Hunting and Fishing News Blog Articles

Leather can have a seemingly never-ending lifespan if you take care of it. (Harsh Jadav/Unsplash/)

Leather products define the outdoor lifestyle. From hunting boots to cartridge belts, slings, game bags, luggage, and truck interiors—tanned animal hides surround us. It is also highly bio-degradable, and as such needs regular attention to maximize its lifespan. Here are a few things to consider when it comes time to polish up the leatherwork.

Clean and Condition

Good leather maintenance doesn't simply mean a periodic wipe-down with any old conditioner. For really dirty jobs, the first step is to prepare the surface with a quality leather cleaner. After the cleaner finishes its work, you're ready to rejuvenate it with a leather conditioner.

Oils, Beeswax, and Silicone

Some leather conditioners are oil-based, while others rely on natural solids like beeswax, and still others incorporate silicone as the waterproofing agent. Leather processing can be complicated, spanning a variety of methods ranging from vegetable to chemical and even brain tanning. As a result, there are many types of leather, each of which may have its own preferred conditioner base. Consult the manufacturer of your product to determine which type of conditioner is best for your item.

Whether you're in a stand or on the ground, expect to see big numbers of deer out West. (Denver Bryan/Images on the Wildside/)

This was in northeast Montana’s Milk River Valley, an area known for producing lots of whitetails, some of them wall-hangers. Though my food plot looked succulent and had all the variety of a supper-club salad bar, deer walked right past it on their way to their preferred groceries: the irrigated alfalfa that dominates the valley’s agricultural ground.

That was my first lesson in Western whitetail hunting: Don’t rely on a single attractant. For the second lesson, I served as the experienced teacher. My friend, a dedicated deer hunter from my home state of Missouri, showed up with his bow and a climbing stand. He stored his hunting clothes in a scent-excluding tote and showered with perfume-free soap. He was genuinely perplexed when I jumped in my pickup wearing work-worn Carhartts and a sweaty ball cap, and invited him to come spot deer for the evening hunt.

We drove to a bluff overlooking the Milk, leaned back into sandstone rimrocks, and glassed the valley below. Once we saw a buck worth chasing emerge from a line of cottonwoods, we assessed the wind, drove down to the valley, and crawled into an irrigation ditch. With the wind in our face and our profiles low, we worked down the ditch until we intercepted the target buck. My buddy scooched into the side of the ditch and missed a 35-yard bow shot at a dandy 4-point (which he kept referring to by its Eastern count: an 8-point).

He’d never hunted deer from the ground but appreciated the takeaway: Deer in wide-open country follow predictable patterns but erratic routes, and so mobile hunters have an edge over those in stands or blinds. Consistent winds, generally from the west or northwest, are the invisible friend of stalkers.

Whitetail Pioneers

Scentless detergents get clothes clean without the perfumed odors big-game can sense in one whiff. (all/)

When it comes to hunting whitetails, the biggest challenge lies in defeating their sense of smell. That’s why we climb trees, take the long way around, scrub ourselves raw, and wash our gear with almost religious fanaticism. Or at least you should. While you can never eliminate scent entirely, a few basic precautions will go a long way toward keeping you odorless in the outdoors.

Use Scent-Free Detergent

A hunter can douse himself with fancy scent blockers all day long, but put on a pair of dirty socks, and the whole game is blown. Wash your gear with unscented detergent after every hunt, and store it in a sealed, unscented garbage bag so it won't pick up household odors from the kitchen or pets. For extra mileage, break off an evergreen bough and stash it inside the bag with your clothes; just be careful not to place the bough in such a way that sap can ooze onto your clothes. Unscented detergent also has the advantage of being safer for sensitive skin that is prone to reaction from products made with dyes or perfumes.

Hang Clothes Outdoors

If you are on a multi-day hunt, hang your clothes outside each evening, preferably under cover so nothing collects moisture from rain, snow, or dew. This simple practice can add days of low-odor hunting to apparel that might otherwise start to ripen after just a couple of afternoons of hard hunting.

