The October Cover Image I took on my Moose Hunt near Lake Winnipesaukee in the background is perhaps one of my favorite images and takes me on the hunt whenever I see it.

In just a few weeks I will be on a deer hunt. Nope can’t tell you where just yet. But each day the mornings are cooler and yesterday I had to wear a jacket. Weather and changing color of the leaves is a trigger for me to anticipate the hunt.

My “To Do” hunt list gets serious. I am packed I think, so I go through the list again and oh, maybe add this clothing too or that. Sound like you? It is a labor that has your mind thinking of deer and the woods as much as the stuff you cobble together for your hunt. Fussing over how much ammo to bring, knives sharp and ready, Scope caps if it rains, a shooting stick for long shots, tree stand safety, all that stuff going through your mind is a form of anticipation and readiness of the hunter.

When I reflect on shooting at a wary deer my heart rate climbs a bit as tiny amounts of adrenaline seep into my bloodstream. You too? You bet!  A little giddiness does the heart good as my mind wanders to the hunt. Reading articles and seeing hunting video’s help to relive a hunt so I read quite a lot, perhaps more so than video’s.

The previous article “What’s in my backpack?” was a great primer for me and I hope you as well. Since I am hunting out of state, I am taking a hard, lockable gun case and also when I arrive will use soft cases too.

So your mind wanders from this article to your own list of preparation and anticipation and it certainly is Grand!

So long for now…Good Hunting! © 2015

Let us assume your hunt is all day with Rifle up Northern NH in a new hunting area you scouted with a friend. It is about a half mile off main roads. It is vital that someone, wife or friend know exactly where you are hunting and what vehicle you are taking, license plate info and color/make of your vehicle. As I am older now, I would hunt with a friend that is able bodied.

Here is what in my pack that I carry with me.

Medical First Aid Kit

Lets begin with a First Aid Kit that has bandages, large and small, antibiotic ointment, gauze and tape. Ibuprofen for pain. And a supply of one day of any prescriptions.

A note of who I am, phone numbers, medical conditions has been missing from my pack in early hunts – I have added it.

Hand/foot warmers Space blanket to hold heat in your body

Cell Phone or W Talkie if no reception

Map and Compass/GPS if you have one.

Knife (sharp)

matches/lighter and fire starter sticks

Flashlight or headlamp

Hunt Licenses

Pencil/Pen for filling out your tag

Glove kit for cleaning your deer

Water for hydration/Water giardia filter for use in streams.

Matches or lighter and fire starter.

Drag Rope

orange flag tape

Extra Ammo.

Food that has little weight such as protein bars and candy bars and gorp like snacks.

Lunch food such as sandwiches.

Toilet paper. Orange if you can find it.

Bandanna for sweat or to use as a bandage.

Note: If you are with other hunters in a group you may want to shorten this list if you are going to be in a spot for only 2 or 3 hours and your team knows where you are.

Core items:

Medical First aid

Identification and phone numbers

Water

Map and Compass

License & pencil

knife

drag rope

toilet paper

flag tape

extra ammo

phone or talkie

It seems no matter what the rifle and off-the-shelf cartridge is, there are only two basic questions. Question #1 Can it cleanly kill a deer? Question #2 How much does it kick?

Once those questions are answered in the affirmative (Yes) to the first question and “very little” to he second question, then it is logical to want to know what the rifle is, right?

Is the cartridge a;

A. 308 Winchester

B. 30-30 Winchester

C, 243 Winchester

D. .270 Winchester

It has been my experience that children will receive the 30-30 Winchester in a Marlin rifle to deer hunt and it works. The .308 and .270 recoil much more.  But if you have a .243 Winchester like I do in my Ruger American Rifle, then you can have a great deer caliber for less than $400 dollars and it kicks so little that even a young hunter won’t complain a bit. Photo below.

In a previous article I wrote about the 90 grain .243 E-Tip below that mushroomed to twice its size.

With a scope, this rifle can kill deer out to 300 yards with a 90 to 100 grain bullet. On varmints with 55 grain bullets, it is hard to beat. It will be used on my southern deer hunt this fall.

If you look at categories I have listed for articles under rifle and bullet tests you will see lots of my writing on the .243 Winchester and the Ruger American. I just love the cartridge and the rifle. You will too….

