
##2000850 OPPOSITE : Button-rifled barrels , vastly improved riflescopes and mounts and widespectrum smokeless propellants in modern ammunition are three innovations that have helped answer the call by shooters for accuracy and reliability this century . // In the century that has passed since OUTDOOR LIFE first saw the light of print , there have been so many inventions and innovations in the world of sport-shooting and hunting , many of them first reported in these pages from the 1898 Mauser to the latest range-estimating laser sight ) , that a full list would fill a giant catalog . Narrowing the number to the 10 most important is an impossible task , but following are the innovations I believe not only changed the course of sport-shooting , but also will continue to be important during the next century . When I put the 10 choices to no less a gun innovator than Bill Ruger , he considered them for a few moments and said simply , " Hmm , good list .... " So here they are . Screw-In Chokes The screw-in choke-like many other shooting innovations-was slow to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and is now a fact of life for virtually every form of smoothbore hunting and target shooting . Not just because of its one-gundoes-it-all convenience , but because the screw-in choke has proven to perform equally well as-and often better than-the older-style integral choke . CNC Machining Computer Numerical Control ( CNC ) , the computerized control of machine tool operations , proved a godsend to desperate gun manufacturers during the 1980s , providing them with a cost-effective metal-cutting or woodcutting process that duplicates-or betters-fine hand-machining techniques . And it never gets tired . Hammer-Forged Barrels The so-called " hammer-forging " process has become a mainstay in the American gun-making industry . A short billet of pre-drilled steel is fed into a giant machine , where dozens of tiny hammers beat the metal around a mandrel that transfers its image to the bore . During the forging process , the barrel lengthens and is given an outside contour , all within moments , with the payoff being reduced manufacturing costs and more competitively priced guns . Investment Casting Though the process of investment casting , also known as the " lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years , it was not until the 1950s that it blossomed in the gun-making industry . But as pioneered by Sturm-Ruger , investment casting proved to be a cost-reducing way to manufacture complex gun parts and a thoroughly acceptable way to make fine sporting arms as well as military and police arms . Photograph Screw-in chokes give true all-purpose versatility to shotguns and perform as well as or better than traditional integral chokes. // Button Rifling When the so-called " button rifling " system burst onto the sport-shooting scene just after WW II , it revolutionized rifle making and changed forever our concepts of accuracy . Rather than cutting rifling grooves in a barrel by the slow , laborious , centuries-old method , a super-hard " button " bearing the image of lands and grooves is pushed or pulled through a drilled barrel blank , literally ironing its imprint into the barrel wall . Not only is the process speedy , but its accuracy is unquestioned . Wide-Spectrum Smokeless Propellants Made in stick , tube , flake and spherical forms that have a wide spectrum of burning speeds , progressive burning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as pressure increases ) have made possible the high-velocity Magnum-Class cartridges that have become the hallmark of 20th century sporting rifles . Noncorrosive and Nonmercuric Priming The most common cause of ugly pits and rust in older shotgun and rifle bores were the primers used in ammunition of that era . They contained a compound of potassium chlorate that , when fired , deposited a corrosive coating in the gun barrel . An alternative priming compound of that era , containing fulminate of mercury , left traces of mercury in brass cases that soon rendered them brittle and unsafe to reload . Because of the obvious disadvantages of these two types of primers , a noncorrosive and nonmercuric priming compound had , by the first quarter of this century , become the Holy Grail of ammunition manufacturers . Yet despite hundreds of patents for noncorrosive priming , none proved satisfactory until the 1920s , when Remington Arms , improving on a patent it had acquired from a German inventor , introduced its " Kleanbore " ammunition . By the 1950s virtually all ammo was noncorrosive . Improved Telescopic Sights and Mounts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in their views on shooting equipment than their fathers had been and saw telescopic sights in their futures . At the same time , technologies developed during the war gave scope-makers new ways to make their products tougher and more resistant to dust and moisture . Soon the irresistible phrase " Guaranteed Fogproof " appeared in their ads . Inexpensive but reliable mounting systems became commonplace , and after a troublesome beginning , variable-power scopes gained solid acceptance . To grasp fully the importance of scope sights in today 's hunting scenario , consider that modern , long-range " Magnum " rifles and cartridges would be virtually pointless without them , and that the much discussed 500-yard shot would be only a pipe dream . Gas Operation Introduced to shotguns by Remington in 1958 with its Model 58 shotgun , gas operation achieved enormous popularity with the Remington Model 1100 because of its reliable , recoil-reducing operation without the " double shuffle " of recoil-operated autoloaders . Gas operation is now used in a wide variety of makes and models of shotguns and rifles-and the gas " lost " does not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sometimes claimed . Synthetic Stocks The first sporting use of syntheticmeaning non-wood-stocks of note appeared on Stevens shotguns in the late 1940s , and these were so roundly condemned by sportsmen that nearly a quarter-century passed before they were given a second chance . By the end of the 1980s , however , even the most reluctant shooters had to acknowledge the manifold advantages of superstrong , warp-resistant stocks made of fiberglass , carbon fiber , Kevlar or injectionmolded plastics . * Photograph Wide-spectrum smokeless powders introduced during this century have made modern , high-performance ballistics possible . Photograph Investment casting and CNC machining have helped forge a new age in accurate factory rifles like the Ruger 1-S ( far right ) . Inspired by benchrest shooters , synthetic stocks can now be found on everything from deer rifles to in-line muzzleloaders like Knight 's MK-85 ( right ) . // <p> 
##2000851 // Thank goodness for the Industrial Revolution . There 's plenty to be said for the tackle breakthroughs that emerged in the middle of this century , but let 's not forget that it was increased industrial productivity in the preceding 100 years that furnished sportfishing ' first prerequisite-leisure time . Oh , sure , folks were dropping line into water way before this magazine 's first issue ever hit a newsstand , but you might say that OUTDOOR LIFE had a front-row seat when what was once largely a meatgathering operation evolved into a fullblown form of recreation . An activity that was done for fun , not just food . These 10 significant steps promoted that development along the way . The Outboard Motor On an April morning in 1909 , a Norwegian machinery pattern maker slid a 50-cent rental skiff into Milwaukee 's Kinnickinnic River and fired up what would become the world 's first commercially successful outboard motor . Friends clamored for a onecylinder kicker of their own and Ole Evinrude complied-for $1 a pound , $62 for the 62-pound package . Under his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Throw the Oars Away ! " the Evinrude motor was soon selling worldwide , providing fishermen with on-water range and not a few entirely new fishing techniques . Environmental Awareness The double-barreled victories in 1972 of the Clean Water Act and a nationwide ban on DDT signaled the start of an attempt to pull our country out of ecological free fall . There 's little doubt that the inspiration for these and for other landmark environmental legislation was zoologist Rachel Carson 's 1962 work , Silent Spring . At the time , a chemist named William Darby , protesting Carson 's conclusions in the Journal of the American Chemical Society , wrote that acceptance of her views would mean " the end of all human progress , reversion to a passive social state devoid of technology , scientific medicine , agriculture , sanitation . " Fortunately , not everyone bought the bombast . Spinning Tackle When tackle distributor Bache Brown demonstrated the newfangled French Luxor spinning reel for U.S. merchants in 1938 , the response was underwhelming-the braided silk lines of the time clung to the spools like overdone spaghetti , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to seal the deal , World War II was about to break out . But Brown , a born promoter , convinced the Airex Division of the Lionel Corporation that the reel had a future . In 1946 , with the war just over , the first American-made Airex Bache Brown Spinmaster reel debuted in serendipitous timing with nylon lines . Over the next six years Lionel would sell nearly 2 million units . The Great Lakes Bailout Commercial overfishing and an invasion of parasitic sea lampreys through the St. Lawrence Seaway decimated gamefish populations in the Great Lakes by the early 1960s . Alewife populations exploded , only to die off in reeking summertime kills . Michigan biologists Howard Tanner and , later , Wayne Tody implemented a control program with a planting of coho salmon starting in 1966 . Subsequent stockings of king salmon and steelhead , plus increasingly effective lamprey controls , aided the effort . By the ' 70s , the nation 's most successful man-made fishery was booming . The Era of Dams In the 20 years after it was created as part of FDR 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Valley Authority ( TVA ) built 20 dams and Improved five more , providing plentiful , inexpensive energy and flood control ... and thousands of miles of new fishing vistas . Meanwhile , in the West , dam construction on the Colorado and Columbia rivers ignited a boom in lake fishing . But-in a sad irony-these dams also sounded the death knell for many anadromous fish runs . Photograph Passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act pulled the United States out of ecological free fall . // Sonar for Fishermen Ardent fishermen who had taken to scuba diving , the Lowrance brothersDarrell and Arlenwere onto something : In their underwater observations they saw that most gamefish schooled near specific areas at different times of the year . What a boon it would be if an angler could locate these spots-and the fish themselves-from his boat . Guided by their technical background , the Lowrances used the principles of military SONAR ( Sound Navigation Ranging ) to solder-up a small , flashertype " sounder " in 1957 . Nylon When the du Pont Corporation introduced a new breed of synthetic polymers called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enormous impact the man-made material would have on sportfishing . Almost unnoticed among its early applications-from brush bristles to women 's stockings-were fishing leaders and snells made of single nylon filaments ( " monofilament " ) . They would remain largely obscure novelties until after WW II , when braided nylon lines , fortuitously complemented by the new spinning reels , changed the way the world fished . Synthetic Rods Bamboo 's demise as rod building 's fundamental material began quietly in National City , Calif. , where Dr. Glen Havens created the first fiberglass rod in the mid-1930s . Not until the Shakespeare Company launched " Howald process " glass rods in 1946 , though , did the tapered tubular blank achieve widespread appeal . Tubular fiberglass blanks-from California companies such as Conolon and Fisher-would remain the industry standard until carbon-fiber rods were developed by surfcasters in England in the late 1960s . Fenwick led the graphite charge in the U.S. with HMG graphite in 1973 . Flyfishing 's Rebirth The advancements in easy-to-use spinning tackle , in concert with the labor-intensive realities of maintaining expensive , rot-prone silk fly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ early ' 50s . Forever loyal to the long rod , Leon P. Martuch Sr. started dabbling in his kitchen sink in Midland , Mich. , coating braided lines in liquid plastic , then heat-curing them in his stove . In 1952 , he found success and was later granted a patent for the first flyfishing line to feature a tapered outer coating of durable polyvinylchloride ( PVC ) . A rekindling of the sport had begun . The Bass Boom It was a flash of brilliant intuition that catapulted insurance salesman Ray Scott from his motel bed in March 1967-he would bring together the best bass fishermen he could find for a tournament that offered hard-cash prizes . Three months later , on Beaver Lake , Ark. , the event was under way , an intimate affair that eventually blossomed into the multimillion-dollar BASSMASTER Tournament Trail . The burgeoning sport triggered a wave of tackle and boating innovations , and elevated black bass into its position as the nation 's favorite gamefish . Photograph Striking a now-familiar pose , Ray Scott presides over weigh-in at his first tournament . Ole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way anglers get around . // <p> 
