Firearm trends may come and go, but one thing that’s always in fashion is the rimfire. We’re seeing even more rimfires in the last year or two than we’ve seen in the previous 5 to 10. Christensen Arms, who makes fabulous lightweight, big-game rifles is jumping into the rimfire market. They could have gone for a very high-end model, but instead they created a smart hybrid model that incorporates precision elements without a competition price tag.
This sweet little gun from Glock is a rimfire with the same exact frame size and profile as the Glock 19, which makes it a great training gun for any shooter who runs one. It’s a pure Glock: it uses a 10-plus-one configuration, it’s easy to load, and Glock spent a lot of time working on the G44′s functionality. At $430, the price is very competitive as an inexpensive trainer.
The Python is back in action. The iconic double-action revolver is chambered in .357 Magnum and also accommodates .38 Special cartridges. It’s available in a 4.25- and 6-inch stainless steel barrel, and it’s currently available from Colt.
The Mossberg 940 JM Pro Competition Shotgun is turning heads at the 2020 SHOT show. (Stephen Maturen/)
There’s a whole mess of new products introduced every year at the Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade show in Las Vegas. Some of these products will help you shoot more accurately, hunt more effectively, and have more fun in the field. But, do you really need any of these new products to actually go hunting or shooting? Nope.
But then again, the SHOT show isn't really about need. It's about surprise and innovation. At SHOT, manufacturers roll out products that they've spent months (sometimes years) developing. We get to comb the showroom floor and pick out the best among the bunch. Here's what we've found so far.
DAY 1
Benelli Lupo
The Italian shotgun maker has entered the bolt-action market with a sweet new hunting rifle called the Lupo. The best term I can find to describe the Lupo is, hybrid. It is clear that that the lines of this gun are influenced by its Italian lineage, but the flexibility, modularity, and adaptability of the fit and finish allow it to be specifically adapted to the individual shooter. Benelli promises sub-MOA precision with three-shot groups, but my prototype shot a bit better than that (I actually got to hunt with the rifle earlier this fall). Key features include:
There is no hunting group more fanatical about gear than waterfowlers. We are always looking for new gadgets to trick ducks and geese into the decoys, a bigger mud motor to get to the blind faster...virtually anything that makes a morning in the marsh more efficient. The shotshell revolution continues with the advancement of tungsten and bismuth loads, some of which hit harder than lead. Choke tubes have grown alongside the ammo, delivering tremendous patterns so you can shoot birds at longer distances, though I can’t fathom why you would want to...unless it’s spring snow goose season. Decoys are more realistic than ever before, from paint schemes to keel designs that make fake ducks ride the water like real ones. So make a little more room in the trailer, or hell, buy a new one—you’re a duck hunter afterall; buying gear is what we do.
Mossy Oak Shadow Grass Habitat
Bottomland was one of the most innovative waterfowl patterns ever created—just walk into any duck camp or WMA east of the Mississippi River and you can see how popular it is. Shadow Grass Blades never quite had the fanfare of Bottomland, but Mossy Oak is hoping to change that with Habitat. It looks like a darker version of Blades, which is probably preferable to most hunters unless they primarily hunt flooded corn. But even then, as the season gets into late December and January most all plant life, including standing crops, turn a darker shade of brown, and this camo looks like it will blend in most any environment. —Joe Genzel
Savage Renegauge
Savage’s Renegauge is one of the biggest introductions this year for a few reasons: 1) it’s the company’s first-ever semi-automatic shotgun, 2) it’s full of unique features, like a fluted barrel and patented gas system, 3) it’s a real gamer in the marsh. I had the opportunity to hunt with a pre-production model of the Renegauge on a sea duck hunt in December last year and my initial takeaways were that the gun absorbed felt recoil exceptionally well, it functioned flawlessly, and it pointed spot on. This is not a lightweight gun for covering miles in the uplands—the 28-inch barrel version weighs 7.9 pounds—but it was well-suited for a duck blind.
The main takeaway from the shotgun world this SHOT Show? More gunmakers are going small with multiple sub-gauge offerings, from high-end doubles to more affordable pumps and auto-loaders. Sub-gauge guns are more popular than ever, mostly due to the advancement of tungsten and bismuth shotshells, which are more deadly than straight steel and even lead offerings. These shotshell options are finally getting affordable, and they’re widely available to the masses. That’s not to say 12 gauges are obsolete. Most gunmakers still start with a big bore when a new model is introduced and work their way down to 20s and 28s. You just don’t always need a 12 to kill birds effectively and ethically, and the industry has become more reflective of that with a wider variety of sub-gauge offerings. Here are the latest and greatest shotguns direct from the floor at SHOT Show 2020.
