In quite a few states, fall turkey seasons run concurrently with deer season. High up in a treestand — or comfortably passing time in a ground blind — some hunters like multigame options, combining their effort for both deer and autumn turkeys. When doing so, there are some choices to...
Ambitious folks love to set goals, and duck hunters are no different. But sometimes, our visions don’t mesh with reality. When I was young, my buddies and I would naively discuss silly waterfowl hunting aims we hoped to achieve that year. “I want to kill 50 birds at Rush Lake...
Our third Duck Hunting Nation roundup covers the big skies of the Central Flyway. From huge flocks of mallards and geese whirling over North Dakota grainfields to endless lines of redheads and pintails off the Texas coast, this flyway offers perhaps unlimited potential. We’ve updated each state’s page with license...
No matter where he hunts, every waterfowler wants to score a prime bull canvasback. That can prove challenging, however, as cans are notoriously finicky about where they migrate, stage, and winter. Further, there just aren’t that many canvasbacks in North America, with a breeding population estimate of about 651,000 in...
Years ago, when someone steered a truck towing a duck boat onto Interstate 55 during December or January, you knew where they were heading: the rice fields or flooded timber of Arkansas. But for about the past decade, many of those rigs have veered a bit northeast of the world’s...
The old guy stunk at skeet. I mean, he was a positively terrible shotgunner. But his Polaroids from the duck blind told a different story. “I ain’t a great shot,” he said repeatedly. “But I’ve learned to put birds in my lap so I don’t have to be.” Basically, the...
September 24, 2020 | Turkey Blog with Steve Hickoff
Are you stuck in a rut making kee-kees and kee-kee runs to call in young turkeys of the year? Try reaching out to autumn gobblers with fighting purrs and other bad-boy tactics. Title Bout The hunt involved three guys, a turkey dog, and a gang of fall longbeards. A friend...
Our second Duck Hunting Nation roundup covers the waterfowl-rich Mississippi Flyway. Stretching from remote Minnesota rice lakes through Louisiana's coastal marshes, this tradition-rich flyway features some of the country’s most famous duck and goose hunting opportunities . We’ve updated each state’s page with license costs, links to current regulations and...
Headlamps cut through the hazy pre-dawn, confirming our fears. We had unexpected company in our opening-day goose field, and the uncertain COVID-19-influenced 2020 waterfowl season had begun. The situation shouldn’t have surprised us. With widespread furloughs, layoffs, travel restrictions and safer-at-home orders during the 2020 pandemic, more folks throughout the...
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...
The greenwing would have been lunch. The protozoans had other plans. Seconds after starting to skin the plump drake, I noticed its dark breast meat was littered with small white granules. Disappointed, I recalled some college zoology lessons and realized I’d be eating a sandwich that noon. Many hunters have...
Our first Duck Hunting Nation roundup centers on the Atlantic Flyway. From tiny wood duck sloughs to coastal gunning for sea ducks, the region offers perhaps unmatched variety for waterfowlers. Despite recent reductions to daily limits of mallards and Canada geese, the flyway continues to produce solid hunting opportunities. We’ve...
