Backpack sprayers are absolute cheat codes in the lawn care game. Long gone are the days of walking around cranking the pump lever all over your yard. Or even worse, the little sprayers that you carry and set down and repeatedly pump then get maybe 1-2 seconds of spray.

The new backpack sprayers keep a consistent amount of pressure inside and make your life way easier. I think the first time I used a backpack sprayer I was caught off guard with how quickly I was able to complete the job.

Battery powered backpack sprayers are the tool of the future, available now.

They aren’t all made the same and have some unique features and benefits.

So let’s break them down.

1. Ryobi 40V Cordless Backpack Sprayer
2. Ryobi ONE+ Cordless Backpack Sprayer
3. Milwaukee M18 FUEL Backpack Sprayer (4 Gallon)
4. Spraymate Lil Squirt Sprayer
5. Dewalt Battery Powered Chemical Sprayer

Why we review lawn tools

The reason we started this website in the first place was because we had so much trouble trying to find reasonable, understandable, honest reviews for lawn equipment. And it’s not cheap! After hours and hours of research, trying products and returning them, and messing up our yards – we started this site.

As people who had to learn the hard way, we want you to know exactly what you are signing up for before you purchase a piece of equipment. That’s why we are committed to providing honest, easy-to-understand reviews that mean something.

What to look for in a battery powered backpack sprayer

Again, these aren’t all made the same. With one of these backpack sprayers, you want to make sure to have the below features.

• Comfort
  • It sounds silly, but if you are going to be personally hauling a bunch of chemicals on your back, you’ve got to make sure it is comfortable. Honestly, with how easy these things are to use, the main differentiator is what the experience feels like. Look for padded shoulder straps and an otherwise lightweight tool.
• Battery run-time
  • There’s not really a point to a battery-powered sprayer if the battery dies and you can’t finish the job. Regardless of how long your job takes, you want to make sure to get one with a decent battery life. That helps you if you take the battery off and use it on another tool.
• A see-through tank
  • This one sounds even sillier, but some of these battery-powered backpack sprayers have dark tanks. You can’t see how much fluid is in it. Not a huge deal but also a minor inconvenience that is so easy to avoid. Grab one where you can see the fluid.

Those are the main things I look for. Of course there are other important things like different nozzles and a strainer to make sure you don’t get a clogged line, but those should come standard.

5 Best Battery-Powered Backpack Sprayers: Ranked

Okay! Finally after careful consideration we have put this list together. We’ve gotten our hands on a few of these but also tried to get some more variety in new products. So let’s get to the bottom of it once and for all.

5. Dewalt Battery Powered Backpack Sprayer

The Dewalt Lithium-Ion Battery-Powered Backpack Sprayer is sure to be a rugged, long-lasting tool. Not only does it come with Dewalt’s trusted brand reputation, but it’s a part of their 20V battery series.

Dewalt’s 20V Battery series is compatible with TONS of Dewalt tools.

What I love about the Dewalt Battery-Powered Backpack Sprayer

• Part of the 20V battery series
• Padded straps with two wrap-around straps
• 10 different flow settings
• Several nozzles for different spray patterns

What I don’t love about the Dewalt backpack sprayer

This breaks rule number one! It doesn’t have a see-through tank. So you have NO idea how much fluid is left in there outside of the weight differential.

The other thing I don’t love about this backpack sprayer is the price! It comes in at a steep $300 and can be purchased online from Home Depot.

4. Spraymate Lil Squirt Portable Backpack Sprayer

Candidly, we have not used this little guy but thought it was so cool that it needed to make this list.

It isn’t really a backpack sprayer, but more like a satchel sprayer. It comes with a nice little strap that you can hang over your shoulder and waltz around your lawn to get the job done.

At just about $100, this thing is the most cost-effective way to get the job done with a battery powered sprayer.

So where is the battery?

Great question. Looking at this, you would have no idea. But it is actually built into the handle of the Lil Squirt sprayer. It plugs into the wall and has a nice little charger that you plug in directly. It makes the product super intuitive and easy to use without having to pull out a separate battery.

Otherwise, this sprayer has a nice six foot hose, a quick-connect extension wand, and is super lightweight.

If you are a more casual backpack sprayer user, then this is a really good cost-effective alternative to the others here.

You can grab this one at Home Depot or get its big brother, a fully built out backpack sprayer with four gallons on Amazon.

3. Milwaukee M18 4 Gallon Backpack Sprayer

Milwaukee rocks. In fact, we’ve gotten our hands on a few of their pieces of lawn equipment. Like their new blowers and even their M18 lawn mower.

They simply don’t miss.

So when I saw their backpack sprayer I knew it would make the top five.

What we love about the Milwaukee M18 Backpack Sprayer

• The M18 battery line is incredible and can service TONS of tools
• It can absolutely LAUNCH spray – like over 20 feet away if you desire
• The shoulder straps are supremely comfortable
• The battery placement is well-designed

What we didn’t love

• We didn’t have this problem, but from others have heard that the tank can leak
• It’s a bit pricey.

All in all this is a great backpack sprayer and perfect for those of us that already own M18 batteries, this thing is sweet. If you already own the batteries you can save a ton of money by purchasing the tool-only version on Amazon or getting it off of Home Depot, wherever you prefer.

2. Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless Backpack Sprayer

The Ryobi ONE+ 18V Cordless backpack sprayer is pretty slick. We loved using it and even filmed a long YouTube video that highlights all the different features and benefits.

It is a huge timesaver, just like the other battery-powered backpack sprayers, but is also really reliable. Ryobi products are super common as well, so chances are you already have one of their ONE+ 18V batteries to pop right onto this backpack sprayer.

What we love about the Ryobi 18V backpack sprayer

• Super easy, ergonomically designed trigger that fits your whole hand
• Battery interchangeability with all the other Ryobi 18V tools
• You can use the tank 11 times on the same charge
• Incredibly comfortable – way better than my Jansport backpack
• Easy to use pressure control valve on the side
• See-through 4 gallon tank so you know when you’re getting low

Frankly, there wasn’t much to dislike about this backpack sprayer. It comes in at a great price WITH battery and charger on Amazon or at Home Depot for a great price.

1. RYOBI 40V Cordless Backpack Sprayer

Okay guys, we have a confession. This one is basically IDENTICAL to the 18V ONE+ battery backpack sprayer above. And we like it for all the same reasons.

But the 40V series from Ryobi is just much more popular than the 18V series. If you already own a Ryobi tool, you can get this thing for an insane price from a number of places. We found the best price for the tool-only version on Home Depot’s site and it’s even cheaper than the 18V series.

It’s not uncommon for anglers and my clients to ask about the best baits for salmon fishing on rivers around the great lakes. Therefore I thought I would write an article about the best baits for salmon that I and other river guides use, and include how and when to choose certain baits, and how I rig them.

The 4 best baits for fishing salmon in rivers are the spawn bag, the trout bead, a nymph or egg fly, and the plastic worm. These baits come in different sizes and colors and some will fish better than others depending on the conditions. Other baits like shrimp, grubs, and skein can be deadly effective.

I will discuss all 10 baits that I use annually.

These are just 4 of the best baits for salmon but there are a few other great baits that I will discuss and a bonus bait that at times might be better than all the other salmon baits. Look for my Guide Tip to see this hot bait.

I will also discuss the best hooks and leaders for each bait because a great bait can be often an ineffective bait simply using the wrong hook or a leader that is too thick or doesn’t work well.

Hooks And Leaders For The Best Salmon Baits

In the picture above I show you how to put a bait on a hook properly and why this way is better. There are 2 things you need to consider when putting your bait onto the hook and these are both important if you want to get the maximum effectiveness out of your bait and if you want to get better hook sets.

Hook Size

The first problem with an oversize hook is that the fish are more likely to see your hook and refuse the bait. It might not matter how great the bait is if they spot the hook.

