the outdoors
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…
By Scot Rall, Outdoor ColumnistOctober 16, 2024What is the fastest-growing segment of new hunters being added to the ranks of outdoors people? If you guessed women, you would be right. They still make up a small percentage of the total, but that number is increasing every year. I have developed a close bond with a group of lady hunters who range in experience level from novice to polished. They come from the metro area every year to hunt in…
By Scot Rall, Outdoor ColumnistOctober 09, 2024Some folks spend months planning where they are going to take their next vacation, researching here and there and trying to come up with a location that can best all of their friends. Should it be an all-inclusive or some other format? I can say that in all of my years the only free time planning I have ever spent any amount of time on is where I might want to go bird hunting, and even then,…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistSeptember 25, 2024Every morning I get up about 5:30-6 a.m., open my garage door, and share my morning coffee with three Labradors that keep watch for anything and everything that might walk by. Seems like only in the last week or so when I open the door, it is no longer light outside. This is a sure sign that the pheasant hunting season will soon be upon us. The opening day of the pheasant season this year will…
By Scott Rall, The OutdoorsSeptember 18, 2024I am one of those dyed-in-the-wool property rights kind of guys. I would never – and I mean never – set foot on anyone else’s property without permission. I think that any person who trespasses on another person’s property without permission should be held to the highest extent of the law. I hear of many landowners who might go out and shoo a trespasser away and never take any real action with…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistSeptember 11, 2024How many times do you hear folks say that the summer just got away from them and they cannot believe it’s almost fall already? I am getting to be a pretty old man, and I realize I am most likely living in the last quarter of my life. I spend considerable effort doing my very best not to be one of those other folks. I spend every waking moment I can outside. I hustle to finish at least part of…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistSeptember 04, 2024How many times do you hear folks say that the summer just got away from them and they cannot believe it’s almost fall already? I am getting to be a pretty old man, and I realize I am most likely living in the last quarter of my life. I spend considerable effort doing my very best not to be one of those other folks. I spend every waking moment I can outside. I hustle to finish at least part of…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistAugust 28, 2024My fiancée Joan Holles is signed up for a Women’s Learn to Hunt workshop for next weekend. When visiting her daughter in Orlando a few weeks back, she shared this little tidbit with her daughter and son-in-law. The first words out of their mouths were, “How could you ever even consider shooting a pheasant?” This is a question often asked by the non-hunting public. They could not conceive of an…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistAugust 14, 2024My decision on the next dog to join the dog pack at my house is getting closer. I have been bringing you into my decision-making criteria for the past two weeks or so. I have narrowed the choices from about 30 down to three. The dog breeds that are still on my short list include the small Munsterlander, the English setter and the German shorthair pointer. The pros and cons of each as I am able…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistAugust 07, 2024Last week I started a conversation about the possibility of adding a pointing dog to my pack of flushing Labradors. I was pretty uneducated about where to start on this endeavor. I looked up a group of dogs called versatile breeds and found 28 different breeds that all fall into this category. The general description of a versatile dog is one who can point and retrieve game on both land and…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistJuly 24, 2024For the most part, every creature in nature is totally cute when it is born. I do have a few exceptions, and the strongest one on my list is a baby robin. They do not look at all cute. They are all fuzz and two huge eyes. On the opposite end of that spectrum is the fawn of a whitetail deer. I don’t know anyone on this planet that doesn’t agree that a deer fawn is adorable. I am seeing a less…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJuly 17, 2024With a break from the rains, I was willing to venture outside a bunch this past week. My rain gauge in Nobles County had 15.2 inches of rain over the past few weeks. The grass is tall, the mosquitoes are as big as fighter jets, and there are certainly a lot of them. With all of my food plots tended to and much of the “to do” list completed, I opted for an afternoon of clay bird shooting. A…
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