It used to be that there were only a handful of these shows nationwide. Now there are MANY of them and some have become very target specific. There are regional shows like ISE’s that cover hunting and fishing in the west: Sacramento, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Denver. The Eastern Sports Show in Harrisburg, PA has a HUGE attendance each year. The SHOT Show is a trade show for hunting industry members only but attracted almost 60,000 attendees last year. There are three exhibit shows this year for Africa only outfitters: Toronto, Atlanta and Charlotte, NC. Grand Slam Club/Ovis and the Wild Sheep Foundation both focus their attention on the wild sheep of North America and the world. Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation concentrates on the elk species of North America. The Dallas Safari Club show starts today in Dallas. The Fred Hall shows are in March but for west coast saltwater fishermen and women they are the ultimate: acres upon acres of boats, gear and trips at the shows in Del Mar and Long Beach, CA.

The best show of them all is the Safari Club International Convention. This year’s show is in Reno, NV from January 26-29. I don’t care what it is you’re looking for in hunting, it will be there: safaris, hunting trips, firearms, accessories, clothing, jewelry, furniture, artwork, optics, books, and a whole lot more. The taxidermy work has to be seen to be believed – full-body mount elephants, a group of Cape buffalo “dugga boys” at a water hole and charging rhino. It seems each year the taxidermists try to better the previous year’s exhibits so it will be interesting to see if they can top those just listed from the past. More and more, the SCI show brings in lots of hunting (and other!) celebrities that will be walking the same aisles as you – just seeing what there is to see. Along with the over 2200 booth spaces there are seminars and auctions conducted each day that always pack the rooms. Over the years, SCI has learned how to balance their show by not having too many of this type exhibitor and not enough of another type. They maintain that balance well and the result is a truly spectacular event that everyone even remotely connected to hunting should attend at least once.

I know it’s winter and the economy here in the US sure isn’t doing well but you can forget about that for a short while by attending a hunting show. You’ll also lend needed support to the exhibitors and people in the sport we love. As always, never hesitate to leave a comment. Just click on the “Comments” link at the top of the page.

Preparation is key to a successful hunt. Yes, luck always seems to play its part in the hunting game but luck also seems to follow those who are well prepared. Branch Rickey, the old Brooklyn Dodgers baseball club general manager, said it best: “luck is the residue of design.” Let’s look at how to design your luck.

1. Physical conditioning is HUGE! You can’t expect to just plop your money down and have a successful hunt. If you’re after sheep do lots of uphill hiking. For Africa you should be ready to walk many miles over relatively flat terrain. On a horseback hunt you should be able to ride and have your backside ready for the saddle before you show up in camp. Get in the best shape possible and your hunt will be more enjoyable and success more likely.

2. Whether it’s a rifle, bow, muzzleloader or crossbow – practice, practice, practice. Get to know your weapon of choice intimately and be able to use it proficiently. I’m talking about hundreds & thousands of rounds or releases – not just a handful. You owe it to yourself, your guide and, most of all, the animal you’re after to make a quick, humane kill

3. Know your quarry. Get familiar with the animal you’re hunting. Know where they live, what they eat, when they’re rutting, what a BIG one looks like. The internet is a great source to find all this information. Learn it and use it and your hunt will be more enjoyable and it will probably increase your respect for the animal.

4. Be flexible. You’ll have to adapt to conditions that are out of your normal realm and can constantly change: weather, terrain, animal behavior, PEOPLE behavior, and a host of others. Go with the flow; maintain a good & positive attitude and things usually go easier.

5. Be honest with both yourself and your guide. If you can’t accomplish something physically, be upfront about it so that no one gets hurt. In conjunction with this, always let your outfitter know before the hunt about ANY physical, dietary or medical limitations you have.

These are only five of the things I believe will help make you better prepared for your next hunt. I’m sure there are many more that can be added by outfitters, guides and other hunters. In that vein, don’t hesitate to leave a comment! Just click on the “Comments” bullet at the top of the page.

