Unfortunately the Southern New Hampshire drought has largely destroyed the mast acorn crop near my home in Rockingham County.
This does not bode well for wintering wild game, especially deer and turkey.
Couple this with high wind conditions has local deer hunkered down.
Yes the Rut is on so the bucks may make a mistake.
I am hoping to get out again and hunt once the wind subsides.
Patience is a virtue!
Gather up and sort your hunting gear, it’s almost time. Got muzzleloader, powder, and bullets? Got license and pen? Got a sharp knife? Got hand warmers?
It all goes through my mind like a mental dry run.
Now get out and scout your hunting areas. You can amp up your area with making mock rubs and scrapes but be careful to do it remotely where other hunters may not readily see them.
Get to the range to check your accuracy. I run a swab though my muzzleloader and shoot it before the hunt to season the barrel for accuracy. One of my new thoughts is to take a 5 gal bucket to sit on. I sprayed one with camo paint.
I actually bought a camo 5 gal bucket seat back pack for a seat and storage on Amazon.
Hunting alone? How to get your deer in your truck?
Good Hunting!
I was so impressed with the flavor of my Maine Black Bear backstraps that I noted the recipe here.
After vacuum sealing, I froze the meat for 3 weeks then thawed some for my early October dinner. Vacuum sealing the meat is key to quality meat.
Backstrap Kabobs is a very easy meal to create. I basted the meat and vegetables with Kikkoman Roasted Garlic Teriyaki Marinade and Sauce. Now on skewers, I put the kabobs on my Traeger hickory smoker with the veggies and set the cooking temperature to 300ºF. When the meat temp hits 160ºF via handheld temp. probe, the meat is done.
I wanted some char marks on the meat and veggies so I put them on my 400ºF Weber grill and basted with butter for a few minutes.
As a display below, I placed the meat and vegetables on a bed of basmati rice and drizzled more garlic roasted teriyaki sauce over the dish.
OMG soo delicious.
The smoked roasted meat was not tough, but had a chew to it. Meat flavor was excellent. I love this dish for its simplicity.
Enjoy!
Working in the back yard, both my wife and I were bitten by suspect Deer Tick Larva/Nymphs (see magnified images) on October 2nd.
We discovered them within one day, thus should not have any medical concerns
Beware -These infinitesimally small deer ticks are much smaller than a sesame seed.
Accordingly, I sprayed my clothes and sneakers with permethrin. Ticks hate it.
Author Ed Hale and his large boar taken with Crossbow
I began my second Maine bear hunt with Foggy Mountain and my friend Brandon Bishop, owner and Master Maine Guide.
https://www.foggymountain.com/
I was hunting along the beautiful West Branch of the Penobscot River below. A truly wild place in which time forgot!
Monday, September 9th was a cool morning 52ºF with clear skies. I arrived at the bait site after a 20 mile dirt road drive. I asked my guide Ken to place me at the furthest secluded bait site and a ground blind.
The location was thick with fir trees, some fallen with gnarled roots thrust in the air. The rusted steel barrel in the picture below. If the barrel could talk, it would tell of many bear hunting stories.
Above, my 10 Point Crossbow positioned on a Death Grip Tripod at the ready with my Swhacker broadheads below! The Death Grip Tripod held the crossbow in its vice-like grip.
The forest sounds were of blue-jays, ravens and red squirrels chattering in the distance.
I was hopeful, with a rusty bait barrel full of bear goodies just 29 yards away.
By sunset, at the 7PM hour, I had a hard time seeing clearly. I slipped quietly out of the stand hopeful for the next day.
The 20 mile drive back to camp was long and dodging rain filled potholes at every turn.
I was shown directions to the bait just once. On the way out I was making sure I made the right turns to get back safely.
A truly grand adventure, stretching my hunter capabilities!
At camp I arrived to six bears on the meat pole taken by bear hunters on day one. There were 20 hunters in camp and a bevy of guides. Below Brandon Bishop looks on.
