Beretta’s APX Carry is the most recent version of the APX line of polymer-outline, striker-discharged guns. Like the APX Carry in measurements and having the equivalent particular body outline is the Beretta Nano, yet the two guns wander in clear and unobtrusive regards. In contrast to the Nano, the APX Carry has a slide-stop switch and furthermore an alternate grasp outline, slide, striker guide and spring, sights, and extractor. The two models are made in Beretta’s Gallatin, TN production line. Here you will get a complete review of the Beretta APX Carry as you read further.

Serialized and controlled, the hardened steel case outline contains the terminating component. It is removable from the hold outline, making cleaning and fix simpler than guns with shaped parts. You can likewise change to various shaded APX Carry or Nano grasp outlines for $39 MSRP and modify your hold outline—without gambling lasting adjustment to the controlled part.

The slide get-together has a nitride finish. Sights are steel development with a white spot out front and glare-lessening serrations on the back. The back sight has a positioning edge for solitary slide controls in a crisis and is float movable by hand in the wake of relaxing a setscrew. The two sights are effortlessly changed utilizing an Allen wrench and furthermore fit the Nano and Pico.

This gun is solidly made with more steel and thicker plastic than a few serious guns. The grasp outline is successfully finished with raised pyramids on the front and backstraps, and sandpaper-like creases on the sides to shield the gun from contorting in your grasp during withdraw.

Two cleaned, tempered steel magazines are provided. The six-rounder has a level floorplate and an additional pinky-rest floorplate is incorporated, while the eight-round magazine broadens the tallness around .5 inches and has a polymer neckline encompassing its base. The pinky-rest floorplate and the neckline have compelling, raised-pyramid finishing on their driving edges and give a full-hand hold to little and medium-sized hands, separately.

The magazines have observer gaps, however need numeric markings showing the staying round check. Completely stacked, both prompt addition and lock into place regardless of whether the activity is shut, which encourages strategic reloads. The six-rounder can be stacked with one extra round, however will possibly completely embed if the slide is aft. There’s an impulse to trim the magazine spring to permit addition with the activity shut, yet Beretta suggests against this in light of the fact that the abbreviated spring might be deficiently solid for dependable taking care of.

The striker is halfway tensioned when the slide is racked. Squeezing the trigger withdraws the rotating trigger tab, deactivates a striker obstruct inside the slide that keeps the terminating pin away from the groundwork, and completely cocks at that point delivers the striker. Striker squares are a standard element on self-loader guns, yet the APX Carry’s structure goes farther than most in two regards.

In the first place, as the trigger is squeezed, some portion of the striker square projects from the head of the slide as it is deactivated. This permits the administrator to check that it isn’t stuck in the deactivated position, which would be perilous. Second, on the grounds that the striker square juts marginally when the striker is de-cocked, it fills in as a positioning marker. The striker must be de-cocked before evacuating the slide to field strip the gun by squeezing the striker-deactivation button on the correct side of the grasp outline utilizing a little punch or ballpoint pen tip or squeezing the trigger.

The APX Carry was tried for precision utilizing two guarded and one practice load shot from rested blockades at 15 yards. In spite of the fact that this gun will never observe useful use from a bench rest, these tests affirm if the gun fires to purpose of-point and can help decide its ammunition inclinations as for precision. The littlest normal five-shot gathering of 1.69 inches was gotten from Black Hills’ 124-grain +P JHP, with the littlest single gathering of 1.2 inches originating from SIG Sauer’s P365 115-grain JHP. All heaps printed 2-3 creeps underneath purpose of-point when utilizing an inside hold sight picture, which can be adjusted by changing the front sight.

Extra capacity testing was led utilizing two extra loads. Working was incredible more than 400 rounds with the exception of a solitary inability to load one bullet of LTech ammo. Transferring the six-round magazine to seven didn’t make any stoppages, even with Blaser 147-grain loads with a level nose normal for 147-grain shots. The trigger draw estimated 6.3 pounds utilizing a Lyman electronic scale. The stroke is long, however noticeably smooth, moving roughly 5/8 inch before breaking at a point past 90 degrees to the dragline. There is no overtravel, and the trigger must be completely delivered to reset the component. The slide-stop switch and magazine discharge are open while not meddling with hold.