An extra-large hook is also heavy and that may not allow your bait to flow naturally in the current because it might act like an anchor weight that keeps dragging your bait to the bottom which may result in fewer bites and also too many snags.

Just like trout, salmon almost always look and feed up or sideways and they rarely feed downwards so a bait that is constantly on the bottom of the river will likely not get eaten. A lighter hook will allow your bait to stay off the bottom and in the strike zone.

Something else to consider is that your bait should be proportionate to the hook and the bait should be covering at least 50% of the hook.

Bait Placement

Another mistake many anglers make is blurring the hook point into the bait. On very soft baits like skein or spawn that might be OK, but on plastics and firmer baits, it’s a problem.

Covering the hook point can and likely will prevent soft-biting fish from getting hooked or it can impede the hook from going into the fish which might affect how well the hook holds.

The Best Hooks For Salmon Baits

I have always found that short shank wide gap hooks are the best hooks for salmon fishing in rivers when using most baits and under most conditions.

A short hook means less hook exposed at the top and the bottom and a wide gap improves hooking percentage and tends to hold the fish better.

However, an exposed hook point can sometimes hook itself even without a hook set.

Myself, my guides and other guides that I know like to use hooks like these and we recommend them to our clients.

The best hooks for salmon baits are:

• #1 – Raven Specimen hook – A wide Gap hook that has become very popular with my guides. It hooks and holds well, and it’s strong for big salmon.
• #2 – Gamakatsu Octopus hook – A hook that has been around for many years and is a proven good hook for salmon and steelhead and liked by many anglers.
• #3 – Raven Specialist hook – Another great hook that is used by many anglers around the great lakes. It’s bit thinner
• #4 – Redwing Tackle Blackbird Sabretooth Premium hooks – similar to the Gamakatsu and Specialist, this is a good hook for salmon and steelhead and is well like by many anglers
• #5 – Daiichi 1150 Heavy Wide-Gape Hooks – This is my go-to hook when fishing beads or when fishing gin clear water for nervous salmon, steelhead, and trout. It’s a thinner lighter wire hook so it’s not the hook you want to be dragging big salmon in with, but it’s a low-profile hook that allows your bait to move more naturally and is less visible than the other hooks above.

For great lakes salmon fishing in rivers I would recommend having one or two of these hooks in sizes from size 6, size 8, and size 10, and be sure to match the size of the hook to the bait size.

The Best Baits For Salmon Fishing In Rivers

When I fish for salmon, steelhead, and even trout and I catch a ton of fish, if another angler asks how I did when I tell them how many fish I caught they often ask what bait I was using. Often, these anglers didn’t do so well, so they think the reason I did so much better is because of my bait.

The honest truth is that 9 out of 10 anglers that are not catching much fish are because of things not even related to their bait. Things like a bad presentation or a bad leader setup, and even a bad hook can be a reason for not catching any fish.

How you present your bait is often more important than the bait itself.

I tell my clients that the bait is only as good as your presentation, and your presentation is only as good as your leader setup, therefore you need to get it all correct if you want to catch more fish.

That means that if you drag your bait through the pool, or your bait is way over their fish’s heads, or you cover the water poorly, or even if your leader is too thick or not built properly, your great bait could become less effective and maybe not work at all.

If you think your presentation needs some work, or you would like to see my proven leader setup for salmon and steelhead be sure to check out my page How To Fish For Salmon.

The reason why spawn bags catch more salmon than any other bait is that 90% of anglers use spawn bags. If 90% of anglers used beads, or flies then they would be the best bait. I’m not saying that spawn isn’t the best bait, it’s just that there are times when it’s not.

I find that too many anglers are one-sided and only fish spawn and that mentality could limit the amount of salmon you catch. Many times I have outfished the spawn bag guys, even standing right beside 10 of them with other baits.

If 10 guys are running spawn bags through a pool for hours, those salmon will quickly get smart and stop eating spawn bags.

This is why I can often walk into a pool that everyone has fished with spawn bags and I will use a small fly, or a pink worm, or something that is different, smaller, or less intrusive, and I will catch a bunch of salmon that the spawn guys couldn’t catch.

However, spawn is often the best bait for new anglers and I discuss the reasons why I think this, as well as my color and size preferences in different types of water on my page Spawn Bag Tactics And Secrets.

For most spawn bag sizes I prefer to use a size 10 or size 8 hook.

Single Salmon Eggs

There are times when single eggs on a small size 12 Daiichi Salmon Egg Hook can be the best bait for salmon fishing in rivers. The store-bought single eggs are prepared in a way that allows them to scent well and stay on the hook.

My preferred single salmon eggs are the Pautzke Balls O’ Fire Salmon Eggs, and my most effective colors are Natural or Yellow, but other colors like Chartreuse, Pink, and Red have been very effective, especially in dirtier water.

Single eggs are most effective in low clear water when salmon are holding, but they can be great in any type of water, deep, fast, dirty, and clear.

If you don’t live near a tackle store and you need to buy your single eggs or spawn bags or even loose trout eggs online these are your best options:

Salmon Fishing With Beads

Fishing with soft and hard beads has become a very popular way of fishing for salmon, steelhead, and trout. The reason beads are so popular is that they work very well.

The belief is that salmon will occasionally eat eggs that float past them out of instinct, aggression, or even hunger, and they might eat just to maintain energy to prolong their spawning duration which can allow them to spawn longer and spawn more often.

Beads are a great way to imitate those loose salmon eggs drifting in the current, and based on my experience, beads will often outfish bigger spawn bags.

There are a few different brands of beads as well as soft and hard plastic and glass beads that anglers can use.

There are also a few good ways to rig beads. Anglers also have a ton of different colors and sizes to use and I discuss all of this and how I fish beads for steelhead and salmon on my page Advanced Bead Fishing For Salmon: Guide Tactics and Setup.

Or, if you are a trout angler, I go into detail on how to fish beads for trout on my page Bead Fishing For Trout.

Plastic Worms For Salmon Fishing

For many years, three and 4-inch plastic worms have been my secret hot bait for steelhead and trout, but worms are also one of my best baits for salmon fishing in rivers and I use them all the time. In fact, many of my buddies and guides swear that beads are often their top bait for salmon.

I have seen salmon hit a worm that is swinging across the pool at the end of a drift, and I have seen salmon hit a worm as it’s being reeled in, and I have even seen salmon chase a worm to the surface.

These 3 brands are great when fishing with the pink and red are my most effective colors.

Pink worms are my go-to color most of the time when I am fishing for salmon, but I have had days when the salmon prefer the red or brown worms, and Chartreuse worms can be very effective some days.

Also, If you are looking to try other colors like orange and white, both have worked for me, the Berkely Trout Worms have a lot of interesting colors.

I discuss my tactics, setups, and my favorite worms for steelhead, trout, and salmon on my page Fishing With Worms.

Flies Are A Great Bait For Salmon In Rivers

There are times when the anglers are all using spawn bags or brightly colored baits and that can sometimes stop the fish from feeding. This is when a black or brown nymph can really shine.

Most often I will use size 8 and 10 flies but will sometimes drop down to a smaller size 12 when the fish are pressured and nervous.

Some of the best flies for salmon fishing are: (click the link to see or buy the fly)

Wooly Bugger – Like this in a size 8 or 10 but have done well with smaller size 12 and 14 sizes. I also like them with or without a gold or silver bead head. I do find that the pattern in the link with the flash on the sides works the best. I have found that black and olive work the best, but there are some days when white and pink will be hot.

I like the flash on this fly because the salmon seem to be more attracted to flashy flies.

Prince nymph – This is a fantastic attractor nymph pattern that has been great for salmon and steelhead. I think the combination of the greenish shine on the body and the white wing gets their attention.

