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That’s why many states in the Mountain West and Great Plains states approved deer tag reductions for the 2023 to 2024 deer season. (California and South Dakota have not returned requests for comment.) Here’s a guide to all the states that have announced reductions to their available deer tags so far.

Colorado

Number of Deer Tags Cut: 7,900

That’s why CPW enacted major mule deer tag reductions on May 10. Most of the reductions take place in the so-called “Severe Winter Zone,” according to the 2023 Colorado Big Game brochure. The area from the northwestern town of Rangely to central Steamboat Springs and north to the Wyoming border saw the worst winter in 70 years. As a result, 5,000 male and either-sex mule deer tags across 17 game management units were eliminated. Additionally, 2,900 doe tags in 16 of those 17 GMUs were also eliminated. This makes for a total of 7,900 fewer deer tags.

“This winter has been historic in many ways,” CPW biologist Darby Finley said in a press release about the reductions. “These recommendations were not easy to make, and we know they will impact more than just CPW. However, we believe these substantial reductions in licenses will allow herds to recover as quickly as possible.”

Idaho

Number of Deer Tags Cut: 200+

While the Idaho Department of Fish and Game didn’t technically cut any deer tags while establishing their 2023 quota, they did make other decisions that would help offset the immense winter loss they faced in the southeastern part of the state. Both doe and fawn survival rates in the Southeastern region were low—47 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Just two of 30 collared deer in that region made it through the winter, deer and elk coordinator Toby Boudreau tells Outdoor Life.

IDFG cut antlerless opportunities following a harsh 2016 to 2017 winter, and had considered reinstating those tags for this upcoming season.

“Populations had rebounded to a point where we were going to start offering some of that either-sex and antlerless opportunity in the Southeast and Upper Snake regions again,” Boudreau says, noting that 460 antlerless tags were on the table in earlier season-setting discussions. But come January 2023, wildlife managers revisited that decision and decided to pull back the proposed hunts.

“We were just recovering from the previous winter when the next winter hit us in the back of the head.”

Additionally, nonresident hunters have returned 213 deer tags so far this year. Normally, those returned tags go on sale for nonresidents to purchase. But that won’t happen this year, Boudreau explains. Whitetail hunters, on the other hand, will get longer seasons in three units and Unit 14 will see expanded hunter opportunities to help offset chronic wasting disease.

Kansas

Number of Deer Tags Cut: 253

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks cut a comparatively meager number of deer tags for the 2023 season. Drought and habitat loss continue to stress deer populations in parts of the Sunflower State, big game program coordinator Levi Jaster explained during a KDWP Commission meeting on April 27. The 253 tags include 13 mule deer tags, 95 resident mule deer permits, and a net loss of 145 nonresident whitetail tags. (A total of 374 nonresident whitetail deer permits were cut across 10 of the 18 deer management units, but KDWP also added 229 across six more deer management units. Deer tags in the remaining two units were unchanged.) All archery tags statewide remain untouched.

KDWP also added 229 nonresident whitetail deer permits across six deer management units, bringing the net loss of nonresident opportunity to 145 tags. Deer tags in the remaining two units were unchanged. All archery tags statewide are also the same, as noted in minutes from the Commission meeting.

For perspective how small those whitetail deer tag cuts really are for Kansas, consider that hunters harvested more than 81,000 whitetails during the 2020 to 2021 season, according to KDWP’s latest available data. The 95 resident mule deer tags that were cut will have a bigger impact on resident mule deer hunters, who harvested 1,747 deer that same season.

Montana

Number of Deer Tags Cut: TBD

While most states established tag quotas in late April or early May, Montana hunters won’t have hard answers about tag reductions until June 8 when the Fish and Wildlife Commission votes on recommendations that aren’t publicly available yet. But those recommendations will likely include turning a handful of either-sex mule deer tags in regions 4, 6, and 7 to antlered-only tags, Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks communications and education administrator Greg Lemon tells Outdoor Life. This change would keep more does on the landscape to help populations rebound  after bad winter weather in eastern Montana caused some winter mortality.

North Dakota

Number of Deer Tags Cut: 10,800

Like much of the Midwest, deer in North Dakota rely on private land habitat to survive. Since 93 percent of North Dakota is privately owned, agricultural lands sustain the ample whitetails and shrinking mule deer North Dakotans love to hunt. But after harsh winter conditions hammered the whole state, a substantial 10,800 fewer deer tags are available to hunters for the 2023 season.

“The severity of winter conditions this year was record setting, particularly in the eastern half of the state,” North Dakota Game and Fish Department wildlife division chief Casey Anderson said in a press release, pointing out that the state’s 53,400 remaining deer tags make for the lowest quota in seven years. “Conservative license allocations are intended to maintain hunting opportunities while continuing to encourage population growth.”

Of particular concern is how quickly North Dakota’s CRP is shriveling. Due to expiring CRP contracts and limited re-enrollment of expired lands, 85 percent of the 3.4 million acres of quality habitat that were present in 2007 will be gone by 2026. And while correlation doesn’t always equate to causation, quality habitat is necessary for deer populations to rebound from detrimental winters; without it, recovery is difficult. This delicate relationship shows in North Dakota: mule deer numbers in the western part of the state dove 29 percent from last year.

While land doesn’t have to be enrolled in CRP to help mule deer, Anderson says, it must fulfill essential winter and fawning habitat needs “for numbers to bounce back effectively.”

Nebraska

Number of Deer Tags Cut: 8,350

During the fall 2022 season, Nebraskans saw the lowest mule deer buck harvest since 1981 and the lowest whitetail buck harvest since 1994. As a result, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission approved a significant cut to tags for both species for the 2023 season.

Of the 8,350 total permits cut, 3,700 are nonresident either-sex or buck-only. (Statewide archery and muzzleloader tag cuts are included in that total.) An additional 2,325 “November firearm” permits and 2,325 antlerless permits were also eliminated. These figures include a mix of mule deer and whitetail deer tags, and antlerless mule deer harvest on public land (with some exceptions) was also prohibited. There are multiple reasons for these changes, what Nebraska Game and Parks Department big game program coordinator Luke Meduna calls the “three smoking guns.”

