Sport: BIG GAME in the US.

IT happens every fall. The leaves change to yellow and crimson, and some 5,000,000 Americans change from their business suits and work clothes into red windbreakers and gaudy caps. Thus colored protectively against being mistaken for their prey, and loaded with a staggering kit of rifles, knives, binoculars, food, drink and camping-equipment, they head for the mountains, forests and plains of the U.S. to hunt big game.

To the uninitiated, big-game hunting usually connotes Africa and safaris for elephant, lion and swift impala. But the quarry of the U.S. big-game hunter—deer, moose, elk, antelope, bighorn sheep, mountain goat and bear—can provide thrills and challenges to rival anything in Africa. A Montana bull moose 7 ft. tall and weighing more than 1,000 Ibs. is an adequate stand-in for an elephant. A grizzly bear that can charge 100 yds. to maul a rifleman, even after its heart and lungs have been pierced by a bullet from a .30-caliber rifle, is fully as deadly as a lion. And a pronghorn antelope racing across the plains at 70 m.p.h. will test a hunter’s marksmanship almost as sternly as an African impala.

Ample Venison. This year big game of all kinds is more plentiful for U.S. hunters. Conservation laws and the adaptability of the animals themselves against the encroachments of man and his machines have reversed the steady downward trend in the wild life population of the U.S. This year, the supply of almost every big-game animal is either holding steady or increasing.

Prospects are best for the deer hunter, the most numerous of all big-game hunters in the U.S. The nation’s deer population has increased so rapidly in recent years that some experts believe there are more deer in the U.S. today than when the first white man came to North America: an estimated 4,500,000 whitetail deer, mostly in the states east of the Rockies, plus some 3,000,000 bigger mule deer in the western plains and foothills.

One reason for the deer’s increase is man’s war on wolves, coyotes and wildcats, the deer’s most destructive natural enemies. Another is the deer’s adjustment to civilization. They seem to browse and thrive better in the thickets and brush at the edges of cities and cleared farmland than in dense forest. Deer have been shot by New York and New Jersey hunters within sight of Manhattan’s skyscrapers.

Bearskin Bonus. Other U.S. big-game animals give a sterner test to the hunter’s skill and endurance. Hunting moose requires long treks into the wilderness of northern Maine, Minnesota, Montana and Wyoming, and hours of expert calling (with a birchbark horn) to lure the big animals into rifle range. The elk, prized for antlers that often rise 5 ft. over its head, have retreated from the plains into the rugged western mountain ranges. Last year 52,000 elk were bagged by hunters who made the extra effort to go after them.

For the sportsman who wants to mix mountain climbing with his hunting, the ideal game is the bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain goat that clamber over the fog-shrouded crags and ledges above the Rockies’ timber line. Just getting to where they are is a test of a man’s heart, lungs and stamina. Bagging these wily, sure-footed creatures is a rare feat; only 100 goats and 200 bighorn heads, the most prized of U.S. hunting trophies, were brought down last year.

Bears are seldom hunted in the U.S. for their own sake. They are fairly plentiful, but are such tireless travelers—ranging as much as 20 miles in a day—that it is usually futile to try to track them down. They are mostly bagged as a sort of bonus by men who set out primarily for deer or elk and run into a grizzly or black bear on their trails through the bush.

$99 Underwear. Among America’s 5,000,000 big-game hunters, there are probably 5,000,000 differing but firmly held opinions on the right equipment and tactics for big-game hunting. One hunter will spend thousands of dollars for his kit, including such luxury items as Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s pure cashmere long underwear (price $99) and binoculars (at $230). Another will actually turn a profit on a hunting trip, spend less than $100 and come home with enough venison to stock his freezer.

One hunter will contend that deer, being mostly nocturnal animals, should be stalked at dawn or dusk; another will hold firmly that they should be hunted in daylight. An experienced moose hunter will argue that a single shot from a comparatively light 30-30 rifle is enough to fell a moose; a second will answer that only a powerful .35 Remington Express with a 200-grain bullet is equal to the task. Is a bear’s eyesight bad? Should elk be hunted on horseback? Is a Rocky Mountain goat harder to kill than a grizzly? Fresh experiences refuel the old arguments every fall and keep them raging until the next big-game hunting season comes around.