Beyond the Layers

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One hunter connects gardening, gumbo, and gear that lasts to the same ancient instinct: to make, endure, and tell stories.

Pro surfer Mark Healey treks into Maui's mountains to hunt invasive axis deer, calling it the last punk rock thing left.

A last-day scramble up a boulder field closed out Cam's 20-year quest to bow-hunt all four North American sheep species.

A full freezer only means so much until you sit down to share it. SITKA invites hunters to post their family recipes.

World champion duck caller John Stephens collects calls dating to the 1800s and opened a taproom to share that history.

Sandhill cranes are wary and methodical, unlike ducks. A Texas guide shares his blind-placement secret and a crane recipe.

John Dudley calls the tomahawk cut a 'backstrap lollipop.' Watch him break down how to cut and cook this crowd favorite.

Michael Braun has carved decoys since age nine. Learn why he believes hand-carved wood still outperforms plastic.

In a Missouri duck blind painted with a falling mallard, one family cooks pepper jack boudin and calls it heaven.

After nearly two years chasing a buck lost to rifle season, Alex Templeton finally draws on him in 10-below cold.

After losing his grandfather, a hunter walked away from the woods for years. A treestand became where he rebuilt himself.

A Wall Street financier leaves the office, boards the subway, and climbs a treestand overlooking Manhattan for trophy bucks.

A solo hunt through Nevada's high desert becomes a lesson in being part of the ecosystem, not separate from it.

Three friends spend fall days at a cell-service-free Missouri cabin, proving deer camp is about showing up, not the kill.

A Missouri farmer explains why hunting success and a healthy crop come from the same hard work, and the buck that proved it.

A veteran dog trainer explains why the man trains the dog, but the dog trains the man right back.

Connor Gabbott stalks Montana antelope on foot through 100-degree heat, crawling open flats to get into range.

Bowhunter Adam Foss breaks down his full sheep-hunting kit, piece by piece, and why his system keeps evolving.

Professional archer John Dudley explains why perfecting your shot, not just finding the animal, is what actually fills a tag.

A professional chef turned hunter treks to a remote B.C. island, cooking blacktail and foraged urchin over an open fire.

Ditch your boots, widen your stance, learn to freeze on cue: 5 tactics for closing the last 50 yards undetected.

SITKA ambassadors share Father's Day lessons that shaped them, from a buck their dad wouldn't shoot to a quiet goose blind.

A gifted Dall sheep tag and 27 hours on watch lead outfitter Dustin Roe to a 96-yard bow shot on a broomed-off ram.

Outdoor Life once called him the world's best sheep guide. Dustin Roe explains why 134 hunts in, it was never about the ram.

Outdoor writer Bryan Rogala put SITKA's mountain pant and pack through elk season and called them the best gear he owns.

SITKA ambassadors share the shows, books, and podcasts getting them through quarantine, from Thrones to Jocko Willink.

A Montana guide turns shed antlers into salt shakers and sculptures, and says shed hunting is how he learns the land.

Call maker David Halloran shares the turkey tactics he's learned over decades, from reading moods to picking a setup spot.

A biologist has banded nearly 11,000 mallards in Arkansas' green timber, reshaping how hunters protect duck habitat.

A Utah hunter obsessed with canvasbacks shares his go-to prep: seared duck breast over rice with mushroom gravy.

Charley Perkins says nothing beats watching a kid experience a hunting 'first.' See his family's holiday tradition.

Alex Brittingham trained her Jack Russell Terrier to run blinds like a lab. Meet Gator, the most unlikely duck dog around.

A #DIVERGE8 judge shares three tips for capturing harvest moments, including why he ditches his camera strap for the shot.

From -47F geese in Montana to -20F whitetails in Alberta, SITKA ambassadors share the coldest hunts they've ever endured.

At 16, Ramsey Russell nearly died in a fire. Now he hunts ducks on six continents, calling himself a collector of experience.

Bowhunters return to a BC goat mountain that nearly killed them the first time, chasing the route they never found.

A #DIVERGE8 judge explains why the best hunting photos happen when the photographer disappears into the background.

A shoebox of his grandfather's duck calls led John Stephens to take over Rich-N-Tone and start his own call company.

A hunter chases a bull moose on horseback through the BC bush, channeling the Jack London stories that shaped his childhood.

A third-generation Missouri rancher raises cattle by day and hunts bucks she's cultivated on her own food plots each fall.

Outfitter Jim Hole Jr. wraps his gear in hockey tape to hunt silently for trophy whitetail in Alberta's toughest zone.

An eye injury ended Nick White's compound bow hunting. Fifteen years later, a recurve elk hunt closed the loop.

A bowhunter who's earned private land access for years shares his five rules for turning a knock on a door into a yes.

Lyle Hebel's fix for gamey antelope: ice the meat fast, then marinate the backstrap in citrus and cilantro before the grill.

A Montana bowhunter who traded rifle for bow at 19 now teaches his kids to stalk antelope, calling it his best lesson yet.

A bowhunter chases red stags across two regions of Argentina, Andes and pampas, and comes home with more than a trophy.

Corrupt outfitters and poachers: one bowhunter's account of chasing Marco Polo sheep through Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains.

Alex Templeton missed the buck she'd watched grow for three years on camera. A second buck gave her a do-over minutes later.