“About five years ago, our landowners asked us to reduce our deer numbers,” Meduna says, referring to complaints about high deer densities that destroyed crops. “We’ve also had a significant drought the last couple of years [that’s] reduced mule deer fawn production, so the harvest that our herds could sustain five years ago is pretty detrimental to them now. We also have some disease issues.”

Meduna explained how meningeal brainworms, CWD, and two consecutive EHD outbreaks have curtailed deer populations and forced some of the tag cuts.

“The role that CWD is playing in this all is somewhat unknown. That’s just one of those holes in the bucket that’s hard to quantify,” he says. “But by all accounts, this last year was a generationally bad harvest year for deer.”

Utah

Number of Deer Tags Cut: 8,421

When it comes to the record-breaking 2022 to 2023 winter, Utah was the epicenter of the damage. Ski resorts recorded 800-plus cumulative inches of snowfall. The Utah Department of Wildlife Resources put out ton after ton of supplemental feed for wildlife that relied on it as their sole food source. Officials postponed shed hunting statewide, sparking an outcry among resident and non-resident shed hunters. One hunt unit in Utah’s northeastern region saw 70 percent adult mule deer mortality and more than 90 percent fawn mortality.

All this loss culminated in major tag decreases. Overall, DWR cut 8,950 general-season buck permits. Of those, 7,500 were in the Northern Region, which accounted for a 31 percent decrease in the area. The Northeastern, Central, and Southeastern regions also saw decreases, but only by a few hundred tags each. An additional 105 doe permits were also axed. DWR added 600 general-season deer permits for the Southern Region and 34 limited-entry deer tags were also tacked on statewide. This puts the net loss at 8,421 tags.

DWR big game coordinator Dax Mangus explained how factors like poor and limited habitat, predation, and extreme weather negatively impact deer populations, especially the crucial fawn survival rate. These fluctuations set the stage for tag numbers every year, and were felt especially hard this year.

“The way we hunt [bucks] in Utah doesn’t drive deer populations,” Mangus said. “But what happens with deer populations drives how we hunt buck deer.”

Wyoming

Number of Deer Tags Cut: 4,410

Wyoming rounds out the list with a hefty mule deer tag reduction following the same bad winter that plagued Colorado, southern Idaho, and northern Utah. While pronghorn hunters saw the worst of the cuts with 10,290 tags lost, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission also eliminated 4,410 mule deer tags across seven management regions after approving wildlife manager recommendations at an April 18 meeting. These cuts include both antlered deer and doe/fawn tags, and impact both resident and non-resident opportunities.

With the loss of those mule deer licenses comes an increase in whitetail deer opportunities. While 1,475 new whitetail tags for this season don’t offset the reduction, they do add more chances to put meat in the freezer than were available for whitetail hunters last year.

“We’re trying to keep a little bit of an edge for mule deer to do better than whitetail [deer],” Wyoming Game and Fish Department wildlife division deputy chief Doug Brimeyer told the Commission during the meeting.

Wyoming’s mule deer populations dropped by 31 percent from 1991 to 2016. Mule deer harvest has decreased from a 13-year high of more than 30,000 deer in 2016 to just 17,785 in 2022.

Read Next: This Wyoming Hunter Wants You to Buy a Deer Tag, But Not Use It

Final Thoughts on Deer Tag Cuts

Every year, state agencies must grapple with many factors when setting tag numbers. Extreme winter, drought, disease, and habitat issues are just a few variables that impact the future of deer populations—and the future of American deer hunting opportunities, as well. As long as hunter harvest remains a management tool in the wildlife conservation toolbox, tag cuts will be part of the status quo.

“The latest preliminary estimates there are fewer than 350 [right whales] remaining, with less than 100 reproductively active females,” NOAA points out. “Vessel strikes, fishing gear entanglements, climate change and other threats all pose challenges to this imperiled species.”

But critics say the proposed speed restrictions would severely handicap the sportfishing industry while doing little to address the declines in right whale populations. In expectation of the rule’s implementation later this year, a coalition of industry groups and politicians are calling on NOAA Fisheries to pause its rule-making process and reconsider.

“While we obviously care about protecting whales,” American Sportfishing Association public affairs manager John Chambers tells Outdoor Life, “we are concerned that NOAA’s rule is misguided, does not take scientific information accurately into account, and was rushed without the input of the boating and fishing industries.”

What’s in the Proposed Rule?

The 2008 rule remains in effect today. It only applies to vessels that are 65 feet or longer, and it establishes “seasonal management areas” up and down the Atlantic seaboard. These areas include known feeding zones, migration routes, and nursery grounds stretching from Massachusetts to North Florida. Each area has a specific timeframe during which larger vessels are required to slow to speeds of 10 knots or less.

Last June, NOAA Fisheries proposed to extend these restrictions to vessels between 35 and 65 feet in length, citing the “significant risk” that boats of this size pose to right whales. As part of its proposal, the agency also seeks to broaden both the spatial boundaries and the timing of the SMA’s to up to 90 miles offshore and up to six or seven months of the year.

“Vessels less than 65 feet in length account for five of the 12 documented lethal strike events in U.S. waters since the first speed rule went into effect in 2008, demonstrating the need to extend the speed restrictions to include smaller vessels,” the National Marine Fisheries Service wrote in its proposal.

The public comment period for the Proposed Rule ended last October, and Chambers expects the rule to be finalized later this year.

What Industry Groups and Other Critics Are Saying

Representatives of the sportfishing industry say the rule is too intrusive and would prevent charter captains from getting to their fishing grounds in a reasonable amount of time. Anglers targeting tuna, billfish, and other pelagic species regularly travel dozens (or even hundreds) of miles offshore during a single day’s outing, and many of them use boats that are between 35- and 65-feet long.

“Due to the large size of the speed zone created by NOAA, which extends as far as 90 miles out in some portions, boating and fishing trips won’t just take longer to occur, they simply won’t happen,” Chambers explains. “This would decimate the boating and fishing industry.”

