OutdoorHub
How to Recognize 5 Common, Lethal Deer Diseases
Like any other animal, deer are susceptible to a host of contagious diseases, illnesses, and nasty parasites. While only a small percentage of deer actually fall prey to these ailments, some of these diseases are very dangerous. It is not unheard of for entire herds of captive deer to be destroyed to keep some diseases, such as chronic wasting disease, from spreading to wild populations. Even though most deer illnesses are harmless to humans, it is still important to be educated about them. Hunters discover all the time that the animals they harvest are less than healthy, and this quick guide...
Dancing the Fall and Winter Jig That Bass Like to Eat
Most anglers fish some form of jig all year long, especially when the weather cools down, the grass dies off, and the bass shift gears from a shallow-water feeding pattern to a deep water feeding pattern. You can catch bass on a jig this weekend on lakes and rivers throughout the nation.
Swimming a jig
As aquatic weeds die in rivers and lakes and cold fronts move in, bass will hold in the submerged grass, looking up for bait to eat. By swimming the jig just above the grass, the bass holding in the grass often will come up and take the swimming jig. Or, as you swim the jig above the grass, if...
Video: Friendly Deer Gives Camper a Donut
Some deer are extraordinarily docile, but we've never heard of any greeting people with treats before. That is apparently exactly what happened to this camper in Idaho's Snake River Canyon. A young mule deer buck not only took the initiative to meet the man, but it even came with a powdered donut. In all likelihood, the sugary treat was placed there by another camper, but we would like to imagine that maybe this buck just happens to have a cache of powdered donuts.
What is your weirdest encounter with a deer in the wild? Has one ever cooked you a three-course meal? Let us know in the...
Fanged Deer Spotted in Afghanistan for the First Time in 60 Years
Talk about a Halloween announcement. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) announced last Friday that Kashmir musk deer, which are known for their strange, vampire-like fangs, have been spotted for the first time in 60 years in the remote forests of northeast Afghanistan. Musk deer were last sighted in the region by a Danish survey team in 1948.
"Musk deer are one of Afghanistan's living treasures," said Peter Zahler, WCS Deputy Director of Asia Programs. "This rare species, along with better known wildlife...
Anglers Catch Monster Alligator Gar in Texas
In September, Jakob Hals and two friends made a 3,000-mile round trip from Minnesota to Texas just for a chance at Trinity River's legendary alligator gar. These living fossils are among the largest freshwater fish in North America, and can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh as much as 300 pounds. Even an 18-hour drive could hardly diminish the anglers' enthusiasm, and their patience paid off with a massive fish measuring 7.5 feet and estimated to weigh over 200 pounds.
"This fish was the true river monster we came down to Texas to catch and we happened to get it on our second day of the...
The Center of Every Target is Exactly the Same Size
Though our first meeting was more than 15 years ago, I remember three events of the first day I spent with Texan Leon Measures like it was yesterday. First, I saw his young shooting students (we are talking ages six to 10) hit hand-tossed dimes, then aspirin, then individual BBs in the air with a sightless Daisy BB gun!
Next when I questioned how this was even possible, he did a demonstration for me. He gave me the BB gun and tossed an empty coffee can a few feet up in the air for me to shoot. I hit it, and he took the gun and told me to go pick up the can. Then, I brought it to him. He...
Video: Huge Black Bears Fight in New Jersey
This video, purportedly taken in August and just recently uploaded, shows two large black bears duking it out in the suburban neighborhood of Rockaway, New Jersey. According to state wildlife biologist Kelcey Burguess, the two bears appeared to be males, both weighing several hundred pounds, and possibly fighting over a female in the area. Black bear mating season typically runs from June to July, but is known to extend into August as well.
“They’re probably fighting or playing because there’s a good-looking lady in the area,” Burguess told Read more »
USFWS: Sport Hunting is No Threat to African Lions
Last week, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed listing the African lion as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. In contrast with some groups that claim hunting has harmed lion populations, USFWS stated that the primary factors in the lion's decline are loss of habitat, loss of prey base by poachers, and retaliatory killings by livestock owners. Instead of having a negative impact on the species as a whole, sport hunting has helped to manage the population, remove overly aggressive males, and provide funds for conservation and education.
“By providing incentives...
Suspected Cop Killer Caught in Pennsylvania, Hunting Bans May Be Lifted
For more than seven weeks, Eric Frein, 31, has been on the run in northeastern Pennsylvania after he is believed to have shot two State Police officers in September. Inch by inch, law enforcement officials from multiple agencies combed through the forests of Monroe and Pike Counties for Frein, who was described as a dangerous "survivalist" and armed with a rifle. The manhunt grew so intense that it prompted the state's Game Commission to close down hunting across...
First Ride: 2015 Honda Foreman Rubicon
When it comes to ATVs, there are no more loyal owners out there than Honda owners. Honda has a reputation for making bulletproof, high-quality vehicles. That reputation is well deserved, too. After all, Honda practically invented the sport with the 1970 ATC 90, a seven-horsepower three-wheeler intended to give dealers something interesting to sell during winter months when motorcycle sales cooled off. Little did they know then that they were creating an entirely new market.
