Archive for the 'Hunting' Category

Source.

A hunter from Montana who narrowly escaped death during a grizzly bear attack has disclosed that one split-second decision saved his life.

Chase Dellwo, then 26, was hunting with his brother in the Montana backcountry when he inadvertently stumbled upon a 400lb sleeping male grizzly.

Local reports indicate that Dellwo was moving up a creek bed on a Saturday morning, attempting to herd a group of elk towards a ridge where his brother was stationed, when the bear woke up abruptly just three feet away.

Poor weather conditions, including snow, rain, and winds reaching 40mph, appear to have concealed Dellwo’s approach, meaning the bear didn’t see him coming and was thus taken by surprise.

He barely had time to retreat before the creature knocked him to the ground and bit his head, reports the Mirror.

“He let go but he was still on top of me, roaring the loudest roar I have ever heard,” Dellwo said.

The bear then clamped down hard onto his leg, shaking him violently and tossing him into the air. As it lunged again, Dellwo says that he didn’t succumb to panic, a factor that may have made all the difference.

“I remembered an article that my grandmother gave me a long time ago that said large animals have bad gag reflexes,” he said. “So I shoved my right arm down his throat.”

Incredibly, it worked. The bear immediately released the quick-thinking hunter and fled, leaving Dellwo severely wounded but, importantly, alive.

Despite bleeding profusely, he managed to reunite with his brother who quickly took him to the hospital. Doctors treated him for hundreds of stitches and staples in his head, a swollen and bruised eye, and deep puncture wounds on his leg.

The article says he was a hunter. I don’t know if he could reach his weapons in time, but I think I’d rather shoot the predator with a large bore handgun (.44 Mag, .454 Casull, or 450 SMC).

I made a comment to this video as follows.

“You make a lot of great points. Ask any hunter why you can no longer find deer in the Pisgah National Forrest. Here’s why. Mountain bikers protest to the state when anyone talks about burning it. The last time I hunted there there were no deer. The woods is so dense with dead fall, limbs and brush that you can’t walk into the woods you have to step through two feet deep of treacherous stuff that can break your ankles. What was once delivered wisdom from the old timers (let the woods burn from lightning strikes) became “fight the fires.” Until we came up with a solution, managed, or prescribed, or controlled burns. But unless it’s private property, the biologist don’t like that either. So we just drive the wildlife out instead. As for the wolves, I’m sure they like seeing cows give birth and when they’re at their weakest, the newborn (along with placenta) becomes a meal. The coyotes (Coydogs or Coywolves) do that here. They are invasive and will utterly destroy the deer herd if left unchecked. So there’s no limit on hunting them. Nor should there be. They – along with feral hogs – should be eradicated, at least here in the east. Y’all should never have put the wolf back into where it doesn’t belong. You need to do controlled burns. And you shouldn’t have “wildlife biologists” who aren’t hunters. Hunters are better at observing and cataloging wildlife behavior than they are. At one time in our past, it was understood that managing (and slowly and slightly increasing the herd size) was a balancing act that required burns, hunting, logging, and biologists who understood this sort of thing. Today the universities graduate earth-worshippers who accomplish the opposite of what they intend. The earth and what’s in it aren’t here for me to worship. I’m here to be a good steward of what God has granted us. Few college grads understand that today.”

This is really a bad look for the South Carolina DNR. I would think they would want to back out of this as quickly as possible.

First, the point of the law is not to shoot deer while spotlighting.

Second, for all the officers knew, Shane Huffman was attempting to figure out if that game standing in the field was a Coyote or Feral Hog, both of which are legal to shoot any time of the day with either thermal scopes or NV. What Shane intended by backing his truck up goes to state of mind, and it is impossible for the officers to prove that.

Third, if these officers have time to put human bait in fields and sit in cars waiting for people to stop and look at the bait, they have way to much time on their hands. I have often stopped when I saw a deer, or what I thought was a deer, in order to (a) keep from running over a deer (if it’s a doe there’s likely more around), and (b) to gauge the size and quality of the deer (who knows, maybe it’s somewhere I would want to hunt in the future).

As to (a) above, I have a guard on the front of my truck. I know a guy to hit a deer and totaled his vehicle, and another who did $26,000 worth of damage to his vehicle.

Fourth, officer Thomas should be fired for being corrupt, and officer Tatum should be fired for being so stupid.

Fifth, don’t ever talk to the police. Ever. Under any circumstances. The words are: “I invoke my fifth amendment rights and will not speak to law enforcement except in the presence of my attorney.”

Sixth, officer cameras should not have mute features.

Finally, I suspect that most state DNRs could get by with only 10% of the officers they currently have in their employ.

Hey Erik, nice high shoulder shot. Perfect! I see that you used a 6.5 PRC, hopefully the next rifle I get.

