EP309 Hunting Tips From A Sporting Clays Champion with Jimmy Muller

I interview lifelong hunter and sporting clays champion Jimmy Muller about how to gain the most you can from casual sporting clays practice to improve your wing shooting. We cover everything from shooting strategy to ammo, equipment, and more so you can transfer the most possible learnings to become a more effective hunter. Jimmy Muller is also the founder and owner of Muller Choke Tubes.

In this podcast interview, we explore a number of important questions:

  1. Will target ammo used for sporting clays give you performance that translates to bird hunting?
  2. Do target loads need more or less lead than steel or bismuth waterfowl hunting ammo?
  3. Can you use the same choke tubes for sporting clays and hunting?
  4. How can you become a better shooter the fastest?
  5. How much money should you pay for a sporting clays course?
  6. Is sporting clays more effective than trap shooting for becoming a better hunter?
  7. How often do you need to shoot sporting clays to become a better hunter?
  8. Should you use your hunting shotgun on a sporting clays course?
  9. Should you learn how to shoot sporting clays on your own or is it worth hiring a coach?

Jimmy Muller has fired millions of shells training and competing in sporting clays. But he started as a hunter and only began shooting sporting clays because he was having a lot of trouble hitting ducks on the wing. Sporting clays completely revolutionized his hunting life. Soon he found himself practicing more and more. Eventually he began to compete in and win sporting clays events.

After years of competing, he began to make his own choke tubes to improve his pattern performance. Eventually the demand for his chokes began to grow and he decided to sell them and launched his own company. Today he makes some of the highest quality, most technical, and versatile chokes out there. With his set of three hunting chokes, you can use any metal, any shot size, and any velocity through any of the three choke tubes.

Some of the tips he shares in this podcast episode are game changing for new hunters and lifelong hunters alike. He discusses how to take your shooting to the next level so that you bring more birds home with fewer shots. He also shares a number of misconceptions that can distract hunters and lead them astray. Whether you are hunting ducks, geese, grouse, pheasants, doves, crows, or anything else that flies, this could be one of the most important episodes you ever listen to you to boost your shotgun hunting effectiveness.

Listen to the entire podcast episode to hear all of the details.

 

EP308 How To Get The Most From Sporting Clays For Hunting

Sporting clays is a wonderful sport in and of itself. But for the hunter, it is more than that. This represents the most lifelike practice you can get for hunting without shooting at real birds. In this episode I talk through numerous things you can do in order to focus your sporting clays time and money on building hunting skills that you can take into the woods. 

If your goal is to win sporting clays competitions, then this episode and strategy is not for you. But if your goal with shooting sporting clays is to become the best possible hunter then you will want to do some things differently to make as much of your sporting clays practice transferable to the woods.

First, you will want to shoot whatever shotgun you plan to hunt with. Using a gun made especially for sporting clays may give you a few advantages or comforts for the clays course, but it will not help you get to know your hunting shotgun. You want to practice mounting, aiming, reloading, and doing everything with the gun you plan to hunt with. This is the most important thing you can do. Will using a hunting shotgun make sporting clays harder and possibly cost you a few points worth of your score? It could, but your goal should NOT be the best possible score, it’s to get the best possible hunting practice. And you need to use your hunting shotgun for that to happen.

Next, you want to wear as much of your hunting gear as makes sense. Prove it out on the sporting clays course. This is particularly applicable to shirts, jackets, coats, etc. You want to make sure you can manage, shoulder, and shoot your gun right while wearing all this gear if you can.

Gloves are also a big one. You want to make sure your can run the shotgun, reload, and work your action with the gloves you plan to hunt with. This is crucial. You will be reloading under pressure, and if your gloves cause you to bobble some reloads and cost you a few points on the course then good! Because you learned those gloves could cost you a few birds in the woods. Better to miss clay targets now than real birds later.

Also avoid the temptation to get ready for the shot before you see the clay bird in the air. Since you are the one calling pull, it’s easy to anticipate the shot and get your gun up and in the air. This may make some of your shots easier, but it is not realistic. In the woods, birds will not appear on command. You should stand unassuming and wait until you see the clays to raise your gun, get your footing, mount the gun and shoot. This may cost you a few points on the sporting clays range, but it will help you shoot faster and more effectively in the woods under real hunting conditions. 

Do not take any shortcuts on the sporting clays range. Do things harder, push yourself, try to think about how to make everything more realistic to hunting scenarios. This will give you the best practice possible for hunting ducks, pheasants, doves, and anything that flies.

Most importantly, listen to this entire podcast episode to get all of the details!

Benefits Of Using A Red Dot For Wing Shooting

Across the vast majority of ballistic disciplines, the principles of marksmanship remain mostly unchanged. Stable stance, clean trigger press, proper grip, correct sight picture—all of these things, and more, add up to the whole that is a bullseye hit.

