Sportsman's News May 2015 Digital Edition

PAGE 2

Premier Alaskan Fishing

Yakutat Lodge

May 2015 Volume 11 Issue 5

SportsmansNews.com

Rediscover Montana with Kootenai River Outfitters

KRO owner Robert Winstrom looks on with amazement as he holds a huge Bull Trout. The Bull Trout is an endangered species and must be returned to the water unharmed and immediately. They are often caught in the deep pools where the Rainbows hang out.

By Collin Dalley

Rediscover Montana” was a phrase I heard more than once on our trip with Kootenai River Outfitters. We quickly came to un-

derstand the full meaning of that phrase after the first day. With so many fishing options to choose from, the hardest part of our trip was simply deciding which lake, stream, river or species to fish for each day. Located in northwest Montana, Kootenai River Outfitters (KRO) provides clients with the ultimate outdoor playground, offering fully guided fly fishing trips on the nearby riv-ers, streams and lakes. Besides guided fly fishing trips, Kootenai River Outfitters (KRO) offers cabin rentals and equipment rental for the do-it-yourself angler, including drift boats, canoes and rafts, all available at their centrally located Fly Shop that’s just minutes from downtown Troy, MT. They also have a shuttle service for the independent anglers who are fishing local rivers. The shuttle service is very convenient and really eliminates the need to bring two vehicles. In short, they pick up your vehicle and drop it off at your designated takeout down river. After a

“

continued on page 6

SPORTSMAN’S NEWS | May 20152

By Bruce ‘Silver’ Danjanovich

There are many areas of Alaska that boast of offering the best fishing on earth. Well, in my opinion,

one such area is found about 350 miles southeast of Anchorage in the little town of Yakutat, home to two of the best silver salmon rivers in the world in the Situk and Italio.

It says a lot for a small town like Yakutat when the fishing is so good, Alaska Airlines offers two flights a day for much of the year for fishermen from around the world that want to take advantage of its great resources. Well, this article will help to enlighten all of you that have not partaken of this part of Alaska and believe me, if this is the case, you are missing out.

Fishing has been a passion of mine all of my life, from messing around in local lakes and streams to also fishing some of the best waters in the world. Of all of the opportunities that I have taken in, I have to admit going after silver salmon is my favorite. There is just something about standing, knee-high in a beautiful river in Alaska and swinging flies and lures to silvery shadows slowly making their way up stream.

Last fall I had the pleasure of visiting the Yakutat Lodge in southeast Alaska. I had heard a lot about the area and also a lot about the great fishing it had to of-fer. I had researched the rivers that we would be fishing and the techniques that

Yakutat Lodge - Premier Alaskan Fishingwe would be using, including stripping big colorful flies, retrieving spinners and spoons and even bottom bumping lead-headed jigs, complete with strands of colorful yarn balls. Soon our group of fishermen converged at the lodge and our schedule for the week was laid out, with our first day on the Situk.

The Situk River is not one of those big, spread out rivers that most envi-sion when fishing in Alaska. It is quite to the contrary. It is about as wide as a two-lane highway and when the water is lower, offers a lot of sandbars and grassy low areas to get out and fish through. When the water is high, those bars are covered and all of your fishing will be done from a drift boat. Now, this is not a bad thing because silver salmon are what you would call, “lazy swimmers” and like to take the easier routes up river through slower moving water, stopping along the way in pools and eddy’s and also behind trees that slip into the river to slow down the flow of the water.

Because of high volumes of rain and quite a bit of wind, trees tipping over into the river are a regular happening on the Situk, but on this day only added to the mystique and splendor of our drift. Now there are not a ton of boats on the river most days, but it is nice to get on the water as early as possible to assure being able to fish some of the most popu-lar spots along the way before they get hit too hard.

Part of your package at the Yakutat

Lodge is the inclusion of a vehicle and a drift boat. Both guided and unguided opportunities are available, but every package includes at least one day of ‘guided’ fishing so you can get ac-quainted with the river.

Our guide, Dan, picked us up at our cabin “On the Bay” after we downed a plentiful portion of bacon and eggs and we were off on the short ride to Nine Mile Bridge, our starting point for the day. Soon our drift boat eased its way into the water and we were off. Although there seemed to be plenty of good looking holes in the top portion of the drift, Dan assured us that we would be able to fish the very best sections since we were one of the first boats on the water this morning, so he kept at the oars and we drifted peacefully for the first couple of miles.

Now since this was my first visit to the Situk, I just sat back and took in everything. Even though a constant drizzle haunted us most of the morn-ing, the beauty of the river was simply breathtaking. Tall pines and willows lined the banks and seemingly every turn in the river offered a different and even more beautiful scene. Formerly towering pines lay wedged along our route, but on this day, none impeded our drift (even though each boat carries a chainsaw just in case). Soon, Dan eased our drift boat into a back eddy and our rods quickly came to hand.

Dan instructed us that this spot was

more suited for spincast setups, so we tied on ½ oz. pink and white jigs and flipped them into the seam. After two quick twitches with a slow retrieve, BAM, my first fish of the trip started stripping line from my reel unmercifully. The battle continued for a few minutes as a 12-pound, hook jawed silver did his best to stay out of our net. He became the first of four big silvers to make it to our fish box in this first stop in our drift down the river.

We then hop-scotched to great looking holes the rest of the day, filling our box with big fish until our limits were just about full and then just catching and releasing until the take-out was in sight, just a short distance from the roaring sea just over the berm in the distance. Over forty fish came to our net on our first day, while we drifted one of the most gorgeous rivers that I had ever seen.

We then loaded the boat and headed back to our cabin to meet up with the rest of our group and then headed to dinner back at the restaurant adjacent to the airport. After dinner we stopped off at the local fly shop and picked up a few big articulating leaches for our trip to the Italio River, a short bush plane flight away the following morning.

At 8 the next morning, we boarded our flight to the Italio. The flight was short but sweet, with all of the usual

Not a bad bunch of silver salmon for a great group of fishermen after a beautiful day of fishing on the Italio River, one of the many great day trips offered through the Yakutat Lodge.

The Danjanovich Boys flank their guide, Dan, with two nice silvers while using fly rods and colorful weighted bunny leaches. continued on page 8

May 2015 | SPORTSMAN’S NEWS 3

Largest Outdoor Giveaway In History Going On Now!More Than $300,000 In Prizes Annually

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WHAT'S INSIDE 2 Yakutat Lodge

3 Pro Member Update

5 Words From The Publisher

10 Platinum Approved Outfitters

16 PacWest Outdoors: Sheep Hunting

22 Choosing A Caliber

24 Sportsman's News Pro Membership Giveaways

26 Beretta Px4 Storm

28 Fishful Thinker: Misconceptions

30 Budget Outdoors: Blue Mesa

34 Pro's Pick: 2015 Yamaha Viking

36 Solar Devices

40 Business Directory

42 Pro's Tip: Save The Hunt

45 Video Product Reviews

48 American Heroes Project

50 Next Generation of Hunters

52 Wild Game Recipe: No-Beer Battered Fish

53 AirBedz Truck Mattress

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Collin DalleyBruce "Silver" Danjanovich

Gary LewisShane Adair

Chad LaChanceAndy Lightbody

Steve MayerJacquelyn Gross Guccini

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Become a Fan of Sportsman's News for Fan Only contests and

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Words From The Publisher

By Michael Deming

By the time this publication hits the shelves of Sportsman’s Ware-house on May 1st, we will have

had the Pro Membership Sweepstakes running for sixty days. We will have already given away over $40,000 worth of the best trips anyone can imagine. This is the largest outdoor sweepstakes in history and it is just going to keep getting better.

If you haven’t picked up Sportsman’s News and learned about the Pro Mem-bership Sweepstakes, all of this just sounds like something that is too good to be true. I’m here to let you know that this philosophy couldn’t be further from the truth. I developed this program to make some of the very best trips in the world a reality for some folks that would otherwise never get a chance to experience trips of this quality. It is the Publishers Clearing House for those of you that love to hunt and fish. Even bet-ter, these are the very best trips that we have done personally over the past ten years of running Sportsman’s News. They are the very best dates and with the very best outfitters in the industry. We booked these trips well over a year ago and we have paid full price to these outfitters to insure we get exactly what we want for those of you who win. These trips range in cost from $3,500 all the way out to $22,500 which means that a good number of these trips would normally only be for the wealthy.

I’ve watched the prices of these trips continue to rise over the past ten years and truly make the majority of these trips out of reach for your average per-son. My kids’ college education isn’t going to take a back seat to me wanting to do a Dall sheep hunt and I would imagine that is the case for the majority of our readers.

The very first year of the Western Hunting Expo here in Utah, we saw some of the very best tags available in the raffle. These were premium tags that would cost $10,000 to $50,000 in the auction which were now available with a raffle ticket purchase or a package of tickets for $350. Truly an opportunity of a lifetime for those lucky enough to win, but we could at least play the game for a reasonable fee and chance to win.

Flash forward a few years later and those best tags are no longer available to those of us that can only afford to put in for the raffle. Those premium tags are now available on the auction where only a select few can afford to play. This entire process angered me and was one of my main reasons to launch the Pro Member Sweepstakes. We do not want our sport to be only for the wealthy.

During all of the conservation group’s banquets over the past two years, we have paid close attention to the ticket prices as well as the items available in the raffles. A very small amount of items make it into the raffle of each banquet which are items of real value. There are always a couple of good guns

and usually a group of guns a v a i l a b l e t o those who buy some big pack-ages of tickets. This process is duplicated each and every year b y n u m e ro u s organizat ions and most people spend between $100 and $300 for these one n i g h t e v e n t s based on all of our research. We wanted to have an event that lasted all year - Truly something

to look forward to every ten days and if you are the one who wins, a prize package or a trip of a lifetime is yours. We have a monthly option to become a Pro Member which is $27 and will give you five (5) tickets in every monthly drawing. That is a total of 15 tickets for the month, which averages out to less than two dollars a ticket. We are making world class trips, guns and gear affordable for all.

One thing we want everyone to be aware of is your ability to transfer or sell these prizes. I’ve fielded several phone calls of people sitting on the fence because they didn’t want to win a trip because it wasn’t something they wanted to do or pay the taxes on the winnings. If you are the lucky winner, you have the option of selling it or transferring it to someone else. Since we are filming most of these trips, we will be involved in helping that process along as well.

The odds of winning will never be better than they are right now, so make sure you sign up to become a Sportsman’s News Pro Member today. It has a lot of great benefits in addition to your ability to win lots of great stuff.


long day on the river, the last thing any of us want to do is wait around for our ride.

Our trip with KRO started off when we arrived at our private luxury cabin, as we wasted no time scoping out the stream directly off the back patio. The stream was Lake Creek and just happened to be chocked full of rainbows and native cut-throat trout. The first evening was spent throwing big dry flies to hungry trout. Catching multiple, gorgeous fish made the first night a rousing success. As night time fell upon us, we headed back to the cabin for a little relaxation. After being on the road all summer, it was nice for my wife and I to be able to relax in the privacy of our own cabin. It had everything we needed plus much more. The laundry room was definitely a bonus after being on the road for the past couple of months. This was the perfect getaway and with so many activities available. I only wish we had allowed more time to explore.

Being able to walk out the back door of our cabin and fish anytime was simply blissful. Lake Creek was incredible, offer-ing outstanding cutthroat fishing on this private stretch of stream, but the Kootenai River was the main reason for our trip. The Kootenai is one of those rivers every-one needs to experience at least once in their lifetime. The water has unbelievable clarity with a unique turquoise color, but most importantly it provides a rich food

source for growing big healthy fish. We were lucky enough to experience

a variety of fisheries on our trip, includ-ing lakes, streams and rivers, but hands down, our favorite was fishing the Koote-nai River. This river produces some giant fish and that fact will keep us coming back year after year, especially because of its fantastic dry fly fishing. Our time on the Kootenai River was nothing short of amazing. Words simply can’t explain this place. One needs to experience it first hand to truly get a feel for its beauty and that is exactly what we did.

