Hunting Guns Sitemap

01. Hunting Trip - The real purpose of any big-game hunting trip is to have an enjoyable and rewarding experience in the great outdoors. In addition, every hunter hopes to climax such an experience by taking a prized game animal. That is the unsurpassed thrill of any hunt.

02. Equipment - If every item a big-game hunter needs on a ten-day hunt were tabulated on a strip of paper, the list would look as long as a polygamist's clothesline. However, when properly packed, the total duffel need be neither heavy nor bulky—if sensible items are chosen.

03. Rifles - In the recent past, the hunter with a preference for a certain cartridge had to accept any available rifle which would chamber it. Similarly, the hunter who preferred a certain type of action often was limited in his choice of cartridges which that action would safely handle.

04. Pack Outfits - Before one can understand and appreciate the art of packing, a basic knowledge of pack animals is necessary. Both horses and mules are used as pack stock in the United States and Canada; in Mexico and the South­west, burros are often packed. Each of the three has certain advantages and drawbacks.

05. Outfitters - The success of a big-game hunt into those areas requiring a guide or outfitter depends largely on his skill and dependability. This is especially true of hunting trips into the most remote and inaccessible of our remaining wilderness areas.

06. Hunting Camp - The first thing to do before setting up any hunting camp is to ascertain whether camping is permitted. Most camps for hunting big game will be located on public lands such as the National Forests where camping is generally open to the public.

07. Track Game - Finding where the game is located in hunting country is far more dependent upon an understanding of its basic characteristics and traits than upon an ability to follow each consecutive hoof mark in a trail.

An experienced hunter in strange country can often take one good look around and estimate fairly well just where any game is apt to be. And by climbing the first big ridge in that area he can also tell what species is there and its approximate abundance.

08. Range Estimation - There are few things more disappointing than for a hunter to wait all year for an expensive hunt, spot his game, estimate it as a prize, shoot it, and then come up to find that he has downed a scrawny trophy.

In addition to the inherent difficulties of appraising game at a distance, there is a definite mental obstacle as well.

09. Bow-and-Arrow - The first mechanical weapon made by man, the bow has been employed in wars of conquest throughout ancient history; and man's respect for this ancient weapon has carried down to the present day.

With the advent of black powder and arms suited to its use, the bow's popularity as a military and a hunting weapon began to wane. As the development of guns outran any further improvement in the bow, its use dwindled to next to nothing.

10. Deer—Whitetail - The whitetail deer is the most popular and widely distributed big-game animal in Continental United States. With the exception of a long, finger-like strip of land stretching from California to Ohio, the whitetail populates almost every area of the country. Whitetails are also distributed over one third of Mexico and are found well up into the Canadian provinces border­ing the entire length of the United States. Only five states have no whitetail deer, or so few as to be negligible—California, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, and Utah. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Minnesota have the most.

11. The Elk - The American elk, or wapiti, (Cervus canadensis) has been affected by encroaching civilization as much as any big-game species. Once considered a plains animal, its range included most of the United States. When popula­tion and land settlement created too much pressure, the elk didn't move in a mass migration into the Far North as did the moose. Instead it stayed and was slaughtered into near-extinction in the East, the plains of the Midwest, and the Southwest.

12. Moose - The largest North American big-game animal, the moose is an un­gainly, grotesque-looking brute. To most hunters viewing one for the first time, an adult moose looks like something from the easel of a discouraged cartoonist.

Though homely as a mud fence, the moose's assortment of awkward features was given it by nature to serve a combination of useful purposes.

13. Caribou - The caribou (Rangifer) is another species of big game that has migrated northward to escape contact with man. Before the turn of the century, virtually all the caribou had been exterminated or had left the northern tier of states within Continental United States. The herds are still retreating northward into the more desolate reaches of the Arctic.

14. Antelope - Like apple pie, baseball, and the TV commercial, the pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) is strictly an American institution. It is the only pronghorn antelope in the world, and is found nowhere except in North America.

The pronghorn is one of the smallest North American big-game species. Exceptional bucks will sometimes weigh up to 130 pounds, but will average closer to 100 pounds.

15. Bears - There are four major species of North American bears: the black, grizzly, polar, and brown bear. Cinnamon and glacier bears are color variations of the black bear, but there are some indications that the grizzly and the Alaska brown bear interbreed. The North American bears are among the most highly prized big-game animals, and a large measure of this appeal is based on their record of being dangerous.

16. Mountain Sheep - The highest hunting honor that can come to the North American big-game hunter is to become a "grand-slammer" on wild sheep. This means to take a legal, representative specimen of each of the four species: Dall (Ovis dalli), Stone (Ovis dalli stonei), Rocky Mountain bighorn (Ovis cana-densis), and desert bighorn (Ovis canadensis nelsoni, Ovis canadensis gaillardi, etc.).

