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.

Magnet Gun Caddy A Handy Device

I remember it like it was yesterday but it was actually a few years ago when I found myself looking down the muzzle of a 12 gauge. Although no one was holding on to it at the time, someone had laid it across a pickup truck toolbox, I turned my head as I walked towards my truck and it was just mere inches from my nose. It startled me and with a number of people in and around the truck it was still quite unnerving. Muzzle control is of utmost importance when it comes to gun safety and even guns that are out of our hands when we take a break.
I was given a Magnet Gun Caddy to try out but it came in at the end of turkey season and I haven’t had much opportunity to try it out.

A Smarter Way to Rest Your Gun
The Magnet Gun Caddy is designed to provide a handy place to rest and protect your gun and your car. Whether you are getting ready to begin your hunt, just taking a break to water your dogs, or returning from a rewarding experience in the field, the Magnet Gun Caddy provides a fast and convenient way to rest your gun. Remember, NEVER use the Magnet Gun Caddy with a loaded gun.

Well with some work days coming up and the sightings of a coyote at the last one it seemed like a pretty good idea that we keep some fire power close by. I wanted to check the zero on my 243 so it gave me a chance to try the Magnet Caddy out. I’m sure if you’re like me you’ve rested your gun against a truck. A good way to scratch the truck and certainly dangerous if that gun is loaded. The Magnet Caddy will securely hold your unloaded gun in place against your truck or any other steel object.
I was pretty impressed with the Magnet Gun Caddy and think it is something I’ll use regularly. It has been made a permanent addition to my truck toolbox so it will always be handy.
I would think with dove season coming up soon that this would be a product a lot of folks could use. Dove hunting is a big family event here in the south and what a better time to reinforce gun safety and to make sure all those muzzles are pointed up in a safe direction.

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Annual Fishing Trip A Success

The Crew & the haul

For a number of years now a group of us have been chartering a fishing trip on the Risky Business out of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. This past Friday we went out and once again Jamie put us on some fish. Years past we’ve gone after tile fish, a pretty tasty fish, but this year no one has had much success on them so we went for trigger fish.

Trigger Fish

I’d never caught a trigger fish before but they were a lot of fun on light tackle and in a little bit shallower water then the tiles. We caught about 85 trigger fish and a whole mess of sea bass with about 30 of them being keepers. When the fishing slowed on them they set up the trolling gear and we went after dolphin having a number of strikes but landing two.

oops not this type of dolphin but we saw a number of the mammal dolphins playing alongside the boat.

The day started and ended a bit on the choppy side getting out of port in the morning the waves seemed a bit choppy for this land lover. The return trip in the late afternoon saw us racing a line of storms that was coming in and I’ll admit I was happy to sit on the porch of the fishing center and watch Mother Nature’s fury. I may love to watch the deadliest catch but I certainly don’t want to even remotely live it.

What a great day and a mess of fish. The trigger fish were as tasty as promised, the dolphin was out of this world good and the sea bass was awesome. Jamie and Andy did a great job of taking care of us and putting us on some fish. As I’ve said before there is nothing Risky about chartering this boat other then you might have to good of a time and want to do it again real soon.
Risky Business has full day and half day charters still available this summer so check them out.

Annual Fishing Trips
2008
2007
2006

Part Two of My Maine Bear Hunt

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.

Giving a Gorilla a Make Over

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

A Taste Of Home Northwoods Sporting Journal in My Mail Box

As a benefit of blogging I’ve been given a subscription to the Northwoods Sporting Journal a New England outdoor magazine. Having grown up in New England I have a lot of ties with the area and like to keep up with what is going on up there. I even on occasion chase moose or bear across the northern woods and I do enjoy the tug of a brook trout on the line.

I’m excited about the coming year and the news and stories that will come in monthly. Just a quick glance of the current magazine there is local stories like places to go clamming in NH, ice fishing reports and stories that reach to a much larger audience and not necessarily just New England folks. There is a great story on how to read a compass, using blinds to turkey hunt and one very funny story about the trouble a Maine Warden got into on the side of a road.
It seems that a trucker hit a doe with fawns killing the doe and the fawns ran off. After much searching the warden and the trucker could not find the fawns so they pulled the doe away from the road in hopes the fawns would return to the doe. The warden planned to increase patrols in that area to see if he could catch the young fawns. Latter that day he was passing by when he saw a car pulled off the road and two ladies running into the bushes. Knowing that they must have spotted the fawns he swung around and tried to catch up with them before they scared the fawns away. Well he ran into the bushes calling to them and found them answering natures call and they were not to happy. His telling of the story is much better and much funnier then my readers digest version.

