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So Outdoor Life is part of a cool contest operated by Crown Royal, sponsor of Field & Stream’s Hook Shots show and maker of the whiskey that comes in a purple bag. The contest is called “Pass the Crown,” and it’s a variation on the Secret Santa gift exchange anyone who’s ever worked in an office is familiar with. Are you lucky enough to have never worked in an office? Then here’s how this works: [ Read Full Post ]
Just in time for hunting season, Brunton Hunting released their new Eterna Rifle Scopes.
The Eterna Rifle Scopes are fully multi-coated providing the best in clarity, contrast, true color and light transmission. They are equipped with a fast focus eyepiece affording the hunter faster and more precise target acquisition. Available in three models: the BDC Reticle; the Duplex Reticle; and the Mil-dot Reticle.
The Eterna BDC Reticle lets you zero the point if impact at one distance by using Bullet Drop Compensating glass-etched reticle. It uses a series of aiming points to allow for trajectory and improve accuracy at longer ranges. Available in 4.5-14x50, 3-9x40 and 6.5-20x50. For greater ease and accuracy, Brunton provides a ballistics calculator online. [ Read Full Post ]
For the western hunter, taking photos of animals through a spotting scope, also knowns as photoscoping or digiscoping, is the equivalent of setting up trail cameras. Each time I head to the top of a mountain with spotter, camera and photoscoping kit in hand, I get the same information a whitetail hunter gets when he pulls his trail cameras. The difference is I get to take photos of potential shooters from up to three miles away.
These are the main benefits of photoscoping:
[ Read Full Post ]
As I dig my gear out and begin prepping it for this year’s Dall sheep hunt, one cool addition I’m looking forward to using is the new ballistic turret from Swarovski.
The ballistic turret concept isn't a new one, but in the last several years it has really gained a foothold in the hunting community. The concept goes back to target shooting, where instead of holding over, a shooter dials his sights to a known setting for a given elevation. [ Read Full Post ]
I just got this scope in from Weaver the other day. It is part of our grand prize giveaway for the Outdoor Life Shooting Slam, where one lucky reader will walk away with four guns, a pile of optics, ammo, accessories and a week of custom training with all these goodies at Gunsite Academy in December.
If you haven’t thrown your hat into the ring yet, you can sign up here.
I’m looking forward to putting this scope through the ringer. It is a first-focal plane 1-5x24 built on a burly 30mm tube. It’s an ideal optic for an AR carbine. Set at 1-power it allows for quick target acquisition at close range and fast two-eyes-open shooting. [ Read Full Post ]
The snow in the high country has finally melted away and the elk are in their summer feeding patterns. So I figured it was a great time to head into the wilderness area that I would be hunting this year and snap a few photos through the spotting scope and see what kind of potential this unit had to offer.
Here are the tactics that I use to find a new hunting area.
Get to the Tree Line
If I’m planning on scouting an area that I’ve never hunted and it’s a general over the counter tag, I will look at a topographic map and find a glassing position that will give me a 360-degree view of the areas around me and is between 11,500 and 12,000 feet in elevation (tree line or above). Doing this will allow me to get full use of my binoculars and spotting scope as well as keep me out of the elks’ living quarters. Bring high-quality optics because after hours of glassing, low-quality optics can give you headaches that will drive you off the mountain. Once I pick my glassing position, I find the... [ Read Full Post ]
The design intent for the Icon was simple: bring an alpine mountaineering pack to the hunting market. To do this, Kuiu had to accomplish a few things …
First, the total pack weight needed to be as light as possible, but not at the sacrifice of durability. Specific gear for hunting and mountaineering would require specific pockets: for spotting scopes, headlamps, and water purifiers, among other things. The bag would have to compress down for day hunts but be able to expand dramatically to pack out meat. It had to have balance, to keep the meat high, preventing sagging on the long hike back to the truck.
[ Read Full Post ]
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