Archive for the ‘gun hunting’ Category

Feeling crowded?

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Photo by Matt Cunningham

Photo by Matt Cunningham

That’s an all-too-common sentiment this time of year. With deer gun season in full swing, even some private land is victim to the “too many hunters, not enough acres” scenario. Some hunters give up on public land this time of year, citing safety, spooked game and the parade of blaze orange that inevitably wanders past ever early-morning hunter in a popular area.

A few years ago, I set up way before shooting light during Ohio’s late gun weekend. It was amusing to watch the procession of flickering lights as hunter after hunter wandered past the ridge I was glassing. At least four or five of them headed to the same spot, I think.

Later in the day, I heard shots and the unmistakable cheer of at least two hunters who connected with deer. Their location? In the opposite direction, exactly where the parade of hunters had originated from.

This told me a couple of things: first, the most obvious deer hotspot you find is probably the most obvious to a number of other hunters who use the land. If you’re all going hunting on a given day, what spot in the woods will probably be so full of hunter sign that the deer stay away?

Second, I once read a tip that suggested deer grow accustomed to hunters parking, then walking far away from their vehicles. The deer that survive supposedly learn to stay quiet and close to the cars; the hunters aren’t there, after all. My experience on that obscenely crowded day bore that out – the deer taken were shot near the place where everyone parked that day. That being said, hunting near parking can sometimes be illegal, not to mention dangerous. If you decide to stalk the area most hunters would consider too close to the cars, know the local rules and be EXTRA certain of your firing lines. No point in bagging a trophy buck if you have to explain a bullet hole in a fender or worse.

Third, remember that even on heavily hunted public land, there are places hunters rarely go. Granted, there’s a reason for that; I’m talking about the thickest, thorniest, muddiest corners of the plot. The game species know this from watching their less cautious bretheren being taken, and unless there’s something about the unappealing area that makes it impossible for the game to use it, I suggest settling in and watching for a day to see what comes through there. You might be surprised.

Hopefully these thoughts will serve you well for the remainder of the gun season. Heck, if you use multiple implements to take deer, they’ll probably help you have more success once the boom-stick crowd packs up for the winter and leaves the forest to the archers.

Posted in Deer hunting, Uncategorized, gun hunting | No Comments »

More on practice, and talking turkey.

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

Fall turkey season is almost here, and thoughts of cranberries and stuffing sent me digging into the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s 2009-10 regs to make sure I’m up to speed on the do’s and don’ts of this year’s turkey seasons.

There’s some odd stuff in that part of the regs. Some specifications, like the limited open counties in the fall and the restriction on taking hens in the spring, make sense within the ODNR’s conservation mandate. But what about the rule that allows hunters to use dogs when hunting in the fall, but only allows dogs for tracing wounded birds in the spring? I’m going to call the folks at ODNR to learn more about how they lay out the seasons and their rules, and I’ll report on the results in the next few posts.

Photo by Matt Cunningham

Photo by Matt Cunningham

In the meantime, I want to touch on one more practice/accuracy item before leaving that topic to cool for a while.

Have I been spending too much time on that when I should be out in the woods? Perhaps, but proficiency is a dead serious topic for hunters, so I’m giving it the treatment I think it deserves.

One wounded animal, one misplaced shot, one hour spent tracking dying game as it heads for the hills is too many in my book. If you’ve been hunting long enough, you’ve had those situations happen. But never think for a moment that you’ll hunt long enough for those situations to not matter anymore.

Ok, off the soapbox. I want to suggest a cure for all of us who would really like more range time, but don’t have the space or resources to make target practice a daily routine. Hold and dry-fire practice is no substitute for range time, but it can go a long way to refining technique if you approach it from the right perspective.

First, don’t just think about the trigger. Yes, smooth trigger pull is important to a good shot, but so is breath control and shooting form. Try holding your aim on a point on the wall for a series of five “shots:” mount the rifle, aim, pull the trigger, then asses where you would have hit. Now do jumping jacks, push-ups, something to get your heart rate up and your muscles twitching. Try the drill again and see how you do. Takes more concentration, doesn’t it? Good.

I’ve seen improvements in my shot-to-shot consistency with both gun and bow after doing this drill, with one caveat: don’t do this unless you have a bulletproof method of keeping the bowstring from slipping out of your hand. No point in refining your form if you dry-fire your bow into oblivion the night before a hunt.

What other tricks do you use to keep sharp when you can’t shoot? Got any good ones to share? Use the comments section to let us know your thoughts, and good luck in the turkey woods this weekend.

