The Michigan archery season is in full swing and opening day could not have come soon enough. At deer camp on Sunday afternoon the trash talking was abundant as slammy decided to start calling his shot for opening morning. Unfortunately the Michigan weather did not cooperate as a low pressure system brought unseasonably warm weather along with thunderstorms that quickly reduced the overall confidence level at camp. Despite the the poor weather conditions we didn't manage to harvest an animal although it wasn't the buck that we were looking for. CB375HH managed to hang a 15 pound whistle pig (see: woodchuck, rockchuck, hoary marmot, and yellow bellied marmot) from the buck pole. Apparently after feasting in a food plot for the majority of opening morning the marmot fell victim to carbon poisoning delivered at 305 FPS from a BowTech. CB should have pictures of his trophy in the next day or so. I guess all we can hope for is better weather for the evening hunt. More to come ...
[Update]
Saturday, October 13, 2007 - I managed to sneak away for a day to get in a only my second sit of the season. At this rate I am not even going to come close to the number of sits I got in last year. Oh well things are starting to look up. The morning hunt proved to be successful as I managed to slam a doe at around 9:00am. I also saw nine deer in the morning and two more in the afternoon. Unforutnately I ran out of light during the evening sit as it was windy right up until 30 minutes before legal shooting ended. The deer promptly started to move when the wind died down but i only saw two does despite the having quite a bit of activity in the woods around me. One in the bag is not bad at this point but I can't wait until the pre-rut begins.
I have been spending quite a bit of time researching muzzleloaders to try and figure out what type of setup I want to purchase. The only blackpowder hunting I have done in the past was done with borrowed equipment. After several incidents last season that involved missed opportunities on nice bucks during firearm season in Michigan CB375HH talked me into picking up a good muzzleloader. I spend a lot of time hunting in the shotgun only zone in Michigan and rather than purchase a separate slug gun and black powder rifle I decided to take CB's advise and purchase a good muzzleloader. Now this is where things get interesting ...
I spent quite a bit of time researching muzzloaders on the internet and found that there really isn't a lot of scientific information out there on what make/models have the best accuracy. I am looking to spend reasonable amount money on a nice setup but like most hunters I am budget conscience and don't want to spent too much more than $500-$600 on the total setup. Now when doing my research I found that most black powder rifle owner's opinions were based on guns that they currently owned. For example the CVA guys seem to like CVA muzzleloaders and the ThompsonCenter guys seem to like TC muzzleloaders (no surprise eh?). I really didn't find too many folks out there that have owned different makes/models of muzzleloaders that preferred one gun over the other.
After much research I narrowing my choices downt to a CVA Optima Pro, Thompson Center Triumph, or Thompson Center Omega. In terms of value I know that CVA sells more muzzleloaders out there than anyone else. This is primarily due to the price of the CVA rifles. Comparing the CVA Optima Pro and the TC Omega I decided that the Omega was a better value (Cabelas has the Synthetic Thumphole Stock and Blued Barrel model on sale for $309). The big decision was now between the TC Omega and the TC Triumph. The Triumph is new for this year and I am always hesitant to pick up something that is brand new with little or no field testing (although TC has a reputation for developing innovative products). The Triumph features some interesting new features including a lighter weight receiver, 90 degree turn breach plug, and a new weather guard barrel. At $429 I am not sure that all of these new features are worth the extra money. After doing some research I learned that the barrel is effectively the same as the TC Omega. So what am I really getting by paying the extra $120? I am not really sure. These new features are definitely great editions to an already proven line of blackpowder rifles but are they worth the extra cost?
After some pondering and conversations with CB375HH I decided that the Triumph wasn't worht the extra money. Here is the setup that I settled on.
- Thompson Center Omega w/ Thumbhole Synthetic Stock and Blued Barrel
- Bushnell Elite 3200 Scope
- TC Omega Scope Mounts
Powder and ammo selection is still up in the air until I get a chance to tune the rifle and see what shoots best. I am probably going to start shooting 100gr. triple seven powder with 220gr. Dead Center sabots. I have read that this combination works well for whitetail hunting. I update this post once I get my hands on the new hardware. I am heading out at the end of this week to do some shopping.
Have you ever had a situation where you are in a heated discussion with an older person and they throw around the phrases "because I know" or "it is that way because I said so". I generally refer to this as old man logic. It is relatively easy to spot old man logic in action and there are three simple ingredients; a heated conversation or argument about a popular topic (hunting, fishing, politics, etc.), two opposing opinions, and of course an "older" person expressing their opinion without any basis in fact.
