Many times bowhunters set out to go on an out-of –state hunt for a species they don’t have experience with. Just choosing a western state is quite a daunting task. Even if you are not a trophy hunter, a very useful tool is the Pope & Young Club Bowhunting Big Game Records of North America. This hardbound book covers all 28 North American species recognized by the Pope & Young Club:

Alaska Brown Bear
Black Bear
Grizzly Bear
Polar Bear
Bison
Barren Ground Caribou
Central Canada Caribou
Mountain Caribou
Quebec-Labrador Caribou
Woodland Caribou
Cougar
Columbian Blacktail Deer
Sitka Blacktail Deer
Coues Deer
Mule Deer
Whitetail Deer
Roosevelt Elk
American “Rocky Mountain” Elk
Alaska Yukon Moose
Canada MooseShiras Moose
Muskox
Pronghorn Antelope
Rocky Mountain Goat
Bighorn Sheep
Dall Sheep
Desert Bighorn Sheep
Stone Sheep

In addition to the record listings, there are chapters and stories about historical figures in archery and bowhunting, essays on conservation, as well as score sheets and entry information for each species. The hard bound collectible edition is published every six years. The latest is the sixth edition released in 2005.

Every two years a soft cover editions covering a two year recording period is published. The latest was the 25th recording period statistical summary for the time between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2006. In this edition there is an interesting statistical breakdown of harvest information for each species including hunter age, shot distance, experience, hunting style, time of day, sex of hunter, bow and arrow preference and even most popular draw weight! You can order the 25th Recording Period Summary from the Pope & Young Club Website, along with the hardbound Record Book.

Any Western hunter who is a lover of books on rifles and shooting is familiar with Dr. Wayne Van Zwoll. He has authored ten books on hunting and is well versed in Western hunting. He earned his doctorate in wildlife policy from Utah State University and resides in Northern Washington State. Anyone who reads his work in a variety of magazines knows that he has smelled the sage and seen his share of deer through the sights west of the Mississippi.

Dr. Van Zwolls writing is both factual, and flowery. Each chapter starts with an anecdotal tale that relates to the chapter’s subject. I have come to see that Wayne is a hunter first and a shooter close behind. Perhaps that is why I appreciated his approach to this book.

I came to appreciate the history of the firearms companies, and designers profiled in the book. Winchester, Remington, Marlin, Savage, Mauser, Ruger, Weatherby,Browning, as well as other, newer manufacturers. Each action type is discussed in detail and with equal regard. I appreciated that he gives the same attention to carbines and lever actions, pumps and slug guns as well as the cartridges that perform well in them.

While there is plenty of ballistic information in the book, it is far from being a manual. Rather it is an in depth discussion of the evolution of today’s rifle designs, and the features that the author found useful and unique in each of them. It seems that Dr. Van Zwoll has been fortunate to kill deer with nearly every modern rifle design, and cartridge.

His discussion of sights, and shooting form is well tailored to the hunter. He is quick to point out that rifles can only be as accurate as the shooter will allow them to be. At the same time he admits that a deer rifle only has to put bullets in a 6 inch circular area to be effective, much less than Minute of angle accuracy.

If you are in search of a new rifle, you owe it to yourself to be aware of the variety of actions, and calibers available from a wide variety of gunmakers. I am also willing to bet that even the most seasoned of gun afficianados could learn something new about the history of American rifle manufacturing!

Discussion of rifle optics, and shooting accurately is presented in a no-nonsense manner paying attention to the fact that the audience is hunters, not paper punchers. A deer rifle must be able to be used in a variety of positions, and it’s sights must be able to work effectively in less than optimum conditions. These topics are both covered by Dr. Van Zwoll’s book.

In my opinion, this is a book that the Western hunter needs to have on his shelf or by the bedstand. I know I will be referring back to it in the future.

Deer Rifles & Cartridges (ISBN 978-0-88317-348-0) has a suggested retail of $19.95 and is available at your favorite bookstores and sporting goods retailers, online at Amazon.com,  www.StoegerBooks.com and other online retailers, as well as at Benelli and Stoeger firearms dealers nationwide.

“…Old model 70s have a signature smell. It is walnut and oil and old steel worn bright in callused hands. It is saddle leather and linseed oil, the lodgepoles of western Montana and the sagebrush of southern Oregon.” Wayne Van Zwoll

Those words could not be truer. I grew up in a home where Winchesters were, and still are, your one rifle. I shot my first blacktail deer with what was my great grandfather’s model 64 lever action in .25-35. All the men in my family had a Winchester Model 12 shotgun, and a Winchester rifle for deer. My uncle chose a model 94, while my father and grandfather had pre-’64 Model 70’s.

