Hunting

Recently, I tested a semi-auto waterfowl shotgun that costs around $500. It’s a clone of a popular Italian shotgun. It hit where I pointed, ate just about any duck load, and dropped birds like any shotgun I’ve ever shot. There’s a black version of the same gun for around $400, making this...

Here’s a scenario most new hunters and gun owners have experienced. You’re at the gun range when the friendly fellow at the neighboring bench offers to let you shoot his rifle. You happily agree, but when you sit down at the bench and get behind the gun, you realize that you don’t actually know how...

On the Texas stop on the MeatEater Tailgate Tour, Jesse Griffiths, Danielle Prewett, and I got in a good old-fashioned Texas dove hunt before cheering on the Longhorns and cooking up some grub for hungry fans. Dove hunting is one of the best ways to spend a day in the field, but if you’re like me...

This election season, most people are thinking about donkeys and elephants, but I’ve got geese on my mind—specifically, the windfall of free honker decoys I’m about to get come November 6. Most of the year, I find corrugated election signs a bit annoying, no matter the party. But they have one...

Waterfowl diets are as diverse as the birds themselves, and knowing what they eat can really influence your hunting strategy. From puddle ducks dabbling the shallows to divers plunging the deep, what these birds eat shapes everything from where they hang out to how they taste on your plate. Whether...

Most hunters love their shooting irons (sometimes more than they should), but nothing in this life is perfect. Rifles don’t always perform like you hope, and one bad experience can be enough to banish a once-loved rifle to the back of the safe. But is it really the gun’s fault? How do you know...

Recently, I practically gave away the last of my plastic mallard decoys. It was such a deal, that the guy I sold them to almost felt guilty. But I didn’t have use for them any more. For about two years, I’ve slowly been building up a rig of all wooden decoys. Most come from decoy carver friends of...

The good old days of waterfowling weren’t always good. Anyone who’s waited out a cold rainstorm on the marsh wearing waxed cotton will tell you that. But we have lost a few old-school duck hunting tips and tricks along the way that are still more than relevant in a world of GORE-TEX, spinning wings...

The first time my daughters shot any gun larger than a .22, I nearly ruined them forever. The youth model 20-gauge I bought them for turkeys was sized just right for beginners, but not built for the timid. The kick that little gobbler-getter produces is about like a prime-age Tyson jab to the...

There are more new gun owners in our country right now than at any time in the last 25 years. If you count yourself among them, welcome! Gun ownership is a constitutional right in the US of A, but that doesn’t mean you should check your common sense at the gun shop door. I didn’t grow up around guns...

My first introduction to the concept of flyways, even though I didn’t realize it at the time, was spotting flocks of Canada geese in open fields on our drives home as a kid. Our continent has four major flyways—Atlantic, Mississippi, Central, and Pacific. Together, they make up the four paths...

For a long time, suppressors were associated more with elite soldiers and movie assassins than everyday American hunters. In the last few decades, however, thanks to some legal and regulatory changes, suppressors are more common and easier to get than ever before. Clever engineering, advanced alloys...