Chambers adds that while the NMFS statistic about lethal strike events is accurate, it overlooks how rarely these incidents occur. As part of its own analysis, the ASA found that since 2008, approximately 5.1 million recreational fishing trips were taken in the region by vessels that were 35- to 65-feet in length. This means that the chances of a recreational vessel striking a right whale during an offshore fishing trip is “at most .000098 percent, or less than one-in-a-million.”

Several outdoor recreation and conservation organizations have joined the ASA in speaking out against the proposed rule. A few members of Congress have recently voiced their opposition as well, including Reps. David Rouzer (R-North Carolina), Bill Posey (R-Florida), and Mike Collins (R-Georgia).

Read Next: Gulf Coast Charter Captains Appeal Court Decision That Would Allow Feds to Track Their Boats

And on May 4, the attorneys general of Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alaska sent a letter to NOAA expressing their concerns. They say that in addition to disrupting the regional sportfishing industry, the speed restrictions would threaten the safety of pilot boats and other commercial vessels, which regularly adjust their speed depending on weather and traffic conditions.

“While we generally share NOAA’s concerns regarding the protection of the North Atlantic right whale, we believe there are alternative ways to protect these whales without inflicting unnecessary economic damage to our States,” the attorneys general write. “We respectfully ask that you reconsider the Proposed Rule and allow for further time to study possible alternatives to this problem.”

If there was ever a person whose writing and wisdom embodied Outdoor Life, it was Jack O’Connor. His words were printed on the pages of nearly every issue of the magazine for 38 years. O’Connor’s stories and knowledge are still revered, and you’ll even see O’Connor referenced on social media threads. This is usually in speculation about what his opinions would be on contemporary rifles, cartridges, and hunting practices. To me, he’s one of those stalwart figures to whom every outdoor writer is compared, and none can ever measure up to.

But here’s a question: When’s the last time you actually read a Jack O’Connor piece? If you want to benefit from his knowledge and reference his legend, you’ve got to carefully read the words he put on the page.

His hunting stories are iconic, but his meticulously detailed work in the “Shooting” and “Arms and Ammunition” sections of Outdoor Life provided an incredible amount of instruction to the reader. Reading them today might change some of your perceptions about both O’Connor and the world of hunting and shooting. Much of his advice is just as applicable today as it was 60 years ago, and frankly, some people still need to hear it. It’s easy to remember our hunting and shooting past as the good old days. But when you read O’Connor now, you’ll see the past isn’t all that different from the present.

Evergreen Advice

Jack O’Connor was an expert gunner, and few will ever duplicate the volume and diversity of his experience. In other words, he had plenty of first-hand experience from which to base his shooting tips and advice. Sure, some of the technology has changed since O’Connor’s day, but even the best technology is useless without the proper shooting fundamentals. Here are a few tips that O’Connor wrote decades ago that are equally relevant today.

The Art of Stalking Big Game, July 1946

Stalking an animal is one of the most important and underestimated skills in modern hunting. Many of today’s hunters could benefit from a few pointers here. Some common hunting strategies have changed over the years but the need to stalk into range hasn’t changed much at all. O’Connor writes:

“The stalker will locate game before it sees him by taking it slow and never barging into a canyon or basin before he has looked it over carefully. When he comes to a ridge that overlooks new country, he should just barely get his head over the top. First, he should examine the basin thoroughly with the naked eye, as game is often close by and in plain sight. If that examination yields nothing, he should use binoculars, carefully examining every suspicious-looking object, peering into shadows, watching the places where game might bed. If a slow and thorough examination yields nothing, then he can cross the basin to look into another.”

He continues in detail, describing a theoretical stalk on bedded rams. He then expands into other situations and examines factors like the wind and terrain, emphasizing the importance of seeing the animal before it sees you.

Sight In for Big Game, October 1956

One of the most vivid memories I have from my hunter-education class that I took while in second grade was a lecture on sighting in your rifle, and I took it to heart. In this shooting section article, Jack exercises his typical thoroughness with an anecdote about his pal Tom, whose rifle was sighted in for one type of ammunition, but he was hunting with another. O’Connor followed this with step-by-step instruction that can be easily applied today. He writes:

“Many hunters never fire their weapons at all before going hunting. Others never fire them on paper. So let’s remember these things: A rifle may indeed be sighted in, either by the factory or by a former owner, and yet not be right for you. It may not be sighted in for the distance you want. Most factory rifles are sighted to put a certain bullet to point of aim at 100 yd. In many Western states, where shots at deer run from 200 to 300 yd., a rifle sighted in for 100 yd. will cause a lot of misses. Also, unless the rifle is sighted in for the ammunition you want to use, you may run into the same trouble that Tom did. Some rifles will put anything you feed them into just about the same group to 100 yd. Others are very sensitive to changes in bullet weight, or velocity, or even to the kind of powder or the hardness of the bullet jacket...Anyone with enough mechanical ability to sharpen a pencil or to lace his shoes can sight in a rifle quickly and easily.”

Bullets In the Breeze, March 1957

Although bullet technology has improved in the past 60 years, the wind still blows, and dealing with it is a fact of life for long-range shooters. Here, O’Connor covers how wind impacts a bullet’s flight, and he also gets into specifics about how it affects common loads of the day.

“The 200-yd. small-bore shooter or the 600- or 1000-yd. competitor with the .30 caliber rifle may be able to hold like a rock and squeeze gently, but unless he can read the wind he is sunk. The big-game hunter in brush and forest where ranges are short needn’t bother his pretty head about wind effect, but once he goes out into the wide-open spaces the breeze begins to bother him. In that wonderful antelope state of Wyoming, for instance, the wind is almost always blowing—at least when I am there. Since pronghorns are as rule shot at fairly long range, it behooves the hunter to do a little wind doping before he touches old Betsy off. If he doesn’t, he’s likely to wonder how come he hit his antelope in the south end when he held on the north end…”

Since this was written, the availability and precision of wind meters and ballistic apps have made making windage adjustments easier. But understanding reading the wind and understanding how it impacts your specific load are still timeless skills that technology haven’t replaced.

Decades-Old Debates

O’Connor also wrote about a whole bunch of topics that we as a hunting and shooting community are still arguing about today. Yes, some of the details change, but you might be surprised (or maybe unsurprised) by the topics that were controversial back then, and still are today.

