You’re wearing the right gear for the weather so you’re perfectly comfortable in your tree stand.

You’ve even memorized deer anatomy and know just where to aim to hit their heart, lungs, spine, or even brain stem.

And now a deer just barely stepped out from behind a tree and is looking straight at you, with your sights aimed between its eyes.

Should you take the shot?

Don’t fire at a deer that gives you a momentary sight picture. Also, don’t shoot at the deer that presents its nervous system but not the kill zone. Wait for a clean shot where you have a clear view of their heart and lungs. Be sure there are no obstructions like branches or rocks.

Too much can go wrong if you’re not taking a clean shot.

But what exactly do I mean by “clean shot”?

What is a Clean Shot in Hunting?

A clean shot is taken against a deer standing in the way that allows your projectile to pass through and damage the animal’s heart and lungs with little risk of missing.

This means a deer standing broadside to you or quartering away.

Your view of the deer should be clear, without wind-blown branches bouncing in the way. And the deer should be calm, stationary, and unconcerned about your presence.

This maximizes your chances of delivering a blow to those vital organs that kill the animal without causing too much pain and suffering.

A clean shot will devastate the heart and potentially both lungs, causing the animal to bleed out in moments.

Why aren’t Brain and Spine Shots Considered Clean Shots?

Some hunters consider a shot successful if the deer falls immediately, calling it “dead right there” or “DRT.” A prey animal that falls immediately saves you from having to track it down.

And it’s surely more humane, right? Only if you hit precisely where you need to hit. If you miss, even slightly, a brain stem shot won’t kill the deer.

Animal brains are small targets. You may find it easy to hit a small target when shooting off the bench at a level range. That bear, though, won’t be level with you, won’t be at exactly 100 yards, and is moving around.

Too many deer are walking around with their jaw half-blown off because an overconfident hunter wasn’t able to make such a difficult shot.

The nervous system is an effective target, but it’s just too hard to hit when real-world variables are in play. And even neck or spine shots may merely paralyze the animal instead of killing it. You want to put down the animal, not maim it and leave it suffering until the next hunting season!

How Often Do Hunters Miss?

Hunters love sharing stories about how they put down two deer in two shots last hunting season. But nobody brags about all the times they blew apart a branch just above the deer they were shooting at.

It’s hard to find hard data on how frequently hunters miss, though I have seen claims that only 20% of shots taken on the opening day of hunting season hit.

Now, being properly educated and practiced, I’m sure you’re within that 20%.

But keeping in mind that it’s a lot harder to hit an unpredictably moving target, it makes sense for so few deer to be taken in those first hours.

This is an exciting time.

A deer is in your sights! Finally!

Your blood pounds in your ears and adrenaline flows through your body.

It’s all too easy for an ordinarily good marksman to make a wild shot under these circumstances. And even a hit against a deer may be a technical miss.

If you aim for a heart shot and take out the liver, well, the deer will still die. Tomorrow. That’s not a clean kill. It’s more suffering for the animal and more work for you if you can even track down an animal that finally fell twelve hours after the shot.

This is why clean shots are essential. If you miss, even with a clean shot, you may hit close enough to the vitals to harvest the animal. Especially if you’re using the correct cartridge for the animal you’re hunting.

What is the Key to Making a Clean Kill in Hunting?

I’ve seen many reasons why hunters fail to make clean kills: the animal is standing at the wrong angle, or you’re using a too-highly-magnified optic—a bad zero.

But they all boil down to one factor: Impatience.

Too many hunters are impatient to get their animals and don’t pay enough attention to all the steps necessary to make their hunt successful.

The proper patience required for a clean shot starts at home, educating yourself about deer anatomy.

Then it requires patience at the gun range, practicing marksmanship, and learning your projectile’s ballistic path. You need to be familiar with them at all ranges you’re likely to see and for whatever animal you’re hunting.

Most of all, it requires patience in the field.

I know it’s hard to wait for a coyote to show up. But you need more than just an animal to make an effective, ethical shot. You need to wait for your prey to stand at the right angle and in the right place for a clear shot through its vitals.

There are over 30 million deer in the United States. The first deer you see will be followed by a second. Then a third. Then five more. Don’t take a shot against the first deer you see. Wait for a clean shot.

Which Shot Angles should be Avoided?

Though I will give a list of angles and whether they are good or not, you can figure out proper angles by understanding what makes a shot angle good or bad.

Earlier I mentioned the two best angles being broadside and quarter-away shots. This is because these give your projectile the best path through the animal’s vital organs with the minimum amount of bone and flesh in the way.

The more non-organ tissue your projectile has to penetrate before hitting vital organs, the less your chances of damaging those organs. This is why a quartering-to or head-on angle is often a poor choice for a shot.

When an animal is quartering toward you, one of its limbs is likely to block the path to its vitals. Smashing a bear’s shoulder may knock it to the ground, but now you have an angry, crippled animal. That’s not a clean kill!

Also, it’s easy to misjudge angles when taking a shot at an animal quartering toward you. The entrance wound may be in a good place, but the exit wound is likely farther back than you anticipated, meaning you hit flesh and missed vital organs.

Straight-on shots are tempting, but there’s a lot of rib cage between you and the animal’s heart. Those bones can deflect projectiles at worst and slow them down at best.

These angles can still be effective with a powerful-enough cartridge, but that doesn’t make them shots clean. And that’s not just because you’re lowering your chances of killing the animal. You’re also damaging a lot of delicious meat!

Worse still is when the animal is pointed directly away from you.

It’s tough to hit a deer’s heart when your gun is pointed at its tail. You’re more likely to shoot low and miss entirely or, worse still, to make what’s called a Texas heart shot by putting your bullet into the deer’s anus. Such a gut shot is painful and leads to a long, slow, excruciating death.

Common Deer Hunting Angles

• Broadside: Clean Shot
• Quartering Away: Clean Shot
• Quartering Toward: Marginal Shot
• Head On: Marginal Shot
• Tail On: Bad Shot

Note that these angles apply to most animals, not just deer. However, other animals may not present such a clean shot when they’re standing broadside.

For example, deer shoulder bones are shaped like a vertical boomerang, with the tip facing toward their front. This means that, though it may look like their shoulder covers up their heart, there’s actually little blocking the way to that vital organ.

Hog leg bones are more likely to cover their heart, though. You have to pay more attention to their stride to ensure you have a clean shot to the heart.

How Do You Ensure a Clean Kill?

Here are the four main factors that go into a clean kill:

1. Skill
2. Opportunity
3. Mindest
4. Gear

Let’s look at these four factors in what I believe to be their order of importance.

Skill

I put skill first because your ability to make a good shot is the most important part of making a quick, clean kill.

You have to know the anatomy of your prey and have the marksmanship to put your bullet or arrow precisely where you want it to go.

Opportunity

Opportunity is second because you can’t make a clean kill without a clean shot, and half of a clean shot is how the animal is positioned.

Is it standing still (or at least moving slowly)? At a good angle? With a clear view between you and the animal?

You can help improve these favorable circumstances by scouting out paths and properly positioning your hunting stand. But when it comes down to it, only the animal itself will give you the optimal shooting opportunity.

Mindset

Making a clean kill involves being prepared to take a clean shot. You need to keep your thoughts on the hunt. Pay attention so you’re not caught in an awkward position when the animal appears.

Then, once the animal is under your sights, your mindset will either leave you with a full freezer or a frustrating night of tracking blood from a gut shot.

It’s important to try to remain as calm as possible. This lets you focus on your marksmanship, which lets you take advantage of the clean shot opportunity to make a clean kill.

Slow your breathing. Double-check your surroundings to make sure there’s an appropriate backstop.

Gear

Gear is the last factor but it can make or break your hunt. Still, it’s the most supportive of the factors.

If you have the right skill, opportunity, and mindset, you can take down a deer with nothing more than a spear and a loincloth.

Everything else should just make your job easier.

I say “should” because some gear, such as a crappy scope or cheap cotton socks, can worsen your hunting experience.

Use a weapon with an appropriate cartridge or arrow type for your target. Be comfortable with that weapon at the ranges you expect to hunt.

Know how to use equipment such as rangefinders and test them on a hike before hunting season starts so you’re confident.

Your weapon is a vital article but it doesn’t discount the importance of your clothing!

If you’re not comfortable or well-camouflaged, you’ll have a harder time staying focused on hunting. This will make it all the more difficult to put down your game cleanly.

