We are thrilled to announce that for the sixth year in a row, Sports Afield was selected as one of License! Global magazine’s Top Global Licensors. License! Global magazine is the leading publication in the brand-name industry. The editors compile a list of the top global brands each year. We came in at No. 54 for 2021, and it’s exciting to be ranked among Coca-Cola, NASCAR, Major League Baseball, National Geographic, and Lamborghini. Our thanks go out to the network of Sports Afield Trophy Properties brokers, the Sports Afield Consumer Product company, and all the members of Team SA and SATP for their hard work in building and promoting this wonderful brand.

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Rocky Mountain goats are magnificent game animals and challenging to hunt.

In the grand scheme of things, hunt plans going awry isn’t particularly important. But, in the spring and summer of 2020, I’m sure most of us saw a lot of carefully-laid plans crumble into viral-ridden dust. It was late May when I got an unexpected surprise: I drew a Rocky Mountain goat tag in Montana, north of Yellowstone Park. This would be great news in any year, but it was especially welcome in this year of pandemic panic.

I made a lot of mistakes when I was young, but among the smart things I did was to start applying for hard-to-draw permits when I was still in my twenties. That was before preference points and bonus points. So, when these systems came in, I was often in on the ground floor. Mind you, in the 1970s I couldn’t afford to apply for all the permits I wanted, but I started with desert sheep in Arizona and Nevada. I still haven’t drawn in Nevada, but I drew in Arizona–thirty years later!

Over time, I added other applications, but I wasn’t systematic. Sometimes I couldn’t afford the downstroke (which is refunded if you don’t draw). Other times I just forgot. So, in 1991, I did another very smart thing: I threw my applications in with United States Outfitters (USO) out of Taos, New Mexico, when they started the first-ever computerized tag application service. Today there are several such services. I can’t compare them because I’ve stayed with USO, but I’m certain that using such a service gives consistency, and for sure has paid off: Three sheep tags, two Shiras moose tags, three Arizona elk tags, and more.

I don’t apply everywhere for everything, but I’ve been in the Montana goat draw since 1991. So, twenty-nine years later, out of a very gray sky, our mail carrier brought a surprise.

I’ve hunted the Rocky Mountain goat up in British Columbia several times, so I don’t really need another one. I don’t apply widely for our big white goats, but I’ve stayed in the Montana draw for two reasons. Both are weird and personal but, so long as our reasons make sense to us, who cares if they seem rational to anyone else?

In 1990, Jack Atcheson Jr. and I hunted bighorn sheep in one of Montana’s high, rough “unlimited permit” areas, a charming and aptly named place called Froze to Death Plateau. On one side the rim drops to a precipitous face, and we watched several goats cavorting happily on near-vertical rock. They gave us a wonderful show, and I thought it would be cool to hunt there.

It got more interesting when I learned that these were original, native-range goats. The Rocky Mountain goat has been successfully introduced into suitable habitat in many areas, including Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, and the Black Hills, and has done well. However, the Yellowstone Park region is pretty much the southern extent of their natural range. So, in the Lower 48, goats are native only to western Montana, Idaho, and Washington’s Cascades. This doesn’t matter; goats are goats, but a native-range Lower 48 goat sounded especially fun. I stayed in the draw, and now I have a permit.

At this writing the hunt is two months out, so my focus is on getting in shape and, of course, deciding on the perfect rifle and load. I have no idea what the hunt will be like. Maybe we’ll see goats, maybe we won’t…but I expect we will. I’ve hooked up with Ryan Counts of Dome Mountain Ranch, a young horse outfitter near my hunt unit. I’ve hunted goats both ways, by horseback and purely on foot. The older I get, the more interesting horse hunts become. However, my experience has been that a lot of goat country is too rough for horses. Sooner or later you have to tie the horses and climb.

So, there are trade-offs, but I doubt this goat hunt will be significantly different from the goat hunts I’ve done in British Columbia. Typically, I expect goat hunting to be more successful than sheep hunting. In areas where both species occur, goats are generally not as numerous, but are more stationary. Older billies are likely to hang out in a certain area, usually rough and steep, that has a bit of grass (they don’t need much) and security. Find a billy and figure an approach and your chances are pretty good, especially if you can find a way to come in from above.

There are challenges. Good goat country often starts where sheep country stops! Elevation doesn’t matter so much, but goats thrive in cliffy stuff where sheep won’t tread. Before planning an approach, you have to find a goat in a spot where recovery is safely possible. Goats are tougher than sheep. If strength remains, even a well-hit goat will drive for the nastiest, most vertical escape.

