Win a DVD

Win a free In the Crosshairs DVD from Outdoor Quest TV. Post a link to your best video clips on the Outdoor Quest TV facebook page and we'll award a DVD to the winner at the end of September. Who knows, if your footage is good enough, we may even want to use it on the show.Watch Outdoor Quest TV on Wild TV

Tuesday@02:00:00 am CST
Friday@12:00:00 noon CST
Sunday@9:00:00 pm CST
Monday@11:30:00 pm CST

This week on Outdoor Quest TV: Mule deer, big Alberta muley bucks are what Rich is after and then Pro Staff Luke Virvec hunts big mountain goats in BCDon't forget to check out our blog too. We'll be doing live updates on our hunts this fall so be sure to follow TJ and Vanessa and Rich and Sandi on their adventures. http://www.theoutdoorquest.com/

Watch for some exciting updates from the Yukon in the coming weeks. TJ and Vanessa are headed high into the mountains in search of Dall sheep, moose, caribou and grizzlies.

It must be August

Got out into the mountains for a pretty grueling scouting mission yesterday. While the day started off beautifully, it ended with a blizzard and intense thunder storm. It must be August in the Rockies. I've been fighting with a torn ligament in my ankle and it's been pretty swollen and sore since my Dall sheep hunt. Yesterday was its first real test and I'm not sure it passed. Now just to find a surgeon that can operate between hunting seasons ;)

Oh well, enough whining. More sheep this fall and then New Zealand in the spring. I wonder if Advil wants to sponsor us.

Bighorn Ram down!

Two years ago my son Matt carried a camera in the mountains for me on a sheep hunt. I promised him I'd do the same and this year the bill came due.

In a grueling 4 day trek we covered over 50 kilometers with packs that ranged from 80 pounds (light!) to 120 pounds! And gained and lost thousands of feet of elevation daily. The entire trip made us poster childern for ``If you are going to be stupid you better be tough!
At 7:50 on opening day Matt`s dream came true when he knocked this gourgeous full curl ram off the mountain. A quick range with the Zeiss RF binos and at 300 yards Matt made a perfect shot with my Rocky Mountain Rifle. Watch the entire adventure on the new season of Outdoor Quest TV.

New Satellite Phone Arrived

My new satellite phone arrived today so you can expect virtually live updates on the blog this season no matter how remote the hunt. We'll be doing a combination of text and voice blogs from remote locations so check the blog often. Thanks to Andy Cool at Explorer Satellite Communications for getting us all set up with the new Iridium phone. Not only is Andy an expert in remote communication, he's a fellow hunter too. You can find him at http://www.explorersatellite.com/ or http://www.eschunting.com/

Great Day at Rawson

Despite cold and lots of rain, we had an incredible day at Rawson Lake. We quickly lost count of the number of fish we caught but I'm sure it was easily 75 between us. Most were between 16-18" and a Letort Hopper was the ticket today.

Fall is definitely in the air. There was fresh snow above 9,000 feet in the mountains today.

Smoke in the Air

The fires in BC have really been causing a lot of smoke around here the past few days so hopefully it clears up for the sheep hunters next week.

We went and bought a stove for the wall tent today and a few more things for our trip to the Yukon. Two weeks and counting. We also slipped out to the Ghost Reservoir this afternoon to give the old (1978) 4.5 hP Merc a try on the Zebec. After not running for three or four years, it started on the third pull. It powered the inflatable well and it should get us around the lake with ease in the Yukon.

Tomorrow we are off to K-Country to fish for cutties in Rawson Lake. Nothing like a day in the float tube. Hopefully we'll post some pics of some big ones tomorrow night.

Loaded and ready for sheep

Tomorrow I head south to meet up with Matt and Monday we head to the mountains for sheep opener. With any luck Matt will put the first notch on my new RMR custom. Be sure to tune in to the blog, if I have cell covered I'll be phoning updates live and the only place you can get this coverage is here at Outdoor Quest Live!

