Departments
The Opener 6
Hunt Alaska Online 8
Hunting for a Compliment 10
Technical Talk 12
After the Shot 14
Ballistics & Ammo 16
Shooting for the Field 18
Life on the Ledge 20
Red Gold 22
Backcountry Safety 24
Hunt Alaska Recipe 70
Advertiser Index 72
Last Shot 74
Features
Editors’ Choice Awards 26
When deciding on equipment for hunting in Alaska, nothing means quite so much as getting it out there in the field. After years in the brush and atop the mountains of the Last Frontier, Hunt Alaska’s editors have returned with reviews on a full range of gear and hunting equipment, putting everything from tents to rifles and bows through the Alaska gauntlet. Here’s what emerged, the best of the best we handled in 2015.
New Gear 48
It’s a new year, with a new fall hunting season right around the corner, and there is plenty of new gear out there for hunters to consider. To take the guesswork out of it, we’ve done the research for you, looking over hundreds of new releases and deciding on a choice few (dozen) must-have equipment items that will be on store shelves in 2016.
Deer of Diversity
by Lon E. Lauber 58
You just never know exactly what you are getting into when hunting Sitka blacktails. So says Contributing Editor Lon E. Lauber, who has decades of experience in the Alaska backcountry doing just that. Here he passes on all the details of hunting Sitkas at different times of year and in varying terrain, helping paint a picture of what it’s like to hunt this deer of diversity.
A Journey into Dall Sheep Country
by Bjorn Dihle 64
In early September, when birch forests glowed yellow and night temperatures were dropping well below freezing, Bjorn Dihle and his brothers walked towards a seldom visited mountain range in the interior of Alaska to look for Dall sheep. What transpired was more than just another hunt, as all sheep hunts are
—as anyone who’s fallen in love with the Dall sheep can attest.