Hunting and Fishing News Blog Articles

Hunting season is upon us and it’s that special time of year to get after those big bulls. It seems the September rut goes by in a flash and we are into October. The October post-rut period can be one of the toughest times of year to harvest a good bull. It’s after the rut and prior to the cold November weather that pushes big bulls down and keeps them feeding. I have a ton of experience hunting bulls in this October season. I feel to be a consistent elk killer you have to take advantage of and be effective in every season. October offers late bow seasons and the majority of rifle seasons open this time of year. It takes an understanding of what the bulls are doing and specialized tactics but big bulls are out there for the taking!

Elk behavior

October runs the gamut of different elk behavior and it’s important to know what to key in on. In the beginning of the month there is still some good rutting taking place. You can still catch a big bull tending cows looking for that second cycle estrus. Any cows that did not get bred in September will come back into estrus and bulls know this. Now, it can be hit or miss, but if you find a hot cow, the bulls can be rockin’. This time of year, I do not call much. I grab good vantage points and glass and listen for bugles. Elk this time of year tend to gather in big groups and I will look over these groups to see if there is a big bull hanging around. A lot of times a big bull will come down at night to search for a hot cow and then leave the herd when the lights come on, so be on the lookout for that. This is a great time of year to catch a big bull slipping up still hanging with the herd. 

As we get into the heart of October, the rut is ending and the bulls start to separate themselves from the herds. Now you can still catch some younger bulls hanging with the cows but the big boys start moving off. Like rock stars at the end of a long tour, these bulls are run down and beat up from the rut. They usually move off, running solo or maybe with a couple of buddies, but they just want to hide in a hole and lick their wounds. They are desperately trying to put weight back on to make it through the winter. During the rut they let their guard down, but this time of year they start to tighten up their programs. There usually isn’t much cold weather or snow, so they tend to come out late and put away early feeding to feed all night long. They find high country secluded basins, slides or small openings to work and then spend the middle of the day bedded in the thick timber.

When I was younger, my hunting strategy was very simple – run around the mountains as far and as fast as possible and shoot anything dumb enough to cross my path. Wow, have I come a long way. This system was not in the least bit effective, not to even mention being very unenjoyable and unrelaxing. Who knows how many bucks and bulls I walked past back in those days. Now, as I get a little older and wiser, I understand there is a much better way. Here are some of the strategies I have found useful to not only extend my hunt and travel further, but to enjoy my hunt and the overall experience just a little bit more in the process. 

Hydration Strategies 

There’s really no big secret strategy here.  The name of the game when hiking hard is to keep properly hydrated by loading your body with fluid and keeping it there. My personal strategy here has a two-edged approach. First off, I try to drink as much fluid as possible before the hike even begins. Sometimes I even guzzle down a full half liter of water about a half-hour before go time, generally first thing in the morning or on the way to the trailhead. You will want to give your liquid a bit of time to settle in which will alleviate the possibilities for “sloshing” while hiking. It takes about 15-30 minutes for your body to fully absorb that quantity of moisture once ingested. This process is called “cameling up.” The process is pretty straightforward and will ensure you don’t start out your trek with a hydration deficit. A few things to remember here, cold water digests more slowly and supplements and water additives can also affect the time it takes your body to absorb the water. Your body can go from a moderate level of dehydration to fully hydrated in about 45 minutes. Even under the most strenuous physical activity such as a marathon, your body can only fully absorb about 500 ml (1/2 liter) of water per hour, so drinking more is usually a waste of water and energy. In addition, once you have hydrated after a strenuous climb, always give yourself at least five minutes before you consume food or supplements of any kind. Not doing so will only prolong your dehydration. I usually drink pure water, ½ liter before and after a tough climb, but I drink water with a supplement with my food consumption. Many supplements contain fairly high levels of sodium or sodium-like elements which your body does need, but can affect or alter the rate of absorption of the water into your body tissue. 