Posted in Bowhunting, General hunting, gun hunting | No Comments »

For accuracy, function follows form

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

I hope all you archers out there are having a good early deer seaso1n. The first parts of the deer gun season will be here before you know it, and fall turkey season is less than a week away.

We’ll all be out in the woods doing our thing before long.

As everyone hits the woods, both bow and gun hunters should be very mindful of accuracy. And I am convinced that accuracy, my friends, has as much to do with your feet, hips and spine as it does your trigger finger and eye.

Think about how you shoot at the range. Not counting sandbag time for sighting in a firearm, do you fire most shots from a standing position, with feet evenly planted, back straight and upper body aligned to support the rifle or bow? Do you occasionally kneel, sit or go prone? If so, how often?

And just how often do you find yourself shooting from those exact positions in the field?

Photo by Matt Cunningham

Photo by Matt Cunningham

The last thing you’re going to find in the field (unless you’re very fortunate) is a flat, even spot where you can shoot across 50 yards of cut grass at a deer standing broadside. More likely, you’ll find yourself crouched under a tree or twisted at an odd angle in a treestand. How do a kinked spine and hunched shoulders affect your release or trigger pull? It probably doesn’t help.

There are two practice tips I use to overcome odd shot angles: First, replicate the situations you’ll face in the field. Put a block, gun case or the like under one foot and shoot standing (stick it under the rear foot for more challenge). Better yet, sit in the most awkward position you can imagine encountering in the field, and see what it does to your aim. Make notes on how you adjust.

The second technique is more of a mental trick. When shooting gun or bow, I pay close attention to what’s going on inside my body. What muscles are tight, strained or loose? How are my bones aligned? I remember these alignments when I make a good shot, and try to replicate as many of them as I can in the field. For the bow, this means bending at the hips to angle up or down so that my shoulders stay perpendicular to a straight spine. For the rifle, this means shifting my lower body to follow a moving target, rather than twisting at the waist.

Play with this second concept at the range. When you make a good shot, hold your form for a second and take a quick inventory of what’s tight, what’s loose, and generally where your body parts are in relation to each other. With a few hours of practice, you’ll find similar alignment of head, back and shoulders in good shots from different positions. Take that knowledge into the field, and you’ll be a more flexible, more confident hunter when it comes time to take that critical shot.

Posted in Bowhunting, Deer hunting, General hunting, Small game hunting, Turkey hunting, Uncategorized, gun hunting | 1 Comment »

Thoughts on hollow points

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

I’m staying on the squirrel/small game kick with this post for two reasons. One, it’s just plain fun to pursue small game with an appropriate hunting implement. Two, I had an experience last week while in the squirrel woods that provides a striking lesson for gun hunters of all stripes.

That first point doesn’t need much explaining. Between the crisp, clear weather of early in the week and the light, misty rain that’s currently keeping the leaves quiet underfoot, this is a great time to be moving about in the woods. Especially if you’re looking for protein of the sporting variety. This is the time of year to cut out from the office, plan for very early mornings, or simply use some of the vacation days you didn’t take advantage of in July. Gotta use them while they last.

But enough about priorities; on to the second point. While hunting a favorite tree rodent spot at Pater Wildlife Preserve near Hamilton, I scored a hit on a good sized female Fox squirrel. It took an hour of creeping through honeysuckle while she played “bump on a log” in a succession of tree crotches, but I finally got the position I wanted – a quartering-away shot that skimmed the left foreleg on its way to a quick-kill vitals impact.

Pass-through shots are nothing new to squirrel hunters. In fact, I was confused when I collected the squirrel and couldn’t find an exit wound. Upon skinning that night’s dinner, I found the reason:

Left to right: Crosman field hunting pointed tip, Crosman Premier hollow point, Premier hollow point after impact

Left to right: Crosman field hunting pointed tip, Crosman Premier hollow point, Premier hollow point after impact

I recently switched from the hunting point to the hollow points, and the pellet I pulled from below the squirrel’s skin confirmed that I made a good decision. Pointed pellets can do the job, but I’ve noticed that they often exit as clean as they enter. This suggests little deformity and a greater possibility of wounding game if the shot is off.

The hollow points, on the other hand…the image speaks for itself. I’m confident the shot would have been a quick kill with either shape, but that mushrooming, jagged edge that flares out sure gives one an added measure of security.