Most hunters used a rifle, but I successfully did that last year. My Ten Point Turbo Crossbow was easily up to the task shooting my swhacker 2.5 inch cut broadheads at 350 fps.
This property I hunted on is owned by many Timber Corporations and comprises 3.5 million acres of prime wild and diverse Maine habitat.
These millions of acres is accessed is by hundreds of miles of dirt roads maintained by these timber companies. See my muddy, but very sturdy, silver Tacoma TRD 4×4 below. My trusty steed!
The next day, September 9th after a big lunch, I was ready for the hunt. Trekking to my bear stand, I decided to park further away, so as not to spook game.
It was 2 o’clock when I settled in. I had to adjust my tripod and seat for the long anticipated 5 hour sit, without moving much.
It was 3:10PM, when suddenly a black bear appeared out of thin air at the bait.
I have harvested two smaller bears in the recent past, thus I checked the bear out with my binoculars. “OMG, I thought, its a big bear.”
The bear stuffed his head in the bait barrel for just a second, then backed out, and turned and walked toward me. It all happened in an instant.
My crosshairs were on him but a chest facing shot with a crossbow is not a killing shot.
At 20 yards, he peered into my brushy blind and decided it was empty and began to turn back. As the bear swung broadside, I launched my 350 fps arrow. I watched the arrow disappear into the bears chest behind the front left leg. The bear ran to my left. I was sure I made a good broadside shot. I packed up my gear and headed out to wait for my guide. I sent a satellite text message to my guide and headed to a rendezvous point. At 5 PM I hooked back up with Ken, my guide, who was already recovering another hunters bear and loaded it in the hunters truck.
Below, Ken had another bear guide with him and Ken’s pet bear dog, a small black lab trained for bear retrieval.
At my bait site we found the blood covered arrow.
I was all Smiles.
It took the dog just 10 minutes to locate the very dead bear just 60 yards from the bait.
Below back at camp my bear was about my height, a 67 inch boar with huge claws.
I stayed an extra day till my meat and hide froze in the camp freezer.
Below, this stream produced some local brook trout. Great fun!
Bear meat is in my freezer and my bear skin is at the taxidermist for making a rug. I will be doing my own meat processing and vacuum sealing. Bear meat is delicious!
Happy Trails!
Good Hunting!
First, I found these broadheads come sharp already but in my estimation they can be sharper still. On one head I found one side sharper than the other. You can use these heads for hunting right out of the box and can be resharpened and reused many times.
Or you can disassemble them and use a Stay Sharp C sharpener below. Just don’t lose the tiny screw that holds the blade. The C sharpener does a very good job of resharpening your main blade and bleeder blades.
Another method is to use a wheel knife sharpener below on the assembled main blade.
I took off the bleeder blade but you may not have to. Experiment with the angle you draw the blade through. I have one on order. Many like the simplicity of the wheels. Tip the head down at a 45 deg angle or more. With some pressure, draw the blade toward you several times. You should feel some scraping. Then draw with less pressure. Strop with curved or folded leather or denim. Test to easily cut paper.
Yet another simple method is to strop these blades on an oval steel diamond coated Jewel Stick. This won’t sharpen the bleeder blades though. I like this method for touch up the most. It is quick and does a shaving sharp job with practice.
Good Hunting!
As my readers know, I bought a three pack of Simmons Mako Broadheads ($49.95) for full penetration on black bear.
We shall see…
Over the years, I resisted broadheads with a curved blade largely due to my mindset over sharpening one.
There are many videos on sharpening these heads to razor sharpness with a few tools. I will do this in another article.
What came to mind today was to maximize penetration on bear with a 50 pound compound bow.
It is perhaps one the strongest broadheads I have seen in 50 years of hunting.
See the back image of the head where blade thickness can be seen. Spec. thickness of the main 440c stainless blade is 0.050 and the bleeder is 0.035 or so inches. That is thick! Rockwell is around 54. Wow!
