SUCC

ESSF

UL H

UNTE

RTrophy Muley Hunting TodayTrophy Muley Hunting Today

$4.99 (U.S.) $6.50 (Canada)

May/Jun 2007 No. 27

Hunting IreIrelalandnd

Big Time BighornsBig Time BighornsKansas WhitetailsKansas Whitetails

©2007 Cover photo: Bob Robb • ©2007 Inset photo: Ron Spomer

May-June 2007May-June 2007FE

AT

UR

ES

FE

AT

UR

ES

Ireland - 22- John Barsness

Seeing Is Believing - 30- Eileen Clarke

The Best Trophy MuleyHunting Today - 36

- Bob Robb

Second ChanceWhitetail- 42

- Ron Spomer

Big Time Bighorns - 48- John Haviland

4

CO

LU

MN

SCO

LU

MN

S

©2007 Table of Contents photo: Ron Spomer

www.successfulhunter.comwww.successfulhunter.comVolume 5, Number 3Volume 5, Number 3

From the Editor - 6Eventyrlig- John Barsness

Strings & Arrows - 8The String Loop- Bob Robb

One More Shot - 12Sentimental Fools- Ron Spomer

Wingshots - 14Shooting Twice- John Barsness

The Great Land - 18Alaska’s Favorite Caliber:The .223 Remington- Phil Shoemaker

Trophy Board - 55

Product Showcase - 56- Clair Rees

Website Showcase - 61

On the Menu - 62Cookbooks, with Scribbles- Eileen Clarke

Game Trails - 66Green Versus Red Hunters- John Barsness

5

Publisher of Successful Hunter® is not responsible for mishaps of any nature thatmight occur from use of published loading data or from recommendations by anymember of the staff. No part of this publication may be reproduced without writtenpermission from the publisher. Publisher assumes all North American rights uponacceptance and payment for all manuscripts. Although all possible care is exer-cised, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for lost or mutilated manuscripts.

Publisher – Mark Harris

Associate Publisher – Don Polacek

Editor in Chief – Dave Scovill

Editor – John Barsness

Managing Editor – Roberta Montgomery

Art Director – Gerald Hudson

Production Director – Becky Pinkley

Graphic Arts – Chris Downs

Fine Artist – Adam Freeman

Contributing Editors

Advertising

Donald Polacek: don@riflemag.com

Stefanie Ramsey: stefanie@riflemag.com

Tom Bowman: bowmant@mauryboyd.com

Advertising Department: 1-800-899-7810

Circulation

Circulation Manager – Michele Morgan

circ@riflemagazine.com

Subscription Information: 1-800-899-7810

www.successfulhunter.com

Successful Hunter® (ISSN 1541-6259) is pub-lished bimonthly by Mark Harris PublishingAssociates, Inc. dba Wolfe Publishing Company(Don Polacek, President), 2625 Stearman Rd.,Suite A, Prescott, AZ 86301. Telephone (928) 445-7810. Periodical Postage paid at Prescott,Arizona, and additional mailing offices.Subscription rates: U.S. possessions – singleissue, $4.99; 6 issues, $19.97; 12 issues, $36; 18 is-sues, $48. Foreign and Canada – single issue,$6.50; 6 issues, $26; 12 issues, $48; 18 issues, $69.Please allow 6-8 weeks for first issue. Advertisingrates furnished on request. All rights reserved.

POSTMASTER: Please send address correc-tions to Successful Hunter® Magazine, 2625Stearman Rd., Suite A, Prescott, AZ 86301.

Wolfe Publishing Company2625 Stearman Rd., Ste. A

Prescott, AZ 86301Tel: (928) 445-7810 Fax: (928) 778-5124

© Mark Harris Publishing Associates, Inc.

Eileen Clarke Bob Robb

Phil Shoemaker Brian Pearce

Clair Rees John Haviland

Ron Spomer Stan Trzoniec

Mike Venturino

Issue 27 May-June 2007

H unters seeking adviceabout calibers for huntingin Alaska need look no

farther than their favorite websiteor magazine rack. There, expertopinions abound. Unfortunately,however, most of these “keyboardexperts” base their choice of ar-mament solely on the possibility ofsome fantasized, nightmarish en-counter with our largest bruins.

Experienced Alaskans, especiallythose living in remote areas, or “inthe bush” as we say, harbor few suchfearful illusions about bears.