Conclusion

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of hunting. Finally, after so much preparation, you’re ready and able to shoot that deer!

Hold on a moment.

Have you maximized your chances of making a lethal shot on your deer? A clean shot is one against an animal’s largest vital organs, with little flesh and few bones in the way, while they’re not moving and aren’t behind cover.

An unclean shot is one taken at a bad angle, with foliage in the way, or one taken at the animal’s harder-to-hit areas, such as its brain.

Resist the temptation to shoot at your game merely because you can. Wait for the right time, and you’ll put the animal down cleanly.

It’ll be less stressful for both you and the animal.

The post How to Make a Clean Shot While Hunting appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

One of the most common questions I get from first-time hunters looking to venture out into the outdoors is: what do I need in my backpack?

From first aid and survival gear to extra rounds, snacks, and clothing, hunting packs provide hunters the ability to bring with them contingencies for emergencies and creature comforts out into the field. While there is a lot of gear touted as “essential,” hunters often overpack their bags and carry extra weight into the woods, much of which they will never use.

In this article, we cover the different setups hunters may use for packs and the necessities of what they should fill them with.

Types of Hunting Packs

In my experience, there are three main kinds of packs that hunters universally use:

• Backpack
• Daypack
• Trek pack

A backpack is usually used when a hunter is heading out for no more than a couple of hours into a tree stand or the field. There is usually a vehicle or structure nearby they are staging from.

A daypack is often utilized when hunters will be out in the field for the duration of the day or even staying overnight. This larger pack provides enough room for the essentials a hunter may need for 24 hours out in the field.

A trek pack or ruck is most often used for over 48 hours in the field, though I have seen hunters survive for over two weeks on everything they brought in this pack.

To dig deeper into each pack, let’s look at when and why you might use each configuration, and what you’ll want to pack in each depending on the situation.

What to Pack in a Hunting Backpack

You are headed to your tree stand. You plan to be there for no more than 3 to 4 hours before heading back to camp or the truck. This setup should be lightweight, comfortable, and easy to take on and off.

Regardless of how long or short you anticipate your hunt will be, the essentials to carry in any hunting pack are:

• Extra camo/layers
• Water
• First aid gear
• Rope

Snacks are optional, but bringing food to your deer stand is not recommended as it can scent up the location and alert deer to your presence.

Hunters will often carry doe estrus and small bags of grain or corn in their bags to bait the trail in or the field they plan on hunting. That, however, depends a lot on where your hunting and whether it’s legal in your area.

Check out our best hunting backpacks guide.

What to Pack for a Full Day Hunt

So you’re headed out to the field and won’t come back till nightfall, maybe you are even camping under the stars. A day pack is designed to carry everything you need to last 24 hours on a lightweight frame.

This pack has two requirements:

• It should be comfortable enough that you can shoulder it all day without chafing or back pain.
• It must fit all the necessities you need in the field while still having room to pack out your trophy kill.

With these packs, I often see hunters carrying:

• food and water
• extra camouflage/layers
• extra ammunition
• survival gear (emergency use), see below
• first aid gear
• spotting scope/rangefinder/binoculars
• flashlight
• skinning knife
• toilet paper
• camping gear
• rope
• firestarter

Additional items I often see carried include a change of socks, digging or cutting tools, and riggers or duct tape for if a piece of equipment fails.

Check out our Pnuma Chisos Backpack Review.

What to Pack for Long or Overnight Hunts

Whether you are spending two days in the backcountry, or two weeks in the wilds of Alaska, a trek pack can carry everything you need and more.

The largest of the three types, this pack has the exact requirements of a day pack, with added durability.

This pack must be able to withstand the elements and hold up under long stretches of rugged terrain under a heavy load. It will most likely get wet from sweat or weather, be picked up and put down multiple times, and be loaded and unloaded in various configurations depending on where you are on your trip.

Items I most often see carried in a trek pack include:

• one or more changes of clothes
• second set of footwear
• extra ammunition
• camping gear
• food
• water
• water purification device
• flashlight
• digging or cutting tool
• moderate/advanced first aid gear
• survival gear
• scentless soap
• scentless deodorant
• toilet paper/wipes
• communication device
• firestarter
• camp stove or cooking device
• rope
• tape
• chafing/ blister remedy
• skinning knife

When venturing out into the wilderness for a long-duration hunt, it’s essential to plan for every contingency in the event of an emergency. Make sure to alert a friend or family member as to your route, destination, and timeline before embarking on what is sure to be an epic hunt.

Before getting into the specifics of the gear, let’s talk about a few other factors that will play a role in what you pack for your hunting trip.

Check out our in-depth KUIU PRO Bag Review.

Seasons

It’s essential to know the weather conditions before you head out on your hunt. While you might think you only need a day pack, winter conditions may dictate that you must pack heavier articles of clothing that may take up more space.

In this case, a trek pack may be better for your 24 hours in the wilderness as it allows you to carry a heavier sleeping bag, tent, and layers.

Alternatively, early fall hunters may swap a daypack for a backpack if the weather is warm and they will not need extra layers.

Game

Depending on the game you are hunting, you may need to pack extra ammunition. Cartridges might get wet, or you may want more rounds than you brought.

Duck hunters, for instance, may wish to bring an extra box of shells if there are a lot of birds in the air.

Deer hunters, on the other hand, may only need the arrows in their quiver or the rounds in their magazine. However, on longer treks, hunters may wish for more ammo and should plan accordingly.

When hunting whitetail, I’ve personally never needed more than five rounds to have a good day, but to each their own.

Weapon

Mostly, I have seen hunters carry a single weapon system, bow, rifle, or shotgun out with them for short-duration hunts.

Although carrying a sidearm is usually unnecessary during these trips, longer duration hunts in the backcountry, where big game is often hunted by even bigger predators, a side arm may come in handy.

However, I strongly suggest that it is carried in an easy-to-access place and not stowed in the bottom of the pack.

Hunting Gear Essentials

If you look closely, there are a few constants throughout each pack. The following are the basic essentials you should pack for any hunt.

Emergency First Aid Gear

When we talk about first aid gear, I’m not referring to Band-Aids and Neosporin. Hunting injuries are usually ugly and frequently severe, requiring immediate attention to ensure the wounded individual reaches a higher level of care.

While Band-Aids and ointments are important to cover up small cuts and treat minor wounds, big game hunters will want something more suited to the injuries they may experience in the field.

This includes:

• A tourniquet
• Gauze
• Pressure dressing

For more advanced care or extended hunts:

• Chest seal
• Nasopharyngeal Airway
• Oral Antibiotics
• Splint
• Moleskin
• Wound cleaner

It’s important to recognize that no matter how minor the injury, being in the outdoors, away from any advanced level of medical care, can exacerbate the injuries. Due to inclement conditions and lack of cleanliness, infection is common in most cuts and puncture wounds outdoors.

Keeping this near the top of your backpack, so it is readily available in an emergency is the best way to prioritize your medical gear. It should be noted that no matter how extensive your medical training, it will not replace a hospital or emergency room in the event of a severe traumatic event.

Survival Gear

Murphy’s law ensures that no matter how well-planned your hunting trip is, something will invariably go wrong. Even the most durable outdoor electronics have batteries die, weather changes, and injuries happen. Enter: survival gear.

There is a lot of mystique surrounding the term survival gear and its meaning. In plain English, it is the minimum amount of necessary equipment needed for you to survive in adverse conditions for 24 hours. It is not a long-term solution but rather a failsafe to ensure your survival until help arrives.

The concept of survival gear is to get yourself out of the situation and/or survive in it until help arrives.

Some of this is situationally dependent, as features such as snow, wind, altitude, and visibility play a major role in survival.

Individuals can survive for over two days without water, but in sub-freezing temperatures and inadequate clothing, you won’t last the night.

Standard survival gear includes:

• Flare
• Thermal blanket
• Map/Compass
• Colorful article of clothing
• Emergency meal
• Fire starting device

While this is a minimal list, it’s important to remember that the gear you bring will continue to serve its purposes, such as a tent providing shelter or a flashlight providing light.

Tent

If you plan on spending more than 24 hours outdoors, it’s recommended you pack a tent. While many weight-conscious outdoorsmen like hammocks, these offer minimal shelter for both you and your gear in adverse weather.