So when the opportunity arose to review the Shooting Times Book of the Winchester model 70 & 94, I leapt at the chance. Now I am not a gun collector, but I came to love these guns because of their utility as an “everyday using gun”. Thankfully, much of the shooting and hunting media has shared that sentiment and the articles collected in this 138 page compilation give collectors, shooters, and hunters information and entertainment value.

If you have the least bit of nostalgia, you will be pleased at the in depth discussion about the model 94, it’s place in firearms history, and the caliber that it was nearly synonymous with, the .30-30. Winchesters colorful history and restoration of the Model 94 is covered in the book in detail.

For bolt action aficionados, much of the debate about designs of the action pre and post 1964 is mentioned as Captain George C. Nonte evaluates the “new”design in the June 1964 issue. While it was hailed as a “greatly improved version” consumers soon made it clear that features like controlled round feeding were the heart of this rifles appeal.

I can appreciate the sheer variety of models in the article “Collecting the Model 70” from standard, to Super Grade, Carbine, National Match, Target, Bull Gun, and Featherweight models. Pictures of the packaging, and rifles give the neophyte as well as seasoned collector an understanding of the variety available.

Each model and caliber is valued on a percentage condition scale. For the rifle owner unsure of the vintage, a table with the production dates matched to serial number ranges can give the year of production. In looking through the family gun closet, I found a 1962 .264 magnum, a .270 from 1952, and a .30-30 Winchester still used today from 1949.

Now none of our rifles are high in the collectible value since they bear the signs of use such as worn bluing and scratches on the stock. But they do hold a firm place in my heart because of the fact that they come from a long line of rifles that earned the respect and admiration of generations before me. The book of the Winchester model 70 and 94 pays homage to that lineage in a manner that is informative, as well as entertaining. You may pick up a copy of it for a limited time on newsstands where Shooting Times is sold.

The cover calls it the “Greatest hunting, fishing, and survival stories from America’s favorite sportsman’s magazine.”, and I would say that is an apt description of the variety of stories contained in this collection compiled by William E. Rae and the editors of Outdoor life. The 458 pages consist of a variety of stories, advertisements, and covers that ran in the magazine from 1898 until 1981.
Authors featured in the book range from Zane Grey, to Col. Townsend Whelen, Jim Carmichael and Jack O’Conner. It is simply refreshing to read the flowery prose of our early day hunting stories.
Like Zane Grey’s description of the setting of the1918 story Colorado Trails.

“We spent many full days under the shadow of Whitey’s peak. After the middle of September the aspens colored and blazed to the touch of frost, and the mountain slopes were exceedingly beautiful. Against a background of grey sage the gold and red and purple aspen groves showed too much like exquisite paintings to be real. In the mornings the frost glistened thick and white on the grass; and after the gorgeous sunsets of gold over the violet hazed ranges the air grew stingingly cold.”

After reading that paragraph, anyone who has been out in the mountain regions of the West can picture a place from their memory where the fall colors just took their breath away. It is then that you feel the kinship of a common love for the West.
No collection of Outdoor Life articles would be complete without a sampling of Jack O’ Connor stories. His 40 years of writing for the magazine covered his adventures on four continents, and two North American Sheep Grand slams. Three of his stories from the 1950’s cover adventures in Mexico, Africa and India..
Also notably different from the outdoor writers of today are the tales of subsistence hunting and trapping. I Had to Have Moose, by Olive Hendrickson published in the May of 1967 issue gives a harsh account of a 26 year old widow with 3 young children eking a living out of 160 acres of bush in central British Columbia during the “dirty thirties”.

“We weren’t hunting for fun. It was early summer, and the crop of vegetables I had planted in our garden was growing, but there was nothing ready for use yet, and we were out of food.
The moose season wouldn’t open until fall, but at that time British Columbia game regulations allowed a prospector to get a permit and kill a moose any time he needed one for food. I was not a prospector, and, anyway I had no way to go into town for the permit unless I walked 27 miles each way. But my babies and I were as hungry as any prospector would ever be and we had to have something to eat. I was sure the good Lord would forgive me, and I hoped the game warden would too, if he found out about it.”

There are fishing stories and dog stories, plenty of wing shooting stories, and more than enough big game hunting stories from the wilds of Western America, Canada, and Mexico to please the most grizzled old time guide.
This collection of seventy-six stories and articles, are introduced by the editor, Rae to give the reader background information on the author and development of the story, which may be already in progress.
If you enjoy vintage stories of outdoor adventures, this collection is sure to deliver. It has a place close to my nightstand, and would be well suited to a hunting cabin bookshelf. When I run out of inspiration, reading one of the well woven tales puts me in a more creative state of mind.
Hardcover copies may still be found on Amazon.com in the price range from under $4.00 to over $50 plus shipping. This third edition was published by the Lyons Press in 2001.