The above scenario is carried out countless times each hunting season because the hunter didn’t know the laws of the country/province/state where he was hunting. It is always the hunter’s responsibility to know the game laws – not knowing them can have severe consequences. I have seen many examples of game law violations: same-day fly and shoot, purchasing a tag after the animal is killed, shooting the game department’s roadside, mounted bull elk from a vehicle (really dumb!), illegal baiting, spotlighting at night and the list goes on. The local jurisdictions all deal with these through their own systems and the penalties can range from fines and suspended sentences to actual jail time.

Where the stakes get a lot higher is when there is a Lacey Act violation. The Lacey Act became law in 1900 and it is a federal law. The maximum penalties are $10,000 per violation up to $20,000 maximum and up to five years in federal prison. Also, like the drug enforcement laws, any vessel, vehicle or aircraft used in violating the Lacey Act is subject to permanent seizure. We are talking serious penalties here. The Lacey Act is designed to prohibit the trafficking of illegally taken animals and plants. I’ll give an example: You go hunting and break a law regarding the killing of an animal; this doesn’t become known to the officials that have jurisdiction where the animal was killed until later; they discover your actions; you are charged and plead guilty or are found guilty of the charges – end of deal, right? Wrong! The instant that you carried, or caused to be carried, any part of that animal across state lines you could be party to a Lacey Act violation. Even if the game law violation took place in your own state and you did no traveling, if your taxidermist sent the animal hide to an out-of-state tannery you could be in very hot water because you caused the animal hide to be carried across state lines. I have seen huge fines, airplanes forfeited and careers ended due to game law violations. Yes, your guide/outfitter should be able to recite his area’s game laws backwards, forwards, sideways & down but the ultimate responsibility rests with you, the hunter, to know the game laws where you hunt – do so, don’t break them and you’ll be fine.

While there are quite a few laws and regulations regarding firearms and ammunition, they are fairly well known and can be adhered to easily. Declare your firearm at the check in counter, keep the ammunition in a lockable container in a separate piece of luggage, limit the ammo weight to 11 pounds or less and you’ve met the bulk of the requirements. Oh, there are some airlines that now ask for all of the particulars on your firearms and ammo ahead of time but that’s easily complied with and doesn’t present much of a problem. However, The Hunting Report sent out an email alert last month notifying its readers that traveling through the Netherlands is now verboten if you have any arrowheads in your luggage. That’s right – arrowheads! Broadheads, mechanical or field tip – it doesn’t matter – they, along with folding knives, are considered contraband and will be confiscated and hunters could be subject to fines and jail time. And this is just for transiting through the Amsterdam airport, much less clearing customs or doing any bowhunting. A while ago they clamped down on firearms passing through but you could still do so if you obtained a transit permit. There will be no transit permits issued for arrowheads or folding knives.

There are some countries that seem to feel as the Dutch do and those countries do not allow bowhunting. I do know that some of them, mainly African countries, are very skeptical regarding the killing ability of archery equipment. I know this has been proven otherwise but that’s what they believe. There are other countries, and maybe the Netherlands fits in here, that are more than a little fearful of the stealth factor that archery equipment utilizes and allow no archery equipment of any type to be introduced into their countries. Regardless of their reasons, it appears the Dutch have very little interest in having hunters passing through their country – I say we accommodate them and not use their airlines or spend any time in the Netherlands.

As always, your comments are more than welcome – just click on the “Comments” bullet at the top.

It IS that simple – practice makes perfect, and if not perfect at least better than you were before. I can’t solve the ever-growing problem of the decreasing number of rifle ranges but when you are at a range you should maximize your time spent there. By that I mean shooting as much as you can with a clearly defined purpose. It doesn’t do any good to go to the range just to see how much lead/copper/tungsten you can put into the backstop behind your target. If you’re breaking in a new rifle, know beforehand that the best way is NOT to run so many rounds through it that you can’t touch the barrel. If the wind is blowing, it’s an excellent opportunity to learn how the wind affects the particular load you’re shooting. If you’re zeroing a rifle know how your scope works and how each “click” is calculated. On my first safari I watched in amazement as three Americans tried to get a .375 H&H back to zero after the scope was knocked loose during travel. I knew that the scope turrets in question turned opposite of almost every other scope on the market but couldn’t convince these dimwits of that. 40 rounds later they finally listened and I bore-sighted and zeroed it in four rounds – the lesson here is to know your equipment.