If you reload, chances are that  you may never own a .243 because hand loading lighter loads in any cartridge exists. But if you stay on off-the-shelf cartridges then the .243 is it!

Be safe! Good Hunting!

© 2015

When I was hunting in Africa with my son Jason, we were fed delicious meat snacks called Biltong. It is dried meat that has marinated in special seasoning like our American Jerky.  Below is Impala from our hunt being skinned and prepared for both mounts and for our meals. Some of this meat finds its way to becoming Biltong, a prized South African snack food. Here we will use whitetail venison instead of Impala.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It is akin to Jerky but Afrikaner’s would say that Jerky does not come close to the excellent flavor of Biltong. I expect that I will have venison in my freezer this year as I am hunting down south were the deer are very plentiful. So I want to try and make this Biltong recipe that I received from a friend that grew up in South Africa and now lives and works here. You may want to give it a try….

Ingredients:

5 lbs  game meat

red wine vinegar

coarse salt (I use Kosher salt)

whole coriander

black pepper

bicarbonate of soda

For this weight of beef or venison use:

2 tablespoons coarse salt

1/2 cup of coriander (if you have a mortar and pestle, you can crush them slightly)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup brown sugar (I omit this, but I know some people add it)

1 teaspoon bicarb soda (I have made the biltong without this, however it does tend to keep the dried meat a little softer and easier to cut)

Mix the above ingredients thoroughly.

Cut the meat in strips (approx 1 – 1/2 inches thick), diagonally along the grain

place the cut meat in a large glass bowl

sprinkle with the vinegar to wet the meat

sprinkle your made up biltong mix over the meat

thoroughly turn the meat over with this mix, so that all the pieces are properly coated.

cover the dish with clingwrap and place in the refrigerator for approx 24 hours.

At the end of this time, discard any bloody fluid that has leaked out of the meat.

Make a 50/50 mix of the vinegar and water in a bowl.

Rinse the meat in this mixture quickly to get rid of the excess salt.

My friend uses paperclips that I have opened up to hang the meat. A washing stand placed on a shoe tray makes an excellent drying rack. Some folks make a cardboard drying box with a small fan and a 60 watt light bulb. Some hang the meat with string or thread using a large sewing needle. It will take roughly 4 to 6 days to dry hard on the outside and still be somewhat soft on the inside. More or less to your liking. I have a food dehydrator so I am going to use that.

I found a website that goes into great detail for larger quantities of Biltong

http://www.africhef.com/Biltong-Recipe.html 

Enjoy!

I am a believer in the copper bullet for hunting with high velocity cartridges such as the .243 Winchester with 90 grain E-Tips. The E is for Expanding!  It is as accurate as all get-out!

Mushroom at 20 yards 1/2 inch mushroom below.

Weight before: 90 grains

Weight after: 89.9 grains

Weight retention: 99.9%

For contrast there is a 100 grain Speer Hot core boat tail lead bullet with gilding copper jacket shot at left of the all copper e-tip.  The lead bullet exited the wood but was not recovered.

If your rifle is scoped with a single crosshair it is valuable to sight in your rifle at Max Point Blank Range (MPBR) for hunting so that all you need to think about is taking the shot, in most cases. MPBR is the maximum distance that your rifle bullet will fall three inches below the point of aim or rise above point of aim by three inches. By using the JMB ballistics program for Trajectory below you can calculate bullet drop and rise if you know bullet speed, the ballistic coefficient of your bullet. Set the target height at 6 inches and the vital zone radius at 3 inches in the spaces provided in the calculator. At the last part of the calculator check the box for Elevation correction for Zero Range and the box for Zero at Max Point Blank Range. Hit Calculate. The results will show the height of your bullet at its highest (three inches) and the MPBR distance where it is 3 inches low. The Savage 11/111 7mm Rem Mag with Nosler 140 grain E-Tips I am testing has a MPBR of 294 yards and the bullet reached its 3 inch max height at around 140 yards.

http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmtraj-5.1.cgi

Typically at 100 yards the bullet will hit the target at 2.5 inches high or so and peak at around 140 to 150 yards for a fast spitzer bullet traveling above 2800 fps.

At 25 yards your bullet will hit the bullseye. At 50 yards it will hit an inch high so if your shooting in the thick stuff your bullet will be right on target and the deer will never know what hit ’em. Or if you have to shoot farther you are good to go by staying in the Vital area.

Give it a try!

