Hunting and Fishing News & Blog Articles

Add more flavor. (Amazon/)

The days of charcoal are all but over. Pellets are the outdoor cook’s new best friend and these versatile, pellet-fueled units will have you smoking, grilling, and baking in no time. They’re easy to use and deliver consistent results and tremendous flavor.

Do-it-all workhorse smokes and grills. (Amazon/)

The Razorback can grill, bake, roast, and, of course, smoke. It features an easy-to-read digital control panel with precise temperature control. The hopper can hold 11 pounds of hardwood pellets and the unit features 305 square inches of cooking area.

Easy, no-hassle smoking perfection. (Amazon/)

The Holiday is an 8-in-1 unit that features a large 399-square-inch cooking area and a 10-pound pellet hopper. The automated feed system maintains temperatures between 180 and 450 degrees for simple, consistent results. The Holiday comes with a lifetime warranty.

Ideal size for the at-home cook. (Amazon/)

With 380 square inches of grilling area, the Renegade Elite is the optimal size for at-home use. As with all Traegers, the digital Elite controller precisely controls the temperature within 20 degrees with the turn of a dial. The unit includes a wire front prep rack and an integrated tool caddy.

Budget-friendly pellet performance. (Amazon/)

If you’re looking for a terrific pellet smoker/grill without a lot of bells and whistles, the Pit Boss is worth a long look. It features an impressive 440 square inches of cooking surface. You can dial in the digital temperature between 180 and 500 degrees and includes a removable warming rack.

Small-river walleyes are brute fighters on light tackle. (Bill Lindner/)

Turk Gierke is a 20-year fishing guide who lives in the heart of walleye country—Minnesota. But his favorite place to fish isn’t one of the state’s iconic 10,000 lakes. It’s the upper St. Croix River, which is only a few feet deep and less than 100 yards wide in many areas. The beauty of small and midsize walleye rivers like the St. Croix is that once you understand how to pattern fish on one, you can do it on any of them. According to Gierke (croixsippi.com), it’s a different game because conditions are always changing, so you spend less time glued to your electronics and more time actually reading the water.

You may not land as many giants in these smaller waters, but river walleyes fight harder—an 18-incher on light line in only 6 feet of flowing water will give you a run for your money. The more time you spend chasing river walleyes, the more you’ll sharpen your hunting instincts, but these tips from Gierke will shorten the learning curve.

Reading Material

Much like in trout fishing, flow and water clarity dictate success. Gierke says good flow and slightly stained water conditions are ideal. High, surging water the color of chocolate milk spreads the fish out and makes it difficult for them to feed. But when that high water starts to drop, visibility increases and the hottest bites happen because walleyes haven’t been actively feeding for a few days. Under falling and clearing conditions, Gierke says, the key is to target the edges of deep holes and flats, which he identifies first by reading the water—stronger flows cut troughs in the riverbed—and then zeroes in with sonar. But hotspots shift as river levels fluctuate.

“When the water comes up, the fish come up,” Gierke says. “In high water, I’ll be fishing in an area that might have been an exposed sandbar just a few days before.”

Bigger is better seems to be the mantra of today’s scope buyers, but remember to match objective diameter to power. No matter how big the main tube, objective diameter divided by power yields the exit pupil, and if that is smaller than your pupil, you’ll lose brightness. (Ron Spomer/)

Bigger! Brighter! Nearly 110 percent light transmission! Sees in the dark!

Few things in hunting optics are more hyped and misunderstood than riflescope brightness. Every shooter wants a bright, bright view. And every scope maker promises one. But the truth is:

Riflescope brightness is not as big a deal as advertising makes it out to be.Differences in brightness from scope to scope are often undetectable to users.Some features credited with brightness don’t even contribute.Some high-end scopes aren’t as bright as some costing half that.
The rose, purple, and green colors you often see reflected on objective lenses indicate an anti-reflection coating, usually several layers. Oddly enough, they do not change the color of the image that exits the eyepiece, but they do brighten it considerably. (Ron Spomer/)

Before we dive into details, let’s agree that a bright scope is useful. Who wants to peer through a dim scope at murky images? When we put that magnified view over a deer or bear, we want to clearly see not only the subject, but our aiming reticle hovering over it. It’s important to know what “ingredients” provide that in a bright riflescope.