Old man logic is not new and in fact has been occurring regularly for as long as men have gathered. Fathers have been misleading their sons, grandfathers misleading their grandsons, and so on. Now don't get me wrong. I am not saying that "older" men are stupid but they are foolish enough to have convinced themselves that some deeply rooted opinion is factual. The Internet has been a godsend when i comes to disputing old man logic. I can recall many heated arguments with family members about the economy, politics, and science where old man logic was slung around like mud at a tractor pull. Over the last 20 years the Internet has proved to be a valuable tool in the fight against old man logic. No longer can men declare that Ford Motor Company is not really struggling and it is all a conspiracy to make the executives rich. Or that wind doesn't matter when setting up your hunting stand.
I function on one basic guiding principal when it comes to knowledge and wisdom. AGE DOES NOT DICTATE WISDOM ... EVER. Those who truly learn from their experiences, mistakes, and other individuals will be wiser with time. Just because you are old in age doesn't mean that you are wiser with time.
For those of you who are not familiar with
Gander Mountain it is a regional hunting, fishing and camping department store.
Gander Mountain has stores located in 21 states throughout the Midwest and East coast. I recently blogged about that lack of customer service and knowledge of the
Gander Mountain associates (blog post
here). Well my frustrations continue. I recently visited a
Gander Mountain store near my home and found the store to be in complete disarray.
Gander Mountain generally carries a great selection of hunting, fishing and camping gear but it always seems to be strewn throughout the store and not very well organized. The web site (
www.gandermountain.com) isn't much better. I find it hard to believe that a regional retail store can't manage to get a online store up and running (product catalog, product search, shopping cart, and checkout). Additionally I can't even view the current week's circular as it never seems to be published and available on the site even though Gander Mountain claims to offer this service. I make the majority of my purchases online and find it frustrating that I can't seem to do this with Gander Mountain's web site. I guess I need to continue shopping online at
Cabela's and [Bass Pro]. I happen to have the benefit of knowing what kind of effort is involved in developing an ecommerce presence since I write this type of software for a living. Maybe I should offer my services up to
Gander Mountain.
Got a case of cabin fever? I know I do! I always hate this time of year as we transition between deer season and into the dead of winter. Here in Michigan the ice has just begun to freeze ruling out any ice fishing for at least another week. So brave fisherman have ventured out onto the ice but I am going to give it another week. I really don't want to take a $1500 helicopter ride compliments of the Coast Guard. Right now the only outdoor activities available are predator hunting or trapping. Now I have not really been much into trapping but CB375HH has been really getting me into it. There are quite a few opportunities for trapping locally that don't require an hour car ride from home thus making trapping a "wife friendly" activity. CB375HH and I just spent yesterday afternoon fabricating eight weasel boxes. I didn't realize that we had weasels in Michigan but apparently they are all over the place. CB should have a blog soon detailing the construction of the boxes. Check out the Michigan DNR site for information on the weasel family of animals in Michigan.
It looks like the winter blues will be subsiding shortly as we have been getting quite a bit of snow making the conditions ideal for a little predator hunting. I am hoping to get out and slam a few coyotes in the next couple of week. The Deer and Turkey Spectacular is coming to a few locations in the Midwest. Here is a link to the schedule and location information.
http://www.deerinfo.com/home.asp
There has been much written about the benefit of food plots especially when it comes to the health of the deer herd. Most probably don't realize how quickly you can realize the payoff. The picture below is of a turnip that came from one of the five food plots that we have on a relative small piece of land. After only one year we have establishing healthy food plots that have dramatically effected the patterns, number, and quality of the bucks on the property. All of our food plots have been planted with a seed mix consisting of turnips, whitetail clover, and rape. This mix has produced some quality bucks in a relatively short period of time. At this point I can't wait to see what the following years will produce. Now if I can only figure out how to shoot straight I would have tagged at least one of the three wall-hanger 8 pointers that I missed this year 
Those of you who live in Michigan or plan on hunting in
Michigan should get ready for a bit of sticker shock when it comes time to
purchase your 2007 hunting and fishing licenses. At least this will be
the case if the proposed licensing fees get approved for the 2007 hunting and
fishing seasons. Now I am not one to complain about the cost of hunting
and fishing licenses but the new increases seem a bit excessive. Now some folks will tell you that the
increase is overdue and that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources are
experiencing a severe budget crisis. I
would argue that the recently passed Proposal 06-1 would now create a large
influx of budget funding because licensing revenue will not longer be
redirected to other government programs. Here is a quick rundown of the
proposed fee increases. As you can see
the increases are significant and I have highlighted some items that will have
a sweeping impact. Now it is difficult
to predict a person’s future actions but this type of increase will most
certainly cause those less fortunate who rely on hunting and fishing as a means
to feed their families to violate our state hunting and fishing rule and
regulations. This pretty much does
everything short of promoting poaching
itself. Michigan has been experiencing a
major economic downturn due to the reduction in manufacturing jobs in the state. As disposable income decrease the violations
will most certainly increase.