##2000852 A meeting of minds makes for a memorable column // You hear it from me often : " Start early . " When it comes to training hunting dogs , it 's my mantra . But although we frequently believe our ideas to be entirely original , almost invariably they 're merely expanded or enlarged by us and are , in fact , inspired by those who have gone before . It was n't until OUTDOOR LIFE 'S centennial retrospective that I rediscovered that it was David Michael Duffey who planted those seeds in me . According to a clipping long buried in my files , the date was May 1962 . Duffey was the hunting dogs editor . The title of his column that month was-what else ! - " Start Training Early . " I had already learned from experience that starting pups early got results . And-as you are-about to read-here was Duffey , agreeing with me and citing a clinical study authorized by Clarence J. Pfaffenberger , director of research for Guide Dogs for the Blind , to back both of us up . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ OUTDOOR LIFE article I 've read before or since . But if I can wander briefly from the assignment OL 's editor-in-chief Todd Smith sent me , I 'd like to say that OUTDOOR LIFE also influenced my behavior in other ways-some good and some troublesome-and many at a very early age . You see , Mother 's Uncle John left Dad all his fishing gear-including a stack of very old OUTDOOR LIFE magazines . Their covers papered an entire wall of our fishing shack in Shoals Creek , Mo . I entertained myself by bringing those pictures to life in my imagination . Mountain lions facing off hounds . Giant moose charging . Bears attacking . Oh , those pictures of bass jumping and anglers in canoes . I could n't have been more than five , but I knew our johnboat just was n't the same , and , anyway , Dad said I was too young to row by myself . So I pushed a drifting log from shore and climbed aboard . It was more canoe-like anyway . No bass jumped , and the water was brown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the creek seemed like a magazine cover to me . Until Dad caught me floating past the shack . From then on , I was allowed to practice rowing with one end of a 50foot boat chain padlocked to the dock . Years later , in keeping with my lifetime custom of trying things before I was ready , even when it came to dogs , I went to my first pointer/setter trial without a horse . Then , in the late ' 60s , I further embarrassed myself by going to a springer spaniel trial with horses . It was at that trial that I met Dave Duffey . He was a big man , rather flamboyant , a celebrity confident in his field . He was even bigger in my mind from all the years of reading him . Finally , we met , and I was so awestruck that I actually lost my voice . I was freelancing dog articles for Field &; Stream by that time , but it seemed small potatoes compared to Dave 's stature in the canine world . When I regained my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in touch over the years , talked a lot when we met at trials , compared notes on dogs he or I was strong on , and thoroughly enjoyed our common bond . Then one afternoon the phone rang : " Larry , this is Dave . I 'm leaving OUTDOOR LIFE . I thought you should know so you can try for the job . " Once again , David Michael Duffey profoundly influenced my life . Start Training Early By David Michael Duffey May 1962 " Just as the twig is bent the tree 's so inclined . " The old saying applies to dogs as well as to trees , the twigs , of course , being puppies . So if you want a hard-working , biddable companion in the hunting field , get your dog as a young pup , pay him some attention and start his training immediately . Photograph Dave Duffey was a big man in the canine world , both literally and figuratively-but he still gained in stature in the author 's eyes when he wrote that it was never too early to begin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ preached by some dog authorities for years , this may sound like a startling departure from the orthodox . But finally , what many men who train dogs for a living have learned by using their common sense now has scientific sanction in the form of a study conducted by Guide Dogs for the Blind . This is receiving a great deal of attention . But most discussion of the study has been confined to dog circles , and the average hunter-who may benefit most from its findings-may not have heard of it . So , what is discussed in this department is for serious consideration by the man who 's thinking of buying a hunting dog . It has been my contention , based on personal experience and extended discussions with some of the nation 's top professionals , that owners waste a lot of valuable time by buying an 8- to 12week-old pup and letting him eat and sleep until he reaches a " trainable age . " Puppies six to eight weeks old , I have maintained , can be taught things through association and play , with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ older . Readers may recall my advice to take small pups along with them into the fields , the car , the house and out with the children . All of this , in the life of a puppy , is training , and by the time he reaches an age when you can start demanding rather than requesting some manners , he 's met up with most of the distractions that might bug him during a training session . There is a twofold reason for taking a pup home early . First , you may want to do your own spoiling and make your own mistakes ; no sense having someone else start it for you . Second , and even more serious , is fear of what the owner of a litter of puppies wo n't do for an individual pup . This applies particularly where large kennels are involvedplaces where it is impossible to devote much individual attention to more than a few dogs . Maybe you 've heard the sales pitch , " This dog is a terrific prospect for hunting . He 's had absolutely no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so no one has had a chance to spoil him . " Buy a dog like that and you 'll rue the day . Sure , there are exceptions . But the possibilities of a man getting a good dog from such a background are about as good as your Aunt Martha 's chances of tracking a gut-shot buck through the Chicago stockyards . Such a dog will be worthless because he has been neglected . Now the record on when 's the best time to start training a dog can be set straight by citing a clinical study that substantiates what was once personal opinion . This research project stemmed from problems confronted by persons trying to obtain dogs to train for leading the blind . It was instigated by Clarence J. Pfaffenberger , director of research for Guide Dogs for the Blind and author of an excellent book on spaniel training . He was perturbed to find that , despite careful screening , only about two out of 10 adult dogs bred and raised under " normal conditions " could be trained as guide dogs . The organization had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shepherds , and Labrador , Chesapeake and golden retrievers . Pfaffenberger , so the story goes , conferred with Dr. J. Paul Scott , a social psychologist from Bar Harbor , Maine , who was attempting to understand humans via a behavior study on dogs and other animals . He had reached some startling conclusions , which go a long way toward explaining how puppies act and why . Scott contends that all dogs , regardless of breed , will behave satisfactorily if they are " properly socialized " between the ages of 3 and 16 weeks . Should a pup be kept in a kennel environment , totally isolated from human contact for the first 13 weeks of his life , he 'll be essentially untrainable . Outlined below are the five critical stages in a pup 's life : Birth to three weeks . The pup is a virtual nothing . Despite the belief that his brain does n't really function until the 21st day , the pup needs food , warmth , sleep and mother . He has an instinct to survive , and that 's about it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the pup really needs his mother now . Even though some puppies may start to feed from a pan at this time , removal of them from the mother would be extremely poor practice , psychologically as well as nutritionally . Fourth to seventh weeks . Within this period , pups learn to recognize persons and to respond to voices , weaning is usually started and a social order is established within the litter . Some competition among littermates is good but by the end of this period the pup should be weaned and separated from his mother and littermates . Seventh to 12th weeks . This is the time to pick a puppy and take him home . His brain has attained as much capacity for learning as it ever will , and he will be learning regardless of where he is situated . If you want him to fit into your mode of life , it will be easier to start him properly than to unlearn him improper habits he may have picked up from his dam , kennel mates or the humans caring for him . You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you do the feeding , and the rapport you establish will set the stage for the pup 's later education . He 'll learn because he likes you and wants to please . Twelfth to 16th weeks . Your pup is now ready to start serious training . During his preschool days , he should have demonstrated that he understands certain things , and you can now demand that he obey commands . Let 's understand one thing : As a practical matter , there will be some divergence from the procedures outlined above since conditions which are possible in a scientific study can seldom be met otherwise . For example , it 's hard to imagine puppies isolated from human contact for 13 weeks . Nor is it right to infer from this study that pups and mother should be left strictly to their own devices until the puppies are three weeks old . Although handling and fondling pups should be kept to a minimum at the early stage , some is necessary and I think beneficial . A hunter can get the right kind of dog , about 9 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , treats him right , starts his training early and quits making excuses for not getting at it by saying , " Oh , that pup 's too young for training . I 'll wait until he 's a year old . " A pup is never too young . Get with it . Sidebar FLASH FACT In a 1914 media stunt , Gladys Hardy , from Washington , collected more than 1 , OOO new subscriptions for OL during a nearly 1,000-mile trip on horseback from Spokane to San Francisco . // <p> 