Moistened lens wipes are the safest way to clean optics without creating scratches. (Zeiss/)

Other than being expensive, all sporting optics, sunglasses, and electronics have one thing in common—they incorporate some sort of glass or polycarbonate screen or lens. That is, after all, what you are paying for in a $500 binocular or $150 pair of shades. Wiping off dirt and grime with the tail of your shirt is a good way to ruin an expensive bit of gear. Clean correctly with a professional lens or screen-cleaning product, and it will be money well spent.

Micro Wipes for Optics

For high-end optics, pre-moistened wipes are the order of the day. They won't streak or scratch and are made from materials that are fine enough to remove dust and lint from the tightest corners. They usually are sold as boxes of individual packages so you can take only what you need into the field.

Towelettes for Electronics

GPS units, phones, tablets, chart plotters, and computer screens all have their own maintenance considerations. Static electricity makes them a magnet for dust and debris, and by their very nature they are susceptible to oil and grime from handling. A can of full-size wipes will spiff up anything from smartphones to wide-screen televisions.

This 15-inch steel gong replicates an elk's vitals zone. (Bill Buckley/)

Every year, hunting camps are rife with new stories about big bucks and old bulls that eluded a hunter’s best shots. Maybe you’ve got some of your own. Don’t despair. Here are three drills that will help you put killing shots on every big-game animal you draw down on. All you need are two steel plates, one 10 inches in diameter and the other 15 inches across.

The 10-inch plate represents the vitals area on a mule deer or whitetail, and the 15-inch plate represents the average vitals area of an elk. If you can hit those, you can kill deer and elk. The awesome thing about shooting steel is that you get immediate feedback in the form of a ringing, swinging target. It’s either a hit or a miss. You either killed that big buck or bull, or you didn’t.

Max-Range Drill

To start, hang your steel plates at 50 yards. Now shoot the gongs from the four basic field positions—prone, sitting, kneeling, and standing. Hit the plates every time? Good. Now move them out to 100 yards. Keep moving the plates out until you determine your max distance for each target size and from each position. This gives you a baseline to work from. You’ll find that prone is your most accurate position, followed by sitting and kneeling, with standing being the least accurate. Keep practicing, and your max range will slowly increase.

TIP: Mix dry-fire practice in with your live-fire practice. It’ll keep your flinch at bay.

Locks like this cable lock are one of the easiest ways to prevent trail camera theft. (Alex Gyllstrom/)

If you hunt long enough you will most likely encounter some issues along the way with gear turning up missing. I'm not referring to putting something away in a place you forget about kind of missing either. I’m talking about other people stealing your stuff in the woods. Unfortunately, gear theft is an ugly reality hunters must come to terms with. One of the most popular victims seems to be trail cameras.

To provide diverse perspectives, I reached out to some friends and notable hunters in their own right, to include hacks they've developed over the years to prevent their cameras from growing legs and walking away. The good news is it typically doesn't take much to deter a thief, but taking some preventative measures certainly helps keep your gear where it belongs; in your possession.

1. Lock It Up

I'm a big fan of Python or cable locks for trail cameras. The benefit to a Python or cable-style lock compared to something like a chain lock, is they are usually more flexible and form-fitting to the tree regardless of shape. They also cinch the camera tighter to the tree for a more secure hold, making it more difficult to fit cutters or other tools around the cable.

2. Hang Just Out of Reach

Avoid this bad behavior the next time you hit the Gram. (Instagram/)

I enjoy social media platforms, as they give everyday folks the ability to share their stories, content, and passions for the outdoors. However, these days, more and more people seem to fall into the trap of chasing likes, followers, and sponsorship dollars. If you follow outdoor content on Instagram, Youtube, and Facebook, you’ve undoubtedly seen many of these individuals popping up on your newsfeeds. As a member of the outdoor media, I get a peek behind the veil now and then, and I’ll say this: reality isn’t always what it’s portrayed to be.

I think I can boil down “what’s wrong with outdoor social media” into five main categories. This isn’t a hit piece on any individuals, so you’re not going to hear any names. This is meant to be a public service announcement, and hopefully a call for us all to do a little better.

