Thundering gobbles echoed through the Wisconsin woods as sunlight pierced the horizon on a late-May morning. Three toms gobbled from their roosts in large white oaks on a secondary ridge across the valley from a flock of yelping hens.
Now that whitetail season is over, a lot of hunters will be heading out to chase coyotes so they can pass time until spring. Just like with deer hunting, there will be some guys who get really hardcore, but the majority of the folks in the field will be your average Joe schmo.
Often, when breaking camp in the morning, we tend to pack up and head out. We are tempted to move on without glassing the immediate area, as one gets the feeling there couldn't possibly be something in the immediate vicinity where we have spent the last eight to 12 hours. This temptation can lead to a big mistake: We all know stories of people who've seen game as soon as they've gotten out of the tent, or even before leaving the tent.
There are times you are going to experience a lot of snow on the ground. This can happen because you've signed up for a winter hunt: Kudos to you if you are out there when most people are hunkering down to watch Netflix.
For many people, getting out on a single mountain hunt could be the highlight of the year. For others, getting the shot at a Dall's Sheep or Mountain Goat could be the hunt of a lifetime. If you have any chance of chasing sheep, you won't regret having the right gear—and experience using it—before you start hiking on the first day.
Admit it: Half the fun in competing in shooting events is getting to pull that trigger and hear your gun go bang. For rookies and pros alike, there’s just nothing like ringing steel and the rush that comes with managing recoil and adrenaline.
Jerky is that great pocket food, no matter how much mud or snow you slog through in the field, or hands ya’ shake at a trade show, you will still eat it without worrying about anything else but curbing your hunger.
For generations, hunters have left indelible footprints on this Earth, signs that they once occupied the land, drank from the rivers, and partook in the circle of life that was Gaia herself. Gaia’s motto was simple then, and it is still simple today: life begets death, death begets life, and as humans we are intrinsically a part of this circle.
FFP can get you a huge edge in competition, on some hunts, and on the field of battle. It can make you faster at longer distances and give you the ability to transition between targets of varying distance with speed and precision. FFP is freaking awesome. But it's not always better.
There are a bazillion different kinds of guns out there, many of them tricked out to meet the owner’s exacting demands, so it's impossible to lay out what rings and bases are needed for every single setup, but we'll go over a few of the classics we see all the time.