Table of contents for December/January 2018-19 in Field & Stream

LATELY, THERE’S BEEN AN annoying echo in my office, and I blame it on the lack of heads on the walls. Long story short: Come January, the F&S editorial team will be in a new workspace. And while I welcome the change of scenery, one downside is that I won’t have the space I’ve gotten used to—enough room to display seven Euro mounts, a bearskin rug, and a few ducks. And that’s just my collection; wild totems from other editors were on display as well. As I write this, the only one of mine still hanging is the skull of my first elk. Otherwise, it’s empty in here—hence the echo. Deciding where to relocate those trophies has been a process. A few favorites have taken up residence in my…

The surest and safest way to get trophy birds through an airport, onto a plane, and home safe is with a soft-sided cooler. I brought along a Yeti Hopper Flip 12 ($249; yeti.com), which can hold two big ducks and is small enough for a carry-on. Freeze the birds solid before the flight, then lay them in the cooler on top of a medium-size ice pack. The TSA agent at the X-ray machine might look at you sideways, but your taxidermist back home won’t.…

Method Food-Source Ambush Primary Hunting Area Missouri and Iowa Credentials Drury has tagged more than 20 mature whitetails during the post-rut, with an average gross B&C score of 160 inches. His largest late-season buck grossed 191. The late season in the Midwest isn’t merely good, according to Mark Drury, co-owner of Drury Outdoors. “It can be almost magic,” he says. “When whitetails are focused solely on food, and you have found or planted what they want to eat, there’s no better time or place to kill a truly huge whitetail.” Every December and January, Drury and his team see monster bucks that were ghosts all fall—huge deer they had either never gotten daylight pictures of or never seen at all. “That’s the power of post-rut food: If you’re on…

SURVIVAL GEAR Three things I absolutely won’t leave the truck without are a map, compass, and flashlight. Two others I usually bring are a fire starter and space blanket. The first three should get you out of the wilderness 99 times out of 100. And the last two will keep you alive the one time they don’t. BACKUP BATTERY I keep two guns in my truck, ready to go. One of them is a Remington 7600 carbine in .30/06 with a peep sight. The other is a scoped Browning A-Bolt Micro Midas in 7mm/08. I prefer to have a scope, but if there is any bad weather, I’ll go without it. And you don’t need a scope to shoot a big buck at 40 yards.…

“THERE’S AN EXPLOSIVE FLUSH, AND THE COVEY IS SUDDENLY EVERYWHERE, FLYING IN THE SUN-DAPPLED CATHEDRAL SPACE BENEATH THE CANOPY OF THE OAKS.” THE COUNTRY STRETCHES OUT WIDE IN the sweep of early sun, the big Animus Mountains of purple and deep orange cliffs towering there like a fortress. The Chihuahuan Desert, at least this part of it, is misnamed: Here in the Boot Heel of New Mexico, it is a vast grassland savanna, high enough to catch the rains and snows, rich with black grama grasses and oak woodlands, cut with stone arroyos that roar with floodwaters and hold precious pools almost year-round—the watering holes of javelinas, black bears, toad muleys, and rugged little Coues deer. This is the northern end of Mexico’s Sierra Madre, and the isolated mountain…

BOOSTER SEAT My father took me rail bird hunting in the marshes of southern New Jersey when I was 10 or 11 years old. The trip was not only fun and a great way to spend time with him, but also a huge confidence booster for my wingshooting ability. T. Edward Nickens’ story “Off the Rails” brought back a cherished memory. Philip A, via fieldandstream.com PUBLIC (LANDS) FORUM “The Allies” was a great article by Hal Herring. He made the point that two people can support and wish to protect public lands, even if their plans for the future may not be the same. It would be difficult to get everyone who enjoys the outdoors on the same page, but despite those differences, we must all share the same…

You’re depriving yourself,” writes Steven Rinella, “if you’re not retaining giblets from your waterfowl and upland birds.” In his new book, The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook, the TV host, podcaster, and outdoorsman deftly shows you a cure for that deprivation with this recipe. The dish shines with just about any heart—from geese and turkeys to elk and deer. INGREDIENTS For the Duck Hearts ½ lb. duck hearts, cleaned (about 6 hearts)2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oilLeaves from 2 small sprigs fresh rosemaryLeaves from 2 sprigs fresh thyme2 bay leaves1 clove garlic, smashedSmall bunch of grapes, on the stemKosher salt and freshly ground black pepperLightly grilled or toasted baguette slicesSpecial Equipment Needed: Metal or wooden skewers For the Walnut and Mint Pesto 1 cup walnuts1 clove…

