The Hunting Files

Tips For Sighting In A Rifle

If you're having a tough time getting your sights/scope set on your rifle, sometimes it's not always the sights/scope that are the issue.  First off, make sure everything is tight.  This applys to both iron sights, and scope mounts.  Any attachment screws, put a pretty good tourqe on them to ensure they are tight.  Some people also put a drop of Loc-Tite glue on the threads of the screw to make sure they don't come loose.  If you do use the Loc-Tite though, make sure it's the kind that is meant for screw threads and not the "regular" kind, otherwise you won't be able to get the screw out at a later date if need be.

Once you've made sure everything is secure, now you can start getting down to business.  If you're sighting in a .22 rifle, you'll need to "coat" the barrel first.  .22 rimfire bullets have a wax coating on them.  This coating is meant to lubricate the barrel as the bullet is traveling down it.  The trick to this though is that you're gun will shoot all over the place until the barrel gets fully coated with the wax.  Shoot 50-100 rounds through the barrel to accomplish this.  Once it's fully coated, you should have a white "star" on the end of the muzzle from the excess wax.  Your rifle will now hold a zero.  When you clean your rifle, don't clean the inside of the barrel.  I usually clean mine once a year, or when accuracy starts to suffer.  Afterwards, I recoat the barrel with the wax.  Before I was aware of this, I would go hunting (with a clean gun) and was lucky to get 1.  I would come back and sight the scope in, and then go home and clean the barrel.  The next weekend, I would go hunting again, and again, lucky to get 1 squirrel.  I was telling the gentleman who's land I hunt on about what the rifle was doing.  He asked me if I was cleaning the barrel out.  Since then, it's rare I miss a shot.

With the above, if you're using a centerfire or either a .17 HMR or Mach2, you'll want to clean the barrel after your shooting sessions.  The .17 bullets are designed like a centerfire bullet and the copper foulings will hurt accuracy.

Now, if you have access to a bore sighter, use that to "get on the paper".  If not, if you're shooting a bolt action, take the bolt out and center the bulls eye of the target in the center of the bore (make sure your rifle is set in a vice or on sand bags so it won't move).  With the bore centered on the target, adjust the scope or sights to the bulls eye of the target.  This will also work with a break action type gun.

If you've got a semiauto, scoot up close to the target (20-30 feet), sight in on the bulls eye and shoot a couple of rounds.  Adjust your scope/sights accordingly to where you hit.

With a scope, the top dial will adjust elevation, and the side dial will adjust windage.  The top should be labeled "UP" and an arrow pointing in a direction.  The side will be labeled "L" and an arrow.  When adjusting a scope, move the dial in the direction you want the bullet to go.  If your shooting high, turn the dial on the scope in the "down" direction.  Same thing with your windage adjustment.  Iron sights are similar.  You move your sights in the direction you want to hit.  Usually with most scopes, 1 click equals 1/4" movement at 100 yds.  Whenever you're adjusting your sights/scope, move it a little at a time.  Even if my scope is way off, I rarely move the adjustment more than 4-5 clicks at any one time.  Move your sights a little, shoot a 3-5 shot group and see where you hit to see if the scope/sights need further adjustment.  Keep moving your sights/scope until you get it where you want it.

Always remember when adjusting sights, if you're dealing with the front sight (such as the sight pins on a bow), you move that sight in the direction that you hit.  If you hit high, move your sight up.  Hit left, move it left.  With a rear sight (such as most adjustable rifle sights and scopes), you adjust according to where you want the bullet to go.  If you hit high, move your sight down.  Hit left, move your sight right.

Hope this helps!
Big58cal

Squirrel Hunting Lessons From The Master

Squirrel hunting lessons from the master..........Yeah, Right!!!

