Moose Droppings

I ran across an interesting article in the Salt Lake Tribune on how to survive encounters with wildlife. They cover the wildlife native to their part of the country but much applies to a large part of the United States. Check it out and maybe you’ll walk away from your next photo op with a buffalo.

Photo & Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Photo Courtesy of NC Wildlife

Spring is here and the does are dropping fawns. This time of year it’s not unusual for people to find fawns and not see the doe around please do not handle the fawns because most of these fawns are not lost. Does hide fawns to keep them away from predators and will latter return for them.

During May and June, people see fawns left alone and assume they have been abandoned by the doe. But whitetails are a “hider” species, meaning the female will conceal her fawn in vegetation during the first two or three weeks of its life while she feeds.
Dappled and lacking scent, fawns are well-camouflaged and usually remain undetected by predators. The doe returns to the fawn several times a day to nurse and clean it, staying only a few minutes each time before leaving again to seek food.
But fawns are far from helpless. By the time a fawn is five days old it can outrun a human. At three to six weeks of age, it can escape most predators. Although they may continue to nurse for another four to six months, fawns are functionally weaned by about 10 weeks, eating vegetation and other browse.
Unless a fawn is in imminent danger — suffering an injury, for example, or being attacked by dogs — the best decision is to leave it alone. If you are concerned about the fawn, leave the area and check back the next day. If the fawn is in the same location when you return the following day and is bleating loudly, or if a fawn is lying beside a dead doe (usually at the side of a roadway), do not take the fawn into possession. Instead, contact the Wildlife Resources Commission at (919) 707-0040 for the telephone number of a local permitted fawn rehabilitator.

Last year while at Yellowstone we watched a antelope doe hide a fawn in the brush and then she wandered all over creation laying down a scent trail for a coyote that was hunting her fawn. The fawn being virtually scent free remained motionless and hidden while the doe lead that coyote all over the place. The coyote finally got tired and gave up. Whitetails do the same thing so leave the fawn be.

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission reminds boaters to be safe on the waterways and to be prepared for emergencies.

“Before that first trip, take time to prepare,” Capt. Huebner said. “A few minutes beforehand inspecting equipment and getting ready could save many hours of distress and possible injury later. Wildlife officers will patrol the waterways across North Carolina to ensure safety, performing vessel inspections and watching for intoxicated and dangerous boaters.”

Capt. Chris Huebner, NCWRC Boating Safety Coordinator

The NCWRC offers some online resources for boaters like a safety checklist and vessel operators guide in addition to finding out about boating safety courses.
There are two on line classes’ available one exclusively for NC; Boat Ed and another online program that meets the requirements for many other states besides NC is Amboat. Both of these allow you to pay on line, take the class and also complete the test for a certification.

Additionally boaters are urged to follow these other recommendations;

Wildlife officers who patrol the state’s waterways also recommend:
• Wear a Life Vest: Everyone should, but children younger than 13 are required by law to wear a proper personal floatation device. In an emergency, wearing a life vest can be a lifesaver.
• Boat Safe, Boat Sober: Alcohol consumption can prove dangerous for operators and passengers. State law sets a .08 blood-alcohol level as intoxicated and illegal for operating boats and motor vehicles.
• Free Boating Education: Courses are offered at no charge across the state by the Wildlife Resources Commission. Completion also certifies anyone between the ages of 14 and 16 to operate a personal watercraft in North Carolina.
• Blue Light = No Wake: A vessel within 100 feet of a law enforcement vessel displaying flashing blue lights must slow to a no-wake speed. In narrow channels, the distance is 50 feet.

Enjoy the Water Safely

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose

Earlier this week I did a story about big bears in the eastern part of the state but the reality is that bear management in this state has increased the number of bears across the entire state. The concentration of bears remains in the western and eastern sections of the state but we in the central portions of the state are coming across the occasional bear.

With the increase in bears and the increase in human populations as well as the development of land that were once undeveloped bear and human encounters are also on the rise. Over the years the black bear has not been viewed by many people with the same fear that his cousin the grizzly but that perception is changing with the numerous attacks over the past few seasons.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has issued some tips to help those living in bear country and the big one is to not purposely or inadvertently feed a bear because he’ll return time after time looking for food.

“Feeding a bear rewards it for coming in close proximity to you and your home,” said Michael Juhan, a commission biologist. “When the food becomes unavailable, the bear may resort to damaging items around your property in search of it. In addition, bears feeding on unnatural food sources around your home may cause them to lose their fear of humans and approach them – a situation that rarely ends well for the bear and could have potential safety issues for humans as well.”

