Gearing up for the hunt

There is no shortage of the gizmos and assorted accessories available to hunters, and with the 2009 big game hunting season starting Sunday, it's time to gear up.

Starting with camouflage, which local sporting goods store always carry in extensive lines, with new patterns showing up on the racks every year.

This year, the hot new camo at the Sportsman and Ski Haus in Kalispell is a digital pattern manufactured by Sitka, according to salesman Dustin Gilpin.

"They just introduced it this year," he said. "And it is really popular."

Field and Stream magazine gave the "Optifade concealment" camo its "Best of the Best Award" in the hunting outerwear category for 2009.

"Developed by a team of experts, including an animal-vision scientist and a military officer who specializes in digital concealment, the new technology considers the way a deer perceives color and the ratio of positive to negative space in an effort to make the hunter blend with his environment," a Sitka press release explains. "The pattern also breaks up the symmetry of the human body to prevent the prey from recognizing the hunter as a predator."

Joe Power, the Sportsman's sporting-goods manager, said finding the latest best-sellers in hunting gear starts with trade shows. Deciding on what to stock can be tricky because the market is deluged with a huge array of products and accessories, Power said.

"And then you have to figure out how much to buy," he added.

There are dozens and dozens of elk and deer calls on the racks at the Sportsman and at Snappy Sport Senter, and every year some stand out more than others.

The Primus "Hoochie Mama" elk cow call "has been a big seller for the last couple years," said Ron DeStein, manager of Snappy's gun department.

Power said one of the most popular scents has been a one-time use canister called "The Buck Bomb," which works pretty much like a bug bomb. It is discharged in the vicinity of the hunter to both mask his scent and act as a scent lure.

GPS navigation systems have been steady sellers over the last few years. Like most electronics, DeStein said, they have become more affordable over time and the variety of GPS products has grown.

"There are two things with GPS - they've gotten simpler to operate and they've gotten more complex in what they can do," Power said.

There are basic GPS units, selling for around $70, that require hardly any directions or button pushing. "They get you in and get you out," Power said, showing off one model that will register only three locations at a time.

But there are also highly advanced touch-screen systems that range up to $400, some capable of providing topographical and relief mapping with high-capacity memory for GPS locations.

Navigating in the field has also gotten easier in terms of mapping. The Sportsman has a computer system that can print a map of most scales of areas in all 50 states. The system, which uses a U.S. Geological Survey database, replaced a bulky wooden cabinet that used to contain quad maps, but only for areas in Northwest Montana.

"In the old days, like three years ago, if a guy wanted to hunt down by Bozeman we couldn't sell him one because we didn't carry that many quad maps," Power said.

It can be more cost-efficient as well. A hunter might need several of the uniform quad maps, at $6 apiece, to cover a particular area. Now that same area can be printed off on one map for $9.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com