In their rugged, daily existence,the hazards posed by bears are mini-mal at best. There are exponen-tially more winners of multimilliondollar lotteries every year in NorthAmerica than there are victims ofviolent bear encounters. The vast

majority of bush residents under-stand that. They also neither surfthe Internet firearm sites nor readhunting and firearms related maga-zines. Rifles are simply one of themany day-to-day tools.

When choosing rifles, availabilityand affordability take precedenceover theoretical ideals and aesthet-ics, while portability and shoota-bility trump power. In addition,while out-of-state hunters concen-trate solely on our largest game,local residents carry their rifles yeararound and are more likely to usethem on wolf, fox, deer and cari-bou-sized game. For this reasonsmaller calibers are the norm, withstandard calibers like the .30-30and the .243 Winchester well repre-sented in rural villages.

For the past two-and-a-halfdecades, however, the single mostpopular cartridge has been the .223Remington. Various versions ofthe AR-15 are common, especiallyalong coastal areas where localNational Guard units are prevalent.Throughout the remainder of thestate, the Ruger Mini-14 is the rifleof choice among trappers, subsis-tence hunters, bush pilots and boat-men. Accuracy-minded riflemenmay criticize them, but by virtue ofbeing short, light, relatively inex-pensive to purchase and feed andbrutally rugged, they have becomean Alaskan icon. When used withintheir and their owners’ capabilities,they certainly can be effective onlarger game.

Our close family friends, the

18 www.successfulhunter.com

Alaska’s Favorite Caliber: The .223 Remington

The Great LandPhil Shoemaker

fore graduating to .30-06s of theirown. On one occasion Luke evenmanaged to kill two bulls with a

single shot from the diminutiveRuger.

Currently Wesley, who is 14 and

Tyrrells from Central, Alaska, aregreat examples. A long-time trapperand bush pilot, Rick Tyrrell pur-chased an early stainless steel, fold-ing stock Mini-14 over 20 years agoto carry as a survival rifle in hisplane. Each year he and his familyregularly set up camp in thefoothills of the Brooks Range frommid-July to mid-September in orderto collect enough caribou andmoose meat to last them throughthe year.

Like all bush families who rely onhunting for subsistence, their chil-dren were taught to shoot at anearly age and allowed to accompanythem as soon as they were capable.Rick and his wife, Laurel, both usebolt-action .30-06 rifles, but theywere too heavy for learning young-sters. All three of the Tyrrell boyslearned to shoot with the Mini-14and began carrying it when accom-panying their parents. Jake andLuke, the two eldest, shot numer-ous caribou bulls with the rifle be-

Wesley Tyrrell with the first moose he shot – with a .223 Remington in 2004.

the youngest, is carrying it. He usesit during the spring beaver season,as well as during the caribou season.I have no idea how many caribouhe has killed with it, but it is proba-bly in the double digits. Twice, overthe past few seasons he has seriouslystretched the parameters of thelittle round.

Four years ago, while camping ontheir gravel bar in the BrooksRange, a small interior grizzly wasbrazen enough to walk into campand boldly entered their cook tent.Wesley, who had a grizzly tag, killedit with a couple of shots from theRuger. Another evening in Sep-tember, they were calling moosewhen a young bull strolled intocamp. Wesley was the first to spotit, and again he used the Mini-14 tokill it.

Although neither I, nor theTyrrells, personally condone inten-tionally hunting moose or grizzlywith a .223, we are all confidentenough of our shooting abilities andknowledge of big game anatomy toknow that under ideal conditions itcan be accomplished. I even classifylarge bull caribou as out of itsleague, having heard of and wit-nessed too many examples of inex-perienced hunters blazing away intoherds with nothing but bloodytracks to show for their efforts.

The real reason for the .223’s over-whelming success in the state haslittle to do with its prowess as a biggame cartridge. For the subsistencehunter, trapper and wilderness wan-derer, its common availability in vil-lage stores, minimal recoil, flattrajectory and proven usefulness onfurbearers make it Alaska’s favoritecenterfire cartridge. As handy,familiar and useful as the Tyrrells’Ruger has proven to be though,Wesley did confide in me this yearthat he too is looking forward toowning his own .30-06.

20 www.successfulhunter.com

RB Outfitters andGuide Service

Top Quality Hunts for Elk, Mule Deer,Antelope, Turkey and Varmints!

