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If you need proof that the competition for duck hunting honey holes can lead to toxic—and potentially lethal—behavior, here it is. On August 28, 2026, 23-year-old Carson McKoin of Monroe, Louisiana, was convicted in federal court for assaulting U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents. But what’s particularly notable about the conviction is what prompted it.

On January 19, 2024, McKoin was waterfowl hunting with a group of buddies when he and his pals heard the motor of another boat. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana, McKoin and his friends “believed other hunters were encroaching on the duck hole his group claimed.”

Instead of talking to the potential hunters, McKoin “fired a shot toward” them. It goes without saying that intentionally shooting toward other others is appalling and illegal behavior. But the boat wasn’t being driven by hunters; it was full of a team of “federal fish and wildlife agents performing their official duties.”

McKoin admitted to firing the shot but said that it was simply a “signal shot” that was not aimed toward the wardens. However, this statement was “at odds with the agents’ belief that he had intentionally fired at them.”

A multi-agency investigation ensued, and the conflicting opinions were eventually settled in the court of law by a jury that found McKoin guilty of assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal wildlife agents. The punishments for doing so are severe; McKoin faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. He will be sentenced in December.

“Louisiana, long known as ‘Sportsman’s Paradise,’ is blessed with one of the richest outdoor traditions in the country,” said U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller. “But that tradition only succeeds when hunters exercise due care and responsibility with firearms. Reckless actions put lives at risk and are taken very seriously.”

A lot of state’s bow openers will start in a matter of days. Just because deer season opens doesn't mean the thermostat will drop. Prime velvet destinations or states with September openers might include hot, buggy conditions. While these aren’t ideal deer hunting conditions, that doesn’t mean you can’t find success, you just might have to sweat a good bit to do it.

Hot weather hunting isn’t easy, and it definitely isn’t always fun. It has a way of perpetuating common deer hunting myths that makes many hunters feel better about sitting out the early season. If you’re not careful, you might fall prey to those same misconceptions.

While this myth could probably apply to the entire season, it’s a common one a lot of hunters believe to avoid sitting in hot conditions. It’s true that deer are crepuscular animals and that they move mostly near dawn and dusk, but that doesn’t mean they don’t move throughout the rest of the day.

On one of the hottest opening weeks I can remember, I killed a doe while still hunting just before 11 am as she slipped down to a creek bottom to get a drink. It hadn’t rained in weeks, and the temps that week hung out in the mid-90s. I also saw multiple deer that week doing the same thing, including a mature buck, at different times of the day—not just the golden hour.

For the sake of not relying on anecdata too heavily, a study out of Mississippi State University’s Deer Lab shows that deer movement isn’t non-existent outside of prime shooting hours. You might not expect to see deer moving freely in the middle of a bean field around noon, but that doesn’t mean they won’t use edge cover to browse, eat acorns, or, in the case of that doe, find a cool drink of water.

You should certainly consider hunting water in the early season, especially if the conditions say as much. Hot, arid, or drought-like conditions mean that deer probably factor water into their daily rhythms, and you should too. But that doesn't necessarily apply to every situation. If you hunt a place that gets plenty of rainfall or typically holds water, like a lot of southern states, you probably should look for another limited resource.

If you aren’t hunting dry or drought conditions (good for you), you can probably focus on natural browse or hard mast in cool, shaded areas. These can be good target areas any time of the day, especially if you’re hunting close to bedding or natural edges that get a lot of traffic. At this point of the year deer have more cover options, so while they might not move a ton, they do have plenty of bedding and browsing options.

You might not have to sit over a water hole or a specific section of creek to find deer, but riparian areas can offer a lot more than just water. If you don’t have access to lush bean or alfalfa fields, fear not. There’s a lot of natural browse that hunters tend to overlook. Creeks, river bottoms, and other areas that tend to hold moisture in the soil will have green shoots this time of year that deer will browse. You can also find early dropping acorns, persimmons, or even apples, depending on your location.

A lot of hunters believe that bucks, especially mature ones, don’t move during the day when it’s hot. This is factually untrue. If that were the case, they’d die of starvation down in my home state of Mississippi. You can also watch them mill around in open country if you’ve spent time behind a spotter in the Plains states. Again, they might not cross a country mile, but they will move, despite long-perpetuated myths.

For the past few years, I’ve gotten a bachelor group of bucks on camera in the same spot in September. Not only do they move at various times throughout the day, but they also bed in a cutover that gets sun all day. They get up from their beds, mosey into the timber to munch on acorns, make a few rubs, and bed back down. The deer might not cover an entire creek system in a day, but you don’t need them to if you can gather such intel.