My Rocky Mountain Rifle from Corlane

is a real shooter. I'm headed to the mountains for sheep tomorrow and last night I finished up load development. Using 130 grain Berger VLD I was able to hit 2940 fps without pressure signs and fair to middling accuracy. The targets are 200 and 300 yard groups. I want to shoot the 140 VLD out of the rifle but didn't have time to develop two loads. Using the Zeiss Rapid Z system in my scope sheep are in trouble out to 800 yards.

200 yard target. Made a 2 click adjustment down after this group.

300 yard group, the rifle shoots better than I do.

Up close with a black bear

One of our favourites from the past

92% of police offers don't support the registry

‎92% of Canada's police officers don't support the gun registry. Please check out this link and pass it along to all you know.http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=66824

Our hat is off to Randy for doing this and making it public!

New rifle break in

Yesterday I got the chance to break in my new Rocky Mountain rifle from Corlane's in Dawson Creek. The shoot - clean, shoot - clean, routine is painful and drove my dogs mad as they figure everytime a gun is shot the need to fetch something. I'm a God in their eyes and never miss, or they really like to run! Finally I was into the stage where I could shoot some groups and since the rifle is chambered in 260 Ackley I didn't expect a whole lot but wanted to check anyway as I fire formed the factory brass to my chamber. I'd shoot three and clean. After a dozen rounds I noticed that the second two were right on top of one another and decided that maybe the barrel liked a little fouling and started shooting three shot groups - let cool and again. The picture tells it all. Shot at 100 yards there are 9 - 3 shot groups into the target. Yes, 27 rounds! Today I start to handload for accuracy!!!

Another Great Day at Pigeon Lake

We did our annual trip to Pigeon Lake with Mom and Dad yesterday and the fishing was incredible. We headed out to the humps and anchored in 15 feet of water. As usual, things were slow in the morning but by about 11:00, the walleye went crazy. We quickly lost count of the number of fish we caught but we did use up 7 tubs of minnows in 6 hours. We filled our three tags each so there will be some great meals to come. The weather was great and everyone had an incredible day. Walleye Flasher jigs were the ticket and the green/glow was definitely the hot one.

New Western Sportsman Article

Taking some of the mystery out of Long Range Rifles

Right now long range shooting and hunting are the center of a lot of attention in our sport. There are few aspects of our hunting sport that invoke as much controversy as the long range killing of game has. My email box is full of people praising my seminars and my writing about the field or denouncing me as an enemy of hunting for even acknowledging the nasty subject. There certainly isn’t much middle ground. I look at it like this; people are already doing it, some very well and others just muddling about blindly, the cat is out of the bag and ignoring the subject isn’t going to make it go away. I personally enjoy the sport very much. I take great care to insure that nothing I do would give the sport a black eye.

This month's Alberta Outdoorsman Column

Weight Loss


With sheep season right around the corner most of us have already been in the gym or on the trails sweating, red faced trying to shape up and drop a few pounds. The older I get the harder this becomes and I remember when I’d laugh at the fellows complaining how hard it was getting to trim down into sheep shape. Last night I was moaning about how heavy my pack was to Sandi as I stuffed barbells into it. Her solution and definitely one with no testosterone in it was simply; don’t put as many barbells in! That just simply isn't the manly way, am I right guys?

Ram Photo

Dall Sheep Down

Just got back to camp after 9 days of chasing Dall sheep with Gana River Outfitters. It was definitely one of the toughest hunts I've ever done but we were rewarded with a great 14-15 year old ram. I'll post pics in a few days when I get home. Time to eat some real food and sleep in a bed!

Weekend Adventure

Sandi rigging up her fishing rod.

Sandi and I got to do a little exploring on the long weekend. We made it into a lake that I'd been told stories about since I was a young boy. This little lake, the headwaters of a fine grayling and bull trout stream was reputed to be good fishing. We traveled all over and around the lake and never had a sniff from a fish. The other oddity is that while the lake maybe the headwaters the outlet must be underground or through the miles of surrounding muskeg. We had a great day and enjoyed our adventure none the less.