Put two rounds in your rifle: one in the magazine and one in the chamber. Start at the low-ready position, muzzle pointed toward the ground. At the go signal (download a shot-timer app to your phone if you don’t have one), raise the gun and fire twice, keeping the rifle mounted and looking through the optic the whole time. When the gun runs dry, toss an extra round into the chamber and fire a third shot. A 10-inch steel plate at 100 yards is a good place to start. You want to go three for three and slowly build your speed.…

Method Archery Spot and Stalk Primary Hunting Area Rocky Mountains and Plains States Credentials Trietch has taken more than two dozen P&Y and B&C bucks during the late season. His best post-rut whitetail and muley both grossed nearly 190 B&C. Every year, starting in late August, 44-year-old Michigan custom-home builder Tony Trietch hits the road to fill big-game archery tags on public land around the West. He’ll return home for a stretch in mid-October, but then it’s back to the mountains or onto the plains well into winter. This season, he’ll hunt more than 100 days in five states. He’ll drive over 10,000 miles and cover somewhere between 700 and 1,000 on foot. But the late season, when he focuses on spot-and-stalk hunting for big muleys and whitetails, is…

SMOKE AND FIRE My favorite muzzleloader is the Traditions Vortek StrikerFire in .50 caliber. I use 110 grains of Blackhorn powder behind a 173-grain Traditions Smackdown Bleed Bullet, which is the best blackpowder bullet I’ve ever shot, and I’ve shot a bunch. GREEN GROWTH Our go-to late-season food-plot seed is Biologic’s Winter Bulbs & Sugar Beets mix. The deer just hammer it at this time of year. HOT STUFF We bring a Little Buddy propane heater on cold days. Oddly, we get a lot of pushback about that on social media, like having heat is cheating. Why not stay as warm as you can?…

Method Bowhunting Suburban Woodlots Primary Hunting Area Suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia Credentials Maxwell holds the Georgia state-record nontypical bow kill. He has taken 15 P&Y-class bucks, including three B&C-class trophies. Jay Maxwell grew up hunting large farms in rural Georgia, but he started killing bigger bucks after moving to the suburbs of Atlanta. Maxwell, 39, owns a nuisance wildlife trapping and cull service in the city, and along with a few buddies, he films and produces online videos for Seek One Productions. That gives him a keen understanding of how deer use the small woodlots and drainages in the sprawling Atlanta metro area—and a flexible schedule to hunt when the conditions are just right. Like many suburban areas, Atlanta’s woodlots are typically bowhunting-only and tough to gain access to.…

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a few good friends who make up your core ice-fishing crew. Thing is, you’re also probably hitting the same handful of lakes and ponds over and over. Your home game is dialed, no doubt, so maybe it’s time to take the team on the road. Planning a D.I.Y. getaway in the coldest months definitely comes with more logistics than a summer trip. While we can’t stop a snowstorm from making highway conditions dicey, we can point you to the top destinations for lake trout, walleyes, bluegills, and northern pike that require minimal gear and modest expenses, and there’s no need to hire a guide. We’ll tell you where to sleep, where to get the best greasy breakfast and dinner, where to get…

Arizona • The Arizona Navigable Stream Adjudication Commission (ANSAC) has determined that the Colorado River is the only navigable river on which the public can float through private land without the landowner’s permission. Decisions from ANSAC have determined that the Gila, Upper Salt, and Verde rivers are all nonnavigable, and more determinations are forthcoming. Colorado • You can be cited for trespassing in Colorado if you float over a streambed adjacent to private property, because the state has never declared what constitutes a navigable stream. A court case is currently underway between an angler and a landowner on the Arkansas River, but the state of Colorado has moved to dismiss the case, citing it doesn’t have standing. Florida • A state law, effective July 1, 2018, has barred the…

