Hunting and Fishing News & Blog Articles

You have to be prepared to process all the meat from spring snow goose shoots. (Brad Fenson/)

Snow goose populations have grown to the point they provide more hunting opportunities than ever before. A good day afield during the spring conservation season can end with upwards of 200 dead birds. Filling the truck bed with white geese won’t happen every hunt, but with the right conditions it can.

Like any migratory gamebird, wanton waste, which means to intentionally waste, neglect, or use inappropriately, comes into play. The job of cleaning hundreds of birds can be daunting, but a production line of hunters can make short work of a mountain of snow goose meat. Few people pluck snows, and the birds are typically breasted. The legs and thighs are some of the best eating, so make sure to include them in the processing line. Hundreds of pounds of meat can accumulate, and here is the best way to process and prepare snows.

Use Sorting Totes

Use sorting totes to separate clean meat from shot up breasts. (Brad Fenson/)

Sort the meat, making a meat tote for breasts with no shot holes. These will provide top-grade meat for unique recipes where whole breasts are required. Breasts with shot holes go into a second tote and can be dissected to remove feathers, shot, blood clots, and bruising. The second tote is for ground meat, so do not worry if there are smaller pieces, as they will all add up to clean ground protein in the end. A third meat tote can collect legs and thighs. Take the legs and thighs in good condition (in some states it is illegal not to process them), as they are versatile and delicious.

Using a brine on waterfowl helps to draw blood from the muscle, allowing you to see the difference in the color of meat before and after. Giving the harvested meat a short brine on cleaning day will allow them to go directly into a pot or onto the grill when it is time to put them to use. A salt and cold water bath for 20 to 30 minutes before rinsing and packaging, or further processing, will have the meat in good shape. Mix a quarter cup of salt for a gallon of ice-cold water to make the perfect short brine.

Henry Garden Gun (Bill Buckley/)

This new rimfire lever action is the perfect gun for pests. I’m thinking not only of the type that raids your vegetable garden or slithers out from under the porch, but also that more persistent, pernicious, and annoying variety—namely, the youngster who keeps begging for their first real gun.

I know this species of irritant all too well, for I was that very kid, pleading with my parents to upgrade my Crossman 760 BB gun, which lacked the stopping power I required while stalking the wilds of my suburban backyard and surrounding woods.

Eventually, I did purchase a Marlin Model 60 with my own money. I don’t recall when I first dropped a rimfire shotshell down the tubular magazine of that rifle, but I vividly remember the effect that swarm of tiny pellets had on dragonflies, wasps, and grasshoppers. I had never heard the term, but that’s when I became a wingshooter.

I didn’t have a clue about this at the time, but my proto-shotgunning was hindered by a significant design issue—the rifling in my .22’s barrel.

As you probably know, when a shotshell is fired down a rifled barrel, the pattern opens rapidly, cutting the effective range of the pellets. At 15 feet, a 12-gauge shell will spray bird shot over a 4-foot area when fired through a rifled slug barrel, versus the tidy 10-inch pattern you’d get when running the same shell down a cylinder-choked smoothbore.

Looking for something to do while you’re stuck at home during the COVID-19 quarantine? Planning ahead for the day that the food pantry is bare? Gardening is a great activity in the springtime and anyone can grow food, even if you’re stuck in an apartment. You’ll just need a spot with ample sunlight, some dirt and water, something to start growing, and a generous amount of patience. Whether you’re gardening just as a pastime or doing it as a food security strategy, you might be surprised how rewarding it can be.

