Category: Hunting

Thiessens Launches New Cold Weather Heavyweight Clothing System

Lodgepole, NE – When cold weather is at its worst, Thiessens new V1 Whitetail Heavyweight clothing system is at its best. Ruggedly built for the pursuit-driven deer hunter, the heavyweight line gives hunters the ultimate protection against the frigid temperatures and moisture that are typical of late-season hunts.

Featuring strategically placed and supremely warm Thinsulate™ insulation for maximum heat retention, as well as T-Dry waterproofing and Wind Defense technologies, the new heavyweight system keeps wind, rain, and snow at bay so hunters can stay in the deer stand longer. Also, a moisture-wicking design and anti-odor treated core lining keep sweat and stink from building up. Each item features Realtree EDGE™ camo for the best in concealability in the deer woods. Read more

Hunting

Hunters: Help feed hungry families, win prizes by donating deer

With Michigan’s firearm deer season drawing near and bow season underway, the DNR encourages hunters to help feed hungry families by donating deer to Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger. Since 1991, this all-volunteer, nonprofit organization has worked to connect donors, wild game processors and charities like food banks, pantries and shelters that help feed those in need.

Michigan hunters donated enough deer last year to produce over 50,000 pounds of ground venison, providing more than 200,000 meals.

“This is great, but we know we can do better,” said Dean Hall, Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger executive officer.

To help boost participation, MSAH is partnering for the second year with the DNR and Jay’s Sporting Goods to offer a special opportunity for hunters to donate deer taken in the first few days of the firearm season to local food banks.

Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger will have a truck at the Jay’s location in Clare (8880 S. Clare Ave.) Saturday, Nov. 16, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 17, from noon to 4 p.m. Hunters who donate a legally taken deer during the event will have their names entered for a chance to win a $500 Jay’s Sporting goods gift certificate. Read more

Hunting

Michigan: DNR Reports CWD-Positive Deer

A 2-year-old, hunter-harvested doe from Hamilton Township, in Gratiot County, Michigan, recently tested positive for chronic wasting disease – the second confirmed CWD-positive wild deer from that county. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources said that tissue samples were sent to the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for confirmation.

Gratiot County’s first CWD-positive deer was discovered in late 2018. CWD is a fatal neurological disease that affects white-tailed deer, elk and moose. To date, the disease also has been confirmed in Clinton, Dickinson, Eaton, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kent and Montcalm counties.

“When we find CWD a few townships over from a prior detection in the same county, it becomes increasingly important to discover if and where additional cases might be within that county,” said DNR deer and elk specialist Chad Stewart. “In light of this new detection, we ask hunters in southeastern Gratiot and southwestern Saginaw counties, especially, to have their deer tested this year.”

Nearby deer check stations and drop boxes are available at the DNR field office in St. Charles, McNabb Park in Ithaca and Bellingar Packing in Ashley.

“The DNR sets surveillance goals – basically, a number of deer tested in a particular area – to understand the scale of infection in the local deer herd,” Stewart said. “The closer we come to meeting these goals, the better we can learn about where chronic wasting disease exists in Michigan. That’s why we encourage hunters to get deer tested, especially in areas where we haven’t yet met surveillance goals.”

CWD is not common among deer in Michigan, and the Department of Natural Resources encourages hunters to assist in disease surveillance.

Stewart said some of easiest ways hunters can help address CWD are to keep hunting throughout the remaining deer seasons, dispose of leftover parts in the trash and, if possible, take additional does in the Lower Peninsula’s CWD areas.

Deer check stations and drop boxes will be open throughout the deer hunting seasons, while the DNR Wildlife Disease Laboratory and partner Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory will continue processing and testing deer as hunting seasons continue. For check station locations and hours, visit Michigan.gov/DeerCheck. Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

New Zealand Trophy Hunting at its Best

World Record Trophies in Stunning Alpine Scenery

New Zealand Trophy Hunting offers the finest red stag hunting in New Zealand. It has produced several former world records, and there will be more!

The red stag typically rut from mid-March through mid-May, a period popularly known as the “roar”. If you are a bowhunter, this is your best opportunity for hunting this majestic animal while also experiencing the privilege of this exhilarating encounter.

When a stag roars, it is a guttural, hair-raising, lion-like roar that will be sure to get your heart racing. To hunt a roaring stag at close quarters is one of the world’s most unforgettable hunting experiences. Read more

Hunting

North Dakota Elk Habitat, Hunting Heritage Gets Boost from RMEF

MISSOULA, Mont.— The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and our partners awarded $197,340 of grant funding in North Dakota to benefit habitat stewardship and hunting heritage projects. RMEF directly granted $38,170 and leveraged an additional $159,170 in partner funding.