1. Faking the details of a hunting or fishing trip.

This is probably the most irritating thing of all to me. I’m not talking about overestimating the score of an elk or the length of a fish. I’m talking about flat-out, unabashed lies. Off the top of my head, I can think of three very well-known individuals who set up fake camps for the cameras while staying in lodges for the actual hunts. The fake camps show up in the content, but the lodges don’t. Even worse, are those who hunt high fence animals and then claim /#publicland or /#freerange in their content. I’ve also seen fantastic stories of spot and stalk hunts, where I know the outfitter, and the hunt was baited.

Fishing isn’t without its scoundrels either. Look carefully, and you’ll sometimes see the same fish being posed with by different people—and 50 gear companies tagged in the post copy.

Fall is a great time to plant food plots because you don't have to compete with as many weeds or hungry fawns. (Whitetail Institute/)

Food plot cultivation is basically a year-round endeavor, meaning you can sow crops beneficial to wildlife in just about any season depending upon the plant, time of year, latitude, and rainfall projections. If you didn’t get a plot in the ground this summer, don’t worry. Planting in early fall means fewer weeds to compete with, and a plot maturing in November or December won’t stack up with does and fawns the way summer-planted plots can. In the Midwest and Southeast, early fall is a particularly good time to break out the disc and sow the seeds of some late-season action. Here are a few mixes that should do well.

Brassicas

Brassicas include a wide variety of winter greens such as radish, rape, canola, and turnips that are hardy growing and easy to cultivate. Planted from late summer to early fall (depending upon climate zone), the lettuce-like leaves get sweeter and more attractive to wildlife after the first few frosts. Brassicas can be planted as late as October in the deep south.

White Clover

As a perennial, a single planting of white clover can provide wildlife benefits for several years in a row. In the mid-Atlantic, southeastern, and midwestern states, September to November is still a good time to sneak in a planting of white clover.

If you don’t want to wear wet boots or gloves two days in a row, consider posting it all on a boot dryer. (DryGuy/)

While a shoe dryer might seem a frivolous accessory to some, they are essential to those who spend time outdoors in cold, wet climates. From the kid’s sneakers to Dad’s hunting boots, ski boots, waders, and gloves, an electric dryer can extend the life of your gear, prevent foot fungus, and keep you from starting out chilled when it’s time to head back out into the wet and wild. If you are thinking about investing in a shoe and boot dryer before winter kicks in, here’s what to look for.

Capacity

Most foot dryers have just a couple ports for drying one pair of boots or shoes at a time. If you have a large family or, perhaps, are running a business that requires you to keep clients warm and dry, consider a multi-tube dryer to get the job done.

Port Height

Footwear that can benefit from a dryer ranges from a simple pair of sneakers or loafers to knee-high boots and even waders. Look for an appliance with telescoping tube heights to accommodate whatever range of footwear your lifestyle calls for.

The Lone Star tick is the main culprit behind spreading Alpha-gal syndrome, but researchers think it might not be the only tick spreading the disease. (Health.Mil/)

It’s mid-August and my dad, a buddy, and I are tucked into our layout blinds as another flock of Canada geese swings in low toward our spread. When they line up perfectly, I holler “Take’ em!” and we greedily get to shooting, dropping four birds out of the flock. We’ve already piled up about 15 geese by now, but the early-season limit here in North Dakota is a generous 15 birds per person.

Many hunters—many waterfowlers, even—would look at so many honkers with a tinge of reservation. Goose meat isn’t valued as much as, say, a venison backstrap or elk tenderloin. But to me, our growing pile of geese looks like a mound of gold. That’s because Canada goose is one of the few red meats I can eat without getting sick. I have Alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-borne illness that makes its victim allergic to any mammal-based food product. The disease is carried by the Lone Star tick, and it’s becoming more prevalent all around the country (more on that later). For hunters like me, contracting Alpha-gal means no more elk backstraps, no venison cheeseburgers—not even a fried squirrel leg.

“Get down and load up,” I holler, watching another flock of geese appear over the horizon. “Here come some more.”

The Nightmare Begins

I started getting sick in December. I’d get hit with a crippling stomachache that would start an hour or two after almost every meal. Sometimes I’d get sick enough to spend a few hours vomiting in the bathroom. Other times I’d feel a tightness in my chest and a rash of hives would break out on my skin.

