Hunting and Fishing News Blog Articles

Have you ever seen a buck with a full set of velvet-rimmed antlers—in December? How about a black whitetail, or a buck with protruding canine teeth? Here are eight freak-of-nature deer that are so odd, piebalds might seem commonplace by comparison.

This is true, I swear, though you might have a better shot of hitting a $400 million Powerball than ever seeing this animal alive in the wild. Just imagine for a moment how much you might freak out if you ever spotted a deer with a fifth leg jutting out of its backbone near the back of its neck! Well, it happens.

According to the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA), it is called the “parasitic twin” phenomenon. Twin fawns begin to grow inside a doe, but the embryos do not completely separate, and one of them stops developing normally. The somewhat macabre extra leg is the remnant of the twin fawn that didn’t fully mature. Most of the misplaced fifth legs that have been documented are short and small, with tiny hooves attached. That fifth leg is most often located on the deer’s shoulder or back.

Parasitic twins have been documented in many animal species, and are surely the rarest of the rare whitetail oddity.

One day down in the Texas Hill Country, a buck stepped out of the brush in front of my buddy Eddie Stevenson. He did a double take—not because of its rack, but rather its color. The deer was mahogany-colored all over, with an even darker head and face. Eddie shot the buck, and the one-in-a-million mount now hangs on his wall.

An American soldier takes aim during World War I. (FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images/)

Long-range shooting competitions are all the rage, but the amount of gear required can be pretty daunting to anyone new to the sport. Likewise, service rifle matches, where you use historically accurate military equipment (meaning open sights), can be tough if you don’t have 30-year-old eyes.

Back in 2011, I worked to combine the best of both types of shooting and eliminate those drawbacks. This led to the inaugural Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) Vintage Sniper Rifle Match (VSRM) at Camp Perry in 2012.

A little background: When the Gibbs Rifle Company introduced its replica 1903A4 sniper rifle in 2011 (sadly, no longer made), I had to have one. I was a big-time World War II buff because my father was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne. After I got my 1903A4, I showed it to my dad and asked if he ever ran into one during the war. He had never said much about his time in the service, so I was absolutely floored when he said, "Yeah, I jumped into Holland with that rifle. I was the first scout for 506th I Company." Incidentally, that's the same regiment that E Company—of Band of Brothers fame—was in.

For many years, I had been an avid John Garand Match and CMP Games shooter, but after finding out my father went to war with a 1903A4, I thought it would be great to have a CMP match with vintage sniper rifles. I worked with Alan Coors, board member of the CMP and then president of the NRA, to hammer out the rules and legal equipment.

Easy Does It

Returning to a follower during a moon event is a great way of getting that muskie to grab your lure says Lake St. Clair Charter Captain Spencer Berman. (Photo Courtesy of Spencer Berman/)

Two things were obvious: the muskie following my lure was a giant, and it was coming in hot—its focus completely on my bucktail spinner. I swung the bait into a wide turn at boatside and then hung it on the outside curve to create an easy target. The fish shortcut the corner and T-boned the lure going away. Its strike was so fast and vicious I didn’t need to set the hook, but instinct took over.

Minutes later, after photos were taken and I had watched the released muskie make its way back into the depths, I shook hands with my fishing partner and stopped to savor the moment.

“They should all be so easy,” he said. His words carried truth.

Muskies have the confounding habit of following anglers’ lures to the boat and not biting. We question our friends for answers and scrutinize our tactics, yet continue to lose sleep over giant muskies that were so close we could almost touch them — yet couldn’t. Ultimately we have to accept the fact that muskies make their own rules, and what works for on one fish usually won’t work for the next. But have faith.

With many hours on the water and even more time spent thinking about their sport, some of the top anglers in the country have devised ways to get muskies to bite. Following are seven ways to trigger a strike.

