The honest hunting blog.
Practical how-to guides, real gear round-ups, and the honest version of what works in the field. 80 articles and growing.
Hunting Ethics and Conservation
Hunting is far more than a way to fill a freezer. At its best, it is a relationship with wild places and wild animals built on respect, responsibility, and…
How to Field Dress a Deer
Field dressing - removing the internal organs from a harvested deer - is one of the most important skills a hunter can learn. Done promptly and correctly, it…
Squirrel and Rabbit Hunting
If you want to become a better hunter, start with small game. Squirrels and rabbits are abundant, widely distributed, and pursued with simple, affordable gear.…
Duck Hunting: Setup and Strategy
Few hunting experiences match a frosty morning in a duck blind - the whistle of wings overhead, decoys riding the chop, and a Lab quivering with anticipation.…
Mule Deer Hunting Out West
For many hunters, a Western mule deer hunt is a bucket-list adventure. Mule deer roam the sagebrush flats, aspen pockets, alpine basins, and broken canyon…
Black Bear Hunting Methods
Black bears are one of North America's most rewarding big-game animals to hunt. They are widespread, intelligent, and live in some of the most beautiful…
Wild Hog Hunting Tips
Wild hogs - also called feral hogs or wild boar - have spread across much of the southern and central United States, and their numbers continue to climb. They…
Spring Wild Turkey Hunting
Spring turkey hunting is one of the most exciting and accessible pursuits in North America. The woods are waking up, gobblers are vocal, and the game is…
Elk Hunting for Beginners
Few pursuits in North American hunting capture the imagination like elk. A bull elk bugling across a timbered mountain basin at dawn is one of the most…
How to Hunt Whitetail Deer
The white-tailed deer is the most popular big game animal in North America, and for good reason. Whitetails are widespread, accessible, challenging, and…
Hunting With Kids in Tow
Realistic timing, safety non-negotiables, and gear for kids who tag along on hunts - plus the honest one-paragraph answer on hunting while pregnant.
Getting Started: Women Who Hunt
A practical roadmap for women entering hunting: hunter education, finding mentors and women's programs, choosing a first hunt, and earning confidence in the field.
Women's Hunting Gear That Fits
Why downsized men's gear fails in the field: how women's jackets, pants, boots, and packs should actually fit, and the try-on checks that catch problems before opening day.
Best Times of Day to Hunt
Every hunter has heard the advice: "Hunt early, hunt late." There's real truth in it. Game animals follow daily activity rhythms, and certain windows of the…
How Weather Affects Animal Movement
Ask any seasoned hunter for the secret to consistent success, and weather will come up fast. Game animals don't read calendars, but they respond constantly to…
Hunting in Cold and Snow
Hunting in cold and snow is a test of preparation, judgment, and grit. When done right, it can be some of the most productive and beautiful hunting of the…
Late-Season Hunting Tactics
By the time the late season rolls around, the easy hunting is over. Animals have been pressured for weeks or months, the rut is a memory, and the woods are…
Opening Day Tactics
Opening day carries a weight no other hunt does. It's the culmination of an off-season of scouting, preparation, and anticipation. It's also, statistically,…
How to Cook Wild Duck & Goose
Wild waterfowl is lean, dark, and iron-rich, not the fatty supermarket bird. Here is how to render the fat, cook the breast medium-rare, and slow-cook the legs.
Field Care in Warm Weather
Heat is the enemy of good game meat. Learn to cool it fast, use shade and airflow, choose quality game bags, when to bone out, spot spoilage, and transport safely.
Field to Table: Cooking Venison
You filled the tag - now what? An honest, beginner-friendly walk through field-dressing, aging, butchering and cooking venison so none of it goes to waste.
Grinding Game & Making Sausage
Lean game needs added fat to grind well. Learn fat ratios, grinder basics, why cold and clean matter, plus simple breakfast-sausage and burger-blend recipes.
How to Sharpen a Hunting Knife
A dull knife is dangerous and slow. Learn edge angles, whetstones versus guided systems and strops, field touch-ups, how to test sharpness, and common mistakes.
Venison Backstrap: Five Simple, Foolproof Preparations
Backstrap is the best cut on a deer and the easiest to ruin. The rule is simple - do not overcook it. Five reliable ways to cook it, from pan-seared to stuffed.
Wild Turkey: Field to Table
A wild turkey is leaner and tougher than any store bird. Learn the pluck-versus-skin trade-off, how to brine the breast, and why the legs need braising.