Ron Schalla • P.O. Box 57 • Chama, NM 87520Tel: 505-756-1409

Hunt Specials for 2007!ZIMBABWE- Ten days elephant all inclusive $14,500.7 days plains game 2x1 $4,950, 1x1 $5,700 for: GreaterKudu, Livingstone’s Eland, Blue Wildebeest or Zebra,Impala, Warthog, Duiker, Steenbok, Jackal, Baboon.10-Day Leopard!-All inclusive $7,750Cape Buffalo-7 days 1x1 $8,700 (Zim.) $8,700 (Tanzania)Leopard/Sable plus 10 other plains game 12 days $16,30016 days photo tour includes Capetown, VictoriaFalls, 5 National Parks-round trip airfare, full board,transfers $4,550 per person.16 days portal to portal-7 days hunting, 5 days tour-ing, 5-star lodge, Capetown, Victoria Falls, 7 trophies,w/air $6,950/single - $10,300/couple (Zimbabwe,South Africa or combination at no additional cost)South African Plains Game-7 species includingGreater Kudu and Gemsbok 1x1 $4,600.Round trip airfare from USA to Africa from $1,210 usdKelly’s Africa Pvt. Ltd. - www.kellysafrica.comAlan C. Kelly - Box 1356, Elizabeth, CO 80107

Ph/Fax (303) 646-3076 Cell 24/7 (303) 570-6950E-mail: kellyfactr@aol.com

Kelly’s Africa Pvt. Ltd.23 Years Experience throughout Africa

Zambia - ZimbabweSouth Africa-Tanzania

REMINGTONMODEL798SAFETYNew Design! • Gas Shield• 3-Position Safety• Stainless or Blue• Installation Available• Requires Gunsmithing• Buy Direct and Save • Dealers Inquire

Gentry Custom, L.L.C.314 N. Hoffman - Belgrade, MT 59714

(406) 388-GUNSwww.gentrycustom.com

42 www.successfulhunter.com

F all rains had been generous with Kansas for a change – too generous.

“No driving off the county roads,” the ranch manager said. “Too muddy. Don’t need you guys tearing up the trails.”

Couldn’t blame him. His only access to 28 square miles of fields and pastures was two tracks through the dirt on this vast, outwash plain of the Rockies. No yellow brick roads here. Even the county roads, grav-eled and ostensibly maintained, were slip sliding away under the onslaught of eager hunters looking for that little slice of antlered paradise. Few would find it in this tightly controlled ranch land where hunting permission was reserved for family and old friends. I’d made it a point to be friendly years earlier, and I was getting old, so I qualified.

“I’ll park along the west road and hike into the forest if nobody else is going there,” I volunteered. No one else was. The other regulars had dibs on the wheat and grain fields where bucks, big bucks, had been courting does for two weeks, brazenly, middle of the day. I wanted the isolated creek with its little stand of deciduous trees tangled with young junipers laced through with cattails and bulrushes where beaver dams created a bog – thick . . . protective . . . big buck stuff. The nearest forage was a good mile off, so there really was no need to arrive early. The deer seldom did, as I’d learned dramatically four seasons earlier.

“Might as well go back for a bite of breakfast,” I’d said

By Ron SpomerBy Ron Spomer

SecondSecondChanceChanceWhitetailWhitetail

Yes, it’s Kansas.

May-June 2007 43

By Ron Spomer

back then to my wife as we sat on a sand ridge watching the forest, our only cover knee-high little blue-stem grass. It was opening day. The sun had been up for two hours, melting a thin frost from the red bunchgrass, begging the question: Why don’t they call it little redstem? We carried doe licenses at the request of our host who wanted an overabun-dance of wheat-eating whitetails reduced. “Too many damn deer,” he’d said, “and shooting bucks isn’t going to help much.” The state agreed with his assessment, allowing each hunter four antlerless tags. Never-theless, we hadn’t seen a single deer. “Let’s look somewhere else.”

Then we bumped into The Thirty Point Buck. Well, 12 point, an honest six to each side, classic configuration, the beams swinging a good four inches beyond each ear tip, then forward to the end of the Roman nose. Tines thick like elk, heavier at their tips than the bases of most three-year-olds. The old warrior must have lingered on the upland wheat field before hiking a dry runoff draw down through the hills, probably pausing to flirt with a few does. We first noticed him when the tips of his massive tines ghosted above a belt of willows just as we passed on the other side, en route to our car. He spotted us as soon as he cleared the willows. Alert but not alarmed, he pulled himself up the far bank, stood broadside and sneered. “Bang,” I said, pointing my Rifles, Inc., .257 Weatherby at him, a wholly unsatisfy-ing gesture.