Remember when fishing seemed simple? When I think back to my days as a young angler, I often reflect on experiences fishing from shore. No area pond or reservoir was safe, provided I could somehow gain access, even if that meant sneaking in at night. The adventure still feels real. But I’m reminded of another aspect of those early forays: how many fish I caught.

True, most anglers have plugged from the bank for bass, and maybe caught a few bluegills along the way. But my teenage years were filled with bank-fishing trips for a bunch of species: walleyes, steelhead, pike, and even muskies in the right body of water. But today I want to talk about crappie fishing; these delectable panfish are fun to catch, and springtime is the prime time all over the country. Here are a few tips to put you well on your way to a great fish dinner, even if you don’t own a boat.

1. Fish Where They Live

OK, choosing the right spot is absolutely the most important factor in fishing from the shoreline. Unlike anglers in a boat, shore-bound anglers can’t move all over looking for fish. So it’s critical to get in front of crappies right off the bat. Always pick a shoreline with deep-water access, regardless of time of year. True, crappies go shallow in the spring, but even the shallow spawning areas usually have deep water close by. If you can find a place that offers a nice mix of shallow brush or cover (don’t forget about boat docks), with fairly deep water within casting range, you’ve got a winner. In reservoirs, think major creeks where the channel comes in. On natural lakes, try the outside areas of coves, or steeper shorelines. We’re looking for zones where schools of fish can migrate in and take up temporary residence. Those spots won’t be miles from the main lake.

(Don’t Miss: The 3 Best Lures for Catching a 10-Pound Bass)

2. Outfit Yourself Correctly

When fishing from a boat, a little, whippy ultralight rod will catch you some crappies. But when shore-bound, it’s important to increase your rod length. That will allow for longer casts, and the ability to keep your line up off the water (important when it’s windy). Step up to a 7-foot rod, minimum, and go even longer if you can. A 9-foot, light-power rod, capable of lobbing a float rig, is ideal.

I’m a big believer in braided line, even for crappies. Braids in diameters matching 4-pound mono are ideal, and incredibly strong. This light line allows for effortless casts, and it doesn’t coil up and jump off the spool of your reel. Match with a 6-pound monofilament leader at the business end, and rig everything on the mono. A quick tip: when choosing your braided mainline, don’t shy away from bright colors. They come in handy when watching your line for strikes from the shoreline.

(Don’t Miss: Best Lures for Crappie Fishing: Jigs vs. Minnows)

3. Keep it Simple

I never use live bait when crappie fishing from a boat. But when bank fishing, live minnows can save the day. Most of your fishing will be done soaking a bait for longer than you would from a boat, where the target of your casts is ever changing. Bank fishing is a bit less active, and sometimes the fish eye your presentation for a while before striking. A simple float rig, above a few split shots and a light-wire, long-shanked hook is ideal for bank fishing crappies. Try a slip-float if water depths are greater than about 4 feet, and vary your bait from the top to bottom of the water column.

As for artificial baits, it’s hard to beat a small twister-tail on an 1/8-ounce jighead, or a Beetle Spin. Little crankbaits catch a bunch of slabs, too, and a tube under a float can often keep up with minnows during a hot bite.

(Don’t Miss: 4 Rules of Early Spring Bass Fishing)

4. Try the Night Shift

Some of the best crappie fishing I have ever encountered happened at night, in the early spring, in the Midwest. Yes, it was cold. But that quickly was ignored as I reeled in slab after slab. One thing is for sure: crappies school up and move around quite a bit after dark. The best way to locate a school is to bring them to you through the use of a lantern. Riprap banks, causeways, and the faces of dams are great spots to try. Schools of fish will cruise these shorelines and stop around the edges of lights, one of which should be yours. There, they feed on the shiners and other bait attracted to the same glow. Here, the minnow rig prevails, placed just on the outside of the glowing beacon. Keep your bait high in the water column, and be prepared to wait at least an hour after sunset for the action to kick in. Sometimes, the fishing takes off at midnight, but, believe me, it’s worth it.

