Hunting Blog

Winter Gigs

This Wednesday, January 16th, I'll be at the Over the Moon Bookstore in Crozet, Virginia at 6 pm to read, tell stories from 'Eating Aliens' and sign books. I don't do a whole lot of readings or book-signings (though I'm happy to do them when asked) and this is the only one on my schedule right now. If you happen to be local (Crozet is very close to Charlottesville), please show up!

Then I'll be dashing off to Maryland for a few days to film a guest appearance on an episode of 'Dead Meat.' Somewhere next week I'm also supposed to film material for a segment on a major network's morning news program. Details on that will emerge soon.

On February 13th I will be in New Haven, Connecticut to speak at Yale's Center for Environmental Law and Policy about the conservation policy implications of eating and/or commercializing invasive species.

Other fun stuff to look out for includes a feature article by yours truly in the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation's monthly magazine, 'The Bugle.' Personal accounts of my close culinary encounters with bears and the world's hottest pepper will be running soon in separate columns in Slate.com; and I may have some new, larger projects to announce within the next month or so.

Failed Gear of 2012

The failed, yet accurate, Leupold rifle scope.

Long-time readers know that I'm hard on my equipment. I hunt and fish constantly and I put a lot of my gear in the hands of total beginners who do terrible things to it as they learn how to use it properly. You'll see all sorts of lists of the best hunting and fishing equipment every year, but I guarantee that this is the only run-down you'll find of the stuff that broke down on the job.

1. Butler Creek scope caps. These flip-up caps are intended to protect the lenses of your rifle scope in order to prevent them from becoming scratched or dusty. They cost around $30 for a set. I had a pair of them protecting the Leupold scope mounted on my Remington Model 700 .30-'06 rifle. First the plastic hinge on one tore halfway off. Then the metal pin in the hinge of the other one twisted and came out. I'm not alone in this experience -- my colleague, gunsmith and traditional blacksmith Paul Fritz had the same thing happen within weeks of buying his own set. In both cases, the damage happened in cold weather. I wonder if perhaps the plastic become more brittle at low temperatures.

2. The Leupold Vari-X II scope that those scope caps were mounted on. Leupold still makes great glass and is at the top of their craft -- lets clear that up right away. But the scope will no longer adjust to varying levels of magnification. It seems to have gotten stuck on about 5X, which I can live with. When I turn the dial, nothing happens. Light transmission around dusk is still great and the scope is dead accurate. The only reason I haven't pulled it off and tried to figure out how to get warantee work done (not that I even have the paperwork around) is that it still shoots so accurately that I don't want to mess with it. Still, it would be nice to be able to change the magnification again.

3. My Marlin model 925 bolt action .22 rifle finally bit the dust. This after firing about 11,000 rounds in the last 6 or 7 years. It was the trigger assembly that finally failed. I cleaned it and worked it over several times and got her going briefly, but then it stopped working again. I tried to order a new trigger assembly from Marlin today but there seems to be some horrible mess with their inventory control system and they weren't able to provide me with the part. Since I have students to teach and articles to write, I need a working bolt action .22 right away. So I went out and bought a new rifle today.

Sorry, Marlin. My next few hundred students will be shaking hands with a different brand when they shoot a rifle for the first time. You probably should have sold me that trigger...

4. Every damn bag of snap swivels I've bought for fishing all year. All of a sudden I'm having swivels fail on me. Different brands, though mostly its been Eagle Claw snap swivels that have broken. I never had this happen to me until this past season. Did I have a string of shockingly bad luck, or is there something fishy going on with metallurgy lately?

5. Remington's 'Golden Bullet' .22 LR ammunition. The stuff works well enough for practice and plinking. Reasonably accurate. However, I had about 15 duds in a box of 525 cartridges. More troubling, I pulled a number of bullets out of squirrels during butchering and found that the bullet hadn't opened up or done much of anything. In fact, you could almost have reloaded it and fired it again. Not what you expect in a hollow point bullet on small game.

Small Game Hunting Instruction

This past Saturday marked the end of deer season in my area of Virginia. I have never spent so many days of a deer season afield before in my life. This season I took many new hunters out to pursue deer for their first time. Some of them got their deer, others bagged squirrels instead. All went home knowing how to shoot straight, track, and hunt. They all have bright futures as capable outdoorsmen and women.

There being only but so many days in the season, I had to turn away more students than I was able to help. However, there are still a few more opportunities to hunt before the end of January. Squirrels and turkey are still in season here for a while.

