November 24th, 2011 — Duck, Hunting
If you seem to think that duck hunting simply amounts to hiding until birds fly by, there are several duck hunting tips that can help you understand the sport better and help you do better when you’re out on a hunt. There’s much more to hunting ducks than simply hiding and waiting for them to fly overhead or land on the water.
If you’re serious about duck hunting, then record your progress. People who set goals and write their goals and their progress toward them down do much better than people who don’t. And because duck hunting is something that involves a lot of observation and paying attention to trends and surroundings, keeping a sort of diary of your duck hunts can help you see patterns and get the most out of your time in a boat or a blind. Being able to look back through your diary at what happened when you didn’t get any ducks and what happened when you did can make all the difference in how successful you are duck hunting in the long term.
This is a good tip to follow whether you hunt ducks or any other game animals or fowl. Keeping a written record of the weather conditions, how you felt, what time you went, and the kinds of decoys or calls you used is a way of recording vital information to discover what works and what doesn’t.
Another important duck hunting tip is to use the right decoys. A decoy isn’t just a wooden shape like a duck with a little paint on it. While some may seem to have good luck with just those types of decoys, better ones offer a better chance at attracting ducks. In fact, if you find a few brands you like you can mix and match them to get different colors and shapes as well as sizes in your decoy spread. The more natural it looks, the better off you’ll be. If you have large and small decoys it will look like there are adults and amateur ducks together and that will give the decoy spread a very ordinary appearance.
Also, rather than just setting decoys and walking away to hide, add some movement. A cord hooked to the decoys that you can pull on makes it appear as if they’re moving around on the water and will make the decoy spread look even more natural to ducks. Some decoys can be purchased that have magnets inside or other devices that will keep them moving a little bit on their own. But if you can move them at will, it will look more natural and you’ll have a better chance of attracting ducks.
Finally, don’t think that one specific tip will make or break your duck hunting. You can have the best decoys and a lousy call and not attract a single duck. Or you can have a great duck call but decoys that keep the birds from landing. Your blind or boat might draw too much attention, or it just may not be your day. Still, following these tips increases your chances of bagging your limit of ducks.
Photo Credits: peteSwede
Originally posted 2010-03-28 03:12:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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November 19th, 2011 — Big, Bison, Hunting
Alaskan bison hunting is just one of the big game hunting sports in the state. Bison are huge animals that stand about 6 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh over a ton each. Bison are easily recognizable because of their larger and heavier front quarters and their smaller hindquarters. Most people are only familiar with seeing a dark brown bison. The dark brown coat is their winter coat. It lightens up toward spring. Bison also have huge curving horns that point upward.
Bison have an excellent sense of smell that allows them to survive the winter as long as they are healthy and they do get in a good area with food beneath the frozen snow. They are able to smell food even under inches of snow. Then they use their large head and upper body to shove the snow away from the food to get to it. Since they can smell so clearly through the snow, catching the scent of a hunter isn’t much of a challenge.
When you’re bison hunting you need to be sure that you’re not carrying a strong set. Wash in unscented soap, don’t wear cologne or aftershave or even heavily scented deodorant, and make sure your clothes don’t carry a scent from detergent or fabric softener. Try to avoid getting very sweaty in your clothes and stay away from things like campfires so you don’t absorb the smell of the smoke and cooking food. Bison are very difficult to stalk as you need to do a successful hunt so give yourself a better chance of success by eliminating your scent. Bison are also one of the more difficult animals to actually bring down. They are the hardest one in Alaska, at least. Their sheer size makes it difficult to kill one of these animals.
Hunting is allowed to control the population. Bison aren’t native to Alaska but were brought there instead in 1928 and quickly multiplied. Without hunting, experts believe that they would take over the areas where they live and start to do damage to the ecosystem. Bison hunting keeps that from happening.
Those who have problems with Alaskan bison hunting say that nature can take care of itself. But since bison are an introduced species and they have no natural predators to thin the herds, hunting bison is considered a necessity. Bison may look large and lumbering out on the plain but they’re actually very aggressive when they feel threatened. The only predators that have any hope of taking down the bison are wolves and bears and then they can only generally take down the young. Neither of these predatory animals will attack an adult bison because of the large horns and the size.
Some bison live in protected areas because the fear is that hunting will thin them too much as it has done in the United States. The settlers’ bison hunting actually thinned them down so much that their survival in the United States has been questioned. But Alaskan bison hunting is how the population is kept under control and something hunters are welcome to do in the frozen north.
Photo Credits: Alan Vernon.
Originally posted 2010-03-24 03:12:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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April 3rd, 2010 — Elk, Hunting, Open Season
Hunters who enjoy hunting big game get excited when elk season approaches. One way that you can help yourself if you’re aiming for a trophy elk or any elk at all is by practicing a great deal long before the season starts. Too many hunters leave the guns and bows and arrows in cabinets when hunting season is out. What they need to be doing is setting up targets and practicing.
Not only is it important practice with the weight of the arrows that you’ll be using when you hunt, it is important to practice hitting the target. Do you think you have a better chance of getting a trophy elk if you’ve been practicing for a few months or if the first time you shoot at an elk is the first time you’ve shot in a few months?
Just like an athlete or any type of sportsmen, hunters should train and that includes target practice. It makes you more familiar with your weapon and how to use it in different weather. And that will help you when elk season starts. Vary your practice schedule, as well. Practice shooting at targets from a variety of positions and angles so that you’re better prepared for the actual hunt. Try crouching or shooting from a low position just as you might in a natural elk hunt.
Stake your claim on land as early as possible. You should go out and scout the area that you’ll be hunting in if at all possible to look for elk. Make sure that you know who owns the land you’re on and if it’s privately owned that you have permission from the landowner. Walk the land carefully before elk season starts. Become familiar with it and scout out areas where elk may be once you’re ready to hunt.
Don’t wait for elk season to inspect all of your equipment and make sure everything is in working order. If you discover something as soon as the season starts you could end up waiting too long while it’s being fixed and miss part of the season.
And scent is an important step that some hunters don’t think is necessary. Just because some hunters somewhere managed to get a trophy elk or deer without worrying about his scent doesn’t mean that it will work for you. Do everything you can to minimize your scent in the area. Always be aware of which direction the wind’s blowing in so that you won’t get downwind from any animals. You can buy a little spray bottle designed just for this or simply wet day fingertip and gauge the direction of the wind.
Elk actually have very heightened sense of smell, more than many other game, so do everything you can to minimize your natural scents like soap smells and smells from shampoo. Use unscented products as well as unscented laundry detergent. And make sure that your clothing isn’t exposed to anything with a strong scent like a campfire. Also consider purchasing a product designed to hide your scent from the animals.
Photo Credits: gavinrobinson
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