The only thing better than living the adventure of a lifetime, is the ability to capture the event on video so you can relive it over and over again for years after. Just ask Uncle Rico—if coach had put him in during the fourth quarter of 1982's big game, the team would've been state champions (sorry, 2019 marks the 15-year anniversary of Napoleon Dynamite, so I couldn't resist). But with so many makes and models of action cameras on the market these days, it's sometimes tough to know which one suits your hunting or fishing free-for-all. To help you dial in on the camera and features you'll need in the field, here is a quick look at four different recorders tailored specifically for the outdoors.

When it comes to self-recording, simple is better, and operating a camera doesn't get much simpler than it does with the Tactacam. Attach this unit to a bow or gun, and start and stop recording with the push of a button. Or, if you're technologically savvy, the 5.0 model comes with a remote control, or you can take command with the Tactacam smartphone app. It records in 4K resolution, has a low-light sensor, and captures 360-degree audio. This camera truly shines tucked under the barrel of a shotgun or extending from the riser of your favorite bow. However, a word of caution—try to avoid camera convulsions. It's easy to get excited in the moment, forget you're filming, and point the business end of the camera in all sorts of directions. The result is a video that's barely viewable. Done poorly, you'll see the moments leading up to a shot, a tremor from the shot, and possibly a second or two of well-framed footage after the shot, before the film looks like earthquake footage. This style of camera is great for keeping your hands free and recording a first-person perspective, but if you aren't mindful about recording moments outside that window, expect to be nominated for a Golden Razzie.

Let's face it; GoPro set the standard in action cameras. Before GoPro, filming first-person narratives of fishing and hunting adventures was a convoluted mess of batteries, digital tape, handheld cameras, and poor image quality. Wnd with each iteration, GoPro's cameras continue to get better and better. They're not the cheapest action camera on the market, but you know you're getting what you pay for. The Hero7 is the latest-and-greatest from the company and it has the ability to do things no other camera has been able to do before—like accept voice commands and live stream footage so you can share your story as it happens on Facebook Live. The video quality isn't anything to sneeze at either. It can shoot up to 4K60 video, and snap 12MP photos. Other filters include TimeWarp, which increases the film speed up to 30X, and 8X slow motion, to relive unique moments in all their glory. Its waterproof housing makes it safe to depths up to 33 feet, but go beyond that and you may be out a camera and several hundred frogskins.

If you're not keen on dropping several hundred dollars on a camera with features you'd rarely use, but still want something that records in 1080, then the Xcel HD2 might be what you're looking for. If your flat screen doesn't broadcast in 4K, you likely have little need for such a high resolution setting in an action camera. What's more, if a camera still captured photos up to 12MP, and included a remote control that works up to 120 feet away, why spend the extra money on other frills and functions you don't need? This little unit from Spypoint is shaped similar to a GoPro's Hero7 "blocky" profile, and it uses the same mounts and attachments. There is a 2-inch viewing screen on the back, a zoom function that allows you to take it from a 170-degree view up to a 140-degree view, a time lapse mode, and the waterproof housing keeps it safe and dry if you plan to explore underwater worlds.

One of the things I love about Amazon is that when you begin searching for a specific item, you can get lost in a wormhole of similar but equally good (sometimes better) products. That's how I found the 4K camera from Akaso. At first glance, it looks and feels much like a GoPro, and when it comes down to features, it's tough to beat—4K video resolution, 20MP photos, a 170-degree viewing angle with a 5X zoom that can take it to 70 degrees, image stabilization, and a 2-inch viewing screen. In it's waterproof housing, it's protected to depths of 100 meteres, and if you have the Akaso app, you can relay everything to a smartphone. There's even a remote wristband so you can start and stop recording without putting a finger on the camera. But what makes this unit truly stand out is the price—you can get a complete setup for less than a Benjamin.

