Babe Winkelman Productions

Hunting Columns

Babe Winkelman is a nationally-known outdoorsmen who has been teaching people to fish and hunt for 25 years. Watch his award-winning “Good Fishing” and “Outdoor Secrets” television shows on The Outdoor Life Network, WGN-TV, Fox Sports Net, The Men’s Channel, The Great American Country, and the Sportsman’s Channel.

Hunt Turkeys And Be Safe

The forest is a magical place in spring. The sweet, fresh aroma of budding hardwoods. The rhythmic cadence of a gurgling spring creek. The air-piercing gobble of a wily tom.

Scout Now, Connect Later

You know the guys. The ones who seem to connect on a big buck every year. Others call them lucky. They just seem to be in the right place at the right time. Well, when you get to talking to these “lucky” hunters, you quickly discover that luck has nothing to do with it. Being in the right place at the right time however, is absolutely correct. How do they do it? They scout.

Calling All Coyotes

A member of our staff at Babe Winkelman Productions just returned from a visit to his parents’ farm in Illinois. While he was there, he bumped into an old pal at the local tavern and they began talking about how their respective hunting seasons had gone. The local boy had taken a decent buck with his bow, plenty of pheasants, a good bag of waterfowl and, oh by the way, 11 coyotes in the past two days.

Want Huge Animals? Then Go Hunt In Ontario!

The most rewarding aspect of being an outdoor television host is having friends I’ve never met. I’m talking about the fans. When I travel, visit lodges or speak at sport shows, I get to meet so many of them and they’re all the salt-of-the-earth.

Scent control for bowhunting begins today

You stink. Nothing personal, but you do. To a deer anyway. Maybe your family and friends also find you offensive in the olfactory sense, but I won’t speculate on that. To a deer, I stink too. Because as human carnivores, we are a predator species.

Summertime Deer Scouting?

If the July heat makes you think about the whitetail rut, then you’re as crazy about deer hunting as I am. Think about it: who in their right mind spends the summer months preparing for November bucks? But the truth is, it’s one of the best times to unravel the travel patterns of big bucks without altering their movements come fall.

Archery practice during the off-season will pay dividends!

When you release the bowstring and know, even before the arrow leaves the rest, that your shot is perfect… well, it’s one of the greatest feelings in the world.

Tips for turkeys from the world’s best gobbler-getters

I’m a pretty decent turkey hunter, with good instincts on where to set up, how to call and when to shoot. Do I want to be a great turkey hunter? Absolutely! And God willing, someday I will be.

Shed hunting is fun, thrilling and will make you a better hunter.

‘He’s still alive!’ I thought as I reached down and picked up 71 inches of calcified happiness on my hunting land in central Minnesota. The shed antler I held belonged to a buck I saw once during the 2006 hunting season. He’s a symmetrical 5x5 with an inside spread of about 20 inches – putting him in the 160+ category.

When bowhunting, don’t get ready to shoot… BE ready to shoot!

The weapon should never leave your hand. This is a good example why:

Find That Wounded Deer – Part Two.

Find That Wounded Deer – Part One.

I don’t know about you, but one of the worst feelings in the world is failing to recover a whitetail you’ve shot with a bullet or arrow. It happens. It’s one of the sad realities of hunting. But a lot of lost animals could have been found if the hunters practiced proven recovery strategies.

Sleep well during hunting season

Ah, hunting camp. The cabin rumbles with the snoring of a half dozen hunters, each dreaming of the bragging-rights buck that will walk past their respective stand in the morning and hang from the meat pole that night.

Deer hunting at eye level

Like most guys, I love hunting whitetails from an elevated position. In fact, I currently have 23 ladder stands positioned at strategic ambush points on the land my family manages for whitetails in Minnesota.

God bless those forgotten squirrels

The hunting world always buzzes about the same things: huge bucks, monster bulls and bullish bears. Big game.

Deer hunting at eye level

Find your shooting stroke on the range this summer

Basic hunting ethics mandate that every hunter must strive for clean, humane kills. Indeed, we hunters must do everything we can to prevent wounding losses in the field. That’s our obligation as ethical hunters.

Aiming For A Cure Foundation helps the seriously ill

Like thousands of other families across America, the Steve Ries family has been touched by the ominous, life-altering hand of cancer.

Youth turkey hunters need mentors to develop skills

Alex Rutledge harvested his first turkey by himself at age 14. It’s a day that’s minted to memory, one that he’ll never, ever forget.

Spring hunting for morels and shed antlers is fun, rewarding

Spring. I can’t wait for it. Turkey hunting. The rebirth of wild flowers and the courtship rituals of prairie chickens, sharp-tailed grouse and countless other critters. And lest I forget hunting for walleyes, pike and trout.

Fall from tree stand changes everything for deer hunter

D.J. Finke is the quintessential American sportsman.

If it swims, he fishes for it. If it has a regulated season, he hunts for it.

Shotgunning style offers hunters help

Bob Fitzgerald will debunk everything you think you know about shooting your scattergun. He’ll deconstruct your shooting stoke -- like any good instructor, he will break you down, then build you up -- and send you home breaking targets from all conceivable angles and distances.