The Modern “Victory Garden”

Now is the perfect time to plant a survival garden. (National Park Service/)

During World War I and II, Americans at home responded to the call to plant “Victory Gardens” in their back yards and in public spaces across the nation. The main goal of the movement was to increase the public food supply and allow more commercially produced crops to be funneled toward the war effort. This activity was also a powerful morale booster for the citizenry, allowing people of all ages and abilities to feel empowered by their self-reliance and feel proud of their contribution to the war effort. In 1943, there were at least 20 million "war gardens" growing, which yielded a staggering 8 million tons of food in the United States. This was nearly half of the food consumed that year in the country. Jump forward to 2020. With self-quarantine recommended across the nation, you can do your part to limit your interaction with others and avoid some unnecessary trips to the grocery store. Plant a “Victory Garden” and stay the hell home. The sooner we all get serious, the sooner we can stamp out the COVID-19 pandemic.

Be Patient and Manage Your Expectations

If you’ve never tried gardening before, it’s a great exercise in patience and expectation management. You don’t plant seeds so you can eat today; you plant seeds so you can eat next month (or next year). A survival garden, just like any other garden, will require you to be patient. Nothing good grows overnight. It will be a month or two before the simplest and most low calorie vegetables (lettuce and radishes) are ready to harvest (if you took good care of the plants, and no diseases or pests struck your crop). Patience is a virtue that is valuable in many situations, gardening especially. In addition to being patient, it’s also important to manage your expectations. Not every seed will sprout and not every plant will make it to harvest. I remember more than a few “old timers” telling me to plant three times as much as we needed. That would give us one for the deer (even when we are trying to keep them away), one for the bugs (even with pest control) and one for the dinner table. Gardening is a lot like dodgeball. There’s a lot of running around, but if you aim low, stay reactive to threats and don’t expect too much, you might just win.

Some turkeys are just tougher to kill, and for those stubborn (read: Eastern) toms, the right gear does make a difference. It can be frustrating and downright draining to pursue an old longbeard that knows the game too well. So, here’s the good stuff that just might give you an edge on those ground-draggers this season.

1. LaCrosse Alpha Agility

LaCrosse Alpha Agility (LaCrosse/)

The high-performance foam in the sole of this boot gives the Alpha an athletic fit, and the cushion is one of the softest I’ve ever stepped on. Insulated versions of the boot weigh 4 pounds per pair, but the relatively light weight of the uninsulated boot is important if you cover a lot of ground for gobblers. The boot is designed to lock your heel in place, so your foot won’t slip if you cross a muddy, boot-sucking creek. $130–$150; lacrossefootwear.com

2. Primos Photoform Hen Decoy

Primos Photoform Hen Decoy (Primos/)

Sometimes your best bet for fooling an old Eastern tom is a single hen decoy and light scratches on the glass. This new ultra-­realistic decoy features actual turkey imagery printed on 3D molded foam that packs light and tight in your vest. You can place the deke in multiple positions, including contented, feeding, or breeding postures. $70; primos.com

The top-to-brisket spread of a mule deer buck appears to be about 18-inches, a useful dimension for estimating range and a big target for employing a MPBR for just an 8-inch target. There is plenty of room for a big of error such as a poor shot or a rifle that does not park every bullet inside MOA. (Ron Spomer/)

Outdoor Life’s Shooting Editor from 1947 to 1978 routinely shot whitetails, mule deer, even sheep without the aid of range-finding devices. To O’Connor “far” was 500 yards. His philosophy was to resist shots beyond 300 yards. But he also wrote “The hunter… should avoid the 400- and 500-yard shots if he possibly can, but … he should be prepared for them.”

By today’s laser-guided standards, O’Connor’s ideas seem quaint, but before we dismiss them as products of primitive technology, let’s consider what he and his shooting system could do.

Jack’s Way

Upon spotting a suitable animal, old Jack could, inside of a few seconds, assume the steadiest shooting position at hand, aim, fire, and hit his target. Out to 400 yards, rarely 500.

No fumbling for a laser. No smartphone apps. No button pushing. No turret dialing. Just aim, shoot, and break out the skinning knife.