Long-Range Shooting

Shooting animals at a far (but undefined) distance is taboo for many in the hunting community and it was back then, too. Critics will say that long-range rifles, optics, and high-B.C. bullets have bastardized hunting from what it once was: a pure sport of stalking skill. We think this conversation is a result of our new technology, but hunters have been striving to shoot long distances since O’Connor’s day—and well before it. In the January 1950 issue of Outdoor Life, O’Connor’s story Long Shots in the Cascades detailed a British Columbia hunt in the company of Roy Weatherby, where the party shot their mountain goats and bucks between 300 and 600 yards.

“How far away do you think it is?” he asked.

“About 500 yards,” I said.

The .270 cracked and the buck fell on its nose. I watched through the binoculars as it kicked a few times and then lay still. If you want to get an inferiority complex, just hunt with that guy Niles when he’s hot!

Later in the “Arms and Ammunition” section of the same issue, O’Connor writes on varmint hunting:

“Now and then I get a letter from an indignant citizen who is aware of this feverish interest in long-range varmint shooting, and who heartily disapproves of it. What he gets a kick out of, he says, is sneaking up on unsuspecting chucks and popping them in the head with a .22 at 30 or 40 yd. He can see no point at all in staying over there in the next country and knocking off a chuck a quarter of a mile away. He has his point, possibly; but actually he is not a varmint shot at all. He’s a stalker, and he isn’t really interested in precision shooting but in skillful stalking. One angry chap wrote me that shooting a chuck at a quarter of a mile proved nothing. I’ll say that shooting a chuck at 30 yd. proves even less.”

Perhaps Jack’s perspectives changed over the years, but I get the impression that he had a very balanced and informed opinion on such matters. In the shooting section of the October 1964 issue, he gives tips for shooting at longer ranges, but also adds a healthy a dose of reality by saying that many people greatly exaggerate the ranges at which they shoot. He also makes the case for shooting at reasonable distances.

“I know a bit about sheep hunting, and if I were a sheep guide and a dude wanted to shoot up a bunch of rams at 600 yd. I’d kick him humpbacked. …When should a hunter take a crack at an animal at long range? Only, I am convinced, when he is 95 percent certain that he can kill the animal before it gets out of sight. Whether he should shoot or not depends on how far the animal is away, how quickly it can get out of sight, how well the hunter can shoot, and how steady a position he can assume.”

Medium Calibers

Another divisive topic is the so-called medium caliber cartridges. Just look at the popularity of, and hostility toward, the 6.5 Creedmoor. It seems as if you must either love or hate the Creed. The new 6.8 Western cartridge has its own set of fans and detractors as well. Whether it stands the test of time is yet to be determined, but I think that O’Connor would have been enthusiastic to evaluate it at the very least. Jack will forever be associated with the .270 Winchester, and he certainly had an affinity for it. If you read much of his work, however, you may be surprised or even disappointed at the realization that he was a self-described cartridge geek and wrote enthusiastically about scores of cartridges that were being developed over the decades. He even had an affinity for lower-recoil, medium-sized rifle chamberings that were easier to shoot. He would rattle off ballistic coefficients, sectional densities, velocities, and trajectories. He writes about the .257 Roberts in The .257—An All-Rounder in the April 1946 issue of OL, speaking fondly of its accuracy and mild recoil, while being realistic about its applications.

“Of all the cartridges, both standard and wildcat, that have been cooked up in the last thirty years there is none that can play more and sweeter tunes than the .257. It is very accurate-so accurate, in fact, that of the dozen or more rifles of that caliber which I have got to know well I have never seen one that wouldn’t shoot into 1 ½ in. at 100 yd. Most will do much better, and groups under 1 in. are common. Recoil is so light that a woman or boy can shoot one without developing a flinch—and so can the office-chained hombre who has to do most of his shooting in the pages of his favorite sporting journal.”

In a similar piece, printed a few years later in December 1953 called The All-Round .25 Rifle, O’Connor details several 25-caliber cartridges from the .25/35 and .250/3000 to the .25/06 and .257 Weatherby. He sticks with his opinion that a .270 or .30-06 is ideal for large big game, but he’s a fan of the fast and mild-kicking .25’s.

“As far as larger game goes, Dr. E.G. Braddock of Lewiston, Idaho, has hunted elk for years with the .257 and has killed more than a dozen with no lost animals. And the late Jean Jacquot used the .250/3000 on Yukon moose and grizzlies for the last 30 years of his life. I wouldn’t pick a .250 as an ideal grizzly rifle, but one of these days, just as an experiment, I’d like to tie into a nice juicy grizzly above timberline with a .257 loaded with a 117, 120, or 125-gr. Bullet at around 2,900-2,950 (fps).

The good .25’s then, are worthy of respect and investigation. They are accurate; their recoil is light; and their report is not bad, even when they use a lot of powder to drive their bullets at high velocities. As all-round rifles to be used on varmints and the smaller big game they are tops.”

If you learn anything from reading O’Connor’s more technical writings, you’ll learn his appreciation for innovation and development. He had his darling cartridges, but he also had a thorough knowledge of both rifles and ammunition, and a very practical outlook. Were he alive and writing today, I don’t think he would forsake the cartridges he favored, but I am confident that he wouldn’t ignore new cartridges or dismiss them as gun industry gimmicks. For decades, he used and evaluated just about every new cartridge and rifle that hit the market.

The only downside of looking back on hunting’s past as the “good old days” is if it prevents you from looking forward. I’m not sure what Jack O’Connor would think about the world today, but I bet he’d be pretty damn happy about being able to carry a supremely accurate, 6-pound rifle into the sheep hills.

I grew up in the heyday of slug gun hunting. Whitetail populations began to explode in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in suburban areas, like in my home state of Ohio. Since centerfire rifles were deemed to be dangerous for whitetail hunting in populated areas, shotgun slugs were the best option.

The sudden demand for slugs led to some improvements in their design. The Foster-style lead slug—never particularly accurate at distance—gave way to sabot slugs that could be fired through rifled shotgun barrels and kill deer out to 200 yards. Adjustable sights replaced single bead front sights, and scopes and red dots replaced adjustable sights for increased accuracy at longer ranges.

