So, deer season is over and you have settled in for the winter. A great time for lazing around watching football and maybe working a little overtime to keep the boss off your back when the turkeys are gobbling and the crappie are moving into shallow brush this spring. The coffee table is littered with Outdoor Life, Field & Stream and outdoor catalogs. Thoughts of the past season still fresh in your mind, you are content, or are you.
Football season is winding down and your team has already been eliminated, your boss is starting to expect you to be at work everyday and your wife is piling on the chores. It is time to get out of the house and what better way to spend the day than sneaking up on some bushytails on a cold sunny day.
Squirrel hunting can be a very relaxing endeavor after sitting motionless in a tree waiting for the elusive whitetail. Those long hours on
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stand should give you an idea of where the squirrels are hanging out or at least some good places where the acorns are plentiful. Squirrels may be using that area now even if they weren’t early in the season. This is also a good time to reverse this scenario and use your day a field to locate some great stand locations for next year’s deer season. A comfortable fanny or backpack is essential for late season squirrel hunting. You need enough room for your calls if you use them, a thermos of hot coffee if you drink it and a book if you like to read. A lunch is important in cold weather if you plan to hunt all day. Late season usually means very few hunters afield allowing you to wander freely and explore while providing you and yours with some great wildgame for the dinner table. If you do wander deep into the woods, far from the truck, that thermos of coffee, lunch and a good book or magazine will come in handy as the bushytails tend to go inactive sometime during the day and unless you plan on trekking back to the truck to wait for the evening feed then these items will make your wait much more enjoyable. Late season usually means the breeding season is over and squirrels usually don't travel far from home as they feed on the stockpile of nuts they buried during late fall. This is why spot and stalk is usually the best way to harvest these tasty critters. Squirrels can be hard to see at this time because they are digging in the leaves for previously buried nuts. Since the nuts are buried close together and in large quantities movement is kept to a minimum, adding to the difficulties in spotting them. You may hear a squirrel rummaging in the leaves, if they are dry, and even though you know the squirrel is just ahead, you might not see it. A good set of low power binoculars come in real handy for spotting squirrels that are digging in the leaves that tend to surround them making it even more difficult to see them and the binoculars can help spot the moving leaves. This time of year squirrels are very skittish, as breeding subsides and hunting pressure continues, sneaking up on a squirrel takes patience.
Late season tactics usually don’t include calling because the squirrels are just too close to their den and tend to bolt right to their hole at the first sight or sound of danger. There are times, during the late season, that a call may help when used sparingly. If you can hear a squirrel digging for nuts but just can't see it you can hit the distress call very lightly. At this close range it doesn't take much. The desired effect would be a quick jump onto the side of the tree as it glances back at where the sound originated. Be ready and shoulder that rifle or shotgun quick or it will be gone. A good time to use this method of calling is when you know the squirrels are out and the sun is sinking fast. It’s best to take a chance on getting the squirrel to present a shot than to spend the last waning minutes waiting for it to show itself. Call and watch for a shot if there isn't one then move on to other squirrels, this will gives you more daylight to work
with. The 22-caliber rifle is the most popular round for squirrels. I have just recently switched to the .17 mach 2 with mixed emotions about it. The Mach 2 is a neat gun and fast, maybe a little too fast. If you have the choice or you haven't decided yet which gun to go with I personally would pick the 22 caliber round which with practice and a good scope can make just as long of a shots as the .17 mach 2. The .17 mach 2 tends to deflect easily and at distances beyond 50 yards the wind begins to effect the shot as well. If cabin fever has you down and the chores around the house are piling up, get out and explore for a new area to hunt or return to where you spotted all those squirrels during deer season and enjoy your time in the woods. Squirrel hunting is also a great way to introduce young people to the world of hunting and can be a great way to spend the day with your family. Have fun.
Cool calm mornings, the fog on the lake is dense and all you can see is your decoys. As shooting hours roll around and the sun is just starting to peak over the horizon, the fog slowly lifts off the lake and the target at hand begins to swoop, lock up and land. What am I talking about? Ducks, one of the most majestic birds at hand, in my opinion. Ducks are one of the best animals to hunt, because one it’s a great challenge and two it is one of the most heart racing sports known to man. But what makes it so heart racing? Well when you’re out there and you hear you’re first mallard quack or your first wood duck whistle you get that deep adrenaline rush, your heart begins to pump faster and harder. Then there they are locking up into your decoys,
The firearm deer season started on Friday, November 15 1996. This was terrible for me because I had to weigh in at two o'clock for a wrestling meet at Muskegon the next day. Even though I had to drive all the way to Muskegon on Saturday morning, I could not stand the idea of not being able to sit out there in the field and just enjoy the outdoors on opening day. I was still determined not to miss opening day, since I had never missed it before. After I weighed in I said the hell with it and hopped in my car and headed for home.