Wing shooting, though, is a different beast entirely. Even in action shooting sports such as USPSA, IDPA, or 3-Gun, competitors will typically pause for the briefest fraction of a second upon acquiring their sight picture, deliver their shots, and then quickly swing to the next target. But when the target is a bird in flight, the equation changes.

Everything is in motion. Your shotgun, the bird itself, the pellets you’ll send after it when you pull the trigger–everything is moving, and there will be no pause until after you’ve fired and the bird is either hit or not.

Perhaps it is for this reason that while red dots have slowly come to dominate nearly every other shooting sport and discipline, they remain a rare sight on hunting shotguns.

Below, we’ll pull back the curtain and take a real look at the potential value red dot sights can offer fowl hunters.

The Basics of Red Dot/Reflex Sights

ed dot and reflex sights are similar, but distinct, categories of optical sights that are often conflated. Despite the fact that red dots are technically a subset of reflex sights, the term is often used (erroneously) as a catch-all for nearly any battery-powered, unmagnified optic.

Reflex sights are in essence any optic that superimposes an illuminated reticle in the same focal plane as the target. This can be accomplished in a number of ways—some of the earliest reflex sights were occluded, meaning that you didn’t look through them, but rather into them with one eye and at the target with the other, allowing your brain to overlap the images to create an aiming point.

Modern reflex sights primarily come in two varieties: red dot sights, which use a simple LED to project a dot (it doesn’t have to be red) on a glass lens, and holographic sights, which use a system of lasers and mirrors to accomplish roughly the same thing, but with a more collimated profile that can be advantageous for those with astigmatism.

As such, all red dots are a form of reflex sight, but not all reflex sights are red dots.

The Benefits of a Red Dot/Reflex Sight

The primary draw of red dot sights has always been their simplicity. Unlike most traditional sighting systems, they don’t require multiple points of focus. There’s no aligning of a front and rear sight, only a single floating red dot within the sight window. When properly zeroed, the red dot is always covering the projected point of impact at the zero distance.

Scopes come with a similar efficiency of operation, but red dots do not suffer from the drawbacks of magnification, parallax, or eye relief. They offer nearly unlimited eye relief and head position, making them ideal for any pursuit that makes finding a perfect cheekweld challenging.

The simplicity of their operation also makes them fast, as does the eye-drawing nature of a glowing ball of crimson light. Despite the speed they offer, they give up little or nothing in terms of precision; dots as small as one MOA are common, which is narrower than all but the slimmest front sight posts, allowing for a very precise target picture.

Reflex sights are also self-illuminating; they emit their own light, making them an ideal choice for low-light environments where it may be hard to make out your iron sights, or for use against dark targets that tend to blend with traditional irons.

Perhaps the most compelling argument in favor of reflex sights is their target-focused nature. With most traditional sights, the point of focus for proper use is on the front sight. Red dots, though, are properly used by focusing on the target itself, looking through the red dot and not at it. This allows the user to remain focused on the target at all times–a substantial boon for defensive use, or for engaging game animals on the move.

Red Dots and Wing Shooting

Unlike most types of marksmanship, though, wing shooting has some peculiarities that make the advantages of a red dot somewhat questionable.

The traditional and most common sight setup for a bird-hunting shotgun is a simple brass bead front sight. Fiber optics are common as well, but brass beads remain the reigning king, and likely will for some time.

Unlike most types of iron sights, brass beads are not typically the primary point of focus during wing shooting. Instead, the user’s focus remains on the bird, just as with a red dot sight, with the bead acting more as a point of reference just outside the user’s focus, rather than a point of aim. The bead serves to help the user attain a consistent head position and maintain alignment with the shotgun.

Hitting a bird on the wing is quite unlike most other types of shooting. There are few known variables and quite a few unknown ones. You won’t know your exact distance to the bird, or its precise speed. Lacking these, even if you have your shotgun’s muzzle velocity and ballistic drop pattern memorized, it’s impossible to calculate how much you’ll need to lead the bird in time to make a successful shot, so leave the ballistic calculator at home.

Because of this, wing shooting has as much in common with throwing a ball at a soda can as it does with other forms of marksmanship. When you throw a ball, you don’t calculate the distance to the ball, or the speed of your shoulder, or the angle of your elbow. You just throw, and if you’ve done it enough times, sooner or later you get good enough to hit more times than you miss. Your brain learns to do all those calculations in the background, and you throw based on instinct and muscle memory.

Wing shooting, similarly, is a soft skill built by practice and experience. Over time, you learn how to lead, how to swing, and when to pull the trigger.