NCWRC

Moving bears that have become a problem bear is not a practice that the NCWRC will do because it often does not work these bears will need to be killed. Studies have shown that bears moved from one area to a new area, even if it’s a 100 miles, will often return to the old area. Additionally bears that have learned to associate humans with food can be unpredictable and extremely dangerous.

Here are some thing we can do around our homes and camps to avoid problems;

• Secure bags of trash inside cans stored in a garage, basement or other secure area, and place outside as late as possible on trash pick-up days – not the night before.
• Purchase bear-proof garbage cans or bear-proof your existing garbage container by outfitting it with a secure latching system.
• Discontinue feeding wild birds during spring and summer, even with feeders advertised as “bear proof.” Bears can still be attracted to seed that spills on the ground.
• Do not “free-feed” pets outdoors. If you must feed pets outdoors, make sure all food is consumed.
• Clean all food and grease from barbecue grills after each use. Bears are attracted to the food odors and may investigate.

NCWRC has additional resources on how to co-exist with wildlife that is worth checking out.

From my own experience and the anecdotal information from other hunters the season has been an odd one. Many hunters are reporting hearing a lot less gobbling then usual and seeing less gobblers. We know that the past two hatches have not been good and that is certainly contributing to the strange season. Of course even with the bad hatches the ever expanding turkey flock across the state has given more hunters opportunity to hunt turkeys.
In today’s N&O Outdoor Section Alex Webb had a great article about how the season has been going and some suggestions on tactics to bag a late season gobbler. What really caught my eye in this article was NCWRC information on the number of birds tagged in the first 6 days.

Evin Stanford, the surveys and research biologist for deer, turkey and boar with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, looked at harvest figures through the first six hunting days of the season and said there had been 4,268 gobblers shot compared to 3,950 in 2007 and 4,475 in 2006.
“It looks as though we are going to have a pretty strong season. Of course, if we have really rainy Saturdays from here on out, then that can affect harvest. But if we just have normal weather conditions, then it looks like we are going to have a pretty strong harvest this year, probably above last year,” Stanford said.

Well that’s great news and why we shouldn’t put much stock in anecdotal information because I would have bet the kill was way down. It appears that we are entering the second gobbling phase where the gobblers will gobble more and be more apt to seek out hens because many of the hens have gone to nest. Even with this phase it is not necessarily any easy because you got to factor the past two weeks of education on calls, decoys, and hunters the gobblers have gotten. I think late morning and early afternoon will be the best bet for finding a lonely gobbler so good luck.

Story & Photo by Dan McLaughlin (AKA Moose)

Turkey season opens up in North Carolina on Saturday. This is a two part series I wrote about a plan on how to hunt gobblers. I hope you enjoy and I hope everyone has a successful morning.

In Part One I covered a little about Pre Season Scouting up to your initial set up on opening day. If you haven’t read that you may want to go back and look at that before reading Part Two.
Deciding to Move

Well morning has broken and the birds are off the roost and the woods are alive with excitement. As the morning wears on you begin to have doubts in your initial set up. How long should you stay with your initial set up? That is often the $64,000 question I’ll tell you there have been times I felt that I stayed in the initial place to long and other times I’ve been busted by getting up to move to a new location. My thought is that unless I have a really good plan on where and what I want to do next I tend to linger a bit at the setup till I develop a plan of action. Review what happened in your mind and try to learn from it. Where did the gobbler go? Did he bust you? If so how come? How many gobblers did you have in the area how many hens? Process the information you have gathered so far and use it to formulate your plan.

Some important things to think about first off every gobbler does not sound off in the morning. There is a good likelihood that if he is not the dominant gobbler that he’ll keep quiet to avoid getting his tail kicked. Many of hunters have been surprised by a silent gobbler coming in on them if your ready you maybe back to your coffee real soon if not you’ll be caught flat footed and busted as he runs or flies off.

Mid Morning

This is a good time to find a gobbler that is lonely so I’m apt to begin moving through the woods and trying to strike a hot gobbler. Enticing a shock gobble is a good sign but if that is your only strategy you maybe missing some good hunting opportunities. Using some hen calls can also be very effective but I would caution you to be in position whenever you use a turkey call because you may have one come right in. Any areas that you have previously identified as strut zones are good bets to try to sneak in on.
A word of caution about moving around the turkey woods in full camo and turkey calling; many of the turkey vests have orange flaps and you may want to expose them while moving. The expectation is always that a shooter will properly identify their target prior to pulling the trigger but after the fact it maybe to late. Always think about safety.

