On this episode I talk with the man who knows more about choke tubes than anyone else I’ve ever met. Lifelong hunter, sporting clays champion, master tool maker, and owner of Muller Choke Tubes, Jimmy Muller. Put your seatbelt on, we are going to cover some very Indepth and important info.
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:
- Will target ammo used for sporting clays give you performance that translates to bird hunting?
- Do target loads need more or less lead than steel or bismuth waterfowl hunting ammo?
- Can you use the same choke tubes for sporting clays and hunting?
- How can you become a better shooter the fastest?
- How much money should you pay for a sporting clays course?
- Is sporting clays more effective than trap shooting for becoming a better hunter?
- How often do you need to shoot sporting clays to become a better hunter?
- Should you use your hunting shotgun on a sporting clays course?
- 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.
People often make crow hunting harder than it needs to be. They try to go straight to a massive professional hunt where the goal is to down hundreds of crows. That is both unrealistic and unreasonable for most hunters. Most hunters should go into the woods with first time goals of a shooting a crow or a couple of crows. In this episode I talk about one of the easier ways to hunt crows in the woods with minimal gear and expense.
Often when people hunt in timber their goal is to get the crows to land in a clearing or shoot them as they circle overhead. Both of these approaches work and can be fun and effective. But they require more work, ideal conditions, the right setup and a fair amount of skill and/or experience to pull it off well. A much easier plan is to find a fair spot and try to get the crows to land in the treetops and then pick them off.
Doing this drastically increases your chances of getting crows and minimizes many of the weaknesses of new hunters or new crow hunters. You get to observe the birds, better understand them and how they work, and take shots that are much easier and realistic than trying to take down fast moving birds are variable ranges. I have done it the hard way and the easy way, and I wish someone would have gotten me started hunting crows this way.
Now it is true that your total number of crows taken will likely be less using this strategy than many of the professional setups, but those professional setups only work if you have a truck full of decoys, the perfect farm to hunt, and a perfectly brushed in hunting blind. Very few new hunters have all or any of those things. And very few crow hunters ever will.
This podcast episode talks about the various strategies and approaches for hunting crows like this and how you can much more easily get into the woods with the land available to you and take your first couple of crows.
If lead hunting ammunition is banned how big of an issue will it be in the hunting world? Are there viable non-toxic ammo options available? How can you keep hunting turkeys, pheasants, doves, deer, and everything else without lead ammo? What do you need to do in order to weather the storm? On this episode I talk about what is likely to happen if the ban occurs and what you can do to prepare so you are able to keep hunting without disruption.
Will lead ammo be banned? I think so, at some point. I do not know if that is a month away, a year, or 10 years off, but I think at some point it will happen. The subject of whether or not lead ammo should be banned and all the politics and environmental concerns behind it is not something I am addressing in this podcast episode. I am focused on the simple practical things hunters need to know and do to transition from lead to non-toxic shot options to keep hunting.
The solutions are different for every game species. For waterfowl hunting, we have been lead free for over 30 years, and finally the market has innovated some good alternatives. All other game ammo will benefit from this innovation, and waterfowl ammo can easily be adapted to hunt all game birds. The obstacle here is cost, since nontoxic loads are more expensive than lead hunting ammo. But I think eventually we’ll get used to the additional cost.
The biggest issue with a lead ban will be the transition period. Reasonable and even good options exist with steel shot, bismuth shot, tungsten super shot, and copper bullets, among others. But if every hunter in America, or even just a handful of states has to drop their lead and pick up non toxic ammo, it is going to be very difficult and expensive to find legal ammo, probably for a few years as supply, demand, and manufacturing capabilities struggle to keep up and adjust. If you want to avoid this difficult eventuality, you need to make preparations in advance.
Performance decrease for alternative ammo is a lesser concern, and in time I think it will not be a concern at all. For shotguns, TSS ammo is superior to lead already, for just about everything, it just costs a lot more. Bismuth ammo is very similar to lead’s performance capabilities and costs more, but not as dramatically more as tungsten.
When it comes to rifles, the copper bullets of today offer comparable performance to lead at regular hunting ranges for a little more cost. Where they lack performance is at extended range but this will not impact most hunters at all. And chances are, before long, new long range non-toxic bullets will be developed that have no performance deficit.
