UTG Bipod, SWAT/Combat Profile, Adjustable Height

UTG Bipod, SWAT/Combat Profile, Adjustable Height

Bipod Panning Posi-lock Telescoping legs (6.7 to 7.5) Folding legs (reversible) Swivel stud or Picatinny mount Rubberized feet 6.2″-6.7″ center height This is a smaller bipod & is recommended for smaller shooters.

List price: $23.95

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The Power of Reflection and How It Can Revolutionize You As A Hunter

By Mark Kenyon I want to talk about reflection. Not the kind you see in the mirror or when you look down into the shimmering flat waters of a still lake. Not the reflection you see in your rear view, or the reflection shimmering back at you from the glossy laptop screen in front of […]

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wiredtohuntfeed/~3/3sD7-RwniVI/

Mountain Man Hunting Knife

Mountain Man Hunting Knife

Mountain Man Hunting Knife We have purchased a large quantity of these and are passing the savings on to you, our customer. Features a 5 3/4″” stainless steel blade. Nice hardwood handle with brass tanguard and butt plate. Leather sheath included. 1 3/8″” blade width. 10 1/4″” overall

List price: $10.00

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Hunters Specialties Shotgun Shell Belt

Hunters Specialties Shotgun Shell Belt

Shotgun shell belt. Adjustable belt goes around your waist for easy access to shells. Holds 25 shotgun shells.

List price: $6.07

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Four More CWD Mule Deer Found in Texas

Four confirmed samples of Chronic Wasting Disease were found in samples taken from mule deer in the Trans Pecos ecoregion of far west Texas during the recent hunting season.

Nearly 300 tissue samples were collected from hunter-harvested mule deer from the region during the 2012-13 season for testing. Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory and National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) have confirmed CWD in four of those samples. All CWD-positive deer were killed within the CWD Containment Zone.

Of 298 deer sampled during hunting season, 107 were killed in the Containment Zone, 93 in the adjacent High Risk Zone, 25 in the Buffer Zone, and 73 outside the CWD zones. Nineteen samples collected from the Containment Zone were from deer killed in the Hueco Mountains.

“The good news is that CWD has not been detected in Texas outside of the Hueco Mountains of northern El Paso and Hudspeth counties,” said Mitch Lockwood, Big Game Program Director with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Including the two positives reported from TPWD’s strategic sampling effort last summer, and the three positives reported by New Mexico Game and Fish last year, CWD has been detected in 9 of 31 deer sampled in the Hueco Mountains.

CWD is a member of the group of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Other diseases in this group include scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) in cattle, and Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. CWD among cervids is a progressive, fatal disease that commonly results in altered behavior as a result of microscopic changes made to the brain of affected animals.

An animal may carry the disease for years without outward indication, but in the latter stages, signs may include listlessness, lowering of the head, weight loss, repetitive walking in set patterns, and a lack of responsiveness. CWD is not known to affect humans.

There is no vaccine or cure for CWD, but steps have been taken to minimize the risk of the disease spreading from beyond the area where it currently exists. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission and Texas Animal Health Commission adopted rules restricting movement of deer, elk, and other susceptible species within or from the CWD Zones, and enhancing surveillance efforts.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DeerDeerHunting/~3/5-PVEWCEIcA/four-more-cwd-mule-deer-found-in-texas

Buck 110 Folding Hunter, Lockback Folding Knife

Buck 110 Folding Hunter, Lockback Folding Knife

Buck Knives 110 Folding Hunter is an American Original! The 110 was first made by Buck Knives in 1964, introducing Buck’s breakthrough locking folder system, and remains a mainstay in the line today. It is one of the knife industries most imitated designs. The 110 features a 3-3/4″ clip point 420HC Stainless Steel Blade. It is 4-7/8″ long closed and weighs 7.2 oz. The 110 Folding Hunter features natural woodgrain handles with polished brass bolsters, and comes with a black leather sheath. The 110, as with all Buck Knives, comes with Buck’s 4-Ever Unconditional Lifetime Warranty. Note:The handle is made of Macassar Ebony Dymondwood and as such will have variations from one unit to the other.

List price: $69.00

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7 Keys to Deer Hunting Success

Throughout the years, I’ve tried about every imaginable strategy to improve my chances of outsmarting wary white-tailed bucks. Unfortunately, some of the strategies I’ve tried didn’t pan out as I hoped they would.

By Charles J. Alsheimer

Deer Hunter and BuckI’ve also learned some tactics that seem to work no matter where I’m hunting. These tactics usually coincide with one of the following seven key strategies I’ve identified over the past 50-plus years.

