Like many people, I have a calendar on my desk. Unlike my father, who always carried a personal planner and Day-Timer calendar in his pocket, my desk calendar is large enough to see the months at a glance and write important events in the blocks below specific dates. .
I keep everything from professional to personal important dates and reminders in my calendar. Old school compared to Outlook calendars on a computer filled with meeting notices and Zoom login info, yes, but it’s still my preferred method of organization.
One of the first things I do when I get a new calendar for next year is take a few minutes to write down birthdays, anniversaries, the opening day of hunting seasons, and a few reminders, like the deadline to request hunting tags. out in the west.
A new calendar date guaranteed to be circulated in red ink is the last weekend of February. For us squirrel hunters, this is the last chance of the season to go.
When the season-ending bell rings, there’s absolutely nothing you can do until it reopens in the fall. No matter how many days you’ve gone or missed, planned to go and didn’t go, waited for better weather or walked in the rain, when it’s over, it’s over.
The last weekend of February is a must for me and, fortunately, I am not alone.
There’s a group of friends who share a passion for small game, specially bred hunting dogs, .22 rifles and field shotguns pointing their trucks west to a central gathering spot. Our friend opens his house in Kentucky every year and allows our crew to descend on his property with our hunting teams full of gear and squirrel dogs.
This year, we had a chef and restaurant owner from Chicago who wanted to start hunting but had no one and no place to do it, so he came. A couple of friends came over from Nashville who were hunters but had never seen hunting dogs, let alone squirrel hunting dogs.
After a long day of hunting, we were tired as dogs, but had enough energy to cook a family meal for whoever wanted to stop by and hear about the hunt. Meals focused on Mother Nature’s bounties of such fine dining from farm to table with whitetail, elk, bison, and of course, squirrel was served.
So important to me is celebrating the hunting lifestyle with others and sharing the harvest through family meals, I have to admit that the last weekend in February is mostly about my dog.
It’s the last hunting opportunity of the season, but more importantly, the long weekend is dedicated to our dogs. We hunt twice a day, morning and evening, for at least three days. Weather permitting, most years not, we’ll hunt another morning or afternoon.
In some strange way, I have no way of proving this to be true, but I feel like my dog also has the last weekend of February marked on his mental calendar. I’m not sure if dogs can show their emotions through smiling, but I certainly witnessed a lot of happy dogs, including my own.
If I had the authority to do so, I would declare the last weekend of February every year as “Squirrel Dog Days.”
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a debilitating neurological disease that affects deer, elk, elk, and caribou. When an animal is infected with the misfolded proteins, or prions, that lead to chronic wasting disease, symptoms often take years to manifest. These include a hunched posture, excessive salivation, floppy ears, muscle atrophy, and an uncanny disregard for all manner of deadly predators.
But once those symptoms do appear, the infected creature is guaranteed to succumb to their degenerative consequences; there is no recovery from a fight with CWD. And to make matters worse, the highly infectious prions that guide CWD through cervid populations can persist in soil and other natural substrates for years.
It should come as no surprise to anyone in the hunting or conservation communities that CWD has been creeping insidiously across the North American continent since it was first discovered in a population of captive mule deer at the Foothills Wildlife Research Center. of the Colorado Division of Wildlife near Fort Collins, Colorado in 1967.
Since then, the number of states with documented cases has steadily increased, and at the time of writing, the ever-fatal disease has been confirmed in 30 states and three Canadian provinces. In 2022 and late 2021 alone, the ranks of CWD-positive states and provinces increased to include North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Idaho, and Manitoba.
North Carolina
North Carolina is the most recent addition to this grim total, detecting chronic wasting disease in a white-tailed deer in Yadkin County on March 31, 2022. Awareness of chronic wasting disease in the old northern state came after after a local taxidermist sent in lymph node samples from a deer collected by hunters. deer as part of a cooperative surveillance program administered by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.
“This was our biggest year of surveillance in state history,” Moriah Boggess, a deer biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), told MeatEater.
According to Boggess, who has been heavily immersed in CWD research and detection efforts throughout his tenure as a wildlife biologist, surveillance efforts in North Carolina increased after CWD emerged in a nearby county in Virginia.
“The biggest change to our CWD response plan came last May when the first positive CWD test was found in southwestern Virginia,” Boggess said. “The (North Carolina Wildlife Resources) Commission had a special meeting to review the statewide plan after that, and in all of our counties this year, we did CWD testing and increased surveillance with a special focus in the four counties closest to that first positive. in Montgomery County, Virginia.
Now that North Carolina has confirmed the presence of CWD, planning is underway to determine the best way to control its spread.
On April 12, 2022, NCWRC Director Cameron Ingram announced that he would invoke emergency powers to “activate a localized response to assist with the detection and isolation of chronic wasting disease in Yadkin and Surry counties and surrounding areas.” surrounding”.
This will include the suspension of fawn rehabilitation, mandatory CWD testing of deer taken by hunters in Yadkin and other adjacent counties, and a ban on mineral baits and licks, in addition to various other precautionary measures.
“The biggest effort will be behind the surveillance,” Boggess said. “That’s the most important part of the CWD response plan, and that means going in and trying to find out how widespread it is.”
the gulf coast
In Alabama, where chronic wasting disease was detected in Lauderdale County in the far northwest of the state last January, unrestricted hunter harvesting was used as a targeted tool in an attempt to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease. From the time of detection through February 10, 2022, Alabama deer hunters in Lauderdale and adjacent Colbert County were allowed to hunt an unlimited number of antlerless and antlerless deer on public and private land.
Boggess says it’s too early to tell if the NCWRC will implement similar strategies, but it’s safe to say hunter harvesting will play a critical role in the state’s mitigation efforts.
