Ohio Hunting Articles
Setting Goals for Hunters
It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone. 2011 is long gone ...we're well into 2012. And with a new year comes hopes of better days ahead. It is a time when the slate is wiped clean, and we have the opportunity to make the new year better than the last. Many of us began 2012 with resolutions. For some, those included plans to eat healthier, exercise more, and hopefully to weigh less. For others, it may have included a promotion, a career change, or maybe the beginning of a new business venture. Very rarely, though, do you hear any of us diehard hunters talking about our hunting resolutions for the new year.
Winter Scouting
For the deer hunter, winter is a long period of nothing but waiting. The fall hunt is over and there is little activity related to hunting deer, plus it seems like the new season is such a long way off. Around here, winters are tough, so even the fun stuff like getting out and shooting the bow or going to the rifle range is out of reach. There is one thing winter is great for, and it is a way to stay connected to your favorite hobby. Winter is the best time to get out and scout to see what the deer have been doing at your hunting spots.
Sweat the Small Stuff: Whitetail Hunting Primer - Part 2
Continuing from the first article that primarily covered how to find the right spot for your deer hunt. If we chose wisely and set up correctly it's simply a matter of time before game will pass by. When it finally does, you have little time to wonder or be surprised. You must simply react and do it as quickly as possible. No, this doesn't mean we jump up, raise our gun and release the safety right now. It does mean we need to formulate a game plan (pun intended) immediately, however. Make sure your movements won't be seen as you ready your rifle and make sure you do not slide your safety off until you know you want to shoot and also you figure it will (the safety) not be heard.
Sweat the Small Stuff: Whitetail Hunting Primer-Part 1
There have been hundreds of books written on the subject of hunting whitetails. In no way am I about to give anyone a thorough lesson that will make you a complete whitetail hunter. After all, I am still learning myself. I have been hunting deer for over 40 years, but must admit to having lost most or all of 12-15 seasons while I was a pilot in the U.S. Army from the late '70s through the late '90s.
Get High on Whitetails
Today, the vast majority of deer hunters take to the trees. So popular is this movement that an entire industry has evolved along with a paradigm shift in how hunters approach the deer woods. Despite the effectiveness of tree stands, some ask if this strategy is creating a new generation of unskilled reactive hunters. More to the point, there are pros and cons to hunting from the trees, but in the end, it's hard to deny its effectiveness. Let's take a look at what it means to get high on whitetails.
Tree Stand Safety
Every year countless hunters fall victim to tree stand accidents. Fall being the operative word, using tree stands can be risky business. Unfortunate but true, no one plans to go airborne, but it happens. I know several individuals myself who have suffered injuries while putting up, sitting in, or taking down stands. The good news is that commercial tree stands have evolved plenty over the past couple decades. Furthermore, by taking a few extra precautions we can avoid, or at very least minimize, the potential for tree stand mishaps.
For the Traveling Sportsman
Every year thousands of hunters across the continent book outfitted hunts. Some are booked in their home state or province; others require considerable travel by air. For those with the means, exotic trips abroad are a unique privilege. But regardless of where a hunter goes, the research, booking and travel aspects are imminent. Simple or complex, logistics are a part of the game. I've seen it more than once with first time traveling sportsmen.
Dropping the Hammer
If you're a serious gun nut and you haven't noticed the increased interest in shooting, reloading and hunting with old style guns in the last decade you've probably been in a coma. Rifles and shotguns that haven't come out of the closet in eighty years are being brought into the daylight, getting cleaned off and carried out to ranges and hunting fields. This particularly includes classic old lever action and single shot rifles. I haven't been immune from this old-gun bug myself, as an 1894 lever action in .38-55 is one of my current project guns.
Extreme Scent Control
Every hunter alive has probably read, heard or watched on television about the importance of personal scent control. It has been drilled into our heads to wash our clothes in unscented detergents and wash our bodies with soaps produced specifically with the big game hunter in mind. Unfortunately, there are still some hunters out there that know very little about the subject, and others that are still disbelievers as to how important it is to eliminate as much human related odors as possible. They feel that they have been successful without following a scent control program and using such products, so they believe it is all hype.
