the outdoors
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 18, 2022Last week I gave you all the rundown about how the 2021 pheasant season went. Record-keeping for some outdoor people is totally off the charts. One guy I know records every flush and every harvested bird on every spot he has ever hunted over the past 20 years before he goes to bed. I would fall asleep trying to do that. I don’t have a lot of my outdoor facts and figures written down. Mostly they…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 11, 2022The 2021 pheasant hunting season has come to a close, and overall it was a year I would consider only fair. I keep track of the number of birds I harvest each year. In fact, I have one tail feather from each rooster dating back to 1996 when I got my first trained hunting dog. This year my harvest total was down about 40 percent. There are several reasons for this, but the lack of roosters in…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 04, 2022I was sitting in my garage over the New Year’s weekend having a few adult beverages with my neighbor when an all too familiar topic was raised. He expressed his angst about the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources — that they are just too powerful. I then prodded for some additional details. I asked him to give me an example of what he thought was too powerful. He came up with a very vague…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 28, 2021I have a great job as a self-employed, independent investment adviser, helping people try to get to a comfortable retirement. Saving money for your later years is not something that everybody is good at. I would like to think I have made a measurable difference in that regard for my clients over the past 33 years, but they still needed to participate in order to achieve success, and that takes…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 14, 2021This has been a fabulous fall for conservation work, and I spent the last six to eight weeks with a variety of needed preparations for the coming spring. These include mowing fire breaks and seeding grasses. If you intend to do a prescribed fire in the spring, you need to do all of the preparations before the snow flies. I mowed about five miles of burn breaks so that when the temperatures warm…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 23, 2021Last year about 65,000 pheasant stamps were sold in Minnesota. This is a stamp hunters must purchase that supports pheasant habitat work in the state. It is also a valuable way to accurately count the number of hunters that chase pheasants every year. I have been of the opinion that this count is important because it gauges hunting activity and helps managers understand hunter number trends. Of…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 16, 2021We are still chasing roosters when time allows, but I got committed to a large seeding project that has taken up most of my free time for the past few weeks, and it looks to last a few weeks more, doing it after my day job is finished. Seeding conservation lands this time of year is challenging, but doing so after the ground temperatures are cold enough that none of the seed will germinate until…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 09, 2021I am all about ethical hunting. I have never had a game violation and I never plan to get one. There are a few areas where normally good sportsmen can get themselves into a little trouble. I am not talking about a three-state poaching ring; rather, I’m talking about the most common situations in which some folks might be tempted into crossing the line. The most common one is shooting just a bit…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistNovember 02, 2021A dog is a dog is a dog, unless the dog is one of my dogs. All dog owners have different levels of attachment to their dogs. Some keep a dog around only as a family pet. Others hunt with them on special occasions. Most of these dogs with little time afield or with limited training do as much or as little as the owner expects of them. Others will train their dogs extensively or even have a…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 27, 2021The day I have been waiting for has finally arrived! Pheasant hunting season in Minnesota opened Oct. 16, and there are a few things your hunting dogs need before you get out in the field. Many dog owners will let these items slip until something bad happens, and then they have to deal with them in the aftermath. Trim toenails The first task is to trim your dog’s toenails. Most dogs live in the…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 19, 2021My household includes four Labrador retrievers, which some people think is a lot of dogs. It wasn’t always this way for me. I was volunteering at the Little Sioux Retriever Club Hunt test back in the mid-90s and I was sitting around five different dog trainers. I asked them as a group, “Why would anyone need more than one dog?” They all started laughing. I figured you can only hunt one dog at a…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 12, 2021It happens all the time. A good idea gets a little traction and then, for a whole host of reasons, dies on the vine. This was what just about happened in the Adrian community when an Eagle Scout started a project to open an archery range about two years ago. The required approvals were received from the necessary government entities, but over the next few months the project was not completed, and…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 05, 2021When I came home way after sunset a few days back, I asked my gal Cindy Scott why I was always so beat every night. I knew the answer, but she added that if I ever stopped long enough to let my engine cool off, it might help. The past two months were great, and the upcoming two months are going to be great, but it means a lot more nights coming home beat. Opening Pheasant Hunting weekend starts…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 28, 2021The public lands in Minnesota are the heart and jewel of the Minnesota way of life. Many people move to Minnesota to immerse themselves in this way of life. Others wouldn’t consider living anywhere else because of it. Minnesota has great hunting, fishing, bird watching, canoeing and a lengthy list of other outdoor pursuits. At the heart of this lifestyle is our public lands. I call them citizen-…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 14, 2021Most hunters pay little attention to protecting their hearing from the loud blast of a shotgun. Rifle hunters, on the other hand, almost always wear substantial hearing protection. Some will even spend north of $1,200 to adapt their rifle to a suppressor, which is quiet enough not to require hearing protection. It the past I never wore hearing protection while hunting. I did not shoot enough…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 07, 2021Minnesota’s pheasant opener this year is Oct. 16, a week later than the normal opening weekend, cutting the season short by seven days. I have attended the Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener for the past 10 years or so, but the jury is still out as to whether this is actually going to happen in 2021, so I made other plans. My Pheasants Forever chapter and I are now hosting a ladies-only…
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