By: Jeff Horn. Perhaps man has an innate desire to answer the most profound questions of our time. “Who killed Kennedy? “Are we alone?” And, “How the blooming did I miss that grouse?” These questions seem to entangle us with an unending thought often leading to a conclusion: There are questions we will never understand! Nevertheless, each year around mid-summer our hearts begin to draw attention to the fact that grouse season in MI is not far off. Being from a rural area in Eastern KY, where once grouse was plentiful but now they are … Read More
My Fascination With The Outdoors
By: Amy Gauthier. “Heel toe, heel toe”… A little girl walks in the woods pretending she’s like Marty Stouffer from “Wild America”. Not sure if I got that trick to walk quietly in the woods from that show, or from Michigan Outdoors, but I knew I wanted to be silent as I observed the wildlife on my parents little piece of Michigan paradise. My dad helped to instill my love of the outdoors at an early age, and I couldn’t get enough of it. That love brought me to hunting and fishing, and continues today. … Read More
Hitting the mark during some youthful shooting competition
By: Tom Lounsbury. Trapshooting was first developed as a competitive sport during the 18th Century, using flintlock fowling pieces (the forerunners of today’s shotguns) firing shot. This would be done using live pigeons, with the birds being placed in a wooden box, called a “trap”, on the ground out in front of the shooter. Upon the shooter saying “pull”, a cord attached to the box was used to release the pigeon. Several traps were spread out in different spots, and the shooter had no idea which trap was going to release the pigeon. The typical … Read More
Are Ruffed Grouse Toxic? Maybe Sometimes
By: Ben Long. Reprinted with permission by MeatEater. Ruffed grouse are widely considered one of the more delectable upland game birds. But did you know they might also be poisonous? Odd as it seems, there is a fairly extensive—and largely forgotten—body of medical literature detailing unfortunate souls who have been poisoned by eating ruffed grouse. Curiously, these poisonings dropped off with the invention of hunting seasons, which protected grouse when they happen to pose the largest risk. A document entitled “Dietary Roulette”, posted on the University of California-Davis website, both explains the phenomenon and raises … Read More
A Fine Opening Day For Michigan Pheasants
By: Tom Lounsbury. In the gray light of dawn, the pheasant hunters on my farm had released their bird dogs in the yard in order to get the kinks out before the hunt. The growing light in the eastern sky let us know we were in for a splendid day weather-wise, and that certainly worked for me. You name it, and I’ve seen it on Michigan’s October 20th opener for pheasants, including blizzard-like conditions with driving wet snow, gully-wumper rainstorms, and even driving, painful, hailstorms that had both hunters and dogs seeking whatever cover could … Read More
Taming The Beast
By: Tom Lounsbury. Fire is no doubt a living creature of sorts which requires oxygen and fuel to survive. Primitive humans were able to ascend to the top of the food chain primarily due to being able to create and use fire in a constructive manner. There is no question they knew it could easily become a raging beast in its own near mystical might, whenever fire went out of control. Fire would ease humans out of the stone-age, through the various ages of metallurgy and even industry (steam and you name it) which remains … Read More
Death Of A Gun Safe?
By: Jim Kushner. A couple of weeks ago I was educated about the old saying “you get what you pay for”. In this case that applied to my Cannon gun safe. I don’t mind mentioning the brand name because this is all absolutely true. I bought my safe from a chain store and as safes go it was neither cheap or expensive. The electronic keypad was easily programmed and it runs on a single 12 volt battery. After a few years I noticed that the battery would wear out quicker than the one before it. … Read More
Dealing With The Whimsies Of Mother Nature
By: Tom Lounsbury. The 2017 firearms deer season was real interesting, not to mention somewhat challenging in regards to weather, at least in my Thumb area. Opening morning although a touch breezy was at least dry, but you could sense wet weather was on the way, which arrived around noon with the increased wind intensity of a typhoon. It didn’t take me long to put boots on the ground, because trying to accurately hit the mark from my weaving ladder-stand, would have been similar to trying to shoot from the back of a galloping horse. … Read More
The Outdoors Is Certainly Beautiful
By: Tom Lounsbury “A great program for introducing women and girls to the outdoors!” For a long time, hunting especially was pretty much a “men only” pastime, although there were certainly exceptions, women who ignored status quo and went hunting. Annie Oakley is a prime example, who ventured into this atmosphere at an early age when her father died, leaving her mother and large family destitute. She would start hunting, first to feed her family, and then to provide an income (market hunting was legal in her era). Annie would sell game to a growing list of customers and because ammunition cost money, she learned to make each shot count, causing her to become one of the most remarkable shooters in history. She would pay off the mortgage on her family farm when she was only 15 years old and go on to become famous in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Thanks to my late mother, I was introduced to hunting at the wee age of three when I was her “pooch” for pheasant hunting. She was a crack shot with her single-shot Iver Johnson 20 ga, having been taught to shoot by older brothers and hunting for her family larder during the Great Depression. Mom learned to make each shot count, because ammunition cost money, an attitude she passed on to me when she taught me to shoot. She also could care less about any status quo stuff about “men only” pastimes, and she passed that attitude on to me as well. Needless to say, when Ron Sting of the DNR asked if I would help with a wild turkey seminar/hunt for a Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) it was a no-brainer for me to jump right in. BOW was first