Disaster can strike at home when you least expect. Be prepared and protect your valuables with a truly fire tested safe. Liberty Safe has an innovative process testing their own and competitor safes under extreme heat in a custom furnace. This ensures they engineer their products to exceed expectations. The Eastman family trusts Liberty Safe to store everything from guns and optics to legal documents and keepsakes.

The post FIRE! Can your safe take the heat?! appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

The definition of poaching is to illegally hunt or catch (game or fish) on land that is not one’s own or in contravention of official protection. Another definition is to steal a public resource. 

Well, someone in Montana stole an elk from all of us and we all need to get the word out so this poacher can be caught and brought to justice!

According to Q2 News out of Billings, “Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is offering a reward of as much as $1,000 for information about a large, mature bull elk that was shot illegally Sunday night along Sarpy Basin Road east of Hardin and left to waste.

“Anyone who reports information that leads to a conviction in the case is eligible for a reward of up to $1,000 by calling Ladd at 406-860-7808 or anonymously to FWP’s 24-hour crime-reporting line at 1-800-TIP-MONT (800-847-6668).”

Join Mike Eastman on of his favorite all-time mule deer hunts in the sagebrush of Wyoming. Get behind the scenes as Eastman and his sons recap the hunt highlights and their surprise at the this bucks’ impressive B&C score grossing 197 7/8 inches.

The post Perfect Typical, 197″ Mulie – Wyoming Mule Deer Hunt with Mike Eastman appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

Photo By: Mike Eastman

As I’m writing this it’s the day before Halloween and the temperature outside is hitting a high that is 23 degrees below the Fahrenheit freezing point. This is October, not January and winter’s early chokehold on Wyoming doesn’t set a welcome stage for our wildlife. With antelope and elk seeking recovery from their rut, deep snow and extreme temps are the last thing those worn down bucks and bulls need to contend with. Hopefully old man winter loosens his grip a tad but this is the West and extreme weather is just part of the deal.

What’s also been part of the deal, for elk especially, are the winter feeding programs such as the one operated by the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, WY. However, this program is in danger and along with it the health of the elk herds in the northern Rocky Mountains. A plan to “wean” elk off of the feeding program at the refuge and eventually discontinue it altogether is in place. 

Hunter Brandon Mason shares his experience with the brand new RazorMax by Outdoor Edge. This new knife uses the same replaceable blade technology as to the Razor Lite series, but boasts the added strength of a fixed blade style. It features two blade styles a 3.5 inch and a new 5 inch fillet blade and makes this knife transition easily between meat processing tasks in the field and at home.

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

The 2019 Christmas Gift + Hobby Show is your source for holiday gift ideas and inspiration. Join us November 6-10 at the Fairgrounds to shop hundreds of vendors, including Faneema Cutlery. Before you visit them in Booth #433, enjoy our brief interview below and get a sneak peek at some of the goodies they'll be bringing to the show.

Valhalla – the hall where the god Odin houses the dead whom he deems worthy of dwelling with him.

The past couple of seasons I’ve gotten to put the Valhalla LS Zip from Kryptek through its paces across a wide range of conditions on a variety of hunts and I can say without a doubt that this shirt is worthy of place at Odin’s table. 

From sweltering August pronghorn hunts to chilly mornings grinding up steep slopes chasing archery elk, this shirt performed flawlessly. It kept me cool and protected from the sun on the arid plains and dry in the mountains after working up a sweat. I was amazed how well the Valhalla breathed and how effectively if wicked moisture, it was almost as if the sweat was evaporating directly off my skin instead of through the 88% Polyester, 12% Spandex fabric of the shirt. 

I’ve also pushed the Valhalla LS Zip into the late season. I used it as a baselayer under a puffy vest and softshell. I love how even in below freezing temps I could strip down to just the shirt and grunt my way up a ridge to a glassing point where I simply shrugged into the warmer layers and didn’t have to worry about my baselayer trapping moisture against my skin and robbing me of core warmth. 

