Field Aging Whitetail Deer
Q: Larry, it’s important to me to shoot only mature animals, so I’d like to be able to judge the age of whitetail deer before I shoot. I understand that the size of a buck’s antlers is not a good way to judge because after a certain age antler growth tends to...
Tennessee Mentored Youth Deer Hunts
Tennessee youth have the opportunity to participate in mentored deer hunts. These Tennessee Wildlife Federation Hunting and Fishing Academy events link youth and their accompanying parent or guardian with trained, lifelong hunters and anglers who serve as mentors for...
Own A Legend: Steyr Scout Rifle Package
SPONSORED CONTENT It’s Col. Jeff Cooper’s dream come to life…yours for less than you think. Twenty-one years ago, legendary Gunsite Academy founder Colonel Jeff Cooper chose Steyr to bring his dream rifle to life—the Steyr Scout. Cooper’s vision was a rifle suitable...
Million Dollar Decoys?
Crowell decoys topped Copley’s record-setting $3 million sale. Copley Fine Art Auctions, LLC, the nation’s premier decoy and sporting art auction house, realized more than $3 million at its Sporting Sale 2019 on July 25 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The auction, which...
Arkansans Harvest 84 Alligators In 2019
Lasting heat of summer and stable conditions paid off for Arkansas hunters lucky enough to draw a tag in the 2019 alligator season. Of 147 tags available, 84 hunters managed to successfully take an alligator during the two-weekend season. The harvest is on par with...
Socrates, Stung & Skunked
I was planting fenceposts. Back then, we coated post bottoms with creosote to preserve the wood from rot. Wise to my dog, Soc’s, ways of drinking things he shouldn’t, I guarded the creosote bucket like Cerberus before hell’s gates and stopped him mid-sally on his way...
Florida’s New Online Option For Reporting Harvested Deer
Hunters in Florida now have an online option to comply with new deer harvest reporting requirements. You can log (Step 1) your harvest using a paper deer harvest log and report (Step 2) with the new FWC Deer Harvest Reporting Online Tool. Hunters still have the option...
Colorado Waterfowl Forecast
Colorado Parks & Wildlife is forecasting that hunters can expect good waterfowl opportunities during the 2019-2020 seasons. Despite drier conditions across most of the state as we head into the fall, Colorado hunters should be able to find good waterfowl hunting...
Announcing Our November/December 2019 Issue
Features: A Very Fishy Story When it comes to tall tales, most every fisherman can lie with the best of them. By Jerome K. Jerome The British Invasion English cockers have won the hearts of countless hunters. By Tom Keer The Homecoming A hunter returns to his favorite...
Utah Quail And Pheasant Forecast
Biologists estimate that Utah’s wild ring-necked pheasant populations have slightly increased from last year, due to a wet spring that resulted in good brood-rearing conditions. The largest wild populations are located in the wetland areas around the Great Salt Lake,...
Ruark On Safari: Gin
An excerpt from Ruark Remembered by Alan Ritchie who served as Ruark’s personal secretary for 12 years. During the next few weeks we’ve changed locations many times with a series of fIy camps, sometimes setting up without anything except mosquito nets. The whole...
Horses I have Known: The Back Biter
The back biter is orneriness incarnate. Given half an opportunity, this horse will gladly latch onto an arm or leg and stare impassively at you as you try to wrest your limb from its teeth. My first piece of advice regarding this animal is that horses never smile. If...
Artwork And Wine Benefit Oregon’s Fish And Wildlife
ODFW’s annual fish and wildlife art show is Saturday, Nov. 2, 1 - 4 p.m. at Duck Pond Cellars, 23145 Hwy 99W, Dundee, where the winery will release its new Conservation Cuvee pinot noir. This free, family-friendly event showcases artwork submitted for ODFW’s 2020...
2019 Minnesota Deer Forecast
Wet habitat and access conditions make scouting even more important this Minnesota deer season. Nearly half a million Minnesota firearms deer hunters are preparing for the season that opens Saturday, Nov. 9, 2019 and offers opportunity to spend time with friends and...
Hawaii Announces 2020 Lana’i Axis Deer Season
Deer hunting enthusiasts must apply by 4:00 PM on Friday November 1, 2019 to hunt for the new season. The DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) announces that application forms for the 2020 Lana’i axis deer hunting season, together with instruction sheets,...
Utah Mule Deer Forecast
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources biologists estimate that there are just over 370,000 mule deer in Utah, which is about 100,000 additional deer than were in the state in 2011. “Over the last three years, we’ve had the highest deer numbers in Utah in 25 years,” DWR...