Stonefly – I tie my own and have a pattern that seems to worm better than most. This Bead Head Copper John Nymph in the link is the closest that I have seen to the stonefly pattern that I tie and use.

Copper John – Another great fly that seems to work in most colors however the red body version is the hot fly some days.

Zug Bug – Something about the peacock herl on this fly that drives big salmon crazy some days. I will always have some of these on hand. In fact, I have found that peacock hearl seems to work very well on salmon, so I use and do well with other flies with peacock herl like the Pheasant Tail Nymph.

If you want to see more of the flies that I use and recommend when fishing for salmon around the great lakes, be sure to check out my page on the Best Flies For Salmon Fishing On The Great Lakes: COMING SOON, or if you want to learn to fly fish for salmon check out my page How To Fly Fish For Salmon.

Using Shrimp For Salmon Fishing

Shrimp are recognized as effective bait for salmon fishing, with anglers enhancing their effectiveness by adding colors, scents, or attractants. Different types of shrimp, such as Coon Shrimp, Stripped Shrimp, Sand Shrimp, and Salad Shrimp, have proven successful in catching salmon.

While shrimp work well in faster currents, they are not as effective in slower or stagnant water.

Curing shrimp is a simple process, and ready-to-use cures and brines are available for consistent results.

Properly cured and dyed shrimp can prolong their lifespan and entice salmon to strike. Rigging shrimp involves using a size 6 or 8 hook and attaching the shrimp once in the head area.

See Salmon Fishing With Shrimp for more cures and info on this bait.

Various methods can be employed for salmon fishing with shrimp, including bottom fishing, plunking, side drifting, and float fishing. Each method has its advantages and requires specific techniques. Adding a floating bead to keep the shrimp off the bottom can be beneficial.

While shrimp have their place in salmon bait options, they may not have equal success rates compared to proven baits like spawn bags or skein when float fishing.

Using shrimp as an additional bait option is recommended when other baits are not producing desired results, but they should not be the primary choice.

Professional guides have found success with shrimp and many guides will use shrimp on the middle hook of plugs when side drifting or plunking for salmon.

Minnows and Minnow Patterns For Salmon Fishing

I have used live, dead, and even dead salted minnows with some success on fresh-run salmon that have just entered the river.

The best minnow imitation for salmon fishing and what I prefer to use most often is the Berkley Gulp! Alive Minnow or, if I want more action the Berkely Gulp Alive Paddleshad. I will fish these minnow imitations under a float or when bottom bouncing in shallow runs and pockets.

Other good options for minnow patterns are the Berkley PowerBait Pro Twitchtail Minnow and the Cabela’s Fisherman Series Go-To Swim Minnow which has a little extra movement in the tail in faster currents.

Most of the time I use minnows that are natural shad or minnow colors like silver with back, green or blueish backs. However, orange and chartreuse can be hot some days.

With these minnows, I will use a size 8 or 10 hooks and will hook it mid-body at the top of the back so that it rides more horizontally in the current.

Plastic Grubs and Plastic Flies Are Great For Salmon

Something that not a lot of anglers use is plastic grubs and plastic flies, however, I have had very good success with these baits under a float or when bottom bouncing. I use them in medium to fast-moving water mostly.

Salmon, like many river fish, are opportunistic and will grab anything that is presented well and looks edible.

The Mad River Steelhead Grubs, the Berkley Gulp! Crickets and the Berkley Gulp! Pinched Crawlers have all been good for me.

I have also done very well some days with the 3.5″ Vudu Rattle Shrimp in the colors gold, natural, and magic. I have also done well with Tsunami Holographic Shrimp in colors rootbeer, silver glitter, and red glitter.

Another bait that fits into this category is the leech. Yes, I salmon fish with leeches. I don’t use real leeches but there are some great fake ones. My favorite is the Berkley Gulp! 3” Leech or the Gulp Alive Leech.

Plastic Eggs, Fake Eggs, and Egg Clusters

Just like the beads and spawn sacks, these are just imitation eggs and at times they will work great for steelhead and salmon.

Plastic single eggs and egg clusters like the Sac Attack Imitation Cluster Eggs, or the Mad River Single Eggs and the Berkley Gulp! Floating Salmon Eggs.

Other potential baits Include:

• Salmon Fishing With Corn
• Salmon Fishing With Powerbait
• Salmon Fishing With Marshmallows
• Salmon Fishing With Minnows

Jigs For Salmon Fishing

You can fish with jigs for salmon a few different ways. There are times when casting a bass or walleye-style jig with a spinning rod and then slowly swinging it and bouncing the jig off the bottom and across the river can be deadly for salmon, steelhead, and even for trout.

For this tactic, I used Chompers Skirted Football Jigs, or the No-Alibi Pearl Alien Jigs, or the Missile Jigs Ike’s Mini Flip Jig. I have also done well with a jig head and a plastic minnow like the Berkley Gulp Alive minnow or even a twister tail type grub like the 4 inch Strike King Rage Tail Grub.

There are other times when drifting a jig under a float will be very effective and I use this method the most.

I will also use the bottom bouncing method and will dead drift the jig or use a bounce and dead drift presentation.

I’ve also done very well with the Steelhead Worm Jigs, or Kalin’s Marabou Jigs, or the Mimic Fry Jig, and the Fly Jig. These are all good options when salmon fishing under a float.

Using Skein For Salmon Fishing

A very hot bait for many anglers and a bait that often works when other baits don’t is Skein.

There are many salmon guides and anglers that will tell you this is the most effective bait that you can use for salmon, and at times, I will 100% agree with them.

Skein is the immature eggs of salmon, steelhead, or trout. Skein eggs are stuck together by a fine membrane and as the salmon get close to spawning the eggs will start to loosen from the membrane so they can be dropped when the salmon spawns.

Many anglers know that skein can work better than any other bait, especially with fresh salmon that are just entering the river. I drift skein under a float or when bottom bouncing.

All of my guides love to use skein when fishing for great lakes salmon and on days when the salmon are being difficult skein is often the only way to get the salmon to bite.

Most anglers will use Coho or king/Chinook salmon skeins from fish that they have caught but not all anglers have access to skein which is ok because you can buy salmon skeins in whole or in chucks.

Some of the best skeins you can get are the Pro-Cure Salmon Roe or the Pro-Cure Vacuum Packed Salmon Skeins eggs on Amazon.

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Lures For Salmon Fishing

If you are the type of angler that likes to throw lures at salmon and want to know my best lures and my tactics check out my page Lure Fishing For Salmon and don’t forget to check out my page Best Gear For River Fishing where I discuss all the release gear, waders, boots, vest and more.

Putting The Best Salmon Baits To Use

How you use the bait is as important as the bait itself. When I fish baits in the river for salmon I either use the float fishing method or I use something known as Bottom Bouncing.

You can see how to do both of these methods well on other pages. Check out my page Float Fishing For Salmon – Great Lakes Tactics From A Top Guide and my page Bottom Bouncing – 5 Proven Guide Tips For More Fish.

Want more on what bait to choose and when, see below.

FAQs About The Best Baits For Salmon

I received this message from a reader and thought I would share it with you since it’s related to the best baits for salmon and how to fish them in certain situations.

Question: Could you please elaborate a bit on when would the Salmon prefer a minnow style bait over eggs or rubber worms.

And targeting them on the fly like the woolly bugger and gulp minnows, is a complete dead drift better than say a retrieve where you trot the float in minuet steps of slow and fast speeds thus causing small up and down jigging motion on the buggers and other streamers to get a reaction bite?I came across a pod of 3-4 salmon and tried dead drifting, worms/woolly buggers/egg-sucking leeches, I couldn’t get them to bite at all except for one swipe at the egg-sucking leech.

