Upland Birds

It was one of those, just-soak-it-up moments in the outdoors. The mid-morning sun lit up the winter wheat field in front of me, and next to my jake decoy, I could see the feathers of a real jake blowing in the gathering breeze. Aesthetically, it was beautiful, and what made it even better was the...

Shooting birds is a perishable skill. It’s not like riding a bike, and I’m reminded of that opening day of duck season every year. So what is a bird hunter to do during the months between one hunting season and the next. Sure, you can shoot clays, but clays don’t juke and dive and speed up when you...

There is an innate curiosity in us all, hunters especially. We are driven by the same question that drove early settlers deeper into the wilderness, just beyond that next ridgeline, to carve out their own place on the land. But having room to roam is increasingly challenging these days, as cities...

As a young hunter, I took a generalist approach to small game hunting. If I was lucky, I might come home with some combination of squirrels, rabbits, and maybe even a ruffed grouse. More often than grouse, though, I’d get a shot at a woodcock. At times, it seemed like there was a woodcock or two in...

There is simply nothing like the grouse woods in the fall. The fire of color, the explosion from thick cover, and the taste—ah, the taste—ruffed grouse rivals that of all game birds. But bringing the king of game birds to the table is no easy task. Ruffed grouse have spent thousands of years...

On the Texas stop on the MeatEater Tailgate Tour, Jesse Griffiths, Danielle Prewett, and I got in a good old-fashioned Texas dove hunt before cheering on the Longhorns and cooking up some grub for hungry fans. Dove hunting is one of the best ways to spend a day in the field, but if you’re like me...

We’ve all seen the magazine covers: A thin creek trickling beneath a grove of aspen, the grouse flushing toward their crowns, a tweeded hunter with a double gun, and the setter pointing the ground where the bird just burst from. Like most magazine covers, that’s not how it usually happens. It’s a...

Ruffed grouse are widely considered one of the more delectable upland game birds. But did you know they might also be poisonous? Odd as it seems, there is a fairly extensive—and largely forgotten—body of medical literature detailing unfortunate souls who have been poisoned by eating ruffed grouse...

If you’ve hunted pheasants long enough, you’ve probably been in a group that uses blockers to seal off the edges and ends of a field. Chances are you’ve seen a rooster or two drop in the distance after a blocker made a good shot. Chances are higher that you’ve seen more escape unscathed, whether it...

Every day, our fellow meateaters send us more than 100 emails regarding hunting, fishing, cooking, conservation, and more. So, we decided to publish a series dedicated to our favorite FAQs. Ask MeatEater is powered by onX, creators of the best digital mapping tool for hunters and anglers. A lot of...

For many hunters, the Sept. 1 dove opener signals the official beginning of fall. A vision of a wide field ringed with orange caps flashes across the mind’s eye. Retrievers rush for downed doves, and shots echo off the leaves of trees just starting to turn color. For those of us not fortunate enough...

This audio is an excerpt from one of 16 harrowing tales featured in "MeatEater's Campfire Stories: Close Calls." In the audio book, you'll hear from seasoned hunters, anglers, and outdoor professionals who share their tales of perilous adventures in the natural world, from run-ins with black bears...