5. Wade

Savvy shoreline anglers sometimes have to take matters into their own hands, or feet. Wading can be the best way to access the places fish live. On lakes with decent bottoms and flat shorelines with ample brush, wade-fishing can be dynamite; even better than fishing from a boat. Wading is deadly silent, and it allows anglers to make perfect, effortless casts. Here, it’s best to go with the longest rod possible. In Florida, we often cane pole crappies with 12-footers, dipping right into the thickest cover. Tube jigs tied directly to braided line, without the use of a float, pay off. Be sure you know the water before diving in, and only carry a little gear. Don’t forget a stringer.

This spring, don’t get discouraged if you’re stuck on the shore without a boat. Crappie fishing from the bank can be extremely productive, resulting in some of the best eating fish of the season. Scout a bit ahead of time, and you might find a number of anglers just like you, taking it to the bank, and going home with full stringers.

(Don’t Miss: How to Catch a Trophy Crappie)

About a dozen years ago, I began to feel guilty about leaving gut piles behind in the woods after field dressing a whitetail. I was uncomfortable knowing my wife Elaine and I might be wasting edible items after butchering an animal. We first tried cooking the heart, which we found to be delicious. Then we tried liver, which smelled great when it was being cooked, but the taste was, well, not very appealing.

Our next experiment involved the tongue – rather I should say “my” experiment, as Elaine just couldn’t bring herself to try this organ. My reasoning was that in the 1800s, Americans regarded buffalo tongue as a delicacy, and it became a high dollar entrée in the country’s best restaurants. So, why wouldn’t a deer’s tongue prove to be equally scrumptious?

Several years ago, I crock-potted my first deer tongue and found it to be tough and unappetizing – thus ending the research on that potential menu item. But this past year, while reading about cooking animal organs, I discovered that mammal tongues are covered by a sheath that must be peeled off, which I had not done on my initial kitchen test.

Intrigued about trying tongue again, I again crock-potted this organ, removed the sheath, sliced it into small pieces, and ate it on brown bread with sharp cheddar cheese and mustard – the same way I prefer heart. The tongue was quite tasty, possessing a milder flavor than heart but nevertheless very appealing and featuring a somewhat light, delicate taste.

Experimenting again, I found that deer tongue, as the prime player, makes an excellent salad. I’ve included a recipe below.

First, for those deer hunters who like to experiment with the organs and various uncommon cuts of a whitetail, I have a few questions. If you can help, please comment below.

Ribs: Have you ever cooked venison ribs? How do you remove the ribs from the deer, and how do you prepare them?

Lungs: I’ve heard that deer lungs can be made as part of a haggis recipe. Has anyone tried this?

Bone marrow: Native Americans ate deer bone marrow. Does anyone still do that?

Kidneys: Thoughts?

Intestines: Many folks relish chitlins, which are fried hog intestines. Anyone ever tried doing that with a deer’s intestines?

Mystery Meat: Once, a widow who let me hunt on her land asked me to bring her a deer liver if I was successful, so I did. Later, she called to thank me for including the gall bladder because it also “cooked up nicely” as part of her meal of fried liver and onions. The problem is, deer don’t possess gall bladders. To this day I wonder, what was the organ this lady ate?

Thanks for any ideas you can offer, and here’s that recipe.

Deer Tongue Salad

In a crock pot, cook the tongue on high for three hours. I’ve removed the sheath immediately after cooking and also after refrigeration. I’ve found it works better to cook and then chill the tongue before removing the sheath.

On top of a bed of spinach, thinly slice the chilled tongue and add sharp cheddar cheese, black walnuts, cranberries, and slices of avocado – my favorite add-ons. Feel free to experiment with your favorite vegetables and cheeses, and let me know the results.

Tracy Schmidt | Originally published in GameKeepers: Farming for Wildlife Magazine. To subscribe, click here.

Health foods are all the rage these days, and none comes healthier than the pure-protein provided by white-tailed deer venison. Venison is low in fat, high in nutrients and packed with a whopping 44 grams of protein in one man-sized serving (six ounces). That’s more than half the daily recommended amount of protein for a healthy person.

