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Author: Kevin Gardner
It isn’t often I get to take the time to knock around in the outdoors without some exact purpose for being there. There always seems to be some utility reason, not by design, it just always seems to work that way. This really is something I should work on changing as it seems some of what I consider the most interesting things happen when there is no destination in mind or job to fulfill. Just a non-charted trip to explore new places in the wild. Maybe it is just the lack of focus on having a chore to do on the trip that lets karma sort of have its way with you.
I’ve never been shy about my feelings toward the hot summer months and all of the activities that go along with them. Perhaps as I get older and my blood thins, I may evolve an intolerance for the cool or cold weather of spring, winter and fall and begin to appreciate heat and humidity. I may start to enjoy seeing people everywhere I travel outdoors with their dogs, bikes, brightly colored clothes, bear bells and walking sticks. I may even awaken the Tuesday after Labor Day and actually be sad that everyone has gone back to wherever the hell it is that they came from, but until I make those statements, from the infirmary, I will likely loath the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day as much as I have for the last twenty or so years.
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If timing and location truly are everything, then location needs some greater attention in the late summer to early fall when it comes to stand placement. Legwork done today can pay huge dividends in the fall through preparation and anticipation based on tactics and a little science. Highlighting and discussing a few of the top elements to successful stand placement; profile, pressure and natural boundaries seems a really valuable way to analyze if our current tactics are paying off or if a strategy tune-up may be in order. Open-mindedness to any new approach when it comes to wildlife is a really good way to keep an exploratory mindset and to find those quarks that your particular herd may have and could yield a better return on your time investment this fall.
When you try to classify North American big game animals in categories of difficulty to hunt, you find a wide range of opinion. I have been fortunate enough to have at one time or another hunted most of the big game that roam the states. What I have not hunted with rifle, I have hunted with camera equipment. I have developed strategies and techniques for observing and hunting them along the way. Giving credit to all of them for their cunning and stealth, I just can’t say I can name a tougher hunt for a trophy animal then the Whitetailed deer.
The feeling of fall has made its grand entry a bit early this year in the Western states. Cool evenings and crisp mornings are just around the corner. Ever shrinking daylight, corn stubble, and golden fields of oats signal just how close winter’s grip is tightening on the land. As though it were a trigger mechanism on a breeding gun, the change has signaled the magic of the rut. Completely insane behavior on the part of Deer, Elk and Mountain Sheep will be status quo in the following months. Inventories seem to be at an adequate level, with herd health in relatively good condition overall.
Much the way the weather seems to have its own way of changing and switching back and forth, an occasional “departure from normal” can be found in most outdoor writer’s repartee as well. Writing largely to satisfy the need for information and guidance, it feels that there comes a time every year that really seems to have no home on the writer’s field calendar. A time when you have to mix it up a bit and stray outside of the four walls in which you normally play. Seasonally, it’s that time of year after the big game seasons end, and the spring thaws and fishing season begin. A “mud-season” as skiers call it, we find a degree of challenge to interest our readership. We often stare at a blinking cursor and ponder our next topic, then after hours and hours of frustration often fall back on things like wild game recipes or outdoor quizzes to fill the void. Having lived through this as many times as I have, I am choosing to just cut to the chase and deal with the problem head on. With that said, while I take a couple of weeks to compile a nice outdoor quiz to tide you over till fishing season, I hope you enjoy the follow recipes for big game meat.