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Hunting styles

Ogur
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Hunting styles

Post by Ogur » Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:28 am

I thought I'd throw up a little thread on the ways people hunt. Here in Sweden there isn't as much hunting happening without dogs and since I am lacking in the hunting dog department I'd love to hear how you guys in other parts of the world go about your hunting. It's good to have a wide variety of tricks in your bag when you want to solo hunt.

I've noticed here that most hunters actually are out in moose season and moose season only. They don't bother with any other forms. They might take a fox or 2 for predator control, but don't actively hunt them.

I want to hunt small game and try as many hunting types as I can to find out what I like. Tried roedeer calling to no succes. Same with stalking. And passing. Noone to teach me the ropes, so have to figure out everything myself. Which is hard to do with only the internet to guide you. Some things need to be learnt in person. I have a beaver location, so I am going to try that out as well. And I've been on the moose hunts here.

The moose is a team hunt. Most people spread out to shooting passes and 2 or 3 dog handlers release moose dogs to find, flush or bring at bay the moose. Usually it's 2 hunts per day, morning and afternoon. If you shoot something you'll gut it and leave it there till the hunt is called off.

After the hunt has been called off we take a quad with a "pulka" sled(?) And collect the moose. Or, if we can't get at it with the quad we drag the sled by hand. The moose is then taken to the butchering shack where it's skinned and weighed. It is left to hang inside (brown bears like moose too), at around 10 degrees celcius. untill we portion it at the end of the hunting week.

The team I hunt with was out the first week of september and october and took a total of 4 bulls, 4 cows and 5 calves. The meat is then split between 17 guys.

It's a social hunt. If you leave the village here to the north there are few roads, mostly for logging access for many kilometres. These roads don't lead to any towns. And from the golden days there are logger houses where the workers spent their days during the work season sprinkled around. Most aren't directly visible, but they're there. Simple buildings with a large wood stove and bunk beds. We sleep in these, cook our meals, have a beer and a laugh in the evening. Quite cosy.
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GunnyGene
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by GunnyGene » Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:07 am

We have a alligator season here in Mississippi. Kind of a combination of fishing and hunting, done from a small boat. Usually 2 to 4 men in the boat. Gators here usually run around 8 to 10 feet, but a big one can be over 13' and 1000lbs or more. Once you hook one, the objective is to pull it close enough to put a bullet in the brain - which is about the size of a walnut. No other shot will do much except make it angry, and a ticked off gator is not something you want to mess with.

Here's everything you ever want to know about gator hunting in MS. :D

https://www.mdwfp.com/wildlife-hunting/ ... r-program/
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Hatchdog
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by Hatchdog » Sat Jul 03, 2021 9:25 am

Here in eastern Washington State, in the northwest corner of the US Whitetail deer hunting is the most popular. For me I always hunted in the forested woods areas of the Northeast corner of the state. We mostly hunted an area that was private property owned by a very large timber company. As an area that has lots of tree harvesting in it there are very nice roads running throughout. However, area’s like these attract lots of hunters due to the easy access to some more remote areas. The timber company joined with the Washington State Dept of Wildlife and made this area a road closure area with no motor vehicle access including quads. My cousin and I used mountain bikes (pedal power) to access the area’s we wanted to hunt. This required an approximately three mile ride from the gate on the road. We found that by doing this we saw very few other hunters.

We used a couple of different methods. Mostly after ditching our bikes we would split up and hunt different but adjoining areas. One method is called “still hunting” which is a process of moving very slowly through an area stopping often and glassing the area. The other method we used is called “stand hunting” which is basically sitting in an area of good view and waiting for game to come by you. I mostly would find a stump that overlooked a good area and sit as still as I could. While I had success using both methods I found the “stand” method to be more productive.

When one of us killed a deer we would skin it and put it on the bicycle and push it out to the truck using the very nice gravel roads maintained by the timber company. If it was what is called the “late buck” season there was mostly snow which prevented the use of bicycles. Then we would bring game backpacks with us. This is a backpack with just an oversized frame and no pack. We would skin the deer, cut it in half and each of us would carry a half. Again, once we got the deer to a road the walking with a load on our backs wasn’t too bad as the roads were pretty level. Of course unless the timber company was doing an active cut in the area the roads were not plowed so sometimes we had to wade through a foot or two of snow.

We pretty much used the same method for Elk other than being able to use an Elk bugle (call). This only works in September when the Elk are in rut and the modern rifle season for Elk was later in the year. There is an early season for muzzleloader rifles so we switched to those for Elk. We could get to where we wanted to hunt and bugle. If we got a response we would then do a still hunt looking for the Elk.

