Hunting Tips
9 Taxidermy Mistakes That Cost Hunters the Quality of Mount They Waited All Year to Get Right
A practical gallery on the field and handling mistakes that can ruin a trophy mount long before it reaches the taxidermist.
Hunting Tips
Why Congress Tried to Sell Millions of Acres of Public Hunting Land and What Actually Stopped It
A 2025 push in Congress to force the sale of millions of acres of federal land alarmed hunters, anglers, and Western communities. Here is what lawmakers said they wanted, why the plan drew such fierce backlash, and what ultimately killed it.
Hunting Tips
Should Successful Hunters Share Exact Locations Online?
Posting a grip-and-grin is easy. Deciding whether to reveal the exact ridge, draw, or public-land pocket behind it is where ethics, safety, and common sense really start.
Hunting Tips
Do Trophy Management Programs Benefit Average Hunters?
Trophy management can produce older bucks and better age structure, but the payoff for average hunters depends heavily on access, patience, local habitat, and how rules are designed. In many places, the biggest gains go to disciplined private-land programs, while public-land hunters see a more mixed result.
Hunting Tips
Should Kids’ First Kill Photos Ever Be Posted Online?
A child’s first successful hunt can be a major family milestone, but posting that moment online raises bigger questions than most parents expect. Pride, privacy, safety, consent, and the public image of hunting all collide the second a photo leaves your phone.
Hunting Tips
Should Landowners Be Allowed to Charge Hunters for Access to Public-Adjacent Land?
The fight over hunting access near public land sits at the crossroads of property rights, fairness, and outdoor tradition. Charging for access can solve real problems, but it can also turn public opportunity into a pay-to-play system if it is not handled carefully.
Hunting Tips
Should Predator Hunting Be Expanded to Protect Deer Herds?
Expanding predator hunting sounds like a straightforward way to help struggling deer herds, but the science shows a much more complicated picture. In some places targeted predator control can boost fawn survival, yet broad predator removal often misses the real drivers of deer decline.
Hunting Tips
Are Antler Point Restrictions Helping or Hurting Deer Populations?
Antler point restrictions can create older buck age structure and improve hunter sightings of mature deer, but they are not a magic fix for herd size, habitat problems, or poor doe management. The real answer depends on whether a state is trying to grow older bucks, reduce pressure on yearlings, or manage the whole deer population.
Hunting Tips
Is Outsourcing Meat Processing Quietly Killing a Core Hunting Tradition?
More hunters are dropping deer at a processor and picking up neat white packages days later. That convenience has value, but it may also be thinning out one of hunting's oldest lessons: turning an animal into food with your own hands.
Hunting Tips
Should There Be a Cap on How Many Tags One Hunter Can Hold in a Season?
A cap on hunting tags sounds simple, but wildlife policy rarely is. The real question is whether limits should be broad and universal, or carefully tailored by species, region, access, and conservation goals.
Hunting Tips
Should Hunters Stop Posting Grip-and-Grin Photos Online?
Hunters do not need to disappear from social media, but they do need to think harder about what their photos communicate. The real issue is not whether harvest photos exist, but whether they show respect, context, and the values that keep hunting publicly accepted.
Hunting Tips
Is DIY Hunting Becoming More Respected Than Guided Hunts?
DIY hunting is gaining cultural respect because it signals effort, self-reliance, and a deeper connection to fair chase. But guided hunts still hold real value, especially for learning, access, and specialized terrain.