A couple of years ago, Donna and I were hunting goats with Ron Fleming’s Love Brothers and Lee outfit in northern B.C. Her goat, a fine billy, was down on gentle shale. And then it made one final kick and started to roll…end over end, for a thousand yards! We got lucky; after just a few revolutions the steep slope was mostly grass. Although the lovely white coat wasn’t white anymore, the horns were intact. In Central B.C.’s Chilcotin Range a friend of mine shot a goat perfectly in a little saddle. We watched in horror as it started to roll…and then slid under a glacier! We recovered it with great difficulty, but one horn was broken off at the base and we never found it.

An older billy can be a large animal, up to three hundred pounds. However, it is strength, not size, that makes our goats tough. Also, they are slab-sided, thin through the shoulders. The answer isn’t a bigger gun. I’m perfectly happy with a .270 or any 7mm, but it’s best to shoot on the shoulder to break bone, and I want a bullet that will open up and do damage, not just punch through. And, no matter what the first shot looks like, be prepared to shoot again quickly. There will be dangerous escape cover nearby, and your goat will head there if it possibly can.

The other thing about our Rocky Mountain goat:  They are very devil to judge, much more difficult than any sheep. Unlike sheep, both billies and nannies have similar horns. The first challenge is to sex them. Nannies can have longer horns, but bases are thinner. Truth is, this is very subtle! Because of this, both sexes are almost always legal, and there’s no shame in taking a big, lone, long-horned nanny. But the goal is a mature billy and it’s not easy. Billies are often alone, and frequently will have a yellowish cast to the coat, but this is not consistent. Male sex organs are usually obscured by long hair, so the only surefire visual evidence of sex is: Billies have a black, pad-like gland at the rear base of the horns. With binoculars you better be close, but the black gland will usually stand out against the white hair through a good spotting scope.

Determining sex is only half the problem, and not the most difficult half. Accurately judging size is worse. The Rocky Mountain goat got seriously cheated in the horn department. Fortunately, the gorgeous, flowing white coat is at least half the prize. A billy is “shootable” at something over eight inches. Only an inch of horn differentiates OK from good, and it’s only another inch to spectacular! This is complicated by the fact that horns are in synch with body and head size. A young, lone billy will fool you (as will a lone mature nanny). There is no guide or hunter with significant experience who hasn’t misjudged a goat. Fortunately, it’s a matter of pride, not a legal issue.

Because of visibility, specific habitat, and the ease of determining legal animals, goat hunting is fairly successful, and a lot cheaper than sheep hunting. But goat hunting is just as difficult as sheep hunting, usually steeper, and often downright dangerous. And, the Rocky Mountain goat is a uniquely North American animal, with no close relatives anywhere in the world. Standing on a lonely crag, wind blowing his coat, a billy is magnificent. I look forward to hunting him in Montana. I’ve waited a long time for this tag.

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Not only famous outdoor writers, but politicians, novelists, and entertainers have graced our pages over the decades.

Photo above: Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970), the novelist who created the Perry Mason detective series, was also a frequent contributor to Sports Afield.

Throughout its 133-year history, Sports Afield has published the writings of the nation’s top outdoor experts, conservationists, and gunwriters. Not only that, but articles and stories by U.S. presidents, senators, novelists, captains of industry, and even a famous burlesque entertainer have graced our pages over the years. Below is a list of a few of the more famous names who have had articles published in Sports Afield since its founding.

Russell Annabel: (1904-1979) Alaska’s best known outdoor writer, author of more than 300 articles over 40 years.

Peter Beard: (1938-2020) Artist, photographer, and writer. Author of The End of the Game.

Nash Buckingham: (1880-1971) One of the most widely read and best-loved outdoor writers of his time; authority on upland birds and waterfowl.

Charles Cottar: (d. 1939) Famous African professional hunter and safari operator.

Erle Stanley Gardner: (1889-1970) Famous novelist and mystery writer known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories.

Grits Gresham: (1922-2008) Internationally known sportsman, author, and TV personality. Host of ABC’s The American Sportsman from 1966 to 1979.

Zane Grey: (1872-1939) Famous novelist known for his Western adventure stories. Author of Riders of the Purple Sage.

Jim Harrison: (1937-2016) Poet, novelist, and essayist; author of more than three dozen books, including Legends of the Fall.