I'm in no way a "Master" at squirrel hunting.  I do decent, but a lot of it has to do with having a good place to hunt.  The easiest, and most efficient way I've found to squirrel hunt is to walk a little and stand a lot.  If you're hunting in the fall, look for mast trees (i.e. oak, hickory, walnut, etc).  Here in KY, they generally cut Shagbark hickory if there are any in the area, followed by Pignut hickory.  Go into an area where you've got mast trees and spend more time looking and listening than walking.  Most of the squirrels I get are from hearing them than seeing them.  Listen for things dropping out of the trees and hitting the leaves.  I know what you're thinking, "There's tons of stuff that falls out of the trees."  Listen for stuff dropping in the same area or out of the same tree.  If the squirrel has a tough, thick shelled nut, you'll hear them 'cutting' on the nut.  This sounds a lot like rubbing the edge of an empty shotgun hull over the ridges on the edge of a quarter (which by the way, some people use as a call).  Other things to listen for are squirrels barking at something, or just general chatter, and the rustling of leaves when they're on the ground.

Listen more than you walk.  I'll usually take about 10-15 steps, lean against or sit down at a tree, and stay there for 5-15 minutes.  If you've found a hot tree that the squirrels are really cutting on, camp out in a good spot where you can see quite a bit of the tree (don't "camp out" literally).  You have to consider, the squirrels live in that patch of woods 24/7, whereas you may only spend a few hours there once a week.  They know more about the area than we do. 

Anyway, listen for squirrels.  Don't expect to see them all of the time.  Once you've "heard" one, then get a little closer and try to spot it.  After you shoot the squirrel, STAY PUT!  Where there's 1 squirrel, there's sometimes another.  Just make the spot where the squirrel fell, and after a few minutes, if you haven't seen/heard any others, then go pick up your squirrel and move a little.  A typical hunt has me covering about 300 yds in about 3 hours.

The main thing to remember is to take your time, enjoy yourself and nature, and never take it too seriously.  When you start taking squirrel hunting too seriously, then it's no fun any more.  Also, if you can, take a kid out with you.  Squirrel hunting is a great way to introduce kids to hunting.  Make sure they wear ear and eye protection though!

Big58cal

Deer Hunting with my Nephew

This past fall (2006), I had both my brother ask me if I would take his son hunting with me.  My brother hunts, and usually takes him, but this past fall he wasn't able to.  My brother is in the military (nearing retirement), and was deployed over to Africa for the better part of the year.  He wasn't able to take Alex (his son) hunting with him, so he asked if I would.  No problem!

Alex came in for our general rifle season, but since only his dad had the combination to the safe, it was up to me to outfit him with whatever he needed.  When packing stuff for the weekend trip, whatever I was taking, I had to pack an extra for Alex.  Gun, ammo, binoculars, camo, socks, insulated underwear, boots.......................  The back of my truck was LOADED!  We get down to the land, and after getting the truck unloaded, went to shoot the guns.  After making sure that the scope was set for Alex's eyes, and that he was able to actually hit something with it, I gave him a couple extra boxes of cartridges and told him to have fun, while I went off and did other things.

The next morning (opening morning), of course, it was raining.  Not wanting Alex to get wet, I put him in a little 4x8 shooting shack that we have built, while I went off to hunt another area.  Before I left him, I told him where the deer would probably come from, so on and so forth, and told him about what time I would be back to get him.  Before leaving though, I told him, "Alex, whatever you do, STAY IN THE SHACK!  If you shoot one, just stay here.  I'll hear you shoot and I'll come over."  This was only the second time Alex had been deer hunting (he had squirrel hunted quite a bit in the past though), so he didn't know how to track one, and I didn't want him to destroy any sign that was there, especially with it raining.  Alex was 17, but still green when it came to deer hunting.