17. Predators - The predatory beasts which prey on the various species of game have a definite place in Nature's scheme. Predators are necessary to eliminate the weak, aged, and crippled from game herds; to keep herds well scattered on their ranges and thus diminish excessive in-breeding and diseases caused by too intense a concentration; and to clean the landscape of carrion.

18. Small Game - A generation ago, the sport of "varminting" was in its infancy Shoot­ing crows, chucks, and jack rabbits was considered kids' stuff in many parts of the country and usually was done with .22 rimfire rifles. In the West, especially, a man would have been considered a sissy if he shot such small stuff for sport.

19. Skin Game - The trend in big-game hunting today is to hunt for sport and trophies rather than for meat. This is opposite to the practice of fifty years ago when hunters shot for the skillet, chose the youngest and females of the species, and heaved the antlers of the males into the brush on the premise that "horns don't make good soup."

20. Bird Hunt - Game birds are divided into two basic groups, the waterfowl and the upland birds, and there are numerous species of each. It is always advisable when planning a bird hunt to consider not only the main species desired, but one or more of secondary importance which may be hunted in the same area. Often a disappointing pheasant hunt may be saved by a fine duck, goose, or grouse hunt within the same area. For this reason, wise bird hunters check the legal open-season dates on all game birds in the area they wish to hunt.

21. Clothing - There are a few basic differences between the clothing best suited to big-game hunting and the best clothing for upland bird and waterfowl hunting. Generally speaking, the bird hunter will be hunting at lower altitudes and in warmer weather than the big-game hunter. Bird hunting is generally done early in the fall before snow, usually in brushy terrain. Thus the bird hunter's clothing may be lighter than the big-game hunter's. It doesn't have to be brightly colored for safety purposes but it should be more snag-resistant.

22. Guns - There are six types of shotguns; the basic differences are distinguished by the kind of action and number of barrels:

1. Double barrel
2. Slide, or pump, action
3. Autoloading
4. Over-under
5. Single
6. Bolt action

23. Dogs for Waterfowl - Part of the real joy of bird hunting is the use and companionship of a good dog. A hunting dog will find birds where no hunter could, follow their scent into brush and foliage where no hunter would enjoy going, set or flush the birds at decent gun range before the hunter, then run down any cripples and bring the dead game back to its master's hand. In the case of waterfowl, the good hunting dog will plunge into water icy and cold enough to chill the hunter's ancestors, and retrieve downed birds which would otherwise be lost.

24. FUpland Birds - In the hunting of any species of bird, two techniques will put the hunter within range. One is to locate and approach the birds, the other is to let the birds find the hunter.

With upland birds, only the first is successful. Hunting upland birds in the hope that they might come to the hunter is comparable to sitting on a stool in the lower pasture and waiting for a cow to back up to bt milked.

25. Hunting Waterfowl - Waterfowl hunting has always been a favorite sport of most American hunters. A major milestone in waterfowl hunting was reached in 1900 when, by the passage of the Federal Lacey Act, which controlled interstate shipment of game, market hunting about reached the end of its rope.

26. Stalking - Stalking waterfowl on foot entails a different problem than stalking upland birds. While upland birds will often run directly into cove- or sit tight at the approach of a hunter, waterfowl, once they spot him, will fly before he comes into range. Nature tells upland birds that their camouflage coloration will prevent detection while they are immobile in the foliage of their natural habitat, but waterfowl instinctively know that their camou­flaging is inadequate when they are on water. Consequently, the successful stalking of waterfowl depends on getting within shotgun range entirely unseen and unsuspected.

27. Shooting - In blind-shooting, as against stalking and jump-shooting of waterfowl, the birds invariably must come to the hunter. This means that any blind, if it is to be successful, must be situated so that birds will pass closely by it.

For pass-shooting, this means that the blind must be in line with the normal flight course of birds as they travel back and forth. For shooting shallow-water ducks, the blind must be in shallow waters where ducks are known to feed. For sound or bay shooting, the blind must often be floating, so that it may be towed to within the normal courses of the flights.

28. Decoys - There are three fundamental reasons why waterfowl will come to artifi­cial decoys. They are gregarious and like to be in groups with their kind. They assume that flocks of similar birds indicate the presence of food. And the sight of unmolested birds gives them a sense of safety from predators. Imitation duck and goose decoys have been made from many diverse materials ranging from stuffed canvas, old shoe boxes, tin cans, and crumpled paper, on up to lifelike statues carved in wood and painted with the skill and fidelity to detail of a Renaissance artist.

29. Preparing Birds - The plucking, drawing, and dressing of game birds in preparation for cooking them is one of the less romantic chores connected with hunting.

Some hunters shy away from the task, in the hope of giving the birds away, or persuading someone else, likely the lady of the house, to take care of it. Others make a full production out of it, winding up with feathers, fuss, and fowl strung all over the house.

30. Care of Firearms - The sensible care of firearms begins with a consideration of the safety involved in their use. There are many safety rules and codes which, if fol­lowed, will prevent gun accidents; probably every conscientious shooter has developed his own precautions and methods which have become habitual in practice.

THE END