“Dammit Wes,” a friend of mine shouted after I handed him my Swarovski binoculars for the first time. On my recommendation, he’d just splashed out $1,200 on some from another brand, and was so happy with them that he couldn’t believe mine would be noticeably better. But they were.

The phrase “the best” gets overused in gear reviews, but that’s exactly what these are: the best binoculars ever made. They’d better be, since they cost $2,999.

The Best Binoculars Ever Made Have a Price Tag to Match

NL Pure 10×42

How can Swarovski possibly justify that price for a piece of equipment that can costÌęas little as $70? There are a bunch of jargony technical reasons, but let’s start with the emotional one that’s most important to me: I love animals. The time, travel, and equipment it takes to spot, hunt, and admire wildlife accounts for a huge amount of my spending each year. I dedicate large parts of my time to slogging up and down mountains, paddling rivers, waking up before dawn, and going to bed wet, sore, and exhausted just for the opportunity of a fleeting glimpse of fauna in the wild. These Swarovski binoculars help me make the most of each sighting.

The optical quality of the lenses—glass that is free of distortion andÌętransmits light equally across its entire surface. The Swarovski family, which also owns both a luxury crystal company and one that specializes in precision machine tools, has all the infrastructure in place to make high-quality glass. Swarovski treats the glass with coatings that protect it and amplify its performance in low light. Swarovski’s coatings eliminate reflection, directing as much light through the glass as possible. The protective layer prevents scratches and repels water and dirt, keeping the lenses clean.ÌęThen, on the prism (which corrects the image orientation from upside down to right side up), there’s a phase coating which ensures light passing through the Swarovski binoculars is directed perfectly toward your eye.

I’m particularly impressed by the NL Pure 10×42’s eyepiece lenses, which are designed to flatten the image reaching your eyes. Many lenses create a rolling ballÌęeffect, where objects appear larger in the center of the lens than they do near the edges. Not only does that effect distort the image, but it can create sort of a fun-house mirror sensation, causing dizziness and nausea over long periods of viewing. But the NL Pures display a perfectly flat field of view.

Then there’s the matter of what you can see through the lenses. As magnification increases, your field of view typically decreases. The purpose of binoculars is often simplified into image magnification. The “10” in the name NL Pure 10×42 represents how much magnification they provide. But even at ten-times magnification, these NL Pures display as broad a swath of the landscape as older eight-times Swarovski designs. Flying birds stay in the frame longer than on conventional ten-times magnified binoculars, making them easier to track. That field of view is so broad that you can often lose sight of it beyond your peripheral vision, so looking through the Swarovski binoculars doesn’t feel like looking through a toilet-paper tube.

The “42” in the name refers to the size of the objective lenses—the ones farthest away from your eyes. The more magnification an optic has, the less light reaches your eyes through it. However, the larger an objective lens is the more light reaches your eye. More light allowance into the binoculars improves the details you can see and the enhances the color resolution.

Every set of binoculars is a compromise between magnification, objective size, and overall size and weight. 10x42s are the ideal compromise for travel-size binoculars. You get plenty of magnification and light gathering, in a package that’s reasonably compact and lightweight.

Plus, these binoculars are incredibly svelte. Not only do the Swarovski NL Pures weigh less than 30 ounces, but the typical double bridge design of roof-prism binoculars has been replaced by a unified bridge. Their ergonomic shape—the tubes flatten into ovals halfway along, right where your hands want to grip the body—positions the focus wheel directly under your index finger. Typical of Swarovskis, a thick rubber armor adorns the entire body, offering a sure grip even in wet conditions or while wearing gloves.

That shape, the iconic Swarovski green, and the Northern Goshawk logo sets the NL Pures apart, visually, from lesser binoculars. And, I won’t lie, that’s also part of the appeal. Soon after I brought this pair home, my wife asked me why I wouldn’t put them down. “This is my Rolex,” I explained. Carrying these, in my mind, signals that I’m someone who takes wildlife seriously and is dedicated to enjoying time with the creatures of the forest. But unlike a fancy watch, these binoculars actually do something my phone can’t.

Unlike the larger, heavier, $5,330, animal-identifying, artificial intelligence-equipped Swarovski AX Visios, or other models equipped with laser rangefinders, these NL Pures are a simple, robust, purely mechanical device. There’s really nothing that can go wrong with them. In the two years I’ve had them, I’ve dropped them in the mud, banged them on trees and rocks, and dragged them everywhere from coastal Alaska to rural France to beaches in Baja, Mexico. In that time the only maintenance I’ve had to do was occasionally wipe the lenses with a cloth.

What’s it like to look through them? The crazy thing here is I can’t show you. No monitor, television, or printer in the world is capable of producing as crystal clear an image as is achieved by looking through this pair of Swarovski NL Pure binoculars. And no words describing how it feels like you’re standing ten times closer to whatever you’re looking at will ever do the experience justice. You just need to try a pair for yourself. But be warned: like my buddy found out, picking up a pair of Swarovskis will forever ruin your perception of all other binoculars.

The post What It’s Like to Look Through the Best Binoculars Ever Made appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

When I started hunting nearly a decade ago,ÌęI balked at the absurd expense of hunting apparel. I was a lifelong penny-pinching minimalist. Did I really need a $400 jacket, $250 pants, and socks that rang in at $28 a pair? It seemed like overkill (pun intended).

But, on one hunting trip in Montana in 2017, winds and snow blew at rates far exceeding 40 miles per hour. Thankfully, a full set of truly windbreaking Sitka gear kept me comfortable—I moved easily across the open mountain ridge, completely unaffected by the gusts. Beneath the burly outerwear, First Lite’s merino layers wicked sweat and kept me warm. My feet were toasty and dry in wool hunting socks, and they remained blister-free in my well-fitted boots for all six miles of the loop hike. Eventually, I took one shot on a legal mule deer buck that I later field-dressed and packed off the mountain alone. It was my first solo big game animal tag, and if it weren’t for my gear, I would have turned around long before I ever had the chance to spot it.

Much of the hunting apparel in my camouflaged closet continues to perform year after year. Its durability surpasses that of most casual outdoor brands I’ve tried, and I find myself using my hunting gear for many unrelated outdoor activities. It’s certainly kept me comfortable enough to hunt in conditions I’d have avoided before becoming a hunter.

Over the past ten years, I’ve cross-country skied, snowboarded, snowshoed, ridden my horses, hiked, backpacked, traveled, and bundled up chilly friends in my hunting apparel. Below are the hunting-specific pieces that I’ve relied on most. The other good news: Hunting brands are starting to wake up to the versatility of their gear, so you’ll find that every piece below is offered in solid colors in addition to camouflage.

At a Glance

• Best base layers:
• Best rain gear: and
• Best pants for women:
• Best pants for men:
• Best socks:

When you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside.ÌęLearn more.

Best Base Layers

First Lite Kiln Base Layers

I bought my first pair of Kiln baselayers eight years ago, and I still wear the same ones today. After hundreds of wears and washes, the wool continues to hold up. We even featured the most recent edition of the KilnsÌęin our 2025 winter gear guide, because they’ve held up so well over the years. This 250-gram base layer is both the perfect weight for fall and winter hiking and backpacking, but it’s also the best-fitting base-layer legging I’ve found for women. The very high waist provides maximum coverage and keeps seams above pack hipbelts, and the wide band resists rolling down and sagging over the miles. The Kiln line comes in a crew, quarter-zip, hoody, and for men, as well as hoody and long-jane options for women.

Best Rain Gear

Sitka Gear Dew Point Jacket and Pants

I’ve tested dozens of other brands, but I’ve yet to find one I trust more than Sitka for wet weather.ÌęThat’s especially true for the Dew Point. This three-layer Goretex jacket is lightweight, packable, and supple enough to move quietly—which means no crinkling or swishing when you’re sneaking up on wildlife for a photo-op or trying to avoid waking your partner in camp. The packability is also ideal for many scenarios, like backpacking long miles when you need gear that won’t take up too much space in your pack.ÌęPit zips allow for dumping heat, and it’s the most breathable rain gear I’ve worn to date.

Best Women’s Pants

Ditale Sofia șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Pant 2.0

Ditale is a boutique brand that’s newer to the hunting apparel scene, but that under-the-radar status isn’t likely to last long. Last year, I wore the Sofia șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Pant for everything from hiking and hunting to cross-country skiing, and I fell hard for them. It’s the best physical fit I’ve felt as a curvy athletic gal thanks to the wide range of sizing and smart features like the full running crotch gusset and articulated knee darts. Compared to other brands, the waist is both stretchier and higher-cut, but curved like a great pair of jeans. They’re actually flattering. This, to me, is the best all-around hiking pant for spring-to-fall temperatures, and the DWR makes it a great option for rain and wet flurries, as well.

Best Men’s Pants

Stone Glacier De Havilland Lite Pant

Stone Glacier specializes in gear for men only, and the guys I hunt with are all clamoring to get a pair ofÌęthe De Havilland Pants. Offered in both a Lite and ($189), these pants boast all the technical details you need for three-season hiking, backpacking, and adventure travel. DWR-treated fabric, side zips, roomy side pockets, and a patented contour waist systemÌęmean these pants can take whatever you throw at them—and stay in place without slipping or chafing. The modern cut and neutral colors mean that you can wear them to workÌęor a casual dinner, and then hit the hills for an evening hike.

