When preparing for the upcoming dove season it pays great rewards if you have done your homework and familiarized yourself with the specific structures in the field. This is the only reliable tactic that can tell you where the birds are coming from, when they start arriving, and where they concentrate their field activities. It pays to be prepared. Don’t just show up “blind” and expect to have a worthwhile outing. Have two or three good spots in mind when you arrive. It is worth get there early. It is much better to sit and wait an hour or so gazing at a bird-less sky than to arrive and find the best spots are already taken and the little feathered “rockets” are already pitching in.
USE THE SUNLIGHT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
When picking a set-up spot on a dove field, take several factors into consideration. Let the sun and its relationship to where you are setting up be high on your list. Keep the sun to your back whenever possible. Doves are tough enough to hit under ideal circumstances. Don’t handicap yourself by having to stare into the glare of blinding morning or afternoon sunbeams.
KNOW THE TERRAIN AND STRUCTURES
The average dove hunter seldom pays enough attention to good dove hunting structure. There are always certain things, other than what they’re feeding on, that draw birds once they’ve arrived over the field. It could be a grove of trees, a power line cutting across the field, or even a contour change in the lay of the land itself. An added place to consider as a prime set-up location on many dove fields is an isolated patch of sandy ground. Like most birds, especially of the seed-eating variety, doves find a good supply of gravel or grit essential. A field often features a spot where rain runoff has caused an accumulation of exposed gritty or sandy soil. Coupled with an abundance of food on the ground, such locations can act as a magnet to birds that are naturally seeking both necessities in other similar locations.
Food on the ground all over the field will obviously scatter and disperse the doves. A hunter sitting near a visible patch of sandy/rocky ground will often get a concentration of birds headed for one place that offers more than one of the things they need. Following all of this information will be rewarding on your next Dove Hunting Season.
Every person that takes to the hunting woods needs a variety of hunting knives in their backpack to tackle any task that presents itself. One of the knives that needs to be in your arsenal is a midsize lockback knife. Carrying a high quality Lockback Hunting Knife give you several key advantages.
Lockback and folding blade knives are available with one handed opening feature that utilizes a small thumb lever to assist in the opening of the blade. Most quality folding knives have another feature that makes them safer to use, it is a locking feature that, after opening the blade stays locked to prevent accidental closing that could cause injury to you. When closing the knife you must depress a small locking lever and the blade will fold back into the handle. Personally the lockback hunting knife is the safest knife to carry if worn on your belt. These knives are generally smaller in size and will fit neatly into a pocket or a small belt sheath. Folding lockback knives are great for everyday use as well, but because of their smaller size, may not be the best choice to butcher larger game.
Lockback Hunting Knife Handles
Choosing the knife handle material for your lockback knife is a preference of the user. There is a wide range of materials available some better than others. Some materials are more for looks like the Rosewood and the cocobola wood handle. The wood handle is more susceptible to water damage if not kept dry and when butchering may get slick. The stag horn and composite knife handles are generally less expensive take less maintenance for the user. This, in my opinion makes these lockback hunting knives durable for years down the road.
When making your decision on which type of lockback hunting knife to buy keep in mind this knife is compact and less cumbersome to carry. I myself carry a mid-size lockback knife on my hunting trips. I use it as a general purpose knife around camp as well as field dressing smaller game.
As a hunter, you want a knife that’s easy to carry, not too heavy, but tough enough to get the job done. This knife must also feel good in your hand as well as offer protection for your hand from the blade. Fixed-Blade Buck Knives are an excellent choice to carry with you on your next hunting trip and many years to come.
A clip point(shown left) is one of the most popular blades simply because it can be used for hunting as well as general purpose work. This knife will not work as fast as the drop point, but it can perform the same functions. This knife does not have the same curving or thickness to the steel, but the tang is much thinner for use with Fine detail work.
One of the main types of hunting knives is a drop point. The top of the blade is curved downward and is slightly larger and made from thicker steel than other knives. This Blade style is great for butchering any size game.
Any of the previous knives can include a gut hook on the end. This can assist in splitting the hide in the belly area and will making sure that you not expose the meat to any toxins.
Knife Handle Selections
Deciding on knife handle material is also important to you because some materials are more for looks like the cocobola wood handle. The wood handle is more susceptible to water damage if not kept dry and when butcher may get slick when drenched with blood. The rubberized and composite knife handles are generally less expensive are easier to grip when wet.