Randolph A. Hearst: (1915-2000) Publishing executive, son of William Randolph Hearst.

Ernest Hemingway: (1899-1961) World famous author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

Patrick Hemingway: (b. 1928) Former African safari operator, manager of the intellectual property of his father, Ernest Hemingway.

Herbert Hoover: (1874-1964) President of the United States, 1929-1933.

Dr. Frank Hibben: (1910-2002) Archeologist, professor at University of New Mexico, Weatherby Award winner.

Gene Hill: (1928-1997) Beloved writer of outdoor tales, especially involving dogs and upland birds

Hubert Humphrey: (1911-1978) Vice President of the United States, 1965-1969; Senator from Minnesota, 1949-1964 and 1971-1978.

John Jobson: (d. 1979) Pillar of Sports Afield for 27 years; camping editor for 16 years and hunting editor for 11.

Robert F. Jones: (1934-2002) Novelist, journalist, outdoor writer for Sports Illustrated.

Elmer Keith: (1899-1984) Gunwriter instrumental in the development of magnum handgun cartridges.

Gypsy Rose Lee: (1911-1970) Burlesque entertainer, actress, and author.

Nick Lyons: Founder of Lyons Press, well-known publisher of fishing and outdoor books.

John Madson (1923-1995): Conservationist, journalist, and proponent of tallgrass prairie ecosystems.

Gordon Macquarrie (1900-1956): Oudoor writer known for literary-minded short stories on hunting and fishing and his fictional Old Duck Hunters’ Association.

Thomas McGuane: (b. 1939) Novelist, essayist, member of the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame.

Annie Oakley: (1860-1926) Sharpshooter, star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Jack O’Connor: (1902-1978) Author and outdoorsman known for his extensive knowledge of hunting and shooting and for being a proponent of the .270 Winchester.

Sigurd F. Olson: (1899-1982) Author, wilderness guide, and champion of wilderness protection.

Roy Rogers: (1911-1998) Famous actor and singer, one of the most popular Western stars of his era. Known as “The King of the Cowboys.”

P.J. O’Rourke: (b. 1947) Political satirist, humor writer.

Jimmy Robinson: (1896-1986) Longtime Sports Afield writer and editor, shotgunning expert, founder of ATA Hall of Fame, instrumental in the founding of Ducks Unlimited.

Archibald Rutledge: (1883-1973) Author of books and poems about hunting and life in South Carolina. Poet Laureate of South Carolina from 1934 to 1973.

Harry Selby: (1925-2018) African professional hunter best known for guiding Robert Ruark.

Ted Trueblood: (1913-1983) Outdoor writer and editor, conservationist.

Guy de la Valdene (b. 1944) Writer, photographer, filmmaker (Tarpon, 1974), author of For a Handful of Feathers.

Col. Townsend Whelen: (1877-1961) Hunter, soldier, writer, and rifleman, author of more than 2,000 magazine articles on shooting and the outdoors, developer of the .35 Whelen.

Lee Wulff: (1905-1991) Angler, author, outfitter, and conservationist who made significant contributions to the sport of fly fishing and the conservation of Atlantic salmon.

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Craig Boddington honors one of his heroes, Robert “Pete” Petersen, during a special hunt in New Mexico.

Photo above: Robert E. “Pete” Petersen with a fine lechwe taken in Zambia.

Living legends are so rare that not all of us will encounter even one. It’s probably more unusual when the legend turns out to be 100 percent genuine. Robert E. “Pete” Petersen (1926-2007) was the real deal. Mr. Petersen, as I called him, made a business and a fortune from his passions– cars, guns, and hunting. He is perhaps best known for the Petersen Automotive Museum, and for his publishing empire. Many of the magazines he launched still bear his name. It’s not as well-known that, after the final sale of Petersen Publishing Company (and within minutes of the expiration of his non-competition clause), Pete was also the owner and custodian of this time-honored title, Sports Afield, which he managed for a two-year period together with his friend and long-time right hand, Ken Elliott (1940-2019).

