On a dark winter night in 1994, my best friend’s uncle taught me how to skin a raccoon using a short rope, two green sticks, and a knife. He emphasized getting green sticks just the right size and not cutting too shallow around the ears and eyes. He didn’t refer to it this way, but the method he used is called case or tube skinning. It requires one main cut from the back of the heel to the anus and then to the back of the opposite...

Jody Dalton killed a massive whitetail with his bow in Wyoming County, West Virginia, on Nov. 6, 2020. He speculated it would beat the current state record of 188 ⅞ inches but needed to wait 60 days to get an official score. On Jan. 13, 2021, official scorers measured the buck at West Virginia Division of Natural Resources headquarters and declared it the new state record.
Biologist Todd Dowdy performed the panel score with two other certified...

The most common question I get from deer hunters related to land management is some version of this: What’s the easiest thing I can do to improve my property?
The issue of where to start is a stumbling block that many aspiring land managers run into. With countless websites, podcasts, videos, and books espousing different management ideas, it’s understandable that all of this can get a little confusing.
I’m here to tell you the answer is actually...

As a child of the ’80s, I grew up hunting with a no-frills, break-action Savage 12-gauge from Kmart. Like many folks, my only exposure to old firearms was in film: Westerns with six-shooters and lever guns, or movies about mountain men with flintlocks.
Flintlock muskets, rifles, and pistols conjure up a very distinct time period, one that’s a great setting for movies. These guns’ presence spans history—from pirates on the high seas...

For every American, 2020 will be remembered for COVID-19 and an insane presidential election. In addition to that, gun owners will recall 2020 (and spoiler alert, 2021) for more: the worst ammunition shortage in recent memory.
Desperate gun owners have driven hours to pick up just a few boxes of .223 Rem. They’ve learned the schedules of ammunition delivery trucks and rotated between store clerks to purchase more than the store’s two-box limit...

If you’ve spent enough years in the good company of fine dogs, there’s no escaping one attribute they all share: Hunting dogs are expensive. If you haven’t depopulated your wallet or set fire to your credit card on behalf of your hunting companion, you should know that your time is coming.
From gear to kibble, and GPS collars to late-night emergency vet visits, there are nearly infinite ways to pour your hard-earned money into the only thing that...