To be sure, turkey hunting is an end in itself. You begin by creeping out into the woods or the edge of a field well before sunrise, close to where you put that big tom to bed the night before. You watch the world wake up and listen while some of the night’s marauders such as screech owls make their final calls before the avian day shift takes over. Amidst it all comes the gobble, then another, and perhaps that sound of wings flapping and a big bird thumping to earth to start it’s day of foraging food and looking for hens. You make some hen sounds, and before you know it, here he comes, right to your decoys.
Within minutes, he’s there, within 25 yards, and it’s time for the moment of truth. When you squeeze the trigger, you want as many pellets from your 12 gauge to hit that turkey and harvest him cleanly. That’s where the Winchester Long Beard XR Chokes from Trulock come into play.
After extensive and thorough testing, the Trulock Choke designers determined the perfect constriction to deliver maximum pellets at common ranges for taking a turkey. The Winchester Long Beard XR No. 5 is made for that popular turkey pellet size with a .75 constriction; hunters who prefer No. 6 should try the Winchester Long Beard XR No. 6, which has a .80 constriction. Read more
The BenchMaster Sniper Seat 360 Shooting Chair is not only convenient to set up and makes waiting for your quarry comfortable, it actually helps take game with a great arm extension for a gun rest. Plus, the BenchMaster Sniper Seat silently swivels 360 degrees for a full range of shooting, so lining up that perfect shot is always possible.
The Sniper Seat 360 Shooting Chair is constructed of lightweight, powder-coated steel that avoids rust, and this BenchMaster product features backpack straps that make taking it into the woods or field simple. It weighs just 25 pounds. Read more
Hazard: The boots’ snake guard can fail to protect the wearer’s feet from a snake bite.
Remedy: View Details
Refund Replace
Consumer Contact: Rocky Brands Inc. toll-free at (866) 245-2159 from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. ET Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, email at customer.service@rockybrands.com, or online at www.rockybrands.com or www.rockyboots.com and click on Recall Notice for more information.
DALLAS – Seventeen months after DSC’s controversial black rhino auction, the actual hunt ended in Namibia this week when the hunter killed a bull that scientists had identified as an impediment to the survival of its own species.
The old, aggressive, non-breeding rhino was known to charge and kill breeding bulls, as well as cows and calves, decreasing productivity and increasing mortality of the herd.
Removing this specimen will benefit rhinos both biologically and financially.
The $350,000 paid for the permit will go to Namibia to help fund law enforcement efforts to curtail indiscriminate killing by rhino poachers. (Note: It’s unclear whether the funding could be stopped by a recent lawsuit filed by animal-rights group PETA.) Read more
New for 2015 in Browning’s Black Label flashlight lineup is the Disrupter. Though no bigger than a can of soda, the Disruptor pumps out a stunning 2800 lumens of bright white light that reaches out 500 yards.
Its rugged all-aluminum construction houses a 10400 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The anti-roll bezel profile helps prevent the Disruptor from rolling off a table. The lamp head incorporates heat-dissipating fins to keep the light running cool. Optically clear and scratch-resistant, the glass lens is built for years of rugged duty. Read more
With Michigan’s late turkey hunting season well under way, it was time for me to see if I could bag a bird of my own. A Day 6 Plotwatcher Pro trail camera showed a few hens as regular visitors at one property, but not one gobbler. Another riverfront property, where I’ve had permission to hunt for many years, had been good to me during previous turkey seasons, so I made an early morning visit to see what I could hear.
The raucous gobbling of toms from the roost before sunrise can give their location away. With that in mind, I cupped my hands at my ears for increased volume and patiently waited for the call of the wild. Nothing.
My hunting partner, Joe, later phoned to let me know he’d be available to operate the video camera on a hunt, (he already tagged a turkey) but Tuesday would be his only chance during the workweek. Without a clue, I knew I had to put the Browning Powerhouse blind up somewhere, so I loaded the ATV with the gear on Monday and headed to familiar grounds.
In the cutover corn field, I poked along and viewed a hen turkey several hundred yards away. The bird soon noticed my approach and scampered to the confines of the nearby woods. Proceeding down the lane at the field’s edge, I noticed some distant tom turkeys in full display that hadn’t seen me, but I proceeded, nonetheless.
After scaring them off, I set up the portable blind under a shagbark hickory conspicuously located alone in the field, trusting that the turkeys would have a short memory of my intrusion into their world.
