In The Wild

The stuff one witnesses in the great outdoors never ceases to amaze. As of late, enter the story of the “rope buck.” During Nebraska’s 2019 muzzleloader deer hunting season in December, the neighboring landowner who lives to the south of our farm was in his stand watching for white-tailed deer. A buck emerged at a distance, he closely examined it with binoculars. It was a nice-sized white-tailed buck, but something was very odd about its antlers. As the buck moved …

The late deer hunting season is over in Nebraska and now it is time for me to unravel a mystery in the woods of the family farm where I hunt. What in the blazes are those rocks littered about the woodland habitat? I have never seen anything like this scenario. There are many rocks scattered about the lower half of a relatively steep, hilly west/northwest slope in the Schramm Bluffs of Sarpy County near the Platte River in southeast Nebraska. …

“Ice fishing is an experience you can’t live from the couch,” Kyle Kovnesky, hardcore ice fisherman from Abrams, WI. Why do normally stable people go out in extremely cold weather to venture onto a frozen snow and windswept body of water to freeze their tails off and stare down through a hole in the ice to catch a fish? Think about the scenario in that question. It would seem that this is not a logical or sane thing to do. Or, …

The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions — a promise to do good on acts of self-improvement — has been around for thousands of years on both the eastern and western hemispheres. While many individuals vow to eat better, exercise more, stop smoking and build up their finances, it is far easier to make and fulfill New Year’s resolutions for an activity of which you are passionate, like hunting in Nebraska. So, here are eight suggested hunting-oriented New Year’s resolutions …

I have received an early Christmas gift from lovely wife of many years – Polly Wagner. What is it? Well, it is a brand-new, in-line .50 caliber muzzleloading rifle that is fully scoped for deer hunting. Thank you so much, Polly! I am thrilled, to say the least! For the record, by and large, the federal government doesn’t classify muzzleloaders as firearms and an ATFE Form 4473 (background check) isn’t required. So, a person can purchase a muzzleloading rifle for …

Nebraska’s most popular hunt is the 9-day firearm deer season (Nov. 14 through Nov. 22). This is one of the absolute best times of year to be outside and participate in it with the deer rut happening. My lovely wife of more than 33 years, Polly Wagner, says that everything comes to a grinding halt in the Wagner family with the opening of “rifle deer season.” It’s a wonderful event, though. For many of us in the hunting lifestyle, the …

“I wish more deer hunters would forget about all the stuff they have read or heard over the years and focus their deer hunting on the does in order to be more successful in the field,” says Jeff Rawlinson, longtime deer hunter and outdoor educator at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. And he’s right! Far too many of us who hunt bucks get wrapped in a rub and scrape lines, grunt calls, rattling antlers, decoys and a multitude of …

Let’s face it. We are living in an era where people do not fully understand where their food originates. We are living in an era where urbanization is spreading like wildfire. We are living in an era where there is a decline in rural populations. Yes, we are living in an era where for the first time in history most of the world’s population lives in a city. Enter agriculture (ag). Enter youth. Enter my nearly 4-year old grandson – …

It never ceases to amaze me that more avid hunters don’t buy a turkey permit in the fall. Hunters say a lot of things about why they don’t hunt North America’s and Nebraska’s largest upland game bird during autumn. They say there are too many other game birds and animals to hunt in the fall and they may not even see turkeys. They say the fall hunt for turkeys is merely an ambush and not as challenging as the spring …

Dollars. Your dollars. That’s what’s urgently needed to keep the Hunters Helping the Hungry (HHH) program going and to greatly assist those in need of a good meal and valuable protein. Funds in HHH are extremely low right now. In fact, the total amount of tax-deductible cash donations received are even 34 percent below last year. Despite the fantastic response and increase in deer donations by hunters, the program continues to struggle with getting enough cash donations to cover the …