I went over to my spot, put on the rain gear, and flipped the hood up.  It was still raining, but it was a drizzle, just enough to be aggrivating.  Several years ago, I started hunting mainly from the ground, so this area was no different.  During our early muzzleloading season, I had seen a really nice buck (beams out past his ears, and tall tines), but hadn't been able to get a shot.  I was hoping that this buck would show back up that morning.  The previous fall I had gotten a .444 Marlin rifle, so this was what I had (a little overkill for deer, but I still wanted to take it), while Alex had one of my .270 Win rifles.  Just a little after daylight, I looked to my left and saw a buck coming up to the hill straight toward me FAST!  With the leaves being wet, and the wind blowing, I hadn't seen the deer until he was about 20-25 yards away.  I could see multiple points, and the rack was tall, so I assumed that it was the deer I was after.  When his head went behind a tree, about 20 feet in front of me, I shouldered the rifle.  When his side cleared the tree and the crosshairs of the scope hit his shoulder, I touched the trigger.  At the shot, the deer jumped in the air, almost turning a flip, and started running down the bench just below me.  He made it about 30 yards and piled up.  After watching the deer hit the ground, I decided just to stay there a little longer since it was still early, hoping to see if anything else came by, so that I bring Alex up there the next day if he didn't get anything.  After about 5 minutes, it started raining harder, and the wind started picking up.  That was enough for me!!  I packed my stuff, and headed to the deer.  Once I was there, I found out that the deer wasn't exactly the one that I had thought he was.  It was an 8 pt, but had a narrow spread.  Oh well, it's still a good deer, and it all eats the same.  I drug the deer to the edge of the food plot, I walked out to get the 4 wheeler, field dressed the deer, and headed back to the house.  I was back at my mother's house, drinking a cup of coffee by 8:00 AM.  While I was in there talking to my mother and step-dad, my brother called from Africa.  As I was talking to him, I heard a shot go off from up on the hill, in the general direction Alex was at.  I tell my brother this, and tell him, "OK, I better go check on him."  Since my 4 wheeler has a deer on it, I go over to the barn and get my brother's 4 wheeler and ride up on the hill to the shack.

I drove slowly and quietly up to the shack, and stopped right beside it.  Inside, Alex has a big grin on his face, and his whole body is shaking!  HaHaHa!  "Did you shoot?"  "Yeah"  "Was it a buck?"  "Yep"  "Pretty good one?"  "Yeah"  "Which way did he go?"  "Over the hill that way.  Uncle Mark, can I get out of here now??"  Poor guy was tore up!  He came out of the shack, and took me to where the deer had been standing when he shot.  There was hair there and a few drops of blood.  On further, there was a really good blood trail, so I figured that the deer wasn't very far away.  Alex wasn't following the blood trail, but was wanting to go to the last place he had seen the deer.  I kept having to pull him back, showing him different things about the trail, and how to follow it.  It was worse than trying to pull a coon dog back off a hot trail!!!  We topped over the hill, and there layed his deer.  He had made a good lung shot, with the deer having traveled maybe 50 yards.  Counting the points, it was a basket-racked 7 pt.  Alex was looking at the deer and said, "Well, I got dad a deer."  I told him, "B.S.!  Man, that's YOUR deer!"  I put Alex to dragging the deer down the hill to another road where I could get the 4 wheeler to it, while I went back down to the house to see if my brother was still on the phone.  He was, so I told him everything that had happened.  He was tickled to death!

Once I got up to where Alex was, I cleaned some of the blood off of the deer, and posed him with the deer for pictures.  After the pictures, I walked him through field dressing the critter.  We got it loaded, and down to the barn and hung up, as well as hanging mine.  Not too bad for getting everything done by 10:00 AM.

Alex and his step-mother had to fly back home the next day, so I got stuck not only processing my deer, but his as well.  Since Alex really liked the deer, I took pains skinning it, and took the hide to the taxidermist to have them tan it for him for his Christmas present.  I also took the antlers, mounted them on a plaque, drilled a hole in the side of the empty cartridge case, and mounted it on the plaque as well.  I was able to give him the mounted antlers for Christmas, along with a picture of the hide, and a picture of the front of the taxidermy shop, since the hide won't be done until this fall.

It was a good weekend, one that I'll probably remember for the rest of my life.  My son is only 5 now, but in a few years he'll be right there with me hunting.  Until then, the one thing that I'll remember about the whole weekend will be, "Uncle Mark, can I get out of here now!"

