Hunting and Fishing News & Blog Articles

Two of the biggest names in western hunting have joined forces to bring you, the hunter, another high tech arrow for your quiver. Eastmans’ and onX Hunt have put their heads together to add the Eastmans’ Members Research Section (MRS) information as a layer for your onX 4.0 app.

The MRS will help you figure out where and how to apply for your tag. With over 2,000 hours of research by our staff annually, it will give you the leg up on the research you need to come out West and put the trophy of a lifetime on the ground. The MRS covers all 11 western states for deer, elk, antelope, sheep, moose and goat.

What this does is condense the MRS information into a digital platform that is right in the palm of your hand every time you pick up your phone or other mobile device. This makes finding draw odds or uncovering the best units in a given state all that much easier. It also adds a research and scouting tool to the already stellar onX Hunt platform.

For example, say you’re hunting mule deer in a general unit in Wyoming and stumble across an elk honey hole. You know this is where you need to be with an elk tag in your pocket. Until now you had to wait until you had access to the print version of Eastmans’ MRS to find out how long it would take you to draw a tag for your new hotspot. Now you can pin the exact location you’ve discovered and then turn on the Eastmans’ MRS layer to see soon you can hunt this spot for elk.

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.” John Wooden

In the spirit of “doing” we sometimes run before we walk and therefore stumble and fall. Just recently we discovered an error in our attempt to bring you the most up to date application information for Arizona Elk and Antelope.

In EBJ 105 we reported that the online application deadline for Arizona Elk and Antelope is February 14th, 2018. This is incorrect information, the correct deadline for online Arizona Elk and Antelope is 11:59 PM Tuesday, February 13th, 2018. You still have time to get your Elk and Antelope applications in for the 2018 Arizona draw.

Again, we apologize for our mistake and any headaches this may have caused. Thank you for your understanding and best of luck in the draws.  

The post Arizona MRS Correction appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

MYSTERY RANCH is proud to announce that their Metcalf pack now comes in the Subalpine pattern from Gore! To make this announcement even better MYSTERY RANCH wanted to make sure we let all of you know that they now have a harness designed specifically with the ladies in mind, designed to fit a woman’s body perfectly. Sign up your friends, family and everyone in between as this pack is #builtforthemission!

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The post MYSTERY RANCH Metcalf in Subalpine Giveaway! appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

There are several important changes in the Colorado application process in 2018 that need your attention before you apply for 2018 licenses.

The CPW has gone to a single, integrated purchasing system. Hunters that were in the previous system must now look up their previous account and set up their profile in the new system. It is not automatically moved over and depends on you doing it yourself.

Every hunter, including youth, other members of families and members of hunting groups will need to have their own CPW account and each person must enter their own unique email, no exceptions. Your email becomes your account login along with a password you create.

All limited license applications are now paperless, including the trophy species that up until last year, could only be sent in by paper. You must apply at cpw.state.co.us

Good news – hunters for any species will not have to pay for the license(s) when they apply but they must still put in their payment information so that the card can be charged when they are successful in getting drawn.

Every hunter is looking for the secret sauce that allows someone to draw as many tags as possible on a regular basis. The problem with secret sauces is that they usually don’t actually exist. Grill masters recipes vary slightly but the winners in pit challenges are the cooks who can appeal to the widest number of contest judges. Regardless of this simple fact the secrets are chased and held tighter to the chest every year looking for an edge over the competition.

Byron Oldham allegedly found a secret sauce to acquiring tags across the West for himself and possibly others. Based on charges filed in Wyoming his recipe for success involved hacking the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s third party application system. He used a script that allowed him to apply for two moose tags in 2016 when only one application per person is allowed.

Upon further investigation by officials in Wyoming there was even more tampering with the system involving 99 sheep applications in one minute. The result of this investigation could lead to three years of jail time.

In our hunting world the perceived secret sauce is figuring out how to draw as many hard to draw tags as possible. The reality is that there isn’t a secret sauce for tag applications and good old fashioned application strategy and point building is the only guarantee.  The question that still needs to be answered is how many states has he been able to apply some sort of script to and acquire hard to draw tags? Did his tag application service do this for others? If someone used the Pointhunter app was their personal data compromised in some way?

All of the “secret sauce” recipes will be laid out for the public to see soon enough.