##2000853 OL 's shooting editor remembers one of O'Connor 's best columns // Mention Jack O'Connor and the first two things that spring to mind are sheep hunting and the .270 Winchester cartridge . He wrote a lot about both , and his style was informative and entertaining . A rare combination . Back when I was a slab-footed farm lad , I slurped up shooting information ( along with lots of misinformation ) like a bear robbing a beehive , and every copy of OUTDOOR LIFE contained radiant pearls of knowledge . Later , after college and some exposure to what is generally considered to be good literature , I came to recognize O'Connor not only as a fount of solid , experience-backed shooting information , but also as a truly gifted writer in the great storytelling tradition . A writer who polished each phrase until , in his own words , it " flowed like cream , " and charmed the reader with precision or humor . To pick my favorite O'Connor piece would be too daunting to contemplate , but here is Jack at his best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too young to have read O'Connor , now you 'll know why he 'll never be forgotten . Enjoy . Which Rifle for Sheep ? By Jack O'Connor June 1960 Before I made my first hunt for wild sheep around a quarter of a century ago , I had done a lot of reading on the subject of proper rifles and cartridges for the sport . The phrase " long shots at sheep and goats " occurred like a refrain in everything I read . Much was made of the need for flat trajectory . I pictured myself perched on a knife-edged ridge shooting at a ram on another ridge at least 500 yards away . The only real sheep hunter I knew at that time was a skinny and tough little character who was , by profession , a mining engineer but who was also , by preference , a desert rat , prospector and sheep hunter . He liked nothing better than to disappear into the harsh , barren mountains of the Arizona and Sonora deserts to look for gold and copper and to hunt sheep . In his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ although he claimed he 'd got them all in northern Mexico , I strongly suspect that in those lawless times he did a good deal of his hunting illegally in Arizona . I was astounded to discover that his sheep rifle was a Winchester Model 94 carbine with a 20-inch barrel and in .25/35 caliber , about as evil-looking a firearm as I had ever seen . Not a vestige of finish remained on the stock or barrel . The bore , however , was mirror bright , and later when I hunted with him I found him to be an excellent shot . " Hell 's bells , " he told me when I tried to pump him about sheep rifles , " the trick of sheep hunting is to find the things . Once you 've done that you can knock them over with just about anything . " He showed me his binocular-a big , much-used Hensoldt roof-prism set which I believe was 10x56 . " Give me a good glass , " he said , " and I 'll hunt sheep with a .22 . I do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so long as it 's light . " I took his advice about Mexican sheep country , but I had my own notions as to suitable sheep rifles . I simply could not believe him when he told me that he generally killed his rams at 150 yards or less . I expended a good deal of sweat and effort before I got my first ram . I had to learn the hard way that in sheep hunting , good binoculars and the ability to use them are more important than the rifle and cartridge and generally , but by no means always , more important even than shooting skill . I also learned that two or three extra pounds in the weight of a rifle seem like 20 or 30 at the end of a long , rough day . When I had finally learned by trial and error enough about sheep hunting to get myself a ram , the shot that did the business was not from ridge to ridge across a big canyon but at maybe 55 or 60 yards . The rifle I used was a 7x57 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sling , and the load was a now obsolete one formerly loaded by Western with a 139grain , open-point bullet at a velocity of about 2,900 feet per second . Except that I would now have a 4X scope on such a rifle , I do n't know of a much better combination today . After all the buildup one reads about long-range shots at sheep and goats , it is difficult to realize the fact that the average ram is taken at no great range . The best bighorn I ever knocked over was somewhere around 100 yards away . The best Dall I have ever taken a crack at fell somewhere around 50 or 60 yards from the muzzle , and the last desert bighorn I folded was probably about 35 yards away . Photograph This 41 1/2-inch Stone ram was taken by O'Connor at about 300 yards with a .270 . Though it has since been surpassed , the ram was number 10 in the Boone &; Crockett record book at the time . // All this is not to say that long shots are never taken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only way the sheep hunter can get . the ram he wants . It is always wise to be prepared for such a shot , but the old-timer usually tries to get reasonably close so that he can make a sure shot . Above all , the sheep rifle should be reasonably light and handy . A good weight with a scope is about 8 pounds , though some can weigh as little as 71/2 pounds . Often the sheep hunter has to take some fearful treks . I generally use a 22-inch barrel , but there is no particularly good reason why the sheep hunter could n't use a barrel as short as 20 inches . A short barrel cuts down on velocity a bit but has little , if any , effect on accuracy . Often it 's necessary for the sheep hunter to strap his rifle across his back so he can climb a cliff or work along a ledge with both hands . Then he does n't want a long barrel that will catch on the overhanging rocks . In many areas , a .243 , .244 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sheep . All of them have sufficient killing power and trajectory flat enough for 300-yard shooting-and anyone should generally think long and hard before he tries to shoot a sheep at greater range . Photograph " Above all , a sheep rifle should be reasonably light and handy " ... about 8 pounds with scope . // I have shot more rams with .270 caliber rifles than with anything else , but I have also used the .30/06 extensively as well as the 7mm . I have shot one ram with the .257 and one with the .348 . Whatever caliber is chosen , it should be used with a fast-stepping , quick-opening bullet-the 140-grain in the 7mm , 150-grain in the .308 and .30/06 , 130-grain in the .270 and 125-grain in the .280 Remington . Such bullets give flatter trajectory over practical sheep ranges than do heavier ones of the same caliber , and they also are better at killing or disabling the animal with poorly placed hits . If luck is good and the stalk successful , sheep are generally cold turkey . Now and then , however @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ run or at long range and shot placement may not be good . Then that extra shocking power from a fast , rapidly opening bullet comes in handy . There is no one best sheep cartridge . I have known good sheep hunters to use everything from the .25/35 to the .357 Magnum . One Britisher I read about made the long trip to Alaska and took everything from white sheep through caribou and moose to brown bear with a double .450/400 . I can think of a great many other rifles I would consider more suitable for sheep , but the lad brought home the mutton . The late Bill Morden , who hunted sheep extensively in North America and then the Ovis poli in Asia , used a .30/06 . The Roosevelt brothers carried .375 Magnums on their trip to Central Asia back in the 1920s . The famous Charles Sheldon , the first man ever to collect all varieties of North American sheep , used a 6.5mm Mannlicher-Schoenauer with a 160grain bullet at about 2,200 fps . Prince Abdorreza Pahlavi , brother of the Shah of Iran , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , authority on desert sheep and one of the hunters who has taken all varieties of North American rams , has used a .257 and a 7x64 . Herb Klein and Elgin Gates , who have not only taken all varieties of North American sheep but who have also shot the Barbary sheep of Africa , Ovis poli and other Asiatic sheep , both use .300 Weatherby Magnums . Filipe Wells , a crack desert sheep hunter and old amigo of mine , has used a .25/35 and a .30/06 . For my money the two standouts in the field are the .280 Remington and the .270 Winchester . With their 125- and 130-grain bullets , they are flat-shooting , deadly and generally very accurate in a tuned-up rifle of light weight . Recoil is light , even in well-stocked 71/2- and 8-pound rifles , and yet they are powerful enough for the moose and grizzlies one is apt to run into in sheep country . How much sheep hunting I 'll do in the future I do not know , but whenever I go out for the noble rams I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Winchester Featherweights in .270 caliber . One has a Redfield Bear Cub 4X scope , the other a Leupold 4X , but otherwise they are identical . Each has a Tilden mount and each is stocked in French walnut . I sight them in to hit on the nose at 275 yards with the 130-grain bullet at 3,140 , and , if a long shot is necessary , a hold on the backbone is good for a solid hit to about 400 yards . There are other combinations just as good for sheep , no doubt , but I ca n't think of a better one . Photograph For Jack O'Connor , the two standout cartridges for sheep were the .280 Rem . and the .270 Win . // <p> 
##2000854 Kong Lu // Not a great deal of attention was paid when the Edwards Dam was built on Maine 's Kennebec River . Then again , that was 61 years before this magazine was born . Dams were thrown up across scores of New England rivers in the early 19th century , dams that converted water and gravity to hydroenergy that turned the huge flywheels of saw mills , textile mills and great granite discs that ground flour from wheat and meal from corn . For in those heady times , it was Man 's Manifest Destiny to conquer Nature , to tame the untamed wilds , fell the forests , harvest the bountiful herds , the raucous flocks and the vast schools of fish churning silver in the shallows . Dams were a part of it all , nothing more . If a river ran swift and fell far , dams marched , one after the other , arresting waters that tumbled free , putting that fierce energy to work on behalf of the fastest-growing nation in history . And by the turn of the century , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those marvels of Man 's Dominion over Nature , began creating a kind of Industrial Age magic : electricity . What had been utilitarian became sacrosanct , a force that could light cities and keep factories humming . Who in his right mind could question the Goodness of such a miracle ? Who indeed . Which is why the fundamental relationships of Man and Nature were realigned yet again , when , on a November day in 1997 , this nation 's government ordered the Edwards Dam removed-the first such order in United States history . We are , all of us , headed now , a degree or two more than before , in new directions toward goals still taking shape . We have been revising values , bit by bit , throughout this century . It has been a long , slow , sometimes uncertain journey , but its starting point has always been the outdoors and the men and women who love it . The sportsmen . For it was Kennebec 's anglers who began marshaling the forces that took more than 20 years to wrest the Edwards @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited , the Atlantic Salmon Federation , the Natural Resources Council of Maine and American Rivers became the Kennebec Coalition a decade ago , and it was their united , Herculean efforts that recalibrated the future of conservation . All this for 18 miles of river . Just 18 miles , an insignificant fraction of Maine's-just that one state's-thousands of miles of rivers and streams . But it is 18 miles of water once used as spawning grounds by striped bass , Atlantic salmon , sturgeon , sea-run brown trout , smelt and river herring . It is 18 miles once barren ... about to be restored . It is 18 miles of river that have become a metaphor for nothing less than the fundamental reordering of national values . And much of its significance is made possible because this recalibration has been underway for more than 100 years . It was the nation 's revulsion at the corruption of its rivers that compelled Congress to enact the Clean Water laws of the ' 60s and ' 70s . Without those federal mandates , the Kennebec could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so polluted not even primitive fish could find oxygen enough . Until the ' 7 Os , that 18 miles of water was dead , and it stank of death . It was men and women who loved the outdoors who rescued the nation 's rivers , lakes and streams . Yet there is a certain irony here . For it is often these same fishermen , hunters and adventurers whose own excesses bring them to the recognition that no natural resource is limitless . It 's part of the recalibration , this acknowledgment of fallibility , this repudiation of Manifest Destiny . And it takes a while . Sometimes too long , as the extinct passenger pigeon will forever remind us . Consider the progression of excess which finally led to the passage of the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 . It is a bitter irony that John James Audubon is the author of one of the more poignant descriptions of the wanton killing that led to federal intervention a century later . Writing in New Orleans in 1821 , Audubon recalled a shoot along the shore of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the morning .... Stationed at equal distances they sat on the ground . When a flock approached every individual whistled in imitation of the plover 's call-note , on which the birds descended .... Every gun went off f in succession .... This sport continued all day and at sunset I calculated 48,000 plovers would have fallen that day . It may well be that this one day of annihilation permanently impaired the species . Contemporary