State Representative Justin Humphrey is calling for a Bigfoot hunting season, complete with dates, regulations, and tags. (Ryan McGuire via Pixabay /) If you’re planning to hunt in Oklahoma next fall, you might want to shave your back first. Definitely don’t wear a ghillie suit. That’s because if Oklahoma State Representative Justin Humphrey gets his

5 Winter Survival Skills That Will Keep You Warm, Dry, And Alive Every different climate delivers a unique set of challenges in a survival scenario, and winter is no exception. If you aren’t too careful, the frigid wind and cold can immobilize you with frostbite and then kill you off with hypothermia. In this article,

Warm hands are crucial for any activity in winter. (Tetyana Kovyrina, Pexels/) Hand warmers are one of the wonders of the modern world. They come in both low-tech and high-tech designs, but they all provide a comfy glow of finger-warming heat to cold hands. Just about all hand warmers are small enough to tuck into

A handful of .30/06 Springfield rounds. (Richard Mann/) Even with the introduction of the .308 Winchester in the early 1950s and the meteoric rise of the 6.5 Creedmoor more recently, the 115-year-old .30/06 Springfield remains one of the top-selling—and best—all-around cartridges for big-game hunting. It has and will continue to do it all, from Africa

A pair of late-season mallard drakes bank toward the decoys. (DerWeg from Pixabay/) Late-season game birds are different animals than the naïve pushovers of opening day. Bigger, fatter, fully feathered, they’re tougher than they were just a few short months ago. And they’ve learned their survival lessons the hard way. They’re skittish and tough to

Protect yourself from the cold with a solid base layer of thermal underwear. (Gantas Vaičiulėnas, Pexels/) Thermal underwear goes by many names—long johns, base layers, long underwear, warm leggings, tights, you name it. No matter what you call it, a warm base layer plays a key role in keeping you warm in the winter. But

SHOT Show as we know it didn’t happen in 2021, but that didn’t stop companies from releasing new rifles and updating existing favorites. There aren’t as many brand-new guns this year, but there’s still plenty to get excited about, including a new straight-pull bolt-action from Savage, a host of ultralight options, and expanded chamberings for

The deeper you travel into the wilderness and backcountry, the more prepared you have to be. Your skills and mindset have to be strong—and your survival kit needs to be well-stocked, because it could very well mean the difference between life and death. The wilderness survival kit that I’ve outlined below is designed for survival

By maximizing your solar generator, you can ensure that you will be completely prepared for anything that a winter storm may throw at you. If you go far enough back in history, you’ll find that the whole idea of disaster preparedness and survivalism started in northern climates as a response to Old Man Winter. People

The acrobatic sailfish is fishing’s most popular billfish. (Buccaneer Cup/) Folks call the patch of ocean near where I grew up, “Sailfish Alley.” That’s because for as long as the warm Gulf Stream current has flowed past southeast Florida, a wintertime migration of “spindlebeaks” has funneled south along this rich coastline. As early as the

Bluefin vs. Bluefish—the bluefish wins for the time being. (Ric Burnley/) Winter off the Outer Banks is raw. The sky is gray and the sea is angry. Wind streaks spray across the deck of Donnie White’s Sea Wolf, despite the captain keeping the bow of the 50-foot Carolina boat pointed into the blowing waves. In

Brian Butcher with his incredible state-record buck. (Will Brantley/) Brian Butcher had low expectations when he climbed into a deer stand on the evening of October 11, 2019. He would end up making the big-buck history books by killing a 321⅜ -inch non-typical whitetail—a new Kansas state record and the second-largest hunter-taken buck of all

Some simple survival kit additions can prove vital in various situations. (Apaha Spi / Unsplash/) If you fire up your favorite search engine and hunt for a list of survival kit components, you’ll find that most of them repeat the same things over and over. Knife, fire starter, and cordage are among the most commonly

Anse Brantley proudly shows off his first squirrel—a big, beautiful fox, to boot. (Will Brantley/) Squirrels rarely leave the treetops to forage on the ground in August, but this one is scampering down the side of the hickory trunk, right toward the forest floor. My son, Anse, and I are sitting 25 yards away, him

A groundhog has a meal of clover. (Vince Alvino from Pixabay/) Spend some time at a gun shop, and the topic of the best varmint cartridge will undoubtedly come up. Hunters will argue the advantages of the .22 Hornet, the .22-250, and even the .243, but rimfire cartridges are usually overlooked. No, you won’t whack

