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.
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 TheodoreRoosevelt). 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.
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].
A Rowland Ward certified measurer handles the tape in the skinning shed while a PH looks on. This will only result in a rough or “green” score, as animals must undergo a 30-day drying period before an official measurement can be taken.
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.
Records of Big Game editors answer frequently asked questions about Rowland Ward’s recordkeeping system.
Photo above: This one-horned island sitatunga, taken in Uganda, is a great example of why antelope species are ranked on a single-horn measurement in the Rowland Ward system.
Q: Why are Rowland Ward minimum scores for all antelopes
and ibex based on the length of a single horn? Now that all heads have
both horns measured, why keep the single-horn standard?
A: Rowland Ward’s Records
of Big Game has had a minimum measurement for inclusion in the book based
on a single horn since its founding in 1892. First and foremost,
ranking on one horn promotes sound conservation. Should a hunter be in the
field and see a very old kudu or ibex with its left horn broken off to a stump
and its right horn well into the 50-inch range, the animal will qualify for
Rowland Ward’s record book despite the broken horn. Such an animal has
survived predators and extreme weather and is, from a conservation point of
view, an animal that can be sustainably hunted. If the minimum score was
based on both horns, such a fine animal would not qualify and some hunters
might pass it up. (An excellent example of this is a recent entry in Records of Big Game of a tremendous
one-horned island sitatunga from Uganda.) Maintaining a record book is
done for various reasons, but encouraging sound conservation and best hunting
practices are its most important elements. To encourage this, RW
will continue its single-horn policy while at the same time recording the
lengths of both horns(when present) as well as the base measurements as
supplemental information.
An additional benefit is that this system is also easy to
understand. Walk anywhere in kudu country and point to a good male and ask your
PH, “What do you think the horns will measure?” Invariably you will be
answered with an estimate of a single measurement around the horn spiral, such
as “52 to 54 inches.”
Q: Why does Rowland Ward use the old British measurement
system of inches and pounds?
A: Rowland Ward started in the UK in the late 1800s, and at
that time it was the world’s dominant nation. Many countries continued to use
inches and pounds until well after World War II. Through an odd quirk of
history, the company has been always been based in countries that used the
British system (England, South Africa, and now the United States). While
it is true that almost the entire world is now metric (including Britain), it
is also true that a great many hunters are from the USA and they only know
inches, pounds, and gallons, which is referred to as the “standard”
system in the US.
In hunting circles, the use of inches and pounds remains
widely in use. Its usage has been around forever and it is widely understood in
North America, Africa, and great sections of Asia, even today when most of
Africa and Asia has switched to the metric system. Just like car tire rim
sizes worldwide are still in inches, many trophies are indicated in
inches. Everywhere Cape buffalo are hunted, professional hunters and
their clients talk of a “40-inch buffalo” indicating its spread. Even
with 90 percent of the world on a metric system, elephants are judged in
British pounds, with the Holy Grail being a hundred-pounder. Everybody
knows a superlative Marco Polo ram has 60 inches of horn length, and any North
American sheep with 40 inches of horn is exceptional, even though all sheep are
ranked on a cumulative point system of horn lengths, bases, and circumferences
in Rowland Ward.
For the next edition of Records
of Big Game (2023) the editors are considering publishing metric
measurements in addition to standard. All minimums online are listed both
in inches/centimeters and pounds/kilos. It’s possible the US will switch
to metric in the future, but the editors suspect hunters will still talk about a
40-inch buffalo and a 60-inch kudu long after that.
Q: Why are bases not part of the measurements on
antelopes and wild goats?
A: Rowland Ward does require the measurements of both horns
and the bases to be recorded in the book, and all these measurements are
published. The same with tusks; if there are two, both must be weighed and
recorded (as well as tusk length and circumference, which are supplemental
data). But Rowland Ward does not rank antelope on the total measurements
of the lengths and bases. While Rowland Ward has been recording base
measurements since its beginning in the early 1890s, for many antelopes, bases
are hard to measure accurately, especially spiral-horned specimens such as
eland.
For some antelopes, such as reedbucks, they are impossible to measure because of a soft pulpy base, which is a combination of skin and unformed horn that grows right above the skull at the base of the horns. This shrivels away in a matter of days after the animal dies. Measuring the length of antelope horns is not that hard and can be repeated and verified by different persons with a high degree of accuracy. On the other hand, measuring bases accurately is exponentially harder, especially for spiral-horned antelopes which have “lobed” and very uneven horn endings. The same holds true for antelopes with heavily ribbed horns.