As such, the value of a red dot for wing shooting compared to other types of hunting and sport shooting is significantly diminished. A good sight picture has value, but not nearly so much as in, say, target shooting. Similarly, since all wing shooting is essentially target-focused, that aspect of red dots has little to offer over a brass bead, although some users may find it easier to index their alignment and position based on a red dot in the same focal plane as their target as opposed to a brass bead.

But this does not mean that a red dot has nothing to offer. In the context of wing shooting, its greatest asset may be its self-illumination. Red dot sights are always bright and contrast highly against nearly everything in nature. While brass beads are bright, contrasted, and easy to find in strong sunlight, they can get lost against a dark background (or dark feathers) when the weather is overcast or you’re standing in shadows. As such, red dots over greater versatility to inclement weather or other unfavorable conditions.

Lastly, though a somewhat niche scenario, a red dot can be an effective remedy to a poorly fitted firearm. When using a new, backup, or borrowed shotgun, you may be unfamiliar with its ergonomics, or, in the case of a borrowed firearm, unable to adequately adjust it to fit. While these cases would be a major detriment to accuracy using traditional aiming methods, with a red dot, they can often be alleviated by simply adjusting the zero.

Take, for instance, a shotgun with which the user is consistently pulling to the right due to an improperly fitted stock. With traditional sighting methods, the hunter would have to remember to hold off the target in order to land a hit, adding an additional complication to an already challenging task. With a red dot, though, that same hunter can simply adjust their zero to match and carry on as normal.

However, in discussing all these advantages, it’s important to keep in mind the limitations of reflex sights as well.

The primary one is battery life. Brass beads never run out of electricity. They don’t have any glass lenses that can crack, or fog, or become fouled by water or mud–all of which can happen to a red dot. While simple in construction and primitive in design, brass beads remain a functional and utterly reliable choice.

Additionally, brass beads are subject to no regulation, but the same cannot be said for red dots. Multiple jurisdictions restrict the use of electronic sights for fowl hunting, so be sure to check your local laws thoroughly before installing one on your shotgun.

Red Dots for Turkey Hunting

While not technically wing shooting, enough hunters use their shotgun for both waterfowl and game birds like turkeys that we would be remiss if we didn’t cover the use of red dots for these birds, too.

Hunting turkeys doesn’t generally involve any wing shooting; typically, these birds are engaged while they are on the ground, ideally when they are stationary or slow-moving and unaware of the hunter’s presence. As such, the style of shooting is substantially different from taking a bird out of the air.

Turkey hunting requires a more traditional shooting process. You line up your shot, assume a stable stance, and acquire an appropriate sight picture. The last part is where a red dot comes in handy, for the same reasons as it does with competition shooting, tactical use, and any other application. It’s faster and simpler, which in the field translates into less time for the target bird to move behind cover or otherwise throw off your opportunity.

The simplicity of red dots also serves to shorten the training time needed to achieve proficiency, making them an excellent option for new hunters. Because less time needs to be allocated to learning to acquire a proper sight picture, more can be spent on stance, grip, trigger press, etc.

The aforementioned benefits of self-illumination apply here as well; red dots contrast beautifully against the shades of green and brown you’ll find in the forest, and never suffer from the presence of shadows.

Choosing a Red Dot for Wing Shooting

By and large, choosing a red dot for wing shooting involves the same considerations as buying one for any other firearm. You’ll need to determine your budget, research the models available from reputable brands, decide what features you need, how much ruggedization, and so on. But for wing shooting, there are a few unique considerations.

Chief among them is field of view. To engage a target like a bird on the move, you’ll want the clearest picture of it possible. Determining the appropriate lead is a challenging enough task in its own right—doing so while the bird keeps slipping outside your dot’s field of view or being obscured by the housing can be downright frustrating.

For this reason, you’ll want to pick either an optic with a very large field of view, such as an EOTECH holographic sight, or an optic with a very small housing that won’t fully obscure your target at normal engagement distances, such as a Trijicon RMR.

Of the two, mini reflex sights such as the RMR and other similar red dots seem to be the more popular for wing shooting. Their tiny footprint and vanishingly small housing make them easy to add to a shotgun without significantly changing its weight or handling.

These mini red dots also tend to be the most similar in method of use to a traditional bead sight, requiring only a minor adjustment to head position and sight picture, whereas a larger sight like an EOTECH might require more retraining.

However, most mini red dots feature open emitter designs, which is part of what allows them to have such a tiny, unobtrusive housing—but also creates a greater potential for fouling from mud or water. Because the space between the lens and emitter is open to the elements, it’s possible for mud or other debris to enter that space, which can be hard to clean adequately in the field.