Big58cal

Young Turkey Hunters Remembered

Many years ago two hungry, skinny Indian kids received word of domestic turkeys escaping a turkey processing plant that was operating about a half mile from home. The word spread quickly, and a lethal force was soon formed and in hot persuit of the fast running birds.  During the bird chase, the two brothers soon realized the fruitlessly chased birds were too fleet of foot and had the problem solved as soon as they returned home. Returning minutes later armed with their bows and arrows, the hunt was on. On the return to the wooded ravine where the birds sought refuge and were being chased through the brush and trees, the two boys waited in ambush. After a bug infested and hot wait lasting probably and hour, along came a running huge white tom turkey. The two archers sat back to back, so as to cover the escape route with a well planned ambush. As the big tom came abreast, the one year elder brother let his arrow fly. With excitement he saw the arrow strike home, but the bird jumped up and continued his escape. Not to be outdone, the brothers knew the bird was crippled and was still destined for the dinner table. After a long stalk back toward the plant, the bird was spotted running toward the loading dock. Turkeys are not noted as being the smartest bird by many, but this bird was smart. He ran under a parked dropped semi trailer and flew/jumped up and perched onto the undercarriage of the trailer dolly.  The younger brother slowly circled around the trailer and the older brother crept to the rear of the trailer and carefully peeked under the trailer. There perched the crafty bird, with his butt facing the young warrior. The lad drew full draw and let loose the feathered wood missile and watched it strike home, a perfect Texas shot, right up the you-know-what of the big tom. the big bird flopped off the undercarriage with some help of the arrow, ran a few steps, and collapsed. My brother and I made a perfect hunting team and were walking tall when we returned home to our happy parents with the bird over my shoulder.  After that hunt, we were well prepared for the rest of the escaping turkeys that we lugged home. It's not the amount of effort per pound of game, it's the hunt and actually putting something on the table. 

John Andrews     John's Custom Knives

Coyote Hunting Access

GAINING HUNTING ACCESS.... I live 100 miles from the nearest National Forest or public hunting lands, but I have access to thousands of acres of hunting land nearby. I can't help other hunters with access, because most of the areas I hunt I have permission for only myself. But I can tell you how I gained access to all this land. Most of the ranchers in my area have had problems with coyotes attacking and/or killing some of their livestock. Each loss of livestock is a large loss of profit to their ranching business. I have learned how to call coyotes. At first I was not very good at it, but that didn’t stop me from telling the ranchers that I wanted to help them with their coyote problem. Pick out a rural area where the ranches are large and far apart. Go to the ranch house and tell the rancher that you can help him with his coyote problem. Look for ranch houses that are small and not well kept with large barns for cattle and horses. That is a working ranch and an indication that they have lots of land where they run the cattle. Approach the rancher in a friendly manner and tell him that you want to help him. This is the time when you present your Hunting Business Card. Once you get permission plus a coyote or two for the farmer and gain his confidence and respect, you will probably be the only hunter with access to that land. This kind of a hunting arrangement is worth working for. Later, after you remove more coyotes, you can tell the rancher about all of the other varmints, such as ground squirrels and wild pigs, that you can help him with. I have yet to meet a rancher that wasn’t happy for me to thin out the ground squirrels after I get the coyote population under control.

Varmint Al

www.varmintal.com

Fine Dining At The Hunting / Fishing Camp!

Take several small fish or small game birds after dressed, add salt and a 1/4  stick of  margerine. Roll it all up in several thicknesses of aluminum foil whth the ends folded over. Bury in campfire coals until done. Small fish and birds or breasts take a half hour or so to cook. A large fish you can leave for 4 hours or better in the coals if you allow enough margerine, and bury it towards the bottom of the coals. Cover the foil wrap with coals and toss on some sand or dry soil on top of the coals if convenient. We used to bury a large fish with a 1/2 stick  of margerine and salt included in the foil, and fish about 4 hours, then return to camp and have a hot fish lunch waiting for us! Carp (OK, let me have it!) is excellent this way.

Yeah, I know, us Indians will eat anything!

