Moose Droppings

This past week I was in Maine Bear hunting this is part two in what I think will be a 4 part series on the hunt. If you missed part one you may want to read that first.

The weather for bear hunting was not great; windy, warm, and threatening to rain. I packed my rain gear in my pack, sprayed down with Primos Silver XP,

load the gun and head for the blind. It is around 2 pm on Monday the hike in is not far but staying on the trail is important while maneuvering through the swampy terrain. I pour the bait I carried in with me into the bucket tied onto the tree and then I retreat back to my blind, which is only about 11 yards away. The blind is made out of burlap and is attached to three trees forming an L shape. Additional brush has been placed in front of the camo burlap to further break it up.

Once in my blind probably the best piece of hunting equipment that I brought with me is pulled out of my pack. The Thermecell is a portable mosquito repellent machine that works phenomenally well.

Within mere minutes of starting this up the pesky mosquitoes are gone. The Thermecell operates virtually silently and odorless off a butane canister that is inside the Thermecell and an external pad of repellent that is released when it is heated.

With the skeeters dealt with I go about making sure there is nothing to close that I can brush up against to make noise and that the chair is positioned the right way. Within a few minutes of getting settled down the woods return to normal as the Chickadees’ find the food in the bait bucket which sets off non stop flights to and from the bucket that would rival O Hare during the Thanksgiving rush.

Observing the wildlife is great fun and besides the birds the squirrels are now feeding out of the bait bucket as well. A couple of brief rain showers rolled through but I stayed pretty dry with the tree canopy overhead. The wind kept up though and none of the big critters seemed to be moving. Around 6pm I caught a flash in the woods but I wasn’t to sure what it was. I knew it was to small for a bear but it wasn’t a squirrel either. A few minutes latter a red fox exploded out of the weeds near the bait site catching an inattentive squirrel as it descended the tree the bait bucket was hanging from. With dinner in his mouth the fox trotted down the trail that past a few feet off to the left of my blind. A couple minutes latter he returned down the same trail and caught another squirrel near the bait bucket.

While theses events were very entertaining it was also very reassuring that the Primos Silver XP was working. This fox had walked by me only 3 or 4 feet away and never reacted to me being there. He did this not once but three times so I knew my scent control was good.
The first day’s hunt ended without me even seeing a bear but that’s fine because on Tuesday all that will change when I have a foot race with a bear. Tuesday’s exciting hunt will be in part three of this story.

Ever wonder what bloggers talk about when they get together? Probably not huh? Well one thing that comes up a lot is how slow the outdoor people and companies are to get on board with the whole blogging deal. The potential is there and every year more and more blogs spring up about hunting and fishing. I think after the Zumbo mess last year( Outdoor Life Writer & Spokesman for a number of outdoor companies including Remington did a blog post condemning people who use “assault rifles”) some companies may shy away from blogs and not see the true potential they are. If we should learn anything from the Zumbo fiasco it is that people read blogs especially those who shoot, hunt, and fish.

Rocky Boots is launching a blog about hunting and the outdoors;

This will NOT be your run-of-the-mill blog about a company’s finances, business tactics and all around corporate Crap! You don’t care and neither do I.
Now, with that out of the way let me introduce myself. My name is Sam Casey. Yes, I’m a ROCKY employee, but I also happen to be a hunting, tracking and survival expert. On this blog you will hear about the hunts that I go on and the gear I field test.

Welcome Sam and I look forward to reading your stuff. I hope we have more and more outdoor companies join us out here blogging.

The new Cabela’s store in Maine is about to open in the backyard of the New England giant in outdoor supplies LL Bean. Growing up in New England stopping at LL Bean was always a treat to see the taxidermy mounts, the live trout, and of course all the equipment they have for sale. Having visited numerous Cabela’s across the country I’m certain LL Bean is in for a run to compete with them. The big question that remains to be answered is these Maine big enough for these two retail giants? The competition should be fierce and helpful to all.

I like both retailers and do the vast majority of my shopping via the internet. I swear by my LL Bean Hunting Boots and have warn them tromping around a wide variety of habitat and terrain in the wilds of America. Cabela’s is my main suppler when it comes to hunting equipment because of their vast variety of equipment. I guess this will make my trips back home a bit longer having another place to stop.

