After hours of catching nothing, I finally got my big break. There, just a cast away, several bass corralled a school of shad and were taking advantage of their position by blasting the bait into oblivion and gobbling up the wounded. With the wind in my face, I launched a...
Today’s gun writers can make a decent living writing clickbait. Any story titled “Top 10 Calibers for (Insert Critter Here)” is about guaranteed to pull readers in and make them argue, and website publishers love that. But the truth is, for killing deer inside 200 yards — where the overwhelming...
Do an online search for “speed bows” and you’ll find no shortage of articles and forum threads highlighting all the supposed problems associated with them for bowhunters. It’s become so common, in fact, for writers to trash-talk speed bows that we’ve created our own set of speed bow cliches and...
These soft, summer evenings in mid-July and August are when I officially start my scouting for the upcoming deer season . A couple hours before dark, I drive to one of my hunt areas and park where I can see a good piece into a field of low-growing alfalfa, soybeans,...
If you’re like me, you’d own 20 or more rifles, shotguns, and handguns, however many you could afford. But truth is, to have a blast shooting targets and hunting every species of bird and animal across America, you really only need five firearms. And those are the ones we’re talking...
Deer hunting in the Southeast isn’t what it once was. It’s now much better. Many southern states have taken aggressive steps — at the urging of hunters — to better manage their deer herds for older bucks and better opportunity. It’s paying off, too, as more monster deer stories are...
Right now, there’s a flatbed trailer parked in my driveway, stacked high with a magnificent pile of junk. I see an old grill, a mini fridge that hasn’t worked in five years, dull lawnmower blades, and a storm door with broken hinges. I’m almost afraid to write about it, for...
David Blanton knew he had target panic. But like many bowhunters , the 46-year veteran of the deer woods and longtime host of Realtree Outdoors had always been able to manage it, like an annoying but otherwise harmless preexisting condition. “I’ve always been a puncher,” Blanton says. “I draw back,...
I’m not saying your granddaddy isn't a good deer hunter. Chances are he’s killed more bucks with his open-sighted, lever-action .30-30 than all the local youngins hollerin’ “Smoked him,” “Pole-waxed that joker,” or my personal (least) favorite, “Just gave that ol’ slob a dirt nap” combined. And he'll shame a...
Thomas Baumeister studies the splayed-out carcass of a decomposed elk carcass as though it’s a crime scene. The outstretched neck points downhill like it’s reaching for a finish line, the legs extend uphill, hinting the animal may have slid on its belly, and the location of the carcass itself doesn’t...
Drought has hit much of the Prairie Pothole Region, and the dry conditions will likely affect duck production in 2021. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s May water index was down 80 percent from the previous year and almost 68 percent lower than the long-term (1948 through 2020) average...
Why would a fish eat a bug? I found myself asking that question the first time a buddy showed me a “Mayfly Rig.” After an unsuccessful day chasing walleyes on Lake Erie , and watching hundreds on the screen of my depth finder, I had nothing to show for my...
