Hunting

By Todd Mills Keeping your hunting dog in shape during the summer can be challenging, to say the least. With nothing to hunt, and kids and family activities getting in the way, it’s easy to neglect your hunting companion. Unfortunately, that can lead to frustration when fall rolls around. An out-of-shape dog can lead to handling issues as well as physical problems — all can result in anxiety, and in some cases, disaster. Although keeping your dog in hunting form …

A special elk depredation season has been ordered for July in a portion of southwest Nebraska because of excessive crop damage caused by elk. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Director Tim McCoy signed a Special Depredation Order for a season July 1-31 in specific parts of Lincoln, Perkins, Keith, Deuel and Garden counties. Permits will be available for purchase starting June 27. Applications will be available at OutdoorNebraska.gov or in the North Platte office, 301 E. State Farm Road, North Platte …

By Allison Barg, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Graduate Assistant Read Part I: https://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2022/04/a-researchers-field-season-part-i/ Read Part II: https://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2022/05/a-researchers-field-season-part-ii/ One of the hardest and most interesting aspects of research is that answering one question generally leads to at least three new ones. For example: What is the best way to count pheasants? Answer: Males crow regularly during the breeding season, so we can listen for those calls and count how many we hear. Easy, right? But to make those counts useful, we …

Residents and nonresidents may apply for a draw status Nebraska deer permit in two mule deer conservation areas through June 24. In 2022, the Platte Mule Deer Conservation Area and the Frenchman MDCA are the only deer permits in the drawing. A preference point may be purchased in lieu of participating in the drawing. Residents and eligible landowners also may apply for a firearm or muzzleloader antelope permit, and elk applicants may apply for a general elk permit. An antelope …

The Rutten Family of Cedar Rapids Pass on a Hunting Tradition The Ruttens of Cedar Rapids do something that no one else does: hunt snapping turtles with their bare hands. Every summer, the Rutten “boys” — geared in old tennis shoes, jeans and a T-shirt — ease down into the greasy, stagnant oxbow lake on the flood-prone family property, called “The Island.” Each man carries a pitchfork, while other family members wait on the bank ready with gunny sacks. Walking …

Nebraska’s spring turkey season has been open for several weeks now.  Oh yes, I have been out, have had success.  In fact, I punched a tag back a few weeks, but have been busy blogging about other “stuff”.  Time to change that. I have always said that the key to successful spring turkey hunting is scouting, scouting and more scouting.  If you can hunt and scout the same areas over time, over several seasons, you will accumulate a wealth of …

If you have read my blog for a while, you know that most of the time I have fish and fishing on the brain.  You also know that I love to hunt, but it is hard finding time to do it all.  I fish hard in the fall when most folks are hunting.  Spring turkey season is the one time each year that hunting distracts me from fishing.  Once again this spring, I have been thinking about some things, things …

Every year about this time I get the feeling that everything is happening way too fast!  I look for ways to slow down the clock, the calendar, and make spring last as long as possible.  For a couple of years during the stupid pandemic, it was a slower pace because of this restriction or that closure.  This year it has been back to full bore!  Love it! I really do not have a long blog post today, nor a lot …

I have been making the circuit of radio shows this week.  For some reason, this old Stooges’ line runs through my head: Talked spring crappie fishing and of course spring turkeys with Hershey and Rawlinson last night.  If you wish, you can catch the podcast, KFOR, Nebraska Outdoors. Tomorrow morning, 9:00 central time, I will be on The Great Outdoor Radio Show on Boomer Radio with my buddy Greg Wagner.  You can listen live there, or catch the podcast after …

It is time for my annual distraction from fishing.  That will be reflected here in my blog.  I pretty much am all fish and fishing, all the time, except when the turkeys are gobbling.  In just this past week, it has seemed to me that all of a sudden there are big, strutting, gobbling turkeys in many of the places where I expect them to be.  Even in the middle of the sandhills! I love spring turkey season for the …