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Scott Rall

  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    December 28, 2020
    I am not a big Facebook follower, but I was checking out a post I made on our chapter’s local Nobles County Pheasants Forever Facebook site. As I was scrolling across the past few days on my regular feed, I saw a re-post from one of my longtime friends, Bob St Pierre, who is a Pheasants Forever national employee. He reposted a picture of a young gal who had taken up decoy carving. There are those…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    December 21, 2020
    About three years ago I purchased a used tractor to fill the need I had when implementing wildlife habitat projects. I chose poorly with little experience, but after several large repair bills the machine was up and running. As a result, I then needed a building to store it in, and a medium-sized pole barn shed was next on the list. I built it bigger than I thought I needed and again, I was…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    December 01, 2020
    So the opening weekend of the Minnesota pheasant season is here and gone and it took until 8 a.m. that following Monday morning for my phone to ring with questions regarding hunting etiquette on public lands. For sure there are different common-sense rules when it comes to interacting with other hunters who all want to hunt on the same parcel of public land at the same time. The recommendations…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    November 23, 2020
    With all of the recent hunting opportunities it is hard to squeeze in other important fall projects, but I have made time to get them done. I got my burn breaks mowed for the prescribed fires that will take place on my wildlife property to enhance the diversity and stand integrity of the native plant species that grow there. Another project that was actually five projects all fell under the same…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    November 17, 2020
    The firearms deer season is underway across Minnesota. Reports have been coming in with success rates far above last year. With literally almost no standing crop left in the state, there are far fewer places for deer to hide. I guided a 62-year-old gal to her very first deer harvest. She comes from a family of die-hard deer hunters but just wasn’t up to the task of sitting in a tree stand in what…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    November 10, 2020
    The firearms deer season started in most of Minnesota on Nov. 7.  In the southwest part of the state it runs for 11 days.  Other regions have different dates and season lengths. I am a pretty serious deer hunter but have not harvested a deer in over 30 years. This by no means indicates that I have skipped the opportunity to buy a license and take part in the hunt for any of those three decades. I…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    November 03, 2020
    In previous columns I have advised keeping a cell phone in your pocket and telling others where you were going to hunt in case of an emergency. And I’ve also written about falling on a stick and ending up in the emergency room. Well, I have a different story that happened just a few weeks back that makes this all the more important. I hope my bad luck can drive home to you how important it is to…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    October 20, 2020
    For nearly 40 years I’ve purchased a deer license, but in that time I’ve harvested only about five deer. That’s because I get more enjoyment from watching others being successful than harvesting a deer for my personal use. Last year alone on a property I own, I mentored five kids 12 years of age or younger to their very first successful deer hunt. That makes my day and my season a success. One of…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    October 13, 2020
    So the opening weekend of the Minnesota pheasant season is here and gone and it took until 8 a.m. Monday morning for my phone to ring with questions regarding hunting etiquette on public lands. For sure there are different common-sense rules when it comes to interacting with other hunters who all want to hunt on the same parcel of public land at the same time. The recommendations that follow are…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    October 06, 2020
    I have been fortunate to be able to hunt upland birds all around the Upper Midwest for about the last 20 years. Many hunters will hunt in some years and skip other years if the bird numbers are not as high as they wished. There is lots of competition for time in the fall. There is great fishing, bow and gun hunting for deer, and ice angling in the later parts of November and beyond. I love doing…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    September 29, 2020
    It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas if you are an avid outdoors person in the state of Minnesota. It’s 50 degrees today as I write and there are many anticipated dates I can see from here on the near horizon. One of my favorites is the Minnesota youth deer hunt. This is a special season for youths between the ages of 10 and 17. They get their own four-day season to harvest a deer without…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    September 22, 2020
    The temperatures are sure showing that the fall season is soon to be upon us. It is without a doubt my very favorite season of the year. For thousands of other hunters and outdoor enthusiasts I am sure they feel the same. I hunt almost every day of the season for some quarry. Most of those days are just the last 90 minutes before the sun sets each day. When I leave the house or office, I always…
  • By Scott Rall, outdoors columnist
    September 15, 2020
    It 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 columnist
    September 08, 2020
    I 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 columnist
    September 01, 2020
    When 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 columnist
    August 18, 2020
    When I need a “pick me up,” I just go for a wildlife ride and look for God’s creatures. They seem to have made it through thousands of years of ups and downs, and last week they got a really, really big surge upwards. Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act. I will provide a little background story first. In 1964 Congress passed the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This fund needed to be…
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