Every now and then a new cartridge comes along that turns my head and gets me itching to shoot it. There is no secret, I’ve never been a .243 Winchester fan, always preferring the much hotter 6mm Remington. However, with the virtual obsolescence of the 6mm Remmington in both firearms and factory ammo I was stoked to try the new 6mm Creedmoor with its Hornady Precision Hunter loads. Falling neatly between the above mentioned rounds in performance and ballistics put this new chambering on deck for both my Wyoming pronghorn and whitetail hunts.

But first, a bit of range time… I was not disappointed and found the 6 Creed to be equally effective at both short and long distances. In fact, fun is the exact word that comes to mind and I burned up the better part of a case of Hornady Precision Hunter just smacking steel with it. Extremely mild mannered yet carrying enough oomph out to around 500 yards to get the job done on medium game such as pronghorns. I was growing very impatient waiting for my chance to litmus test this new cartridge in the field.

Long story short, the 6mm Creedmoor and I were able to collect two wonderful animals; my best pronghorn to date and a great 5×5 whitetail. Coupled with the 103 grain ELD-X in Hornady’s Precision Hunter the middle six emphatically let the air out of both animals. Because of the light recoil of the round I was able to watch both bullet impacts through the scope and can say that each displayed the impressive energy transfer I expected.

The pronghorn was hit slightly quartering away at a hair over 200 yards and the bullet entered mid-chest angling into the muscles forward of the off shoulder where it came to rest having imparted all of its 1651 ft. lbs of KE into the buck. He snow plowed forward on his nose for about twenty yards and toppled over, stone dead.

The elk herd in Wyoming has fared very well these past few years. The 2016 surveys have put most of the elk herds in the limited quota areas in the state well above objective levels with drastically rising bull to cow ratios, all good news for hunters. With the heavy snows of last year and a wet summer the feed on the winter range should be in top shape right now. So far, a mild winter has put our elk in even better condition for this coming fall.

Dave and I have built some fairly extensive mathematical modeling that will actually rate an area with a numeric rating from zero to one hundred based on the area’s merits from a trophy hunting perspective. Criteria and variables such as public land percentage, access, terrain, trophy quality, favorable season dates, hunting pressure and opportunity, to list just a few, are all considered. The trophy and population trend for the state is also factored in then the result is normalized to compare to other states such as Arizona, Nevada and Montana. I used this modeling equation along with some good old-fashioned intuition from living here for the better part of my 46 years to build this year’s top five area list for Wyoming elk.

This type of information for every elk area in the entire state and West can be found in the MRS section in the back of each issue of Eastmans’ Hunting and Bowhunting Journals. To get you started here are few of the better elk areas in Wyoming.

          TOTAL SCORE: 90.5/100

After a nearly a decade long hiatus Wyoming is finally back on track with seasonal gray wolf hunting kicking off in 2017. After not hunting wolves for so long in the Cowboy State we have a massive overabundance of them roaming the hills and valleys, which is the reason so many of the wolf quotas were filled so quickly this past hunting season. The 2017 wolf season inside the “trophy” zone opened on October 1st statewide. As a result of so many wolves more than half of the area quotas did not even last through the month of October. Of the twelve open wolf areas six of them filled their quotas with only twenty-five days or less of hunting.

I personally had a wolf tag in hunt Area-4 (Meeteetse Area) where the season failed to remain open for even four full days. You are welcome Wyoming Game and Fish for the $20 donation, every little bit helps I guess. I think it fair to say that if a quota is filled in less than four days, we simply have too many wolves. Hunt Area-11 (South Wind Rivers) was even shorter, where four wolves were killed on a three-wolf quota on the first and only day of the season! Newsflash- I think we need higher quotas. And I’m not the only person who thinks this, the Game and Fish as quoted in a local newspaper article, “there’s still a surplus of wolves, well beyond the minimum of 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs that the state has agreed to.”

As of the end of December the only three wolf seasons still open were Areas 6, 7 and 8 in and around the Jackson Hole valley where the wolves are very difficult to kill mostly due to the tough hunting conditions, remote access and low hunting pressure in the area.

