the outdoors
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistDecember 20, 2023When is the last time someone did something really impressive and you had more fun watching than if you had done that impressive thing yourself? It happens to me all the time in the outdoors. Watching someone harvest or catch their personal best in just about any category is pretty easy to get excited about. My son Brandon moved home from the Denver, Colorado, area about a year ago, and now I…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistNovember 21, 2023Deer hunting in Minnesota is a very big deal. License sales to date for Minnesota this year total $395,000. That is a lot of guys and gals in orange spread across our great state. One great fact to remember is just how safe hunting actually is. There were a very small number of injuries this season, and most if not all of them were associated with an adult hunting with a youth during their…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistNovember 15, 2023I totally live in the land of dogs. I had more than a few Heinz 57 pets growing up but did not land my first bonafide retriever until 1996 when I was 35. I was sitting at an AKC hunt test with many of the judges and participants when I asked the question, “Why would anyone need more than one dog?” I figured you could only hunt one at a time, and if the dog was good at its job, there was no need…
By Scot Rall, Outdoor ColumnistNovember 08, 2023Pheasant season is underway at full steam and the reports are all looking pretty good. I had a group in my county over the weekend, and they were only a few birds short of their limits for their efforts over four days. I hunt a lot, many times by myself and other times with smaller groups, but I am not a big group kind of guy. The bigger the group, the harder it is to keep everyone in step. I…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistOctober 25, 2023Back in 2021 the local chapter of Pheasants Forever in Nobles County adopted all of the Wildlife Management areas in their county. It was during the Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener that a parcel of land was dedicated to acknowledge these acres were now open to all compatible uses. It was part of the Ranson Ridge WMA. At that time the chapter partnered with the local Future Farmers of America…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistOctober 18, 2023As is part of my normal pheasant hunting opening weekend activities, I made the drive to the 2023 Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener event in Owatonna. This area is not necessarily known as the hotbed of pheasant hunting opportunities in our great state, but there were about the same number of birds harvested by attendees as any other events of its kind since 2012. So I guess you might need to…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistOctober 11, 2023Hunting wild stuff, be that antlered animals or fowl of any sort, is usually a result of an introduction made by one special person who took the time to expose a youth to the outdoor lifestyle. The number of people who hunt today only make up about 11 percent of the United States population and that number is falling. I have been hunting since I was 14, almost 50 years now, and I can say there…
By Scott Rall, Outdoors columnistOctober 04, 2023I find it interesting that no matter where you live or what kinds of outside activities you enjoy, there is always a desire to see and experience new things. I never get tired of a good wildlife ride exploring the prairie landscapes in my state. Even with this deep appreciation for this kind of ecosystem, I still find a need to explore further from home. I make these explorations to different…
By Scott RallSeptember 27, 2023This is the final installment of a public land acquisition process. We have covered a lot in the last three columns, and this will get us to the end zone. Last week we left off at the appraisal review process. I have never had an appraisal review that ended up changing the value of a parcel, although the purchase agreement signed earlier does openly state that the PA is subject to an appraisal…
By Scott RallSeptember 20, 2023In the first two columns about public land acquisition, we covered how a parcel is selected and how these sales originate. Appraisals are then completed and surveys finished and then reviewed by a second party. After these are finalized, you can actually get close to having the seller and buyer sign a purchase agreement. But there are still a few more steps until that takes place. Once the…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistSeptember 06, 2023I was asked a while back about what goes into the decisions made when land is purchased for habitat restoration. This is a topic many folks are curious about so I thought I would explain in a multi-week column just what happens when new public lands are added in your county. When you see a new Wildlife Management Area pop up in your area, it’s hard to believe that many of them have been in the…
By Scott RallAugust 22, 2023As I was walking through some native prairie with my gal the other day, she commented on how cool it was that all of the different plants all seemed to get along so well together. She wondered why they all seemed to share the same space without trying to out-compete each other. It got me thinking just how rich a native prairie can be. Almost all the native prairie that once existed across the…-
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistAugust 15, 2023Finally, some rain showed up across much of southwest Minnesota and everyone was more than happy to see it. I certainly didn’t need it to make a living like many others, but it was still a welcome sight to me for a different reason. The first two weeks of August is the timeframe when the Minnesota DNR conducts their annual roadside counts for a variety of species, but the king in all this is the…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJuly 18, 2023A few weeks back I spent some time in this column running through the basics of shooting at long-range targets. I am no expert on this subject matter but certainly have gotten bit by the long-range-shooting bug. What prompted my entry into this discipline was an introduction to a gentleman by the name of Todd VanLangen. Todd is a 25-year veteran of the Army Special Forces unit where he spent 13…
By Scott RallJuly 11, 2023If you are a regular reader of my columns, you will certainly know by now just how much of a public lands advocate I am. When I was 11 and my parents got me a new bike, I was a roving fisherman. I rode that bike all over my neck of the woods trying to find and catch whatever kind of fish I could. When I got a car and could then drive to a fishing or hunting spot, I was sure that my desire to…
By Scott Rall, outdoors columnistJune 27, 2023I was driving to work today in my small-town USA and saw a sight that is so common, one that just causes me pain. It is one of those pains that I don’t actually suffer from but feel it when I see someone else suffering from it. My route parallels a walking path that weaves its way through my town. The sight I saw was a lady of smaller stature walking her dog down this path. About 50 yards ahead…
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