If you participate in any sort of activity that impacts your knees, a brace or strap is likely in your future. (Cambivo/)

If outdoorsmen rely on one joint more than any other, it’s the knee. Sooner or later we all fight the effects of age, mileage, or injury. Hunting with a knee brace can prevent further deterioration and give you the support to keep going when it matters most, like packing out an 80-pound elk quarter. Here are a few types of knee braces that can help.

Compression Sleeves

Compression sleeves add just a touch of extra support and security by consolidating the entire joint and muscle mass to absorb shock in a more unified way. It distributes load and stabilizes any loose fittings, so to speak. For generalized knee pain with no specific diagnosis, experimenting with a compression sleeve is literally the first step in the right direction.

Strap Braces

For even more support, a strap-style knee brace offers greater adjustability to place pressure exactly where you need it most. An open-patella brace is great for increased mobility while alleviating pain associated with meniscus and ACL injuries, patella disorders, and arthritis.

A screen tent or canopy allows fresh air to blow through while protecting everyone inside from nasty bugs. (Tailgaterz/)

Nothing ruins a day outdoors faster than being attacked by flying, biting insects. No matter the species, they all have a way of turning an otherwise memorable evening into a miserable bloodletting. A screen house for camp, the beach, or even the backyard can turn an inhospitable location into a glorious setting insulated from three of the most common winged pests.

Horseflies

Horseflies belong to a broad category of nuisances in the order Diptera, which also includes common house flies, deer files, and the rest of their hundred-eyed kin. But horseflies pack the biggest wallop, often drawing a wheal worthy of a hornet. Regrettably, they are found worldwide. Fun facts: Horseflies always take off in an upward direction to escape confinement. That's why commercial horsefly traps, or Manitoba traps as they are called, have their capture jar at the upper end, into which the horsefly must inevitably crawl to its well-deserved death. Also, only female horseflies bite humans.

Mosquitoes

West Nile virus, Zika, yellow fever, malaria, dengue fever, and a host of other transmissible hazards make the common mosquito the king of outdoor pests. They literally suck, and their saliva causes almost instantaneous itching. As measured by average annual deaths (700,000), mosquitoes are the deadliest animal on the planet. Fun fact: Some people are more susceptible to mosquito bites than others. An individual's vulnerability can be a function of blood type and other factors, like the amount of lactic acid in their blood.

Sport watches are a less-expensive alternative to other sophisticated GPS timepieces. (Casio/)

Just as a phone is no longer solely meant for communication, a wristwatch needn’t be only for telling time. And you don’t have to give your right arm (pardon the pun) to afford at least some of the advanced features found on today’s GPS-enabled smart watches. Many mid-range sport watches incorporate features beneficial to outdoorsmen. If you don’t want to go all in with a GPS watch, look for some of these attributes that will make your next timepiece more than just a fashion accessory or alarm clock.

Digital Altimeter and Compass

Elevation readings are important to outdoor pursuits ranging from elk hunting to snow skiing. But pulling a hand-held GPS from the pack isn't always convenient. Whether you are cutting a contour in deep snow or marking the location of a hot wallow, a watch with a built-in altimeter will keep you oriented at a glance. Combine that with a digital compass, and you have an excellent auxiliary navigation tool that could save the day if the GPS breaks down. Some watches even feature a barometer with built-in alarm to signal the sudden approach of a storm.

Waterproof

Sport watches made for all sorts of outdoor activities are generally water-resistant. However, in order to withstand the hard use in wet environments dished out by hunters and anglers, look for a watch rated for submersion up to 30 meters or more. A watch doesn't care if it got wet spearfishing for snapper, dropping in at Mavericks, or whitewater rafting, it only knows that it is—or isn't—waterproof.

If you don’t have the knack for sharpening a knife by hand, an electric sharpener could be just what you need. (Chef’s Choice/)

Like swift feet, keen vision, and the gift of gab, some people are just born with the fine touch required to sharpen a knife by hand. Most others are not. It’s an art that requires a certain feel for developing the bevel, knocking off the burr, and honing to a razor edge. If knife sharpening just isn’t your thing, an electric sharpener offers instant blade repair, restoration, and maintenance than anyone can master. Here are a few types of electric sharpeners to consider, one of which will meet just about any sharpening need from knives to scissors and axes.

