OutdoorHub
An Early-season Michigan Upland Hunting Excursion
The plan had been to be in the woods near Gladwin by 8 a.m., but it had been raining all morning and was still raining hard enough that it made sense to linger over coffee. There’s no doubt we were going to get wet; if you’re hunting grouse and woodcock after a rain and you are not getting wet, you are clearly in the wrong habitat. But there’s no sense in making it any worse than it has to be, eh?
As it turned out, we were in the woods only an hour later. Though the rain had stopped, all three of us---Al Stewart, his son Chris, and your humble correspondent---were soaked to the skin...
Semi-guided Bear Hunts: Great for the Frugal Sportsman
When his grandfather and father died, 22-year-old Edward Wilson III found himself the owner of a campground and an exclusive bear hunting concession covering 5,300 square kilometers of prime northwestern Ontario bear country. He didn’t have the equipment nor the funding he needed to offer fully guided hunts, so he chose another option. He decided to offer semi-guided hunts at a bargain price.
He would provide active bait sites and the hunters would do the rest. His hunters are required to most of the things that a guide would normally do: hang treestands, transport themselves back and...
10-year-old Girl Bags 13-foot Gator in Texas
Posing next to a gigantic 800-pound alligator, 10-year-old Ella Hawk is shorter than even the length of the animal's tail. The pint-sized hunter bagged the 13-foot alligator with a crossbow while hunting near the Guadalupe River on September 27, and her parents were not the only ones stunned by her massive catch. According to the Victoria Advocate, Hawk's entire hunting party were more than a little surprised when the girl landed a perfect shot between the alligator's...
Video: Alaskan Moose Brawl Spills Out into Suburban Streets
Moose are not a rare sight in Anchorage, Alaska, but when Josh Tyra found two massive bulls duking it out in his neighborhood, he knew he had to take a video of it.
“One was like, carrying the other one all the way across the street,” Tyra told WFSB after he and his father recorded the brawl on Friday.
According to witnesses, the bulls were fighting over the attention of a nearby cow moose, who promptly left as soon as the melee started. By that point, the bulls were already too focused on each other to...
Video: 20-pound French Bulldog Chases Off Bears
This little French bulldog might not know that its bark is stronger than its bite.
A California homeowner captured this incredible footage of their 20-pound French chasing three bear cubs off. The security cameras were rolling as three bear cubs wandered onto the back porch of their home.
However, the little French bulldog was none too pleased by the intruders in her home. The dog's fierce barks scared away the much larger bears in a hurry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PerOmnky0kA
In this video from a second angle you can watch the bear run into the porch swing as it hurries off...
5 World Fishing Records That May Never Be Broken
These are the legendary records. For decades, these fish records have stood unbroken, and while some of them may be unseated at any time, we won't be holding out breath. In some cases, it is simply because landing a record-sized fish and bringing it out of the water is much more difficult---or outright illegal---due to a fish's protected status. In other cases, it's simply because the record was so large and dominating, they brushed aside all other contenders.
Here are the five of the oldest fish records currently recognized by the International Game Fish Association. Over the years...
Video: How to Make a Knife Out of Bamboo
Bamboo is not just useful for making furniture and feeding pandas, it can also be used for fashioning small knives. Although bamboo is not generally that popular for bushcraft, it can come in handy due to its unique---and brittle---structure.
As Manny Edwards shows in the video below, bamboo can be cut and splintered in such a way that it provides a thin blade that is especially useful for cutting meat. The process usually requires a metal knife to produce and bamboo dulls very quickly, so you may be better off finding a sharp rock instead.
Still, if you are in an area with bamboo that...
Desert Tech SRS-A1 Covert Rifle
Countless studies have been conducted about the correlation between barrel length and rifle accuracy. Progressive thinking and advancements in ammunition ballistics have demonstrated that the axiom “longer is always better” is simply not true in most circumstances. My focus as a law enforcement (LE) sniper team leader has been on the rapid deployment of firearms that can easily deliver accurate rounds on-target at reasonable distances under less than ideal circumstances. Knowing that the "biggest" gun is not always the best choice in such applications, I am always seeking tools...
Texas Man Charged with Felony for Trimming Tournament Bass Tail
If you cheat at a fishing tournament in Texas, the last thing you should expect is a slap on the wrist. Officials with the Texas game wardens say one angler is looking at felony fraud charges after attempting to pass off a doctored fish at a tournament on Lake Fork last month. What is strange is that the angler was not trying to make the bass seem heavier, but rather smaller.
"Game Wardens working Lake Fork encountered a subject fishing a tournament who admitted to allegedly cutting the tail on a bass to make the overall fish length fall within the slot limit," wardens wrote on their Read more »
Rare Potential Record Opah Caught in Washington State Waters
Opah, also known as moonfish, are rarely found in the colder waters of the Pacific Northwest. These medallion-shaped fish are uncommon enough in their native tropical waters, but every once in a while they will venture north and be hooked by a very lucky angler. According to The Seattle Times, Jim Watson of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho may have hooked Washington State's newest record opah during a vacation with family and friends off Westport late last...