Jump ahead to today. Honda recently unveiled the all-new Read more »
The Top 5 Biggest Bass World Records
Over the last century, bass fishing has seen a huge explosion in popularity. The species went from being primarily the target of sustenance anglers to a multi-billion dollar sportfish industry. Fish like smallmouth and largemouth bass are stocked widely outside their native ranges, and are arguably the most sought-after fish in North America. Bass fishing's success saw an upheaval in angling culture, with it still firmly rooted in its blue collar heritage and a healthy "catch-and-release" philosophy. Yet throughout it all, many bass anglers are aware that they are chasing the "Big One."...
NRA Freestyle’s ‘NOIR’: It’s a Business, Man
In NOIR Episode 17 “It’s a Business, Man,” Colion and LaSorte go head-to-head with retired NFL player Andrew Kline on the Freestyle field and discuss the possibility of freestyle shooting as a spectator sport.
...
Video: What Happens When You Shoot a Rotten Tree with a S&W 500
The Smith & Wesson Model 500 has earned fame as one of the most powerful production revolvers you can buy. Its cartridge, the .500 S&W, spits bullets that weigh 350 grains and generate a muzzle energy of over 4,000 foot-pounds. Basically, this revolver makes some very big holes---and some people consider it ideal for defending yourself against wildlife.
We're thinking that self-defense is probably not at issue in the video below. Shooting a large-caliber handgun at a rotten tree---with very little in the way of a backstop---is not such a good idea. Being in the path of tree's fall...
Did This Australian Angler Catch a “Tunicorn?”
Does something like as a "tunicorn" exist? The is the question that Australian angler Kim Haskell, 64, is asking after he helped to land a dogtooth tuna with what appeared to be a horn on its head. The 80-pound fish was caught earlier this month in the Coral Sea just off the Queensland coast during a fishing trip with Kim's brother Jamie Haskel and his nephew. The two brothers sent a photo of the strange fish to ABC Tales from the Tinny...
The BAREBOW! Chronicles: The Stalking Bull
For an hour-and-a-half, I had been stalking him---"stalking" in the most aggressive manner possible! Every time I would grunt, thrash the brush, and run right at him (using all possible cover) he would move out ahead of me, staying just beyond bow-range. On two occasions in the early stages of the encounter, he had approached to within some 30 or 35 yards, but he had hung up in places where I could see only the tops of his antlers; then, after a while, he would silently steal away, forcing me to put the rush on him again. Even though I had managed to keep the wind in my favor, the pattern...
9 Ways to Survive the Zombie Deer Apocalypse
Picture yourself atop your treestand. The forest is quiet and the only sounds for miles around are the rustling of leaves, the occasional screech of the wind, and you sipping coffee from a thermos. You feel stiffness in the fingers of your right hand because you haven't moved them in so long, and the breeze is cold. You notice it swaying the bow next to you. That's when you hear it---a mad braying from somewhere deep in the woods. It's a high-pitched bleating that is unlike anything you have ever heard, and it has a distinctly ominous tone. Soon, the call is joined by others and the cold...
Wisconsin Leopold Fans Reflect as They Reenact “Good Oak” Chapter
When felling an old red oak by committee, you learn plenty about the tree, the land that nurtured it, and the animals, birds, and people who benefited from its long life.
That was just one lesson learned when 18 hunters, tree-huggers, and other conservationists of various ages and backgrounds gathered October 4 in northwestern Wisconsin to re-create the “Good Oak” chapter from Aldo Leopold’s famous book, A Sand County Almanac.
Leopold wrote the chapter after pulling and guiding a two-man crosscut saw through his lightning-killed oak north of Baraboo on the Wisconsin...
Video: FMX Daredevil Jumps Over Stunt Plane
Red Bull recently released this video of an astounding jump by FMX rider Nick de Wit and aerobatics pilot Glen Dell. This stunt, nicknamed the Under Over by its participants, was a project two years in the making and considered extremely dangerous. It involved de Wit doing a backflip in his dirtbike over Dell's Extra 300 plane just as the aircraft passes underneath. With Dell flying low at about 200 miles per hour, the slightest mistake by either party could have ended in tragedy.
The stunt was pulled off without a hitch.
http://youtu.be/B3WNMu2XrOk
"It really is a three-dimensional...
First Case of Chronic Wasting Disease Confirmed in Ohio
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Department of Agriculture announced last week that a case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been discovered in the state. The disease was positively identified in a captive deer herd in Holmes County, and is believed to be the first case of CWD in Ohio. Wildlife officials stress that there is no reason to believe that the disease has been transmitted outside of the captive herd, which is currently under...
Retired Wildlife Officer Shoots Bear Breaking into His Home
Victor Peters, a retired Michigan wildlife officer living in Lady Lake, Florida, has seen some big bears in his time. Yet he said that the one that broke into his home last Wednesday was the largest he had ever met.
“I was very scared. I figured when I yelled it would take off, but it didn’t,” Peters, 64, told WFTV.
He estimated the bear to weigh about 500 pounds. It was not the first time that the bear entered his house; Peters believes that the same bear broke in last Tuesday by...