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Thousands of people in Oklahoma look forward to duck hunting each year.

To a family, it means much more than just enjoying the outdoors and the challenge of calling the ducks. Every fall, alarm clocks go off, duck hunters charge into the dark with decoys and a dog on board. They head for land, become one with nature, and wait for the waterfowl.

“It’s a family thing. I learned it from my dad. He actually took me rabbit and squirrel hunting when I was probably old enough to walk alongside him,” said Chris Kaiser.

Kaiser said he has documented every hunt since the early 1980s. His first hunts were with his father and his football teammates. Now, he wakes up early with four children of his own.

“The things we see outside are amazing and we love doing it together. My kids love seeing that and it’s not just about the hunt. It’s not just about the hunt. It’s not just about the harvest, it’s about the outside time doing that. together and just seeing what God has created and how all of that plays a role,” Kaiser said.

Kaiser said that hunting in Oklahoma is like finding gold.

“You can go to western Oklahoma. You can hunt dry fields. You can hunt watersheds and ponds and you can come here and hunt river systems, swamps, flooded trees, if there are any,” Kaiser said. “You can be in a blind, you can be in some trees, you can be in some bushes, you can be in water, you can be on the edge of a pond.”

He said duck hunting is also great for the economy.

“If you look at how duck hunting is funded, it’s funded outdoors, it’s funded by the guys who are hunting. The taxes that we pay to create the habitat to conserve the birds. To provide a habitat for them to live their entire life cycle Kaiser said.

James Morel with him Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation He said each season is unique, depending on current water levels and weather patterns. He said that success is driven by exploration.

“Go out and find out what the ducks are doing. Find out where they lounge, where they roost, where they feed. Get an idea of ​​how they follow their patterns. What fields are they using in the afternoons, what fields are they using in the mornings,” Morel said. .

The Kaisers have an empty nest now, but when their kids come home for the holidays, duck will be duck on the menu.

“We dry it. We turn it into summer sausage. There are all kinds of other recipes that we use. Shish skewers. We smoke it for an hour or two. We wrap it in bacon. It’s phenomenal,” Kaiser said. “My guys, my kids love it. So my guys, as soon as I can get it off the grill, they’re eating it.”

Kaiser said this season has a lot to be thankful for.

Trying to catch some squirrels in RDO? Here are the best places to find them.

Squirrels are a small game animal in Red Dead Redemption 2. They are one of the animals that can earn you Rank 7 in Survivor Role by hunting them consecutively, and despite being small, there are several valuable components that can be salvaged from a successful kill. . These facts already make squirrel hunting a popular pastime in RDR2. Still, since they also commonly appear for Daily Challenges in Red Dead Online, there’s even more incentive to purchase a Squirrel Tail souvenir.

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Squirrels are remarkably adaptable, with healthy populations throughout the American West, from Ambardino to the southernmost reaches of New Austin. They’re not hard to find, but they are, well, squirrels. You’ll need to be quick and precise to catch these agile critters, and you should start off with a lot small game arrows to increase your chances of a perfect kill.

squirrel locations

new austin

Squirrels can be found throughout the Gaptooth Ridge, Rio Bravo, Hennigan’s Stead, and southern areas in Cholla Springs to the town of Armadillo. Still, there are several places where you can find chipmunks in higher concentrations throughout the desert.

• At Gaptooth Ridge, the best you can do is survey the lands to the west and south of tumbleweed town.
• the westernmost banks of the Rio Bravosouthwest of Plainview, are also a good place, as are the lands between Fort Mercer and Rio Del Lobo Rock.
• Hennigan’s Stead is probably the best region to hunt squirrels down in New Austin. Try the northern and central areas, as well as the lands along the St. Louis River waterfront. You can also find them gliding down Stillwater Creek, Thieves’ Landing, and the island that separates the landing from Quaker’s Cove.

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elizabeth west

• It’s the same story in West Elizabeth, with Squirrels happily stocking up on nuts all over the tall trees and the great valley regions.
• You are also likely to find squirrels in the Great Plains, southeast of Blackwater on the shores of Flat Iron Lake.

amberdino

• The entire section of the dakota river running through Ambardino is a safe bet, as is the entire Cumberland Forest.
• There is also a sparse population of squirrels going about their business around the western half of the Grizzlies East.

new hanover

Roanoke Ridge is by far the best region for squirrel hunting throughout New Hanover. They can be found from border to border and as far west as The Heartland Oil Fields.

