The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's online digital platform, the Elk Network, is now available as an app.

In addition to the the Axis Traditional's retro look, stick-bow shooters will appreciate a micro-diameter shaft that adds hunting penetration by reducing friction through hide and bone.

Code Blue introduces Calming Zone®—a new stick-applied scent that both attracts deer and relaxes them by creating the smells of a natural deer bedding area.

Providing a generous 2,500 total cubic inches of storage in nine pockets and compartments, the TX 17 is the largest hunting daypack in Tenzing's affordable new TX series.

Parker Bows, leading manufacturer of high quality compound bows and crossbows, as well as RED HOT crossbow accessories, has officially announced its new company logo.

iSeeMammals is a new citizen science project of NYDEC and the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University that collects data to help researchers and DEC biologists study the distribution and size of the black bear population in New York.

The U.S. recurve mixed team of Mackenzie Brown and Brady Ellison finished the fourth stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup in Berlinwith a bronze-medal win over Turkey.

This week's fourth and final World Cup event of the season – before the World Cup Final and the World Archery Championships – was an important training event for a U.S. compound team that included a solid mix of veterans and a relative newcomer.

Built with dedication and stringent standards, the PileDriver 390 has been engineered to capture Carbon Express' extensive knowledge of arrow flight, featuring state-of-the-art performance compression molded limbs, premium alloy cams, and tunable synthetic strings and cables.

Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease has been reported in whitetail in several east Kentucky counties, confirmed by the Georgia- based Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study Wednesday morning.

The Eastern Oklahoma Branch of Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) will hold its 14th annual banquet and auction starting at 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, at the Marriott Tulsa-Southern Hills hotel, 1901 E. 71 St.

The Feral Hog Management Advisory Task Force will meet Sept. 6 at 9 a.m. at Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) headquarters in Baton Rouge (2000 Quail Drive) in the Louisiana Room. The meeting was previously scheduled for July.

Deer hunters looking for a highly portable and packable rattling option should check out the all-new Bone Bag from Flextone, which uses premium hardwoods of maple and oak in a mesh fabric bag to create versatile and realistic rattling sounds with maximum, unrestricted volume.

The 2017 Strike Force HD Pro cameras feature an incredible .3 second trigger speed and .5 second recovery time and users will enjoy the remarkable high-end performance and 18MP picture quality, along with a new video processor that produces incredible quality 1280 x 720 HD video clips with sound.

FeraDyne Outdoors LLC, has announced the appointment of three inside regional sales managers — Andy Cardwell, Jonathan Coggin and Mark Jenkins -- for the Southeastern US.

Styrka announces it has added O'Dell Engineering, Ltd., of Puslinch, Ontario, as its Canadian distributor. O'Dell Engineering and its staff represent many shooting sports brands across Canada and its 13 provinces.

Myndshft Technologies announced that Ozonics, a leader in scent-elimination hunting products, has selected Myndshft Direct as its third-party logistics (3PL) company.

Outfitted in Realtree Xtra, The Igloo Realtree Playmate Gripper soft-sided cooler features two separate main compartments to keep the cooler's contents secure and organized.

Sitka Gear has joined a hunter ethics initiative being launched by the Boone and Crockett Club to highlight the core values of fair chase and to strengthen the image of the North American hunter.

After an exhaustive search from a qualified pool of applicants, the search committee recommended Corey Mason for the position of Executive Director of DSC.

The Pope and Young Club announces the continued support of Wilderness Athlete through its Corporate Partner Program.

Team Mathews had a dominant performance this weekend at the IBO World Championship in Seven Springs, Pa. – including first place finishes in Pro Male and Pro Female.

Dan McCarthy, Sharon Carpenter and Tony Tazza, representing T.R.U.BALL/AXEL at the 2017 IBO World Championship in Seven Springs, Pa., each took top honors in their individual divisions this week.

CAMX Crossbow's Scott Tozier placed first in the IBO World Championship in Seven Springs, Pa., where 1,200 shooters were challenged by a difficult and rainy course on a ski resort.

Elite Archery was well represented at IBO Worlds in Seven Spring, Pa. and the World Cup in Berlin, Germany this past weekend, as Cara Kelly took second place at IBO while Kris Schaff won the gold medal in the World Cup Team Division.

Scott Archery and Custom Bow Equipment had an eventful weekend, with podiums in both the IBO World Championship in Seven Springs, Pa. and Berlin, Germany for Stage 4 of the World Cup.

Texas wildlife biologist, Gene Rees has been randomly chosen as the winner of the Redneck Blinds "Choot 'em Sweepstakes," and he and a guest will spend a day gator hunting with Swamp People's Troy and Jacob Landry.

From August 1, 2017, through September 30, 2017 purchase any Styrka S7 Series riflescope, S7 Series spotting scope or S9 series binocular and receive a $100 rebate on each unit you buy.