Kitchen Knives

Kitchen knife sharpeners are sort of in their own category, requiring enough horsepower to straighten neglected edges, remove chips and dings, and hone the edge without grinding away the entire blade. Multi-stage sharpeners are perfect for that high-dollar knife set, including both straight and serrated edges. A two-stage sharpener is adequate for most tasks, but a three-stage sharpener will give you even more control over the level of sharpening required for any given blade.

Sporting Knives and Tools

Whether you are sharpening a pocketknife, a hatchet, or a two-bladed broadhead, a belt sharpener offers the greatest versatility. They'll handle the big tasks without overwhelming more delicate blades and have the added advantage of functioning either as a tabletop sharpener or being wielded like a hand tool.

A good predator call doesn’t just sound real, it broadcasts sound for hundreds of yards. (Foxpro/)

Even if you are new to predator hunting, it should come as no surprise that a quality call is essential to the game. Today’s electronic calls increase the chance of success more than just about any other variable besides straight shooting with a flat round. There are many electronic calls to choose from, but the most effective all have one or more of the following traits in common.

Remote Control

An electronic call with a remote control allows you to manipulate volume and call sounds from a distance. The ability to operate the device remotely creates space between yourself and the keen senses of a predator, helping to mask hunter movement and scent.

Extensive Vocabulary

Modern electronic calls come preloaded with scores of sounds ranging from the distress vocalizations of prey species to the love songs of lonesome coyotes, elk bugles, vole squeaks, fawn bleats, and just about anything else that would get a predator's attention. If you're old-school and want to simply speak the universal language of predators, a cottontail mouth call is hard to beat.

A bug-out bag is great when you’re making a fast exit and can include any combination of supplies or tools you think you might need for a short jaunt. (5.11/)

The outcome of any survival situation usually comes down to preparedness. The more thought a person puts into those "what-if" scenarios ahead of time, the more likely he or she will be able to cope with the unexpected. No piece of gear is more important to that thought process than the so-called “bug-out” bag. You don’t have to be military personnel or some wild-eyed prepper to appreciate a well-provisioned tactical pack. It forces you to think through the elements that are critical to whatever scenarios you are most likely to face and stands ready to roll when you need it. Here are a few features to consider.

Compact

The point of maintaining a bug-out bag is that it's pre-stocked with survival essentials and ready to bounce when you are. That means large, extended-range packs are not really suitable to this application. A day ruck of 25- to 40-liters capacity should be large enough to hold everything you need when it comes time to get out of Dodge.

Modular

The military acronym MOLLE stands for modular lightweight load-carrying equipment. That's a fancy way of referring to standardized webbing straps and accessories that allow you to outfit a pack with additional storage compartments, tool and knife sheaths, flashlight pouches, and any other add-on necessary to customize a pack to your specifications. The exterior of a bug-out bag should be crawling with MOLLE webbing.

Anglers skilled with electric knives can typically fillet fish much faster compared to making cuts with a traditional blade. (Bubba Blade/)

We all admire the angler who can dress out gamefish with a few slices of a sharp knife. That’s the mark of a fisherman who has paid his dues on the water, becoming skilled with a blade only because he has been so successful with a rod. But there are some things that are just made easier by modern technology, and cleaning fish is one of them. You don’t have to retire the trusty traditional knife, but when you’ve got a whole stringer of panfish or a cooler full of bony characters like sheepshead to contend with, you’ll be glad to have the power of an electric filet knife for getting the job done with maximum efficiency.

Cordless

Practically every corded power tool these days has a cordless counterpart threatening to make it obsolete. Lithium-ion batteries have become so powerful that it's hard to justify buying something with a cord, and electric filet knives have finally entered that market in force. Purely in terms of convenience, a cordless knife can't be beat.

Corded

That said, the one key thing a cordless tool can't do is stay at full power full time. When cordless batteries wear down, a corded tool can just keep on trucking. If you don't mind the hassle of the cord, then a corded fillet knife may be the way forward.

When hunting season rolls around, these hunters practically live on the road. (Rick Adair/)

Every hunter knows that itch. It starts when buddies invite you hunting, but you have to pass because of work. It gets worse when they text pictures of their limits. It becomes unbearable when your bird dog starts sighing and whining. Because when the weather is right, the season is open, and you’re not hunting, doing anything else is torture. But these three hunters have discovered how to break free and hit the open road when bird season arrives. And even better, they’ve done it with permission from their colleagues and families. Here’s how they pull it off, and fill limits to boot. —N.K.

