Hunting and Fishing News Blog Articles

Ever since Yeti invented the high-end cooler market more than a decade ago, people have been asking themselves why anyone would need a $300 cooler? The only folks who don’t know the answer to that question are those who don’t own one yet. If you are still on the fence about investing in what may be the last cooler you ever buy, consider these advantages.

Colder, Faster, Longer

Thicker walls and advanced insulation allow a modern super cooler to preserve ice at least twice as long as most economy models. But there are a couple of pro tips for getting the most out of your investment. Whenever cold retention is of utmost importance, prechilling the cooler with a sacrificial bag of ice the day before you need to start refrigeration will maximize the duration of the cooler's thermal qualities. And if you need to get it seriously cold seriously fast, create a slurry of ice, water, and salt, which drops the temperature below freezing in a matter of minutes.

Game Care

For those who don't have the luxury of a walk-in cooler to age game, a high-end chest cooler will get the job done just as well. Simply place a bag of ice in the bottom of the cooler, stack boned-out meat on top so there is as much air circulation as possible, then prop up one end of the cooler and leave the plug open for meltwater to drain. In cool weather, one bag of ice in a pre-chilled cooler will last three or four days.

Federal funding would help state agencies conserve habitat for critters before they become endangered, under the Recovering America's Wildlife Act. (Pixnio/)

Remember the old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? That's the philosophy behind the Recovering America's Wildlife Act that is currently making its way through Congress.

The legislation is basically an “Endangered Species Prevention Act” that aims to recover imperiled wildlife species before they reach the point they need to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. State wildlife agencies and sportsmen’s groups are among those applauding the measure.

“It’s a great bill and we’re happy to be in support of it,” said Andrew Wilkins, government relations representative for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

Wilkins notes that state wildlife agencies and tribal wildlife managers are on the front lines of conservation. However, those agencies often work on a tight budget. State managers are often sandwiched between providing for popular game animals, which pay the bills through license revenues, and other, non-game species that people value but don’t generate revenue for the state.

In the past, those agencies have depended on federal funds to help augment license dollars. However, federal funds tend to be relatively unpredictable, ebbing and flowing from one budget year to another.

Increased rainfall and flooding are contributing to changes in both habitat and food sources for whitetail deer. (Linda Freshwaters Arndt/Alamy/)

With only weeks remaining before season openers, many are wondering how to deal with a sodden, unfamiliar landscape. Heavy snowmelts followed by seemingly incessant rain left much of the United States wet or underwater during spring and summer of 2019. The Midwest was hit hardest—primarily along the Missouri River, and to a lesser extent, Mississippi River—and farmers took it on the chin.

With fewer acres of soybeans and corn, many hunters are finding it harder to rely on classic early- and late-season agricultural food sources. In fact, heavy precipitation in some regions may even be affecting hunter access. The bottom line? Major swings in regional weather patterns in the past few years are changing the landscape and forcing deer hunters to adapt.

The Situation

Deer managers in America’s heartland are discussing the challenges facing farmers and deer hunters, and for better or worse, increasing precipitation is having an impact across the U.S. We asked some experts to weigh in from around the country on some of the ways that weather is changing deer hunting, habitat, and food sources.

Wet Weather Means Fewer Crops

Pairs of boots are like fishing rods, shotguns, warm socks, or any other piece of sporting gear. One just isn’t enough. If you are in the market for that second pair, consider making it a mud boot. In addition to keeping your feet warm and dry, they shed briars and reduce scent better than just about any other footwear. Here’s a look at the various styles to choose from.

Height

As Johnny Cash lyrically asked, "How High's the Water, Mama?" Well, if waterproof footwear is any indication, it ranges from ankle-height to over 18 inches. Short mud boots are fine for strolling across dewy lawns to pick up a newspaper or milk the cows. But if you are crossing the creek to a deer stand or tracking pigs through a South Georgia swamp, an over-the-calf version is your best choice.