Compared to my current broadhead (on left), it is shorter but so much more stout.
I shot the Mako at 20 yards and it flew perfectly. Energy calculates to near 45 ft-lbs.
FOC is 12% with 125 grain Mako.
I did a spin test as well. Perfect!! What makes todays cut-on-contact broadheads so great is an integral threaded ferrule that is part of the broadhead that is machine centered for spin. No wobble like in years past.
More soon!
I went on-line in search of recommended minimum arrow energies and penetration criteria. I found that baseline bow energies begin at around 40 foot-pounds and go up from there. My compound currently has a peak weight of 50 lbs., shoots 185 fps and has 45 ft-lbs of energy off the bow shelf. Is that enough? It depends on your arrow weight and broadhead choice. A light arrow of say 400 grains will lack momentum. Couple this light arrow with a mechanical broadhead or say a three or 4 blade head will offer better cutting but far less or even no full penetration.
On bear, full penetration through both lungs and an exit wound for a blood trail are a necessity.
Under lighter bow and arrow weight, it would be wise to rethink your arrow weight and broadhead choice. Heavier arrows penetrate better as does a cut-on-contact broadhead with a lighter bow weight/arrow weight setup.
The goal is accuracy coupled with penetration by choosing a heavier arrow and perhaps a sharp 2 blade cut-on-contact head to reduce friction.
Accordingly, my 50 lb bow setup (may increase peak weight before the hunt) uses a very heavy arrow of 575 grains for momentum and a two blade cut-on-contact broadhead to reduce friction and maximize an exit wound for blood trailing. Momentum per my Garmin Chrono. note PF- Power Factor is 105.8 KG Ft/Sec.
I am using a 2219 XX75 with a 2 blade 125g Steel Force head. It shoots like my field points at 20 yards. Reviews of this head for strength are mediocre thus I may try a stronger broadhead. Stay tuned…
Long time big game hunters attest to using heavier arrows given short shooting distances especially on big and dangerous game.
Good Hunting!
I chose a half mount and it came out pretty realistic. He is a small bear but made for a great life-like half mount. This fall bear feasted on blueberries and raspberries before I took him with my 7mm Rem Mag and a 160 grain Nosler Partition. This winter and cold spring my wife and I enjoyed bear meatloaf and stew, my favorite dishes. I even had it for breakfast! The flavor was terrific.
Below, I did a knotty cedar/pine wall in my basement with the bear as the wall centerpiece.
I added my Lancaster Revolutionary war 50 cal. flintlock rifle on the left. I built it several years back and it shoots a ball and patch as good as it looks!
I’m headed back to Maine in a Month for another opportunity with my bow or crossbow. Who knows, maybe even bigger!
Good Hunting!
We older bowhunters still have a strong desire to hunt big game. As we age we have issues with arms, joints, eyes etc.
“Staying in the game” is paramount to many of us because we love the adventure and excitement of the hunt and the resulting associated adrenaline. Without the fight/flight adrenaline many of us would not be hunters or for that matter, fishermen.
Enter the modern crossbow. Today you can find crossbows everywhere in the hunting world and they pack a punch and accurate.
I have harvested wild boar with a recurve crossbow from Excalibur;
and black bear with my 10 Point Turbo.
Of prime importance is accuracy. We owe it to the game we hunt!
I still love to shoot my recurve and compound bow but find my ability to pull and shoot heavier poundage is waning as I age. Years ago, when I was doing IBO 3D, I was pulling up to 82 pounds. Yikes!
Todays latest crossbows utilize hand cranks to pull and load the string, thus making it easy for seniors and juniors to shoot a powerful arrow and a sharp broadhead at big game.
The crossbow allows much more kinetic energy and penetration today than ever before. But you still have to get closer to game making it a real challenge. The hunter still needs to practice with the crossbow, loading, unloading, shooting at many distances.
Good Hunting!