Tactics for hunting coyotes up close

Gerald Stewart likes his coyote hunting up close and personal. And when I say close, I mean really close.
Close enough to where he can see the ticks on the animal’s face. Close enough to where he can see the dirt kick up beneath their feet. Close enough to where he can watch the animal’s eyes rotate in their sockets.

Outdoor products perfect gifts for hunters, anglers

The Winds of Thor have begun to blow cold in the North Country of Minnesota where I make my home, and the holiday season, with all its hoopla, is in full swing. It’s hard to believe that 2005 is almost over.

Tips on how to use camouflage for hunting

In hunting as in life, the little things really do matter.

A spare set of batteries for your flashlight. A compass or Global Positioning System (GPS) to aid a back country hunt. An extra pair of socks on the off chance the weather turns bad.

Dogs, porcupines and skunks -- an unhappy mix

Pity the poor hunting dog that has an unpleasant encounter with nature’s bad boys – Mr. Porcupine and Mr. Skunk.

Pity the poor dog owner, not to mention veterinarian, who has to rectify the situation. Neither meeting, I can assure you, will be pretty.

Wisconsin man learns that bow hunting isn’t just for the young at heart

This isn’t a story about your typical from-the-womb-to-the-woods bow hunter. Dave Twite of West Salem, Wis., didn’t grow up in that culture.

Securing private property for hunting is difficult but not impossible

Each fall, millions of hunters across the nation take to the field.

Some pursue ducks or pheasants. Others pursue ruffed grouse and woodcock. Still others prefer big game like mule deer, antelope and elk.

Shotgun cleaning and maintenance is important before fall hunting seasons

Let’s be honest, some of us like to practice the art of yesterday when it comes to cleaning our firearms after the hunting season ends.

Indeed, procrastination (or just plain neglect) is far too common. Let’s be honest, some of us will make up a million excuses to put off the dirty work.

Wisconsin man’s disability can’t stop love of outdoors, helping people

If you’re in need of inspiration to buoy your less-than-optimistic outlook on life, look no further than Don Christensen, the very personification of hope. Christensen’s story is bound to make even the most ardent curmudgeon crack a Cheshire grin.

HS Pro Staffer gives advice for new turkey hunters

Alex Rutledge knows turkeys -- and we’re not talking about Butterballs.

Growing up in the Missouri Ozarks, Rutledge learned the finer points of wild turkey hunting from his father and honed them over the years chasing the wily bird with his four brothers.

Computer ‘Hunting’ is blight on the sport’s moral foundation

Teddy Roosevelt must be twisting in his grave.

Roosevelt, a lover of the hunt and its moral foundation -- fair chase -- could not possibly imagine the unethical turn his beloved sport has taken deep in the heart of Texas.

Mallards Establish Nests In High-Rise 'Condos'

DELTA MARSH, MANITOBA-Most of the hen mallards arriving on the prairie breeding grounds this spring will set up housekeeping in grass or brush, where 90 percent of their nests will be destroyed by marauding predators.

Turkey Hunters Benefit from Safety Task Force

When the National Wild Turkey Hunting Safety Task Force met this January, members were reminded just how safe turkey hunting has become.

Expanding Access
Guaranteeing Public Access For Hunting And Fishing Through "Open Fields"

Dwindling access to quality hunting and angling opportunities is a trend that slowly is pulling apart the American sporting tradition. Urban sprawl is voraciously consuming wildlife habitat. Private landowners who own large tracts of huntable and fishable land are increasingly opting to lease their property, shutting out those who cannot pay. More and more, sportsmen and women are forced on to public land that grows more crowded by the day. Parents wanting to introduce their kids to hunting or fishing have fewer chances to successfully knock on a landowner’s door to get permission to hunt or fish like they did when they were growing up. Consequently fewer and fewer young people are taking up hunting in particular and it is increasingly becoming a pastime of a smaller group of wealthier Americans who can afford to pay for access.

NWTF task force makes important safety recommendations

The comeback of the wild turkey is truly an amazing conservation success story. It is perhaps our nation’s most noteworthy and instructive.

In the early 1900s, the birds were teetering on the brink, nearly wiped out by market hunters.

Kids with illnesses, disabilities find solace at Wisconsin hunting camp

In November of 2003, Tony Bundy was the unfortunate victim in a turkey hunting accident near his home in Eau Galle, Wis. He was hit with 60 pellets from an ill-advised shotgun blast of another hunter.

Outdoor books abound in today’s marketplace

Books on hunting and fishing and the outdoors in general are all the rage these days. Just check the shelves of your local sporting goods stores -- they’re everywhere.

1940 Armistice Day blizzard a reminder of the dangers of hunting

Hunting fatalities

They are facts of life. Like clockwork, they happen every year. Like clockwork, they are written about, talked about, cried about and, for many of us, forgotten about, cast aside like an old hunting vest.

Sportsman’s travel insurance is a wise investment to safeguard your ‘Dream Trip’

Perhaps more today than ever, we sportsmen are traveling to faraway places to pursue our passions.

We like to hunt and fish not only throughout the United States and North America, but also across the globe.

Kids and women need to choose shotguns wisely

Remember your first shotgun?

For every kid growing up in a family of hunters, getting that first scattergun is a special, special occasion, a right of passage that’s minted to memory well into one’s sunset years.

Babe Winkelman Productions • PO Box 407 • Brainerd, MN 56401 • 1-800-333-0471