Early-Season Hunting Strategies
The early season is a special window. The woods are still green, the weather is mild, and game animals are living predictable, pattern-driven lives undisturbed…
Upland Bird Hunting with Dogs
There's a rhythm to upland bird hunting that gets into your blood: the crunch of fallen leaves, the bell or beeper of a working dog, the sudden explosion of a…
Waterfowl Hunting Basics
Few experiences in the outdoors match the thrill of watching a flock of mallards cup their wings and drop into your decoy spread as the sun breaks over a…
Predator Hunting: Calling Coyotes
Coyote hunting is one of the fastest-growing pursuits in North America, and for good reason. Coyotes are abundant, challenging, and huntable across long…
Antelope Hunting: Open Country Tactics
Pronghorn antelope live in the most exposed terrain in North America. Their eyes match an 8x binocular, they run 60 mph, and they spook from a mile…
Bear Hunting with Bait
Bait hunting is the most productive way to take a mature black bear. Know the states, the legal bait mix, and how to build a site that pulls a shooter…
Coyote Night Hunting: Calls, Lights, Thermals
Most coyotes that die from a bullet die between dusk and dawn. Night hunting puts you on the predator's schedule - but it requires gear, calling tactics, and legal knowledge…
Crossbow vs Compound Bow
Crossbows and compounds both kill deer dead, but they're different tools for different hunters. Learning curve, season access, range, and physical demands all favor one over the other…
Deer Scent Eliminators Tested
Spray, ozone, carbon clothing - every scent control claim contradicts the next. Here is what actually works, what is marketing, and how to use what does…
Elk Game Bags & Meat Care
An elk yields 200+ pounds of boneless meat. Without proper game bags and a cooling plan you can ruin it in 24 hours…
Game Carts for Retrieval
Dragging a 180-pound buck out of the woods is unnecessary punishment. A quality game cart turns a 90-minute drag into a 20-minute walk…
Ground Blind Setup Guide
A pop-up blind dropped raw into a field will spook deer for weeks. A blind set up correctly disappears into the landscape and produces shots inside 15 yards…
Hog Night Hunting: Thermal Gear
Feral hogs are nocturnal, destructive, and legal almost everywhere. Thermal and night vision turn nights into the most productive time to thin a herd…
Hunting Backpack Frame Types
An internal frame disappears under load; an external frame hauls quartered elk. Frameless saves weight but punishes long carries…
Hunting Dog Training Basics
A well-trained hunting dog doubles your success and triples your enjoyment. Start with obedience, build to retrieves and finds, and avoid the rookie mistakes…
Hunting First Aid Kit
A backcountry hunting first aid kit weighs about a pound and can save your life. Most hunters never assemble one - until the day they need it…
Hunting GPS Units 2026
A modern hunting GPS does more than save coordinates. It tracks your dog, sends emergency texts, plans routes, and overlays property boundaries on satellite maps…
Hunting in Snow
Snow turns the woods into a transparent book - every animal that moved last night left a written record. But cold and wet kill hunters who didn't plan…
Hunting Socks: Merino vs Synthetic
Your boots get the credit, but socks are where the actual comfort battle is won. Merino, synthetic, blends, and liner systems each have a place…
Pheasant Hunting for Beginners
Pheasant hunting is the easiest upland sport to fall in love with - bright birds, dramatic flushes, and accessible public land across the Plains states…
Rifle Scope Mounting Guide
A scope mounted poorly will never hold zero, no matter how good the rifle or optic. This guide walks through bases, rings, torque values, leveling, and the first range trip…
Squirrel Hunting with a .22
Squirrel hunting with a .22 rifle is the cheapest, most skill-building hunt in America. Set up the rifle right, pick the ammo right, and head shots are routine to 50 yards…
Trail Camera Placement Tips
Trail cameras lie if you place them wrong. Bad angle, wrong height, or careless approach burns more bucks than it scouts…
Tree Stand Safety Harness
Tree stand falls kill or paralyze more hunters than firearms accidents. A harness, a lifeline, and a 5-minute setup eliminate almost all of that risk…
Bowhunting for Beginners
Bowhunting is one of the most rewarding ways to hunt. It demands that you get close, often within 20 to 40 yards of your quarry, which puts a premium on…
How to Hunt the Rut
For deer hunters, the rut is the most anticipated time of the season. It is the breeding period when normally cautious, nocturnal bucks abandon much of their…
Decoy Strategies That Work
A decoy gives an animal something to see, and seeing is believing. Calling appeals to an animal's ears and curiosity, but a decoy provides visual confirmation…