The next day at 5:15 am, Joe and I made our way to the hideout and I set the cheap rubber decoy, dubbed Miss Direction, about 30 yards in front of us. Shortly after 6 am, far-off gobbling from the roost commenced, while a lone hen worked the cornfield.
Before long, several whitetail deer emerged from the forest, and one in particular realized the presence of the blind and began protesting with foot stomps alerting the others. Finally, it snorted loudly and the field cleared. The fact that the deer picked off our shelter reaffirms my belief that wise deer must get used to blinds for them to be effective hunting tools; however, we weren’t hunting deer today.
The gobbling got louder as the toms edged closer – still undetected visually. I scratched out the first hen calls of the morning with my cherished Ring Zone slate call and was rewarded with an immediate and resounding response. Game on!
At long last, two proud toms revealed themselves only a hundred yards from us. With the decoy in their sights, their purposeful approach continued with no additional effort from me. That same blind that spooked the deer earlier meant nothing to these love-struck fellas!
I’ll never know which of the two was a better choice but the Winchester Long Beard XR shotshell ammo with number 4 shot and my Browning Silver shotgun made the comparison a moot point, as a mature gobbler lay on the ground 35 yards away.
The beard measured 10 ¼ inches and one spur was 1 ½ inches long, while the other had been broken off quite shorter than that.
At 7:08 am – the first day of my hunting – the season was over, all because we had become “invisible” in plain sight with the help of a little misdirection.
Opening day of the 2015 Michigan turkey season was about to begin. I drove north in the early morning darkness, to Bob Knoop’s 170-acre farm near Fenton, Michigan. With clouds, rain and high winds in the forecast, it looked like it would not be an ideal opening day for turkey hunting.
I would be hunting with Brenen Twiss, who has special needs. Six years ago, while Brenen was a junior in high school, he had an unfortunate accident on his way to school one morning. Brenen hit some black ice, totaled his vehicle, and was severely injured. He lost both of his legs and received traumatic brain injuries, limiting the mobility in his upper body. He’ll be in a wheelchair the remainder of his life.
For the hunt, Brenen would be using a liberator machine – a special machine that fires a weapon with the use of a joystick or a straw, depending upon the hunter’s capabilities. The liberator, invented by Pete Odland and named for the freedom it provides special-needs hunters, can be outfitted with a rifle, shotgun, muzzleloader or crossbow. Read more
The Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, or “Duck Stamp,” will increase in price for the first time in 24 years.
The cost will go from $15 to $25. The increase adjusts for inflation over the last 24 years. Several conservation organizations, including Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl, support the increase. Read more
The new MINOX DTC 400 SLIM Wildlife Camera lives up to its name, being so flat it sets new standards for increased concealment and inconspicuous monitoring.
The SLIM’s extremely flat body is only about one inch thick and is slightly curved so it fits every tree trunk neatly and snugly. Combined with its camouflage housing, the result is the unobtrusive presence you want and need in an effective trail camera.
Equally important, the MINOX DTC 400 features a MINOCTAR lens, ensuring a nearly distortion-free recording with every movement in sharp, high-contrast detail. The SLIM provides outstanding image quality with brilliance and natural color rendering, and videos are recorded in HD resolution for 10 to 60 seconds. Even in bad lighting or twilight, a powerful IR-flash with a range of up to 49 feet provides reliable images. Read more
DALLAS – Animal-rights group PETA is suing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop a management hunt that scientists say would benefit endangered rhino populations both biologically and financially.
Against a torrent of death threats, DSC auctioned the hunt in 2014 on behalf of the Namibia Ministry of Environment and Tourism. The auction generated a record $350,000. All proceeds were earmarked for rhino conservation in the African nation, and held in escrow pending U.S. approval of an import permit that would allow the hunter to bring home the taxidermy from his hunt. That permit was recently approved after U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists confirmed the benefits to rhino populations.
Basically, the hunt would be used to remove an older, non-breeding, aggressive black rhino bull known to decrease productivity and increase mortality of its herd, while the $350,000 would fund law enforcement efforts to thwart indiscriminate rhino killing by poachers.
PETA’s lawsuit could postpone the hunt as well as the funding for rhino protection.
“Next time you hear about poachers slaughtering rhinos in Namibia, thank PETA,” said Ben Carter, executive director of DSC. Read more