created in 1991 and is now found in 44 states (including Michigan) and 9 Canadian Provinces. The recent BOW program took place at the Cass City DNR Field Office, starting with a wild turkey seminar there on Friday, May 12th, and a hunt with mentors on Saturday, May 13th. Ron Sting did an outstanding job arranging everything and the seminar involved every aspect of turkey hunting, with knowledgeable speakers on each topic. This was followed by actual shooting at “turkey” targets. Since I have a backyard shooting range and my home is only a couple miles from the Cass City DNR Field Office, the shooting portion was performed there. Some ladies had their own shotguns and some did not, and Ron Sting made sure all were fitted out and comfortable with shooting and putting an accurate pattern centered on the turkey target, entailing the all important head/neck shot. One (13 year old) young lady was totally unaccustomed to firearms and very nervous, and DNR Conservation Officer Seth Rhodea (who had earlier given a talk on turkey hunting ethics and safety) spent some one-on-one time with the young lady, off to the side and performing dry-firing exercises with an empty shotgun. As a result, the young lady was soon confidently hammering targets with a 20 ga and thoroughly enjoying it. In fact I could see all the ladies were enjoying it, and it was a real pleasure watching them all take their turn at eagerly shooting away at their targets, followed by examining the results of the shot, and the obvious confidence this created. There was no doubt in my mind, if a turkey hunting opportunity happened for any of these ladies, a gobbler was going down. Ron Sting had put the BOW information out with a cap for 10 ladies to participate, and in only two days he had an overwhelming response and it became a first come, first serve situation, with 11 attending, and some from as far away as Grand Rapids. Each woman had a mentor to take them turkey hunting and matters would begin with breakfast at 4:30 AM on Saturday morning at the Cass City DNR Field Office, immediately followed by hunters and their mentors heading out to pre-selected areas, some on state land and some on private land. I had two ladies riding with me in my Jeep; Debra Robinson of Macomb and Pam Walton of Lapeer, and we were heading out to meet with Bob Walker of Kingston. Bob had very generously agreed to lend a hand and had arranged a perfect spot for the two ladies to hunt. Bob would mentor Pam and I would mentor Debra and in no time we were all headed our separate ways into the woods. Deb and I would be in a wooden ground blind literally constructed into a hillside, which reminds me of a bunker with a shooting window. While Deb got situated in the blind, I set out two hen decoys with one at 15 yards and the other at 20 yards for a known range reference. I then quickly got back into the blind, because the gray light of dawn was fast approaching. Deb was sitting to the left and I to the right, and I told her to load her gun at he get go. She had purchased it used and it was dandy vintage Winchester pump 20 ga with an adjustable Poly-Choke at the muzzle, which she had cranked to the “full” position. We had learned the evening before that this shotgun was a great performer with #6, 3 inch Magnum turkey loads, which Deb had a great time shooting. I knew she and her gun were a perfect fit and she would do her part if I could do mine. To keep matters simple, I only had two turkey calls which were my “Ben Lee” box call (which I purchased in the early 1980’s and is a collector’s item) and a simple to use Quaker Boy “Easy Yelper” which only requires holding in one hand and pushing a wooden rod. I wanted Deb to see things could get done without a whole bag–full of gadgets and calls. My long recommendation to new turkey hunters is to only start with one call and learn to use it well before moving on to another call. I generally only take two calls out when I’m turkey hunting as it is, and I prefer only friction types including the pan/slate calls. I’ve found the mouth diaphragms don’t blend well at all with my chewing tobacco. After almost 50 years of turkey hunting I’ve developed some instincts which are purely gut-feelings which come out of nowhere and I can’t quite put it into words. All I can say is that when the woods lightened up and starting time was on I went to (hen) purring mixed in with an occasional cadence of (hen) yelps on my box call. I’ve heard it said that too much calling isn’t a good thing, but I’ve seen the occasion when you really can’t talk too much turkey, and my gut feeling let me know this was an occasion to really lay it on. We got an immediate response from left to right of 3 gobblers, and in a matter of seconds Deb and I knew the far right gobbler was incoming and closing the gap. That is when a fourth gobbler cut loose directly behind us less than 10 yards away. I immediately stuck my hand out the window (which the gobbler couldn’t see from behind us) and I let out a long drawn and very whining purr with the Easy Yelper to give the gobbler the idea a hen directly downhill was real interested in his advances. I was sitting with my back to the door when I felt the vibration a gobbler can send out as it drums, and I knew the bird was standing right next to the door while it looked over our blind’s roof at the hen decoys below. I whispered to Deb to freeze and not to even blink, and then the gobbler suddenly appeared at point blank range on Deb’s side of the window as it eased down the hill toward the decoys. He was one of the largest gobblers I have ever called in, with a long and thick beard. With its head up and moving around, this sharp-eyed bird had a 360 degree … Read More
Confessions Of An Amateur Dog Trainer: A NOT So Tough Nut To Crack
By: Amy Gauthier Kids today would probably consider my childhood to be a part of the “electronic dark ages”. We didn’t have tablets or cell phones to keep us out of the adults’ hair AND out of trouble. Leave it to my grandparents, though, to find an analog way to achieve this delicate balance. They would gather hickory nuts from under the trees, place them over newspaper at their house, and give us grandkids hammers to have fun extracting the tender morsels. I remember eagerly cracking open the shells, and the feeling of accomplishment when … Read More