the outdoors
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 10, 2023Whenever I am out and about with my Labrador pack, I often get asked which of the four of them is my favorite? My normal response is in what category? This causes a puzzled look on the questioner’s face. I go on to explain if you are looking for a riding companion, then my youngest dog, Ghost, is the winner hands down. You can go for a 300-mile ride and he will sit on the front seat for days. He…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 03, 2023Why is it that everything ends up happening on the same day or days? I have a possible wedding, a retirement party for a great friend, and a decoy show all happening on the same weekend. I want to be at all three events, but we all know you can’t be two places or even three places at the same time. In the end, it is the first commitment I made that is going to win this tug of war. Twenty-four…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 27, 2022At this very moment, the town I live in is pretty much shut down. Snow in amounts I don’t like along with winds I hate even worse are arriving later today. The pheasants are getting a huge reprieve from hunters that would normally be chasing them until the very end. The snow depths, on the other hand, are giving them a different kind of challenge. It is amazing how wildlife can survive in…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 13, 2022About a month ago I was invited to speak at the Ecumen Meadows. This is an assisted living facility located in Worthington. The residents of this facility make up all walks of life, and many of them are retired farmers. My topic was about public lands and the work that my local chapter of Pheasants Forever has been involved in to protect the local drinking water supply for our community. The…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 05, 2022I had the Black Pack Pheasant Attack group, (four seasoned black Labradors ranging in age from 2-11 years), out one afternoon this week, and man, was it an adventure! I invited a friend who was in Nobles County for the week, and we made plans to try a pincher move on what is now very educated pheasants. He went in from one end and I approached from the other. You can only do this move with two…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 29, 2022The pheasant hunting season is under way and reports have been pretty good. I had an incident happen to me the other day that has never happened to me before in all of my years as an avid hunter. What follows is a summary of this encounter and my recommendations to you if it were ever to happen to you. I have never been written a citation for any game or fish violations in my entire life and I…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 21, 2022I have purchased a deer license every year for the past 37 years, and this year was the first year that I actually filled my tag. I purchased my deer license before Sept. 1, and this automatically enrolls me in the doe lottery. In Minnesota every hunter that buys a deer license can shoot a buck. You have to be successfully drawn from a special lottery, depending on where you live, in order to be…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 15, 2022There is just never a dull day in the field when you share it with four Labradors. I have a great start to the 2022 pheasant season. Bird numbers are far higher than last season and the only challenge has been the high temperatures. The first weekend of the season we hosted the Minnesota governor in Worthington. That was a pretty big undertaking. The second weekend of the season we hosted 17…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 08, 2022I have never really been much of a deer hunter. I have purchased a Minnesota firearms deer license for the past 37 years and have never pulled the trigger on a Minnesota deer. I have participated and helped in the harvesting of many deer over that same time frame. A few years back I set a record of five youth, all ages 12-13, who all shot their very first deer out of my box stand in a single…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 25, 2022So, the 2022 pheasant opener was a few days back, and I had a very unusual one. Worthington was selected for the location to host the 2022 Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener. We were selected late and only had about 100 days to put the weekend event together. It may seem like not a very big thing, but to have the governor out and about only three weeks before the election is a very big deal for…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 18, 2022Open day of 2022 pheasant hunting season was Oct. 15. I hosted Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in Worthington that weekend. It was quite an event. There were media outlets of all kinds in town for the event. Many of those hunted on the public lands of southwest Minnesota. Finding a good hunting spot on opening weekend is not possible. The weather is usually pretty good, and this weekend probably…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 11, 2022This is the fourth installment of the do-it-yourself obedience training for your own dog. Prior columns have covered the basics of getting the sponge in the obedience bucket level of obedience outcome when training in your own dog. The steps covered in the first three articles should have taken about 4-5 weeks to get really ingrained in your dog to the point where their compliance to known…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 04, 2022We are working our way into the third installment of a four-part series in the subject of training your own dog. We started with owner commitments and expectations and moved into how easy it is to get your dog to go for a relaxing walk with you or another member of your family. Today we start with the most basic command of “sit.” You can do “sit” first and “heel” second, but all of them need to…- By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 13, 2022Writing about dogs is my favorite subject. If you have been a reader of my column for any length of time, you can already tell this by the number of times they occupy this space. Dogs, especially hunting dogs, are a 12-month-a-year effort. Whether it’s training a new dog or keeping the older dog sharp as a tack, both take consistency, time and commitment. With dove season opening a few days back…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistAugust 16, 2022It took me until I was about 35 years old to realize that each time you purchase a firearm it should be “in addition to the one I already have,” instead of trading in the one I already had. It was more a case of having enough funds so I could afford the new gun without the price offset of trading in the one I currently owned. I visit all the time with parents who are considering a gun purchase…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistAugust 09, 2022I was sitting in my garage the other night with a couple of guys who had just finished up shooting on their trap league for the week. They are both avid hunters and both have hunting dogs of differing ages. It seemed like only about an hour had passed when in fact more than four hours had turned off the clock. Outdoor lifestyles and passions have always been my most vivid memories. As I recalled…
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