The hunting season has come and gone. Maybe it went the way you were hoping, but for many of us, it may have been another hunting season that left us scratching our head wondering why we have to endure another meal of tag soup. If that’s you, you don’t have to let the next hunting season follow the same trend. The change can start this winter! Here are three easy-to-do habitat improvements that can have you punching your tag next fall.

Biologists and the public have observed deer, moose, elk, and caribou escape into lakes, rivers, and ponds when chased by wolves. Deer did this throughout the year in the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area (BWWCA). Such escape opportunities for deer, however, were rare in winter when lake and river surfaces were frozen, except for those places where currents kept water from freezing.  

Let’s face it, it can be really hard to buy gifts for hunters. Hunters tend to have strong preferences and very different needs for specialized equipment. Plus, it’s hard to know what gear a hunter already has or will value. If you have a hunter on your gift list, HuntTested is here to help. Here’s our carefully curated list of top gift ideas that the hunter on your gift list will love.

General Hunting Gifts

Here are some fail-safe gifts that every hunter could use and will absolutely appreciate.

• Folding Knife – I’ve long been a fan of Zero Tolerance knives and their 0770CF Folding Knife is an excellent EDC pocket knife of exceptional quality. – $200 – Zero Tolerance 
• Fixed Blade Knife – One of the most common Viking proverbs was “Knívleysur maður er lívleysur maður” which translates to “The knifeless man is a lifeless man”. Times aren’t quite so tough right now, but every hunter on your list would still appreciate this Norwegian-made Helle Knives – Utvaer – $225 – Helle Knives.
• MultiTool – I rarely leave the house without a multitool handy and there is always one in my hunting pack. Tim Leatherman invented the category and continues to perfect it. The Leatherman Wave model is a personal favorite. – $110 – Leatherman
• Flash Light – Every gift list I write will always have a flashlight on it because everyone can always use another quality flashlight. This year our choice is the awesome STREAMLIGHT 88079 ProTac HPL USB. It is a high-quality and rechargeable EDC light. – $140 – Streamlight. 
• Small Axe – Swedish steel makes the best hatchets and axes. You’d be hard-pressed to find a nicer one than the Gransfors Bruk Small Forest Axe. I’ve carried one all across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area on multiple trips and found this small axe to be infinitely handy – $225 – Gransfors Bruk.
• Wool Blanket – A quality wool blanket is great for adding insulation to a sleeping bag, for your emergency kit in your truck, or for tons of other uses. The Pendelton Yakima Camp Blanket is a favorite – $189 – Pendleton.
• Wool Socks – When in doubt a pair of quality wool socks like Smart Wool’s Hunt Sock is always welcome. – $26 – Smart Wool.
• Ammo – If you know a hunter’s favorite shotgun or rifle load, everyone can always use more ammo. Unsure what they use? Buy a brick of .22 rounds if you can find it. Federal Premium is a HuntTested favorite!

Gifts for Upland Hunters

If you have an upland bird hunter on your list, we guarantee they’ll enjoy one of these items.

• Rinse Kit Pro 3.5 Gallon – I’m really digging the utility of having a pressurized rinse kit on pheasant hunts. It’s super handy for rinsing birds before bagging them up and for cleaning your game shears. 3.5 gallons is more than enough to thoroughly rinse half a dozen pheasants.  – $324 from Rinse Kit
• Upland Game Vest – Years ago I scratched up the finish on a Browning Citori from the metal buckle on a game vest. Since then, I only wear LL Bean’s excellent upland vest. It’s extremely well-made and there’s nothing on it that will scratch your gun. – $119 – LL Bean.
• Waterproof Upland Pants – Last year, I hunted pheasants all day in freezing rain. I was soaked and cold. This year I wore LL Bean’s excellent Tek Upland Waterproof Briar Pants and was warm and dry. Any upland hunter will appreciate a pair of these pants for the inevitable cold and wet days. – $179 – LL Bean.
• Game Shears – I’ve cleaned hundreds of pheasants over the years using game shears, they are the perfect tool for the job. Gerber game shears are a favorite. – $16 – Gerber
• Pheasants Forever Membership– A fail-safe gift is membership in Pheasants Forever. They offer a variety of membership levels with associated benefits. 

Big Game Hunting Gifts

• OnX Hunt App – If you know anyone who isn’t using onX, I’d be surprised, but if you have a “late-adopter” of tech on your gift list, buy them an Elite OnX membership. They’ll have complete access to all 50 states of private/public land ownership and a growing list of map overlay layers. More than anything I’ve tried in the last ten years, OnX has been a game changer for how I hunt. – $29 per year for 1 state, $99 for 50 States – OnX Maps
• Primos Trigger Stick – I recently carried these trigger sticks on a moose hunt where they doubled as a walking sticks. These innovative sticks are instantly ready to provide a solid rifle rest and are a must-have for every hunter. – $150 – Primos Trigger Sticks 
• Wool Shirt – You cannot beat wool. LL Bean’s heavy Maine Guide Shirt is my favorite wool hunting shirt and it’s been quite lucky over the years. – $119 – LL Bean
• Cellular Game Cam – A cellular game cam will keep a deer hunter entertained all year long, and they can always use another one. The Stealth Cam Fusion is a solid, moderately priced choice.  – $144 – Stealth Cam