Family man and hunter Scott Reekers shares his experience with the Walther PPQ 45. Combined with Hornady ammunition, this compact pistol is perfect for concealed carry and packs the punch needed to handle threats, human and otherwise. Reekers travels with his from home to trailhead and all the way to hunting camp.

Scott’s ammo for the Walther PPQ 45:

Hornady Critical Defense 45 AUTO 185 gr FTX

Hornady Critical Duty 45 AUTO+P 220 gr FlexLock

Check out Scott’s high country deer hunt next: https://youtu.be/J92139sErcs

For most elk hunters the end of the elk rut can be a very disappointing time to pursue bulls. With the rutting action winding down, the hunting can become unpredictable and downright frustrating at times. Fear not however, all is not lost; with the unpredictability comes some good opportunities at some of the biggest bulls in the area. 

When most of the breeding is finished the elk change their rutting behavior. The biggest, most mature bulls go from methodical herd managers to one-man, traveling clean-up crews. The name of the game is to find every cow that has not been bred yet and get the job done. It’s nature’s version of Slapjack – search the deck, find the missing jack, take care of business and move on to the next one, making sure that every single viable cow has a calf come June. 

The first order of business is to recognize that you have fallen on the later stages of the rut in the first place. The biggest keys to noticing your rut hunt has fallen on hard times are outlined in the sidebar below. Time of year, herd behavior and elk body language are the best ways to determine if you are in the cooling zone or not. 

Strategies for hunting big bulls during this window vary slightly, but for the most part, it becomes a spot-and-stalk endeavor and a patient ambush game. Because the big bulls are on the move, if you find one you have to either commit or ready yourself to possibly never see the bull again. Many times I have caught little more than a glimpse of a big traveling bull only to never see him again.  Once the big bull does find some cows to check he can sometimes get the job done in only a few hours or sometimes he can linger in the shadows beyond a big herd of cows for a few days, you just never know. 

A friend of mine sent me this article recently and all I could say at the end of it was, “Dang!”  As you all know, poaching is a subject we are passionate about here at Eastmans’. A one word search on our blog for the word ‘poaching’ and a slew of results pop up that we’ve reported on over the years, and these don’t even include the ones that Mike Eastman wrote about in the early days of EHJ.

The quote from the article on this this heinous poaching incident west of Sheridan, WY makes me really scratch my head: “…they were infringing on his solitude on his property.” This wasn’t even a rancher that was at his wits end with deer overrunning his property. It is a property owner that was saying deer were simply infringing on his solitude. That’s one of the strangest comments I’ve ever heard regarding wildlife, and believe me, I’ve heard more than my share of reasons why people hate deer on their property from my years with a state game and fish department in dealing with big game depredation problems. I’ve been called every word in the book and have been in discussions that I wish I could forget.

No, this isn’t a simple poaching case where an antler fanatic tried to get away with shooting a giant deer so he could sell it or pass it off as his own legitimate harvest. This is a property owner losing his marbles and killing at least 113 deer, including one incident where he was seen beating a deer on the head with the buckle end of a tow rope! Again, my slack-jawed astonishment while reading the article from a Billings, MT news station had me shaking my head and thinking, “Dang! I’ve never heard of such a thing.” 

From a wildlife management standpoint, this further illustrates just how important hunters are to the landscape and in managing wildlife populations – especially big game. It also emphasizes the importance of private land access programs that various state agencies have so that hunters have access to private land to help control the harvest and also spread hunter pressure out across the landscape. If access is unattainable on private land and the hunting public is simply pounding every acre of public land, it is impossible to get a balanced harvest and problems like this tend to occur. 

Hunting antelope bucks with a rifle in mid to late October is my personal preference. Many western states have hunting seasons that last well into that time frame. In fact, Montana’s antelope season sometimes runs well into November. A big advantage to hunting this late is that by the time October rolls around, most hunters have filled out or given up completely. After spotting a big buck in the final days of the season, the concern of other hunters competing with you almost becomes a non-issue. On most days, I can have the entire unit to myself! 