Subhead: A Livingstone
eland taken in Mozambique in 2019 should shatter the world record.
Photo above: Cal Lamb with his record-shattering Livingstone eland.
Cal Lamb booked his first-ever African safari with Kambako Safaris in the Nyasa Reserve in northern Mozambique in September 2019. One of the greatest tracts of undeveloped land in Africa, it covers 16,200 square miles. More than half is miombo forest, with the remainder savanna and wetlands. A very remote area, it borders on Tanzania and is renowned for a variety of game including lion, leopard, elephant, and buffalo, as well as large numbers of antelopes. The reserve is bordered on three sides by hunting areas that act as buffer zones between development and the reserve proper. Cal arrived with his friend, Nick Newberry, and booking agent, Trey Sperring. His main goal was a Cape buffalo and after that, plains game. His PH on the 10-day hunt would be Paul Wellock, and Cal indicated to Paul that while he was primarily after buffalo, he would interested in in other game if there was a chance for a mature male.
And so the safari started. The hunters were up very early,
at 3:30 a.m., to be in the veld at first light. Everything moved quickly
on the first day. “This was my first chance to get into the Nyasa Reserve, which
I had heard so much about,” Cal said. “The first day did not disappoint. After
tracking our second group of dagga
boys, we got in position and shot an old bull shortly before sunset. The tone
had been set for the entire trip.”
With his main prize in the skinning shed, Cal conferred with
Paul about what to look for next. One animal that caught his attention was the
Nyasaland wildebeest, which occur only in southern Tanzania and northern
Mozambique, and have a distinctive white bar across their forehead. The
safari continued, and by the halfway point, besides the buffalo, a
wildebeest, a good suni , a hyena, a warthog, and a zebra were in the
bag. The hunters had also seen waterbuck, greater kudu, bushbuck,
and sable.
In the second half of the safari, the team decided to
concentrate on eland as they had seen tracks on several occasions. Several
days were spent looking, but no luck. The last day arrived and again
tracks of eland were found.
“At this point, we had been tracking a group of eland with
the spoor of a nice bull in the mix,” Cal said. “After following the tracks to
a watering hole, we noticed a new track that had stepped over the tracks of our
herd. This was a single lone bull, and it was clear to trackers Dalou and
Jethro that this track was extremely
fresh.”
Not only that, but the wind was now finally favorable.
Eland can be very fickle, and if they are suspicious they will often keep
moving downwind to keep tabs on who is following them. After tracking a
short distance, Dalou and Jethro slowed down and started communicating with
each other in hand signals and urgent whispers. Everybody realized the
bull must be very close; suddenly Paul picked up his binocular and stared at
one spot.
Cal said, “Next thing I know, Paul throws the shooting
sticks up and leans into my ear: ‘There he is!’ I immediately get on the scope
and can’t see a thing. I lift my head off the stock and look down Paul’s
urgently pointing arm. Now the bull comes into focus, but all I can
see is his rump. I put my head down and look through the scope and see
the bull turn broadside. However, I can’t see the bull’s head or horns at all, and there are a bunch
of saplings and small trees between me and the bull’s shoulder.
“’I can’t see his vitals very well,’ I whisper to
Paul. He retorts with, ‘Did you put a solid in?’ I had. ‘It is the final
day and this is a nice bull. Send it. Your solid will do the rest. Right
in the middle of his shoulder.’”
After the shot, the entire team rushed forward to find that
the solid bullet of Cal’s .375 shot through a small tree and hit the eland
squarely in the neck. Just to be sure, however, Cal fired a second
shot. Several wood splinters from the tree that the bullet went through
were lodged in the eland’s neck.
Immediately it was clear the animal was of extraordinary
proportions. After photos and much ogling of the hard-earned eland, it took
five hours to retrieve the truck and bring it back to recover the meat and
trophy. Once in camp, a preliminary green measurement indicated the
eland’s horns measured 49 6/8 and 51 inches.