I first read this book one cold snowy day in Northern Idaho.  At that time I thought to myself, “Man, this guy lived the life I would have loved to have had.”  Growing up in Montana and settling in Salmon Idaho, Elmer Keith became synonomous with  big bore handgunning.  In his own words, Elmer tells about life growing up in the West just after the turn of the century.  He was a man’s man, (even if he did wear dresses until he was four years old.)  He cowboyed and broke horses, guided and did what ever he had to do to make ends meet. 

His firearms career grew out of his every day use of revolvers, as well as his experience in the National Guard competing in rifle matches.  Later he became a prolific writer for numerous periodicals and had a role in the development of the .41 and .44 magnum handgun cartidges.  At the time “Hell I was THERE!” was published, he was the Executive Editor of Guns and Ammo magazine.

The book covers his entire career and is filled with first person accounts of hunts thoughout the West and Africa.  He truly lived in a Golden Era, that few of us will ever experience.  Since all of the stories are in the first person, it’s like you are sitting around the campfire after a day of hunting as Elmer spins his yarns.  It is a refreshing break from many of the “How-to-Do-it” hunting books available today. 

“Hell, I was THERE!” is a rare book these days and commands a steep price from collectors.  When you look on  Amazon.com to find a copy, many editions go for $250 and up.  I was able to find a weathered and yellowed copy, without the dust jacket, for around $30.  If you find a copy of this book at a garage sale, pick it up!  It is 308 pages in Hardcover, and my copy is published by Peterson Publishing. 

This book is a first person account by Ralph Flowers of his career as a professional bear hunter in Western Washington on the Olympic peninsula.  While Ralph worked for a private timber company, his experience in spot and stalk and hound hunting bears is a valuable lesson to the sport hunter today.  Ralph lived in a remote cabin, with his wife and family.  The black and white photographs included in the book are worth the purchase price alone.  I bought the book while in college for the hound hunting stories alone.  I never expected to glean so much first hand knowledge of bear behavior. 

The fact that Ralph professionally accounted for over 1000 bear kills shocks many readers.  In this area where bear densities were resulting in thousands of stripped trees, depredation was the only means available at the time. I found this comment below on the reviews section of the Amazon page and I thought it gave an interesting perspective about the person Ralph Flowers.

“ This man was my uncle. He is not long dead. He died only recently…. he loved bears so much that he is the primary reason bears are no longer hunted for killing trees. You see, he researched and developed a food that when put out in areas where the bears are a nuisance, it keeps them from harming the trees because they are full due to his food. He is only telling how things were back in his day when he was a professional bear hunter. This is how he clothed and fed his family. He was also an artist who loved to paint beautiful paintings of animals and also sculpted them out of wood. He traveled the world as an older man finding ways of conserving bears. I found his book very interesting for me because this is where I was raised and hearing about the early days of his hunting was very enlightening for me. It is early pioneers who pave the way for others to follow. If not for this gentle and extremely talented man, Weyerhauser would still be paying professional bear hunters to hunt them down and kill them. This book is very educational as to these methods that were used, but is also told very straight forward. He does not sugar coat anything. This is how he brought attention to the plight of the North American Black Bear.”

I think anyone who is a student of wildlife management should read this book as a glimpse into how our views of wildlife and their role in the ecosystem have changed.   It also pays tribute to the days when we were still “exploring” the wild parts of the West for timber and other resources.  The emphasis today has changed to a more “hands-off” approach to resource management rather than the “rough and tumble” ways of our grandfathers whose stories captivated us when they built the Al-Can Highway, the Alaska Pipeline, the Transcontinental Railroad.  They weren’t out to destroy the resource, but their focus was more on achieving a goal of building a nation.  Now that they accomplished that, we have the task of balancing nature and the wild with expanding development.

Education of a Bear Hunter by Ralph Flowers is 320 pages in paperback published by Binford & Mort Publishing. You may find it on Amazon.com or in a used bookstore near you.

If bucks like the ones shown above make your pulse race, then you will appreciate the hard work that went in to Idaho’s Greatest Mule Deer by Ryan Hatfield.  He has collected over 450 photos, along with the measurements of the top typical and non-typical mule deer bucks taken in Idaho. 

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Ryan has also pulled together some amazing statistics on the counties the most record book entries have come from and contrasted the early “Golden Years” from the 60’s and earlier with the modern days. The shift is alarming. Also included is a discussion about the habitat and life cycle of the mule deer, a must for any serious student of Western game management.