By mid-October, with the rut finally behind them the antelope will begin to group up for the coming winter. This scenario can be both good and bad. It’s good because sometimes a huge buck will show up for their winter gig. It’s bad because if you don’t know exactly where the antelope winter, you can find yourself looking at a lot of empty country. 

The key to finding bucks is to learn the antelope migration movements within your unit. This knowledge comes only from hunting during that post-rut period for several seasons or talking to the area biologist about where the antelope congregate when a late fall storm blows in. 

Now let me give you an excellent example of knowing your hunting area and the movements of antelope. In 2007, I drew a good Wyoming antelope permit. It was my third in a row – a record for me. If you look at the drawing odds for residents in that unit, it’s only about a thirty percent success rate. Those of you who watch our TV show know that I have hunted this particular area many times. I know it very well and the season typically runs from the second week in September until the third week in October. 

Guest Author: Tim Hoffer

Adjusting the straps of my overloaded backpack for the hundredth time, I realized too late that I had too much gear, too many layers on and not enough sense to follow the lead of my two climbing partners, now 50 yards ahead of me breaking trail through shin-deep snow like a pair of mountain goats. I slogged on behind, feeling more like an anchor than a solid third teammate. I was not prepared, far from it. 

Comparing two passions of mine – alpine climbing and backcountry hunting, the similarities between the two when it comes to failures and setbacks are many. 

Flashing back to the full-day ice climb, I can now analyze where I went off course. 

It’s getting into late season for us bow guys and if you are anything like me, you have probably burned most of your vacation and sick days. Now you’re down to maybe a free day here or there. With the limited time of a single day, you may wonder if it is even worth going out. I learned a long time ago you make your own luck and the more time you are afield the better chance you have, even if it’s only a day. A lot can happen in a day, especially if you hunt efficiently. If you make the most of your free day, it is amazing the opportunities you can have. It’s about going light, covering country and making something happen. It is the art of the day hunt. 

I really enjoy having a free day to hunt and go hard whenever I have the chance. In fact, I find that in day hunting, you are uber-effective. I find you can go super light with just a day pack allowing you to cover tons of miles without the weight. I also find you get right to the point, heading to your highest percentage spot putting yourself into critters. When I do get into animals, I never hunt recklessly but I do hunt really aggressively. I know I only have the day and push to try to get into range. If there is a chance I can kill that animal, you can bet I will roll the dice. 

The Plan

Okay, so you are freed up for a day and looking to hit the woods but where will you go? That is always the million dollar question and is a tough one to pin down. I will go back and forth on spots until I finally commit to where I will be headed. I will choose my location based on past days hunted or even past years hunted with similar conditions. I will give a call to my buddies I hunt with and see where they have been hunting and what they have been seeing. You have to be careful with this one because it does no good to chase one of your buddies’ vapor trails in country where he has blown out all the game. I always ask, “Would you go back in there if you had a day?” 

Back in the 60s and 70s, I spent the early winter months with my left eye plugged into a spotting scope watching mule deer bucks. It was in those years that I came up with a system to judge the rack size of a buck in the field. It came about after many hours of judging them on the hoof, and then in the spring picking up their drops and gross measuring them. While guiding during the same time period, I measured many harvested bucks. These two practices gave me the opportunity to develop a rack bracketing scoring system. The motivation came while I was guiding clients who required me to know the B&C gross class of the buck before they squeezed the hammer.

Let me go through my system for field judging a buck. You can start by using the ears and a few other simple rules to help determine if the buck is a 160, 170 or 180-class gross buck. This is my “Rack Bracketing System” for field judging a gross rack score. The system isn’t designed to give a net score, but with some practice you will be able to narrow the gross score down to high, mid, or low 170, 180, or a super 190- buck.