There is some very interesting statistical data nested inside this report as well. More evidence that predator population control and management often boils down to simple math and economics, contrary to popular belief and basic uneducated logic on the subject. The fact remains, wolves, grizzly bears and mountain lions will die, we just seem to be fighting over who is going to do the killing and how we are going to pay for it. A simple case in point, in California where cougar hunting has been outlawed for decades, the state of California is now killing more mountain lions than they ever did during an open cougar season so many years ago. And instead of generating revenue from cougar hunting licenses, tags and permits, California is now paying millions of dollars for state sponsored under the radar, politically correct predator control efforts-a financial swing of literally millions of dollars, and not to the favor of the taxpayers or sportsmen of California. When it comes to wolves, Wyoming is not much different.

Here are some stats to back that statement up. In 2016 Wyoming did not have a wolf hunting season but 113 wolves were still removed from the state, killed by wildlife officials through damage control efforts. This cost the state no less than hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not one single wolf tag was sold in Wyoming in 2016, leaving the sportsmen of the state of Wyoming to pick up the tab for the location and removal of the 113 problem wolves.

Wyoming is producing its fair share of political waves in the big game hunting world. Wyomings outfitter’s are lobbying to have more tags allocated to non-resident hunts for elk as a result of the population growth seen in recent years.

Every few years the equation for coming up with how many non-residents receive Wyoming elk tags is evaluated. The evaluation is on the docket for 2018 and many outfitters believe the quota should be raised which in turn would provide them with a potentially better stream of income. This would especially be true for the sought after Wilderness area tags where a non-resident must hunt with a resident or with a guide.

Residents will argue that if an increase in tags is merited that they should go to residents first and not see a net percentage increase to hunters from out of state. Comparatively, Wyoming gives more tags to non-residents than most other states already.

This becomes even more controversial in light of the increase in non-resident license fees and preference points that is being instituted this coming year. With all of the discussion about non-resident tags, 2018 is shaping up to be one that big game hunters with plans to hunt in Wyoming should watch closely.

What do you think? Should the formula change in favor of growing the non-resident tag allotment?

It is still unpopular to scout a mature mule deer in a unit you don’t have a tag for and then sell those coordinates to someone who has the tag. Last year this concept was made known to the hunting world on a mule deer hunting focused forum. It didn’t take long for detractors to show up, in a big way!

A bill in the Wyoming House has now been proposed that would make this activity illegal in the Cowboy State. The loophole is that licensed outfitters can still send coordinates to their guides and essentially, their clients.

This bill has also made it illegal to send pictures that identify locations of big game or trophy animals for money. The Wyoming Legislature is closing as many potential loopholes as possible for the rules to be bent on this law.

Personally, I believe these types of bills are going to become necessary as technology improves and the desire to add a little extra income from hobbies grows. Not crossing ethical lines as we move forward is going to be a constant talking point, which really isn’t anything new. However, as technology accelerates so will our conversations about ethics.

Which also begs the question, how long has this been going on under the radar? Did going public with this business venture simply expose something that has been going on for a while? My gut says yes, which means that the dude who may have never killed a mule deer suddenly stumbling on a 220” buck might not have been a coincidence.

We all have it. That one rifle that we can’t help but reach for inside the gun safe, the one we consider our most reliable. The one that because of our prejudice towards its accuracy and knock down power has a higher kill count than all the others. Here are a few of the rifles that are our “go to” options.

The .270 Winchester Short Mag has become my go to rifle in recent years. I have fallen for the .270 WSM simply due to solid performance. Everything I’ve shot with this rifle has met an emphatic end, including two bucket list sheep this year. I have used Hornady factory loads and handloads for this rifle, both of which have proven to be effective. There are very few animals that I would hesitate to use this rifle on, especially when paired with a heavy for caliber bullet. – Guy Eastman

The .300 Win. Mag is my favorite all around caliber and I am betting many of you have the same feelings. For big tough animals like elk or moose use a 180-220 grain bullet and the knockdown power is more than enough. If I am shooting antelope I will find a load that has a lighter bullet with faster muzzle velocity. Do I have other calibers in my gun safe? Sure, but if I was forced to pick only one this would be my go to! -Ike Eastman

Factor in bullet sizes ranging from 125 – 220 grains in factory loaded ammunition readily available in any store, small enough to shoot coyotes, big enough to harvest moose, proven field reliability since 1906, and a nickname of “Old Meat in the Pot” and you will know why I LOVE the trusty old .30-06! The one rifle that does it all. Considering I shoot all of my animals from 450 yards and under, it’s all I need and want in a rifle. – Brandon Mason

We’ve all heard the expression “don’t miss the forest for the trees”. We are all guilty of missing the big picture at times, as this old saying implies.