The author fights a redfish in Mosquito Lagoon, Florida, where a damaged water system has fishing guides in for a fight of their own. (Matthew Coughlin/)

Capt. Billy Rotne is quietly freaking out. He’s stabbed his finger on the sharp dorsal fin of a redfish that bucked just as he released it. Now he’s bleeding. It’s not much, maybe a drip every five seconds, but as Rotne rummages through the forward hold of his flats boat for his first-aid kit, his urgency elevates this from a garden-variety fishing prick into something more critical.

He finds his medical kit, but the Neosporin, in a squeeze packet that looks like takeout mustard, expired last year.

“Better than nothing,” Rotne says as he slathers his finger with the medicinal ointment. “I know this seems silly, but I don’t mess around with the chance of infection. Who knows what’s in this water.”

If anybody should know, it’s Rotne. For the past 14 years, he’s worked as a registered fishing captain, guiding anglers around northern Florida’s premier inshore destinations. His favorite place—and method—is poling redfish anglers around Mosquito Lagoon, putting them on the biggest bull reds of their lives.

I’m a beneficiary of his expertise. He anchors beside a spreading shoreline palmetto and tells me to punch my blue crab into the south wind. A short soak later, the line twitches, as if Rotne had scripted it. The rod loads, and after a bicep-numbing fight, a holy-hell 40-pound redfish poses in my arms for a quick photo.

Get in on the hottest shoots of summer. (Jonathan Bartlett/)

If you’re not careful, you’ll use up a whole summer eating barbecue, drinking beer, and fishing. Too much of that stuff will soften your shotgun swing as much as your belly. Next thing you know, it’ll be opening day of duck season, and you’ll make an ass of yourself by tearing through three boxes of shells and not cutting a feather. Picking up a shotgun in the off-season does you good.

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Fortunately, there's a world of wingshooting opportunity available all summer long, from feral pigeons and invasive Eurasian collared doves to crows and early-season geese. The action can be intense, and once it's over, some of the birds are pretty good to eat. Which brings us back to beer and barbecue. It is summer, after all. —W.B.

Crows

Back in the 1930s, crow shooting was as popular as hot dogs at the ballpark. There were so many birds that fish and game agencies gave farmers free shotgun ammo to defend their crops. In Oklahoma, there was a full-on propaganda campaign to promote crow as a healthy and delicious game meat. Crow-hunting clubs popped up around the country. But eventually the Great Depression ended, and crow fell off the menu for most folks. Wingshooters moved on to more glamorous pursuits, and these days calling and decoying crows is done by a relatively small but dedicated group of bird hunters. Which means there’s plenty of room for you to get in on the action.

A Wyoming court is considering how the state will regulate tribal hunting on public lands. (NPS/)

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Herrera vs. Wyoming in May poses more questions than answers in resolving a five-year legal battle. One thing (we think) is for sure: the result of this battle will affect how the state is able to regulate tribal hunting.

On one hand, the court’s 5-4 decision clearly affirmed that treaty rights negotiated between the United States and Native American tribes cannot be nullified by states.

On the other hand, the case was remanded back to Judge John Fenn of Wyoming’s 4th Judicial District to determine what “occupied lands” mean in the context of the 1868 Second Treaty of Fort Laramie, and how “conservation necessity” applies to Crow treaty hunters in Wyoming’s Elk Management Unit [EMU] 38 in Bighorn National Forest.

In case you missed the details of this case, here’s how the events unfolded…

Clayvin Herrera, a member of the Crow Tribe, was cited for violating hunting laws when he killed a bull elk out of season without a license in Wyoming’s EMU 38 in January 2014.

Bowfishing may not quite be as American as baseball and apple pie—but it should be. From coast to coast, you'll find guys and gals spending summer days (and nights) shooting arrows at fish. It's fun and one of the most available and affordable forms of "hunting" you'll find. While it's possible to repurpose your old hunting gear, some specialized bowfishing archery tackle will make it a lot easier for you to get started. To help you let the air out of some fish, here is a gear primer with nods to some of the best equipment for your money and a few notes on how to use it. —Tony Hansen

Bowfishing Reels

When I started bowfishing, I managed my line with a Fin Finder spool, which is nothing more than a plastic spool with a concave rim that holds line as you wrap it on while retrieving an arrow. It's simple and inexpensive, and it works for just about every type of bowfishing scenario you can conjure just as well as the most sophisticated setup.