A male—or “buck”—American shad from the Delaware River. (Tim Romano/)

I had to be tall enough to wear hip boots. That was the rule, and from the time I was 4 until my 8-year-old legs met the criteria, that rule really pissed me off. I’d sit on the basement steps while my dad gathered his tackle. He’d unclip his heavy rubber chest waders from the pipe on the ceiling. He’d zip his box of shad darts into one pocket of his fishing vest and a few packs of True menthols into the other. The next morning, he and his buddies would make their annual run to the Delaware Water Gap. It was only 63 miles north of where I grew up in Trenton, New Jersey, but to me, it was worlds away—a mythic place reserved for the men.

The river was too deep and cold and strong in April, Dad would say. The fish fight too hard. You’re just not ready. But each time I was left behind to pout with the Thunder Cats and Pee-wee Herman, my infatuation with American shad strengthened. Thirty-odd years later, it’s stronger than a flying elbow drop from “Macho Man” Randy Savage. A kid’s love for a fish doesn’t go much further than his ability to catch it, but with maturity comes an appreciation for it being one of the most historically significant species in the United States, swimming in one of the most historically significant rivers. I’m lucky to be able to call that river my home water, and even luckier to be part of a fishing culture that was almost lost.

A box of hand-painted flutter spoons. (Joe Cermele/)

Freedom Fighters

To most anglers, shad are bait. Hack off a gizzard’s head, soak it on the bottom, and you might end up with a 50-pound blue cat. Slow-troll a lively threadfin behind a planer board, and it might get smashed by a fat landlocked striper. The American shad, however, transcends a means to an end; it’s the end result. Females—called “roes”—average 3 to 5 pounds in the Delaware River but commonly push 7 or 8. The world record taken in the Connecticut River in 1986 broke the 11-pound mark.

For some (though not me, thanks), the payout is slow-baked shad, or shad roe sacks pan-fried in butter, both of which are considered delicacies. For most, it’s just about the fight. Fresh from the Atlantic and charging upstream against the swollen currents of spring, shad—like salmon—are on a mission to spawn. Stop that progress by sticking a shad dart or flutter spoon in a big roe’s face, and she gets mad. She’ll turn her wide body broadside and catch the flow, making a light spinning reel sizzle. She has a paper-thin mouth, so your drag better be loose, and your rod better not be too stout. She’ll change direction on a dime, zipping upriver so fast that you struggle to stay tight. You’ll also have to survive the jumps that earned her the nickname “Jersey tarpon.”

It seemed a simple task. Look back over the past decade of Outdoor Life’s annual bow tests and compile a list of the 10 fastest bows we’ve ever put through our testing regiment. Turns out, it wasn’t so simple after all. It was, however, an interesting look at the evolution of compound bows.

For starters, you’ll see that we have tested exactly one bow that has topped 350 feet per second. A note here about the numbers: We do not rely upon the manufacturer’s advertised speeds. It’s not that we think marketing teams would ever fudge numbers, it’s more that we’re just a skeptical bunch by nature (and trade). Thus, the speed readings reported here were averaged from multiple chronograph measures at the testing sites. The measured bows were set to IBO specs (30-inch draw length and 70-pound draw weight) and were shot using fletchless 350-grain arrows.

Another point worth mentioning: Manufacturers can enter one model per year in the test. Often, companies make models designed for maximum speed. Those models are seldom submitted for testing, likely because we grade on things like noise, vibration and draw cycle. And, as a prominent bow engineer once told me, they could easily build a bow to shoot 400 fps. But no one would want to shoot it.

I don’t want to give away too much before we jump into the list, but I will say this: The 2019 class of bows was the fastest group as a whole, but did not include that 350 fps performer. The 2020 test is being conducted as this is written, and rumor has it the class is plenty fast. But let’s take a dive into the 10 fastest models we’ve tested thus far.

10. Mathews Halon 32-5 (2017): 338.5 FPS

A velvet-racked buck makes the most of the growing season. (Mark Raycroft/)

Deer antlers confound us nearly as much as they fascinate and obsess us. As a population of hunters, we’re pretty good at quantifying them—the best of us guessing with surprising accuracy the inches of bone on a running buck at 100 yards—but we’re lousy at understanding how that buck grew his antlers, or explaining how those specific dimensions were achieved.