As his business became successful, Pete could have any firearm he wanted, and his gun collection was amazing; after his death, a large portion of it went to the NRA, with some of the highlights on display. But there was collecting, and there was hunting; in the field Pete rarely used ornate firearms from his collection, relying instead upon old friends he trusted. To celebrate the sale of his company and his seventieth birthday in 1996, Pete went on safari to Zambia, and Ken Elliott and I joined him there, together with Pete’s ranch manager, Gary Williams, and renowned wildlife artist Doug Van Howd. Pete had a .22 Hornet; he almost always took a Hornet to Africa. For larger plains game he had a .300 Jarrett. For buffalo he had his old standby, the wildcat .460 G&A by George Hoenig. Ken had a .460 G&A Short built by Jack Lott, and his .257 Weatherby.

Among many common interests, Ken and Pete were both quarter-bore fans. Although he didn’t take it on that trip, one of Pete’s pet rifles in later years was a thumbhole-stocked rifle John Lazzeroni built for him. It was chambered to the ultimate .25-caliber, Lazzeroni’s 6.53 (.257) Scramjet, fastest its class, pushing a 100-grain bullet at 3700 feet per second.

At this point in his life Pete could hunt anywhere he chose, but he wasn’t a collector. He appreciated nice animals, but he loved most the pursuit, and there was no ranking in his mind. He loved hunting ducks and valley quail, and he’d crawl through the California chaparral on hands and knees shooting ground squirrels. He used that Scramjet to take several spectacular pronghorns and deer on his ranch. Regrettably, Pete suffered a series of health issues, and he never returned to Africa after that 1996 hunt.

Some time after Pete’s passing, John Lazzeroni saw a couple boxes of 6.53 (.257) Scramjet ammunition for sale on the internet at a good price. On delivery, he was shocked to discover it was ammo he’d loaded for Pete, with “Loaded for Robert Petersen” on the end flaps. That sparked an idea. John Lazzeroni likes thumbhole stocks. I do not but, after all, how many left-handed thumbholes have I seen? A wrong-sided thumbhole is almost impossible to use! So, “Lazz” built me a thumbhole Scramjet identical to the one he’d made for Pete, the idea being that Ken Elliott, Lazz, and I, all sharing serious hero worship for Bob Petersen, would go hunting with Pete’s ammo, and raise glasses in his honor.

Great idea, but Ken was dealing with the cancer that would eventually kill him. We discussed hogs in California or something in Texas, but Ken couldn’t travel, and in late 2019 we lost him. By now we’d delayed the planned hunt for years, and then came the pandemic lockdown. In the spring, as things started to open up, Lazz said he knew of some feral hogs in southern New Mexico. Perfect! I was planning on driving to Phoenix to see my daughter; Lazz lives in Tucson, so I could swing down, and we could socially distance our way over to New Mexico.

Mind you, I was skeptical; there are many unknown pockets of feral hogs, but I’d not heard of any in New Mexico. As we neared the target area, I got even more suspicious, because the dry Southwest terrain didn’t look like hog habitat. But, sure enough, it was real. The population is neither widespread nor large, but there were pigs. We found them in brush around huge irrigation pivots, wallowing in wet spots and living in disconcerting harmony with cattle, something I’ve never seen before.

I insisted John have first shot with Pete’s ammo and “his” rifle. We glassed a couple of boars near a shallow waterhole and managed a stalk on a hot afternoon, the pigs snoozing away next to the cool mud. We got pretty close, but the depression was so shallow and the pigs were so comfy that there wasn’t anything to shoot at. Busting them out wasn’t an option, because there were cattle behind, so we had to watch the shot angles and use the depression as a backstop. The best course was to wait them out, which kept Lazz ready on the rifle in hot sun for a long time, one of those deals where I was very happy it was his shot!

The depression was deeper than it appeared, and there was a third boar that we hadn’t seen. We had a strong wind in our faces, but one big spotted boar got nervous. We lost him in an unseen furrow, and then he stuck his head up. The Ballistic Tip was still going Mach III when it entered at the base of his ear. Pete would have been proud of his cartridge and the shot.

Using other Lazzeroni cartridges, we shot another big boar that evening, and a couple more the next day. Lazz had a full-size freezer hooked up in his truck, able to be plugged in overnight. We skinned and quartered the pigs at the ranch headquarters, and by the time we got back to Tucson, the meat was frozen.

But the point of the hunt was, and is, to honor Bob Petersen, so let me tell you a couple of things about the Chief. Pete was smart, tough, and fair, a wonderful guy to work for. Hot Rod magazine was his first, printed in his garage, and he passed it out at local races. When the Korean War broke out, Pete was in the Air Force Reserve and had orders to report. His business was just starting to take off and he figured this would be the end of it; he had his duffel packed and was on his way when his orders were cancelled.