Lemoyne

As with the rest of the American West, where squirrels are found in Lemoyne, they tend to flourish. You can find them running around the scarlet meadows.

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While Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) biologists were conducting wildlife surveys in the Trans-Pecos area, they spotted something extremely unusual: a melanistic mule deer.

According to the TPWD Trans-Pecos Wildlife District Facebook, it is difficult for biologists to quantify the number of mule deer with this condition. It is estimated to be around one in several million. A melanistic muley is even rarer than an albino or piebald mule deer (with white markings).

Melanism is a recessive genetic trait caused by mutations in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene. A 2020 study from Germany explains that the ratio and distribution of the pigments eumelanin and pheomelanin define the basic coloration of the hair and skin coat. The MC1R mutation increases the production of eumelanin to create a uniformly black or dark coat. While this condition will affect fur-covered creatures, it most often occurs in birds, like this turkey harvested in 2020.

Just east of the Trans-Pecos area is the Edwards Plateau Ecoregion. According to the National Deer Association, this is where the largest known concentration of melanistic whitetails exists. But melanism in muleys is an even rarer phenomenon, making this sighting truly one in a million.

Featured Image and Video via TPWD District 1 Biologists J. Etchart and J. Weaver.

This story was originally published in November 2020.

Eating wild game meat is a great way to make your diet leaner, fresher, and more sustainable. For fans of sustainable meat who aren’t ready to hunt deer or elk, one way to get wild game meat in Maine is to hunt and prepare squirrels for food.

If you’re squeamish about eating bushmeat in general, Steve Vose, blogger for Maine Outdoorsman, said consider your options at a conventional grocery store.

“If you look at the meat we eat in the supermarket, it’s pretty far from organic,” Vose said. “People say, ‘How can you kill deer and squirrels or anything else we eat over the course of the year?’ and I say, ‘How can you eat that piece of meat in that sterilized Styrofoam at the grocery store?’

To hunt squirrels of any kind, you will need a hunting license. Gray squirrels have a hunting season that begins in the fall, usually in late September, and continues through the end of the year. Red squirrels can be hunted throughout the year. You can eat both gray and red squirrels, though Vose said the latter are less worth it in terms of the amount of meat you get.

“The grays and reds are the only ones that are technically harvestable in the state of Maine,” Vose said. “The grays are pretty good, the reds are tiny. I don’t tend to shoot reds to eat.”

For Vose and others, it’s not just about putting food on the table: hunting and eating squirrels can be a more sustainable form of pest control.

“There [is] an overabundance of squirrels on my property,” Vose said. “If they are not controlled, they cause a lot of damage. They are really destructive, especially in large numbers.”

Instead of just killing and disposing of the squirrels that wreak havoc on his land, Vose said he feels better about putting the animal to use.

If memory serves, I shot my first squirrel, which was my first game animal by the way, in 1972. I was eight years old at the time. My father, Mick, was there: an observer, an educator, a tutor, a coach, and a counselor. The place was Howard Klingeman’s forest; the gun, a single-shot Harrington & Richardson .410.

Dad found bushy tail, a big fox squirrel, chopping down a hickory tree. He beckoned me with a wave of his hand and stood on my shoulder as he transitioned from boy to young hunter.

Klingeman is gone; His woods were also replaced by a handful of rustic houses, none with the character of the old man’s two-story country house. But in the nearly 50 years since that day, I have never lost my love of squirrel hunting. However, what I have done over the years is try various things to put a little spice back into the game of squirrel hunting. I switched to a bolt action .410, limited myself to just .22 Shorts, tried a .22 semi-automatic pistol with a scope, and even a Crosman .22 caliber air rifle.

But it wasn’t until I took a muzzleloader into the squirrel forest that I found my salvation. Now East, I’ve told myself over and over again, is the way squirrel hunting should be done. I realize it’s not for everyone, but if, like me, you’re looking for a way to really test your mettle when it comes to all-round hunting skills like woodworking, stealth, camouflage, marksmanship, observation and, without a doubt, patience. then black powder and bushytails can definitely provide that challenge.