For this reason, micro red dots like the Aimpoint T2 and its analogs are also popular among hunters, serving as a sort of middle ground between big, wide-field-of-view sights like EOTECH and tiny RMRs. No sight is immune to being covered in mud, but with an enclosed emitter design like that of the T2, clearing that mud is as simple as wiping the lenses with your thumb.

Conclusion

For most of the firearms world, red dots are the future. They are rapidly becoming ubiquitous on rifles, pistols, and just about anything that goes “bang” when you pull the trigger. When it comes to wing shooting, though, there is a case to be made for the traditional brass bead.

Still, red dots are not without their benefits, even for a pursuit as soft-skill-focused as wing shooting. The bright, high-contrast dot can be a real boon in less favorable lighting conditions, and the simplicity of their operation makes them an excellent choice for new hunters.

This article was written and provided by the kind folks at Primary Arms.

EP307 How To Shoot Sporting Clays 101

The single biggest thing you can do to take more birds when hunting is to practice shooting sporting clays in the off season. On this episode I give an overview of what sporting clays is, why it’s so helpful, what to expect your first time, the costs, and how you can find a course and get started. 

Here is the episode I mentioned in the show: How To Set A Realistic Annual Hunting Budget

Sporting clays is imperative for the wing shooter. Unless you can hunt birds constantly, sporting clays is the best way to develop and hone your shooting skills. Due to the variable shots, angles, speeds, and scenarios it provides significantly more realistic practice than trap shooting or skeet, though both are helpful. 

  1. Trap shooting involves shooting at clays as they are being launched away from you, like a bird flushing away. 
  2. Skeet shooting focuses on clays crossing in front of you, simulating passing shots, or birds being flushed from the side but flying into your field of fire.
  3. Sporting clays is kind of like those two crossed with golf. You typically have a 20-position course where clay targets are thrown from different angles, directions, and with different purposes to mimic a variety of realistic hunting scenarios. 

All three utilize clay targets often referred to as sporting clays, clay pigeons, clay targets, etc. 

To get started shooting sporting clays you first need to find a course. They tend to be much smaller than golf courses and are more easily hidden, sometimes close by and without much signage or fanfare. Search on Google and in the yellow pages or other local directory and ask around at local shops and local gunsmiths. There may be courses close by that you do not know about.

Once you find a course you may be easily able to schedule a day and time to come, else you may have to join a club. Weigh your options and do what is best for you. But I recommend trying to get access to a course at least twice a year in order to be regularly improving your skills. More is better of course, but it’s also more costly.

There is typically a fee to run the course plus the cost of ammo. Most courses are 100 targets, and some provide options for less or more. There may be other costs or options as well such as a golf cart, or hiring a guide/tutor to help you learn about the sport and how to shoot the course. I very much recommend paying the extra fee to get a seasoned shooter to go with you and train you. If you are shooting in a group, then you can often split the cost and it becomes more manageable.

This professional instruction is invaluable if you are new to sport and it’s something I think you should continue to pay for once every year or two in order to keep growing and improving.

Most courses require you to use target loads for safety reasons. Some enable you to bring your own ammo and some may require you to buy it there. Ask in advance so you can be well prepared.

Most importantly, you should listen to this entire podcast episode to get all of the details of how to start shooting sporting clays.

EP306 Are Semi Auto Shotguns Better Than Over-Unders For Hunting?

There is fierce debate about whether autoloaders or over-unders are better shotguns. That is too broad of a question. Instead, I focus this episode on the merits of each for hunting, particularly hunting turkey, ducks, geese, upland game, and other pursuits under adverse weather conditions. Is one type of shotgun better for hunting? I think that generally speaking, yes, we can point to one that is more advantageous for that particular task.

The over-under shotgun is considered one of the most prestigious firearms ever developed and there are a multitude of fine guns produced by some of the greatest craftsmen in the world. These shotguns can be made to the tightest tolerances with the most beautiful materials and most appreciated features. And it is honestly these strengths that limit the potential of the gun for hunting under adverse conditions.

The autoloader shotgun was designed to be a workhorse. Fine options and versions do exist, but by and large it is a gun built to be a tool first. These guns often have looser tolerances which enable them to operate with some margin in wet, cold, and dirty conditions where you would not want to take a fancy and expensive over-under shotgun. The over-under may potentially be more reliable at the range and on clear sunny days, but they don’t fare so well under the conditions that many waterfowl hunters and turkey hunters find themselves in.

The semi-auto shotgun has long been considered less fashionable, but as a hunting gun, it has certain advantages. More ammunition capacity is appreciated. They tend to weigh a little less, cost less, and have more color options. They be better suited to dealing with poor weather both from the standpoint of coatings and finishes, and synthetic vs. wood options. 

