I have spent the last three autumns testing elevated hunting platforms on public land in the Midwest and on a private lease in the Southeast, and the difference between a good tower and a great one shows up fast. The great ones stay quiet when the wind picks up, they keep your scent above the […]

I have spent the last six Septembers hunting elk across Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico, and the one piece of gear that decides whether a hunt ends with a tag punched or a long drive home is the call hanging around my neck. A bad call ends the conversation the moment a bull hears it, […]

I have spent the last six months field-testing ten of the best emergency fire starting kits in conditions that mimic the worst a real emergency throws at you: a wet Pacific Northwest forest in October, a freezing Virginia winter morning at 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and a windy ridge in the New Mexico high desert. I […]

When I broke down on a rural highway at 2 a.m. last winter, the difference between a close call and a disaster came down to one thing: a small LED disc flashing amber behind my car. That night made me a convert to carrying real roadside safety gear, and since then our team has spent […]

When I started testing heart rate monitors for outdoor sports, I assumed a chest strap would always beat a wrist sensor. After eight weeks of running, cycling, and kayaking with eight different models, I learned that the truth depends on how you train, what you wear, and how often you forget to charge things. This […]

Spending time in snake country means you need a plan before something goes wrong. Whether you are hiking desert trails, paddling through swampy waterways, or setting up camp in rattlesnake territory, having the right snake bite kit in your pack can make a critical difference in those terrifying minutes after a bite. Our team has […]

When I set out to find the best survival knives in , I expected a clear winner. Three months and 40+ hours of cutting cordage, batoning hardwood, and striking ferro rods later, I had a different answer: the right survival knife depends entirely on what you need it to do. I've carried a fixed blade […]

Last summer, I lost three hours of fishing time to a bush hog of milfoil wrapped around my stock prop. That single afternoon cost me more than the price of any replacement on this list. After pulling the tangled mess off with a serrated knife, I spent the next eight weeks testing eight of the […]

After three months on the water, dragging lures through everything from Lake Michigan chop to calm northern pike lakes, our team landed on the 8 best trolling rods worth your money in . I personally logged over 60 hours with these rods behind a 19-foot aluminum boat and a Hobie kayak, and I want to […]

I spent the last three summers fishing everything from quiet mountain lakes to the choppy inshore waters off San Diego, and I burned the back of my neck more times than I want to admit. A good straw fishing hat fixes that problem, but the wrong one turns into a sail the moment the wind […]