author and naturalist Peter Matthiessen , in his essay that precedes the color plates in The Shorebirds of North America , tells his readers of George H. Mackay , a Boston gentleman who spent many days hunting birds along the New England and Long Island coasts . Each occasion was recorded in the notes of Mackay 's shooting journal . Finding plover scarce the year before OUTDOOR LIFE was launched , he asked the plaintive question : " Are we not approaching the beginning of the end ? " Photograph Authorized demolition of the Edwards Dam signals a changing outlook on conservation . Photograph A photo appearing in OL in 1905 showed a clever , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ populations in western waters . // And yet it was the same George Mackay who , over the next two decades , was one of the leaders of the public fight for the protection of shorebirds , including his successful campaign to end spring shooting . Nevertheless , approaching his 80s then , George Mackay killed his last shorebird , a ruddy turnstone , illegally in 1922 , four years after the federal protection he had helped energize . Such duality was often part of the conservation paradox in its early years : The men and women who valued winged wildlife the most were often the same gunners who could not resist the joys of the hunt . Consider the market hunters of the Chesapeake during this magazine 's adolescent years . Atley Langford was one ; he gunned wild ducks and geese commercially on the bay 's Elliott Island marshes from 1900 to 1918 , killing an average of 200 birds a day . His limit was about all that he could manage to carry off the marsh . He averaged better than 10,000 waterfowl a year , with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when federal laws ended market hunting ( through legislation that was challenged all the way to the Supreme Court ) , many gunners like Langford shared their knowledge with enforcement authorities and with groups such as Ducks Unlimited , which worked to protect and restore waterfowl breeding and nesting habitat . Many of those who worked hardest to bring back the ducks and geese were those who had been the most skillful hunters . It was their love of the birds that energized their efforts to rebuild the stocks . There 's that paradox , that sad irony again : the duality that is so consistently a part of the slow readjustment of Man 's ongoing relationship with Nature . For as the market gunners approached their most efficient peak around 1910 , the year Atley Langford acquired his first Remington Model 11 automatic , hunters on the western plains and the Rocky Mountains had already cut bloody swaths through great numbers of antelope , elk , bear , coyote , wolf and mountain lion . The vast buffalo herds-thought to be the greatest animal congregations that ever existed in one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 22 animals sheltered in Yellowstone Park , the nation 's first National Park , established in 1872 . As Matthiessen writes in his Wildlife in America : " ... it is quite likely that had Yellowstone Park not been established at the time , the bison would now be confined on earth to Canada alone . " Which is currently far from the case . Media tycoon and outdoorsman Ted Turner has buffalo herds totaling more than 15,000 on his ranches in Montana , Nebraska and New Mexico . Demand for the meat of the American bison is growing , so it is possible that once again the irony will play itself out : The same animal that 19th century buffalo hunters all but wiped out has been painstakingly rescued and husbanded by 20th century capitalists , perhaps because a growing and renewable herd is a rewarding investment . It matters not which resource you examine : Each and every one is an indicator of changing and revised values . And it is these gradual shifts which have been , sometimes unwittingly , so precisely cataloged on these pages over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refuge in Yellowstone Park had little choice ; in those days , there were few expanses of protected public land able to provide the space and habitat wild animals need to survive and flourish . Twenty years after it established Yellowstone as a sanctuary , the same federal government used lotteries and other inducements to entice settlers to homestead hundreds of thousands of acres in Oklahoma . The notion that wild land in America might one day prove scarce enough to be set aside and protected was not a majority opinion . But farsighted decision makers knew even then that land would always be a national treasure . Since Yellowstone set a remarkable precedent for its time , 47 more National Parks have been established , from Lake Clark in Alaska , south to the Everglades and west to California 's Redwood , authorized in 1968 . Photograph Conservation requires dedication-and often a human touch . Stripping eggs from a ripe female trout by hand in 1901 was the same procedure that is employed in modern hatcheries. // And as Washington set the patterns of acquisition on the public 's behalf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wild lands that had , in the blink of a cosmic eye , become threatened by the country 's compulsion for development . Even Maine , with some 20 million acres of woodland , had administrators prescient enough to make certain public lands would always be public . In 1974 , lengthy negotiations with pulp and paper companies concluded successfully for the people when the companies agreed to return a halfmillion acres of woodland to the townships from which they long ago acquired " one-time " timber-cutting rights . This acknowledgment of wild land 's value as a resource for public recreation is a concept that has moved from being a radical dream to standard operating policy in less than half a century . At the behest and by the sweat of sportsmen , species now stand revived : wild turkeys and whitetail deer may be at historic highs , and waterfowl are back from the brink of extirpation in many instances . The results of these revised value judgments about wild animals and wild land have led to some unprecedented situations . Even as we approach the end of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the coexistence of Man and Nature in a postindustrial society , as this publication has so often demonstrated . Examples abound . The grizzly bear , that fiercest and largest of North American predators , has become abundant enough to confront four-wheeldrive vehicles instead of covered wagons . On a mid-October dawn last year , a family camping in Glacier National Park awakened to discover that a grizzly had smashed the windows of their Ford Explorer , clambered inside and eaten the seats . " It could n't have been there long , " said camper Gael Bissell , who was first to find the damage . " Just long enough to eat the seats . I guess it was just one of those things bears do sometimes . Who knows why ? " As long as there are wild animals roaming free , it seems , there will always be more questions than answers about their behavior , always some contentiousness when Man and Nature collide . For now that we have recalibrated the premise that " The only good grizzly ( or wolf , or coyote , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are still groping for the precise terms of coexistence . As the winter season at Yellowstone opened this past December , a resolution of the conflicting interests of the park 's 39,000 or so snowmobilers and the park 's bison herd seemed headed for the courts . The problem : Hardpacked snowmobile trails become the favored routes of bison herds who often follow them beyond the park 's boundaries . Once outside their sanctuary , the animals become legal targets of cattle ranchers , who fear the bison will spread disease to their stock . Last year close to 1,100 were killed by government contract-marksmen . Photograph Radio-collaring of tranquilized bears allows biologists to track their range and gauge their habitat preferences . Photograph Teams of volunteer sportsmen packed in to stock remote lakes ( from the May 1950 issue ) . // Mountain lions , once a species that had tumbled down the slope of extinction , now are seen in suburbs and have , in fact , fatally attacked at least two humans in the past two years . On Sunday , October 5 , last year , bowhunter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a grizzly sow as he hunted elk near Montana 's Boulder River . And ranchers just beyond Yellowstone 's borders are on edge about the park 's pack of gray wolves , who since 1995 have killed five cattle , 80 sheep and one dog . Coyotes , in one of the most successful comebacks ever recorded , can be heard howling from Maine to California . And if you need more evidence of how far the compass needle of public opinion has swung , consider the case of Hawaiian golfer Terry Purpus , who clubbed a flightless nene goose to death . He 's been fined $4,000 for his execution of the state bird ( which he claims attacked him on the fairway ) and ordered to perform 300 hours of community service . For a measure of just how far that needle has pivoted , recall Audubon 's description of that day on Lake St. John . The word now is " management , " often " micromanagement , " of the nation 's wild resources . Every creature from the mourning dove to the cutthroat trout , from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the gray wolf and grizzly bear , as well as the environments that sustain them , is regulated , overseen and managed with the help of the best available technology . And while this new world of resource awareness and environmental sensitivity may be far from a perfect place , it is surely radically different from the world that greeted OUTDOOR LIFE 's premier issue a tumultuous 100 years ago . And what of the next 100 ? They belong to the oceans , the Great Plains of our future . Only now , and haltingly , has the management and husbandry of the seas around us begun . And this time the challenge is infinitely more daunting because , unlike Yellowstone , fenced within our borders , the Atlantic , Pacific , the Gulf and the Caribbean touch scores of foreign shores . The giant bluefin tuna hooked and lost off Rhode Island today may well be trapped off Lisbon in a month or two . Newfoundland 's fishermen sit stranded ashore by the dissolution of the Grand Banks cod fishery , the world 's most abundant well into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The bluefin breeding population has dropped nearly 90 percent in 15 years , and scientific reports put marlin and swordfish stocks at their lowest level in this epoch . These grim statistics and more are well documented by marine biologist Dr. Carl Safina in his book , Song for the Blue Ocean . Like Rachel Carson 's Silent Spring , this is one of those catalytic documents that will precipitate public opinion and change the way all of us think about our oceans . As this article is written , our nation 's new Sustainable Fisheries Act mandates new definitions of what constitutes " overfishing . " Hopefully , this is a start to recognizing that the bison of the seas need help before there are just 22 survivors left . For on the oceans of the world , many of us are not very different from those gunners of golden plover or the Great Plains buffalo hunters . There is still a very long way to go . And if you are reading this publication , you will be involved . At least , that 's the way it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years . Photograph Airdrops of turkeys previously captured in nets helped to establish the birds in new areas . Photograph Hard-packed snowmobile trails have led Yellowstone bison outside the sanctuary-and into a conservation controversy . Author Affiliation John Cole , the author of 18 books and a former newspaper editor , commercial fisherman and fishing resort operator , was the recipient of the OUTDOOR LIFE Conservation Award in 1979. // <p> 