SWAROVSKI BTX $5,365 • swarovskioptik.com No one was surprised that an optic with the Swarovski name took top honors for spotting scopes in our annual optics test. But our testers didn’t expect this one, with its binocular eyepiece, to dominate the field the way it did. Swarovski’s flagship spotter is built on a modular system that allows easy swapping of objective and ocular elements. This BTX configuration, with the dual eyepiece and 95mm objective, is new for 2018. With the eyepiece in place, the spotter becomes a fixed 35X optic, and because of that we assumed it wouldn’t score as well as traditional spotters with generous zoom ratios. What we found, however, is that the extra visual data that comes from the dual eyepiece allowed us to resolve images…

WAKE UP ENOUGH DAYS in a row and you’ll be both a wily survivor and as relevant as the lapels on a suit. There was a time when young people revered their elders. No one knows when this was. The good news is that we are awash in information about aging gracefully. The bad news is that it’s useless, having been written by guys who believe that Sands of Iwo Jima portrays John Wayne’s actual service during WWII. In one online article, “Aging Gracefully for Men,” the No. 1 tip is: “Exfoliate, moisturize, and use an eye cream.” Actually, I was looking for something a bit deeper. Like how you deal with what’s actually happening. Here, for example, are a couple of actual growth opportunities I’m struggling to deal…

• THE SEASON • SHOTGUNS • ESCAPES • THE WILD CHEF • ASK PETZAL • RIFLES • HUNTING • THE TOTAL OUTDOORSMAN ARK MCBRIDE POINTED through a thin beam of headlamp light to a canal just to our left as we walked in the pitch black to a 50-acre flatwater impoundment in central Florida. “Watch out for the gator,” he said. When he scouted the spot a few days before, he had spotted a 10-footer in the deep water right next to where we now were. The ducks, on the other hand, we would soon see clearly. At sunrise, the tropical sky had tinted pink. A few cabbage palms broke up the distant horizon, and small flights of teal buzzed the opposite mud hump of a levee. “Ducks don’t…

Stand-up blinds have been used in Canada for years, but now, finally, Americans are realizing that they work here, too, and are a lot more comfortable than hunting on your back. Avery’s Finisher Panel Blind ($280; averyoutdoors.com) has a tough steel frame, panel tops for concealment, and large windows with removable camo mesh. At 31.5 pounds, it isn’t light, but it folds to 4 feet by 3 feet by 6 inches for transport. Unfolded, it provides an 8.5-by-4-foot interior that hides four hunters for the price of one layout blind.…

GREAT GLASS Save your pennies and splurge on the best glass you can afford. It’s so important. Right now, I’m using a Swarovski STX 30–70x95mm spotter and Maven’s B1 10x42 binocular. QUIET CLOTHES It’s incredible how good clothing is today. I love Sitka’s midweight Apex System. It’s tight-fitting, so it doesn’t snag, it has all the right pockets, and it’s super-quiet. TOUGH BOW I’m a big fan of Hoyt bows, mainly for durability. I’m shooting the Carbon RX1 Turbo and RX1 Ultra. Because a blade of grass can open a mechanical, I use a cut-on-contact broadhead made by Iron Will. It’s the best-made head I’ve ever used.…

GOOD CALLS I like a call that lets me grunt, snort-wheeze, and buck-roar. There are a bunch of them on the market, but the classic Primos Buck Roar is my favorite. For rattling, I like a Primos Big Buck Bag. Those pegs, when you grind on them, sound like the real thing, and when you do it just right, you’ll get a pop that’s like an antler tine. Sometimes I’ll add or remove pegs from the bag to get the perfect sound. SCENT KILLER An Ozonics unit is one of my most important pieces of gear. It absolutely works. I just wish the fan were quieter. POINTED STICK I use an Easton Injexion arrow with 55-grain titanium inserts and a 100-grain Rage Trypan. It has a 2-inch cut…

Navigability In general, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that waterways are considered “navigable” if they were used or were able to be used for commerce at the time a state entered the Union. Commerce isn’t restricted to typical boating and shipping, but could also be logging, trapping, or even trade with native tribes. Navigable waters are open to public use, but some states are more restrictive than others. Overland Access Can you drop a canoe (1) into navigable waters at a bridge crossing? Depends on where you live. States like California and Montana have established legal access along some state roads and bridges, but check laws first. Stream Bottoms In states such as Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, private ownership of the streambed means fishermen and boaters…