Maybe that’s part of the allure of antlers—their origin remains mysterious.

Trained wildlife biologists have only a little advantage. They can tick off the ingredients that go into building antlers, but they’re at a loss to predict with much accuracy how wide (or tall or heavy) a buck’s headgear will grow, or whether it will sprout a sticker point or a drop tine. And we are all even worse at predicting the specific conditions that result in outsize antlers come hunting season.

But ignorance doesn’t stop us from guessing. Around this time of year, you’ll hear your buddies (or at least, my buddies) cite various theories of antler growth.

“Good rains in April make for heavy antlers,” some say. Others claim that cool, dry conditions that delay tick infestations allow more of a deer’s nutrients to go to antlers instead of fighting blood-sucking vermin. Some say early rains promote antler mass but later rains build tine length.

EDITOR’s NOTE: The following information is based on federal law. Be sure to check with state agencies to make sure you are in compliance with state law.

Stay legal by always tagging waterfowl. (Toe Tags LLC/)

Ryan Warden became an expert on migratory gamebird regulations in 2011 after federal agents raided his Kansas duck lodge. He was later accused of breaking migratory bird laws—27 counts in total. Since Warden was an outfitter (taking money to take people hunting) each count was a felony. In the end, he avoided jail time and plead guilty to three misdemeanors: shooting one bird over his dove limit, shooting from a truck bed (he was sitting on the tailgate and you must have both feet on the ground to discharge a firearm), and not properly tagging his doves. Warden paid around $30,000 in fines and legal fees and was not allowed to hunt, fish, or trap in the U.S. for five years. He admits wrongdoing, but there were many rules he didn’t know. To assist the average hunter, he started a company called Toe Tags, LLC that helps hunters stay legal with proper tags, log books, and any other items you need when transporting, donating, or storing harvested waterfowl.

After spending countless hours trying to understand migratory gamebird laws during a federal investigation, he found several of the regulations confusing and realized many waterfowlers are unknowingly breaking game laws. He’s doing his best to keep them informed, so they don’t make the same mistakes he did.

Outdoor Life: What are some of the common missteps duck hunters make when they drive into the field or walk into a marsh?

Ryan Warden: Well, the first thing you said “driving into the field” that’s trouble right there. Say you drive the truck into a cornfield (like all of us do), if your tire rolls over a head of corn and busts it open and the kernels fall off the cob onto the ground…that can be considered baiting or field manipulation. I know that seems ridiculous, but it’s a mistake just about everyone makes. Are you going to get in trouble for that? Maybe, maybe not.

Teach you kids some new outdoor skills to fill up free time. (Christine Peterson/)

Unless you’re an engineer or calculus teacher, you probably aren’t going to be able to help your high school senior with math homework. Nor will you likely teach a 5-year-old to speak a foreign language fluently. Let’s face it, few of us are teachers and even fewer are trained to teach whatever grade level and subject matter your suddenly-homeschooled student is trying to learn. But you are qualified to teach outdoor skills.

How to sharpen knives, use a compass and build an emergency shelter are important. They’re also more fun than suffering through schoolwork. I’m not advocating parents permanently pump the brakes on reading and arithmetic, just gently suggesting you use this newfound time to do something other than fight over how much TV they watch.

“If you’re trying to force them to do schoolwork every day, that’s going to be a drag and they will get burned out quick,” said Zach Even, a high school art teacher in Lander, Wyoming, father to twin 11-year-olds and an avid outdoorsman.

So stop worrying about worksheets and e-learning and start thinking about the skills you’d really like your kids to know. The ones maybe your parents taught you, or their parents taught them. The ones you never really had the time to spend on before. Think about what you want your kids to be able to do if they found themselves in a survival scenario. And if you don’t want to go there, just think of the next few months as a way to bond over something you love, not the ones you’re being cajoled into teaching.