The widespread passage of laws to allow the use of straight-wall cartridges for deer hunting (Illinois is the most recent to make straight-walls legal for the 2023 season) has brought into question the future of rifled slugs and sabots. After Ohio began allowing straight-wall cartridges in 2014, interest in rifles chambered for .450 Bushmaster, .45/70, .444 Marlin, and other straight-wall cartridges grew rapidly. Likewise, lever-action and single-shot rifles chambered in .44 Magnum, .45 Colt, and other legal hunting calibers were also in high demand.

Rise of the .350 Legend

The .350 Legend is anemic compared to some bottlenecked centerfires developed around the same time, such as the 6.5 PRC and .300 PRC. But it produced enough energy to kill whitetails consistently out to 250 yards and did so without generating heavy recoil. The recoil energy produced by a 7-pound rifle chambered in .350 Legend (150 grains) is a manageable 10½ pounds, similar to that of a .30/30 of the same bullet weight. Most importantly, its 1.71-inch case met the requirement for straight-wall hunting in states like Michigan and Ohio. It was also affordable for hunters. When the .350 Legend debuted, it cost $1 per round. That price has almost doubled since, but you can still buy a box of 20 for less than $40.

Also, affordable bolt guns and single shots, like Winchester’s XPR, Ruger’s American Ranch, and the CVA Scout, were available in .350 Legend, and the cartridge could also be run in AR rifles. I’ve shot several .350 Legend rifles from different manufacturers and with different ammunition. All could shoot sub-2-inch groups at 100 yards. Some shot sub-1½ inches, and a few flirted with 1-inch groups.

Today, you can find straight-wall ammunition in a variety of offerings, and they can also be shot from several platforms, including lever-actions, handguns, semi-automatic rifles, and bolt-actions. Here is a list of the most common loads used by deer hunters:

• .44 Remington Magnum
• .357 Magnum
• .454 Casull
• .45-70 Govt.
• .460 Smith & Wesson Magnum
• .500 Smith & Wesson
• .450 Bushmaster
• .444 Marlin
• .350 Legend
• 10mm Auto

Slugs vs. Straight-Walls

Straight walls aren’t going to win any PRS matches, but you don’t need them to. You just need to be able to hit a whitetail’s vitals at 200 yards with one. For instance, during Outdoor Life’s 2019 Gun Test, the Winchester XPR chambered in .350 Legend averaged 1.89-inch, five-shot groups at 100 yards. This is not stellar accuracy for most hunting rifles, but it’s as good or better performance than you’d get out of an average slug gun. The chart below shows how the .350 Legend and .45/70 stack up against rifled slugs and sabots in terms of accuracy and recoil energy (I used Bison’s ballistic calculator to determine recoil energy).

There are some interesting takeaways from the above chart. First, the .350 Legend is by far the lightest projectile on the list at 150 grains, and it has a higher muzzle velocity than any of the others. The two 12-gauge slugs both produce 700 ft.-lb. more energy at the muzzle than the .350 Legend and 240 to nearly 400 ft./lb. more than the .45/70.

However, the ballistic advantage changes at the 200-yard mark. The .350 now has more energy than the 1-ounce rifled slug from Federal and the .45/70 impacts with more energy than any other load on the list. The .350 also shoots flatter than the slugs. At 200 yards, the .350 drops only 7.6 inches when zeroed at 100 yards. The Hornady 12-gauge sabot slug drops just under a foot at 200 yards when zeroed at 100, about the same as the .45/70. Hornady’s 20-gauge Custom Lite slug drops over 18 inches, and the 1-ounce lead 12-gauge rifled slug drops more than 2 feet at 200 yards.

As you can see from the chart, the 12-gauge slugs and .45/70 produce substantially more recoil than the .350 Legend, though Hornady’s Custom Lite 20-gauge projectile produces only slightly more recoil than the .350 Legend.

Do Slug Guns Have a Future in Deer Hunting?

It’s clear some slugs have more recoil and are ballistically inferior to straight walls, especially at distance. So other than versatility, what does shooting a slug gun really offer? That’s a good question for ammo makers, which is why I asked Winchester and Hornady where they see the future of slugs headed.

“We certainly aren’t walking away from slugs,” says Nathan Robinson, marketing manager for Winchester. Robinson says that demand for slugs is softening, but that it isn’t going away. In fact, he says, Winchester is in the process of developing new, more advanced shotgun slugs for hunters this fall.

“From a technology perspective, everyone wins from going to straight wall,” Robinson said. “However, you can keep using your slug gun and we’ll keep making the ammo that shooters and hunters want.”

Hornady’s marketing and communications manager Seth Swerczek isn’t as optimistic about the future of slug guns. But Hornady plans to continue offering slugs as demand remains.

“My answer is speculative, but I would say the slug market is indeed going to get smaller,” Swerczek says “Although, I don’t think it will happen at a fast rate. Yes, the straight-wall cartridges likely increase the effective range slightly and provide generally better accuracy at all ranges, but there are still a lot of slug guns out there and not everyone is going to jump on the straight-wall wagon all at once.”

I also spoke with a gun manufacturer that sells slug guns and straight-wall rifles. Without divulging exact numbers, the gun maker confirmed that they are seeing an uptick in straight-wall sales and a slowing of slug-gun purchases. Also the manufacturer pointed out that development of new slug guns has thinned while straight-wall rifle offerings continue to progress and evolve.

Slug Guns Still Offer Versatility

Even though straight walls are gaining traction amongst deer hunters, there is still plenty of value in owning a good shotgun. If there is a semi-auto or pump in your gun closet, there is one major advantage over a rifle: You can carry the same gun for spring turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, ducks, and geese as you do for deer season. The only extras you will need for whitetails are a rifled barrel—if you shoot sabots—and an optic for better accuracy. As someone who hunts across the country, I can also tell you It’s nice to travel with just one gun. If you go bear hunting in Maine or come to Ohio and deer hunt and want to shoot a few grouse or ducks during your trip too, you can do it all with just a shotgun.