Now, four years later, I didn’t expect to find that pot-bellied, sway-backed deer alive, but his offspring would be in their prime, genetic freaks carrying on the family tradition of oversized antlers. Those I wanted to see, so I started looking in the hoof prints of their progenitor. It worked.

The first bucks filed by 10 minutes after a flurry of shots from the east field. Either deer would have won the big buck contest in most counties. I let them walk. Two more scoring in the mid-140s trotted through 15 minutes later. The sun warmed the sandy ridge. Mead-owlarks chirped. Two coyotes hunted down a far ridge, skylined briefly, their pelts edged in golden light. A flock of mountain bluebirds flitted from a thicket of junipers like dandruff off the sky. I contemplated moving, but the memory of the old 12-point held me. Rewarded me.

SecondChanceWhitetail

©20

07 M

icha

el H

. Fra

ncis

pho

to

Yes, it’s Yes, it’s Kansas.Kansas.

44 www.successfulhunter.com

Equipment

Plains deer hunting, whether for whitetails or mule deer, requires

good optics and a flat-shooting rifle of medium caliber. I employed the superb Leica Geovid 10x42 binocular, the most convenient rangefinder in existence. To study trophy details, I trusted my old Bausch & Lomb (now sold under the Bushnell name) 20-60x 80mm Elite spotting scope with ELD (extra low dispersion) glass for ultra-crisp images without color fringing – essential for seeing antler details.

My rifle was a proven Rifles, Inc. Strata Stainless .280 Ackley pushing a 140-grain Barnes TSX 3,175 fps with 63 grains of Reloder 22. The scope was my old, dependable 2.5-8x Leupold Vari X-III.

Second Chance WhitetailThe fifth buck of the morning

came running from a half-mile away, antlers showing clearly, black and massive. I was already shaking when I got the binocular up. Son of Sam. I shifted into a solid sitting position, leveled the .280 in the shooting sticks and got the Leupold on him. Antlers wider than his body. Heavy. Five per side? And still he came. I felt naked in the grass, in the sun, on the ridge just 50 yards from where the monster 12-point had broken my heart years earlier. Now this buck was running to take

his place. Running in the grass, in the sun, below the ridge, across the dry wash where his sire had walked. He passed the same willows, turned the same corner. Four-by-four. A huge 8-pointer. “Bang,” I said.

“It’s maybe dry enough that you could drive the main trail to the creek, but don’t get off it.” It was now the fourth day of my hunt, and the others had taken their venison and antlers and gone. No one had penetrated the southern pastures and canyons beyond the creek, a good three miles from the roads. Now I did, climbing above the can-yons at first light. Desiccated buffalo grass crunched underfoot, aromatic junipers perfuming the Christmas air, still as a pond. Bobwhites were yawning their wake-up calls. Far to the south humped silhouettes. Deer feeding in a green wheat field – mostly does, I supposed, but maybe a buck, given the isolation of this field. I raised the binocular: doe . . . doe . . . buck . . . bigger buck. Heck of a buck! I slipped off the pack and pulled the legs out on the tripod. The big Bushnell revealed wonderfully heavy, tall beams and long points jutting into the sky. The air was sharp and clear, so I cranked the eyepiece to 60x. Despite the dim image, eight tines showed clearly against the sky. The brow tines reached nearly as high as the second points. The rack towered over any-thing else in the field.

Two problems. Does and small bucks were already filtering down the brushy draw leading off the field and past me. I would have to keep to the upland hills where the only cover was scattered junipers. I

Glassing is just as useful for plains white-tails as any other open-country game.

45May-June 2007

aligned myself with a tree and slowly walked forward, picked another tree, moved again, then ran out of trees. The first deer off the field filed by right at 60 yards, hit my scent line and spooked toward the river. The second biggest buck on the field, a strong five-by-five, jumped the fence and came at a walk, passing 70 yards to my left. Then he spooked. The huge four-by-four was still in the open, his coat now glowing in the risen sun. I again set up the spot-ting scope and studied him as he sauntered in. This was surely not the son of my old 12-pointer, but it was the most impressively racked four-by-four I’d ever seen. Might score 160 B&C, the 8-pointer of a lifetime. He stopped at 200 yards. The crosshair settled on his shoul-der, rock steady.