Although pure, clean venison is the poster food for good health, it does come with some precautions. As with any meat, special care must be taken after your deer is down; during the butchering process; and, of course, in the kitchen. I’ll share my family’s best practices here.

A Few Words on CWD

No discussion on venison can occur in these modern times without first addressing the “Boone-and-Crockett class elephant” in the room: chronic wasting disease. CWD became a hot-button topic among Eastern deer hunters 14 years ago when the disease was discovered in free-ranging deer east of the Mississippi for the first time. It had been previously considered a Western deer disease (and elk and moose) confined to states like Wyoming and Colorado (where it was first identified in 1967).

The disease (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy – TSE) centers on abnormal brain proteins in deer which, when infected, always kill the animal. Human concern heightened when some scientists characterized the disease in the same category as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle (Mad Cow disease) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans.

Although BSE has been linked to increases in CJD, there are no known links between CWD and any increased cases of TSEs in humans. In fact, several scientific studies have concluded that there is most likely a species barrier between CWD in deer and TSEs in humans.

Should we worry about CWD in our venison? If you hunt in an area with known CWD infection rates, common sense only dictates that you would want to have your deer tested, which is fairly simple and cost effective. More importantly, you should follow some basic handling precautions after your deer is down:

1. Field-Dressing Know-How

There are two important parts of the field dressing process: keeping the deer from becoming contaminated from its own waste and keeping external contaminants from entering the body cavity of the deer while you are working with it. Make sure to use a sharp, clean blade and to wear elbow length gloves when field dressing your deer.

Just behind the breast bone, make an opening through the skin and muscles of the upper abdomen. Insert two fingers of your gloved hand into the body cavity and keep the knife up and slice the skin apart down to and around the anus, making sure not to puncture the stomach and intestines.

Contamination from contact with digestive tract contents not only will taste bad, but it can be contaminated with bacteria which can cause food-borne illness at the point of consumption if the meat is not properly handled or prepared. Remove the genitals of a male deer and discard them. Cut around the anus and tie it off then draw the intestine back through the canal between the rounds, into the body cavity and out and remove through the body cavity. Be mindful about keeping your knife clean while you work. Keep all removed internal organs from introducing contamination to the meat. Try to avoid contact with the brain, spinal cord, spleen and lymph nodes while field dressing your deer. Make sure you remove all the internal organs.

Roll the deer over to drain any excess blood before you drag it, but be careful what you roll it over onto. If you are removing the head, use a separate knife for that than you used for working with meat areas. This will help you avoid cross-contamination. Another thing to avoid is getting dirt and debris from the ground into your deer and a personal dislike of mine, hair.

When you are done working, clean your knives and equipment with a 50/50 solution of chlorine bleach and water. Soak your knife for an hour to make sure it is sterile.

2. Cool Your Deer

Hang your deer and prop open the body cavity with a stick. My husband and I believe that using a head-down position is better because it allows heat to rise from the chest cavity more quickly. Some old-timers have chastised us for doing so, claiming that blood will pool up in the upper thorax. We ignore such criticism because the majority of the prime venison comes from the hind quarters. The few scrap-pounds of venison that could potentially be spoiled in the neck/shoulder area is a risk were willing to take if given the choice, but you know what? We’ve never lost an ounce of meat by hanging our deer from the hind legs.

During the early archery season, we also pack our deer with bags of ice to help cool it down. To hang a deer head down, simply insert a stout stick or meat-hanging gambrel between the hock and the tendons. Make sure to skin the hock before you hang the deer if you are going to do so yourself. It is very easy to accidentally cut the tendon when making the first cuts around the hock. Doing so would cause the deer to fall down.

A shady spot where temperatures stay at or below forty to fifty degrees is best for storing for two to three days. If it is cooler than your refrigerator, your deer may hang for a bit longer. Hanging the deer in a walk-in cooler is ideal, but you may quarter the deer and put it into a chest freezer.

Thawing and refreezing fresh meat once will not affect meat quality. If you are taking your meat to a professional processor you are ready to load your deer and go. Just make sure not to tie the deer to your vehicle’s hood since the engine heat will hasten spoilage. Some will pull the carcass in a trailer or in a pick-up bed without covering the meat. This just serves to introduce road-grit to your meat.