It's five a.m. when I get to the dirt road winding into Ocala National Forest. I park my car in a clearing gather my gear and head into the forest with my eyes to the trees. By five-thirty I'm set up in a tree, my rifle is loaded and I'm quietly sipping hot coffee from my plastic thermos cup. I'm well concealed by tree limbs, and I have a clear shot at the ground below within my line of sight. My camouflage pants and jacket keep me hidden from the poor eyesight of the deer below, and my height above the ground keeps the smell of a human away from the sensitive noses of animals on the ground.
is the best thing for the population of deer in Alabama, as well as people who live
To Mr. Rainsford, hunting is like football to a NFL player. Hunting plays a huge role in his li...
The deer are easy to spot. In the summer, it’s coat is reddish-brown and in the winter it is buff. All year around its underside and tail are completely white as well as having a white spot on its neck. The prime deer habitat consists of deciduous trees, primarily cottonwood, ash, willow, elm and box elder. However preferred, the woodland cover is not essential to the deer’s survival.
While it is truly difficult to provide a full-fledge outlook for the 2015-2016 deer season, Chris Cook, Alabama Department of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries deer studies project leader, can provide some insight into the current state of Alabama’s deer herd, along with what hunters might expect to see this fall.
Since the beginning of time man has been hunting animals for food. Even before fire, man needed to hunt, because hunting was the only way to eat. At first man used things such as spears and rocks to kill its prey. As man evolved, they started using bows and arrows. Next came an early model of what we use today, the firearm. It is powerful yet easy to carry around. It puts the animal through less suffering and is a lot more efficient than previous techniques. Hunting was once a necessity, but now it is a tradition, passed on from father to son as a way to spend time together, enjoy the outdoors, and experience what our ancestors went through in hunting their dinner. Since it is considered a sport some think we are killing off the deer population, when in actuality, “While most other big-game species have declined with the spread of urbanization, the whitetail has been able to adapt to its ever-changing environment. Through the efforts of state agencies and conservation groups like Whitetails Unlimited, wildlife officials estimate today’s whitetail population to exceed 30 million” (www.whitetailsunlimited.org).
Wildlife Services also uses the technique of gunning. The first technique is aerial gunning, in which predators are being shot down by use of a helicopter or fixed-wing aircrafts (NRDC, 2011). Shooting is a method that they use by calling an animal and then shooting it. This means, they use a call that sounds like prey and when that animal comes around looking for food, the Wildlife Services shoot it. Hunting dogs are used to track predators or they are used as “decoy dogs” to draw the predators in.
Hunters often reveal that being in nature provides time to clear the mind. In the woods, there is no rush, no schedule, and no deadlines; nature moves at its own pace. This interaction provides a deep spiritual connection with the land, the wildlife, and our planet. Hunting has been around since the beginning of time and has been in many people 's lives for generations, these are some reasons why people all across America continue to hunt. Hunting has many benefits such as reducing deer related car accidents, controlling deer densities in heavily human populated areas, creates jobs, and feeding and supporting families. Thus, deer hunting is necessary for several reasons.
There are different regulations regarding hunting in different states, and in Minnesota, the times for hunting run from 12:00 noon until 4:00 p.m. on opening day and at sunrise for the remainder of the season. Although this doesn’t seem like a lot of time, the ten of us made some memories I will never forget. We arrived at our blind at 10:30 a.m. The sky was swarming with ducks before we even got things set up. Everywhere I looked I saw ducks swooping in and out of decoys. It wasn’t going to take long to bag our limit, and I knew we were going to get the season off to a great start. All we had to do was wait until noon!
It was the middle of October, and it was finally time for my long awaited moose hunt. I have waited ever since I was a little girl for this opportunity, and it was finally here. So, my father and I packed up our stuff and left the warmth of Phoenix. We were leaving the "Valley of the Sun" and headed for a place called Wyoming. After two days and fourteen long hours of driving, we made it to our hunting unit.
In the United States today, hunting isn’t as popular in populated places as it is in rural places. Primarily because humans have learned to keep the most needed animals such as cows, pigs and chickens, contained, but also because there are not as many wild animals in these populated places as there is in more unpopulated areas. For the hunters who hunt to survive, they not only hunt for the meat on the animals bones, they also hunt for the furs and pelts that the animals have. The reason hunters hunt an animal for its fur is because they can use them to trade for supplies they may need such as money, ammunition or anything they cannot make themselves. If a hunter is hunting an animal mainly for its fur, they may use a trap instead of...
A hunter has two styles of hunting to choice from before a hunt. The hunter can decide between a tree stand and a ground blind. Although decision it up to the hunter, both allow the hunter to be hidden. Each of the two accomplish the task of killing the animal, tree stand from the tops of trees, and ground blinds from the ground. Even though they have the same purpose, tree stands offer a better range of sight, better vantage point, and a back stop for the projectile to hit. Thus making tree stands the more practical and safer choice when it comes to hunting.
Hunting is a prime pastime for millions of Americans. Being able to own a gun and to hunt animals on land that you own is an immeasurable blessing and privilege. With this privilege comes great responsibility which includes following the laws that have been put in place concerning hunting, such as not hunting without a permit, using the correct techniques when hunting specific animals, and knowing what weapons are legal to hunt the specific animal with. There are many different animals to hunt, and the techniques to hunt them are easily managed.