Gifts for Duck Hunters

• Duck / Goose Calls – Waterfowl hunters love to collect duck and goose calls. It’s as close as they get to “bling”. A solid choice would be this Duck Commander Jase Robertson Pro Series Duck Call in fancy Chartreuse Acrylic. – $45 – Duck Commander
• Duck ID Guide – My buddy Doug can identify ducks from a half-mile away. “What’s that?” I’d ask, “Ringbill”, Doug would reply – with me none the wiser. Every duck hunter who wants to be able to identify ducks like Doug would appreciate Delta Waterfowl’s North American Waterfowl Identification Guide – $24.95 – Delta Waterfowl
• SportDOG Wetland Hunter – This SportDOG Wetland Hunter (pictured above) is one of the best e-collars for waterfowl hunters. – $189 – SportDOG Brand 

Guns and Shooting Gifts

• Turnbull Restoration Red Dot Mounts – The lever gun remains one of the handiest gun designs of all time. It stands to reason that guys would want to add a red dot sight to them for even faster on-target shots. Turnbull Restoration, the modern experts on all things lever guns, makes the best mounting system for red dot sights available for your gun and sight combination. – Price varies by model – Turnbull Restoration
• Noise Cancelling Ear Muffs – I was just at a busy shooting range and I was so glad I had high-quality hearing protection. If you spend any time at the range, you need quality hearing protection. For the price point, the Walkers Razor Slim Electronic Muff is an excellent option. – $50 – Walkers
• Browning Buck Mark .22 – Custom Finished by Turnbull Restoration - For a hunter, there is perhaps no greater Christmas gift than a fine firearm under the tree. You cannot go wrong with Turnbull Finished Browning Buck Mark .22 Pistol.  The Buck Mark’s 5.5″ heavy round bull barrel shows Turnbull’s bone charcoal case hardened colors beautifully. The .22 pistol also benefits from such details as its crisp single-action trigger, full-length Picatinny scope base, laminate cocobolo target grips, Pro-Target adjustable sights, and suppressor-ready threaded barrel. – $850 – From Turnbull Restoration.

It’s winter, and the end of season is near. But no worries — you still have plenty of time to punch a buck tag

It’s mid-December, and that bow tag is still burning a hole in your pocket. Most of your buddies have killed their deer, and you’re starting to worry. Maybe even panic. 

I’ve hunted hard like I always do every year. What am I doing wrong? Did I miss the rut? Will I get my buck? 

If you want to have the best guns for hunting, we made a list of the best guns you should own as a hunter. They’re also good for survival and personal defense. These are just some of them. 

In Minnesota’s vast public land regions of the north, the prospect of connecting on a chocolate-horned bruiser buck can feel a tad daunting. The seemingly endless rugged landscape of interwoven aspen, balsam, beaver ponds, clearcuts, alders, and swampland make it difficult to even know where to begin. The northern regions of Minnesota hold fewer deer per square mile than the agriculture country so it goes without saying that it takes great effort and mettle to find success as a hunter. For many of us, this magical landscape, where wolves roam like shadows and ghosts of whipsaw loggers beckons us each fall with the visions of that dark-horned buck. Although this region intimidates many, there are ways to tip the odds in your favor this fall. One overlooked area that doesn’t get the attention it deserves is the ash swale. 

MDHA is committed to preserving our hunting heritage, promoting habitat education as well as building and protecting habitat to benefit deer and deer hunters in Minnesota. The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association Hides for Habitat program is a recycling program that turns donated deer hides into dollars to be used for habitat. Since 1985, MDHA’s Hides for Habitat program has aided MDHA in our commitment with the collection of 1,002,953 donated deer hides to raise over $5.8 million dollars. 

For decades, hunters and biologists have speculated and analyzed what really instigates and dictates the whitetails’ rut. Is it really the moon phase, or a combination of environmental and biological factors? Is the rut simply blueprinted by estrous females and their genetics; and what about those individual bucks that seem to be ahead of the ball game – dominating the whole playing field – even before does are receptive? Beside testosterone, a buck’s personal attitude also has a strong influence on its ability to successfully rut…..

These are a great starter or appetizer for any meal – you will not believe how good these are! This recipe is better with a darker meat like doves or pigeon, but you can also use pheasant, small guinea hens, goose or duck. If using pheasant, keep the pieces to about 1-inch thick. You are just trying to cover the date or fig with meat. One thing I need to try is a small piece of goat cheese to add another layer of flavor to this recipe. 

An old hunting buddy of mine pulled up in his pickup last spring when he saw me snowshoeing out of the woods on a sunny March day. He cut right to the chase as his window cracked open, “WHERE THE BLAZES ARE THE DEER?!” I shook my head and said “We might as well be chasing white elephants!” 

Like many of you, my eagerness for targeting mature “Northwoods” whitetail bucks has grown tremendously over the past several years. Although I have always had an unwavering passion for whitetail hunting, growing up hunting farmland deer in the Bertha-Hewitt area since 1998, though I still hunt there from time to time, the challenge of tracking down these tough, free-roaming deer in the North has me captivated. These elusive animals are like an entirely different breed of bucks altogether. 

MDHA is committed to preserving our hunting heritage, promoting habitat education as well as building and protecting habitat to benefit deer and deer hunters in Minnesota. The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association’s Hides for Habitat program is a recycling program to turn donated deer hides into dollars to be used for habitat. Since 1985, MDHA’s Hides for Habitat program has aided us in our commitment with the collection of 1,034,708 donated deer hides to raise over $5.9 million dollars.