On Oct. 30, Mike Lewis, 52, shot a once-in-a-lifetime buck. It was a head-turner, not necessarily for his own rack, but because the buck was toting around some seriously hardcore headgear: Another buck’s antlers, with a decaying hunk of deer skull ...
Hunting & Fishing
Whitetail Institute: The Staying Power of the Food Plot King
Think back to when you were a young, full-of-piss-and-vinegar whitetail hunter. Now, think of all you've learned about this fascinating game animal over the years and how you've adapted your hunting techniques to help you be more ...
States Warn Hunters: Venison May Contain Forever Chemicals
Wildlife agencies across the country have issued warnings saying they’ve found dangerously high levels of PFAS, aka forever chemicals, in deer, fish, and other wildlife. As a result, several states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, and Maine, have ...
California Hog Hunting Regs Loosened as Pig Plague Continues
Feral pig populations across the country are going hog wild as both swine numbers and range continue to swell, and California hog hunting is expanding to meet the growing nuisance there. The state joins several others that have loosened hunting ...
ASA Archery: Everything You Need to Know to Start Shooting
Have you ever attended a 3D archery shoot? Many are held annually at both indoor and outdoor venues at local, regional, state, and national levels. While attending one or two a year is great, you might consider plugging into a circuit that holds many ...
Maine Moose Hunting Tradition Dying Due to Warmer Bull Seasons
As hunting season temps heat up, many are abandoning a somewhat quirky Maine moose hunting tradition for the sake of meat preservation. Hunters in much of the US typically quarter and pack out big game animals larger than deer; but most ...
Are Hunters Seeing Shortage of Ammo as Seasons Get Underway?
The ammo shortage that began with the global pandemic in 2020 left many hunters with empty rifles and shotguns last hunting season — or, at least, with a less-than-optimal load that likely cost three times what it did in the before-times. During ...
Essential Gear for Perfect Backcountry Coffee
It’s National Coffee Day, and with a “Buy One Get One 50% Sale” going on at BRCC, there’s never been a better time to stock up on the gear you need to make a perfect cup of backcountry coffee. There are 1,001 ways to make coffee on the mountain, but ...
Birth Control for Wild Horses: Drama in the American West
The drama of wild horses and burros in the American West is playing out like a Shakespeare tragedy. As drought continues to plague the region, the animals, whose populations are growing, must roam farther and farther in search of water while ...
Badass AK Hunters Kill Charging Moose, Shoot Massive Bull
When Tana Grenda and Alishia Zemlicka, two well-seasoned western hunters, were dropped into a remote area of the Alaskan backcountry, they were hoping for a chance to rest, recharge, and have fun. However, with hurricane-like weather, a near-death ...
Comeback: Canadian Hunting Outfitters in a Post-COVID World
We settled into a makeshift ground blind with a moss-covered jack pine trunk in front, loosely woven dead branches, and a tall spruce at our backs. A mere 12 yards separated us from a 50-gallon barrel of oats and a dead beaver hanging from a rope. ...
Glassing Camp: Become a Better Hunter in the Off-Season
Unless you’re lucky enough to attend a military sniper course, there's not much more than internet videos to teach you how to use binoculars and spotting scopes. Most hunters develop glassing skills through years of trial and error. Glassing isn't ...
The Bait Debate: Bear Baiting as Predator Management
Walking the last 20 yards into our bait site, John Rivet motioned to slow down; he stopped and then peeked into the clearing. Besides a few chickadees in the brush, the northern Alberta woods were quiet. “No bears,” he said, and we pushed on. A ...
A Bowhunter’s Paradise: Caribou Hunting in Greenland
Justin Lee tagged out in the first two days of a weeklong trip. Caribou hunting in Greenland turned out to be way more archery-friendly than he anticipated. It wasn’t easy — not by any stretch of the imagination — but opportunities were plentiful, ...
Meet Brandon Palaniuk: Hunter, New Dad, and Angler of the Year
Brandon Palaniuk, his wife Tiffany, and their 3-month-old daughter Kora were two hours from home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, when we got him on the horn this week. They were on the road, traveling from Wisconsin, where Brandon had just wrapped up his ...
