By: Tom Lounsbury. This certainly has been an unusual winter here in the Thumb. The atmosphere mostly represented spring-like weather, and a lack of snow, which in turn may have prevented me from getting a few “lumps”. Then just recently over a foot of snow (my 14 inch rubber chore boots are topped out in the white-stuff) dropped down on our farm, almost overnight. Old Man Winter seems to be making up for lost time, which has me pondering taking advantage of it. I must admit I’m not much of a skier. I tried downhill … Read More
Listen! …for the Call Of The Wild.
By: Jim Kushner. I recently received an e-mail from my friend Gary Morgan. When I opened it I saw a picture of his place at ELO (East Lake Outfitters). There was snow up around the front door and no sign that anyone had been around recently. His message was that he had an urge to go up there and get a fire going in the stove and maybe start a small trap line…asking that I drop what I’m doing and join him. The image took me back to my own cabin in Ontario. I have … Read More
The DNR Has Michigan’s Bear Count All Wrong?
By: Richard P. Smith. If 116 Michigan residents, many of whom were bear hunters, either saw or had trail camera photos of 1,000 black bears in the state during 2015, how many bears do you think were seen and photographed by the thousands of other hunters and nonhunters last year? If I had to make an educated guess, it would be more than 50,000. Some of those bear would have been seen and/or photographed by more than one person, of course, but certainly not all of them. So how many bears were there in Michigan … Read More
A Classic Winchester Lever Action
By: Jim Kushner. I wanted to start this off with something old and work my way up to more modern rifles but will limit it to guns I can get my hands on or at least some good photos. Thank you to everyone kind enough to loan me their classics and not yet classics. Please e-mail me if you have a gun you would considering featured and WGD or myself would be happy to consider; attaching quality pictures are all that’s necessary. The rifle featured today is in fact a very old classic. Its a … Read More
Debating Deer Rifles
By: Jim Kushner A lot has been written about deer rifles and cartridges. There is a lot of opinion and thought about the best or most accurate or most powerful rifle/cartridge combination for whitetails. I have thought about the subject myself a lot over the years, many times while I am sitting in the deer woods not seeing any deer. My first rifle was given to me for Christmas the year I turned 14 and I still have it, the best Christmas gift ever. It was a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington and it came … Read More
Building A Hunting Rifle
By: Jim Kushner I have been thinking about buying another rifle for a while now. I have always had an interest in the 6.5×55 Swede cartridge. It is an old military cartridge that is supposed to have a good reputation for accuracy and as good a reputation as a hunting round. It shoots bullets from 100 to 160 grains with 120 & 140 being favorites for hunting. I am not sure why this cartridge appeals to me so much, maybe just the fact that it isn’t one of the everyday calibers you hear about. One … Read More
A Celebration And You’re Invited!
Celebrate National Winter Trails Day January 7th with Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore chapter (HSS) of the North Country Trail Association or on your own if you are adventurous. The celebration is designed to introduce the public to winter trail sport activities that are available to the EUP community and visitors all day long throughout the winter season. The event is planned so that participants can enjoy one or more of the event options from early AM to well after dark! Those wishing to begin their day early in the winter woods can ski the Hiawatha National Forest … Read More
Through The Eyes Of A Taxidermist
By: Jim Kushner Mounting a good whitetail buck is a whole lot more than just skinning and “stuffing” it. There are certain steps that need to be followed and like a lot of specialty careers or in my case hobbies, there are some little tricks and procedures that help to make your trophy look great and last a lifetime. The actual supply list for mounting a deer is fairly small but the amount of labor involved is what you ultimately pay your taxidermist for. The most important thing a good taxidermist needs is knowledge of … Read More
Closure to the one that got away
By: Tom Lounsbury Most hunters these jet age days have a bucket-list of far away adventures they would like to do, and of course I have mine. On my list there is red stag and wild boar hunting in Argentina, hunting various antelope in Africa and hunting desert mule deer in old Mexico. I had a wonderful opportunity for the Africa hunt last spring, but I had to pass because Africa’s hunting season is during our spring and summer and I had a good portion of our farm going into new conservation programs that required … Read More
Will Work For Food!
Many of us have booked a wild game hunt with an outfitter…at least once. There are many reasons for trusting our hunts to someone else’s planning and handiwork, but few will admit they most need a professional to cover their ‘back side’. WGD found a handful of some of the toughest hunting guides in the Midwest. We recently sat down with them to get a feel of what drives their ambition. “Most guides are in shape, physically…it’s the mental toughness that matters most”, says Ross Chambers, a professional guide in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula. Imagine … Read More