As a bonus, you’ll not only be creating a more capable outdoor companion, but it may also be a good refresher for you. And, who knows, your kids may learn some math and science along the way.

By the time you read this post, this bucks will have cast his last antler, making it ripe for the picking. (Mike Hanback/)

Many people have been hunting for shed antlers for two or three months, but not me. I wait until conditions are right—and that’s now.

Across America most all whitetail bucks have dropped their antlers by mid to late March. The last snows have melted, the weather is warming and deer herds are out of winter stress.

Take a look around. The woods are barren and brown. Grass and brush are pounded down. Crop fields and pastures are low to the dirt. Sheds are as visible as they’ll ever be, and ripe for the taking.

So lace up your boots and go. Here’s how to do it, and where to look.

1. Hunt Where the Deer Are

It's been a long day. Have a seat. (Adam Griffith via Unsplash/)

Spend a day hiking deep into the Yellowstone or Alaskan backcountry and the last thing you’ll want to do is pop a squat in the dirt like some sort of animal. Even if you’re just truck camping, you won’t want to do that. These four camping chairs vary widely in design—from big and overbuilt to lightweight and hiking-ready—but they’ll all prove their worth on your next excursion, whether it’s close to home or miles from the nearest paved road.

Lightweight, collapsible, brilliant. (YIZI/)

The YIZI has become the go-to camp chair for legions of diehard backcountry anglers and hunters, and no surprise. A cinch to set up and take down, it weighs 2.4 pounds; can support up to 300 pounds of weight; and collapses down to fit in an 11-inch bag, making it super easy to stash in a pack. You can buy a bigger, fancier chair, no doubt, but if you’re serious about trekking off the grid, your chair search should end with the YIZI.

Get your comfy on. (CORE Equipment/)

OK, so sometimes you’re not trekking deep into the wilderness but camping at your truck and wanting to get your comfy on. No shame. That’s where the sturdy, 12-pound Core Equipment comes in. The chair boasts padded arms and soft seats and back for max comfort in camp, along with an overbuilt cup holder and side gear pocket.

A classic gets upgraded. (Coleman/)

If you haven’t used a Coleman portable camping chair before, we honestly have no idea where you’ve been the past quarter century or so. At any rate, the 8.8-pound Portable Camping Quad Chair takes the basic Coleman camp-chair design and pseudo soups it up with a four-can cooler in the left armrest. The chair isn’t fancy, but it does what it does well: keeps your butt off the ground.

Twice the size, twice the fun. (Kelty/)

This camp loveseat chair is no doubt tailored for couples, with its two-person design and 500-pound weight capacity, but more power to you if you’d rather hog it yourself or share it with your gun dog. Either way, the low Loveseat, a beach-camping staple, has a base that stands 13.5 inches off the ground, keeping you close to the campfire for roasting franks and mallows. And between hunting and fishing excursions, the Kelty Low Loveseat will pull double duty at football tailgates and musical festivals with your beau.

Power up. (Glen Jackson via Unsplash/)

For modern sportsmen, the smartphone has become a must-pack piece of gear, whether it’s loaded with topo maps, weather tools, or scouting guides, or just an easy way to snap photos of a trophy. Portable solar chargers have eliminated needing to lug heavy battery packs into the backcountry to keep your smartphone and other devices charged. But portable solar chargers aren’t one-size-fits-all. These four top-rated chargers each have different intended applications, but they’ll all undoubtedly keep you powered up when you drop off the grid.

A hard-to-beat foldable charger. (BigBlue/)

As far as portable solar chargers go, you’d struggle to find one that tops the BigBlue 3, at least if you plan on spending a few days stomping around the backcountry. The BigBlue 3 is super lightweight, at 1.31 pounds, and folds down to about the size of a notebook for easy packing. And with four 7-watt, high-efficiency solar panels, it’ll charge your smartphone and devices fast, and all at once, with its three USB ports.

