Western Hunter

I often hear the excuses made by hunters who make the conscious decision not to carry a sidearm to defend themselves while hunting. There is no question predator numbers are on the rise across the West, and this is not limited to the four-legged varmints. With human trafficking and marijuana grows on the rise, your […] The post It’s Worth Carrying appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

If you are unfamiliar with the classic Jack London short story To Build a Fire, it is a tale of a Yukon miner who makes a mistake, gets wet, then builds his survival fire under a tree full of snow. The snow extinguishes the fire and the man dies of hypothermia. I actually think of […] The post To Build A Fire appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

The concept of the Pap Winkle Project started with creating a place for industry-leading rifle component manufacturers and custom rifle makers to come together and showcase their work. Being a rifle builder and gunsmith, I receive emails, PMs, texts and phone calls daily from fellow riflemen with questions about their next custom rifle build. Some […] The post The Pap Winkle Project appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

On August 15, 2019 Eddy Corona from Outdoor Experience 4 All & Wounded Warrior Outdoors called me and said he had a donated archery Bull Elk tag in Arizona’s unit 10 if I was interested. I replied, “heck yeah I’m interested”. My buddy Paul Baird contacted his friends from A3 Trophy Hunts LLC to find […] The post Last Chance Bull appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

A long hunt in spectacular country by Hyrum Facer, Utah, 2016 Utah! What a great place to live, hunt, and grow a family. It’s truly unlike any other place on Earth. Utah has it all, from the solitude of the highest peaks to the low desert floors of Moab. The best part of all is […] The post A Test of Mental Toughness appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

It’s funny how before a fall hunting season ends, you find yourself daydreaming and strategizing about next year. Yet, when you’re “born to hunt” what else is a person to do? In some states you can strategize and plan hunts with the expectation of drawing your desired tag. In other states you can only swing […] The post Back-To-Back Antelope Bucks appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

As the waves crashed to the beach below, I could not help but think of all the people that came to this island just for the beaches. In this moment, sitting on a beach was as far from my mind as it could be. I had just heard the tell-tale whistle/bark of an axis deer […] The post Top Five DIY Free Range Exotic Hunts appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Leica unveiled the Geovid 3200.COM laser rangefinder binocular in January, cementing their position at the top of the category industry-wide. This new model builds on Leica’s 25-year history of groundbreaking laser rangefinder technology for hunters. The 3200.COM is the first high-performance optic with Bluetooth connectivity to Apple or Android phones via their free app, allowing […] The post Leica Geovid 3200.COM appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

A Successful Goat Hunt With a Trusty Weapon “It wasn’t a buffalo or a deer or a goat. It wasn’t a creature at all. It was something grown out of the snow; it was something a crazy mind made up; it was an old spirit man from the top of the world and a bullet […] The post Bullwhacker appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Decisions of what to put in your pack can often make the difference between a comfortable and successful hunt or an unsuccessful and uncomfortable one. Even more importantly, what you do or don’t put in your pack can also mean the difference between life and death. I have been in some crazy and dangerous situations […] The post What You Should Carry & Why appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Hunters spend a lot of time thinking about gear. Naturally, we want to be as prepared as our budgets allow in order to be successful. Between researching fabrics, weights, materials, new products and reviews, many of us tend to match our time in the field with our time on the Google machine. Reading about gear […] The post Dynamic Rewarming Drill appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

The Land of Enchantment In 2016, I found myself looking for a partner to go on an adventure in the mountains of New Mexico. I’d just learned of the opportunity to hunt Barbary Sheep over-the-counter… the closest I believed I would ever come to the often fantasized “real” sheep hunt. After a brief pitch including, […] The post Rocky Mountain Fortune appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

When it comes to modern compound bows, true innovation is hard to come by. Each year since the late 80’s and into the first decade of this century, each year archery companies offered new bows that were significantly better than their predecessors. But you can only improve a mechanical device so much. In fact, today […] The post Introducing The Mathews VXR appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

It was odd and unfortunate that Chris Denham requested this article on a day when three of my peers found themselves on a life raft in the infamous Bering Sea. Their lives were saved by the survival training from our annual competencies. These three were fortunate. Six other medevac professionals lost their lives amongst a […] The post Wilderness Survival Rules and Tenets appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

20 years ago, I had never taken what I consider to be a really big mule deer. I had done enough wildlife photography of park deer and winter range bucks to know one when I saw one, but until the year 2000 had never been fortunate enough to walk up on a real whopper. I […] The post Goals and Why They Matter appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

“Pull, pull, pull,” were the last words I remember thinking to myself, a fraction of a second before the arrow began its journey towards the big buck I had spent the last seven nights dreaming about. I say seven nights because it wasn’t until opening morning that I located the particular group of bucks that […] The post Blessed appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Last fall I had the opportunity to test out both the Zeiss Victory Harpia 85 ($4600) and the Conquest Gavia 85 ($1999) spotting scopes. Obviously, the price point on these optics are quite different, but knowing the Zeiss name, I planned on both being great products. I was excited to put them through their paces […] The post Zeiss Conquest Gavia 85 vs. Zeiss Victory Harpia 85 appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Nightforce Optics has been an industry leader when it comes to bulletproof riflescopes for the last 20 years. Their reputation for durability and accuracy has been proven through its application in both military deployments and benchrest competitions around the globe. Both end users require an extremely accurate rifle optic that is dependable and holds zero […] The post Nightforce NX8 Rifle Scope Review appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Great opportunities await for all fall bears My son Trent is 14 and like many 14 year olds, he has a lot going on. He is trying to learn to juggle school, wrestling, friends and a lot of chores on the ranch. His chores include feeding horses, dogs, chickens, goats and an overweight pig while […] The post In the Shadow of the Volcano appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

The NL Pure is the first completely new binocular from Swarovski since the introduction of the EL back in…well… a long, long time ago. The EL has reigned supreme for closing in on two decades because no one could build a better binocular, so Swarovski did it. The new NL pure is that good, it […] The post Swarovski’s Newest Binocular: The NL Pure appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Mountain lions are one of the most elusive species in North America. Without the use of dogs many hunters go their entire life without seeing one. For this reason, the use of dogs has been essential in research and management. Lions cannot effectively be hunted using baiting techniques or spot and stalk methods. Using dogs […] The post Hunting The Mountain Lion appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

High-power riflescopes have been on the rise with long-range shooting and precision rifle competitions. Many of the top optics manufacturers have been steadily increasing the power range on their scopes over the past five years and are now offering scopes maxing out in the area of 25-35x magnifications. With the trend toward shooting more distant […] The post Mid-Power Rifle Optics Review appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Every big game hunter out there owes it to themselves to go North to hunt at least once, if not more. The problem with going north to Canada or Alaska is the expense. For a great many people, sheep, bear, and moose hunts are prohibitively expensive. The alternative to these pricier adventures is a caribou […] The post Bucket List: Caribou appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Early season mule deer tactics to maximize your glassing and hunting time in the field Sure, it was hot. The Nevada archery mule deer season isn’t known for its cold weather. The high desert in August heats up quick. Deer are everywhere just after daybreak, but they become scarce after bedding in the midday sun. […] The post Midday Mule Deer appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Changes have been implemented for the new five-year season structure for Colorado. Season dates and other factors are evaluated every five years by Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and the results are often minor tweaks and changes to what has been a very consistent management and license allocation approach. But, with a booming economy and a […] The post Colorado Big Game Hunting Season Changes appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article