National and local elections are looming on the horizon. Next Thursday is the day, and for those of us who love our hunting and shooting sports, it is mandatory for all of us, irregardless of political affiliation, sex, creed, race, or age to vote.

Lots and lots of things that will affect the future of shooting and hunting depend on getting the right people elected to office who will ensure that our Second Amendment rights are not abridged, as well as ensuring that we have places to shoot and hunt.

This applies to not only the congressional races, but to your state and local elections. Who is elected will have an impact on judicial appointments, gun ownership, taxes, and any number of other issues for the next generation. Do not think that they won’t!

If people that think in the same mold as Ted Kennedy, Diane Feinstein, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, Barbara Boxer, and others of their ilk, you can expect a full fledged frontal assault on the Second Amendment. They will do everything they can to either limit your ability to shoot and hunt, or eliminate it all together!

All of the people mentioned above are Democrats. Not all Democrats in Congress are anti-gun or anti-hunting. This is important, because not all Republicans are pro-gun, or pro-hunting. So, it is incumbent on us, you and me, to examine their voting records to determine who we need to elect.

Organizations like the NRA, GOA, SAF, and others all keep records of all voting records. If you have questions about how your representative and/or senator voted on legislation concerning shooting and hunting, check with them. The NRA and GOA send out newsletters with voting records, and ratings on how each of them voted. Read them, study them, then make up your own mind. And know that they are affiliated, most often in the deep background with groups like the Brady Campaign, Citizens for Gun Safety, etc. They are hoping that you will not see these groups for what they really are.

No matter your political affiliation, now is not the time to go pull a lever, or punch a button for a party line vote.

Whatever else you do, vote. If you don’t and the wrong type of people are elected, then you have no right to complain when more of our rights are infringed upon, limited, or completely taken away.

Yesterday and today have been somewhat dismal. Low overcast with wind and rain, but the temperatures have been a bit higher than what we have recently experienced. However, the weather has brightened my outlook as it reminds me that it is getting close to duck season opening.

My hunting partner and I have been busy with building a new blind on a new piece of water, raised just high enough for us to slide a pirogue in under it and come up through the floor. Float devices are four 55 gallon drums, which have proven in the past to be able to handle our weight and a couple of times we’ve had as many as four hunters in the blind, with equipment, and two dogs.

Blind has been painted, tar papered, chicken wired, anchored and brushed. We use a mixture of willow, sweet gum, cypress, and water oak to make it appear as a small island. The blind sits in four feet of water, off a small point of land with a shallow cove just to the shooter’s right. Average water level there is less than 24″ deep, and is rich in all sorts of aquatic vegetation, perfect for most puddle ducks including mallards, teal, and pintails.

I’ve been busy checking the decoy strings, leads, and overall condition of the decoys, even touching up a few with some paint. They are all ready to bag up and take to the blind.

Will be shooting an 870 Wingmaster 12 gauge, and my Baikal 12 gauge O/U shotguns. They are both oiled and ready to go, having been checked about five times for proper operation and function.

Reeds in the duck calls have been cleaned, replaced, and “calilbrated” for pitch and tone. I guess there are plenty of good duck calls, but I use two really old ones made by Yentzen, and I have been using them for about 30 years. One is a double reed, the other a triple reed, each having it’s own special use. The double reed I use for a hail call and a feed chuckle, the triple reed has been tuned down to sound like a grumpy old drake that is tired of all the other noise, and I use it to “grunt” at them, the last little convincing touch for those somewhat hesitant to come to the other calls. I also carry a pintail whistle call made by Eli Haydel.

One thing I have learned over the years is that most people can blow a duck call with some degree of proficiency. Another thing I have learned, the hard way, is that you can call too much and too loudly. When you are hailing ducks that are a long way off, you need all that volume, but as the come closer, if you cut the volume down, that doesn’t seem to make the ducks as wary.

Since we’ve had to quit using lead shot, I’ve experimented with all sorts of steel shot. I really like the stuff that Federal is making, and if I’m any judge at all, it shoots as good as lead does. Remington is making some new stuff that I’m going to try, supposed to be more dense than steel, not quite as dense as lead. Sure hope they have a rebate coupon ’cause the price of this stuff is a bit high. But then I’m ‘frugal.’

Now if we can get some cold weather up to the north, hopefully, then maybe we can get some ducks down here to have a shot at.

Every time we go afield, or on a lake, we need to do everything we can to make sure that we do it safely. And keeping up with the weather is as important as anything else.