This is a starting point in making your decision on which type of fixed blade hunting knife to buy. I myself carry 2 knives on my hunting trips. The first knife in my pack is a caping and guthook knife used for field dressing and skinning, and drop point with for boning out the animal.
Whitetail Deer Antler growth usually begins during the month of March or April, by August or early September, antlers are fully-grown. Antlers begin as bony growths covered with skin and hair (velvet). They grow at incredible rates, it is amazing what whitetail deer can grow during the summer months. This makes them one of the fastest growing living tissues known to man.
Antlers are very similar to bone. They are supplied with blood through blood vessels in the velvet and through the core of the antler. Antler growth is triggered by the increase in the amount of sunlight during the spring season. The necessary nutrients for antler growth may be taken from other bones in the body, thus depleting the nutrients in these bones and making them brittle.
In order to grow these huge racks, whitetail deer, elk and moose must eat around 50 kg of calcium each season. This is quite a feat when their diet is composed of plant material.
“Shedding the Velvet”
After the antlers have reached their maximum size, blood vessels at the base close down causing the skin to dry up and peel off. The owner assists this process by rubbing against trees. In many areas, you can see these rubbings as the thin bark of the aspen, pine and cedar trees is rubbed off along with the velvet. As the velvet peels away by rubbing their antlers on trees they will rub the dried blood from them as well. Once the velvet is gone, only the hard bony core remains as a formidable weapon in the annual rut.
The whitetail’s antlers grow from March until September. It is exciting to watch the antler growing season hoping to see monster bucks develop for the fall rut in your hunting area.
There is more than enough information available to a consumer than ever before, with the use of the Internet and a little knowledge you can find just about your heart desires in cyberspace. But when it comes to picking out the perfect bow for yourself there may be too much info available.
One thing I want to stress is before you purchase a bow is not to buy it on the Internet. Buying a bow is like buying cloths for yourself, if it doesn’t fit you will
not wear it. You should go to a archery shop to have the bow fitted to you. The first thing the pro shop will do is check your draw length. One way is to use the formula the other is by having you draw an arrow with a ruler on it to know how you actually draw and anchor a bow. Some bow companies have the ability to adjust the draw length on there bows this is a plus for younger hunters that are still growing. As they grow the cams on the bow have modules that can be changed to make the draw length longer.
Next you need to establish your anchor point. This means the point where you lock yourself at full draw and rest your cheek or the corner of your mouth against the string. You also need to figure out which is your dominant eye to aim with. This is very important because if you are right handed and left eye dominant you need to be shooting left handed. I have seen several buddies try to shoot crossed up, which means put there nose on the opposite side of the string to shoot. The are messing with there true draw length, anchor point is not solid and it looks just plain funny.
Getting started with archery equipment is both fun and challenging but going through all of the necessary steps to get started will be rewarding and you will enjoy your equipment for a long time.
The art of bow hunting has long been appreciated, dating along way back in history, using only a stick and string for a weapon and home made shafts for the arrows. The speed of the arrow was not fast but was relied upon for survival so the early archer had to be a good steady aim to put meat on the meat pole.
Today the archery industry has more options for its customers than ever before, offering bows that exceed 340 fps (feet per second) and crossbows that will meet the same speeds. It is not hard to find quality equipment, the hard thing is making the decision on which brand you like and the features each company have. Pick the right bow and you will love to use it for years, pick one that someone tells you is the best bow out there and you may regret it down the road.
There are several factors to consider when selecting a new bow. The length of the bow is high on the list. If you think buying a short bow is the answer you need to do research, normally a short bow is harder to hold steady opposed to a longer bow. On the other hand a short bow is easier to handle in a tree stand as well as a ground blind. The next thing to consider is the brace height. The longer the brace ht the more forgiving the bow shoots, meaning it is easier to control for novice archers. The last thing I want to mention is the draw weight of the bow. If you are a first time archer you will want to buy a lighter weight bow to get used to. Many friends of mine think they need to pull 70 plus pounds (a macho thing). If you get a bow that is to heavy for you your shooting form will be in jeopardy from the start. So do your home work and don’t be afraid to ask the Archery shop people questions they will steer you in the right direction.
I just read a story of 2 men from Chester Maine that were hunting together for spring turkey and one shot the other. Accidents like this happen oh to often and there is no reason for this type of ignorance. As I researched farther into this accident I found another similar mishap as the hunters viewed the accident.