My Favorite Muzzleloaders for Squirrel Hunting

In fact, I have three muzzleloaders, two shotguns, and a long rifle, which I have taken to the field for the squirrels. The first is a Thompson/Center (T/C) New Englander, a nice piece with interchangeable quick-change 12-gauge and .50-gauge barrels. It has a straight barrel choke which means I have to choke the load the way I put it together. The gun uses percussion caps and is light, pretty enough and easy to maintain.

The second is a side-by-side (SxS) 12 gauge made by Davide Pedersoli, the classic standard, choked and modified barrel. It’s a handsome shotgun, very handy at 7lbs, and works in late fall as a fancy waterfowl and upland bird gun.

But it’s my third muzzleloader, the Long Rifle, that I’m partial to. Also made by Pedersoli, it is a Frontier-style rifle in .32 caliber. Surprisingly, for a 55-inch-long rifle, the gun is surprisingly well balanced. And at just 7 pounds, it’s certainly not a burden to pack all morning. Accuracy-wise, it’s as direct as any .22 LR I’ve ever worked with, and has no problem hitting anything my 57-year-old eyes can see, including the golf ball-sized head of an old fox squirrel.

Unfortunately, finding muzzle-loading shotguns and small-bore rifles has become a challenge in the last two decades. There are online sources, of course, as well as North American distributors of Davide Pedersoli products, including Dixie Gun Works (Tennessee), The Italian Firearms Group (Texas), and Taylor’s and Company (Virginia). Used muzzleloaders are another option, as local firearms dealers, pawn shops, and Internet auction sites such as gunbroker.com, gunauction.com, and gunsamerica.com present possibilities. Usually, though, finding something like my Pedersoli .32 Long Rifle will take some hunting.

Gunpowder, pellets and bait for muzzleloading squirrel hunting

As with any modern shotgun or rifle, determining what load each of my three weapons worked best with was a matter of experimentation, trial and error, and most importantly, a compromise with range time.

For shotguns, the load in both the T/C and Pedersoli are identical, consisting of 70 grains of GOEX FFg (2F) traditional black powder, a BP12 shot glass, and a BPGS gas seal (NOTE: a piston Old School Remington power gun also works) an ounce of #6 lead shot and a .035” M/L overshot card/disk, all sent down through a #11 RWS percussion cap . What about the muzzle velocity? As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t know; however, it seems adequate and doesn’t seem to matter much to the squirrels on the receiving end.

The .32 caliber Long Rifle took a little longer to demystify, but the recipe is just as simple from 20 grains of Hodgdon Triple 7 FFFg (3F) granulated powder. He placed a .32 caliber Hornady round ball of .315 diameter on top of a thin cotton pad lightly lubricated with Bore Butter, and pressed it firmly. In the field, cleaning between shots takes seconds. Recoil is virtually nonexistent and accuracy is comparable to any .22 LR I’ve ever owned.

In both cases, the shotguns and the long rifle, I use a RWS (Dynamit Nobel) 1075/#11 percussion casing. These German-made hats are often hard to find, but I find them more attractive than other hats I’ve worn over the years. This provides safer firing, particularly on 90 degree percussion fired pistols. They are also more consistent and reliable in all types of weather.

Read Next: The 17 Best Squirrel Guns Ever

What to pack in your possible bag

One possible bag is the Black Powder Hunter’s All-Gear Bag. I use an old style Avery Outdoors. energy hunter blind bag instead of a more traditional leather wallet. It is true that in this bag I carry more things than necessary, but I learned a long time ago that it is better to have something and not need it than vice versa. With that being said, my bag of squirrel hunting possibilities will contain:

With the above equipment, I can do just about anything I need to do in the field, short of completely breaking a firearm down to the last remaining bolt; however, if that were necessary, I would probably go home anyway.

It’s been some time since local wildlife enthusiast Marty Mahowald asked me what I knew about black squirrels. He went on to explain that, in recent years, he has noticed more of these creatures appearing at the bird feeders in his garden.

At the time, I thought it would be a great topic for a column, since the black squirrel population seems to be increasing in our state. However, it was only recently, when I saw one crossing our yard, that I remembered my plan for a column.

There was a period in my hunting career where I spent much of the fall and winter months hunting squirrels. It was a great hobby that I really enjoyed. At some point, ice fishing replaced my squirrel hunting.