Recently, the Congressionally designated Wilderness Act proved once again that people often “miss the forest for the trees” when it comes to the intent of the Act rather than the letter of the Act.

The Wilderness Act, signed into law in 1964, created the National Wilderness Preservation System and recognized wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” The Act further defined wilderness as “an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions….” You can read the language in the Act here.

On December 6, 2017, abc News reported that a judge ordered almost two years of data collected from radio-collared elk and wolves in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho be destroyed because the animals were collared in the Wilderness with help from a helicopter. An environmental group called Western Watersheds Project, Friends of the Clearwater and Wilderness Watch enlisted Tim Preso, an attorney for Earthjustice, to handle the case. Gee…do you think there is an axe to grind in that camp?!

The data obtained from two years of collection was intended to be used for better elk/wolf management on the landscape. But now your and my hard-earned tax dollars and license fee dollars are being used once again to pay for nonsense in the court system related to wildlife management.

Continued from What Is It With Gear Lists? Part 1

Skill Three: Effective Glassing

So now that I have established that spending time in the hills trumps being #mountainstrong let’s talk about what to do when you are in the mountains. You have to find game to harvest game and in the mountains the most effective way to do that is glassing. Unless you have religiously read Mike’s books and Guy’s articles on glassing you should probably go take a refresher. We all need it and putting Mike’s system into actual practice is a mental grind. But when you find that buck, it’s worth all the effort!

In terms of effective western hunting, “scouting” is actually code for planting your butt on one vantage point long enough to glass up every animal you can find. Eight hour sits in one spot are normal and short nights of sleep are commonplace during the summer. The reality is that we work really hard to get in shape so we can sit in one spot for hours on end.  

The skill here is patience and attention to minute details. Finding a twitching ear at 800 yards through the buck brush isn’t easy and won’t be done in a short glassing session. Learning to glass with the grain of the land and picking vantage points accordingly is paramount. Not to mention picking smart travel routes so you don’t bust every animal out of the country on your way up! Good glassing leads to finding the biggest animals, which leads back to point one, making the shot. You cannot kill what you cannot find.

What is the number one factor regarding successful western big game hunting? Whether we like it or not it is often the results of our tag applications. Now, I’m not saying that being up to snuff on fieldcraft, understanding big game behavior, scouting, gear, marksmanship and even physical fitness are not important, all of these are crucial to hunting success, but the simple truth is if you don’t have a tag in your pocket you aren’t even going to get the chance to put any of the above into practice.

That begs another question, how does one maximize the chances of drawing tags across the various western States? The answer to that is simple, one does research and establishes a plan. As Mike Eastman in his book library refers to it, having “a five year plan” for drawing tags virtually every year across multiple states to keep you in the game autumn after autumn is key to success in western big game hunting. If you’d like to know more about the Eastmans’ Five Year Plan follow the link here.

The single best resource for building your plan is hands down the Eastmans’ MRS Book and Members Research Section (MRS) sections in the back of every issue of subscriber magazines. The information contained in the MRS is the result of over 2,000 man hours each year from the Eastmans’ staff writers and the Eastmans’ themselves, rolling up their sleeves and ferreting out everything from draw odds and point requirements to biologist and game agency intel. The MRS in both its forms magazine and book, arms hunters with the information needed for consistent success in the draws.

The MRS examines not only various states’ tag allocations, draw odds and percentages, it examines data over a three year period, giving you the hunter, insight into trends in the states and units where you are applying. For example, you’ve been interested in a pronghorn hunt in Wyoming but you’ve never set foot in the state and need to know a few things before filling out your application. By consulting the Eastmans’ MRS you will have up to date information on public access availability, difficulty of terrain, buck to doe ratios, hunter success rates, and perhaps most importantly, draw odds and point requirements. By arming yourself with this information and basing your application strategy on what you’ve learned instead of going in blind you are setting yourself up for a much more enjoyable and fruitful hunt. In short, the Eastmans’ MRS is your resource for a plethora of inside information to make your hunt of a lifetime one to remember instead of one to regret.