Seventeen projects benefit Barnes, Bottineau, Burleigh, Cavalier, Dickey, Eddy, Foster, Kidder, LaMoure, Logan, McIntosh, McLean, Morton, Ransom, Richland, Rolette, Sargent, Stutsman, Towner, Ward, Wells and Williams Counties.

“Invasive weeds crowd out native grasses and forbs that are vital to elk and other wildlife. This funding, in part, helps treat noxious weed growth across a 329-square mile project area,” said Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer. “The grants also assist a number of different youth archery, shooting sports and other outdoor-related groups and events.”

North Dakota is home to 10 RMEF chapters and nearly 4,000 members.

“We salute and thank our volunteers for their time, talents and dedication to raise this funding that is put back on the ground in their home state,” said Kyle Weaver, RMEF president and CEO.

Since 1991, RMEF and its partners completed 231 conservation and hunting heritage outreach projects in North Dakota that protected or enhanced 56,011 acres with a combined value of $11.6 million and opened or improved public access to 33,148 acres.

Below is a sample of North Dakota’s 2019 projects, listed by county. Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

QDMA and Kalkomey Launch First-Ever Deer Hunting 101 Online Course

ATHENS, GA — The Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) and Kalkomey Enterprises, LLC have partnered to deliver the Today’s Hunter Deer 101 course, the first-ever online course of its kind, developed to teach prospective deer hunters everything they need to know to be safe and successful.

“Learning how to become a deer hunter can be intimidating, especially if you don’t have a mentor,” said QDMA CEO Brian Murphy. “Our goal is to provide the information and guidance to make the learning process as easy as possible. While information on deer hunting is available in many places, much of it is dated, inaccurate or unreliable; that’s why we developed this course. Everything we do here at QDMA is based on the latest research, so new hunters can rest assured this course features the best information available today.” Read more

Hunting

Hiding Your Deer Blind in Plain Sight

By Glen Wunderlich

Camouflage this. Camouflage that. It’s everywhere and sometimes it simply makes no sense. Who needs or wants camouflage pruning shears? At an outdoor show earlier this year, I found the perfect ratcheting pruners. The issue was, however, the color of the tool, which came in two varieties: camouflage and shocking pink. I told the salesman I didn’t want the camouflage cutters, because I’d be sure to lose them in the matching foliage of the outdoors. On the other hand, those pink ones stick out like a liberal at a Trump rally.

When it comes to firearms deer hunting, we hunters tend to go a bit overboard right down to our camouflage boots; but, there we are with our mandated orange hats. Heck, a few years ago, one of our Michigan politicians thought it would be a good idea if our portable blinds were required to display a certain amount of orange, so they could be readily seen by all. That proposal was shot down – never to be mentioned again.

The fact is that camouflage sells. And, with one month until firearms deer season begins, I wanted to “brush in” a large hub blind, which although camouflaged, did not blend in at all with its surroundings.

Some blinds are manufactured with various loops on the exterior so that branches and available foliage can be attached to the blind itself for better cover. This model had no such attachment points, so any material used would have to be self-supporting. A plan evolved to build an environmentally suitable wall of recycled conifer branches.

Fortunately, I had been removing some spruce trees that had outlived their usefulness and were actually over-shading some more desirable apple trees. Before felling the trees, I had removed the lower limbs so that I could saw the main trunks easier. Those limbs were the perfect answer to my desire to brush in the blind.

I got to work by setting two 10-foot posts into the ground at either side of the blind’s front wall. Next, lengths of sisal rope were strung high and low horizontal to the ground. The large spruce limbs were hung over the ropes and woven together and tied where necessary. A few snips with my pink pruners and I was proud as a peacock with my invention after a couple of hours of enjoyable work.

These hub blinds have become quite popular but they have one drawback when snow and ice begin falling and forming: the roof sections collapse from the weight. A simple solution is to craft a custom center pole with a small hole at the top end to fit around a protruding piece of the blind’s top hub and wedged into the ground. Simply remove the support pole when it’s time to hunt and replace it when leaving.

Not all blinds would require as much work as this one did with the installation of the posts, because in most cases the blinds can be set near trees that could serve as the support posts. Additionally, a wooden platform was installed and set onto concrete blocks in an effort to level the structure and to keep it off the wet ground.

The local deer population now has a month to get used to the blind that is now hidden in plain sight.

Hunting

QDMA Applauds Scientists Who Learn Bleach Deactivates CWD on Stainless Steel

ATHENS, GA – QDMA applauds scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for studying practical techniques that may help slow the spread of CWD and reduce human health risks – work which recently produced the discovery that CWD prions on stainless steel can be neutralized by a 5-minute soak in household bleach.