Vampires, Night-Ops, and Adrenaline: Hog Hunting in Texas
It was simply too fucking hot. We were in Santa Monica, Texas, for a media hunt, and 110-degree temps meant no animals were moving during the day. So we went vampire mode. We slept in our air-conditioned windowless barndominium rooms all ...
Hunting Forecast 2022: Extreme Weather Could Be Bad For Hunting
Sweltering heat waves, devastating droughts, extreme flooding, and destructive wildfires throughout the country could point to a brutal hunting forecast this fall. Mule deer, elk, wild turkey, and waterfowl hunters specifically could feel the impact ...
Rifles Allowed for Illinois Deer Hunting, With a Catch
After decades of limiting Illinois whitetail hunters to shotguns and muzzleloaders, the state is finally catching up with the rest of the country, save for a handful of other states. Well, sort of. Single-shot rifles will now be allowed for Illinois ...
A Big Buck Expert On Deer Hunting in the Rain
It was the second Saturday of the Minnesota archery deer season, September 2019, and I was settled into my hunting saddle long before first light on a piece of public land. This property receives plenty of archery and duck hunting pressure, and for ...
Atlatls, Pits, and Persistence: How Early Hunters Killed Big Game
Imagine heading into an endless expanse of prairie before dawn with a group of people all armed with a stone-tipped throwing spear or even just a sharp stick and possibly carrying painfully empty bellies. Imagine knowing that the lives of your ...
Be Ready to Strike During the Whitetail Deer Rut
I love the rut. If you're a whitetail fanatic, how can you not? North winds blow, and heavy antlers abuse trees. Pawed earth can be found under licking branches, and leaves stained yellow, red, orange, and purple cling desperately to every ...
ATV Accident: How Rescuers Saved a Hunter Who Drove Off a Cliff
Los Padres National Forest sprawls across coastal California, with nearly 2 million acres of chaparral, Jeffrey pine, and white fir running up peaks that turn silver with sun or snow, but in the dark, it’s pretty black, which is probably why a hunter ...
Behind on Utah Child Support? No Fishing or Hunting License
If you want to hunt or fish in Utah, you need to pay your child support. If hunters and anglers fall far enough behind in their payments, the state will revoke their hunting and fishing privileges. Period. The Utah law implementing this rule went ...
Field Dressing a Deer: A Step-By-Step Guide for New Hunters
Before we get started, allow me to preempt any comments about how I don’t know what I’m doing by saying there’s more than one way to skin a cat (or in this case field dressing a deer). The method I describe here is one of many ways you can field ...
Roadkill Rules: 30 States That Let You Keep Dead Deer
Until recently, an affinity for picking up roadkill wasn’t something you’d discuss in polite barbecue company. But salvaging the good meat from a dead deer — especially one that died after meeting your front bumper — is becoming more acceptable in ...
There Are Gray Wolves In New York Says DNA of Hunter’s Kill
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation doesn’t officially recognize the presence of wolves in the state — but the DNA test results of an 85-pound canid shot last year recently came back 99% wolf. Joseph Butera is the ...
Feds Close Units to Dall Sheep Hunting Along Dalton Highway
Despite public outcry and opposition from the state wildlife agency, the Federal Subsistence Board in Alaska has decided to close all Dall sheep hunting opportunities along the Brooks Range for at least the next two years. The board voted to ...
Duck Camp Drops New Zip Waders for Waterfowlers
Duck Camp Zip Waders • Easily adjustable suspension system• Quiet, durable outer material• Asymmetrical zipper allows for passthrough chest pocket• Chest panel and side daisy chains feature MOLLE webbing• Integrated, removable knee and shin pads• ...
Swamp Bucks: Plan to Bowhunt Deer in Florida This Summer
When the sun started to peek over the horizon and rays of light teased the land to life, I found myself sitting in a treestand anchored to a palm tree. The heat mixed with over 90% humidity was already too much, and as I wiped the sweat away from my ...
Like Eating Red Meat? Steer Clear of the Lone Star Tick
Ticks suck. It’s not bad enough that they burrow their tiny heads into places on your body that you can’t see without two mirrors and a flood light as well as spread diseases that can be potentially fatal to humans and animals — one species of the ...