Big objective lens—Here’s something everyone understands. The bigger that front lens, the more light it lets in. If you want to see what you’re aiming at in low, low light, get a giant objective lens! The bigger the better. Maybe.Big main tube—Forget those antiquated 1-inch main tubes. You need 30mm at a minimum and 34mm is even better because anything smaller restricts the light passing through, right. Uh, no.Lens coatings—Anti-reflection coatings, to be precise. Do these really make a difference? Oh yes!Light gathering ability—Oh yeah, this is the big one. A scope that really gathers light is the brightest, right? Wrong.
This is the extreme test for riflescope “brightness.” Look toward the setting sun at an animal in the shade. If the scopes antireflection coatings control flare and glare properly, the shadow subject, although dim, are sharply defined with crisp edges and good color saturation, all of which helps make it stand out visually. (Ron Spomer/)

Half truths and misconceptions are what’s wrong with the four points above. Let’s address them individually.

Is Bigger Better?

The author shows off a heavy bowfin caught in the Florida Everglades. (Courtesy of David Graham/)

Bowfins are controversial. The very mention of these “trash fish” on social media can incite warfare in the comments. They have been here since the Jurassic Period, but I first found them 20 years ago along the tailwaters of Lake Columbia in Arkansas. I was 12 years old, fishing the muddy banks of a spillway. Battling with a bowfin was so violent compared to the bream and bass I was used to—I became obsessed.

Everything I learned in those early days came from having boots on the ground. Information about catching bowfins was scarce, and it’s still scarce today. Much of what I figured out while chasing these underdogs across seven states came from my ability to read water. Bowfins thrive in river and tidal systems, but ironically, they don’t like current. Targeting them in these areas means using the flow to create road maps to the places where the water essentially isn’t flowing at all, or at least very little. If you’re ready to give these brawlers a shake, here are the most critical things I’ve learned about finding and hooking them in moving water systems.

Ride the Tide

The inland portions of coastal lowlands that the tide reaches but the salinity does not are some of my favorite places to target big bowfins. Success revolves around fishing along grassy floodplains and in feeder creeks during a falling tide. Sawgrass edges, thick mats of hydrilla, and other forms of river grass or pads affected by tides provide excellent habitat for bowfins. But as the tide falls and exposes the vegetation, the fish will be flushed out of these hiding places and get condensed into smaller, weed-filled pockets. I like to target these fish with creature baits, or any soft plastic that imitates a crayfish. You can punch through cover with them, and work them slowly and precisely, which is often key because in low water, a bowfin isn’t usually as willing to move too far for a meal.

Read Next: How to Catch Northern Snakeheads and Why You Should Kill this Invasive Species

A lighter pack is a better pack. (Kyle Glenn via Unsplash/)

Long-distance hikers and backpackers obsess over minimizing the weight of their gear. More sportsmen would certainly benefit from doing the same, especially those who intend to cover miles or spend substantial time in the wilderness. Because, after all, hunters and anglers have the added weight of a rifle or fishing tackle to reckon with. We’ve rounded up four ingenious pieces of camping gear that’ll help shed pounds from your pack and prove super handy in the backcountry.

An easy-to-pack solar light source. (Amazon/)

The Luci inflatable solar lights won us over on a recent Alaskan fishing trip. The Pro model puts out an impressive 150 lumens of light and lasts 50 hours per charge. It’s also waterproof and rechargeable via USB if sunlight is in short supply. Perhaps most notably, the Luci 2.0 weighs just 4.4 ounces—about equal to a deck of cards—and deflates to 1.5-inch-thick, 5-inch-wide disk, making it a perfect, easy-to-pack way to provide light to your campsite.

