Author Archives: Ed Hale

About Ed Hale

I am an avid hunter with rifle and Bow and have been hunting for more than 50 years. I have taken big game such as whitetail deer, red deer, elk, Moose and African Plains game such as Kudu, Gemsbok, Springbok, Blesbok, and Impala and wrote an ebook entitled African Safari -Rifle and Bow and Arrow on how to prepare for a first safari. Ed is a serious cartridge reloader and ballistics student. He has earned two degrees in science and has written hundreds of outdoor article on hunting with both bow and rifle.

Don’t forget Semi-Spitzer, Flat and Round Nose Bullets for Game Stopper Hunting

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In a world of super fast and ultra long distance we, me included, get carried away with Ballistic Coefficients in the 0.5 to 0.7 range. The fact is when hunting east of the Mississippi it is often not necessary to use high BC bullets (bean fields excluded) and certainly not in New England. Yes it is fun to write about!

For mid-range hunting say out to 150 yards that your bullet need not have a BC above 0.3 or so for mid range hunting say out to 150 yards. Here in New Hampshire most shots are in the 40 yard range. Many deer over the years have been dropped in their tracks with 240 grain flat nose bullets as well as round nose with sufficient mass and sectional density and modest muzzle speeds of say 2300 fps. The advantage of shooting a round, semi-spitzer or even flat nose bullets is that upon contact the bullet is already formed into a pseudo mushroom shape on contact. Thus this shape provides a audible whack sound and radial energy on contact with the hide of the animal.

Just imagine getting hit with a 100 mile per hour brick verses a pencil point.  Put a sheet upon a clothes line and throw a dart at it. What did the sheet do? Not much but punctured. Now throw a fast brick at the sheet. What did the sheet do? It likely was torn off the clothes line. If that were a game hide, it would have created a large radial tissue crushing dent and shock wave at the skin level before it passed through game.

I believe that the brick (round/flat nose) will shut out the lights of a game animal “instantly” more times than the sharp pencil which deforms and will kill in seconds but not often as instantaneously as the brick. Shotgun slugs do that trick all the time as do most 50 cal in-line muzzle loaders. Dangerous game calibers like the 416 Rigby, 458 Win Mag and 500 Nitro Express shoot round bullets for a reason. To provide instant bone crushing energy at the getgo. Odds are very high that this drops them where they stand provided you hit the vitals and the animal provides a vital shot angle.

I was very happy that I used a semi-spitzer round point 50 cal muzzleloader in Texas with 150 grains Pyrodex. I did not want to walk 20 yards into cactus to recover my deer. In fact, the guides don’t want to follow a blood trail in Texas if they don’t have to. I mentioned my .375 Ruger I left home and got lots of approval to bring it next time. My friend Larry Weishuhn calls the .375 Ruger a one gun for the world as I do.

I shot a large 6 point buck way up in Errol, NH  years back with a .338 Win Mag 250 grain round nose. That buck never took a single step, he just crumpled right there. My nephew was very impressed as he was beside me when I shot. The bullet entered the lungs and missed the heart but the heart was not edible as it was flat and totally bruised purple. Lights out!!

So don’t forget ( I remind myself too) that round, semi-spitzer and flat point along with mass and Sectional Density are great game stoppers.

Good Hunting!

© 2018

 

 

New PSE Thrive 400 Crossbow – Out of the Box

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https://www.pse-archery.com/pse-thrive-400-crossbow/

For all the years I shot bow and arrow for hunting deer and 3D,  I have never used a crossbow because I loved the basic bow so much and could shoot it well in long bow, recurve and compound. After I crossed the 60 mark, my shoulders and arms and eyes had minds of their own. The rifle has always been my favorite for longer distances thus after 60 it became my hunting tool of choice. I thought that perhaps I could be satisfied to give up the bow, arrow and my favorite Muzzy broadheads.

Along comes the crossbow which is half rifle and half bow for me to test like this one from PSE.