It has a threaded anchor that fits into the same port you'd use to attach a stabilizer on the front of a bow's riser, so you can use whatever bow you've got on hand. However, if you plan to use your dedicated whitetail rig, that's fine, keep in mind that you're likely going to bang the bow around in the boat when the action gets fast and furious (and it almost certainly will), and you don't need substantial draw weight, so feel free to decrease the pressure on the limbs. If you have an old-school recurve around, use it. There is no better beginner's bowfishing bow than a recurve. They're easy to draw, aim, and shoot. —T.H.

A few years ago, the Ogden, Utah based bowfishing company RPM made its debut with a unique lineup of bowfishing accessories that not only had a different design, look, and feel compared to traditional bowfishing gear, it had a reputation for being some of the most well-built, durable equipment on the market. So when they unveiled their latest arrow retriever, the M1-X trigger reel, I wanted to take a test drive. Since then, I haven't used anything else. Because the reel is always in freespool mode, you don't have to worry about pushing a button before shooting like other spinning reels. When you want to wind line back on the spool and bring in your arrow, pull and hold the T-shaped handle with two fingers from your bow hand while activating the crank handle with your drawing hand. Able to hold 150 feet of the company's 200-pound-test Monkey Wire and geared to collect line at a lightning pace, the M1-X also has an unbelievably strong drag system, which is also never a bad thing. –Ben Romans

Big bass are hard to catch, but the following myths will make it even harder. (Gerry Bethge/)

No one ever brags about the small bass they catch. Whether you live up north where a 7-pounder is a wily, ancient giant, down south where double digits are the key metric, or in Southern California where largemouths of 14, 18, or even 20 pounds are not out of the question, everyone wants to one-up the local competition.

The dedication to catching the biggest bass that swims near you comes at a price. You generally have to forego grip-and-grins in exchange for the right bite. It requires a different mindset–one focused on current conditions and one that discards absolute falsehoods, old wives’ tales, and partial truths. The following myths are all too common and should be avoided if you truly want to land a lunker.

Myth 1: Big bass eat the same meals as little bass.

Bass are opportunistic eaters, and there are very few fisheries where they exclusively lock onto one type of forage. That said, they don’t grow big by expending lots of energy on small meals that don’t provide them with enough nutrition. Bass are engineered to pack on the most calories and protein with the least possible effort–all without leaving their comfort zone. So, on traditional reservoirs where shad make up most of the forage base, bass are locked into them from an early age.

Nevertheless, says Texas pro, Keith Combs (who’s seen over 70 double-digit fish come over the side of his boat in the course of his guiding and pro fishing career), at a certain point they change their focus. That often occurs when they reach the 5- to 7-pound range; when they switch from shad to bluegills, tilapia, crappie, barfish, or even from threadfin to larger gizzard shad.

Bullet choice can make all the difference when deciding on a hunting caliber. (Brad Fitzpatrick/)

Want to see some fireworks? Just walk into a bar in rural America during hunting season and proclaim that the 6.5 Creedmoor is an unequivocally superior deer cartridge than either the .30-06 Springfield or .308 Winchester. If you manage to escape that situation without major injury to your person, you'll have learned a valuable lesson: Many hunters develop such a deep-seated allegiance to their preferred hunting round that any rebuff of their beloved cartridge elicits an intense emotional response.

These frenetic cartridge fanboys might lead you to believe that there is only one round in all rifledom capable of routinely dispatching game. Rarely, however, does a conversation about preferred hunting bullets create such a stir, and perhaps that means we’re missing the mark. While some cartridges do offer real, measurable advantages over the competition, it’s the bullet that actually dispatches the animal. I can’t tell you the last time I saw two hunters nearly come to blows over the superiority of their favorite hunting bullet, but the argument could be made that our choice of projectile is at least as important—and perhaps more so—than the cartridge that propels it.