If dry fly fishing is your passion, then this should be the perfect destination. Af-ter one trip, Kootenai River Outfitters will be at the top of your list. The fall season probably is the best time to experience its dry fly fishing, but even during our trip in July, we found many hatches and actively feeding fish every day. With a high number of fish per mile, the action is non-stop. Everyone from the beginner to the experienced angler can test their skills, while catching a lot of fish.

One of my favorite ways to fly fish is using a drift boat and fishing with big streamers. The action is fast. You’re con-stantly doing something: casting and stripping line, all in hopes that you will fool that lunker into latching on. When the fish strike, it’s usually a hard, aggres-sive strike. In my experience using big streamers, the old adage, “the bigger the fly, the bigger the fish” is true the major-ity of the time. After catching several

good sized rainbows, I made one more cast into a deep hole that looked ideal for holding a larger fish. As I stripped my line in little by little, WHAM! Something big just hammered my streamer. As the line ripped off my reel, Robert steadied the drift boat into a slow part of the current and the fight was on.

With every foot of line gained, another two feet would rip off the reel, making my fly reels’ drag system sing. As I worked the fish out of the strong current and into slow water, this big boy was not let-ting up. Just when I thought the fish was ready to give up, it would take off like a torpedo. With a big smile, I said, “sure-ly it’s done”, but to my surprise this fish switched up its tac-tics in an attempt to throw the hook from its mouth. I could feel it shaking its head back and forth, while it continued to ac-celerate with bursts of speed. After 10 minutes, I started to gain some line and kept as much tension on the rod as possible without snapping my leader. Not show-ing signs of letting up, finally I was able to turn the fish and reel it towards the boat.

At first I thought it

was a large brown or brook trout because of its darker color, but our guide, Robert, quickly knew exactly what it was, a mature bull trout. These fish are simply amazing and extremely aggressive. They are also on the endangered list and it is considered a true prize to catch one. Be-cause they are endangered, we were very careful with handling it and immediately released it to live another day. Wow, what

KROcontinued from cover

The Cutthroat trout is abundant in these waters and tend to get very fat and feisty with all the feed in the rivers.

Author, Collin Dalley with another excellent Bull Trout caught on the Kootenai River. These endangered fish are carefully handled and quickly released.

continued on page 14

A day of fishing with KRO Outfitters will provide lots of tight lines and big smiles. Guest Jase Wambold displays a great rainbow.


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Alaskan charm – bears, moose, eagles, glaciers, forests and of course, water! The highlight of the flight was the scene of a big brown bear, prancing across the beach with a big silver in his mouth, closely followed by a big bald eagle do-

ing its best to steal it from him. Before we knew it, our rubber-tired eight-seater came to a stop on the beach next to the Italio.

Our pilot quickly had our gear on the ground and then jumped back into the plane as he headed back for another load of fishermen. Yes, the Italio is a popular place, especially in mid to late

September, with its wide runs and many accessible areas, much different from the Situk. After a short walk up stream, our fly rods shedded their cases and big streamers hit the water.

Five minutes later, six of our group of eight had fish on. It was quite the scene watching grown men hooting and hol-lering as they chased their fish up and down the river in hopes of bringing them to the bank. Our guides quickly assessed the size and maturity of each as they clunked a couple on the head and threaded them on stringers while the rest were eased back into the river. For the next six hours, at least one or two of us had a fish on almost constantly, with total numbers for the day undetermin-able, but huge.

Almost every fly in our boxes seamed to catch fish, but on this day, pink bunny leaches and black and white Dolly La-mas out fished the rest. By 2pm, 32 sil-vers laid on the shore, with many tipping the scales at over 15 pounds. We had so much fun with our fly rods, none of us even took the time to pull out our spin-casters to see what they could do. Alas, our unbelievable day of fishing on the Italio had come to an end as we loaded our plane for the flight back to Yakutat and a hot meal waiting at the lodge.

Day three presented itself with a little problem for our group – four of us would fish the Situk and four would ‘have to’ go back and fish the Italio. Straws were drawn and me and my fishing partner, Clint Nielson drew a return to the Italio. Unwillingly (Yah, right!) we grabbed our gear and again loaded the plane at 8am on our last day, hoping that a carbon copy of the day before was in order.

Now I could say that the fishing was

better or worse than the day before, but we caught so many fish, I don’t know which of the aforementioned that I would choose. And the word must have gotten out on how good the fishing was, because even more fishermen could be seen along the banks of the Italio as we all caught silver after silver until our arms couldn’t take it anymore. Perfect weather, big numbers of fish and gor-geous surroundings – what more could you ask for in a trip of a lifetime to one of the best salmon areas in the world.

As you can see, I have nothing but high praise for the Yakutat Lodge and all they have to offer. Our accommoda-tions were top notch, the food was great, our guides very knowledgeable and the fishing, well nothing short of spectacu-lar. Even though I am a little partial to fishing for silvers, my next visit just may have to be for steelhead in April or May or sockeyes in June or July, as Ken Fan-ning, the owner of the Yakutat Lodge, tells me that these trips can offer just as much excitement and maybe even more. Great ocean fishing is also available for salmon, halibut and lingcod as well as trips to the base of the Hubbard Glacier, the largest tidewater glacier in North America, located in Disenchantment Bay.

If you are looking into planning a trip to Alaska, you will definitely be missing out if you don’t consider the Yakutat area. Why not give Ken and his staff a call and talk about all of the possibili-ties at 800-925-8828 or visit them on the web at www.yakutatlodge.com. As you may have noticed in my by-line at the beginning of this article, the fishing was so good, I changed my middle name to ‘Silver’, so now you know exactly how much I love to fish for them!

YAKUTATcontinued from page 2

Sportsman's News Pro-Staffer Rick Rosenberg, along with brother's Neal and Ryan Marchant kept their guide, Mike (kneeling) busy on their day drifting down the Situk River.

My little brother and Senior Editor, Kent Danjanovich, poses for a photo at the end of another perfect day on the Situk River.


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10 SPORTSMAN’S NEWS | May 201510

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a fish, the kind that lasting memories are made of.

Yes, the Kootenai River is a beautiful river with endless fishing oppor-tunities. It’s one of those rivers where you never know when your next cast could be a 30-inch trout. The state record rainbow was caught in the Kootenai, weighing in at 33.1 pounds and mea-suring an incredible 38.62 inches long. That’s proof that the Kootenai can and does produce true fish of a lifetime.

I should also mention that each day, guided fish-ing was accompanied by great food. Homemade breads and fresh sand-wiches, grilled meats, fresh fruit from KRO’s or-chard every morning and

wonderful creations for dessert were laid out before us. Believe me, you won’t go away from your days’ activities hungry!

KRO’s luxury cabin rentals are perfect for that summer trip or weekend getaway with friends or family. The cabins are clean, comfortable and provide ample room for larger groups. With multiple cabins to choose from and more than enough room for the entire family to enjoy, you won’t be disappointed. Also, don’t forget to bring your ski boat and spend some time on Bull Lake. This lake is accessible from the cabins and offers great recreational use, plus fishing for bass, pike, kokanee salmon and trout. Tie your boat up at the dock in front of Cabin #1 and you’ll have private access to Bull Lake during your entire stay.

Overall, Kootenai River Outfitters

offers top-notch accommodations, exceptional fishing opportunities and excellent customer service. The fishing is truly spectacular and offers a variety of locations from the Kootenai River to the numerous high mountain lakes and streams as well as waters such as Bull Lake, with its great warmer waters spe-cie fishing and water sports. Check out their website at www.kroutfitters.com and see for yourself what other guests are saying. You won’t be disappointed!

We are happy to have Kootenai River Outfitters as one of our prestigious Plati-num Approved Outfitters. Give Robert Winstrom and his staff a call today at 800-537-8288 to book your trip of a lifetime. I know it won’t be long before the Sportsman’s News team books their return trip!

KROcontinued from page 6

KRO guide and owner, Robert with another great fish from the Kootenai River.

The Kootenai River Offers unmatched scenery and fishing in some of the most pristine country on the planet.

After spending a day on the river fishing, you can enjoy your evenings in the luxury cabins along the shore line.


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By Gary Lewis

I t is the pinnacle of hunting. Sheep live in difficult places and there are not enough for everyone. Per-

mits are hard to get and the demand is so high a person may apply for 20 years in his or her home state and

So You Want To Be A Sheep Hunter?never draw a tag.

A person who wants to be a sheep hunter should start today.

The North American Grand Slam consists of one each of the four differ-ent North American wild sheep: Dall, Stone, bighorn and desert bighorn and all sheep must be taken by fair chase methods.

A California bighorn from Cali-fornia, Oregon and Washington will also count as a bighorn and a Fannin sheep (a very light Stone or Dall with some black hair and a dark tail, will count as a Stone sheep).

A World Slam consists of one each of 12 different subspecies from around the world.

One person who has made the sub-ject his life’s work is Bryan Martin, a 43-year-old outfitter, who grew up in Oregon and now makes his home in Kamloops, British Columbia. Martin owns Canadian and Asian Mountain Outfitters and specializes in guiding hunters in pursuit of critters in hard-

to-reach places. “Start young. You’re going to have

to make an income higher than the normal guy. Sheep hunts require money and time.”

“Most people have the time and money to hunt whitetail deer, as they are fairly common,” Martin said. “Going sheep hunting is like going to the Ferrari dealership. If you want to own a brand new Ferrari, you’re going to have to earn a great deal of money.”

One option is to move to British Columbia, Alberta or Alaska, where you can hunt them on a working-man’s budget.

Martin, who has guided hunters from all over North America, says anyone can hunt sheep if they start now. But a person who is 18, 19 or 20 has the best odds at completing a Grand Slam.

“Let’s say you graduate from high school and decide to work for the government or be someone else’s employee. Don’t plan on hunting the world slam unless you are a big saver of money and/or you decide to remain single.”

If your state doesn’t have sheep to hunt, move to one that does, then start applying for tags. Some states allow a hunter to build up preference

points, in others, a hunter relies on the luck of the draw, sometimes ap-plying for a lifetime, for one chance.

“My recommendation,” Martin said, “is start applying for sheep when you are in high school, when you’re 17 or 18 and you want it for yourself.” Martin points out he has seen kids draw sheep tags at 14- or 15-years-old, but they are usually hunting for their parents’ sake and not on their own passion.

Apply in your home state and in the states you can afford to. Best bets for drawing odds are Wyoming, Colorado and Idaho, “if you’re will-ing to put in for 15 years.” Those are bighorn hunts.

The best chances of a Dall sheep tag or a Stone sheep hunt are in one of the two or three hunt raffles offered by organizations like the Wild Sheep Foundation.

There is another option. “If a guy is tough, he can hunt in Montana in the unlimited Bighorn areas, just for the cost of the tag, “You will get to hunt sheep.”

It is the only place in the lower 48 left where you can go sheep hunting every year until you kill one. Plan on backpacking-in for many days or


Professional Hunter Bryan Martin with a Montana bighorn he took on a self-guided hunt.

Photo courtesy Bryan Martin



hunting with horses. When making a long-term plan, a

hunter should apply in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Montana and Ne-vada, to accumulate points.

For desert sheep, the best oppor-tunities are in Arizona and Nevada,

where a person can apply for both desert and Rocky Mountain bighorns in the same year.

Colorado has desert bighorns, but they only issue permits to residents. States like Oregon, Idaho and New Mexico offer limited entry hunts, but there are no bonus point systems.

At today’s rates, the average cost for application is $200. Apply in

five states for 1 5 y e a r s a n d the tab could run upwards of $15,000 before the first hunt!

The process is daunt ing and there are ser-vices that help a person navi-gate the maze of state regula-tions.

M a r t i n r e c -ommends Epic Outdoors and Hunter Appli-cation service.

Some state deadlines are in January, some in March, some in May and if you apply you’d better be in “sheep shape” in case you draw the tag. Sometimes there is little notice. The tag could come in the mail in June and the hunt might start in August.

Plan on being in a high level of fitness all the time. “You can’t date a supermodel unless you go to the gym,” Martin says.

And a hunter might have to drop other plans. “Even if it means you have to cancel your son’s wedding, you’re going sheep hunting.”