Insulation

Beyond a common need for waterproof footwear, the performance requirements of a still hunter in Florida are quite different from those of a late-season stand hunter in Pennsylvania. Only one of them is going to value an insulated mud boot. Insulating material ranges from neoprene to thermal foam, fleece, or some combination thereof. With plenty of options for both environments, thermal qualities vary widely. Carefully compare comfort ratings to find the pair that is right for you. And remember, too much insulation can be almost as bad as having too little.

We all enjoy planning and prepping for a backcountry trip, especially when it comes to the meals. But unless you cook, dehydrate, and package your own custom menu at home, buying freeze-dried meals ready to eat (MRE) is the surest way to get the nutrition you need and the taste you crave out on the trail. Here are a few things to look for when counting ounces on wilderness cuisine.

Calories

A backcountry hunter can burn more than twice as many calories per day than during their normal routine. The weight of most freeze-dried meals is essentially the same—very light—so what matters is how much energy a recipe packs. If your trip includes a lot of vertical ascent, opt for at least one good high-calorie heat-and-eat meal per day. The general range of MRE dinners is from about 200 to 450 calories per serving.

Sodium

We need sodium in our diet, but salt levels in freeze-dried meals can be excessive because, in addition to adding flavor, salt serves as a preservative. If you are sensitive to high sodium levels, be sure to carefully compare nutrition labels.

Natural disasters seem like a constant topic in the news this year. Flip on the television, and you’ll hear about fires or flooding in some part of the country almost every day. Toss in the occasional earthquake, tropical storm, or hurricane to mix things up, and it seems like nature is completely out of control. There is, however, something that you can control. You can get prepared.

In this article, we’ll talk about the things to stock in your home before a crisis, plus the things to have “ready to run” during a potential evacuation. You may be caught off guard when a natural disaster strikes, but there’s no excuse to be caught empty-handed.

10. Determine Your Threats

Worried about blizzards in south Florida or hurricanes in northern Michigan? Don’t be. These natural disasters are only likely in certain areas. It’s the Floridians who need to be hurricane ready, and our friends in Michigan have written the book on dealing with lengthy snowstorms. Before you start worrying about (and purchasing items for) every known form of disaster, do some research to determine the most likely threats to your region and locality.

A major player in the realm of disasters is location, and your location will determine your most serious and frequently occurring disasters. Once you’ve determined the top threats to your area, then you can start making some informed plans and practical purchases. By being prepared for even one specific type of disaster, you are actually better prepared for them all.

Trail cameras have revolutionized hunting, allowing 24/7 monitoring of the woods to make sure you are optimizing time spent afield. The trail cam market has exploded in recent years, but even with a dizzying array of options to choose from, there are still a handful of common parameters to keep in mind when shopping. Here are the basics.

Flash Type

Trail cameras come in three flash types: white flash, red, or low glow, and no glow. White flash cameras work just like your DSLR, taking sharp pictures in the widest range of lighting, including nighttime. But they tend to scare game. On the other end of the spectrum, no-glow cameras use infrared light invisible to humans and most animals, but the image quality suffers for night photography. In the middle are red- or low-glow cameras, which strike the best balance for hunters.

Trigger Speed and Recovery

Look for high trigger speeds and low recovery times. You don't want to get a great picture of that doe speeding by only to have the camera struggling to recover for so long it misses the buck that is sure to follow.

Better ag practices could mean more pheasants. (Donald M. Jones/)

South Dakota has a pheasant problem. It’s not the strafing winds and drifting snow that contribute to overwinter bird mortality. And it’s not agri-business practices that destroy the best nesting and brood-rearing habitat with every pass of the chisel plow.

The problem is the unsustainable popularity of South Dakota’s adopted icon, the Chinese ringneck. So many pheasant hunters swing a shotgun in the state—nearly 150,000 in 2016 alone—that South Dakota’s upland habitat has a hard time supplying the demand, especially with declines in the number of acres enrolled in habitat-creating initiatives like the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Last year, hunters bagged 829,000 South Dakota roosters out of an estimated population of 4.6 million birds.

