EP311 Alternative Hunting Weapons | Slingshots, Air Rifles, Spears & More

Can you hunt with slingshots, air rifles, spears, primitive bows, and other alternative weapons? On this episode I dive into the efficacy of unconventional weapons to talk about what is viable, what is reasonable, and why certain things should never be used from an objective point of view. 

Slingshots are an entertaining idea when it comes to hunting weapons. They can certainly be powerful enough to kill small game. However, they have limited accuracy and there is often little margin of error when it comes to power. This weapon could be used to hunt small game in a survival situation, but I would not recommend it for hunting even if legal in your area.

The core reason is it provides limited ability to consistently and ethically kill game with minimal suffering. And that is a big deal. There is a reason we developed more advanced weapons. While possible for hunting, the slingshot is not ethical to use on game when better more ethical options are available.

Air rifles or pellet guns provide more efficacy and accuracy for hunting small game. While some of them are underpowered for anything but target practice, there are many air rifles that are capable weapons for hunting squirrels, rabbits and other small animals. These guns are both viable and reasonable for appropriately sized game at short range. They are not viable for mid-sized game with few exceptions.

There are some high end and large air rifles designed for deer hunting and throw a pellet with enough mass, speed, and expansion to kill a deer.  If you happen to have one of these and its legal in your area, then it may indeed be viable for hunting. But take no chances, it is not fair to our wildlife to use underpowered or inappropriate weapons that wound them and increase suffering needlessly. Do careful research and do not use novelties that may inflicting unnecessary suffering on animals.

Some people truly and honestly are interested in using spears for hunting deer or smaller game. The reality is, these weapons can be effective for this job, and were effective for hundreds of years.  But the other side of the equation is we invented better weaponry to replace spears because they are not effective enough to consistently and reliably kill game while minimizing suffering. Yes they are much more effective than a slingshot, but they should be avoided for all hunting except in a survival situation due to respect for the game, and the desire to get clean fast kills. 

There are many other unconventional weapons that people talk about for hunting, such as lances, knives, and yes even ninja stars. I talk about all of these in this podcast episode. 

EP310 Is Hunting High Fence Areas & Preserves Legit?

There are many establishments that promise hunters great prospects if they pay to hunt on their “preserve” or ranch, but much of the time hunters are being lured into exotic animal farms made up to sound like natural open hunting land that is protected by something other than tall fences. In this episode I talk about these kinds of situations in depth and answer a lot of questions. 

Alot has been said against hunting preserves, and high fence areas, and not all without cause. But on this podcast episode I break down this type of hunting utilizing an objective framework and what I define as the three main elements of fair chase in an attempt to provide an unbiased overview. 

Is there something morally wrong about going to preserve or high fence areas? Of course not! But at the same time, is it still considered legitimate hunting? These are the kinds of questions I tackle in this episode. 

Some people leave the impression that if the enclosure is large enough then it is very similar to open land hunting, but usually this really couldn’t be further from the truth. Often times the animals are not living in their native habitat, sometimes they are thousands of miles from anywhere they would choose to live and are simply doing the best they can in the space they have, similar in some ways to the zoo.

But even native animals are not able to establish native patterns and tendencies due to space limitations or if nothing less, artificial population density. Most of time these animals do not have 6,000 acres on which to roam. And even then, 6,000 acres only equates to about 6 square miles. Which while it sounds like a lot, is very limiting for certain types of game. 

The bottom line is fair chase is voided in these types of scenarios. Which is part of the reason why the game commission usually considers them farms instead of game lands or even private hunting lands. Which is why you often do not need to buy tags to hunt there. It’s not that much different than going to a farmer and paying them to shoot their cattle. If they animals are owned and considered property, it’s not hunting. Even if you sit and wait in a tree for an hour for the deer or elk to wake up and go to get its breakfast. 

If you are paying for each antler point or select your deer in advance from a list of named animals, that should be a fairly big clue that this is not legitimate hunting.

Sometimes guides or outfitters will secretly take hunters to these kinds of areas if public land hunts fail. Unless the hunter is very keen and aware, they may not even know they were driven to a preserve on day 5 of their hunt. The guide may well lie or work to distract the hunter from picking out key details to realize where they are.

All of that said, there are still times and places where preserves do have a legitimate function. Listen to the entire podcast episode in order hear all of the details.  

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!

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!

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!

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.

EP302 How To Hunt Turkeys When Nothing Is Working

If turkeys are not gobbling, moving, or in any way detectible, how do you hunt them and salvage your season? In this episode I dig into the details of how to hunt gobblers when all else fails.

If turkeys are gobbling and not coming in that is one set of challenges, but this is different. This is when all the turkeys seem to completely disappear from the woods and you cannot find any action anywhere. I’ve been there. The answer is simple, but not easy. You have to change your mindset and your tactics from turkey hunting to turkey finding.

Set out looking for birds and sign, similar to pre-season scouting but unique in that you are looking for concentrated movement areas that you can then setup in as if you were ambush hunting. I like to start in the low lands, where there are streams, puddles and soft ground where turkeys will leave tracks. I am not just looking for a stray track here and there but lots of regular fresh tracks that will let me know that lots of birds come through this area on a regular basis and spend time eating, socializing, or trying to find mates in this spot.

The goal of this scouting is to locate areas that have birds that you can come back and hunt, but you also want to move quietly. After all the season is on and you have a shotgun, you do not want to disturb the birds that you discover since you plan to hunt them that day or the next. Instead you want to move quietly, gun in hand but being careful to analyze the ground and watching for turkeys on the other side of every hill you crest and every field you move into.

When nothing is working, you come to feel like there are no birds in the woods and it can be very discouraging, but if you can find the birds, and fresh sign, it will put wind in your sails and motivate you to get out and get after the birds. 

Also keep in mind that as the season goes on, the habits of birds can change. As one area grows up it may push birds into other areas. So a spot that is cold today could warm up in a week or two or three. Do not abandon historically good areas but diversify where you spend your time. Perhaps rotate between spots in order to keep on top of places that might heat up later but do not spend your entire turkey season in a spot with no action.

Listen to the whole podcast episode for all of the details!

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