Best Socks

Farm to Feet Ely Socks, Full Cushion

Like many four-season adventurers, I have an obsession with wool socks. My favorites are the Farm to Feet Ely hunting socks. I have to hide them from my mother because she tries to steal them anytime she comes within striking distance. The light cushion version beats out every boot or ski sock I’ve ever used, and the full cushion version keeps me warm and comfortable over long miles during the cold season. Gentle compression in the foot prevents blisters, and my Elys are stepping into their fourth year of use without any holes or threadbare patches to speak of. For under $30, I recommend treating yourself.

The post Need Hardcore, Durable Outdoor Apparel? Don’t Sleep on Hunting Brands’. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Last Friday I hiked back into a camp just south of the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana after a long morning chasing elk around the mountains. I fired up my Starlink satellite internet system, sat down, and texted my wife to let her know I was safe. That’s when my phone rang. On the other end was one of Tim Walz’s press people, who invited me to join the Minnesota Governor and vice-presidential candidate for the annual pheasant season opener in his home state. I’d planned to interview President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the 2024 race, have previously published articles on Pete Buttigieg and John Kerry, and Walz’s press team knew I was a hunter, too.

I had just enough time to make it if I jumped in my truck and drove over 1,000 miles to southeastern Minnesota right away.ÌęI’ve heard worse ideas, so I pulled on a pair of jeans, threw on a flannel shirt, and hit the road.

Eighteen hours later, I was standing in a field outside a town called Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, drinking a bad cup of gas station coffee, and getting frisked by the Secret Service when a convoy of armored Chevy Suburbans pulled up. Walz hopped out, pulled on a bird vest and a pair of brush chaps. A member of his personal protection detail handed him a shotgun. That’s when a trio of very excited labs jumped on the governor.

The dogs belonged to a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources official who’d showed up that morning to serve as his boss’s dog handler. Also present was the owner of the farm where everyone was parking, a dozen or so campaign staffers, at least 20 Secret Service agents supported by even more state police officers, and a gaggle of local and national news cameramen.

When the campaign representative called me at camp, I’d offered to swing by my home in Bozeman, Montana, to grab my shotgun. While the Secret Service didn’t mind people joining Walz in the field with their own bird guns, the campaign staffers didn’t want to risk a gaffe (or worse). So I just threw on my orange vest, and tagged along while Walz and the DNR official hunted.

An Unusual Hunt

Walking off the farm onto a public Wildlife Management Area, the hunt began in earnest. We’d heard some roosters calling from aÌęthicket of willows, so Walz, the DNR official, and his dogs waded right into them.

The field was covered in a patchwork of tall grasses, dense willows, and milo (a corn-like stalky plant that produces bird seed). There were ample signs that whitetail, birds of prey, and other wildlife had been present in the area. But this morning, we saw no trace of fauna. The Secret Service had begun showing up days earlier, patrolling the area on ATVs, setting up sniper overwatch locations, and flying surveillance drones. All these preparations seem to have scared off any deer, hawks, or other animals that usually call the area home.

Stomping along right behind Walz, straight into the willows, was an army of news media personnel, each of them competing for the perfect photo. None of the press I chatted with had ever been on any sort of hunt before.

Everyone followed along at an arm’s length, occasionally rushing ahead to capture a portrait when the sun was just right, or shouting a request to look in the camera’s direction. Frustrated members of the protective detail—some of whom were seasoned hunters—tried to hold everyone in an even line with their protectee, giving him some clear shooting angles in case a bird might fly up.

Ten minutes in, I started to wonder where the birds had been placed. Every other pheasant hunt photo-op I’ve seen a politician host was done with pen-raised birds released just moments before the politician shouldered their gun and shot them. My first assumption on the hunt with Walz was that somebody had screwed up, failing to place the birds in the pre-planned locations. But as the morning went on I realized something else was going on: Walz was really hunting wild birds.

Safety First

As we walked across the field, a rooster lifted off a few feet in front of me, on a trajectory to fly right over my head. I dove into a ditch, a reflex precaution I’ve developed for safety over years of hunting—bird hunters have reputation of playing fast and loose with gun safety. It would have been a home run shot for Walz, who was standing just ten yards away at the time, but he didn’t even shoulder his Beretta. If we’d switched places, I’d have taken that shot.

The rest of the morning, I never once saw the Governor point his gun in anything but a safe direction, even as all of those members of the press ran around him. Walz treated the entire direction of the staging area—the crowd of staffers and parked cars—as off-limits throughout the whole hunt. He unloaded his gun when we got within a quarter-mile of the pen.

A Little R&R

A couple hours later, after walkingÌętwo subsequent teams of dogs to exhaustion, Walz cracked a Mountain Dew and chomped into a venison stick made by one of his friends.

“Wasn’t that great?!” The governor remarked with enthusiasm. Most other hunters I know would have spent the time talking about the heat or lack of wind, or wondering where all the birds were hiding. But Walz didn’t seem at all frustrated by the circus that had limited his opportunities to shoot birds.

“I’m here for the camaraderie and I’m here for the dogs,” Walz told me during a sit-down interview a few minutes later. “The shooting is tertiary at best. Even watching them flush when you don’t get a shot because you’re too far away or whatever? That’s great.”

Walz gestured at the field we’d just spent a couple of hours walking. “This,” he said, “is why I come.”

A Gun Enthusiast on Gun Reform

Walz, aÌęformer command sergeant major in the Army National Guard,Ìębrought his along on the hunt. The $2,159 semi-automatic shotgun is an interesting choice for bird hunting.ÌęIt’s designed for shooting sporting clays, and is about 30 percent heavier than a pure hunting gun as a result.

“As I’m getting older, I appreciate the lower recoil,” Walz said. Not only does the weight reduce the Xcel’s kick, but the gun also employs a hydraulic damper in the stock to minimize the force that reaches the shooter’s shoulder.

Walz is running three-inch shells through the 12 gauge, filled withÌęnumber five bird shot. That’s about as powerful ofÌęa load as you’d want to shoot at a pheasant, so it’s understandable why he’s gone through the effort to minimize recoil. He also employs non-toxic bismuth loads, which don’t cause lead poisoning in the birds of prey that occasionally scavenge the carcasses of hunted pheasant.

The loads retail for about three times the price of the cheaper, but less hard-hitting steel alternative. I asked the Governor how he justifies the cost. “Well I only need two rounds a day,” he responded. “In the context of the dogs and the time, that’s really not bad.”

For those not super familiar with bird hunting, Walz was bragging. The daily bag limit for wild pheasant in Minnesota is two birds.

I also asked Walz how he navigates his enthusiasm for guns and hunting while reckoning with the mass shootings that regularly shake the nation. On the campaign trail, Walz has spoken at length about how the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre reshaped his thinking on gun violence and gun control. Walz went from boasting about an “A” rating from the NRA before that mass shooting to holding an “F” rating.

“The solution is in the middle,” he told me. “Firearms are a right. So long as you can use them safely as you see here you can use them as you see fit. But here in Minnesota we’ve done things like more expanded background checks and domestic violence protection orders.” None of those things have impacted Americans’ Second Amendment rights or the guns they hunt with and own, he said.

“What it does is keep more people safe. And I think there’s a responsibility for gun owners to speak up on this, and set a good example,” said Walz.

Unexpected Access

Early in the hunt, a rooster took wing right in front of Walz. The DNR official beat his boss to the shot and brought the bird down. That was a faux pas—it should have been Walz’s shot based on proximity to the bird. But Walz immediately shouted, “Good shot!” Then heÌęwent about helping to find the bird in the dense brush.

The striking thing about the hunt wasn’t that it actually involved fair chase and wild birds, or that Walz had a good time pursuing a hobby he’s enjoyed since childhood; it was the attitude of everyone around him.

With high-profile politicians, standard procedure for journalists is to get campaign approval for the questions you plan to ask during an interview. Hanging out after hunting wrapped up, I was chatting with the candidate’s traveling press secretary, and I asked her if there were any topics she preferred that I avoid. She just shrugged and told me to ask whatever I wanted.

The campaign is running a last-minute, incredibly close race. But everyone around Walz was relaxed and seemed to be having a good time.

The only time I saw Walz remotely bummed out was when he learned that I’m also an enthusiastic bird hunter, but didn’t get an opportunity to do any shooting. “We’ll have you back out after the election,” he said. “Then we should be able to do this without all the cameras.”

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Take a spin through the butcher section of your local supermarket—you’ll surely see labels reading “organic,” “grass-fed,” or “free range” on cellophane-wrapped meat stacked inside the refrigerator cases. But absent any real details of how those pre-packaged cuts actually arrived in the fridge in front of you, how are consumers really supposed to know where their food comes from? The real deal isn’t bred by humans, raised by industrial agriculture, processed in a factory, or shipped across the country. It’s out there right now, running around the woods, mountain or meadow. You can go harvest it yourself. Here’s how.

Congrats! You’ve Killed a Deer.

The hardest part of hunting starts once you’ve killed your animal. Your first priority is to cool the meat down. Doing so helps preserve it, and prevent bacteria growth. And to do that, you’ll need to open the carcass up, and remove its organs.