3. Choose the Right Processor

When we don’t have time to cut up our own deer we take them to a professional butcher. We are lucky to have a local grocery store that processes deer. We know that the deer are kept in a walk-in cooler and that we will be getting our own deer back to eat. We like that it is processed in a commercial kitchen with its clean equipment and health inspections.

It is important to get your own deer back when you try to be so careful while field dressing. Not everyone is as careful, so if you don’t know that you’re getting your own venison back you are taking some big chances. Make sure to ask about that before you drop off your deer.

We are also very selective of when we take our deer to the processor. We usually drive the deer to the processor during non-peak hours like weekday mornings. This allows us to personally drag the deer into the cooler and talk one-on-one with the butcher. It’s just like anything else: If you get to know the person, they’re more likely to look out for you the next time you show up.

When you don’t have time to do your own butchering, look for a professional setup. You want a butcher who will make sure you get your own venison back.

When you go to a butcher shop, look for cleanliness in the work area. Tables should be stainless and the floor should be clean. Look for working sinks and clean equipment. Talk to the people who work in the butchering area if you are able to have access to them to find out how long they have been processing deer. Don’t be afraid to walk away. After all, this is the food you’ll be serving to your family. If you’re going to pay to have your deer butchered, it only makes sense to find the very best butcher in your local area.

4. Skinning Techniques

During clear, cold weather, you can let your deer hang for several days on the meat pole or from a tree limb. Just be sure to hang it high and keep the chest cavity protected from the elements (and critters). During warmer weather, you’ll want to get the skin off as quickly as possible to assist with the meat-cooling process. Deer can be skinned while hanging head up or head down. There are plenty of quality videos online that show proper techniques. We prefer the head-down (back feet first) method because it allows for the hide to come off cleaner and more quickly.

With a razor-sharp skinning knife, start by cutting circles through the hair and hide just below the dew claws on the back legs. Next, make incisions along the inside of each back leg, running them through the hide along the leg bone all the way to the deer’s anus. Peel back the hide on each legs and pull the hide down (almost like removing a stocking) until both sides are skinned all the way down to the deer’s rump.

From there, work the knife around the tail to free up the hide from the hind quarters. This will now allow you to pull the hide down the deer’s stomach and thoracic cavities in one motion (when the deer is still warm). It’s almost as easy as pulling off a sweatshirt if you’re working on a freshly killed deer. If the deer is cold and stiff, you’ll need to use your knife a bit to help loosen the tallow from the hide.

Keep working your knife and pulling the hide until you get all the way past the front shoulders and past the deer’s neck. Don’t stop short. Pull the hide all the way to the head if you can. A lot of people make the mistake of stopping short once they get past the front shoulders. Don’t do that, because there’s plenty of good grinding venison in the deer’s neck.

5: Butchering Tips

I admittedly was intimidated when I helped my husband butcher a deer for the first time. It’s certainly something I wasn’t exposed to while growing up in Natick, Massachusetts. But after those first few deer, I soon learned to enthusiastically embrace the job because this is where we ensure our final food product. The quality of the meat is totally dependent upon what we do during the butchering process.

Making meat from a carcass is really quite simple. Just break it down into working-sized pieces and then take your time processing it from there. For example, we start by reducing the deer to seven main pieces: two hindquarters, two back-straps, two shoulders and the neck. True, there can be meat in the ribs but this section of the deer is best utilized when you a) are working on a large buck, and b) the deer was in pristine shape when you field-dressed it. Translation: Don’t mess around with the ribs if there’s any chance stomach contents leaked out during the field-dressing process. It’s just not worth the health risks of possible cross-contamination.

The back-straps are easy to remove. Just fillet them off the backbone of the deer as you would fillet a fish. Use the knife to feel your way around the spine. Once you have worked the knife halfway down the back-strap, you can oftentimes pull it the rest of the way. You’ll get two forearm-sized “logs” of meat from the back-strap of an adult deer.