There is not a thing wrong with using an over-under for hunting and when it comes to doves and grouse, many are. But very few come in camouflage, which is a clear indication that their intended use is not under conditions where that feature shines. In the hunting shotgun category and price range, there tends to be more semi-auto options than over-unders as well. 

Comparing the two types of guns on a broad scale produces some conflicting reactions, but when zeroing in on the use case of hunting, the autoloader pulls ahead into the lead due to the features, options, and cost.

Listen to the entire podcast episode for much much more!

First Lite Source Jacket Review | Insulated, Silent, Packable, Warm

When I bought the Source Jacket, I hoped that it would become a go to piece of gear that I wore all the time, after all, it wasn’t cheap. Since that day I have hunted whitetail deer, ducks, geese, turkeys, and more wearing this jacket. It has become my all around, all time, favorite hunting jacket. It’s not perfect, but I can honestly say, if I lost or ruined this jacket tomorrow, I would buy another one to replace it.

The First Lite Source Jacket is engineered to be the ultimate lightweight deer hunting jacket. A thin, light, ultra quiet puffy jacket that has both stretch and resilience. It is a combination of benefits that sounds too good to be true. And it is too good to be true. It doesn’t quite live up to all of that. But it does pretty good. In this review I am going to cover the features, benefits, performance, pros and cons, and the HUGE MISTAKE that First Lite made with this jacket.

Let me just start by saying that this review is not sponsored by First Lite. I bought this jacket with my own money, because I wanted to, and have hunted with it for a year before doing this review. 

Why The Source Jacket

From the first moment that First Lite even mentioned the release of the Source Jacket, I wanted it. I read about it and their marketing had me hooked. It was the perfect combination of features and was exactly what I had been looking for. And ultralight weight outer layer with Primaloft insulation that could double as a mid-layer was something my gear setup was lacking. I had an older piece of gear I was using to fill this niche in my setup but it was taking a lot of wear and tear and need replaced, and it was not very quiet. The Source Jacket had my full attention.

I didn’t have the spare cash handy enough to order it that day so I waited a few weeks after release to buy it. However, by the time I got around to it, the jacket had sold out for the season. I guess it was more popular than First Lite anticipated. I checked back weekly until finally just singing up for a notification when it came back in stock. It wasn’t until the following spring or summer that it did, and I ordered it right away. I had kept this spot in my gear unfilled, waiting months to get this thing, and thankfully I was not disappointed with the jacket. I don’t know if it was really worth the wait, but it felt good to finally get it. 

Features & Benefits

The The First Lite Source Jacket is marketed as packable and versatile. And both are true. It weighs just 17 ounces and is stuffed with Primaloft Gold Stretch Insulation. For more info on the insulation, check out my podcast episode: Making Sense of Insulation For Hunting Gear. The fabric does have some stretch to it and it comes with a DWR treatment to repel moisture. It has thumb loops and a harness pass through, along with a very comfortable versatile collar. The specs pretty much end there. But that does not tell the whole story.

The genius of this jacket is the internal and external fabric. It is very quiet, ideal for the bow hunter and the still hunter alike. It’s also great for the turkey hunter, and anyone else that relies upon silence, like the duck hunter who is trying to sneak within range for a shot. But beyond that the fabric is perfect for both an outer layer and a mid layer. Most other gear I’ve used that is multi-purpose like this does not do both jobs well. It’s either a good outer layer or a good mid layer, never both. But this jacket changes that.

The outer fabric has just enough friction to give you good fit underneath an heavier outer layer like a coat, parka, or rain shell. The outer layer does not slip and slide around awkwardly overtop of this jacket. Likewise, the Source Jacket has enough room and perfect fabric to accommodate a base layer and even a mid layer underneath it.  So you can comfortably wear it over a base layer like First Lite’s 250 weight Merino Wool Kiln Crew or their heavy duty 350 Furnace Quarter Zip. Each of those links goes to my review for each layer.

I can also fit a fleece layer in addition to the base layer, enabling this jacket to work really well in cold weather. Also, because the insulation is Primaloft instead of down, it retains its insulative properties even when it gets wet. Which gives it alot of versatility and also enables it to function better than down as a mid layer. And also, unlike down, it does not compress much under a heavy coat, enabling it to insulate better than down as a mid layer. 

So this jacket really does thrive as both an outer layer and a mid layer. It’s a genius design. 

Pros & Cons

I wish I could say the The First Lite Source Jacket was totally flawless but that would be overselling it. Its strengths are certain stronger, but I have some things I’d like to see improved.

