The off-season might seem long and dreary, but hardcore waterfowlers know it offers them precious time to prepare for the next campaign. In fact, preseason to-do lists often seem so daunting that hunters don’t know where to start. Here’s how several high-profile duck and goose nuts spend their “down” months...
Has your Momma ever given you that look with the lowered eyebrow and clenched jaw that said, "Get yourself in line or else?" Yeah, most everyone has experienced that at some point. It's called non-verbal communication. It can be paired with any given emotion, but we seem to remember the...
Every year we hear the whining in turkey camp: “They’re all henned up!” Here are some tricks to getting that gobbler all to yourself. 1. Rise Up You've found a gobbler but that turkey is with a lot of hens. In this kind of situation, you need to rise earlier...
Wait for him to stop. Let him turn broadside. Are you steady? Are you on him? Don’t take the shot unless you feel completely comfortable. That was the advice from my mentors when I first got into hunting. And I’ve said the same to people I've mentored myself. Careful shot...
Nesting mallards have it tough, but Delta Waterfowl ’s hen house program has been making their lives easier and boosting production for decades. In fact, by 2022, the group will have almost 10,000 hen houses available for ducks, which could produce about 45,000 ducklings. “When you look at the landscapes...
Of all the waterfowling misconceptions perpetuated by social media and barstool banter, confusion about possession limits might be the most perplexing. Online questions about how many ducks or geese you can keep in your fridge or freezer often prompt wildly varying responses, such as: “Three times the daily limit plus...
When I moved on from squirrels to hunting deer with my dad in the 1970s, there were about 200,000 whitetails in Virginia. Today, we’ve got five times that many. In the 1980s and ’90s, we went from “if it’s brown it’s down” to the “big buck” era. Whitetail management was...
Is there really such a thing as a “tough” game animal? After all, a bullet or arrow through the vitals will do the job on anything, from squirrels to elephants, right? That’s true. But equally true is that some critters, due to the size of their vitals, thickness of hide,...
Let me start with a caveat. I hate killing snakes — even the venomous species. I can’t count the times I’ve shared a western Kentucky fishing hole with a cottonmouth, or a woodlot of squirrels with a copperhead. As long as I see them first, it’s all good. Still, venomous...
If you want to watch a fight, mention jump-shooting to a group of die-hard snow goose hunters , and then grab a cold drink, sit back and listen to the fireworks. Depending on whom you ask, jump-shooting spring light geese is an efficient, ethical way to kill a bunch of...
A talking head on outdoor TV puffs his chest and declares, “Man, the full moon is the worst time to hunt!” Sounds pretty good, and you buy it. Your daddy told you never to overhunt a spot, and you never doubt Pops. Stands to reason that if another hunter tromps...
Unless they have excess vacation time, several trailers packed with decoys and an unlimited fuel budget, most spring snow goose hunters book with a guide to (hopefully) assure a quality experience. But laying down your cash is the easy part. Before that occurs, you should thoroughly investigate outfitter options and...