There is a road map to success, but it means being prepared, informed, forward-thinking and ready to travel.

“Canada has all the North Ameri-can sheep subspecies except the desert bighorn. If you’re young and smart and apply in all the western states and provinces, you will draw a tag for sure in your 40s,” Martin said.

Getting Back in Sheep (or Goat) Shape

For the hunter getting a late start, it helps to live in sheep country. The

odds are decent an Oregonian could draw a sheep hunt at some point. Special raffles can raise a person’s odds, but it is still like gambling. The Oregon odds are a lot longer for a nonresident. The same thing goes for California.

PACWEST OUTDOORScontinued from page 16

Bryan Martin with his Arizona desert bighorn. continued on page 20

Photo courtesy Bryan Martin

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All of the sheep states have raffle systems and the few permits that are available come with odds between 1 and 100 and 1 in 1,000. “You’re going to have to gamble $1,000 to $2,000 each year if you want a reasonable chance.”

People 40 and older should get into the application process like a younger person, but play the odds for off-the-radar opportunities.

Idaho’s Salmon River country of-fers interesting opportunities, both for the hunter that will hire an out-fitter and for the do-it-yourselfer. “If you are really tough, put in for the Salmon River,” Martin said. “Some of those tags are still a 1-in-20 or 1-in-30 draw, but the odds can change every year.”

When you are getting up in age, don’t put in for the best units that are the hardest to draw. Instead, apply for hunts in tougher terrain. Then try to work harder than the next guy.

People may come to hunting (or into money) later in life and their chances of going for a sheep hunt or going for a grand slam are slim unless they raise their cards in an auction and put up the big money.

“Don’t overlook mountain goat hunting,” Martin advises. “It’s like sheep hunting but at a quarter of the price. In some ways goats are harder. It is easier to find them, but it can be harder to kill them.”

Get in shape and start booking sheep (or goat) hunts now. “Don’t go for the cheapest one,” Martin said, “they are for the guys that are tough.”

This is the time to hunt smarter. Don’t rush it. Book the hunt when there is an opportunity to pay a bit more and stay longer if sheep aren’t located early on.

If a person is going to the gym four times a week, he should also be go-ing to the rifle range at least once a week. Remember, if you want to date a supermodel. . .

There may only be one chance on the mountain. Contrary to what the

average person thinks, it isn’t easy to make the shot, given high elevation, thin a i r, r a t i o n e d water and back-pack food.

Every outfit-ter is going to work hard for a client, but if a person misses the first shot and the second and maybe a third, a guide’s time and patience be-gin to run out. Learn to shoot a rifle well. The 7mms are a good place to start. The 6.5mm and the .270 calibers make good sheep rifles. The new 26 Nosler is a good choice.

Look at Asia and Europe. Tajiki-stan and Kyrgyzstan have Marco Polo sheep, argali and ibex. Azer-baijan is home to the Dagestan tur. Russia has sheep that look like Brit-ish Columbia Stones.

Other options for a mountain hunt this season are Spain, Turkey or New Zealand for ibex, chamois or tahr. Some of these are far less expensive than applying for years and hoping to get drawn at home in the States or Canada.

There are options that can fit a variety of budgets and time frames,

but the hunter that would aspire to sheep must start today.

After the quarry has been spotted, in that span of hours or days it takes to make the stalk, the hunter is at the top of the world. There is only earth and sky and the weight of a rifle in hand. Everything he or she needs - shelter, food and water - is carried in a backpack. And the only way to get there is on foot or on the back of a good mountain horse. Start climbing.

To order a signed copy of Gary Lewis’ Hunting Oregon, send $24.95 (includes S&H) to GLO, PO Box 1364, Bend, OR 97709 or visit www.GaryLewisOut-doors.com

PACWEST OUTDOORScontinued from page 18

Salmon River bighorn sheep feeding close to the river in early November.

Contact File

Canadian & Asian Mountain Outfitterswww.asianmountainoutfitters.comwww.canadianmtnoutfitters.com

Bryan [email protected]

250-317-5525

Epic Outdoorswww.epicoutdoors.com

Hunter Application Servicewww.hunterapplicationservice.com


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By Shane Adair

How does one choose a caliber? It’s really determined by what you think your use will be. I

hope to shed some light or give you some food for thought to help you make an educated decision with your next purchase.

One thing I know for sure is that what we thought or intended use of our fire-arm was for, is always changing. What someone bought to strictly hunt deer with, now is used to go elk hunting with. Then a buddy invites you on a last minute bear hunt. Sound familiar?

So if you’re looking for one caliber that will get most of your work done for you, then I have a few suggestions. Stick with one rifle you are comfortable with, shoot it well, put a good optic on it and have some fun. How do we find that one caliber that will do most of what we are looking for? I am going to approach this from a hunters stand point first, then a shooters stand point second. These calibers I will talk about are all good, proven ones that work well for both applications.

I first look at what the ammo avail-ability is and has been for on a caliber, especially over the last few years. The market has been so unsettled with am-munition shortages and availability and this can play a major role in what caliber you choose. Let’s talk about some of my favorite calibers. With these calibers, there has usually been ammo available for them even during these unsettled times. I’ve stayed away from some of the wild cats, just for ease and availability purposes. I also try to get as much horsepower behind me as I

Choosing A Caliber

can without going crazy and I want to keep these in relatively light platforms. As we get older, we like recoil less and want to shoot lighter rifles.

If a muzzle break is not for you and you don’t want to have a heavy rifle, then I would shoot a .270 WSM or a 7MM Mag as my smaller calibers. These are both great shooting calibers and give you some great options for big game hunting. Many rifle manufacturers are producing these with quite a few op-tions in size, weight and shapes. These two calibers will harvest most of the large game species on the planet and will be more than adequate with the proper ammo.

The .270 WSM finds its sweet spot with a 129grn- 140grn bullet flying at 3200-3350 fps, while being very flat and fast. It bucks the wind well and has proven to be very accurate. The 7MM Mag finds its sweet spot with the 140-175 grain bullets, running from 2900-3250 fps. As you notice, both of these calibers will run a 140grn bullet at pretty close to the same speed, with great bal-listic coefficients and with many differ-ent options. Both are great and won’t punish you too bad on the bench, al-

though many are adding muzzle breaks to these calibers to keep them extremely tame. Without a muzzle break, they will be too uncomfortable for smaller shoot-ers, women and children.

If a muzzle break is not a problem for you, then I would seriously look at the 30 caliber family: .300 WSM, .300 Win Mag and the .300 Remington Ultra Mag. Ammo for these calibers is usually available and they all have proven to be very accurate on the range. They all will shoot bullets very well from the 150grn-200 grain range, the most popular is the 180 grain.

The .300 WSM and .300 Win Mag will shoot a 180 grain bullet at around 3050 fps, while the .300 RUM will shoot that same bullet at 3300 fps. The .300 RUM has been my caliber of choice in the muzzle break category for quite a few years. The muzzle break tames them well and allows any shooters, young and old to shoot them well. My wife and daughters have all shot them and shoot them with ease. In a 9lb platform, with a great optic, it has been a great option and a very balanced rifle. It will harvest just about anything with the right ammo and bullets. It will shoot well at 1000

yards or just as a regular brush hunting gun. From 100 pound Coues deer in Mexico to Alaskan moose and bear, this has been a great one and done caliber.

I know that there are many other great calibers on the market and many animals have been harvested with smaller calibers. These are just some of my favorites with a lot of punch. For the smaller shooters the .243, .25-06, .270 Win, 7mm-08 and 6.5 x 284 are great deer calibers, with the 6.5 x 284 being the more expensive ammo of them all, being the only draw back to it.

Make sure you are hunting with high quality, BONDED or COPPER bullets and you will have some great success in harvesting your animals, even when the shot placement doesn’t always hap-pen like you intended it to. With bullet technology where it is today, it makes these calibers perform better than ever, making some of these smaller calibers perform like larger ones, which in hand greatly enhances the larger calibers. So head on down to you closest Sports-man’s Warehouse and see what rifles get you excited and feel confident in your new purchase or purchases. Shoot a lot and shoot well.


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Beretta’s contribution to the poly-mer framed duty style gun, the PX4 Storm in .40 S&W is a light-

weight full-sized pistol in double and single action.

Featuring a durable polymer lower frame with very reliable internals, the PX4 offers the safety of carrying a gun with a chambered round without fear of an unintentional discharge.

The gun completely disengages the firing mechanism when the safety is engaged, removing the risk of going off, even if the trigger is pulled. An additional firing pin block prevents discharge if dropped.

The 27.7-ounce (unloaded) pistol comes with three interchangeable back-straps, making the gun suitable for any sized hands. The 4-inch barrel is suf-ficient for good accuracy without being so long that it interferes with concealed carry.

Beretta PX4 StormDesigned for European law enforce-

ment and military use, the PX4 Storm is also a great fit for a personal protection gun in the civilian market. The hallmark of Beretta pistols is the contouring and smoothness that prevents the gun from snagging when drawn from conceal-ment. The smooth lines can also make it somewhat difficult to access the gun’s controls and the stiff slide spring makes chambering a bit difficult. This is aided by the addition of striations on the front of the slide, as well as the rear. These forward striations are necessary, as the safety/de-cocking lever juts out enough to be painful when you are racking the slide. Using the forward slide striations helps avoid this.

The gun is simple to dissemble, and ield stripping is a piece of cake, taking the gun down into five distinct pieces; barrel, slide, frame, recoil spring and central block.

The barrel utilizes a rotating lock to dissipate recoil away from the shooter. This minimizes recoil and is espe-

cially noticeable in the .40 S&W. This makes returning to target faster and also helps make the gun easier to control for shooters of all strengths.

A 1913 Picatinny rail makes the use of accessories such as lights and lasers a snap to quickly install.

The trigger is fairly stiff in double action mode at around 11 pounds, but very manageable in single action mode at about six pounds. The gun cannot be cocked when the safety is engaged, so carrying a round in the chamber with the hammer back and the safety engaged (Condition 1) is not possible, but a round in the chamber with the hammer down (Condition 2) carry is.

Overall, the fit and finish is unbeat-able. The high quality bar stock steel Beretta uses insures years of trouble free use. As always with Beretta’s, my only complaint is that upside down safety and how it digs into your hands when cycling. Everything else is about as good

as you can get in a handgun.

T h e B e re t t a PX4 Storm shoots amazingly well and the 5.2-inch sight radius and three dot solid metal sights make target acquisition very easy to achieve. Rapid firing is achievable, thanks to the sights, rotating barrel, recoil management, grip and the trigger combination, so it is an ideal gun for IDPA/USPSA competitions as well as self-defense. The quality of the oldest firearms manufacturer in existence holds true in this offering as well and I give it very high marks overall.


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Chad LaChance

After nearly 40 years of partici-pating, I’ve decided that fish-ing is a sport built on fallacies.

Yep, the most written about pastime in the history of the World, literally, is heavily rooted in misconceptions, misinformation - propaganda even.

In the span of time it takes to pick up a few lures and get one fishing report at your local Tacklerama, you’re likely to be deceived several times and then you’ll also add a few tidbits of poorly concocted logic of your own to the day once you get off the water.

Now, before you think that I simply must be anti fishing based on such a negative viewpoint, let me tell you that I’m not. I love the sport from its oldest history forward and the very fact that there is so much misconception out there is part of the mystique. One can spend their entire life studying angling and never answer all the questions with solid facts.

Solid fact. That’s the rub - hard facts are rare in fishing, unless of course you’re talking about laws or fish physi-ology. When it comes to actually catch-ing them, that info which is taken as solid fact, is rarely solid at all and our observations and held beliefs are often even less so. Let’s look at a couple of specific observations in particular.

How about the old “they aren’t biting” comment? Of course they’re biting, they just aren’t biting what you’re throwing. Or possibly where you’re throwing it. Or possibly the way you’re retrieving it. Or possibly at the depth you’re presenting it. You see, they are always biting somewhere, somehow. It’s up to you to figure it out and if you don’t, well, don’t blame the fish for not biting because that’s only your misconception. Somebody caught them on the lake that day, I promise.