We, as respectful, dedicated hunters, owe it to our quarry to deliver a quick, decisive kill with the first shot. For an archer, that means using scalpel-sharp broadheads that draw blood with the least pain. For gun hunters, unless you need the big-game penetration delivered by a monster, flat-nosed round (and let’s face it – how many of us have tens of thousands to drop on an elephant hunt in this economy?), a hollow point makes a lot of sense.

I’ve heard that hollow points can be finicky in wind. But in my experience, switching from field points to hollow points in a .177 springer air rifle (a type notorious for its sensitivity to pellet choice) did little to affect my accuracy. Maybe I’m just getting better at the range, but I shot tighter groups with Crosman Premier hollow points than I did with comparable Crosman field points.

I suspect that scaling this experience up to a larger pistol or rifle would yield similar results. At typical Ohio hunting distances with calibers appropriate for local species, hollow point bullets or pellets are certainly worth your consideration.

Posted in General hunting, Small game hunting, gun hunting, squirrel hunting | 8 Comments »

Gun hunting? Look up for the action.

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

This weekend’s rainy cold front may have put a damper on some bowhunters’ plans. Happily, I suspect the cool, drier forecast (at least for the Southwestern part of the state) has many of you skipping out of work early or coming in late, your bow and gear living behind the seat of the truck. This is a beautiful time of year to be a deer hunter.

Unless you hunt whitetails with things that go “bang,” rather than things that go “twang.”

DSCF4850

Not counting the youth season, Ohio only offers about 20 days of muzzleloader and modern gun hunting. That’s broken up into two- to seven-day stretches over the next few months; hardly enough time to keep one’s woodsmanship skills sharp or feed the hunting fix for another year.

So what can a gun hunter do to stay in shape for the fleeting deer gun season?

Look up for an answer.

Ohio boasts a fantastic squirrel season. With the exception of modern gun season for deer, squirrel season is open from the first of September to the final day of January 2010.

I can hear some of you now:

“Squirrels? The little critters I used to tag with a .22 when I was a kid? Get serious.”

But I am serious. Bushytail hunting is a wonderful way to stay in shape for the deer gun season, and a worthwhile pursuit in its own right.

Like many squirrel nuts I’ve met, I prefer still hunting the rodents. The amount of noise squirrels make cutting nuts and their tendency in the early fall to trust you can’t see them in the leaves make geting within iron-sights range relatively easy. Just take your time, walk softly and stay aware of your surroundings.

I use “relatively” to make a point. Even if squirrels can’t see, hear or smell like deer, they aren’t completely stupid. A cleanly shot squirrel at the end of a long stalk is a prize to be proud of, even if you don’t need a rope to drag it back to the car.

If you consider that the state’s seasonal bag limit for deer is less than the daily bag limit for squirrels, it’s a no-brainer that you’ll get a lot more trigger time each season if you pursue tree-dwellers in the early and late seasons.

And make it useful. Ditch the shotgun or shoot-a-mile varmint rifle and take the critters with something more challenging, like an air rifle.

This fox squirrel fell to a clean neck shot from a break-barrel air rifle. Small game with a small-caliber rifle can equal big fun in the early season.

This fox squirrel fell to a clean neck shot from a break-barrel air rifle. Small game with a small-caliber rifle can equal big fun in the early season.

No, not the Daisy you got for your 9th birthday. A modern hunting air rifle.

I’m using a Remington Summit. It’s a Crosman product, manufactured by an Asian company and pretty close to the Gamo break-barrels we offer at the Outfitters. It’s incredibly accurate for what I paid for it, and I picked it up with a 3-9X40 scope that certainly helps in that department. Yes, I have to spend more time stalking to get within my self-imposed 35-yard limit for a shot at the head. Yes, I have a longer reload time as I fold down the barrel, insert a .177 caliber pellet, reset the barrel and raise the gun.

But these “drawbacks” mean more time in the woods stalking game and a bigger self-imposed challenge. That’s half the fun for me. Plus, the pellet, when placed right, damages a fraction of the meat even a .22 hollowpoint can do while still anchoring the squirrel.

And they don’t call them chicken of the trees for nothing. Shorten your favorite poultry recipe’s cook time by a minute or two, and squirrel makes for a mighty fine meal.

So go get that old .22 out of the closet or pick up a new air rifle (who doesn’t like that new-rifle smell?) and hit the range. When you can place a group of 5 in a walnut-sized circle from 25 yards or so, you’re good to go. The acorns are coming into season, and if the amount of fur I saw wriggling through the hickories in my favorite squirrel spot this month is any indication, then October should be a good month for squirrel hunters.

Posted in General hunting, gun hunting, squirrel hunting | 1 Comment »