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August 29, 2012
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September’s early honker seasons are intended to curb the abomination known as “nuisance” geese that have proliferated to the point of polluting parks, golf courses, and other public areas. Hunters’ role in these seasons isn’t to conserve—it’s to eradicate. That is the point of the hunt’s timing—to remove as many of these slumming honkers as possible.
For hardcore waterfowlers, this early season is a tune-up for migratory geese that drop in later in the fall. But don’t think of these resident birds as pushovers. They’re insidiously smart, adaptable, and extremely sensitive to hunting pressure. You have to approach your offensive with the cold-hearted perspective of a military strategist. Here are the stratagems of your battle plan.
[ Read Full Post ]August 28, 2012
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Mechanical releases do two things: They open and they close. They’re not terribly complicated, but misadjusted releases lead to inconsistent groups.
There are two ways that a release can be adjusted incorrectly. First, the trigger can be set too light. Archers have been led to believe that a light trigger cures target panic, because you won’t be fighting a stubborn release at the moment of truth. That’s false. An overly light trigger leads to punching, which is similar to jerking a rifle’s trigger.
[ Read Full Post ]August 24, 2012
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"The more, the better” is a common mantra among waterfowlers when it comes to decoy spreads. Under certain circumstances, however, you can get by with what you can carry on your back. Following are a few examples of when decoy placement is more important than how many you employ.
Flooded Timber
It can be difficult for birds to spot your blocks through the treetops, so motion is more important than numbers when getting ducks’ attention in flooded timber. Add movement to your spread with a flapping-wing decoy, vibrating floater, or even by kicking the water with your feet—anything that creates ripples and gives the impression of actively feeding ducks. It’s also a good idea to offer a clear landing zone by concentrating decoys around the edges of an opening rather than in the middle. Brightly colored drakes show up better than hens.
[ Read Full Post ]August 21, 2012
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The R.W. Loveless drop point hunter is an American icon known throughout the world as one of the most revolutionary designs in the history of cutlery. Bob Loveless called his design the “dropped hunter” because the point of the blade drops below the plane of the blade’s spine.
[ Read Full Post ]August 20, 2012
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When most bowhunters think about black bear hunting, they conjure up images of sitting over a pile of bait waiting for a bear to come eat dinner—not that there’s anything wrong with that. But there are many places where baiting bears is either impractical or illegal. That’s where stalking or calling fall bears become the go-to tactics. How’s it done? John Schaffer, from Schaffer Performance Archery in Minnesota, has killed a pile of bears over bait, but when he wants to give his bowhunt a bit of an edge, he puts down some boot tracks.
“Bowhunters looking for a little fun should consider hunting black bears by stalking them,” says Schaffer. “It adds an element of excitement when the animal you are stalking can kill you.”
And that’s a huge advantage for bowhunters. Schaffer believes that because black bears aren’t afraid of much, it’s actually easier to stalk them than animals like deer or elk.
“Bears are high up on the food chain,” Schaffer explains. “As a result, they do things and react to things differently than deer. When they walk next to high brush or boulders, for example, they don’t spend much time worrying about what might be sneaking up on them. As a result, the advantage goes to the stalker.”
[ Read Full Post ]August 16, 2012
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Please don’t hate me, but I’m going to have a hard time getting excited about filling a 15-dove limit on Sept. 1.
Unless I can bag a limit with a single box of shells, there’s not much to aspire since my return from Argentina this summer. Down there, I was disappointed if I didn’t bag 500 doves in a single day, and burning through case after case of shells was, well, the entire point of the trip.
Still, I’m enough of a blue-collar wingshot to want to derive something wholesome and useful from the trip, and after the first case of Federal shells, I realized the take-home point of any high-volume bird shoot: if you pay attention, you will come out of it a much, much better shotgunner.
Now that we’re a fortnight away from the biggest opening day in America—the Sept. 1 dove opener—I have plenty of lessons to impart from my encounters with southern hemisphere doves.
[ Read Full Post ]August 15, 2012
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Are you a drop point guy or a clip point guy? Before you answer, make sure you know the differences between the two. Drop point is on the left, clip point is on the right. Here's a rundown of two different styles.
SHAPE
A drop point is the perfect shape for a knife blade that needs to handle various butchering tasks like cutting, skinning, and carving.
AESTHETICS
Many hunters prefer the aesthetic value of a more traditional design, which the clip point offers.
VERSATILITY
The drop point is typically thicker, especially at the tip, compared to a clip point. This makes it a more versatile tool for game-care tasks, like disjointing and prying.
[ Read Full Post ]August 15, 2012
by I hope I’m wrong about this, but I’m afraid you are about to lose your deer.
That up-and-coming buck that you passed last year, knowing his 140 inches will be 160 this year? Gone. That old drop-tine veteran that always shows up just before the rut? He’s turned to soil. Those mature does, fat with backstrap tallow that you were planning to turn to jerky and rump roasts? They’re dead.
They are the victims of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, the greatest killer of whitetails this continent has ever seen. It’s a disease that doesn’t discriminate between young or old, black-swamp or farm-field deer, trophy or management buck, though it does seem to select bucks in the prime of their antler-growing velvet.
And it may very well be creeping toward the place you hunt, taking the deer you thought you were managing.
[ Read Full Post ]August 14, 2012
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It’s tempting to write off September ruffed grouse hunting: A jungle of green leaves awaits, and temperatures in the 80s, with humidity to match, make the pursuit of grouse seem daunting indeed.
But reasons to hunt early-season grouse outnumber the excuses to stay home. There are more birds now than at any other time in fall. They haven’t been hunted yet. Conditions concentrate grouse where you can find them. And broods of young ruffs remain together, which can mean close flushes and fast action. Here’s how and where to hunt early-season birds.
Hunt Damp Areas
▶ Where there’s water, air temperatures are cooler. Grouse gravitate to these comfort zones. Plus, damp areas offer the cover and food that ruffs prefer. Hunt marsh edges, creek bottoms, brook banks, spring seeps, and moist tag alder tangles.
[ Read Full Post ]August 14, 2012
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If you read outdoors magazines, you’ll quickly realize that one thing their writers are completely intrigued with is how some hunters have the uncanny ability to spot-and-stalk game like hungry mountain lions. Frankly, many of us are mystified by the few who can slip in on a deer or elk without the animal knowing until it’s too late. The truth is, however, that the game of spot-and-stalk isn’t complex. It just requires the hunter to be patient. Sounds simple enough, and to hear successful stalkers tell it, it truly is.
Arizona’s Chris Denham is a master stalker. Denham, editor of Western Hunter Magazine and part owner of Wilderness Athlete, a nutritional products manufacturer, spends a considerable amount of time in the field each year trying to be a ghost.
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