For the hindquarters, you needn’t use anything but a stout, sharp knife. No bone- saws are necessary. Just use your knife to separate the muscle groups. It’s easy if you take your time. You’ll end up with three nice muscle groups plus a few handfuls of shank meat. Use that for stew or stir fry. The bigger chunks can be divided into roasts or sliced (always against the grain) into steaks.

Front shoulder and neck meat is almost always used for venison stew, chili and grinding meat in our home. When given the time, I’ll tie a shoulder roast or two for the freezer. These are ideal for weekend dinners in late winter. (Shoulder roasts need to be slow-cooked on low heat.)

Conclusion

Field-dressing, skinning and butchering a deer for the first time is about as intimidating as changing your car’s oil for the first time. However, once you get over those irrational fears, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to roll up your sleeves, because there’s nothing more satisfying than providing your family with an entire dinner plate of food you’ve grown, hunted and prepared all by yourself. Venison provides that satisfaction…in spades.

• I tested a very, very well equipped 2020 Ram 1500 Rebel pickup truck, an off-road optimized version of the truck that captured our Car of the Year award in 2019.
• My Rebel had a potent 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine that serves up 260 horsepower but an earthshaking 480 pound-feet of torque.
• My tester also featured a menacing, blacked-out exterior package.
• The Ram 1500 is a great pickup, but the diesel Rebel is something special.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Here’s how the sequence usually goes for me when it comes to reviewing full-size pickup trucks. First, I sample the regular gas-powered version, and because I like big pickups, I often end up a happy guy. But then I spend some time with the diesel-engined model, and I forget all about the gas-burner.

Diesel and pickups! Two great tastes that go great together! A beautiful friendship!

Choose your cliché, but the bottom line is that diesel power, for obvious reasons, makes sense for large trucks — especially if you intend to do any sort of serious work, haul heavy loads, or tow more than a modest camper or trailer.

Ram makes a dandy full-size pickup. The Ram 1500 was Business Insider’s 2019 Car of the Year, and it was a vehicle that impressed us mightily when tested on both the East and West Coasts. But the diesel is even better if you can imagine improving on greatness, as I found out when I borrowed the 2020 edition of the pickup, in a handsome “Diamond Black Crystal Pearl-Coat” paint job, for a week over the summer.

Rebel, Rebel … I love you so!

And what a pickup it was! The Base Crew Cab 4×4 was $47,990, but many options — including the “Rebel Level 2” equipment group ($3,000) and a $5,000 diesel motor — brought my as-tested price to $71,305. A tech package that added heated seats and a heated steering wheel also tacked $3,000 on the sticker, and assorted other goodies embellished the Ram by $200 to $500 here and there.

But that’s the usual story full-size pickups, which are best thought of these days as nearly infinitely option-able, yielding some wide price ranges for the manufacturers that sell everything from bare-bones work trucks to luxurious half-tons.

Allow me to explain why I was testing the Ram 1500 in the first place: gardening! We sort of amped- p our summertime gardening game this year and had to make a journey of modest distance to a center in New Jersey that we’d heard about from our gardening underground.

An SUV wasn’t going to cut it; we needed a proper pickup with the proper bed. And as you can see from the photo above, we made good use of it.

The Ram 1500 I tested came with both a tonneau cover, which was easily folded back, and a bed-separator — a great feature that allowed me to divide the box into one area for heavy bags of soil and one for plants. Using the divider to create a spot for the plants close to the cab meant that I could return home at highway speed without worrying about the load shifting, and I didn’t have to employ the Ram 1500’s tie-down points.

The truck also had the useful RamBox “saddlebags,” a pair of lockable storage compartments at the bed’s flanks. I didn’t need them, but the feature does use the interior of the Ram 1500’s body panels to create some additional capacity, where otherwise an owner might be looking at a third-party setup to tote tools or gear.

Trading horsepower for torque, torque, and more torque

The 3.0-liter, turbodiesel V6 makes 260 horsepower but — get this — 480 pound-feet of torque.

That translates into monumental pulling power. The Rebel can tow more than 12,500 pounds, all while putting up some tasty fuel-economy numbers: 21 mpg in the city, 29 on the highway, and 24 combined. (Gas-engined trucks offer a 395-horsepower V8 and a 305-horsepower V6.)