By the time the first Gulf War erupted, Petersen Publishing was a large company, with all the trappings. But there was no policy covering what the company would do if an employee was called to active duty. No reason there should be–at that time, there hadn’t been a reserve callup for forty years. Bob Petersen established the policy himself. I was the only employee activated, and Petersen Publishing took good care of my family. Pete told me he figured that, if his orders to Korea had gone through, Petersen Publishing Company would not have happened, and he never forgot. I’ll never forget, either!

During the years I worked at Petersen’s ,I did some bird hunting with Pete, and some prairie dog shooting, which he loved. But until the Zambia trip I’d never hunted big game with Pete. Early on, I’d been warned: “If you ever go hunting with the Chief, do not shoot a bigger animal than he does . . . or you’re finished around here!” I had no way to know if this was true, but it was accepted as an article of faith. After all, I was just one of a couple dozen magazine editors, so our relationship, though friendly and comfortable, was respectful and professional.

We flew into Lusaka in the morning and chartered to Bangweulu, arriving just after lunch. We had divvied up licenses; only Pete and I had sitatunga permits. PH Austin Wienand suggested we drop our gear quickly, get organized, check rifles, and go to machans. Pete had a sore knee, so they put me in a pole blind some distance in the swamp, Pete in another closer to the edge. I doubt if I’d been in the blind an hour when a huge sitatunga stepped out of some papyrus. I shot without hesitation—it was a great bull. Then I realized: Pete was unlikely to see one this size, so I’d just committed career suicide! Worse, by the time we recovered the animal it was almost dark, so I was keeping the Chairman of the Board waiting in the evening chill, swatting hordes of mosquitoes.

When we got back to the truck, with my sitatunga slung on a pole, Pete was waiting with a flashlight, wanting to see it–and he was soon lying in the mud, happily taking pictures. “Turn the horns just a bit. Wait, let me get one more!” I was not in trouble–far from it!–and that legend was pure BS. Bob Petersen was a real hunter, and he loved every minute of it–win, lose, or draw. He would have gotten a huge kick out of John Lazzeroni’s “pandemic pig hunt.”

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A primer on the most sought-after game animals of the world’s largest continent.

Photo above: When it comes to horn length, the Marco Polo argalis are the world champions.

If you’ve ever dreamed of hunting wild sheep, you probably know about the four North American varieties—Dall, Stone, Rocky Mountain bighorn, and desert bighorn. But it’s Asia, with its towering peaks and remote ranges, that is often considered the true sheep hunter’s mecca. How much do you know about the many types of sheep that live on the world’s largest continent? Here’s a primer on the major categories of Asian sheep.

The argalis are the biggest, baddest, and most impressive sheep in the world. When explorer Marco Polo described the size of their horns after returning from his travels in Asia, people scoffed. But these sheep are plenty real, living throughout the high-altitude open valleys and lofty plateaus of central Asia. Argali is the Mongolian word for sheep, and if you’re looking for superlatives, two types stand out. The Altai argali is, in body size, the biggest sheep in the world, weighing 450 pounds or more. James L. Clark, in The Great Arc of the Wild Sheep, called the Altai argali, which lives in the Altai mountains of Mongolia, the “king of kings of all sheep.” But if it’s horn length you’re after, look no further than Marco Polo’s namesake variety, also called Pamir argali. The Marco Polo argali of Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and western China grows the longest horns of any sheep, with the world record curling a stunning 75 inches around. Rowland Ward recognizes a dozen different varieties of argalis and SCI recognizes fourteen, with variations in body and horn size throughout their range as well as differences in pelage, with some growing a large white neck ruff in winter. Argalis are found in the central Asian countries of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, and Kazakhstan, as well as into Mongolia, China, India, and Tibet. Besides the Altai and Marco Polo, varieties of argalis include the Gobi, Kara Tau, Karaganda, Kuruk Tagh, Littledale, Gansu, Sair, Severtozov, Tian Shan, and Tibetan.

The smallest varieties of the wild sheep are mouflons and urials, which are closely related. Depending on which source you consult, they are either the same species or two separate ones, and biologists don’t even agree on exact scientific names.  While they may look and act similar, each variety of mouflon and urial is found in different regions and habitats, which makes the pursuit of the different types a most interesting one.