You are familiar with the line: “You can’t shoot the big one if you shoot the first small one that comes along?” I bought it. Even though this was anything but a small one, it probably wasn’t the biggest buck on the ranch, and no one had yet hunted this quadrant. A genuine Booner could be out there. “If it walks right up to me, that’s a sign I should take it,” I told myself as the buck walked off the hill into a shal-low side draw, out of sight. Perhaps two minutes later he reappeared, less than 80 yards away. Stopped. Stared. I studied the rack. Massive. Tall points rising from an incredibly long main beam. Perfect balance except for a two-inch sticker off the second tine on the right side. The buck resumed walking, caught my wind and ran. My mistake.

The Booner never materialized that year. I ended the hunt by tak-ing a solid 10-point that scored 148, then kicked myself for the next 12 months. My only consolation was knowing the other hunters had filled out and headed home. Perhaps, given its isolation, the wonderful four-by-four would survive to grow an even larger rack the next season.

It did.

One day before the opening of 2005 deer season, with both the

huge 8-pointer and ancient 12-pointer on my mind, I parked along a ranch trail a mile from the green wheat field, at the mouth of that same draw leading off that same wheat field. And, incredibly, there was the buck. He was chasing a doe out of the draw, herding her away from the river and back into the junipers. His antlers had changed. They still climbed incredibly high, but there were now five points on

the right side with the brow forked and, it appeared, broken off. The left sported that incredibly tall brow tine and – a mess. A big clump of bone with a double hook sprouted from the base. A sticker hooked off the base of the fourth tine. The entire side was much weaker than the right. But this was still a massive buck in his prime, and I decided to try for him.

Opening day. First light. I was in

46 www.successfulhunter.com

the pasture using the same junipers I’d used the previous fall for stalk-ing cover. I raised the binocular and studied the dim forms of several deer.

A doe, and the buck. THE buck! It’s him. It’s him. Incredibly, for the second morning in a row, there was the monster buck. But he walked over the hill, following six does, pos-sibly moving onto the neighbor’s. There’s a deep draw back there. All I could do was sit and wait. And,

as it turned out, watch a parade of deer as they foraged and gradually worked their way off the field and past, just as they had the previous year. Except for one, a splendid 10-pointer that looked like a shoo-in for Boone & Crockett. He walked onto the neighboring ranch, gone for good. A half-hour into the hunt and two near B&C bucks had walked in and out of my life.

By nine o’clock the field was emp-ty except for a yearling buck and a

strong, 10-point three-year-old. I could see a backline behind the hill. There could be some does in the far corner. There was no place else to go at that hour, so I stuck. Smart move. Minutes later six does came sashaying over the horizon, tails up, rumps wagging. And behind them rose a towering rack, higher on the right than the left. Lord of Cre-ation, the buck was back. The entire herd stopped at the fence. I took a reading with the Leica Geovid: 445 yards. I could take him if I had to, but I didn’t want to risk it so let him come on. Except he didn’t. He turned to stare at the 10-point still on the field, and his does took that opportunity to hop the fence and flee east across an open pasture. I’d never seen a deer take that route before.

Maybe he won’t follow, I thought hopefully. He seems more interested in that buck. And that buck was mov-ing my way, down the usual travel route. Come on, big boy. Come on. The old buck stared for an eternity before snapping out of it, turning and nearly panicking when he saw his ladies-in-waiting had sneaked off. Instantly he jumped the fence and ran after them, either seeing them in

Second Chance Whitetail

When Ron passed the big buck in 2004, this was the “consolation prize.”

Junipers supply essential hiding cover on the plains, allowing bucks to grow old.

47May-June 2007

the distance or following their scent, though he never lowered his head. Just ran. And so did I.