I've decided to offer a limited number of small game hunts through the end of this month. The plan for the day will be identical to the deer hunts that I have been offering, with the one difference of trying to shoot squirrels, rabbits and possibly turkeys rather than a deer. The same shooting lesson in the morning, same lesson on shot placement and anatomy, the same outing in the field to learn basic tracking skills. Then we'll set up an ambush similar to one we would use for deer. At the end of the day you will learn how to turn those dead squirrels into food and we'll cook them up for dinner. Most of the skills taught will translate directly to deer hunting.

The dates available include January 11th, 12th, 18th, 19th, 25th, 26th, and 28th. The cost is $200 per day for one student or $250 for two booking together. All weapons, ammunition and other equipment will be provided. You will also need to purchase a basic hunting license from the state of Virginia (an apprentice license works fine) for small game (a license including turkeys costs extra). We will be hunting in the general vicinity of Charlottesville, Virginia in Albemarle and Fluvanna Counties.

Why is the price $200 a day for small game, same as a guided deer hunt? Well, my costs are the same in terms of ammunition, gas, and wear and tear on equipment. Then you're looking at between 10 and 12 hours of highly skilled labor without breaks or workers comp. I suspect that a shift manager at Burger King probably makes more on an hourly basis than I do. Besides, I suspect that I'm the only professional squirrel hunting instructor in the US.

And yes, they taste like chicken.

Why the Public Trust Doctrine is Important

Here is an excellent video from the Boone & Crockett Club on the Public Trust Doctrine. Historically the doctrine has been an important aspect of Orion's programmatic efforts: "Orion provides a forum to facilitate innovation and ideas and takes action to promote fair chase ethical hunting and address other hunting related issues; and through vigilance and advocacy to ensure the people's wildlife remain in the public trust."

I recommend that you take a few minutes to watch this important video and recommend it to your friends.

Boone and Crockett Country - The Public Trust Doctrine from Boone and Crockett Club on Vimeo.

When Silence Isn't Golden

In the still-developing national conversation about the complex issues raised by last Friday's mass murder in Newtown, CT, one constituency is oddly--I don't want to say ominously--silent: the National Rifle Association. As a long-time participant-observer in America's gun culture, I'm at a loss to account for this. Are they in some sort of denial? It's business as usual on their (very busy) web site, but their news feed carries nary a word about the school shootings. Why not? Why no acknowledgment of the story that has rightly captured the attention not simply of this nation but of the world? Why not even a note of sympathy or condolence? Inquiring minds, as they used to say, want to know. This one does, anyway.

I should make it clear where I stand re the NRA. I am not a member. I was, for a couple of years when I first started hunting and writing about it, but I dropped my membership for two reasons: One was Wayne LaPierre's notorious "jack-booted thugs" comment about Federal officers; I didn't want to belong to any organization that espoused that sort of inflammatory rhetoric. (I noted with some irony that former president George H.W. Bush cancelled his life-membership at the same time, for the same reason.) But my other reason was, actually, pro-NRA: Because on numerous occasions in various contexts I was called upon to write or speak about gun issues in which the NRA figured prominently, I reckoned I was on more solid ground on the occasions when I defended the NRA (and there were many) if I was not myself a member. I actually have a lot of friends who are NRA members. I am married to an NRA life member. I know these people are not the stereotypical gun nuts so often demonized by the Brady Bunch. I also know a lot of NRA members are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the organization.

The national Shooting Sports Foundation--headquartered in Newtown, a few miles from Sandy Hook school--immediately issued a simple statement:
“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims of this horrible tragedy in our community. Out of respect for the families, the community and the ongoing police investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment or participate in media requests at this time."

Would it have been too much to ask for the NRA to do likewise?

Or does America's most powerful gun lobby figure it is above all that? Perhaps they figure it was enough to unleash board member Ted Nugent to tell the right-wing internet news site Newsmax on Sunday, in an "exclusive interview," that the real problem was that schools like Sandy Hook Elementary are gun-free zones. That the twenty 6- and 7- year- olds were killed because they were "forced into unarmed helplessness." Surely the NRA can come up with a better line than this.

Or maybe they cannot, at least not under their current leadership. Maybe this is the end of an era. And maybe that is a good thing.

Mary Zeiss Stange is the author of Woman the Hunter (Beacon Press, 1997), Gun Women (New York University Press, 2000), and most recently Hard Grass: Life on the Crazy Woman Bison Ranch (University of New Mexico Press, 2010). She also edited Heart Shots: Women Write about Hunting (Stackpole, 2003) and Stackpole Books' "Sisters of the Hunt" series of classic works about hunting by women, and has published widely on women's and environmental issues in both the commercial and academic press. A professor of Women's Studies and Religion at Skidmore College, she teaches in the gender studies, environmental studies and international affairs programs. She divides her time between her "town job" in Saratoga Springs, NY, and the bison ranch in southeastern Montana that she and her husband Doug share with six Peruvian horses, two Springer Spaniels, a tuxedo cat and various wildlife.

