Americans love their underdogs. The comeback story is an age-old reminder that you can’t count someone out till the final whistle, bell, buzzer, or fat lady dropping the mic. Of course, some of the best comeback stories aren’t about people. In ...
Birds
The 8 Greatest Hunting Dog Breeds of All Time
When it comes to flushing birds, retrieving waterfowl, treeing big cats, or tracking wild game, every hunter has a dog in the fight. Many hunting dog breeds are absolute killers when it comes to the chase that’s coursed through their veins for ...
Banded Birds: Why Leg Bands are More Than Mere Hunting Trophies
For serious waterfowlers, few things are more exhilarating than your retriever returning to the blind with a bird bearing bling on its landing gear. Taking banded birds is a rare thing; it’s the waterfowler’s equivalent of dropping a 150-class ...
Ducks and Coffee: Three Days in Oklahoma With FowlCo Outfitters
Watching the horizon turn from darkness to a mixture of piercing pinks and oranges reminds me of sunrises over the Carolinas’ intercoastal waterway. The way the nearly-neon colors push the night’s cloud coverage away to reveal a sky so brilliantly ...
Cold Weather Duck Hunting Gear That Will Keep You Warm and Shooting
After a long, cold boat ride, we broke ice in the hole. Then, my host dropped me, outfitted in waders, by an oak tree in waist-deep water. “Don’t fall in,” he said as I was halfway out of the boat. “It’s 45 minutes to the ramp. You’ll be dead ...
Mississippi Duck Hunting Victory: Public Land Buffer Zone Rejected
Public land hunters scored a victory last week when the Mississippi Wildlife Commission withdrew a proposal that would have eliminated 40 acres of prime waterfowl country. Partially located in the Malmaison Wildlife Management Area of ...
Blood & Feathers: Wildlife Conservation and Fashion’s Lust for Birds
The stench of death loomed. Bombs exploded. Shots echoed along the street. Last words were forced from blood-stained lips, “Sophie dear! Don’t die! Stay alive for our children!” War dawned on the horizon. Gavrilo Princip steered Europe into conflict. ...
A Thanksgiving Duck Hunt Miracle
The Thanksgiving hunt, a red-letter event for so many hunters who look forward to the field before a day of food and family bonding, is a touchy subject at my house. I don’t hunt on Thanksgiving, nor on the day or two before. My wife, raised in ...
Poutine Recipe Twist: Use Wild Turkey Wing Meat and an Air Fryer
While french fries and hot gravy have been an American staple since at least the 1950s, it was our neighbors to the north who perfected it. French-Canadians began embellishing simple deep fried potatoes by adding not only gravy but also cheese curds ...
Wild Turkey Recipe: Buffalo-Style Smoked Wing Dip
Most turkey hunters don’t take the time to clean and cook the wings from a bird. Honestly, it's hard to blame them. Of all the potentially edible meat that is sometimes left in the woods, the meat on wild turkey wings is among the most forgivable ...
The John Oliver Duck Stamps Segment is Good News for Hunters
Love him or hate him, John Oliver just did something amazing for wildlife conservation with a segment about duck stamps and a message that absolutely deserves to be shouted from the rooftops. Through his television show, Last Week Tonight with John ...
Are Regs To Blame for Plummeting Turkey Populations?
The Ohio DNR is ruffling some feathers with a recommended change to turkey hunting for 2022 due to dropping wild turkey populations. A proposal to decrease the spring gobbler bag limit from two toms to one is currently up for approval by the Ohio ...
Waterfowl Starter Kit: Everything You Need to Slay Ducks and Geese
If you’ve been meaning to try waterfowling and you’ve done your preliminary YouTube research on hunting ducks and geese, you can be forgiven for thinking the endeavor requires a trailer of gear, a hiding place for 12 or 13 of your closest friends, ...
Underdog Game Recipe: How to Make Amazing Sea Duck Mole Tacos
I’m a huge advocate for the underdogs of the wild game cooking scene. Organs, tough cuts, and other maligned meats are written off by many hunters who lack the ability and imagination to go beyond the familiar. But even my fancy ass can’t deny that ...
Upland Hunting Starter Kit: The Gun, Boots, Vest, and Skills You Need
Upland hunting requires learning two skills: walking and shooting. You should already know how to walk. Then you give yourself over to the nose of a dog. That’s all there is to it. Get the gun and boots right, add a blaze orange vest to carry ammo ...
Cheesy Good Classic Wild Dove Poppers
For years, I avoided wild-game poppers. I thought they were pretty unimaginative. Deep down, I knew they were delicious, but the cliche appetizer wasn’t the kind of thing I got excited about. But as the dove breasts in my freezer reached the verge of ...
Field to Table: Biscuits and Wild Turkey Gravy
Biscuits and wild turkey gravy opened my eyes to the possibilities of wild-game cooking. I shot a bird that morning, and I decided to cook it up for a staff meal at the restaurant where I worked. My not-so-outdoorsy co-workers hammered it, then ...
Off Script Q&A with Lee Kjos: Outdoor Photographer, Waterfowl Legend
“Way back when I was a 20-year-old snot-nosed kid, I could have photographed the Allman Brothers. But an early cold front sent a wad of mallards south from Saskatchewan the morning prior. “Had plans to shoot Willie Nelson at the Saint ...
DIY Public Land .410 Turkey Slam in the First 2 Weeks of Turkey Season
Seth Gebo wasn’t planning to pull off one of the hardest things in turkey hunting. He connected with an Osceola in Florida on a buddy hunt a few days into the season. Then the lightbulb went off. With some last-minute plane tickets and a few hundred ...
Discover the Life-Altering, Mind-Melting Power of a Wild Turkey Cheesesteak
A good cheesesteak will make you question your whole life and then scoop another dollop of Cheez Whiz. It's like driving too fast or smoking a cigarette — part of the appeal is flirting with the inevitable. It’s not a matter of if it will kill you, ...
Wild Turkey Banh Mi: An Outdoorsy, American Spin on a Vietnamese Classic
When the French colonized Vietnam, they brought their food with them. The baguette, pâté, crème caramel (or flan), and other culinary staples found their way into Vietnamese kitchens and melded into the already vibrant food culture. The Vietnamese ...
Starter Kit: Gear Up for Turkey Season
Turkey season generally goes something like this: you find them, you call them, you shoot them. It's simple to turkey hunt—but it's not easy. Spring is most hunters’ favorite time to chase turkeys because the season plays on the one chink in a ...
Turkey Hunting the Pandemic, This Year and Last
“This corona deal sucks. Every parking lot is full and I heard four shots this a.m.” For once in my life as a turkey hunter, I could feel smug. The text came from a friend hunting the public area where I have chased spring gobblers for 30 years. ...
How To Start a Gun Dog
Once you hunt over a gun dog of your own, hunting birds without a dog, or hunting over anyone else’s dog, doesn’t feel like hunting anymore. It’s just walking around trying to shoot stuff. A bird dog connects you to the unseen world of scents in ...
How to Prepare a Wild Turkey Thanksgiving
I was patiently sitting, hands nipped with cold, listening to my own breath and the occasional squeak sqwuak eek eek from Chad Mendes as he made turkey calls in the Kansas morning frost. We sat for hours, listening to the echoes of gobbles from ...
Kicking Off Fall With a Tennessee Dove Shoot
Nothing marks the start of hunting season like a good old-fashioned dove shoot. Across the Southeast, Texas, and parts of the Midwest the ceremonial beginning of fall is often a gathering of friends and family — around a planted sunflower ...
