Archive for the 'Hunting' Category

Jim does a nice job with this analysis.

For the record, I never shoot my heavier recoiling guns extremely tight to the shoulder. In fact, my 444 Marlin shoots better for me when held just a tiny bit loose.

Concerning the notion of semiautomatic rifle accuracy, I suspect as more hunters begin to use them, the barrels will get better and more like the gun he was using. And yes, they’re capable of sub-MOA performance.

I just can’t stand all of the yak-yak-yak on most podcasts, especially when he waxes on about needing a Capuchino machine in his shower. But I did listen to enough of this to know that Dr. Ronald Kendall is a smart man, and he thinks he has identified the cause of the reduction in population of the Bobwhite Quail. Eyeworms. And he thinks he has a solution. If you want to skip the yak-yak-yak, you can fast forward to around 15 minutes.

Here is an article about it, and here is his website: Wildlife Toxicology Laboratory.

I mentioned that I recently went quail hunting in S.C. It was at the plantation of Jackson Walling, with R&D Quail Farm contracted to supply the quail and guide the hunt with dogs.

He has around 50,000 quail at any one time. He once raised Pheasant but doesn’t anymore. I didn’t know it, but Pheasant are violent birds. If you raise Pheasant, they will all kill each other unless you put blinders on them and allow them only to see peripherally.

The old .270 Winchester ranks near the top, or at the top. His list is interesting, and it would never have occurred to me to choose a small caliber like that to hunt deer.

I will also say that I spent some of the evening studying the 280 Ackley Improved and I like what I see. It’s basically much like the 270 Win except about 20 grains heavier bullet weight.

What’s your favorite, and why?

Readers may have noticed that I’ve been out a bit lately. I’ve been busy on hunting trips.

The deer was an 8-pointer taken at Groton Plantation with a 6.5 Creedmoor. He was shot straight through the chest. He pivoted directly towards me and I knew it was take the shot or lose the chance on him forever. The hog was taken at Groton with .444 Marlin. He had tusks. I can’t say enough for the power of the .444 Marlin. If you ever wonder if you’re bringing enough cartridge for the game, you don’t have to wonder with the .444 Marlin. Recoil is a thing, but only when you’re sighting in the gun. When harvesting game, recoil is irrelevant. It may as well be a 22LR. You don’t feel a thing. Maybe next year I’ll use a 45-70 with a Marlin rifle to see how that compares and contrasts.

I would in fact recommend Hornady 265 grain jacketed, bonded flat point versus the Hornady Lever Revolution. I just like it better.

You know how sometimes a hog will roll over and the legs look like he’s swimming? That doesn’t happen when you’re using .444 Marlin. It’s a quick, ethical kill.

There is nothing more fun than southeastern quail hunting. The dog handler was extremely good, and the dogs were great.

“Trooper, Star, get over here and get on them birds. Trooper, find birds. Trooper, hunt birds. Trooper, you’re a lying dog. There’s no birds over here. Trooper, come here and get on birds. Trooper is staying. Trooper is locked up on point. He’s right, they’ve coveyed up. Whoa Trooper, hunters, get over here, Trooper and Star are both locked up on point. Hunters, get over here. Good shot, nice shot. Trooper, dead bird. Trooper, go get that bird.”

At which point I saw Trooper swim into a swamp and get my bird, and on to the next single, or pair, or covey, for two and a half miles. I harvested a total of a dozen quail.

If you have a problem son, or a son or grandson who is bored, or into trouble, there is no greater antidote than something like this. Who wouldn’t like to see deer, hogs, snapping turtles, lizards, turkeys and quail? And see fantastic sunrises in the morning as a testament to the creation God gave us as a token of His esteem? I saw turkey at virtually every sit, and a lizard visited me in every stand I sat.

In my last sit I saw six does and a 4-pointer and 6-pointer. As a disciplined deer hunter I had to let them walk. That 6-pointer had good genetics and was chasing does. I’ve seen 6-pointers that didn’t do that even during the rut, but this boy will be a nice 8-pointer next year, and if I don’t take him next year maybe he’ll be a 10-pointer the following year.

This is the perfect solution to the feminized, communist education camps we call schools. In schools the state believes they own the children. During hunting, you can make it clear that men can do men things and it’s okay. No one owns them. And it’s okay to study the difference between 6.5 Creedmoor and .444 Marlin. And it’s okay to harvest deer with your favorite AR-10, or a bolt action, or a lever action, or any rifle that works for you.

So, fathers and grandfathers, get busy. This is what you should be doing with your boys. They may have to shoot a 20 rather than 12 gauge.

American Hunter.

Forty-one percent of surveyed hunters used an AR-platform rifle at some time for hunting, according to the findings of research conducted by Responsive Management for the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation (OSCF). When asked a similar question during a 2014 study, the rate was only 25 percent. Fifty-one percent of the hunters who do not currently use an AR said they would if it were legal in their state.