Instead, spend more time researching the right tent for you. Many lightweight options are designed for maximum insulation and weather protection without adding unnecessary pounds to a hunter’s pack.

When selecting a tent for hunting you intend to carry in your pack, consider three things:

• Weight: Is the insulation and protection of this tent worth the weight it adds to my pack?
• Size: Weight isn’t the only factor in your pack. How much space does this tent take up inside your pack that could be used for other essential gear?
• Weather: Will this tent stand up to any adverse weather you experience in the field?

Finding the perfect blend of these three criteria means you have found the ideal tent for your pack.

Flashlight

Whether skinning a trophy kill at the last light or making your way to the stand during pre-dawn twilight, you will never regret having a flashlight or a headlamp. This small illuminator will save you plenty of trouble both around the campsite and on the trail when there isn’t much light.

When selecting a flashlight or headlamp for my backpack or for hunting in general, I ask three questions:

• How much does it weigh?
• How long does it last?
• Is it durable? (Waterproof, shockproof, won’t rust or shatter.)

Food

The field is not the place for a feast. The food brought should be:

• Nutritionally dense
• Lightweight
• Compact packaging

MREs are great examples of this. These dehydrated food packets may not taste the best, but just add water and they provide enough calories for an entire day in an ergonomic package.

Note: MREs are great, but there are plenty of healthier, better-tasting alternatives available online and at large outdoor retailers.

Digging/Cutting Tools

Whether you’re digging out a fire pit, trimming up trees or branches for a line of fire, or cutting up firewood, a digging/cutting tool is an excellent piece of equipment for longer-duration hunts.

Foldable spades with a serrated edge are a great choice. They are easily packed and are great for digging and for cutting small sticks and branches.

Skeletonized axes and hatchets are lightweight and great for firewood and some can be used as a substitute for digging tools.

Rope/String

From hanging and skinning a fresh kill to securing a stand to a tree, rope or string is one of the most critical pieces of equipment a hunter can bring in their pack. Probably the most versatile piece of gear, a rope can be used for repairs, creating structure, skinning, packaging, and even aid in creating blinds.

Conclusion

Hunters will pack various things into their packs because someone told them to or they’ve always done it that way. In reality, what you put in your pack depends on what kind of pack you are using, where you’re going, when you’re going, and for how long.

With no one-size-fits-all, it’s essential to plan for contingencies and have backups and emergency gear. However, ounces equal pounds, and in the field, the lighter your pack, the faster you move.

In summary, do a deep dive into your pack’s contents this season. You might be surprised just how little you need.

FAQ

Q: If I could only bring three things in my pack, what should I bring?

A: This depends on how long and where you are going, but in general: water, medical gear, and a firestarter.

Q: What company makes the best packs?

A: There are plenty of companies, such as Kuiu, Sitka, Eberlestock, Badlands, Alps Outdoors, and Mystery Ranch. I focus less on the brand name and more on what it provides me in the field.

Q: How do I know which pack is right for me?

A: Time and Weather. The colder it is, and the longer you are out there, the larger the bag you need.

The post Hunting Pack Essentials: Gear to Carry Based on Pack Type appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

Back in the 1960s, we started to make an effort against the toxic effects of lead by removing it from gasoline. However, lead is also the most common projectile metal, especially in shotshells. And it turns out that lead from shot leeches into the groundwater and poisons the ducks, geese, and other animals we love to hunt.

So, in 1991, lead pellets were banned in waterfowl hunting and non-toxic shot became mandatory. Since then, duck populations have become healthier.

However, the most common non-toxic ammo uses steel pellets, which have the reputation of damaging old shotguns and aren’t as effective as lead.

So, what’s the best non-toxic ammo choice for your classic 1970s or older shotgun?

Steel shot isn’t recommended for vintage shotguns because they were manufactured with soft steel barrels that hard steel pellets can damage. Bismuth alloy is the safest non-toxic ammo for your old shotgun. Tungsten can be a good choice, but only when mixed with polymer.

Continue reading to learn more.

What is Non-Toxic Ammo?

Whether you’re hunting ducks, pheasants, or clay pigeons, the shotgun you’re using fires shot, tiny metal balls, also called pellets.

These pellets need to be dense to deliver enough kinetic energy to take down game animals. So for over a hundred years, the metal of choice has been lead.

However, lead is toxic. When lead particles are ingested, they are stored in the body and negatively affect every organ.

Blanketing marshlands and other waterways with lead shots is an excellent way to expose ducks to high levels of lead, which poisons them. This then poisons you when you eat the waterfowl you hunt.

Not every metal has this toxic property, though.

Non-toxic ammunition is made from metals (and sometimes polymers) that aren’t harmful to the body and won’t contaminate the environment.

Most non-toxic ammo is made from steel, an iron alloy. However, steel isn’t the only choice.

Steel Shot and Older Shotguns

In the 1970s, when the dangers of lead ammo became well known, ammunition manufacturers started producing steel ammo.

However, these steel pellets aren’t good for classic shotguns, so the manufacturers adapted and started producing steel-capable guns.

What’s the problem with steel shot? A shotgun’s barrel is made of steel, right?

The problem is that steel shot is harder than many historic shotgun barrels, especially the Damascus barrels found on some 19th-century guns.

Those barrels didn’t have to be made from hard steel. They were designed for use with soft lead. Hardening the barrel would have added to the gun’s cost.

The idea behind avoiding steel ammo is that hard steel shots can ding or gouge the interior of your softer steel barrel. This problem is mitigated because commercial steel ammo uses plastic wads that provide a cushion between the shot and barrel.

Because of this, some people fire light steel loads through their old non-Damascus barrel shotguns with no trouble. However, magnum loads can exacerbate this problem. And even if the steel pellets don’t harm your shotgun’s bore, they can damage the choke.

Steel pellets don’t compress nearly as well as lead, so they cause much higher pressures when the load is constricted as it passes through your shotgun’s choke.

This can lead to a ring bulge at the base of your choke.

I wouldn’t risk shooting steel hunting loads through a pre-’91 gun. Those were likely made with lead in mind and aren’t designed to stand up to high-velocity hard steel pellets.

Steel shot started to become popular in the 70s, so some (but not all) shotguns made between then and 1991 were manufactured with steel loads in mind. Plus, not every manufacturer noted on the barrel whether or not their guns were steel-shot rated!

So, the recommendation is to avoid using steel shot in pre-1991 guns.

Thankfully, there are other types of non-toxic ammo you can use.

Types of Non-Toxic Shotgun Ammo

At the time of writing, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service has approved 14 types of non-toxic shot for waterfowl, coot, and crane hunting.

Most of the 14 types are alloys of several major metals: iron, tungsten, and bismuth.

These three metals have sufficient density for the ammo to be lethal. They’re alloyed with various other metals to improve characteristics or reduce expense because pure tungsten and bismuth are rare and expensive.

Here’s the full list, along with their densities in grams per cubic centimeters:

Lead is included for comparison. The densities given are approximate due to varying alloy ratios. Plus, some densities are proprietary. (I’m looking at you, Hevi-Shot!)

Since non-toxic shot can be split into three major categories, let’s look at those in detail.

Steel Non-Toxic Shot

Iron-based shot, typically steel, is the most economical, non-toxic shot available.

Unfortunately, it comes with several downsides.

The first is that iron is only about 2/3rds as dense as lead. This means that all other factors being equal, a steel shot hunting load will carry less kinetic energy at the muzzle. Worse still, it’ll bleed velocity faster, further reducing knock-down power.

You can compensate for this by using heavier loads with larger pellets plus more powder. Your shoulder won’t thank you, however!

Also, steel is much harder than lead, so it has a harder time passing cleanly through tighter chokes. Firing steel shot through a full choke can blow out your pattern. But that’s not all.

As mentioned before, steel pellets are harder than many older shotgun barrels.

Avoid steel shot unless you’re using a modern shotgun or know your classic shotgun is rated to handle steel loads.

Tungsten Alloy Non-Toxic Shot

Tungsten is almost a wonder metal when it comes to shotgun hunting. It’s one of the few denser elements than lead, giving it great ballistic potential.

However, it’s an expensive and rare element, so you won’t find any shot that’s 100% tungsten. It’ll always be alloyed with something else.

You’ll find it alloyed with other metals, though some manufacturers mix it with polymers instead.

Still, a tungsten shot is non-toxic and will almost always be as dense as lead or even denser, so you can use the same loads as before.

