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September 8, 2023

Does your shotgun fit you? It’s important, and here’s how to address the issue

Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

Imagine that you purchased a quality, semi-automatic shotgun, primarily for hunting upland game birds and occasionally shattering flying discs.
The shotgun you chose was designed with input from renowned world champion shooters like Jerry and Lena Miculek. Then, you anxiously step to the line and miss 70% of the orange discs you shoot at. I recently endured that embarrassment, which was made worse when my friend borrowed the Model 940 Pro I purchased and hit 80% of the targets he shot at.

Does your shotgun fit you? It’s important, and here’s how to address the issue Read More »

Bowhunting Bushytails: Here’s how to do it if you’re up for a challenge

Featured, Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

One of my favorite places to bowhunt nut-fat, gray squirrels under the brilliant colors of freshly turned autumn leaves, is a damp lowland I call, the “tiny woods.”
If I had to guesstimate its size, I’d say that miniature woodland takes up about 3 1⁄2 acres of river bottom. Its configuration is akin to an old tobacco pipe, large and squarish at one end, then long and slender at the other end, but, without the downward curve of Sherlock Holmes fancy Calabash pipe. What the tiny woods lack in size is more than made up for in mature, mast producing trees, which attract numerous gray squirrels, red squirrels, and their smaller cousins: chipmunks.

Bowhunting Bushytails: Here’s how to do it if you’re up for a challenge Read More »

Minnesota’s elk-hunting season kicks off Sept. 9 in northwest: Here’s what hunters can expect

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Minnesota, National Hunting, National News, News /

The elk-hunting season kicks off Saturday, and 17 Minnesotans have been selected for once-in-a-lifetime elk licenses. Zones 20 and 30 in northwestern Minnesota will have seasons during the next couple months for hunters anticipating a big, trophy bull.
The first season will begin Saturday, and there are three separate seasons for elk hunters. Zone 20 will include 12 licensed hunters, while Zone 30 will include five licensed hunters. In addition, 30 Red Lake Nation tribal members will have licenses for the band’s annual elk hunt.

Minnesota’s elk-hunting season kicks off Sept. 9 in northwest: Here’s what hunters can expect Read More »

Small tracts, big bucks: Helpful tips for hunting whitetails on small properties

Featured, Featured, Featured, Featured, Featured, Featured, Featured, Features, Home Page News, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Hunting, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, National Hunting, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin /

The buck had to have dropped from the sky. That was all I could think of, since I had just looked at the scrape he was standing in only seconds before.
Spotting nothing there, I shifted my body to look the other direction and, then in one of those weird senses that old bowhunters learn to trust, I felt a hunch telling me to glance back to the original scrape. The tall-racked 8-pointer working the licking branch made me catch my breath and reach for the bow. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The tract I was hunting was no more than 15 acres, and bucks use it as a travel corridor during their November quests to find does.

Small tracts, big bucks: Helpful tips for hunting whitetails on small properties Read More »

Completing the circle: Hunting mentor becomes the guided

Featured, Features, Hunting, National Hunting, New York /

It was back in 2004 when I took a kid afield for New York State’s first-ever youth turkey-hunting weekend. Living in the Adirondacks then, the temperature bottomed out at a brisk 18 degrees on that Saturday morning. But Jake was more than willing to give it a try.
We called in a curious fisher shortly off the roost, and not surprisingly didn’t hear any gobbling. But later that morning we spied a pair of lone jakes, got set up into position and they dutifully strolled into shotgun range.

Completing the circle: Hunting mentor becomes the guided Read More »

Fast action saves truck from boat ramp plunge into Madison’s Lake Mendota

Featured, Features, Fishing, Home Page News, National Fishing, Wisconsin /

Good fishing stories write themselves after you futilely search Madison’s Lake Mendota for suspended walleyes and return instead with 10 nice bluegills in the 9- to 10-inch range.
But bluegills were just the postscript to the tense tale Joe Ballweg, 65, told his wife Aug. 21 after returning home to Prairie du Sac, Wis. If not for his quick thinking and flawless moves while launching his boat that morning, Ballweg might have ended the day shopping for a new truck, not cleaning a big catch.

Fast action saves truck from boat ramp plunge into Madison’s Lake Mendota Read More »

A deep look into Iowa’s 2023 roadside count, one of the best for pheasants in years

Featured, Home Page News, Hunting, Iowa, National Hunting, National News, News /

Iowa’s 2023 August Roadside Count data is out, and pheasant hunters across the Hawkeye state received excellent news relating to this year’s pheasant season. The statewide survey showed the highest statewide counts since 2015. The survey is conducted by Iowa DNR staff between Aug. 1-15, as they drive 218, 30-mile routes on gravel roads at dawn on mornings with heavy dew.
The statewide average was 22.5 birds per route, which is an increase of 15% over 2022 (19.5 birds) and also 17% above the 10-year trend.
“The bird counts were better than we thought in northwest and northeastern Iowa,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife research biologist with the Iowa DNR. “In the northeast, that is the highest that region has seen in 24 years.”

A deep look into Iowa’s 2023 roadside count, one of the best for pheasants in years Read More »

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