Focus on the tasks at hand while at the range: sight picture, breath control, trigger squeeze and always have the rifle pulled tight into your shoulder. I have won the “Weatherby Award” on two occasions. No, not that big tall trophy that is annually given to the world’s best hunter; I’m talking about that cut that the scope ring administers just above your eye when you haven’t brought a big banging magnum snugly into your shoulder before firing it! The first was from a .375 H&H back when I thought that caliber was a cannon. 19 years later it was from a real cannon, my .458 Lott, while shooting off “the sticks” just prior to starting a safari – the bloody scab really looked good in all the trophy shots! If you’re shooting a large caliber, don’t overshoot and fire too many rounds. There’s nothing to be proved by beating yourself up with a hard-thumping gun and you sure don’t want to start anticipating recoil or develop a flinch. Switch to a lighter caliber or give it up for the day.

The main thing is to practice. There are guides and outfitters from around the world who have all sorts of horror stories to tell about clients showing up that haven’t fired a single box of ammunition through their brand-new Remchesterby Super Walloper. You owe it to yourself, your guide and, most of all, the animal you seek, to make a clean, ethical shot and the only way to do that is to practice.

As always, your comments are welcome. Just click on the “Comments” bullet at the top of the page.

I can honestly say I’ve never been afraid of a dangerous game animal in a hunting situation – suitably armed, unless I screw up, I know I will walk away the winner. I’ll also say that I’ve certainly experienced a very high sense of awareness and been extremely focused on the task at hand. It doesn’t matter how one becomes imperiled – sometimes it’s through accident, sometimes sheer stupidity and other times it was just the way the cards got dealt that day. My first encounter with a dangerous game animal was with a Cape buffalo I had wounded on my initial safari. We were following the occasional blood drops in very late afternoon when we saw him looking at us from about 175 yards. I then hit him two solid shots and he very slowly eased over a small knob. We were running hard when we crested that same knob and found him 5 yards away, waiting for us but unable to mount a charge. One more put him down and another between the shoulder blades finished him. Should I have been scared? Heck yes! I’d read Peter Capstick and knew ALL about the dangers of tracking wounded buffalo in the twilight. I also thought that no sane man is going to be five yards from a wounded buffalo and not be afraid. But, for me at least, concentrating on doing the job and finishing it has always overridden any fear I might have had.

Lots of writers have told us that in Africa the shot from a blind at a leopard is the easiest there is and also the one that’s botched most often. Why is this? Because reading Capstick’s writings about leopard hunting were never intended to calm you down, you’re probably worried because this setup shot IS the easiest in Africa and you’ve been on pins and needles ever since you heard the leopard vocalizing with his “sawing” sound from a mile away – knowing he’s on the way to your bait tree. This all adds up to a different type of fear, not fear of the leopard itself but fear of failure. None of us wants to acknowledge, either to our friends or ourselves, that we failed in something as primal as hunting. Hunting is where man has succeeded, well, most of the time, since the dawn of time. We’re supposed to be inherently good at it so failure is not supposed to be an option. But fail we do. Maybe your finger pulled hard enough to straighten the trigger out because you forgot to thumb the safety off; quite possibly the sun picked the moment of truth to shine right in your rifle scope; it’s possible there wasn’t a shell in the chamber. All of these things happen – they happened to me. The one thing that won’t happen to me is the fear of failure – don’t let it happen to you, either. Stay focused, concentrate on doing the job, visualize your success and the fear of failure won’t be a factor.

OK, time to fess up! Let’s hear about YOUR hunting fears and what scares you – just click on the “Comments” bullet at the top of the page.