However, tungsten sometimes has the same problem as steel shot of being harder than lead, rendering it incompatible with old shotguns.

Annoyingly, this isn’t always the case, so you can’t just look at the word “tungsten” and know if it’s safe for your heirloom shotgun.

The tungsten non-toxic shot mixed with polymer, such as Kent’s Tungsten Matrix and Hevi-Shot Classic Doubles, tend to be classic-shotgun-safe.

If you’re not sure, then there’s a safer option.

Bismuth Alloy Non-Toxic Shot

Bismuth isn’t as dense as lead, but it’s denser than iron.

More importantly, it’s softer than either iron or tungsten. In fact, it’s about as soft as lead.

This makes the various bismuth shot offerings perfect when you want to grab your classic shotgun for some waterfowl hunting. It’s what I use.

Bismuth does have the same “downside” as tungsten in that it’s much more expensive than steel.

It’s also not quite as long-ranged and hard-hitting as good ol’ lead, but it’s close enough for most hunters.

What About Copper and Nickel Plated Shot?

A common question is whether plating makes steel shot dangerous for old guns. Or if plating makes lead shot dangerous for the same guns.

Basically, any plating on shot pellets is there for corrosion resistance and friction reduction. It doesn’t affect the shot’s underlying properties.

I recommend avoiding steel shot with older hunting shotguns, even when plated.

How to Choose the Right Non-Toxic Shot for Your Old Shotgun

When looking for the best non-toxic ammo, you want an intersection of range, knock-down power, and economy.

Plus, it has to be safe for your gun!

While light steel loads may be safe for your older gun, they won’t be effective hunting loads.

That said, if you have an older trap shooting gun and your shotgun club allows (or requires!) steel shot, you should be fine so long as you avoid heavy target loads and don’t fire them through any choke more restrictive than a modified choke.

When it comes to hunting, bismuth shot is the safest non-toxic option.

You’ll get almost as much performance with a bismuth-alloy shotshell as you’d get with the same lead-pellet load without polluting waterways.

Specific tungsten loads are a good option, too, when you want to maximize your chances.

Be careful with the tungsten ammo you choose, though. Stick to tungsten pellets made with polymer binders. Otherwise, the tungsten alloy may be too hard for your shotgun’s choke.

I like to load my shells with a bismuth alloy such as RotoMetals Bismuth Shot.

Hevi-Shot’s Hevi Bismuth is a common non-toxic waterfowl hunting choice.

Conclusion

Though it has good physical characteristics as a projectile, lead is a toxic element that poisons animals and people when scattered about the environment.

This is why the federal government mandated non-toxic shots when hunting waterfowl in 1991. It’s also why I’ve swapped to a non-toxic shot for all my shotgun hunting.

However, the most common non-toxic ammo is made with steel, which can damage vintage shotguns.

Thankfully, you can find bismuth-alloy and tungsten-matrix shotshells that are not only safe for your classic shotgun but are also devastatingly effective hunting loads!

FAQs

What is Non-Toxic Shot Made From?

Non-toxic shot is made from metals that won’t poison animals and people if particles from the pellets are eaten.

Steel, bismuth, and tungsten are the most common non-toxic metals used.

Which Non-Toxic Shot is Safe for Older Shotguns?

Bismuth is the safest shot material for older shotguns.

Tungsten can be safe, but you need to avoid pellets made from tungsten that have been alloyed with iron. That ammo will have the same dangers as steel.

The post Non-Toxic Ammo for Old Shotguns: What You Need To Know appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

The question most often asked is: Can you accurately use a scope to range a target?

You CAN use only your scope to accurately range a target. Scopes usually have MOA or MRAD markings which are units of measurement that represent angle. Using a formula, hunters can place accurate shots on target out to 800 yards by plugging in the target size in inches and the target size in MOA or MRAD, depending on your scope.

This article covers how to accurately range your target with your scope and a few factors you should consider when using this method of determining distance.

Why Range Finding is Important

No matter what weapon system you use when hunting, gravity strongly affects the bullet trajectory.

Even the beloved, flat shooting 6.5 Creedmoor drops nearly 55 inches at 500 yards.

For hunters who don’t know how to or can’t determine the distance to target, this can mean missing the game entirely or nonfatally wounding an animal, causing unnecessary pain and suffering.

I’ve seen hunters guess at the distance to target or not factor it in, causing them to shoot both high and low, and miss a big trophy game at distances from 200-600 yards. To avoid this, hunters can purchase a rangefinder, use their scope, or use other methods

Related: How to Range Without a Rangefinder

How to Calculate Distance with Your Scope

Using your scope to determine the distance to target requires some simple math and a good scope. A good scope has hash marks (MOA/MRAD) etched into it, which allow you to range your target accurately.

Using this information and the height of your target, you can quickly come up with a solution that gives you a close approximation of distance and what your holdover should be.

The Formula

There are two formulas used to determine distance through the scope.

The first is the MOA (Minute of Angle) Formula:

Target Size (Inches) X 95.5
______________________  = Distance to Target
Target Size in MOA

The second is the MRAD (Milliradian) Formula:

Target Size(Inches) X 27.77
______________________  = Distance to Target
Target Size in MRAD

Here are two examples of the equation.

How to Range with an MOA Scope

16 inches is a good size from backbone to belly on a Whitetail where I come from. Through your scope, that area is covered by 5 MOA marks because of the reticle.

Your equation should go as follows:

(16×95.5)
________  =  ?
5

If you’ve done your calculations correctly, the distance to the target should be about 305.6 yards.

How to Range with an MIL Scope

For the same animal, let’s use the MRAD formula.

The deer measures 16 inches from belly to backbone and covers 1.5 Mil in your scope reticle.

(16×27.77)
_________  =  ?
1.5

If you did your math, it chalks up to about 296.21 yards.

Personal Experience

I used the MOA formula when shooting a large Whitetail in Mississippi with a Remington .30-06 at about 106 yards.

Alone at 7:00 am on a chilly December morning with the wind so cold I regretted not wearing a second pair of long johns, I heard the unmistakable thundering of hooves over the chattering of my teeth.

Buck fever took over, and as the deer rushed past my ground blind on the side of a dike overlooking the farm pond, I took point-blank aim, squeezed the trigger, and missed…twice.

Cursing myself for letting adrenaline get the best of me, I watched in shock as the deer sprinted to the levee’s end and slowed to a walk after hitting the food plot to my left. Whether he thought it was thunder or was just not as intellectually gifted as another whitetail, I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

He was a big one. 16 inches was my guess, and it covered over 12 MOA. ( I shouldn’t have needed the formula at this distance, but I wanted to confirm my shot.)

I did the quick math ( I was a lot better at mental arithmetic back then), put the reticle behind his right shoulder, slightly higher than the center, and fired.

He dropped like he had been struck by lightning. I ran over, saw that he was still breathing, and put a security round in him to finish the job.

Had I not used the equation, I probably could have made the shot. But using that method definitely helped me put my bullet where it needed to go and gave me the confidence I lacked from my two previous misses.

Accurately Estimating Animal Size

Estimating the size of an animal can be difficult, and it can have major implications on your shot if guessed incorrectly.

Plenty of outdoor publications provide general ballpark size estimates for various species of big game. It’s also recommended that you check your local fish and game website, which often provides an accurate list of sizes compiled by biologists to help you guess.

However, the two most accurate ways to determine an animal’s size are practice and recording the size of the game you’ve killed.

You can practice by guessing at objects in your backyard, in the woods, or on the street and then measuring them to determine how far off you were. With a bit of practice, you can get your approximations pretty close, allowing you to make an educated guess out in the field.

Recording the size of the game you killed can give you an idea of what to expect from other game in the region. If your area is known for trophy Whitetail or Mulies, a fluctuation of an inch up or down depending on how the deer looks is not a bad idea.

You may be asking yourself, does an inch make a major difference when shooting at a distance?

The answer is more surprising than you might think. For instance, let’s say you’re taking a shot at a deer that covers 4 MOA. The deer is 16 inches, but you guess 17.

(17×95.5)
________  =  A little over 400 yards
4 MOA

Not a bad shot.

Let’s look at the difference using the actual size of 16 inches.

(16×95.5)
________  =  386yards
4 MOA

Close distances will cause you to be off between 10-20 yards, but at 2.5 MOA, that’s over a 40-yard difference.

That’s why it’s essential to guess sizes accurately when calculating distance with your scope.