A rugged, waterproof charger ideal for fishing. (Outxe/)

Foldable multi-panel solar charges like the BigBlue 3 are great, but sometimes you need a device that can charge while you’re on the move, and in the river or stream. Enter the Outxe Savage, a 1.1-pound waterproof charger, perfect for hanging from a fly vest or sling. Roughly the size of a smartphone, it has a 2-watt high-efficiency solar panel, along with a built-in flashlight, Micro USB port, and crush-proof design, making it the perfect addition to your fly kit or tackle box.

A perfect mini-power station for long wilderness stints. (Jackery/)

OK, if you really plan to get off the grid for an extended amount of time—we’re talking a few weeks in an Alaskan moose or bear camp—you’ll want a serious portable power station in camp. Jackery Explorer 500 includes three USB ports, an AC outlet, and a 12V car output, and boasts a 518 watt-hour-capacity lithium battery, rechargeable via AC outlet, DC carport, or Jackery solar panels (sold separately). Fully charged, Explorer 500 has enough power to charge an iPhone about 50 times. Amazon customers especially praise the Explorer 500 for its display which shows precisely how much power it’s using and generating at any given time.

A handy device for a crisis. (Goal Zero/)

In camp, the Torch 250 can double as a light source, with a built-in 180-lumen spotlight and 70-lumen floodlight, and a solar charger, with a 0.8-watt solar panel and hand crank. Together, these features will ensure that you have power and light when you need it most. The Torch takes about a day to charge via the solar panel (it charges via USB, too). But, stashed in a go-bag or survival kit, it could no doubt come in handy in a crisis, especially with its 48-hour runtime.

Bison are one of the main wildlife draws in Yellowstone National Park. (David Restivo/National Park Service/)

Easter weekend is historically the start of the visitation season in Yellowstone National Park, but as mid-April approaches, and just days after the Interior Department waived entrance fees to national parks across the country, access to America’s first national park is in question.

The National Park Service is reportedly considering a request from public-health officials in neighboring Park and Gallatin counties in Montana to close Yellowstone Park. They said that by encouraging visitation to Yellowstone during the COVID-19 outbreak, the public—locals and visitors—could be endangered by inadvertent transmission of the virus.

“Our shared ability to respond to the ongoing COVID19 outbreak will be greatly complicated and imperiled by the arrival of thousands of tourists to our community,” said Matt Kelly, Gallatin County (Mont.) health officer. “It is imperative that you understand that Yellowstone is not simply an expanse of wide open land. It is a massive tourist attraction that attracts millions of people to our communities from all over the world. Most of these tourists congregate in visitor’s centers, rest rooms, gift shops, restaurants, and park attractions.”

For the next couple weeks, the issue is likely to be moot, as most of Yellowstone Park’s roads and facilities remain closed, not out of public-health considerations, but because winter still grips the Yellowstone Plateau on the borders of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Most park facilities open from mid-April through early June, depending on location, snow depth, and popularity.

Yellowstone officials did close its Albright Visitor Center near the West Yellowstone entrance, as well as Boiling River, a cluster of hot springs and thermal pools near the entrance that’s popular with winter visitors.

A sampling of the tackle that battled for rank in our tests. (Dan Forbes/)

Honesty is the best policy. When I ask someone what they think about a rod or reel, I want the good and the bad. A true answer comes with time. In a perfect world, you’d fish a piece of gear for an entire season before judging it, but sometimes you don’t have the luxury. That’s why when we test tackle, we strategically design a crash course that does the best possible job of telling us how every rod and reel will hold up in the long run, and how it will perform when it’s fished hard and rough, because that’s how we use our gear all season long.

This year, we’ve expanded our test categories beyond bass tackle to include light trout and panfish spinning tackle, as well as fly rods and reels. It’s all been put through the same rigorous paces for the sake of one goal: helping you decide how your money is best spent, whether you’re gearing up to fish a reservoir or a quiet mountain stream.