Credit Where Credit is Due

One of my hunting mentors despised the .270 Winchester and thought it unfit for use on any game larger than coyotes. When I asked why, he told me that he had used the cartridge to harvest two deer in Virginia in the 1960s. On both occasions, he said, the .270 caused extensive meat damage, and he could scarcely salvage either front quarter from those two animals.

Like many other hunters, I’ve used the .270 to harvest deer, and my own experience with the cartridge has been very different. The .270, with the right bullet, will kill whitetails cleanly without excessive meat damage. The problem that my mentor encountered was not the result of the .270’s inherent failings; rather, it was an issue of poor bullet selection.

Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars helped support the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge in New England. (USFWS/)

Earlier this spring, President Trump signed a massive public lands bill which permanently reauthorized the Land and Water Conservation Fund. But passing that bill didn't actually secure any real money for LWCF, that battle would be fought later. Well, later is now.

Trump’s initial budget has no funding for land acquisition. Instead, it utilizes LWCF money to cover national park maintenance backlogs across the country.

Luckily, that plan is getting pushback from a bipartisan group in the House.

"To the extent we're siphoning off these funds for other entirely different purposes, that's really not appropriate," Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told The Hill.

The House has countered with a bill (H.R. 3195) that would provide full funding of $900 million annually to the LWCF. The bipartisan bill was introduced by House representatives Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.). The Senate has a similar bill (S. 1081) that would provide full funding for the LWCF while nixing the requirement that funds must be appropriated. The bill is co-sponsored by four GOP senators who are up for reelection in 2020— two of whom are Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Steve Daines (Mont.), according to Politico

Success with nighttime trout revolves around understanding which types of water they feed in after dark. (Clint Ford/)

The kids might be off from school, but you’re still working like a dog during the dog days. Sure, you might hit a good trout or two on the weekends, but there’s a strong possibility you’re not alone on the river. Wild trout are incredibly susceptible to angling pressure, which is why some of the best-known trout fisheries in the country can get really slow by midsummer. The fish have seen it all, and they’ve gotten smarter and more selective during daylight hours. While the lucky guy who can be on the river while you slave away struggles, you’ve actually got the upper hand. Between that daytime pressure and the warmer water temperatures, many big browns hunker down until the sun goes away. And when that happens, fishermen go away. That’s when you show up and score the toad that’s finally ready to chow down. Here’s how.

1. Top Lure for Tail-Outs: Rebel Jointed Minnow

Tail-outs that are 2 to 4 feet deep and have a moderate flow are prime haunts for nighttime browns. If bug activity was high that evening, assume the fish that pushed into this water to sip mayflies and caddis are still there at sundown, and most likely they’re still looking up. They’ve already had some appetizers, so now give them a steak dinner. Any thin-profile, shallow-diving plug can work here, but those with a strong swimming action during a steady retrieve, such as a Rebel Jointed Minnow, are particularly effective. Cast downstream at an angle across the current. With the rod tip held high, just start reeling very slowly. The goal is to let the current do all the work as the lure sweeps in an arc across the run. Don’t get aggressive with the retrieve; you want the plug to dig very slightly and wobble just barely under the surface as it swings. When your line straightens out, don’t zip the lure in; many times, a trout that follows from the middle of the zone will attack right before the lure comes out of the water.