To make sure you get the MRS information as it drops throughout the year subscribe to both the Eastmans’ Hunting and Bowhunting Journals. However, if you’re the type who likes all your intel in one place and want access to expanded content the MRS Annual Book is the tool for you. With Christmas right around the corner don’t forget the hunters on your list, the MRS Annual Book makes a great gift.

As I walked into the Holiday Inn in Cody, Wyoming Thursday night of November 30th I could feel a buzz in the air. That buzz was coming from the nervous energy that permeated the building from the lobby to the large conference room that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had reserved for what it anticipated to be a large crowd.

The crowd was indeed large, 176 souls signed the official register for this public forum regarding the state’s management of the recently delisted grizzly bear. As I looked around the room it became obvious that the majority of those in attendance were hunters; camouflage and boots were prevalent as were cowboy hats and ball caps embroidered with hunting logos. However, it was not just hunters who came to express opinions and concerns, non-hunters also ventured forth to participate in what would prove to be an evening of civil discussion revolving around this hot button topic.

The discussion began with a briefing by the agency’s Dan Thompson who serves as a large carnivore biologist out of the Lander, Wyoming regional office. Mr. Thompson’s briefing was aimed at educating the crowd on the various terms used by the Game and Fish Department to center the discourse about to take place.

Discussion and public input would revolve around five core areas; population monitoring, research opportunities, conflict management, outreach and education, and last but probably of the greatest concern to most in attendance, grizzly bear harvest management, or in a nutshell, hunting.

As one can imagine that nervous energy I noted when I first entered the building was growing as folks anticipated heated conversations. Game and Fish personnel had thought this through however and broke the large crowd into small groups by issuing numbered and color coded sticky notes to everyone who walked in. After the initial briefing it was time to get down to brass tacks and the evening entered its breakout phase where the real discussions began. Each small group was facilitated by two Game and Fish personnel, my group was headed up by Chris Queen the Powell, Wyoming game warden.

It’s kit building season until the snow melts for me and this is how I will evaluate my gear list.

In the not so distant past I was guilty of reading every gear list known to man, promptly comparing them side by side with my current Excel spreadsheet list. Then, depending on the outcome, starting five threads on the Eastmans.com forum asking if certain pieces of gear are worth the money and would salivate over current sales on said items.

Then something happened. I realized that my gear didn’t pull the trigger, nor did it power me up the hill. It didn’t practice at the range for the hard shots and it certainly didn’t have the patience required to grind out a three day scouting trip in Wyoming’s toughest country.

These are all things that are dependent on you the hunter. Glassing, being in decent condition and of course hitting the intended targets are all skills. Skills are something to be tuned and then mastered. Knowing this, I decided that it was time to categorize my gear by the skill sets required to use it and then invest money in pieces that would actually help me hone those skills.

Skill Set One: Shooting Ability

Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks (MTFWP) advised hunters a deer killed in southeastern Montana is suspected to be positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). According to the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance, CWD is “a contagious neurological disease affecting deer, elk and moose” that causes “degeneration of the brains of infected animals resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and death.”

The deer in question was killed in hunt district 510 south of Billings. “We’ve suspected it wasn’t a matter of if, but when CWD would show up in Montana,” said Ken McDonald, MTFWP wildlife division administrator. “Fortunately, we’ve done a lot of work to prepare for this.” Previously, the closest confirmed CWD case had occurred in Wyoming, less than 50 miles southeast of the kill site in this case.

Because CWD detection requires brain samples from dead animals, MTFWP plans to hold a special hunt after the close of the general season to collect enough samples to determine disease prevalence and distribution.

MTFWP lead disease technician Zach Mills told NBC Montana how MTFWP is working to create, “A buffer zone around where that disease was or where that infected animal was identified.” He emphasized, “If it’s something we leave unmanaged, it’s possible maybe in my lifetime, or my kid’s lifetime, or my grandchild’s lifetime, that our herds could be really struggling if we don’t get our hands around this disease collectively.”

Though there is no evidence CWD is transmissible to humans, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends hunters who harvest animals from a known CWD-infected area have it tested before consumption.

Well, we’ve wondered which state would do it first. Colorado has responded to increased shed antler hunting pressure in recent years by instituting their first ever shed hunting license.