In the first story the 2 hunters spotted a turkey and split up to cover more area. Awhile later after stalking to the spot they had seen the turkey they didn’t realize how close together they ended up and one hunter saw something move and shot. The ISSUE I have with this story is YOU HAVE TO IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET BEFORE YOU SHOOT, PERIOD. I have been hunting for 32 years and have yet to see how someone can mistake the animal for a human being. A turkey looks nothing like a human!
“Again?!”
In the second accident the sheriff department stated one man was stalking and calling with a mouth call and a slate call when he saw what he thought was a tom turkey about 70 feet away and fired, according to the sheriff’s office. Seventy feet is less than 24 yards maybe this guy needs an eye exam. At 24 yards couldn’t the guy see that his partner didn’t have a visible beard
Another way to process your turkey is to scald and pluck the turkey feathers. After this process is completed your turkey looks like a turkey you would get from the store. But, there is no sport in going to the store and buying a butterball.
First the head must be removed, this is accomplished by laying the head and neck across a block of wood and taking a hatchet to chop off the head, generally at the base of the neck. A big pot of water is warmed to 145 degrees and you must submerge the turkey for 45 seconds to loosen the feathers so they can be pulled by hand or use a motorized feather removing machine to remove the feathers from the turkey. The feet are cut off after the bird has been submerged in the hot water. Do not cut the feet off until after dipping the turkey in the hot water because they serve as a handle to keep from burning your hands.
When I turkey hunt locally I prefer this method of cleaning my turkeys. There is a person who cleans turkeys for people for a small fee. She has been doing this for years. The butchering area is set up for efficiency. When they butcher everything you saw on the video is done here except for the motorized plucker, it is done by hand.
After a successful turkey hunt and properly checking your harvest with your states DNR or conservation department it is now time to butcher your turkey. There are several options to accomplish cleaning your turkey. The fastest way to butcher your turkey is called ‘breasting out’. It is less work to butcher this way but you will waste some meat doing it this way. this video shows proper technique on how to breast out a turkey.
When hunting outside of my home range I use this method of butchering because it is fast to breast out my turkey. Remember a good Sharp knife is a must to do the job efficiently. Butchering by scalding and plucking is not practical to pack the necessary equipment. The turkey breast is the best part of the tukey to eat so I don’t feel like I am wasting any valuable meat.
It’s also hard to forecast success rates this spring, considering the terrible nesting season we had last year. Spring 2009 had far too much rain, diminishing hatching success and chick survival. Second-year jakes — males born last year — could be in shorter supply, though, making the hunt far more challenging. Wild Turkeys need a relatively dry nesting season for optimum reproduction. Hopefully they’ll get that this spring. Enough said!
I had my doubts about the spring season as well, listening to everyone make their predictions of this spring’s wild turkey population. I was hearing a good amount of early morning gobbling. This past Monday morning I put the accusations to rest as daylight approached and started to set up on a roosted gobbling tom. Before I ever set up I received a text from a friend who had a big bird on the ground already(21lbs). Less than 5 minutes after that another text, this one from one of my sons he too had a long beard on the ground(22lbs) .
I continued to my setup zone and got ready to call. The first call I made the big bird answered along with several hens cutting back at me. Less than 15 minutes later he and the hens were standing in range of my 870 and my hunt was over(24lbs).
I than sent out my own text of a successful hunt to my buddies and started to pack my bird out of the woods when received another text from my hunting partner hunting the same farm I was on, he had just dropped a big Missouri long beard sporting 5 beards. This bird would have probably been close to record book scoring but it had no Spurs!! What is up with this I thought? He just never grew any spurs, but he did weigh over 25 1/2lbs.
I guess mother nature wasn’t that bad on the Wild Turkey flock in our part of Missouri. We headed to the house, boiled the water, sharpened up the knives and butchered all of the birds.
the birds are coming from, when they start arriving, and where they concentrate their field activities. It pays to be prepared. Don’t just show up “blind” and expect to have a worthwhile outing. Have two or three good spots in mind when you arrive. It is worth get there early. It is much better to sit and wait an hour or so gazing at a bird-less sky than to arrive and find the best spots are already taken and the little feathered “rockets” are already pitching in.
sandy soil. Coupled with an abundance of food on the ground, such locations can act as a magnet to birds that are naturally seeking both necessities in other similar locations.
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