A cleverly designed cooking grate. (Amazon/)

If you’re bent on cooking over an open fire, this stainless-steel, 19.8-ounce portable camping grill creates a 9.1-inch-by-10.2-inch cooking surface when assembled and breaks down to an 11.4-inch-by-0.9-inch tube, for relatively easy storage and packing. According to user reviews, the grill isn’t quite as durable as, say, a heavy-duty welded steel grate. But that’s no real surprise. What the Grilliput will do is pack easily and help you reduce weight.

A practical tool in a mini package. (Amazon/)

A wave of mini keychain multi-tools have hit the market over the past few years. But many of these bitty tools, though novel, tend not to be terribly practical in the backcountry. The Gerber Dime is an outlier in this regard. The 2.24-ounce workhorse boasts 10 different tools—a bottle opener, needle-nose pliers, a wire cutter, a blade, a package opener, scissors, a medium-flat driver, a crosshead driver, tweezers, and a file. And yet, through some next-level design know-how, the stainless-steel Dime measures just 2.75 inches when closed, and users have applauded the little wonder for its quality and durability.

A space-saving cooking tool. (Amazon/)

At 10 ounces, this silicon-sided pot weighs less than many other backpacking pots and holds a substantial 1.4 liters. (It’s also available in 2.8- and 4-liter versions.) The 7-inch pot’s chief appeal, though, is that it collapses down to about an inch thick, ensuring that it takes up almost no space in your pack. The X-Pot’s aluminum base heats up just like a traditional camping pot, and it should work with most normal backpacking stoves.

Outdoor perks. (Leslie Cross via Unsplash/)

You’re addicted to coffee. You might try to deny it, but if you’ve ever gone on a hunting and fishing trip without your morning cup, you know that it’s a certified fact. (You’re in good company, for what it’s worth: Teddy Roosevelt reportedly drank a gallon of the stuff a day, even when in the backcountry.) Fortunately, the days of suffering through cowboy coffee are long gone, and today’s sportsmen have tons of choices when it comes to brewing up a cup while afield. We’ve narrowed down four options, one of which will surely suit your next outing.

A simple, cost-effective way to satisfy caffeine cravings. (Amazon /)

This 32-ounce container has a super-tough 18-8 stainless steel outer pot, designed for cooking and boiling water in camp, which is handy. But, for caffeine-addicted sportsmen, the real appeal is the internal French-press component, which makes brewing ground coffee beans straightforward and easy: No paper filters, no instant coffee, no plethora of parts to keep track of and clean. Plus, it’s affordable. This pot has received an overwhelming amount of praise from Amazon reviewers, and no surprise.

A percolator perfect for a crowded deer camp. (Amazon/)

The 32 ounces of coffee that the Stanley Adventure All-In-One Boil can brew should be enough to share with a buddy. But if you’re throwing a big deer camp or cooking breakfast for a crowded duck blind, you’ll want to opt for the stainless-steel Farberware Classic Yosemite Percolator. Ideal for camping-stove cooking, it brews about 96 ounces of coffee, has a reasonable price tag, and seems to hold up better than many enamelware percolators. Plus, it just has a nice, classic look.

Instant coffee that’s actually tasty. (Amazon/)

If weight is a concern on your upcoming outing, instant coffee can fill the void of a normal cup of joe and prevent you from having to pack excess coffee-making supplies. Opinions abound online about the best instant coffee, but Mount Hagen is a clear favorite, in terms of taste anyway, the downfall of most instant-coffee options. Mount Hagen is organic and fair-trade certified, and, no shock, it isn’t exactly cheap. But if you’re after tasty coffee, it’s a good option. Plus, since it comes in a jar, not in those little plastic pouch things, so you won’t have to worry about littering on the trail.

A cheaper instant option. (Amazon/)

Though Mount Hagen might dominate in terms of taste, it certainly might set you back a bit financially. If you can’t stomach spending that much money on instant coffee, Alpine Start receives generally favorable taste reviews. The little plastic pouches that it comes in aren’t compostable or recyclable, unfortunately, so you’ll have to keep up with litter, but you might find the savings worth it.

Snow prepares to put a round downrange from the kneeling position. (Bill Buckley/)

I recently had a conversation with a hunter who was telling me about the rifle he bought a couple of years ago. He said he’s put seven shots through it—four at the range to zero it, and another three on the three animals he’s killed with it. I think he expected me to be impressed with his economy. I wasn’t.