Nice buck too. although I see that place is expensive. Wish I could afford a trip there.

Wow. It looks like great training – something that would benefit any one of us. And it sure would be nice to be given a Kestrel and Eberlestock backpack to use.

When he talks about pre-loading the rifle bipod, I wonder if the instructors (and shooters) took into account POI shifting? The problem is basically that the guard is connected to the barrel at the barrel nut. The authors of this video show a very good free body diagram of the problem.

Outdoor Life.

Kuiu’s sale to a private equity group seemed like typical outdoor industry news, at least until it was revealed that one person linked to the group has a mixed track record on public-land conservation.

The sale of the popular California-based ultralight hunting brand was largely overlooked by the hunting community when it was announced on Dec. 8 in a series of press releases, including one issued by partial investor Cox Enterprises. Cox is an Atlanta-based conglomerate that includes the cable and internet provider Cox Communications.

But on Wednesday the popular social media account Rack Junkies raised concerns over the sale in a Facebook post and no small controversy ensued. Without listing names, Rack Junkies drew a connection between Cox Enterprises chair emeritus, James C. Kennedy, and his attempts to privatize stream access in Montana a decade ago (more on this in a minute).

“Now that this same billionaire conservation money [sic] owns a major hunting brand, it’s fair to ask the uncomfortable question,” wrote Rack Junkies operator Stephen Ziegler, who also owns DeLong Lures and Killshot Coffee. “Is it really a good idea for a ‘conservationist’ who uses his money to kick people off public land to own a hunting brand as big as KUIU?”

Members of the hunting community weighed in in the comments, with some requesting more details and others swearing off Kuiu forever. To be clear, Cox Outdoors does not own KUIU.

Kuiu has been “acquired by an investor group comprising conservation-driven families and businesses, including Cox Enterprises,” according to a press release. The company’s investment in Kuiu is nested under a new division of Cox Enterprises, known as Cox Outdoors, alongside Loop Tackle. Cox acquired the Scandinavian fishing company last year.

Kennedy is no longer the chairman or CEO of Cox Enterprises, and it’s unclear what his involvement with Kuiu will look like, if any. Kuiu CEO Melissa Woolf declined to name specific investors since the company is privately held.

Oh my. Another great company gets sold. To be fair, the founder and visionary passed away and now someone else runs the company.

But I’ll keep my eye on KUIU – I don’t want to see the quality of their products go down. I’ll say something about it if that happens.

We in this community still have raw memories of what Cerberus Capital did to the industry.

Outdoor Life.

For years now we’ve heard from rifle and ammo manufacturers that the 6.5 Creedmoor is their most popular cartridge. It’s an excellent round for open country, and it’s found its way into plenty of Midwestern and Eastern deer camps, too. But there’s one consideration that’s become a head scratcher. A whole bunch of deer hunters are reporting sub-par blood trails — even on well-hit deer — shot with their 6.5 Creeds.

Just ask full-time Wisconsin blood-tracker Dean Muthig. When I spoke with Muthig a few years back, he had put his Bavarian mountain scent hounds on 230 deer tracks so far that season. Many of his calls over the years have been from parents who need help recovering deer during the youth rifle season. Not because their kids are making poor shots, though. Muthig says younger hunters seem to shoot just as accurately as adults. Instead, it’s because they tend to use smaller calibers like a .243 — and the 6.5 Creedmoor. In other words, it’s not that these kids aren’t killing deer. They just can’t find them.

Consider the 9-year-old boy who shot a nice buck on a Wisconsin food plot. The 8-pointer fled into a stand of pines, which his family searched without finding a speck of blood. When Muthig arrived, his hound lead him directly to the buck. It had run 175 yards before piling up from the double-lung shot. The bullet had not exited, and there was no visible blood on the entire track.

Stop saying that a lung shot is a good shot on deer. It’s not. If you want to put the deer down in a immediate, ethical shot, aim for a high shoulder shot.

Source.

A hunter is dead after being shot in Juniata County on Tuesday morning, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The Game Commission said a hunting party of 24 people was doing a “deer drive” …

Eventually, a buck jumped up and broke back through the drivers who were about 100 to 200 yards into the drive, according to the PGC.

With the idiots in the woods, public land hunting is very unsafe, not to mention that other hunters may bust your hunt by walking underneath your stand or beside your blind.

Drives are the worst kind of unsafe hunting.

Thanks for the patience waiting for posts. I had a successful hunting trip, at least by my estimation. For what it’s worth, I am profoundly impressed with the 7mm PRC.

Parody, but still amusing.

@waynecountylyfe

Stop Texting Me Pictures of Your Deer!

♬ original sound – waynecountylyfe