A Good Scope

While sticking to a budget is essential, don’t be cheap. Buy a good scope. Investing in a critical piece of hardware like a riflescope can help you accurately range your targets.

While hunters go back and forth on the pros and cons of MRAD vs. MOA, it’s more important to invest in a scope that works best for you.

If you find you can do the math better with one or like how it looks through the scope better, stick with that one.

When purchasing a scope you may use to range targets, it’s important to factor in three things:

1. Scope clarity
2. Hash mark definition
3. Scope power

There are plenty of quality scopes at an affordable price, but don’t let the price tag be your deciding factor. Vortex, Nightforce, Leupold, and Zeiss all make quality scopes in a wide price range.

Wind

Many people think the wind is something you lick your finger for, feel the breeze, and can tell which way the wind is blowing. Most hunters don’t consider that the wind can be different from your position at the target with longer shots.

This problem can be solved with a high-end laser range finder and/or a ballistic calculator. Or you could just get closer to the animal; your choice.

Get a Rangefinder

Before delving into using your scope to determine the range, hunters must note that this method is an approximation and not exact science.

Using a rangefinder, you can determine the target’s precise distance without doing extra math or guessing at a target size.

Recommended: Best Rangefinders for Hunting

If money is an issue, budget rangefinders start at a little over $100 and are easily stowed in a pack or jacket during a backcountry hunt. These lightweight pieces of gear are worth their weight in gold, so serious hunters should look into purchasing one before heading out into the woods or backcountry in pursuit of big game.

Conclusion

Hunters can accurately range prey using a scope and some simple math. However, it should be noted that this does involve some guessing and the distance is often a close approximation.

If you’re like me and don’t want to pull out the phone or scratch paper, invest in a good rangefinder and save yourself a headache while getting an accurate distance on your next big game trophy.

The post How to Range a Distance with Only Your Riflescope appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

There are many reasons you might want to learn how to judge distance, aka range, without using a rangefinder.

• You don’t want to spend the extra money on a rangefinder.
• Rangefinders are not allowed in your hunting area.
• You want to learn how to eyeball your shots without relying on additional equipment.

One of the first questions I always get when shooting any distance without using a rangefinder is: “Can you accurately determine the distance of a target without a rangefinder?”

Learning how to range your targets without a rangefinder is a viable way of determining distance. There are simple equations that can be done using your rifle scope to determine the distance to your target. There are also several other methods to help you accurately range your target.

In this article, we cover five of our favorite ways to range without using a range finder.

How to Determine Distance Without a Rangefinder

1. Equations

If you’re looking through a rifle scope, two simple formulas help you determine distance without a rangefinder.

This method is effective out to 800 yards, but it requires a relative knowledge of the size of your target.

You will need to know:

• The size of your target
• Your MOA reticle measurement

Or

• Size of your target
• Mils reticle measurement

The Equation

MOA (minute of angle)

Target Size (Inches) X 95.5
______________________ = Distance to Target (Yards)
MOA Reticle Measurement

MRAD (Milradians)

Target Size(Inches) X 27.77
______________________  = Distance to Target (Yards)
Mil Reticle Measurement

If you’re like me, this is too much math. While it’s great on a range or for long-distance shots where doing some quick math on your calculator app won’t spook your quarry, it’s far from ideal when the pressure is on.

Related: How to Range a Distance with Only Your Riflescope

2. Markers

If you are hunting over a food plot, or long field, setting up markers at certain distances can help you range to target.

One of the most popular methods is colored tape, which will stand out against a forest or shrub background.

Placed along the edges of the field, this tape can give you an approximate distance of where your target is standing and allow you to adjust accordingly.

This method is accurate for about 300 yards and is best done in 50-yard increments.

3. Pace it

Before the hunting season, if you can walk your food plot or field, pace it out to know the exact distances, front to back, and side to side.

This will give you a rough approximation of any shot you will take inside the field or food plot. Using this method, you can identify reference points such as a specific tree, a feeder, a stump, or other geographic features to help you range when sitting in your stand or blind.

This is not a recommended technique for stocking, as walking all over your hunting area can spook any potential game that might wander through.

4. Practice Makes Perfect

Go to a range or build one for your bow or rifle so that you can practice determining distances by eye. This can be tricky at first, but with a little bit of practice, you can easily differentiate between 100-300 yards by eye.

Using 3D targets instead of paper, you can quickly learn to gauge distance and train your depth perception to eyeball ranges out to 300 yards.

5. Walk Your Eyes

Learning how to walk your eyes at 10-feet or 10-yard increments can be a great way to eyeball a target within 100 yards.

For bow hunters, this can come in especially handy when moving as little as possible is essential not to spook the deer.

This can be practiced by setting up markers at home or on the range and learning to walk your eyes from marker to marker.

The downside of this method is that elevation plays a factor, and if you’re used to measuring on flat ground, measuring in uneven terrain can throw off your intervals.

6. Other Solutions

Buy a scope with a built-in rangefinder. There are plenty of great scopes with built-in rangefinders in them. If carrying extra gear is your issue with a rangefinder, purchasing one of these will kill two birds with one stone.

The downside of these platforms is that they are not cheap.

For a solid scope/rangefinder combo, expect to pay north of $900 minimum for a budget option.

Conversely, a good hunting scope and separate rangefinder will run the same price and give you the best of both worlds.

When to Range Without a Rangefinder

There are a few scenarios when it really makes sense to employ your skills to estimate distance without a rangefinder:

1. Your rangefinder fails – batteries die, gadgets fail, water and electronics are not friends. It happens.
2. Cost savings – perhaps you don’t have the extra cash or you don’t want to spend it on a rangefinder, so a DIY measurment solution is in order.
3. Close range hunting – when most of the hunting you do is within 200 yards and you’re using a rifle, you can likely do just fine without a laser rangefinder as knowing a precise distance is not as crucial to make a shot as it is at long distances.

The Elephant in the Room

While you can judge distance accurately without a rangefinder, it is much simpler to purchase a rangefinder to determine the distance to a target.

Not only will this save you from having to do any calculations or planning, but it is also far more accurate.

A rangefinder is like a calculator. You can do algebra by hand, but a calculator removes any chance of human error and is far easier and quicker to use.

Conclusion

If you’re going to do any long-distance shooting, targeting big game at the range, we recommend buying a good rangefinder and saving yourself time and trouble.

However, if you insist on sticking to your scope and eyes, or if your rangefinder fails and you still need a distance measurement, using markers, the MOA/MRAD equation, and training your eyes can be effective solutions.

Remember, without a rangefinder, all other methods provide an approximate distance to the target and not an exact calculation.

FAQs

How can I train my eyes at home?

To train your eyes to measure distance, in your backyard or on your street, pick different items and range them either by walking your eyes or guessing. Then confirm it by pacing or using a rangefinder.

Which method is best?

The method I define as the most accurate for determining distance would be the MOA/MRAD formula.

A rough approximation of your target’s height can get you pretty close to being on target rather than relying on sight alone.

Which method is best for hunting deer?

In a field or food plot, markers are the best way to determine distance. It’s like having three-quarters of the equation finished, and all you’re waiting on is the deer to show up.

When hunting in the open or backcountry, you have some serious separation between you and the animal; so you’ll need the MOA/MRAD formula.

The post How to Range Without a Rangefinder When Hunting appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

Many of us have also found it increasingly necessary to promote our self-reliance wherever possible in an unpredictable world. Growing or hunting your own food is a hobby and skill with real advantages for your food security, health, the environment, and more.

There are many benefits to adding game meat and homegrown produce to your diet. When you know exactly where your food comes from, you are taking control of your health. It’s more sustainable than store-bought food. You’re also increasing your self-reliance by putting your own food on the table.

Better Nutrition and Overall Health

Wild game, fish, and homegrown produce can be much better for your health than store-bought food. Most meat in the supermarket has been pumped with antibiotics and hormones. Farmed fish have been found to be full of microplastics. Vegetables may have been sprayed with all sorts of pesticides that are harmful.

You can avoid all of these health risks with hunting, fishing and gardening. There are added benefits to these activities, as well, such as exercise and better mood.

Health Benefits of Hunting and Fishing

Fishing is a great stress reliever. While it may not be the most physically active outdoors hobby, it still provides numerous benefits to the mind and body. Time spent in nature is a natural antidepressant and has been found to help fight disease.