Savage Renegauge
We’ll start this list off with a shotgun that’s not a sub gauge. Savage’s Renegauge is one of the biggest introductions this year for a few reasons: 1) it’s the company’s first-ever semi-automatic shotgun, 2) it’s full of unique features, like a fluted barrel and patented gas system, 3) it’s a real gamer in the field. I had the opportunity to hunt with a pre-production model of the Renegauge on a sea duck hunt in December last year and my initial takeaways were that the gun absorbed felt recoil exceptionally well, it functioned flawlessly, and it pointed well. This is not a lightweight gun for covering miles in the uplands—the 28-inch barrel version weighs 7.9 pounds—but it was well-suited for a duck blind.
The Renegauge sports Savage’s AccuFit system, which the company has been using on its bolt-action rifles for years. The gun also comes with shims, which when combined with the cheek and butt pads, allows for 20 different variations. Most bird hunters don’t actually use shim kits, but that’s what’s great about the AccuFit system: It’s super quick and easy to use. You can swap out cheek pads without unscrewing anything. Simply peel off the pad and pop in a different one. (This will be especially useful for turkey hunters who want to run a red dot or sight and need more comb height.)
The shotgun will come with three choke tubes and uses the Beretta/Benelli Mobil choke if you want to throw in an after-market tube. It also has a switchable/ambidextrous safety for you left-handers. The black finish runs $1,449, while the camo and turkey models both go for $1,549. —Alex Robinson
Ice fishing is a great way to spend time outdoors with friends, especially if you’re warm and comfortable inside a shelter. (Eskimo/)
While a traditional ice hut built from scratch is certainly a luxury, it’s not necessary in order to enjoy some deep-winter angling adventure. Modern pop-up shelters offer all the room and comfort you need to drop a line, store gear, break for meals, and stay out of the elements while chasing cold-weather pike, perch, and trout. If you are just getting into ice fishing, before heading to the hardware store and breaking out the tools to build your own custom ice palace, consider the advantages of a well-designed portable icehouse.
Convenience and Stability
Like geodesic tents and collapsible camp chairs, a pop-up ice tent makes it super easy to erect a comfortable shelter in minutes. They can be warmed with a portable heater just like any structure, while ice anchors and guy lines increase stability under high winds and snow loads.
Fishable Space
There’s no need for an icehouse to be overly spacious. More room is just more air to get cold in. Look for a portable ice shelter with roughly 10 to 15 square feet of fishable space per angler. That will give you enough elbow room to work and still keep the packable load to a minimum size and weight.
Ruger has come out with an offering that hits the new rimfire trend at a really attractive price point. The American Rimfire Long-Range Target is a pretty full-featured gun that’s out-of-the-box ready for long-range rimfire competitions. It’s got a heavy barrel, an adjustable stock, and a nice trigger, and it feeds on the reliable 10/22 magazine system. Overall, this is a smart, full-featured addition to Ruger’s line at a reasonable price.
The way national conservation groups are raising money is changing. (Quality Deer Management Association/)
Editor’s Note: This is the fourth of a four-part series on Hunting Editor Andrew McKean’s efforts to ditch the national conservation organization banquets and start a more effective local group in his hometown of Glasgow, Montana. | Read part one here. | Part two here | Part three here.
America’s hunters and anglers are a self-congratulatory bunch. At the cast of a fly or the pull of a trigger, we remind anyone who will listen that, through a system of voluntary sacrifice and self-taxation, we brought back the wild turkey, the whitetail deer, the rainbow trout, and the mallard.
We have every reason to pat ourselves—and anyone who buys a hunting or fishing license—on the back. In fact, America’s wildlife restoration movement deserves to be cited as an example of one of the most effective examples of collective action in the history of the world.
It isn’t just license dollars, excise taxes on some sporting goods, and the system of professional wildlife management they fund that gets the credit for bringing back our nation’s critters. An alphabet soup of non-governmental organizations took on the specific task of conserving either imperiled species or the intact habitats they require. These are the national “critter groups” we’ve described elsewhere in this series.
A history of American citizen conservation should devote an entire chapter to these groups, citing not only the yeoman’s work that they’ve done across huge landscapes, but also their ability to create a sense of purpose and connection among their members. These wildlife societies might bring together, over a shared love of ducks and duck hunting, a corporate lawyer from Memphis with a web-foot Cajun from Louisiana. Or a backcountry hunter from Colorado with a plumber from Ohio, both of whom savor their last elk hunts, and dream about their next.