I did draw a once in a lifetime Moose tag in 2012. I hunted a different timber company land as I got a great tip of some large bulls hanging out there. We used the same still hunting process as for deer and I was successful. I shot my bull at 175 yards while slowly walking up what is called a skid road. (Road used to skid trees to a landing area)
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JEBar
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by JEBar » Sat Jul 03, 2021 9:34 am

depending on where and what type of big game we are hunting we hunt with dogs or from stands .... when hunting with dogs we use shotguns with buckshot .... when hunting from a stand or blind we use whatever type firearm and ammo that best matches the terrain
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Ogur
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by Ogur » Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:15 pm

Hatchdog wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 9:25 am
We pretty much used the same method for Elk other than being able to use an Elk bugle (call). This only works in September when the Elk are in rut and the modern rifle season for Elk was later in the year. There is an early season for muzzleloader rifles so we switched to those for Elk. We could get to where we wanted to hunt and bugle. If we got a response we would then do a still hunt looking for the Elk.
I have been to a presentation on moose cslling here. It is gaining in popularity, but it only works in a very limited timeframe. Whitetails seem nice for hunting. There is a population in Finland that is now spreading into Sweden. They are quite successfull att outcompeting the native species. I might see some in the future. There is no season for them as they are sn invasive species and thus "without peace". Basically you can hunt them all year round.

Stand hunting is something I can try here. Patience game I would wager. Then agsin, so is still hunting. I'm going to do some digging on that!
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Ogur
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by Ogur » Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:19 pm

GunnyGene wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:07 am
We have a alligator season here in Mississippi. Kind of a combination of fishing and hunting, done from a small boat. Usually 2 to 4 men in the boat. Gators here usually run around 8 to 10 feet, but a big one can be over 13' and 1000lbs or more. Once you hook one, the objective is to pull it close enough to put a bullet in the brain - which is about the size of a walnut. No other shot will do much except make it angry, and a ticked off gator is not something you want to mess with.

Here's everything you ever want to know about gator hunting in MS. :D

https://www.mdwfp.com/wildlife-hunting/ ... r-program/
Sounds like a good way to get injured😅 Do you hunt them for the meat or predator control?
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GunnyGene
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by GunnyGene » Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:28 pm

Ogur wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:19 pm
GunnyGene wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:07 am
We have a alligator season here in Mississippi. Kind of a combination of fishing and hunting, done from a small boat. Usually 2 to 4 men in the boat. Gators here usually run around 8 to 10 feet, but a big one can be over 13' and 1000lbs or more. Once you hook one, the objective is to pull it close enough to put a bullet in the brain - which is about the size of a walnut. No other shot will do much except make it angry, and a ticked off gator is not something you want to mess with.

Here's everything you ever want to know about gator hunting in MS. :D

https://www.mdwfp.com/wildlife-hunting/ ... r-program/
Sounds like a good way to get injured😅 Do you hunt them for the meat or predator control?
Gators are usually hunted for the meat & hide and obviously for the trophy/bragging rights. They can become what we term a "nuisance" critter however, which are normally handled by our fish and game people.

Louisiana I think also has a gator season, but not sure. You may have heard about a boy named "Amos Moses". :D ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7GyLr7Cz2g

We also have a large population of feral hogs which are a cross between domestic pigs and Russian Boar. They get big and mean and breed like rabbits. Open season year round, any weapon, any time day or night, no permit needed. Kill 'em all, however you can.
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Ogur
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by Ogur » Sun Jul 04, 2021 7:46 am

GunnyGene wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:07 am
We also have a large population of feral hogs which are a cross between domestic pigs and Russian Boar. They get big and mean and breed like rabbits. Open season year round, any weapon, any time day or night, no permit needed. Kill 'em all, however you can.
Same here with the wild boar. They have become an issue in the whole of Europe. They are hunted year round. Just sows with piglets are off limits. They are matriarchs snd if you kill them the pack will spread out. Not to mention the piglets starve. Last year they shot more wild boar in Sweden than moose. About 110.000 if I remember correctly. We take about 90.000 moose per year. And the boars live only in the south. The snow is too deep for them here locally.
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GunnyGene
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by GunnyGene » Sun Jul 04, 2021 9:07 am

Ogur wrote:
Sun Jul 04, 2021 7:46 am
GunnyGene wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 7:07 am
We also have a large population of feral hogs which are a cross between domestic pigs and Russian Boar. They get big and mean and breed like rabbits. Open season year round, any weapon, any time day or night, no permit needed. Kill 'em all, however you can.
Same here with the wild boar. They have become an issue in the whole of Europe. They are hunted year round. Just sows with piglets are off limits. They are matriarchs snd if you kill them the pack will spread out. Not to mention the piglets starve. Last year they shot more wild boar in Sweden than moose. About 110.000 if I remember correctly. We take about 90.000 moose per year. And the boars live only in the south. The snow is too deep for them here locally.
The preferred method here is with large baited corral traps to catch the entire sounder, then dispose of them. Doesn't always work tho. If one escapes, the word gets around and any others will avoid the trap. They're smart animals. They cause about $1.5 billion in damage in the US annually, and continuously spread out into new territory. Unfortunately our northern States haven't taken them seriously yet, so many don't have any kind of population control program and severely limit hunting them. Hopefully, they'll figure it out in a few years.
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Ogur
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Re: Hunting styles

Post by Ogur » Sun Jul 04, 2021 12:22 pm

Probably will and probably too late. And they'll do the uncontrolled "shoot anything that moves" tactic which only makes it worse. Tasty critters, but you really need to stay on top of them. Just wait till the wolf cuddlers come slong and claim wolves reduce boar populations😂 No predator will take wild boar if given a possibility at something else.
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