Montana Cautions Bird Hunters: Be Bear Aware
Bird hunters around Montana, particularly those in the western half of the state, should be "bear aware" and prepared for an encounter with a grizzly bear. In recent years, grizzly bear populations have expanded into areas where they haven’t been for decades,...
What’s A Good Pronghorn Cartridge?
Q: Larry, I need a good pronghorn cartridge. I’m from the Midwest and have hunted big game only with slugs. I was recently invited to hunt antelope with friends in Wyoming, so I’m looking for a good rifle and cartridge to use. At home, I can hunt with only slugs...
5 Tips for Fall Walleye Fishing
Walleye fishing is a year-round sport and thanks to Georgia DNR’s walleye stocking program. There’s plenty of walleye out there and anglers must change their game plan in the cooler months of the year to be successful. Just like leaves, walleye habits change too with...
The Coues Deer; Very Small, But A Very Big Prize
Frontier Army surgeon, naturalist and hunter, Dr. Elliott Coues, never actually collected a Coues deer. In 1874, Dr. Joseph Rothrock, another Army Surgeon, collected and saved two specimens from the Santa Rita Mountains near Tucson, Arizona. He stated correctly that...
Utah Approves Bighorn Sheep Unit Management Plans
The 10-year statewide management plan for bighorn sheep in Utah was approved in November 2018, and on Thursday, the Utah Wildlife Board approved plans for each of the specific regions in Utah that have bighorn sheep populations. Eighteen unit management plans were...
Rifles Now Permanently Allowed For Hunting Here
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced that Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently signed a law permanently adding rifles to the list of implements authorized for big game hunting in Orleans County and a portion of Broome County...
California’s Hunters Encouraged To Purchase Ammunition Now
With California’s stringent new ammunition laws, California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is encouraging hunters to stock up on their favorite hunting ammunition sooner rather than later so as not to miss out on any hunting opportunities. New, more...
CWD Found In Deer West Of Continental Divide
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department confirmed chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer hunt area 152, approximately 12 miles west of Bondurant on Willow Creek. The mule deer buck that tested positive was hunter-harvested. This is the first time CWD has been found in...
Decorative Arms To The Heart Of A Lion At Nevada Museum
This autumn, one of the most celebrated decorative arms collections will leave the vault for a rare public exhibition. “Decorative Arms: Treasures from the Robert M. Lee Collection” features more than 130 firearms dating from as early as 1590 through the modern era....
Invasive Northern Snakeheads Found In Georgia
The Georgia DNR reports that for the first time, invasive northern snakehead fish have been confirmed in Georgia waters. In early October, an angler reported catching the fish in a pond located on private property in Gwinnett County. What is a northern snakehead? The...
SC All-Time Antler Records Available
The complete listing of South Carolina’s antler records (pdf) is now available to the public online. The South Carolina white-tailed deer Antler Records Program was initiated in the spring of 1974 and since that time, 7,469 sets of antlers (7,167 typical and 302...
ELLIOTT COUES: Surgeon, Naturalist, Hunter And His Deer
Many of you may have heard Coues deer or the name Elliott Coues mispronounced as coos, cooz, cooeys or something else other than properly as “cows,” as in “wait ’til the cows come home.” Here in Arizona, he is known as the namesake of the diminutive but highly prized...
Jim Casada Wins Excellence In Craft Award
Sporting Classics’ Editor-At-Large, Jim Casada, was recognized by the South Carolina Outdoor Press Association with an Excellence In Craft Award in the electronic publication category for his article, “Of Catfish and a Smelly Old Codger,” that appeared on Sporting...
Zane Grey & the Model 1895 Winchester
What Zane Grey termed as the “Tonto Rim” in Arizona is officially the Mogollon Rim, named for Juan Ignacio Flores de Mogollon (pronounced ‘muggy-own’) who was capitan-general of Spanish-held New Mexico back in the early 1700s. The Rim, which is now home to a...
Guide To Getting Fishing Permission
Before you go “popping the question” and asking for fishing permission, there are a few things you should know. Contrary to the small-town rumor mill, I did not enter into holy matrimony with my bride solely to gain access to her daddy’s prized fishing pond. But it is...
Minnesota Chooses New Paintings For Pheasant And Turkey Stamps
Mark Kness of Freeborn won the Minnesota Pheasant Habitat Stamp contest and Stephen Hamrick of Lakeville won the Turkey Habitat Stamp contest. Both of the annual contests took place Sept. 19 and are sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. This was...
Choosing The Right Men’s Rain Boots
SPONSORED CONTENT Choosing the right men’s rain boots for certain conditions was thoroughly impressed upon me many years ago while filming a deer hunt on Quebec’s Anticosti Island. This boreal beauty in the mouth of the St. Lawrence River is literally a land...