This ready-to-roll 3-Gun competition shotgun from Mossberg was designed with plenty of input from, and named for, pro-shooter Jerry Miculek. It sports oversized controls, an extended magazine tube with a 10-plus-one capacity, a high-vis front sight, and an enlarged loading port, among other features. Best of all might be the price, which will appeal to folks who are looking to get into competition. You’ll be able to find the 940 JM Pro for around $900.
The new Benelli Lupo is currently offered in .30/06, but the company plans to chamber the rifle in most popular cartridges. (Mark Copenhaver/)
Benelli is plowing new ground in 2020. Though known for its high-end shotguns, the Italian gun maker has entered the bolt-action market with a hunting rifle called the Lupo.
I got an early look at the Lupo, which is Italian for wolf, and hunted whitetails with it last fall in Nebraska. It’s an interesting new design, one that incorporates a lot of features to enhance the rifle’s ergonomics and performance.
I received the rifle a couple weeks before the hunt and was excited to see how it would perform. Prior to going to the range I disassembled the rifle, taking it completely apart. I wanted to take that opportunity to closely inspect the Lupo and see what made it tick. Even without the benefit of a manual I had the rifle broken down in less than 10 minutes.
I immediately noticed that the trigger and safety were unlike any I had seen previously. The trigger mechanism is manufactured from a combination of traditional steel parts as well as a synthetic polymer. Benelli engineer, George Thompson reported that the trigger assembly is completely new but takes its foundational cues from the R1 rifle.
Thompson said that the safety mechanism is similar to the tang safety of a shotgun and includes a mechanical block actuated by a transverse cam mounted on the side of the assembly.
We’re awash in black guns, but just like fishing lures, a shiny color will catch the attention of a shooter. This is a dedicated semi-auto for 3-Gun and other multi-gun applications. This is well-thought out competition gun that’s packed with plenty of features, and is nimble and handy to run.
This new system from Federal Premium heralds a whole new way to charge muzzleloaders, and is potentially a game changer for your black powder season. Although this system still requires you to front-load the projectile (which is how this still qualifies as a muzzleloader in many states—check your regulations), introducing the powder is much simpler. The FireStick is an encapsulated load of Hodgdon’s new Triple Eight black powder in a waterproof plastic hull, it accepts a standard 209 primer, and is removable, meaning that you no longer have to either ram out or discharge your powder after a day of hunting. The FireStick is compatible with Traditions’ new NitroFire rifle—both were developed in conjunction with each other. It’s worth noting that this is a proprietary system, so you cannot use a FireStick in your existing muzzleloader.
The Buckmasters 3-9X has been a go-to hunting scope for decades. (Nikon/)
In December, just before both the holidays and the seasonal gathering of sporting-goods dealers and group buyers who get together to write orders for the new year, Nikon’s North American office delivered stunning news: It was walking away from the riflescope market.
Dealers were told they could sell through their current inventories of Buckmaster, ProStaff, and BLACK scopes, but they shouldn’t write new orders, and they shouldn’t expect inventories to be replenished.
Nikon’s advertising agency of 25 years confirmed the brand’s contraction from the riflescope sector, but stressed that Nikon will still be a dominant player in the other sports-optics categories, including laser rangefinders, binoculars, and spotting scopes.
News that Nikon was sunsetting its riflescope line sent tremors through the sports-optics industry, especially since Nikon, from its American office on New York’s Long Island, had traditionally owned a significant share of the $900 million market.
“When we heard about it, our jaws just dropped,” says Brady Speth, CEO of Riton Optics, based in Arizona. “We were sad for the sake of what’s become an institution in the industry, but we were pretty happy to be in a position to take some of that market share. Why did Nikon reach that decision? I guess we’ve all had our guesses, but it’s a Japanese company and it’s always been pretty tight-lipped about internal decisions.”
Elk (Cervus canadensis) (Donald M. Jones/)
The bugle surprises both of us.
It’s the second one we’ve heard from the bull—the first sounded far away among the falling snow and muffling pines. But he’s close now. We look at each other, then Aram looks around our narrow meadow.
“We should sit down,” he says. There’s a rise of timber behind us, and we tuck into it, sitting side by side and propping our rifles on our packs. We’re aiming across 60 yards of meadow at a treeline. Aram cow-calls. This time, the bull cuts him off.
