hunting gear

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Steve Jobs My watch face shows the time, day, date, target range, my elevation, wind speed, hold elevation, and windage as well as the velocity of my projectile at the target. All customizable and available at a glance. If [...]

Alaska is known as a land of extremes, and the men and women who successfully live and hunt there are rather particular about what does and doesn’t work.

The variety of camouflage possibilities in today’s waterfowl market is huge.  What to wear and what to choose are both based on what store carries what and what you can get sight unseen on the internet. For this article, I will focus on waterfowl camouflage used primarily from October to February in marsh and timber settings. As well as fabric in most of these patterns is available allowing one to make their own outer gear. 

After running the Pulsar Thermion 2 XP50 for around 6 months through many nights out in the field, I will share some of the features and my experiences with this optic. animals, thermal is king.

I dropped down onto the other side of the ranch gate and onto the saturated soil. I was hunting private property south of Longview, Texas, in early April 2021, and it had been raining much of the last 24 hours. It had been raining pretty steady for the last three days of my time here in East Texas, which made the fields and pastures even more inviting to the feral hogs that so love to root up the ground.

I recently discussed waders and the many options available for purchasing the right wader.  Once you have a new pair reality sets in that all waders will leak sooner or later.  Aside from warranty to make the repairs, often you are forced to make the repairs yourself after the warranty has expired or to prepare immediately for another hunt.  This is how to make the best effort at repairing those waders. 

I’m a bit of a backpack fanatic and I’ve tested piles of them over the years. One of the things I’ve learned is there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each adventure — from the whitetail woods of the Midwest to the elk-rich Rockies — requires a particular pack.

I don’t shoot hogs from a blind here in Texas so I often find myself shooting from strange angles or on uneven terrain. Last year I did a review of the BogPod DeathGrip carbon fiber tripod and while it provided excellent stability…. its 7.5 pound weight made it cumbersome to pack up and carry across different pastures thru the night. I wanted to explore how much of a tradeoff I’m willing to make between stability and maneuverability.

That was one of the furthest shots I’ve even made with a thermal optic, at night, on a hog. My guide and fellow hunters were cheering my shot, and I certainly felt good about it. But I also knew the REAP-IR made the shot possible.