I chose the PSE Thrive because the PSE name and quality have been around for many years and I am familiar with PSE Compound bows. Second, I wanted a bow that had a CNC machined barrel which launches consistently tight groups yet does not rob my wallet (MSRP $499-$599) . Sorry, I am not spending over $1000 on a Crossbow at this time. I need to hunt and practice with an affordable crossbow.

Why the 400 series? Well, I think the Thrive 365 and 400 are just the ticket to reach out to the farthest 40 yards with plenty of speed for a slight miscalculation in arrow drop and energy for penetration on all North American game. That is provide the hunter can string load the 175lb bow correctly and safely.

The Thrive came in a double cardboard box to protect the contents. As all crossbows do, they come un-assembled. It is important to verify the contents of the box before getting started in the crossbow assembly which is very straightforward.

The assembly comes with Allen wrenches but was lucky enough to have my own set of fold out Allen wrenches making it easier to tighten screws. Basically you take the bow portion and intuitively place it on the square and round barrel assembly. It took some finagling to get the barrel inserted but once that was done you added the foot stirrup over the front of the bow and aligned it with the large bolt hole that holds the bow to the barrel. Now it is a crossbow! Time to assemble this far is in minutes. Next to assemble the quiver on the picatinny rail underside but had to move the fore-stock back a few notches so the quiver mount would sit flat. Next the scope came with scope rings attached. Nice! And easily.mounted on the pre-installed scope rail. I had to adjust the verticle of the crosshairs just slightly and tighten the scope rings.

The string rope that came with it, I discovered was too long and I could not load the bow as I pulled it toward my chest. Bobby Vargas at PSE sent me a YouTube to shorten the rope and then I could pull and load it. See below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unOIeBn0tgE

There is an automatic safety that when the bow is cocked, it engaged the safety. Like a rifle, you must push the safety off to FIRE.

I made my own target out of shrink wrap, cardboard and a large zippered vinyl cold food insulated bag . My first arrow bolt struck and the shrink wrap did the job of absorbing the impact with my “block” as a backstop.

I created this target so I can easily pull the arrow/bolts. It works! I have shot 1 bolt at 20 yards and 6 bolts at 30 yards with the crosshair markings and adjusted the scope easily up and left/right. And it didn’t even bother my neighbors. I can hit a baseball size target at 30 yards so far on day 1. I will test this crossbow and write several articles so you can read my evaluation.

Well that is it for the Out-of-the-Box! So far I give it a solid “A”

Next is to shoot it at longer distances with a rest such as a monopod, bipod, tripod and bench rest. Then to shoot broadheads.

Maybe one for you to think about for Christmas!

Good Hunting!

 

 

NHFG Deer Project Leader Dan Bergeron Writes On New Crossbow Law

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From: Bergeron, Daniel [mailto:Daniel.Bergeron@wildlife.nh.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 8:24 AM
To: ‘Edward Hale’
Subject: RE: Crossbow use expanded! Great!

 

Hello Ed,

 

Glad to hear that law works for you.  We also expanded crossbow use in WMU M (which covers about half of Rockingham County) this past season.  It is now legal for any hunter to use a crossbow in WMU M (in place of a traditional/compound bow) throughout the archery season with no need for a special permit of any sort.  New England is different from other states in its allowance of crossbows because we have some of the lowest relative deer densities in the nation (we are near the northern limit of whitetail range).  In NH we are not opposed to their use and have been expanding opportunity with them when we can.  However, crossbows are a more efficient weapon than traditional or compound bows and therefore result in higher success rates.  Because of this we have to be more cautious when expanding their use, particularly given how liberal our archery season already is.  In most areas of the state if we expanded their use we would likely have to drastically reduce the length of the archery season to compensate for increased success rates.  As time goes on and deer numbers rise in certain areas of the state I’m sure crossbow use will continue to expand, we just have to be more cautious than states to our south and west that have a more robust deer resource to work with.

 

I hope this information was informative.

