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Tom Bahti

Tom Bahti: Early field hunts for ducks bring back fond memories

Featured, Features, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

It was an October day sometime in the early 1980s. At the time I was the wildlife manager assigned to Shawano and Oconto counties, working out of the Wisconsin DNR offices in the basement of the county courthouse in Shawano.
Driving home from work one evening along old Hwy. 29 (two lanes in those days) east of Bonduel, I saw a knot of mallards circling a cut cornfield. I pulled over to consult my county plat book and determine the ownership.

Tom Bahti: Early field hunts for ducks bring back fond memories Read More »

Tom Bahti: Memories of hunting with a Moses stick

Featured, Features, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

When you hunted Coues deer in southern Arizona with my late cousin, Kurt Bahti, you were gifted and used a “Moses stick.” Kurt fashioned them from the stem of a large cactus, and they were pieces of outdoor art.
Five to six feet in length, he would smooth out the gnarly surface of the cactus stalk, attach a rubber chair leg stop to the ground end, and then cover the upper third with tanned deer leather, which he carefully glued and stapled to the pole.

Tom Bahti: Memories of hunting with a Moses stick Read More »

Tom Bahti: Remembering Wisconsin’s Mary Howley, Labrador breeder and trainer extraordinaire

Featured, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

Mary Candlewood Howley, of Madison, passed away Jan. 26 at the age of 85.
The terms icon, legend, giant, and such are used with some abandon to describe various individuals. Heck, I’ve been guilty of throwing such terms around myself on more than one occasion when talking about folks I thought were especially deserving. Those are, without a doubt, terms that can and should be used to describe this remarkable woman.

Tom Bahti: Remembering Wisconsin’s Mary Howley, Labrador breeder and trainer extraordinaire Read More »

Tom Bahti: Looking back on the work of Wisconsin giants in deer management world

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Opinion, Wisconsin /

I was fortunate to work as a wildlife biologist during the heyday of Wisconsin’s preeminence in the world of white-tailed deer management.
The passing of some of the legends in what used to be the DNR Forest Wildlife Research Group has made me look back nostalgically at the “good old days,” and to rue even more so the damage that was done to perhaps the premier white-tailed deer management program in the country when Dr. James Kroll was hired by then-Gov. Scott Walker.

Tom Bahti: Looking back on the work of Wisconsin giants in deer management world Read More »

Tom Bahti: A little redemption hunting Coues deer

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

It was the week after Thanksgiving in 2019. My cousin Kurt Bahti and I had packed into a remote basin in the Santa Rita mountains south of Tucson to hunt Coues deer.
A 2-inch deluge on Thanksgiving Day had turned the trail sloppy and the intermittent streams into torrents, but we got into the bench above the creek that afternoon and set up camp as the weather changed and some snow began to fall.

Tom Bahti: A little redemption hunting Coues deer Read More »

Tom Bahti: Some thoughts about my favorite hunting gear

Featured, Features, Gear & Gadgets, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

Everyone asks me about my favorite pieces and brands of outdoor gear. Well, OK, actually no one has ever asked me that question, but I thought I’d throw out my choices just to get people thinking and maybe stir the pot a bit.
Full disclosure: I have no affiliation with any of the brands or products that I mention in this piece. They are just items of equipment or clothing that I’ve found to be my preference(s) over a long time working and fooling around in the outdoors.

Tom Bahti: Some thoughts about my favorite hunting gear Read More »

Tom Bahti: Know when to ‘lighten up’ a bit when it comes to hunting guns

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

We all remember when we were younger – in our 20s, 30s, and 40s. We were still panther quick and leather tough, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Unfortunately, age catches up with all of us, and nature always bats last. As I’m now closer to 80 than to 70, I’ve begun to appreciate lighter firearms more and more.

Tom Bahti: Know when to ‘lighten up’ a bit when it comes to hunting guns Read More »

Tom Bahti: Hunting camps are special places shared with special people

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

Hunting camps are all different, but they are also all the same. They are places where the adventures begin, and that life-long love affair with hunting and the outdoors gets its start.
It might be a log cabin, a tar-paper shack, an old farm house, some tents, or a pop-up camper, but they all share similarities. This is where the newbies learn about camp etiquette and chores, listen to the old-timers and, hopefully, begin to cement their legacy into a camp culture that will last them through the decades.

Tom Bahti: Hunting camps are special places shared with special people Read More »

Tom Bahti: Discovering where the goose music begins is an eye-opening experience

Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, National Hunting, Wisconsin /

There’s pretty much an entire generation of Wisconsin waterfowlers who never dealt with the extremely conservative season structures of the mid- and late-1980s with a 30-day duck season with a three-bird limit, and restrictive Canada goose quotas that required careful monitoring, reporting, and enforcement.
Drought had a terrible grip on the prairies of the Dakotas and Canada. Goose harvest quotas were driven by annual production estimates along the Hudson Bay lowlands of Manitoba and southern James Bay in Ontario.

Tom Bahti: Discovering where the goose music begins is an eye-opening experience Read More »

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