The first ripe mast and sweltering days of late summer mean one thing hunting season is here again
AUGUST, sophomore year at Murray State—I was skinning squirrels in the dorm parking lot when a classmate walked by. I’d never met him, but he was wearing a faded camo shirt and boots. He was obviously a kindred spirit. “Where you going?” I hollered at him, wiping my blade across my pants. He was carrying a to-go tray from Wins low Cafeteria.
“Getting closer to a crapper before I attempt to eat this slop,” he said. “My guts still aren’t used to it.”
“Come over here and help me with these squirrels, then,” I said. “I got three good young ones, all out of hickory nut trees. We’ll fry them in the community kitchen.”
He smiled and introduced himself as Ryan McCafferty. “Shoot,” he said. “I’d as soon eat a squirrel as steak.” He tossed the dinner tray into my truck bed, where it rode for some time, and opened his own pocketknife. “Were they cutting good?” he asked. “Because I keep a little .410 in my Jeep, if you want to go again.”
The next morning, a few hours before class, we cut through a thin fog and across a cattle pasture into a 20-acre block of hardwoods. I’d hunted there the last half hour of light the evening before, and I’d have sworn most of the gray squirrels in Kentucky were piled into half a dozen shagbark hickories on the edge of that woodlot. It was already 80 degrees.
Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av Field & Stream.
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Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av Field & Stream.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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LIVING THE DREAM
After the author arrives in Maine’s fabled North Woods with a moose tag in his pocket, an adventure he’s been wanting to take his entire hunting life, reality sets in, and he learns a valuable lesson: Be careful what you wish for
Get the Drift
How to make an accurate windage call under pressure
First Sit
An icebreaker outing in a pristine spot produces the rut hunt of a lifetime
A Local Haunt
The author finds a sense of place in an overlooked creek, close to home
A Hop and a Pump
Jump-shooting rabbits with classic upland guns is about as good a time as you can have in the outdoors
Welcome TO camp
Is there any place better than a good hunting camp? It has everything: great food, games and pranks, and of course, hunting. Shoot, we don’t even mind going to camp for grueling work days in the summer. Here, our contributors share their favorite stories, traditions, and lessons learned from camps they’ve shared. So come on in and join us. The door’s open.
THE DEERSLAYERS
Before you even claim a bunk, you need to eyeball the hardware your buddies have brought. In the process, you’ll see that the guns at deer camp are changing. What was walnut and blued steel may now be Kevlar and carbon fiber. The 10 rifles featured here aren’t your father’s deer guns. They’re today’s new camp classics
THE JOURNEY TO PIKE'S PEAK
Last summer, the author and three friends ventured off the grid to a remote fish camp in Canada. They hoped for great fishing, but what they experienced was truly something else
Stage Directions
When early-season whitetails vanish from open feeding areas, follow this woods-edge ambush plan
Rookie Season
A pup’s first year, from preseason training to fall’s big show