the outdoors
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistMay 14, 2025So how many of you have even heard of the Land and Legacy Amendment? Of those of you who recognize the term, how many of you are familiar with what it is and how it operates? I am so surprised how the average Minnesotan is so disconnected from this title. Let us give you a little background. It was during one of the biggest recessions of the past 40 years that the citizens of Minnesota made a…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistMay 07, 2025The smoke is in the air. Anyone who has been driving around the countryside lately will have seen lots of smoke. The different departments of wildlife agencies have been very busy doing prescribed fire. Yours truly has been doing the same, mostly for private land owners who have acres enrolled in CRP. It seems that no matter how many times I include the rationale for spring burning, I always…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistApril 23, 2025I can remember many decades ago that my local chapter of Pheasants Forever decided they needed some kind of a local project to let folks know we existed and to maybe get a little bigger footprint in the local community. We decided that if we adopted a section of Highway 60 between Worthington and Bigelow, Minnesota, we would get our name on the sign the Minnesota DOT would put up. It worked, and…
By Scot Rall, Outdoor ColumnistApril 09, 2025There are so many things I have done in my life where I was absolutely terrible. I had to try over and over until I got to the point of being recreationally proficient. Take shooting sporting clays as an example. My first effort resulted in a score of seven out of 50. My second try was a mere 15 out of 50. I kept at it and after 40 years I can now normally shoot in the low 40s most of the time.…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistMarch 12, 2025My phone has pretty much been ringing off the hook the past few months as people see dead geese decomposing on the ice of area lakes. The bird flu is not a new thing, but a pathogenic avian influenza outbreak has been working its way across Minnesota since it was first reported in 2022. The danger to humans is very low, but you should avoid contact with infected animals and use protective gear…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistFebruary 26, 2025This is one of those times of the year when a dog guy gets kind of bored. The ice conditions have been so sketchy that I don’t really feel all that great driving on the ice of the area lakes. More about this next week. So with no seasons open, I took to observing one of the only ways yet available to harvest a pheasant. How do you do that when all of the hunting seasons are closed? You find a…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistFebruary 05, 2025Can you remember the very first game animal you ever harvested? I certainly can remember the first goose I ever shot, and I can tell you exactly where I was when I harvested my first duck. But for the life of me, I cannot remember my first rooster. I can remember my first rooster shot over a trained hunting dog. I have been blessed to have been part of many firsts for other new hunters. Most…- By Scott Rall, Outdoor ColumnistJanuary 29, 2025So, what does a lawsuit in Utah have to do with the citizens of Minnesota? The answer is “plenty.” The state of Utah recently took their case to the United States Supreme Court to force the 18.5 million acres of Federal Land in Utah to be turned over to the state. The lands in question are managed by the Federal Bureau of Land management for grazing, mining and public recreation — including…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJanuary 22, 2025The winter we never had last year has appeared this year, at least in the form of decent ice as a result of day after day of below zero temperatures during the overnights. Most of the local lakes in my area are at 14-15 inches of solid clear ice in most locations. I was up in northeast South Dakota a few weeks back, and the ice conditions there were very good. You will still see a few someones…
By Scot Rall, Outdoor ColumnistDecember 31, 2024So, how many of you reading this column today know what the North American model of conservation is? If you don’t know, don’t feel bad. I would guess that 80 percent of the general public has never heard of this term before. After a little explanation most of you will say that you have heard bits and pieces of it and generally understand its principles after all. The way that game fish and…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistDecember 18, 2024With about 10 days before the big Christmas holiday, I suppose I should start to think about those on my Christmas list. I never fail in this department, but I won’t fight the crowds on Black Friday or any weekend day, for the most part. I really try hard not to buy gift cards. Sure, they work and get the job done, but they do show limited effort to match a gift to the recipient. So, I made up…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistNovember 26, 2024I saw a dead deer on this spot and then I saw another deer dead in another spot, and overall, this pheasant hunting/deer hunting season I have seen at least a dozen dead deer that were not as a result of a deer hunter’s bullet. The reports of dead deer in large numbers are circulating in my hunting circles, but I cannot confirm with any of my sources more than just a sporadic deer here or there…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistNovember 20, 2024So how is your pheasant hunting season going? Mine has been pretty bleak, but this is not the result for all hunters who chase ringnecks on the pheasant range of Minnesota. The weather has been so nice I can find no way to complain. The higher-than-normal temperatures in November certainly make the winter shorter, and I am all for that. What it also does is make getting a rooster into gun range…
By Scot Rall, Outdoor ColumnistNovember 13, 2024The big deer hunting opener is Saturday, Nov. 9. The firearms season runs nine days in southwest Minnesota, but that is far from the end of deer hunting for the season. Muzzleloader hunting starts a few days after the gun season and runs for a few weeks, and bow hunters can continue until Jan. 1. I was able to track down my local conservation officer, Dustin Roemeling, for a short question and…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistNovember 06, 2024With the pheasant season underway, it is pretty easy to get so concentrated as to forget that the firearms deer season opens on Nov. 9 and runs thru Sunday, Nov. 17. I was reading some research results of a whitetail deer fawn study that was released recently, and the numbers are pretty eye-opening. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources collared 103 deer fawns in the spring of 2023. By…
By Scot Rall, Outdoor ColumnistOctober 30, 2024The reports are all over the map about pheasant hunting success in the first few weeks of the pheasant hunting season. My efforts were pretty solid for the first few days and they have tailed off greatly since. There is a whole list of possible excuses, but I will start with the ones that I think can actually hold water from a pheasant and dog biology perspective. The crops are pretty much gone…
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