Troy Basso Outdoors
"Capturing the outdoor lifestyle"
Cabela’s Instinct, Prairie Runner, jacket review.
Its tough to find gear, especially clothing, that is both high quality and functional. Cabela’s seems to have found that balance in the Prairie Runner jacket. Although probably not designed for the Southeast its a perfect fit. The coat is heavy enough for those rare 20 degree mornings yet light enough to wear up to roughly 50 degrees. Its tough to find an upland jacket that’s not just to darn hot for southeastern hunting conditions. The pit zips come in very handy when the temps push 50 during the midday.
The jacket features a front loading and backloading game bag than is more than generous in size. The game bag also has an internal suspender system to better distribute weight, that’s a huge plus when hunting pheasants and you are trying to carry 5-6 birds any distance at all.
This coat also has plenty of pockets. It has 4 zippered pockets and two bellows pockets. The bellows pockets will comfortably hold well over a box of 20/28 gauge shells apiece. It also has a pocket that is designed to hold your tracking/training remote. Most jackets have pockets but this one seems to have the right pockets!
I can say this jacket is in fact very water proof and breathable.
Most upland coats fail the range of motion test but not this one. The sleeves are designed to facilitate not just motion but the motion of mounting a shotgun and swinging through a bird. The polyester ” stretch” in the sleeve area helps that range of motion a lot.
Other features are the D rings positioned about the bellows pockets and the compartment for a water bladder.
Over all this coat gets 5 stars in the upland coat department.
Low Country Fly Fishing
Fly fishing the Low Country of south Carolina with Scotty Davis of Flymen Fishing Company.
Three post hunting season Preps to make 2021 even better.
I, like many others, am mourning the passing of the 2020 deer season. Now its time to pull stands, cameras, and blinds. In other words the not so fun part of season, but still a part of the experience nonetheless. However there are things we can all do to insure a successful season in 2021.
Mark new stand locations now– After all the hours in your current stands you have seen either new stand locations or a better place for your current setup. Those late fall/Winter trails won’t be easy to remember in 8 months. Once green up starts those late season trails will disappear. By now you know how the travel patterns change from early season to when the acorns fall and late season. More often than not the stand locations from October are not in optimal places for a December hunt.
Study your local food sources– Deer don’t move along a certain corridor by accident so when the season is over take a walk and figure out what made the deer move along those secondary travel corridors. Was a an adjacent crop field? Was it a lone source of water? Knowledge is power and since you’re no longer “hunting” deer now you can study those deer. Once I had an abrupt change in travel corridors that made no sense. After season closed I found that the neighbor has a large dove field every December. Thar winter wheat was enough to change the deer’s travel patterns during the late season weeks..
Tree stand maintenance- Once season is over and you have pulled tree stands its time to actually look at those stands. I am a ladder stand kind of guy so I am forever looking at welds, bolts, nuts and noting anything that makes noise when I move. After the season replace anything with broken or cracked welds
The Outdoor Edge 3.5 Razorlite edc
Over the years I have developed a fetish of sorts for knives. I have boxes full and none really became a true Everyday carry knife for an outdoorsman. I am an outdoorsman so i never fell victim to the “tactical” knife trap. I want a functional knife that I can open a package, dress out a brace of upland birds, or dress a deer. Several years ago a purchased a havalon brand knife but the blades were a pain to change, especially with wet hands. Then in 2019 I came across the Outdoor Edge 3.5 inch Razorlite EDC. The knife only weighs 2.8 ounces and the blades are simple to replace. Outdoor Edge designed a release button for the replacement blades rather than make the operator fight with the blade and risk injury.
The replacement blades are stiffer than the other brands and lock in tight leaving zero movement in the blade assembly. The replacement blades are made of 6mm thick 420 J2 stainless and they are literally razor sharp. I carried this knife for over a year and the blades stay very sharp for a long time. We dressed and deboned 4 whitetail on a single blade. It comes in a couple colors but I prefer the black/blaze orange for field work.
If I was rating this knife on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best it would be a very solid 5.
The Double Barrel Popper Review
I have always been a lover of “dry flies” or poppers. As a predominantly warm water fly fisherman poppers have always had a large presence in my box. That being said, I have been tying my own flies for decades so, I tend to stay on top of new head styles and materials that hit the market. A few seasons ago I stumbled across the Double Barrel popper head from Flymen Fishing Company and have loved them ever since. The design allows for great noise in the water and that makes them perfect for feeding fish. When on feeding fish my poppers used to get lost in all the action, that is a problem I no longer have. They are also very light so casting them is a piece of cake, I almost exclusively use a 6wt Redington predator for bass fishing and it handles these with no issues,
The heads appear to be two cylinders welded together with uniform cupped face. That design moves a lot of water and can make some noise! The recessed sockets for they eyes keeps them from getting knocked off on the bite, I use Loon Outdoors UV resin over the top of them. The orange heads are my go to for smallmouth and the green for largemouth. The blue color has had some success on redfish in the gulf as well.
If your not a tyer you can still get the Double Barrel Popper from Flymen Fishing company as a complete fly. Give them a try and you will not be disappointed!
After two season of using these I can give them the highest marks!
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