Africa has five varieties of eland between two species, the
common and the giant elands. The eland in the Nyasa area is the
Livingstone variety of common eland. It has long been a much-sought-after
game animal for safari hunters in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and even, at one time,
Angola. The largest head ever recorded until now, taken in Zambia in
1986, had horns of 44 2/8 and 43 inches. While the 30-day drying-out
period has yet to be completed, Cal Lamb’s Livingstone eland bull looks as if
it will outscore the current largest recorded head by a significant
margin. In fact, its horns even exceed the minimum requirement for entry
into the giant eland category, which is unheard-of for common eland.
Rowland Ward and Northern Cape Professional Hunting School launch measuring classes in South Africa.
Photo above: Students at the Northern Cape Professional Hunting School.
Potential professional hunters in South Africa will now have the opportunity to learn the skills required to become official measurers for Rowland Ward on their way to becoming accredited professional hunters.
The new measuring classes are the result of a partnership between Rowland Ward Ltd. of Huntington Beach, California, and the Northern Cape Professional Hunting School (NCPHS) of Vanderkloof, NC, South Africa. NCPHS, established in 2011, is a training school for aspiring professional hunters. Its in-depth 7-month courses graduate up to 24 students per year; a separate 12-day PH course graduates up to 50 students per year. As part of its new curriculum, all PH students can now complete a course on how to measure game animals for entry in Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game, and each student will have the chance to become an official measurer after successfully passing a test.
A separate Rowland Ward measuring course will also be available to students who are not enrolled in the PH training courses. Attendees will be taught how to accurately and correctly measure all indigenous African game animals as well as introduced species.
NCPHS proprietor Mynhard Herholdt said, “We are very pleased to enter into a partnership with Rowland Ward, which has the most prestigious big-game record book series in the world, and which is widely recognized as the standard for simplicity and fairness, as well as promoting sound conservation.”
Ludo Wurfbain, publisher of Rowland Ward Ltd., said, “We cannot think of a better partner to teach the Rowland Ward measuring system in South African than Northern Cape Professional Hunting School. Their courses are intense and widely recognized as top flight in African hunting circles. Rowland Ward requires accurate and reliable measurers to continue the integrity of its measurement tables, and NCPHS will deliver with some very in-depth courses.”
For more information on these courses, contact NCPHS at [email protected], or see ncph.co.za. Anyone interested in becoming a measurer for Rowland Ward in North or South America, Europe, or Asia should contact Carrie Zrelak at [email protected].
Photo above: Sports Afield’s distinctive “hunting cabin” is a fixture at the entrance to the annual DSC convention.
Since 2009, wildlife conservation, education, and ethical hunting have been the beneficiaries of an ongoing partnership between Sports Afield, the premier big-game hunting adventure magazine, and DSC, a premier international conservation organization. A new five-year agreement, starting this year, will continue the partnership well into the next decade.
As a result of the agreement, Sports Afield will continue to be the
title sponsor of DSC’s annual convention in Dallas, Texas. Over the past
decade, the show has grown exponentially as a result of the combined marketing
efforts of both groups.
“The growth of DSC’s convention
over the years has been extremely impressive,” said Sports Afield
publisher Ludo Wurfbain. “The DSC with Sports Afield Convention and Sporting
Expo is the must-attend event for serious hunters as well as for
every major player in the hunting industry. We are especially happy with DSC’s
emphasis on fair chase and ethical hunting combined with the sound conservation
projects they fund, and we are helping to push this message to a broader
public.”
Sports Afield’s considerable reach helps bring national exposure to DSC and its
important conservation and education programs. A special section in each issue
of Sports Afield carries international hunting and conservation news
from DSC staffers and volunteers who have their finger on the pulse of the most
important developments in the hunting world.
“DSC is thrilled to continue our partnership with Sports Afield, the benchmark for
sporting magazines,” said DSC Executive Director Corey Mason. “This
partnership allows two great brands to align to further education about the
beneficial role that legal, regulated hunting plays in the conservation of
wildlife and wildlife habitat around the world.”
About Sports Afield :Sports Afield, the premier hunting adventure magazine, was founded in 1887. A high-end hunting and firearms magazine with an emphasis on North American and African big-game hunting and fine sporting firearms and equipment, it serves serious hunters who pursue big game around the world.
About DSC: DSC has become an international industry leader and innovator. An active and progressive organization for the uncompromising hunter, DSC’s mission is to ensure the conservation of wildlife through public engagement, education and advocacy for well-regulated hunting and sustainable use. Since forming in 1972, DSC has contributed millions of dollars to programs benefitting wildlife, habitat, people and the sporting community.