Over the years, I’ve witnessed many hunters flub shots or miss opportunities because they weren’t adequately prepared for the moment. Most of the errors can be directly attributed to a lack of trigger time.

For anyone looking to avoid these pitfalls, I’d suggest making a commitment to improve your proficiency by practicing with your favorite hunting firearm before opening day.

What I’ve sketched out here is a plan to put 200 rounds through your rifle with a series of drills that will polish the skills you need for the field. This is spread over eight visits to the range, where you’ll shoot about 26 times per session—a manageable task.

The 200-Round Program chart. (Outdoor Life/)

Getting Started

Jason Cook after being attacked by a Florida panther. (Jason Cook/)

Hunt turkeys long enough and you are bound to bring in a predator looking to make a quick meal out of an unsuspecting hen. Usually the predator is a bobcat, fox, or coyote. But a few weeks ago, guide Jason Cook was in Florida and called in a much bigger critter—a panther. Cook was hunting with a friend in mid-March on opposite sides of a leased turkey property. The two men had not heard a gobble in days, but on this morning, Cook thought a gobbler had sounded off in the distance. He hit the tom with some faint hen yelps, but didn’t get a response.

“About 10 minutes later I decided to make three loud calls,” Cook said. “I made the first two, and just as I went to make the third, I was blind-sided. It felt like someone had hit me across the face with a baseball bat.”

A panther had clawed his face, opening up several large gashes on his head. Cook made it to his feet. His face was covered in blood and it seeped into his eyes, but he managed to see a panther running away. The impact was so forceful, it knocked the gun from his hands. Cook called his buddy, who was already back at the truck after another slow morning.

This is a trail cam image of the panther that likely attacked Jason Cook. (Jason Cook/)

“I called him after the panther clawed me,” Cook said. “He was joking and said: ‘I thought you were going to give it another 15 minutes. It’s only been 13.’ But when I got back to the truck, his mouth dropped wide open. He couldn’t believe what had happened to me.”

Before Cook could even put his gun put away, a Florida game warden was on the scene. He asked what had happened as Cook still had blood streaming down his face. He told the warden “a panther attacked me.” The warden didn’t believe him, but Cook reiterated the story.

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.

Bear hunting in Idaho’s Selway requires glassing with powerful optics from high perches. (Toby Walrath/)

You could start a fight in most taverns by naming the nation’s single-best deer unit. But throw out the same hyperbole about black bear destinations, and you probably won’t get much of an argument. In part, that’s because bear hunters are a reticent bunch. They’re not out to publicize or defend prime spots, largely because they don’t want other hunters knowing about them.

Sure, some die-hards will claim North Carolina or even New Jersey has bigger bears, and Alaska may have more. But for sheer numbers, liberal hunting regulations, and public land to spare, I maintain that nowhere beats Idaho’s Selway Zone.

Consider the real estate. The Selway has 1.6 million acres of it, nearly all public, with abundant access. You have the option to bait bears with whatever putrid recipe you can conjure up, and its mix of mountainous terrain and grass-covered hillsides lends it to long-distance glassing.

Enough outfitters operate here to service hunters who don’t have the knowledge or gear to go on their own, but there’s not enough hunting pressure to depress the resource. The best evidence of the huntable surplus is that Idaho issues two over-the-­counter bear permits to any hunter in the Selway, regardless of residency, for less than $300 total. Bear season extends for 138 days in spring and fall. And about 70 percent of spring bears are taken over bait.

Idaho's Selway Zone is mountainous and remote, and it's nearly all public land. (Outdoor Life/)

The Selway Zone comprises units 16A, 17, 19, and 20, generally south of U.S. Highway 12, and is squeezed by the Montana border to the east and the forks of the Clearwater River to the west. That huge swath of country produced just 117 bears for hunters, according to the latest harvest survey. That relatively low harvest indicates the vast scale of the country, with few hunters stabbing into its interior.

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.

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

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.

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