Pros

  • Lightweight and packable
  • Very warm, even when wet
  • High warmth to weight ratio
  • Truly doubles as an outer layer and mid layer
  • Very quiet outer fabric
  • Perfect amount of friction on the inner and outer fabric
  • Good camo pattern
  • Perfect fit. I wear a large in everything and a large fits me perfectly, with room for layers underneath but not too loose.
  • Wind resistant, though not quite windproof
  • Useful for almost any temperature range as a mid or outer layer.
    • For an external layer I agree with First Lite’s rating of 45+ degrees Fahrenheit if you are sitting still all day.
    • If you are on the move all day and have 2 layers under it, this is viable down to 20 degrees.

Cons

  • Not as durable as the marketing makes it sound, it also came with some loose threads.
  • The seem inside of one of the pockets tore from putting shells in there. It can be easily sown, but pockets should be stronger than that.
  • Only comes in one camo pattern, I’d like a solid color to wear to work.
  • It is expensive for a jacket, even an outstanding jacket.

Performance

I did not just buy and unbox this jacket and do a review, I hate reviews like that. I hunted in this for a year. I hunted deer, waterfowl, turkey, and more. I have used this on the coldest days of the year all the way up to 60 degrees. And I have been thoroughly impressed with the The First Lite Source Jacket. I have worn this under my parka at dawn on windy snowy mornings in the duck blind, only to later remove the parka and hunt ducks on foot for the rest of the day wearing only the Source Jacket and the Kiln base layer under it at 32 degrees with wind and snow. 

I have hunted with this jacket in pouring rain, which I don’t recommend, but it kept me dry enough long enough to sneak up on and take the game I was after. I have worn it sitting still and walking miles. I’ve worn it on trails and in thick brush. And while heavy brush puts too much wear and tear on it, the jacket is so quiet that I want to wear it all the time and I have to remind myself to be gentler with it than I normally am to my less expensive gear.

The camo pattern is also better than expected. People on my YouTube channel are constantly commenting how I blend into the background when I wear the jacket on camera. In the woods, I’ve found the camo great for hiding from just about everything. I normally don’t comment on camo patterns, but this one performs better than usual. 

All in all, the Source Jacket has the highest warmth to weight ratio of anything I own save heavy down outer layers, but those down layers are not useful for how I normally hunt. They are too loud, cannot be worn under another layer well, and are too fragile for anything but sitting still. The Source Jacket could use a little more durability, but wow do I like it. It beats anything else I have.

I think this jacket performs just as well or better than anything competitors like Sitka Gear, Kuiu, Cabelas, and others are producing.  They are making some good stuff, but First Lite nailed it on this one.  Once I got this jacketed I quit looking at what anyone else was selling in this niche. I was totally satisfied. It’s as good as a jacket can be that doesn’t have magical properties. 

First Lite’s HUGE Mistake

First Lite made a huge blunder with this jacket. And honestly, I cannot believe they have not fixed it yet. And the blunder is this, they are marketing this jacket as a deer hunting jacket and only a deer hunting jacket. It only comes in one color of camo with no other options. This is utterly ridiculous. I used this jacket more hunting waterfowl and turkeys than I did for deer last year. It is so versatile and so useful for hunting so many things, that to only offer it in one color is a massive lost opportunity.

I would wear this jacket to work often if it came in a solid color. I might buy a third jacket in Typha camo to wear waterfowl hunting alone. Yes, it has a harness pass through on the back, which is only applicable to deer hunting, but so what? Its just as good, if not better for hunting other things. This jacket is a gold mine that First Lite should start marketing across the board. It is one the best things they ever made, and I want it in more colors.

Recommendation & Conclusion 

The price on this jacket is significant. But I do wear it more than three cheaper jackets I have. And it does go on sale a few times a year.  I do not have a ton of First Lite gear because it’s not cheap, but this a piece I am very happy that I bought and I would honestly buy it again. I recommend the The First Lite Source Jacket wholeheartedly if you are in the market for something that matches the features and benefits this thing provides. Treat it with a little care, and it will likely become your favorite hunting jacket also.

Be sure to listen to The New Hunters Guide Podcast and check us out on YouTube. 

Till next time. God bless you, and go get em in the woods!

George Konetes Ph.D. – Founder and Host of the New Hunters Guide.

The New Hunters Guide is simply what George wishes he would have had when learning how to hunt; a single place to get practical hands on knowledge about different kinds of hunting, gear, strategy, and tips that can improve your comfort and fun factor in the woods.

EP304 5 Ways To Cook Turkey Nuggets!

Turkey nuggets are many people’s favorite part of taking home a turkey, but what is the best way to cook them? Well, I do not think there is a “best” way but there are lots of great ways to do it depending on what you like. On this episode I share five different ways to cook and prepare this spring delicacy. 

Turkey nuggets are almost always fried, but there are many ways to fry a good nugget and there are other ways they can be cooked.