A major concern with chronic wasting disease (CWD) is that standard sanitizing methods fail to kill the prions that cause the illness. The good news about bleach came from a new study by NIAID led by Dr. Brent Race at their Rocky Mountain Laboratories. However, bleach only worked as a surface decontaminant; it failed to penetrate infected tissue.

“The bounty of wild venison is a primary motivation for most of the nearly 9 million deer hunters who head afield each fall,” said Matt Ross, QDMA Assistant Director of Conservation. “The majority of disease experts agree that one of the quickest ways to spread CWD is through the movement of high-risk parts of harvested animals, so QDMA supports any research that provides real-world, practical solutions that addresses this potential source of exposure.”

For hunters who want to be cautious when handling potentially infected deer harvested in CWD management zones, the ability to decontaminate stainless steel knives, saws and other equipment is one approach to reducing potential exposure. There have been no reported cases of CWD infection in humans, however the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend hunters in CWD zones have all deer and elk tested for the disease and wait for results before consuming the venison. Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

Tuberculosis News Causes Unnecessary Concern for Most Deer Hunters

ATHENS, GA – A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) touched off a wave of nationwide headlines about deer hunters and tuberculosis, but most news coverage failed to provide a very important detail: Bovine tuberculosis is eradicated in white-tailed deer except in a small area in the northeast Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Outside northeast Michigan, there is no reason for deer hunters to be concerned about bovine tuberculosis (TB).

The CDC case involved a 77-year-old Michigan hunter who contracted tuberculosis in 2017, apparently while field-dressing a deer. Even in the historical detection area that includes 13 counties in northeast Michigan, bovine TB is rare in deer.

“The highest prevalence of the disease in deer has been found in Deer Management Unit 452, occupying parts of four counties in the northeastern Northern Lower Peninsula,” said Dr. Kelly Straka, State Wildlife Veterinarian with Michigan DNR. “Within this DMU, approximately 2% of the deer tested for bovine TB are positive. Many Michiganders travel to this area to hunt. When you consider that we have had people harvesting deer in that part of the state for a long time, and very few cases where hunters have contracted tuberculosis and gotten sick, our experience suggests that bovine TB isn’t a particularly easy disease to transmit to people. That being said, the risk is not zero.” Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

“Wild Boar Fever X presented by Aimpoint” Now Available on Sportsman Channel

DENVER (October 8, 2019) – Last year, Outdoor Channel introduced North American audiences to one of the world’s most popular and exciting hunting methods – driven hunting – with Wild Boar Fever 9. Now, Wild Boar Fever X presented by Aimpoint, the most-celebrated driven boar hunting series ever produced, is available on Sportsman Channel on Sundays at 5 p.m. ET. Additionally, catch up on seasons 1-9 of Wild Boar Fever all on MyOutdoorTV.In the last several decades, mild winters accompanied with changing agricultural practices have created a scenario in which the wild boar population in Europe, has exploded. Wild boar cause billions of dollars of damage to agriculture and resources each year. Controlling the population of wild boar in Europe is a practice steeped in the centuries’ old tradition of driven hunting.

Although still relatively new to U.S. audiences, wild boar hunting in Europe involves more than a bolt-action rifle and steady nerves. A driven hunt pushes boar towards hunters from their daytime cover using specially-trained dogs and a team of fearless beaters. Wild boar are smart, sit tight and often double back behind the beating line making the hunt a complicated exercise. The hunters identify the correct animal to cull and shoot with single shots as they run through the gun line. This style of hunting is the most popular method in Europe because – not only is it a highly-effective means of managing a growing population of wild boar – it is a fast-paced, challenging and thrilling method of shooting game on the run.

The stories of Wild Boar Fever X presented by Aimpoint will, once again, be told through the lens of conservationist, popular host and charismatic marksman Franz Albrecht Oettingen-Spielberg. Driven hunts result in a substantial meat harvest of the destructive wild boar and conclude in a deeply traditional ceremony. The harvested game is gathered together and laid out in a tableau, then honored by horn-blowing and speeches. These traditions date back hundreds of years and were first introduced to North American viewers last year.

Oettingen-Spielberg will not only reintroduce U.S. audiences to the exhilarating, driven hunting style, but also welcome American sportsman and television executive Mitch Petrie to the team for his first experience in the traditional European hunt. Together, Oettingen-Spielberg, Petrie and others will educate viewers about the ethics and intricacies of this form of hunting, the difficulty involved, and safety needed in shooting a running boar, as well as provide viewers with an understanding of the conservation, meat harvesting, land and animal management issues involved in this process. Also joining the pack are hunters from Germany, Sweden and France. Read more

Hunting
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