The Ram’s eight-speed automatic handles all of that torque rather gracefully, piping it to the capable four-wheel-drive system. But it doesn’t alter the Rebel diesel’s demeanor, which put me in the mind of a small freight train when I was tooling down the highway.

The truck can go from a standstill to 60 mph in about eight seconds, and when you sum all this up, you see what the Rebel is all about: bold off-roading, an answer to the Ford F-150 Raptor.

The knobby Goodyear tires were a giveaway, but the overall packaging of my Rebel test truck suggested that one could apply the vehicle to a greater variety of tasks than just trail-busting — crammed as it was with infotainment tech, connectivity, premium appointments, and that dashing black paint job.

The blacked-out treatment went further than the paint: the $525 exterior package brought a black grille with black framing, a black Ram badge, and black 18-inch wheels.

As far as off-roading goes, I could point out that black shows dirt, but the Rebel looks so dang cool that I doubt it would stay dirty for long, if ever. This is a pickup that wants to pay frequent visits to the car wash.

Note, however, that there are textured running boards, making getting in and out of the lifted pickup much easier, but also making it possible to scrape mud off your boots before soiling the primo cab.

A high-end interior and a high-end verdict

The all-black exterior theme continues inside the Rebel, with plush front bucket seats and a comfy, capacious rear configuration. A dual-pane sunroof brightens the cabin considerably, but it’s a $1,500 extra.

My test truck was chock full o’ tech, starting with the 8.4-inch central touchscreen running Fiat Chrysler’s underrated Uconnect infotainment system. This setup handles everything from Bluetooth and USB device connectivity to GPS navigation (with USB ports dedicated to charging). I enjoyed the dulcet tones of a 19-speaker Harman-Kardon premium audio system and had Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in reserve.

The Ram 1500 was the best full-size pick we drove, off all the half-tons on the market, in the period from about 2015 until last year, when the new Ram grabbed top prize in our Car of Year competition.

I had no complaints about the gas-engined V8 I tested in 2019, but the diesel V6 was something special. If you aren’t driving fast all the time, you grow to love the succulent surge of torque that an awesome diesel produces, and the visual presentation of the Ram 1500 Rebel intensifies that impression.

Simply put, the Ram 1500 Rebel diesel is addictive to drive and addictive to look at, in a totally badass sort of way. I think it shook up the gardening center on that day I visited — Darth Vader unsettling the ‘burbs.

It’s worth pointing out that although the truck has attitude galore, it also gets the job done. This imitating pickup carried flowers and potting soil home, safely and it style. And that says more about the modern, full-size pickup truck world these days than just about anything else.

Cover photo courtesy of grandviewoutdoors.com

If you hunt whitetails, it should be no secret to you that whitetails communicate through scent they leave behind. Whether detecting danger, bucks seeking a breeding doe or a doe locating a hiding fawn, whitetail deer use scent for much of their survival and social interaction. Scraping behavior of whitetails, is one of the CHIEF ways whitetail bucks leave scent behind throughout the year.

Bucks work scrape’s overhanging branches, called a licking branch, throughout the year, often times more than they work the scrape itself. But their most aggressive scraping of these areas occur from October to December when testosterone levels are highest. When a whitetail buck makes a scrape he does so where there is an attractive branch hanging along a roadway, at the edge of a field, on a well-worn trail, or in a random area he’s walking through. In most cases a buck begins the scraping process by rubbing his forehead, preorbital, and nasal glands on the branch and in some cases will actually lick and chew on the overhanging branch. Once done, most bucks will paw the leaves and other debris from the ground under the branch, then urinate into the pawed-out earth.

Photo Courtesy of americanhunter.org

The process usually takes less than two minutes. During this time, however, a buck will leave liberal amounts of scent behind. Scraping, like rubbing, allows a buck to make his presence known. It’s a calling card of sorts; a post on a whitetail bulletin board. Research suggests that scraping is primarily a buck activity. Does have been known to work a scrape from time to time but they most frequently work the licking branch above the scrape. Bucks almost always work both.