“He’s coming,” Aram says, bending to his scope.
For a full minute we strain our ears and hear nothing but settling snowflakes. Then branches begin to snap as the bull closes the distance, shouldering his way through the pines. I see a flash of tawny hide, and dark forelegs. There’s one tree left between us when I glimpse his antlers. He’s a good bull. I already know the answer, but I ask Aram anyway.
Dead baits presented just beneath the ice will trigger midwinter pike strikes. (By Dr. Jason A. Halfen/)
Nothing gets hard-core ice fishermen more excited than fishing on first or last ice. It’s during these windows of opportunity that fish are most easily located and triggered into striking. In reality, though, the first and last ice periods are brief—typically measured in days—and are often fraught with challenging or unsafe ice conditions.
The bulk of the hardwater season is comprised of the mid-winter period. The ice cap has thickened to relatively consistent, reasonably safe levels and continues to grow with every frigid outburst sent south from Canada. In some locales, full-size trucks and SUV’s are pulling wheelhouses across the frozen surface. Shanty towns are springing up over mid-lake structure and deep basins. Ice fishing derbies, with contestants sometimes numbering in the thousands, offer an opportunity to enjoy some friendly competition and terrific camaraderie. But the inescapable fact is that mid-winter ice fishermen cuss the conditions as loudly as whitetail deer hunters bemoan the October rut-hunting lull.
Why is it so challenging, especially when compared to the relative ease of the early and late ice periods? One of the primary factors is snow cover. Snow reduces light penetration on the ice, and a thick blanket of snow can dramatically darken the water column. Less daylight can make things easier for low-light predators, like walleyes and crappies, but this comes at a cost: the death of healthy, oxygen-producing aquatic vegetation. Green weeds beneath the ice are an absolute oasis of fish activity, from the smallest shiners to the largest gamefish, and thick snow on the ice will rapidly turn attractive green weeds into a fish-repelling brown mass. Fewer green weeds mean lower dissolved oxygen levels, especially in the shallows, further reducing fish activity.
The impact of reduced light penetration on the water’s temperature beneath the ice must be considered as well. The mid-winter snowcap scatters the sun’s warming rays in the infrared portion of the spectrum. As a result, much of the water column, except for the water near the bottom in deep basin areas, is as close to the freezing point as you can get without turning crunchy.
This is the trifecta of challenges that all mid-winter ice anglers hate: low light, low dissolved oxygen, and low temperatures. Nevertheless, this is no time to hang your head in despair. Consistent hardwater success can be yours, especially if you make use of a targeted approach that addresses our three primary challenges.
Recruiting new hunters, throwing banquets, granting money, running conservation projects. It all takes time and manpower that can be hard for a small club to muster. (Matt Arkins/)
Editor’s Note: This is the third of a four-part series on Hunting Editor Andrew McKean’s efforts to ditch the national conservation organization banquets and start a more effective local group in his hometown of Glasgow, Montana. | Read part one here. | Part two here.
Hi-Line Sportsmen, based in my hometown of Glasgow, Mont., organized around a couple of foundational principles. First, we resolved to continue our fundraising banquet, which we’ll throw on Leap Day this year, Feb. 29 (hit me up for tickets!). We also agreed that we wouldn’t get involved in issue advocacy lest it divides our membership. And we created a system to distribute funds back to the community by prioritizing the conservation and public benefit of the need.
In our few years—February’s banquet will be our fourth—we’ve raised thousands of dollars from the community. We’ve done that by soliciting donations and by buying products from local merchants to be used as prizes, by raffling a mother lode of guns, and by creating a climate of give-back euphoria so intoxicating that our neighbors literally shove cash at us. With that money, we’ve done an adequate job of funding local conservation needs. We have cost-shared fencing projects on public lands, we’ve purchased docks for local fishing access sites, improved public campgrounds, hosted handgun training courses, and sponsored an Archery in the Schools program. We’ve funded college scholarships, bought targets for our 3D archery range, started a mentored-hunter program, donated hundreds of pounds of locally harvested venison to the food bank, and we’ve helped fund a local .22 rifle league.
But I’m sorry to say that it’s harder to do all of this than we expected.
It’s hard to attract and retain volunteers. It’s hard to give away money. And it’s hard to sustain the vision and commitment to a common purpose that energized us when we founded Hi-Line Sportsmen five years ago.