Nearly half of respondents said their favorite hunting firearm is a traditional rifle—defined for purposes of the survey as any rifle that’s not an AR. Another quarter prefer shotguns.

Roughly 80 percent of AR hunters use their firearm to hunt large game, a significant increase from 57 percent in 2014. Thirty-one percent said their preferred quarry is small game, about the same as 2014.

Over a third of AR hunters cited ease of shooting as the primary reason for their preference. Another 31 percent said their main motivation was accuracy. Reliability and weight reduction were the next-highest responses.

“It was not surprising to learn that hunting with AR-platform/modern sporting rifles is on the rise,” said Jim Curcuruto, executive director of OSCF. “I was surprised, however, to see that more than 50 percent of hunters that are not currently using AR-platform rifles to hunt with, responded that they are likely to try hunting with these versatile rifles in the future.”

Well, that the main motivation is accuracy is a little weird. I’ll stipulate that AR pattern rifles have greatly improved over the last ten years, and my rifles are generally 1 MOA. Bolt action rifles are too as long as you spend the money to get good rifles, and something like a Tikka will give you << 1 MOA accuracy. But of course to get the accuracy in an AR pattern rifle costs a lot of money too. I’d have to say generally that since you can buy a Tikka bolt action for < $1500, and getting really good accuracy out of AR-10 pattern rifle requires something like a Daniel Defense or Seekins Precision, you’re saving 50% on your purchase by opting for the Tikka.

Where I think the AR pattern rifle really comes in handy is something like hunting hogs where multiple shots can be taken very quickly. There might be other applications (a deer stumbles but begins to run and you need another round quickly). Anyway, as I said, opting for an AR pattern rifle because of accuracy over a bolt action sounds strange to me.

But I don’t find it surprising at all that AR pattern rifles are beginning to take off among hunters. I would day that if you opt for an AR pattern rifle, spend the money necessary to get a good one. On a recent hunting trip I heard a guide say that the cheaper AR-10s shooting .308 had malfunctions that require slamming the butt into the ground. Normally, that comes from a double-feed.

F&S.

The town of Princeton, New Jersey, wants to use surgical sterilization to help control its overabundant whitetail deer herd. On July 8, the Town Council approved a plan submitted by Princeton’s deer management contractor, White Buffalo Inc., that would use an elaborate procedure to capture and sterilize at least 40 does this winter.

According to the neighborhood news site Tap Into Princeton, sterilization teams would shoot does with tranquilizer darts and transport the deer to a temporary surgical unit at an old fire station, where “the wildlife biologists will have about 20 minutes to remove her ovaries, staple the wound, apply a tag and radio collar, and return her to her original site before the drugs wear off.” The operation would be conducted at night, and biologists would remain with each deer until it regains consciousness.

They would choose an expensive procedure for deer birth control rather than turn urban archery hunters loose on a herd! What on earth is wrong with these people?

Source.

An unassuming gift of nine deer from India to the Hawaiian islands in 1867 has spiraled into a modern-day ecological nightmare.

On the island of Maui, the axis deer population has ballooned to about 65,000 and could grow to 225,000, devastating pastoral forage land and vegetation already scarce due to ongoing drought conditions.

But Jake Muise, CEO/Co-founder of Maui Nui Venison, is offering an unconventional solution to help balance the axis deer’s rampant spread: sustainable harvesting methods approved by the USDA that combat overpopulation while protecting the land and helping the locals.

“We knew that by balancing populations in the areas, we could help benefit food systems, ecosystems, communities, customers, and others,” Muise says. “Along the way, we discovered that this animal is also one of the most nutritious on the planet.”

Muise shares the unique story of his company’s mission on the latest episode of One Day with Jon Bier. Listen to the entire episode below and read on for key takeaways from the conversation.

Nobody could have imagined that the axis deer gifted by India in the 19th Century would explode in population over the years. But Muise explains it as a perfect storm of a favorable place and a unique species.

“What makes the axis deer so prolific as an invasive species is they’re one of the only deer species in the world whose sperm is viable year-round,” he says. “For the vast majority of other deer species, when their antlers fall off every year, testosterone levels drop. But axis deer are capable of breeding year-round, which puts their annual growth rates at 33% a year.”

Add to that an environment with perfect weather, abundant feed, and no natural predators, and you have a recipe for population explosion.

Muise explains that having so many deer in such an isolated area has wreaked havoc on the environment. Water is a precious commodity in Hawaii, “but when the deer become established in our watersheds, they’ll reduce the amount of water collected by 50 percent.”

The deer eat much of the farmland, destroy crops, and impact the food systems of other important animals, such as cows. They also pose a danger on the roadways. Muise says in Maui there is an accident involving a deer every single night.

About 15 years ago, Muise and some colleagues began to develop a sustainable business solution to the deer problem that would benefit the community and the customers who wanted to support it.

Teams harvest the deer humanely, tracking their movement using drones and sophisticated infrared technology. They then sell the venison commercially across the country.

“We were always just trying to solve a problem. We didn’t actually realize this was gonna be the healthiest red meat on earth,” says Muise. “Our venison has some of the best nutrient density testing in the world.”

I see no problem here. I recall from my one visit to Hawaii hearing about the great deer hunting and it had never occurred to me to look into it. But this is a wonderful opportunity to get into deer hunting year around for Hawaii residents.

I’d take advantage of it if I lived in Hawaii.

Outdoor Life.

An aerial program to remove predators from caribou calving grounds in Southwest Alaska has wrapped up its second year with a total of 81 brown bears and 14 wolves killed between May 10 and June 5, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced on June 14. The removals are intended to improve calf survival of the Mulchatna caribou herd, which has declined by about 94 percent since 1997.

This spring ADFG employees tracked caribou in the western half of the herd’s calving grounds while patrolling for evidence of predators chasing or actively feeding on caribou. The removal of the 95 total predators was conducted on state land only, according to officials, with efforts focused on an area of about 530 square miles. That’s half the size of the 2023 predator-control area, when 104 total predators were removed (94 brown bears, five black bears, and five wolves). The herd’s eastern calving grounds were not subject to predator removal this year, as officials plan to compare calf survival between the two regions.

No, don’t sell tags to let hunters cull the predator populations. Only the king’s men get to do it, you see. Because only the king’s men hunt the royal forests.

Outdoor Life.

A recent court ruling in Tennessee restricts some of the powers that the state’s game wardens have traditionally held when policing hunters and anglers on private land. According to that ruling, which was handed down by a Court of Appeals on Thursday, wildlife officers can no longer enter private property to monitor, look for, or otherwise investigate wildlife crimes without a warrant.

[ … ]

These powers are summarized in a Tennessee law that allows officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency “to go upon any property, outside of buildings, posted or otherwise” in order to enforce wildlife laws.

In its unanimous decision, a panel of three judges determined that the state’s game wardens were taking these powers too far, and that the current statute allowing for warrantless searches on posted private property is unconstitutional as applied by TWRA. The judges even drew comparisons between TWRA’s past actions and the tyrannies colonial Americans were subjected to under British rule.

“The TWRA searches, which it claims are reasonable, bear a marked resemblance to the arbitrary discretionary entries of customs officials more than two centuries ago in colonial Boston,” the judges wrote in their decision. “The TWRA’s contention is a disturbing assertion of power on behalf of the government that stands contrary to the foundations of the search protections against arbitrary governmental intrusions in the American legal tradition, generally, and in Tennessee, specifically.”

The decision stems from a lawsuit filed in Benton County Circuit Court by two Tennessee landowners, Terry Rainwaters and Hunter Hollingsworth …

The defense cites the so-called open fields doctrine, of course.

In defending the agency’s actions, attorneys representing TWRA argued that because so much hunting takes place on private land in Tennessee, officers would be unable to protect the state’s wildlife resources if they couldn’t patrol these lands. They also cited the “Open Fields Doctrine,” a federal precedent set during the Prohibition era …

That’s a great point. The open fields doctrine which comes from Hester v. The U.S., where it was held that these intrusions don’t violate the fourth or fifth amendments.

1. In a prosecution for concealing spirits, admission of testimony of revenue officers as to finding moonshine whiskey in a broken jug and other vessels near the house where the defendant resided and as to suspicious occurrences in that vicinity at the time of their visit, held not violative of the Fourth or Fifth Amendments, even though the witnesses held no warrant and were trespassers on the land, the matters attested being merely acts and disclosures of defendant and his associates outside the house. P. 265 U. S. 58.

2. The protection accorded by the Fourth Amendment to the people in their “persons, houses, papers, and effects,” does not extend to open fields.

Affirmed.

This case occurred in the western district of South Carolina.

Isn’t that special? The revenuers wanted to collect money from untaxed liquor, so the Supreme Court held that they can go on a man’s private property.

That is now used as a pretext for game officers invading a man’s property and installing cameras, walking around, or doing essentially whatever they want to.

The main point here isn’t what’s happening to game on the land. The main point is that these powers have been given to game officers and tax collectors. The main question is this: do you want game officers with that much freedom and control over you or anyone else? If so, perhaps we should grant police the power to ignore the constitution in all other cases. After all, what’s the difference between untaxed liquor and game animals and any other thing? Just apply the open fields doctrine to everything, everywhere.

Because money. It belongs to the king. And only the king’s men can hunt the royal forests – or those who pay him. All lands are the royal forests.

Except now in Tennessee, apparently.

Good.