John Andrews

See More Deer

    Have you noticed that some people just tend to see more deer than others. The people who see more deer know it's a deer when they see one or even a small part of the deer. This is not for the casual hunter, but you can train yourself and your eyes to see more bucks. Here is how I did it. I had kept a lot of old issues of hunting magazines. I went through about 3 or 4 years worth of back issues and cut out all of the pictures of Mule Deer Bucks and Blacktail Bucks. I made a montage about 4 ft. square of the buck pictures on my office wall where I couldn't miss it when I looked up from the desk. There were about 40 pictures of big bucks and a few does from almost every angle. Looking at this montage for 11 months out of the year, imprinted in my mind's eye the form of big bucks in the wild. It has trained me to spot bucks very quickly and it has helped me to spot deer when other people only see brush and trees. Besides it was fun to look up at the wall and think about seeing one of those Big Bucks live. As an afterthought, I guess if you wanted to make sure you could spot a beauty on a sandy beach, you could make a second montage from old photo magazines like "Playboys". 

Varmint Al

www.varmintal.com

Homemade Lighted Arrow Nocks?

I've always thought the lighted arrow nocks were a cool idea, but I've never tried them.   I guess I'm just too cheap to flip out $10 for a nock.   Just as necessity is the mother of invention,  I also believe being "po" is a motivation that follows shortly thereafter,  providing  inventive thrifty tweaks.    

After this fella's video makes it's rounds, something tells me the market is in for a bit of a price adjustment.      

Check him out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMqLT-4ezzk 

gp

www.gutpilestyle.com

Technorati Profile

The Holy Grail of Rimfire Shooting

The Holy Grail of rimfire shooting........  At long last, the riddle of the too-long Marlin magazine has been solved. My quest first began when searching online for a lower capacity magazine. I discovered at Cabela's that the replacement mags for the Marlin 22mag and 17hrm were the same part number. Imagine that? A quick trip to my parent's house to look at Dad's 22mag confirmed this. My pool of potential donor mags quickly grew. Another search for all 22mag replacement mags revealed something else interesting. A number of replacement/aftermarket 22lr and 22mag clips were being listed for Savage,Mossberg, Iver Johnson.  Apparently, at one time , they were all in bed together. Since all these offered the 5-shot clip that I wanted, I then looked to my gun cabinet to my old Mossberg 640T "chuckster." At first glance, they "looked" different, but on closer examination, the slide rails were identical.  I first noticed the slides being the same, when me and my buddy were shooting our .17s.  I said," Let me try your Savage mag." It slid on OK, but wouldn't go all the way up due to some protrusions above the rails. His reluctance to let me commence grinding on his new magazine ended my research right there. I now had a donor mag in hand, that I knew was cheap and readily available, as I had lost a few in years past. All it took was a few minutes at the kitchen table with a file and now I have a 5-shot clip for my Marlin. The Savage/Mossberg clip is tapered toward the bullet end and is a little skinnier, so it doesn't totally fill the magazine hole, but it fits tight, doesn't rattle, and functions flawlessly. Best of all, the tabs I removed aren't needed in my Mossberg either, so I can swap it back and forth at will.  So those of you who want a Marlin, but don't like the long clip; just get a Savage magazine to go with it. Until Marlin sees the light and builds a flush clip, I say " If you can't beat them, join them"

EllwoodJake
 

European Deer Mounts

Have you ever thought about  doing a deer skull and antlers in a European mount, but don't know where to start?  Piece o' cake.......

First thing... I do not recommend boiling.  This will weaken the bone structure over time.

Beetles are good...but not everyone has those..lol. 

I would suggest masceration. Masceration takes a little longer but the bone will stay in tack along with the nasal cavities.

Here is what you do:

Clean all the meat and hair off of the skull that you can by knife.
Fill a bucket with water enough to cover the skull (not on antlers)
You can wrap the antlers with aluminum foil to prevent fading and such.
Put the head in the water and place the bucket outside....away from your house.
Do not cover the bucket, and come back every so often to check the water levels.
This process does stink, but it is the best method other than beetles.

Now after you pull it out of the water, rinse it off under a water hose and let it air dry outside during a sunny day. After it is dry scrape any remaining junk off the skull. Put it into a container filled with peroxide (the kind from wal-mart). Do not let the peroxide get on the antlers. You want to use a dark container for this, as light breaks down the strength of the peroxide (also cover the container with aluminum foil). Leave it in the peroxide for 1-2 days. Pull it out and let it dry in the sun again.

Your done!


Or you could always send it to me...

LadyT

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