The Nile crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus, occupies a vast portion of sub-Saharan Africa. He can be found in huge lakes, small streams and two of the longest rivers in the world – the Nile and the Congo. I once saw one in Burkina Faso (western Africa) in a rapidly drying water hole that was about five yards across and 25 yards long – the next closest water source was about eight miles away! Now, there are a lot of crocodiles around, but that wasn’t always the case. Post-WWII Africa had many men trying to earn a living; and hunting crocs for their skins was profitable. This eventually led to a crash in crocodile populations during the late 1960’s. In the mid-1970’s the crocodile was listed on Appendix I, the most critical, of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) rankings. He was considered endangered in some areas and threatened in others so this precluded hunting in many areas, among them some portions of Zimbabwe. I don’t know who gets credit for it but I’m sure it was just some guys trying to make a buck. They came up with the idea of commercially ranching crocodiles for profit. They convinced the Zimbabwe government that the game department should allow them to collect eggs in the wild. The ranchers would see them hatched out, raise them to a respectable size and then on a “two or three for you and one for us” basis, return the appropriate number to the wild. The ranchers would keep theirs until they were large enough for commercial harvesting and then start selling crocodile skins. The government didn’t see how it could lose so they gave their approval. The one thing no one apparently factored in was the hatchling survival rate in captivity versus that in the wild. It wasn’t very many years before the government was telling the ranchers that there were now more than enough crocodiles in the wild and, please, could the ranchers keep all they raised? Many other countries soon adopted the highly successful “Zimbabwe Crocodile Ranching Scheme” and the croc has returned as a highly desirable, huntable species.

In 2001 the small African country of Malawi could no longer comply with CITES concerning its crocodiles and had to exterminate several hundred crocs. This was due to the crocs man-eating propensity in highly populated areas of the country. As Malawi had no safari hunting to curb populations these exterminations were carried out by commercial hunters and officials. Safari Club International (SCI) recently reported that Malawi, after being closed to hunting since 1986, is now going to be open to sport hunters. However, the number of huntable critters is limited to only one specie – the Nile crocodile, still paying his own way!

As always, your comments are appreciated – just click on the “Comments” link at the top of the page.

He’s long and lean, he has a dog-shaped head, also like a dog he has non-retractile claws, he has spots instead of the rosettes of a leopard and he’s considered the fastest land mammal on earth. On one side of the continent (east Africa) he is considered endangered, in southwestern Africa he causes so much damage to livestock that he’s shot as vermin, much like coyotes in North America. He’s legally hunted: Namibia has 150 export permits for 2010, Botswana had 5 in 2009 and Zimbabwe has 50 for 2010. Yet those export permits will not be fully utilized because one country, the United States, will not allow US citizens to import them.

CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. There are 175 member nations in CITES, including the US, and all but one concur that there is a viable population in southwestern Africa that can sustain hunting. Thus CITES grants those export permits to those three countries. The US Fish & Wildlife Service, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that it will not issue any import permits for the legally hunted cats. USFWS has made many demands and they have all been met, mainly by the Namibian professional hunters. Court cases have been brought forward by US hunters who still have their trophies in Namibia, yet USFWS continues to hold its illogical position. This is certainly not the first instance of USFWS flying in the face of CITES. Like the cheetah, any hunter in the world (including the US) can legally hunt the polar bear in Canada; they can take their trophies home, a US hunter cannot. There are several species of argali and urial sheep in Asia and the Middle East that also fall under this onerous decision by USFWS. So why does USFWS take this course of action?

In the opinion of many, the US state and federal governments are becoming less hunter-friendly and more anti-hunter each year. It’s certainly the case in our education systems that hunting is “out” and anti-hunting is “in.” One only has to see the propaganda that the Humane Society of the United States makes available to our schools to see how this is happening. It has been happening for so long that the “greening” of USFWS is now taking place, just as it is in state fish, game and wildlife departments nationwide. Can this trend be stopped or reversed? Only if hunters are willing to spend time, money and dedication to seeing that our youth learn and value what we as hunters know to be true – that hunters are the real stewards of wildlife.

