Recent Big Game Articles

Thanks to skyrocketing complaints and a rapidly spreading population, New Jersey hunters will enjoy their first bear hunt in six years if a proposed season survives legal challenges. The number of aggressive bears reported to the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife nearly tripled since 2006 when the season was cancelled by then-Governor John Corzine.

Like a flash from a camera, the spark illuminated the inky darkness, etching itself onto my retina. Before my brain could register the source of the spark, I heard the noise. It sounded like rocks being ground together in a miniature crusher, but what it sounded like and what my fatigued gray matter knew it was were two different things. Unmistakably, the spark and the grinding noise were a horse's shoes skidding and sliding across granite. A fresh bloom of sparks flashed in front of me, and I heard my guide, Kyle Serle, trying to sooth his whinnying horse.

Physical stamina, a positive attitude, a trustworthy guide and well-worn boots are essential. Without them, you're guaranteed a miserable time. It's unforgiving country that makes you curse the day your were born. But when the hunt is over and you've tagged an old, twisted-horned monarch, there's perhaps no greater rush.I've been invited by my good friend Donnie Vincent to photograph his dream hunt--a quest for Yukon Dall Sheep. We're hunting with Chris McKinnon of Bonnet Plume Outfitters (BPO) and his crew, one of the most respected and successful sheep outfits in Canada's True North.

We'd spotted the magnificent billy from more than a mile away. For three hours we worked our way across the mountain, climbing up, down and around treacherous faces and impassable slides to get close enough to shoot the massive ibex. We were still 500 yards away when we ran out of cover.Below us, the billy stood boldly atop a giant boulder. I can still see those huge, sweeping horns towering over its small, stout body as he lorded over his harem and stared down younger, weaker goats foolish enough to come sniffing around his ladies.

In Iceland the word "Viking" is pronounced WEking, accent on the first syllable, but it means exactly the same thing as it does to us, denoting the hardy Norse seafarers who traded and raided all across the North Atlantic, taking their open long boats all the way to North America 500 years before Columbus set sail.