Python Action Team’s Snake Is An 18-Foot Whopper!
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Python Action Team (PAT) has now removed 900 Burmese pythons from the wild in Florida, including a large 18 foot, 4 inch long female python – the largest ever captured by the team. FWC PAT members Cynthia...
Hunter Walking Trails Help Get Into Grouse Hunting
Anyone who wants to try grouse hunting has an opportunity to access hunter walking trails that guide nonmotorized users through grouse habitat in northern and central Minnesota. “Hunter walking trails are a fun way to check out new areas and they do provide good...
Ramsey Family Knives
One late autumn day in 1956, Robert Dewey Ramsey, Jr. was a young man doing what he loved to do, hunting deer in the wilderness of backwoods Tennessee. The hunt was successful that day, and Robert came back from the woods with his deer. Later, he had the animal's head...
105-Pound MONSTER Snapping Turtle!
Herpetologist Nick Shiltz has his hands full with this 105-pound Suwannee alligator snapping turtle trapped in Warrior Creek near Sylvester. Shiltz and Dirk Stevenson caught and released the monster two-foot-long male as part of a DNR-coordinated survey documenting...
South Carolina Increases Bear Hunting Opportunities
Additional opportunities have been added for hunters in South Carolina this bear season. For the first time, private land in the southern portions of Oconee, Pickens and Greenville counties (south of Game Zone 1) and all of Spartanburg County (Game Zone 2) will have a...
Antlerless Deer Hunter Database
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s Antlerless Hunter Database connects hunters who wish to harvest antlerless deer with landowners who are experiencing damage from deer on their property. Landowners and hunters are important to managing wildlife; together with...
First Time Huntress Draws, Scores Once-in-a-Lifetime Rocky Mountain Goat
Alyssa Nitschelm, of Redmond, Oregon, did not fully grasp the significance of what she was seeing when she checked the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) big game hunting draw results in the kitchen with her father. Having never hunted before, the...
Land of Giant Whitetails
Hunting giant whitetails in an enclosure had never held any appeal for me. Over the past 50 years, I’d chased free-range deer with gun, bow and camera, and I had no intention of changing that. Chuck, the editor at Sporting Classics, knew of my distaste for high-fence...
New Deer Urine/Body Fluids Law In South Carolina
It is illegal to possess or use, for the purpose of hunting or scouting any wild animal in South Carolina, any substance or material that contains or purports to contain any excretion collected from a cervid (deer) including urine, feces, blood, gland oil or other...
Tips For Properly And Ethically Disposing Of Deer Remains
Disposal of deer remains may not be the highlight of a hunting trip, but it is an important aspect of hunting, particularly in maintaining the hunter's image. Hunters should realize that improperly disposing of deer remains is not only illegal in many places, but also...
5 Times To Be Worried About Sick-Looking Deer
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division, recently distributed information important to deer hunters on diseases they may encounter in deer and how to recognize sick-looking deer. While the Division reported that, to date, neither...
Alabama Artist Wins Federal Duck Stamp Contest
After two days of competition, Eddie LeRoy of Eufala, Alabama, emerged as the winner of the Federal Duck Stamp competition with his painting of a black-bellied whistling-duck pair. The announcement was made by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Principal Deputy Director...
Georgia: What’s A Tegu And What Should I Do?
A campaign to combat tegus in Toombs and Tattnall counties, Georgia, is making a last push for the public’s help before the big, invasive lizards go into brumation for winter. DNR and Georgia Southern University reached out to residents and media last week. The...
A Deep Dive Into The Imperiled Indian River Lagoon
The diverse Florida Indian River Lagoon is being poisoned by a booming human population. Last May, while visiting friends in Edgewater, Florida, I enjoyed a boat ride out to Mosquito Lagoon. My best old buddy in the world, Jim Carver, and his cousins Greg, Fred and...
Florida’s TrophyCatch Program Celebrates 9,000 Catch-And-Release
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) TrophyCatch program, now in Season 7, has awarded prizes for the catch and release of more than 9,000 largemouth bass since the program began in 2012. To date, 7,303 Lunker Club, 1,751 Trophy Club...
Wyoming Hunters: Submit CWD Samples
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department needs help from hunters this fall to collect lymph node samples from deer and elk for chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing in targeted areas across Wyoming. Hunters are a very important component in helping Game and Fish...
Ruark On Safari: Elephant Near Miss
An excerpt from Ruark Remembered by Alan Ritchie who served as Ruark’s personal secretary for 12 years. Meanwhile, our horse and camel safari continued, and there were plenty of unusual and even frightening incidents along the way. One day we were charged by a very...