Mouflon (Ovis gmelini) are the smallest of all the wild sheep, ranging from 70 to 140 pounds on average, but they’re arguably the prettiest—or, as James L. Clark puts it, the “best dressed,” with a white saddle patch and white rump patch, and a neck ruff. Many urials also have a rump patch and neck ruff; they also have a white bib and may or may not have a saddle patch. Most hunting authorities recognize Anatolian, Armenian, Cyprus, Esfahan, and Laristan varieties of mouflons. In Asia, mouflons can be found in Turkey, Armenia, and Iran. They are native to the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean and have been introduced in Europe and other regions.

As you move slightly farther east in Asia, you’ll find the urials (Ovis vignei). These are the second-smallest of the wild sheep after mouflon, and they dwell at relatively low elevations compared with argalis. Horn shape in both mouflons and urials varies quite a bit. Most mouflons have horns that curl horizontally toward the back of the head. Urials such as the Blanford and Punjab varieties have horns that curl in a wide arc outward on either side of the head like cup handles, and others, such as the Afghan and Transcaspian urials, have horns that curl forward, more like those of a bighorn.

Rowland Ward recognizes the Afghan urial, Transcaspian urial, Blanford urial, Punjab urial, and Ladakh urial. Two “in-between” sheep, red sheep and Kerman sheep, are considered to be mouflon/urial hybrids.

Hunters used to spotting bighorns in the American West or Dall sheep in Alaska will quickly recognize the similarities between these North American sheep and their cousins that inhabit the rugged mountains of Russia. Snow sheep, also called Asiatic bighorns (Ovis nivicola), are about the size of Dall sheep and have similar horns, but are grayish in body color and have shaggier, woolier coats adapted to the harsh winters of northern Siberia. There are three generally recognized varieties of snow sheep. The most widespread are the Siberian snow sheep, which are sometimes broken into several subcategories; Kamchatka snow sheep, found on the Kamchatka Peninsula; and Putorana snow sheep, found in an isolated population in north-central Siberia.

Wait, aren’t there also wild sheep on the “roof of the world”—the Himalayas? Yes—and, well, no. The Himalayan blue sheep, which has horns that curve horizontally outward, then down and back, is classified as a “pseudo sheep”—an animal with the biological characteristics of both sheep and goats. That explains its scientific name, Pseudois nayaur. There are two other types of pseudo-sheep in Asia, both of them found in China: the Chinese blue sheep and the pygmy or dwarf blue sheep. The Himalayan blue sheep, or bharal, can be hunted in Nepal, and it’s one of the greatest challenges on Earth for the dedicated mountain hunter, for this “sheep” is found at incredibly high altitudes, often in excess of 18,000 feet. You will have to climb higher to successfully hunt a Himalayan blue sheep than any other mountain game.

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Even during a pandemic, hunters have not stopped caring about and working for wildlife.

Photo above by Vic Schendel

As hunters, we know how crucial wildlife and natural habitats are to the human condition, perhaps now more than ever. And while it’s understandable that wildlife conservation may take a back seat to other concerns during a health and economic crisis, it’s important that this work continues. Unfortunately, funding for conservation is not immune to the economic carnage that is taking place as a result of the current pandemic. The work of hunter-funded conservation organizations is crucial to these efforts, but 2020 is shaping up to be a challenging year for these groups.

Dozens of chapters of Ducks Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, DSC, Safari Club International, Mule Deer Foundation, and Wild Sheep Foundation, among many others, hold their fundraisers and banquets in the spring. This year, many were forced to cancel the events that raise the majority of their funding. As a result, some have had to cut costs and re-examine their budgets.

Although these cancelled or curtailed fundraisers have left many organizations in a difficult position, most don’t want to sound tone-deaf by sending out pleas for cash at a time when many of their members have also been affected by job losses and economic hardship. So if your own situation permits, this is a great time to send an extra donation or two to your favorite conservation group. If you’re able to, buy some merchandise or raffle tickets, or even treat a hunting partner or youngster you know to the gift of a membership. Not everyone is in a position to do these things right now, but if you are, your help will make a huge difference.

There are dire conservation needs overseas as well. In Africa and Asia, the absence of hunters, guides, and game officials in the field has led to a huge increase in poaching, as well as pressures on local communities and huge disruptions to the livelihoods of guides and outfitters who do so much to protect vulnerable wildlife species. The DSC Foundation’s Hunters CARE initiative is addressing this by providing a rapid-response fund that quickly disburses resources to hunting operators to continue their antipoaching operations. (For details, go to dscf.org)

Crises, difficult as they are, often bring out the best in human nature, and a silver lining in this pandemic is how many people have stepped up to say, “How can I help?” Wildlife as well as people need our support now, and in a time when our front-line workers are so crucial to our daily lives, hunters have always been, and will continue to be, the front-line workers for conservation.