Midmorning you are apt to catch Jakes, or gobblers who never had or had a hen that gave him the slip. They are often a little bit easier to call in but don’t take it for granted because one mistake and they’ll be gone in a flash. Usually some soft calling and scratching in the leaves will bring them in. A turkey’s hearing is phenomenal and for the most part the day-to-day communications turkeys make are very much softer then one would think. If you’ve never experienced it listen next fall when your sitting on a deer stand as a turkey flock goes by. They are heavy footed and make a lot of sound that way but their vocalizations are fairly soft. I’m a firm believer in softening up the calls in most situations to match nature. That doesn’t mean you should never be loud but just look at what’s happening around you and try to match the woods milieu.

Should you come upon a group of turkeys attempting to call the gobbler to you is often futile because he has company. In that situation call the hens if they come your way you can bet the gobblers will follow.

Late Morning Early Afternoon

Early in the season this is the time that hens begin breaking away to take care of their nesting duties. Every day this will get earlier and earlier until the hen lays a clutch of eggs. This will give you more gobblers without hens and this is the time of day I seemed to have my best level of success. This is not the time to call it a day and head for lunch. I will often cruise the woods like I posted earlier using some of those tactics.
I often will slip back to the area where I started my day out and try to do some calling there. It’s not unusual for the gobbler to return to this area where he met all his lady friends seeing if he can find them again. This is a time of the day I’ll often utilize a blind on a field. If I’m tired and need to eat some lunch and get off my feet for a little bit and do some calling.
Other areas that can be productive are dusting areas I sometimes will prop a decoy in the bowl with some small rocks to make it look like one is in there dusting. I’ll admit that other then other hens coming in I’ve not had much luck with this tactic thus far.

Afternoon

I’ll admit to me the middle of the afternoon seems to be the least productive time to hunt but you got to be present to win so stick with it. I reflect on what has happened so far maybe try to figure out a game plan for the late afternoon evening hunt. I’ll decide whether I want to continue to blind hunt or to strike out for a stroll. One good thing is that for the most part you’ll often have the woods to yourself. If you can get one fired up this time of day the odds he’ll come to you are pretty good.

Late Afternoon / Evening

This is the time to set up near the area you expect the gobbler to roost and try to intercept him before he goes to roost. Obviously areas you’ve heard them in your pre season scouting and your early morning hunting are great places to set up. I like late afternoon / evening hunting because if you know the area they like to roost then your apt to have an encounter that will lead to you calling 1-800 I Got One.

This is my basic hunt plan; now grant it location, weather, hunting pressure and a variety of other factors will weigh in on how I approach a day of turkey hunting. Talk to other turkey hunters and they’ll have other ideas on what you need to do to bag your bird. Well good luck on Saturday and I hope everyone has a safe fun day afield.

Opening day 2001 Brad & Jeff Get their Birds

Turkey season opens here in a few days and many of us hope to experience opening day success. Today and tomorrow I’ll be running a series of articles I’ve written to hopefully help you be successful and remind me of what I need to do to be successful.

A common question new turkey hunters ask is how to you go about locating a gobbler? Well there is a lot of tactics one can use but I’ll tell you what I do. In the spring the gobbler’s mind turns to love and if you find the hens you’ll find the gobblers. The basic method is to sound like a hen and to attract a gobbler in to your setup which is exactly the opposite of how it happens in nature. Gobblers don’t have to seek out the hens but the hens run right to them so the odds are already stacked against us because we are asking them to reverse roles.

Pre Season Scouting

Scouting the area you plan to hunt is a good way to get the lay of the land and to try to figure out where the birds are at. Glassing fields and open areas looking for strutting gobblers will give you some great information because often times the gobblers have favorite areas they like to use. Try to study the travel routes they use to and from the area this will help you to pick a place to try to set up.

Listening for gobblers especially at daybreak and sunset will give you some idea as to where they are roosting. There is a variety of shock gobbler calls ( Crow, Owl, Coyote, Woodpecker, and Peacock) that you can use to get them to gobble. I would caution you from using any turkey calls prior to the season because you are educating the birds and making them that much harder to call once the season comes in.

Although I don’t use them many people are using game cameras to help them scout areas too.

Evening Before Hunt

I like to try to help put some odds in my favor for opening day by going out the night before and trying to roost a bird. I have identified locations in my hunting area that border prime roosting areas and I take up a listening post for the evening in the area to see if I can’t locate a gobbler. Gobblers will often gobble a little before the go to roost or shortly after they get on the roost. You can also get them to shock gobble to one of the calls we talked about earlier. If you roost your bird the night before at least you have a good place to start in the morning if you weren’t so lucky at least you have eliminated a starting point in the morning and you can look else where. Also remember the saying “A roosted bird is not a roasted bird” the odds are still in his favor unless he makes a mistake.