The impact of these giant’s reaches well beyond the borders of the state of Maine so I think initially there will be little impact on each other. I think the retailer that may really hurt in this deal will be Kittery Trading Post. A much smaller retailer that has just recently stepped into the world of the internet in addition to their physical store. They will need to look for their niche if they plan to remain viable. I think they have with the wide selection of both new and used firearms that neither Cabela’s nor LL Bean seem to focus on.

Maine is an outdoors man paradise but how favorable it will be for equipment supply stores will be interesting to watch over the next couple of years.

Opening Info Page with Specials & Appearances

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

If you’ve been hunting out of treestands any I’m sure you have heard of Gorilla Treestands out of Michigan. I’ll admit I don’t own one but I hunted out of one a number of times a few years back. I was in a hunting club and one of the guys had a 2 man ladder stand made by Gorilla and it was comfortable and safe. Now I’m a big guy and I don’t like the feeling of being up in a tree with a stand that rocks and rolls and this stand was rock solid.

Gorilla has revamped their website to make it more user friendly and help hunters find what they need so check it out. In addition you can register for a chance to win a Gorilla Expedition Hunter Treestand. They are giving one away each day for the next five days.

I got a ladder stand I need to replace for the next season I might just have to look into getting a Gorilla Ladder Stand.

Story & Photo by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

As turkey hunts go this was quick if you only look at today’s hunt but I had already spent a fair amount of time attempting to be in the right spot. Mistakes while turkey hunting are usually costly but today I was able to over come a big goof and still wreck Tom’s day.

The alarm clock going off at 3:30 this morning woke me up from my very short slumber as I got ready to go hunting. This was the second morning in a row I answered the bell so early and to think it’s my day off from work. Rick was waiting for me when I pulled into our Alamance County lease he hunted here yesterday and had some pretty good action while I hunted in Caswell County only seeing hens. We split up based on where the birds had been the day before so hopefully one of us would be in the right spot.

I was sitting in a blind on the edge of one of our food plots with a hen & Jake decoy set out. I hadn’t been in the blind long when the first gobbler in the woods behind me sounded off. As the light increased so did the gobbling and it appeared that the birds were basically in the same places they had been the morning before. All in all it seemed we had 4 or 5 gobblers all around us so the morning was looking pretty promising. I did some soft calling once I was sure the gobblers had hit the ground. I heard a number of hens calling and moving towards the gobblers and away from me and towards the front end of the property. I just hoped one of the gobblers would come to this field.
One gobbler in particular got my attention as he gobbled and gobbled getting closer and closer to my set up. As long as he seemed to be getting closer I just kept quiet and watched the woods line where I felt he would come out. After a few minutes he didn’t show and I hadn’t heard him I switched to the slate side of my Away Hunting Fatal Attraction call and did some soft purring. He then sounded off much further down in the woods headed to the creek bottom rather then the field I was set up in.
After another brief period of silence I started to purr again and that’s when I heard him drumming as he came through the brush behind the blind. Before I could really react he was in front of the blind headed for the Jake decoy. I picked my 12 gauge Mossberg off my lap but couldn’t bring it all the way up to a shooting position because he would of busted me. Tom goes into full strut and as he turns towards the Jake decoy with his tail towards me I bring the Mossberg up to the shooting position and I eased the safety off. As he clears the decoy and puts his head up I squeeze the trigger and hear the frightful sound of my firing pin “CLICK” but no boom. Tom is now looking at me and I don’t dare move despite my urge to chuck my gun at him.

Tom is nervous and I’m sure he is about to take flight at that moment a breeze catches the decoys and they move ever so slightly and Tom goes back into strut. My lucky day so I rack the pump ejecting the shell and putting a fresh one in. There is no hiding this noise and Tom starts trotting straight away I re acquire my target and yell “Hey” enough to get him to hesitate briefly and turn his head giving me a better target this time as I squeeze the trigger the boom of the shell going off drowns out the sound of the firing pin. Tom immediately flops and my hunt is over. I look at my watch and it is 6:57 for a brief moment I think if I hurry I could get to work and not use a vacation day.. Not.
After I notch my report card to make my kill legal I go back to the blind and pick up my shells and see why my first shell did not go off. There is a dent in the primer but on closer examination it is not as deep as the one on the empty shell.

My mind goes back to early in the morning as I loaded my gun and I tried to be as quiet as possible as I racked the shell into the chamber. I believe that I didn’t get it fully closed and that small fraction was enough to prevent the firing pin from striking the primer hard enough to fire the gun. That was almost a costly mistake and one I can assure you I’ll remember in the future.