Hunting increases your stamina, strength and mental focus. It can require plenty of time walking and carrying equipment and game through the woods, which is good exercise. The requirement of being still for long periods of time and quieting the mind is also a great contributor to a mindful lifestyle.

Health Benefits of Home Gardening

I find it incredibly grounding to get my hands in some soil. It’s mindful, intentional and soothing. Gardening has a lot of mental health benefits. It is time that you can take out of your day to just be with the earth. You’ll find that it relieves stress and brings you back to your center.

Gardening is an easy, and more inexpensive, way to make sure that the produce you consume is organic. You will know exactly what you’ve used in your own garden! This way you can avoid unnamed chemical residues on your food.

Living More Sustainably

Sustainability means to use resources without depleting them. Some of the biggest environmental concerns in our society are related to our food supplies. You can take action to create a more sustainable world by changing where your food comes from.

By growing some of your produce at home, you’re bypassing the ecological issues of the factory farm industry. Most large-scale farms in the United States use an approach called monocropping. This means to repeatedly plant a single crop, instead of diversifying the fields. Monocropping has negative consequences and degrades the health of soil. These crops are then at a greater health risk, requiring more toxic pesticides that harm pollinators (and humans).

Instead of buying cuts of meat wrapped in single-use plastic from the grocery store, hunting or fishing for your own is more sustainable. Factory meat farming produces waste, uses a lot of water, creates emissions, and doesn’t focus on the well-being of the animals. Hunting and fishing for your own meat solves all of those problems. It offers a greater respect to the animals we rely on for nourishment.

Helping Wildlife Conservation

A healthy ecosystem has a balance of different species, as well as a balance between predators and prey. When there is a balance of animal species, the entire system is able to work the way it should. Wildlife conservation requires maintaining the balance of all living things, from plant to insect to animal, so that they all may thrive.

Hunters contribute to conservation programs through the fees from their licenses. This money will go to support rewilding efforts and wildlife maintenance. Ethical hunting is necessary to keep wildlife populations healthy. Many hunter-backed wild game organizations have helped restore ecosystems and wildlife numbers through conservation programs.

Fishermen have a code of conduct to maintain healthy fisheries. By fishing in-season, only taking what you will eat, purchasing a license, and advocating for waterways, fishermen can help with conservation.

Your home garden can benefit wildlife by providing habitat and resources. Flowering plants will attract and help pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Plants can also provide cover and places for small animals to raise their young.

Improving Self-Reliance

We have all seen the shelves at our local supermarkets become barren because of supply and demand issues since the pandemic. You can remove the supply chain’s impact on you by providing your own food. Adding wild game and homegrown produce to your routine increases your self-reliance and stability.

You will also save money in the long-run. Of course there will be start-up costs, but after the initial investment, you can save a lot of money per year. This is especially true with game such as deer, where bringing home an entire animal will provide quite a bit of food and resources. Similarly, a garden will be renewable year after year and provide you with plentiful food and seeds. None of this requires a costly trip to the grocery store!

How to Start Growing Food at Home

With a bit of planning, some dedication, and a bit of time, you can start growing your own food from your home. Here’s some tips to get you started.

• Start small. You don’t need to be growing 100% of your produce from home right away, but you can work up to that! Building slowly will allow you to figure out how much time you want to put into it without any overwhelm.
• Make a plan. Decide what you want to grow and research when it should be started. Each climate area will have different growing requirements. If you don’t have a suitable plot of land, you can also use a raised bed or even planters. Choose a space that receives about six hours of sunlight per day.
• Get your supplies. You can pick up everything you need at a hardware or home improvement store. For a small vegetable garden, you’ll want a few tools: gardening gloves, a trowel for digging, a rake for preparing beds, good soil, and a watering system such as a handheld can or sprinklers. Finally, you’ll need seeds!

How to Start Fishing

The first thing you need to do to get started fishing is to pick up a license and figure out where you can fish in your area.

Once you figure out where you want to fish, you just need to get your starting equipment. This will consist of only a few things, such as a fishing rod and reel, fishing line, and lures.

You can also go on a guided fishing trip in many places and receive professional instruction.

How to Start Hunting Wild Game

A sporting good store can get you set up with the supplies you need to get started hunting. Most importantly, you want to be educated on safety and ethics when you first start hunting. Start by taking a hunter education course.

Make sure you read up, and possibly seek out a mentor. Join a local hunter’s club or ask friends to bring you along on their trips. Experienced hunters will have plenty of knowledge to pass onto you to make you a more skillful hunter. You can make hunting a family-friendly activity, as well, by bringing the kids along and teaching them everything they need to know. This way, the whole family can hunt together.

The post The Unexpected Benefits of Supplementing Your Diet With Game Meat and Homegrown Foods appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

Certain hobbies build real-world skills, encourage physical fitness, and offer the sense of being part of a bigger movement. When an activity impacts our health, our communities become resilient alongside our own journeys. Outdoor recreation is a great area to search for our ideal hobby. Let’s take a look at a few options.

Hiking and Camping

Hiking and camping build self-reliance and confidence by challenging ourselves to learn multiple skills. Learning to plan ahead, start a fire, pitch a tent, and choose a camping site are all micro-challenges that add up.

These small challenges keep us engaged and confident in our skills as we progress.

For those who don’t know where to start, getting your feet wet with a car camping experience while hiking around your site is a great way to begin. Then, when you feel like you’re ready for the next step, tent camping and finally backpacking or trekking are hobbies that connect us to nature while challenging our independence.

Woodworking

A craftsperson who practices woodworking, leather crafts, or canvas is involved in their work. The struggles of daily life seem to slip away. The flow state, a psychological state of mind, is experienced when someone is focused on something. This state inspires feelings of happiness and contentment.

While a beginner woodworker might feel challenging at first, that sensation will soon give way to satisfaction and pride. Both of these contribute to high self-esteem.

Drawing or Painting

Many famous artists have been quoted saying something like, “The real value in having made something is not in the product but in the process.” Activities like drawing and painting can be a personal journey. This means self-esteem is found from within instead of outside ourselves.

Experiencing this kind of independence can be fulfilling without needing a specific result. Just the satisfaction that comes from completing a canvas or new page is enough to feel accomplished.

Gardening

Inside a single green pepper are the seeds to sow hundreds more. The work that gardeners put into their hobby is returned in spades. Gardening is truly a life-enriching hobby.

From the time spent outside, the meals you’ll make, and the food you’ll share with your neighbors, gardening provides much more than fruits and veggies. Just getting started with gardening can seem scary, but starting small with simple veggies or could turn into a lifelong love for soil and seeds.

Fishing

Fishing is so relaxing and rejuvenating that organizations like Project Healing Waters use fly fishing as a form of therapy. The sound of water and fresh air allow the mind to take a break from the stressors of everyday life.

While you don’t need to jump right in with a club, overlooking the benefits of fishing with a group means you could miss out on a welcoming and supportive community.

Many areas have free fishing programs that are the perfect place to start. Searching close to home for fishing classes, facebook groups, or even a patient friend will make your first fishing experiences memorable.

Beginners make the mistake of jumping in without knowing good techniques and learn to dislike fishing. Avoiding this by finding a seasoned and patient mentor helps prevent disappointing first trips and negative experiences.

Hunting

The rise in local food movements has caused a surge in hunting interest. For those who didn’t start hunting as a kid, the learning curve can seem overwhelming.

Luckily, learning to hunt as an adult and also providing new opportunities for kids to learn alongside you are plentiful. Contacting local fishing and hunting agencies or reaching out to local clubs will help you find a mentor. Also, youth hunting seasons are offered by most states and are widely-available. There are options even if a parent or guardian has never been hunting before. The fishing and hunting community is always welcoming to new members

Cooking

Food is medicine, and cooking is the path towards learning how to take care of our physical health. From sourcing ingredients, preparing different dishes, and choosing flavors based on what we want, cooking is one of the best methods towards fostering our independence.

The endless styles of food and ways to get the ingredients make this hobby available to everyone. One of the best ways to learn is to ask a chef friend if you can join them in creating a dish. After a few experiences, the process will become familiar enough to follow most recipes.

If you don’t have a mentor, starting with frying an egg will help build a good foundation.

Solo Travel

Solo traveling is often overlooked when we think about ways to raise our confidence and self-esteem. After all, it may seem scary to be alone.

