In today’s media, we hear the words conservative and liberal quite often. But there’s far more to it than one’s political point of view. I’m a pretty conservative guy through and through – how I dress, what I drive, how I live, how I vote, what I eat, how I hunt (no trail cams, range finders, ozone machines) and even what I shoot.

The late Robert Ruark, one of my favorite writers, penned the book Use Enough Gun. Though I concur with his line of thought, we live in an age of too much gun. It’s what outdoor pundits write about, and it all has to do with marketing. They would have us believe that the word “magnum” is necessary whether the quarry is pronghorn antelope or grizzly bear.

I labeled myself “conservative” with regard to the rifles I shoot. Though I once owned both a .300 Winchester Magnum and a .375 H&H Magnum, today’s arsenal contains a more than adequate .270 Winchester and a .30-06 that will easily take care of anything I will hunt. My “outdated” calibers include a .30-30, .300 Savage, 35 Remington, and .45-70. The word “dead” has no comparative or superlative degree. No animal is deader than another, and in the hands of a competent hunter, my outdated calibers will account for everything up to and including grizzly bears.

In one of my favorite hunting anthologies, Danger!, compiled by Ben East, we find yarns written before today’s magnum age. What did these old-timers carry for a rifle? In the story “White Fury on the Barrens,” our hunter stops a charging polar bear at 17 steps with a Model 99 Savage lever-action in 300 Savage caliber. In 1937 this diminutive caliber was considered adequate for polar bears. By today’s standards it is pure foolery.

Hunters throughout the great north most often carried a Model 94 Winchester in 30-30 caliber as their weapon of choice. In the story “Killer Grizzly at Six Feet,” Jack Turner stopped a world record grizzly with a Model 94 Winchester in 30-30 caliber. He killed a number of grizzlies with that diminutive 30-30, and never felt that it was inadequate. I also found it interesting that the typical mountain lion hunter put his cats down with a .22 rim fire rifle.

Olive Goodwin Reamer, a remarkable young widow barely a hundred pounds in weight, was left with three children while in her early twenties. She successfully developed a British Columbia homestead by clearing and breaking the land, and expanding her livestock herd. She hunted, butchered, and canned moose taken with her .30-30 rifle to feed her family. Moose hunting today with a .30-30 would be considered foolhardy. Admittedly, these feats were exceptions. I took my two bull moose with a .300 magnum and .30-06 respectively.

I mentioned what I drive as being conservative. My “go to” vehicle today is my 2005 Dodge Dakota pickup with a six-speed manual transmission and twowheel drive I special-ordered from Iverson in Mitchell. That pickup made a British Columbia fishing trip, hauled an elk home from New Mexico, and made a fishing trip to the end of the road at Lynn Lake, Manitoba. I drove that Dakota through a Saskatchewan forest fire, and made countless deer and antelope hunts without ever being stuck. Yes, I said twowheel drive! Driving requires some common sense, and I learned back in my 4WD days that one can easily get stuck with a 4WD vehicle.

A few weeks ago I overheard my gifted grandson who designs trail cameras telling his dad that he wanted to buy a good used 4WD pickup. Sam lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He needs a 4WD pickup like I need a Remington 300 Ultra-Mag rifle to hunt deer. When I generously offered Sam my old 2WD Dakota, he wasn’t the least bit interested. Sam isn’t a rancher/farmer who needs one. Why everyone thinks a 4WD pickup is a necessity is beyond me. To me, they consume more gas and sport a heftier price tag. I know I’m being a little hard on Sam. When I was his age, I bought a new 4WD GMC Jimmy to serve as our family vehicle. Few if any readers will agree with my conservative ideas when it comes to guns and wheels, but it’s who I am.

I’ve never before had so many things on my plate as a hunter, and I find myself in a bit of a quandary. If Canada reopens its doors, Mike Hall and I will be making a late September – early October waterfowl hunt in Saskatchewan – a conflict with the antelope opener. Mike and I have also booked a Wyoming elk hunt for November 14th – a conflict with the West River Deer opener. I certainly am a lucky guy with a wonderful problem.

See you next week.