Category: Hunting
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Snotel for backcountry planning
Discussion about the Bob Open is heating up over at BPL, as is appropriate for this time of year. It’s just about late enough in the winter to use what resources are available to make meaningful extrapolations concerning what things will be like out there in two months. With that in mind, I want to…
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The curious Strata Hoodie
Polartec Alpha was developed for the military, as an insulation which would form the core of a garment that would, as an insulator, better straddle the divide between static and dynamic warmth. Alpha does this by being more air-permeable than synthetic fill insulations such as Primaloft and Climashield, and at the same time more svelt…
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Altra Lone Peak 1.5: half brilliance, half crap
Disclaimer: I bought these shoes with my own money at full retail, and for the past six months have not used them as the manufacturer intended. I make no apologies for asking a lot from my shoes, nor for emphatic feelings about this most important item. Altra is about to release version 2.5 of their…
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New Zealand: in conclusion
Photo series by M. I’ve long been skeptical of the short-term ethos of “traveling” as it exists for the first world bourgeoisie; getting to know a place takes months, years, and thus even the best prepared journey guarantees tourism, and all the worst things which come with it. That said, New Zealand is the first…
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Best using the Gunbearer
In the last two years I’ve tried a number of ways to carry a rifle while hunting with a sizeable pack, and my copy of the Kifaru Gunbearer has been by far the best. It’s not a very complex piece of gear, but building and using one does have a bit of nuance to it,…
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Hunting divine valley, part 2
“I hate hunting. To like hunting is such a curse. You’d do better to like doing something different. I’m trying to think of something you could do where you don’t have to worry about it not working out. I guess video games, they usually work out pretty good.” -Steven Rinella, Meat Eater 4:12 The curse…
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Hunting divine valley, part 1
It is important to remember that we almost didn’t go hunting at all. Planning in the earliest stages centered around guides, but that was expensive and just not something I wanted to do. DIY was ideal, but without an entry point research on exactly where to hunt Himalayan Tahr in New Zealand was daunting. I…
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Concerning sandflies
The sandfly is a fact of life in New Zealand. Forrest McCarthy called them the countries top predator, which is in a sense quite accurate. The “bloody sandflies” are both widespread and annoying, and coping with them requires a few special preparations. Thankfully, sandflies are no where near as obnoxious as mosquitoes. Yankees familiar with…
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New Zealand logistics for the DIY hunter
In New Zealand, all big game (and a lot of small game) is non-native, which is why you can hunt Canada Geese with a rifle. Before the arrival of Maori 700 years ago, and of Europeans 400 years later, New Zealand was one of the more distinctive ecosystems on earth. The largest mammal was a…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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