Today Is National Ammo Day

Like ya needed an excuse to get out and buy some ammo… well if you did here it is. National Ammo Day is a day gun owners hold a Buycott and purchase ammo in support of our 2nd Amendment Rights as well as support our gun and ammo manufactures.

November 19 is National Ammo Day.

It is a nationwide BUYcott of ammunition. You buy ammunition. 100 Rounds a person.

The goals of Ammo Day:

The goal of National Ammo Day is to empty the ammunition from the shelves of your local gun store, sporting goods, or hardware store and put that ammunition in the hands of law-abiding citizens. Make your support of the Second Amendment known–by voting with your dollars!

There are an estimated 75 MILLION gun owners in the United States of America. If each gun owner or Second Amendment supporter buys 100 rounds of ammunition, that’s 7.5 BILLION rounds in the hands of law-abiding citizens!

The gun/ammunition manufacturers have been taking the brunt of all the frivolous lawsuits, trying to put these folks out of business. Well, not if we can help it! And we CAN help it by buying ammunition on November 19!

National Ammo Day website

I’m sure if you can’t get out today then purchasing some in the next few days will help the cause. I stopped on my way home from work and purchased over 600 rounds. That will be a lot of target shooting, plinking, hunting, and if need be defending. I even picked up a box of Moose Killing Rounds Remington Core Lokt 220 grain 3006. Other then a coastal bear here in NC there is not much else I would use it for. I’m hopeful that in the near future I’ll get drawn for another Maine Moose both of my earlier ones were dropped with that particular round. Kind of surprised to see it on a store shelf here in NC so I had to add it to the cart.

So go on out and celebrate Ammo day

A Day Without The Web

A traffic accident yesterday took out all the phone lines to my subdivision and my DSL line. It is amazing how addicted we become to the net and how much we miss it when we can’t access it. Well I could access it some on my Blackberry but blogging and such is difficult if not impossible with the Blackberry.
I was somewhat disappointed when AT&T informed me this afternoon that it would be Thursday before the repairs were completed and service restored. That proved not to be the case because when I got home the lines were restored.
Technology is wonderful when it works but when it doesn’t our world can come to a standstill.

RIP LBK

The death of a friend is always tough especially when they are so young. I just found out that David Rillo a man I knew as LBK from the internet died earlier this month. I had talked with him a number of times on line and actually met him for the first time at a get together we had last month. On the computer and in real life he seemed like a great guy.

My last conversation with him was not any earth shattering deep talk just a conversation on where a couple of big old boys could find hunting equipment in our size. We also talked about hunting in Maine. I enjoyed meeting him and only wished I had gotten to know him better.

I’ll admit that there are some thoughts running through my mind that as a person that regularly deals with troubled people was there anything I could have done to help him. I know there is not because like many from our website we did not know that he was troubled and contemplating suicide . The day we all spent together in September was really a great day of fun and I think a time we all forgot about the daily troubles and struggles we wrestle with.

David Andrew Rillo, age 34, of 304 Tremont Dr., Asheboro died Sunday, October 18, 2009 at his home.

Funeral services will be held Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 2:00 pm at Balfour Baptist Church with Chaplain Dwight Ayers and Dr. Ron Chaney officiating.

Mr. Rillo was a 1993 graduate of Southern Davidson High School, received his associate degree in Criminal Justice from Randolph Community College and was a deputy with the Randolph County Sherriff’s Department. He was an avid fisherman and hunter.

He is survived by his wife, Duwana V. Rillo; step-daughter, Samantha Tubbleville of the home; parents, Jerry and Kathryn Rillo of Candor; brothers, John Rillo of Norman, Paul Rillo of Star; sister, Courtney Rillo of Candor; grandfather, Ronald Chartier of Peru, ME; grandmother, Lorette Rillo of Ellerbe.

The family will receive friends Thursday from 12:00-1:30pm at Balfour Baptist Church, 1644 North Fayetteville Street, Asheboro, NC.

Arrangements by Pugh Funeral Home, Asheboro.

Memorials may be made to David Rillo Memorial Fund, c/o Randolph County Sherriff Department, 727 McDowell Rd., Asheboro, NC 27205.

I hope LBK rests in peace and I’m glad to hear that he was a born again Christian. His family is in my prayers and I hope that anyone that reads this and maybe struggling with suicidal thoughts will seek out help.