These Boots Are Made for Walking: KEEN’s Durand Boots Make the Grade
I was recently asked to field test KEEN’s men's Durand Mid-height waterproof boots, and I really didn’t know what to expect. I have a reputation for being hard on boots—I often travel over some pretty rugged and diverse terrain. I was comforted by the fact that these KEEN boots are assembled in their Portland, Oregon facility and have a reputation for being able to handle a lot of wear and tear.
The KEEN Durand boots are made of KEEN PU and a dual compound rubber outsole. PU resists breakdown and compression,...
Video: Creepy Bipedal Bear Filmed Walking in New Jersey Neighborhood
No, that's not a bigfoot or a man in a bear suit, that's a real bear walking on two feet.
The bear was spotted in Oak Ridge, New Jersey last Sunday by a man on his front porch. Before you start talking about evolution or any other far-fetched explanations, the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife has an explanation for the bear's bipedalism---the bear has injured its front paws and has been walking on its hind legs ever since.
Even with that relatively mundane explanation, watching a bear walk on two feet is bizarre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kowgYcjRTmE...
Video: Kayakers Stumble Upon Intense Brawl Between Rafters
You might expect to see a lot of interesting things while kayaking down a river, but two whitewater rafters duking it out is probably not one of them.
Fighting is usually a bad idea, and it's an exceptionally bad idea while you are whitewater rafting North Carolina's Nanatahala Gorge. These two rafters apparently did not understand that fact before they started fighting while traveling down a river in a raft.
Luckily for everyone the GoPro-wearing kayakers were able to break up the fight before it escalated too far. As the kaykers said "This is scary water, you have more important things...
Hunter Fends Off Grizzly by Shoving Arm down Its Throat
There are few animals in North America as frightening as an adult grizzly, and if one of these massive animals get it in their heads to attack you, your day just suddenly got a whole lot worse. Twenty-six-year-old Chase Dellwo was expecting to bag some elk in the Montana backcountry near Choteau last Saturday, but a chance encounter with a bear ended with him sticking his arm into its roaring mouth instead.
That decision may have saved his life.
According to the ...
Video: Man Demos Bulletproof Glass Using His Wife
There's having confidence in your product, and then there's just asking for trouble. This video, purportedly from the 1930s, shows a husband-and-wife team demonstrating a pane of bulletproof glass. Instead of testing the glass in a safe and scientifically proven method, the woman just holds the pane between her hands while her husband blasts away at it. With every shot the glass is jerked violently backwards. We're not sure what kind of ammunition he's using, but this is not safe by anybody's standards.
Even when she held the glass off to the side, there was still a good chance that she...
Video: 6 Money-saving Hacks for Bank Fishing
If you want to save a few bucks, it's very hard to argue with fishing from the bank. You get to avoid all the costs associated with owning and operating a boat, while the only downside money-wise is that you may lose a few more lures---a fair enough trade.
However, bank fishing requires a little bit more experience when it comes to finding prime fishing locations. You aren't going to be able to reach the same areas that boat anglers are going to be able to, so that may mean buying some more specialized equipment. Or you can try out these money-saving hacks that will teach you how to build...
Video: Bear Wants to Join Hunter on Ladder Stand
As you can probably expect, this hunter is not too enthusiastic about sharing his stand with a bear. Marshall Keop of Minnesota recently posted this video of a bear approaching a ladder and trying to climb it. Whatever camo the hunter was wearing obviously did the job it was supposed to, because the bear appeared to have no clue that the structure was occupied.
It was probably just thinking about how considerate it was for someone to install a ladder for its use.
In situations like this, identifying yourself and speaking loudly but calmly at the bear will often get it to turn around....
Michigan Farmers Dig Up Bones of Ancient Woolly Mammoth
Farmers in Chelsea, Michigan made a shocking discovery on Monday when a routine dig in a soy field yielded a massive mammoth bone. Trent Satterthwaite and James Bristle were draining water from the field when they noticed pieces of what looked like petrified wood. Upon closer inspection, the two men realized they were looking at bones---and they belonged to something very big and very old.
"We knew it was something that was out of the norm," Bristle told MLive.com. "My grandson came over...
Surefire Tactics for Catching Fall Bass
Many of us have spent a hot summer day casting for bass on some lake. It’s a great way to shed the stress of a hard work week---or any other reason you can come up with to just go fishing. Just because the summer has wound down, doesn’t mean you have to put away the bass fishing gear. Fall is a great time to boat some serious bucket-mouths. Let’s go fishing!// <![CDATA[
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Photo: California Mountain Lion Climbs 35-foot Power Pole
California wildlife officials had a rough time getting a cougar to leave its perch atop a power pole earlier this week. The mountain lion was spotted, ironically, near Cougar Buttes in Lucerne Valley on Tuesday, giving local residents a small scare.
The large cat apparently decided to scale a 35-foot-tall power pole and was not inclined to leave, even after officers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) showed up. Officials believe that the cougar was startled by students coming home from school and scrambled up the pole for safety---where it came dangerously near high...