Hi Durvesh,

I dead drift baits that don’t normally have movement in the river and on occasion, I might bounce or jig a bait like a minnow, a fly, or a jig to get a reaction strike. However, it will depend on the spot. 3 or 4 salmon holding in a smaller clear pool are likely to be nervous fish, therefore jigging or causing any type of commotion on the surface can spook them even more.

In larger faster flowing spots, jigging or holding back and releasing your float might work but 90% of the time I will dead drift a bait and it seems to work well.

I will often use smaller less intrusive baits like flies in low clear waters and bigger brighter baits in bigger pools or faster water.

Trying to determine if the fish want a worm or an egg or a minnow is trial and error and I will often rotate baits in each spot until I find something that works.

Make sure you use the right type of float for the type of water you are fishing, make sure you have the right leader set up and the right size leader for the spot, and make sure you fish well and don’t spook the fish.

Sometimes salmon can be very aggressive when something enters their space so they may hit an aggressively retrieved fly, jig, or lure out of anger or a territorial thing, so sometimes a switch to a lure will do the trick. However, that is always my last resort since that can also spook the fish.

Honestly, some salmon just won’t eat once they enter the river no matter what you do or try.

Ask A Guide About The Best Baits For Salmon Fishing

If you have a question, comment, or even a suggestion related to the best baits for salmon fishing in the river, let me and other readers hear it in the comment section below and I or one of my guides will get back to you.

Tight Lines

Graham

We asked a firearms expert with over thirty years of experience to pick the top five semiautomatic pistols. Yes, here we go again with another Top 5 gun list. Having previously done one on the Top 5 9mm Pistols, 5 Best Sig Sauer Guns, 5 Best CCW Guns, and plenty more.

Top Five Semiautomatic Pistols on the Planet

Now it’s time to get to one of the most popular gun debates out there. We’re going to talk about what I consider to be the five best Semiautomatic Pistols regardless of size, brand, or specific caliber.

M1911/M1911-A1 .45 ACP

Okay, y’all know this one had to make the list. Besides belonging on this Top 5 List, it’s also one of the three most enduring inventions of the legendary gunmaker John Moses Browning. After passing a 6,000 round torture test, it became the first semiautomatic pistol to be adopted by the U.S. Armed Forces as well as the most powerful sidearm to ever become standard issue to a nation’s military.

It served faithfully in that role for nearly 75 years, and even though the M1911 was officially replaced in that role by the next gun on the list, it remains wildly popular with gun enthusiasts to this day, more than 100 years since its invention. And it’s one of my sentimental favorites as well; my very first firearms purchase was a Springfield Armory M1911-A1, and I’m quite fond of both my Springfield Mil-Spec and my genuine WWI-vintage Colt.

Beretta 92FS/M9 9mm

As previously indicated, this was the gun that had the daunting task that of succeeding the M1911 as the official sidearm of the U.S. military, and in 1984 the Beretta 92F/M9 did precisely that, in turn fulfilling the role for 33 years — saw combat in Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan along the way — before giving way to the SIG M17. This pistol gained further credibility after being adopted by LAPD and the L.A. Sheriff’s Department as well as numerous other domestic law enforcement agencies. In retrospect, that’s not surprising in light of the fact that Beretta is the world’s oldest industrial firm of any kind, dating back to 1526, so you gotta figure they know what they’re doing.

What’s more, two renowned firearms industry experts who are both known as hardcore M1911 aficionados, Ken Hackathorn and gunsmith Bill Wilson, have gone on record lavishing praise on the Beretta, with the former deeming it “the most reliable handgun I ever used” and the latter stating that “I shoot it just as well as the 1911.”

From a personal standpoint, as I’ve written several times before, the Beretta 92 was the very first pistol I fell in love with – strictly platonically speaking of course – back at the tender age of 14.

Browning Hi-Power P-35 9mm

Another one of John Browning’s top three most enduring inventions (the third being the M2 “Ma Deuce” .50 caliber machine gun). Though alas, Mr. Browning passed away in 1926 before this particular project was perfected, so the proverbial torch was passed on to Belgian gun designer Monsieur Dieudonné Saive, who saw the pistol through to completion in 1935, hence the P-35 designation. With its 13 + 1 standard ammo capacity, the BHP was the first of the “Wondernines,” i.e. high-capacity double-stack 9mm autoloaders; indeed, the “Hi-Power” designation refers to the ammunition capacity and not the ballistic power of the caliber in which the pistol was chambered.

The “Grande Puissance” spent several decades as the most widely used military, police, and counterterrorist pistol in the world, with its list of users including the elite British Special Air Service (SAS) and the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). That’s credentials!

I purchased my own 1967 vintage BHP as a birthday present to myself back in 2007. With roughly 4,000 rounds through it, it’s been a fine shooter.

Glock 17 9mm

Here we go again. The most reliable and durable handgun ever made: a service life in excess of 250,000 rounds; going 10,000 jam-free rounds without a cleaning; Tenifer finish that’s more rust-resistant than stainless steel; continuing to function after being dropped out of a helicopter at an altitude of 400 feet; working after being frozen in a solid block of ice, etc. The pistol that, upon its debut in 1982, established the credibility of polymer-framed and striker-fired pistols and paved the way for their eventual dominance of the U.S. private citizen and law enforcement market.

My own Glock 17 has given me superb performance over the course of 19 years and 20,000 rounds. ‘Nuff said.

Ruger Standard .22 LR

Hey, I had to include at least one rimfire pistol on the list for the sake of “equal time,” right?

The Ruger Standard is to .22 Long Rifle (LR) rimfire semiauto pistols what the M1911 and Browning Hi-Power 9mm are to centerfire semiautomatic combat handguns, i.e. the gold standard against which all competing makes & models must be judged. Back in 1949, this pistol launched the careers of the late great Bill Ruger (1916-2002) and Alex Sturm (1923-1951) and their eponymous Sturm, Ruger & Co, which is now one of the giants of the American firearms industry.

Like the 1911 and BHP, M1911 and the BHP, the Ruger .22 autopistol has proven itself highly adaptable through the decades, spawning many variants and lending itself to a myriad of customizations.

And this gun hasn’t served as a mere plinker and paper-puncher either: suppressed (“silenced”) editions of the pistol were actually used by U.S. Army Special Forces AKA “Green Berets” for stealthy kills against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army (NVA) sentries during the Vietnam War.

Shockingly, this is the only pistol on the list which I don’t own! That said, I recently did a live-fire range review of the current and most refined variant, the Ruger Mk IV, and found it to be a very pleasant experience.

Hit Or Miss?

Okay, agree or disagree? For any fans of SIG Sauer pistols, Smith & Wesson auto pistols, the CZ-75 (that one just barely missed the cut, to be honest), Heckler & Koch (HK), Walther, etc. go ahead and unleash your rage at us in the Comments section.

Bonus: Glock Gun Photo Essay

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MORE: Why the U.S. Navy Tried to Sink Their Own Aircraft Carrier

Expert Author Biography: Christian D. Orr has 33 years of shooting experience, starting at the tender age of 14. His marksmanship accomplishments include: the Air Force Small Arms Ribbon w/one device (for M16A2 rifle and M9 pistol); Pistol Expert Ratings from U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP), Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP); multiple medals and trophies via the Glock Sport Shooting Foundation (GSSF) and the Nevada Police & Fires Games (NPAF). Chris has been an NRA Certified Basic Pistol Instructor since 2011. In his spare time, he enjoys (besides shooting, obviously) dining out, cigars, Irish and British pubs, travel, USC Trojans college football, and Washington DC professional sports.

No matter how much deer hunters prepare and strategize, often success comes down to one simple tenet: be in the right place at the right time.

Perhaps this is no more evident than when hunting during the rut, when deer travel patterns become unpredictable and, to many, downright mysterious. Luke Brewster of Bristow, Virginia, had only a few years of bowhunting experience under his belt, but he knew that when hamstrung with limited hunting time, the rut is when you need to be on stand as much as possible.