Why I have never subscribed to Northwoods before I have to say it’s because I never remember. I buy Northwoods almost every time I visit the state so now I have no excuse. If you enjoy a quality outdoor magazine you should check them out and who knows maybe you’ll hear the call of the North Woods to come hunt a bear, a moose, or maybe even a trophy buck of a lifetime.

Camo Space is like a My Space for Outdoor Types

I joined My Space a while back and although there are some outdoor folks on their I got far more hits from “way out there folks” I’ve been on Camo Space officially now for a day but so far it seems to be true hunters & other outdoor types. Check it out if you like… I’ll keep you posted about my experience and if I think this is the real deal.

HeatMax Heated Mittens Warm Your Cold Hands

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.

Back In the Saddle Got The Computer Back

Updates and posts were a bit slow while the computer was out being worked on. The warranty and accidental break policy I bought from Best Buy seemed to pay for it’s self on this goof. Parts alone were over $400 so I know I got my moneys worth. They missed the broken USB Port somehow even though it was on the work sheet. Have to take it back to them tomorrow and show them that but I may hold off on having that repaired until the timing is better. Like latter this spring while I’m in the woods chasing a turkey and I can’t do updates anyways.

I’ll try to get some new posts up on the photography blog Moose’s Wild America. Thanks for everyone’s understanding.

Cabela’s Hunting Coat Is Great

Last summer while on vacation out west I walked into Cabela’s near Salt Lake City and stumbled on a deal. I found this Upland Game Hunting Coat in the markdown section of the store. I paid about ½ price for it but even if I paid full price I think it would be a deal.

Now anyone that knows me knows I’m warm nature so coats are not an item of clothing I wear much, however today walking the briars this coat was great protecting me. I normally wear an upland vest with just a sweatshirt but that often gets me hung up in them red briars especially. I’ll admit I never zipped my coat up and with the temps in the 30’s- 40’s I was plenty comfortable.

Some good things about this coat is the large pockets and the large game bag, on my game vest the pockets are not as big or deep and I often drop my bottle of water out of it. Today with this coat this was not an issue at all. A very comfortable coat protecting me from the brush only my exposed skin has scratches tonight. If you’re looking for a good upland coat this is one certainly worth checking out.

Tundra Swan Hunting & Conman’s Guide Service On this Week’s Show

Tune in today to my radio show at 1pm to hear about my Tundra Swan hunting adventures as well about Conman’s Guide Service. Mike and Connie run the guide business on the shores of lake phelps in Washington County. This was my third tundra swan hunt with them and it was a great time. In addition to the Tundra Swan they have bear, deer, turkey, and small game as well as access to the lake that has some phenomenal fishing. I’ve personally hunted deer, swan, turkey and rabbits with them and have never been disappointed. They provide quality service as well as some very nice accommodation’s that they refer to as “cottages” but feel more like home.
So join me for this week’s show.

Last Minute Goose Hunt Leads to A Black Cloud

I haven’t done much hunting this year but a invite for a goose hunt this past Saturday sounded like the perfect way to ease myself back into hunting. Normally I’ve bought and stock up on steel shot so these last minute deals are not a big deal but I hadn’t done that yet. Friday evening I found myself wandering into the local Dicks Sporting Goods to pick up some shot. I began to panic a bit when I realized that the selection of steel shot was a bit slim and the largest shot I could find in my favorite brand was #2. Not really enough to goose hunt, BBB’s or T’s is what I usually want. Well as I’m searching around I see the new Federal Black Cloud and they have a couple of boxes of BBB’s so I grabbed them.

I’ve certainly heard the hype about these shells but not one to jump into that I had no real intention of trying them out. Daybreak found me in my layout blind in a cow pasture with my gun loaded with Black Cloud Shells. Well the geese certainly didn’t fly in like we had hoped by we did squeeze out a few. My initial thoughts about this product are that what I thought was hype is really the truth.
Federal has taken the science and technology to improve turkey loads and now using them in waterfowl loads. I certainly want to shoot some more with this product to really run it through its paces but so far it looks real good. I may have to pick up some duck loads as well to see how it works on them as well.

The view from my blind at daybreak

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