Last month, I joined an organization called on one of their traveling From Field To Table classes. That involved hands-on processing tuition from chef Albert Wutsch. You can find that same instruction in YouTube videos. Since much of the content includes sensitive material, I’ll link out to it, rather than embed it within this article. You should hopefully be able to continue reading without seeing any uncomfortable images.

which is a nice way to phrase gut removal. Remember that the first step is almost always affixing the tag to the carcass, or reporting your kill on a state’s dedicated smartphone application.

Bringing It Home

Determine ahead of time where you intend to process your animal. If you’re more than a mile from your vehicle, you’ll need to , in order to break it into manageable sections you can carry . If you’re close to a car, you can simply carry or drag the field-dressed carcass back to it. If you have a home, lodge, or campsite nearby, you can then transport the animal back there to butcher it. If instead you have a long drive ahead of you, you’ll want to quarter the animal and get your meat on ice before you begin the journey.

Wutsch says your priority should always be to keep the meat, “clean and cool.” But if it’s less than 40 degrees outside, fresh meat doesn’t necessarily need to be chilled immediately. It can be housed in a game bag to keep insects away, and hung from a tree or rack for a week or more.

You will need to take care when moving a carcass. Contaminants like feces, plant matter, or just plain old dirt will alter the taste if they’re allowed to make contact with meat. If you plan to drag a carcass, or throw it in a truck bed, leave the hide attached until you have a clean place to remove it.

How to Butcher a Deer

The process of breaking a deer down into various cuts of meat is surprisingly intuitive. Once the hide is off, seams between major muscle groups are visible, and many can be pulled apart by hand, or with only minimal assistance from a sharp knife.

. A hanging rack really helps keep things clean, and the elevation it provides can keep your back from getting sore. We used in the class, and I just purchased one to keep at my hunting camp.

You’re going to separate the meat into different cuts—you know, like the loin, shank, flank, etc. Wutsch easily differentiates different cuts of meat by tenderness, and explains that while tough cuts benefit from low-and-slow cooking techniques like sous vide, smoking, and braising, the more tender cuts should be seared quickly at high heat. The choicest cuts from any animal are going to be the tenderloins, which . Since those are so manageable and so delicious, I’m going to focus the rest of this guide on preparing that cut. Tenderloins are a great reward after putting in all the hard work of harvesting your first deer, antelope, or elk.

What About Gaminess?

Some people complain that deer and other wild animals have aÌę“gamey” flavor, which is pungent or unpleasant. This just means they haven’t eaten meat that was processed and cooked properly. GaminessÌęcan be caused by mishandling the meat, allowing it to become contaminated during transportation, allowing a gland to leak into it while processing, or most commonly, failing to remove the thin, transparent fascia that wraps each major muscle group.

That fascia can actually be useful, in that it protects the meat itself from insects, hair, and dirt while it’s hung or transported. But care must be taken while processing to remove it entirely from each cut of meat. that hunters often cut steaks from the rear legs by slicingÌęstraight through multiple muscle groups. This practice often leaves fascia behind, which spoils the taste.

Instead, he recommends and demonstrates how to break the rear legs down into the individual portions, then how best to use each muscle. Muscles of varying tenderness exist in a deer’s rear leg. Hunters who know what they’re doing can make the most of this meat.ÌęMuscle groups should be stored and cooked complete in order to keep them as tender as possible, then sliced only when it’s time to serve.

How to Cook Venison Tenderloins

While antelope tends to be a little richer in flavor than deer, cooking methods for the two species are essentially identical. If there is a major difference between the two species, it comes from variances in diet. Many antelope live in the wide open expanses of sage brush that span western states, and that flavor remains present in the meat as a result. I shot mine in a wheat field on Crow Nation land, so there’s really no sage taste that I can detect.

The first step is to season the meat. I like to keep things simple, allowing the flavor of the game to come through. So I stick with a simple rub of kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. For the antelope I recently killed, I also added a few sprigs of rosemary.

Unlike domestic livestock, which are fed artificial diets, wildÌęgame animals will have virtually no fat content within muscle groups. So, when I’m grilling it, I like to first rub olive oil all over the cut along with the seasoning. This seals in moisture, and adds a little fat to the cooking process. Make sure you’re using actual high-quality olive oil (a New Yorker investigation found ). In my kitchen, I only use Luigi Tega’s . I’ve visited the Tega family to see their farm and process in Umbria, and because my friend David Dellanave imports the stuff to this country, I know it’s fresh.

Next, I like to sear the whole tenderloins at the highest heat possible, creating a crusty brown exterior through what’s known as the . I cooked the ones you see here at our family’s cabin in the Blackfeet Nation (located within Montana) on a windy night, and the best tool available to me was the very basic, nineties-eraÌęgas stove that maybe puts out 10,000 BTU. So, I added a tablespoon or so of that good olive oil (which has a much higher smoke point than the fake stuff) to a cast iron pan, and set it on the hottest burner, turned up to the highest level for a good five minutes before adding the meat. I then seared it each side for about one minute to produce a brown crust all over the exterior of the tenderloins, while leaving the interior completely raw.

Cooking whole muscles like this means that they’ll contract when exposed to heat, and lose some of the tenderness in the process. So, after removing the tenderloins from the heat, I set them on a cutting board, and hid them inside an unpowered microwave for 20 minutes, so they would be safe from my dogs.

You can use that time to prepare veggies. I find the earthy flavor of Japanese sweet potatoes and the bitterness of sautéed spinach to go well with most wild game. During that time, I also bring a grill or oven up to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once that rest is completed, and the tenderloins have had time to decompress, I insert a probe thermometer into each, and cook through to 130 degrees internal. Wutsch explains that , or you risk losing the flavor and texture.

Once that’s done, it’s time to slice and serve. As with any other cut of meat, slice across the grain to retain the most tender mouthfeel possible. I like to accompany my deer, elk, or antelope with a wild berry compote or jam, if possible sourced from fruit native to the animal’s ecosystem. The tart sweetness offsets the rich meat, and provides another natural flavor from the place you hunted.

Pair it with a medium-bodied red wine like a Sangiovese, and the fresh tenderloins of an animal you just harvested, butchered, and cooked yourself should be one of the most satisfying things you’ve ever tasted. And as a bonus, you can enjoy your meal with the knowledge that you’ve just contributed to the ongoing success of the population you just harvested an animal from, along with the total health of the ecosystem you hunted it in.

Why Hunt?

No matter where you go on this planet, ecosystems have been vastly and irreparably altered by human activity. Since most of that change has occurred in the span of just a few hundred years, and is a process that’s accelerating, animal species have not had anything like the time it’d take to evolve or adapt. To keep animal populations healthy, humans must step in and manage population levels, provide healthy habitats, limit the spread of disease, and ensure the spread of varied genetics.

Combining conservation and preservation, the United States has seen enormous success. Since we’re talking about deer, in the early 1900s, due to the expansion of cities, industrial agriculture, unregulated hunting (the modern system was implemented a decade later), and similar pressures, nationwide populations of Whitetail had collapsed to . Today that number stands between 25 and 30 million, even as the number of humans in this country has rapidly expanded.

The purpose of hunting is conservation. But it also produces some really good eating. And since deer are so common, and so tasty, they’re a great place to start when it comes to large game.

The post The Beginner’s Guide to Dressing, Preparing, and Cooking Venison appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

It’s the small things that make or break a hunting trip, including the accessories. We tested 106 products, from binoculars to shotgun cases, in a wide variety of conditions, including a torrential rainstorm at a drop-off camp in southeastern Alaska, a sweltering multi-day deer hunt in the Sandhills of Nebraska, and a balmy deep-sea fishing trip in New Zealand.

We tested gear while hunting birds (including both waterfowl and upland hunting), deer, bear, and barbary sheep, in tree stands, on ground blinds, while bow hunting, and pack hunting. These ten products not only withstood the range of weather, but they made our experience hunting deep in the wilderness that much more enjoyable.

Updated for Autumn and Winter 2025: I’ve completely recompiled this list with picks from a new round of testing.

At a Glance

• How to Choose Hunting Accessories
• How We Test
• Meet Our Testers

If you buy through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission. This supports our mission to get more people active and outside. Learn more.

Benchmade 15505 Meatcrafter 4” Trailing Point Knife

Weight: 2.7 oz

Pros and Cons
⊕ Keeps its edge
⊕ Well balanced
⊕ Compact
⊕ Versatile
⊗ Expensive

Benchmade’s fixed blade, Ìęhas been a mainstay in my kitchen for years, whether I’m slicing up prime rib steaks for a dinner party or using it to break down a whole deer in the garage. As much as I love the sharpness and feel of the six-inch trailing point knife, I hesitate to bring it in the field given its size.

Benchmade’s answer to this problem is the new Meatcrafter four-inch knife, which offers the same performance and similar ergonomics of its flagship meat knife, but in a smaller, more mobile package—perfect for camp kitchens or the finer tasks of breaking down wild game in the field.

Last spring, I used the Meatcrafter Four-inch to field dress a huge, wild tom turkey. It cut through skin and meat with little resistance and made quick work of separating tough joints and tendons. Thanks to the CPM-154 stainless steel blade, the knife remained sharp throughout the task, while other cheaper knives we tested became dull. I also appreciated the vulcanized EPDM rubber, and thermoplastic composite handle, which felt comfortable in-hand and provided excellent grip even when wet, making it ideal for outdoor use in the rain or snow.

