Mike Reeber

Dove season has officially opened here in the Lone Star State, which also means that we're within 30 days of deer season kicking off! Though it's been a busy few weeks of getting everything ready to roll for deer season, I've also spent some time drafting up some new quick and easy recipes to bring along to deer camp this season.

Sometimes, a big ol' juicy burger(and a beverage of your choice) just seems like the right call after a long afternoon hunt. If you want to take your deer season burger to the next level, I highly suggest making a batch of this awesome bacon jam and spooning a healthy heap on top of your next burger!

Bacon, Bourbon & Onion Jam

Yields: 2 cups

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 lb thick cut bacon

2 Large Sweet Onions, rough chopped

1/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/3 cup Maple Syrup

1/3 cup Bourbon

1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar

Salt and...

To me, processing freshly harvested wild game is a real treat. The fact that you can take your time and cut everything exactly how you'd like it without having to explain to someone is the best part. I've always processed venison the same way over the years, pretty standard preperation. Cape out the animal, remove the backstraps on either side of the spine, quarter it and don't forget to get those tenderloins out; done deal. Over the years, my passion for cooking has led me to get a little bit more creative with my butchering skills and although what I'm currently doing is not exactly "new", you're less likely to see most hunting camps doing it. 

I'm a huge fan of a perfectly cooked rack of lamb. It's got great flavor, it's easy to cook and it's impressive looking to serve. Recently, I thought "I'm pretty sure I could do this with...

Right around the month of July each year, I reminisce on prior hunting seasons and how so much has evolved with each passing season. What typically prompts this trip to the past is when I begin to turn my focus to pre-season scouting. Frequent morning walks in the field, glassing for growing velvet antlers and hanging motion activated trail cameras become what seems like a daily activity. Then I recall when times were different, a little bit less product based and a whole lot more wisdom based.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me, I am an absolute advocate for technology in the hunting world. We’re incredibly fortunate to have the access to so many great pieces of equipment that we never had in the past. I’m not even just talking about trail cameras and Google Earth, but also range finders that factor in shot angle. Things have come...

I'm always looking for new ways to marinate wild game for recipes that you can use in the same day. There are absolutely bunches of great marinades out there, but typically they require an overnight time-frame before really influencing the taste. With the hot temperatures making it feel like the middle of July already, I felt inspired to twist a ceviche recipe into a venison tenderloin marinade. This is an easy one for a quick ranch lunch that will take your taco game to the next level.

Step one to making outstanding tacos is starting with a good clean piece of venison, with all of the silver skin trimmed off. What might not seem like a big deal on the cutting board, will take away from the tenderness of the whole dish later on. Let's face it, no one wants to pick apart their lunch because you skipped the 5 minute task of trimming...

As turkey hunters, we are so fortunate to have thousands of calls at our disposal to help lure in a lovesick gobbler. Some calls are mass produced and others are undoubtably works of art that have a special place on a shelf during then off-season. Best of all, they all work and they all are designed to fool that big strutting bird to come in just a little bit closer. But just because you might have 16 pockets in your vest, doesn't mean that they all need to be filled, right? I'll admit, I like to have "stuff" and when it's "hunting stuff" I love it that much more. So naturally when I went to clean out my vest, I had to ask myself, "if I could only have 2 turkey calls, what would they be?".

Back in the late 90's, I didn't wear a vest during turkey season, I kept a push button "yelper" strapped to the barrel of my 20 gauge and p...

Among all of the memories that I have from past deer seasons, some of the best ones revolved around meals. Sometimes we celebrated a recent harvest, other times we we're just hungry, shaking our heads at the last deer we missed. Like many camps, we always tried new recipes and cooked some pretty good meals over the years, some being more adventurous than others. One that always stuck out to me was eating a perfectly prepared backstrap. I think that part of it had to do with the celebration of taking a deer, but the other half was cooking one of the most delicious pieces of meat in a cast iron skillet. When it came to cooking a backstrap, we kept it pretty simple. Trim it up and remove the silver skin, give it a rinse, salt, pepper and into a pan it went. If you were feeling daring, you might make some pan gravy with it. Even as ba...

I went to Hawaii when I was a kid for for a family vacation and it was unlike anything that I had ever seen before. It's pretty astonishing that you don't have to leave the U.S. to see volcano's, lava fields and some of the most awesome waves and shoreline. At that point in my life, I never imagined that it would be a place that I would end up hunting. In fact, I never had any idea on how much terrain and animals Hawaii had until I began researching it this past season.

When my wife and I decided to book a pretty short-term getaway for ourselves, it didn't take us long to settle on Hawaii. Between the cost of flights and the easy travel itinerary from Texas, we chose to stay on the island of Maui. Now, I do recall saying that to her that "this vacation wouldn't turn into a full-blown hunting trip", though I was pretty sur...

Knives are a personal thing, there's just no doubt about that. Before half of us were given our first shotgun, we had a pocket knife given to us and carried it everywhere we went. As the years go by, half of them are given out as gifts and the other half are usually kept sharp to remind us of the old times. I for one, own too many knives(is there really such a thing?) and the majority of them are the same blade style. Great for generic cutting, but awful for skinning and technical work. If you're a big game hunter, there's honestly nothing worse than muscling your way through an animal with the wrong knife whether on a mountainside or back at camp. Fortunately, there are good people out there dedicating hours of research and development to overcome these hurdles. The team at Raptor Razor is doing exactly that and then some.

If...

Why is it that we so often forget about the most important piece of gear for every hunting trip? For some reason, it seems like it's just too easy to focus on things like choosing a new camo pattern or picking out a new accessory to help film your next hunt with. Don't get me wrong, both of these things are important to consider before heading on your next adventure, but having the right set of boots on your feet is going to allow you to focus on getting the most out of your trip from start to finish.

If you're hunting in a warmer climate, like Texas or New Mexico, there's seriously nothing more critical than having a lightweight boot that has enough support to overcome some really diverse terrain. Though a lightweight hiking boot might work well, having that support and coverage over your calf is nice, especially if you end up in...

It was probably about 2 years ago when I sat down and wrote a piece on how in-store scent displays are not only just getting out of hand, but they’re also seriously influencing what you end up buying before the season. In the moment it’s really difficult to turn your head away from that big buck and his cardboard cutout standing in the middle of the aisle. I mean, you literally have to walk by him as he stares you down in the middle of your local outdoor store. Though, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t ever a victim of the brilliant marketing campaigns that swarm the hunting aisles at the end of each summer right as you start getting pumped up for deer season. Yet, when you look past the creative pop-ups and cutouts, how many of us are actually taking the time to read up about the product, the company or where and how it’s made...