All of our testing was carried out on the water in the real-world scenarios this tackle was meant to fish. We considered how it stacked up based on the manufacturer’s specs and claims, and, more important, how we evaluated its performance, construction, and value as hardcore anglers.

Test-team member Steve Kennedy with a Lake Martin bass. (Pete Robbins/)

How We Test

On the Lake

For the past 20 years, I’ve spent my springs chasing gobbles. I can’t get enough of them, and my obsession has taken me from the crisp Colorado mountains to the swamps of southern Florida.

Outside of getting the opportunity to match wits with different birds in different terrains, it’s the camaraderie of turkey hunting I cherish — time spent with like-minded individuals telling tales of adventures past and those yet to come. Most of these conversations, at some point, typically shift to which of the four major subspecies is the hardest to hunt. Yes, I realize I just opened a can of worms.

I reached out to four turkey gurus I’ve hunted with over the years. Each is passionate, and each has chased multiple subspecies of birds. Of course, each has his own opinion on what bird is the most difficult to tackle.

1. Merriam’s

After spending a few days scouting, Danny Farris located this lone tom at just a tick above 10,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies. (Jace Bauserman/)

Where They Live: The mountainous regions of the West are considered home for what many consider to be the handsomest turkey of all.

The 7x57, .284, and 7mm-08 sided by side by side. (Ron Spomer/)

Why the heck do we have rifles chambered for the 7x57 Mauser, the 7mm-08 Remington, and the 284 Winchester when they all throw the same bullets at about the same top muzzle velocities? Why did they create all three of these anyway. Shouldn’t one be enough?

The honest answer is that there probably isn’t just one answer. The three cartridges were created over a span of 88 years. That was long enough for the world to go through two world wars and switch from riding horses to rockets. Maybe cartridge designers thought the older 7mms were no longer up to the tasks asked of them. But if so, they were wrong. Let’s take a magnifying glass to each of these 7mms and figure out why they’re here and which we might want to hire for taking our next deer or elk to dinner.

7x57 Mauser

The second largest (by body weight) antelope species in Africa was not too big for the 7x57 Mauser, pushing a 150-grain Barnes TSX at 2,700 fps. (Ron Spomer/)

This 1892 creation is one of the great, great, great grandpas of bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridges. It was one of the first created specifically for a bolt-action rifle. It blossomed shortly after smokeless powder came onto the scene. Just as importantly, it was chambered in the strong, new, fluid-steel barrels just then being perfected. Those barrels were soon being screwed to a new Mauser bolt action that to this day is the benchmark for a proper bolt-action rifle, the Mauser Model 1898.

This happy confluence of modernity coalesced just in time for serious field testing around the world. The British Empire was in full flower. It’s officers were pressed upon by rural folk from India to China to dispatch man-eating lions, tigers, and leopards. The 7x57, referred to as the 275 Rigby by the Brits, proved up to the task. It was deadly on Africa’s Cape buffalo, hippo, and even elephant. Ivory hunter W.D.M. Bell floored some 800 tuskers with his little 275 Rigby Mauser and 173-grain round-nose bullets. He aimed for the brain and usually hit it. Bell was known to shoot flying ducks with his 275 Rigby.

With business closing through out the country, employers asking employees to work from home and social distancing being encouraged. You can be stuck at home not knowing what to do. Being around the house all day can get boring, eventually and you will run out of shows to rewatch and things to do. Try some of these tips out that can keep you active and also get you ready for fishing or hunting season.

1.Practice your cast

Get your fishing pole out and set up targets at different distances and angles. If you have buckets use those. Try to hit the target with your cast. Make it a game, make each target worth points and see how many points you can get in 10 casts.

2 Practice your game calling

Pull out your calls and start practicing and tuning up your calls. It might drive your family and neighbors a little crazy but have some fun with it!