Deer season opens this Saturday for still hunting with rifles. At the same time we have the remnants of a Pacific hurricane, Paul, which is headed our way. So what you say? Ever try sitting in a tree stand when the wind is blowing 15 miles per hour? Not fun. Now try sitting in that stand when the wind is blowing 25 miles per hour, or more, and it is cool, and accompanied by heavy rain. That’s a day guaranteed to make everyone and everything except a duck miserable!

Drawing on my experience, I alway check the weather before heading out, just to make sure that I have the right gear with me. And to help me make a decision to go at all!!!

Years back, I headed off to go duck hunting. Weather was warm for that time of year, and after driving 120 miles to get where we were going to hunt, we found the conditions ideal. A bit of wind to make the decoys rock and move, overcast, and just a bit of drizzle.

About two hours into the hunt, the weather changed. Wind picked up and changed direction. It had been blowing from the southwest, but as it changed to out of the north, the temperature started to drop, dramatically. It went from 50 degrees down to almost freezing in less than an hour. The ducks that had been moving decided to hunker down in the weather, and as we decided to pick up our decoys, I tore a hole in my waders filling them with cold water. Finally got all the decoys picked up and wrapped, and after wading a 100 yds. or so to the bank, I was in the first stages of hypothermia. Uncontrollable shaking, both legs starting to get numb, the whole nine yards.

Fortunately, I had packed a change of clothes, trousers, shirt, and socks and they were in the truck. Sat there with the motor idling, heater on full blast, and peeled out of my soggy clothes and got dry and re-dressed. Finally learned the lesson about keeping an eye on the weather.

No matter how much we want to go hunting, or fishing, we know that we can’t control the weather. We can only adapt to it, and make smart decisions.

Today is a bit depressing for yours truly. If things had gone as planned, I would be leaving Kearny, NE about now headed for Pierre, SD for what has become an annual pilgrimage to worship at the shrine of the pheasant rooster. But, as some sage said a long time ago, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.

The plan was to leave home about 0700 hours yesterday and drive to Kearny, then head on out of there the next morning, which would be today, and meet up with six other guys to walk the fields and thick draws on a 14,000 acre farm which belongs to a friend of mine in Highmore, SD. For five days we would shoot prairie dogs in the morning hours, then at noon, put down the rifles and chase the pheasants til all of us were limited out. If we did real good, and there was sunlight left, we would case the shotguns and go back to the prairie dogs, and maybe even get a shot at a coyote or two.

Evenings would be spent dining in one of the local establishments, the meal accompanied by some adult beverages, while stories of good shots, and bad shots, were recounted. Perhaps they might even be embellished…just a bit. This motley group was to include two gentlemen from California, one from Colorado, two from Kentucky, and one from North Carolina. Of course I was to be there, along with my hunting partner from here. The diversity of the group is what makes it really fun. One guy is a truck driver, one owns a gun shop and farms, another is a Major in the Army, recently returned from his second tour in Iraq, two in construction, one works for an airline, and the last owns a real estate company.

The reason that I bring up all these different occupations is to point out the common passion all of us have for hunting and the shooting sports. When it is all boiled down to it’s bare essence, all of us love the thrill of the hunt, and the shared experience of eight guys who don’t get a chance to see each other on a regular basis. And all of us love to hunt and shoot!!! Some are just better shots than others, but when you are having fun, are in good company, who cares?

Central South Dakota is a very different place than I am used to. Northwest Louisiana is a veritable pine forest, mixed with some hardwoods, and of course the mandatory large cleared areas that are typically planted with soy beans, corn, or cotton.
On the other hand, central South Dakota is a vast area of rolling hills that has almost no trees, and the corn and millet fields seem to go on forever. When you do find trees there, you also find a farm house. And where there are trees, or thick cover you find pheasants! And deer, both white tails and mule deer.

For those who have not been there, imagine a corn field. A large one. Now imagine 1200 acres of nothing but corn. Or millet. Or sun flowers. Or a cut corn field where they have harvested 90% of it, where they leave maybe eight rows of corn standing and it’s 75 yds to the next eight rows of standing corn. And the rows are a half mile long, or longer. Same with the millet or sunflowers.

Pheasants hate to be in the open. They really hate it, so when we do a push, we pick a field we can push and have blockers on the other end. The pheasants run through the cover in front of the pushers, and take to wing when they get to the end of the cover not wanting to run in the open. The pushers get a few shots, but the ones blocking get the real fun as pheasants flush in two’s and three’s, sometimes more. Now I’m sure you have seen the shows on television where three guys are out with a pointer or setter and they get to watch the dog work and they flush a bird and have at it. It can get like that, later in the season, but the first weekend, birds that are pushed and blocked come out of the cover like a large covey of quail on the rise. The noise they make starts the adrenaline flowing, and for two or three minutes the shooting is unbelievable, with each blocker having to reload at least twice, sometimes more.