On the flipside, if your trail camera isn’t in the right location, you might assume that the deer aren’t moving. This errant way of thinking has kept a lot of deer alive. Sure, it’s hard to persuade yourself to hunt when you have to replenish your electrolytes and bug spray, but consistent pictures of big velvet bucks might just convince you otherwise.

Steve takes Janis to his Prince of Wales Island Fish Shack to see the bounty of the Pacific Ocean. They’re after halibut, rockfish, spot prawns, Dungeness crabs, scallops, sea cucumbers, and Steve’s coveted sablefish. Presented by Busch Light

Welcome to the final and triumphant chapter of one of the best wildlife comeback stories in the history of North America. From 1200 individual deer in Mississippi in 1929 to over 1.5 million in 2026, this story is one you don't want to miss. Including, the story of a first ever deer hunt on public land that involved over 3300 hunters, a vehicles lined up for miles waiting to check deer in!

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This week Cal covers more road rule rage, and international crisis sparked by duck hunting, and an expensive trip for some unprepared hikers.

Call to Action:

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https://takeaction.io/bha/speak-up-for-responsible-travel-management-on-our-national-forests/#/549

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Steven Rinella talks with MrBallen on: his Navy SEAL experience; the nature of evil; a career pivot into storytelling; aliens; and more.

Find MrBallen's latest graphic novel at https://book.ballenstudios.com/

Presented by Can-Am, the leader in ATVs, SxS, and Utility Vehicles www.can-am.brp.com

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This recipe is my answer for trying to figure out what the heck to bring to potlucks. Something that’s snacky but substantial. Something that tastes good hot, at room temperature, and even cold for late-night nibbles. And perhaps most importantly, something that’s easy to grab and munch on.

I love potlucks. Any excuse for people to get together and share food is a happy place for me. Not to mention, it’s a great time to introduce wild game-hesitant or avoidant folks to the wonders of wild foods. This recipe is sure to convert any skeptical snackers.

You can also zhuzh it up into a full meal. Steam some rice and serve with pickled or sauteed veggies on the side.

A 35-year-old Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy faces four felony charges after letting his 3-year-old daughter trigger the 12-gauge shotgun blast that wounded a 40-year-old turkey-hunting mentor and the man’s 7-year-old son during April’s two-day youth-only turkey season.

James D. Lehman of Union Grove was charged Aug. 17 in Racine County Circuit Court with two counts of second-degree reckless injury with a dangerous weapon and two counts of injury by negligent use of a dangerous weapon. His initial court appearance is scheduled for September 10. Local news outlets report Lehman is on administrative leave from the Racine County Sheriff’s Department.

The shooting occurred near Burlington in the Cherry Lake Sedge Meadow State Natural Area around 2:20 p.m. on April 12, the second day of the state’s turkey season for youths 15 and under. Wisconsin has no minimum age for hunting, but young hunters must stay within arm’s reach of a certified mentor. Youngsters must buy a hunting license once they’re 12, but cannot hunt alone until 14, provided they pass the state’s hunter-education course.

Hunting mentors must be at least 18 and have passed a state-certified hunter-ed program or completed basic training in the U.S. military. Lehman holds a military exemption, but told investigators he was an inexperienced hunter and had seldom before hunted alone.

Initial reports in mid-April indicated Lehman and the shooting victims didn’t know each other, but the two men were co-workers, according to Lt. Renee Thok, the Department of Natural Resources’ hunter education administrator. According to the criminal complaint filed Aug. 17, Lehman asked his co-worker for tips on where to hunt. Lehman told investigators he didn’t think the colleague and his son were hunting that afternoon.

When investigators interviewed the shooting victim that night after his release from the Froedtert Medical Hospital in Milwaukee, the man said he told Lehman about the state forest lands but asked him not to hunt his spots.

When DNR warden Jason Roberts arrived to investigate the shooting, Lehman took him to the shooting site. Roberts said the distance between the shooters and victims was 39 yards, and the victims were not using decoys or a turkey fan. They were seated against a tree and metal post, watching a field with their backs to Lehman and his daughter.

Earlier reports said the woods had a brushy understory, but it wasn’t dense. The man who got shot told Roberts he was using a turkey call, and sitting with his left arm around his son. Though both victims wore leafy-patterned camouflage, the father said they were not wearing any red, white, or blue items that could’ve been mistaken for a turkey’s head and neck.

