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January 31, 2013
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I’m not absolutely certain if John Wootters invented deer rattling, but he sure was a driving force behind its popularity. In fact, Wootters—the man with the camo cowboy hat—was ahead of his time when it came to most everything whitetail deer related. We here at Outdoor Life were saddened to learn of his passing and send our condolences to his family.
Wootters, who followed in the great Jack O’Connor’s footsteps as editor of Petersen’s Hunting magazine, was really the first whitetail deer-specific expert. In the heyday of the hunting and fishing generalist, Wooters published the classic book: “Hunting Trophy Deer.” Though it might be impossible to imagine it in the whitetail-centric outdoor world of today, Wooters’ book was a rarity. Not only was it species specific, but it was also limited to hunting for trophy bucks, which pretty much only existed in Texas back then. A dog-eared copy sits on my bookshelf today.
[ Read Full Post ]January 30, 2013
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Perhaps it happened on a late-spring turkey hunt. Or an early spin through grouse cover. However or whenever it got there, there it is, a tick attached to your skin—most likely just above the ankle where you forgot to tuck your pants inside your socks. A small problem easily solved with a pair of tweezers, right? Usually, but…
For decades, hunters in New England, the upper Midwest, and elsewhere have had to deal with the possibility that a tick bite could mark the beginning of a bout with Lyme disease. Now the same ticks are spreading a new menace, and outdoorsmen need to begin the educational process again.
[ Read Full Post ]January 11, 2013
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As coyote populations have exploded over the last decade and the popularity of hunting them has skyrocketed, the cunning critters have become increasingly difficult to dupe. Here's how to rewrite the playbook and start dropping more dogs.
[ Read Full Post ]January 9, 2013
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The birds were coming in fast and low. A flock of at least 40 redheads had skirted our decoys once. Now they circled and were banking to make another pass. Just feet above the water they jetted toward us, but at the last minute they hooked behind our blind instead of in front of it.
"Cut'em now, behind the blind!" our guide called, so I popped up and shouldered my gun. Forty targets, flying full speed, at 20 yards makes for an intimidating shot. And when you're the only shooter and have got a blind full of other hunters watching you, it makes for a lonely shot too.
[ Read Full Post ] January 8, 2013
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I should have been on my back in bed. At least, that’s where my Outdoor Life colleagues thought I was, nursing a spiking fever. But instead of sipping herbal tea under the covers, I was piling up honkers on the shore of the Missouri River, halfway to a limit of the big, black-and-white geese, feeling only slightly guilty for playing hooky.
I don’t have an excuse for leaving my sick bed, except that it was the final day of duck season in the Central Flyway, and I’ve never seen more mallards and Canada goose on the river not far from my house. It’s the only excuse a hunter needs. Right? Cough, cough.
[ Read Full Post ]January 7, 2013
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Steve Darling was icefishing on South Dakota’s Oahe Reservoir when he noticed the dog tracks. There were dozens of them, fresh every morning in the new snow around the shoreline of the frozen lake.
Later, he spotted the authors of the prints—a pack of coyotes that crossed the lake each evening, keeping well away from the cluster of icefishermen, as they worked into the wind and filtered out into the coulees on the north side of the lake.
[ Read Full Post ]January 3, 2013
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Near season’s end, don’t get frustrated by educated birds and become a couch potato. From sizing down your spread to changing up your calling, the last waterfowl of the season require your most alluring tactics.
1) Sleeper Therapy for Field Honkers
Champion caller Scott Threinen (moltgear.com) recommends using lots of sleeper shells—up to 70 percent of your spread. “Below 20 degrees, geese will go to sleep to conserve energy immediately upon landing in a field. After a half hour to two hours, they’ll get up and start feeding. To simulate a real flock, place sleepers on the downwind side of your spread to look like recently landed geese, with walkers and feeders upwind.”
[ Read Full Post ]January 2, 2013
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With the trend in camouflage in recent years skewing digital, I figured it was just a matter of time before one of the two old stick-and-leaf pattern masters, Realtree or Mossy Oak, came out with their own digital version. So you can imagine my surprise when a release for the new Realtree Xtra (left) and Xtra Green (right) patterns just showed up in my inbox.
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