Made for breaking down small game and bigger game birds, this knife would also be ideal for the finer work of caping or field dressing big game. There’s even enough blade to completely break down smaller cervids, making it a viable quiver-killer hunting knife.

Forloh Method Bino Harness

Weight: 18.4 oz

Pros and Cons
⊕ Low profile
⊕ Reduces shoulder and neck strain
⊕ Waterproof
⊕ Compatible with Forloh’s backpack system
⊗ Pricey

Colorado deer hunter Nolan Dahlberg used the Method Bino Harness during winter while archery hunting for white-tailed deer and again in spring while turkey hunting in the Driftless Region of Wisconsin. Trekking through the region’s dense forests and open, rolling fields, the harness was secure, lightweight, and comfortable enough to wear during long hours in the field due to its slim and low-profile design. It distributes weight evenly thanks to a large rear mesh pad, reducing shoulder and neck strain.

Forloh sweat the details on this harness. Dahlberg had quick and easy access to his binoculars thanks to the forward-opening flap, which required only one hand to operate. Dahlberg used the harness through snow and dust, and the waterproof, 210-denier double-sided diamond ripstop nylon exterior provided adequate protection against abrasion on vegetation.

Overall, the Method Bino Harness is suitable for any activity that requires binocular use. It shines during extended hunts over rugged terrain, when comfort and weight are important considerations.

Leupold BX-4 Pro Guide HD Gen 2 Binoculars 10x42mm

Weight: 25 oz

Pros and Cons
⊕ Great in low-light
⊕ Superior image clarity at distance
⊕ Relatively affordable
⊕ Comfortable in hand
⊗ Included harness is poor quality
⊗ Rear lens cap fits too loosely

The BX-4 Pro Guide Gen 2 Binoculars are a solid choice for hunters looking for quality glass without paying a premium price. Nebraska hunter Kevin Paul used the binoculars for spot-and-stalk deer hunting in the Sandhills of central Nebraska and while sighting in his rifle at the gun range. He found the rubberized exterior comfortable in-hand, and the included form-fit eyecups were a nice addition. The interchangeable winged eyecups helped block out stray light and the low eyecups were comfortable over glasses.

Image quality was clear and provided nice detail at longer distances, thanks to Leupold’s fully-coated lens system that enables higher light transmission, clarity, and definition. Paul did not notice chromatic aberration (blurry fringes of color that can appear along the edges of an image) at distances of 600 yards, which should cover most hunting scenarios. He also appreciated the locking diopter that prevents accidental bumping and changing of the lens.

Mystery Ranch Metcalf 75 Pack

Weight: 5.3 lbs
Sizing: S-XL

Pros and Cons
⊕ Ultralight
⊕ Durable fabric
⊕ Customizable
⊗ Lack of organizaton

The Metcalf 75 is for backcountry big game hunters looking for a durable, customizable, and lightweight pack. Omaha-based hunter Kevin Paul tested the Metcalf 75 while hunting big game in the dense eastern deciduous forests of eastern Nebraska. Made of 330-denier LP Cordura (polyurethane-coated nylon), the pack still doesn’t show any wear after a season of chasing deer through thick, thorny brush.

The Metcalf is built on Mystery Ranch’s proprietary Ultra Light MT frame, which minimizes weight while maximizing the pack’s load-bearing capacity. The minimalist, taller frame allows for more balanced pack-outs thanks to micro-adjustable lifter points. Weighing only 5.3 pounds, the Metcalf is a welterweight in the hunting pack world. Designers eliminated weight by tapering the frame and making the compression straps and compartment lid removable. Paul tested the meat shelf with 30-plus pounds: the extra weight stayed close to his body and did not shift, which prevented imbalance and fatigue. Adjustments were easy to make for the perfect fit at the waist and shoulders, thanks to the easy-to-reach straps. The ladder system at the top of the frame allows users to easily make adjustments based on their height.

External compression straps and side attachment points are highly adjustable, allowing Paul to secure gear outside of the pack exactly where he wanted it, such as a rain jacket, hunter orange vest, and shooting sticks. They also helped compress the bag to eliminate loose fabric when the bag wasn’t full.

Organization was a point of frustration with only a removable, dual-compartment lid apart from the roll-top-style main compartment. Internal orange loops for hanging extra pouches were able to support three liters of water. However, for the price, Paul wished the Ìęwere included since there aren’t any compartments inside.

Tactacam Reveal X-Pro Camera

Weight: 0.95 lbs

Pros and Cons
⊕ Reasonably priced
⊕ Durable and weatherproof
⊕ Easy setup and use
⊕ Excellent customer service
⊗ Image capture might not be 100 percent reliable based on one mishap

The Tactacam Reveal X-Pro is a reliable, easy-to-use, and reasonably priced cellular trail camera. Testers set up the Reveal X-Pro in the woods of eastern Nebraska where deer, turkey, and other game animals are abundant. It didn’t leak or crack through extreme heat, cold, snow, rain, and curious animals, including turkeys and deer, that rubbed up against it. Setup was easy and quick—tester Jeff Kurrus was able to pull up images on his phone within minutes. (LTE data plans through Verizon or AT&T start at $5 per month.)

Kurrus didn’t experience any common technical glitches, like poor battery life, corrupted SIM cards, or images not appearing on his phone. At 16 megapixels, the image quality of the Reveal X-Pro is stellar, even in the dark.

Tactacam’s customer service is also top-notch, quickly resolving a billing question Kurrus had. “Tactacam’s technicians made me feel that if and when I do have issues, they will always be there to help me solve them,” he said.

Uncharted Supply Co. Triage Kit

Weight: 5.29 oz

Pros and Cons
⊕ Lightweight
⊕ Water-resistant
⊕ Includes all essentials
⊗ Expensive for a triage kit

Uncharted Supply Co.’s R&D process for this ultralight first aid kit involved interviewing over 100 outdoor experts. The result? An ultralight kit that’s comprehensive enough to take deep into the wilderness, no matter if you’re hunting, fishing, or backpacking.

Advertised as “half gear repair, half first aid,” the Uncharted Supply Co. Triage kit consists of matches, bandaids, blister bandages, zip ties, safety pins, Aspirin packs, duct tape, baling wire, an emergency mylar blanket, and a few other essentials. Hunter Charlie Ebbers first took the Triage Kit to a drop-off camp in southeastern Alaska in early November. Rain, sleet, and snow pounded down for seven days, and on day five, two inches of water had seeped into his tent (Ebbers reported that he had to stow a lighter inside his long underwear to keep it dry). Although the rest of his belongings got wet, the Triage Kit’s contents remained “bone dry” thanks to its tough, 30-denier nylon exterior.

“The kit has traveled with me everywhere since I got it. It’s just about perfect for someone who wants to travel farther while hunting. It’s the product that I was most enamored by this season,” Ebbers said.

Watershed Wetland Shotgun Case

Weight: 1.5 lbs
Sizing (rolled): 52″ height x 14″ width (tapers to 4″)

Pros and Cons
⊕ Water-resistant
⊕ Durable construction
⊕ Floats
⊗ Shoulder strap pad slips
⊗ Closure difficult to open

If you’re expecting inclement weather or traveling near water, the Wetland Shotgun Case is a true dry bag that will keep your shotgun protected. Kevin Paul tested the bag’s integrity in a bathtub of water for one hour: His shotgun and padded gun case were completely dry when he pulled them out.

The bag is solidly built with clean stitching and reinforcements at high-stress points, which held up after aggressive tugging and pulling during testing. Although the case is more expensive than other cases, its reliability is well worth the cost if you have a high-dollar shotgun and anticipate hunting in soggy areas. Many other waterproof cases are merely water-resistant.

Paul had just a few gripes about this case. He liked the comfort and durability of the shoulder strap; however, the shoulder pad needs better grip, especially when wet. The ZipDry closure can be difficult to pry open after it’s sealed, which is made worse in freezing temperatures. The polyurethane-coated fabric does make noise when on the move, but it’s no louder than a backpack or rain jacket.

Wiley X Saber Advanced Sunglasses

Weight:ÌęOne size (unisex)

Pros and Cons
⊕ Lightweight
⊕ Matte options for hunting
⊕ Smudge- and dirt-resistant

Angie Kokes wore the Saber Advanced Sunglasses while hunting, sightseeing, and deep-sea fishing in New Zealand and Australia. The matte black frames with gray lenses concealed well while she spear hunted for red stag on the North Island of New Zealand. At home, she found the included interchangeable color lenses (gray, clear, and orange) versatile for a variety of uses, whether shooting at the range or working around the ranch.

Kokes was most excited about the scratch-resistant coating on the lenses. She reported having to wipe the lenses less frequently than other sunglasses, even while hunting in dusty environments. The lenses provide 100 percent UVA/UVB protection and distortion-free clarity.

These shades were comfortable, too. The Saber fit her low nose bridge well, allowing airflow that prevented the lenses from fogging up during high-output activity. Dual-injected rubber temples don’t press into her head, either, and they’re compatible with an Rx insert.