That’s a lot of wild pheasants, but last season’s population estimate is South ­Dakota’s lowest in 20 years. Meanwhile (or maybe as a result of the relative shortage of wild birds), the state permitted a record number of private pheasant-shooting preserves—214 of them statewide last year. Collectively, these operations released a record number of pheasants—468,000—and their customers killed 264,000. These preserve hunters might not be aware that their heavy vests of roosters originated in a commercial aviary. But for most hunters, that’s fine. The cackling flush and gaudy colors of a rooster rocketing through the big Dakota sky are enough. Who cares if the bird is a product of a hatchery or a habitat strip?

A growing number of landowners, conservationists, and wild-bird enthusiasts do care. While they say there’s a place for preserves, they think South Dakota’s capacity for producing wild roosters is directly proportional to the amount of private land that’s in agricultural production.

This is a fairly new perspective. For the past two decades, conventional wisdom has indicated that more land left in its natural state, or enrolled in the grasslands-­conserving CRP, would produce more pheasants and other wild critters. But ensuring consistent CRP acreage is hard and uncertain work. It requires lobbying Congress every five years as the federal Farm Bill is renewed. It requires that commodity prices for corn and other grains be low enough to make below-market CRP lease rates attractive. And it requires that landowners are okay retiring their semiproductive land.

Mustad Inkvader (Mustad/)

ICAST 2019 once again wowed the fishing community with lures that ranged from absolutely lifelike to ridiculously bizarre. Here’s a top 10 roundup of the best new lures for 2019.

Sure, it’s not completely brand new for 2019; in fact, the Felmlee Eel has an established pedigree that is over 50 years old. But as Felmlee says, “The Bucket of Eels has been brought back by popular demand,” and this time, with a lot more of them. The Bucket of Eels takes the classic throwback from the early 70s, that never went out of style for both striped bass anglers and largemouth anglers alike, and gives them to you en masse. The big tub contains eels of three different sizes, so you can mix up your options and hone in on your target species. All big fish love eating eels, so now you’ll never run out of them.

Innovative lure designer Patrick Sebile and his umbrella company, A Band of Anglers, are back at it again with the Hyperlastics Dartspin. Available in four sizes—3.5, 4.5, 5.5, and 7 inches—and 28 color patterns (10 patented and 18 injected), the revolutionary soft bait/spinner willow blade design is securely embedded within the rubber body where no fish can rip it out. Incredibly versatile, the Dartspin can be worked on a jig head, wide gap hook, or used as a teaser for zillions of fresh and saltwater applications. Softough, Sebile's latest invention, is a proprietary material never before used on a fishing lure, and the Dartspin has strategically placed holes in the body for easy hook placement and easy rigging on any jighead or hook. The Dartspin has already claimed 70 species of fish in its brief existence. Personally, I've caught fish from 150-pound tarpon to 5-pound largemouth, along with nasty-mawed bluefish and feisty flounder—this lure just keeps on ticking.

A swimming cockatoo—how could anyone pass this by? This year, Chasebait came up with a water blooping, rattling walkbait constructed to mimic a swimming bird stuck on the water. U.S. applications definitely have northern pike and muskellunge written all over it. It is fitted with realistically long-trailing tail feathers and matching head feathers with color patterns to imitate cockatoos, finches, sparrows, and budgies. The Smuggler walks as the outstretched metal wing blades splash and bloop to attract nearby predatory fish. Matched with ultra-strong BKK hooks and a robust body that can withstand pounding hits, the Smuggler is ready for battle. Available in 2.5- and 3.5-inch sizes and seven color patterns.

Live target has a knack for realism, and the award-winning Slow Roll Shiner does not disappoint. As an unrigged swimbait, the Slow Roll Shiner exhibits the profile of a thin minnow, shiner, or herring. Various rigging options include fitting it to a weighted swimbait hook, on a jig head, or Texas rigged with a nail weight. The proprietary Injected Core Technology of the material allows the lure to present its action naturally as gamefish focus on its natural profile. Available in 3, 4, and 5 inches and six traditional color patterns such as silver/pearl and silver/blue.