New tech like smart scopes won't ruin hunting, because we won't let it. (Swarovski/)

We have smart riflescopes and bow sights and rangefinding binoculars. We’ve got digital mapping apps, ballistic apps, and apps that tell us when the deer are moving. If there’s a challenge that exists in hunting, there’s a technological advancement to help alleviate that challenge. Naturally, this begs the question: Will technology ruin hunting?

The short answer is no, because we won’t let it. We (the general consensus of hunters) won’t allow technology to make hunting so easy that it ruins what we love about it most—the challenge, the hunt itself. Now, if hunting were only about collecting meat, things might be different. We would probably look for the most optimal meat-for-effort ratio we could find and then use technology to optimize our efforts. However, even the most vocal “meat hunters” restrict their tactics so there’s still a level of fair chase that’s acceptable to them. This doesn’t mean we won’t embrace technology (we’re already using it). It does mean that despite all the advancements, we will still find ways to make hunting challenging—and personally satisfying.

Game laws are the most concrete restrictions we follow, and legal regulation is necessary to keep folks honest, and protect game populations. But the majority of hunters have a strong and personal ethical code that is much stricter than the law. This looks a little different for each hunter though, and is likely the reason we see different, strong opinions on many of these matters.

The fact is, we each seek a different aspect of the hunting experience for satisfaction or fulfillment in the hunt. For example, a diehard whitetail hunter may use a state-of-the-art bow, 25 trail cameras, and every other gadget they can afford, but the challenge they seek is hunting an individual buck. It takes a ton of patience and knowledge to do this, no matter how much tech you use. If it were just about getting any deer, they wouldn’t use all those advantages, because there is no need to.

Another example: I love to hunt grizzly bears over bait here in interior Alaska. I use bait, as well as Ozonics, which make it harder for an animal to smell you. But I make the hunt more challenging by using a traditional bow—I have even used stone arrowheads. It can be really hard (and sometimes frustrating) to get a mature boar to show up at a bait site while you’re on stand, so for that part I’ll take all the help I can get. But running a good shot on a big, dangerous animal with a recurve or longbow is the challenge that I choose to focus on and embrace.

The Illinois DNR shut down all access to public lands this week. (Joe Genzel/)

This week the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, along with the Governor’s office, and Illinois Department of Health decided to close all state parks, fish and wildlife areas, recreational areas, and historic sites. The decision was made in hopes of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Let that sink in for a moment. Illinois shuttered access to the outdoors to further prevent a pandemic. Why? There aren’t crowds of people lining up to use Illinois lands in March, only a few folks running their dogs, hiking trails, or casting a line. These are not venues for mass congregation we have been told to avoid, but spaces to seek solace in a time of uncertainty. Also, to my knowledge, there have been no reported cases of COVID-19 that stem from spending time alone in the woods.

Full disclosure, I have lived in Illinois most of my life, fishing and hunting its public lands and waters for decades. The public access here is not great, mostly because the IDNR has been underfunded for years and has struggled to travel a consistent path toward better habitat management. You can see the direct results of that on many of our state lands (though some public properties are well maintained and full of wildlife).

Since I am from Illinois, I have an understating of the reasons behind this decree that non-residents might not. A bit of background: most of the decision-making on policy in the state is done by Chicago lawmakers. There has always been a divide between city politics and downstate politics. In many instances, Chicago does what’s good for Chicago, and in some cases that makes sense, because a majority of the population lives there and in the surrounding suburbs. Much of the money generated by the state comes from Chicago coffers too, so therein lies the power.

But often, this political machine runs poorly, and here’s an example: There are long paths that stretch the length of Lakeshore Drive, which winds along Lake Michigan in Chicago. Thousands of people bike, walk, and run there every day. According to the Chicago Park District, parts of the trail are closed right now, but some areas are open. As I write this, Chicago parks are also currently open. But game and fish areas are not? Essentially, Illinois is saying it’s OK to frequent confined city parks that are likely to have people in them, but not state parks that will have few visitors.

I suspect the folks who made this decision don’t spend much time on public land in this state.