Read Next: The Best Budget Hunting Rifles, Put to the Test

The Most Popular Straight-Wall Rifles and Slug Guns

Since deer hunters can legally shoot whitetails with straight-wall cartridges in most states, and slug guns are still being used by hunters in former shotgun-only states, here is a list of the most popular rifles and slug guns for whitetail hunters. Just remember that every state has its own set of restrictions on straight-wall cartridge size and the guns you are allowed to hunt with. So, check the regulations before you go.

.350 Legend

Winchester XPR

Ruger American Ranch Rifle

Mossberg Patriot Synthetic

CVA Scout

.45/70

Marlin 1895 SBL

Winchester 1886 Short Rifle

Henry Side-Gate Lever Action

.450 Bushmaster

CVA Cascade

Ruger AR-556 MPR

Slug Guns

Mossberg 500 Combo Field/Deer

Stoeger M3000R

Winchester SX4 Cantilever Buck

Henry Single Shot

Browning Maxus II Rifled Deer

Savage 212/220

Imagine lying flat on your stomach rowing a small wooden boat in the dark of night, closing in on a raft of ducks. Mounted to your boat’s stern is a 12-foot long, 150-pound shotgun. You pull a rope tied around a trigger or strike a percussion cap with a hammer to ignite a half-pound charge of black powder that sends thousands of pellets downrange at the resting flock of unsuspecting birds. The heavy recoil sends your boat lurching backward across the water. Dozens of dead ducks float belly up once the smoke clears. This was the daily life of an early 20^th century American market hunter. Also known as watermen, the hunters used these massive shotguns, known as punt guns—a large gun attached to a boat called a punt—to kill ducks that were then sent by train to restaurants in major cities across the U.S.

“I once saw a 10-foot punt gun fired on land,” said Pete Lesher, chief curator at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. “It was heavily sandbagged to help keep it in place but when the rope [attached to the trigger] was pulled, the entire gun jumped back more than 10 feet  because of the amount of black powder it was loaded with. The ignition created an unbelievable amount of force. I can only image what that experience was like for someone shooting the gun out of boat at night.”

British Origins

English gunmakers and engineers were the first to build these incredibly powerful guns in the late 1800s (punt guns remained legal in Britain for another hundred years until a 1981 ban). The London-based firm Holland & Holland, which is still making bespoke shotguns and rifles, designed extravagant single- and double-barrel punt guns for those with financial means. And Britain is responsible for engineering some of the largest punt guns ever. But most punt guns were crudely built by market hunters themselves, particularly in the U.S. where killing ducks could be quite lucrative. In 1914, a pair of ducks could fetch $3 ($86 when adjusted for inflation) and coveted canvasbacks went for as much as $8 or $9 ($258 when adjusted for inflation) per pair.

Because so many punt guns were made by private citizens and not large manufacturers, there’s no real index of U.S. or European-made punt guns. But after consulting museum curators, collectors, and veteran gun writers, I identified five punt guns of considerable bore size and weight, the largest of which—Irish Tom—shot a massive 50-ounce payload.

“It’s hard to know what guns are the biggest because so many of them were likely buried for safe keeping or hidden away when the [American] market hunting days came to an end,” Lesher said. “There are private collectors who may not want anyone to know they have such a gun, and it’s possible there are families that still have punt guns that have been handed down from one generation to the next.”

Biggest Shotgun Ever: Irish Tom

Built by an Irish gunmaker in the 1930s, Irish Tom is the largest punt gun ever constructed. Purchased by Stanley Duncan, the founder of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), he had the muzzleloader converted to a breechloader in 1936. The gun weighs 300 pounds and is just over 14 feet long. It can shoot 50 ounces of shot. For reference, the largest modern turkey shotshells typically shoot a 2-ounce payload. Ignited by 10 ounces of black powder, Irish Tom could kill 100 ducks with one well-placed shot, according to the original owner. Because it was so heavy and the recoil so stout, the punt gun had to be secured to a punt that was nearly 23 feet long. The steel barrel was manufactured by Whitworth and the gun was mounted by British bespoke gun maker W.W. Greener.

Irish Tom was acquired by English actor James Robert Justice after World War II. He and the Duke of Edinburgh hunted with the gun in the 1950s on a bay known as the Wash, one of the last bastions of European punt gunning, located on the eastern coastline of England. After Justice’s death in 1975, Irish Tom could not be located for a time, but it was eventually found, restored, and gifted to BASC where it remains a part of their collection.

The George A. Lawyer Punt Gun

Not much is known about the builder of this American punt gun or its current whereabouts—though it may be the biggest shotgun in U.S. history. It was confiscated by federal agents (so it could have been destroyed). Pictured with the gun, which measured 10 feet, 9 inches and weighed 250 pounds, is U.S. chief game warden George A. Lawyer, who is also holding a 12-gauge for size comparison. The image was taken in 1920 two years after the ratification of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which established federal control over hunting waterfowl and, along with the Lacey Act, outlawed punt guns. Lawyer is credited with setting the wheels in motion for the development of the federal duck stamp in the early `20s though the bill did not pass until 1934. Ninety-eight percent of the money from the duck stamp goes directly to wetland protection and acquisition. It also funds the National Wildlife Refuge system.

Holland & Holland Screw-Breech 2-Inch Bore Punt Gun

This unique punt gun built by H&H in January of 1885 requires the shooter to load a 9¼-inch shell into the breech block and then screw the assembly together. To fire the punt gun, which has a barrel length of 85½ inches, an internal hammer is cocked via acocking piece on the right side of the stock. Then the shooter pulls a lanyard attached to a firing ring on the underside of the punt gun. The stock is made of walnut and the screw breech features engraving on all the metal surfaces except the trigger plate. The brass sideplate is also adorned with scroll work.

Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey 1½-Inch Bore Punt Gun

Gallwey was an English engineer, historian, artist, and ballistics expert, who authored several books, including Wildfowl and Wildfowl Shooting with Shotgun and Punt Gun, which was published in 1896. He was an avid duck hunter and owned a Holland and Holland London, one of the first punt guns the British gun house manufactured in the late 19^th century. A typical H&H London breechloader had a single barrel that measured 8½ feet, weighed 100 pounds, and had a bore diameter of 1½ inches. There are several of these models on display or part of gun collections in the U.S. (Cody Firearms Museum in Wyoming has one).

