I admit I got annoyed with the 6mm Creedmoor. Why? The same reason I got annoyed with the 6.5 Creedmoor when it came out. For a while, the relatively new caliber was everywhere. If I read an article in a magazine, it was about how the 6.5 ...
Hunting & Fishing
Best Cellular Trail Cameras of 2023
A string of reliable trail cameras can be an invaluable scouting tool, giving you behind-the-scenes visuals of what whitetails are up to when you aren’t around. I’m no stranger to trail cameras. I’ve used them for years for pre-season scouting with ...
OTC Public Land Elk Hunting: The Highs and the Lows
I was up before the sun. Making coffee, reapplying Leukotape to my blistered feet, and getting ready to hike up the trail in search of a bull. As the sun began to rise, indistinct silhouettes slowly came into focus, signaling it was time. I ...
Hunting Camo: From Basic to Photorealistic and Back Again
Humans did not invent camouflage patterns. We discovered the concept like we discovered fire — we observed what nature does and replicated it to serve our purposes. Toads look like rocks, stick bugs look like sticks, and chameleons look like all ...
Being There For My Wife’s First Pronghorn: Priceless
“One hundred sixty yards. Hold right on the center of the vitals,” I say as Abbie sets up in her shooting position. The tripod, in conjunction with my backpack tucked under her arm, makes for a rock-steady rest. Just like we practiced the week before ...
Why Your Fishing Reel Gear Ratio Matters
As anglers, why should we care about the topic of fishing reel gear ratio? Good question. First, let’s be clear about one thing: You can catch plenty of fish without knowing anything about the gear ratio of your fishing reel. If ...
2 Indiana Hunters Mistaken for Coyotes, Shot After Dark
Want to know why positively identifying your target before you squeeze the trigger is one of the primary tenets of gun safety and why blasting indiscriminately into the night at noises is a bad idea? Ask two coyote hunters who were shot by an as-yet ...
Fishing Waders Buying Guide: Everything You Need to Know
Fishing waders exist because the biggest trout are always on the other side of the river, and it’s too far to cast from the bank. To get to those fish, we need to stand in ice-cold water without getting wet and developing hypothermia. We can get ...
BRCC Alberta Bear Hunt, Ep. 1: One Broadhead, One Bear
If the black bear population in Alberta, Canada, isn’t managed, the animals can destroy a farmer's fields in the spring with surprising speed. They can also do significant damage to the young spring progeny of ungulates in a given area if there are ...
Crappie Fishing: Fast Action, Good Eatin’
Many anglers relish the arrival of spring, and crappie fishing is one of the reasons why. Black and white crappie are among the many species of fish that respond to the warming water temperatures of spring. In lakes all across the country, ...
Potential World-Record Lake Trout Caught in Colorado – First Look!
Scott Enloe caught what is likely the new all-tackle world-record lake trout in Colorado on May 5 — it’s almost certainly a state-record fish. The absurdly huge laker weighed in at 73.29 pounds and measured a stunning 47 inches long with a 37-inch ...
American Bear Foundation: Heroes for Bears
American Bear Foundation founder and president Joe Kondelis is just a regular average-Joe kind of guy, the kind of guy you could sit with, drink a beer, and shoot the shit. It’s a cliché, but in this case, it’s the truth. In fact, his day job has him ...
Watch Spearfishing Champ Justin Lee in ‘By Way of Black Sands’
Justin Lee knows precisely who he is: a spearfishing champion, bowhunter, conservationist, and dedicated family man. Studded with jaw-dropping images of Hawaii’s wild places and narrated by Lee himself, SITKA Films’ new feature By Way of Black Sands ...
A Rock-Solid Turkey Vest Carries More Than Calls and Shells
This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission if you buy through these links. I first hit the turkey woods in the mid-1980s, trudging along in too-big boots and mismatched camo, trying to keep pace with my dad as he moved through ...
The Turkey Shotgun: What You Want in a Dedicated Gobbler Getter
Shotguns have a well-deserved reputation for being jacks of all trades. They are probably the most versatile firearms on the planet. When paired with the right ammo, a single good scattergun can drop everything from tiny upland quail to big burly ...