Whether you sleep outdoors on an inflatable mattress, in a hammock, or just curled up on the ground like a wet retriever, a travel pillow is going to give you a better night’s rest. Selection depends on whether you want a little extra padding for wherever you lay your head, or you’re shopping for a specific use, like wilderness camping. Here are several highly rated options to choose from.

Compressible

Though still very compact compared to a household pillow, compressible travel pillows are the bulkiest type of camping pillow. Great for car camping, long flights, or for whenever you just have to grab forty winks, keep a couple of these around the house, camp, or car to ensure you always have a proper place to lay your head.

Inflatable

The advantage of an inflatable camp pillow is that it is adjustable. An air cushion may not be as downy as the compressible variety, but they are customizable to your own preferred firmness level and, deflated, take up far less space. They come in both manually inflatable and self-inflating models.

There are few things in camp more disheartening than discovering that your light source is dying and realizing it’s going to be a long, cold, and very dark night. It’s best to always have redundant lighting, even if your backup is just a glow stick or a candle. Beyond that, there are many great options for keeping the lights on in camp.

Camp Lanterns

Lanterns have gotten smaller and smarter since the days of the gas-fired mantle contraptions. Now there are lanterns that will keep mosquitos away, cool you with a built-in fan, or run off solar power while also charging your cell phone. The future looks bright indeed!

Headlamps

If you only have one light source, make it a headlamp. In addition to multiple beam strengths, some models offer a red-light mode for sneaking into your tree stand, a blinking mode for signaling, and all the advantages of a standard flashlight with hands-free operation. They range from just a hundred or so lumens for emergency use to thousands of lumens suitable for everything from blood trailing to spelunking.

Anyone who spends serious time in bear country has to consider the possibility of an encounter. Even if you take the standard precautions of making noise, traveling in groups, and storing food out of reach, bears and humans always seem to find each other, whether purposefully or not. These products will help you sleep a little more soundly in camp.

Bear Spray

There has long been a debate about whether bear sprays or sidearms are the most effective protection against bears, especially grizzlies. But modern bear sprays are so compact and portable that it's really a no-brainer decision to at least carry spray, even if you also pack heat. You can quickly deploy sprays, they don't require precise aim, and generally are regarded as very effective in all but the most extreme situations.

Bells and Fences

Q: How do you tell grizzly scat from black bear scat?
A: Grizzly poop has bells in it.

He’s a very big bull. That much I can tell, even though he is among the first wild caribou I’ve ever seen. I settle the spotter on him and watch his rack tower over the alders. The bull’s main beams sweep back in a deep C shape, and those C’s are topped with foot-long tines reaching skyward. His mane is long and white, whiter than those of the two younger bulls hanging around him.

He’s the most impressive critter I’ve ever seen, but he’s about a mile away, feeding on the side of a mountain, with daylight starting to fade. Even more important, we had flown into camp earlier in the day, so we’d have to wait until morning before we could legally hunt him or any other bull.

By morning, the old white bull and his two running mates would surely be gone. We were camped almost 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle along a tributary to the Noatak River, which runs out to the Chukchi Sea on ­Alaska’s northwestern coast. I’d wanted to hunt caribou since watching Saturday-­morning hunting shows on ESPN 2 as a little kid. So, when I finally got the opportunity, I did all the research I could on Rangifer tarandus.

Jack O’Connor, Outdoor Life’s most famous shooting editor, once wrote: “No more beautiful big-game animal than a bull caribou walks the face of the Earth…the very epitome of the wild and uninhabited northland of mountain and glacier and tundra.”

Then he went on to say, “But he is, alas, a dumb and rattle-brained creature.”