Guest Blog Post From Michael Waddell / Calling Elk Bow-Close

The following is a guest blog post from fellow hunter and writer Michael Waddell. Michael just this week announced that he will be a regular writer and contributor to Peterson’s Hunting. I’ve had the honor of meeting him a number of years ago here in Raleigh at the Scope Show and it is an honor to have him post on MooseDroppings

Whether hunting public or private land, the fundamentals of calling elk remain the same.
Calling Elk Bow-Close
Michael Waddell

We heard the bull bugle at first light and snuck into his core area. When I hit a lick on my bugle, the bull simply came unglued and stormed our position like a tank, crashing through brush and small lodgepole pines like they were matchsticks. Before we could react he was in our lap and we were pinned down, me hiding behind a camera, too scared to touch the tripod for fear my shaking hands would ruin the footage. All I could see of my partner wedged against a stunted pine was the tip of his undrawn arrow quivering on the rest. Before a shot presented itself, the bull smelled a rat and disappeared as quickly as he arrived. While this experience didn’t result in a dead elk, it did hopelessly addict me to calling them.

It seems that in all walks of life, be it the animal kingdom or humans, communication is a key ingredient for all social interaction. However, not all living things communicate to the same degree. If you ask my wife, I am sure she will tell you I am lacking in the communication department; in fact, I’m sure she believes I don’t listen to her at all, but when it comes to communicating with animals I can barely shut up. Of all the animals I love to communicate with, elk rate right at the top.

By nature, elk are very vocal. The uninitiated often simply think of bulls bugling, but cows, calves and bulls make all sorts of noises year-round. If you encounter a large herd, while you might not hear anything from a distance, if you get close you will hear lots of subtle vocalization. Most of the time these are sounds of contentment, but depending on what’s happening the vocalization reflects it. Elk can convey contentment, danger, curiosity or a cow in heat. Bulls, for instance, only bugle primarily in the rut, but they also communicate to establish a pecking order. After spending a considerable amount of time chasing the mighty wapiti, I’m convinced every elk in the herd knows each other by sound alone. This happens with the cows as well as the bulls, and based on my evaluation, somewhere in this mix is the deadly secret to calling elk bow-close.

Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
It seems that the more vocal a herd, the better the odds are for success at calling them. Some cows call subtly, while others are loud-mouth ladies actively looking for a date. By listening, it gives you a better opportunity to imitate the particular tones and intensity of the herd.

By calling, we are automatically intruding into the social club without an invitation. The closer we can sound to a known elk and match that intensity, the better the odds are of filling a tag. Even though we may sound like an outsider to the herd, luckily for us, love-crazed bulls are not looking to be intimate with just one or two cows; they are looking for all the love of every cow in the world, so taking advantage of their sexual frustrations and promiscuity is our salvation.

It doesn’t take a world champion elk caller to trick bulls within range. By simply paying attention to the herd and understanding simple elk rhythm, tone and, more important, volume when calling, a hunter can depend on an elk call to be a valuable asset to dulling broadheads.

Public Versus Private Land
Since I started hunting elk 16 years ago, on private as well as public ground, I’ve realized comparing these two different types of ground is like comparing night and day, and it is all about the amount of pressure each receives. Generally speaking, private ground bulls are way easier to call than public ground animals, but this is not always the case. Some private land gets a lot of pressure, which can make for some pretty tough calling duels with elk that can serve you up a humble pie every time you bust out a call. Conversely, some public land, either through sheer remoteness or hard-to-get tags, is like calling the best private land in the nation.

Hunting untouched land and cow calling to bulls that have never heard a Hoochie Mama would obviously be nice. It wouldn’t take long working over these uneducated elk to start feeling like an elk-calling pro, only to be deflated the first time we went to the national forest and mixed it up with bulls so well known by local hunters that they have nicknames. However, regardless of where you hunt, the basics of calling remain the same.

Start with mastering the cow call and all its various inflections. Your basic reed-type calls are the easiest to learn as well as get proficient with. You will find two kinds; both are bite-down reed-type calls, one being enclosed and the other having an open reed or reeds. These calls make a very realistic sound and before your wife can run you out of the house you will master the basics.

I rely heavily on the cow call and think most of the time hunters are better off sticking with it over a bugle no matter where they are hunting. However, learning how to make a basic bugle is important, especially for locating bulls at a distance before getting close and working him with your cow call. In addition, sometimes it is the bugle that finally provokes a dominant bull to commit, especially during the early season when bulls are still sorting out their pecking order.