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New legislation is a big deal for hunters and others who love the outdoors.

Photo above by Vic Schendel

On August 4, President Trump signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act. This legislation is being called one of the most important conservation initiatives since Theodore Roosevelt’s time, and the greatest commitment to increasing public access and conservation in a generation. It’s unusual to find legislation that is not only bipartisan but also overwhelmingly championed by groups as diverse as Safari Club International, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the American Hiking Society, the National Governor’s Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Boone and Crockett Club, and many others.

The new law does two major things: One, it provides full, dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Act (LWCF) starting in FY 2021. Two, it allocates funding to remedy maintenance backlogs on public lands, including national parks, national forests, and BLM lands.

An article in The Hill prior to its passage put it this way: “Big picture, passage of the Great American Outdoors Act would fund countless shovel-ready projects all over the United States, such as repairing roads, trails, bridges and water structures, that would sustain important habitat, increase public access opportunities and get people back to work. This work would bolster America’s robust $778 billion outdoor recreation economy, the source of jobs and a contributor to healthy communities throughout the nation. Countless reasons to support the bill exist, including its diverse appeal across the political spectrum.”

The Land and Water Conservation Act (LWCF), although not well known to the general public, is one of the most important funding mechanisms for public lands and parks all over the country. LWCF was created in 1965. It dedicates a small portion of the royalties produced by oil and gas production on the Outer Continental Shelf for conservation and recreation purposes. It uses no taxpayer dollars. Over its 52-year history, LWCF has contributed some $16 billion for lands and parks in all 50 states, making it the nation’s most important conservation and recreation funding source. Not only have LWCF funds helped purchase large chunks of public land, they have paid for baseball fields, playgrounds, and swimming pools in small towns and inner cities; the idea was to ensure that all Americans would have access to outdoor spaces and recreation.

The LWCF had one problem: It was originally supposed to distribute $900 million a year to states for conservation and recreation funding, but it’s only met that goal twice in its 52-year history. The rest of the time, some of its funds have been sneakily diverted by Congress for other purposes. Thanks to the Great American Outdoors Act, that shouldn’t happen again. The legislation makes the $900 million from the LWCF fund off-limits to those who want to get their hands on it—something that conservation groups of all stripes have been trying to accomplish for years.

The maintenance backlog segment of the Great American Outdoors Act is another much-needed piece of the outdoor recreation puzzle, as anyone who has warily approached a crumbling restroom in a forest service campground can attest. This will provide $9.5 billion over five years, with 70 percent allocated to the National Park Service and 15 percent for the U.S. Forest Service. The remainder of that money will be split equally between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Bureau of Indian Education.

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Remembering a well-known painter of wildlife art and historic hunting scenes.

The world of wildlife art lost one of its giants with the recent passing of John Seerey-Lester of Osprey, Florida.  Born and raised in England, John relocated to America in 1980.  He loved his adopted country and became a citizen in 2012.  He is survived by his wife, Suzie, and his son, John Jr.

With work hanging in the White House, as well as museum collections, private homes, and assemblages all around the world, John Seerey-Lester is world-renowned as one of the top wildlife artists on the planet.  He was known for his mystical and mysterious animals, and was frequently called “The Godfather of Wildlife Art.”

John was constantly changing his game, and several years ago he started the “Legends of the Hunt” book series.  He wrote all the true stories and he created over 100 images for each of the three books (Legends of the Hunt, Campfire Tales, and The Legendary Hunts of Theodore Roosevelt).  His fourth book, Legendary Hunters and Explorers, will be published later this year. John’s favorite subject to paint was Theodore Roosevelt, and he was the preeminent modern-day painter of the former president.

He was knighted by His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Andreas of Austria for his work in conservation.  He and his wife, Suzie, received the Simon Combes Award for Conservation in 2014 from Artists for Conservation. The Society of Animal Artists presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.  He also received the NRA’s Hunter’s Leadership Forum Award for his work in conservation. 

John was generous with his time and talents. He has been Master or Featured Artist for nearly every major wildlife show both in the US and the UK over the past forty-two years.  He and Suzie taught wilderness wildlife workshops for the past twenty years, helping new artist as well as professional artists become better at their craft.