It’s important to always keep the humble battery on hand. (Danilo Alvesd/Unsplash/) The year is 1780, and Italian physician Luigi Galvani has a dead frog attached to a brass hook on the kitchen table. He and his wife were skinning the amphibian so they could rub its skin and produce static electricity. When the steel

Rabbit hunting offers plenty of late-season action for small-game hunters. Finding bunnies involves covering a lot of ground, so a lightweight scattergun is preferable. Fortunately, the thin skin of rabbits makes them ideal quarry for the smaller gauges, so you can take advantage of the weight savings that smaller-bore guns typically provide. Here are 11

Keep your phone safe, regardless of the tide’s intensity or the river’s depth. (Mayer Maged, Un/) Remember when even a tiny splash of water on your cell phone sent you scrambling into the kitchen so you could tear open a box of rice and sink your phone deep into it? If you have an older

Nobody’s going to forget 2020 anytime soon. Pandemic aside, I’ll remember it as a hell of a good year of hunting, and a good deer season in particular. I filled my own buck tags in Kentucky, Texas, and Tennessee. My wife, Michelle, killed her best buck ever in Kentucky in September and followed it up

Get a new look at some of your favorite trails by checking them out in the winter. (MireXa from Pixabay/) Winter hiking beats summer hiking for two reasons: There aren’t any bugs and it isn’t hot. It’s also the best way to beat the crowd and have the whole trail to yourself. It can get

Bobotie is a classic South African dish in which ground meat—often springbok or kudu—is laced with dried fruits and slivered almonds and fragrant curry then baked beneath a golden eggy crust. Beguiling yet deeply comforting, it’s a terrific vehicle for whitetail, elk, or moose. This recipe is adapted from renowned South African winemaker Adi Badenhorst;

It doesn’t matter if you tote an old flintlock, caplock, or traditional in-line, muzzleloader hunting is a blast, and in many states, seasons specific to these primitive guns boost draw odds. While regulations concerning scopes, sabots, and the like vary, these western muzzleloader hunts are worth looking into. Colorado Mule Deer Catch muleys before they

The author’s Browning B-80 shotgun, disassembled and ready for cleaning. (Phil Bourjaily/) When the season wraps up and it’s time to put your hunting gear away, take a little time to disassemble and properly clean your semi-automatic shotgun for storage. On September 1, 2021, when doves are flying fast and it’s helpful to have a

Okay, 2020 was not the best of years. But it wasn’t all bad, especially for hunters. Most of us found more time and a few extra reasons (not that we needed any) to be outdoors. Many of us made the most of it, too, in the form of filled tags. And a very select few—the

Buffleheads don’t have much of a reputation as table fare, but if you cook and season them just right, you’d be surprised just how rewarding they taste. (bryanhanson1956 / Pixabay/) It was not a great day of duck hunting. It was, in fact, a terrible day of duck hunting. In an all-day coastal marsh sit,

Wisconsin pro Mark Goldsworthy shows off a drake long-tail. (Layout Addictions/) Ducks have seen and heard it all by the time the late season rolls around. Hunters from Canada all the way down to the wintering grounds have been after them for months—and giving them a serious education in the process. It’s no wonder late-season

A good bushcraft knife can stand up to tough chores like splitting firewood. (Jim Cobb/) Over the centuries, knives have been refined. The flaked-stone edge became honed steel; the hide-wrapped handle became micarta scales. The blade shape changed based on the chore, and designers experimented with embellishments and adornments—in many cases turning knives into works

The essays from Ruark’s long-time-running F&S column are collected in this book, which belongs on a shelf at every hunting camp. (Amazon/) To celebrate the 125th anniversary of Field & Stream, we have been sharing some of our favorite stories from the history of the magazine. Every day, since mid-November, we’ve republished a new F&S

For longer fly casts, you’ll need to go beyond 10 o’clock on the backcast. (Glittenberg/Pixabay/) It doesn’t matter if you’re fishing for headwaters trout or bluewater sailfish, there are times when launching a cast at maximum distance is the only way to put a fly on the dinner plate of your target fish. And since

A group of hunters ride into lion country. (Field & Stream/) To celebrate the 125th anniversary of Field & Stream, we’re going to share some of our favorite stories from the history of the magazine. Every day for the rest of the year, we’ll republish a new F&S Classic on the website. Today’s entry, “The