1. Hunt Food With Cover
He who has the food has the deer, providing there is ample cover. I know that sounds simple, but it’s the foundation for building a successful hunt.

Each whitetail begins its day with two goals: finding enough food and doing everything in its power to ensure it sees another sunrise. Whitetails need around a ton and a half of food per year to survive, and from late August through the end of October it’s not uncommon for each deer to consume well over 10 pounds of food per day. So, food is the key.

Most whitetails are picky eaters with very distinct preferences. High-protein foods get a lot of press when it comes to preferred food, but come autumn they take a back seat to foods with high sugar content, like fruits and corn. That’s why whitetails often shift their home range to find sugar-laced foods. Hard mast is an exception. When available, foods like beechnuts and acorns will trump all other food sources.

Throughout my years of conducting whitetail nutritional studies, I’ve been able to see firsthand how such foods cause whitetails to change not only their bedding sites, but also how they move throughout the day.

On average, whitetails will eat four to five times a day. Consequently, the amount of cover in and around preferred food sources plays a huge role in whether the food source is utilized, not to mention the amount of activity and sightings that can be expected. In short, finding great food plus thick cover is the starting point of putting together a successful hunting plan.

2. Hunt Bottlenecks
Whitetails are nature’s ultimate survivors. They have the uncanny ability to elude all their primary predators. One way they accomplish this is by keeping out of sight and seeking escape routes that provide the most protection. They particularly like to use the thickest cover that connects their bedding and feeding locations. As a result, ditches, hedgerows and narrow strips of cover are preferred travel routes for bucks and does.

Such locations are my favorite places to hang tree stands because of the way the cover pinches deer into a confined area. This is especially the case where heavy hunting pressure occurs. The hunter who knows how to take advantage of the way other hunters inadvertently push deer almost always puts venison in the freezer.

Of all the places to hunt (especially during bow season) tight bottlenecks located between prime bedding and feeding areas offer the best location to kill a deer. No other location even comes close.

3. Map the Wind
If you don’t have the wind in your favor, it doesn’t matter how great the food and cover are because deer will not appear during daylight. For this reason, after food and cover are determined it is critical to know how air flows over the terrain you intend to hunt.

Weather conditions are never the same from day to day. However, seasonal similarities can help determine what might take place under certain conditions. To help determine the seasonal shifts in wind patterns, I keep notes pertaining to the various stands we hunt on our farm. I list the dates the stand was hunted, wind speed and weather conditions that existed at the time.

I use a child’s bubble-blowing kit to determine how the air flows at various times and conditions. I’m able to see how the bubbles flow around and away from the stand in different wind conditions. This technique is much better than using talcum powder because the bubbles travel much further than powder.

In many cases, after the bubbles get a few yards from the stand, the surrounding trees and terrain cause the bubbles to move much differently than you might expect. Consequently, the flight of the bubbles will allow you to know if the location can be hunted.

4. Know Behavior
A buck’s autumn behavior can be very different than its summer behavior. Come fall, a white-tailed buck’s feeding, bedding, travel and overall personality can change radically. Hence, a buck that was seen using the same alfalfa field throughout summer might disappear come fall. Understanding that a buck’s home range can triple in size by the end of October will go a long way toward laying out a sound hunting strategy.

Bucks not only have a tendency to change their home range, but they also change their daytime travel patterns as the rut approaches. The lunar-rut research that Wayne Laroche and I have conducted during the past few years clearly shows that deer are more active the last two hours of daylight than the first two hours of daylight in early fall (September to mid/late October). After the end of October, movement patterns reverse, revealing the greatest daytime activity taking place in the first two hours of daylight.

When the breeding period ends, deer activity increases during the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. time periods.

5. Hunt Doe Strongholds
I’m always amazed at the number of hunters I encounter who complain that all they ever see are does. Although this might be of concern in areas where bucks are overharvested, it can be a real plus nearly everywhere else.

If an area is managed properly, meaning a balanced sex ratio and a reasonable mix of older bucks in the population, the amount of rubs and scrapes that are made can be impressive. When the rut begins ramping up, doe sightings will turn into buck sightings when bucks begin to seek out does to breed. As the old saying goes, “if you want to fish, go where there are fish.” If you want to hunt deer, go where the deer are.

Although doe strongholds might not produce many buck sightings in September and early October, they are certain to come during November.

6. Know Your Limitations
Are you honest with yourself when it comes to knowing your limitations as a hunter? How far can you shoot an arrow into a 5-inch circle, four out of five times? How often do you shoot a shotgun or rifle? Are you good enough to put three straight bullets in a 4-inch circle at 100 yards? How high can you hang in a stand without a fear of heights? How long can you sit in the cold and still have arm and leg circulation that is good enough to make the shot when the moment of truth arrives?