On the first push last year, four of us walking a thick draw with lots of tall, thick grass, I had just loaded my shotgun and closed it while walking. After going less than 30 feet, a mule deer doe and fawn busted out of the grass and bounded off across a recently cut corn field. Startled at first, I watched as they ran away, then heard the unmistakeable cackle of a rooster as he took to flight. It was right in front of me, and reflexively I shouldered and fired, dropping the rooster about 40 feet in front of me. Not a bad way to start the season, especially from my point of view. Less than two hours after we started all of us had our limit of roosters….three each.

I’m going to be in serious withdrawal about not being able to make it this year, but armed with the memories of last year, and the year before, I’ll make it through this funk, spurred on by hopes for next year. My reservations are already in place for next year, and everyone else that hunts in that group are experiencing the same emotions I’m feeling now. But as one, they have already started making their plans for next year, too.

Hope everyone else’s hunt is a success.

For a lot of folks out there, that is the question. Nutria are a large aquatic rodent, native to South America. There is some question as to exactly when they were introduced to these shores, so I’m not going to try and decipher contradicting data.

Nutria eat aquatic vegetation, all forms. Initially after their introduction they performed a somewhat valuable service, their dining habits reducing the vegetation found in marsh and marshy areas along the Gulf coast. It is estimated that the range of the nutria in Louisiana encompasses approximately 48,000 acres, with the bulk of that land mass in south Louisiana ranging from Terrebonne Parish just south and west of New Orleans over to Lake Charles in the southwest corner of the state.

Over time, the range of the nutria has expanded greatly, now covering from Maryland to New Mexico. Maryland has been exceptionally hard by their feeding habits, damaging the shallow bays and inlets and disrupting fertile feeding and breeding grounds of wading birds and other species.

They are also prolific breeders, but their gestation period is between 127 days to 139 days in length. Litters can range from 1 to 13 offspring per breeding cycle, though the average is from 6-8. Mortality rate is not actually known in the wild, however. They range in color from a dark brown to a light yellow brown. In size, they range from 12″-18″ in length, average, with a weight of approximately 12-15 lbs. They become sexually mature at six months.

Also known as coypu, the original name given them in South America, they were prized for their fur, and some people harvest them as a food source. The fur trade liked the nutria, because it has two distinct coats…the top coat is very coarse, and is known as ‘guard hair’ while the under coat is very fine. Pelts from nutria were a very important part of the designers of coats and other garments due to the fact that they could be easily dyed and worked as trim into other garments, jackets, and coats.
At the peak of this trade, good nutria pelts could fetch as much as $14.00- $15.00 each. This ended in the middle 1980’s when the price of pelts dropped to $7.00 – $8.00 each, resulting in a major decrease in the trapping of nutria which as led to a massive loss of aquatic vegetation in the areas that they occupy.

Considering the damage that they are doing to aquatic vegetation, I find it somewhat ironic that environmental groups are now at odds concerning the fate of the nutria. Some of these groups favor decreasing the population, even if it means killing them, while others are dead set against that.

My first introduction to nutria was back in the late 1960’s while duck hunting in the marsh south of Lake Charles. I was a member of a duck lease there, and one morning we were easing through a trapper’s ditch, small canals dug in the marsh, much like section line roads. We were heading out to our blinds, four pirogues, three men, guns, dogs, decoys and other gear in each pirogue. Oh..phonetically, pirogue is pronounced PEE-row.

Nutria were resting on the small levees on each side of the ditch, and one of the guys in the front pirogue thought it would be funny to snatch one off the levee and toss it backwards in the pirogue. He did it, and the end result was one very angry nutria thrashing around in the small boat which was inadvertantly tipped over, depositing three men and all their gear in the bottom of the ditch. It really wasn’t funny, but those of us not involved in this fiasco were laughing so hard that we almost tipped over our pirogues. Gear was eventually recovered, but hunting for those three was over that morning before they even started. Needless to say, the guy who did it was considered persona no grata for a few days. On a happy note, the day was a success for the rest of us, with each of us limiting out on ducks in less than an hour. That was back in the good old days when we had a six duck limit, of which only four could be mallards, drakes or hens.

I hope this has cleared up some confusion as to what a nutria is, where it lives, and what it does.

I need to give credit to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Maryland Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries, Florida State University, and the University of Maryland for posting this information on the internet.