On Nov. 1, 2018, Brewster pointed his pickup west and drove 10 hours from his home in Virginia to Edgar County, Illinois, to hunt a piece of land owned by his father, Jim Brewster. There the Marine Corps veteran met up with three other hunters, locals who had permission to hunt the Brewster property. All three are veteran bowhunters who had been mentoring Luke on the finer points of successful stick-and-string hunting. Brothers Brent and Justin Cearlock and Ron Wagoner also do most of the hunting grunt work like putting in and maintaining food plots, hanging stands and using game cameras to monitor deer on the property.

The primo buck that all of the hunters were after had been nicknamed Mufasa, or the Lion King, by Wagoner. The group had been collecting photos of Mufasa for five years, watching the buckxe2x80x99s rack metamorphosize from a huge typical to a jaw-dropping, nontypical structure. It turns out that this isnxe2x80x99t all that uncommon among mature bucks.

xe2x80x9cIn general, bucks do produce more nontypical points as they age,xe2x80x9d said Dr. Grant Woods, a well-known deer biologist. xe2x80x9cMost bucks Ixe2x80x99ve followed through research or on trail cameras for my personal hunting have an antler configuration that includes more nontypical points as they mature. This may be due to genetics, injuries, etc.xe2x80x9d

Whatever the reason, Mufasaxe2x80x99s antlers reached to the sky, stretching out into a freaky configuration that included several thick droptines. The morning of Nov. 2, 2018, Brewster climbed into a treestand situated next to a popular doe bedding area. His morning hunt was uneventful, with only a few does spotted. That afternoon, Brewster had to move to a stand farther south to give another hunter a crack at bagging Mufasa in the area where the buck had spent considerable time, based on game camera photos. His stand for the second half of the day was in a creek bottom deer travel route, with a heavily hit scrape a mere 26 yards away. As a soft rain fell, Brewster looked to the east and saw a doe bound off, frightened by some unknown danger. A moment later, Mufasa appeared to freshen the scrape. Brewster released an arrow at the monster buck and drew blood, then waited half an hour to trail his wounded prey.

Finding half of the arrow slathered in blood, Brewster surmised that hexe2x80x99d done lethal damage to the deer. He followed a short blood trail to the new world nontypical record. Upon inspecting the rack, Brewster noticed a fresh break in the left antler and what appeared to be a missing portion of bone. Sure enough, after retracing the blood trail, he found the other part of the left antler, broken off when the wounded buck ran into a tree. Due to a new rule instituted by the Pope & Young Club in 2016, Brewster was able to count the broken portion of the rack in the overall measurement.

xe2x80x9cIt is up to the decision of the measurers, but if a broken portion of antlers matches up perfectly to the rack, it can be included in the measurement,xe2x80x9d said Rick Mowery, communications and marketing manager for Pope & Young. xe2x80x9cBut it has to match up perfectly, like you often find when gluing back together a broken jar or pottery.xe2x80x9d

The broken droptine would have reduced the overall measurement by about 20 inches. While it still would have been a new world record nontypical harvested by a hunter, being able to include it in the overall measurement of 327-7/8 inches and 39 points means it far surpasses the next-largest hunter-harvested nontypical whitetail, a 47-point, 312-inch buck taken by Stephen Tucker with a muzzleloader in Sumner County, Tennessee, in 2016. The Brewster buck blows the doors off the previous Pope & Young record, a 294-inch, 39-point nontypical bagged by Michael Beatty in 2000 in Greene County, Ohio.

Brewsterxe2x80x99s success proves that all of the time and effort spent planning a hunt, capturing photos of mature bucks and studying deer movements mean little if youxe2x80x99re not in the right place at the right time. Thankfully Brewster was, and this victor will forever enjoy the spoils.

_________________

I’ve hunted from stands 30 feet in the air.

I’ve hunted from stands 8 feet off the ground.

Both were precisely the right height for where they were positioned. How’s that possible?

Hanging a treestand at the “right height” is not an exact science. It’s something that changes depending on many variables, including the height of available trees in the area and density of surrounding foliage.

That 30-foot-high stand was in a stand of tulip poplars the resident deer were cutting through each evening to head to an adjacent crop field. All the trees were mature poplars, which means the woods looked like a collection of telephone poles, with very little ground foliage.

To get out of the deer’s line of sight, I had to go high. Otherwise, I would have stuck out like a sore thumb at, say, 15 or even 20 feet. My goal was to be able to allow does to pass within 10 yards of my tree as I waited for the bucks to show at the end of the evening migration.

Had I been lower and a wary old doe busted me, my hunt basically would have been over right there. There were no low branches to hide among, so my only option for cover was to go up. And it worked. I arrowed a nice 8-pointer after several sits in my sky-high perch.

Conversely, the 8-foot-high stand was situated in a skinny little tree that stood only about 25 feet tall in the middle of a swamp. It was the only tree within shooting distance of the main deer trail that offered any sizable trunk for holding a hang-on stand. But 8 feet off the ground was as high as I could go before the tree really started tapering down and the branches started growing really close together.

The 8-foot boost, however, gave me just the right amount of lift to see over the surrounding cattails. I knew a deer was coming long before it got within bow range, which allowed me plenty of time to get ready for a shot or to freeze, depending on if the approaching deer was a shooter or not.

And quite honestly, while the deer coming through my poplar woods always seemed to be scanning for danger, the dense ground vegetation of the swamp seemed to make those deer feel very comfortable. They never looked up at my tree, and as long as my wind was right, I never once got busted in that stand.

I never had the right deer come by my swamp setup, unfortunately, so I never shot a deer from it. But I sure passed a lot of deer that I easily could have shot.

The moral of the story is, you hang your stand to suit the conditions surrounding it. Do what it takes, as the saying goes.

Having said that, if you take special circumstances out of the equation, and suppose that I am hunting a basic, normal woodlot, I like my stands to be 20-25 feet high – favoring 25 feet over 20. Why? That just seems to be the height where it’s easiest to avoid detection by deer on the ground.

I hang those stands as high as I do to not shoot deer. If my plan was to shoot the first deer that walked up, then stand height would be irrelevant. But I believe you have to think about not shooting deer. You have to consider that the deer you want to shoot might be the fifth, 10th, 15th, etc. deer to walk by your stand. And that means you have to avoid detection by the first four, nine, 14, etc. deer.

From experience hunting eastern hardwoods like we have in my home state of Pennsylvania, I’ve found it’s very hard to escape a deer’s eyes and nose when I’m under 20 feet. Even when I freeze like a statue while hugging the tree to minimize my silhouette, I’ve had deer peg me at 15 feet or so. Add another 10 feet, though, and I can get away with almost anything.

Be aware, the higher you hang a treestand, the more you need to think about shot angles. A 10-yard shot while you’re 12 feet in the air is nearly perfectly broadside. A 10-yard shot from 25 feet up is nearly straight down. You have to think about where to place your arrow to hit as much of the vital area as possible.

Ideally, you want to put a hole in both lungs. Well, from 25 feet up shooting at a broadside deer 10 yards out, you’re probably going to have to aim a little below the spine on the side of the deer closest to you. That should allow you to hit the close lung and then catch the far lung as the arrow slices diagonally through the chest cavity, exiting the bottom of the deer’s body on the opposite side.

Still, some people don’t like heights. Or they don’t like taking steep shot angles. So maybe you want to hang a stand at 12 or 15 feet. That’s okay, so long as you have cover. Put your stand in the middle of some branches to break your silhouette. One of my favorite tricks is to find several trees growing close together and hang my stand in the middle of them to help with concealment.

So in conclusion, the best height to hang your treestand for hunting whitetails is whatever suits the environment you’re hunting in, and whatever you feel comfortable with. It’s really that simple.