This gobbler is the biggest one I have ever taken; 11 1/4 beard 1 1/2 spur on one leg and a 1 1/8 spur on the other one that appears to have been broken off at some point, it weighed just a shy over 19 lbs.

Not one that usually believes in luck I got to wonder if my new hat is lucky. A few months ago Linda from Mace Sports gave me a new camo cap with a moose on it. I hadn’t been wearing it hunting but after a day in the rain on Monday the hat I had been wearing was wet and who wants to wear a wet hat so today I wore the Moose Hat. This is the same hat I was wearing at a quail unlimited banquet last night when I won a rifle. So who knows maybe it is lucky.

With one tag left you know these next few weeks I’ll be wearing my “lucky moose hat”

This week’s show will be the 2nd part of the presentation that Allen and his pro staff gave at the Dixie Deer Classic. This week the focus is geese and swans so join us at 1pm on Skinny Moose Radio. Both shows will be available for download in the near future for those who can’t hear it when they air.

Thompson Center Arms has laid off 36 employees citing the poor economy as well as an unseasonable warm hunting season. While I’m sure that the downturn in the economy has had a huge impact I scratch my head on the warmer hunting season. Global warming gets blamed for everything. Granted this past season was a bit warmer around here then normal but I don’t recall anyone opting to go swimming rather then going hunting. I guess one could not say it was a lack of advertising when it seems just about every hunting personality on the hunting shows uses their product. As far as firearm manufactures go they must be the leader when it comes to market saturation. I don’t own one but if they need another pro staff give me a call and I’ll help ya with the marketing.

This week on my radio show I’m featuring part one of two part series featuring Allen Bliven and his pro staff. I recorded this at the Dixie Deer Classic so if you missed his presentation this is a great opportunity to hear how he got into call making and to hear his presentation on duck calls. You’ll also get the opportunity to hear a young lady, Candace who just won the NC Jr. Goose Calling Competition. Join us at 1pm on Friday or check the show achieves by the end of the weekend for the March 14th Show.

Packing Up & Heading Home

After many miles on my feet, a lot of handshakes, and a lot of stories the 28th Annual Dixie Deer Classic has drawn to an end. I’ll tell ya up front that it will take me a few weeks to get all the great tidbits and information I gathered from this years show. So for my initial post about the weekend I’ll give you some of the highlights but you’re going to have to stay tuned for all the great stuff I got.

Old Friends

The great part of the show is the friendships you can develop over the years I’ll highlight a few;

Away Outdoors

Fred & his son Greg are some of my favorite outdoor personalities and they have a great TV show. They also have some great products including great calls. This year’s new product is the turkey skinz but they are already sold out of them but you might find them still at Gander Mountain or Cabela’s. Greg was at another show but I’m hopeful that one of these years that the powers to be at the Dixie Deer Classic will invite Greg to speak.

Conman’s Guide Service

I’ve hunted a number of times with Mike and Connie and they have a top notch operation. They run a guide service on Lake Phelps in Washington County where they guide for bear, turkey, deer, swan, small game, and they have some unbelievable fishing on Lake Phelps.

Rac Plaques

I’ve known the Dorsett’s for a while but they have just started this business Rac Plaques which are plaques for putting your European mounts on. These guys have a quality product and it showed with this first show and how busy they stayed throughout the show.

New Friends

Allen Bliven Calls

I met Allen for the first time this weekend and what a great guy. He makes some sweet waterfowl calls and has some impressive young folks calling for him. He knows his stuff and he even took some time to help O’le Moose here try to learn to blow a duck call. I got like 6 months or so to practice before waterfowl opens back up and boy do I need some practice. In the near future I’ll bring you the story and hopefully some of the sounds from these champion callers.

Now a bit of a teaser one of these guys pulled a Bobby Knight on me and hit me with a chair during their lecture. You’ll have to tune in latter this week to hear that story.

I met so many friends and had a great time. There was some great deer on display and it looks like many of us had a great season. I didn’t buy much of anything just a few odds and ends, renewed my NRA and my subscription to NC Sportsman. I’d be curious to hear if any of my readers found any good deals or picked up some new equipment.

Overall it was a great show and I can hardly wait for next year.

Anybody that has hunted with me much will tell you that I’m a nut when it comes to the cold because I don’t seem to feel it. I often hunt with a sweater, a light jacket and or a vest if the temperatures drop down into the 20’s. What many don’t know that growing up in New England my definition of what is cold and what most of my fellow North Carolinians think is cold is to vastly different things.