“Hunting effort is very important for any kind of long-term management,” he said. “We want to maintain the harvest we currently have or increase it, especially within a 5-mile radius around that first case, and we’re exploring different avenues to do that.”
Another concern for Boggess and other wildlife managers east of the Mississippi is the possibility of chronic wasting disease affecting newly reintroduced elk herds in the area.
“This first positive is more than 125 miles from our local elk population,” he said. “Of course, the already known distribution of CWD in the southeast is an imminent threat to all eastern elk populations, regardless of state.”
Shortly after Alabama announced its first case of chronic wasting disease, another southeast domino fell when wildlife officials in neighboring Louisiana confirmed the presence of the disease in a dead white-tailed deer in Tensas Parish. Bayou State was quick to implement preventative measures such as feeding and baiting bans in the affected area. They also placed restrictions on the movement of deer body parts.
“Any, and I mean any human-assisted movement of infected deer, whether they are live or dead deer, that has the greatest potential to move CWD across the landscape,” Boggess said, referring to game farms and others. human activities that facilitate the spread of chronic wasting disease. “Whatever the aspect of that movement, whether it be captive cervid farms, rehabilitated fawns, carcasses collected by hunters; if it’s an infected deer that’s moving, that’s how the disease spreads most easily.”
Their warnings recall a recent incident in Minnesota in which a captive deer breeder named Dean Page was cited for dumping CWD-infected whitetail carcasses in a public forest in Beltrami County.
When Page was ordered by the Minnesota Board of Animal Health to clean up his catastrophic mess and build 3,000 feet of 10-foot woven wire fencing around the perimeter of the 11-acre landfill, the deer farmer refused. Fortunately, the state took matters into its own hands, clearing the area of trees and brush and building “exclusion fences” in an attempt to keep deer and people out of the area.
Given the fact that infectious prions can persist in the soil for years, Page’s actions made the chosen landfills a true biohazard. The incident resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of taxpayer-funded remediation efforts and legislation seeking to ban deer farming in Minnesota.
north of the border
Our neighbors to the north have struggled to contain chronic wasting disease since at least 1996, when it appeared on a Saskatchewan elk farm. Today, the disease is highly concentrated in the southern parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan, where Canadian wildlife officials have described it as an epidemic. And in October 2021, it turned up on a Manitoba mule deer.
As in other areas where CWD is prevalent, suggestions of guilt have been leveled at Canada’s captive cervid industry, which, if you believe industry statistics, is strong and thriving. Captive breeding of cervids is known to create favorable conditions for the spread of chronic wasting disease because it brings the animals together in an unnatural way. In the wild, deer are much more spread out across the landscape.
According to the non-governmental Alberta Moose Commission, there are more than 10,000 domesticated moose in the province. Since the spring of 2020, that organization has been pushing to legalize the hunting of “canned” elk on the farms that house the animals.
According to a recent press release, wildlife officials in Manitoba are dealing with the new reality of CWD through a variety of practical measures that have included shootings led by agency officials.
“With a very short window of opportunity to reach potentially infected deer before CWD spreads further in Manitoba, local landowners have been contacted for permission to access their land,” the bulletin read. “Where the province has permission, it will undertake a specific effort to reduce the deer population in the CWD containment zone. As part of this measure, efforts will be made to recover as much meat as possible from animals that are free of CWD.”
Rocky Mountains and beyond
Back in the US, on the western side of the continental divide, Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) announced its first case of chronic wasting disease in November 2021. The disease appeared in two mule deer killed north of town of McCall in the game. management unit 14 after the hunters who shot the males voluntarily submitted lymph node samples from their respective kills. The IDFG Commission recently adjusted hunting seasons in response to threats of chronic wasting disease and simultaneous outbreaks of epizootic haemorrhagic diseases. In the future, the agency will require mandatory CWD testing for all cervids collected from game management unit 14.
In Wyoming, one of the first US states to confirm chronic wasting disease, the debate over moose foraging areas continues. There are 22 such facilities in the Cowboy State managed by the Wyoming Department of Fish and Game (WDFG). In addition to the WDFG feeding fields, there is the US Fish and Wildlife Service National Elk Refuge, which provides supplemental feed for the 11,000-head herd of Jackson elk. Critics say the practice of feeding wild elk in Wyoming and other western states contributes to the spread of density-dependent diseases like chronic wasting disease.
It’s impossible to say where CWD will rear its head next, but states bracing for what must seem like an inevitable arrival include Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and a host of New England states, as well as Oregon, Washington and California.
To date, there are no cases, apart from highly manipulated laboratory experiments, of CWD spreading to a wildlife species outside of the family. cervids. and there is no evidence even, that the disease can be transmitted to humans through the consumption of venison or in any other way. That said, there are plenty of people, Ted Nugent notwithstanding, who won’t be queuing for CWD venison burgers any time soon.
Featured photo via Wyoming Fish and Game Department.
When Rep. Amanda Bouldin, a Democrat from Manchester, introduced legislation to delay the start of squirrel hunting season, her goal was to prevent hunters from orphaning baby squirrels still dependent on mom.
Originally,House Bill 1356 would have delayed the start of the gray squirrel hunting season by two weeks, from September 1 to 15. But the majority of the House Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee had something else in mind: scrapping Bouldin’s language and instead presenting a proposal to end the hunting season altogether.
This would put gray squirrels in the same position as other rodents, such as porcupines, groundhogs and red squirrels, which also have open seasons year-round, according to the majority report. “There was no testimony that this small game species was endangered in any way, and we all remember the apocalypse of squirrels on our roads a few years ago. Even that mass casualty event did not cause a significant impact on the squirrel population now,” Rep. Timothy Lang said in the report.
Democratic Committeeopposite the open season proposal and argued for a Sept. 15 start date to bring New Hampshire in line with squirrel hunting seasons in neighboring states.
Dan Bergeron, a biologist with New Hampshire Fish and Game, said the department opposes delaying the start of chipmunk season. He said department data indicates there is little hunting pressure on gray squirrels, with about 9 percent of small game hunters going after gray squirrels. According to Bergeron, squirrel populations are primarily driven by food availability and weather patterns. He also pointed to the “large-scale mortality event” of 2018, when acorns and beech nuts were scarcer than in previous years. The department doesn’t believe the season’s current start date will hurt the squirrel population, Bergeron said, adding that the current season is a good compromise between hunters and those who “just enjoy chipmunks for intrinsic reasons.”
Abolishing the season altogether was an idea raised by Rep. Howard Pearl, a Republican from Loudon, when the committee took testimony on the bill. Pearl makes maple syrup on his farm and said gray squirrels are a pest that wreaks havoc on his team.
Currently, landowners and farmers can remove pests from their land regardless of the hunting season, but Pearl said removing the season would allow her to get help.
Both the majority and minority versions of the bill will be presented to the full House for a vote.
TEEN Mom 2 fans trashed Jenelle Evans’ husband David Eason after he let their four-year-old daughter Ensley hold a dead squirrel and then EAT it.
MTV viewers didn’t hold back when they shared their reactions to the resurfaced photos.
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David was criticized for letting Ensley go squirrel hunting with himCredit: Instagram/David Eason
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Jenelle and her husband are often criticized for their parenting choices.Credit: Instagram/Jenelle Evans
In October 2019, David, 33, took to Instagram to share photos of his day hunting with Ensley.
The first photo captured Ensley smiling at the camera while holding the dead squirrel by its tail.
A gun was visible behind her as she rested against a tree.
In the second snap, the father-daughter duo smiled at the camera as David held the dead squirrel by its tail.
The final photo captured Jenelle, 30, and David’s youngest daughter as they ate a meal made with the squirrel sitting at a table.
Alongside the photos, David wrote: “Couldn’t think of a better person to share a chipmunk dinner with! He loved every minute of the process and that’s what matters to me!”
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FANS REACT
The photos recently resurfaced on Reddit, where Teen Mom 2 fans weren’t holding back when they blasted the former reality star.
One person wrote: “Who the hell kills a squirrel?!!?”
Another added: “David and Janelle are rubbish. It’s so good to teach your innocent little girl how to kill adorable little animals for sport.”
“Also, squirrels are considered a protected species, and hunting them is illegal in some areas. They usually carry a lot of different parasites and can also get infected with bacteria. So you really shouldn’t be giving them to your daughter, regardless of the morality of it.” it”.
A third chimed in: “WHY WOULD ANYONE LOVE TO KILL AND EAT (what the heck?!) THE SHIT SQUIRREL?! This is fucking disgusting.”
‘BORED!’
An additional reviewer commented, “Yeah David, because killing squirrels when you’re not starving and they’re not a problem is sound advice for parents. Dude is pitiful!”
Others criticized the father for allowing his daughter to get so close to the gun, as one person wrote: “The gun placed strategically in the background as if she were shooting and put the gun there…”
However, others argued that squirrel hunting “is a popular pastime in the southern and midwestern US.”
MORE KICKBACK
The criticism comes after David was criticized for flashing his gun around Kaiser, Ensley and Jenelle’s seven-year-old son.
Earlier this week, David shared the video on TikTok while responding to a user who said that people who say they always carry a gun rarely do.
Struggling to refute the user’s claim, he filmed himself eating in the kitchen with the gun on his hip.
David then panned the camera to show Ensley and Kaiser smiling behind him.
Later in the clip, the MTV alum showed a rifle propped up next to him on the couch, in the car while going to work, and even in the shower and bathroom.
‘IRRESPONSIBLE’
Instagram fan account Teen Mom Chatter shared David’s video, influencing critics to slam the former reality star as “irresponsible.”
One wrote: “He’s deranged. A permit to carry is fine in my book…but on his hip in his house and randomly placed all over his house with kids around?
“That’s just irresponsible and stupid. I hope he was kidding, and if not, child protective services should take these kids away.”
Another added: “And they wonder why they were reported to CPS… The man is a psychopath. If you are so ‘concerned’ about your safety (why?) you are a danger to yourself and everyone around you.” .
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David also revealed that he and Ensley ate the dead squirrel.Credit: Instagram/David Eason
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The photos were taken in 2019.Credit: Instagram/David Eason
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David was recently criticized for allowing a gun around his childrenCredit: Instagram
‘Alone’ season 9 competitor Benji (Photo by: Brendan George Ko / The History Channel)
Episode four of the ninth season of The History Channel Only catches up to five of the remaining nine survivors: Igor, Benji, Teimojin, Tom, and Terry. It also includes the second outing of the season, as Igor’s health and lack of nutrition caused him to give up 20 days later. He was unable to finish his log cabin due to his lack of strength combined with back pain and heart problems that kept him going. him to work quickly.
A variety of survival tidbits spread throughout “The Beaver” episode airing June 16, 2022 include that beavers can weigh up to 60 pounds and provide 960 calories per pound. Bears can smell the guts of animals 20 miles away, and leaving the skin on a carcass is a natural form of insulation against contamination. And the Whiskey Jacks are birds nicknamed “camp robbers” because they like to steal supplies.
We also learned that survivors are provided with a toothbrush but not toothpaste.
Eight contestants remain at the end of episode four.
Benji, age 46, Bellevue, ID Day 17: Benji gets up early to locate the beaver he shot the night before. Fortunately, he finds the corpse of the poor creature, so he did not die in vain. He carries the lumbering animal back to an area not too close to camp, knowing the scent might attract bears.
Benji worries that the meat will spoil if the temperature doesn’t drop any lower. He is busy preparing the beaver for cooking and has decided to install a steamer. Benji is going to leave the skin to protect the meat.
Benji builds an awesome smoker and prepares different parts of the beaver for cooking. He hangs the meat on his smoking rack; the meat smells good to the extent that it is still relatively fresh. Beaver fat feels great on his hands and works as a natural moisturizer.
Later that night, he roasts the leftover meat and declares that it tastes like roast beef. She thanks the earth for this amazing food.
Benji truly believes that he is capable of going past 100 days and winning.
Day 18: Benji sets up a game cam next to the beaver gut pile about a half mile from his camp. He hopes the images will reveal a bear in the area. Benji is really interested in shooting a bear, sure that would give him enough meat to take him much farther down the road on this adventure.
Benji is proud of how he is doing so far. The only thing that would be better than a beaver is bagging a bear.
Day 19: A bear visits the gut pile and is captured on in-game camera!
‘Alone’ season 9 competitor Teimojin (Photo by: Brendan George Ko / The History Channel)
Teimojin, 31 years old, Montreal, Canada
Day 17: Teimojin continues to work on his shelter and finishes his bed which is about a foot off the ground. He hasn’t had any protein in two weeks and has lost 23 pounds. He is going to get busy setting traps and looking for more food.
His camp is in an area with lots of squirrels (he calls Labrador a “squirrel palace”) and he has found green balsam fir cones that look like they have been chewed up by small animals. Teimojin determined that his best option is to make snap traps which should work well for catching squirrels.
If you can get your hands on some meat, it will go a long way towards confirming that you can survive a good length of time in this desert.
Day 18: Their berry meal isn’t very satisfying, so luckily the squirrels have become more active. He collects firewood hoping to find a squirrel and admits that it feels like he’s hitting a wall. Everything requires a little more energy than normal and he knows that he may be removed for medical reasons.
He pauses in his meeting when he hears a grouse fluttering in the trees. His first shot is a kill, but the bird gets caught in a tree as it dies. He is able to take him down and celebrates his first kill.
Teimojin prepares the bird for cooking and grills the meat. A short time later he has his first protein meal. He has renewed hope now that he knows what a grouse sounds like.
He spent time in East Africa with different indigenous communities and found them to be incredibly happy and resilient, despite living in harsh climates. They taught him important life lessons, including being resilient in the face of hardship.
Terry, ‘Alone’ season 9 competitor (Photo by: Brendan George Ko / The History Channel)
Terry, 31, Homer, Alaska
Day 18: Terry has a confession to make: he hasn’t pooped in 12 days. He believes that his body has been burning everything he ingests and that there is no waste to get rid of. Terry’s worried constipation may end up wearing him out. He needs to find a big game or he won’t last.
It’s still dark when he sneaks down to the river to look for a beaver. He sees one, but decides not to shoot because he can’t be sure it’s an instant lethal shot. Terry doesn’t want the beaver to end up somewhere he can’t get to; he is concerned about being respectful of the beaver and not killing it without being able to retrieve it.
Terry says that the mark of a true hunter is moderation. “You just have to do things the right way. If he doesn’t feel good, he’s not,” says Terry.
Day 19: 13 days and Terry still has problems. He uses sap resin to help with his fire and knows that if he gets a beaver, he could be there for a long time. Not being able to poop is taking its toll on his body and he gets dizzy.
Hours later you are experiencing muscle spasms and leg cramps. Also, she has a stomach ache.
We heard him moan but luckily we don’t have the actual proof that he was finally able to poop. He feels refreshed and his body feels surprisingly good again.
Day 21: Terry wakes up before dawn to try to get a beaver. He is patient and watches one for a while before deciding it is worth a try. His first arrow is all it takes to kill the beaver and then it’s just a matter of waiting to see where the beaver’s body approaches the shore.
Unfortunately, the beaver doesn’t come any closer and Terry is forced to undress and lift the body out of the water, even though it is freezing. He realizes that there is a risk of hypothermia, but he has no other choice.
It’s 100 degrees when Terry comes out of the water with the beaver. He is a huge animal and worth plunging into icy water. It took him eight days to go down to the river in the early morning hours and today his patience finally paid off.
Terry believes that beaver weighs about 30 pounds and is one of his favorite bushmeats.
‘Alone’ season 9 competitor Igor (Photo by: Brendan George Ko / The History Channel)
Igor, 39, Bountiful, UT
Day 18: Igor’s back is sore and his energy level is low. His log cabin is a lot harder than he expected, especially since he’s not consuming a lot of calories. He has lost 25 pounds in these 18 days.
Igor heads to the river to try his hand at fly fishing. He is not good at it and acknowledges that it is a deficit in his skill set. He sees seals in the river and that means there are fish. They also mean that Igor has competition for food. (Regulations prohibit anyone from hunting a harbor seal.)
Igor returns to camp with a single small mussel. Even though he is small, he is excited to be able to cook something. He boils it with seaweed as he reveals that he believes the representation of diversity in the survival environment is important. His first experience of seeing a positive portrayal of someone who looks like him on television was when he was 10 or 12 years old. He saw Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia and that made him believe that he could be a hero. His mustache is a tribute to Sharif.
He eats his mussel which contains about 14 calories and he considers it “amazing”.
Day 19: Igor makes toothpaste with the charcoal from his fire. After that, he slowly starts working on his log cabin again. He still needs a lot of logs and moves at a snail’s pace. He regrets not simply doing a double A-frame and jokes that what he really needs is a “call a friend” option.
Igor does not consider himself in competition with the other. Only contestants. It’s more like he’s competing against himself. Igor realizes that the thought of going home hurts his morale, so he concentrates on building his shelter.
Igor’s back is getting worse every day and he is worried about his heart. He has been beating irregularly, and he assumes that he is struggling to keep it going without much food. If he could catch a fish or a hare, he would be of great help. He is living on a diet of algae.
Day 20: She didn’t sleep well and admits that she is at the limit of what her body can handle. Stretching doesn’t really help his back, his heart continues to bother him and he’s forced to tap before he does any real damage to his body.
He’s disappointed that he didn’t last three weeks, but he can’t risk permanent injury to his back or heart.
Tom, ‘Alone’ season 9 competitor (Photo by: Brendan George Ko / The History Channel)
Tom, age 35, Earlysville, VA
Day 18: Tom completed only one wall of his permanent structure after all this time. He heads out fishing, but a Whiskey Jack catches his attention first and shoots him dead. He’s a pretty bird and Tom didn’t want to shoot him, but he needs food.
Tom is going to use the bird’s feathers as flies as a way to honor the bird’s sacrifice. He doesn’t anticipate that the bird will taste delicious as it belongs to the crow family. Tom hopes he can combine it with fish in a stew to make it taste better.
He pulls a decent sized brook trout out of his honey hole, thankful that the area is still bearing fruit.
Tom cooks his fish and prepares it on a plate made of little twigs, a meal he believes rivals high-class restaurants in New York.
The consistent success of deer hunting is in the details. sure, there is are people who randomly wander through the woods without any preparation and manage to get lucky. But if you want to constantly put meat in the freezer and antlers on the wall, this quest requires an obsession with doing things right.
Of those most important little things, sound is near the top of the list. You can explore, prepare and strategize all you want, but it’s no use if a poorly timed jingle, rattle or pop sends a lot of money running the other way.
Here are a handful of the most noise-problematic pieces of hunting gear and ideas for silencing each one.
Metal
First, before delving into the details, it should be noted that the vast majority of sound problems emanate from metal. Metal clips, buckles, plates, zippers – the list goes on and on. Metal is found in much of what we take into the woods, and when struck against another hard surface, it usually makes a loud, unnatural noise. The kind of noise that doesn’t belong in a deer’s environment and is something that immediately stands out as a potential hazard.
To the extent possible, cover exposed metal parts of any equipment you take into the woods, assuming you can do so without inhibiting its function. Hockey tape, felt, duct tape, and a million other soft, sticky-backed fabrics can help moisten these surfaces and reduce the risk of premature “ding ding.”
Bow
Archery equipment introduces a great deal of noise to a hunt, especially when drawing or releasing an arrow. Fortunately, various accessories and modifications can reduce noise, such as adding a stabilizer, putting rubber sound dampeners on the limbs of the bow, and adding silencers to the bowstring.
“My favorites are the old-school rubber cat whiskers that I attach to the string,” said Tom Irwin of Irwin Archery Mechanics. “If this is done correctly, you can silence your bow by about 30% and basically no speed loss.”
Another common noise area on a bow is the arrow rest and rack. This can be easily combated by adding a felt cover to the tips or arms of the rest, so that the arrow glides silently across the surface when pulled. You can also add felt to the shelf below it, so if the arrow falls off, it won’t make a noise against the hard metal riser.
Finally, Irwin points out that many bowhunters make adjustments to their bows without checking the distance between the top of the string and the bowstring, resulting in an extra slap on the string. “Make sure your rope stop is set business card thick from the top,” he said.
climbing sticks
Another common noise culprit in the woods is the portable climbing poles that so many hunters use to climb a tree when hunting with a mobile tree stand or saddle. In many cases, these poles are made of metal or have metal pieces, pieces, and buckles attached to them. All of that creates a high risk of noise, especially when walking with these sticks strapped to your back or while perched on a tree.
My first recommendation for dealing with this is to cover as much of the metal surface as possible, especially on the main post of the club, with a soft covering. I’ve done this with hockey tape, duct tape, and another popular product made specifically for this application called Stealth Strips.
I also advocate avoiding straps with any kind of metal buckle or clasp because a metal buckle swinging in the air and bumping into another stick is a sure way to get attention. You can replace metal buckles with a number of alternatives, such as Tethrd’s metal-free Versalink or Versastrap products, or a lightweight rope such as amsteel that can be used (with appropriate safety knots) to attach the pole without a buckle. If you still choose to use a buckle strap, wrap that buckle with tape or use something like a Yak Grip or bike pipe to cover it.
Supports for trees and platforms
Blockades, ladder supports, saddle platforms – anything you can stand on in a tree is probably another invitation for sound. All of these items are primarily made of metal and will create noise in the environment if not properly prepared and cared for. Gregg Farrell, a Wisconsin native and lead designer of First Lite whitetail products, recommends several modifications to ensure that whatever type of platform he uses to lift is quiet.
“To silence my mounts, I use Silent Touch Tape anywhere my mounts or sticks might come into contact with each other during my walk or setup,” he explained. A similar effect can be achieved with the other tape options I described when discussing sticks. The key is to wrap any likely contact areas, especially including the support post and the outer edge of the deck.
Tree supports often create noise at pivot or joint points, such as where seats and posts move up and down, where cables connect, and where ladder support segments join. To deal with these sounds, Farrell uses a powdered graphite lubricant. “Powdered graphite is a great lubricant that doesn’t have a harsh smell (even more critical than silence) like WD-40 or something similar,” he said.
Adjacent to the groves are raised box shutters, many of which rest on metal tripods of some kind. These metal platforms and the hollow sound-amplifying boxes above them are also notorious for noise. To negate this common problem, put rugs or foam pads of some kind on the floor and even, if possible, on the walls.
Saddle/harness accessories
Another type of noisy equipment to be aware of are the ropes, buckles, cams, and clips that are associated with tree safety harnesses, lifelines, hunting saddle straps, and lineman’s belts. All of these usually have some kind of carabiner, clip, or ascension device that is made of metal, which I almost always wrap with hockey tape to prevent clanking. Another way to cover these metal surfaces, in certain applications such as on a lifeline, is to use a rubber cover such as the Hunter Safety Cowbell Carabiner Cover to protect the metal device while not in use.
Clothing
“Obviously the biggest quiet factor for me is my dress system,” Farrell said. “That’s why I spend a lot of my working time developing textiles that are quiet all year round, even when it’s really cold.”
Most hunters put a lot of effort into choosing the right clothing to wear, but the sound that clothing makes is often overlooked. Make sure the outer layers you wear aren’t made of a harsh, blatant fabric that puckers, shuffles, or bursts in the wind when it rubs against itself or moves against the rough surface of tree bark.
If possible, test the sound of your clothes at the store or when you get home by rubbing them on themselves and other surfaces; if it’s much stronger than a rubbed pair of jeans, it’s too strong to wear in the whitetail woods if you hope to be within bow range of a deer.
Yes, this is a lot to deal with. But don’t let that stop you from starting your muting. You may not be perfect from the start, but progress is progress. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. So, pick an item from your kit to start silencing today, and then work your way through the list piece by piece. Every little bit counts.
AUGUSTA — A handful of Maine’s winter small game hunting seasons are ending for the spring.
The bobcat season ends on February 21, while the fox season lasts until February 28. There is also a season for the snowshoe hare which ends on February 28 on Vinalhaven Island and March 31 everywhere else.
Hunters pursuing gray squirrels through falconry can continue to do so through February 28. The main squirrel season ended on December 31.
Maine’s main hunting seasons take place primarily in the fall. The next big season starts in May, when it becomes legal to hunt wild turkeys.
If you hunt, you’ve owned an air rifle or two at some point. I still have a handful and even pull them out from time to time in case a cottontail wanders into the garden or the crows get too fond of my wife’s Royal Anne cherries.
But pellet guns have come a long way from the Daisy Red Ryders, Crosman 760 Pumpmasters, and Benjamin Model 392 we packed in the past. Today they shoot at higher velocities, use designer pellets and have different scopes than the Tasco straight 4 power tubes we had. Acronyms like PCP, which stands for “Pre-charged Pneumatic,” have become commonplace among the airgun crowd. And most of today’s air rifles look like something out of Star Wars—and not issue 4 released in ’76, but one of the last ones with all the great CGI.
So where does a guy like me, a 50-year-old hunter but admittedly stuck in the world of airguns in the mid-70s, start if he wants to practice vermin eradication on the farm?
Fortunately, there are guys like Lawrence “LT” Taylor and Eydin Hansen to answer that. Taylor is a PR/Social Media Representative for GAMO USA, and Hansen is a professional shooter for Umarex USA. This is what they have to say.
1) Is there an entry level air rifle? And if so, what am I looking for?
Taylor and Hansen suggest a spring- or gas-piston-operated airgun for small game hunters. “What you’re looking for is a rifle that will produce the velocity needed to ethically harvest a small game animal,” says Taylor. “Anything that produces 900 to 1,000 feet per second will do the job at 40 yards.”
So what is the difference between springs and gas pistons? Both systems work essentially the same way, but one works by means of a strong spring, while the other, when cocked, uses a gas piston (which is similar to a gas strut in a car) to force air , along with the projectile, low range These weapons are cocked by breaking the barrel or with a bottom lever design.
“Spring power plants are fine for the guy looking to hunt cottontail rabbits and squirrels, but the gas springs in our high-velocity guns would work even better,” says Taylor. “Still, I’m not going to insult the jumpers. It’s just that gas piston pistols produce a little more velocity and will be easier to cock.”
Make sure your airgun has enough power to hunt small game before you go hunting. Range
Spring-piston guns are easy to operate and don’t require as many accessories as PCP airguns. “If you don’t have an air compressor or a way to fill a scuba tank, I’d start with a break barrel or bottom lever,” says Hansen. “You can get into a break-barrel for less than $200. And it’s self-contained.”
While we’re looking for entry-level and simple here, there are advantages to the PCP OS that you might want to consider. PCP rifles require a separate tank that you use to load the rifle, giving you multiple shots before it’s time to refill. PCP rifles are more expensive, but can be easier to shoot and more comfortable to sight.
“PCP guns tend to be more accurate, quieter, and easier to use once you know all the necessary equipment,” says Taylor. He also says you can find a used scuba tank to fill a PCP pistol for around $100 and an adapter for $30 to charge the rifle.
2) What is the best airgun caliber for hunting small game?
There are pellets for large caliber airguns, but the most common pellets you’ll find at your local sporting goods store are the .177 and the .22. Regardless of caliber, there are radical variations in appearance, design, function, accuracy, and on-target performance between different brands of shot; however, most .177 pellets weigh 8.5 grains, while .22 pellets weigh about 15.5 grains, or about twice as much. that of the .177 projectiles.
Which is better for small game? Lighter pellets generally mean higher speeds, but less energy retention or energy transfer at impact. Heavier pellets give more retained energy, but require more power, whether it be a spring, gas piston, or PCP, to get them up to acceptable speeds to kill game.
“For small game, you definitely want to start with the .22,” says Taylor. “It provides more power than the .177. It’s just accepted as the minimum for small game.”
Hansen goes a little out of the box and prefers to go even higher in caliber. “If you can, go for the .25 for small game,” he says. “Most of your springs and gas pistons are going to be .22, but if you can get into the .25, it hits harder, allows for more ethical shooting, and isn’t affected by the wind as much.” For those wondering, .25 pellets weigh about 25 grains; however, some high-tech hunting shells can exceed 40. They are a little harder to find than .22 or .177 pellets, but if you shop online, you can buy a brand that will work well in your gun.
It is important to find the right pellet for your gun. Umarex
3) What type of optic works best on an airgun?
Spring and gas piston rifles, by virtue of the violent nature of their actions, hit scopes a lot. Pick the wrong optic and you could fire your reticle, leaving you unable to hit either side of any barn.
“A lot of people don’t anticipate problems with their scope when using airsoft guns,” says Taylor. “You can’t put just any scope on a spring-loaded or gas-piston barrel. They produce a ‘recoil’ that is different from that of a firearm. The recoil is both forwards and backwards, so if you put a regular scope on top of a high-powered piston or BB gun, it would probably break pretty quickly.”
Fortunately, optics designed to resist the unique recoil pattern of airguns are available, thanks to rifle/scope combinations offered by GAMO, Umarex, and other companies. GAMO’s sister company, BSA Optics, makes a trio of air-specific scopes in a variety of configurations, all of which retail for a C-bill.
Read Next: Can’t find any .22 ammo? These are the best air rifles for hunting squirrels
4) What is the best way to aim an air rifle?
When I first started shooting air rifles, the sighting process was simple: a handful of buckshot, some kind of rest, and a paper plate, with or without a black dot in the center. But the sighting process is a bit more serious today.
“With BB guns and sighting, you really want to use the ordnance bay,” says Taylor. The artillery grip is a loose grip on the rifle. The forearm rests and the rifle is balanced on the open palm, with the butt held lightly against the cheek and shoulder. This allows the rifle to recoil unrestricted and gives you a consistent point of impact.
As for the range, Taylor and his colleagues start their work at 15 yards and only extend that range to 25 after the rifle has been aimed.
Hansen digs a little deeper in terms of the observation process. “I start with the heaviest granule available,” he says. “You may need to try a couple of different weights to find which one works best on your rifle.” Hansen looks at 10 yards, which he says will get him closer to 40 because of the arcing path of a pellet. “It’s like aiming a rifle at 25 yards. At 100 yards, you’ll be pretty close.”
I’ve wanted to add a side-by-side shotgun to my collection for a long time, but I just couldn’t connect with a purchase that would leave me feeling good. Since the market was almost empty of current production models, I turned my attention to gun shows and the like. In this arena, I found one of two types of weapons for sale:
One: Shotguns that were so beat up that I wouldn’t feel safe shooting them.
Two: Shotguns that were so pristine I wouldn’t feel right shooting them.
After going through table after table full of examples of these two options, I finally abandoned the idea and began the search for my next firearm in another category (there is always another). Several years passed without this classic double-barreled design crossing my mind, until Rock Island Armory unveiled a new product for SHOT Industry Day 2022 at the Range Event. Called simply “Side by Side,” this Turkish import combined modern features with contemporary styling, all for a price that made these tools as popular as they were in their heyday. After sending a few projectiles through one into a sea of clay pigeons, I knew instantly that I wanted to spend more time with him.
So, after signing a little paperwork and waiting a few weeks, one showed up in my FFL, and I cleared my schedule to put it to the test right away. The first feature that attracted me to Rock Island Side by Side was their low RRP of just $599, which means that in the right market, these could easily hit shelves for under $500. of my budget for a “funny gun” instantly qualified it for review, I proceeded with my general checklist. At the top of that list is equipment, as there is literally no wiggle room allowed in this department.
When I chamber an emergency action firearm, it has to be rock solid. Otherwise, there’s no way I’m going to put my face up against him and pull the trigger. Needless to say, this shotgun was built exceptionally well, and its tight tolerances passed every type of bending and twisting test I was able to impart to it. The same tolerances were also applied in the furniture, as the oil-rubbed walnut stock and forend sat firmly against their adjacent metal components.
Moving on to functionality, I liked that the Side by Side was built with proven barrels that are chambered for 3″. This means the Rock Island Armory part can handle not only your favorite target loadout, but plenty of magnum shells as well. This would open it up for much more use and take it out of the “shoot only on special occasions” category and place it neatly in the “let’s go turkey hunting” category Also based on extended use the RIA comes standard with threaded barrels and a set of chokes to vary the pattern.This is certainly not the case on most older models as the buyer had to learn to accept the fact that they got what they got.
The aesthetic part of the exam overlapped the functionality to a great extent, something I always appreciate. Looking at the exposed hammers and dual trigger system, it should be a bit easier to understand this statement. On the one hand, these are features we look for when we buy a display to hang over our fireplace, but on the other hand, they also help tremendously in the field. Exposed hammers have a certain degree of safety, as there is no error when cocked.
Also, there is a bit of safety associated with this design, as one has the option of leaving it depressed until ready to fire, as they do not sit on the firing pin. Of course, as it is designed to be modern, the cocked and locked method is also on the table, as this side-by-side also features a push-to-fire safety tang. Turning our attention to dual triggers, most will agree that there is no quicker method of barrel selection than simply remembering that the front trigger fires the right barrel and the rear trigger fires the left. Combine that with an interchangeable choke system and you have a handy bird gun that can be adjusted to handle two completely different shooting scenarios.
I decided to test the Rock Island Armory Side by Side by shooting a casual round of clays using Winchester’s #6 Super Speed Game loads along with Browning’s #8 BTP Light target load. In preparation for this activity, I bolted on the included improved cylinder and modified choke tubes as they would give me my best patterns for these close range targets. Before I made orange dust, however, I needed to see how this double-barreled shotgun stacked up against its natural enemy: a shared point of impact.
One problem with the side-by-sides of old was that one barrel fired straight and the other fired its pellets slightly to the side. This was usually remedied with a touch of filing to help correct the draft pattern (another reason they rarely throttled). So, on a 40″ by 40″ piece of plywood set 35 yards apart, I fired a shot of the #6 Winchester from each barrel and was pleasantly surprised. The modified barrel laid a pattern perfectly around my 2″ pin with four pellets hitting the point, and the improved cylinder added another two and widened the overall pattern proportionally.
As you might have guessed, it was a bad day for the clays, as I was able to rack up as many breaks with this side-by-side as any other shotgun in my cabinet, and I had a blast. , also. I loved feeling the inherent roll ability these guns are known for, as well as pulling empty shells out of a cracked breech. The gun worked as it should and digested all of our ammunition without so much as a jammed case or misfire. Admittedly, I forgot to cock the hammers a few times, because years of firing conventional breakaway cannons will do that to you, but I can’t blame the hardware for what’s obviously a software issue.
At the end of the day, I wiped the gun down with a lightly oiled cloth to preserve the anodized finish on the case, as well as the high-gloss polish that was applied to the barrels. From here, my only dilemma was whether to remove the hammers and hang it over the fireplace in our new home or keep it locked in the safe for the bird and squirrel hunts that were to come. On the other hand, at this price, nothing stops me from buying one for every purpose. For more information, visit armcor.com.
Just as most bowhunters fall to opposite ends of the fixed vs. mechanical debate, most also have strong opinions on arrow rests. Although drop-away style products reign supreme and continue to push the boundaries of new innovation, Whisker Biscuits still seem to have a place in the bowhunting world. You won’t see many pros using these breaks these days, though some still sing their praises.
These full-containment breaks are incredibly reliable and simple and have garnered a loyal following since their debut two decades ago. With no moving parts, they are quiet and virtually foolproof in the field. Even when you’re walking through rough terrain or drawing with less than perfect form, Whisker crackers and similar full-containment supports won’t break and will keep your arrows in place and ready to fly.
They are low maintenance, easy to set up, and much more affordable than high end pull down options. The concept is fairly basic, but designs that minimize drag and allow windage and elevation adjustments are also now available. So even though Whisker Biscuit bristles can wear down over time and repeated contact may eventually require arrows to be fletched, this style of rest is economical and practical.
But you won’t find archers like Levi Morgan competing with Whisker Biscuits. These silences sacrifice a certain level of accuracy and speed. Drop down rests eliminate feather contact on the shot when properly installed and adjusted. They’re also a bit faster and consistently accurate, which is why bowhunting legends like Randy Ulmer and Bill Winke mount pop-ups on their hunting bows.
However, the more complex design of drop-down rests makes them more finicky and less forgiving of poor draw shape. The arrows can easily jump off many dropdown breaks. These products also have the potential to fail in extreme conditions such as rain, snow, or hot weather. But most loyalists won’t even consider Whisker Biscuits, instead just arguing the merits of limb-driven versus cable-driven breaks.
Although most compound archers are sold for the pinpoint accuracy of deployable rests, some industry professionals prefer the reassurance that Whisker crackers provide. Frequently hunting whitetails from the ground and often ignoring conventional odor control wisdom, members of The Hunting Public swear by Whisker Biscuit-style total containment breaks.
“These things are tried and true,” said Aaron Warbritton of Hunting Public. “They’ve been around for years. They’re just an awesome hunting rest. You can put your arrow on that rest and you don’t have to worry about it falling off as you move the bow up and down, creeping in game. They’re an awesome hunting rest.” , especially for whitetail hunters who shoot deer within 40 yards.”
Hunting Public’s Zach Ferenbaugh also opts for full containment because an arrow rattling on a drop rest could cost you a hard-earned money shot.
“On my bow, I always like to make sure I have a full catch arrow rest,” Ferenbaugh said. “I like them a lot because the arrow can’t get out of there. No matter what you do, no matter how you swing the bow, the arrow is in the rest.”
Also appreciate how a Whisker Biscuit keeps the arrow level at all times.
“When I’m ready to draw and level the bow, it’s right in the shooting position,” Ferenbaugh said. “That way, when I have an arrow set and I’m moving through the woods, whether I’m going to and from a facility or hunting fixed or hunting on the ground, you’ll be swinging the bow whenever you want.” I am trying to shoot. And if you have an arrow rest that doesn’t hold the arrow in place, it can be difficult and make things difficult.”
Because they can be more foolproof and forgiving than droplets, Whisker Biscuits and similar full-containment breaks can be beneficial to youngsters and new shooters, as well as mobile deer hunters. While many bowhunters who use only deployable rests tout the superior speed and accuracy of their products, field tests have indicated that the difference between Whisker Biscuits and deployable rests is minimal to negligible for most shooting scenarios. hunts, losing only a few feet per second and about an inch of drop at longer distances.
Bowhunters who are hell-bent on squeezing every ounce of speed and accuracy out of their rigs may appreciate the nominal advantage of a drop rest. But for bowhunters who are on a budget, hunt from the ground, or just prefer dependable simplicity, the Whisker Cracker is still a great choice.
So is the Biscuit Mustache dead? Not even remotely.