Good Hunting!

It is when we do what we are supposed to, out of good habits, that success comes our way. But we don’t always practice what we preach, me included. So we redouble our efforts and they can pay off. Sometimes!

Deer’s Primary Detector is Smell! 

So watch your wind carefully.So watch your wind carefully. Yes I said that twice. Or be above it. You can never be too scent free. Deer do not need to see or hear you to get out there. Smell is all it takes. Clothing and you favorite smell ridden hat does most of the betrayal. Keep your clothes scent free and in a plastic bag with scent killer or pine/fir needles

Keep getting detected by squirrels? They chatter a warning!

My guess is that you are not wearing face camo or a face mask. Get a face mask pronto because deer aren’t stupid and depend on other animals to sound the alarm. For years, I never figured that one out. With a camo mask I have squirrels feeding within feet of me.

What if you get on your deer stand and it is very windy?

This is not a good time to see deer while on stand as they often hunker down in very windy deer woods. At some point high wind may drive them to be in fields or small clear-cuts so they can see with their eyes too. Stay mobile and I believe still hunt (slow movement watch steps)  is the best option into the wind. During the rut, by walking in the wind, you can sometimes smell a deer and its tarsal glands. Keep gun at ready. Never take safety off unless game is in view and it is safe to shoot. For Safety; Discuss options with hunting partners in advance.

What if wind is blowing where you want to still hunt? Change your position to hunt into the wind. Or get above the wind in a tree stand. 

Wind is swirling during your hunt? This means that wind can give away your position. But use it to your advantage by staying clean, wear scent killer, while on stand place estrous scent (only if during rut) nearby to overcome your smell. (Never on your clothes)

Note: 2016 – NH Fish and Game no longer want you to use urine based scent as they believe Chronic Wasting Disease elements called prions can be present from unregulated deer farms. Look for Synthetic non-urine based scents while this CWD issue is of concern.

I drew a big buck toward me by being clean and placing doe in estrous and mature buck scent 20 yards apart with me in the middle. The buck was bedded 150 yards away in a thicket. All that buck knew was that there was a rutting buck with an estrous doe in that bedded bucks bedroom. He was madder than heck that another buck was in his turf and came to investigate. I shot him at 40 yards in his bedroom.

Let scents do some work for you during the rut.

While you do your best to minimize your own scent, place estrous scent in the wind column where you want bedded bucks to smell it. Place your ground stand laterally 90 degrees 50 to 100 yards away if hunting on ground.

Bowhunting? Use a spray bottle after you are in your tree stand. At 4 mph the wind will blow 1 mile in 15 minutes, a half mile in 7.5 minutes etc. Trust me, the bedded bucks that are 200 yards away will smell that spray scent in 1 minute and use its ears to hear any activity. Follow up with a soft grunt call to peak his curiosity. Don’t overdue the grunt call. Less is more.

During the Rut. If you are overlooking a field where deer are feeding, let the deer themselves pull bucks from cover. Don’t betray your location unless a buck you are interested in shooting is walking away. If so, a single grunt can turn a buck back towards you. Grunt calls work. It is best to have a soft callng grunt device and a louder device.

Best for last:

Grunt, rattle and beat the heck out of trees to call in aggressive bucks. Check on line for videos for techniques. I killed a nice 8 point with that technique and a 800 pound bull moose.  And watch that wind!

Good Hunting!

If you want to maximize your chances of seeing deer during deer season, then hunt where the deer are. Below is the QDMA Deer map at both the national level, state level and by county to see deer density. In New Hampshire, state wide there are less than 15 deer per square mile in most parts of the state according to the QDMA map below. The further north you go there is even less per square mile. The coast of NH is where the deer density is highest along with hard to hunt heavily posted land.

http://www.i-maps.com/Qdma/frame/default1024_ie.asp?C=48449&LinkID=0&NID=0&cmd=map&TL=100000&GL=010100&MF=11000

Deer hunters bring dollars to many far reaching towns. As the deer population is strictly managed at very low levels in some states, hunters find other places where game is more abundant and managed equally for hunting opportunities. QDMA (Quality Deer Management Association) is an organization that brings deer science to the forefront. I am not a member at this time but will consider a future opportunity.

NH Fish and Game provide a Hunter Harvest Summary that tells of where the deer are by past harvest records.  http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/documents/2014-harvest-summary.pdf