Whether you are glassing for elk above timberline or scanning a sprawling Alabama beanfield in low light, an investment in good glass will always improve your odds of seeing what you’re seeking. There are a lot of choices out there in a wide range of price points, but they all have a few things in common. Before you buy, here are some basics to keep in mind.

Magnification

Binocular magnification strength is designated with two numbers expressed as “n x n.” The first number is the amount of magnification, or how many times closer the object appears. The second number is the diameter in millimeters of the objective lens (farthest from the viewer). The larger the objective lens, the more light enters the barrel, which usually makes for a brighter image. The lower the natural light, the more critical a large objective-lens size becomes. Just remember that increased light gathering also means increased bulk.

Field of View

The second variable in selecting a pair of binoculars is field of view. That is the image width or area visible at a certain distance. For instance, a typical field of view might be 350 feet at 1,000 yards. As magnification increases, field of view decreases. Thus, an eastern woodland whitetail hunter might prefer an 8x35 glass for its wider field of view in close quarters, as opposed to the 10x42 binoculars carried by a western elk hunter or, say, the 15x70 honkers of a backyard astronomer. Let use and environment guide your choice.

John Moses Browning with his iconic Automatic-5 shotgun. (Photo Courtesy of Browning/)

In the annals of American firearms design, one name looms through the mists of time like the gunmetal-gray bow of an oncoming battleship. John Moses Browning, who was awarded more than 120 firearms patents, spent his entire life immersed in firearms and their design. From the time he began working in his father’s gunsmith shop, reportedly at the age of seven, until the day he died—while still working on a gun design 64 years later—he was one of the most inventive and prolific gun designers of all time.

Browning is justly revered for his military designs, including the M1911 .45 ACP pistol, the M2 .50-caliber heavy machine gun, and the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), but his fertile mind also produced truckloads of designs for what we would today consider to be sporting arms, although many of these were also used by the military and law enforcement.

According to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, more than 30 million modern weapons are based on Browning’s designs. Choosing the best of his sporting guns was a daunting task, considering such factors as how innovative, influential and popular a particular design proved to be. Your favorite may not be on our list, and that’s okay. There’s always been debate over Browning’s greatest designs, and there likely always will be, but the man’s brilliance is evidenced by the fact that many of his guns—or their direct descendants—are still in production today, well over a century after their inception.

Here are our choices for 10 of John Browning’s best sporting designs.

Winchester 1885 Rifle

For most angling situations, monofilament or braided line works fine. But there are plenty of scenarios where fluorocarbon works better. The material’s low visibility, abrasion resistance, high density, and stiffness make it the logical choice for light-tackle finesse fishing, such as chasing winter seatrout, or when nymphing for selective rainbows and browns in clear spring creeks. The demands of fishing around saltwater pilings, oyster beds, wrecks, or other structure make fluorocarbon well suited to clear nearshore environments. Here are a few other variables to consider before you drop your dough on fluoro.

Spool Up

Fluorocarbon is more expensive than mono, but often it is utilized as just the tippet or leader material by both fly and conventional anglers. You may only need to invest in a few mini spools in various test strengths to cover most scenarios. A 25- to 50-yard spool of flourocarbon will keep the average angler in leaders for at least a couple of seasons.

Better Communication

Because fluorocarbon is stiffer than mono, it typically has more memory and doesn't cast as well as monofilament or braided line. However, that stiffness also belies an advantage. Fluorocarbon does not absorb water or stretch like monofilament, which means better communication between the angler and terminal tackle, perfect for those situations when sensitivity and hook-setting power are critical.

Hunting public land can be extremely challenging and extremely rewarding. (Savage Arms/)

I was hunting public land before hunting public land was cool. Truth be told, I would rather hunt public land than private land in most situations. Sure, private ground offers some very real advantages and public land offers some very big obstacles. But I guess I’m a glutton for punishment because those obstacles actually add to the attraction for me.

Public land has always been a “go-to” for a whole lot of hunters each year but the advent of social and digital media has brought public land hunting into the limelight. And that light can sometimes paint a less-than-accurate picture (as it can with all things).