Earning Your Public Ground Ph.D
Let’s face it, unless you have deep pockets much of the private ground in the West is pretty much off limits, so you have to learn to hunt public land. This is not a bad thing, as public ground comprises millions upon millions of acres across the West and happens to have some of the biggest bulls found anywhere. While it can be tougher than private, once you learn how to hunt it you won’t be disappointed. Over the years one of my favorite places to hunt is the Gila National Forest in New Mexico, and even though this is a trophy area, tags are fairly obtainable through application.

In the Gila, the trophy potential is off the chart, sporting some of the biggest bulls in the country, but just because the big ones live there doesn’t mean that you automatically make one call and they come running to get in the back of your truck. These mature jokers have a Ph.D in avoiding hunters.

Over the last six years I have hunted this area religiously and have had the opportunity to shoot some nice bulls, all by using elk calls as an aid to close the coffin.

Notice I said, “as an aid,” meaning the call was just one thing in a bag of tricks to help smoke these monarchs. My biggest bull that came out of the Gila was a 378 P&Y bull that earned the name The Professor because he always seemed to take you to school when you applied too much pressure. However, this bull was vocal and would bugle his butt off. He also seemed to be fairly easy to find, not only by his gnarly, raspy bugle that set him apart, but frequently he could be found early in the morning in a large meadow just south of a particular water hole that always attracted a large herd.

The Professor was not the only bull in the area that had large headgear, but it was the Professor that seemed to call the shots. I had caught this bull in the open several times, but calling seemed to really make him uneasy when you were in close. However, he would bugle hard to distant cow calls and seemed to be whole heartedly interested, but he had a sixth sense when you moved in for the attack.

Finally, we decided to have a caller stay behind as we worked him coming off the meadow at daybreak. By doing this we could keep him interested and bugling as we stalked in closer. The caller always was no closer than 80 yards behind me. While the caller kept him occupied, I slid within 50 yards and gave him a G5 Tekan right behind the shoulder. This hunt was really a stalk, but the call and caller had a big part to do with his demise. Once we started quartering the bull, we found a piece of an old arrow lodged just below the backstraps, so obviously someone had him in close before and gave the teacher an education, which explained why he was so wary.

The Double Team
As this old bull showed, hunting with a partner can work extremely well. It not only puts the hunter out in front of the call, it gives the hunter a chance to move and adjust the angle based on where the bull might be approaching. Likewise, the caller has the flexibility to move and apply a lot of different calling techniques.

The double-team plan worked again on another hunt. It had been hot, and the bulls were only bugling early and late. As soon as the sun would rise the elk woods would turn into a ghost town.

Just after daybreak on the fourth day of our hunt we heard this bull bugle. He hit it only two times, both very weak. He sounded like the littlest rag horn in the land, but with no other game in town we went after him. Getting as close as possible to where we thought the bugle came from, I eased up and sat down by a pine stump while my buddy moved back and to my right about 40 yards.

Neither of us was very optimistic about our chances. My buddy made one or maybe two very soft cow calls on a two-reed diaphragm, then he started raking a tree and rolled a few rocks. We sat there for possibly 10 minutes in silence, then out of nowhere appeared a wide 6×6 coming directly to us.

At 25 yards the bull let out a soft chuckle, looked over his surrounding, and kept walking in the direction of where the last rock had been rolled, which led him 16 steps from my pine stump. By now I was at full draw, waiting for a broadside shot. When the arrow left my bow, I knew we had killed a call-shy monster by keeping it low-key and staying patient. Needless to say, I was never convinced by the two times he had bugled earlier that he was a shooter. This was a lesson in itself. Never judge a bugle until you can see what is making the sound.

The most exciting way to bag a bull elk is to get him in close, and the best way to do that is with a call. Confidence in your call is critical, because if you’re insecure about using your call, there is a good chance you will spook elk. Have confidence in your calling ability and become just another elk in the herd where you are hunting.

Find a call that works for you and not what works for someone else. Think like an elk and do as elk do. Realism, rhythm and volume control can make the difference between bringing them in or running them over the next ridge. Remember, it’s not always about calling. It can be about just patiently listening to the sounds around you and applying minimal calls while practicing good woodsmenship and stalking skills that could help you put that monster on the back of the truck.

Bad Economy Hits Deer Hunters?

Downeast where the deer season is in full swing reports of empty campgrounds and not many hunters on the Game Lands may be a result of the bad economy. These areas are prime dog hunting areas where the thick cover is difficult to hunt without the aid of a deer hound.
Outdoor writer Mike Marsh reported on this in the Star News this week getting the following quote from Vic French biologist with North Carolina Wildlife Commission.