##2000855 Do n't " dis " the pronghorn until you hunt on its terms // The only way to hunt antelope is from a pickup truck , " the man said , banging his glass down on the bar . And with that he strode out . We had been debating the ethics of hunting antelope , and his philosophies were , well , different than mine . His final statement summed up both his position and our differences . Antelope are probably more disrespected than any other big-game animal in North America . The nature of their lifestyle and the terrain they live in make them relatively easy targets . But increasingly , hunters are challenging pronghorns on the animals ' terms , which , in the low -- shrub , grassy prairies , can make for an exciting and challenging hunt . The pronghorn antelope relies on speed as its major defensive tactic , and its superb eyesight allows it to spot danger a long way off . That genetic combination of speed and sight means that the antelope prefers the most open spaces available . And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ areas rather than heading for protective cover , as most big-game animals will do . Because they live in high-visibility conditions , antelope are easy to spot . In prime locations , I 've seen upwards of 500 animals during a morning of hunting . And unlike other western big -- game species , antelope inhabit a fairly level landscape , much of it traversed by roads . All of which contributes to the prevalent method of hunting pronghorns-using a vehicle . There is nothing ethically wrong with seeking pronghorns from a rig , provided the animals are n't chased by occupants of a vehicle . I suspect that 95 percent of all antelope hunters use a vehicle to locate animals . Once an antelope is spotted , a stalk is then planned to sneak into shooting range . To a lot of hunters , especially locals who know where to go for a quick hunt , pronghorns are game of opportunity , hunted with little or no planning . Plenty of antelope are taken during lunch breaks or on Sunday mornings before kickoff . There 's nothing wrong with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have precious little time to enjoy the outdoors and the challenge of the hunt . I 'll not begrudge them that . But consider the other option -- of overnighting in the desert where antelope live and sharing the joys of the western landscape . A few years ago , I camped out with a group of six other hunters on a Wyoming antelope hunt . We pitched our tents in a cozy draw and sat around a campfire after dinner , enjoying good conversation interrupted by the shrill yaps of nearby coyotes . Before sunrise we washed a generous breakfast down with hot coffee and planned our hunt . Because we 'd scouted the area , we knew where several fine bucks lived and figured ways to get at them . Some of the bucks inhabited private land , and we 'd already obtained permission from landowners to hunt on their property . By noon the next day , three of us had filled our tags . We erected a tripod out of sturdy poles and skinned our antelope in camp . I cut an entire animal into roasts and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days as we hunted for sage grouse and fished for rainbows and walleyes in nearby lakes . Photograph Pronghorns are very tough trophies to field judge . A buck 's ear is about 7 inches long . Using that as a reference , this buck 's horns are about 13 inches-nice , but average . Photograph New light and compact 8x40 or 10x40 binoculars are a boon to pronghorn hunters . // That 's the way antelope hunting can be-enjoying the animal and its environment to their full potential . If you really want to challenge an antelope with all your skills , try the animal with a bow or muzzleloader . You 'll know you 've been on a hunt once you do . The need to get very close to this ultra-alert speedster will test all your abilities as a hunter . Even if you 're a rifle hunter , there are ways to truly test your skills . I recall a unique hunt several years ago with Chuck Buck , president of Buck Knives , and outdoor writers Jim Woods and Ron Thomas . Several herds were bedded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a thick stand of quaking aspen . To get within shooting range , we used the aspens as screening cover . We split up in the trees ; Jim headed for a herd on the low end of the slope while I headed for the upper herds . As I slipped along in the lush understory , I saw elk tracks in the soft earth . I had to keep reminding myself that I was putting a sneak on a buck antelope rather than a bull elk . Finally I eased toward an opening and saw antelope bedded within 10 yards of the timber 's edge , obviously secure in their positions . Through binoculars I saw no good bucks , but I spotted a fine antelope farther out in the opening . A doe lay next to him , blocking my shot , and I played a waiting game . The distance was about 225 yards . Several minutes later , Jim shot at a buck he 'd been stalking , putting the rest of the antelope to their feet . The buck I 'd been watching got up running @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the fleeing herd . I held my shot for fear of hitting another animal unintentionally and never got another opportunity , because trees obscured my vision as the antelope ran off . Though I was n't successful , the stalk was satisfying . I like the aspect of stalking close , no matter what I hunt . To many hunters , pronghorn hunting means long-range shooting , which in itself is fair and rewarding to those who elect to shoot 300 yards and better . To me , however , I 'd just as soon stalk a lesser animal and score , as shoot a bigger buck at 400 yards while taking a rest from a fence post . In defense of long-range hunters , I must say that I believe the antelope is the most carefully and critically evaluated big-game animal in North America . Deer or elk are evaluated based on number of points , width of the rack and mass and length of the tines , but the animals seldom give you time to look them over carefully . Using a spotting scope , the antelope hunter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and general mass of the horns , and is evaluating in fractions of inches . As antelope trophies go , a 16-inch buck is a giant . Many areas will never produce 16-inch bucks because of available nutrition and genetic makeup of the local herd . A 15-inch buck is a trophy practically everywhere . In most antelope states , the 14-inch buck is highly respected , with 12- and 13-inchers making up a big part of the total buck harvest . While I 'm not a great fan of long shots for antelope , I can get downright surly when hunters shoot at running animals . Sometimes you will see formulas that are supposed to ensure a good hit at a running antelope . That 's nonsense , because too many variables are involved-distance , speed and angle of travel must be figured precisely to even consider a shot . At top speed , an antelope is ripping along at nearly 60 miles per hour . But it 's impossible to calculate whether the animal is indeed traveling that fast . Add to that the fact that the wind is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ becomes a further complication . A long shot at a running animal almost always means a miss , or a wounded animal . But since antelope make their getaways in open spaces and can be seen fleeing for a long time , some hunters think that eventually one of their bullets will score . If the first shot misses , maybe one of the others in the magazine will work . I 've heard horror stories where a hunter has gone through a box of 20 cartridges while trying to anchor a running animal . Recently , a Wyoming game warden told me , " Antelope do things to people . They bring out the worst in some hunters . " Maybe my feelings when it comes to this wonderful animal are so strong because of the way I was introduced to the sport . My first antelope hunt was almost my last . I trudged for miles in a Utah desert , drinking precious little water in the 100-degree blowtorch heat . I stumbled around for days but could n't get close to an animal . I finally scored on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the smallest buck I 've ever taken . It was just 11 inches , but I was as proud of that buck as of any animal I 've hunted . // Antelope Season Starters // <p> 
##2000856 With certain exceptions , the 1998 hunting seasons are shaping up as some of the best in the past two decades . Here 's what you need to know to share in the success // WHITETAIL DEER With whitetail populations at record highs throughout the nation , the goal of wildlife managers is shifting from growing bigger herds to growing bigger bucks . Brian Murphy , executive director of the Quality Deer Management Association ( QDM ) , headquartered in Watkinsville , Ga . ( 800-209-3337 ) , says that the concept behind its management techniques is simple and proven . By reducing or eliminating the harvest of young bucks , the number of older bucks in the population increases . Once fully implemented , the buck harvest is often equal to its original level in terms of absolute numbers , but the bucks taken are bigger in every way . In Georgia , Murphy claims that the program has been embraced by 90 percent of the hunters . " I 've never heard of that many hunters agreeing on anything , " says Murphy . As a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the program statewide , allowing counties the option of restricting hunters to 8-point bucks or 15-inch minimum spreads . The average age of the deer taken on QDM lands is always greater than 3 1/2 years old . In comparison , each year Pennsylvania kills 80 percent of its antlered deer for an average age under two . There 's not one two-year-old buck in Boone and Crockett ; in fact , most are over six . Going hand in hand with the restrictions on young bucks is a push to keep herds in line with available forage . Whether on QDM lands or under more traditional management schemes , game managers are offering more doe permits than ever before . They have to . Current high whitetail numbers strain the habitat and leave deer ill-prepared for severe winters or periods of drought . Such was the case in the upper Midwest and southern Canada during the winters of 1995-96 and 1996-97 , when many herds were cut in half by unusually harsh winters . Had hunters harvested more does preceding those winters , overall survival would have been higher and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ professionals ? If there are doe tags in your area , get one and fill it ; then hunt for that trophy buck . So where in North America are the biggest whitetail bucks ? Some answers to that question come from the graduate thesis research undertaken by Mickey Hellickson at the University of Georgia . Under the guidance of whitetail expert Dr. Larry Marchinton , Hellickson compiled a comprehensive analysis of the whitetails listed in Boone and Crockett to see which regions consistently produced the biggest bucks and specifically what conditions led to big antlers . First , Hellickson 's work uncovered a geographic trend worth noting . The farther north and the farther west you travel in whitetail habitat , the larger the antlers , with the bulk of the big deer coming from the upper Midwest . Minnesota recorded the most B &C; bucks , with 420 through 1993 . During the three-year period from 1991 through 1993 , Illinois led the nation with 81 , Iowa came in second with 56 and Minnesota third with 42 . The bucks of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of big bucks to hunters there is probably higher than anywhere else in North America . Marchinton says there are two reasons for this . The first has to do with the land itself , with the biggest bucks coming from areas with the richest soils ( and thus the best forage ) . The second is Bergman 's Rule , which says that , in general , the farther north a warmblooded animal lives , the greater its body size . The large body size gives animals a smaller surface-to-volume ratio , which means greater heat retention . And deer with big bodies seem to have proportionally larger antlers . Photograph With whitetail populations thriving , wildlife agencies are issuing more doe permits and establishing minimum-size restrictions to enhance the hunting for trophy bucks . // The influence of habitat on genetics also plays its part . The theory is that large antlers have little environmental drawback in open country ( read : the West and the Plains States ) and actually are an advantage for a big buck fighting off rivals and attracting does . Makes sense-just look at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racks . However , in dense brush and woodlands , large antlers can be a problem-literally a hang-up . Marchinton says many researchers believe the Irish elk , a member of the deer family that had the largest antlers in the species , became extinct because the habitat in Ireland changed to mature forests . The large antlers proved a hindrance in the dense forests and gave predators such an edge that eventually the Irish elk was doomed . Hunter pressure also plays no small part in the management equation . Nationwide , game experts report that the biggest bucks all come from areas with little or no hunting pressureoften this can mean suburban and even urban areas with only shotgun or archery seasons . That comes back to the QDM dictum : Let the bucks age and they simply get bigger . BLACK BEARS Twenty years ago , the outlook for the black bear was grim . But biologists devised new ways of improving habitat and bear numbers . So now they find themselves with a new problem : how