Gear Picks For 2019
Another year has sped by, and with it, more great hunting, fishing, & photography adventures. Working full-time in the outdoor industry since 2001, I’ve been blessed to see and do many wonderful things. At the end of each year I like sharing notes about the top gear I’ve used. Other than blacktail deer hunting, the most asked question I receive is related to gear. So, if you’re looking for a piece of gear for yourself, or for someone else for the holidays, here are some items to consider. I do a lot of shooting year-round with rifles, rimfires, and numerous shotguns. One of the biggest time-eaters for me is making and setting up targets. I’ve pieced together target stands that have served their purpose over the years, but when I tried the new HatPoint Target Stand (www.hatpointtarget.com), things changed. The HatPoint Target Stand is versatile and easy to set up. The framework allows for easy anchoring, be it with the provided spikes, or by placing rocks, wood, or sandbags on the frame when shooting on hard ground. Wooden slats can be placed in the frame that offers multiple target widths, but what I really like is HatPoint’s polymer slats that take [...]
The Switch To NutriSource Dog Food
It’s been six months since we switched our dog food from Kirkland brand to NutriSource. The results way exceeded our expectations! The most noticeable change in Echo, our five year old Pudelpointer, happened fast after switching foods. Following long grouse and mountain quail hunts in the rugged mountains of Oregon’s Cascade Range, I noticed Echo was stiff and moving slowly the following morning. Two days after switching her food to the grain-free, anti-inflammatory NutriSource food, there was a marked difference in her recovery time, as well as in the field performance. Throughout the fall and winter months as we hunted ducks and geese in a variety of conditions, Echo was always quick to recover, something I’d not seen during the last two years of hunting her hard all season long. Echo wasn’t stiff and sore from running through thick mud, breaking ice or retrieving heavy honkers, as she’d been in years prior. The quality of her diet raised her performance to another level and diminished her recovery time. As for Kona, our two year old male Pudelpointer, he’s always been a high energy dog. His performance held solid through the food switch. What I noticed most in Kona, were smaller and [...]
My 2018 Hunting Gear Picks
If you’re looking for some last minute items for the outdoors person in your life, these are pieces of gear I used a lot this season, and was very impressed with. Whether hunting, fishing or camping, the most versatile tool I’ve used in the outdoors is the LoopRope (www.looprope.com). The ultimate tie down is durable, versatile and can be used in many ways. I take them on every outing and always have a couple in my truck; my wife takes one on her mountain bike, on hikes and has a couple in her truck to handle every day chores. At a mere $20, you can’t go wrong here, and believe me, you will find multiple uses for these gems. The best gas can I’ve ever used is the SureCan. A flexible, rotating spout directs fuel into the receiving tank. This results in no more tipping, slipping or spilling. In a gravity-fed manner, a thumb-activated trigger in front of the grip releases the flow of fuel. It self-vents, so airlock is nonexistent, meaning there’s no chugging and splashing. Fully depress the trigger for a fast flow, letting up to slow the flow. You can actually control the flow to the final drop. [...]
Tips For Using Tripod Shooting Sticks
As another big game hunting season comes to a close, I want to share a tip. I’m still surprised, after all my years of hunting, how many fellow hunters I see in the field without shooting aids. I talk to countless hunters during the year, and hear lots of stories. I hear too many accounts of missed shots, and worse yet, crippled game. Both of these can be remedied with a solid shooting rest. In talking with folks, I feel the number one reason they’re not using shooting sticks is because they don’t want to take the time to learn how to use them, thinking they are big, bulky, noisy and take too much time to operate. Just like anything, the more you practice with shooting sticks, the more confident you’ll become in using them, and the fewer misses you’ll have. In this demonstration I'm using my favorite shooting stick, Bog Pod's Red Legged Devil. We work hard and invest a lot of time and money in hunting, but whether or not we put meat in the freezer comes down to the shot. I hope this short video helps dispel some myths about tripod shooting sticks and shows how easy they [...]
A Columbia Blacktail Season To Remember
Our 2018 Columbia blacktail deer season was one of the best I can recall, but not for reasons many hunters would think. This deer hunting season was about time in the woods with family. The past 18 years of traveling the world, hunting for a living, has been wonderful for me, but it’s not been without sacrifices. Going on over 50 hunts a year was sometimes common, and though it was thrilling and I wouldn’t trade it for the world, being in the field over 250 days a year made it hard to be away from home. During those fall seasons I can count on one hand the number of days I would be home, usually filming a blacktail TV show. This fall was different. I liked being home, and I liked hunting without TV cameras. We invested in a Weyerhaeuser permit near our home, in the McKenzie Unit of western Oregon. We hunted the same exact land my family had hunted since the 1950s. Our youngest son, Kazden, had never been on this land, and I hadn’t set foot there since the late 1970s. My dad, Jerry Haugen, grew up hunting this area, and over the decades our family took [...]
My Shooting Sticks Of Choice
Whether you’re new to the hunting world, or a veteran looking to increase your shot accuracy on game, consider stable shooting sticks. Like many folks, I grew up hunting, but when I started making my living in the outdoors–especially hosting TV shows–I quickly learned a lot and ultimately became a better hunter. There were seasons where I was going on upwards of 60 big game hunts a year around the world, and you can’t help but learn with so much practical experience. Filming dozens of hunts a year, time was tight, and valuable. I had to be in good shape and know a great deal about the behavior of the animals I hunted. I also couldn’t afford to miss any shots. At first, 18 years ago, I tried a monopod but didn’t like it due to it’s instability. I switched to a bipod and it worked okay, but it was flimsy and I felt there was something better; this was especially true when hunting the rugged terrain out West, where most of my hunting is done. I tried various tripods but found nothing I liked, other than one made of sticks I used in Africa…then the Bog Pod came along. The [...]