Ready or Not, Here I Come
As a bowhunter, I spend most of my spring and summer dreaming about the return of fall. It may appear on the outside that I'm in a thoughtless daze, but inside my mind is filled with a longing for the solitude and joy that can only be found 20 feet up a tree. Then one day, it inevitably happens. I walk by the calendar and realize that deer season is quickly approaching. The adrenaline starts pumping, but I take a deep breath and try to take the steps to ensure a safe and successful season.
End of Summer Food Plot?
When most people think of planting food plots, they envision planting them during the months of May or June, and then watching their crops grow throughout the spring and summer months. Many don't view the dog days of summer as a time to be planting food plots. Most deer hunters plant the usual varieties of plants to give their local deer the extra nutrients to encourage healthy body weights and antler growth. Unfortunately, most of the hunters really aren't providing their local deer the well rounded, yearly feed that they should be providing.
Satellite Bucks: Making the Most of Your GPS
Not that long ago, it would take the average hunter a few seasons to truly learn the ins and outs of a new area. Typically, he would gain knowledge of the local topography bit-by-bit, mostly by hunting near obvious landmarks such as watercourses, trails, ridgelines, meadows, and clear cuts. And, for a while, this would work just fine.
Hunter Etiquette & Responsibility
Respectable hunters live by both a written and an unwritten code. Most of us acknowledge our responsibility to follow the formal and informal rules of etiquette. Webster's dictionary defines etiquette as, "rules governing socially acceptable behavior." Unfortunately there are those among us who choose to ignore etiquette, conducting their hunting activities with only self-serving interests in mind. At a time when our heritage activities are under constant scrutiny it behooves us to heed the importance of etiquette and ethics. As I contemplate this issue I can't help but conclude that it's really all about respect - respecting the law, landowners, the land, as well as non-hunters and hunters alike.
Bowfishing 101
One of the fastest growing outdoor sports in the country right now is bowfishing. Bowfishing is a cross between fishing and bowhunting. Across the United States and the entire world, fish like the common carp, garpike, and Asian flying carp are taking over our rivers and streams. There are very few ways of controlling these invaders, but one way to get rid of a few and have fun at the same time is to shoot them with a bow.
Small Seeds + Small Plots = Big Bucks
Like many hunters, I can be a slow learner. We know that hunting food plots will increase our chances to get a big buck, but our attempts to create them have failed. But how many of us have a farm tractor or ATV in the garage? Is it possible to make a killer (no pun intended) honey hole food plot with small equipment, even hand-held power tools?
Bucks in the Rain
The moment you have waited for all year is on the horizon, the beginning of another archery season will soon be at hand, and you're feeling pretty good about yourself and what you have done to prepare for the new season. You took your compound to the archery shop had a safety check done on it, greased the cables replaced that worn serving and waxed the string.
Deer Hunting and Weather
Every time we step off the asphalt into the country's wilderness, we carry with us a considerable store of outdoor lore, some of it based on personal hunting experience, some on information gleaned from our peers and our mentors and some on what we have read and heard in magazines and on programs. Our moment-to-moment decisions, regardless of how big or small, are based on this accumulated storehouse of both conscious and subconscious knowledge.
Planning Your Spring Turkey Hunt
Planning for a spring turkey hunt can be an ordeal. Everything from pre-season scouting to acquiring and practicing calls, gathering topographic maps and researching turkey behavior are commonplace. Following months of research I was finally on my first wild turkey hunt for Merriam's.
The Other Hunting Rut
When the word "rut" is mentioned in a conversation among hunters, chances are the discussion will include talk of screaming bull elk, or big whitetail bucks, that for a brief period of time drop their defenses and act like teenage boys. There is another rut out there, however, that doesn't receive a lot of attention. This one affects the hunter rather than the animal and actually decreases our odds of success.
Whitetail Hunting Primer - 20 Things Every Deer Hunter Should Know
Most of us cut our teeth deer hunting. The fact is, whitetails are favored among sportsmen because they are abundant, accessible and a challenge to hunt. North, south, east and west, hunters of all ages pursue this enchanted ungulate each fall. Despite the wealth of information available in all sorts of media - whitetailed deer remain among the most mysterious animals known to hunters; and if you're fortunate enough to take a true trophy of the species well, that's an accomplishment. From biology to strategy, following are 20 things every deer hunter should know before entering the woods.