to deal with all those bears . Virtually throughout their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so in many places . " We 've done such a good job helping bears recover , now what ? " says Mike Pelton , a past president of the International Association for Bear Research and Management . State agencies are currently spending more time dealing with nuisance bears than worrying about their numbers . Pelton says the increases came about because of management changes and more compliance-with deep inroads having been made in curtailing poaching problems . While coastal Alaska and British Columbia produce some big bears , most of the true bruisers still come from Pennsylvania and North Carolina , areas where there are unlimited sources of high protein in agricultural crops and human garbage . Southern California also produces some huge bears , partially because its bruins have very short hibernation cycles ( more like a nap ) and feed nearly all year . All three states post bears over 700 pounds annually . MULE DEER Photograph Looking for a huge black bear ? Check out Pennsylvania and North Carolina . // A Quick Look at Deer Across the Nation // While whitetail numbers continue to burgeon , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 30 years , muleys have been in decline ; consequently , hunting opportunities art dwindling . Arizona will issue a recordlow number of tags in 1998 , and this is the last year Colorado will sell overthe-counter mule deer licenses , going to a drawing for all tags in 1999 . Wyoming herds are two-thirds the size they were in the early 1990s , which has led to dramatic reductions in quotas . These stories are repeated in all mule deer states . There is some hope . Game managers in virtually all of the western states with mule deer expect a slight rise in populations as there was a climatic respite from drought and severe winters . This is expected to hold especially true in the Southwest . Trophy hunters notice an increase in antler size following winters that are mild ( resulting in higher survival rates ) and wet ( resulting in good forage ) . If you were lucky enough to draw a tag this year for Arizona 's Kaibab or Utah 's Paunsagunt Plateau , happy hunting : You 'll see antlers that beat the average of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trophy spots this fall will be eastern Oregon , southwestern Idaho and the swath extending from the extreme southeastern corner of Idaho into the Gray 's River country of Wyoming . Climate concerns aside , loss of habitat is greatly to blame for the sad state of the mule deer . And here the prognosis is not good for the bigeared Westerner . Substantial changes , including fire suppression , timber management and cattle grazing , are required on a number of fronts if muleys are to regain their glory days . A barometer for the species is found in Colorado 's harvest figures . In the early 1960s , Colorado killed more than 140,000 mule deer a year , with the success rate measured conservatively in the range of 63 to 74 percent . Last year , Colorado took only 45,000 muleys , and the hunter success rate had dropped to 28 percent , the worst ever . BLACKTAIL DEER As with mule deer , blacktails have been in somewhat of a slide since the 1960s . But the drop has been much less pronounced , and throughout their range-from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent years . Once the neglected deer , blacktails have become increasingly popular , especially among hunters looking to complete a trifecta of North American deer species . If you 're one of those hunters , Boyd Iverson , author of Blacktail Trophy Tactics , will tell you that the best opportunity for a big blacktail is in Jackson and Douglas counties of south-central Oregon during one of the special-drawing late-season muzzleloader hunts . But that 's not your only option . Good bucks are also taken each year from a handful of specially managed private ranches in northwestern California , which are part of the state 's Ranching for Wildlife program . The number-one buck in the B &C; record book is from Lewis County in Washington . CARIBOU As they have for centuries , the huge herds of barren-ground caribou and Quebec-Labrador caribou continue to roam across Canada . Still , even with their massive populations , a successful hunt depends on timing . The migrations have been unpredictable in recent years . In Quebec last year the herds did not travel their usual routes or move at traditional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ great migratory herds are stable or growing , the mountain and woodland caribou , and the small Perry caribou of the High Arctic , are facing declines of varying proportions . For the mountain and woodland caribou there are definite concerns , as man continues to break up their habitat one parcel at a time . But some biologists fear the Perry caribou is actually facing extinction , possibly due to climatic change . Anne Gunn of the Northwest Territories Department of Resources , Wildlife and Economic Development says the Perry caribou of the western High Arctic has plummeted from a population of 24,000 in 1961 to less than 1,100 animals ; the Bathhurst Island herd has dropped from 3,000 to around 75 caribou . BIGHORN SHEEP // The Mule Deer Dive Photograph While whitetails boom , mule deer are going bust . This year , biologists expect a slight bump in fawn recruitment , but it wo n't be enough to break the muley 's 30-year slide . // Disease outbreaks caused by domestic livestock have ravaged some of the best herds of bighorns in the past few years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remained consistent thanks to growth in other , more isolated herds and relocation efforts to put animals back onto their historic ranges . This is particularly true of the desert bighorn . In the Lower 48 , the odds of drawing a tag are on a par with hitting the Powerball Lottery-or you can spend a lottery-sized wad to get one of the fund-raiser tags offered in some western states . Desert sheep tags are nearly impossible to draw , often with odds approaching 500 to 1 . Auction and Mexican tags are n't much better , since their price can reach above $50,000 . But hunters are drawn each year , and many of us apply annually , hoping for that lightning strike . Much of Canada 's and Alaska 's sheep populations are comparatively stable-fluctuating more at the dictates of seasonal weather patterns than of man . The good news is that a hunter of means can still hunt three of the Grand Slam species-Rocky Mountain , Stone and Dall sheep-by reserving space with an outfitter . GRIZZLY BEARS/ BROWN BEARS Because of extremely conservative management , the population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much of their range , and the opportunity for shooting a very large bear is excellent . Grizzly and brown bears are basically the same animal ; it 's just that grizzlies are an interior species that does n't enjoy access to ample salmon runs as part of its diet . That concentrated , high-protein food source is why coastal browns get so big . The extinct California grizzly was also huge because of the massive runs of fish California 's rivers once held . There are only two places to hunt brown bears-Kodiak Island and the Alaskan Peninsula-and because permits are issued in very limited numbers , huge bears are killed each year . In the Lower 48 , the USFWS estimates the grizzly population is approaching 1,000 animals , and it is considering proposing the delisting of the species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem ( see " Sportmen 's Voices , " page 66 ) . ELK Photograph Feeling lucky ? To hunt sheep in the Lower 48 , a guy has to be very Irish ... or very rich . // Virtually throughout their range , dramatic increases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the best season ever . Colorado , for example , has so many elk it is issuing over-the-counter , either-sex licenses for many zones . It 's possible that Colorado hunters could take more elk than mule deer this season . It looks , however , as if the elk numbers have reached a plateau . Conflicts with farming and ranching are forcing states to crack down on the big ungulates and , as with the mule deer , changes in habitat are beginning to sap some herds . In Idaho 's famed Clearwater Region , elk are in decline , with the cause most probably being fire suppression . Across the rest of the state , however , herds " are doing well to the point of making farmers really , really mad . These are our naughty elk , " says Ed Mitchell with the Idaho Game and Fish Department . A mild winter in the north and a moist winter in the south has created great conditions for elk this year , and Jeff Obrecht of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department expects tremendous things . " Across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had a year where so many 350-class B &C]; elk were reported as last year , " says Obrecht . " There are justlots of big bulls out there . " States are beginning to manage herds to increase the number of mature bulls . Idaho has units where only spike bulls are legal during the regular season-the state conducts a special drawing for branch-antlered bulls . Oregon , Washington and Colorado are restricting hunters to branch-antlered or four-point-orlarger bulls in some areas , allowing the spikes to survive an extra season or two . Both strategies are working . Photograph Dramatic increases in elk populations over the past decade suggest that this may be the best season ever . Colorado , for instance , just may take more elk than mule deer in ' 98. // Elk on the Rise // The biggest public-land bulls continue to come from Arizona and Wyoming , where all licenses are sold through drawings , but private ranches and Indian reservations throughout elk range produce monsters annually as only a few of the biggest , oldest animals are taken each year . MOOSE Moose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue to spread through their historic range ( see page 12 ) . In the core of that range , all over Canada and Alaska , numbers are generally stable , but the long-term trend is downward in wild areas because habitat in moose range is declining . As with mule deer , Alaskan wildlife managers pin the problem on fire suppression . In Canada , where forests or parkland abut agriculture , moose populations are generally increasing . The largest moose recognized by the Boone and Crockett Club is the Alaska-Yukon moose of the far north . Alaska produces the overwhelming majority of the record-book heads , and monster bulls come from all over the state , according to Bruce Bartley of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game . Alaska 's Unit 15B-East is managed for trophy bulls with a 50-inch minimum spread ( 15B-East has lots of 60- to 70-inch bulls ) , but big bulls can come from just about anywhere . Proof : Unit 20E near Tok , which has one of the lowest moose densities in the state , produced the world-record moose ( 651/s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Perhaps the most neglected big-game animal in North America , the mountain goat offers hunters an opportunity to hunt bighorn sheep country without the long odds of drawing a bighorn tag . Montana hunters typically face 1-in-15 to 1-in-30 odds for a goat permit , while sheep odds are more in the 1-in-100 range . In Canada and Alaska , outfitters who might be booked way in advance for sheep can usually work in a goat hunt on a year 's warning . Because permit numbers are so tightly controlled and the herds are stable or increasing almost everywhere , the odds of getting a trophy goat are equally good . British Columbia has the most record-book heads . In the Lower 48 , Montana and Washington have the most tags and hunter success rates usually hover between 70 and 80 percent . PRONGHORNS Game managers are predicting that the fall of ' 99 will be a good year . As for ' 98 , it 's still mostly a mixed bag , with herds recovering from the ugly winter of 1991-92 that devastated pronghorns throughout their range . Drought continues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ winter of 1997-98 has biologists anticipating dramatic improvement in production this year , plus excellent horn growth because of good forage conditions . Jim Yokum , a retired Bureau of Land Management biologist who has studied antelope for 40 years , says the pronghorn population has remained relatively stable at 1 million animals for the past 20 years . Yokum often quotes a little-known fact : Pronghorns are North America 's number-two big-game animal in abundance and harvest , second only to deer ( all species combined ) . // Guns &; Loads for Big Game Photograph A little-known fact : Pronghorns are America 's number-two big-game animal , second only to deer . // While rifle pronghorn tags are issued via drawings in all states and provinces , bowhunters can still purchase over-the-counter tags in many places . These hunts are often held in mid to late September , when the bucks are rutting and vulnerable to decoys and calls . Avid archers call it " poor man 's elk hunting , " because it 's exciting , tags are relatively inexpensive ( less than $200 in most states ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> 