Ruffed Grouse: David Kuritzky, Mahopac, New York

Occupation: President of Kuritzky Glass Company
Time on the road per year: About 60 days
Rig: GMC Denali 3500HD, custom chassis mount

It takes much less time to mention the states and species that David Kuritzky hasn’t hunted than the ones he has. The stretch of country between his home in New York State and the Northwoods of Minnesota is some of his favorite for grouse and woodcock. Every year, he attends the Ruffed Grouse Society National Hunt in the North Star state, and every year, he hunts his way there and back in a purpose-built truck filled with good friends and great dogs.

“You learn to follow your dogs. The dog’s got the nose, not me, and I’ve got a pretty good grouse dog,” Kuritzky says. “One time, we ended up in a one-year-old aspen cut, which means that everything was about waist-high. Woodcock had gone in there—we were surprised that they did, but the dogs found them. The shooting was great because when the birds came up, they were all clear of the trees.”

Hal Blood with a buck he grunted in during the rut amid several signpost rubs. (Hal Blood/)

When I first began hunting whitetails in the big woods of northern Maine more than 50 years ago, I made a discovery that continues to impact my deer hunting to this day. Whereas scrapes attract much attention from deer hunters and experts, I find rubs—or more importantly signpost rubs—to be the true key to learning the whereabouts of big bucks and how they move through their territories. So what are signpost rubs and how do you find them? The simple answer is that signpost rubs are rubs that bucks use each year. However, there’s a lot more to these visual and olfactory cues.

Every season, one of the earliest bits of deer sign to show up in hunting areas across the country are buck rubs. Deer hunters are capable of locating this sign with little difficulty since they are seemingly scattered haphazardly throughout the woods and on all different types and sizes of trees in late summer. These are what I call common rubs. A common rub can tell you a few things about a buck. First is the direction the buck was traveling when he made it. Number two is what size the buck might be. Typically, the larger the tree that is rubbed, the bigger the buck that made it. Number three is what a buck might have for antlers. A tree's bark that is shredded deeply into subsurface layers, for example, indicates the presence of an older animal with jagged burrs. Tine marks above or behind the rub suggests that the buck has long beams or tines. These rubs are made each year on different trees and are the most common. They are made out of aggression.

Signpost rubs, however, serve a different purpose. Bucks create and revisit these rubs in order to leave their scented calling card. Some of them are made and used by an individual buck while others are used by several deer. Sometimes there will be a small area with several signposts within sight of each other. These are areas where different bucks’ territories overlap—and can be key to your hunting strategies.

Read The Rub

A signpost rub is usually started on a small tree sometimes as small as an inch in diameter. The buck that starts this rub will continue to rub it every year until he dies or he kills the tree and moves on to another. As he rubs, he deposits scent on it from his forehead glands. This is a buck’s way of saying: “This is my territory.”

The authors small munsterlander pointer after a good day of shooting. (Jarrod Spilger/)

For many years, I wasn’t a quail hunter. Quail were merely an afterthought, a chance encounter while pheasant hunting. Then I got Phantom, my small munsterlander pointer. For eight seasons, she led me on a crusade for quail that gave me a fresh perspective on the pursuit of bobwhites. I became a Quail Hunter.

As Phantom’s points got ever stauncher and my shots at quail got ever closer, I had to rethink how I hunted quail. Chokes had to be more open, patterns had to be wider, and my overall tactics now required finesse. After plodding along behind a flusher for over a decade—simply taking my shots however and whenever I got them—that madness of surprise quail hunting was replaced by the studious methodology of a focused pointing dog. Here’s how I dealt with this new era of close-range quail hunting.

Chokes

Most modern shotguns come from the factory with three choke tubes—improved cylinder, modified, and full. Of those three, IC is probably the best suited for quail since it produces the most open patterns. Shots at quail are usually inside 25 yards, especially when hunting over a pointing dog, so a choke that throws wide, even patterns that open quickly is needed.

Here are three ways to open up the pattern on your shotgun: