This is the time of year when many of us suffer from a malady known as the winter blues. With our first taste of real snow cover, occasionally freshened with new accumulation or by wind, it’s a great time to shake off the cabin fever and take a walk through the winter wonderland. For many ...
It’s hard to believe that it was eighteen years ago that the Pennsylvania Game Commission first instituted antler restrictions. Although it was extremely unpopular then, nearly two decades later, some would say that the changes made have led to more and more mature bucks being harvested in ...
2019 was a particularly memorable hunting season. From common frustrations related to hunting state game lands, to a seriously bone-headed injury,and logging more hours in the woods than I have in the past few years to see fewer deer, the season was trying, to say the least. For the first time in a number of years, I went into the season with a full head of steam. I felt motivated, excited, and truly started to embrace the outdoors again. My father —my best friend and my best hunting buddy — passed away on Nov. 30, 2017. I lost pretty-much all interest in hunting and ...
The booming sound of a gobbler, or “spring thunder” as some like to call it, can and has caused even the most seasoned hunters to do some of the craziest and most inexplicable things I have ever seen in the hunting woods. From letting out a loud scream when a turkey finally gobbles, to sprinting through the woods with a loaded gun only to end up falling on the ground and spooking the bird, I’ve seen urgency quickly turn into stupidity in some of the smartest turkey hunters I know. So as I’ve traveled and hunted turkeys in a lot of places with a lot of different kinds of ...
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Every time Joe Messinger Jr. ties one of his trademark deer-hair frogs, he’s carrying on a family legacy that dates back almost a century. His father, Joe Messinger Sr., invented the Messinger Bucktail Frog for one overarching purpose — to catch bass. The pattern proved so effective, and so durable, that the lures sometimes lasted for decades. “Dad came up with the pattern sometime around 1920, and he tied it until he passed away in 1966,” Joe Jr. said. “Some of his frogs are still circulating around, mainly among collectors.” They’re ...
If hunting in general were a business — which some can make the argument it is — we as the committee members in charge would be in full-on panic mode. It’s estimated that in a five year span between 2011-2016 that we lost nearly 2.2 million licensed hunters nationwide — not exactly an exciting trend. There are many reasons as to why one chooses to stop hunting, but for me and my experience, hunter burnout would have to be one of the biggest. Hunter burnout is simply like any other kind of burnout where we lose the passion and drive that once pushed us into the outdoor ...