2. Top Lure for Deep Holes: Basstrix Paddle Tail Swimbait

Rest assured that those deep, dark holes on your home river that you think hold monster trout do, in fact, hold monster trout. Problem is, everyone else knows about them too, which can make the fish that live in them finicky due to the constant bombardment. Even the most pressured community pool, however, can give up the goods at night. If those holes feature cover, such as downed trees or deep boulders, all the better, because it means the fish have a permanent home within them, and they’re more likely to leave it in the dark. A variety of lures can work here, but a soft-plastic swimbait that puts off a strong vibration is a great choice. Rigged on a jighead, it allows you to work in any part of the water column, which is key because while the fish may be more apt to feed late, they might not always be willing to come up shallow within very deep pools. Cast slightly up-current and let your swimbait sink to the desired depth. Reel just quickly enough to get the tail thumping as the bait swings. I’m a firm believer that dark lures get bit more often at night, so I’m a big fan of the Basstrix Paddle Tail Swimbait in Midnight Orange for this technique.

A whitetail buck in the early stages of antler growth. (brm1949/depositphotos.com/)

When you stop and think about it, antlers seem like the stuff of science fiction rather than real life. They're bones that grow extremely fast outside of a mammals body, and every year they fall off and grow back. For whitetails, at the peak of development, antlers will grow a ¼ inch per day; for bull elk it's more like an inch.

To put that in perspective, imagine that one spring morning, you woke up and had two bones growing out of your forehead. In about a week, they would be 7 inches long, and two weeks later, you’d be knocking into every door frame you tried to walk through. While there still is a lot to learn about antlers, here are some of the secrets behind how antlers grow and what it takes for them to get so big.

Why Do Deer Have Antlers?

Before diving into the nitty-gritty of antler growth, we should get one thing straight. Whitetails, mule deer, elk, moose, caribou, and many other antlered animals across the globe are part of the same deer family, known as Cervidae. Male "cervids" (as well as female caribou) evolved to have antlers, and unlike horns, antlers are made of bone and are shed and grown back every year in a continuous cycle. For a large part of the year, they are made up of living tissue whereas horns are made of dead, fingernail-like tissue called keratin and remain attached to the animal year after year.

That the reason cervids have antlers is for mating purposes. Because they live in competitive societies and mate like spring breakers, males need something to work out their differences with and attract the ladies. Big pointy antlers are just the ticket, and while it’s important to note that they aren’t trying to kill each other, deer, elk, moose, and other cervids spend their respective mating seasons using their headgear to duke it out for cows or does.

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Few firearms in history have had the influence, panache, and favoritism commanded by lever-action rifles. They were the first truly effective, high-capacity, rapid-fire firearms, they fought through multiple conflicts, and remain one of America's favorite sporting rifles. In this video, we cover five of the finest.

The author with a 215-pound bigeye tuna caught from a headboat off New Jersey. (Jimmy Fee/)

Here’s the scenario: You’re going coastal with the family and want to tangle with a tuna. Thing is, you don’t have a boat that can make the long run. Nor do any of your friends, and a private charter is out of your price range. Fear not. Throughout the Northeast and into the Mid-Atlantic, many headboat fleets dedicate several weeks of the summer season to bringing boatless fishermen to the tuna grounds overnight at affordable prices. If you want tuna glory at the rail of one of these big vessels, here are some pointers.

Go for the Long Haul

Headboat tuna trips range from 18 to 48 hours in length. The standard 22-hour overnight trip, which departs in the evening and returns the following day, runs about $350—a couple hundred bucks less than a share of a private overnight charter. The price increases incrementally with the length of the trip, but if you can swing the fare (and the extra time out of cellphone range), jump on an extended trip. Longer trips have more time at the rail, and the captains usually add some variety to the fishing. This could include stopping at wrecks for cod and pollock, drifting for tilefish, or buoy-hopping for mahimahi.

Long trip or short, the main event remains the same. The captain seeks out favorable water temperatures and drifts (or sometimes anchors) at the edge of the canyons while the crew ladles out a pungent soup of sardines and butterfish. With any luck, a school of tuna will find the free food and hang with the boat until everyone on board has sore arms.