  • Deep frying is the most common approach, this involves using enough hot oil to completely submerge the nuggets in some kind of a pan or pot.
  • Pan frying is another option that requires enough oil too to partially submerge the nuggets in the pan and then flipping them halfway through cooking.
  • After this you have the sauté method that requires a small amount of oil or butter. This is one of the only cooking techniques that you can use butter for. Here you end up with a little bit of a healthier product and possibly more flavorful, but it does not have that regular deep fried nugget texture.
  • The next way too cook turkey nuggets is with an air fryer. These contraptions are very useful, but they take up a lot of space and are harder to clean. Here you can use very minimal amounts of oil and a much more controlled cooking environment that will enable you to find a good recipe and replicate it easier every single time. But there are those downsides which I mentioned.
  • The last technique is the sear method. Rarely used for nuggets because you are not able to use much breading, searing the nuggets can still product a very flavorful dinner but this technique needs a little moisture to shine its brightest. So, consider pairing it with a sauce, such as a blueberry wine sauce, finished with a little butter. More details are in the episode.

Beyond the actual cooking technique, you have a variety of breading approaches that you can pair with each, such as dipping in flour, using milk or egg wash to get more flour to stick, or even double breading them. You can use corn starch instead of flour, breadcrumbs, or gluten free flour as well. Some people will dry dip the meat into corn starch, then dip it in buttermilk before dipping into flour. 

Every breading method has pros and cons, I personally prefer less breading because I don’t want it to soak up too much oil and initiate a bad post meal experience…

Listen to the entire podcast episode for all of the detials!

TideWe Hunting Range Finder Review

Every now and then you find really high-quality piece of gear that also comes at an impressively low price point, this is the TideWe Ranger Finder, and this combination of qualities is exactly why I bought one. Sometimes gear like this does not live up to your expectations, but the TideWe Range Finder truly impressed me.

I have long used a range finder for hunting, scouting, setting up duck blinds as well as tree stands for deer, and of course making all of the test videos that I do on YouTube. It is a core part of my gear and I use it regularly under many different conditions. All that to say, I have some experience with range finders. When I discovered the TideWe Hunting Range Finder, I thought it could fill a specific niche for me and decided to test it out.

This review is not sponsored by TideWe. I bought the TideWe Range Finder with my own money because I wanted to.

TideWe did give me an 18% discount code for my audience when I reviewed their see-through hunting blind over a year ago, so of course I took advantage of the code and used it on this purchase also. That 18% off code is GK18, you can enter it at checkout. That discount is in addition to any sales they are running, so I was able to get the range finder for about $65. Yes, I typed that correctly, a quality range finder for around $65. I will come back to that number a few times.

Why The TideWe Range Finder?

I have owned and been using a more expensive range finder for years now. I use it for scouting, hunting, etc. But I also use it measure distances to my targets when doing all the ballistics gel and pattern testing videos that I make for YouTube. I do a lot of tests so I need a quality range finder. However, I have been hesitant to take my more expensive range finder hunting on rainy days. I did not want to risk it getting damaged by the water.

When I saw the TideWe Range Finder in the $60-$70 dollar range I thought it sounded perfect to use in higher risk rainy hunting applications. As long as it was reasonably close on accuracy, it was cheap enough to not be a huge deal if I broke it. So I bought the range finder. Within five minutes of taking it out of the box I realized something very surprising. It was not every bit as good as my more expensive range finder, it was better.

Features

The TideWe Range Finder comes in a 700 yard and a 1000 yard version. I opted for the 700 yard model because it was cheaper and I don’t even own a gun that can shoot anywhere remotely close to 700 yards. That is so far away that it is essentially a fictional distance for me. So 1,000 yards doesn’t gain me a thing. If it helps you, you can pay a little more for it.

You can find all of the exact specs for the TideWe Range Finder here but the highlights include 6x magnification, +/- of 1 yard, its tiny, has nearly instantaneous measuring, has IP54 water resistance, has three different modes, and provides you the measurements to a tenth of a yard.

This thing will tell you the straight line distance to your target like just about any range finder on the market. But it will also tell you the angle, vertical distance, horizontal distance, and even the speed of your target!

So if you are an archery hunter up in a tree stand and you are aiming down, it will give you all the distance measurements you need to calculate how high you need to hold. And if you are a waterfowl hunter and you keep seeing ducks or geese speed by you can determine how fast they are flying and at at what distance so you can calculate how far you need to lead the shots. 

This is huge. Yes, many other range finders on the market now do this. But this thing is $65. It may be the best equipped hunting range finder on the market for this price range that is made by a real brand. And speaking of real brands, TideWe has been cranking out some really impressive gear over the last few years. I have been very surprised at the quality of their stuff lately. Everything I have bought from them has been great quality and value.