But Gallwey had his London custom made as a side-by-side. It was also a half-inch longer than stock London punts. The added length combined with second barrel likely made the gun weigh well over 100 pounds. According to his book, Gallwey tested the London at the Kensal Rise shooting grounds in 1885, loading it with 20 ounces of No. 1 shot. A recorded 1,353 pellets penetrated a 6-foot square target. Gallwey also claimed he once bagged 60 wigeon with the London, which had a selective trigger that allowed him to choose from the right, left, or shoot both barrels. For the latter, there was a slight delay between ignition of the first and second round.

Read Next: The Best Duck Hunting Shotguns for Waterfowlers

1¼-Inch Bore Breech-Loading Punt Gun

The manufacturer of this punt gun is unknown, so it’s possible it could have been made by a market hunter, though the craftsmanship suggests it was built by someone with considerable skill. Rock Island Auction is the current owner of the 1¼-inch bore breechloader, but the gun is set to sell in August 2022 for an estimated price tag between $7,000 to $11,000. The punt gun is 7-foot, 7¼ inches long with a barrel length of 66 inches. This gun was designed with a brass sleeve that fits over the barrel and holds a swivel peg mount in place so that the shooter could move the gun easily. Many punt guns were cradled in a fixed position due to their weight and to try and dampen recoil. That required market hunters to maneuver the boat into a more precise location to take the best shot on a raft of ducks. To fire the breechloader, an external hammer had to be cocked before pulling the folding trigger. The oak tiller-shaped stock slid underneath the shooters arm for a secure fit. Like the H&H London there were punt guns built with the same bore diameter (or close to it) as this one.

Chief U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl ruled in favor of four hunters who crossed a corner of the Elk Mountain Ranch.

The Order states: “. . . the Court finds that where a person corner crosses on foot within the checkerboard from public land to public land without touching the surface of private land and without damaging private property, there is no liability for trespass.”

If you haven’t been following this case closely, corner crossing means walking from one corner of public land to another corner of public, crossing diagonally between corners of private land, without ever setting foot on private property. Phillip Yeomans, Bradly Cape, John Slowensky, and Zachary Smith, all of Missouri (and nicknamed the Missouri Four), used a small stepladder to cross from one parcel of public land to another while on a hunt in 2021 and in 2020.

“It was a pretty full throated endorsement of the principal that as long as you don’t touch private land or cause harm to private land in some way, then you have the right to cross corner-to-corner of public lands,” says Eric Hanson, an attorney who represented Backcountry Hunters and Anglers on their amicus brief in this litigation.

However, the ruling does not mean that corner crossing in every state is now legal. It’s also possible that other private landowners could bring corner crossing civil suits, Hanson says.

“This has to work its way up the chain of appeals before it becomes more binding,” Hanson says. “This is a big first step, but it’s not necessarily going to apply outside of Wyoming. The court was very careful to put this in just the context of the case, not a national context”

But still BHA and the public land hunters of Wyoming have reason to celebrate.

“Today was a win for the people, both in Wyoming and across the country,” says BHA president Land Tawney. “The court’s ruling confirms that it was legal for the Missouri Four to step from public land to public land over a shared public/private corner. Coupled with recent legislation passed by the Wyoming legislature, we are happy that common sense and the rule of law prevailed. Backcountry Hunters & Anglers applauds the court’s careful balancing of access to public land and respect of private property rights. We look forward to finding more solutions to access – together.”

Of course, the four hunters who have been battling these cases for years also have reason to celebrate.

“This is a long overdue and singularly great outcome for the entire American public and anybody who enjoys public lands,” the hunters’ attorney Ryan Semerad told WyoFile. Semerad says they “fully expect” an appeal.

The recurring pattern has become the focus of much research since the first incident in May 2020. One study from the journal Marine Mammal Science details at least 49 incidents in which orcas made contact with boats in 2020 alone. Researchers recorded a total of 505 interactions between orcas and boats—ranging from orcas simply swimming toward the boats to damaging them—since 2020. Check out this footage from an orca encounter in October 2021 off the coast of Portugal:

“It is a rare behavior that has only been detected in this part of the world,” Alfredo Lopez, an orca researcher with the Atlantic Orca Working Group, told Scientific American.

Teaching Young Killer Whales to Attack Boats

Greg Blackburn, an experienced sailor from Leeds, U.K., witnessed what he thought was teaching behavior when an orca with two calves started ramming his boat on May 2 near Tangier, Morocco.

“You can see … the matriarch coming up and attacking the rudder with [the] calf [beside] her, then she drops back and then the little calf gets in to have a go,” he told 9News. “It was definitely some form of education, teaching going on.”

Blackburn manipulated the sails on his boat to “be as boring as possible” when he figured out the orcas were there. This is in line with what the Cruising Association and the Atlantic Orca Working group recommend when orcas start interfering with a boat; power it down, unfurl the sails, and disconnect autopilot. Eventually, the orcas swam away, but not after doing some serious damage to Blackburn’s vessel.

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“Obviously that was hard enough with everything that was happening,” he said. “[But] there was nothing we could really do.”

The current International Game Fish Association All-Tackle tiger trout record sits at 27 pounds, 6 ounces. Cathy Clegg caught the fish on Loon Lake in eastern Washington in August 2022.

Tiger Trout in Idaho

IDFG has stocked the Montpelier Reservoir with tiger trout since 2016, which means King’s fish is eight years old at most, Koenig says. The last stocking happened on June 14, 2022, when IDFG released 1,060 fish longer than 6 inches into the 131-acre waterbody. Tiger trout act as a biological control in the reservoir, which was part of the reason for the inception of Idaho’s tiger trout stocking program.

“Being sterile, they give us a little more flexibility because they’re not going to interbreed with native trout local to the area,” Koenig says. “While Montpelier Reservoir is home to native Bonneville cutthroat trout, and then a host of other introduced gamefish like perch, kokanee, and some rainbow trout, we’re not so worried about tiger trout being a nuisance to the system there.”