First Lite Phantom Leafy Suit Top

Weight: 9.1 oz
Sizing: S-XXL

Pros and Cons
⊕ Lightweight
⊕ Packable
⊗ Pricey
⊗ Sticky zipper

We tested the Phantom Leafy Suit Top during spring turkey hunting season in eastern Nebraska. According to tester Jeff Kurrus, the 3D camo pattern does a great job of concealing and camouflaging while sitting, and allowed him to disappear into the spring greenery. Plus, the top is lightweight, made of breathable mesh, and fits easily over whatever clothing you’re wearing thanks to its roomy fit. It kept us cool during long hunts compared to other similar tops.

At only 9.1 ounces, it’s packable for a variety of hunts—outside of turkey season, the suit could be useful to duck hunters or big game archery hunters who need to sneak in close.

How to Choose Hunting Accessories

Hunting gear is an investment. If you’re a beginner looking to get into the sport, don’t rush out and buy the most expensive and technical gear possible. While top-of-the-line hunting gear certainly helps with comfort, it won’t make game animals appear nor improve your shooting.

Big-box stores such as Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops generally offer decent mid-tier products. In some parts of the country, even Walmart carries cheap hunting gear that will get the job done, albiet with less comfort and durability than more expensive options. Once you’re invested in the sport, that’s when it’s time to look at the top-tier products that will last a long time and ultimately save you money.

If you’re already a backpacker or hiker, you can wear the clothing you already own—lightweight and moisture-wicking are features that are also desirable in hunting. Choose pieces in muted, natural colors, or black when hunting in a ground blind, as it will help you blend in with the dark interior. Unless you’re hunting in open country and doing a lot of spotting and stalking, expensive camouflage is not required—staying comfortable and warm is more important.

For guided hunts, reach out to your guide with any questions about layering and insulation. For example, what you might wear for a drop hunt in Alaska will be drastically different than hunting deer in a tree blind in the Midwest. Also, areas that see drastic changes in temperature and precipitation from early to late season will require you to pay close attention to the forecast when choosing what to bring and wear.

Lastly, don’t forget to check state regulations for hunter orange requirements, a safety precaution that makes you more visible to other hunters. Although it’s not required in every state, wearing hunter orange is strongly recommended. Learn more at .

How We Test

• Number of testers: 9
• Number of products tested: 106
• Number of miles/vertical feet: 630 miles

Nine testers put over 100 pieces of gear through a hunting season of extreme variability: from warm early-season hunts in the Midwest to the extreme limits of winter in the Alaskan wilderness, from the North Island of New Zealand to the Colorado backcountry. Testers encountered soggy conditions, temperatures below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and even desert conditions in New Mexico.

Our youngest tester was 12 years old, with the oldest in their late 40s. The majority are lifelong hunters, with a couple who found it in early adulthood. Most of our testers would consider themselves “generalists,” pursuing big, upland, waterfowl, and small game based on opportunity.

Meet Our Testers

Nolan Dahlberg runs Dahlberg Digital out of Colorado, where he hunts grouse, elk and mule deer. He spends a considerable amount of time each year hunting white-tailed deer on his family farm in Richland County, Wisconsin.

Charlie Ebbers lives and hunts in the Copper River Basin of Alaska. He’s a generalist and was charged by three grizzlies in 2022. He has more than 20 years of hunting experience.

Angie Kokes shot her first shotgun at 3 years old and grew up hunting with her dad to pursue upland birds in Nebraska. After teaching herself how to rifle and archery hunt for deer, Kokes learned how to spear hunt. She also has hunted big game with her spear in Africa and New Zealand.

Jeff Kurrus is an outdoor writer and photographer in Nebraska with more than 40 years of hunting and fishing experience. He spends more than 150 days a year hunting and fishing in a wide range of conditions.

Eli Kurrus is a 12-year-old hunter and angler in Nebraska. He spent more than 100 days in the field with his dad last season, from the beginning of the hunting season in August to the hottest days of July fishing for largemouth bass.

Kevin Paul is an industrial service electrician in Nebraska who spends most of his free time hiking, hunting or pursuing some form of shooting sports. Kevin is a generalist, self-taught hunter who has a soft spot for upland birds and small game.

Jennifer Pudenz is the founder of șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍűss, the only women’s hunting and fishing magazine in the U.S. She grew up hunting and fishing in Iowa and is continuing that passion in Minnesota, where she currently resides.

David Nguyen is a California active law enforcement officer with 15 years of experience. He is a certified firearms instructor with the FBI, California Peace Officer Standards and Training, and Sig Sauer Academy in the pistol, pistol red dot sight, concealed carry pistol, patrol rifle and less lethal munitions.

Jenny Nguyen-Wheatley grew up camping and backpacking in California. She began hunting in her early 20s and currently resides in Nebraska as an outdoor writer, photographer and wild game cook.

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Born and raised in North Texas, Jesse Griffiths loves being outdoors. Whether it’s fishing or hunting, most of Griffiths’ activities are food-motivated. He opened his Austin restaurant, , in 2006 to define the regional cuisine of central Texas with local ingredients. He cares deeply about his ingredients’ sources and their practices. In addition to his restaurant, Griffiths is a father, outdoor educator, and occasional hunting guide. He also authored the James Beard Award–winningÌęThe Hog BookÌęand upcomingÌęThe Turkey Book. With all of these pursuits, Griffiths’ greatest challenge is finding the time to adventure—and fill up his own freezer. Read all that Griffiths has gained from a life of adventure, plus more on the new Tacoma and everything you need to get ready for adventure.

The Ìędelivers trail-dominating power, legendary capability and captivating style. Time to make all your off-roading dreams come true.

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It’s not every day that someone makes a pair of pants just for you. But that’s exactly what happened with these new ($259). Let me explain how it happened, and why it should matter to you, fellow outdoorsy pants wearer.

Since 2017 or so, I’ve been wearing Fjallraven Kebs ($255) most of the time I’m active outdoors. In fact, I called them “Damn near perfect,” in a review the next year.Ìę They do a good job of combining freedom of movement with durability, and have really good pockets. The fact that they flatter my slim proportions, and are made by a brand I like just seals the deal.

What’s Forloh, Actually?

In fall of 2020, some guy named Andy Techmanski called me and invited me to come elk hunting with him and his son. Techmanski was launching a new, 100 percent American-made and sourced clothing brand targeted at hunters, and figured the most effective way to show it to me would be to actually go hunting in it. One of his employees allegedly sent me a box of gear, but it never turned up, so I ended up going on that hunt in my Fjallravens. We saw no elk, but enjoyed each other’s company, and now try to grab a few days in the mountains together every fall.

That was the story in 2022, when Robert Yturri tagged along too. Techmanski had tapped Yturri to lead development for Forloh, his new made-in-America brand. And after spending most of his career at pretty much every major technical clothing brand you’ve ever heard of watching production get outsourced overseas, Robert jumped at the opportunity to return to making apparel in the United States.

At some point that weekend, all three of us were knocking back a few beers, and Techmanski looked at my pants, pointed them out to Yturri, and asked him if Forloh could do better.

I promptly forgot about that conversation until, a few weeks ago, I opened up a box from Techmanski and found a pair of pants inside that looked a lot like the Fjallravens, but felt higher quality to the touch.

I texted Andy to see what the deal was. His response? “They are way better with more tech.” To find out how and why, I called Yturri, who’s over in Africa taking his son hunting right now.

“The Fjallravens are a great pant for hunting,” Yturri explains. “But they were made for trekking.”

Yturri acknowledges that he drew heavily from the Fjallraven Keb concept, then figured out a way to make it in America, from American-made materials (the Fjallravens are made in Vietnam from internationally sourced parts). The big difference? “They’re damn similar, but we’re hardier,” he says.

What Makes a Pair of Pants Good for Hunting?

Where hiking, backpacking, and most other casual outdoor activities largely take place on trails, the kind of adventurous mountain hunting the Forloh guys and I are into takes us as far off-trail as possible. So where a hiker is primarily concerned with movement, comfort, and weather resistance, a hunter also has to consider things like abrasion, tear resistance, and durability. We spend more time wading through thick, thorny brush, sliding down scree fields on our butts, and crawling around on our hands and knees trying to convince ourselves that we’re being quiet.

None of that is to say that that the merits of a designed-for-hunting product won’t appeal or be relevant to other users. Product designers just love to envision hero use cases to define the problems they’re trying to solve. If you clear brush on a rural property, chase your dog through bushes, or are just really bad at navigating, then Forloh’s Brush to Mountain pants will also work for you.

To add in that “hardiness” to the basic Fjallraven formula, Yturri tells me he started by sourcing an American-made ripstop polyester-cotton blend fabric for the seat, knee, and calf reinforcements. The Swedish brand’s G1000 fabric is also a poly-cotton, but doesn’t feature woven-in barriers to halt tears before they can grow.

Those reinforcements are then mounted to the same stretch-woven polyester-spandex blend fabric Forloh uses in in its (also excellent) . That’s a four-way stretch material made in a hefty 315 grams-per-square-meter weight, which is also treated with a durable water repellant coating.

Why Waxed Cotton Works Better Than Untreated Cotton

Where synthetic materials like polyester and spandex don’t absorb water, cotton can absorb up to 27 times its weight in sweat, precipitation, or submersion. That’s why it’s the absolute —everywhere but the desert—at least in untreated form. But cotton is much stronger than synthetic fibers. Woven into a canvas, it’s also much more abrasion and tear resistant than its more weather-ready alternatives. And, fortunately, the hollow construction of cotton fibers is just as happy to soak up wax as it is water. When filled with wax, cotton becomes highly water resistant.

