It looks like SCI has worked with the government of Zambia to allow limited tusks to be imported from sport hunting. I got this press release in the inbox today:

For Immediate Release January 31, 2011

Washington, DC – Safari Club International Foundation (SCIF) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will allow the importation of 20 elephant hunting trophies annually from Zambia starting this 2011 hunting season. This historic announcement was made at the 2011 SCI Annual Hunters’ Convention in Reno, Nevada.

“After years of collaboration, the FWS has made the determination that sustainable hunting of elephants will contribute to the enhancement of the survival of elephants in Zambia,” said SCI Foundation President Joseph Hosmer. “As a form of sustainable-use, hunting is a key component of wildlife conservation and management worldwide. The SCI Foundation is very proud to be part of the announcement.”

A formal exchange between the FWS and the Zambian government was made on Thursday, Jan. 27 in conjunction with the SCI Foundation Department of Science-based Conservation and Research. The finding of enhancement by the FWS is a conclusion reached after many years of information sharing, including government to government meetings facilitated at the SCI Convention and the African Wildlife Consultative Forum (AWCF).

Underwritten by the SCI Foundation, the AWCF convenes African governments, world renowned wildlife biologists, professional hunter associations and leading conservation NGOs to share information and discuss current wildlife management issues.

Contact: Nelson Freeman; media@safariclub.org

A tough end to the Missouri firearms season for me yesterday. I passed on a young 8 and several does but the only mature buck I saw was the guy above. He looks like a solid 3.5 year old 8 point in the 130ish range.

I’ve really started to enjoy the muzzleloader. I spent about an hour shooting it at 100 and then 200 yards trying to get a comfort level with the scope, recoil, and range. I’m thinking it might be fun to take it during the Kansas late antlerless season and see what it can do.

I love Kansas this time of year. This morning I got up and chased some of the biggest bucks in the country around. It wasn’t a great morning for deer hunting, very windy, but still I saw a few. With it blowing like crazy I tried a draw that feeds into some grassy bedding areas with a good slope. I figured the deer would want to bed uphill and look back down the trail since they wouldn’t be able to hear anything. The plan worked great for two younger bucks and a few does, but no shooters.

I quit by 10:00, check on some areas for tomorrow and scouted some waterfowl, then came home and traded deer gear for duck gear. A friend had some ducks and geese feeding in a field along the Kansas River.

We had an interesting shoot. There were so many ducks in the area that it was difficult to work any of them. With the great big bunches they just wouldn’t settle in and we passed on ones and twos several times trying to get 100 right. Any long time waterfowler knows how that usually works… Anyway, we killed our geese and added a few mallards.
Hunts like this make me wonder why I spend so much time chasing deer…

Anyway, it’s off to bed now so I can get up early and do it all again tomorrow!

Today was the opening day of the Kansas Rifle Season. I tried an area I knew little about and saw only a handful of does all day. I did find some tremendous tracks as well as plenty of rubs… Then I found this guy:


He had the mass and teeth of a young deer, probably 3.5 years old. There was no sign of foul play but I found him on a piece of ground that has other hunters on at least two sides and a history of trouble with tresspassing. What a shame. I took this picture with my boot to give you some reference. Look at that spread! Can you imagine what he might have looked like in a year or two?

I promise I’ll finish the elk hunt when I find time.

I’ve got a raw face, cracked hands, a swollen ankle, and 4:00am would be sleeping in these days… It must be Missouri rifle season!

My grandfather taught me how to deer hunt when I was in high school. Back then I wasn’t really much of a fan of deer hunting at all. I felt (and said) that any idiot with a rifle could kill a buck, it was just a matter of luck. I’d wander around the family farm in Southern Missouri for a day or two and usually end up with an average or below average buck. Then I could go back to duck hunting…

This fall I’ll spend 5 times more days chasing deer than birds, at least. Over the past few years the drive to chase great bucks has taken over my schedule and my mind. Without question, the single most enjoyable pursuit for me is the swamp deer I chase during the Missouri rifle season. I sit high above a large flood plain overgrown with vegetation and watch the bucks come and go all day working does in the bedding cover. A great buck can appear in front of you at 100 yards and then put his head down and be gone into the high grass. It can be frustrating, but it’s never boring.