A classic one revolves around fish biting or not biting something specific. We aired an FTTV episode from the Colorado River where we caught a bunch of trout on a little surface pop-per. I got tons of emails from folks ask-ing specifics about the “hopper hatch” or terrestrial fishing; they linked the surface popper to a specific bug try-ing to rationalize why a trout would bite a popper. The reality is we never saw a single rise to a bug of any kind that day and the lure selection had zero to do with matching anything. Surface commotion is a great attractor for ALL predatory fish close enough to the surface to notice it. We chose the popper simply for the sheer joy of watching trout get giddy and blast it - nothing more. No bug match, no food source, just something that was big, splash and running from them on the surface and therefore the trout’s inner-predator came out to play. For the record, we caught them on bass-style buzzbaits and spinnerbaits that day as well. If we’d have aired those lures, my email would have blown up like one of the popper strikes!

Fish bite because they are hungry, right? Sure, but it’s just one of the many reasons they bite. If you really think they only bite out of hunger, you’ve spent way too much time with very old school fly fisherman or live bait slingers (Side note: it seems funny to me to type those two angling genres into the same thought process, but the more I think about it, the more similar thinking they are). Berkley, the largest company in sportfishing, spent a lot of money to figure out that fish only feed a couple of hours a day, so why do they bite when they are not feeding? While it is entirely likely that, like any human or animal, they snack between feed-

ing times, it is equally likely that they get curious, aggressive, territorial or surprised. Since they lack hands, any of these feelings result in whatever is causing them to get bit. As an angler, recognizing why a fish bit is critical to triggering more bites.

I love the concepts that are correct, but for the wrong reasons. A classic is related to fishing wind-blown banks. We’re told that the wind blows the baitfish to the bank so fish feed there. True, fish feed there, but not because the wind blew baitfish there. Pretty sure baitfish can swim against wind-generated current! But, baitfish are drawn there of their own free will to feed themselves on zooplankton be-ing stirred by the waves. Right idea, wrong reasoning.

Another common fallacy is that certain lures are “bass lures” or “trout lures”. A sales guy will state it as fact and Joe Average will be surprised when any fish other than the target species bites it. Well, said lure may have been designed with a certain spe-cies in mind, but any fish can and will bite any lure on any given day. It goes back to why fish bite and/or to the fact that lures exhibit triggering quali-ties. Triggering qualities are things like action, color, sound, profile, etc. Those qualities can have a triggering effect on any species of fish, especially when the different reason for a bite are considered. You may be working a huge, gaudy jerkbait down a rocky windblown bank hoping to get a bite from pike feeding on the baitfish that were “blown in” on the bank, only to have a spawn-phase walleye bite it because he will spawn there later that night so he is territorial and wants to show it who’s boss. Several miscon-ceptions lead up to that walleye catch, but who cares - you caught a walleye!

That is the point. What point, you ask? The point of this column, that fact that there are no wrong answers in fishing! Fishing is based on misconcep-tion because nobody can prove why a given fish bites. Humans struggle with anything they can’t rationalize, so we apply an answer that fits our belief. Some answers are better than others, but over time, it’s been proven to me that none are 100% wrong.

And that, friends, is why you can never go wrong fishing!

Misconceptions

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By Andy Lightbody

Y ou can call it the Blue Mesa Reservoir or the Blue Mesa Lake, but for sure you can

call it the largest lake/body of water in the state of Colorado. Measuring over 20 miles in length and sporting just over 96 miles of shoreline, the Blue Mesa is home to the largest fishery in the nation for Kokanee salmon, provides excellent rain-bow and brown trout angling and is where the Colorado State Record Mackinaw/Lake trout was landed. This record fish tipped the scales at whopping 50 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 44 1/4 inches.

The west end of the Blue Mesa is located less than 10 miles from downtown Gunnison, Colorado, so it’s close to restaurants, motels, markets, gas and all the last minute angling gear you may need. The lake itself got its start back in 1965 when the Army Corp of Engineers dammed up the Gunnison River and built a hydro-electric generation system. Down by the dam, the water depth can reach nearly 400 feet.

Today, it ’s a spring/summer/fall mecca for shore/boat anglers, RVers, campers, boaters and wind surfers. In the winter, popular thick-ice angling spots are dotted with fishermen, ice huts and snowmo-biles. To the locals and the visiting sportsmen population, it’s known

as a family-friendly reservoir for all the right reasons and all the right seasons!

Unlike a lot of other great angling locat ions around the nat ion, i t doesn’t have to cost you an arm and leg to bring the family and friends for a few days of excellent angling, motel or camping/RV accommoda-tions, boat rentals and even guided fishing trips.

The Blue Mesa Reservoir/Lake falls under control of the U.S. Park Service and is officially known as the --- Curecanti National Recre-ation Area. It’s a short 4-hour drive out of Denver and about 3-hours from Grand Junction. The Blue Mesa Reservoir is so centrally located in the middle of Colorado that it draws trout and salmon anglers from around the state and around the nation from late spring, all through the summer and into the early fall.

“When it gets hot in so many other states and regions of the U.S., many anglers and their families that are tired of sweating out the high tem-peratures head to Colorado and es-pecially the Blue Mesa Reservoir for some great angling opportunities,” says Robby Richardson, of Sport Fish Colorado (www.sportf ish -colorado.com). They are registered guides for fishing trips on the Blue Mesa. “Cooler temperatures here in the Gunnison area and the high mountains of Colorado are in the

70s and low 80s, low humidity and a whole variety of trout, yellow perch and the Kokanee salmon are biting.”

So what’s needed for a great fish-ing adventure on the Blue Mesa Reservoir when you’re on a budget? Here in Colorado, all the kids under 16-years of age, get to fish for free. Adults need a 1-day fishing license that costs $9 or if you want to fish up to five days, its $31 for non-resident anglers. A lot of other states seem to enjoy gouging visiting/out-of-state anglers for the privilege of fishing at much higher rates. At this point, Colorado is keeping it affordable and reasonable for all . A 2-day launch permit for your own boat is another bargain at $4.

If you don’t have all your gear in terms of terminal tackle, favorite lures or even bait from your last stop to Sportsman’s Warehouse, you’ll want to stop off at Gene Tay-lors Sporting Goods store in Gunni-son (970-641-1845) and talk to their angling experts in the store about what’s biting, what everyone’s us-ing. They can set you up quickly with line, tackle, lures and bait for your fishing trip.

There are literally hundreds of shoreline angling hotspots along the Blue Mesa and it can take you years to figure out what is biting and where. If you want the complete and definitive guide that comes com-plete with over 125 GPS locations

and areas, you may want to secure a copy of the Angling Guide To The Blue Mesa Reservoir. I wrote it and spent three years researching it. It’s a great where-to-go-guide and is available for $13 including shipping from Rocky Mountain Television, 404 S. Wisconsin St., Suite #3, Gun-nison, CO 81230.

Here are a few of the best, popu-lar and most productive areas for friends, families and young anglers on the west end of the Lake:

Lake City Bridge It’s an easy 9-mile drive to the

west and out of Gunnison to reach the Blue Mesa and start looking for just one of the many great fish-ing areas. Nine miles out of town and along Highway 50, is a turnoff (Highway 149) and a big/giant ce-ment bridge that is the first and only left turn. Locally, it’s known as the Lake City Bridge. Try to turn earlier and you can’t!

Cross over the bridge and park on the far side in the designated turnout. The Park Service has even provided bathroom facilities. From the parking lot, walk down to the area under the bridge and use your favorite lures or bait-riggings for hungry rainbow trout in the area where the Gunnison River meets and flows and becomes part of the Blue Mesa.


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Iola BasinLess than a 1 ½ miles after cross-

ing the Lake City Bridge (Highway 149) , is Iola Basin/Boat Ramp. This is popular place for boaters to launch from and fish the west end

of the Blue Mesa Reservoir. But it is also a great place for families and groups of friend to shore fish and enjoy often un-crowded and under fished areas. If you want to beat the crowds, move to the right of the boat ramp, cast out a few choice lures or bobber or weighted line on the end with a worm combo. Let

BLUE MESAcontinued from page 30

everything settle and watch that bobber or watch your weighted-line rig. Nice rainbows or brown trout catches await.

If you enjoy walking and casting your lures or even enjoy the bob-ber/worm or a weighted worm combo, think about a 1/8th mile easy hike to the left of the boat ramp and work your way to the rock outcropping. It is not hard to get to, but most anglers are too lazy to walk the extra few steps and fish it for big browns and cruising rainbows. It is an easy route for ev-ery angler to bring along all family members. Just take it slow and then enjoy the rock outcropping angling.

Fish in this area have rarely if ever seen an angler ’s lure, bobber & fly or even a worm thrown at them. Reason is? Nobody walks over and fishes this area.

Elk Creek Marina/Campground Area

Leave Gunnison and drive west along Highway 50, towards Mon-trose/Grand Junction, for 16 miles. Look for the BIG, National Parks Service sign on your left to the Elk Creek Marina and campground. Here is where you’ll find the first of two marinas, boat rentals, Pappy’s Restaurant and most likely meet up with your fishing guides and their boats. Boat rentals for every-thing from a small aluminum skiff to large pontoon party boats are reasonable at the marina and you can pick up licenses, snacks, bait and any last minute tackle needs.

At the Elk Creek Campground and Visitor Center that is run by the National Parks Service, there are 160 designated sites that range from $12-$18 per night. Most have water hookups and some even have electricity. There are also f lush bathrooms, showers, dump sta-tion, a fish cleaning station, picnic tables/fire grates, and a host of free and informative Park Ranger pro-grams all throughout the summer.

Go through the campground area and head to the rocks at the west end of the parking/camping area. This area is great for both bait and spinner fishing for rainbows, browns and even an occasional Kokanee salmon.

“Warming water brings bait shal-low. Perch, salmon fry, trout fry,

suckers and crawdads migrate to the shallow rocks around the shore-line in search of food and warmth”, says Andy Cochran of Gunnison Sports Outfitters (www.gsofishing.com ). “The big predators follow! Use slow moving, suspended jerk baits or hop a marabou or tube jig along the bottom to imitate the bait that’s moving in shallow. From the bank, concentrate on large chunk rock along a vertical bank and cast parallel along the bank to keep your offering in the strike zone longer.” Boat Angling

If you bring your own boat for trolling, casting or jigging, there are numerous launch and boat ramps to choose from. Just make sure you get your boat inspected before launching to prevent aquatic invasive species. It is mandatory at the launch areas and there is no-charge. However, you will need a launch permit.

If you are planning on a guided fishing trip, our three top choices include:• S p o r t F i s h C o l o r a d o :

(719) 649-3378• Gunnison Sports Outf i t ters :

(719) 850-9789• Weekend Warrior Outdoors:

(970) 209-6495Prices vary based on number of

anglers, kids and duration of the trips, but rate as exceptionally rea-sonable and almost always produce tremendous results and lots of fish!

AccomodationsAs we pointed out earlier, if you

want to camp in the area, there are several Parks Service areas that are on/near the water. There are also several private campgrounds in the Gunnison area, as well as a KOA facility.

Gunnison has two major super-markets, a small Wal-Mart, lots of gas stat ions and restaurants (fast food and sit down dining) as well as over a dozen motels/hotels. Sportsman friendly, The Waterwheel Inn (970) 641-1650, is located two miles west of Gunnison on Highway 50 and is pet friendly and includes a daily continental breakfast. Mention this article and they are offering anglers a 10% discount on all stays!

May 2015 | SPORTSMAN’S NEWS 33Tue Apr 7 13:52:10 CDT 2015 - 18287Y1519_CAMO_non Bleed.ps


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Getting off the pavement and hitting the trail can be a bumpy and dusty activity. There isn’t

much that can be done about the dust, but the 2015 Yamaha Viking has the bumpiness sorted out. Offering inde-pendent wishbone suspension with 11.8 inches of clearance, the Viking is one of the smoothest driving OHVs I have tested.

