Outdoors With Kevin Fox: Making Plans for 2026
I wrote last week about thinking of planning a fishing trip for 2026. I hope it at least got you thinking about getting out and enjoying the many opportunities God has provided us on this planet.
Many, many years ago — perhaps 30 if not a little more — a friend, my dad and I traveled to Upton, Wyoming, to go on a pronghorn antelope hunt. I’ll be honest: I was nervous about the trip. I planned for it all summer and did a lot of shooting with my Remington Model 788, chambered in .243. I did this because I heard about how far I might have to take a shot to collect one. My 788 couldn’t have been any uglier, but what it lacked in looks it made up for in accuracy.
I felt fairly confident that if I could get within 300 yards of a pronghorn, I could make the shot. Not everything goes as planned, but I did get my buck. Instead of at 300 yards, I took him within the first 15 minutes of the season at under 70 yards. I walked over a small rise that I had seen him walk behind, and when I could see over the rise, he was staring at me. It appeared he was about to take off, but he took too long to do it.
That trip was my first big‑game hunt for which I had to travel and apply for a license. It hooked me — badly. I cannot get my fill of it.
In last week’s article, I mentioned that now is the time to look for and contact a guide. The same holds true with hunting trips. That pronghorn hunt so many years ago had a deadline in mid‑February to apply for a buck license. While it may be late for some hunts, there are sometimes openings if you are serious about going.
That pronghorn hunt was on my “bucket list” because of articles I read by Bob Milek in Guns & Ammo magazine. Another of my list items was to take a black bear with an older‑style lever action, such as those used by Theodore Roosevelt. Thanks to my wife, who gave me a reproduction Winchester 1895 chambered in 30‑06 a few years back for Christmas, and retired Kahoka Police Chief Bill Conger, I found that dream come true in Saskatchewan.
Bill had been before, so I took him at his word when he said that bear hunting has an effect on you. He was right. No, it isn’t just nerve‑rattling to see a huge bear climb a tree faster than a squirrel when you are sitting in a stand a mere 14 feet in the air — although you never forget it. I’m fond of saying that anyone can hunt and take a black bear; it’s really not that difficult. What gets to you is sitting in that same stand when it’s pitch black — which happens deep in the forests. You look at your watch and know you have at least an hour before the guide will come and get you. It’s at that moment, when you hear two bears fighting at the bait site and then hear one running after the other, that you wish you were back at the lodge eating snacks and waiting for the other hunters to come in. It’s also a time when you wonder what drove you to become a bear hunter. But I would not take anything for the experience. In fact, there are three black bear rugs in our small home and one full‑body, medium‑sized, cinnamon‑colored black bear.
Bill also told me that bear hunting could become addictive.
Finally, as far as adventures go, a few years back Doug Tuttle, who has become a good hunting friend, asked if I would be interested in going to South Africa. I approached my wife about it and told her of my misgivings and apprehensions about making a trip to the “Dark Continent.” All she did was ask one simple question: “Kevin, do you get a lot of invitations to go hunt in Africa?” She knew what my answer would be, so she quickly added, “Then you might want to rethink going.”
It was a trip that changed my life — so much that later this year I will be taking my fourth trip to Africa, and I assume it will be my last for a great many reasons. But what memories and what friendships we have made. The creatures we have seen and taken and the many experiences we have enjoyed have changed me and how I look at many things. But it all began with me being about half scared out of my mind as that jet cleared the runway. I knew that when it touched down 14 hours later, I would be in Africa. Animals that I only dreamed about when I saw them in outdoor magazines now reside above my chair in the living room. It’s not bragging or talking about money; those hunts have been spaced out over nearly four decades, so the expenses have likewise been spread over time.
If you have ever considered an out‑of‑country trip, your first step will be to get a passport if you do not already have one. This will take about seven to eight weeks to get back to you if you do it by mail.
Remember when you were a kid near Christmas and that Sears Christmas catalog would arrive and you wore the pages thin looking at it? Do the same when dreaming about a hunting trip. Get on the computer, pick an animal you have always wanted to hunt, and then take it one step further: look at the best places to hunt it and find a guide. It really is that simple. After you find a guide, look at the cost compared with the services offered. There are many hunts out west where you can do it yourself without a guide; in those cases, a license, travel costs and lodging are your main expenses. As far as guides go, I have been successful hunting with them, and all have worked very hard at ensuring we were successful and had a great time. The one exception was a two‑day sea duck hunt in Maryland. We were very successful, but each morning when I called the guide he would say, “The weather will not be ideal, so I understand if you do not want to go.” I told him that we only had two days to hunt, so we weren’t waiting for weather to improve. We ended up having a great time and took some trophy sea ducks. It just seemed that we had to talk him into going, which is rare for a guide.
Whether you go on a hunting adventure this year or not, it doesn’t matter — at least you killed a winter evening by dreaming about it. Anything worthwhile in this life usually begins with a dream. Remember, just like me, you are not getting any younger.