This is an opportunity to be self-reliant and learn to trust ourselves. When we trust that our bodies and minds can work together to find peace, that sense of ability transfers into other areas of our life.

Also, some of the best experiences come from listening to our intuition and following the paths that feel right. Solo travel helps us hone that skill as we learn to listen to our instincts.

Volunteering

Finally, helping others discover or accomplish their needs is a surefire path to better understanding ourselves. When we help someone, we gain the pride and happiness that comes from seeing someone else smile. This has large impacts on our health.

If you do one or all of these different hobbies, volunteering your time to help someone at the start of their journey can be the perfect way to give back.

When we increase our sense of self-esteem through hobbies that build confidence and independence, we not only help ourselves but encourage everyone around us. These are things worth pursuing.

The post Hobbies and Activities That Promote Confidence and Independence appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

Throughout this process, it has become strikingly clear that without challenge, you can never find your true sense of purpose. Challenge quickly and effectively brings self-discovery and growth to the surface, which is the main driver of discovering purpose.

Accepting challenges and trying new things has been researched in depth. Experts agree that challenging yourself is one of the best ways to cultivate pure joy and increase your happiness. These challenges form a lifestyle that everyone you know is seeking out, whether they say it or not.

The challenges we offer up in this article are helpful for discovering purpose and cultivating happiness every day. They push you to:

• Build resilience
• Work together with others
• Feel accomplishment
• Acquire new and practical skills

Ways to Push Yourself Personally

There are countless ways to push yourself in your personal life to help give you a sense of purpose. These are only a few fantastic and easy places to start.

From there, plenty of other challenges will arise, and you’ll already have the resilience and strength to take those on.

Do a Digital Detox

Today it’s almost impossible to catch a deep breath away from some kind of screen or other technology. Technology advancements are massively helpful to our world, but sometimes we must get away from it all. Research shows that our connection to our screens actually devalues the way we see our real lives.

The thing is, we were never designed to be connected to screens. Social media and other forms of mindless scrolling can be detrimental to us rather than productive. Too much exposure to screens ruins your sleep quality, damages your self-image, and can skew your work-life balance in the wrong way.

This is where a digital detox can come into play, giving you time to relax and regain your perspective.

A digital detox is about setting aside the time to reduce your screen use, possibly even getting rid of it entirely. A short time away from your screens can benefit you in surprising ways, such as:

• Improving mental and physical health
• Improving sleep quality
• Decreasing stress
• Increasing connection to others

Globally, people spend an average of seven hours in front of a screen every day, which is only increasing. A digital detox provides you with the time to try new hobbies that may have been swallowed up by mindless scrolling.

Study a Second Language

When I started learning Greek at 29 years old, I believed I could never fully master it. Learning a new language can feel like an utterly unreachable goal, which is why it’s such an extraordinary challenge to put on your list.

It was only with time, commitment, and constant repetition that I started to believe it was possible and not seem like such a foreigner in a Greek village.

It’s obvious how learning a second language can allow you to travel, connect to other cultures, and meet new people. What goes unnoticed is how learning a second language improves memory, and problem-solving skills, boosts concentration, increases listening skills, and improves brain health.

This challenge can be hard, but it also is rewarding. Allow yourself to start slowly with an app like Duolingo or Babbel to help get those reminders to practice bit by bit every day. More importantly, plan a trip to get yourself excited about the opportunity to try out the new language!

Learn a New Outdoor Hobby

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the world took to the outdoors. Everyone was trapped inside and needed a space to get out and challenge themselves. Outdoor recreation has a wealth of benefits, including increased physical and mental health, decreased stress, and an overall improvement in general mood.

As a beginner, outdoor hobbies like backpacking, hunting, or rock climbing can be intimidating. Trying these activities with a partner is one of the best ways to challenge yourself while staying safe. A partnership lets you push the other while they push you through the tough challenges that many people face in the outdoors.

There’s something for everyone in the outdoors. You can start by learning simple skills like basic rock climbing, stalking a deer, or even just going for a walk. The Japanese practice of forest bathing took off as one of the best things to do to improve mental health.

One of the things I like the most about discovering challenges in the outdoors is being able to bring others along, including kids. Teaching kids to find challenges in the outdoors creates growth unparalleled by everyday life.

Volunteer in Your Community

Personally, volunteering in my community is a huge challenge. Too many questions pop up, like, where do I start volunteering? How can I be helpful in my community? How do I find the time to volunteer?

The value of volunteering and helping others is something that any volunteer can attest to. There are dramatic increases in discovering your purpose when helping others. New perspectives become clearer each time you help another person out. Volunteering has even been found to decrease anxiety, depression, and levels of anger.

Starting can be easy if you want it to be. A quick Google search will bring back hundreds of local areas looking for volunteers. Find a volunteer opportunity that excites you and draws on your specific passions and skill sets. Some quick ideas for volunteering include:

• Dog shelters
• Retirement homes
• Soup kitchens
• Community development
• Local youth centers

Teach What You Know

If you’ve been through the process of learning a skill to the point of mastery, you may understand the impact that a good teacher can have on your growth in that area. A teacher that can be understanding, encouraging, and push you to your limits is hard to find.

When you take on the challenge of teaching someone, you take on the challenge of learning how to balance those three skills.

Children are the best place to start when teaching a skill. They’re forgiving, always excited to learn something new, and never shy about trying it out. Whether or not you have kids, you can always find programs like Big Brother or Big Sister that give you an excellent opportunity to take a kid out on their first fishing trip or start learning a new hobby.

There’s something different about teaching that brings in some of the best rewards you can imagine. Who knows, it may lead you directly to your unknown purpose in life.

Ways to Push Yourself Professionally

Take your challenges into the work sphere to grow in personal and professional ways. These challenges are designed to help you move up the ladder, try out new positions, or even just make your work day more exciting.

Take a Professional Development Course

Continued learning after working the same job for a while can refresh your professional life in a way few things can. Professional development courses are one of those things that employers often look at when thinking about promotions or shifting someone to a new position.

If you’re hoping to advance your career, this is a great place to start.

A new skill that can be applied to your daily work can bring creative solutions to problems that you’re working on. A simple day-long course can help you look at your work from a new angle and increase your productivity or enjoyment of the work you do.

Applying new education or training to an old job can significantly enhance how satisfied you are professionally.

Ask for More Responsibility

While showing up to work and getting home fast is tempting, challenging yourself at work will let you find joy in what you do. One of the best ways to do this is to ask for more responsibility.

More responsibility doesn’t always mean more work. It can be a shift to leadership roles rather than being a smaller cog in the machine.

Taking on more responsibility at work can help advance your career. It’s a great chance to display, or develop, your leadership skills and show improved performance to management.

Start by engaging in extracurriculars at the office. A softball team is a great place to network and show your coworkers that you want to be a part of the team. From here, you can talk more with your boss about ways to have more responsibility.

This will also give you insight into the parts of your coworkers’ jobs they struggle with. It may be that you can work together to tackle functions of the job that you both enjoy, rather than each struggling with different tasks.

When your supervisors see that you’re coming up with creative ways to solve work issues, you’ll be the first in line for an upcoming promotion.

Become a Mentor

Being a mentor at work is like being a teacher in your personal life. The great thing here is work and personal life isn’t always that different. Work still requires a lot of the same skills that even something like hunting does.

Think about it. If you can teach someone to wait patiently in a blind as a deer moves slowly in, you can transfer those skills to teach a coworker how to take their time and be deliberate with the work that they’re doing.

These two areas of life are only different because we push them apart. Being a mentor will challenge you to grow in all of them.

Not only can this challenge you and help you grow professionally, but it will show how willing you are to lead others in your job.

It demonstrates your ability to coach others through tasks, listen to your coworkers, and solve problems creatively. These are all things that any boss wants to see from an employee looking for a promotion or a raise.

The post How Challenging Yourself at Work and Leisure Can Give You a Sense of Purpose appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

High-tech equipment doesn’t need to be plugged into the wall anymore, and you won’t have to run a 100-foot extension cord into your backyard just to have fun. Tech can actually get you outside and engage with the natural world in surprisingly exciting ways.

Here’s a list of hobbies that you may find exciting and rewarding if tech is your thing. Some activities might surprise you.

Photography and Film

Often mistaken as something you need to start young, photography and film are two fantastic places to start off if you want to try something new.

There’s a lot of art in photos and videos, but the technical aspects of the hobby can get completely lost. Taking high-quality pictures or creating a well-crafted film takes as much know-how of tech as it does creativity.