While scoring antlers is a long and complicated process, scoring bears for record books like Boone and Crockett or Pope and Young simply requires two skull measurements. The skull is a good comparison tool because it is the most accurate way to compare bears to each other. Skulls must dry for 60 days to be officially measured.

Use a pair of calipers to take your measurements and then use a stiff tape measure to mark to the sixteenth of an inch. If you don’t have calipers, two books will work.

Take a measurement from the occipital bone at the back of the skull to the furthest point at the front, which is usually the teeth. The second measurement is between the zygomatic arches (cheekbones). By adding these measurements, you get the score to see how your bear grows.

I don’t often hear a lot of discussion these days about small game. Usually when December rolls around, when hunters mention “the end of hunting season,” they’re talking about the close of deer season. The excitement generated by big game hunting (deer and bear season) overshadows almost everything else.

A couple of notable exceptions are pheasant and turkey, both of which are popular. Pheasant season stays open through Feb. 28, but honestly, the birds you may be hunting are on reserves or have escaped from reserves; there is scant evidence of wild pheasants left here in New York. Even most of the birds on state land can be traced back to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Reynolds Game Farm near Ithaca in Tompkins County. The remainder comes from commercial game preserves or club-sponsored preserves scattered throughout the state. They might be the occasional wild bird, but they would be few and far between.

According to the DEC, while there are more than 60,000 small game hunters in New York, they just don’t get the same attention as big game.

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It’s been some time since local wildlife enthusiast Marty Mahowald asked me what I knew about black squirrels. He went on to explain that, in recent years, he has noticed more of these creatures appearing at the bird feeders in his garden.

At the time, I thought it would be a great topic for a column, since the black squirrel population seems to be increasing in our state. However, it was only recently, when I saw one crossing our yard, that I remembered my plan for a column.

There was a period in my hunting career where I spent much of the fall and winter months hunting squirrels. It was a great hobby that I really enjoyed. At some point, ice fishing replaced my squirrel hunting.

Of all the squirrels I harvested in those days, I never saw a black squirrel. The exception to this was a group of woods near Brainerd that I used to hunt with my brother. I’m talking about 40 years ago.

For some reason, this particular forest was full of black squirrels. The dark color of these tree-huggers made them easier to see than their gray cousins. And that made the hunting process much simpler.

Since then, all those years ago, I have noticed a steady increase in the population of black squirrels in our state. They have gone from being a rare commodity to something quite common.

Since I’m not an expert on squirrels, I did a Google search for more information.

Black squirrels are nothing more than a mutant color phase of the common eastern gray squirrel. By following DNA evidence, it was discovered that the original black coloration actually came from interbreeding grays with black fox squirrels.

Two gray squirrels cannot produce black offspring. However, a male black squirrel that mates with a female gray will produce black babies.

Another interesting fact is that black squirrels are more tolerant of cold weather and more easily survive Minnesota winters. That may have something to do with the growing population of this color phase.

the story continues

Black squirrels are not found everywhere in Minnesota. However, since their numbers are increasing, they may approach an oak tree near you.

This is the opinion of outdoor columnist Jerry Carlson. Contact him at [email protected].

Support local journalism. Subscribe to sctimes.com today.

This article originally appeared in St. Cloud Times: Outdoor Column: Analyzing the rise of black squirrels

Jerry Tomkins had every reason to be proud when he pointed to the steering wheel attached to the side of Burlington’s livery barn.

The sign advertised a shooting contest to be held the coming weekend of July 4, 1855.

“John Smith at Distillery Point will host a beef hunt,” the sign declared. “Ten cents a shot at a distance of 100 yards. Free for all guns with a barrel shorter than four feet and free for everyone except Jerry Tomkins.”

Tomkins had been “banned” from the shoot. His prowess with a firearm had become so famous that he was no longer welcome at the many local marksmanship contests that were a feature of every Pioneer Burlington vacation.

Being banned was a great source of personal pride and gave the rejected party ample bragging rights.

And the Iowans on the frontier loved to show off their guns and their own shooting skills. In those turbulent days, a good weapon provided not only protection and food, but was often a source of entertainment.

By the 1850s, virtually every household had at least one gun, and the most popular weapon was the rifle.

Small arms were still 10 years away from becoming an effective weapon and pistols were suspected to be somewhat harmless.