It was simply too fucking hot. We were in Santa Monica, Texas, for a media hunt, and 110-degree temps meant no animals were moving during the day. So we went vampire mode. We slept in our air-conditioned windowless barndominium rooms all ...
Hunting & Fishing
Hunting Forecast 2022: Extreme Weather Could Be Bad For Hunting
Sweltering heat waves, devastating droughts, extreme flooding, and destructive wildfires throughout the country could point to a brutal hunting forecast this fall. Mule deer, elk, wild turkey, and waterfowl hunters specifically could feel the impact ...
Rifles Allowed for Illinois Deer Hunting, With a Catch
After decades of limiting Illinois whitetail hunters to shotguns and muzzleloaders, the state is finally catching up with the rest of the country, save for a handful of other states. Well, sort of. Single-shot rifles will now be allowed for Illinois ...
A Big Buck Expert On Deer Hunting in the Rain
It was the second Saturday of the Minnesota archery deer season, September 2019, and I was settled into my hunting saddle long before first light on a piece of public land. This property receives plenty of archery and duck hunting pressure, and for ...
Atlatls, Pits, and Persistence: How Early Hunters Killed Big Game
Imagine heading into an endless expanse of prairie before dawn with a group of people all armed with a stone-tipped throwing spear or even just a sharp stick and possibly carrying painfully empty bellies. Imagine knowing that the lives of your ...
Be Ready to Strike During the Whitetail Deer Rut
I love the rut. If you're a whitetail fanatic, how can you not? North winds blow, and heavy antlers abuse trees. Pawed earth can be found under licking branches, and leaves stained yellow, red, orange, and purple cling desperately to every ...
ATV Accident: How Rescuers Saved a Hunter Who Drove Off a Cliff
Los Padres National Forest sprawls across coastal California, with nearly 2 million acres of chaparral, Jeffrey pine, and white fir running up peaks that turn silver with sun or snow, but in the dark, it’s pretty black, which is probably why a hunter ...
Behind on Utah Child Support? No Fishing or Hunting License
If you want to hunt or fish in Utah, you need to pay your child support. If hunters and anglers fall far enough behind in their payments, the state will revoke their hunting and fishing privileges. Period. The Utah law implementing this rule went ...
Field Dressing a Deer: A Step-By-Step Guide for New Hunters
Before we get started, allow me to preempt any comments about how I don’t know what I’m doing by saying there’s more than one way to skin a cat (or in this case field dressing a deer). The method I describe here is one of many ways you can field ...
Roadkill Rules: 30 States That Let You Keep Dead Deer
Until recently, an affinity for picking up roadkill wasn’t something you’d discuss in polite barbecue company. But salvaging the good meat from a dead deer — especially one that died after meeting your front bumper — is becoming more acceptable in ...
There Are Gray Wolves In New York Says DNA of Hunter’s Kill
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation doesn’t officially recognize the presence of wolves in the state — but the DNA test results of an 85-pound canid shot last year recently came back 99% wolf. Joseph Butera is the ...
Feds Close Units to Dall Sheep Hunting Along Dalton Highway
Despite public outcry and opposition from the state wildlife agency, the Federal Subsistence Board in Alaska has decided to close all Dall sheep hunting opportunities along the Brooks Range for at least the next two years. The board voted to ...
Duck Camp Drops New Zip Waders for Waterfowlers
Duck Camp Zip Waders • Easily adjustable suspension system• Quiet, durable outer material• Asymmetrical zipper allows for passthrough chest pocket• Chest panel and side daisy chains feature MOLLE webbing• Integrated, removable knee and shin pads• ...
Swamp Bucks: Plan to Bowhunt Deer in Florida This Summer
When the sun started to peek over the horizon and rays of light teased the land to life, I found myself sitting in a treestand anchored to a palm tree. The heat mixed with over 90% humidity was already too much, and as I wiped the sweat away from my ...
Like Eating Red Meat? Steer Clear of the Lone Star Tick
Ticks suck. It’s not bad enough that they burrow their tiny heads into places on your body that you can’t see without two mirrors and a flood light as well as spread diseases that can be potentially fatal to humans and animals — one species of the ...
