A lifetime of alpine fishing boiled down to one pack…everything else stays in the truck.

Story by Sage Marshall @sagemwrites
Photos by Jackson Mills Smith @muggybrew ...

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A golden walleye isn’t a separate species. It’s an ordinary walleye with a genetic condition known as xanthism. This rare pigment mutation reduces the typical dark coloration and leaves the fish glowing with shades of yellow and gold.

Most anglers will spend a lifetime on the water without ever seeing one. That’s why this story stands out...

Two North Dakota anglers caught what appears to be the very same golden walleye just eight days apart.

Full story by @travishallmedia feat. @ethanoutdoors & @jacob.t.wendel 🤝 ...

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People argued over what they would’ve done. The guy bleeding had a different POV.

A lot of people looked at these photos and started arguing about tourniquets but the backcountry camper at the center of the story had a different takeaway. He’d spent 20 years working in emergency veterinary medicine. He carried a trauma kit with a tourniquet, combat gauze, and everything he thought he’d need if the worst ever happened. Then one night, while splitting kindling with a brand new hatchet, he shifted his stance for a single swing. The blade glanced off the log and buried itself in his knee.

He was roughly three hours from the nearest ER. He pressure bandaged the wound, packed up camp, loaded his dog, and started driving. Halfway home he clipped an elk. Somewhere along the drive, his bandage slipped without him realizing it. By the time he reached home, he said he’d lost nearly two pints of blood.

After sharing his series of unfortunate events with fellow bush survivalists, his community turned to debate over what he should have done differently.

Hindsight is easy when you’re not the one bleeding.
Story and photos via r/Bushcraft (U/dukeshootrio). ...

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What makes a good deer shot?

That was the question behind a Field & Stream experiment designed to discover where even the best riflemen reach their limits. In “The Science of Shooting Deer,” David E. Petzal, Craig Boddington, Layne Simpson, and Wayne van Zwoll met at Kenny Jarrett’s range with ordinary deer rifles and one simple objective: find out what good shooting really looks like. They built four tests around the shots hunters argue about every fall.

✅ Long Range: How much farther can you really stretch a shot before the odds turn against you?

✅ Tower Shot: Does climbing into a stand actually make you steadier?

✅ Snap Shot: What happens when a buck gives you only a second?

✅Running Deer: Can even seasoned riflemen make a moving shot they can live with?

They hit plenty. They missed some, too. That was the whole point. Wind beat them. Distance exposed them. The timer rushed them. And every event reminded them that experience doesn’t erase your limitations.

More than twenty years later, “The Science of Shooting Deer” still feels as honest as the day it was printed. Not because four great gun writers proved how good they were, but because they were willing to find out where they weren’t.

Join the 1871 Club before the Fall 2026 journal ships to get the best outdoor stories delivered to your doorstep. ...

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A proposed rule change could remove federal protections for millions of acres of wetlands across the Prairie Pothole Region, one of North America’s most important waterfowl habitats. Known as “America’s Duck Factory,” these wetlands provide critical nesting grounds for ducks and support countless other species across the Great Plains.

Drop a “Duck” comment & we’ll DM you the 🔗 to submit a public comment. Story by @travishallmedia ...

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Every duck hunter has that one story they come back to before the season starts. This is one of ours.

After disappearing for decades, Nash Buckingham’s legendary shotgun, Bo Whoop, made one final trip back to the Mississippi duck woods that built its legend. It’s a story about great guns, great camps, and why waterfowl traditions have a way of outliving the people who started them.

Drop WHOOP in the comments and we’ll DM you the full story by @willbrantleyky with photography by @nathanielwelch . ...

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From the racetrack to the shooting range.

EuroCup-3 driver Bianca Bustamante had never fired a shotgun before stepping onto the clay course at Purdey The Royal Berkshire Shooting. During her first clay shooting competition, she took on a new challenge and finished the day as part of the winning team. ...

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Nearly 3,000 acres in Ohio’s only national forest could soon be open to fracking.

According to NBC 4, the Bureau of Land Management announced companies can bid on oil and gas leases inside the Wayne National Forest starting September 15. The lease would open 2,840 acres to oil and gas extraction across Washington and Monroe counties—land popular with whitetail deer and wild turkey hunters. Ricky Jackson, an Ohio-based public land hunter, says a previous lease sale of more than 1,000 acres during the first Trump Administration has already resulted in lost access—he points to well pads still fenced off nearly a decade later. He also notes the National Wild Turkey Federation has completed several habitat projects inside the Wayne over the years. Southern Ohio is also home to some of the state’s last remaining ruffed grouse.

We’ll keep following the story as the September 15 lease sale nears.

Full Story by @travishallmedia ...

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Some people spend years looking for the perfect fishing boat. Jacob Dye decided to build his own.

What started as a homemade mini skiff has evolved with every version, each one designed to get him closer to the kind of fishing he loves most. It’s lightweight, practical, and proof that you don’t need a big rig to chase big adventures.

Sometimes the best boat isn’t the one you buy—it’s the one you build.

All credit to @jacobdyee ...

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Some lures are built to catch fish. Raiko Vainola’s makes lures to pressure test pike theories.

After noticing that perch often defend themselves by holding their ground instead of sprinting away, this lure maker wondered if pike commit from farther out because of it. The result is a hand carved injured perch jerkbait designed around that theory. Now comes the only test that matters: what the pike think.

Via: @nordlures ...

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