Fall 2019

Description

Fall 2019

Big Game Bonanza

Departments

Online 6
Hunting for a Compliment 8
Gear Shop 12
Trip Tips 18
Technical Talk 20
After the Shot 24
Ballistics & Ammo 26
Shooting for the Field 28
Life on the Ledge 30
Red Gold 34
Backcountry Nutrition 36
Advertiser Index 80
Recipe 82

Features
In Pursuit of Alaska’s Big Five
by Casey Dinkel 40

Alaska’s Big Five includes species not found in the Lower 48. Casey Dinkel relates his experience over the last nine years in pursuit of barren-ground caribou, mountain goat, Dall sheep, interior grizzly bear, and Alaska/Yukon moose. High adventure, indeed!

‘Til the Last Blade!
by Ryan Schmidt 50

Kodiak Island is definitely a sportsman’s dream. Ryan Schmidt drew a hard-to-get Kodiak brown bear tag and journeyed to the Old Harbor area to hunt brown bears along with Sitka blacktail deer. His party also fished the waters of Old Harbor, and went home with a bear, several deer, king salmon, and several species of bottomfish. Most importantly, he survived an intense situation with the bear he ended up bagging.

Mountain Goat Bowhunt Never Told
by Lon E. Lauber 58

Kodiak Island has great mountain goat hunting, but along with it comes sometimes-brutal, harrowing, even dangerous conditions. Lon takes you along for the ride during a 1992 hunt in the days before technologically advanced outerwear, laser range finders, and GPS.

Migrate
by Billy Molls 66

Barren-ground caribou seem to never stand still. They migrate throughout the year, sometimes throughout the day. Sometimes it seems they were named “barren-ground” because of their “here today, gone tomorrow” behavior—leaving nothing behind but barren ground. Billy Molls and Aussies Glenn and Matt Loose migrated north to the Brooks Range, and they found more than barren ground.

“Hoot”: A Southeast Alaskan Sooty Grouse Story
by Bjorn Dihle 74

Southeast Alaska hooters (sooty grouse, formerly known as blue grouse) are residents of old-growth coniferous forests. Bjorn Dihle has been hunting them all his life. Neither rain, sleet, snow, wilderwomen, or fatherhood will prevent him from exercising his springtime obsession with hooters.

COVER / Bull moose are one of Alaska’s most sought-after species. © Anthony Madden