I’ve previously taken a deep dive into what makes waxed cotton so different from it’s untreated alternative.

Yturri tells me that applying wax to the poly-cotton ripstop canvas also increases abrasion and water resistance by up to 50 percent. And while the Forloh pants ship pre-waxed, the technology allows users to modify garments to their own needs. Planning a wet weekend? Rub a bar of Forloh’s proprietary all-natural wax treatment (also made and sourced in America, it smells like a pine tree) thoroughly over the ripstop reinforcements before heading out.

Spend a few years wearing and washing the Fjallravens, and eventually the stretch-woven panels will start to grow thin and come apart. Yturri says Forloh’s pants should last considerably longer before doing the same due to their thicker, higher quality weave. He also points to the zipper pulls as another weak area he’s addressed.

Why I Choose Forloh Above All Else

One area where I’ve had problems with the Fjallravens is in the belt loops, which are barely able to accommodate a 1.5-inch thick rigging belt and eventually fail when stretched out by that belt, and the four pound Glock 20 I use it to carry.

Yturri explains that Fjallraven’s belt loops are connected to the pants with an automated belt loop machine using “just regular sewing.” In contrast, Forloh stitches its much more generously sized, reinforced belt loops on by hand using bar tack stitching. Forloh then stitches a suede-like reinforcement around the entire inner perimeter of the waistband so those stitches won’t get abraded by wear. That waistband is also fitted with silicone inlays to help keep your shirt tucked in.

Small details like that really add up, especially in something like a pant that you just want to put on and forget. Another example? The Fjallraven kneepad pockets are simply square, with a portion left unstitched at the bottom through which you can insert those pads. That means the pads tend to work their way out over time, especially at inopportune moments when you’re kneeling or crawling. To counteract that, Forloh folded its kneepad pockets over internally by a few inches and sized the pocket to the exact dimensions of its American-made, non-Newtonian , so those’ll never accidentally come loose.

None of that was actually hard for Forloh, it’s just the process Yturri, Techmanski, and all their employees put into making technical clothing that doesn’t cut corners. Yturri says the hard part was actually finding a way to print Forloh’s proprietary, science-based camouflage scheme on a ripstop poly-cotton canvas.

To do that, the company turned to a military supplier, since like Forloh, the U.S. Government sources its clothing in America. But where the Army’s camo pattern only contains four colors, Forloh’s contains 13. Yturri says he’s spent a big portion of the last two years working with the supplier to figure that out, and is why the BTM pants are initially launching in plain colors only.

So those elk might be able to see my legs when Techmanski and I try to find some this fall. But I’ll be able to go looking for them in a much more durable pant, complete with intact belt loops, knee pads that stay where you want them, and the satisfaction that I’m supporting domestic manufacturing and American workers.

The post How to Make the Perfect Pair of Pants Even Better appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

In another life, Elias Cairo—a 45-year-old charcuterie expert and the owner of Olympia Provisions, a groundbreaking restaurant and sausage-making operation in Portland, Oregon—was on a path to becoming a professional snowboarder. He was raised in Sandy, Utah, about 15 miles from Alta, and his go-for-it attitude landed him a Burton sponsorship.

Life, however, has a way of derailing plans. When Cairo was 15, his father, John “Yannis” Cairo, passed away. John had emigrated from Greece in 1962, still in his twenties, and his dream was to carve out a life in the U.S. while drawing on the customs of his native country. To that end, he created a Greek-inspired agricultural oasis in the middle of Utah.

“We raised our own meat, had gardens, preserved everything, had beehives, and made our own wine and liquor,” Cairo says. “Growing up, I was just with my dad—if he was cooking, I was cooking. If he was gardening, I was gardening.” They also hunted to help fill the family larder. His parents owned two Greek-American restaurants: Queen One and Queen Two, both in the town of Murray, just south of Salt Lake City.

A few years after losing his dad, Cairo told his mother, Karen, that he was through with snowboarding and wanted to be a chef. Culinary school wasn’t an option—too expensive—but an apprenticeship was. With help from an aunt, Cairo was put in touch with Annegret Schlumpf, the chef of Stump’s Alpenrose Hotel in Wildhaus, Switzerland. Schlumpf had one question for Cairo: How soon can you get here?

Cairo sold his snowboard and Subaru, then went to the library to learn everything he could about the Alpine village of Wildhaus. He discovered that it’s famous for cheese, charcuterie, and skiing. Within two weeks, he was standing at the front door of the picturesque hotel, partway up the slopes of the Gamsalp Mountain ski resort. He didn’t speak the local languages, but that didn’t matter: he was industrious, eager to learn, and ready to work.

The surprises started coming fast. On Cairo’s first day, he walked into the cooler and saw a huge ibex hanging there. “I was like, What in the world is going on here?” he says. The restaurant, it turned out, processed wild game—ibex, marmot, chamois, rabbit, and more—for valley residents.

Cairo already knew how to field-dress game, including elk, deer, and pheasant. But the precision and skill demonstrated by the Alpenrose butchers were pure artistry, and the craftsmanship fascinated him. A transition began when he was temporarily assigned to the butcher station after injuring his hand in the kitchen. “I got to hang out with all the butchers, and I thought, This is so fun,” he recalls. “It was better than cooking.”

Cairo still had to complete his kitchen apprenticeship, but he found ways to work with the butchers on the side. He spent just shy of five years at the Alpenrose, apprenticing under chef Schlumpf. During that time, he learned to speak Swiss German and came away with expertise he probably wouldn’t have picked up in the U.S. When he returned home in 2003, he saw an opportunity. He imagined a restaurant with a USDA-approved meat plant next door; his sister, Michelle, believed in his vision and became an investor.

Cairo opened Olympia Provisions in 2009, and it has since expanded to five restaurants in Portland, with a much larger facility processing more than a million pounds of pork a year—everything from pĂątĂ© to pancetta. He’s a passionate advocate for a better and more humane meat industry, and for teaching both providers and consumers that good food doesn’t happen fast.

“If you make something special, you can’t rush it,” he says. “The American meat industry is built on margin and speed. There’s nothing special or quality about it.”

To underscore his point, Cairo often refers to a story about Bueger Stump, a co-owner of Stump’s Alpenglow, who has become a close friend. Mounted in Stump’s home are 12 sets of antlers, collected from a single elk he brought down after observing it for more than a decade. That, says Cairo, is the very definition of respect.

Ethical hunting remains a touchstone for Cairo. He heads for the field or forest when he needs to recharge and reset, and hunting serves as a reminder of how close we can and should get to our food to adequately appreciate it as a gift from nature.

Cairo brings this same spirit to The Game Show. Over the course of six episodes, he combines his love of hunting and the outdoors with techniques for cooking wild game. He teaches viewers about rabbit, duck, quail, wild turkey, and venison—how to break them down, and how best to utilize these meats in savory dishes that can be cooked over an open fire or on the grill. For viewers who don’t hunt or can’t buy game, Cairo offers alternatives, like substituting a whole chicken in a recipe for rabbit cacciatore.

The key is to find beauty. For Cairo that was once snowboarding; then it was immersing himself in the culture of the Swiss Alps. Now it’s making and enjoying the highest quality meats. One thing’s for sure: whatever he’s doing comes back to the nourishing simplicity of hands-on fun.

The post This Hunter Has Turned Charcuterie into a Full-Time Job appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

As a hunter who has been shooting local elk and deer for subsistence for nearly 40 years, I find little to agree with in Wes Siler’s story for șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online about trophy hunting. In it, he defends what I consider indefensible: a trip to Alaska where, with the help of an outfitter, he killed a large Alaskan brown bear to make a rug.

Siler’s argument hinges, primarily, on the belief that bear populations must be managed, that the decisions of wildlife management agencies are reliably science-backed and wildlife-focused, and that the money that hunters pay for the privilege of hunting earns them the right to kill predators. I argue that there is no scientific justification for hunting apex predators, that hunters’ disproportionate influence over state wildlife agencies leads to policies that favor hunters over wildlife, and that hunters’ contributions to overall wildlife conservation efforts are overblown.

I’m the former president of the Montana Wildlife Federation, the state’s largest and oldest hunting-based conservation organization. I hunt and kill elk and deer, prey species that evolved with predation. They reproduce quickly and produce surplus populations culled and eaten by predators, including us human hunters. Predators, whether they be bears, wolves, mountain lions or humans, are needed to control prey populations. This is not true with predator species like brown bears. They have different breeding and territorial behaviors than deer and elk, and are fairly self-regulating in population size. Killing them can disrupt social and territorial behaviors, negatively impact reproduction and rearing and result in overall negative consequences for bear populations.

Siler argues that some brown bear populations are isolated, cut off from other populations because of human activities such as logging and road construction. This results in a handful of mature, dominant bears doing most of the breeding, including with their offspring, limiting the genetic diversity of the populations. Killing a carefully chosen number of large males, he claims, can help improve genetic diversity by allowing younger, less dominant bears to breed. He also argues that this work should not be done by professionals, who would have to be paid, but by recreationalists, who will pay “large sums of money” providing “a net benefit to taxpayers.” He then explains that of the three hunters on his trip, only two of them successfully killed animals, and one after shooting it nine times with the help of his guide, raising the question about whether precise population culling is actually the goal here. We don’t ask people to pay to do delicate wildlife management work like tranquilizing and relocating moose. We let the professionals do it.