So, from a guy who has spent a couple of decades on public ground, here are some hard truths.

Truth 1: A hefty percentage of public land can't produce quality hunting

This is a reality that I'm guessing a whole lot of public land hunters either realized or will realize during their first season of checking out that "prime-looking" ground they've been scouting via Google Earth or onX maps. I say that because I've been there.

No experienced outdoorsman heads into the field for any extended period without some sort of first-aid. But there is a limit to what you can carry. The best practice is to keep a full medical kit in your car, boat, or base camp, while packing into the backcountry only the essentials for safe, comfortable travel. If you want to buy a stand-alone kit for each situation, there are plenty of options. Or you can buy one complete kit and break out what you need to compose a field bag from that. Either way, here are some ideas on what you should be looking for.

Build from the Basics

A primary medical kit for camp or home should have not only basic bandages and antibiotic ointment, but also materials for more serious situations, such as anti-coagulant to stop heavy bleeding, burn cream, and wound-closure supplies. Tweezers, a magnifying glass, scissors, gauze, and medical tape are all standard items. When selecting your main kit, just be sure to look for assemblages that offer multiple units of items that will cover the widest range of trauma, from bee stings to monkey butt.

Become Familiar

Lightweight doesn't have to mean limited utility. When buying or building your own backcountry field kit, the most important factor is how well considered the contents are, and how familiar you are with them. A worthy backcountry kit will offer anywhere from 30 to 100 pieces, stow in a zippered nylon or zip-lock case, fit in the palm of your hand, and always, always, always include moleskin.

The most important factor in bowhunting success isn’t scouting, bow tuning, or even having a great place to hunt. It’s practicing with your weapon. Whether you shoot a lightning-fast compound bow or a simple stick and string, you can’t make meat if you can’t make the shot. Stump shooting and field roving are great practice, especially for traditional archers. But when it comes to honing the mechanics of good form, there is no substitute for having a dedicated target. Here are a few factors to consider when setting up your home range.

Be Realistic

Archery targets come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The main choice is between block- or bag-style targets—which usually have a bullseye or some image of game vitals—and 3D versions of the whole animal. If you plan to purchase only one type (and assuming you can set up an adequate backstop), consider a 3D target as it gives the truest representation of shooting at live game from various angles, especially from an elevated position.

Match Tips to the Target

Archery targets are designed to stop field tips only, broadheads only, or both. A field-tip target will soon get shredded by broadheads, while targets capable of stopping broadheads and crossbow bolts often hold a field-tip arrow like the sword in the stone. Be sure the target you choose not only has stopping power adequate for your bow's poundage, but also that it is purpose-built for the type of tip—or tips—with which you plan to practice.

For some people, a generator is one of those tools they never think they’ll use, but are dang sure they have one when they need it. Whether you stash one in your storage shed for emergency situations like when the power goes out after a storm, or you slide one into the back of your truck to help power up and recharge your camp-trailer batteries, a good generator is worth its weight in gold, and every year, manufacturers continue to make them quieter, more efficient, and easy to use. If you’re ready to buy your first generator or make an upgrade, here are a few things to consider.

Be Quiet

If there had to be one turn-off about generators, it would likely be noise. Because units run on gas-powered engines to produce electricity, it's hard to avoid the commotion that comes from something running at a high rpm. However, some manufacturers have figured out a way to tackle the problem and are producing units that can run so quiet, you might not even know they're on. These units are typically more expensive, but it's worth the cost, and if you plan to use a generator in a campground or area with noise ordinances, it's a necessity.

Don't Pollute

Second to the noise, you'll want to consider a generator's exhaust system—especially if you plan to use it in an area with strict emissions regulations. Even if you're not bound by law to use a unit that is kind to the environment, a model that doesn't produce a high-volume of foul-smelling exhaust is much more pleasant to have in camp or on a job site than a generator that kicks out dark smoke and strong fumes.