##2000859 Hunting in the Soviet Union Fred Bear 's Best-Ever Bow Shot Photography Leaps Forward Charlie Elliott on Sportsmanship Ray Bergman Says Goodbye Letters From Vietnam Gun Control Heats Up . O'Connor 's Predictions Bass Become No. 1 Wild Turkey Airdrop Photograph ADVENTURE 'S NEW HEIGHTS GLORY DAYS // High Adventure As the neat American postwar dream dissolved into a more complex reality , OUTDOOR LIFE put its head down and barreled into the 1960s with more than 1 million readers in tow . By now , editor William E. Rae 's dream team of frequent contributors had grown to include Jack O'Connor , Charles Elliott , Ray Bergman , Joe Brooks , Fred Bear , Ben East and Erwin Bauer . Their escapist magic-complemented vividly by ever-improving color photography-formed the cornerstone of a winning editorial formula . And escapism was in high demand . In a country that was finding itself increasingly conflicted-over race , a Cold War with nuclear implications , an unpredictable dictator 90 miles off the coast of Florida and a bewildering but lethal involvement in Vietnam-the magazine 's message was refreshingly unambiguous . In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adventure : Dove hunts read like aerial dogfights , squirrel hunts were carried out at the fevered pitch of an encounter with a wounded leopard and every year a wizened ruler of some " turkey holler " somewhere in the U.S. was ceremoniously dispatched by the redoubtable Charlie Elliott . And of course there were the regular doses of bear attacks , Alaskan sheep treks and big-game fishing . While these stories provided a respite from the social turbulence of the day , there were shock waves of another sort generated on the technology front : Men were orbiting Earth , satellites relayed live pictures around the world , LASER technology was born and , as the decade came to a close ; the nation held its breath on the verge of achieving the impossible-placing a man on the moon . Even a magazine that was a mouthpiece for a simpler way of life was not immune to the technological rush . A notice to subscribers midway through the decade proudly announced , " OUTDOOR LIFE is now converting to the most modern electronic equipment to handle its subscriptions . The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brain , ' which can tick off 35,000 addresses an hour . " Indeed , the Computer Age had arrived . TERRESTRIAL DISCOVERY MARCH 1958 In this decade , his most prolific as an OUTDOOR LIFE contributor , Joe Brooks discovered fishing breakthroughs with regularity . He was the first on the scene once again when Vince Marinaro unveiled his innovative " terrestrials " fishing flies . They 're " America 's first original flyfishing contribution , " Brooks proclaimed . " Dividend trout , " I said , putting the trout back in the water . " There is n't even the first show of aquatic insects . No spent wings , nothing that I can see but flat water . " " That 's it , " said Vince . " Jassids fill the gap . " - " Jassids : New Approach to Flyfishing , " by Joe Brooks BEFORE BLAZE ORANGE APRIL 1958 As the ranks of sportsmen swelled , so too did the number of hunters victimized by friendly fire . A major field study involving the military suggested that yellow would be a safer replacement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where we now stood in the fresh snow , one hunter within the past week had shot and killed another . To re-enact the tragedy , Earle Mericle walked over to where the victim was standing and disappeared . All of us peered and squinted . Finally two men said they spotted him , but the rest of us didn't-not until he came jogging over to us wearing a red hat and jacket . There was a small hole through the jacket 's left breast pocket , and a gruesome dark smear down its front . Photograph While he receives oxygen , Air Force Captain Mervin Evenson relaxes with a copy of OUTDOOR LIFE before a high-altitude U-2 jet flight in 1959. // Mericle had put on the dead man 's red hunting clothes and had stood there for minutes without most of us spotting him from only SO yards away . - " What Should Hunters Wear ? Yellow Versus Red , " by Tom Herbert and Arthur Grahame CHARLIE ELLIOTT , WORLD ADVENTURER JANUARY 1959 It was a rare issue of OUTDOOR LIFE that did n't feature the byline @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the day , and Charlie delivered more frequently than any other contributor . Bass , squirrels and turkeys were his game in the warm months , but each fall the mountains became Charlie 's home , and readers followed along as the " Gentleman From Georgia " scaled new heights in pursuit of America 's most challenging game . The ridge crest was jagged and rocky , and it pitched down the mountain at a hazardous angle for three quarters of a mile before it leveled off plastered myself against its rim and glanced at Louis Brown , who had clawed his way to a perch beside me . " You can fall off this place , " I whispered , " in three directions . " " Well-just do n't fall , " he replied , " and do n't move a pebble if you want a shot at that ram down there . " " We 'd save bullets , " I said , " by dropping a rock on him . " " Start crawling , " Lou instructed . I 've done a lot of plain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a game animal has ever measured up to that crawl . There was n't any way but on our backs to negotiate that first , almost-vertical quarter-mile. 1 inched down , with my rifle balanced between my lap and knees . Then suddenly my elbow dislodged a stone the size of an egg , but 1 fielded it on the first bounce . " Good catch . That could have started a slide big enough to bury the critter , " Lou commented dryly . We continued downward in this crawfish fashion and half an hour and one dislocated vertebra later , we reached the last rocky outcropping that hid us from the ram , 25 yards below . " Think you can hit him from here ? " Lou asked , softly . " If I miss after this stalk , " I said , " I 'll use the second shell on me. " - " Dalls of the Yukon , " by Charles Elliott IT 'S ALL RESIN THESE DAYS Photograph A 40-inch Dall ram capped Elliott 's 21-day hunt on the Arctic slope of the Mackenzie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The synthetic materials that product designers had at their disposal after World War II rapidly replaced wood and metal in nearly every consumer appliance . But there were still some problems in working out the bugs ... Originally the aim in this field was to produce lightweight craft ; but it has now been proved that a good fiberglass boat must be rather heavy for its size . - " Boats of Fiberglass , " by J.A . Emmett , June 1958 ... and decoding the overambitious P.R . hype : The ancient gun- and rifle-making firm of Remington has just announced a new and radical departure in rifle manufacture . It has put nylon to a new use-the one-piece casting of the stock and receiver of a rifle .... The Remington operatives tell me that nylon is actually more wearresistant than steel . - " Getting the Range , " by Jack O'Connor , March 1959 GRIZZLY WARS NOVEMBER 1958 OL 's favorite cover model , the grizzly bear , continued to hold the fascination of readers . But in the November 1958 issue , a less malignant side of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Attack ? " Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge researcher Earl Fleming detailed how in more than 400 encounters with grizzlies he had never been attacked , despite numerous " false charges . " According to him , " Most bears accused of charging are not actually charging at all . " Fleming goes on to argue that far too many bears are shot prematurely by triggerhappy sportsmen . Seldom do these men underestimate : I ) Size of bears met. 2 ) Number of bears seen . 3 ) Size of tracks . 4 ) Any danger to themselves . Was OUTDOOR LIFE getting soft on bears ? Not a chance ! The following year the magazine published a rebuttal entitled " Brown Bears Do Attack , " by Ralph W. Young , who went on to say : ... and when they do attack , you kill the bear or the bear kills you . It 's that simple . And just so there was no mistaking its stance , 15 months after Fleming 's defense of bruins , OL featured " Art of Stopping Grizzlies . " Case closed . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exception of conservation and gun issues-were hardly ever deemed appropriate editorial fare for a special-interest magazine like OUTDOOR LIFE . But the avoidance was especially obvious in 1960 ( the same year in which future USSR President Nikita Khrushchev delivered a fiery , shoe-banging speech before the United Nations General Assembly and Francis Gary Powers ' U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia ) , when the magazine published a story highlighting new hunting opportunities in the Soviet Union-with nary a mention of the two superpowers ' escalating Cold War . RAY BERGMAN SAYS GOODBYE MARCH 1960 Ray Bergman had been the magazine 's " Angling Editor " for 26 years , and a contributor for 38 years , when he made the decision to retire from the monthly deadline grind in 1960 . " All my writing has followed the same basic concept , " he wrote in his final column , " to give the reader factual information gained and tested by my own practical experience , and to make it as interesting as my writing ability would allow . " Such humility was n't pulled out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that rewarded chest-pounding prose , those who knew Bergman-author of Trout , the indispensable classic of the field-called him the humblest man they 'd ever met. // I electrified the customs official by telling him I had my rifle with me . Then an Intourist man explained the situation . - " I Hunted in Russia , " by Irene Morden Photograph A 1959 motorboat roundup illustrated the evolving market ( from left ) : the wooden Old Town Lapstrake , the fiberglass Blue Star Sarasota and the Benson Gyro-Boat , " which becomes airborne when towed . " // Some of you may wonder what I 'm going to do now that Ize resigned from Outdoor Life . Candidly , I 'm going to rest and do nothing except exactly what I feel like doing . What I feel like doing is some more fishing in a lazy , indolent way . - " Ray Bergman Says Goodbye , " by Ray Bergman MULEY AT THE METER NOVEMBER 1960 As America 's suburbs spilled into the countryside , incongruent scenes like this one ( below ) of a mule deer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MCMANUS AUGUST 1960 Despite the magazine 's emphasis on adventure and how-to stories , when the editors could find it , humor was welcome . In this instance , Robert Traver ( aka John Voekler ) , author of Anatomy of a Murder and an avid flyfisherman , got the nod . " Nice job of fishin ' , " I said , with all the foolhardy aplomb of the winner of a local dance marathon undertaking to compliment Nijinsky . He glanced quickly up at me-one keen , appraising , wrinkled glance-and then away , as though I were a squirrel scolding and chattering on a bough . " Hm , " he sniffed . That was all ; just " bm . " " Would n't it be easier , " I said , still filled with concern and still determined to take the fatal plunge , " would n't it be easier if you fished downstream ? " The effect of this remark was as though I had deliberately impaled the old man with my fly or thrown a rock at his rising trout . His whole body @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still and sighted me through his glasses , adjusting them , as though at last discovering that I was not a foolish squirrel but rather some new species of buzzing and pestiferous insect . " Harrumph , " he snorted . " Listen , young fella , " he said , " I 'd sooner sit on my prat on the public dock at Lake Michigamme and plunk night crawlers for bass than ever fish a wet fly ! " Thus shriveled , I sat there red faced and watched him teeter and struggle out of sight around the bend above . On the way , he paused and took two more lovely trout . - " Easy Does It , " by Robert Traver THE .270 , AGAIN SEPTEMBER 1962 Defending his favorite caliber was a role Jack O'Connor never took lightly . But by the 1960s it was becoming clear that his patience with detractors had grown veneer-thin . Question : I say the .280 Remington is better