The man told Roberts he thought Lehman mistook his hand for a turkey’s head because they got shot seconds after he used his call. Lehman told Roberts he was blind-calling when he saw movement that he mistook for a turkey fan and a white turkey head. He aimed his 12-gauge semiautomatic shotgun by resting its barrel on a fallen tree, and held its buttstock against his shoulder. His daughter was sitting in front of him, and pulled the trigger at his instruction.

The shooting victims suffered multiple pellet wounds. The man instantly yelled, “they were people, and they had been shot,” Roberts reported. The victim told Roberts he recognized Lehman when his co-worker ran in and said “something similar to ‘I didn’t know you were out here. I’m so sorry.’”

The wounded man, seeing his boy was hit and bleeding from his head, told Lehman to call 911 because his son needed immediate medical help. The man also felt pain in his own arm and applied a makeshift tourniquet. He told investigators that pellets penetrated his lower torso, left hand, forearm and upper arm.

The victim also told Roberts his son suffered multiple pellet wounds that penetrated his skull and reached his brain cavity. Another DNR warden, Michael Hirschboeck, interviewed the boy’s mother June 7. She said surgeons removed as many pellets as possible, but had to leave individual pellets in the boy’s spinal cord, skull and brain.

A review of online DNR hunting-incident summaries since 2007 found this shooting involved the youngest shooter and victim on record in Wisconsin. Previously, a 9-year-old boy shot a 48-year-old man in the upper right arm with pellets from his 20-gauge shotgun while hunting mourning doves in Walworth County in September 2012; and a 13-year-old boy shot a 9-year-old boy in the foot with a .22 rifle while plinking at birds in Polk County in May 2019.

Wisconsin is one of an estimated 35 states with no minimum hunting age. Wisconsin’s minimum hunting age was 12 throughout the 1900s, but in 2009 lawmakers lowered the restriction to age 10 for children being mentored. They changed the law again in 2017, letting parents decide when their children can hunt with a mentor.

Turkey hunting in Wisconsin is generally a safe activity, even though hunters wear camouflage clothing from head to foot to avoid being spotted by the sharp-eyed birds, which see colors like blaze-orange extremely well. Though Wisconsin issued 208,000 to 230,000 hunting permits each spring the past 20 years, the state has recorded only four fatalities in 31 shooting incidents during turkey season. No one got shot during three of the past four seasons, and the state’s most recent shooting fatality during turkey season was 2017.

Wisconsin held its first modern turkey season in 1983 after restoring the birds to the Badger state beginning in 1976. The statewide harvest during this spring’s season was 47,704, while the harvests in 2024 and 2025 surpassed 50,000 gobblers and jakes (1-year-old males).

Thok said she is thankful the victims didn’t suffer worse injuries, and hopes they’ll continue to hunt. She also encourages prospective hunters to take Wisconsin’s hunter education course, no matter their age or military training. It’s mandatory for anyone born after Jan. 1, 1973. The curriculum is written at a sixth-grade level (ages 11 and 12), but parents can decide if their child can meet the course’s requirements.

Brent’s writing his own rules again and making up an imaginary theme for this week’s show. This week’s theme is “It’s my show and I do what I want”. Regardless of his shenanigans the stories this week are great and we think you’ll really enjoy them. Sit back and relax. It’s time for MeatEater’s “This Country Life” podcast.

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You’ve likely seen the big news already. But if not, the USDA has officially announced its proposed rule and intention to rollback the 2001 Roadless Rule in its entirety.

This means that the 44+ million acres of relatively unfragmented and still-wild national forest protected by that rule from new road construction and industrial-scale logging is now on the table for all that and more. To grossly oversimplify things, most in the hunting, fishing, and conservation world see this as a serious setback. When this rollback was first floated last summer, more than 625,000 comments were submitted in response, and ~99% opposed it.

It’s easy to see that and assume this is a no-brainer bad idea and leave it at that. But it’s not quite that simple.

I recently heard a noted thinker and journalist explain that a key tenet of debating or interrogating a viewpoint different than yours is to first consider the best possible version of that argument. You must understand and reckon with the most compelling and rational case for your opponent’s position before you can make a sound case for your own.

So, while many in the environmental world look at the Roadless Rollback as a disaster, it must be acknowledged that many on the other side of the issue might look at this as a similarly obvious and necessary action. And they might have some good points.

For example, Secretary of Agriculture Rollins explained in the USDA announcement that “for too long, outdated restrictions have kept tens of millions of forested acres off-limits to the very treatments that improve forest health and reduce wildfire risk to our communities.”

