Small Game Hunting

I remember well the days of old when there was heavy frost in November and still enough Bobwhite Quail to stumble upon a covey while walking the woods in search of deer or squirrels. I remember, many times as a youngster, nearly jumping out of my boots as a large covey exploded around me. Those were the days. I was thirteen when my cousin Tommy and his wife Wilma invited me to live with them in Lynchburg Tennessee. It was there that I developed a passion for the outdoors that lives and grows stronger everyday. Tommy was well known in the area for training bird dogs. He really enjoyed training the culls that seemed un-trainable. Needless to say I followed many dogs many miles along bean fields and creek bottoms. Some dogs did all right some not so well but the great part ...

First tip, scouting your hunting area 2 to 3 weeks before your hunting season. If you can try to make it out before the sun raises, you can see the turkeys getting out of the trees and see where they are heading and also try to make it out when the birds are getting ready to roost. Watching the turkeys for these couple of weeks gives you the perfect spot to place your blind or where you want to sit on the ground. If you do end up walking out to where you might want to sit make sure to clear away all the leaves and branches, so when you do go out you won't have all that noise. Second tip, making sure you are wearing the right clothing. Some people think sitting in a blind means they can wear whatever dark clothing they want but that is not the case. You want to make sure you ar...

There are not many greater joys than passing on your own knowledge to your children, especially if it is related to a mutual passion. I am blessed to have three sons who share my enthusiasm for being in the outdoors and hunting. Recently, we took a trip to our favourite rabbit-infested property and while there was certainly plenty of entertainment, I was pleased to be able to teach them some important lessons too. It was a Saturday after my boys, Matthew, Timothy and Andrew, had finished their sporting commitments for the day. We all agreed that the weather was too good to stay at home and an afternoon sniping rabbits was on the agenda. After a short text to the owner of the property to confirm that it was fine for us to come out hunting, we quickly packed the car with all of th...

Dove hunting season is an exciting time of year. It kicks off the fall hunting season and can be a whole lot of fun as well as a chance to get tuned-up for fall and winter bird hunting. When heading out to the dove field I prefer to take my Baretta 12 gauge auto loader, but a 20 gauge with 7/8 ounce loads of 8 shot is a great dove gun. Here are a few tips to help make your dove hunt a success: 1) Match the choke to the conditions Using the wrong choke will seriously affect your shell/bird ratio. A common mistake is using chokes that are too tight for dove. Granted, some shots at dove are pretty long, but shots requiring full chokes are not common. Fortunately, today's modern shotguns have screw in choke tubes so you can hit the field with every choke you might need and make a qui...