Few things in fishing are more exciting than watching a muskie suddenly appear like a great white shark stalking your surface lure. It’s even more heart-stopping when the monster opens its mouth and engulfs it. Unfortunately, many muskie anglers are of the mistaken belief that, while thrilling to use, topwater lures are low-percentage options and highly situational.

Not so, says renowned Ottawa River muskie guide John Anderson, legendary muskie guru Dick Pearson, and Lake of the Woods muskie stalker Darcy Cox. There’s almost never a time, nor a situation, when the trio won’t throw a surface bait. It’s why they’re topwater trendsetters.

“If an angler only threw surface baits, they would catch fewer fish, but they would be much bigger,” says Anderson, who owns the Ottawa River Muskie Factory. Pearson, on the other hand, has seen it all during his time on the water, pioneering muskie tactics through the heydays of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. He attributes much of today’s topwater skepticism to times past, when lure selection was limited and hooking percentage poor.

“Many in my era tried it, but quit,” Pearson says. “I can remember having multiple blow-ups and losing fish after fish on early versions of the Mud Puppy and Arbogast Muskie Jitterbug. Today, however, I haven’t found a surface bait I don’t like. The variety is amazing.”

Cox, ironically, fell head over heels for surface lures, taking the fast lane to the top of the water column after reading an article penned by Pearson in In-Fisherman magazine. “It opened my eyes as to how versatile topwater lures can be for muskies,” says Cox, whose Tank Industry Guide Service has a waiting list of guests. “I was throwing Globes in 2-foot waves and using prop baits and walk-the-dog-style surface lures in sunny conditions, which is counter to what we’re taught. I think the word is getting out now, as more muskie anglers are discovering how deadly surface baits can be.”

THE ULTIMATE EDGE

“My transition to taking muskies on topwater was gradual,” recalls Pearson, who’s also an avid hunter. “I began looking at muskies the same way I look at whitetail deer — as creatures of edges. That’s when the importance of the surface became more apparent. I regard it now as the ultimate edge. The place where two worlds collide. The place where oxygen, temperature, wind, sound, and visibility have their greatest variations and consequences.

“There were eureka moments, as well,” he says. “The first evening I ever threw a Top Raider, for instance, I boated four nice fish. Another time, in the 1980s, I threw the first Jackpots in rollers on Lac Seul and boated five big muskies in one day.” While Anderson, Pearson, and Cox won’t hesitate to present a surface bait around any piece of structure or cover, or in any weather or water conditions, they concede that they’ve isolated a range of locations and conditions where the lures excel.

“Project Noble Beast is my bible,” Anderson says, referring to Sean Landsman’s groundbreaking telemetry research on the Ottawa River. “It showed how devoted muskies are throughout the season to specific shallow structures like rocky shoals and dense weedbeds. When you understand how dedicated the fish are to specific locations, you realize why you need to enter waypoints on every spot you raise a big fish.

“You can make a living casting topwaters at sunset. I use them in the morning, as well, but the evening is universally more productive, especially in July and August. Throwing topwaters at sunset in mid-summer is a great big-fish strategy,” he says.

Spotting shallow cover, especially associated with vegetation, also persuades Cox to drop whatever rod he’s holding and quickly grab one rigged with a topwater lure. “I’ve found that surface baits work well on sunny, warm days immediately following a cold front,” he says. “I often find muskies in as little as 6 inches of water during the warm-up. They don’t want to go out deep to chase food.

“The first couple of weeks after the muskie season opens is a great time to use topwaters. Fish are shallow, soaking up the heat, so a topwater is the perfect lure to use where the fish feel most comfortable.” Pearson agrees. “In summer, calm, warm mornings and evenings are best around shallow structures with submergent vegetation and reeds,” he says.

“But topwaters are often my bait of choice on Opening Day, as well. Warming water is much better, in my opinion, than cooling water.”

GOOD VIBRATIONS

Listen to Anderson, Pearson, and Cox talk about topwaters and you frequently hear about noise, vibration, and water displacement. “Part of the collision factor I mentioned earlier,” Pearson says, “are noise and visual disturbance. It’s like an escaping mouse triggering a cat. Sound is very important. You’re tickling their lateral lines with good vibrations.

“The deep pop produced by a Fat Bastard in the wind may be key one time, while a light pop, or as I like to say, the pitter-patter of little feet, works better another time. In a walk-the-dog-style bait, a Jackpot may work, but then the whoosh of a Weagle outfishes it. Similarly, I’ve seen times when tinkling a flaptail is unbeatable and then, for no reason, the waddling plop-plop of a Creeper shines. You have to think about the different sound options and vary them regularly.”

While Cox also pays attention to the different sounds surface baits make, he’s even more fixated on their vibrations, likening the pulse patterns to the big double-bladed bucktails that have taken the muskie world by storm. “The bigger the vibration radius, the more muskies you can call in with a surface bait,” Cox says. “That’s why #10 bucktails changed the game. Nothing matches their ‘call radius.’ It’s the same with topwater baits.

“Sometimes, however, a call radius isn’t required. If you’re casting to a spot where you know a muskie is positioned, the silent treatment may entice a fish that’s wary of the unnatural clatter from rattles. That’s why I tend to throw noisy topwaters when I’m searching for muskies, switching to quieter surface baits when I return to a fish I raised earlier, or when working high-percentage water.”

Anderson, on the other hand, believes that fish in general, and muskies in particular, pattern sound more easily than they do sight. And he’s convinced it extends beyond the timbre or tone of your lure, to include things like your electric trolling motor and sonar.

“I was involved in a sturgeon tagging study on the St. Lawrence River, and we couldn’t approach a tagged fish when the water pump was running,” Anderson says. “It wasn’t noisy, but it had a distinct resonance that the biologist in charge of the study said the fish had learned to identify. As soon as we turned off the pump, we could drive right up to them.”

After being involved in that project and studying how muskies react to various surface sounds, Anderson is convinced that they’ve become conditioned to avoid many popular lures. “I’m throwing much bigger surface lures these days,” he says. “Lures like the Big Mama, Dirdy B, and Twisted Sis’tr offer a larger visual profile, but beyond that, they make a different noise and throw more water. The Top Raider is a great lure, but most muskies have seen and heard it so many times I’m certain they’ve learned to avoid it.”

FAST & ERRATIC OR SLOW & STRAIGHT?

This also applies to walker-style lures. Anderson says you typically raise more fish with lures that sashay back and forth erratically, but you put more in the boat with baits that run straight ahead. “Muskies don’t miss topwater lures by mistake,” he says. “It’s never an accident. So, if you’re seeing fish, or having them boil on your bait, it’s because you’re doing something they don’t want you to do. Usually it’s the speed of your retrieve.

“Most muskie anglers have two retrieve speeds: fast and really fast. I have so many people in the boat with me each season that I get to study them carefully. It has taught me that retrieving surface baits slowly is essential most of the time. I typically crawl them along, retrieving them ever slower, certainly slower than other lure types.”

While Cox differs slightly from Anderson in his fondness for walk-the-dog style topwaters, he agrees that a lingering retrieve is almost always better than a rapid one. “Walk-the-dog-style topwaters are slow-moving lures,” Cox says. “You want to make them act wounded. They’re in the right position above the fishes’ heads so they can see them from different depths and directions. A lazy muskie can cruise up, slowly make the decision to eat, then attack with minimal effort and a high chance of success.”

GO FIGURE

No lure is perfect, and while surface baits come with little baggage, they’re not without warts. The biggest is when you spot a muskie trailing your lure. Surface lures are the most difficult to work at the side of the boat when you’re trying to entice a reluctant fish to bite.