Whether you believe recreationalists are the people for the job or not, it’s more important to note that not all scientists agree with Siler’s thinking about population management. Brown bears have one of the lowest reproductive rates of any North American mammal, and cubs will spend nearly three years with their mothers. They can be very territorial, and large males provide safety and stability within a territory. Studies conducted in British Columbia, Alberta, Alaska and parts of northern Europe show that the killing of large males often leads to increased competition for breeding among younger males, increased harassment of and stress for females, increased killing of cubs by younger males, and earlier abandonment of cubs by females.

“Any human-caused mortality that disproportionately targets adult brown bears will likely have evolutionary consequences that manifest in the surprisingly short span of decades,” says Dr. David Mattson, a retired grizzly bear biologist and former member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. “Hunting and other forms of human-caused mortality targeting adult brown bears distort evolutionary regimes that selected over many millennia for the benefits of a long life. Hunting throws the male-centric world into disarray and upheaval, thus disrupting the social realm of females. In other words, we would no longer have grizzly or brown bears as we know them now.”

In a study titled “Characteristics of a Naturally Regulated Grizzly Bear Population,” conducted in Alaska’s Denali National Park and published in the , researchers compared populations of bears that are hunted with those that are protected. They kept track of births, deaths, and cub survival within the grizzly bear population in the park and compared those numbers to similar areas where bears are hunted. They found that the bears in the park naturally regulated their own population based on food availability. “Bears in the park were regulating the population in face of limited food resources,” wrote the lead research scientist, Jeff Keay. The population had a high birth rate, but also a high rate of cub and yearling deaths. “With no humans hunting the Denali population, it appears bears regulate themselves by managing the number of bears that make it into adulthood.”

So, if the science doesn’t support killing predators, why do these state governments allow it? Siler draws on the history of American conservation and argues that hunting is why “we have such abundant populations of wild animals.” It’s true that hunters have had a big, positive impact in conserving some species (mostly prey species). But they have arguably had a significant negative impact on other species (mostly predators).

Siler explains that hunters and hunting organizations have played important roles in conservation in North America: Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold were both avid hunters, and groups like the Boone and Crockett Club and the National Wildlife Federation do excellent work. But plenty of non-hunters have shaped American conservation too: John Muir, John J. Audubon, Rachel Carson, the Sierra Club. Yet hunters have disproportionate influence over state wildlife agencies and policies.

These agencies work closely with governor-appointed game or wildlife commissions primarily made up of hunters, outfitters, and ranchers, so state policies greatly favor species that hunters and anglers like to catch and kill—often to the detriment of other species, particularly large carnivores such as wolves, mountain lions, and bears. Late last spring, for example, around Wood-Tikchik State Park in Southwest Alaska, state game and fish officials killed 94 brown bears, five black bears, and five wolves, shooting them from helicopters during a 17-day period. They were directed to do this by the Alaska Board of Game—a group of six men and one woman, all hunters, big game guides, or trappers, appointed by the governor to oversee the game and fish department. Their reason? To protect caribou from predators to boost hunting opportunity.

In the late 1990s, there was concern among hunters that bears were killing too many elk calves in the clearwater region of Idaho, reducing hunting opportunities. Hunters wanted state officials to kill more bears (as they do in Alaska, and as they do with wolves). The Idaho Department of Fish and Game conducted a study and within the elk herds and low bull-to-cow ratios. But they found that this was not caused by bears—rather by humans overhunting bull elk, which negatively impacted breeding during the fall rut. That, in turn, affected the timing of spring calving. Calves were born later in the season, after the lush early spring forage had begun to die off. They were also born over a longer period of time. Under more natural conditions, calves are born all at once, overwhelming predators with what biologists call a “flooding strategy” that allows most calves to grow quickly and evade predation. Biologists recommended that hunting regulations be changed to protect and restore large, mature bull elk and boost bull-to-cow ratios in the herd. But the state ended up .

Siler cites the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation as evidence that hunting, as it stands, is ethical and sustainable. The model was developed in the late 1990s by Canadian wildlife biologists Valerius Geist and Shane Mahoney, and John Organ of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They identified the core tenets that they believed had made conservation successful in North America up to that point and should continue guiding wildlife management in the future: that wildlife resources are a public trust and an international resource; that there will be no commercial market for wildlife; that wildlife can be killed for a legitimate purpose; that science-backed laws and regulations will direct policy and allocation of wildlife for hunting; and that hunting will be guided by a democratic process in which all citizens have a say and opportunity to participate.

In truth, wildlife management is rarely guided by the North American Model, and, in most states, the tenets are ignored or compromised to appease hunters and protect hunting opportunity. in every state except Hawaii, and trappers are allowed to sell furs and other animal parts for profit. Hunters have a disproportionate say in wildlife management policy, wildlife is commodified as a consumer good through tag and permit sales, and the laws and regulations are not reliably science-backed.

Finally, Siler leans heavily on the false but common claim that hunters and anglers disproportionately fund conservation. Specifically, he cites excise taxes generated from the sale of guns, ammunition, motor boat fuel, and fishing equipment under the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson acts. Last year alone, he writes, taxes levied on hunters and anglers paid $1.5 billion to state wildlife programs. But there are some problems with his numbers. Guns and ammunition sales generate about , and the majority of guns and ammunition are not purchased for hunting—in 2021, just of those sales were hunting-related. And only two-thirds of those who buy motor-boat fuel participate in fishing.

These funds account for around 53 percent of state wildlife agency budgets. The rest derives from general tax funds paid by all citizens, and all citizens pay for the state and federal lands where a lot of wildlife lives.

Since hunters make up less than 20 percent of the U.S. population and contribute over 50 percent of funding for these departments, it is true that they contribute more than the general public to these agencies. But state wildlife departments are not the only entities responsible for conservation, and I reject the idea that conservation is limited to their actions. Furthermore, not everything these departments do is conservation, and some of the things they do are likely detrimental to conservation.

Conservation, as defined by the , is “the protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and the ecological communities that inhabit them. Conservation is generally held to include the management of human use of natural resources for current public benefit and sustainable social and economic utilization.” This includes managing game populations, certainly. But this definition also includes the work done by other governmental agencies responsible for protecting the public lands these animals inhabit, including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and more—all of which are funded by the general taxpayer. Not to mention the hundreds of non-profits and organizations that work to protect wildlife and land across the country.

The best way to ensure the long-term genetic health and viability of brown bear populations is not through killing them. Instead, we must protect enough habitat for them to freely move and live as they evolved to, with room to adapt to future, changing conditions. In his 1953 book Round River Aldo Leopold wrote, “If the land mechanism as a whole is good then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

That includes keeping large male brown bears around; not killing them for rugs.

An avid hunter, angler and former Force Recon Marine, David Stalling is the Director of Communications for LargeCarnivoreFund.org , and also serves on the Advisory Committee for Wildlife For All, working to reform wildlife management. He lives in Missoula, Montana.

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It was late fall, the Texas sun sufficiently merciful, and I was standing on a wood platform overlooking the humid, green core of Hazel Bazemore Park on the western outskirts of Corpus Christi. Though forgettable by most metrics, this 87-acre swatch of honey mesquite and lowland grasses ranks as one of the country’s richest and most diverse places to see migrating raptors. Three North American flyways converge here and by the time I’d arrived in early November, more than 1.2 million broad-winged hawks, turkey vultures, Mississippi kites, kestrels, and more had passed through, a record number for the second year in a row.

The park was a fitting testing ground for some super cool tech aimed largely at birders, still one of the of outdoor enthusiasts. I joined about a dozen of the country’s more influential bird nerds—each of us armed with a pair of the , the most advanced set of binoculars in the world. , the Austria-based offshoot of the larger, highly secretive, luxury crystal brand, Swarovski, would not introduce them to the world until Jan. 9, 2024, and as such we were asked not to let other birders see them up close. That’s because the AX Visio can do what no other binocular or scope in the world on the consumer market today can do: tell you what you’re looking at, instantly, at least when it comes to virtually every known bird on the planet. The binos can also identify hundreds of species of mammals, and soon, butterflies and dragonflies. And that’s just the start.

“If you have a database on wildflowers or mushrooms or stars or whatever, we can train the system to identify them,” Ben Lizdas, Swarovski Optik’s business development manager. “The idea is absolutely for developers to be able to contribute to this. It’s limitless.”

The identification feat alone is groundbreaking, but so are the other tasks that the smart binoculars can handle. The AX Visio has a tagging feature that allows you to drop a pin on a certain subject or location, like a mountain goat on a distant ridge. Hand the glass to a friend and a reticle in your field of vision will direct the viewer to the exact spot you just pinned. Paired with a smartphone app, the binoculars can also stream a live feed to up to four other devices at a time (though they need to be within about ten feet of each other), so everyone on safari can watch the jaguar eat. The display projected directly into the viewfinder can also show a digital compass offering both cardinal directions and azimuth angles. It has an onboard camera, a GPS, and Bluetooth capabilities for firmware updates and app connectivity. To function fully, it needs no signal from anything whatsoever.