On rough terrain, the suspension compensates for jarring and if you hit a rut or a rock, you don’t have to worry about the steering wheel being ripped from your hands. On uneven terrain, the Viking will remain upright, even when tipped to a severe angle. You can tip over any OHV, but we never felt like we were in danger of going

2015 Yamaha Vikingover, even on steep, sideways, down-hill angles.

The Viking features a roomy three-passenger front seat with seatbelts for each passenger. Plenty of overhead room allows riding with helmets with-out smacking your head on the hard top. A full roll bar enclosed driver’s compartment adds additional safety for riders.

There is ample legroom for all three occupants. A padded handhold bar extends to accommodate both passen-ger seats and the springs and padding in all three seats, as well as the five-degree tilt making this setup the most comfortable seating for long rides.

The Viking is equipped with Ya-maha’s most powerful 686cc engine with a broad, usable powerband. Four-valve head with 10.0:1 compression delivers optimum torque for virtually any workload and up to a 30% gain in fuel efficiency.

Electronic fuel injection ensures peak performance in nearly all conditions

and elevations, along with instanta-neous cold starts. The new air injection system burns the un-combusted ele-ments in the exhaust, resulting in even further reduced emissions. All told, the Viking offers tremendous power to tackle any type of terrain or load.

The Ultramatic transmission with dual-range (Hi/Lo) drive and reverse is the most advanced drive system available. An automatic centrifugal clutch maintains constant belt tension for reduced belt wear and uses a sprag clutch for all-wheel downhill engine braking in 4WD mode and reverse. The three-position On-Command 4WD system lets you dial between 2WD, limited-slip 4WD and fully locked dif-ferential 4WD for rapid adjustment of traction as terrain changes.

An easy tilt stamped steel dump bed can quickly be tilted from either side with just one hand and is rated for up to 600 pounds of payload. Simple latching levers quickly connect and disconnect for ease of use. A standard center-mounted, heavy-duty 2-inch re-ceiver hitch can tow up to 1500 pounds.

Large diameter front and rear wheel disc brakes provide unsurpassed s t o p p i n g power and the dash-mounted parking brake is simple and convenient to use.

T h e t w o latching roto-molded doors help keep out d i r t , m u d , dust and wa-

ter, so you don’t end up wearing the trail.

The biggest drawback many side by side OHVs have is steer-ing response. Not an issue with the Viking. The power steering is absolutely first-rate and very re-sponsive. It also provides amaz-ing feedback while driving and it is amazingly easy to control and navigate through even the gnarliest terrain. No jumping, jerking or loss of control as you navigate over rocks, stumps and other obstacles.

The Viking is designed as a hybrid, which makes it ideal

for farm and ranch work, as well as hunting in the backcountry. It is also stable enough that younger drivers can safely handle it, with proper adult supervision of course. Kids, adults and even my 60 year-young mother had a lot of fun driving an OHV with this much power, but it never feels like it is getting out of control. The hyper-responsive brakes, coupled with the engine braking, mean that you always stop quickly without lurching forward. Just let off the gas and the engine be-gins to slow you down and a tap on the brakes will quickly and smoothly bring you to a stop.

The Viking is a workhorse for those who need it, a tough mudder for those who are looking to get far off the beaten path and a big funmobile, for the whole family. Powerful, controllable, comfortable and easy to use is the best summation for the Yamaha Viking. It is supremely versatile and will meet a wide variety of requirements, making it a useful addition to any family off-road fleet. The only feature I wish it had is a locking gas cap, so when it runs dry the kids will have to stop driving it long enough for me to get a turn.

May 2015 | SPORTSMAN’S NEWS 35Tue Apr 7 13:51:56 CDT 2015 - 15411Y1253_non Bleed.ps



Let’s face it, we are more de-pendent on our electronic de-vices than ever before. Even

when we are spending time in the woods, far from the conveniences of home, having the ability to stay con-nected is important to us. Whether it is a phone, a tablet, a gaming device or necessary outdoor gear such as a GPS, handheld radios or cameras to record our experience, being able to maintain a charge in our devices far from a wall plug can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are a multitude of products that now provide portable power and many of them also allow you to re-charge them with free energy from the sun. Here are a few products available at Sportsman’s Warehouse that will let you capture solar power to keep your electronic devices run-ning indefinitely.

Goal Zero Yeti 150 and Nomad 20 Solar Panel

The leading manufacturer of solar devices and batteries to store that

power is Goal Zero. Constantly in-novating and creating new products to collect and capture electricity, the products from Goal Zero are of the highest quality and will perform in the most austere environments. The Yeti 150 is no exception. Built like a brick house, the compact and imminently portable battery pack does so much more than just store electricity, although it will do that as well. Featuring receptacles for 12V vehicle plugs, two USB jacks and a 110 volt alternating current plug, the Yeti 150 provides multiple options for using your electronics, no matter how they take a charge. The 12-volt lead-acid battery in-cludes an 80 watt inverter and a 5-amp charge controller so you can’t overcharge the battery. It will run the daisy chainable Light-A-Life for 50 hours on a full charge. It will charge your GoPro 25 times and your cell phone about 15 times.

The Yeti 150 can be charged by plugging it into the wall, a cigar lighter or by attaching it to a suit-able solar panel. Our choice for the Yeti is the Goal Zero Nomad 20 solar panel. The Nomad 20 will fully charge your Yeti 150 in 17-34 hours of sunlight, depending upon the intensity of the sun. The 20-watt Nomad 20 weighs 2.5 pounds and measures 30.5 inches by 13 inches and consists of three 6.5 by 12 inch solar panels . A z ippered mesh

pouch contains all of your charg-ing wires, as well as a four cable permanently attached block to keep you from losing cables. The panel is large enough to directly power cer-tain devices or to be plugged into a storage device like the Yeti 150.

Bushnell PowerSynch SolarWrap 250

The SolarWrap 250 is a portable power pack with a roll up solar panel all in one package. Enclosed in a hard plastic clamshell for stor-age and protection of the charging surface, the SolarWrap can be at-tached to your pack while you hike to collect sunlight and convert it to useable electricity. The portable bat-tery can be charged via the included USB wall plug in about four hours, but also can be fully charged in about six hours of direct sunlight. It has eight watt hours of output, capable of charging the average smartphone one t ime and your typical action camera between two and three times. The PowerSynch SolarWrap is nine inches wide and just 2.5 inches high when rolled up. It unrolls to expose an 11.5 by 6-inch panel and the entire unit weighs just 9.6 ounces.

NOCO XGrid XGS4USB 4W Por-table Solar Panel and USB Kit

The NOCO XGrid 4-watt portable solar panel offers plenty of output in a very small package. Strong enough to directly power a smart phone, action camera or other de-vices, when paired with the XGrid USB battery pack, it will store that electricity and provide it back to

Solar Devices For The Outdoors



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Take it hiking. Take it hunting. Take it on the water. Montana™ 650t features a bold 4-inch color touchscreen display with dual orientation capabilities. Preloaded 100K TOPO maps come standard, plus support for multiple mapping options like BirdsEye Satellite Imagery and BlueChart® g2 (each sold separately). Montana packs a 3-axis tilt-compensated compass, barometric altimeter, and a 5-megapixel camera to boot. Buy the power mount and City Navigator® and it’ll give you spoken turn-by-turn driving directions. It’s big. It’s versatile. It’s tough. It earned the name Montana – the ultimate in touchscreen toughness.

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you for a more rapid charge, 11 Wh, for convenience and ease. Holding enough juice to charge your smart phone fully two times, it is housed in a rugged, waterproof rubberized housing that can handle mud, dust, dirt and moisture. The coolest fea-ture of the solar panel is the inclu-sion of both an in and an out port so the panels can be daisy chained together for even faster charging of the battery pack. In direct sunlight, the battery pack was able to charge in just a few hours with two 5-inch square panels that weight just 7.6 ounces. The pack of gum-sized USB battery pack is only 4-inches long by an inch square and weighs just 3.1 ounces so it easily slips into a pocket to provide 5-volts of output on the go.

NOCO XGrid XGB12 Battery Pack

For even thirstier devices, the XGrid XGB12 provides the ease of

charging either via the micro USB input or through NOCO’s XGC 22 volt/2A plug, which is included with their solar panels. This beast of a battery provides two built-in 5-volt USB output ports so you can charge multiple devices simulta-

neously. The capacity of this pack is 12,000 mAh @3.7 V for a whop-ping 44.4 Wh. What that means is you can charge your tablet up to 12 times and your smart phone up to eight times. The rugged unit is IPV6 rated for waterproofness

and handles dust and dirt so it is ideal for those getting far into the backcountry. A built-in LED light provides a decent amount of light when it is pitch black out and bright, easy to see LED lights quickly show how much charge is remaining in the battery pack and lets you know it is charging.

In our field testing, the work-horse of the bunch was the Yeti. It kept everything from our GPS to cameras charged and never dipped below 80 percent . I t i s also the largest and heaviest of the battery packs we tested. The large 20-watt Nomad solar panels sucked in light and quickly topped off the tank of the Yeti. The mul-tiple power ports gave us a wide variety of options and the 12-volt cigar type charging port, as well as the standard 120 Volt wall plug both were a very handy addition.

The real surprise was the speed of charging of the NOCO devices. They quickly topped off and gave back power fast, quickly keeping our hungry devices running. The

SOLARcontinued from page 36


tiny package of the powerful XGB3 preformed amazingly, belying its small package and delivering a stunning 11.1 Wh. It is unlike any other product of its size and the rugged housing handled being dropped, tossed in the back of the truck and even a plop in the mud. Both the XGB3 and the XGB12 took the abuse we dealt out and were brand new looking after a quick wipe down with a damp cloth.

Whatever your outdoor activity, if you need to keep your electronic devices fed, having a battery that will provide a lot of power is go-ing to be a real asset. Storing that power for on-demand recharging and then being able to recharge the battery with nothing more than the power of the sun, will keep your devices running potentially forever.

One bit of advice for all of your battery packs is never let them run completely down. These bat-teries do not build up a memory and draining them completely can damage them so they no longer

accept a charge . Always keep them p l u g g e d i n a n d c h a r g i n g w h e n t h e y a r e n ’ t i n use so they wi l l last you for years and hundreds of charges.

W h e t h e r y o u are looking for a s m a l l a n d l i g h t portable charger for a quick top up or a hefty beast to keep your devices r u n n i n g f o r t h e long haul, Sports-man’s Warehouse c a n m e e t y o u r p o r t a b l e p o w e r needs with a wide variety of options. C h e c k t h e m o u t i n t h e c a m p i n g d e p a r t m e n t a n d k e e p c o n n e c t e d , even when you are off the grid.


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Now, many of you will recognize the title of this article as the slo-gan of the National Wild Turkey

Federation. I have been fortunate for the past seven years to be involved in this great organization, not because I am a die-hard turkey hunter, but because of all of the outdoor preservation groups out there, the NWTF in my eyes is try-ing to do it the right way. They are not only working on enhancing and saving habitat, they are also working the hard-est to retain and recruit hunters.

Save the Habitat – Save the HuntHunting and habitat go hand-in-

hand. We can’t have quality hunting without quality wildlife habitat. And the past has proven we won’t have sustainable habitat unless hunters are involved. Hunters pay for 80% of the budgets for state wildlife agencies, which drive the research and work to restore essential habitat for game and non-game species.

Federal excise taxes on the sale of firearms and ammunition – paid by hunters and shooters – have raised $4 billion to purchase over four million acres of wildlife habitat and annually manage more than 50 million acres.

These taxes, matched 3 to 1 by hunting license dollars, funded the comeback of wildlife in this country.

Hunters are the cham-pions of conservation. No other civilization or na-tion has lost their wildlife resources and then rebuilt them like we have. We have

the most successful conserva-tion model to sustain healthy wildlife populations and it all depends on a public that loves

“Those of us privileged to take to the field are entrusted by fate and circumstance to hold and nurture the hunter ’s legacy.”

-Theodore Roosevelt-



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hunting and loves the animals they hunt.

In order to save the wildlife species and the wild places where we love to hunt them, we must have hunters. But the mission to preserve our hunting heritage is about more than just hunting – It’s a lifestyle, a love for the outdoors and a passion to see future generations carry on the tradition.