The DSC with Sports Afield annual convention in Dallas, Texas, is one of the premier outdoor and conservation events in the nation.
Photo above: Lois Wilde at her office at the old Sports Afield headquarters in Minneapolis in the early 1950s. Photo courtesy Cathy Larson.
Lois Elizabeth Wilde, longtime Associate Editor of Sports Afield and Trustee of the North
Dakota Museum of Art, died on May 10, 2020, at Edgewood Parkwood Place in Grand
Forks, North Dakota. She was born in 1922 in Grand Forks, attended local public
schools, and graduated in 1944 from the University of North Dakota with a major
in journalism and a minor in political science. One fortuitous outcome of the
war years was that with the campus stripped of most male students, Lois was
named the editor of the Dakota Student—a harbinger of things to come.
According to Dave Vorland in a 1983 UND Centennial
interview with Lois, after graduation she and a coterie of female friends from
the Dakota Student crew moved to Chicago. She took a job at Sears
Roebuck before joining the editorial staff of Sports Afield, which was then based in Minneapolis. When the magazine
moved its offices to New York in 1953, Lois discovered a new love: the city of
New York. Later, however, she resigned her editorial job when she realized she
was making considerably less than the man sitting next to her “who had a family”
but was doing the same work.
Lois spent ten years in advertising, and in 1977 Sports Afield again came calling. Editor-in-Chief
Tom Paugh was worried that the existing editorial focus had gone awry. He
planned to reduce the magazine’s readership to 500,000 and focus on publishing
important writers of exciting adventure stories, well-informed how-to-do-it
pieces, and conservation as it impacted hunting and fishing. Such writers would
need to be matched with highly skilled, experienced outdoor editors. Lois was
among them. She accepted.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t hunting or fishing that occupied her
private life, although over the years she learned much about the outdoor world.
For example, an artist was commissioned to submit an illustration of a cougar
to the magazine. When the painter turned it in to Lois, she quickly pointed out
that cougars have rounded, rather than pointed, ears. The artist corrected the
picture, explaining that he had used his house cat as his model.
In 1976 she went to Kenya on a trip with a group from Sports
Afield. She followed up this African adventure on her own with excursions
to Tanzania and South Africa. Decades later, one of her greatest pleasures was a drive to Kelly’s Slough Wildlife Refuge
west of Grand Forks to see which birds had taken up residence or were migrating
through.
What truly dominated Lois’s personal life was the arts. Once
ensconced in her fifth-floor walk-up apartment in midtown Manhattan, she
squirreled away her money to give herself a four-year sabbatical doing nothing
but immersing herself in New York’s cultural life. Even after returning to
work, four nights a week found her at the opera, the theater, the ballet, or on
weekends at matinees or art exhibitions.
When Lois reached
retirement age, she knew she couldn’t afford to stay in her beloved New York,
so she moved back to Minneapolis. Then, in 2004, she returned to Grand Forks to
be near her family. Between 2001 to 2017, she continued her immersion in the
arts and travel, joining a small Minneapolis group on thirty-four trips to
attend operas in the leading opera houses of the world, including La Scala in
Milan and La Fenice in Venice; Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; The Bolshoi in
Moscow; New York’s Lincoln Center; The Sydney Opera House; and the Teatro di
San Carlo in Naples.
Lois immersed herself in the Grand Forks cultural scene, supporting groups such as the community’s Symphony Orchestra, but especially the North Dakota Museum of Art, where she seldom missed an exhibition or a concert, be it the Classical Series or Summer Concerts in the Garden. She also resumed her lifelong engagement with language by becoming the Museum’s volunteer editor. Her final job was Eliot Glassheim’s last book, My Father’s Keeper. From 2010 until her death, she served as a Museum Trustee. Lois’s last requests were that she be buried in the Thompson, North Dakota, cemetery, that she be given a celebratory toast at the Museum, and that memorials should be given to the North Dakota Museum of Art.
Lois celebrating her ninety-second birthday at the North Dakota Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of the North Dakota Museum of Art.
