra, I returned to base camp with a really magnificent moose on my first moose-hunting attempt. Everything from spotting the moose, to stalking him, to standing for three and a half hours waiting for him to move into position, to pulling the trigger was dream perfect.  Definitely a fabulous hunt to remember, but could it compare with my Dall sheep hunt from the previous year? Continue Reading

As youngsters growing up in the Phoenix area my brother James and I had numerous opportunities to camp, hike and fish. We loved being outdoors as kids and still do today as adults. I was fortunate enough to end up a resident of Colorado where the fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities abound. My wife and I visited the state six years ago and really never left. We love everything about Colorado. Of course officially I have to tell you the winters are long and cold and the summers hot and humid . . . but enough about that. Suffice it to say, Colorado has it all.

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An American Fascination…Anticosti Island

I was sitting comfortably concealed behind a fallen tree hopefully awaiting the arrival of my prey, the Anticosti sub-species of deer known as Odocoileus Virginianus recognized by SCI since around 2004.  I looked up to observe a rare sight, the great gray owl, silently passing overhead en route to an unknown destination.  Patience is a prime requirement in this type of hunt where I was focused on a grassy area across a flowing river.  I was rewarded some two and a half hours later when a four-point buck exited from the thick conifer forest giving me the opportunity to harvest this excellent eating whitetail.  I was familiar with this location since I had taken a larger buck there the previous year after a four-hour wait.

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