“People can’t afford to go hunting,” he said. “A lot of the hunters who used to keep dogs don’t do it any longer. People who used to drive here to hunt are staying closer to home or doing other things that are less expensive.”

Mike further reports that the Game Land’s Campground was virtually empty when in the past it would be full.

With unemployment running in double digits and many folks getting laid off I think people have scaled back on hunting expenses. I think many will still hunt but they are apt to hunt closer to home. I have not had anyone tell me they are not hunting this year so I’m not sure why such a drastic drop seems to be happening down east especially on Game Lands where rising lease costs would not factor in for hunters there.

It will be interesting to see what the harvest numbers look like at the end of the season because many folks I believe will need to kill some deer to make ends meet. I think a deer that may of gotten a pass in previous years may find itself on the dinner table feeding hungry folks.

In Between Chocolate Covered Bacon and Deep Fried Moon Pies Check Out NC Wildlife

The NC State Fair is in town and well worth the time and cost to visit. The food is always an attractor and there are some new offerings like the chocolate covered bacon or the deep fried moon pies but there are many other things out there to see.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has a great display showing off the different aspects of the agency and the job they do for the citizens. “The Many Faces of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission” is the theme and an informative display as well as biologists on hand to answer questions makes it a very informative display.

The Sensory Safari Trailer is there giving people the opportunity to see and touch pelts and mounts of animals both native and non native to the state. They have a small bull moose on display but they have no plans to stock moose into the state.

The Game Wardens are once again supervising the BB gun booth where the kids can learn about gun safety as well as shoot a target. This is a popular activity for the kids and of course it is free so the parents like it too.

Another tradition with the Wild Life display is the free button they pass out. This year’s button features the Brook Trout the only native trout to the state.

The fair runs through Sunday so if you get a chance head on out and check out the NCWRC Display area near the Village of Yester Year. I will say I tried the Chocolate Covered Bacon and it didn’t do much for me. If you’re looking to satisfy a sweet tooth a better bet would be the NC State University Ice Cream Booth.

Deer Will You Pick Up Some Milk On Your Way Home?

Small deer was found wandering in the local grocery store;

Garner, N.C. — A deer found itself in the frozen food aisle of a Garner grocery store Tuesday.

The manager of the Lowes Foods, at 1845 Aversboro Road, said the animal exited the store safely. She did not know how the deer got in the store.

WRAL

This is the same store I shop in so who knows maybe next week they’ll have a photo of Moose in the Ice Cream aisle.

Coffee and Hunting

Nothing goes better with a hunt then a great cup of coffee and on a cold morning just about any cup will do. I’m a big coffee drinker and I often will carry a thermos with me to the blind or stand or leave one in the truck to retrieve later.

Now I remember a few very memorable bad cups of coffee on some hunting trips.
I recall a number of years ago when my buddy Jon and I were driving from Maine to Maryland for a deer hunt stopping early in the morning at a Cumberland Farms in Southern Massachusetts and getting a very thick like molasses cup that had a very strong burnt taste. It did its job because we stayed awake arguing about how long it been since that pot had been brewed I think we agreed it was probably about 3 days old.

Now there was one hunting trip where I got two of the worst cups of coffee ever and that was our combination pheasant / duck hunt in Iowa. On the drive out we stopped in a small town in Illinois I believe and checked into a hotel in the wee hours of the morning to get some rest. As we were getting ready to turn in a freight train rolled by the motel sounding its horn and rocking the motel which we thought was funny but that was short lived after about an hour and two more trains rolled through. Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep and I needed a cup of coffee that morning. I grabbed one in the motel lobby as we continued our drive to Iowa. I was barely out of the parking lot when I pitched that rancid thing out the window. I told Billy it tasted like it been filtered through a dirty wool hunting sock.

A few days later on our hunt Billy and I were sitting in a duck blind on a pretty cool Iowa morning. Our good friend Rick had brewed the coffee that morning and filled all our thermoses. Well wanting a cup to help warm us up after a few hours of hunting we tried drinking that stuff and it was horrible. I believe he may have filled the filter completely up because it was strong. Luckily I had a bag of M&M’s in my pack so I poured them into the thermos and shook it up good and made us a Cappuccino right there in the field. It was not great but it made it drinkable.

