Outdoor Life — The Source for Hunting and Fishing Adventure

One of my hunting partners, Tim Herald, and I decided to switch stands the other night. He is bow hunting up here and hadn’t tagged a bear yet and really liked the looks of the bear I had seen a couple nights ago but had passed on. At the stand he had been hunting a large bear had been lurking around the edges but hadn’t approached within bow range but was certainly within range of my slug if I wanted to take him.

So we swapped hunting locations and it worked out perfectly. He arrowed this beautiful boar and caught the whole thing on video. His big bear never showed, but at least I saved my magazine.

—John Snow [ Read Full Post ]

Some hunters prefer a buck with long symmetrical even points that make the perfect typical rack. While others dream about non-typical bucks with thick headgear sporting kicker points, a lot of trash and even drop tines. As for me, just about any type of big whitetail rack can kick my adrenalin and heartbeat into overdrive. However, for whatever reason, I love looking at bucks with odd or unusual racks that have some type of distinguishing characteristic that separates them from others. With that being said, checkout this highly unusual buck that I dropped during an October muzzleloader season a few years ago.
When I shot this unique buck it was making a rub on a cedar tree on the next ridge over from my stand and it appeared to have a typical rack with four nice points on its left side. However, upon recovery I was floored by the opposite side of its rack. It only had one... [ Read Full Post ]

In case you’ve never noticed our sporting Canadian brethren are a bit different from us, eh?

Go into any Canadian store that sells hunting stuff and you’ll see that the ammo section usually features an ample supply of ammo in .303 British, which was certainly the case with the local hardware store here in High Level.

Converted sporters chambered in that venerable British military cartridge are still very much in vogue with hunters who call Canada home.

One of the guides in camp, Randy Erasmus, wouldn’t shoot anything else.

“I have a .303 and shoot a 180-grain,” he says. “My dad brought that rifle from the Army and gave it to me. That’s the fastest gun I’ve ever had. That’s my baby. I have a new .30-06 I got a while back but it is covered in dust. I don’t even know why I bought it.”

The standard 180-grain load has a muzzle velocity of 2,460 fps more or less and generates 2,418 foot-pounds of energy. Sighted in about... [ Read Full Post ]

“If you spend an appropriate amount of time stomping around in the woods, you’re going to see fungi. They’re all over the place. They seem to spring up like mushrooms. And as you observe all those different sizes, shapes and colors, you will surely become curious about them. Some, according to Mexican Indians and that longhaired creep who lives down the street, are hallucinogenic. And some will cure all of your problems, including that of continued breathing.”
-Galen Winter
“How to Pick Mushrooms”
Backlash, 1993 [ Read Full Post ]

It’s been nearly four years since Brian Andrews’ massive bow-killed 253 1/8 Iowa state non-typical record whitetail mount was stolen from his family's Buchanan County home.

Andrews was only 16 when he used a borrowed compound bow to take the 26-point whitetail—the second largest taken with a bow in the entire country for 2003. It was less than a year later, on June 18, 2004, when the spectacular trophy was taken.

Since then, there have been no substantial leads in the case and no arrests have been made.

Thanks to the efforts of Les Davenport, a Mt. Sterling, Illinois hunting writer who has taken a special interest in the Andrews’ case, outdoor gear mega-retailer Bass Pro Shops has stepped forward to offer $5,000 in products for information leading to the recovery of the deer mount.

“Bass Pro Shops listened to my story about this young man’s deer and without much hesitation agreed to offer a $5,000 Bass Pro Shops gift card to... [ Read Full Post ]

Went back to the stand I hunted the first night and saw the same bear. The more I watched him the better he looked. I had lots of time to size him up and he is a fine boar with thick shoulders and I would put him at between six and a half to seven feet.

I got one really good look at him around 9 o’clock when he took an intense interest in my stand, which is when I snapped this photo. He circled underneath me twice and started sniffing the wooden steps of the ladder leading to my perch. He then stood on his hind legs and started to climb the two-by-fours.

As soon as his back leg got off the ground I leaned forward, stared him in the eyes and gave him a loud hiss.

He tumbled off the ladder, ran about 50 feet and turned and watched me. After 30 seconds he walked off and went back to gnawing on the beaver carcass that had been... [ Read Full Post ]

Last night we went to bed with the sight of the aurora borealis shimmering in green waves across the sky. We woke up to the sound of wolves howling outside our tents.

