Fair Chase Magazine - Free Articles

By Robert D. Brown, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from the Summer 2018 issue of Fair Chase A few years ago I published an article in Fair Chase titled, “I’ve Walked the Line...Have You?” (Summer 2007). In that article, I provided figures on the slippery slope of gravitating from being a true...

By Kasey Rahn Boone and Crockett Fellow Alejandra Zubiria Perez uses collaborative data sharing to shed light on wolves in the Great Lakes. Zubiria Perez backpacking in her free time in Strathcona Provincial Park, British Columbia. Photo credit: Megan Lapstra In certain circles, mentioning wolves...

Traveling Hunter By Craig Boddington, B&C Professional Member Article from Summer 2024 issue of Fair Chase Great game country in northern Cameroon…but this isn’t the Serengeti or a South African game ranch. Wildlife is thinly dispersed and you’ll work hard for every shot. Described as a...

Thinking of my latest trip to western Washington to pursue Roosevelt’s elk, a thought from a Spanish philosopher long since past echoes in my mind. Excerpt from Fall 2020 Fair Chase Magazine By Everett Headley, B&C Official Measurer, photos courtesy of author and Kyle M. Lehr Jose Ortega y...

Passion: a strong and barely controllable emotion. Excerpt from Winter 2020 Fair Chase Magazine By Kyle Russell photos courtesy of author Outside the camp area near banco Julian, New Mexico If you know anything about “PA” hunters, you’ll know many of us are passionate about deer and hunting. As a...

North Americans are beyond fortunate in our ability to experience native wildlife and wild places. Excerpt from Winter 2018 Fair Chase Magazine By Justin Spring, B&C Professional Member, photos courtesy of author Whether the name Grey Ghost was coined by the late Jack O’Connor, whose adventures...

In 2001 Craig Kirkman took this 163-1/8 typical whitetail deer in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A legal antlered deer at that time had to have one antler longer than three inches, or had at least one antler with two or more points, and 80% of harvested antlered deer were only 1.5 years old. In 2002...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Gordon Batcheller still hunting for moose in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Excerpt from Fall 2019 issue of Fair Chase In the last issue of Fair Chase , I wrote about how we may transform the way we communicate the results of hunting...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Summer 2016 issue of Fair Chase Occasionally I go to my bookcase and pick an issue from the first volume of the Journal of Wildlife Management , published in 1937, and peruse it. The wildlife conservation movement in North...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Fall 2015 issue of Fair Chase Aldo Leopold wrote “One of the anomalies of modern ecology is the creation of two groups, each of which seems barely aware of the existence of the other. The one studies the human community,...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Spring 2015 issue of Fair Chase My good friend Curtis Taylor, West Virginia’s State Fish and Wildlife Director, tells it this way: his cousin Ditto, so named by his parents becausehewasthespitting image of his older brother...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member © Mark Mesenko Excerpt from Fall 2018 issue of Fair Chase In the Spring 2015 issue of Fair Chase ( “A Little Help From Our Friends” ), I wrote about the Western Elk Research Collaborative and the promise it held for a greater...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Fall 2017 issue of Fair Chase It’s pretty common knowledge these days that black and grizzly bears are very efficient predators of ungulate fawns and calves. Some of the earliest published accounts of black bear predation on...

By John Organ — The issue of lead versus non-lead ammunition has been a divisive factor within the hunting and wildlife conservation community for decades. Consider this statement: “The accounts of the destruction of ducks, geese, and swans by lead-poisoning which are printed on another page bring to public attention a new element of danger to our wildfowl, and one for which a remedy will be hard to find.” This was written by George Bird Grinnell, co-founder of the Boone and Crockett Club in 1894.

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Graduate student Elizabeth Orning collared cougars in 2013 in northeast Oregon as part of the ODFW wolf monitoring program. Excerpt from Spring 2018 issue of Fair Chase Wildlife managers and hunter-conservationists have long been...

SCIENCE BLASTS By John F. Organ, B&C Professional Member Excerpt from Fall 2016 issue of Fair Chase My column in the Summer 2016 issue of Fair Chase talked about the importance of the Boone and Crockett Quantitative Wildlife Center directed by Professor Bill Porter at Michigan State University...

Old enough for Medicare, it’s been upstaged by upstarts like the 6.5 Creedmoor. But are they better?

Deer rifles once killed tougher game. Hunters now pack more muscle. What do you really need? By Wayne van Zwoll Excerpt from Fall 2018 issue of Fair Chase Three elk galloped through the lodgepoles crowding the field of my 3x Leupold. I triggered the Model 70 as the reticle passed a shoulder. The...

A unique Program Teaches College Students the Skills to Bring Game From the Field to the Plate From Spring 2017 Fair Chase By Jim Giese, Photos Courtesy of Author Seeing the grizzly was an unplanned surprise; most sightings usually are. Luke Coccoli, Boone and Crockett’s director of conservation...

By Craig Boddington — Despite the current rage for long-range shooting it’s important to remember that close shots can occur almost anywhere. Bowhunters deal with this routinely; despite the challenge, they get close! Primarily a rifle hunter, I’m usually prepared for a longish shot, but I ascribe to the motto, “Get as close as you can, then get ten yards closer!”

By Craig Boddington — When hunting alone, the outcome of any approach, opportunity, or shot is altogether between the hunter and his or her reflection in the mirror. When hunting with a guide or buddy, there might be a couple of witnesses, but ours is mostly a solitary pursuit. For many, meat on the table remains a primary and valid motivation to hunt. Today’s hunters are guided more by conscience, sense of ethics, and the drive to perform well.

Best of the Fast .30s? Excerpt from Fair Chase Magazine By Craig Boddington, regular contributor, photos courtesy of author This lineup is just a small selection of the fast .30s. Although the .300 Weatherby Magnum is not the fastest, it’s a very fast cartridge that has been a solid performer for...

By Craig Boddington — With practice, you can significantly reduce that wobble, but it’s always going to be there. In field shooting, where “almost” isn’t good enough, this is what limits the range and utility of the kneeling position. Understanding this, and understanding there are no range rules in the field, the kneeling position is ripe for modification, and when modified, may be even more useful than sitting.

Long ignored, 6.5mm cartridges now rock! Why? The 7mm clan, dear for decades, holds its breath! Excerpt from Fair Chase Magazine Winter 2016 By Wayne van Zwoll – regular contributor, photos courtesy of author Wet snow followed sleet. Wyoming wind hammered the cold through my soaked wool. I wiped...