And here’s the thing: it has been widely acknowledged by most everyone across the natural resources world that our nation’s forests are in need of some degree of additional management. Wildfire season lasts longer than ever before, dangerous mega-fires are more common, and the impacts to the landscape, wildlife, and local communities are increasing year after year. This has a lot to do with drought, heat waves, and other climate factors. But, at least in part, it’s true that many forests are overstocked with "fuel"—otherwise known as standing dead timber and brush that can act as a tinderbox just waiting to explode.

Furthermore, many in the wildlife world acknowledge that a diversity of forest age structure and composition is good and necessary for many birds and animals. Wildlife of many types—both popular game species and threatened/endangered species—benefit from the early successional habitat and flush of nutritious growth that comes with the creation of new openings in an otherwise forested habitat. Unfortunately for many species, large swaths of our nation’s forests have instead grown into monocultures of mature timber that block sunlight from reaching the floor, eliminating the undergrowth and early successional habitat that many species require.

Some degree of increased thinning, logging, prescribed fire, and other forms of active management could absolutely help with both the fire and wildlife issues noted above. And, if I were told that the 2001 Roadless Rule was keeping that from happening across our national forests, I would have to concede that this is a problem.

But that’s not exactly what’s happening.

Our national forest is comprised of about 193 million acres—split into what we’ll consider as three different designations—and it’s important to understand what can and cannot happen on each.

37 million acres are designated as wilderness—meaning no new roads, no logging, no chain saws, or motors of any kind. Here, it’s true that active management and road or motor-assisted wildfire treatments aren’t happening.

Then there’s the 58 million or so acres covered by the 2001 Roadless Rule (or state-specific variations in ID and CO), meaning most new roads are prohibited and most major logging projects are limited. But not entirely. And this is an important caveat that Roadless Rule opponents don’t highlight. The Roadless Rule was written with explicit acknowledgement of the need for wiggle room to accommodate habitat improvements for wildlife and wildfire mitigation. According to a 2026 Trout Unlimited report:

“From the beginning, it included exemptions that allow land managers to protect public safety and ecosystem health, including removing small‑diameter trees and other vegetation. These exemptions are actively used by the Forest Service to address modern fire challenges, and former Forest Service Chiefs from both Republican and Democratic administrations have stressed that the rule 'specifically permits activities aimed at preventing and mitigating wildfire risks.'

Data drawn from the Forest Service dispels the myth that the Roadless Rule prevents fuel reduction. The agency’s Rocky Mountain Research Station found that while roadless areas contain approximately 21% of the total tree cover across the National Forest System, they account for 34% of the total fuel treatment activities and 8% of total area treated. Spatial analysis using agency data shows that hazardous fuels reduction projects have reduced fire risk on nearly 2 million acres of Inventoried Roadless Areas.”

Finally, there’s somewhere around 98 million acres of forest not impacted by either of the above restrictions—leaving them largely open to whatever management actions, treatments, and logging projects the agency deems necessary—with most of these landscapes being those closest to the wildland-urban interface where fire risk and mitigation are of most concern.

The point I’m trying to highlight here is that there are many tens of millions of acres of our national forest system open to necessary roadwork, habitat improvements, wildfire mitigation, and other logging and management activities. Of course, there might be other speed bumps, regulations, litigation threats, and land management plans that might impact those actions—but it certainly is not exclusively the 2001 Roadless Rule making any of it impossible.

On the other hand, what the Roadless Rule does make possible is the equally important presence of unfragmented fish and wildlife habitat and backcountry characteristics that are becoming increasingly rare today. You might say they’re not making any more of it. And in a rapidly developing world, this stuff is more important than ever. Just as important as any of the above are the memories made in these unique places.

I killed my first elk in an inventoried roadless area (IRA); my son’s first backpacking trip began in an IRA; the forest-covered mountains I can see from my back deck, that I trail run across, and where I’ll go hunting this fall are all part of an IRA. There are millions of hunters, anglers, climbers, hikers, and bikers with stories and landscapes held dear just like this too. Slice and dice these rare landscapes with new roads, litter them with clear-cuts and an unending parade of logging trucks, and you’ve fundamentally changed the lived experience for both humans and wildlife.

The debate over public land issues such as the Roadless Rule are never quite as simple as either side likes to make it out to be. There is a gray area, nuance, and exceptions to each and every rule. We would do well to remember this. And that’s likely the case with the Roadless Rule too. Is it perfect? Probably not. Could it be improved? I’m betting so. And maybe we should do that.

But when it all nets out, and when considering the ever-more fragmented, over-developed, and rapidly diminishing natural world around us, it seems this possibly imperfect rule is still one worth fighting for. If for no other reason than to still have the chance to build it into something better.

If you would like to weigh in on the future of the Roadless Rule, the public comment period opened today and is open until September 21. Click here to submit your comment.

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