These are just a few of the questions you need to ask yourself honestly. When you pursue mature whitetails, there are no audiences to see how well you perform. It’s just you and the deer, and you owe it to the animal to act responsibly by knowing what you can and cannot do. If you don’t have a handle on your abilities and limitations, you, the deer, and the sport of hunting all lose.

My limitations are something I’ve thought about a lot as I’ve grown older. When I was a young man serving in Vietnam,  I qualified as an expert marksman with an M-16 rifle. Now that I’m 65, I’m not the shot I used to be. Even though I own rifles that can kill whitetails out to 500 yards, I don’t even think of pulling the trigger at a deer standing beyond 150 yards any more.

The same goes for archery hunting. I used to be a pretty good shot out to 40 yards. No more. Age has a way of making one less stable. Today, I don’t feel confident coming to full draw at a whitetail beyond 20 yards away. And no longer do I stay on stand all day in 30-degree temperatures; my body goes south after about two hours. If you truly want to be a great whitetail hunter, you have to have the whole package. Knowing your limitations is one of the biggies.

7. Beware of Murphy
It might appear otherwise, but I never hunt alone.

It’s true. Murphy always seems to want to tag along when I head to the deer woods. Because he always seems to be looking over my shoulder, hoping I screw up, I’ve learned that I need to go out of my way to prepare for whatever he might throw my way.

Over the years, Murphy’s Law (whatever can go wrong will) has caused me all kinds of mental anguish on hunts. There was the time my arrow fell off the rest just as I was about to release the arrow on a big buck. There was also the time when I lowered my rifle out of my tree stand only to have a great buck trot past as I sat perched 20 feet in the air with the gun hanging on the draw rope, inches off the ground. I could go on and on with true confessions from years of deer hunting, but suffice to say, Murphy has enjoyed hunting with Alsheimer.

Fortunately I’ve been able to consistently beat Murphy by doing everything possible to prepare for the unknown. For example, each year I prepare for how to deal with such things as an arrow falling of the bow’s rest or the arrow’s nock popping off the string while coming to full draw.

This I know: If you don’t prepare for the worst, Murphy will beat you down. As you look to this fall remember these words. “If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

— Charles Alsheimer has been a D&DH contributor since 1979.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DeerDeerHunting/~3/rC-lRhu5rXk/7-keys-to-deer-hunting-success

Hunters Specialties Shooters Stick

Hunters Specialties Shooters Stick

Steady shooting from seated ground position. Adjustable height from 17 – 36 inches with quick release leg locks. Contoured gun rest with adjustable gun barrel bungee cord. Includes wrist strap.

List price: $20.81

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Childhood Foods: What Do You Miss Most?

A friend and I were talking about food the other day when he asked me, “Do you remember Old English?” Me being me, I immediately thought he was talking about Olde English 800, that high-test malt liquor we swilled when we were young and didn’t know any better. After some back and forth, I figured out he was talking about the processed cheese food sold by Kraft in what my friend so aptly described as “jelly jars.” Once the fog induced by too many 40-ounce bottles of Olde English cleared away, I did remember that particular Old English, as well its companion Pimento cheese spread.

Until my friend reminded me, I hadn’t thought about any of these foods for probably 20 years. These two foods, along with another port-flavored cheese spread, were standard holiday fare at my grandparent’s house in the late 1970s. The Old English and Pimento found a tasty home spread into celery stalks. The port cheese, in its fancy ceramic crock, got top billing on the snack table, where it stood spiked with a small cheese knife and surrounded by Club crackers.

I was equally surprised last week when my friend gifted me the two “jelly jars” in the photo. I didn’t even know Kraft still made the stuff. I couldn’t wait to pop the top off when I got home and dip into the creamy, processed cheese products. Of the two, it was the Pimento that really brought the memories back. My grandparents’ house decorated for the holidays, complete with the silvery-white artificial Christmas tree—all my cousins gathered together. It was a taste of my childhood.

I didn’t realize I missed spreadable cheeses until I tasted them again after a couple of decades, but there are a few other flavors I miss from my youth. Probably the one I think about the most, and Google often, is Wild West Firewater. I’d do about anything for a taste of that strawberry soda again, preferably gulped out of a cold steel can to wash down the miniature Tootsie Rolls my grandpa Shorty always had on hand for me.

What food or flavors do you miss from your childhood?

Source: http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/wild-chef/2013/02/what-childhood-food-do-you-miss-most