Killing treed bears: Rejecting hype to find out for myself

Hounds work to pick up the scent of a bear that had crossed a Forest
Service road in Tehama County, California.

By Holly A. Heyser

Three years ago, I had a pretty low opinion of hunting bears with hounds. Being a relatively new hunter, I wasn't yet aware that even in the hunting community, there was disdain for houndsmen. I just didn't like the idea of a hound hunt. I preferred - then and now - ambush over chase.

It wasn't just that aesthetic, though; the big stopper for me was the idea of shooting a helpless and frightened treed bear. I always put myself in the heads of the animals I am about to shoot, or have just shot, and the treed bear's perspective made me cringe.

So, how was it that I found myself shooting a 225-pound black bear out of a tree this Sunday? It started with the Humane Society of the United States' campaign against bear hunting in California.

A bear track on a Forest Service
road.

© Holly A. Heyser 2012

In 2010, California's black bear population was continuing to grow, and there was an effort to increase the "quota" - the total number of bears that can be killed by hunters each year. That, of course, caught HSUS' attention, and it launched one of its emotionally laden, fact-deficient campaigns.

One word in particular set me off: "trophy." The HSUS California lobbyist was being quoted in newspapers all over the state referring to "the trophy hunting of bears."

Hmm. Most hunters I know would love to get a "trophy" animal of any species, but most are also just happy to be successful on a hunt - smaller animals are fine.

This was nothing less than the organization's usual strategy for picking low-hanging fruit: Public support for meat hunting is very high - 85 percent - while public support for trophy hunting is very low - 28 percent (source: Responsive Management, 2006). Most non-hunters I've met interpret "trophy hunting" as "not eating the meat." Say the word "trophy" and you can count on fanning hostile sentiment among non-hunters. (Here's what I wrote on the topic in my blog that year.)

There was another component to the Department of Fish & Game's proposal: allowing houndsmen to use GPS collars on their dogs, making them easier to track down. I ignored this, because I knew nothing about it and really didn't much care for the whole hound thing.

Neither proposal passed that year. One year later, DFG tried again to raise the quota, but dropped the GPS tracking collar issue. This effort, which I blogged about here, also failed.

Then this year, there was a big public relations disaster: The president of our Fish and Game Commission, Dan Richards, hunted a lion with hounds in Idaho and sent a photo to a weekly hook-and-bullet newspaper, Western Outdoor News. What he did was legal in Idaho, but Californians had banned all lion hunting here. HSUS fomented outrage, and tried to get Richards booted from the commission. (Here was my take on that.)

Closed-door politics defeated that effort, but the HSUS still wanted to demonstrate its power, so it decided to go after hunting with hounds, partnering with Southern California state Sen. Ted Lieu to introduce a bill that would ban hunting bears and bobcats (but not pigs) with hounds.

Two Plott hounds ride atop the box on the back of a pickup,
chained to the box for safety. The driver cruises Forest Service
roads slowly in hopes that the dogs will detect the scent of a
recent bear crossing - called a "strike," which the dogs will
signal with their signature bark.

By this time, I had already begun trying to learn more about hound hunting from friends - people I liked and respected - who were familiar with it. Before I started hunting, my view of hunters was that they had to be sick to get off on killing. But watching my boyfriend learn to hunt, then deciding to take it up myself, showed me how wrong I was. Could I also be wrong about hunting bears with hounds?

After remaining silent on hunting with hounds in the previous debates, I now leapt to the defense of houndsmen, because it was becoming clear they were being caricatured - another typical HSUS tactic - as lazy rednecks who kick back while dogs do all the work.

HSUS also really hyped the "terrified, treed bear" image, and I'd heard so many houndsmen reject that depiction, which had been the core of my concern, that I began to doubt my assumptions. More on that later.

I took a long hard look at how I hunted, or to be more exact, the nature of the deaths I caused. I came up with three kinds:

* Some were my own Holy Grail: instant deaths that they didn't see coming. One pig I have shot died instantly, and probably half of the birds I've shot did as well (some of which didn't see it coming, some of which did moments before the shot).

