Author: Brad Fenson

Finding the best meat grinder is essential for hunters and home processors looking to turn wild game into quality ground meat. Whether you’re tackling a couple of deer a year or processing large quantities of elk or moose, choosing the right grinder ensures efficiency, durability, and top-notch results. From compact hand-cranked units to commercial-grade machines, this guide dives into key features, motor capacities, and add-ons to help you make the best investment for your needs.  Not all meat grinders are made the same, and knowing what each model is designed for and its capacity will ensure that hunters looking at…

Four big honkers appeared over the far corner of the field and talked excitedly as they centered on our decoys. The huge wing spans were at least six feet wide, and as their hulking bodies arched into the wind, their feet slid down beneath their bellies, and their toes splayed out to find the ground. I whispered to my wife Stef to “shoot them.” The lead bird tumbled to the ground after a perfect hit from her Franchi Affinity 3, and as she continued to shoot, I shouldered my shotgun to participate in the games. The experience was…

Including your kids on a fly-in fishing adventure is an investment in the future of angling. Exposing them to strong, confident women and mentors will create a passion for the outdoors. Tension tightened my fishing line and put a slow and steady bend into my rod. I carefully lifted the tip and set the hook, and the weight of a huge fish tested the drag in the reel. The rod was held steady as it bent into the water with the powerful surges from the fish below. There was no sense in grabbing the reel handle, as the fish refused…

Kids Fishing at Cree River Lodge & Pilot’s Lodge on Fond du Lac We backtrolled into the strong current to keep our jigs at the bottom of a steep drop-off. The fishing lines pulled downstream at an angle but didn’t keep the telegraph of a bite from running through my graphite fishing rod. A subtle hook set put a good bend in the rod, and another walleye was brought to the side of the boat. My daughter Addy looked at me with a grin as she struggled to reel in a fish at the same time. It was a special…

Sorting out the confusion in the Shotgun Shell world We bustled through the field like a colony of ants to set the decoys out in a steady drizzle of rain. The dark clouds looked ominous, but the anticipation of geese decoying helped us overlook the damp conditions. We were hunting in northeast Alberta with Take-Em Outfitters, with a unique crowd of people from within the ammunition industry. There have been some big corporate changes in the shotgun shell world, with Vista Outdoor now being The Kinetic Group, owning Federal Premium, Remington Ammunition, and HEVI-Shot. Companies that once guarded secrets about…

Our review of the Mossberg 940 on a high desert Gould’s Turkey hunt The best time to book a turkey hunt for next spring is right now, and here is a little food for thought about an often-overlooked bucket list adventure. Orange and violet hues backlit the mountains as the early morning sun tried to break over the horizon. The jagged peaks looked old and weathered. The 8,000-foot rocky cliffs are considered high desert in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Sonora, Mexico, and home to the Gould’s turkey. We wound our way down rough ranch roads in the dark and…

Are you ready to face the most dangerous animals in the world? After five days of searching for the old cape buffalo bull, we found him grazing in dense thornbush. The bull was flanked by two of his compadres, an old scrum-capped bull that had worn his hooks down to flat bosses on his head. The other bull did not have the age of our target animal but showed the ill temper of an aging breeder. We wasted no time getting downwind and working through the dense brush to where we last saw the bulls. Our tracker, Albert, was tall…

We had a chance to review the Mossberg 940 Pro Waterfowl shotgun on a busy sea duck hunt on the Maine coast. The fast wingbeats and steady action made me feel like I was living in a three-dimensional video game. Two buffleheads soared through the narrows in front of us at breakneck speed, with shotguns thundering a barrage of steel shot through the Atlantic air. Seconds later, a black duck made the mistake of flying within range, and a three-gun salute ended with a crescendo and a watery splash. Our trusty black lab whimpered with uncontrollable excitement, waiting for the…

The sky was filled with the twinkle of a thousand stars as we rode across the pasture in the ATV to put us close to the turkeys. We had heard the birds on the roost the evening before and thought we had a good idea of where to find them. Sneaking through the cedars, we found a long lane to set up decoys and hide in the cover. As the sun started to rise, several big gobblers sounded off. They were so close that it was a little unnerving. We wanted to be close, but the thundering gobbles sounded like…

A Dream Hunt for a Mature Bull Elk and a Tremendous Bull Moose We started down an overgrown cutline right at legal light in the morning. My hunting partner, Jason Frank, from Northern Backcountry Adventures is passionate about chasing elk. From late August until the end of November, he is chirping, bugling, and living with elk. Frank grew up in northern Alberta and started hunting elk when they first appeared on the landscape. Since then, he has mastered calling and decoding where elk live and how they communicate. Our early morning started with a distant bugle we knew well. Several…