 

Happy Holidays,

 

Dan Bergeron

Deer Project Leader

New Hampshire Fish & Game Department

11 Hazen Drive

Concord, NH 03301

(603) 271-2461

Daniel.Bergeron@wildlife.nh.gov

 

Did you know? New Hampshire Fish and Game protects, conserves and manages more than 500 species of wildlife, including 63 mammals, 18 reptiles, 22 amphibians, 313 birds and 122 kinds of fish as well as thousands of invertebrates!

 

2017 Crossbow Bill Allows Seniors 68 and over to use Crossbow also in Archery Season.

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DID YOU KNOW?

Thank you Governor Sununu!

On April 17, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, one of the newest members of the bipartisan Governors Sportsmen’s Caucus (GSC), signed HB 428 into law, which expands opportunities for crossbow hunters throughout the state.

http://congressionalsportsmen.org/the-media-room/news/new-hampshire-governor-sununu-signs-crossbow-bill-into-law

“With the passage of HB 428 in 2017, Granite State hunters aged 68 and older will now be able to use crossbows during the regular archery season for deer, without obtaining an additional permit.”

Previously crossbow use during archery season was relegated to disabled hunters with a special permit, though crossbow use was allowed during the regular firearms season (with additional permit) and the muzzleloading season (with muzzleloading permit). The bill has an effective date of June 16, 2017.”

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As a senior in this category I am heartened by the signing of this bill. We want to keep seniors in the field and forest hunting as long as they are able. Today’s Crossbow’s are used to harvest all North American Big Game.

I will be purchasing a Crossbow this spring!

http://www.eregulations.com/newhampshire/hunting/deer-hunting-regulations/

Good Hunting! See you in the woods!

 

A case for Crossbows in Archery Season in New Hampshire – Updated

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Has the Crossbow as a hunting tool made a deer population control conservation impact above and beyond the long bow, recurve and compound bows. The answer is a resounding yes, in many states that recognize it as a state of the art archery hunting tool. In fact, there are more deer taken in Ohio by crossbow than by other archery means. The crossbow is particularly useful in urban residential areas with high deer densities. This is because the crossbow like today’s compound bows make little noise and does not bother the neighbors.

QDMA’S RECOMMENDATIONS 2018 from page 16

https://www.qdma.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Whitetail_Report_2018.pdf 

NEW HAMPSHIRE IS NOW GREEN. CROSSBOWS ARE LEGAL as specified in new Regs.

“The QDMA is dedicated to ensuring
the future of white-tailed deer, wildlife
habitat and our hunting heritage. As such,
we are more interested in managing deer
and habitat appropriately and protecting
our hunting heritage than debating use of
specific weapons. If the use of crossbows
positively impacts a deer management program
and helps recruit and retain more
hunters, then we fully support it.”

 

I was a traditional recurve archer most of my young life till the compound bow came into vogue in the 1970’s  but archery took a back seat when I had a shoulder issue in 2012 and could no longer get my bow to full draw. Note the Compound bow was seen as a usurper of traditional archery too.  It was disappointing as all get-out to not be able to shoot my bow.

If I can shoot a rifle then I can shoot a crossbow. In addition, the same hunting guidelines and distances (40 yards in open terrain only)  that apply to archery are the same for the crossbow.

The same similarity exists  as the traditional muzzleloader of the revolutionary war began a muzzleloader season and is now supplanted nearly 100 %  by in-line muzzle loaders with a 209 shotgun primers and used for hunting most big game on the planet like elk, moose and brown bear. The crossbow is no less the same.

New Hampshire is suffering loss of revenue in hunter volume and license sales.  Think out of the Box!!

Further that David Risley is an avid deer hunter in Ohio along with over 140,000 buckeyes take to the woods with a Crossbow. Note that as of 2009 David Risley is Ohio’s Wildlife Management Chief. Ohio hunters and non resident hunters are keeping the financial coffers full with the embrace of the crossbow AND serving the conservation effort of whitetails and human/auto collisions alike.