Idaho’s greatest Mule Deer is 412 pages in hard cover and may be ordered from the author at:
Idaho’s Greatest Big Game, Inc.
Box 2
Council, Idaho 83612
(208) 253-0002
idahohunting@hotmail.com

Ishi, the “last wild Indian” was discovered starving outside of a slaughterhouse near Oroville California in 1911. He spent almost 5 years as a companion to Dr. Saxton Pope, one of the founders of the Pope and Young Club, a conservation group dedicated to preserving the legacy of bowhunting and archery. In the book, Ishi the last Yahi, Robert Heizer and Theodora Kroeber have collected and edited a number of historic documents surrounding the life of this mysterious man and his people. Of special interest to the Western hunter is the discussion by Saxton Pope from 1918 on the archery methods used by Ishi to take game. Many of Pope’s archery materials and methods arose from his time with Ishi.

An excerpt from Pope’s “Yahi Archery”

“At a very early period in our association with the Yahi, we undertook various little hunting excursions, and upon two occasions went upon extended trips into the mountains
In shooting small game, such as quail, squirrels, and rabbits, Ishi was very proficient. His method was that of still hunting; walking over the ground very quiet and alert, always paying particular attention to wind, noise, and cover. He was indefatigable in the persistence with which he stalked game, and seldom left a clump of brush in which he knew or suspected the presence of game, until all means of getting it had been tried….
He shot rabbits as close as five yards. On the other hand I have seen him shoot a squirrel through the head at forty yards. The usual killing distance was between 10 and 20 yards. Game was nearly always shot while standing still, although an occasional rabbit was shot running.”

The book features a wide range of observations by a variety of authors both on the anthropological history of the Yahi and Yana peoples, and of the media coverage of his discovery. When Ishi died in 1916 of tuberculosis, Pope wrote an account of the medical care, and autopsy. That detailed account is edited to only include Pope’s observations on the characteristics, and personality of Ishi, released in 1920.

For the reader who appreciates the history of the West, it’s indigenous people and the evolution of our archery methods, Ishi The Last Yahi is a detailed look into what was the last link between the stone age and modern age. The respect by the authors cited in the book is apparent, and the reader will gain a sense of wonder through the words and pictures that chronicle the life of Ishi.

The 242 page book, Ishi Last of the Yahi is published by the University of California Press and is available in soft cover.

Part of being successful hunting the west is spotting deer.  Can you find the deer in this photo?

 If you don’t here it is.

 After watching for awhile, here is what popped out. 

If you like spotting deer or playing “Wheres Waldo?”   You should seriously look into the book Mule Deer : Hunting Today’s Trophies By Jim Van Norman and Tom Carpenter

I gained quite a bit of knowledge about spotting game from the chapters in this book that focused on spotting parts of deer, rather than looking for the whole deer.  There is even a color section that has photos from around the West for you to find the hidden deer. 

The book comes in paperback and was rated 5 stars by Amazon.com readers.  If you are going to hunt deer in the West, this book should be in your library. 

Something about spending time alone in the outdoors tends to bring out the poet in folks.  When a 32 year old bank teller was transferred to the mining boomtown of Whitehorse  in the Yukon territory, it gave birth to the poetry of Robert Service.  Robert Service’s Best Tales of the Yukon is a collection from the Spell of the Yukon and Ballads of a Cheechako, tales which stemmed from his time in the Yukon between 1904 and 1912.

I was first exposed to the poetry of Robert Service as a youngster in the 6^th grade, when our teacher read us The Cremation of Sam McGee.  It wasn’t until I attended a Cowboy poetry gathering that I heard other Service poems such as The Shooting of Dan McGrew, The Call of the Wild, and The Men Who Don’t Fit In.  The last two I believe define many of us you are drawn to wild and lonely places.  Even folks who don’t pour over poetry can read the passages and nod in agreement.

Like this line from The Call of the Wild:

Have you suffered starved and triumphed,

 groveled down, yet grasped at glory,

Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?

Done things just for the doing,

 letting babblers tell the story,

Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?

Have you seen God in His splendors ,

Heard the text that nature renders-

(You’ll never hear it in the family pew)

The simple things, the true things,

The silent men who do things?

Then listen to the Wild-it’s calling you.

Or from The Spell of the Yukon:

There’s a land where the mountains are nameless,

And the rivers all run god knows where;

There are lives that are erring and aimless,

And deaths that hang by a hair….

There’s a land – oh, it beckons and beckons,

 And I want to go back – and I will.

Any of us who have been out in the wilderness know what Robert Service is talking about.  Best Tales of the Yukon is a collection that is perfect for those nights by the fire, to be read by lantern light when you can savor each passage for what it means to you.  Or,  when the kids or grandkids are visiting, a reading of The Cremation of Sam McGee will capture their imagination, like it did for me many years ago.

Best tales of the Yukon is published by Running Press, and has a suggested retail price of $12.95, or $19.95 in Canada.

  www.runningpress.com