By Scott Bestul

When European settlers reached North America, the American chestnut was arguably the most important tree in the country. From the Adirondacks to southern Appalachia, chestnuts fed people, livestock, and wildlife. The tree produced lumber of both high quality and tremendous volume. Then, in 1904, a single tree arrived in New York City that carried a blight lethal to chestnuts. The disease tore through the eastern United States like a tsunami, and by the early 1950’s, the American chestnut was nearly extinct.

By Dave Hurteau

On a recent turkey hunt at Dos Plumas Hunting Ranch in northwestern Nebraska, Tim Kent of Theory 13 Creative introduced F&S contributor Jace Bauserman and me to Flextone’s newest Thunder Series turkey calls. On the first evening, someone—I’m not saying who—took one out of the packaging, started calling, and sounded exactly like this poor, terrified cat.

“Oh well,” I figured, “just another bad-sounding, gimmicky turkey call.” Turns out, it was just the caller, not the call, and he recovered right quickly, because like the Thunder Gobble, introduced last spring, the new Thunder hen calls are extremely easy to learn how to blow, and once you get the hang of them, they sound pretty darn good—certainly good enough to fool a gobbler.

By Scott Bestul

It’s easy to focus on the statistics that provide woeful predictions about hunting’s future. In many states, new hunter recruitment is not keeping up with drop-out rates, and that's a fact we all should be concerned about.

But yesterday morning dawned clear and bright in southern Minnesota, and I wasn’t thinking about big pictures. I was thinking about Vernon, Alan, and Wyatt Mote. The photo above shows three generations of this family, who are my neighbors and dear friends.