Combining artistic hobbies like photography and film with technology requires a sharp eye and a deep understanding of the different pieces that all play a part. The gear alone requires a high level of technological skill.

There are hundreds of different cameras on the market, each designed for a specific task. Then you need to master a particular set of lighting and editing software.

Drone Flying

Drones have become huge in the years since their development. Piloting a drone is bringing all the skills from video gaming into the real world, plus a new variety of gadgets to be played.

Drone pilots can pursue various hobbies that expand a tech enthusiast’s experience. You can use drones for taking unbelievable photographs, but you can also customize drones to race or even map an area.

Hunting

Here’s one that might come as a surprise, especially if you spend most of your time behind a computer screen. Modern day hunting incorporates a huge amount of tech into the sport, making it one of the best new hobbies for tech lovers.

The weapons, tactics, locations, gear, and final shot must be tuned in with such precision that many people never succeed without a devout work ethic.

Long range shooting brings together a mix of technical skills that will require refinement and perfection of your rifle. On the other hand, stalking deer is a more creative skill that hunting requires you to perfect. You can combine hunting with techy pursuits like trail cam monitoring, mapping, and orienteering to get the best results.

Off-road Driving

All-terrain vehicles (ATVs), dirt bikes, utility-task vehicles (UTVs), and side-by-sides allow your technical side to flourish and help you find new challenges.

These machines require skill to drive, and it’s even more exciting in real life than it is in first person viewer mode on a video game. You’ll develop new technical skills as you learn to operate and maintain off-road vehicles.

Aside from the maintenance, there are all kinds of tech gadgets to add to your OHV that personalize the vehicle and enhance the fun.

Geocaching

Imagine a massive treasure hunt spread across the outdoors, ending with a puzzle that will demand technical thinking and skills to solve. Geocaching, and gadget geocaching, is a favorite amongst tech lovers who want to get outside.

Geocachers worldwide have hidden small log books throughout cities and nature alike, all for recreation’s sake. There are sites to find the latitude and longitude for certain caches, and it’s up to you to discover them. Many users will utilize GPS devices, and some old schoolers will still look at maps and compasses.

The newest movement in gadget geocaching is to end with a puzzle representing more of an escape room situation. To get to the log book, prize, or whatever it may be, you must crack a code or hack into the system.

Recreational Shooting

Shooting sports can seem the opposite of a tech-related hobby, but it isn’t all about pointing, shooting, and blowing stuff up. Although that’s a part of it, a huge amount of fine technical skill is required to actually hit what you’re aiming for, rather than blasting rounds into the hillside.

A basic understanding of hunting and shooting supplies is the perfect place to start. Then comes the combination of all these tools to perfect your shot. It’s as precise as writing code and as exciting as gaming ever has been.

Electronic Music

If you want to stay inside while exploring a new hobby, electronic music is one of the best to get after. This allows you to mix new tracks while using tech programs to edit and distort the sounds precisely what you want them to be.

The beauty of making electronic music is taking music that you already love and making it your own. With the right gear and software, any computer can turn into an electronic mixer that is great for someone looking for a new hobby.

Rock Climbing

Rock climbing is a perfect mix of mental and physical challenges that many people overlook as a hobby. All forms of climbing, sport, bouldering, top rope, or traditional climbing provide their challenging style, which is why it’s a perfect hobby to try out. You can start to explore the specific gear you need and how to use it properly.

While there aren’t a lot of techs involved, climbing is more about technical skills than it is about being incredibly strong.

Throughout my years of climbing, I’ve always been the one who thinks a route through and looks at it as a puzzle that gets to the top. The muscled-out guy from the gym who tries to pull their way to the top ends up back on the ground more often than not.

Astronomy

If all of these hobbies feel too close to home, then check out astronomy. This hobby allows tech enthusiasts to discover new worlds and go on a grand adventure right from home. Starting with astronomy is as easy as waiting until nighttime and getting out.

Since our world has succumbed to so much light pollution, the stars are fading further and further into the background. These constellations and different galaxies all have their own stories woven into several human cultures, and looking at them is looking straight into these histories.

Discovering these stars requires equipment that can bring distant galaxies into eyesight, which means a massive amount of power. Lasers that hit the moon and telescopes that bring galaxies into view are only the start.

The post Unexpected Hobbies for Tech Enthusiasts to Get Into appeared first on Outdoor Empire.

Living sustainably and communally is increasingly necessary. Focusing on self-reliance with a collaborative approach makes a strong community. Offering your skills, supporting local businesses, and giving back to your neighbors are a few ways to support the self-sufficiency of your community.

Using Your Skills to Support Your Community

We become stronger through independence. This is relevant on a communal scale, too. The less we need to rely on the larger society, the more sustainable we will be.

Self-sufficient communities work because everyone contributes their unique skill sets. No matter what your skills are, there is something that you can contribute to the betterment of your community.

Gardening and Landscaping

While local farms are extremely important, you don’t have to have acres of agricultural land. There are plenty of ways anyone can use gardening to promote self-reliance.

• Grow your food. Even a small home garden can be a communal contribution. Trade produce and seeds with your neighbors to diversify your food supply.
• Start, or help out with, a community garden. Community gardens are educational, put food on the table, and can even support local organizations. A town I used to live in had a community garden at our library. The food was free for anyone who needed it.
• Cater your landscaping to your climate and local ecosystem. A green lawn uses a lot of water and creates fertilizer runoff, polluting watersheds. It also doesn’t provide much of a habitat for wildlife. Native species benefit birds and pollinators and create a healthy environment.

Hunting and Fishing

Hunters know our responsibility for a sustainable future. A huge part of subsistence living relies on the land and what nature provides for us. Hunting and fishing can provide food, clothing, and other items we need. You can use these skills and resources to give back to your community.

• Consider donating game meat to local food banks, homeless shelters, or even your neighbors. First, you’ll want to confirm whether or not there are restrictions on this practice from your local game and fish agency or health department. Where possible, this is the best model for a self-sufficient community: everyone pitching in what they can provide, but others may not have.
• Your skills and knowledge as a hunter or fisherman are valuable. You might have neighbors who have always wanted to learn how to hunt or fish for their food but don’t know where to start. By passing this along to others, especially the younger generations, we are investing in the future of our entire community.

Buying Local

The convenience of purchasing everything from one big box store or online seller has made it difficult for smaller businesses to thrive. Combat this by shopping small.

• Farmer’s markets are my favorite place to buy fresh produce, dairy and meat. This is a fantastic way to connect with the people that grow or raise your food!
• Ditch the consumer giants as much as you can and patronize businesses in your neighborhood. I even shop at family-owned markets instead of big grocery stores.
• Stop at yard sales. My mom furnished almost her entire house through yard sales! I’ve found great things for cheap, too. The best thing is that your money either goes straight to your neighbors, or in some cases, you can support churches and schools.
• Eating out or grabbing coffee? Try somewhere that isn’t a chain. Chances are, the quality is better, and you’re contributing to the neighborhood’s success.

Volunteering and Teaching

Do you have skills that you can offer as a volunteer? Maybe you have extra resources you don’t need that someone else can benefit from? Even just a helping hand and some of your time can make a big difference.

• Your time can be put to use for a good cause. Volunteering for something you care about will also help others and make you feel great.
• Donate your extra clothing, food, furniture, books, or anything else taking up space in your home. Look into charity drives and see what you can give.
• If you have a specific skill that you can teach, consider offering community education classes. This could be something like computer skills, resume writing, or math tutoring. If you’re an artist, you could offer a beginner’s course on your medium. If you’re great in the kitchen, you can teach a cooking class. There are plenty of possibilities.

Getting Involved

Good values and compassion will resonate through a community when people get involved. Your impact is only limited by how much you give back.

• Non-profits and charities are always in need of help. Whether that’s a food bank, an animal shelter, or anything else – your effort and dedication are incredibly valuable.
• If you are a natural leader, consider running for a local public office position. You could help the voices of your community be heard on a larger scale.
• Consider learning about and finding ways to support the environment on a local scale. Practicing sustainability and conservation is essential for the success and well-being of future generations.
• What do you care about? Activism and advocacy are where we can make the changes necessary for the future we believe in. Find what resonates with you and follow through.

The post Creative Ways You Can Support the Self-sufficiency of Your Community appeared first on Outdoor Empire.