Adam Heggenstaller's profile photo

Adam Heggenstaller

Pennsylvania

Editorial Director at Outdoor Sportsman Group

Editorial Director at Game And Fish Magazine

Articles

  • 1 month ago | gameandfishmag.com | Adam Heggenstaller

    I had my doubts. It was almost 9 o'clock, and the gobbler hadn't made a sound. I'd been sitting against a hemlock in silence since well before first light, which was an eternity to second-guess my decisions that morning. I probably should have hunted another bird ... I probably should have called a little ... I probably should have gotten closer. No, no, no. If I had learned anything about this turkey, and anything about myself this season, the best play was to stay still and be quiet.

  • 2 months ago | gameandfishmag.com | Adam Heggenstaller

    Multi-platinum country music artist Luke Combs is a busy man, but the avid outdoorsman from Asheville, N.C., always makes time to hunt turkeys. Along with releasing a new album, "Fathers & Sons," and headlining Concert for Carolina to aid Hurricane Helene relief last year, he also finished a collaborative project with Columbia Sportswear to develop a collection of turkey hunting apparel with premium features based on his experiences in the spring woods.

  • 2 months ago | gameandfishmag.com | Adam Heggenstaller

    In those dark days before the emergence of tungsten turkey loads, very few hunters carried a .410-bore shotgun for gobblers because they wanted to. They hunted with a .410 because they had to. Either they were too young or recoil-shy to handle a larger gun, or a .410 was the only shotgun they owned. Loads for the .410 just didn't hold enough No. 6 lead pellets to reliably dispatch longbeards past 20 yards-an unfavorable constraint in the spring woods.

  • Oct 24, 2024 | gameandfishmag.com | Adam Heggenstaller

    Boots for whitetail hunting must do three things: keep our feet warm and dry while we sit for hours on stand, control scent if not eliminate it, and be comfortable enough for several miles of hiking. I've found that rubber boots often check the first and second boxes, but rarely do they excel when trekking any sort of distance, especially if the hike involves steep or rocky terrain.

  • Oct 22, 2024 | gameandfishmag.com | Adam Heggenstaller

    Important decisions must be made on every hunting trip. Some require immediate action while others may take hours or even days of consideration to reach a determination. The one at hand, which I was intensely mulling over in the cab of Chad Schearer's pickup, was stretching into two or three minutes. It's a good thing no one was behind us in the drive-through line at Sip's Coffee.