Scrapes can be broken down into 3 different categories, though the names or classification of these are often debated. The are Boundary, Secondary and Primary Scrapes.

Boundary scrapes: Boundary scrapes are made by traveling bucks moving through his territory. These scrapes will show up along field edges, fence rows and roads that aren’t too busy.

Secondary scrapes: Secondary scrapes are made my bucks as more of an impulse. These are far more random and a result of the buck “feeling the need” to make a scrape. Call it impulse, hormones or whatever you’d like but these scrapes are less frequent, spiritic and typically not a good target for hunting over.

Primary scrapes: These are the scrapes that hunters need to target. These scrapes are the epitome of whitetail scrapes, with some having the potential of becoming very attractive to whitetail bucks. These scrapes can be found in strategic locations—inside corners of agriculture fields, ridge lines, pinch points and especially along well-worn trails between bedding and feeding areas during the rut. Find these primary scrapes and hang a stand!

Bucks work licking branches 365 days to leave their scent, scraping behavior peaks during the 30 day window leading up to peak rut, especially during the last 10 days. Once breeding kicks in scraping behavior drops off drastically. Scraping will continue during the post rut but at a significantly lower rate than occurs leading up to that point.

The story of kangaroos being released into the Wyoming landscape fooled just about everyone.

On April 1, County10.com announced that the Wyoming Wild Game Department had “released the first of five planned batches of 90 Antilopine Kangaroos into the Wyoming outdoors.”

Project Sage Hopper, as it was dubbed, was meant to increase wildlife-viewing opportunities, while also providing greater hunting options for outdoorsmen and women. The well-written piece had plenty of quotable lines from wildlife officials, as well as links to all of the proper wildlife agencies.

The trouble with the story was that it was a hoax! A wonderful, convincing, magnificent hoax.

The story spread like wildfire across social media, with seemingly only a few astute readers catching onto the chicanery. The majority of people, from all of the comments I read on the various repostings of the story, seemed to have swallowed the tale hook, line and sinker.

Many folks expressed their confusion. “Why would they do this?” they asked.

More expressed their outrage and disgust with the wildlife agencies allegedly responsible for introducing a non-native species into the Wyoming environment.

I shared the story on my own page, Stumpjack Outdoors, and had to actually delete a couple of comments because they were over the top in the vulgarity and passionate anger they expressed.

Some folks decried Project Sage Hopper with declarations that the WWGD’s release of the first 90 kangaroos would surely destroy native animal populations, while others heralded the increased hunting opportunities that would result. Others wondered aloud whether or not the meat from the marsupials would be edible or how they would adapt to the harsh Wyoming winters.

It was truly a convincing hoax. My own wife paused as she read the article, being taken in for a moment. It was gloriously clever.

But alas, the pictures shown in the piece were not of kangaroos being released as part of a Wyoming migration initiative. They were of mule deer, with the featured image being photoshopped to show a kangaroo bounding away instead of an actual collared mule deer:

If people were sold on much of the content of the article a tip-off to the phoniness of it should have been in a final sentence, where the author declared that “A short-list for future proposed introductions include the koala, wallaby and the endangered Tasmanian Devil.”

If you were fortunate enough to also see a follow-up piece published later the same day by The Brine Shrimp, you would have read how the ill-mannered kangaroos were already wreaking havoc with the local population. The roos were allegedly engaged in drunken acts of vandalism, breaking and entering and other acts of mayhem.

The report stated:

Jed Cummings, a Coalville resident said “I went outside today to go to work and noticed broken glass on the ground by my truck. The kangaroos stole a few CDS from my collection. They were pretty selective about what they took. Men at Work, Midnight Oil, AC-DC, Keith Urban, Olivia Newton John and Crowded House CDs. They only took CDs made by Australian bands. That’s when I knew it was the damn kangaroos!”

It makes me smile to think of how beautifully conceived and executed this truly “fake news” piece was. It should make you smile too, even it temporarily fooled you.

Well done and hats off to whoever created this brilliant hoax.

Happy April Fools Day!

Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his Facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.

NEXT: RACCOON WILL CLEAN YOUR HOUSE FOR TREATS

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