Museum Director
Laurel Reuter described her as “intelligent, thoughtful, a lovely companion and
conversationalist with that sprightly giggle of hers. She was fun! Her personal
code was don’t gossip, don’t complain about how you feel, stay cheerful for
yourself and those around you, and stay engaged in the world.”
The Wilde family
were early settlers in North Dakota’s Red River Valley. Lois’s great-grandfather,
Franz Louis Wilde (1832 – 1907), came to America from Germany in 1852 when he
was 20 years old. He married Doretta Kreitzer (1831 – 1887). They were followed
by Lois’s grandparents, Charles A. Wilde (1863 – 1934) and Delilah A. Wardman
(1878 – 1909).
Lois is survived by nieces and nephews Linda (Russ) Penn, Grand Forks; Vickie Lee, Grand Forks; Scott
(Sheryl) Wilde, Thompson; and Jeffrey (Kristine) Wilde, Thompson. She was preceded
in death by her father, Edwin Ralph Wilde Sr. (1898 – 1951); her mother, Esther Ovida Burr Wilde (1897 – 1954); and her brother, Edwin
Wilde Jr. (1923 – 2010).
Women shoot better with rifles that fit them well, just as men do.
Photo above: The top rifle is Eileen Clarke’s .308 Winchester, made by Gene Gordner to fit her, since like many women she has sloping shoulders and a relatively long neck. The bottom is Barsness’s 7×57, made by Gordner to fit his square shoulders and a relatively short neck.
One interesting fact often lost in the pessimism about declining hunting license sales is that the number of women hunters continues to rise. About 20 percent of Americans who buy hunting licenses are now female, and in some parts of the country, the percentage may even be higher. Here in Montana, one of four states where more than 25 percent of residents hunt, all new license buyers must take a hunter-safety course. In my small town, the most recent class was half girls.
Consequently, more hunting rifles are being made specifically for women. When my wife started hunting in the early 1980s, the primary factory option was a “youth rifle,” the same basic rifle made for adults but shortened at both ends. Luckily, Eileen was only slightly shorter than the average American male, so she could use a “standard” hunting rifle, with the 13. 5-inch length of pull designed for a man about 5 feet 9 inches tall.
But other differences soon became apparent. We didn’t have much spare money back then, so she used one of my family’s heirloom rifles, the Remington 722 .257 Roberts given to my paternal grandmother, acquired in 1953. The first thing I did was work up a handload approximating factory ballistics, a 100-grain bullet at 2,900 fps.
Eileen practiced considerably with a pellet rifle and .22 rimfire before trying the .257 a couple of months before hunting season. I assured her it didn’t kick hard, but at the first shot she yelped and rubbed her shoulder. That was due to one common difference between women and men–not as much muscle over the shoulder joint.
It was August, so she was wearing a thin cotton shirt, and the Remington had an aluminum buttplate, which hurt. Luckily, I had a towel in my range kit. Doubled a couple times, it served as a shoulder pad, and soon we discovered a relatively light hunting jacket provided sufficient padding in the field. Of course, nowadays even affordable factory rifles usually have recoil pads, but the harder rubber pads found on many older factory rifles (and even some made today) can be uncomfortable for women to shoot due to some of their physical characteristics.
On average, men tend to have squarer shoulders and shorter necks, while women tend to have longer necks and more sloping shoulders. This is why many men are convinced the straight-combed, classic-style buttstock reduces felt recoil. For many men it does, because their square shoulders aren’t that much lower than their faces, especially after leaning the head forward when aiming. As a result, recoil shoves the rifle back in a relatively straight line, reducing upward jump, and the butt pad makes plenty of contact with the shoulder.
Unfortunately, when women with sloping shoulders and longer necks shoot a classic stock, the pad sits higher on their shoulder, often with the “toe” of the pad on the middle of the joint. On classic stocks the toe is often pointy, apparently for aesthetic reasons, so it jabs many women in the least-muscled part of their shoulder.
However, even a hard-rubber recoil pad that fits better can still hurt, because nerve-filled breast tissue extends upward to the area between the collarbone and shoulder. A straight buttstock also tends to prevent a good “cheek weld” in women with longer necks, so their cheekbone gets whacked as the rifle rises in recoil. This can be just as painful as being jabbed in the shoulder.
Consequently, many women find a Monte Carlo stock more comfortable to shoot and easier to aim. The raised cheekpiece allows them to look comfortably through a scope, while the lower recoil pad contacts more of their shoulder, spreading kick over a larger area.
