Experience

Beyond the Layers

These are the moments we live for—the wild and gritty stories of the people, the places, and the pursuits we love.

183 Stories

Beyond the Layers

Earn the Shot: Tarpon Fishing with Brett Martina

Preparation. Precision. Controlled chaos. That’s tarpon fishing. SITKA Gear ambassador Captain Brett Martina works the waters around Apalachicola, Florida's Forgotten Coast, where tarpon have migrated for longer than humans have lived here.

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Leading by Example & Introducing Kids to Hunting by Ingraining it Every Day

Rancher Jaimie Stoltzfus belly-crawled to a buck with her 8-month-old strapped in a carrier, calling it her best hunt yet.

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Locations

Cole Kramer: Kodiak Island Hunting Guide

Pushing the limits of what’s possible in technical hunting gear is, and always will be, our core mission. But part of the essence of SITKA is in the people who test, abuse and demand the best from it in the real world: our Athletes.

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Line & Legacy: Brandon Palaniuk on Family

For champion bass angler, Brandon Palaniuk, fishing was always the most important thing in life. And then everything suddenly changed. The film explores how a fishing-obsessed kid from small-town Idaho became one of the most recognizable faces on the national bass fishing circuit—and then something more meaningful than either of those.

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Tips & Tactics

CASTING FOR GHOSTS: A Midwest Musky Story

Musky are the fish of 10,000 casts. Learn the mechanics, tactics and strategy that separate legends from everyone else.

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Conservation

Passing Hope to the Next Generation with Folds of Honor

A Folds of Honor scholarship sent Kyle Engel to Montana's top wildlife biology program. Here's how his dad shaped that path.

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Locations

Last Chance Moose: A Float Hunt on Wild Alaska Rivers

See how Connor Gabbott friends floated past a sleeping grizzly, got charged by another, and portaged gear for 100+ miles.

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Tips & Tactics
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Duck Calling Tips & Tactics From Three-Time World Champion John Stephens

Three-time duck calling champion John Stephens won't trust a call until he's recorded and played it back first.

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Beyond the Layers
Conservation

How Mom Inspired Me with SITKA Ambassadors

Rachel Ahtila's mum had one rule: 'Don't peak, my dear. Always make tomorrow better than today.' See what other moms taught.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

When the Tides Shape a Movement: Everglades Restoration and the Captains for Clean Water

A 2016 algae crisis turned Florida fishing guide Chris Wittman into a clean-water activist. Hear how it started.

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Beyond the Layers
Conservation

Feathers To Fins: An Ocellated Turkey

Two buddies called in a Yucatan ocellated turkey, then turned its feathers into a fly built to fool permit.

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Locations

A Town Called Sitka

A transplanted fish hatchery worker traded New York for Sitka's blacktail and world-class steelhead, and never looked back.

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Locations

100 Rams

Guide Lee Hart has 99 sheep hunts behind him at 85. His mentee drew the tag in Lee's unit and asked him along for the 100th.

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Together We Carry On

Watch how a Purple Heart Marine who lost both legs found his way back, chasing Dall sheep in the Northwest Territories.

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All That You Carry: The Ballad of Timo Rova

A career smokejumper explains how reading wind and terrain from wildfires now guides his canoe into deer season.

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DIVERGE Hall of Fame

See the raw, unposed shots that have won SITKA's DIVERGE photo contest since 2013, no trophy poses required.

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SITKA Store Events

Join us for live in-store events! Stay in the know. Be the first to know about our in-store events, VIP meet-and-greets, product launches, and more.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

Conservation Is the New Mission: Veterans Restoring the Chesapeake Bay

Veterans traded their old mission for a new one: rebuilding the Chesapeake Bay's oyster reefs, shell by shell.

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Kings of the Bering Sea

See what it takes to hunt the King Eider, North America's holy grail of duck hunting, on a remote island in the Bering Sea.

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Beyond the Layers
Conservation

Rooted in Whitetail With Chris Bee

Chris Bee tagged his first buck at 10 and never stopped. See how that led him to owning his own Iowa whitetail ground.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

Bison and Bears in Balance: The Old Harbor Alliance's Story of Coexistence

Get the story of how a relocated bison herd and Kodiak's grizzlies learned to share the island.

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The Last Hunt

At 78, with two heart valve replacements and a new hip, Don Lovely climbed to 8,400 feet for a ram he'd waited 45 years for.