My bunkmate Mark Nelson went outside to take a look and quickly came back to report that there was huge black wolf lying down on the ice on the frozen lake just outside of camp. By the time we got back the wolf was trotting to the far side of the lake. We watched him in our binoculars.

“You know,” Mark said. “Last night we shot all those bears, I saw the Northern Lights for the first time, heard my first wolf howl and then saw my first wild wolf. This has been a really good 12 hours.”

Hard to argue with that.

—John Snow [ Read Full Post ]

The bear hunting turned on yesterday. No doubt about it, the animals have shaken off the winter doldrums and are on the move looking for food. We took five bears last night, beautiful thick-furred black specimens including Linda Powell’s whopper that’s pictured above.

My bear wasn’t huge, but his pelt was too thick and too perfect to let him pass. I shot him at less than 20 yards and he folded up right there, which was good for me because the spot where I sat was surrounded by 360 degrees of swamp. If the bear had gone any distance tracking it could have been interesting.

The ride to the stand last night was a bit of an aquatic adventure. My guide and I had to cross a couple of spots with the water coming up to nearly the top of the quad’s seat. And on the ride out after the hunt he managed to sink the front end of the ATV in a fast-flowing creek when... [ Read Full Post ]

The reports of shutmouth gobblers are starting to come in by phone and email as the early peak of gobbling fades in some parts of the country, and dominant male turkeys settle in with their hens. They may gobble on the roost (to call hens to their position), and go silent (once the girls arrive). Nothing unusual about this, but some guys quit when it happens. Don’t. Pay attention to the evidence turkeys leave behind . . .

Hunters use the term “sign” to speak of one or many examples of evidence left behind by the quarry they’re hunting. Look for this . . .

1. Damp droppings say turkeys were there recently.

2. Concentrated feathers, old and new, can indicate a roost site when slightly dispersed, or a predator kill when tightly compacted in a small area.

3. Mixed sets of new and old tracks indicate turkeys use the area regularly.

4. Raked areas in the woods, along field edges, or in food plots, often indicate feeding zones. Hens go there. Spring gobblers follow.

5. Track size can indicate the sex and age of... [ Read Full Post ]

Had another good bear hunt tonight. Spent most of the evening with a very hungry six-and-a-half footer that came into the bait every hour on the hour starting at seven. It would hang out for a few minutes at a pop, eating with vigor before easing back into the woods. When my guide came to pick me up at dusk at 10 p.m. the bear was right underneath me and didn’t leave until the quad was about 100 yards away.

The bear was bold, something I learned the second time it came in. Instead of hitting the bait, the bear walked right past the food and stood at the base of my stand looking at me. We stared at each other for about half a minute before it turned around and slowly made its way to the food to have some more to eat. It knew I was there but didn’t care.

After watching how quickly the bear was able to climb the crossbeam holding the... [ Read Full Post ]

Spent the day sorting through gear, checking zeros and trying to pass the hours while waiting for the sun to get low enough to go hunting.

Happily, both my firearms made the trip here unscathed and, better yet, with no change in their point of impact.

Because the distances we’ll be shooting at are short—50 yards at most—we set up an impromptu shooting range that put us about 40 yards from the target. I put two shots through my .375 and two through my slug gun. Both were right on.

We have a pretty good mix of calibers and guns up here. One hunter in camp is toting a break-action single-shot 12-gauge slug gun. Another has a bolt-action .300 Remington Ultra Mag, one is using an autoloader chambered in .35 Whelen and the last guy in our party is bowhunting. There is also a father-daughter pair in camp that has come here from Colorado. I’m pretty sure the young lady (she’s 12) is shooting a bolt-action .270. Her father has brought along a 7mm Rem. Mag. Good choices all.

During the first evening I... [ Read Full Post ]

Made it up to High Level, Alberta yesterday to kick off a spring hunt for black bears. High Level is known as the Las Vegas of the North—at least that’s how the folks around High Level think of it.

The strip of hotels in town plays into that. The main drag has a Sahara, a Flamingo, a Stardust and a Frontier. I guess this place really comes alive in winter as the last stop before you run out of civilization, catering to the truckers and workers in the energy business.

Right now everything is just muddy. Spring has not arrived in High Level even though winter has released its grip. The lakes were covered with skim ice as we landed at the airport and nothing has greened up as yet.

But it should make for some awesome bear hunting. The warming weather is going to make those bears active and they should hit our baits with enthusiasm in an effort to recover the calories lost during the long winter. We’re going to head to camp this afternoon, check our zeros and get... [ Read Full Post ]