September 10, 2020 | Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff
Wild turkey locations and movements are a mystery, adding to the bird’s appeal. As a result, biologists rely heavily on telemetry technology to understand the dynamics of wild turkey breeding, brooding, and mortality factors. Their conservation efforts ultimately benefit both the bird itself — and those of us who love...
Every day was a Saturday this recent turkey season. The ongoing pandemic sheltered folks in place. The result: more time to hunt. By many accounts, designated public-land parking areas looked like used-truck lots. Hunting license and turkey permit sales, state depending, increased. That’s a good thing for cash-strapped wildlife agencies...
The quail-sized poult, likely 3 weeks old or so, darted out into the road from where it had been bugging, followed by a lanky brood hen. While spotting just a single young bird indicates a tough run for that brood, one sighting is just that — no occasion for panic...
In a perfect world, all hunters and shooters would be able to walk out their back door and burn a few rounds any time the mood strikes. Need to sight in a scope or work up a new handload for your deer rifle? No problem, just set a target 100...
Becoming the best archer that you can be is critical to consistent bowhunting success. No matter your skill level, there is always room to improve, and the off-season is a great time to develop your skills and try out new equipment. Below, we’ll break down the fundamentals of archery in...
Hunting season might still be months away, but serious deer hunters everywhere are starting to prep for fall. Summertime is a good time to scout and get ready — but a few missteps now can have consequences later. Here are seven mistakes to avoid at all costs. 1. Hanging Treestands...
Has it been a good year for duck production? Delta Waterfowl ’s Matt Chouinard and Dr. Frank Rohwer analyze current breeding-duck habitat conditions. Click here for more Realtree waterfowl hunting content. And check us out on Facebook .
One of the fastest-growing hunting trends is deer management. It has value, but the right perspective is critical. It’s difficult to produce big, mature bucks on purpose, even in great areas. I’ve seen the challenges with managing for big deer. When Trophy Management Works Most of the time, it’s random...
We could never get tired of seeing pictures of big bucks and gobblers, but a lot of today's hunting photos look pretty much the same. They're perfectly posed, and carefully edited. That has more than a few hunters asking, "What happened to the good old days of tailgate shots in...
Fall is still months away, but it’s on the horizon. Whitetail news is slowly ramping up as we creep closer to the 2020 deer season, and a lot happened this month. From new public-land opportunities to one of the earliest potential cases of EHD on record, we have the latest...
I’m a deer hunter who’s never trapped before, but I’ve always said I would learn how to catch coyotes if the trapping season coincided with fawning season. But does trapping around the fawn drop actually increase fawn survival? Declining Recruitment To fully grasp the coyote-whitetail relationship, it’s important to understand...
Imagine a life where you’re forced to abandon everyone you’ve ever known. Family, friends, and acquaintances are all left behind, never to be seen again. That’s life for most whitetail bucks, and some does, too. According to Duane Diefenbach with the Penn State Deer Study Group, 50 to 80% of...