Do you really want to give the ulti-mate outdoor gift? Sharing your hunt-ing traditions with someone new to the sport can and will be that rewarding gift. Mentoring provides an opportu-nity to give back to the hunting culture and thereby conserve the hunting leg-acy for future generations. Moreover, mentoring provides an opportunity to give back to the person that mentored you. Going hunting yourself is one thing, but teaching someone new to the sport needs to be our ultimate goal.

Just for a moment, let’s fade from the hunting side of things and talk about the business world. I have had great

opportunities to interview many lead-ers in the world of business. Each in their own way have great stories to tell about leadership, what works and what doesn’t work. The thing that I most often find is new aspiring leaders can benefit from the experiences of veterans who are willing to mentor. As men-tors provide experience and wisdom through their stories, the partner ben-efits with new found information that is based on that description of the past.

History is a set of experiences or events left to much interpretation. When we give meaning to these events, the intent is to get a sense of what is right or wrong— what works and what doesn’t. Knowledge about the theories is the first step. Gaining experience about these philosophies helps us to understand them at a deeper level. Wisdom only comes with time and the application of this information in newer settings. Meaning, value and purpose come from within this wisdom. A great deal can be learned from history. It has often been said, “Those who cannot re-member the past are destined to repeat it.” Unless we learn from the past and

remember it and apply these lessons for the future, we’re destined to get stuck in the same rut and repeat the same mistakes over and over.

There is so much to learn from oth-ers, in life and definitely in the hunting world.

We live in a busy world. For as much as we all lament the lack of adequate time, we somehow manage to find the time to participate in the things that are important to us. Where we have erred most egregiously is in our failure to truly recognize the vital importance of bringing new hunters into the fold. It is not enough to give an afternoon here and there to some organized hunting or shooting event. While we may feel good about the “sacrifice” we’ve made, the few and far between hunting excursion is hardly sufficient to ignite the kind of fire that burns’ in all who consider themselves hunters.

It is foolish to believe that our own children, those born into hunting fami-lies and immersed in hunting cultures, can sufficiently replace ourselves as the next generation of hunters. While the overwhelming majority of these

children may indeed be hunters – there are thousands of other youths who, without deliberate effort on our part, will never be counted among those who consider themselves hunters. Though our time is jealously guarded, we must resolve to find at least one boy or girl, one man or one women and give them a fair chance at discovering a world and a way of life that is sadly and at great societal cost, disappearing before our very eyes.

No matter the organization that you belong to or support, we all need to stand together to accomplish our goals. Success depends equally on unity and urgency. We must work together and the time is now if we want to even begin to counteract the challenges to our lifestyle.

In life, we never forget the old hunters that taught us the ways of the wild. Even if they have passed, their spirits live on in tales around the campfire or in remem-brance of coming home from the hunt. Now, we all need to do our part to bring new hunters into the fold – both young and old to keep our hunting heritage alive for generations to come.

SAVE THE HUNTcontinued from page 42

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Doubletap Ammo in Six Flavors

Scan this QR Code with your smart phone to view the Sportsman's News YouTube Channel. Video Available after May 10th.

Chef Five Minute Meals

2015 New Video Product Reviews

It is no secret that the Sportsman’s News staff rely on the ammo from Doubletap to get the job done when it counts. This

handcrafted, American made, precision ammunition is the official ammunition of Sportsman’s News and what we use to test every gun we write about or hunt with.

Last year, Doubletap created various lines of ammo; Defense, Tactical, Hunt-ing, Safari, and Longrange. For 2015, they added a Target line of full metal jacket, extremely clean and precise am-munition ideal for everything from plinking to competition in a price comparable to other major brands of domestic am-munition with the precision of handloaded ammo.

Because Doubletap isn’t owned by a bullet manufac-turer, they are able to use the best bullets from a variety

of manufacturers to achieve the best re-sults for the load they create. This gives Doubletap the widest selection of qual-ity projectiles from makers like Nosler, Barnes, Lapua, Speer, Corbon, and many more, ensuring the best bullet pairing for your application.

Currently, brass for Doubletap is made to their exacting specifications by a variety of brass manufacturers, but in the next month or two, Doubletap will fire up their new state-of-the-art brass manufacturing

plant for a wide selection of pistol brass for their own use, for sale to reloaders and for other ammo manufacturers. This new capability will allow Doubletap to make brass of the highest quality and not be dependent on scarcity in the marketplace to provide their finished product to consumers.

Doubletap’s owner, Mike McNett is a load-crafting ge-nie, working up previously unheard of combinations of bullet and powder to create optimal terminal ballistics matched to the desired appli-cation. He spends an inordinate amount of time creating and testing different loads to achieve results you won’t find from other ammunitions manufactur-ers. This innovation and attention to detail means you will get the hardest hitting, most efficient ammunition out there.

In addition to his semi-handloaded ammunition, using ammo loaders to exacting specifications, Doubletap of-fers handloaded ammunition to your desired recipe, so you can customize performance. If your gun likes a certain loadout and you can’t find it consis-

tently, Doubletap will make it for you.Where Doubletap really performs

is in the quality control department. Each and every round loaded, either by machine or by hand, is inspected by a member of the Doubletap staff to insure the highest quality. This level of quality control can’t be achieved by machines.

Sportsman’s Warehouse currently carries more than 60 different loads of Doubletap ammo. Check them out to see if your load is available or go to www.doubletapammo.com for those hard to find specialty loads or to have a load custom made just for you.

Whether you are preparing for an emergency, or just want a delicious light-

weight meal to take into the field with you, the offerings from Chef 5 Minute Meals will provide you a fast and convenient hot meal in just five minutes.

Available in a wide variety of of-ferings, the meals are contained in a cardboard box, which acts as an oven to rapidly heat the meal. The warming tray, water activator, and heating pad are all included, as well as an eating utensil, napkin, and seasonings.

S imply p lace the entrée face down on the heating pad on the warming tray, after you pour the water activator on the heating pad and place the whole unit back in-side the box for at least five minutes. Once it is done heat ing, remove it , f l ip it over, open it up, and you will have a piping hot tasty entrée.

T h e C h e f 5 M i n u t e Meals come in 8 del i -

c ious entrees , and tas te l ike a home cooked meal . They each have a shelf life from 3 to 5 years, depending upon the entrée.

Chef 5 Minute Meals contain no fi l lers or preservatives and are made in the USA.

Flavors include Three Cheese Omelet with Corned Beef Hash, Beef Stew, Chicken Pasta Parme-san, Beef Stroganoff with Noodles, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Chicken Cacciatore with Rice, Vegetable L a s a g n a , a n d B e e f C h i l i w i t h Beans.

For those on the move, each meal contains 9 ounces of healthy deli-cious food, and the entire package is only 13.6 ounces, so it won’t

weigh down your pack.T h e C h e f 5 M i n u t e

M e a l s a re a q u i c k a n d convenient way to get a warm homesty le mea l , anytime, anywhere.

W h e n t h e w e a t h e r i s cold and you have been exerting yourself all day, n o t h i n g b e a t s a w a r m tasty meal to restore your

energy level, and Chef 5 Minute Meals are a sure way to get that good food into you with very little fuss. When it is too wet or windy to build a fire, just open the box, apply the activator, close it up and have a hot meal.

Check them out in the camp -ing department of Sportsman’s Warehouse and add them to your next camp out or emergency pre-paredness pantry, secure with the knowledge that you can always have a hot meal.



Nikon Prostaff 7i Rangefinder


Camp Chef Stryker Backpacking Stoves

2015 New Video Product Reviews

Precision measuring devices are nothing new to the Nikon brand. Their survey equipment is the

very best in the business and is a stan-dard for all others to follow. They have used their same pursuit of excellence in their sporting class of rangefinders for many years now. Nikon has stepped up their game to the next level with the new PROSTAFF 7i Laser Rangefinder.

This pocket-sized rangefinder utilizes Nikon’s ID (incline/decline) Technol-ogy and provides precision, speed and consistency out to 1,300 yards. It provides exceptional accuracy even at longer ranges and is a true 1300 yard rangefinder. This means that rifle hunt-ers and long range shooters will finally have a superior precision rangefinder and at a very affordable price. It

also provided yardage readings down to eight yards, which makes it equally good for the bowhunter.

The PROSTAFF 7i readings are accu-rate to +/- .5 yard at 600 yards or less, to +/- 1 yard from 600 yards to less than 1000 yards and to +/- 1.5 yards at 1000 yards and over. It displays ranges in .1-yard increments with a true 1,300-yard ranging capability. With Nikon’s HY-PER READ technology, clear distances are displayed extremely fast, regard-

less of how far away the target is. The measurement is displayed in about half of a second, guaranteeing a stress-free and accurate measure-ment with one push of the button. After eight seconds, it will automatically shut off to ensure a long battery life.

Real f ield experience proved that we were able to

get ranges in excess of 1300 yards and got readings on deer sized targets out past 1000 yards consistently.

Nikon continues to out-fit its rangefinders with the popular ID (incline/decline) technology. With ID tech-nology, horizontal distances are given based on incline or decline shooting angles. The rangefinder also has Tru-Target Technology, which allows us-ers to toggle between ranging modes. In first target priority mode, the distance measured is the closest measured target, giving users a precise reading to the desired target. In distant target priority mode, the distance displayed is the fur-thest target amongst a group of targets being measured. In both of these modes, holding down the measurement button will give you eight seconds of continu-

ous measurement readings. The PROSTAFF 7i utilizes a water-

proof design, making it ideal for ex-treme outdoor use, even in the wettest conditions. Combine all these features with the compact size and single but-ton operation and the PROSTAFF 7i is sure to make any hunt a successful one. The MSRP for the PROSTAFF 7i Laser Rangefinder is $299.95.

Camp Chef has been bringing high quality outdoor gear to market for 25 years. Regardless

of whether you are cooking for a group of a 100 in your back yard, tailgating, or just a family camping trip, Camp Chef has everything you need to make your cooking experience the best possible.

We love this company and all the products they bring to market because we know they won’t release anything until it is truly the best it can be. We were extremely happy to see Camp Chef release the new lightweight and packable Stryker stoves and accessories. We spend well over 100 days a year in the extreme backcountry where weight is an issue and a hot meal always a wel-comed sight. So, knowing we would have a top qual-ity backcountry stove that we could depend on for years is well embraced.

The Stryker will be available in two models for the 2015 year. One model burns isobutane, and the other model burns propane. This now gives outdoorsmen the option of using dis-

posable propane canisters, which are available nearly everywhere. Using this fuel source with a lightweight camp stove is ideal when you are hanging out around base camp and just need an extra burner to keep the coffee warm while you cook on the big stove or just want an emergency stove to stick behind the seat of your truck. When you decide to hit the backcoun-try, the propane tank will be plenty to

get you through a week of dehydrated foods. The iso-butane model uses the small canisters, which is ideal for backcountry camper who is worried about every gram of weight.

The Stryker stove comes complete with a tri-legged stand, burner with match-less ignition, and an insulat-ed 1.3 liter pot. Components

pack tightly inside the insulated pot making it very small and lightweight at only 8.3 ounces (not including fuel). A mesh carry bag is included for con-venience and storage.

To reduce cooking time and fuel consumption, the Stryker is designed

with Heat Ring technology that increases heat e f f i c i e n c y b y 30%. The Heat Ring creates a larger surface area that effec-tively captures and transfers heat for a rapid boil. It takes just two minutes to boil a half liter of water.

T h e r e a r e several cook -ing accessories you will want to have with your setup. These ac-cessories include a 1.5 liter tea pot with Heat Ring technology and a pot/pan set. Folding handles and lightweight mate-rial make it easy for packing into the backcountry. These accessories are sold separately, but are a great addition to

your backcountry kit. They will work well with the Mountain Series of other Camp Chef stoves you are probably already using back at base camp.