Calling Tactics for Deer and Elk
Calling adds an active, interactive dimension to big game hunting. Instead of simply waiting for an animal to wander past, you can speak its language and pull…
Hunting from a Tree Stand
Hunting from a tree stand is one of the most effective ways to pursue whitetail deer and other big game. Getting above an animal's normal line of sight,…
Still Hunting: Moving Slow
Still hunting is one of the oldest and most misunderstood hunting techniques. The name confuses people, because still hunting does not mean sitting still. It…
Spot-and-Stalk Hunting Explained
Spot-and-stalk hunting is one of the most active, engaging, and rewarding ways to pursue big game. Instead of waiting in a stand for an animal to come to you,…
Thermal & Night Vision for Predators
Predators do most of their hunting after dark, and so do the people who pursue them. Coyotes, hogs, and other nuisance animals are largely nocturnal, and in…
Best Game Calls for Deer & Elk
A well-timed call can turn a quiet morning into the hunt of the season. Game calls let you speak the language of the animals you pursue, pulling a curious buck…
Best Coolers for Hauling Game Meat
A successful hunt creates an immediate responsibility: getting the meat home in good condition. Game meat is the reward for the whole effort, and nothing…
Best Spotting Scopes for Western Hunting
Out West, hunting is often a game of finding animals before you ever move toward them. Across miles of open sage, timbered basins, and rocky alpine slopes, the…
Best Hunting Knives and Field-Dressing Tools
When the hunt is over, the work begins - and a good knife makes that work faster, cleaner, and safer. Field dressing, skinning, and quartering an animal are…
How to Choose Hunting Camo
Hunting clothing does two jobs: it keeps you comfortable enough to stay out longer, and it helps you go undetected. Beginners often obsess over the camo…
Best Hunting Boots for Every Terrain
Few pieces of gear affect a hunt as directly as your boots. They carry you to the stand before dawn, up the mountain, and through swamps, snow, and rock. When…
Best Hunting Backpacks
A hunting backpack carries everything between you and a long, miserable day - and on a successful hunt, it carries the meat out. The right pack disappears on…
Best Trail Cameras: A Buyer's Guide
A trail camera is like having an extra set of eyes in the woods around the clock. It tells you which animals are using a property, when they're moving, and how…
Best Rangefinders for Hunting
Knowing the exact distance to your target removes the single biggest variable in making a clean shot. For bowhunters, a few yards of guesswork can mean a miss…
Best Rifle Scopes for the Money
A rifle scope is the bridge between your eye and your target, and it's an area where smart spending pays off for years. The good news for hunters today is that…
Best Binoculars for Hunting
A good pair of binoculars is arguably the most-used piece of gear in your pack. You'll spend far more time glassing a hillside or treeline than you ever will…
How to Field Judge Game
Field judging is the skill of evaluating a live animal in the field - quickly, often at a distance and under pressure - to decide whether it meets your goals…
Wind and Scent Control for Hunters
Ask a roomful of experienced hunters what beats them most often, and you'll hear the same answer again and again: the wind. Game animals live and die by their…
Reading Animal Sign
Animals don't carry calendars or post their schedules, but they leave a detailed record of their lives all over the landscape. Learning to read that record -…
Hunting Safety: The Rules That Matter
Hunting is, statistically, a safe activity - far safer than many common sports. But that safety record isn't an accident. It exists because generations of…
Tree Stand vs Ground Blind
When hunters set up to ambush game, they usually have two main options: get up in a tree, or stay on the ground in a concealed blind. Both work. Both have…
Understanding Hunting Seasons and Tags
For a new hunter, the calendar of hunting can feel like a foreign language. Archery season, general season, muzzleloader season, youth weekends,…
How to Scout for Hunting Spots
Successful hunts are rarely luck. They're the payoff for hours of scouting done long before opening day. Scouting is the process of learning the land, locating…
Public Land Hunting: A Beginner's Guide
You don't need to own a ranch or know a friendly farmer to be a hunter in America. The United States is home to hundreds of millions of acres of public land -…
Getting Your Hunting License
Before you can legally hunt in the United States, you need two things: a hunting license and, in nearly every state, proof that you've completed a hunter…
Hunting for Beginners
Hunting is one of the oldest human traditions, and it remains a powerful way to connect with the outdoors, put high-quality food on the table, and play an…