Sleep in on the Way Out

Upset a griz with only a handgun at your side, and you have problems in your future. (Keith Crowley/Images on the Wildside/)

Hunters love to sit around the fire and argue about guns. When there's no fire, there's still social media, where people also sometimes argue. When I saw Freel and Towsley engaged in a Facebook pissing match over bear-defense handguns, I invited them to bring it to the pages of Outdoor Life. Enjoy. —W.B.

Wheelguns by Bryce M. Towsley

I’ve been hunting bears for 40-some-odd years all over North America and in Russia. I have learned a couple of truths. First, bears are tough, both in construction and attitude. They have thick hides, strong muscles, and big bones. When wounded, they rarely give up quickly.

The idea of using a semi-auto handgun in a cartridge designed for self-defense against humans is ballistic folly. I know everybody thinks they are going to go John Wick on a bear and overwhelm him with a multitude of bullets, but that ignores the second bear truth: Bear attacks happen very fast. You may get one or two shots, if you are lucky, before he is chewing on your skull like an hors d’oeuvre.

True bear-protection handguns use a big bullet with lots of horsepower behind it to get through the hide and muscle, and to break bones. Big-bore revolvers with heavy-for-caliber, flat-nosed, non-expanding bullets do that very well. Cartridges designed for defense against human predators do not.

When it comes to bear attacks, there are no certainties. (photowest/depositphotos.com/)

Much like politics or religion, bear defense is a subject that will quickly segregate people into strongly defended ideological camps. For the majority of folks, it’s purely for entertainment purposes—like guys in their living room debating whether or not they would have made that Super Bowl winning catch they saw on TV. However, for hunters and anglers who live in or frequently venture into grizzly country, bear defense is very important.

The only certain thing about dealing with bears is that there are no certainties, but if you look to the folks who spend the most time around bears, you can learn to have the best chance at surviving an encounter.

Be Bear Aware to Prevent Dangerous Encounters

The hard truth about bear defense is that the most important things you can do are boring. In our heated debates, we all imagine ourselves stopping the bear, but of course not before he gets just close enough to make it an exciting story. The fact of the matter is, if it comes down to that, things have gone terribly wrong.

The best way to deal with a dangerous encounter with a bear is to avoid it in the first place. We've all heard the phrase "be bear aware," and likely most of you are as annoyed with it as I am, but it is the best way of avoiding a dangerous situation altogether. How you conduct yourself in bear country and (think: proper food and meat storage), will almost always play a larger role in your safety than your ability to stop a charge with lethal or non-lethal force.

The Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Montana. (USFWS Mountain-Prairie/)

On June 5th, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced a proposal for new or expanded hunting and fishing opportunities at 74 national wildlife refuges and 15 national fish hatcheries. This proposed legislation would give hunters and anglers access to over 1 million acres of public land and provide sportsmen and women with the chance to explore new areas.

At a time when access to good public hunting land is hard to find, outdoorsmen and women have something to look forward to with this new proposal. “Hunting and fishing are more than just traditional pastimes as they are also vital to the conservation of our lands and waters, our outdoor recreation economy, and our American way of life,” says Secretary Bernhardt.

This new public access for hunters and anglers is similar to a proposal we covered last year from former Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke. In May 2018 Zinke proposed to open or expand hunting and fishing on 30 national wildlife refuges. Many of the refuges in Zinke's former proposal are also in Secretary Bernhardt's current plan–as well as even more opportunities for sportsmen and women on national refuges and hatcheries.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will increase the number of refuges that allow hunting from 377 to 382 and increase the number of refuges that allow fishing from 312 to 316. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also plans to open hunting and fishing on 15 new hatcheries where it was previously prohibited.

Since the release of the proposal, many conservation organizations have stated their support for the new expansion of outdoor recreation.

Spring may be lunker time for bass anglers targeting shallow fish on spawning flats, but summer is the bread-and-butter season for most fishermen. With short-sleeve weather and balmy nights, more bass are caught by anglers during the heat of summer than all other seasons combined.