This is an outstanding laser range finder for bow hunting and all deer hunting really, as well as turkey hunting, elk hunting, waterfowl hunting, and I’m sure alot more. 

Performance

Of course the biggest question is how does the TideWe Range Finder perform? Well, I tested it head to head against my long standing, much more expensive range finder and I found the measurements to be identical. That’s right, it showed the same distances as the expensive one. And actually, it showed more precise distances.

My old range finder just gave measurements in whole yards, but this one gives it in tenths of a yards. So before I would just know something was 40 yards away. But now with the TideWe, I can know it is 40.7 yards. Does really that matter for hunting? No, not really. But for testing ammo at the range, it is a nice bonus feature.

I have hunted with this range finder on dry days and wet days, I’ve made ammo test videos with it, I’ve learned the distances of all kinds of things in my neighborhood, and so far it has performed flawlessly. In fact, I actually stopped using my older more expensive range finder for everything, even test videos. The TideWe is more precise, and because its cheaper, its less risky to take it into the field or anywhere else. All in all, I don’t know how I could be happier for $65.

Pro & Cons

The list of pros is easy to write and its hard to come up with some realistic cons. This is a great piece of gear for the money.

Pros:

  • Very precise measuring, it performs above its price range
  • Durable
  • Compact and lightweight
  • IP54 water resistant
  • Measures fast
  • Very well priced and goes on sale
  • Rechargeable Li-ion battery
  • 700-1000 yard options
  • Numerous modes and features
  • Measures a target’s speed and distance
  • Measures vertical and straight line distance
  • 30 day money back guarantee + 1 year limited warrantee
  • Free shipping

Cons:

  • I  wish it was even more waterproof, to the point of full submersion for hours
  • It would be nice if it was even smaller or flatter so it fit easier in a chest pocket of a vest, parka, or waders

Value

I don’t want to sound overly sensational here but the value is one of the biggest things going with this range finder. For $65 you get a great product from a reputable brand. I am very impressed with this piece of gear and I’m glad TideWe is here filling an important niche in the hunting gear market.

Yes there are some cheaper products out there, but gear has to be good, not just cheap. TideWe is making some really high quality stuff at very affordable prices. The more I buy, the more impressed I become. 

Conclusion & Recommendation

If you are looking for your first range finder, a back up range finder, or a low cost option you can play rough with, this could be one the best options out there for you. Is it the best range finder in the world? Certainly not. But it may be the best one for $65. 

If you are considering getting one, don’t forget the 18% off discount code GK18 when you order the TideWe Range Finder. I am very happy with mine and I don’t think you could go wrong with it.

Be sure to listen to The New Hunters Guide Podcast and check us out on YouTube. 

Till next time. God bless you, and go get em in the woods!

George Konetes Ph.D. – Founder and Host of the New Hunters Guide.

The New Hunters Guide is simply what George wishes he would have had when learning how to hunt; a single place to get practical hands on knowledge about different kinds of hunting, gear, strategy, and tips that can improve your comfort and fun factor in the woods.

EP303 How Hunting Can Boost Next Year’s Turkey Population

Is it possible to improve the turkey population in your local area by actually hunting more? Well, yes, yes, it is. But it’s not what you think. Killing more turkeys won’t result in a bigger turkey population, but hunting and trapping turkey predators that have grown to out of balance proportions in your area can make a difference. 

Depending on where you live, predators like coyotes, foxes, raccoons, crows, possums and other predators may be overpopulated and causing undue issues with the turkey population, and potentially the populations of other game animals. Hunting or trapping these overpopulated predators can improve the wildlife balance and give turkeys better odds at survival.

Turkeys are especially susceptible to predators when they are young and unable to fly. They are in even more danger as eggs, before they hatch when almost anything from crows to raccoons can eat an entire nest. After they survive their first winter, they are much hardier. But making it to that point can be very difficult if the predator population is out of balance.

Coyotes are one of the most widespread problems nationally as their populations have been expanding unchecked in many areas. They can not only kill turkeys but also drive them out of ideal habitat which impacts their ability to survive in other ways. If you and a group of friends are able to exert concerted efforts to hunt or trap these kinds of predators you can make significant difference in your area. But it may take some sustained effort before it pays off.

You need to learn about your local wildlife and identify what populations are out of balance first. Going after foxes for example if the fox population is average or below average will not help, in fact it could cause other issues. We do not want to kill all predators, we only want to help restore population balance, especially when the populations have gotten out of balance due to manmade situations, which is often the case.

Then you need to study your local hunting and trapping laws to see what your options are. For many of these animals, trapping is more efficient and easier than hunting. Particularly with racoons and coyotes. Whatever efforts you may take, stay safe, legal, and ethical in all that you do.

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