1011_HUNT_COMMS_MarkARHalfPageAdTrim: 9.75in W x 5.375in H | Bleed: .Tabloid, no bleed4/C

TAKE COMMAND OF ANY SITUATION WITH GREEN FIREDOT® RETICLE AND MIL/MIL ADJUSTMENTS.From the heat of battle, to the pressure of competition, the new Mark AR® MOD 1TM gives you the upper hand. Illuminated green FireDot® reticle. Tactile 0.1 mil adjustments for windage and elevation. Backed by the experience of having more Leupold® optics in the U.S. military service than any other brand. See it online or at your Leupold dealer.

LEUPOLD.COM

BORN ON THE

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© 2015 Leupold & Stevens, Inc. USE OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE IMAGE DOES NOT IMPLY OR CONSTITUTE DOD ENDORSEMENT.

2015 New Video Product ReviewsLeupold Mark AR MOD-1 Scope

Scan this QR Code with your smart phone to view the Sportsman's News YouTube Channel. Video Available after May 31st.

The engineering that hunters have come to love in the VX- 1 through VX-6 scopes from Leupold has

now been brought to the modern sport-ing rifle.

Integrating the Quantum Optical System technology that sets Leupold scopes apart from the competition, the Mark AR MOD1 is one of the most technologically advanced scopes for an AR style rifle on the market.

Every great scope starts with the glass, and the Mark AR MOD1 is no exception. Utilizing the highest qual-ity optical glass with en-hanced geometry, the Mark AR MOD1 provides crystal clear viewing and magnifica-tion, coupled with amazing clarity and light gathering. Lead free, environmentally

friendly coatings, using Leupold’s pro-prietary Index Matched and Diamond Coat lens coatings to reduce glare, pre-vent fogging and repel water and dust, mean that you will have razor crisp images in all kinds of environments.

To keep the inside of the scope bone dry, Leupold uses a proprietary blend of Argon and Krypton gasses to prevent thermal shock that can occur when rapid temperature changes oc-

cur with basic Nitrogen-only filled scopes and the large molecule size of the Argon/Krypton blend reduces gas diffusion within the scope maximizing light transmis-sion. What this means is superb optical clarity that has to be seen to be believed.

Fast action P5 adjustment turrets with 67 MOA of ad-

justment, rapidly allow modifications to be made, and zero can be reset and locked in with an Allen wrench, without removing covers. Parallax ad-justments from 20 yards to infinity are quickly dialed in through a ring on the front bell of the scope.

The small footprint means that the optic will take up only minimal valu-able real estate on top of your gun, and the one-inch tube reduces weight and size without sacrificing light transmis-sion.

While designed specifically for the .223 Remington, it worked amazingly on our 7.62x51 AR rifle and was hands down the quickest scope to zero I have ever used. The Mil-dot reticle and ad-justment turrets quickly dialed shots in and the long eye relief, 4.9 inches at 4-power and 3.7 at 12-power, made the scope equally comfortable to shoot

from kneeling, seated, and prone posi-tions.

A 20-foot field of view at 100 yards on 4-power, means plenty of situational awareness down range. This makes the Leupold Mark AR MOD1 an ideal tacti-cal scope as well as a fantastic hunting companion for your modern sporting rifle.



This is a feel good story. At least I feel good writing it and researching it. What could feel better than a bunch

of veterans, spending their own time and money to build customized boats to take other disabled veterans fishing? Well, children. Children would feel better.

That is what this story is about. To be exact, a group of concerned veterans who build special boats, on their own time and dime, that accommodate wheel chairs and then they take disabled veterans and children fishing on them.

The Hand in Hand American Heroes Project was created by Captain Steve Henline. Capt. Steve has spent decades as a fishing guide and charter operator from Alaska to Mexico and most recently at Lake Powell. Throughout all of those years, Henline made his boats and time available to disabled veterans at no charge. His biggest regret was not being able to take the most severely disabled fishing, because no boats were capable of accom-modating wheel chairs.

While discussing this with others, the idea to build custom boats with wheel chair accessibility was born and a group of volunteers procured some pontoons and other building materials and set to work on constructing Freedom’s Dream, a 35-foot dual pontoon decked watercraft with

Digital Edition Only Special Content

American Heroes Project

bench seating and a fully railed deck and canopy, complete with roll-on wheelchair access and patriotic decorations.

Once the boat was completed, the mission statement was expanded from just providing wounded warriors with recreation opportunities to also include disabled children from the community. Now the craft spends its time on Utah Lake spending Tuesdays and Saturdays

ferrying warriors and kids to the fish.Hand and Hand Outdoors has grown,

due in part to the tireless efforts of Henline and the other volunteers to now include a second boat, Hope. I recently had the honor of embarking on Hope on her maiden voy-age on Utah Lake with Capt. Leslie Ortiz of West Haven, UT at the helm. Also on board were three disabled veterans from the Provo area. Two were veterans of

Vietnam and the third of Desert Storm. The fish were not really cooperating that

day, but the boat ride was cut short by the ceremonies on shore. The employees and CEO of ATK Orbital were making burgers while two cowboys called Hired Guns, in full regalia entertained with a mixture of old country classics and cowboy poetry. The local chapter of the Patriot Guard rode in to the throaty growl of their Harley’s, leather shining and flags flying. Dozens of additional flags lined the lake shore, flap-ping in the gentle breeze and representing the patriotic love of country, state and the various armed services. Representatives of the Utah Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks were also on hand with a large check to help with the costs of running the fishing trips. All of the food preparation was done on grills and with equipment provided by Ace Rentals out of Provo. All in all, the entire community came together to celebrate these special warriors.

“In the beginning it was only a way to say thank you to our veterans and to share our love of the outdoors with the disabled children, many who in wheelchairs might not have the opportunity to be on a boat or ever catch a fish,” said Henline. “It soon became apparent that we were changing lives and making this a better world for those that we serve and that gave us pur-pose and resolved us to do more; more in

Disabled veterans fish off the deck of Freedom's Dream, a 35-foot decked pontoon boat built by volunteers with Hand in Hand Outdoors.

Freedom's Dream ferrying a group of disabled veterans and children for a day of fishing on Utah Lake.


Flat decks and wide gates in the railings allow Hand in Hand Outdoors boats to accept wheelchairs of all types.


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Kids only get to be a kid once

By Jacquelyn Gross GucciniSportsman's News Pro Staff

As a child some of the best memo-ries that I have are being with my dad and my brother in the duck

blind in south Louisiana. I remember the thoughts of waking up to the smell of bacon for breakfast and always sharing some of my biscuit with my lab Sam. We would then head out to the boat and the fog would be so thick on the water, but my dad always seemed to know the way. Then once we got to the blind, I would help my brother untie the duck decoys and watch my dad throw them out, each decoy, one by one. We would then hide the boat in the cat tails and slush through the water to get to the blind. My brother would say, “WATCH OUT for that snake” and I would jump and almost cry, but very rarely would there be a snake. After a day of hunting, we would head home and momma would cook every-thing we harvested that day. My parents taught us to respect Mother Nature and only shoot what we could eat.

We had always lived near the woods and we never had many neighbors, so my friends often became the animals or bugs, plus imaginary talking trees. My mom tells stories to this day of all the animals I tried to sneak into our house without being caught, includ-ing a whole litter of baby rabbits that I insisted needed me as their mother. My brother and I would build camps in the woods and we would pretend that we had to survive out there on our own. We would bring the main necessities for the day which consisted of toilet paper, food and water. Sometimes I had to play by myself because my brother would get poison ivy to which I was not allergic, but that taught me that sometimes be-ing alone with Mother Nature wasn’t all that bad. Everywhere we went it was always a new discovery - a cool rock, a deer running by us or maybe the sound of the creek. Everyone would talk about how cool their rooms were growing up, but for me, it was always how cool my camp was outside in the woods.

As I started to grow up, the desire to continue to be in the outdoors never left. I found myself being more “Country”

Next Generation of HuntersDigital Edition Only Special Content

and I started to notice that I was not like the other girls. I was heavily involved in sports and agriculture. I realized that I had more patience than most and I was much more confident in myself than a lot of women. Some girls would give up eas-ily. Me, the more I lost or failed the harder I wanted to work so I could accomplish and achieve my goals. I had desires and dreams to travel and discover who I was, which led me to move away for college. Once in college, I pushed myself to take bigger challenges and realized my love for the outdoors only was growing stron-ger. My independence peeked through and I had to start making my own deci-sions - some were bad, some were good, but I always learned from them.

Hunting became my way of life and I was determined to try to find ways to fuel my fire in the outdoors. Being out in the wild gave me a sense of unknown and freedom. I am sure everyone has heard of buck fever, right? The heart thumping feeling that generates deep down inside of you that makes your teeth chatter and your hands shake. There is no other desire that you can imagine when you feel that burning sensation when out in the raw outdoors. I learned that in the wild. II was my own leader and it was me making the choices and decision to move forward. Even when in dangerous situa-tions, I had to overcome my fear and trust my natural ability to SURVIVE or RUN!

Those are the memories that I cherish,

that I hold so close to the my heart, the memories that no one can take away from me and the reasoning that I am who I am today. Rather if my parents know it or not, but the outdoors helped me to learn kindness, consideration, honesty, open-mindedness and conservation of our natural resources. This is also where I found my passion and where I have learned the true virtue of patience. I learned the value of life and knew that I wanted to reach out to others to help motivate them into being in the outdoors, especially woman and children.

I can only try to create for you the feel-ing of joy that’s felt when being able to help children at the youth events which are held at our various local sporting goods retailers. Bring your kids out and you will see a remarkable day of fun. Also, contact your local wildlife youth outreach programs and see what they have to offer.

Some people ask, “Why do I think it’s important to motivate children to become more involved in the outdoors?” Well because, kids that hunt and fish don’t deal and steal. This slogan came from the little ol’ town of St. Landry Parish where I grew up in, for part of my childhood. Children learn from every-thing that they do and most importantly, what their parents do. Kids are naturally curious and simply want to do things because they want too, not because they are forced too. How many times have

you given your child an iPad and had him or her sit and play games and watch movies because it was a convenience to get them to be quiet? Or better yet, have you heard your child scream at a video game because he can’t make it to the next level? The laziness in children is our faults, not the kids fault. Children who receive support and encouragement will be creative, adventurous and will have a much different attitude about learning later in life if we can just get them off the couch.

I have learned over the years fun and exciting ways to get my own children into the outdoors. My husband and I take our girls to local 3D shoots and we compete as a family. Many of the events are overwhelming at a young age, but if you do it with them and let them see you fail and succeed together it will build their confidence to try harder. We often hold our own shooting contest at our house just between us. This helps the kids have goals that are achievable and builds their self-esteem to a new level. Kids pick up on shooting techniques much faster than adults and soon they will be able to shoot with anybody. My daughters have never been as proud as they day they shot more bull’s-eyes than one of my husband’s friends.

When children go hunting, camping or fishing it gives them the opportunity to make their own decisions. These activi-ties generate motivation and are self-sus-taining for as long as the child feels the satisfaction of accomplishment. Rather if they are catching a fish or putting up a tent, waiting quietly in the woods when a deer crosses your path and the animal has no idea that you’re there. Those are moments when your heart is racing and for any of you that have been in the situa-tion, you know you wonder if the animal hears your heart, because in the silence of the outdoors it sounds as if drums are beating! These are memories that a child will retain, learn from and remember for the rest of their lives.

We take our girls hunting as much as we can. We don’t just teach them to be quite and stay still. We often let them make decisions to lead us while out spotting and stalking. This allows them to see, firsthand, what works and what does not. When they are in charge of checking the wind direction and decid-

Brecken and Ashlynn’s first time being on a spot and stalk hunt with the author chasing this cow for meat in the freezer.


ing on the next move it really brings their excitement to a new level. The experience of the hunt is what is talked about and remembered, not just what mom or dad harvested.

We all know that young children usu-ally can’t concentrate on one activity for long periods of time. The beauty of the outdoors teaches our kids persistence. It builds character and their ability to sit in a tree stand and wait for long hours and yet, then they see a buck that is coming and their heart starts thumping again and their hands start shaking, teeth begin to chatter uncontrollable and suddenly all of you are witnessing the beauty of an animal not knowing your there which makes the long hours of sitting in the blind rewarding for a all.