I personally know of 5 female deer that live between houses in southern NH. Next year there will be 15 deer between houses. Who is going to harvest and consume this surplus deer that live among houses and where the deer aids as a tick borne vector which places humans and our children on the brink of an epidemic. Note that the Coyotes live with the deer too. Hey what happened to my pooch? He just disappeared or was pulled from a leash and eaten.

I give local seminars in Lyme Disease prevention. Most of us today have been or know someone that had a bullseye rash and associated flu symptoms later if not caught to  manifest into brain dysfunction, paralysis and joint pain and death.

The state of New Hampshire does an otherwise great job in managing the central and northern herds but there are growing pockets of deer in Southern NH that could use the Crossbow especially in Rockingham County to keep the deer in check and provide added recreation in the archery season and meat for the freezer.

As QDMA states: “If the use of crossbows positively impacts a deer management program and helps to recruit and retain more hunters, then we fully support it. And I support it as a QDMA member.

 

 

 

Testing a Brand New 2018 PSE Thrive 400 Crossbow Soon.

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I have contacted Bobby Vargas at Precision Shooting Equipment -PSE to test a cost effective (around $599 MSRP)  crossbow such as the PSE Thrive 400 in Kryptek Highlander Camo.  I am hopeful to get one before Christmas and write about it. There is a lot of information out there on the web so you can check too.

Another great tool in the belt of deer hunters who hunt several states that allow hunting with one in archery season and for reasons of preference or physical ability desire to use it.

The facts are that today many long time bowhunters like me are getting older and have stiff joints, shoulder or arm or pinched nerve issues where traditional archery is no longer viable but still love the bow and broadhead and getting close to game.

Good Hunting!

 

 

 

 

 

TRANSFIXED ELK – By Oliver Ford

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Oliver and Mary Ford have hunted together since he gave her a double-barreled Bernardelli as a wedding present in 1976. Mary soon decided she preferred deer and elk hunting to bird hunting, so the shotgun was traded for a Winchester 7x57mm Featherweight, ideally suited for her five foot frame.

Below Oliver and Mary on an early elk hunt on horseback, lots of riding and no shots at elk on that hunt…

When Mary decided to go for elk again in 2017, she opted for a Browning A-Bolt in .308 and loaded it with 150 grain Federal Trophy Copper ammunition, mainly for their reputation for through and through penetration but also because that ammo eliminated any concerns about leaving lead fragments in the venison younger members of the family would consume.

It was not until the fifth and final day of her hunt, just as legal shooting time was slipping away, that she had a chance to fill her tag with a large bull with a battle-broken antler that appeared on the edge of a mountain meadow in southern Colorado.

The bull stopped dead in his tracks at the first shot, but he managed a step forward, so she shot him again, not taking any chances. Over many hunts she had learned the necessity of well-placed shots. 

Across the mountain top, her son Ross smiled when he heard her shots, knowing what probably had happened while he and his guide, Grant Hottman, played hopscotch with an elusive bull they never caught up with. Sure enough, the cell phone buzzed, calling them to bring the trailer and help Mary’s guide, Doug Doster, Ronald and me with loading the bull.

Only Ross and his uncle Ronald drew tags in 2018, and Mary’s job as a dean required her to stay home, so I just went along for the hunt. Ross’ job required him to fly out and meet us in Colorado, so he arrived the day before the hunt began. The next morning Ross and Grant were off to the far side of the mountain again while Ronald hunted an area where he had taken a good bull previously. Noon found us all back at camp for the usual, great lunch. Ross reported he liked the feel of the pre-64 Mod 70 Featherweight in 308 and was confident that the same Federal load his mother had used would do the job when needed.

 

At 4 pm Ronald and Doug were situated in a high blind with a commanding view of that same meadow where Mary had been successful the year before. Ross and I were in an open blind closer to the lower end, where a small stream cut across the end of the meadow. Over the years elk had been known to move out into the meadow from almost every quarter. The previous year a herd of more than 20 elk had come out of the creek bed right at dark, following the lead cow almost all the way to the top before she spooked and they all thundered back where they had come from. There was a good bull in the middle but it was too late to shoot.

