I would love to know what peoples favorite methods of hunting are, and for what game. Weapons, and tools used, what area of the country, things like that.
The rabbits I used to hunt seem to have been eradicated by the parks department. They used to be my favorite thing to hunt, I prefered using a bow, but often used rocks instead due to law enforcement worries.
So I gotta know, is my online reputation so bad that I am being ignored, or do folks just not do much hunting?
Almost all of my hunting has been with 12 and 16 gauge shotguns, and itās mostly been for game birds or small game. I donāt know if itās my favorite method, but I grew up carrying a 16 gauge single-shot break open shotgun around the prairie as a young boy growing up in the country so I got used to shotgun hunting and later bought a 12 gauge Remington 870 wingmaster pump and did quite a bit of hunting with that. I have gone through a few .30-30 and .22 rifles but never did much hunting with them compared to the shotguns. I have snared some rabbits but I would like to learn how to hunt with a crossbow and atlatl, and train hunting dogs and learn falconry as Iāve mentioned in another thread.
I like using traps and snares for small game. A box trap can be made with scrap wood for nothing and animals can be released if the wrong thing accidentally gets caught. I mostly use guns, sometimes a bow. I think a .22 and a 12 gauge are a good choice for guns.
.22 is relatively quiet and can be used for anything from squirrels and grouse to deer (not legally) with good shot placement. Ammunition is cheap.
12 gauge can shoot geese, turkeys, pheasants, or with buckshot or slugs, deer.
I have killed most of the deer Iāve gotten with a rifle, a few with a bow.
Finding a good spot to sit and wait is probably the most productive way for deer. I really enjoy hunting in the snow and following a set of tracks till I get a shot as well.
The best way to bring home the meat is to always take a weapon with you wherever you go. Iām an opportunist, when a season is open I almost always have a weapon when I go into the woods. I think in the old days that was the norm. People always had weapons and didnāt pass up an opportunity.
good to know that the sit and wait thing works well for you. I tried it once elk hunting, thought I had a great place, and felt like a fool after sitting still and silent in the ocean mist for hours on end. I know I made alot of mistakes too.
I hear ya on the feeling like a fool part. Iāve sat for days without seeing a thing even though I had spent a lot of time scouting and looking for my place to wait in ambush. Patience is something I am only starting to feel comfortable with. But then when you are successful it seems worth it.
Thatās why they call it hunting instead of just killing.
Trollsplinter,
I comply with the hunting regs. here, mainly because I donāt want to deal with the legal hassles of getting caught. So even though I believe thereās not enough bucks here for the number of does, I still pass up the does and wait for a buck when Iām hunting.
On the subject of being frustrated sitting and waiting for deer. This fall I had one day where I sat, during that waiting, a total of 19 does and fawns walked by me so close I could hear their footsteps and them mewing and calling to each other. I figured thereās got to be a buck following this group. But it got dark and no buck ever came. So I went home.
Overall a very nice experience though.
Wow, thats gotta be a little frustratingā¦ at least you gotta see the other deer doin their thing. My land is close enough to the ocean that all I saw was swirling mist. Pretty, but it gets cold after a couple hours of motionlessness. Actually we got a bit of raven traffic, and they interest me intensely, and one cute little chicory that came down a tree behind us. When youāre sitting that still and not making a noise, a chicory on tree bark makes enough noise that I though something big enough to shoot was comin our way. Once it started in on its alarm call at us, I seriously considered shooting it anyway. I suppose sitting in the cold makes me a little irritable.
Ha ha , yeah.
I donāt know how I missed this. One of my favorite stories is about a man I met in the early 1980s who went by the name of Earthworm. He had a friend drop him off in the wilderness of Utah. He then threw his cloths over a cliff and stayed out there for four years. His first deer kill he sat in a tree for 3 days waiting for a deer to pass by, then he jumped on it and stabbed it with a fire hardened stick. The problem was the deer didnĆĀ¢Ć¢āĀ¬Ć¢āĀ¢t want to cooperate and just about stomped him to death. He was real hungry though so he won in the end. But the next time he used a heavy rock tied to a stick and he said they just went out like someone turned off the light. He said he had a pretty good success rate and he didnĆĀ¢Ć¢āĀ¬Ć¢āĀ¢t need more then a few a year.
Iāve known him. Havenāt seen him in quite a few years, he goes by a different name now. Back in the late 70ās early 80ās we moved in the same circles of people quite a bit. Heās definitely someone who has walked the talk. Heās done what other people only dream of. I could tell you a few more stories about him but that would be off topic.
I think we need more storiesā¦ maybe thereās a forum for stories around here
??
word. iād love to hear some of yāallās stories.
Donāt want to hijack this thread. Hereās a link to a place to get a video that Earthworm made years ago. That truck they are standing in front of was a model āAā Ford with all Toyota running gear that he built. He built a few wicked gypsy wagon trucks, lived in them for a while, then sold them. Heās an amazing dude. If he says he did something, you can bet that he did it, no matter how wild it might seem.
http://www.braintan.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=1&Product_Code=Earthworm&Category_Code=Media
In huntingā¦ I have to admit that I still prefer modern technology. My fav hunting shooter is my .22 magnum rifle. the rounds are super light, cheap as dirt, and easy to find. My lilā rifle weighs a whopping 3 1/2 pounds, and can take anything from a rabbit or bird up to a small deer with a good lung shot.
For primitive hunting I prefer my recurve bow, or for small animals (when I want to go really primitive) I make an āIndian Throwing Starāā¦ itās easy, you just find a good forked stickā¦ shaped like a Y and sharpen all 3 points. Hold it by one of the thinner limbs and throw it. The heavier main branch adds extra weight/leverage to really send it flying. With 3 points you stand a better chance of impaling the critter than just knocking it silly like you do with a rock or regular flat throwing stick. I used to take rabbits like that all the time as a kid.