Outdoor Gear Reviews & Buying Guides

Below are outdoor gear reviews and buying guides and for hunting, fishing, camping gear and equipment based on our professional and personal knowledge, use and research.


Reviews of our favorite:


Spotting Scopes Comparison: 22 Scopes Priced under $650

Below you will find a spotting scopes comparison chart of 22 scopes under $500. As I mentioned in the post about Choosing Outdoor Optics, I found myself without a spotting scope with the hunting season

A Personal Water Filter (Life Straw) Lightens the Load

I live in the high, dry Inter-mountain West. In warm weather, I carry at least four liters of water each day when hiking, scouting, hunting or fishing. On several occasions, I drank all four liters of water before noon and had to

Is Garmin/Delorme InReach a Good Alternative for PLBs?

When we bought our first PLB, we also I looked at the Spot Satellite Messengers as a possibility for sending messages home when were were out of cell phone coverage. The reviews for Spot were so bad we decided not to buy one. Since then, Delorme brought two-way satellite messaging to the market and then […]

Are Spot Satellite Messengers Good Alternatives to PLBs?

I’ve been looking at the Spot Satellite Messenger for years thinking it would be a good idea to be able to send messages home when I was in the back country

Comparison of One and Two-Way Satellite Messengers to PLBs

Given the choice between one-way or two-way satellite messaging, the choice is simple if the options are similarly priced and if the alternatives are equally reliable. But they are not equally priced

Are Satellite Messengers a Good Alternative for PLBs?

We take a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) with us every time we go into the back country and when we drive on isolated roads. PLBs are

Relative Brightness and Twilight Factors for Binoculars & Scopes

If you have been looking for a new pair of binoculars or spotting scope, you have probably seen brightness and/or twilight factors reported with the various specifications and in reviews. Both values are useful if you understand

Why You Should’t Buy Another Pair of Cheap Binoculars

You do not need to spend a lot of money on binoculars, but you may spend more money in the long run if you continue to buy cheap binoculars. In the early part of my career as a wildlife

What Fly Rod Action is Best for Beginners? Fly Rod Action Explained

A person new to fly fishing will hear many references about the action of a fly rod.  Action may be described as very fast, fast, medium-fast, medium or slow (sometimes referred to as classic), but that doesn’t begin to explain why action is

Moultrie Game Camera – Scouting, Educational & Just Plain Fun

Seems like everyone is using trail cams or game cameras for scouting these days. As a wildlife biologist, I have used them as camera traps to get evidence that certain species were present in a specific area. We set game cameras