I do not think it is a matter of if lead ammo is going to be banned, it is just a matter of when, and how suddenly it will occur. Ideally there will be a large period of time, maybe a five-year window given to transition over to alternative materials. This will give manufactures and hunters time to get geared up. But more than likely it will be more abrupt and there will be great supply chain issues as everyone tries to make the shift all at once.
This is why all hunters should secure some non-toxic ammo now. Not cases and cases of it, but enough to last a couple of hunting seasons so you can weather any storm or shortage and be able to hunt without hindrance no matter what occurs in the hunting ammunition marketplace.
Listen to the whole podcast episode to hear all of the details.
Hunting crows with good cover and a big decoy spread is a time-tested strategy that works well. But depending on your season, budget, and location, that may not be viable. On this episode I talk about alternative crow hunting tactics that can help you take birds wherever you are with almost no specialized gear.
Crows have good eyesight, are wary, and can hear very well, but they do not have the mythical capabilities many hunters ascribe to them. They are birds and can be hunted with less than perfect technique. There are many ways to hunt crows that can produce successful results, to varying degrees.
A mental shift away from traditional hunting methods needs to take place though. You need to begin thinking about taking crows one at a time instead of in great numbers. You are looking for birds coming in to take a look vs. coming in for a landing. The first bird that comes may be the only bird, and so on. Look to take every decent shot presented because it may be the only shot you get.
I am not saying unconventional methods are better, but they are viable. If you cannot hunt with traditional methods due to season, location, budget, or preference, then by all means you can still enjoy the crow season and take birds with the tactics I talk about on this episode.
Listen to the podcast episode to hear all of the unconventional crow hunting tactics.
Show Notes:
Up until recently every hunter using a firearm had to make a decision with every hunt. Do they protect their future or relish the present? Tetra Hearing has changed the game for all hunters when it comes to saving their hearing and enjoying every precious sound of every hunt and game species. Whether you are hunting ducks, geese, turkeys, deer, pheasants, grouse, crows, doves, elk, or anything else the Tetra AlphaShield & Multi-Pursuit hearing devices can not only save your hearing but help you hear better and hunt better. I make no commissions on this product and there are no affiliate links. These are my own opinions and this my very own detailed and passionate review. This may be the most important podcast episode I have ever done. Please listen to this episode.
Pros:
- Allows you to hear everything around you with crisp clarity.
- Audio quality is exceptional, no static, hum, ambient sounds, distractions, etc.
- Can be custom tuned to your actual personal hearing levels for each ear.
- Instantly blocks out the sound of gun fire and loud calling to protect your hearing.
- These are designed to both stop the incremental hearing loss that comes from infrequent shooting with the average deer and turkey seasons as well as stop the accelerated hearing loss caused by high volume shooting seen in hunting waterfowl, pheasants, doves, crows, etc.
- Utilizes advanced audio processing technology to filter out various sounds you do not want to hear but more clearly capture subtle sounds you do want to hear.
- Filters out the majority of wind noise.
- Amplifies the unique sounds of the game animals you are hunting like turkey gobbles and yelps, duck quacks and wing beats, deer grunts and footfalls, pheasants flushing, and much more.
- Far better than anything I’ve seen on the market. In my mind they have no competitors, no one else offering similar products is even in their league.
- Fits snugly in your ear and will not fall out.
- Works great while wearing a hat, beanie, whole head facemask, camo head shroud, etc.
- Can be put on in seconds.
- Reduces flinching causes by loud muzzle blast and may help some hunters shoot more accurately.
- Uses long lasting disposable hearing aid batteries you can easily and inexpensively get in bulk.
- Super simple to use, there is almost no way to do it wrong. Before long you can easily put them on in the dark without effort or thought.
- Is sensitive enough to pick up the faintest whisper and the wing beats of ducks but instantly blocks out the roar of magnum shotgun shells.
- Can be programmed for the game animals that you personally hunt.
- Improves your hearing so well that even archery hunters may want to use them to hear game more clearly from further away.
- Designed by ear doctors and hunters, does its job with outstanding excellence.
- It is as if they thought of every intricate detail but put it in a package with unexplainable simplicity.
- Utilizes high grade hearing aid technology meant to be used constantly, reliably, and without down time.
- Comes with 6 different size tips to accommodate different ear sizes.
- Tetra has confirmed that people with Health Saving Accounts (HSA) can use those funds towards purchasing their products.