Your comments are always welcome, just click on the comments bullet at the top of the page.

The latin word concolor tells us a great deal about his coloration – he’s a solid tawny color except for a white underbelly and black tail tip. The average male is a little over seven feet in length and weighs between 130 -150 pounds. (The author’s cougar in the photo went 7’4” – 130#). He is a pure carnivore and the deer species constitute most of his diet although, like all cats, he’ll take what’s offered – sheep, elk, cattle & horses! He is solitary, furtive, shy and often nocturnal – some western ranchers and experienced outdoor people will tell you they’ve never seen one in the wild. He is hunted throughout the western portions of Canada and the US except for California (that law/idiocy will be in another blog!), all of Mexico and all of Argentina.

There is really only one way to hunt these great cats and that is with dogs – north to south, east to west, that’s how it’s done. In the northern latitudes, winter snow is often the first sign that cougar season is now open. Driving roads with the hope of picking up a hot track is a popular method of locating a cat and, by the size of the track, determining if it’s big enough for the hunter to trail. Following Mr. Kitty can be done by vehicle, snowmobile, horse or on foot. Further south, dry ground tracking by the hounds is often the only option. This entails turning the dogs loose on an often faint imprint in the dust and following on horseback. Regardless of the method, once the dogs get on a hot scent the chase is on. If following baying hounds doesn’t get you excited maybe we need to set you up in the retirement home – chasing a big cat with dogs can be as thrilling as hunting gets!

Cougar populations are steady or increasing (especially in California!) throughout their range. Mexican and Argentinean ranchers often have huge ranchos and estancias where they raise their cattle and many of them employ full-time hunters just to keep the big cats (both puma and jaguar) under control – yet they still grow in number. Note: Argentina allows foreign hunters to hunt and kill mountain lions however they, along with any other indigenous species, may not be exported – go figure.

We offer a variety of cougar hunts – contact us and we can put you in the chase! As always, your comments are welcome – just click on the Comments link at the top of the page.

The two major record-keeping organizations differ as to what resides where in Canada. Safari Club International (SCI) holds that there are two sub-species: eastern and western Canada moose with the dividing line being right through the province of Ontario from James Bay to Lake Superior. The Boone & Crockett Club (B&C) contends that there is just one subspecies for all of Canada except for the Alaska-Yukon moose in the far north- west. Regardless of either point here, it is generally accepted that there are a LOT MORE moose in eastern Canada than in the western provinces. For sure, the moose density in Newfoundland has to be seen to be believed. Moose weren’t introduced to that island province until around 1900 and their numbers exploded in the virtually perfect habitat. I’ve hunted both moose and caribou there and there’s an excellent reason you wear knee-high rubber boots all day long – the entire countryside “squishes” when you walk. Even then, when your attention wanders a bit, you’ll step into one of their “black holes” and you’ll go in up to your crotch and the freezing water will go down into your boot and you’ll be quite uncomfortable the rest of the day, your only solace being the number of moose you will see. A real plus is meeting the people of Newfoundland, the “Newfies” as they’re called. They are some of the nicest, finest people you could hope to hunt with anywhere in the world.

B&C Alaska-Yukon Moose	Eastern Canada Moose & Woodland Caribou

I  know there will be some (maybe many!) who will say that I’ve stepped into a moose patty here but, on average, the moose of western Canada are larger antlered than their eastern cousins. In the central provinces this may not be as true but once you get into upper British Columbia, near the Alaska and Yukon borders, the antlers are noticeably larger – many being taken in excess of the coveted 60” spread. It only stands to reason that the largest of the moose sub-species, Alaska-Yukon, will have traveled, and moose are great travelers, into the fringe areas of their zones and inter-bred with other moose. This has accounted for some real busters coming out of B.C. from just north of Telegraph Creek to the Yukon border. Further south, as they transition into Shiras moose territory, they gradually become smaller.

Are you interested in hunting moose? Click on Contact Us and we’ll be glad to answer any of your questions. As always, take the time to leave a comment by clicking on the Comments bullet at the top of the article.