Well if you haven’t figured it out coffee is pretty important to me and I drink a lot of it. In my opinion as far as coffee goes around here Dunkin Donuts has the best followed by Caribou Coffee and the Starbucks. The worst cup of coffee hands down goes to McDonald’s, I’d stop in a Cumberland Farms if there was any around here before McDonalds.

This all leads me up to the Starbucks taste test this weekend. In case you didn’t know Starbucks has introduced an instant coffee, Starbucks Via, that they claim is as good as the brewed coffee. Well I had to check this out because I had my doubts. I’ll give them credit it is pretty good, very close to the brewed coffee. I picked it out without a problem but it was darn close. I’ll be adding some to my hunting gear so even if I’m in Trainville Illinois, a cold duck blind in Iowa, or traveling through the badlands of Southern Massachusetts a good cup of coffee is only a cup of boiling water away.

Is Corn a 4 Letter Word?

That is the question Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine is exploring this month and next and one that has been on my mind as of late as well. The topic comes up often in deer camps, message forums, about anywhere hunters gather.
North Carolina allows baiting or supplemental feeding of deer and hunters use a variety of items as bait but corn is probably the most popular item. The topic of baiting is real hot right now in the counties that have bear seasons because it is illegal to take a bear over bait unless it is being pursued by hunting dogs. Having sat in the Big Game Committee Meetings at NCWRC I can tell you there does not appear to be any commissioner that wants to touch the deer baiting rules.
I urge you to go read the article in Deer & Deer Hunting they have a pretty good synopsis of the corn debate and I won’t try to rewrite it. Hunters need to decide for themselves whether they’ll hunt over baits or not much like many of the other choices we make when it comes to hunting.
I use corn for a number of different reasons and sometimes the property dictates the use. One place I hunt we use corn to supplement because the landowner doesn’t want us planting food plots so we set up a number of feeders on the property. Another place we hunt we use corn to keep the deer on the property because surrounding properties use corn as well. Then another place I hunt the landowner wants some deer killed because of destruction of vegetation but because of safety concerns there is limited hunting spots on the property. Corn helps position those deer so we can safely remove them and they don’t end up getting killed under a depredation program where the meat more than likely will not be used.
I’ve heard a number of people say this and my experience seems to support it that big bucks will not hit a bait pile usually during daylight hours. My experience has been smaller bucks, does and fawns seem to be the ones that utilize along with a variety of other critters including turkeys.
I don’t have an issue with the use of baits in areas where legal. Though I do think if that is the only way you feel you can hunt that you are severely limiting your options.

Budget Cuts At NCWRC Eliminates Store at Centennial Campus

As the state budget crisis continues more things have to give and that appears to be the store on the first floor of the NCWRC building in Raleigh. I was over that way yesterday and saw the signs that everything was marked down to 50% off. Certainly the sign of the times these days it seems.

I believe the store was a bit obscure to the general public given it was on the first floor and most of the public entered the building on the second floor. The store had a good selection of books and resources about wildlife and the environment here in the state as well as more artistic items and of course hats and t-shirts.

The impact of the closing I suspect to the average person will be unnoticed but I’ll admit I’ll miss the opportunity to see all those resources together in one spot. The store closes for good on Wednesday at 4pm so if you want to visit it you better hurry.

A Great Weekend Get Together

One of the benefits of the internet is being able to develop friendships with folks all over. This weekend a group of us that talk hunting on the world wide web all the time got together for a BBQ and some outdoor fun.

The threat of rain seemed to dampen spirits a bit but once we all got there things improved. The rain held off so we had a spectacular day sighting in rifles, shooting skeet, and swapping lies. Some of these guys I hadn’t seen in a while so it was great to see them.

One of the touching moments was when we remembered a good friend 340 Mag that for many years had driven down from Wisconsin to attend the get together. Dale lost his battle with cancer about 6 weeks ago.
The food was spectacular and the stories were great. With another hunting season upon us I guess we’ll have to try hard to outdo the stories we heard from seasons past.

National Hunting And Fishing Day

Saturday is National Hunting and Fishing Day and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has a number of events planned across the state. Check out all the events and even though the weather is calling for rain I’m sure some of these will still go on. People in other states should check the National Hunting and Fishing website for links to local events in their state.
I’ll not be attending any of those events but I’m planning to get together with a number of hunters from across the state. Whatever you have planned to do this weekend take some time to think about the positive things our sports offer. Tell someone else how great our sport is and invite them to join you on a future trip. The future of our sport rest squarely on our shoulders so do what you can to introduce someone new to it.

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