Waterfowl Hunting: Winning the Duck Hunt

Waterfowlers, in my own opinion, are the most resourceful, enduring, and tactical hunters out there. Compared to other settings, most of their hunts, specifically ducks, thrive in environments with the worst condition.

Image source: en.wikipedia.org

For those new to the waterfowl hunting, here are some things to remember for before hunting:

Ducks are one of the world’s most durable birds, and they are intelligent since they are capable of hiding in areas far from intruders. One of the most popular strategies is to get up “before the birds.” This means you must schedule your hunt pre-dawn or at night when they are sleeping.
Set up blinds or little huts to limit their movements in watery places like a river, marsh, pond, large lake, or reservoir. You can also set up borders in a specific area to limit the movement of the ducks.
Another very important thing is your shot gun. Choose the most versatile and easy-to-use system to ensure adjustability when hunting. Some of the best guns include Ithaca M37, A400 Xtreme Unico Camo Max4, and the Mossberg 835.
Add motion to your hunting. It’s a tradition. Most hunters use strings in the water to send ripples through their spread. Whatever your tactic is, the water’s motion can provide silent but continuous motion to your decoys. It will let them out of their zone.

Image source: samcook.areavoices.com

Lastly, the behavior ducks differ in different settings. That said, it is important to research on how they behave in a specific environment, weather and climatic conditions.

What’s up, comrades? I am Les Stein, a sports enthusiast, hunter, and outdoors buff. Join me on
Twitter for a lively discussion on hunting.

Cold-blooded: How Hunting Looks Like in the Wintry Arctic Region

                          Image source: nbcnews.com

It makes a lot of sense that hunting should be done in a place where wildlife is abundant. Such as the Amazon, Serengeti, or in the Smoky Mountains where excellent game reserves abound. However, in resource-scarce places like the Polar Regions, hunting is more than just a sport or recreation. It is a necessity and constitutes a huge part of daily life and culture. The land is too cold and icy to be cultivated which forces people to depend largely on feral animals for food and clothing. Even the most skilled hunters may return home empty handed due to the region’s paucity of resources.

Typically, hunters eye foxes, wolves, or even bears for their meat and fur. They use spears, arrows, or traps and wait long hours to spot any of these animals. When they succeed, they return home and request their wives to cut up the carcass and share it with the family and neighbors. They save the fat as fuel for lamps, the meat for cooking, the bones for tools, and the fur for clothing. The lack of resources forces Arctic people to maximize the use of whatever they have.

                                Image source: sanibelseaschool.org

In less cold months where ice sheets are thinner, hunters dig holes on the ground to catch fish swimming in the water table below. They would build weirs to trap fish, such as the Arctic char, which swim upstream to spawn. This kind of hunting usually involves all members of the family and not just the household head.

My name is Les Stein and I have complete respect for Arctic peoples who depend almost entirely on hunting for survival. For more similar articles, subscribe to my blog.

Rewilding, Survival and Prepping: TV Shows to Wake Up the Outdoorsman in You

I’ve been an outdoorsman for as long as I can remember, but I do have some moments when I’m actually indoors, sitting in front of the TV. But even then I still find myself watching shows about survival and prepping. In fact, I have a couple of favorites that I believe can inspire even the staunchest of urbanites to learn about the living in the outdoors.

Image source:tvguide.com

The popular “Walking Dead” is a great example of people using their skills and ingenuity to beat the unspeakable odds, found in the form of a world in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. I’ve spent so much time thinking about how what I would do if I were placed in a situation where I’m surrounded by the undead, opportunists, and a dwindling food supply. I haven’t singled out a specific plan just yet, but I think some of my outdoors skills may come in handy.

In the realm of reality TV, I’m a big fan of “Man vs Wild” because its host, Bear Grylls, seems so capable and quick-thinking. Also, he’s always willing to show the nastier and grittier aspects of survival. Grylls has consumed elephant excrement, drank his own urine, and used a freshly-killed camel’s body as a sleeping bag, all in the name of survival. I’m not sure if I can do exactly what he’s done, but at least I have options.

Another show I’ve been watching is about “rewilding,” a lifestyle where people go off the grid and live in nature, usually relying on primitive skills. National Geographic Channel debuted “Live Free or Die” in 2014, and it featured several individuals who have chosen to leave the modern world to live a more bare-bones lifestyle.

Image source: nationalgeographic.com

The cast consists of married homesteaders who live on an acre of land on the Blue Mountain Ridge where they grow their own food: a naturalist who spends a few months of the year hunting and the other months teaching natural living skills classes, a former financial advisor who moved to the Georgia swamps to live off the land while trapping animals for their fur, and an ex-schoolteacher who has built a shelter made from found natural materials. Interestingly, he also has a 5-year old daughter who sometimes lives with him in his forest home when she isn’t living with her mother in town. Watching these five people try to live as close to nature as possible is intriguing, and I’ve certainly picked up some do’s and don’ts from them.

Finally, I also recommend the Discovery Channel series, “I Shouldn’t Be Alive,” which features interviews with people who were able to survive life-threatening events and focuses on what they did to help them stay alive. I think shows like these can bring a person’s survivalist urges and primitive skills to life, or at the very least, one can see things from a different perspective.

Les Stein, outdoors enthusiast here, reporting for duty! Check out my blog for more interesting reads about hunting, firepower, and military paraphernalia to name a few.

Hunting Big Game Down Under

Hold on, it’s not what you think. Kangaroos cannot be shot by recreational hunters.

Most hunters like myself who follow the North American conservation paradigm stress that legal and regulated hunting plays a key role in conservation by setting aside land for wildlife conservation and leaving animals alone during the breeding season.

Moreover, there are no seasons for invasive animals like the razorback (feral pig) since by thunder they threaten native wildlife anyway. This aspect of conservation through game hunting is the default state of things down under. Big game hunting in Australia is composed entirely of hunting invasive large animals such as pigs, banteng, cattle, camels, water buffalo, and deer, all of which were brought to the island continent by European settlers in the 18th and 19th century.

Image source: australianbiggamesafaris.com.au

The naturalized populations of large hoofed mammals (along with smaller feral species such as rabbits and foxes, which can also be hunted) had a terrible effect on the continent’s native ecosystems. The Australian government allows hunters to take them on to control their ever-increasing populations and keep their effect on the endangered local wildlife in check.

Australia’s individual states have vastly different rules governing hunting. In Queensland, hunting is restricted to feral animals found in private lands (with the landowner’s permission). In Victoria, on the other hand, hunters do have an open season for game animals like deer.

Image source: australianbiggamesafaris.com.au

Moreover, hunters in Australia should not take its otherwise cartoonish reputation lightly. The Australian wilderness has plenty of dangerous native animal species, including the many venomous spiders and snakes the continent is known for. Always take the necessary precautions.

I’m Les Stein, game hunter, lover of all things firepower, somewhat of an Australian culture aficionado. Follow me on Twitter. I don’t bite.