First determine the distance between a buck’s ears, ear-tip to ear-tip across the forehead. This measurement will be used to evaluate inside spread width. Unfortunately mule deer ears will vary in length from 9 to 10 inches depending on the unit or state. In addition some bucks in certain units will have bigger heads adding to the ear tip to ear tip length. In my experience Wyoming and Idaho mule deer, tip to tip, will vary from 21 to 23 inches. However in Colorado and Utah ear widths will be 24 to 25 inches. I guarantee that there will be exemptions to the rule in all western states, but this is a beginning benchmark. Saying that, you need to gather your own ground knowledge for the units you personally hunt.

My first rule for judging is what I call “good fronts will make up for bad backs.” The “fronts” include the three measurements:

Anyone that’s spent much time in the outdoor community has probably heard someone say, “He’s a 10%’er” or that “10% of the hunters kill 90% of the animals.” and with very little research you will find that in fact 10% of the hunters do kill 90% of the game.

So if 10% of the hunters kill 90% of the game, what are the other 90% doing wrong? I can’t say for sure, but my friends and I have a theory on this and have come up with a saying of our own. 

90%’er, NOUN, DEFINITION – Someone who spends 90% of the time buying gear, working out in the gym and hypothesizing on what he’s going to do in the wilderness from the armchair of his living room couch.

Now that you’ve read the definition, you may be wondering, am I one of these 90% guys you’re talking about? If this is the case, I’ll give you a list of things that will help point you in the direction of someone who’s a 90%’er. 

Knots, knots, knots. Growing up I learned knots at an early age. Tying knots is a habit I don’t think about now but I have found the majority of hunters out there don’t know how to apply a knot for a given application. However, if you were never educated on knots and their application, where would you learn them? 

Knowing knots and their applications makes your life easier. It makes you more efficient. And, knowing the right knot can even save a life. Here are six basic knots that are a must-know on any hunting or camping excursion. 

As the swelled-up buck with the cheaters and dropper was ingested by an aspen grove in tow of his hot doe, I thought to myself, “I will come back here next September 10th and kill this buck on opening day of the Wyoming deer season.” 

As you may have guessed, that day would never happen. Well, let’s just say September came and went to no avail. I never could turn the buck up during an open hunting season. Experience of 16 years will get you plenty of naivety and not much reality sometimes. It would be nearly 25 years later that I would only begin to fully understand the concept of mastering the art of the seasonal adjustment when it comes to deer hunting. The buck you hunt during August is not the same deer you are chasing in October, which isn’t the same deer you are in pursuit of in November. Deer change their behavior and sometimes even their location and habitat significantly through the three months of the fall season. Learning to key in on these transitions in your hunting area can increase you odds of success next season on a mature buck. 

In the fall of 2018 we experienced a tragedy in some of Wyoming’s more remote country when a sow grizzly attacked a guide and his hunter while they were breaking down a recent elk kill. That hunt ended in tragedy and my prayer is that we don’t experience that in any state this year.

With four separate attacks now in the Gravelly Range it appears that Montana would be the most likely place to have a major incident. According to NBC Montana, as of Tuesday, it is unclear if all four attacks have come from the same bear.

I won’t beat a dead horse on the need for a season as that has been done in this blog very well on several occasions. I also won’t go into detail on the negative effects of courtroom decisions inhibiting our ability as western residents to responsibly manage all of the species here in the West. It’s a tough pill to swallow for respective states to be hamstrung in their decisions for what is best for the big picture of the North American Model Of Wildlife Conservation.

What seems to be new about the incidents this year is that the Gravelly hasn’t seen a grizzly bear conflict in a long time. Morgan Jacobson of FWP note that “The Gravelly is an area that they’ve kind of grown into, so [the bears’ geographic distribution is growing and their density within that area is also growing.” To me this sounds like they are outgrowing the range they have called home for a long time.

My question for this then becomes how long will growing populations of grizzlies be considered endangered? How long will we have to rack up attacks and conflict before we are able to manage the largest predator in the Lower 48?