A series of shorter run-off draws bled water from that pasture down to the river valley. Each was dotted with brush and any could provide the travel lane those whitetails would want. I had to select the right one and cut them off. I unloaded the chamber, grabbed my shooting sticks and ran. Well, jogged any-way. First draw – empty. Second draw – empty. Third draw – bingo! I’d come around a big juniper and practically bumped the back end of a foraging doe. Fortunately she was feeding away and the wind was in my favor. I ducked behind the tree and began glassing. Another doe. Two more. The herd appeared to be scattered across a shallow, wide draw dotted with junipers and patches of sumac. Where was the buck? I’ll wait him out, I thought, my rifle already propped on the sticks. No sense in sneaking closer. A doe will see me and spook. And just then that happened. Two does far to the left bolted into the open and over the hill, flags waving. I scanned fran-tically for the buck. He didn’t show. The other does continued feeding. Then I heard grunting, almost bel-lowing, and more grunting. A flicker of motion between two junipers. A flash of antlers.

And there he was, stretching his neck low as he pursued a doe through the sumacs, their wine red tops dark against the prairie grass. The does started to scatter, and I had to decide. Shoot through the sumacs while he’s moving or wait and hope he’ll stand in the open? The range couldn’t have been more than 85 yards. The buck started to turn away. I swung with him, saw an opening and fired. He gave no indication of a hit and continued trotting on the heels of the doe, now going straight away. The shot had looked perfect, so I held fire, watch-ing as he ran through the sumac thicket and up the hill, still chasing his happy does, still giving no sign that he’d been shot. Then he broke stride and I knew. He gave another

burst and then wobbled, stopped and fell over.

Unbelievably I’d gotten a second chance at a mature, free-roaming buck, a buck I probably should have shot the year before as a near-perfect 8-point. The Barnes Triple-Shock had taken him through the chest from behind the last rib forward to the off-shoulder. His left antler was grossly misformed, probably due to an injury early in its growth cycle. The base was more than a foot in

diameter with a large chunk broken off. The main beam on the right stretched nearly 30 inches. Its brow tine had indeed snapped off, but the left one positively towered. A B&C measurer gross-scored the rack at 170 points. If the left side had matched the right, it would have measured 185 to 190. You don’t get second chances at bucks like this very often.

In fact, just once in a lifetime – so far.

You don’t often get a second chance at this sort of whitetail, especially two years in a row.

If you’ve been worried about dam-aging an aging, twin-tubed shotgunyou own by feeding it factory am-munition, MidwayUSA has an an-swer. The catalog and Internetretailer now offers a new 23⁄4-inch,12-gauge shotgun load from FederalAmmunition, which is specificallydesigned for use in vintage side-by-

side shotguns requiring reduced-pressure loads.

“For some time, I have been hand-loading this particular shell for mypersonal shooting. We wanted toshare this load with our customers,who may be fans of vintage shot-guns,” said Larry Potterfield, CEOof MidwayUSA.

The ammunitionwas produced specif-ically for Midway-USA. It consists of a23⁄4-inch, 12-gaugeshell loaded with7⁄8 ounce of No. 71⁄2shot to produce amuzzle velocity of1,200 fps at 5,000CUP.

56 www.successfulhunter.com

ProductShowcaseProductShowcase

By Clair ReesBy Clair Rees

AMERISTEPHardside Blind System

“These loads were designed to bekind and gentle to all older, break-open shotguns that are safe to shootwith modern ammunition,” thecompany points out. The ammuni-tion can also be used for trap andskeet practice or for a light gameload. It should also be great forlightweight field guns or for anyonesensitive to recoil. MidwayUSAwarns that this ammunition won’tfunction in most semiautomaticshotguns.

A case consisting of 10 boxes ofshells (Product Number 613-940)can be purchased from MidwayUSAfor $64.99. For more information,call toll-free: 1-800-243-3220; orvisit the company’s website at:www.midwayusa.com.

MidwayUSA Offers Federal Ammunitionfor Vintage Shotguns

F or 2007, Ameristep is intro-ducing a new Hardside Blind

designed for easy set up and fullconcealment. The blind is manu-factured of durable HDPE (HighDensity Polyethylene) in RealTreeHardwoods® HD™ camo. The blindis both weatherproof and wear-resistant and should give good serv-ice for many years.

The prefabricated blind features aquiet, carpeted floor, along with a

large door and tinted windows tomask movement inside. Blind di-mensions are 4 feet wide and 86inches tall. It can be used on theground “as is,” or installed on an8-foot tower that’s sold separately.Ameristep says the blind is easilyassembled and can be expanded toaccommodate more shooters.

For more information and prices,contact Ameristep, Dept. SH, 901Tacoma Court, Clio MI 48420; orvisit online at: www.ameristep.com.