The author fishing in the Tongass National Forest. (Ian Allen/)
It doesn’t take much to get Mark Hieronymus worked up. We’re walking down an old logging road next to a creek outside of Juneau, and the guide is going back and forth on the two hottest topics in Alaska: fishing and logging.
“We’re going to fish that sexy little beast on the way back,” he says as we pass a deep pool. “Always Dollys in there.”
If you were to imagine an Alaska flyfishing guide, you’d conjure up something close to Hieronymus: flat-brim hat pulled down over dark shades, bushy beard, gravelly voice, and descended from a line of Pacific Northwest fishermen. He grew up fighting steelhead on the rivers of Puget Sound and then chased better fishing and job opportunities to Alaska in 1988. Like most people who spend their lives on a river, his personality shifts from laid-back to intense, depending on the topic of discussion.
The Trump Administration and governor Mike Dunleavy have reignited interests in old-growth logging in this region. So eventually I ask Hieronymus about the perspective that it’s mostly outside environmentalists who are hell-bent on fighting logging—not real Alaskans. That’s when I see his fiery side.
He shoots back with some facts about the timber industry supporting less than 1 percent of the jobs in the region. Meanwhile, tourism (which includes hunting and fishing) and the seafood industry make up 25 percent of the jobs there, according to Trout Unlimited, the nonprofit that Hieronymus also works for. He says the call to revive logging in southeast Alaska is used as a political football that legislators toss around to fire up their base and win elections.
The fight to keep Minnesota’s Boundary Waters safe rages on the heels of a new bipartisan bill trying to protect the area from copper mining. (Alex Robinson/)
Water pollution doesn’t recognize boundaries, so hunters and anglers are singing the praises of new federal legislation that would protect northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness from a copper mine proposed on the doorstep of this famous wilderness area.
The Boundary Waters is probably the most frequently visited unit in the United States Wilderness System. Long famous among outdoorsmen and women, the area provides backcountry deer hunting, along with lake fishing and opportunities for rugged canoe adventures in the Superior National Forest.
However, Twin Metals Minnesota, owned by a Chilean-based mining company, proposed developing a sulfide-ore copper mine immediately upstream from the Boundary Waters. According to the plan, the mine would extract 180 million tons of ore near the Rainy River, which flows into the Boundary Waters. As is often the case with mining, the concern is not so much the hole itself, as the pollution risk associated with treating the ore with chemicals to leach out particles of minerals and heavy metals.
Today, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress introduced the Boundary Waters Wilderness Protection and Pollution Prevention Act (H.R. 5598). If passed, the bill would permanently protect the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and interconnected public lands and waters located within the watershed.
Lead sponsors of the bill are Reps. Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Francis Rooney (R-FL) with support from original co-sponsors Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI), Dean Phillips (D-MN), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ).
If you get lost in the wilderness, finding shelter is a first priority. (USFWS/)
A survival shelter can be something you build, with tools or your barehands. It can also be something you find, ready-to-use and provided by nature. Since exposure is one of the top threats in a wilderness survival setting, learning how to find shelter quickly can save your life. The landscape can provide many different kinds of shelters if you just know where to look.
1. Brush and Thickets
We can’t always eat the same wild plants or drink the same water as the wild animals do, but we can take a page from their playbook when it comes to finding shelter. Natural vegetative cover does a lot more than just hide animals from predators. It provides a break to get out of the wind and it can also block some of the rain. In bad weather, you may find that many animals have moved to thickets and other brushy areas for protection. You don’t need to get lost in a briar patch, but take advantage of these wind breaks to find a “microclimate” that feels better than being exposed. A great choice for year-round protection is a thicket of evergreen vegetation. This can deflect the bad weather, even in the winter months. For summer relief, the shade of a brushy canopy can block some of the heat and scorching light from the hot summer sun. As a final thought, when choosing a location for a survival camp, there’s nothing wrong with setting up on the leeward side (the downwind side) of brush and thickets, as they can block the wind that would sweep through your camp day or night.
2. Fallen Logs And Trees
It’s a pity when huge trees fall, but this is a natural part of any forest ecosystem. This opening in the canopy allows light to reach the forest floor and it brings an opportunity for new plants to grow. The trunk and attached disk of roots and soil may fall in such a way that it provides a small measure of protection, especially when the wind and weather are coming from the right direction. It’s not as snug as a hut or a tent, but when you’re in need of a place call “home”, there may be a dry space underneath the trunk or behind the root ball. Inspect it carefully before deciding on using it as a shelter, making sure these structures have moved to their final position and are in no danger of falling down further.