“We can use tiger trout to try to capitalize on those abundant-but-small yellow perch and produce a trophy fishing opportunity in a reservoir that otherwise doesn’t produce a lot of big fish,” he explains. “Anglers love to catch trout that are different and cool. Tiger trout are a super fun sport fish, they’re unique, [and] people are willing to travel pretty long distances to get a chance at catching one.”

All About Tiger Trout

A tiger trout is a sterile hybrid of a female brown trout and a male brook trout. Neither species is native to Idaho—brown trout were introduced from Europe and brook trout came from the eastern United States. Tiger trout are rarely produced in the wild, since they are the offspring of two distinct species. The scarce wild tiger trout is a small, elusive fish while the hatchery-raised tiger is bigger and much more aggressive.

Tiger trout are easy to recognize. The wiggly pattern that covers their bodies is more reminiscent of a composition notebook than a tiger, but it is similar to the pattern that covers the top of a brook trout. Tiger trout might also have the white stripe on their lower fins, similar to the brook trout. But their bellies range from white to an orange-yellow color, characteristic of both the male brook trout and the female brown trout.

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Just 35 percent of hatchery-bred specimens survive, and the percentage is even lower for wild specimens, according to IGFA. State wildlife agencies stock tiger trout in ponds, reservoirs, lakes, and streams across the country, from Nevada to Massachusetts.

“Alessandro’s huge kitten beats the previous world record by 4cm and the fish is a result of 23 years of hard work!” MADCAT wrote in a news release. “We’re so proud of you Alessandro! You have written history in the world of catfish angling!”

Biancardi also shared some of the story behind his catch with the MADCAT team.

As it happened, the dream fish bit his lure at the first spot of the day. With the river muddy and still dropping from a flood, Biancardi threw out a Savage Gear Cannibal Shad on a 12/0 jig head. After a few casts, something hammered the soft plastic lure and Biancardi set the hook on “what [he] felt to be a prehistoric fish.”

Doing battle from his john boat, Biancardi navigated strong currents and submerged obstacles as the fish fought deep. After 40 “endless minutes” of this, he says, the catfish finally broke the surface.

“I was alone facing the biggest catfish I’ve seen in 23 years,” Biancardi writes. “I tried gloving its mouth 2-3 times, but it was still too strong. I decided to go in shallow water to land it from shore and after a few tries, I managed to land it!”

The angler tied up the nine-plus-foot-long monster in the shallows to let it recover. But he forgot to anchor his boat and it drifted away, forcing him to swim downriver to recover it.

Biancardi then called his friend Marco to let him know where he was. With 10 witnesses looking on and snapping photographs, they put a tape to the Wels catfish and recorded its official measurements.

“I was sure that the fish I caught was special, but I never imagined what would happen next when we measured the fish on the mat,” he writes. “Under the incredulous eyes of many anglers, the meter stopped at 285cm. It was the new WORLD RECORD catfish!”

Biancardi then released the fish into the Po. He says he was curious about its total weight but didn’t want to risk stressing the fish too much by weighing it.

“I decided to safely release it, hoping it could give another angler the same joy it gave to me.”

Because Biancardi released the fish instead of bringing it to a certified scale, his catfish is eligible for an IGFA all-tackle length world record—as opposed to a certified weight record. Biancardi’s documentation has been submitted to the IGFA and is awaiting certification.

Read Next: The Biggest Record Catfish from Around the World

As the MADCAT team pointed out, the standing all-tackle length world record for the species is a 281cm catfish that a pair of German anglers caught in April. That fish also came from the River Po, which along with Spain’s Rio Ebro, has given up more monster Wels catfish than anywhere else on Earth.

Although we’ll never know for sure, there’s a good chance that Biancardi’s fish also outweighed the IGFA all-tackle world record Wels, which had a certified weight of 297 pounds, 9 ounces. The 281cm Wels caught in April was estimated to weigh over 300 pounds, according to the Angling Times.

Creating a More Resilient Catfish

Americans eat a lot of catfish, and it’s impossible to put a number on how many chuckleheads we catch and cook on an annual basis. Regardless, it’s not enough to satisfy the overall demand. In 2021 alone, we imported around 256 million pounds of it from other countries. Meanwhile, we commercially produced another 307 million pounds here at home. Most of these farm-raised fish come from the South—primarily Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas—where the deep-fried delicacy’s true soulmate, the “hush puppy,” was born.

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The only problem with raising catfish in farm ponds is that these water bodies turn into breeding grounds for disease. Farmers lose a huge number of fish every year to various infections. That’s why researchers at Auburn University are trying to create a more resilient catfish. With some genetic engineering and just a pinch of alligator DNA, a team of scientists have successfully spawned a new hybrid catfish species that they believe can better resist infection.

To achieve this, the research team led by Rex Dunham and Baofeng Su is using CRISPR technology, which allows scientists to edit and alter the genes of plants and animals. They were already looking for a genetic component to increase the heartiness of freshwater catfish. That search led them to a unique protein found in alligators called cathlecidin. In an interview with the Ireland-based Fish Site, Dunham explained that this antimicrobial protein is thought to protect alligators from developing infections in their wounds. The team figured if they could insert this gene into catfish, they’d end up with a more resilient fish.

Ethical Concerns

One fear that came up during the experiment was the risk of a genetically modified super-fish escaping from farms and disrupting neighboring ecosystems. To prevent this, they used the CRISPR gene-editing tool to remove a catfish gene associated with reproduction. They replaced it with the alligator gene. With these genes swapped, the hybrid catfish are unable to reproduce.

Follow-up experiments proved that the survival rates of these hybrid fish were “between two- and five-fold higher,” according to Dunham. While they haven’t been peer-reviewed yet, their findings have since been published in bioRxiv.

Because of the ethical concerns surrounding CRISPR technology and genetic modification, regulatory approval for these hybrid catfish isn’t a certainty. The experiment has already raised doubts among the larger scientific community as well. Some have argued that even if these hybrids are more resilient, most fish farmers don’t have a use for lab-spawned, sterile fish. And even though the hybrid species is still just a catfish, there’s also the marketing problem of selling hybridized alligator-catfish to consumers.

Dunham and Su think people could eventually come around to the idea, and Dunham explained that it’s unlikely anybody would notice a difference in the meat itself. “I would eat it in a heartbeat,” he said.