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Beyond the Layers
Conservation

Lōkahi

Spearfishing at 3 a.m., grilling octopus at sunset: go inside a Big Island trip that became a lesson in community.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

A Most Crucial Layover

In the self-proclaimed duck capital of the world, one 6,000-acre property is fighting to save the flooded timber ducks need.

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Locations

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Father's Day Tribute to Mountain Man Joe

A Father's Day tribute to the Pennsylvania hunter who taught his son that the woods reward patience more than luck.

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Locations

Oceans of Sage

Painter Jess Mudgett drove into the sagebrush to finally paint the mural he had promised an old friend years ago.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

Preserving America's Turkeys

Turkeys for Tomorrow's Jason Lupardus explains why wild turkey habitat is disappearing again, and what hunters can do.

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Gear Talk
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Steven Drake Adventure Rig

Steven Drake spends 100+ days a year living out of his truck. Get the full tour of his hunting rig and setup tips.

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Ticks, Brisket, and a Trip to the ER

Ashley Hudnall was rushed to the ER in the middle of the night, unable to breathe. It started with a single tick bite.

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Locations

The Hard Way: Full Curl | Episode 3

Watch a traditional bowhunter close to 30 yards on a Dall sheep in the Alaskan backcountry, about as tough as it gets.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

Imperfect Advocate

An Alaska hunter reckons with being a climate advocate who flies to work and guides heli-skiing. Here's how he squares it.

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Beyond the Layers
Tips & Tactics

The Fairest Fair Chase: Hunting Alaska with a Longbow

One hunter limits every shot to 25 yards with a longbow. Here's why he thinks that's the fairest way to hunt Alaska.

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Tips & Tactics
Beyond the Layers

Tips for Close Quarters Turkey Calling

Beau Brooks shows how he softens his calls to close the deal on a wary tom right at the edge of shotgun range.

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Tips & Tactics
Beyond the Layers

Step-By-Step Guide to Gobble With a Mouth Call

Beau Brooks breaks the gobble down into simple steps so you can finally nail it on a diaphragm call.

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Door to Door

One elk caller turned his skills on turkeys, covering 18-plus miles a hunt rather than sitting in a blind all day.

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Beyond the Layers
Conservation

Ebb and Flow

One mountain hunter found his off-season fix on a sailboat. See how sailing and hunting scratch the same itch.

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Food & Recipes

Tailgate Turkey and Beer-Braised Nopales

A turkey hunting road trip from Texas to New Mexico ends with a campfire meal of fresh turkey and foraged cactus pads.

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Conservation

DIVERGE 12 Winners

See the black-and-white waterfowl shot that took home DIVERGE 12's grand prize, plus 6 category winners.

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Locations

12 Days and 150 Miles for a First Ram

Ali Rione covered 150 miles over 12 days in British Columbia. Her Stone's sheep didn't show up until the last day.

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Locations

Carrying the Tag

After a decade of tagging along on other people's hunts, she drew a bison tag and made her first solo shot at 40.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

California Waterfowl Egg Recovery Program

Farmers in California's Central Valley are rescuing wild duck eggs from their fields before the harvest comes through.

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Journey of a Thousand Choices

Lindsey Davis never planned to hunt. See how foraging, farming, and skinning roadkill led her to her first shot of venison.

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Tips & Tactics
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Calling Elk in Close Proximity

Slipped inside a bull's bubble? World calling champion Beau Brooks shares how to draw him in without blowing your cover.

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Tips & Tactics

18 Points

Corey Jacobsen waited nearly two decades for this hunt. Drawing a coveted tag is a cause for celebration, but it’s also a crossroads that brings immense pressure. Questions about expectations and the meaning of success linger in the mind as the moment draws nearer. This hunt caused Corey to consider on how he’s changed as an elk hunter—and as a person—in the 18 years since he first applied. Amidst this self-reflection, he located a rut fest and called many bulls to bow range despite the rough country and sparse public land access.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

Blackjack Legacy

A Whitetail Properties agent buys 40 acres in southern Iowa and learns what it really means to own land, and to work it.

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Once in a Lifetime

Seeing my card get charged felt like winning the lottery, because essentially that's what it was. After almost 20 years putting in for a once in a lifetime Colorado bull moose hunt, I'd finally drawn the tag. Mine was just one of a handful of resident bull tags out of hundreds of applicants.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

Saving Oak Savannas: The Imperiled Ecosystem That Wild Turkeys Rely On

A writer joins a controlled burn with the Wild Turkey Federation, torching Michigan grassland to restore vanishing habitat.