This has been known to some custom stockmakers for quite a while, especially those who make stocks to fit a specific customer, rather than making one basic stock (often classic style) and only changing the length of pull. Eileen eventually ended up with exactly such a stock, thanks to Gene Gordner, the stockmaker for what was then Serengeti Rifles, and is now Kilimanjaro Rifles.
Eileen spent a couple hours in Gene’s shop while he did the final fitting for a walnut-stocked .308 Winchester built on a Kimber 84 action. Despite it being chambered in a larger cartridge and weighing a pound less than the old .257, her new rifle kicked a lot less. (Eileen also says the rifle points so naturally it’s like cheating: When she raises it to her shoulder, the scope is right on the animal.)
Not so coincidentally, when Weatherby introduced its Camilla rifle a few years ago—“designed by women for women”—the stock’s dimensions were very similar to the Eileen’s .308. In fact, when she picked up a Camilla (named for Roy Weatherby’s wife) in a local sporting goods store, she remarked that somebody finally got it right.
It’s also not a coincidence that Roy Weatherby was fond of Monte Carlo stocks. He had more sloping shoulders and a longer neck than most men, which is why some men also find Weatherby-style stocks more comfortable than classic stocks. Even though women and men are obviously built differently, there’s still considerable crossover in shoulder and neck dimensions, and that’s why some women can comfortably use classic-stocked big-game rifles.
Of course, many men are convinced women can’t use “real” big game cartridges (generally defined as anything from .300 magnums up) because of the increased recoil. Until recently, most women were introduced to hunting by men (primarily their fathers or husbands), which resulted in an odd contradiction: Many of the men were convinced that women can only use wimpy cartridges, such as the .243 Winchester for deer, or something in the .270/7×57/.308 class for larger game.
Even Elmer Keith, the legendary “big bore” advocate, once wrote that he considered a .33-caliber bullet weighing 250 grains the minimum for elk and even big mule deer. Yet he often suggested rounds like the 7×57 for women.
This still isn’t an uncommon attitude. I know one guy, a decade or so older than me, who remains convinced that elk can only be adequately slain with a Keithian cartridge such as the .338 Winchester or .340 Weatherby Magnum. This resulted in an interesting conversation at a hunting camp, when one of the women present asked him, “So why do men need bigger cartridges to kill the same animals women drop with smaller ones?”
Of course, just as some women are suitably built for classic stocks, some are comfortable with considerable recoil, which often doesn’t have anything to do with being big or strong. One prime example is Coni Brooks, co-founder of Barnes Bullets. Coni is smaller than most women, yet prefers the .338 Winchester Magnum as her “light” big-game rifle, whether deer for hunting deer and elk in North America, or plains game in Africa. And she shoots the .338 very well.
Phoebe Haefele is the daughter of my good friend Fred, and she wanted not just a deer rifle but something suitable for elk. Instead of assuming what she needed, Eileen and I invited her to try some of our collection, chambered for cartridges from the 6.5×55 to the .30-06, with various stock shapes, and we’d loan her whichever rifle she liked best.
Phoebe’s about the same height as Eileen, and has been shooting quite a bit already. She shot allof the rifles well, but picked a 7mm-08 Remington, a tang-safety Ruger 77 that had been rebarreled with a light-contour Douglas barrel. I’d found it shot great with Hornady’s American Whitetail factory load with 139-grain Interlocks, and also shot a handload with 140-grain Barnes Tipped TSXs to the same place. She used one Hornady to take her first big-game animal, a whitetail doe, with a perfectly placed shot at 160 yards, but did not find an elk. Maybe next year!
But in the meantime, Phoebe found a rifle she shot well, not through somebody else making the decision, but by trying several to see how they suited her. And that is the best way for any hunter to choose a big-game rifle.
Two Rifles Made for Women
Two manufacturers have designed rifles specifically tailored to women. Weatherby’s Camilla rifle incorporates a high comb, a buttstock that is angled away from the body, and a slim pistol grip. The 13-inch length of pull and a slender fore-end reduce overall weight and length without compromising feel and balance.
The Savage Model 11 Lady Hunter also incorporates a raised comb and slender grip and fore-end. Length of pull is 12.5 inches, and the balance point of the 20-inch light-taper barrel has been shifted for proper balance.
