the outdoors
- By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 15, 2020It was almost 35 years ago that I attended my first Pheasants Forever volunteer meeting on a Thursday night in January. I was about 26 years old. I had twins at home that were about a year old. It was mainly a bunch of older white guys all talking about what they could do to increase the number of pheasants so hunting them would improve. I spent my first 15 years with that outfit in the generic…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 08, 2020I recently welcomed home my new puppy Ghost, a 7-week-old black Labrador puppy who is the son of my oldest dog, Tracer. Many people told me just how bad the first few weeks with a new puppy are. They are not totally off base. A new puppy that has spent the past seven weeks with his six other brothers and sisters now has to find out what being all alone is like. The reason that most puppies are…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 01, 2020When I wrote about this subject matter 15 years ago for the first time, I almost got my head ripped off. Letters to the editor were a regular occurrence. Minnesota had not had a morning dove season for many decades, and in 2014 that opportunity was made available again by the Minnesota legislature. I had watched my dad hunt these plentiful birds in South Dakota as a kid, and I made a great bird…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistAugust 04, 2020My new Labrador puppy recently joined our family that already includes three Labradors at my house. They all live inside and are all topnotch pheasant hunting dogs. They are Tracer, age 8, Sarge, age 6, and Raider, age 4. My new puppy is called Ghost. My son served in the United States Marine Corp and we have had a bunch of dogs over the years with names coming from a military background. We…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJuly 21, 2020As July races by, I was thinking that in only a few weeks I will be back on the road at sunrise for four days on four routes across the county that I live in. I waited for more than 20 years to have the opportunity to participate in the Minnesota DNR’s August roadside count program. This is a program that has been in existence since 1955. Wildlife personnel and members of the Minnesota…
By Scott Rall, outdoor columnistJune 30, 2020The Fourth of July should have every American thinking about our independence and those who made sacrifices to keep America free. I am not sure that an ever-growing percentage of our population still keeps those thoughts at the top of the list for this national holiday. As a kid growing up, I remember that almost every neighborhood would be plastered with American flags waving in the wind up and…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJune 23, 2020I was kidding my girlfriend, Cindy Scott, about how excited she would be when the new puppy shows up at our house on or about the 20th of July. She has never house-trained a dog before, and I was really piling it on when I said how much fun it would be. House training a puppy is not all that hard, but for some dog owners it is just a miserable task. If this is difficult for you, then all I have…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJune 16, 2020Does anybody know what I am talking about when I call a bird a “shy poke”? This was the name I first learned from my grandpa, Arnold Bender, who lived in Leola, South Dakota. This is the nickname for the great blue heron. Another name for them is a looper. This is for their large slow wind beats. The great blue heron was the subject of many watercolor paintings by my favorite wildlife artist,…
By Scott Rall, outdoor columnistJune 09, 2020My friend Ken Red has wildlife property in Pine County, Minnesota, where there are pheasants, wood cock, sand hill cranes, ruffed grouse and deer. I am impressed by the difference between my similar spot in southwest Minnesota and his property only 285 miles away. His game species is way more diverse than that of the grasslands in our area. One bird I really admire that’s not found here is the…
By Scott Rall, outdoor columnistApril 28, 2020One of the most misunderstood wildlife habitat management practices is spring burning of grasslands. I get calls all the time, and have for the past 20 years, with folks all upset about wildlife management agencies burning all the nests of pheasants, ducks and other ground-nesting songbirds. I liken burning of grasslands to when you can finally get out in the spring when everybody rakes their…
By Scott Rall, guest columnistJune 11, 2019Why is that sportsmen and women in general are so reluctant to speak up about conservation issues that are important to them? It is almost universal all over the county. Only when an issue is so controversial will more than the normal 2-3 percent of hunters and anglers actually get fired up and expend some energy to make their views known. It has been this way for a very long time and it is time…
By Scott Rall, guest columnistApril 30, 2019A social media person I am not, but I do have a Facebook page and follow it every once in a while. I saw a post from Project Upland with a video of a guy with his very first dog. The post followed him and the dog for about the first two years and illustrated how having the dog had changed him and his lifestyle. It made me think back to the first dog I had as a young adult. I have had many dogs…
By Scott Rall, guest columnistApril 16, 2019I have three Labrador hunting dogs and one rat terrier housedog. My dogs are highly trained, and to keep them there takes ongoing attention. A great dog will turn into a so-so dog in about six months if the owner does not maintain its talents with constant and ongoing refresher training. I have been involved either directly or indirectly in the training of about 250 different hunting dogs with my…
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