Or if you’re fishing and once you’re be-coming bored because nothing is biting and then, POLE DOWN, your fighting and hollering for your dad, “DAD, DAD, help me reel it in, it’s a big one!” For any of you who have been around children and experienced this moment, you know that the experience warms your heart.

Then you’re camping and you’re lying in your sleeping bag at night and you hear the hollowing of the coyotes and the feeling of fear is there. But then as your eyes fall sleepy and slowly fade closed, you wake up knowing you’re not harmed. That builds character, which builds confidence and you cannot receive those feelings anywhere else except in the outdoors.

The challenges that you experience in Mother Nature help to motivate each child. Success leads to higher self-esteem and feelings of self-worth. If an activity is difficult for them and they have the feeling of success it will build their en-dorphins of accomplishment. Have you seen a child’s face light up once they shot their first balloon with a bow or when they shot their first BB gun? It’s a grin that’s from ear to ear and a glow that is as bright as a full moon. Kids that are less motivated need constant attention from adults and cannot function independent-ly. They will often try to find the simplest of things to do that are less motivating and will depend on adults to entertain

them. They also often whine a lot and are cranky when asked to do something. They tend to only want to do something that is easy and doesn’t require a lot of effort, but they still complain. So think about your kids and try to determine if these are their feelings? If they are, then you may want to find a new adventure for them. Being in the outdoors forces you to communicate with your children and it helps to build your character on which who they are to become when they get older. The family bonds that are created are much more memorable than an outing at the mall. It also teaches you to respect life, to have patience and preserve our heritage.

Through the eyes of the child, just ask any elementary teacher and I am sure you will know the real truth on what inspires your children. What they talk about at school, what they write about in their journal, what memories that they are taking to heart and most of all, what is their passion in life. We as parents have big shoes to fill and we need to help our children appreciate the outdoors. Only

we can show the kids the true value about Mother Nature and how important it is to become a conversationalist. We have to help pass down our love for the outdoors so the passions never fade. Kids can only be kids once so make a memory out of it. Let your kid hunt, don’t hunt for them. As always, big smiles!

Score! Guess who passed and can hunt this year - The girls! They are super excited and are hoping to bag a turkey this spring. Brecken and Ashlynn.


any small way we can to make this a better world to live in.”

Partnering with local community vet-erans groups, Hand in Hand Outdoors provides specific trip times and lets these groups send veterans on the trip for no charge. They also partner with lo-

cal groups that serve disabled children.

And there is much more on the horizon. Hand in Hand Outdoors is in the midst of creating an outdoor camp for disabled veterans on the banks of Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Utah/Wyoming border. This facility consists of a large 24-foot Yurt to act as ad-

ministration, mess hall and common activ-ity and meeting space. An additional eight 12x16-foot wall tents with actual beds, propane and wood heat, wood decks and electric lighting will serve as bunk houses for the guests. Another will serve as a chapel and a 16x10-foot tent will serve as a bathhouse and provide restroom facilities.

This facility at Lucerne Valley Marina in Manila, UT will allow Hand in Hand, in partnership with a variety of companies who provide the funds and the labor to erect the sites, to provide longer activities for the disabled veterans and children they serve. In addition to fishing, they will provide white water rafting, horseback riding, shooting sports, and access to local community events in both Utah and Wyo-ming, with the participation and support of the local communities.

All of this came about as a dream of helping those who have already given so much to and for their fellow countrymen. Due to the effort, time and treasure of so many volunteers, this dream is very close

to becoming a reality. Now, I did men-tion this is a feel-good story. Here is your chance to feel good. Hand in Hand Out-doors is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization and needs your help to make this dream a reality for so many deserving disabled veterans and children. A Go Fund Me campaign has been created to help raise funds for the project and to continue Hand in Hand Outdoors daily operations, purchase fuel and maintain the boats, and cover other costs. By supporting Hand in Hand’s mission, you are making a tangible difference in the lives of disabled veterans and children. Go to www.gofundme.com/handinhandoutdoors and make a contribution to this worthwhile cause. If you do, you will have a chance to keep this feel-good story going and also know that you have made a difference for those most deserving. Show our wounded veterans that they aren’t forgotten by supporting an organization that makes sure 100 percent of donations collected go directly to the veterans they serve.

AMERICAN HEROEScontinued from page 48

Operation Desert Storm Veteran Jim Roeth is moved into position for the maiden voyage of Hope, the newest vessel in th Hand in Hand Outdoors fleet.

Contribute to the American Heroes Project at

www.gofundme.com/handinhandoutdoors


Digital Edition Only Special ContentPresents Wild Game Recipes of Steve Mayer "The Wine Guy"No-Beer Battered Fish & Tartar Sauce Recipe

W hat? No beer in the batter? That’s r ight. This recipe really showcases the f lavor of the f ish, without any

o v e r p o w e r i n g c o a t i n g s , j u s t a n i c e l i g h t crunchy crust . I was fortunate to hook into a bunch of d inner p la te s ized crappie a t Alamo Lake in Arizona recently, so I had plenty of f i l lets to try a variety of batters in the test kitchen. We used beer, crushed salt ines, corn meal , and a bunch of differ-ent batters and consistencies. This was the unanimous favorite from our tast ing panel . Try i t with some of your catch, or hust le down to the market and pick up some f irm, white f leshed f i l lets . This is a perfect meal for unwinding with family and friends on a Friday night. The left-overs, if there are any, make an outstanding fish sandwich with the tartar sauce.

IngredientsTartar Sauce• 1¼ cup mayonnaise• 2 shallots, finely chopped (2 tablespoons)• 2 tablespoons chopped pickles• 1 tablespoon chopped capers• Juice of one lemon (3 tablespoons)• ½ teaspoon horseradish• ½ teaspoon black pepperRecipe• 2 lbs of pan fish or rock cod fillets• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided• 3/4 cup cornstarch, divided• 1 teaspoon baking powder• 16 ounces club soda• 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning • 2 teaspoons black pepper• Oil for fryingPreparation Method

Start with the tartar sauce. In a small bowl mix the mayonnaise, shallots, pickles, capers, lemon juice,

horseradish, and pepper together well. If you like a sweeter sauce, use sweet pickles. I like to kick it up a bit, so I add a bit of sriracha sauce to the mix. When your sauce is blended, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to let the flavors develop.

Prepare the fillets. Cut the fish into the portion size you like the best. Aim for a uniform thickness under a half inch. Rinse them in water and pat dry with a paper towel.

In a large bowl mix 1 cup of flour, ¼ cup of corn starch, the teaspoon of baking powder, and all the Cajun seasoning and pepper together. Use a whisk and blend well, then start adding the club soda while continuously whisking. You are aiming for a thin batter that just coats a spoon. For a thicker crust, just reduce the amount of club soda a bit.

In a medium sized bowl mix together the remain-ing ½ cup of flour and ½ cup of corn starch.

I like to use a deep pot to fry fish so the oil does not spatter all over the stove. Heat about 2 inches

of frying oil to 375 degrees.Dredge the fish in the reserved

flour/cornstarch mixture first and then dip them in the batter. Add the dipped fillets carefully into the hot oil with a set of tongs, being careful not to burn yourself with splashing oil! Do three to four pieces at a time depending how large they are. The key is not to crowd the pan as this will fluctuate the oil temperature too much and make the fillets soft instead of crispy. Fry them until they turn a nice golden brown color and start to float a bit (about 3-4 minutes). Remove the fish to a wire rack on a cookie sheet. Keep them warm in a 200 degree oven as you cook the other batches.

S e r v e t h e s e t a s t y f i l l e t s w i t h some home fr ies and the tar tar sauce . I would sugges t a wel l -chilled Sauvignon Blanc, a Califor-nia Chardonnay, or a cold pilsner to round out a classic fish n’ chips dinner.

The perfect wine for this meal a n d a n y o t h e r f i s h a n d g a m e dish can be purchased at www.wildgamewine.com.

Cheers!



Getting a good night’s sleep in the bed of your truck can be a chal-lenge. Traditional air mattresses

either don’t quite fit, are too narrow, too long, or curl up on the edges where they meet the wheel wells.

The AirBedz Inflatable Truck Bed Mattress is designed to fit in the bed of most standard pickups, and includes cutouts for the wheel wells, so it fits per-fectly. The AirBedz contains elements to make it a proper fit for a variety of truck beds. An inflatable chamber on the top, allows the AirBedz to conform to the different sizes of trucks. An addi-tional horizontal coil provides rigidity and conforms the mattress for a perfect side-to-side fit.

The AirBedz Original is constructed from a tough polyester material that will withstand abrasions and resist tears and punctures.

The AirBedz are available in sizes for long and short full-sized beds and medium-sized pickup trucks. Each adjusts to maximize fit across various models of trucks.

Built into the mattress is an inflation pump, powered by a nickel cadmium battery (newer models will come with higher quality nickel metal hydride).

Our testing of the AirBedz showed them to be constructed to the high-est specifications. The seams are tight and double welded for extra strength. The polyester material is rugged and tough and will even stand up to be-ing dragged in and out of beds lined with Rhino Liner without abrading or tearing.

The internal pump is powerful enough to fully inflate or deflate the entire mattress in 2 to 3 minutes. Hav-


AirBedz Inflatable Truck Bed Mattress

ing the ability to deflate the mattress is a great feature, as it makes putting the mattress away faster, and also creates a vacuum so the mattress folds and rolls tight, taking up minimal space. The pump has sufficient force to fill the mattress until it is rigid. Combined with the Polyester material, it has minimal stretch and most likely won’t need to be reinflated after a few hours as many regular air mattresses do to account for expansion of the material.

One word of caution with the battery; the Ni-Cad battery can be damaged from over-charging, so do not charge it for more than 2 hours with the AC 120 volt jack and 12 hours with the

12-volt DC cigar lighter plug. The newer NiMH bat-teries should not have this issue.

T h e A i r B e d z Original is a 12-inch thick mattress when inflated, and folds down to a 18”x16”x8” pack-age that fits into its included roomy

carrying bag. It’s complete weight is 20 pounds, so it is small enough and portable enough to keep in your truck for those unexpected overnights.

Not only does the mattress fit just right in most truck beds, AirBedz sells optional wheel well inserts so the mattress can be used outside of the truck bed. These heavy-duty inflatable inserts connect to the mattress with

hook and loop fasteners and fill in the wheel well cutouts, making it a fully rectangular mattress that can be used on the ground, indoors, or anywhere you may want a regular air mattress. In my experience, they also make a decent headboard when you are in the back of the pickup to keep you from bonking your noggin on the side of the truck bed while you sleep. This is probably not a purpose for which they were intended, but they work well for it anyway.

In addition to their polyester shelled mattress, AirBedz has also created a PVC version of the AirBedz design that is less rugged, but much lighter and more compact when in its storage bag. It does not have the pump built into it like the Original, but does come with a 12-volt DC detachable pump. The AirBedz Lite is a universal fit mattress that will work in truck beds between 6 and 8 feet. It will not work in smaller beds.

The AirBedz Lite weighs a mere 13 pounds, so it is easy to transport and set up. It also has optional wheel well inserts so it can be used with or without your truck.

If you have a shell over your truck bed, then it makes a perfect tent. If not, then the AirBedz is a perfect companion for sleeping under the stars or just run a tarp from the cab to the tailgate for a make-shift tent.

On a recent trip in the Nevada desert, I spent a blissful night’s sleep beneath the open sky and the stars in complete comfort. While I was in my sleeping

bag, the AirBedz can also be used with traditional sheets, blankets, and other bedding to give you the comfort of a hotel room and the experience of sleeping in the great outdoors. The heavy-duty mate-rial gave me confidence when my dog jumped up and I wasn’t worried that his claws would puncture it.

Based upon the ease and speed of set-up, light weight, rugged materials, and the comfort it provides, I would recommend the AirBedz Original Inflatable Mattress as an addition to your camping kit. In one night, you will come to agree that a restful night’s

sleep is worth every penny.AirBedz Lite

Airbedz Original

With the addition of the optional inserts, the AirBedz can be used like a regular air mattress.


Documents

Sportsman's News May 2015 Digital Edition