“If I spot a muskie following my surface bait, I try to duck down and hide,” Pearson says. “I change the retrieve speed if time permits. I also move my rod tip and try to change the lure’s direction. But usually you’re faced with two choices: Either stop the lure in its tracks, or take it under and go into a figure-eight or circle.

“Stopping works, although most muskie anglers are hesitant to try it. I have film of me catching a 50-inch fish after stopping a walk-the-dog style topwater. You can see the fish rise up slowly and take it down like a bobber. If I go into a figure-eight, however, I almost always pull the topwater under, hoping that I can continue its action and in doing so, create a trail of bubbles.”

TOPWATER ACES UP THEIR SLEEVES

Being smitten with surface baits means Anderson, Pearson, and Cox have their fair share of aces up their sleeves. Pearson, for example, likes walker-style lures over deep water whenever he spots suspended balls of bait, especially ciscoes, in the upper part of the water column. And he won’t hesitate to fish these lures in rollers when a storm is approaching.

Anderson, however, rarely leads with a surface bait, typically starting each day with muskie-size jerkbait, glidebait, softbait, or bladebait. “But if I can’t seal the deal, I use a surface lure,” he says. “They’re the best clean-up bait you can tie on.”

Cox likes to fish the most unlikely spots, a foot or less of clear water, at the most dubious time, mid-day, under bright sun. “On opening day last year, I was sight-fishing on a sandflat in one foot of water when I spotted a gorgeous muskie,” he says. “My guest made a cast and the wake was Godzilla-like. The strike on the figure-eight was classic, and the ensuing fight a masterpiece. The fish measured 51.5 inches and we watched the whole show, from start to finish, on a flat-calm, blue-sky, sunny day. You have to love throwing surface baits for muskies.”

*In-Fisherman Field Editor Gord Pyzer is a former Ontario natural resource manager and National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame inductee. He lives in Kenora, Ontario.

There are clothing items and den items in Animal Jam that can only be obtained during certain events in the game. The Sheep Cloak is one of those items. It was released on January 20, 2017, and was obtainable as a gift for completing the Message In A Bottle event.

The Message In A Bottle event started on October 27, 2016, and lasted until January 20, 2017. If you managed to partake in the event between those dates, and complete it, you had a chance to obtain amazing prizes. On the last day of the event, the Sheep Cloak was rewarded to those that completed it. This means that you only had a day to obtain it, making it extremely rare.

Sheep Cloak Appearance

The Sheep Cloak almost looks like a giant ball of sheep fleece. There are curls all around it, and when you put it on your animal, it will look like a ball of fur. The cloak is definitely puffier and larger than you would expect. There are two variants available; the regular grey/white one, and a glitched, full magenta variant. This is what the regular Sheep Cloak looks like.

Glitched Sheep Cloak – Magenta

If you completed the Message In A Bottle event within the first hour of release, the Sheep Cloak you would receive would be glitched. The glitched version is full magenta, instead of the regular grey/white. You can see what the glitched variant looks like in the picture below.

How to Get a Sheep Cloak in Animal Jam

There is currently only one way to obtain the Sheep Cloak, which is by trading. This method will take a lot of patience, and will require you to offer up your own valuable items, but it works! It is no longer possible to obtain the Sheep Cloak by completing the Message In A Bottle event.

Trading

The Sheep Cloak is currently valued extremely high. You will not be able to persuade a trader to put up their Sheep Cloak against your regular items. On several Animal Jam trading forums, you will find players asking for a Sheep Cloak, but traders comment that their offers are far too low.

If you are a collector on Animal Jam, you probably have valuable items of your own. Offering up those items for the Sheep Cloak is your only way to even get a chance of obtaining one. Keep in mind that, while the cloak is extremely valuable, it is not worth it losing all your items over. You will always get a chance to obtain it. However, it will just take a lot of time, as well as patience.

AJ Sheep Cloak Codes

There are currently no working codes for the Sheep Cloak, and there probably never will be any. If you weren’t around for the Message In A Bottle event, and you are not willing to trade for it, you will not have a chance to ever obtaining one for yourself. Any website claiming they have working codes for the Sheep Cloak is out to scam you, and you should stay far away from them!

Spring is in the air here in Maine. Spring chic’s, piglets and turkeys are starting to be come available at local farm supply stores. I thought I would check in with Harris Turkey Farm to see what it takes to raise my own turkeys. Here’s what they had to say.

We buy our turkey poults at one day old. If you are looking to raise a few of your own turkeys here are a few things to keep in mind to grow a healthy flock.

• You should buy poults from a flock that has been tested free of diseases. Ask if the hatchery or farm has been NPIP tested. This voluntary program helps ensure the flock is free of 2 types of Salmonella infections.
• Keep them babies warm!!! We can’t stress this enough, the first week of life they need to be 95 degrees. If they are too cold, they will pile up together and suffocate. If you are using a heat lamp, make sure it is secure. Many house, barn, garage, and shed fires happen every year from heat lamps that are not secured properly. As they grow, you can decrease the heat by 5 degrees each week. Remember to check the temperature at their level.
• Provide 24 hour access to food and water, and have enough space to all eat at once. If there isn’t enough space, the less aggressive birds will eat smaller amounts and not grow as well. Only use watering containers they CANNOT get into. Turkey poults don’t swim! If they get wet, they will be chilled and may die.
• Not all food is created equal, turkeys need a high protein and energy food with balanced vitamins and minerals. As babies, do not feed them any food other than what is designed for them. No table scraps, no sunflower seeds, no scratch feed. You can supplement their diet when they get older. We use and recommend Blue Seal feeds.
• When is the best time to get your poults? That depends on how big you want them. For Thanksgiving, we raise broad breasted whites for 13-15 weeks. The toms (males) will be 20 +/- pounds and the hens (females) will be around 13-16 pounds. If you want a larger turkey, plan to raise them for 16-18 weeks. A tom that is 22 weeks old, could be 40 pounds dressed at Thanksgiving!!! You had better plan for some left overs. Heritage breeds will take 5-6 months to reach 15 pounds.
• The best dressed award goes to… You! You don’t have to process/butcher the birds yourself, but there aren’t too many places that offer turkey processing the week of Thanksgiving. We do not process turkeys for other people for biosecurity reasons, and our state licensing doesn’t allow us to do that.
• Only allow poults to access the outdoors when they have primary and secondary feathers (usually 3 weeks.) Don’t kiss your poults, they can carry bacteria and viruses that don’t affect them, but can cause you to get sick. Be sure to wash your hands after handling them and filling their feeders and watering containers.
• You need to provide 1-2 square feet/bird for young poults. As adults, if you choose to raise them in an enclosed building, they need 4-5 square feet per bird.

We are not veterinarians, but have plenty of experience. If you are unsure about something, send us an email and we will do our best to answer it or direct you to someone who can.

In the fall, as temperatures begin to drop, pumpkins and squash take all the glory, but let’s not forget about edible mushrooms, the ever-versatile bumper crop! While mushrooms can be found year-round, many varieties peak during the fall and winter. And with the average American consuming more than two pounds of edible mushrooms each year, we wanted to take a closer look at the top varieties.

Fun Fact: National Mushroom Day is October 15th each year!

Mushrooms are a staple ingredient in many of your favorite recipes across a variety of cultures. Out of approximately 14,000 known species of mushrooms, some are used for medicinal purposes, some can send you on a psychedelic journey, while others are delicious, healthy and edible additions to various cuisine. Even though mushrooms are grouped into the produce section at the grocery store, they technically aren’t plants. Mushrooms belong to the fungi kingdom and make their food by metabolizing dead or decaying matter. They reproduce by producing spores rather than seeds. Weird fact: mushrooms are actually more closely related in DNA to humans than to plants!