Saturday I sat with my back to the river:

Look familiar? This stand is a few yards from where I ran into the dirtball locals last year. I saw 20+ deer over the course of the day but only one no-doubter. He was 531 yards away and never in play.

This morning I was in the same general area. A shooting light I watched a good, heavy, base 8 with matching kickers chasing a doe all over the marsh. By the time there was enough light to shoot he was out of range. I had these two guys walk under the stand:


I had a close encounter with the half-buck from last year, or a deer with his identical genetic failings… but ultimately I didn’t see anything worth my tag… more to come, hopefully…

One of the truly great bowhunters of all time passed away today. Glenn St. Charles was one of the pioneers of archery as well as a quality hunter and ambassador. He was a founder of the Pope and Young Club and wrote one of the best hunting books I’ve ever read. I gave you a review of Bows on the Little Delta here.

You can find more information at the Archery Hall of Fame.

So it would be fair to say that I’m not a huge fan. The Nuge needs to kill so bad he ends up doing most of his “whacking and stacking” in pens. Not hunting, not even close. But somehow he anointed himself our official spokesman. I don’t think he speaks for me, and I’ve never been particularly sure he even understands hunting as I see it. Anyway, he pled no contest a couple of days ago to a negotiated deal on 3 game violations in California.

Rock star and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent was fined $1,750 Friday in Yuba County Superior Court after pleading no contest to a charge of baiting deer on his hunting show “Spirit of the Wild.”

Yuba City attorney Jack Kopp, representing Theodore Anthony Nugent, entered the plea to Department of Fish and Game charges of baiting deer and not having a deer tag “countersigned” at the closest possible location, said Deputy District Attorney John Vacek.

Nugent, who did not appear in court, also illegally shot an immature buck on the show but was not charged, according to Fish and Game.

The rest of the news story is here.

Again, I’m not a fan of Ted and his act, but I don’t have the level of hatred this story has exposed in some of the more hardcore hunters in the online community. Take a look here.

“Should I shoot that coyote?”
“No coyotes until after 9:00 am” was The Old Man’s response. He was guiding for a longtime friend and duck hunting partner.

It’s a regular occurance for us to see a coyote while hunting. I told you about The Old Man laying the smack on 3 during one sit during the 2008 rifle season. I didn’t tell you about this mangy looking thing I shot during the 2009 turkey season:

I have no idea what skin problem she had but it was ugly and extremely foul smelling.

Anyway the point is, what should you do when you see a coyote? Obviously weigh your hunting interests. That was the point of the 9:00am rule. But what about the biology of the whole thing? Coyotes eat deer and turkeys so you should kill every one you see right?

It’s not necessarily that simple according to Mike Bodenchuk of the USDA’s wildlife services who argues that the occasional killing of a predator really does not impact populations or predation:

… coyotes have a 60 percent annual mortality rate in some cases, whether they are hunted or not. In order to have an impact, it’s vital to remove either 70 to 80 percent of the entire population, or to remove the right coyotes at the right time.

Randomly killing the occasional predator might help in such extreme situations. However, it’s critical to maintain a high level of predator management for several years in order to have a lasting impact. Researchers working on the National Bison Range in Montana found that deer and antelope fawn mortality increased substantially only a few years after coyote control efforts stopped, because coyotes filled the void left by those taken out of the population. When coyote numbers fall, they tend to produce larger litters to make up for the decrease in adults. And other coyotes will move in from surrounding areas. Killing a couple of coyotes in a single season will likely have little noticeable effect on your deer numbers or the quality of the bucks.

You can read the whole piece from Whitetail Journal here.

In Kansas there is no closed season on coyotes and they can be killed in a variety of ways including running them with dogs. Over the years I’ve tried several times to call them in the late fall or winter when their coats are thicker and I’m bored. I’ve had very little sucess. I suspect that they’ve been hunted hard by that time of year and dumb ones are all dead. For me it’s much easier to find them like this (from last week’s turkey hunt):

Then do like the hunter quoted at the beginning and wait until all your likely turkey opportunities have resolved themselves:

Here’s a piece of bad news that I had in my email inbox today:

The number of deer hunting licenses in North Dakota this fall will be down 19 percent from last year and the lowest in almost a decade.

But hopefully it is more a reflection of tough winters than of decreasing interest in hunting because, lets face it, if we can’t keep hunters in North Dakota (where there’s not much else to do) what hope do we have in settled states?

The rest is here.