|
License
|
Current
|
Proposed
|
|
Applications
(restricted licenses)
|
$4
|
$5
|
|
Bear
|
$15
|
$50
|
|
Firearm or archery deer
|
$15
|
$30
|
|
Combo deer
|
$30
|
$75
|
|
Elk
|
$100
|
$200
|
|
Antlerless deer
|
$15
|
$30
|
|
Small game
|
$15
|
$20
|
|
Turkey
|
$15
|
$30
|
|
Fur harvester, trap
only
|
$15
|
$20
|
|
Waterfowl
|
$5
|
$10
|
|
Restricted fish
|
$15
|
$20
|
|
All species fish
|
$28
|
$40
|
|
One-day fish
|
$7
|
$15
|
|
Three-day fish all
species
|
NA
|
$36
|
|
Senior firearms or
archery deer
|
$6
|
$24
|
|
Junior firearms or
archery deer
|
$7.50
|
$15
|
|
Senior small game
|
$6
|
$16
|
|
Junior small game
|
$1
|
$10
|
|
Senior fur harvester,
trap
|
$6
|
$16
|
|
Junior fur harvester,
trap
|
$7.50
|
$10
|
|
Senior restricted fish
|
$6
|
$16
|
|
Senior all-species
fish
|
$11.20
|
$32
|
|
Junior all species
fish
|
$2*
|
$2*
|
|
Nonresident deer
|
$138
|
$165
|
|
Nonresident bear
|
$150
|
$300
|
|
Nonresident combo deer
|
$276
|
$330
|
|
Nonresident restricted
fish
|
$34
|
$40
|
|
Nonresident
all-species fish
|
$42
|
$80
|
|
Nonresident small game
|
$69
|
$100
|
|
Nonresident 3-day
small game
|
$30
|
$40
|
|
Nonresident turkey
|
$69
|
$140
|
|
Daily area use
waterfowl
|
$4
|
$7
|
|
Annual area use
waterfowl
|
$13
|
$20
|
I have to rant for a moment about the lack of knowledge possessed by the lackeys that work at your local sporting goods stores. This week I spent some time bouncing around a couple of chain sporting goods stores in my area (Gander Mountain and Dunham's) looking at various firearms, gun safes, and black powder rifles. The one thing I noticed is that no one at these retail outlets had a clue about the merchandise they were selling. For example, Gander Mountain is known for its wide selection of firearms. For those of you who are not familiar with Gander Mountain it is like a miniature Bass Pro or Cabelas. I was speaking with a couple of the lackeys that worked behind the counter about various firearms and quickly became apparent that these guys had no clue what they were talking about. It amazes me that retail outlets would put uninformed employees behind their counters to try and sell products that are generally specialized (meaning the customers will generally have a lot of questions). Besides being able to talk out of the asses these guy really had no clue how to provide guidance to a would be consumer. My advise to you would be to visit the local firearms dealer if you want real advise.
I have to say that the 2006 whitetail season has been my best ever. The ironic thing is that I haven't even knocked down a deer yet! We have put a lot of time and effort into developing our new hunting property and it has really paid off. After developing the habitat and planting food plots I have seen over 20 different bucks with 12 of them being nice shooters. We are really starting to hold a lot of deer on a reasonable chuck of land (about 27 acres). It turns out that my tree stand has been one of the most active but also the most difficult to hunt due to its location on the several travel route crossings. Additionally the property is very thick with quite a few berry trees and very heavy cover. This has resulted in my missing 3 different 8 pointers. I missed a nice 8 pointer in late October when my arrow clipped a small branch and deflect just feet in front of a nice buck. I have missed twice on two other 8 pointers with my shotgun. All three shot opportunities where on the same runway and through some very heavy cover. It looks like it is time to move from my tree stand to a ground blind with better shooting lanes
We will have to see how the rest of the season progresses.