than the .270 in knock-down power . Am I right ? -Thomas F. Bella , Wis . Answer : If you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the .270 in knock-down power , I 'll eat your .280 from buttplate to muzzle with only a pinch . of salt . - " Shooters ' Problems , " by Jack O'Connor CHARLIE 'S GALL AUGUST 1962 Propelled by a population explosion , higher wages and increasing leisure time , the army of hunters burgeoned , and an unsavory element crept into the woods along with dedicated sportsmen . The magazine took an unblinking look at this development when it highlighted a series of disturbing experiences . With the best hunting and f shing we 've ever had in this country , the quality of the men who follow these sports is poorer today than it has ever been . What is happening to the old American idea of sportsmanship ? - " To Hell With You , " by Charles Elliott ACTION ! AUGUST 1963 OL had always delivered action stories . By the 1960s , camera and film technology had finally developed to the point where it could deliver the graphic end of that timehonored OUTDOOR LIFE formula . The thrashing pen-and-ink fish that had graced so many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for such shots was huge . One enterprising photographer from Michigan devised a shoulder-mounted camera that started clicking away when he hit a button on the forearm of his shotgun . And it paid off . OL bought a series of stories from Henry Zeman that showcased his unique down-the-barrel shots of flushing grouse and rabbits . AFTER DALLAS APRIL 1964 In the immediate aftermath of President John F. Kennedy 's assassination on November 22 , 1963 , a flood of stringent gun-control bills were introduced in Congress , prompting OUTDooR LIFE to counter with a forcefully worded statement , which read in part : Outdoor Life is convinced : That any firearms-registration law , federal , state or municipal , is bound to be a futile , useless and costly nuisance . That the only effective way to minimize the misuse of firearms by criminals is to enact laws which provide mandatory severe added punishment for the commission of a violent crime while armed with a dangerous weapon . - " What 's On Your Mind ? " by the editors BUCKETMOUTH 'S ASCENT JUNE 1964 Three years before Ray @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fishing editor , Wynn Davis , proclaimed the black bass America 's greatest gamefish , based on its top-notch performance in seven categories : 1 ) Fighting power . 2 ) Tenacity . 3 ) Intelligence . 4 ) Number of reasons for taking lures and live bait . 5 ) Inclination to rise to surface lure . 6 ) Distribution and availability . 7 ) Capacity to maintain a high population in the face of fishing pressure and pollution . Photograph Marine manufacturers have always justified the use of bathing-suited beauties in advertising . But sometimes the practice bordered on the absurd . // Trout fishermen might have protested , but the masses had voted with their wallets : By 1964 more lures were being manufactured for bass fishing than for all other types of fishing combined . GREETINGS , FROM DA NANG SEPTEMBER 1965 With the " police action " in Vietnam escalating in violence and ambiguity , it became disturbingly apparent that this would not be a " good " war . Nevertheless , as it had in previous conflicts , OUTDOOR LIFE stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our boys @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Outdoor Life for the wonderful gift of 12 issues that was sent to me here in Viet Nam . I am confined to my bed on off-duty hours , trying to recover from an ailment , so the magazines could n't have arrived at a better time . -Tom Jeffery and the 23rd C.A.M.R.O.N. , Viet Nam - " What 's On Your Mind ? " O'CONNOR 'S CRYSTAL BALL DECEMBER 1965 As part of a firearms retrospective , O'Connor hazarded a few predictions for the future , proving that prognostication , even for an authority like Jack , is chancy business . Look for the automatic shotgun to kill off the pump ... I think the use of the telescopic sight will almost be universal in another 20 years , but that variable-power scopes will be less popular ... The popularity of the 12-gauge will continue to decline slowly and the 20 will gain . - " The Big Change in Guns , " by Jack O'Connor STU APTE MAKES A NAME AUGUST 1967 For a minute I could n't believe my eyes . The scales read 151 pounds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back and congratulated . Then it sank in that I had a new world fly-rod record . I had caught the largest gamefish of any kind ever taken on a fly rod and 12-pound-test leader . How do you describe a moment like that ? I can't. - " New World-Record Tarpon on a Fly , " By Stu Apte TURKEY DROP FEBRUARY 1967 Turkey restocking was in full swing by the end of the ' 60s ... conducted with a swashbuckling flair that agencies have since reined in . The turkeys are dropped from one of the Commission 's planes as it slows to 50 miles per hour at 200 feet . Following this spectacular air release , the birds tumble helplessly for about SO feet , then set their wings and glide to a landing , a method that reduces the confinement period and mortality rate . - " Gobblers Get Their Wings , " by George Heinzman Photograph Sidebar 1958 Sidebar is inducted into the Army ... becomes the 49th state ... Savage introduces the Model 110 ... Recession hits the U.S. ; more than 5.2 million are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the cause of whirling disease , comes to the U.S. from Europe .. Weatherby releases the Mark V rifle .. Hula Hoop craze sweeps the country ... National Aviation and Space Administration ( NASA ) is created ... The .338 Win . Mag . is made available . Sidebar 1959 Sidebar The microchip is invented ... Hawaii becomes the 50th state ... Xerox manufactures a copy machine ... lan Fleming publishes Goldfinger , a spy novel featuring an agent named " Bond , James Bond " ... . fe seizes power in Cuba .. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright , film director Cecil B. DeMille and comedian Lou Costello die ... The movie Ben Hur Sidebar wins 11 Academy Awards ... St. Lawrence Seaway is opened , and ocean-going vessels can reach ports on all five Great Lakes for the first time ... Lee Petty wins the inaugural Daytona 500 . Sidebar 1960 Sidebar Winchester Sidebar debuts the Model 59 Sidebar " glass barrel " shotgun , and Marlin introduces its which becomes the best-selling .22 rimfire autoloader. , . Francis Gary Powers 's U-2 is shot down over the USSR @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) is developed ... Democrat John F. Kennedy defeats Vice President Sidebar Richard M. Nixon for presidency ... First oral contraceptive is licensed ... Future Soviet Union president Nikita Khrushchev delivers a U.N . address Sidebar made notable by his bang Sidebar ing a shoe on his desk ... Leon Martuch is granted a patent for a PVC-coated , tapered fly line ... Alfred Hitchcock 's Sidebar scares the daylights out of filmgoers ... Sidebar The Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame is founded ... The Clean Water Act passes Congress ... Contestants on $24,000 Question are arrested for perjury in connection with the " great Sidebar game show scandal " ... Mabry Harper catches the world-record 25-pound walleye in Tennessee 's Old Hickory Lake ; the record will be overturned after the article " Walleye Record Hoax " appears in OL 36 years later ( June 1996 ) . Sidebar 1961 Sidebar Glenn St. Charles forms the Pope and Young Club , patterned after the Boone and Crockett Club , to demonstrate the efficacy of archery eQuipment for taking big-game animals .. Roger Maris hits 61 home runs , topping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1927 .. Sidebar While hunting in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska , Harry L. Swank Jr . lays claim to the world-record Dall Sheep . It scores 189V8 ... More than 1,400 Cubans trained in the U.S. attempt to invade Cuba and are defeated by Fidel Castro 's anti-guerrilla units at Sidebar the Bay of Pigs ... Remington introduces the 40-X centerfire rifle ... The USSR wins the space race as Major Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in orbit ... Sidebar Ernest Hemingway commits suicide ... Winchester introduces the M-100 autoloader ... Jack Nicklaus wins the U.S. Amateur Open ; Gary Players wins the Masters ... East Germany begins building theBerlin Wall ... Joseph Heller writes Catch-22 .. , James R. Berry tags a 4471/8 B &C; record elk in Gilbert Plains , Manitoba . Sidebar 1962 Sidebar Rachel Carson writes f Silent Spring ... iS in appears in a LIfe magazine Sidebar story : " The Lure Fish Ca n't Resist " ... Nebraska bowhunter Del Austin takes a double drop-tine , non-typical whitetail buck . It is scored at 279 7/8 and becomes number one in the newly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Saigon , the capital of South Vietnam .. In the world of firearms , developments include the Sidebar 7mm Rem . Mag . and M-700 rifle , and the Mossberg Model 500 shotgun ... The Second Vatican Council is convened by Pope John XXIII ... Full-scale lampricide treatment of Lake Superior streams proves 80 percent effective ... " Cuban Missile Crisis " brings the world to the Sidebar brink of nuclear war ... J.D. Watson wins the Nobel Prize for the molecular structure of DNA . Sidebar 1963 Sidebar U.S. adopts Zip codes to speed mail delivery ... Martin Luther King Jr . delivers famed " I Have a Dream " speech before 200,000 at a civil rights rally in Washington , D.C .... Bob Dylan becomes an international star performing at the Monterey Folk Festival ... Firearms developments include Sidebar the Remington Model 100 shotgun and XP-100 pistol ; Winchester 101 O/U and the .300 Win . Mag . cartridge ... Pontiac GTO revives Detroit 's interest in " performance " vehicles ... Alabama Governor Sidebar George Wallace fulfills campaign promise to " stand in the schoolhouse door " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas . Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson takes the presidential oath aboard the aircraft transporting Kennedy 's body to Washington . Sidebar 1964 Sidebar W.B. Whaley lands 58-pound world-record channel cat in South Carolina 's Santee Cooper Reservoir . Ford introduces the Mustang .. . The U.S. Surgeon General issues warning detailing the dangers of tobacco use .. Winchester redesigns the M-71 rifle and introduces Models 1200 and 1400 shotguns ... After a U.S. destroyer is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin , war escalates in Vietnam ... Sidebar Don " Big Daddy " Garlits exceeds 200 mph for the first time in National Hot Rod Association history ... Cassius Clay ( soon to be Muhammad Ali ) TKOs Sonny Liston for Heavyweight Boxing Championship .. LBJ signs Civil Rights Act ; Martin Luther King Jr . is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize .. The Wilderness Act becomes law ... Tokyo Olympic Games are broadcast globally via satellite , and Bob Hayes ( soon to be an NFL All-Pro ) wins the 1 OO-meter in a world-record 10 seconds flat Sidebar 1965 Sidebar In Peoria @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the number-one typical Pope and Young whitetail . It scores 204 4/8 ... ' - . starts American sales campaign " Think Small " ... H.W. Allen perfects the first working com Sidebar pound bow using eccentric wheels ; all 50 states now have special bowhunting season ... Rookie Mario Andretti unseats A.J. Foyt as Indy Car National Champion .. Medicare begins . Sidebar 1966 Sidebar The Daiwa Corporation opens its U.S. operations in Culver City , Calif .... First " Telecopier " -now known as the fax machine-introduced by Xerox ... Dr. Michael De Bakey implants a mechanical heart into a human for the first time .. U.S. draftees flee to Canada , while Ballad of the Green Berets is top-selling song ... Ruger Number One Rifle and Winchester M-66 " Commemora Sidebar tive " are introduced ... Clean Water Sidebar Restoration Act is passed .. First is taken by lunar orbiter ... Walt Disney dies . Sidebar 1967 Sidebar B.A.S.S . founder Ray Scott holds his first tournament on Beaver Lake , Ark . It 's won by Stan Sloan of Nashville , who beats out Sidebar previous leader @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be inducted into the U.S. Army .. The Thompson/ Center Contender single-shot pistol Sidebar is introduced ... About 200 million telephones exist worldwide , half in the U.S .... Americans Don Gurney and A.J. Foyt , driving a Ford , score an all-American win in the 24 Hours of LeMans ... Sidebar Thurgood Marshall is named as the first African-American Supreme Court Justice .. Dr. Christian Barnard performs the first successful transplantation of a human heart . // <p> 