Cons:
- They fit too tightly for my small ears at first. They felt acceptably snug after a few outings. But after a few half day hunts they fit comfortably enough that I would forget I was wearing them. I’d rather them fit perfectly from day one, but this is still preferred over being too loose.
- Some people with small ears may not wear them enough to find out that their ears will adapt to them and they become comfortable over time.
- Sounds weird indoors and around town. But they are meant to be used in the field and they do thrive in their intended environment.
- The battery door feels a little delicate when open. Should be fine, but be careful to take it is easy when changing batteries.
- Price. No two ways about it, they are expensive. Costing as much as a firearm makes them a significant purchase. A very well worth it purchase, but not something most people can casually buy without saving up.
- They do go on sale occasionally. And Tetra has said they are working on sourcing more cost effective components to lower the prices.
Final Analysis: Every hunter using a firearm should get these, especially those hunting game requiring regular and frequent shooting like waterfowl, pheasants, doves, etc. If you are a new hunter it would be better to hunt another season or two with a less than thrilling firearm and buy these before upgrading your gun. Everyone should put these on their vision list and prioritize them as they are financially able.
Learn more at www.TetraHearing.com
As a note, Tetra sent me these devices to review, thanks to them for their support. I have since bought by own Tetras.
On this episode I am interviewed by Riley Hendrixson from the Hoosier Outdoorsman. We talk about crow hunting, hunting in general, the philosophy behind The New Hunters Guide, and some good ole hunting banter.
Show Notes:
Where you setup to hunt crows makes all the difference and determines not only if crows will come to you but if they will come close enough to shoot. On this episode I talk about the best types of places to setup in order to boost your odds of a successful crow hunt.
Take Aways
- The two biggest factors for picking a good hunting location are acoustics and flight plane.
- Crows will not come to your calls if they do not hear you, it is a 100% guarantee. Sure call volume is a factor but the sound needs to be able to travel to where the crows are.
- Crows tend to fly above the tree tops along their approach, you need to consider if the trees are low enough to put you in range, or how you can modify your elevation to be within range when they come.
- Concealment is also a big part of the hunt. Crows have great eyesight and you need to be well concealed.
- Wind can make it hard to call crows because the noise can drown out your calls.
- Listen to the episode to hear about the 5 best areas for crow hunting.
Show Notes:
Crow hunting can be challenging but it’s not rocket science. With these three simple strategies should you be able to effectively hunt whatever type of land you have available.
Take Aways:
- The Basecamp Method. This involves focusing your entire hunt on one location and preparing that location for optimum success. You will need a blind, lots of decoys, a good field of view, a loud call, and of course surrounding areas that hold crows.
- Running And Gunning. Pack light, bring water, and plan on covering a lot of ground. Every half mile or so, find some cover and start calling. When the action dies down, move on to the next area. This is also a great way to scout new locations.
- Strategic Ops. Plan on visiting a handful of locations you have already scouted and verified, maybe 2-4 spots for a morning. Take a few decoys and pick good places to sit with some cover. Plan on spending an hour or so hunting each spot, unless the crows keep coming in. When things quiet down then pack up and make your way to the next location.
Show Notes:
In most situations, crow hunting is a game of hiking and stealth. You need gear that will enable you to easily cover ground and then remain undetected once you start calling. On this episode, I talk about the basic gear you want for crow hunting.
Take Aways:
- Footwear – I recommend some medium hiking style boosts that you can cover different types of terrain easily with. Heavy insulated boots aren’t needed because most of the time you won’t be sitting in one spot for very long.
- Socks – This depends a lot on the season, but generally you need lighter socks than for hunting from a still position because you will be moving regularly.
- Pants – A camo outer layer is needed, black or brown are the next best options
- Jacket – Camo is best, and the weight depends on the season. A heavy coat is needed for winter, and a long sleeve t-shirt might be best for summer.
- Gloves – Light camo gloves for warm weather and heavier for cold weather. Usually I end up using the light gloves in the cold too because depending on how much you walk, you may stay plenty warm.
- Face – Some kind of face covering is important, you want to hid as much skin as possible.
- Head – Camo hats are easy to come buy, have one of every type of weather.
- Backpack – A pack is important to hold your calls, water, umbrella, snacks, and anything else you might need.
- Seat – Something light that can hang from your pack or belt is ideal to help you stay dry no matter where you site and make hunting a little more comfortable.