Last week's field logs for Outdoor Life showed an increase in overall buck sightings, up about 14 percent. Using only wind speed criteria, we had more bucks sighted than does in a 7-10 mph wind then in a calm 0-6 mph wind.

What does this tell us?

Bucks feel more comfortable traveling with a distinct breeze. There are always many other factors involved, but this is what the record books show also.

Most of the national attention on next Tuesday’s general election has been on the likelihood that Republicans will gain seats, and possibly majorities, in state houses and Congress.
 
But here in Montana, another issue is likely to have even farther-reaching consequences for hunters. It’s Voter Initiative 161, which would abolish a category of nonresident hunting licenses for clients of outfitters. Most Big Sky hunters I’ve talked to are confused about the initiative, unsure if they should vote for it or not, and want to know if it’s going to mean they have more places to hunt.
 
The short story is that it won’t. In fact, it may even accelerate the pace of private-land leasing in Montana.

On our first hunt day at Elkhorn Outfitters in Craig, Colorado, I awoke at a quarter to four in the morning to the sound of howling winds and driving rain. There’s nothing like pristine conditions to put a hop in the step in the pre-dawn hours.
   
Nevertheless, we rolled out of bed, chowed on some eggs and sausage and hit the road. By the time we left the ranch, the deluge has converted itself to a quick blizzard, which ended up coating the ground with about 3 inches of snow by the time our hunting party reached the parcel of land on which we’d chase pronghorns today.

One of the most inhospitable areas on the planet just got worse.

Deep in the Siberian taiga, a boreal forest just below the Arctic Circle where the temperature ranges from 70 to 65 below zero and the human life expectancy is under 50 years of age, a war is brewing. A war unlike any other. A war between bears and yetis.

According Igor Burtsev, the director of the International Center for Hominology, claims that hot weather and forest fires in the upper mountains have pushed the Altai yetis into the forests where they are known by the locals as “wood goblins.” Burtsev said, “Folk beliefs say that the wood goblin is the master of the woods. All animals, even bears, submit to him. The wood goblin has a strong hypnotic power, thus he is not afraid of any animal.”