A Backcountry Hog Hunt in the Pineywoods of Texas

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In the spring, Dan drove from Pennsylvania to Texas for a backpack-style pig hunt. Going into this hunt, we weren't expecting to backpack into a remote and secluded valley; Texas simply lacks the large tracts of public land that people often associate with backpack hunting. That being said, we still wanted to try and get off the beaten path as much as possible. We packed our bags and headed into the National Forest of eastern Texas where we hunted and camped for 5 days.

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A Memorable October Hunt for Wood Ducks

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Despite the cold October morning, I felt quite warm and comfortable as I fired-up the vehicle in the morning darkness.  Much to my delight, my girlfriend Ellen, chose to join me and my two friends, Dan and Ben, for a morning duck hunt on a tributary that flowed into the Allegheny River. It was still dark when Ellen and I pulled to the shoulder of the road, right behind Dan’s parked pickup.

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Finding the Time to Put-Up Fur - My Method of Freezing and Fleshing Pelts

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The joys of successful trapping are accompanied with the trials of finding time for processing the animal. The pelt of the furbearer you harvested will be dried and either shipped off to a fur auction, sold to a buyer, or tanned for display. However, the joys of everyday life won’t provide the average person with adequate time for the skinning and fleshing process...

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Trapping My First River Otter

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I was 16 years old when I started trapping in Minnesota. I knew there was something unique about it that hunting and fishing didn’t have. Unfortunately, no one in my family trapped, but I was lucky enough to have my friend’s father, Andy, teach me how to trap. I always enjoyed exploring the woods, fields, creeks, and marshes for animal sign, and trying to find the perfect place to set a trap with the correct bait and lure. Andy first taught me how to trap in the numerous lakes, streams, and rivers that Minnesota provides. 

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Best Trail-Cam Pics of 2016

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There are several of us at RGT that have trail-cameras. We use these devices for a variety of reasons. They help us decide where and when to hunt a certain area, they are used as an aid in wildlife research, and sometimes we just enjoy seeing what critters are roaming the wilds when we aren't able to be there physically.

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Stalking Sus scrofa: A Tale of My First Successful Wild Pig Hunt

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In the predawn darkness, the headlights of the Tacoma revealed a substantially washed-out section of dirt road. I switched the truck over to 4-wheel drive, and began driving forward over the unconsolidated sand and washed-out road. I continued on, carefully navigating around large logs and debris that had been deposited onto the road from the periodic flooding. In the past year, the Neches River had flooded much of the low-lying ground around Davy Crockett National Forest. The road abruptly came to a dead end and the headlights from the truck illuminated the moist green leaves of the forest.

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Big Water Muskrats: Island Trapping the Allegheny River

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When I was about 12 years old I had the opportunity to talk to an old-timer who everyone called Rabbit. Rabbit and I started talking one afternoon because I brought in a couple of muskrats that I was going to sell to my local fur buyer. Rabbit told me, in his raspy voice, “Use your boot and make a shelf for your trap on the side of the bank. Take an apple and pin it to the bank just above the trap. An apple’s like candy to dem muskrats.” 

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