From our blind we studied the small clearing near the creek but saw nothing. We scoured the side of the mountain across from us but saw nothing but birds, We tried to determine what the wind was doing, but it kept changing directions, first in our face and then on the back of our necks and then down the length of the meadow. As the light faded and the trees were shrouded in shadows, we strained to see into the woods line, but details were slowly being erased as the end of legal shooting approached.

Suddenly I sensed that Ross had stiffened and was staring into the shadows along the creek. He had seen something move, but then… nothing.

Far away but higher, Ronald and Doug had seen the bull come up out of the creek bed, seeing his dark head, chest  and antlers and a bit of his rump, all of which was lost in the shadows from our lower perspective. Then he stopped.  All Ross had seen was movement in the shadows.  The bull then began to walk forward, slowly revealing the antlers that confirmed he was legal, even though an accurate count of points was impossible. As he emerged from the creek bed, he turned slightly uphill and stopped, presenting a clear broadside view, just as the elk had done that Mary took the year before.

Ross responded by leaning into his shooting sticks, slipping the safety off, aiming just behind the shoulder and firing, all in less time than it takes to write this. The bull stopped moving immediately, transfixed. When the bull did not fall, Ross shot again, just to be sure.

At first the bull did not respond, but then swayed back and forth, causing Ross to worry that he might lunge over a nearby precipice and tumble 70 feet into a mass of vines and sticker bushes in the dark, so he shot him in the shoulder, whereupon the bull fell over, kicked a few times and was done.

Then we could walk the 200 yards to where he lay, no more than 20 yards from where Mary’s elk had fallen the year before.

A later green scoring rated his 6×6 rack at a satisfying 309 and 7/8 points, and when he was skinned, we could see that both chest shots had left 3 inch wound channels through both lungs only a few inches apart.  The bull had been dead on its feet from the first shot.

 

As before, Doug called Grant to bring the trailer for us all to load the bull for the trip down the mountain to camp, where we marked a successful beginning to the 2018 hunt with a long, slow sip of Knob Creek bourbon. It had been a truly auspicious beginning and sudden end to Ross’ elk hunting season, but Grant and fellow hunter John Finch from Detroit, had taken photos that proved to be a preview of John’s hunt a day or so later.

After a side trip to Major Wildlife Taxidermy, the bull will assume a dominant position in the family trophy room filled with reminders of past hunts and fishing trips.

 

Hunt Info: Tim Barraclough, Kiowa Hunting Services, Raton, NM  Tim@kiowahunting.com

 

© 2018 Oliver Ford All Rights Reserved

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Whitetail Shoulder Mount – What Kind of Detail?

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This Trophy Buck is down, meat is in the freezer. Lets talk about this Whitetail mount and its taxidermy. Most of us don’t shoot deer like this often so get the taxidermy right!

This deer will be an upright shoulder mount with head turned slightly right from the deer’s perspective. Neck is full mature and muscular in rut. There is a company in Texas that is creating my mount. After I receive my mount next year, I will share who did the work!

The “form” is called a shoulder manikin. It appears on the web that the largest supplier is McKenzie.  https://www.mckenziesp.com/Whitetail-Deer-C16.aspx

 

Manikins available for a shoulder wall mount are from the above website:

Upright

Semi-Upright

Semi-Sneak

Full Sneak

I chose Upright and right turn because I like that pose of alertness. I had to qualify how I wanted the ears too. Straight forward where the deer is looking. If you don’t do that you give licence to the taxidermist to do what they want i.e. one ear forward and the other listening backwards for example. or ears flat back as another example. I don’t want that pose so “be specific”!!!

I do not desire a wooden wall plaque either just the deer shoulder mount. If you want more like a habitat that surrounds your deer you can see them on the above website. Like below. I could do prickly pear cactus and cedar with sagebrush if I desire. Of course I can order and create that later if I wanted. But now you know the basic shoulder mounts. I did not cover other attributes as I wanted the reader to see what basics are out there for a Whitetail shoulder mount.

 

Good Hunting!