But summer bass can be fickle nomads–found shallow, deep, buried in weeds, living in flooded timber, prowling open water, hugging riprap and bridge structures, active at dawn, dusk, night, and even in the brilliant rays of mid-day heat.

For this reason, savvy anglers are well prepared with a wide variety of lures designed to fish every conceivable bass habitat, and at all depths. Here are the lure styles, types, and brands to carry to insure that no matter the time of day, depth of water, or fishing situation, you're prepared to catch summer bass wherever you go.

Virtually everyone prefers catching bass on top-water lures because of the exhilarating surface strikes. Truth is, top-water lures are often the most productive way to fish for bass. Surface baits cover a wide range of lures, and at times, each produces more and bigger fish than other styles. So, a well-stocked tackle box holds them all.

Poppers and chuggers are all good choices, and classics like the Heddon Lucky 13, Rebel Pop-R, and Arbogast Hula Popper and Jitterbug can be deadly. Newcomers to the popper brigade are stalwarts such as the Strike King Splash Popper, Booyah Boss Pop, and Yo-Zuri 3D Popper.

School is out, summer is finally here, and camping season is upon us. Whether you enjoy pitching a tent in an assigned space on some roadside site, or hiking up and into the mountainous backcountry, you’ll need the toughest, most reliable gear you can get your hands on. To help you have all your bases covered, here is a short list of equipment you might want to add to your inventory of supplies. Before you pack up your rig and head out, take a look at some of the latest and greatest items that can help you make a night under the stars one of your most memorable.

I'm a big fan of pack hammocks—they're easy to carry, great for bivy hunts, and the perfect tool for sneaking in a quick afternoon nap in the woods. But recently I've started to see new hammock designs, like the Trillium 3-person Hammock, that is both unique and useful. Made from a heavy duty webbing, the Trillium can support up to 880 pounds across 92 square-feet of space after anchoring the three hatchet straps to mature trees. This triangle-shaped hammock is great for relaxing near a river or under the shade of some dense trees and perfect for raising the "wow" factor when you're camping with your kids.

One of my favorite pieces of camping gear is my sleeping pad. It's lightweight, easy to inflate, and it feels terrific on my back and legs after a long day of hiking or hunting. Not only does a pad make it easier to get some Zs, but it also provides that critical barrier of insulation between you and the ground on those cold nights. The high-density nylon pad from My Outdoors is inexpensive, tough (puncture resistant), lightweight (one pound), thick (2 ½-inches), waterproof, and because it has an inflatable pillow attached, that means you have one less thing to pack. If you need even more reason to invest in a sleeping pad, remember you can use it as a floating lounger when you're camping near a lake, or make the wife mad by showing your kids how to ride one down the stairs like a sled.

Accidents happen, and camping gear can sometimes fail, so it always pays to have a backup. I learned this the hard way on one trip when I forgot to put my camping stove back into my pack and had nothing (other than fire) to boil water. Since then, I've stashed a couple Etekcity camp stoves in places like my truck glove box, my hunting packs, and I even have one "on standby" in my storage closet should I happen to lose any of the others. I typically rely on a JetBoil to prepare my meals, but if it's ever not up to the job, I know I have a tiny stove that can attach to the same fuel tanks. Made from aluminum and stainless steel, it has a flame-control knob and push-button electric start, so no matches or lighter required.

While most people go camping to get away from technology, there's nothing wrong with a little music. In the appropriate setting, the right playlist can accentuate the experience of being outside and keep the mood around camp light and fun. The JBL Charge 3 is perfectly suited for such an occasion. You can connect up to three smartphones or tablets at one time and take turns playing music and it can stay loud for up to 20 hours on a single charge. There is a built-in microphone if you want to answer phone calls, and you can charge smartphones or tablets using a USB cable. But the best part about this little unit is it has a waterproof rating of IPX7, which means it's completely waterproof, so you can also take it into the shower at home when you're cleaning off the dirt and dust from your camping trip.