The one part of my body that does get easily cold is my hands as a result of a touch of frost bite from my college days when I use to do a lot of ice fishing. It’s not unusual for me even when the rest of my body is fine in 30’ weather that if my hands get cold I’m apt to call it a day so I work hard to keep them warm. Hot Hands from Heat Max has been a product I rely on often and incase you don’t know Hot Hands are those air activated warming packs that comes in a variety of sizes.
I don’t know if anyone remembers the old hand warmers that you filled with butane and they burned in your pocket. I never used them because I questioned how safe they could be plus I got to believe wildlife could smell them. I know some folks from Maine who carried baked potatoes in their coat pockets and then they had lunch with them. What do you do after you eat your hand warmer for lunch?

When I discovered Hot Hands a number of years ago I started carrying them in my pack when I hunt. They are perfectly safe and when they are done you just throw them away. For a number of years on cold days I found myself stuffing Hot Hands down inside of my gloves to help keep my hands from getting cold and starting to ache. This past summer I was given a pair of these new Hot Hands Heated Mittens to try out and I couldn’t wait.

HotHands® Heated Mittens are constructed of tightly woven fleece with 40 grams of Thinsulate™ insulation. The mitten caps have pockets to hold HotHands 2® warmers for up to ten hours of added heat.

The mittens have a warm knit glove liner that is exposed when the mitten cap is folded back. This allows hunters to quickly get ready for a shot, or do other tasks while still affording some protection from the cold. When folded back, the mitten cap is held in place by a strong magnet to keep it out of the way.

HotHands Heated Mittens sell for a suggested retail price of $19.99.

Well the hunting season has pretty much wrapped up here with rabbits going out this week. I got most of my use during the deer season with a number of mornings the temperatures in the 20’s. The Thinsulate alone makes these mittens warm and once you add the Hot Hand Packs in the special pockets you have 10 hours of heat to keep your hands comfortably warm. I used the mittens a number of times without needing to add the Hot Hands. Another nice feature of these mittens is that you can peel the mitten part back reveling that your hand is actually inside a glove so you can use your fingers to shoot that gun or unlock that gate. Once your done tuck your gloved hand back inside the mitten and the added warmth. This is an awesome feature; they even put magnets in to help hold the mittens out of the way while you use the gloves. I don’t know about you but too much hunting equipment utilizes Velcro that cannot be quietly opened while sitting in a deer stand.

One word of caution if your old fashion like me and use a compass remember the magnets will throw your compass off.

Over all this is a great product and makes cold days afield a bit more comfortable. The pair I tested was the Orange ones but I plan to pick up a pair of the camo ones to wear while chasing those late season waterfowl & predators. Check your local retailer for this product and if they don’t have it tell them to get it.

Business article out of Louisiana (Bayou Business Review) might strike some as unusual but it seems to be a common practice across the south to buy old porta-johns and make deer stands out of them. You know the portable outhouses that you see at construction sites and rock concerts. When they wear out and are no longer useful to a construction crew or a bunch of drunk rockers some deer hunters put them on top of a platform and hunt out of them.
I suspect that at first most of these could be had for a willingness to haul them away but now the porta john business are realizing there is a market for them so they go for around $50 each. Just last week I saw a classified ad for 4 of them on a hunting website here in NC. I don’t have one at any of the clubs I hunt at but we have talked about looking for some to use as blinds. I guess when you look at Cabela’s and see they are selling basically new ones for1- 2k $50 for a used one is a good deal.

The ideal one to find is a used handicap one so if anyone knows of anyone wanting to unload a few drop me an email.

Well now I did it, while working on my weekly radio show I accidentally knocked my laptop off the table and onto the floor. Needless to say the laptop and especially the screen did not like this and it is big messed up. I guess I’ll find out how good my accidental insurance on it is that I got with it. So needless to say for this week I’ve requested that they run a best of show from my achieves, my blogs I’ll try to update as often as I can but it may not be daily. I can not stress enough to you the importance of backing your hard drive up, my last back up was just prior to my swan hunt a few weeks ago thanks to my wife doing it for me. Even so I have about 1000 photos as well as other files that I’ve added in the past few weeks that have not been backed up. If my laptop cannot be repaired I have an external hard drive that has my latest backup on it and hopefully the tech can save the additional files I’ve added since the last backup. The costs of external hard drives is pretty low especially if you find yourself in a situation like I’m in. Thanks for your understanding and I’ll keep you posted on what happens.