* Some were close to my ideal: quick deaths. They didn't die instantly, but because I had hit lungs, they had bled out and died within a minute. Three big-game animals I had shot went this way (none of them saw it coming), and maybe a third of the birds I've shot did as well (again, some saw it coming, but others didn't).

* Some were cringe-worthy deaths: poor shots that merely crippled, leading to suffering that would last until I finished the job. One pig I shot went this way (found him and finished him off within five minutes) and all the remaining birds did as well (most finished off quickly, but undoubtedly some got away - it's inevitable). I have chased lots of birds that were trying like hell to get away from me.

I despise the third category, yet I accept that it is an unavoidable facet of hunting: We cannot shoot perfectly all the time, which means invariably I will have to chase an animal before killing it. If I could accept that, why could I not accept shooting a treed bear? I decided I would go on such a hunt to gain some firsthand knowledge.

A houndsman waits with me on the road

while the rest of our hunting party follows
dogs working a cold bear trail in steep
terrain.

The hunt could be an entire story itself, but I'll just hit the key facts here: We hunted 10 hours the first day, slowly cruising Forest Service roads with hounds riding atop the vehicles in hopes that they would catch the scent of a bear that had crossed the road, or that we would see tracks of bears crossing the road. No fresh tracks, no "strikes" - which is what they call the hounds' reaction to a fresh scent.

We had hunted that way for maybe five hours on the second day when we stopped to check out some tracks that seemed reasonably fresh. The scent was so cold that no one was sure the dogs would be able to follow it, but they did, and within about an hour we heard the barking that indicated they had treed the bear.

As we set out toward the cacophony, my empathy reaction kicked in: I imagined what that bear was experiencing at that moment. I wondered if I could go through with it. Then I remembered why I was there: I had already decided to kill a bear on a hunt with houndsmen. I wanted and needed meat from a big-game animal in my freezer. And I needed to know - really know - what it meant to kill a treed bear.

When we got there, it went down fast. From one position, I couldn't get a shot. I shifted to a better position, and the bear started coming down the tree. Here's the thing: Bears will stay in trees over barking dogs for hours, unconcerned about creatures that can't climb up to get them. Humans, on the other hand, are a real threat, and bears are willing to risk contact with the dogs to get away from us.

As she started making her way down fast, I put the crosshairs behind her shoulder and pulled the trigger. She fell dead.

Did I hate myself for killing her that way? No. I had the same reaction I always do: I was grateful I had made a good shot, in this case doubly so because a wounded bear is dangerous, whereas wounded ducks, pheasants and doves aren't. I was grateful that I would be bringing home a LOT of meat. And I was mindful that I had ended her life, which is always - ALWAYS - a serious event, regardless of whether the animal sees it coming.

This is me with the bear I killed Sunday.

Would I do this again? Yes. While the road-cruising was tedious, I admired the dogs' skill and the houndsmen's fitness, watching them clamber up and down hills that had me out of breath in 10 seconds. When I last saw them on Monday, they were preparing to head out to an area that would require brutal hiking - no road cruising - something they'd tried to spare me on my first bear hunt.

Also, I like bear meat, and this is an effective way to get it.

Sadly, though, I will not be doing this again, because the California Legislature passed that bill. Hunting bears with hounds will be illegal next year, and I have tagged out for this year's season.

We've lost something here in California, and I wonder how many hunters - laboring under the same knee-jerk reaction I'd had - don't even realize it. I'm just glad I took the time to get to know something I didn't understand before it was too late.

© Holly A. Heyser 2012

'Eating Aliens' Named a Top Science Book of 2012

I just found out that Library Journal named 'Eating Aliens' one of 2012's top science and technology's books of the year! I didn't have the money to enter any of the industry's competitions for best books, so it was nice to have something like this handed to me. There isn't a trophy or anything, but I'll take what I can get.

In other news, tomorrow I start my service as the newest board member of Earth Week.

Last Sunday I spent the day helping culinary historian Dr. Leni Sorenson make an early 19th century recipe for mincemeat using venison and beat meat provided by yours truly. Actually, 'helping' glorifies my role too much. She did the research and most of the actual work while I ground some spices and soaked up as much wisdom from her as I could. We got great photos and hopefully I can find a good home for an article about the day.

Deer season is continuing here in Central Virginia and I still have a few days open for guided hunts before the end.

'Close to the Bone' is color corrected and is being submitted to film festivals now. As soon as I know about screening dates in different cities, I will post them here.

The Virginia alligator expedition will be moving ahead in the spring once the gators are warmed up and active. Our intent is to get out there during the weeks of the spring mating season when any alligators present would be bellowing and making it easier to identify them.