Opening Day Pre Dawn

If you roosted a bird the evening before you should head that direction if not get to a place to listen for that first morning gobble. Once again you can use a shock call to help entice a gobble. I more often will allow the woods to wake up and let nature take her course to get Tom fired up. Once you have a gobbler sounding off you want to sneak in on him and try to set up. In the early season remember there is little foliage on trees and that Tom can see pretty far so you want to use the land as best you can and avoid bumping the bird. The more knowledge you have of the woods and the likely strut areas the better to help you position yourself to get a crack at the gobbler. Even with all that information it’s still a roll of the dice as to where that bird will go when he comes off the roost.

Calling to the Bird / Shooting Light

I hunt either on public lands or lands that borders public lands so often I limit my calling because it seems everybody and their brother is calling a lot. I’ll often do a few soft tree yelps, a fly down cackle using my hat to simulate wing beats, and some light scratching in the leaves to sound like a feeding turkey. Hopefully this works for you and you are filling out your report card before the coffee you left in your travel mug gets cold. If not Tune in here tomorrow and we’ll plan the rest of the opening day to hopefully help you locate and kill a gobbler.

Lots of Great Info on the Wild Turkey can be found at the NWTF and it’s a great organization to join.

On today’s show I offer a quick look at what you need to have and do to try your hand at turkey hunting. Turkeys at one time were not as widely available for hunters in North Carolina as they are today. Season opens in a week (or tomorrow if your a youth) so you got some time to get ready and give turkey hunting a try. Moose Droppings the Radio Show airs every Friday at 1 pm or you can download the podcast for free off my archives when it becomes available.

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.

Processing of Game is often A Family affair. Black bear being dressed and skinned

Many of the local and national news shows led with the story of the largest meat recall in the history of the US. The video that is getting shown was report to be shot by someone within the HSUS that certainly in my opinion puts up a red flag. The HSUS certainly would not hesitate to use underhanded tactics or do questionable things to get this tape. Make no mistake folks their agenda is not to see that your little Billy and Sally have a safe cheeseburger for lunch tomorrow at school but rather to shut down much of our agricultural industries. We’ll have to wait and see if the accusations against this company stand up to scrutiny and the investigations that are to come.

No matter what happens there is no reason that you should fear meat despite the issues of cloning, mad cow disease, antibiotics & hormones, and the safe handling of meat in the supply chain. You can avoid many of these by harvesting you own naturally fed, organic, free range game with a simple hunting license and a little elbow grease. I like many of you supply meat that I saw alive and moving so I can safely assume it is pretty healthy, and I care for that meat from the time it hits the ground till it hits the plate. I love to hunt and one of the great things is that I know a lot more about the meat on my grill then the folks that go to the best butcher shop in town to buy theirs.

This day it is popular to be green and I bet I use less energy to get my deer or bear from the field and to the table then the average burger joint. So you want to be green go kill ya a deer and put it up then you’ll know your meat is safe.

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.

A successful hunt and a great trip to Washington County NC but its good to be back home. It was a bit hectic leading up to last Thursday when I left for Washington County but I soon felt relaxed as I sat in a muddy ditch on Friday morning in full camo watching tundra swan circling the decoys.
This morning I didn’t even have my gun opting for the camera and the opportunity to see a young person bag her first swan. But that is another story that I’ll post latter.
Friday afternoon Billy, Nicole, and I bagged our swans as we slipped back into the field after lunch. Tundra Swan unlike many of the other waterfowl seems to fly best on blue bird type days. They also fly all day so hunts are not necessarily limited to the hours around sunrise and sunset.
We went back into the field around 1:30 and we each had our bird by 3pm. The field we were hunting was an old corn field that had been reseeded in winter wheat. The tender wheat as well as the old corn is a tempting meal to the swans. The land is very flat so it is easy to spot the places the birds are working because once a few hit the field it attracts even more in. We saw fields with thousands of birds in them so the decoy spread of a couple hundred goose decoys painted white lured these birds in.

In the coming days I’ll share some of my photos on both of my blogs and post additional stories about hunts I photographed on Saturday and Monday before I returned home. It’s good to be back home and maybe I can stay ahead of the chaos.

Thanks to Mike, Connie, & Andy at Conman’s Guide Service for a great time.