Of course, Swarovski optics aren’t cheap, think $3,000 or more, and neither is the AX Visio. With an MSRP at about $5,330, they are not for everyone. But after three days of playing with them in Texas, followed by another two weeks around my home in Oregon, I can say they’re a blast, intuitive, and offer all sorts of implications for birders, hunters, guides, travelers, and those who just like to navigate the natural world by name. “I think there are applications that we can’t even imagine yet,” says Janet Moler, a manager with Portland (Oregon) Audubon. “I don’t recall anything on the market even close to this.”

At the moment, in Texas, I trained the glass on a flamboyant yellow bird with a sky blue head and a black throat that had materialized as if out of a Walt Disney film. I’d never seen a bird like it. The words “Green Jay” illuminated in a simple, unobtrusive orange font almost instantly along the bottom of the hyper crisp image. Suddenly I could appreciate this park a little more.

The Swarovski AX Visio Binoculars Basics

The AX Visio (a riff on something like “augmented-experience vision”) looks like a chunkier, more militaristic set of binoculars with 10×32 lenses, which, like all optics, translates to “how big by how bright;” In the AX Visio’s case, 10x magnification with 32 millimeter objective lenses. That’s enough glass to collect sufficient light for most outdoorsy applications, though a little under-gunned for dimmer conditions, like in the thick of a rainforest.

Like all of Swarovski’s optics, the lenses are crafted to nanometer precision. But the real magic lies with a fiercely guarded mix of light-altering chemical coatings applied in as many as 50 layers to enhance clarity and contrast. So secret is the recipe for these coatings that Swarovski has opted not to patent them, a protection that would require the company to divulge its materials and methods. Better to let the competition spend the time and money trying to reverse engineer it all with lasers and gas spectrometers than to spell it out in a patent, or so the thinking goes.

Some of the experts on this trip, most of whom are on the front line of the birding world as dealers who sell optics to other birders, said they could see birders wanting a brighter lens, say 42 mm, but the smaller 32 mm glass saves on weight. That was necessary because a third optical barrel sits under the bridge linking the other two barrels near the focus wheel. This third barrel houses a 13 megapixel camera with a fixed 2.2 f-stop (and maximum exposure time of 1/125) that’s capable of shooting HD video at 30 to 60 frames per second. Figuring out how to pair a camera with the binoculars was key to the whole “smart” process.

“People have tried to put cameras in binoculars before, but the technology was changing so fast that by the time it came out it was already obsolete,” says Daniel Nindl, the company’s head of product management. Now the components are so small and the processors so robust that Swarovski Optik, which first began toying with smart binocular designs about a decade ago, felt confident enough to move into prototype stages about six years ago. In the end, engineers packed the AX Visio with 37 lenses, eight prisms, and nine electronic boards powered by a removable, rechargeable lithium battery pack. Combined with the 390 individual parts (think sensors, a gyroscope, magnetometer, accelerometer and more) all housed in a forest-green, IP68-rated moisture- and dust-tight body, the unit is about three pounds. Though it’s a bit of a beast, it feels great in your hands.

How Does The AI-Generated Identification Work?

The ID feature is well worth the heavy weight, especially when you consider some of the alternatives. I got into birding the way many others did during the pandemic, when I happened to look out my window to find a delightful little guy with a body as yellow as an Easter Peep sporting a jaunty black patch atop his tiny birdy crown. I went full analog and hauled out a dusty copy of , eventually landing on page 825, a Wilson’s warbler.

Though I’m not a serious birder, I’ve learned a few very basic tricks that make identifying birds so much easier than that, namely the free Merlin Bird ID app. Merlin is a “machine learning -powered bird ID tool” put out by the avian gods themselves at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University. I take a picture of a mystery bird with my smartphone, record its song or enter its description, and Merlin will spit out a list of species possibilities. I use it almost every day just walking the dog.

This app, or rather the research and database behind it, forms the muscle behind the AX Visio’s ability to identify birds. Swarovski Optik obtained the rights to use the data and then figured out how to pack the hardware and software into binoculars that could make sense of it. The system includes a processor similar to one in your phone that powers an algorithm using a “neural processing unit” based on the Merlin app. In short, artificial intelligence.

What’s truly amazing is the sheer size of the bird reference library that the AX Visio’s AI can tap. On your phone, the Merlin app is so data-heavy with photos and sound bites that you have to pick and choose which “bird packs” to install based on your geographic location. Those packs narrow down the realm of possible birds to those the user is most likely to see in that particular area. For example, that’s 717 birds for “U.S. and Canada: Continental” and 810 birds for “Costa Rica.” The AX Visio, meanwhile, can only identify birds by “sight.” That data set consumes less storage space than the full Merlin app and allows the binoculars to have an on-board reference library that essentially includes every bird from every bird pack—roughly 8,000 birds total. The processor needs no connectivity to access it. That means it can identify a satyr tragopan in a remote rhododendron forest in Bhutan as easily as a mourning dove in New York City.

Understanding how this all unfolds is material for a graduate degree, but as a user, it couldn’t be more simple. To identify the green jay, I powered the unit on, waited for it to lock in a GPS signal, and turned the “mode wheel” to the bird ID function. Looking through the viewfinder, which included adjustable eyecups I could dial in to fit my sunglasses, a reticle appeared in the shape of a circle cut into four equal, curved segments. The more the bird can fill that circle, the higher the confidence in the AI result. Holding the binoculars naturally, you can toggle the size of the circle by depressing a button using a right forefinger.

A second, adjacent button acts like a shutter release on a camera. Once I had the jay lined up in my sights, I depressed the second button halfway, and the unit’s autofocus took over. Depressing it the rest of the way, the unit took a picture that was automatically uploaded to my paired iPhone 12 and then produced an ID readable directly in the viewfinder. All four segments of the circle had grown thicker, like a font in bold, signaling a high-confidence result. The fewer segments in bold: the lower the AI’s confidence in its result.

The system isn’t perfect. The unit couldn’t decide if a seagull was a laughing gull or a Franklin’s gull—it kept alternating between the two each time I hit the release. Ideally, the viewfinder needs to be filled with 224 x 224 pixels, though the minimum it needs is 100 x 100. Other times, it tested my own limitations. A hummingbird showed up and it was difficult to get a clear, stable shot of it that filled the circle. I tried anyway and the unit said it couldn’t recognize it or it wasn’t in focus. When I did get a decent shot of the bird face-on, the AI thought it was an Allen’s hummingbird when the birders all knew it was actually a Rufous. The differences between the two are difficult for beginners to distinguish and boil down to the shape of the tail feathers.

“To be fair,” said Clay Taylor, a naturalist who joined Swarovski Optik in 1999 as the division’s first in-house bird specialist, “even (famed ornithologist) David Sibley would need to see its back before he could tell you what it is.”

Other times I was shocked the AI could make sense of what I fed it at all. A raptor rocketed by and I fired off a sloppy shot. The unit called it a northern harrier, correctly. In the most comical, extreme example, perhaps, a bird never seen anywhere north of Panama suddenly showed up in downtown Corpus Christi, having likely hitched a ride on one of the many ships that come into port—a vagrant in birder-speak. The AI must have overridden what its own GPS said it couldn’t possibly be (or perhaps the unit couldn’t lock in a solid GPS signal among the buildings) and identified it as a cattle tyrant, a fly-eating fiend with a yellow breast and olive-brown back that had found an endless feast in a blue downtown dumpster. Soon hundreds of people from all over the country had gathered around this greasy trashcan to catch a glimpse.

Additional Features

I played with the other functions over the next few weeks. The location tagging setting led me right to a vermillion flycatcher a friend had spotted on a fence. Another time, I put it on mammal mode and drew a bead on a shih tzu walking down the beach, but all it could say was “dog.” One day, for giggles, I pointed it at my teenage daughter. “Human,” it said, though the state of her habitat would suggest otherwise.

I wondered if hardcore birders who already know hundreds of species by heart would have a need for something like this, and the answer is maybe. “We can all go someplace new and be totally lost,” says Diane Porter, co-founder of . Moler of Portland Audubon agrees: “There were many birds in Texas it identified when I didn’t have a clue,” she says. Having a pair to share among a group seems ideal, like an outfitter that equips its trip leaders and guides with a set to help clients see an owlet in the redwoods or a lion snoozing in the shade.

I shot a video of one egret bullying another in a pond and took pictures of distant buildings with architectural features I thought were cool, which was easy since I didn’t have to put down the binoculars and take out my phone or a camera. Though I enjoyed the photo function, it still can’t compete against a dedicated camera with, say, a 600 millimeter lens. “No way will it replace my big camera,” Porter says.

The most exciting features, however, may be the ones to come. The mode wheel already includes two empty slots ready to be claimed by future functions (which will also be open to third party developers). Perhaps one day one will go to the names and elevations of distant peaks or even climbing routes to the top. Maybe plane spotters will find a way to use it. In the meantime, there’s no doubt they’re game changers for many.

Personally, I’d kill to own a pair for the sheer amount of joy I got out of the Genesis-like gift of being able to give names to these delicate, gorgeous marvels of the world, and for the way that knowledge enriched my time in Texas, expanding doors and introducing me to others. (Like those 1.2 million raptors spotted at a tiny park for starters.)

“It’s a revolutionary product,” Moler says. “Now when a person walks in and says, for that price, those binoculars should identify the bird for you, I can say, they do.”

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