This license is mandatory for any person collecting shed antlers, shed horns, antlers or horns attached to skull plates of animal carcasses that are found in the field, etc. While shed hunting seasons have been established in many western states, including Colorado, to help alleviate unneeded stresses on wintering big game populations, wildlife managers from the Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) realized that more had to be done to curb the wildlife harassment during key survival periods coming on the heels of the long winter months.

The $40 antler and horn collection permit is valid from May 1 – December 31 and all other antler or horn hunting is illegal from January 1 – April 30. These new regulations are for all public lands west of I-25, and don’t pertain to private land in that zone nor land east of I-25.

According to the CPW, dramatic increases in people afield searching for antlers and horns have displaced big game animals unnecessarily during the key survival and early fawning months of late winter/spring going as far back as 2006.

The open season dates for this new antler and horn collection permit mirror dates by other states, including Wyoming to the north, for established shed antler and horn hunting seasons (May 1 – December 31).

It’s been coming for quite some time now, and it has finally arrived. Price increases in Wyoming may actually have been a long time coming. We have been hearing some chatter in Cheyenne about pending price increases for quite some time now, and after nearly 10 years, we now have them. For the most part, the price increase is in right on the head at 20% for nonresident deer, elk and antelope tags. That equates to roughly about $100 per tag on average, the exception being the “special” elk tag that has risen just over $200. On the other end of the spectrum, the nonresident “regular” antelope tag has increased only about $54.

If $100 more seems to be pretty steep for your personal budget, wait until you get a load of some of the trophy species price increases. For example, nonresident moose has increased by 41% or nearly $600. Wow! That is a substantial bump. As bad as that sounds, just wait until you get a load of the wild bison increase. For bull bison the tag coast has inflated to $4,400, corresponding to a 76% increase. I guess I’m glad my wife drew that tag this year.

On a more favorable note, the nonresident sheep tag only increased by 3% or $68 and nonresident goat only went up a relatively measly $10. In addition, we can all be thankful that at least at this point, it looks like the state has chosen not to raise the price of nonresident preference points at all, which is no real big surprise considering the Game and Fish Department could be making more money on preference points than they are on actual nonresident tag sales when it comes to the limited quota areas anyway.

The biggest question at this point is, “Will this price increase affect the draw odds?” Short answer, I doubt it. Every other time the state has increased prices in the past, it has had very little effect on the draw odds. I think there are just too many people vested in the preference point system at this point and the state knows that. I am actually somewhat surprised they did not raise the “special” tags more than the “regular” tags, as the draw odds have slowly crept together as time has gone on.
See the accompanying chart for the details of the actual price increases per tag. Best of luck in the draws this year, and keep in mind that the Wyoming Elk MRS write-up is in the next issue of EBJ headed to mailboxes around the 10th of January.

-Guy Eastman

Philosophies on butchering and knives are as vast and different as the antler configurations on two B&C non-typical mule deer! One hunter prefers a blade that can be changed in the field, while another prefers a fixed blade which can be sharpened and enjoyed for years.

Regardless of the philosophy, Outdoor Edge has the options that serve every hunter’s knife preference. Personally, I have had the privilege of breaking down multiple big game animals and many game birds with the Razor series knives and will continue to do so into the future. The changeable blade trend has done nothing but grow over the last few years and for good reason. When time is of the essence in grizzly bear country and your knife gets dull, simply replacing a blade is faster and easier than honing an edge.

This year at Eastmans’ we have been giving away the Wild Lite set from Outdoor Edge with various subscription purchases. After becoming so dependent on the Razor series I was reluctant to make the switch to a single fixed blade knife. However, after taking a hard look at the knives, their purpose built nature and of course construction, I was reminded why it can be so easy to acquire many knives! This set has served us well this fall and I know of several people on staff who have butchered their whole animal with these knives only.

The funny thing about knives though is that most hunters rarely behave like they have enough. Taking a look at the full line-up on outdooredge.com and I can see about 10 other options I would be interested in trying. Whether it would fill a hole in my at home butchering set or be a blade that would be part of my bread and butter for the backcountry, they are worth taking a look at. Besides, Christmas is coming and what hunter wouldn’t be happy with another knife to separate the meat from the bone and fill the freezer?