Cutts, Cutties, and Cutthroats: America’s Frontier Trout
There is a magic hour on the South Fork of the Snake River — maybe only a magic half-hour actually — when cutthroat trout seem to spontaneously appear in the long sweeping riffles that spill into the river’s deep emerald green troughs. The ...
Sitka Unveils ‘Most Advanced’ Insulated Jacket and Hoodie Line
Every hunter can attest to just how miserable a day in the field can be if you don’t have the right layers. A shell that sheds water when it’s pouring, moisture-wicking base layers for frigid pre-dawn hikes, or an insulated jacket that’s easy on/easy ...
Don’t Screw Up Father’s Day: Get Dad Cool Stuff He’ll Actually Use
Shopping for Father’s Day is hard. It’s tempting to just get dad a gimmicky barbecue tool that will be used once before getting hung in the garage for the next decade. Or maybe a new pair of Crocs. But, this year, you don’t have to be that lame. ...
‘Revision of a Man’: Army Vet Tackles Modern Manliness With Poetry
Editor's Note: Here at FRA, we are a small but aggressive team. We're like a race car that we’re building while it zips around the track. Extending that analogy, Matt Smythe is the wheels: He is the primary point of contact between our edit team and ...
New California Bill Takes Aim at Wild Pig Hunting, Again
On the heels of a recent resounding win for bear hunting in California, a less-than-stellar wild pig hunting bill is currently with the state's Senate Appropriations Committee. According to a letter to the Senate Natural Resources committee signed ...
Prison for Man Who Illegally Trapped Thousands of Turtles for Pet Trade
A man who helmed a crew that illegally trapped thousands of turtles in Georgia and South Carolina to sell to Chinese pet collectors is going to prison. In Atlanta, US District Judge William M. Ray II sentenced Nathan Horton on Tuesday, May 10, to ...
Meet Justin Lee: Spearfishing Champ, Bowhunter, Cancer Survivor, Role Model
You’ve heard the saying “like shooting fish in a barrel.” When Hawaiian spearfisherman Justin Lee dove into Lake Powell for the National Spearfishing Championship held the last two days of April, fish in a barrel might’ve actually had a better chance ...
Joining The Spring and Summer Cobia Craze
Standing on the bow of a boat fishing for cobia through the hottest part of the day is no picnic. The sun is high and cooking you head-first through your hat. Clouds are thin and disappear too fast to offer any shade breaks. The breeze does nothing ...
Whitetail Property Tweaks: Low-Effort Improvements That Yield Big Results
I cut my bowhunting teeth chasing plains muleys. In my tiny slice of southeastern Colorado heaven, you'd be a fool not to. Then, in 2012, I went to Illinois on a whitetail hunt. I was blessed to bowhunt a fantastic piece of dirt and the whitetail rut ...
California Black Bear Season Will Remain In Place, Anti-Hunters Denied
For the second year in a row, the California Fish and Game Commission has turned away anti-hunting interests and stood by its sportsmen and women. The commission voted 4–0 against a petition filed by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) to ...
Hunting the Mountain-Dwelling Merriam Turkey
A nomadic wanderer with a beefy body and tail feathers with tips painted white, the Merriam turkey inhabits some of the most awe-inspiring places on earth and is a must-hunt wild turkey species. You’ve probably read or heard tales spun about ...
The Many Sounds of the North American Wild Turkey
While giving a seminar on public-land turkey hunting, a gentleman asked me, "What's so great about hunting a big, black-feathered bird? He'd never hunted turkeys before. The ivory on his necklace, ring, and belt buckle, along with a hat branded with ...
Getting Gobblers: Hunting the Rio Grande Turkey
The Rio Grande turkey is a hard-gobbling aggressive subspecies of wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) that inhabits a wide range of habitats. If I had to choose one wild turkey subspecies to hunt for the rest of my days, the Rio Grande would top my ...
What Do Wild Turkeys Eat? Find the Food, Find the Birds
Every subspecies of wild turkey has different behaviors. They all populate a variety of landscapes, live in different weather, and are hunted by different predators — all of which shape their overall behavior. One thing every wild turkey has in ...
The Osceola Turkey: Only in Florida!
The Osceola turkey, also known as the Florida turkey, is unique, and that uniqueness isn’t due to coloration, build, or vocal nature. What makes the Osceola a super-special bird is its location. There are many go-to states for Merriam, Rio Grande, ...