Edible Mushrooms – A Powerhouse of Nutrition

Edible Mushrooms pack a nutritional punch, making them a healthy addition to any diet. They’re high in fiber and low in fat and carbohydrates, while also being a significant source of vitamins A, C, B6, B12, and selenium. The Mushroom Council reminds us of this very unusual fact: mushrooms are the only veggie in the produce aisle that contains vitamin D!

Medicinal mushrooms have been used in Eastern medicine for thousands of years and are gaining popularity in other parts of the world. Often found in powder form, they can easily be added to smoothies, coffees, soups, etc. Different mushrooms have distinct health advantages: brain boosters, hormone balancers, antioxidant powerhouses, stress relievers, immune and energy boosters.

Long gone are the days where the lone button mushroom was the only grocery store mushroom variety available. While you can go foraging (safely!) for edible mushrooms, such as morels, or cultivate your own, you won’t need to look any further than your produce aisle for many varieties—from sweet to nutty-tasting, some even resemble the taste of lobster! Their versatility and meat-like texture (hello, portobello!) make them a popular culinary staple. Even the strangest-looking fungi—and they can get weird-looking—make a surprising and tasty addition to many meals.

Top 10 Mushroom Varieties To Try

Check out this list for a quick run-down of the more common edible mushrooms and how to include them in your cooking.

1. Button (White)

Ninety percent of mushrooms eaten are of this variety, and can easily be found at your local grocery store. With less culinary flair than the more exotic-looking mushrooms on the market, the simple button mushroom is anything but boring. This mild-tasting variety is easy to cook and adapts to the flavors of any dish. They can be eaten raw or cooked and are a popular addition to soups, stir-frys, salad, and or topped on pizzas. The easiest way to cook them is to simply saute them with a little oil.

Also called: table mushroom, common mushroom, white mushroom, or champignon de Paris.

2. Cremini (Italian Brown)

Cremini mushrooms are the brown strain cousin to the white button mushroom, just with darker, firmer, and more flavorful flesh of the white button mushroom. They are simply baby portobellos. While they have a more complex taste than the white button, the two mushrooms can be used interchangeably, and both are often widely used in savory and spicy dishes.

Also called: Italian mushroom, brown mushroom, baby portobello, or baby bella.

3. Portobello

The portobello mushroom is basically just a fully mature cremini. These dense and rich mushrooms are a staple in Italian cooking and their texture and taste make portobello an excellent meat replacement. Want a low-carb bread option? Portobello’s flat caps work well for a bun substitute. Their meaty texture also holds up well for grilling and stuffing.

Also called: portabello, portabella, Roman mushroom, field mushroom, or cappaellone.

4. Shiitake (Forest or Oak)

Shiitake mushrooms are native to East Asia, with 83% of them grown in Japan. In Japanese, shiitake means “oak fungus” where they can be found. They don an umbrella-shaped brown cap, which curl under slightly. Fresh shiitakes have a light woodsy flavor and aroma, while their dried version has a more intense umami flavor (the fifth taste, which is described as savory or meaty). You can cook with both fresh and dried shitake, however, the dried ones are more widely used. Shiitake mushrooms are low in calories, while also offering many vitamins, minerals, and health-promoting compounds to protect against cancer and inflammation and to boost your immune system. They have long been used in traditional Eastern medicine for boosting health and longevity.

Shiitake mushrooms’ distinct umami flavor is a great addition to vegetarian dishes. Often sold dried, they simply need to be soaked in hot water to soften before cooking. Saute shiitakes with greens and serve with a poached egg; add them to pasta dishes or stir-fries; make a flavorful soup, or roast them up for a crispy snack.

Also called: black forest, black winter, brown oak, Chinese black.

5. Oyster

Oyster mushrooms can be found growing on the sides of trees in the wild, however, most of these whitish and thin, fan-shaped mushrooms that you find in stores or on menus are most likely cultivated. First cultivated during World War I as a ration food, Oyster mushrooms carry a delicate aroma and subtle, savory anise flavor and are prized in many Japanese and Chinese dishes, such as soups, sauces, and stir-fries. More expensive than white button mushrooms, but less so than rarer mushrooms, such as morels, oysters require little prep work and can be eaten whole or chopped. While they can be eaten raw, cooking oyster mushrooms brings out their delicate flavor and gives it a unique velvety texture, making them the perfect addition to any barbeque (they are delicious marinated, and grilled).

Also called, tree oyster, angel’s wings, and abalone mushroom.

6. Porcini

One of the most prized mushrooms, porcini mushrooms are desired for their smooth texture and aromatic, woodsy flavor. They’re widely used in Italy and France and are referred to as cepes. Fresh porcini are beloved by gourmet chefs and are often sautéed and served as a side dish or added to risottos and pasta dishes. Fresh varieties are harder to come by in the United States, but dried ones can be restored by soaking them in hot water. Dried porcinis add rich flavor to broths and stews.

Also called: cepe, bolete, king bolete, Borowik, Polish mushroom.

7. Morel

One of the most prized edible mushrooms in the world, the morel’s honeycomb-shaped cap is distinct in appearance. Morel mushrooms are difficult to cultivate, so most morels served up in restaurants are harvested in the springtime from the wild—creating a multi-million dollar enterprise. Their rich flavor complements a wide range of dishes, and can often be found alongside meats or stuffed inside ravioli. This is one mushroom species that can’t be eaten raw—it needs to be cooked to neutralize its naturally occurring toxins. Read how to spot their poisonous lookalikes!

Also called: morchella.

8. Enoki (Snow Puff)

Enoki mushrooms feature distinct small, shiny white caps attached to thin stems. The wild types tend to be darker and shorter than their cultivated counterparts. Their crunch makes them a good raw option to top on salads. This species also cooks up well, making them a great addition to sauces, stir-fries, and soups.

Also called: Enokitake, futu, winter mushrooms, and winter fungus.

9. Chanterelle (Girolle)

This flashy yellow, trumpet-shaped mushroom is known for its unique peppery and fruity flavor. The chanterelle is difficult to cultivate, making it one of the most popular mushrooms picked in the wild. Considered a higher delicacy mushroom, cooking this fungus with fat, such as butter and cream, draws out its rich flavor, making it a great addition to sauces, soups, and soufflés.

Also called: Egg mushroom, Golden or yellow chanterelle, pfifferling.

10. Maitake

Resembling a head of cabbage with delicate, feathered edges, the maitake mushroom can be cultivated or found in the wild. The maitake mushroom grows at the base of trees and is native to North America, Europe, and China. It has been consumed for centuries in China and Japan; maitake means “dancing mushroom” in Japanese. Maitake can be found in-store or farmer’s markets in overlapping clusters, resembling a bird’s plumage. Thanks to its bird-like appearance, it is known as “hen-of-the-woods.” This earthy, peppery flavored mushroom is best served cooked with savory and salty flavors. Delicious in soups, stews, pasta dishes, ramen, sauces, and saute. It can also be found in a dietary form for your regular health regimen.

Also called: Hen-of-the-Wood, sheepshead mushroom, ram’s head, dancing mushroom.

Selecting Mushrooms

Whether foraging or purchasing cultivated mushrooms, select mushrooms that are firm, with a smooth appearance, void of any noticeable soft spots. The surface should be dry, but not dried out, and never moist or slimy. Once you get your mushrooms home, gently remove any excess dirt before storing but don’t wash them until you’re ready to eat them. And always rinse them whole, before slicing, as the exposed flesh will absorb water like a sponge.

Storing Mushrooms

Due to mushrooms’ high moisture content, they are very perishable. Store them in a container with good airflow to maximize air circulation without drying out the mushrooms. Wrap mushrooms in a paper towel and place them in an opened plastic or paper bag. Mushrooms should last in the fridge for a few days if properly stored. They can also be frozen or dried to increase shelf life.

Which Is Your Favorite Mushroom?

Which is your favorite? Not a fan? Tell us in the comments below!