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From tag to table — official season dates for all 50 states, plus safe doneness temps for your harvest.
| Species | Archery | Firearm |
|---|---|---|
| Deer | Sep–Oct | Nov |
| Elk | Sep | Oct–Nov |
| Turkey | — | Apr–May |
All 50 state wildlife agencies, plus how seasons, tags and licenses work.
Find your state → Network| Doneness | Target |
|---|---|
| Rare | 125–130°F |
| Medium-rare | 130–135°F |
| Well-done | 160°F+ |
Safe pull temps for venison and steak, from Popular BBQ.
View full chart →Reader Favorites
It’s a must-watch for outdoorsmen…only maybe after you’ve already come home safely. Although we sportsmen refuse to allow 2020 to keep us out of the fields, even dedicated outdoorspeople like to watch TV on occasion. The latest reality-TV obsession is an Amazon Prime documentary called “Missing 411: The Hunted,” and if you’re as big a…
Editor’s Note: Today’s great outdoorsman tip comes to us courtesy of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Have you ever had to end a great fishing trip early due to accidentally hooking yourself? Even advanced anglers may find themselves needing to remove an embedded hook in their skin. It’s one of the more common accidental…
Gators, snakes, and bears–oh my! If you live in the path of Hurricane Laura and have chosen to shelter in place, there’s something to remember: The swamp critters are seeking higher ground, too. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) urges the public to be especially alert to wildlife forced into populated areas by…
Say it with me: 2.3 million acres. Ahh…that’s nice. Recently, Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced the biggest increase in hunting and fishing opportunities in American history. The announcement now includes a final rule establishing and expanding hunting and fishing opportunities across more than 2.3 million acres at 147 national wildlife refuges and…
Someone out there is trying to blind Coast Guard rescue workers. Let’s help find him (or her). Ronald Reagan once said “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” The exception to that rule is when those words are uttered from the deck of…
Even if you love to hike and bike alone, you’ll always have a Backup in your boot. If you’re like many outdoorsmen, you carry a handgun with you when you’re out in the backwoods for self-defense against predators–both four- and two-legged. Thing is, every single ounce of weight you have to carry in those backwoods…
Every so often, a new product comes out that I shouldn’t want…but do. The key to both my heart and my wallet is the word “Jeep”: You could brand that logo into the top of a pancake and I’d be there with my wallet out. So when I learned through the outdoor writer’s grapevine that…
My bow-season prayers to St. The Nuge have been answered! Just a few weeks ago we launched a tongue-in-cheek “prayer to St. Nugent” for bow-season success. Just a few days before that, we yearned for the success of a pro-hunting movie in production called The Harvest. It seems that someone was listening, because the Motor…
Factory sights not cutting the mustard? The first thing most serious shooters do the moment they get their new pistol home is to take a good, hard look at the factory sights and get to work fine-tuning them. The problem, of course, is that replacing or upgrading pistol sights is a pain–and that’s where the…
These are the prayers I’ll be directing to St. Nugent for the next 10 weeks or so… Archery season begins soon, and you know what that means: Lots of clueless people tromping around in my favorite hunting spot while I sit in my treestand and seethe. While I get ready for bow-season opening day, here’s…
It’s that time of year: Short, sultry nights full of buzzing cicadas, chirping crickets and the barely audible calls of the bats that see all of the above as an all-you-can-eat buffet. Although you probably think of bats as being more active later in the year–say, just in time for Halloween–late summer and early autumn…
Hallelujah, it has happened! The U.S. House of Representatives’ Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Congress-Critters of all stripes got together and passed H.R. 1957, the ‘Great American Outdoors Act’. Although any conservation measure should include bipartisan support, they don’t always–and that’s why we here at Popular Outdoorsman are so excited to hear that this historic legislation…