Like all Tru-Fire releases, the new Bulldog is made in the USA, and features several patented Tru-Fire innovations and a wide range of adjustments. It is also fits both left- and right-handed archers.

At its June meeting, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission signed an order requiring anyone who receives compensation for processing wild game to be registered with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources has opened more land for public use in Gallatin, Nicholas, Owen, Pulaski and Wayne counties.

Viewers will revel in day-to-day Robertson shenanigans on Outdoor Channel, learn about all new firearms, ammo, optics and accessories on Sportsman Channel and continue to reel in big ones with the pros on World Fishing Network during the week of August 14–20.

This week on Archers Choice, Join Vicki & Kristy Barnes from Realtree as the girls get the first chance at the Cianciarulo's Iowa farm and there is no shortage of rutting activity.

The Summit Heated Seat is designed to fit on most current model Summit stands, as well as being compatible with the seats of most other stand manufacturers, making it one of the best accessory options for any of your treestands.

Missouri Landowners Join MDC to Eliminate Feral Hogs

These feral hogs were trapped one night after a trap was set up on Ken Hobbs' property.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- When Ken Hobbs bought his 362 acres in Reynolds County, it was pristine and he planned to farm cattle and goats on the land. Then feral hogs moved in. Feral hogs are an aggressive invasive species. Their violent nature, rooting habits, and known diseases pose a threat to wildlife, farm crops, and the balance of nature.

"I had planned until this problem got so big to have cattle and goats in here," Hobbs said. "I'd be afraid to put cattle out there because there's no way I'm going to have a herd of cattle out there without broken legs, it's not going to happen."

The feral hogs didn't only dash Hobb's hopes of farming his land, they've also significantly decreased the numbers of wildlife that once thrived on the property.
"My turkey population went from one that I could actually go out and see every day, 15 to 20 of them in a flock, and in three to four different places on my property. Now those no longer exist," he said.

Hobbs first began to try to control the feral hogs by shooting them and enlisting the help of his friends to trap small numbers of them at a time.

"We've been trying to control the hogs for several years with our own small traps and hunting," Hobbs said. "But over the past two or three years, the problem has become so severe that there's no way to control them personally by hunting."

Now, on any given night, more than 30 feral hogs will congregate in Hobbs' front yard, leaving scat every foot or so and rooting up his once flat, lush yard into continuous divots. His fields are in even worse shape.

"These spots get rooted eight-to-10 inches, quite often though it's 12, 16, sometimes 18-inches deep," he said.

Those damaged fields, the dashed hopes of farming, and the general destruction Hobbs has endured on his property are why he and other landowners reached out the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) to help. MDC, United States Department of Agriculture and other partner agencies are working with private landowners to teach them how to trap whole sounders of feral hogs at a time, which is more effective than shooting the feral hogs.

Dean Bridger is an Iron County landowner about 20 miles away from Hobbs. Bridger also understands that it's just not possible to control feral hogs by hunting.

"I get a lot of people up and down the highway that say they want to shoot hogs and I say I've got 30 of them. I don't want one shot, I want them all shot because shooting one doesn't help me at all," Bridger said. "They say they'll come out every night but you can't do that. The hogs are fast. Once they get scared, they're gone to the four winds so you might be able to shoot one at a time."

But trapping isn't the only strategy that must be used against feral hogs.

So far in 2017, MDC and partners have removed 4,128 feral hogs from Missouri, nearly double the number for the same period in 2016.

"We have to look at this from a bigger picture, it can't just be one landowner doing this it has to be everybody," Bridger said. "We have to pull together, get them [hogs] all together and get them trapped."

Mark McClain, a wildlife management biologist with MDC, is working hard to trap hogs and to pull people together on the effort. McLain leads feral hog elimination efforts in southeast Missouri. He spends a lot of his time with landowners like Hobbs and Bridger, outlining plans to trap the feral hogs on their property. This cooperation between landowners and conservation groups is the key to success in feral hog elimination.

"With the new innovations in traps and with more landowners on board, all of us getting together and working at it, we can saturate that landscape with effort and come up with better traps, better baits and better ways of doing things," McLain said.

So far in 2017, MDC and partners have removed 4,128 feral hogs from Missouri, which is a great increase from previous years. This is nearly double the progress that was made at the same time in 2016. Increased efforts and better technology continue to show success each year and McLain says MDC and its partners will continue improving until their goal is met.

"As an agency with our partners, our goal is complete elimination of feral hogs from Missouri," McLain said.

For more information about feral hogs and how to help with elimination efforts, go to www.mdc.mo.gov/feralhogs. Learn more about feral hog damage by listening to a podcast at http://on.mo.gov/2veW83k.

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