With the bad weather we had here yesterday, I got to thinking of what all we as safe hunters need to carry with us when we venture into the field in pursuit of quarry du jour. Since deer hunting season is looming closer and closer, I thought I would share with you what I normally carry, or have close at hand in case of emergency, especially on those hunts where I won’t be close to anything for two or three days at a stretch.

I realize that this list won’t be all encompassing, and your input as to what and why will be gratefully received.

Gun, freshly cleaned and checked, with ammo for same.
Backup gun, just in case of failure of some sort, and ammo.
Knives..more than one. Usually two fixed blades and two folders.
Sharpening stones for knives.
First aid kit with a film canister with some needles in it. Never know when you might have to suture something.
Flashlights and batteries
Cell phone
Boots with backup boots…and dry socks.
Waterproof container with matches.
Water, bottled, and some water purification tablets.
Compass
Topo map if available
Rain gear
Rope…25′ – 50′
Gloves, hat, stocking cap.
Whistle.

The most important thing to carry along while hunting is a hunting buddy. If you go alone, leave a detailed map of the area where you will be hunting, and an expected time of return.

This may sound a bit bizarre to experienced hunters, but unless you have had to go out in the dark of night and find someone who has been injured or is lost, then you will see the importance of someone knowing where you are should something happen.

Things happen, and bad things happen to good people. Minimize those to every degree that you can.

A ruling by a federal judge, Judge Robert G. James of the United States District Court, Western Division of Louisiana, will deny boating, hunting, and fishing rights on ALL navigable water ways.

Historically, the ability to boat, hunt, and fish on these water ways has been the accepted high water mark of these rivers. However, this ruling now extends the property owners ‘rights’ to the center of the channel of any navigable water way. This means that shallow water access is now considered criminal trespass.

The case was brought about by a lawsuit, Normal Parm v. Sheriff Mark Shumate. Judge James ruled that federal law grants exclusive and private control over the waters of the river, outside the main shipping channel, to riparian landowners. The shallows of the navigable waters are no longer open to the public.
The really scarey impact of this ruling is that all water ways in the United States are considered navigable.

The effect on the hunting, fishing, and boating population is simply this….if you leave the main channel of any water way, you can be arrested for criminal trespass. For those who duck or goose on the Mississippi River flyway, your days are over.

The judge who made the ruling was appointed by President Clinton.

More on this as it develops……..

Saturday marked the opening day of squirrel season, state wide. I’m just a bit curious as to how many of you went out to chase the arboreal creatures. I did not go out as I have a really tough time scanning the trees for moving squirrels while keeping my eyes glued to the ground to watch for the inevitable snake. My squirrel season opens AFTER the first frost, which generally drives all the snakes underground and into hibernation mode.

For those that haven’t hunted squirrels down here, the trees are still fully leafed out, making it extremely difficult to find them, unless you spook one or more and they start barking.

Most people who do hunt early in the season will use a shotgun as their gun of choice. Usually it is a 12 gauge, but there are also lots of 20 gauge and 410 gauge shotguns out there also.

After we get a good hard frost, followed by a nice cold rainy day or two with some high wind, the trees are pretty much bare, which makes it much more feasible to use a 22 rifle. Also, if it has just rained, you can move almost soundlessly through the wooded area without unduly spooking any squirrels that might be lingering in the area.

We have two species of squirrels. The red squirrel, also known as the fox squirrel, and the ever moving, seemingly hyper active gray squirrel, known locally as cat squirrels.

While both species are legal, the preferred choice is for the fox squirrel. They are larger, prevalent in hardwood bottoms, and some say are better tasting. I can’t tell the difference while eating them. Besides that, they aren’t hyperactive, always on the move, and will sit and look at you and bark at you at the same time.

The purpose of this blog is to promote hunting, fishing, shooting, and other outdoor activities in the state. This will range from places to hunt and fish, shooting ranges, both public and private, political actions that will affect these activities, and just about anything else that is related to or pertains to these activities. All I ask is that you keep it PG rated, or more tame.

This blog will, hopefully, provide timely and correct information to hunters both in state, and those from out of state who want to come to the “Sportsman’s Paradise” to pursue those activities.

Your input is asked for, and sharing tips on hunting, shooting, fishing, or other outdoor activities is encouraged, and will be greatly appreciated.

I have been hunting and fishing for over 50 years, so I have a little knowledge of what goes into making a trip successful, and those things to avoid to make it a nightmare.

If I screw something up, point it out ASAP and I will correct it.

Thanks in advance,

John aka Salvage33