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Locations

How Far We've Come

Rachel Ahtila spent years guiding others to their Dall sheep. For her first, she chose to bring her father instead.

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Locations

Sights and Sounds of Sheep Country

Join Adam Foss and crew for weeks deep in British Columbia's backcountry, living with nothing but the gear on their backs.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

A Voice for the Wild Turkey

Turkeys for Tomorrow's Chase Grubbs explains why wild turkey numbers are dropping again, and what's driving the decline.

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Beyond the Layers
Conservation

By Way of Black Sands

Justin Lee wants his kids to grow up wild and free like he did. Meet the Hawaii conservationist, fisherman, and hunter.

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Tips & Tactics
Beyond the Layers

Building Bowhunting Stamina

Practice alone won't get you the shot. Learn the down-and-back drills that build the cardio and composure to make it count.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

After Fire Comes Growth

A year after a controlled burn, a Tom walks straight into range. See how prescribed fire is restoring Michigan's oak savanna.

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Behind the Design
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Born From the Storm

A brutal Idaho storm during an elk hunt sparked the philosophy behind the gear we make. Read the story behind our why.

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Beyond the Layers
Locations

Lessons Carved from Ice

Five trips into B.C.'s brutal winter goat country, with a sixth already calling. One hunter on why the misery pulls him back.

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Beyond the Layers
Locations

Inalienable Beliefs of a Waterfowler

After a decade chasing greenheads in flooded timber, an Arkansas hunter swapped waders for bibs and found snow geese.

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Beyond the Layers
Locations

The Big Woods

Low deer numbers, thick cover, and swirling winds make Appalachia's big woods some of the toughest whitetail country.

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Beyond the Layers
Conservation

Beyond the Layers

A career chef explains how his obsession with nose-to-tail butchery led him from professional kitchens into the backcountry.

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Beyond the Layers
Tips & Tactics

Building a Retriever

From a Nebraska boyhood to training labs on Chicago sidewalks, one handler shares what it takes to build a retriever.

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Beyond the Layers

Beyond the Layers: Connor Gabbott

A career chef who'd never considered hunting found it reshaped how he sees food, solitude, and his place in the world.

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Food & Recipes
Beyond the Layers

Whole Grilled Catfish & Curried Vegetables

Whole catfish stuffed with wild sumac and grilled over coals, topped with a home-garden curry. Get the full recipe.

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Conservation
Beyond the Layers

Five Oaks Ag and Research Center

SITKA is fully funding four graduate scholarships in waterfowl habitat management, including hands-on mallard banding.

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The Turkeys Win

A turkey hunter missed his first gobbler point-blank, and was glad it got away. Here's why failure makes you better.

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Food & Recipes
Beyond the Layers

David Halloran's Wild Turkey Smash Burger Recipe

Bacon, guac, Swiss and a pound of ground wild turkey, smashed thin on a hot griddle. Get David Halloran's full burger recipe.

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It's All in the Details

David Halloran has hand-carved turkey calls since he was 12. See how obsessive attention to wood grain builds a better call.

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Tips & Tactics

Turkeys of Wild Florida

Osceola turkeys barely gobble, which is why a sixth-generation Florida guide swears by a soft purr box and less calling.

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Beyond the Layers
Locations

Mountainside Vindication

Short on confidence and out of shape, a hunter postholes through deep snow on a late-season Utah elk hunt to prove himself.

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Beyond the Layers
Tips & Tactics

Sweet November

Three weeks of stalled rut action finally break with a 180-degree wind switch and a buck stepping out at full draw.

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Beyond the Layers
Food & Recipes

No Need for a Supermarket

A Montana fire chief raises his own livestock and fills his freezer with elk, deer, and waterfowl he hunts himself.

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Beyond the Layers
Food & Recipes

Saving Your Hide: Timo's Handmade Coffee Bags

Timo Rova turns deer hide into rainproof coffee bags, a tradition from his family's Finnish Lapland roots. Get his pattern.

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Beyond the Layers
Conservation

There is no Off Season

Wild pigs have no season and no bag limit. One hunter explains why that makes them worth pursuing.

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Beyond the Layers
Tips & Tactics

Building Community, 24.7

Ranar Moody grew up hunting with the older Black men in his family. Now his videos inspire a new generation to get outside.

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Viewing 72 of 183 Stories

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