John was known for his gifts to conservation and the organizations that were important to him. He was honored to be part of the Boone and Crockett Club, Campfire Club of America, NRA-ILA and NRA-HLF, Artists for Conservation, St. Hubertus, and the Society of Animal Artists, just to name a few organizations.

John was truly a force to be reckoned with. His sketchbooks and sketchpads are filled with ideas that were yet to be painted. His passion was painting, every waking second of the day.  His legacy will continue.

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Rowland Ward is looking for avid hunting enthusiasts to join its team of certified measurers.

No record book can thrive without a dedicated, devoted group of measurers. These are the honest, hard-working people whose efforts gather the data that is published every four years by Rowland Ward in the oldest and most comprehensive database of game measurements found anywhere.

The modern network of Rowland Ward measurers was established shortly after World War II. Before that time, all trophies were measured in the Rowland Ward studio in London, and by a handful of appointed agents around the world. By 1962, some 70 official measurers had been appointed in Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Asia. Since those days, the numbers have grown to hundreds of individuals worldwide. There are official measurers in 62 different countries and in most U.S. states and Canadian provinces. 

Many measurers are hunting enthusiasts and life-long hunters who make their living in a non-hunting field such as engineering or medicine; others work in the hunting industry as taxidermists, guides, outfitters, and custom gun makers. The job is a volunteer one, but all who participate find it very rewarding. Measurers are the ambassadors of the sport we love so much, big-game hunting. Being a measurer is an excellent way of keeping in contact with your fellow hunters in your area, and you are almost certain to see some very large trophies from the four corners of the Earth over time, as well as visit some fantastic collections and trophy rooms. The work broadens the measurer’s personal knowledge base of animals. In addition to being an enjoyable pastime, however, measuring efforts have a larger goal: to keep a physical record and biological history of game animals around the world.

To become a measurer, a person must have a clean record and pass an exam. Rowland Ward has a total of 19 main methods of measuring, plus a number of sub-methods. Most measurements are relatively simple to do; unlike other measuring systems, Rowland Ward avoids measuring all tines on such animals as moose and caribou, which is extremely time-consuming.  All measurement instructions are posted online, as are the method forms.

Rowland Ward measurers get other perks: access to discounted prices on all copies of Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game and discounted subscription pricing for Sports Afield, which carries the latest Rowland Ward news in each issue.

Interested in becoming an official measurer for Rowland Ward? Contact Carrie Zrelak at Rowland Ward: [email protected].

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A South American whitetail shatters the world record.

Photo above: Ricardo Guardia Vazquez with his huge South American whitetail, taken in Venezuela.

The white-tailed deer is considered a quintessential North American game animal; its antlers are unique and have a distinct main beam from which tines mostly grow upward, a configuration not seen in any other deer species, and together with their cousin the mule deer, they form a unique genus in the deer family of the world.  Everybody knows they occur in Canada, the continental US, and northern Mexico, but fewer people realize that they are found throughout Mexico and from there into Central America. Whitetail populations are also known to extend all the way into northern Bolivia, thousands of miles south of the US border. Some authorities claim they can be found well into Brazil as far south as the Argentinean border, but this is not widely accepted.

Very little is known to North American hunters about the “tropical whitetail,” which is a catchall phrase applied to all whitetails from southern Mexico to central South America. They are smaller in body and antler size than the more Northern populations, but the exact number of subspecies is in dispute. South America is unique in that is has two distinctly isolated populations: one along its northern West Coast close to the Pacific, and another that runs parallel to the first but more inland and at higher elevations. Elsewhere, whitetails are more or less found in a continuous population from northern Brazil all the way to the Yukon.

Rowland Ward recognizes four categories of white tailed deer; North American, Coues, Central American, and South American.  Since so little is known about the more southern races, this seems to be a sensible division at this point in time. 

Recently Rowland Ward received a tremendous entry from Venezuela by Ricardo Guardia Vazquez for a South American white-tailed deer that shattered the previous record. With main beams of 16 1/8 and 13 inches and an inside spread of 12 3/8, this deer does not seem very big to a Canadian hunter albeit a Coues deer nimrod would consider it a respectable buck.  However, in South America, this is a top head and, in fact, the biggest ever recorded in Rowland Ward. The typical frame on this buck is a 3×3 with a non-typical point on the right side for a total score of 97 3/8. 

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