Women’s Warrior Retreats: Pushing Female Bowhunters Further
March 8 is International Women’s Day, which gives Free Range American a rad excuse to celebrate one of the badass females who are totally killing it in the hunting and outdoors industry. Krys Cook, owner and founder of The Ranch in Julian, ...
Fee Hikes for Wyoming Nonresident Special Tags Explained
A bill passed in the Wyoming state legislature on Feb. 27, 2023, and signed by Gov. Mark Gordon on March 2 substantially increases the cost of the nonresident special draw fee but leaves regular nonresident draw fees unchanged. On the surface, it may ...
How to Handle Wolves in Colorado Remains Controversial
In November 2020, Colorado voters passed Proposition 114 as a ballot initiative; the measure requires Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) to reintroduce wolves in northwestern Colorado before the end of 2023. As the deadline for reintroduction closes ...
Super Pigs: Huge Canadian Hybrid Hogs Poised to Invade U.S.
Massive, highly intelligent hybrid wild hogs — called “super pigs” — are running amok in the Canadian North, wreaking havoc and leaving massive destruction in their wake. Now, they’re threatening to invade the United States. Americans love a good ...
Senator Spends Night in Twitter Jail for Posting Hunting Photo
Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines of Montana landed in Twitter jail Monday evening after posting a photo on the social media platform. Twitter claimed he violated its “rules against graphic violence.” The offending image was of Daines and his wife, ...
Full Story: How Derek Wolfe Killed a Dog-Hunting Mountain Lion
Last week, former NFL defensive lineman and Super Bowl 50 champion Derek Wolfe killed his first-ever mountain lion with his bow and some help from a buddy’s hounds — and the cat is absolutely massive. The photo Wolfe posted to Instagram garnered ...
Why Theodore Roosevelt Was the Most Badass President Ever
Theodore Roosevelt faced life enthusiastically, and his go-get-em, never-back-down attitude took him from the New York legislature charging through the battlefields of the Spanish-American War and eventually into the White House. People may ...
Man Kills Kodiak Bear Inside Neighbor’s House with a 12-Gauge
For many serious big-game hunters, killing a Kodiak bear — the largest brown bear on Earth — is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hunters often save for years and travel thousands of miles to check off this bucket-list experience. Retired ...
Jonathon Blank’s Epic Mountain Goat Hunt on Kodiak Island
Jonathon Blank slowly squeezed his rifle’s trigger. At more than 300 yards, his 7mm WSM bullet found its mark — a Kodiak Island mountain goat. It hit a touch behind the animal’s vitals. Within 3 seconds, Blank cycled the bolt and fired a follow-up ...
Hunting Backpacks That Don’t Suck: Gear Guide
You can whack the hell out of a screw with a hammer, but you’d be a lot better off using a screwdriver. Apply that same logic to hunting backpacks. Hunting backpacks are tools, and you want the right one for the job. You could, in theory, pack out an ...
New Jersey Hunting Season for Black Bears Is Back On!
UPDATE Dec. 7, 2022: The New Jersey hunting season for black bears is back after a brief delay. On Tuesday, Dec. 6 (a day after the season was originally scheduled to begin), the New Jersey Appellate Court dissolved a temporary stay on the ...
Can Deer See Orange? – Know Your Game
A wave of blaze orange sweeps the country every hunting season as some 11.4 million deer hunters hit the woods. Hunters invest tons of time, energy, money, and more than a few prayers into the sport, hoping to fill their tags. Many worry their ...
How To Choose the Best Fish Cleaning Table
Beyond essentials like a filet knife and a scaling tool, a dedicated fish cleaning table should be in every angler's arsenal. Catching fish is a lot more fun than cleaning fish, and at the end of the day, when you grab your stringer or pull up to the ...
Veteran Hunting and Fishing Organizations Making a Difference
Veteran mental health statistics in the U.S. are sobering. The rate of major depression is five times higher than it is among civilians, and the suicide rate is 57% greater. Many face more difficult battles than the ones they fought when they ...
Hunting Accident Roundup: Hunter Falls, Left Hanging by Boot
On Halloween night, a Texas bowhunter survived one of the most terrifying things that can happen to a hunter — he fell almost 20 feet from a treestand and wound up hanging upside down by his boot. It was a hunting accident that could easily have been ...
