Western Whitetail article: Triggers - keep them under control

I recently became a staff writer for Western Whitetail, and they just posted my first article. My section is called "Make The Shot" and this issue's article is about trigger control. You can read the article in full by clicking here: http://www.westernwhitetail-digital.com/westernwhitetail/summer_2013#pg54

You can also find an advertisement for my company, Independence Training, on page 25.

Happy Hunting!

Greyhounds and Coyotes

If you've read my book on predator hunting, then you may remember the story I told of my grandfather running down coyotes using greyhounds. In a recent issue of Peterson's Hunting magazine, I found the short article shown below, and not only is it a good story, but helps me to remember that in days gone by, it was easier to get things done without being hassled by some crazy special interest group.

Click the above photo to enlarge the article for reading. You can also go here to see a full-sized version: http://s79.photobucket.com/user/rizzo1318/media/Blog%20Pics/PetersonsMay2013_GreyhoundArticle_zps25c54eae.jpg.html - click the magnifier in the lower right corner, then click it again to view the original which is high-resolution and much larger.

Happy Hunting!

A Reminder about Safety while Hunting

Earlier this month, a 12-year-old boy shot his father in the head and killed him while they were out shooting prairie dogs near Seligman, AZ - not far from my stomping grounds. It's a sobering and realistic reminder that safety is a conscious act, just like we teach in our training courses. It also sounds like that boy was riding in the back of the truck and shooting out of it, which is not just unsafe but also illegal.

Please remember to educate kids and every other shooter around you about the firearm safety rules, as well as the laws regarding shooting and hunting.

News story is linked here:
http://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/predator-hunting/articlecontent/4/2013/4843/12-year-old-misses-praire-dog-shoots-his-father

Bobcat vs. Coyotes

I just realized how long it's been since I posted anything on this blog! I've been hard at work in the training business, traveling around the great state of AZ and beyond doing emergency response training, and unfortunately that hasn't left me with much time for predator hunting right now. I'll be headed out next week to close out the hunting season, and I'll post up some pictures from that afterwards, but in the meantime, here's a great video I ran across on YouTube from a trail camera. It shows a bait pile where a bobcat it happily dining when some coyotes show up - and the bobcat isn't about to just give up a free meal to ol' Wile E. without a fight.

Coyote Hazing . . . . seriously?!

The city of Boulder, CO has always been a safe haven for liberals and bleeding hearts, but this story literally made me LOL (did I just say that?!) as the city has now also become a safe haven for coyotes! Boulder has been plagued recently by coyotes, several of which have been quite aggressive, which has left city officials searching for a solution. "Oh geez, what should we do about all of these aggressive coyotes?" Well, I think that I have a pretty good solution, but let's throw logic out the window and throw tennis balls at the coyotes instead, which Grand View Outdoors reports is just part of the passive solution that the city is enforcing as a way to "haze" the coyotes into not liking humans: http://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/predator-hunting/articlecontent/1/2013/4557/coyote-hazing-program-under-way-in-boulder. And if you think that's funny, read the whole story over at the Daily Camera: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_22402955/boulders-coyote-hazing-sees-eventful-first-day-new.

What is our country coming to? Sheesh.

Happy Hunting!

First fox turns into a triple fox!

A former Coyote Clinic student emailed me this story and pictures last week, and I wanted to share it because it's such an awesome story! He has been working on getting a gray fox for a while, and with a change of tactics and sounds that he picked up in the Coyote Clinic, he was able to not just get 1 fox, but get 3 within 48 seconds! I'll let Justin tell his full story:

Well I finally broke my curse and killed my first fox! It was the final stand of the morning and I decided to sit in a wash at the mouth of two smalll canyons. I set up the ecaller about 15 yards away from me and played some various birds in distress calls with no luck. At the 9 min mark I switched to Screaming Grey and within seconds saw a flash of something in the brush. A few seconds after that and there was a nice sized fox 30 yards away focused on the caller. I shot him with my 870 using #4 buck and he dropped. I quickly changed the sound to fox in distress and moments later a second fox showed up on the other side of the wash. He saw me turn towards him and he sprinted, I took a running broadside shot and he rolled. Turns out I had in error grabbed some 7.5 bird shot but at 16 yards it was plenty to make a humane kill. Well by now I felt like getting up and doing a victory dance but decided to change the sound to fox/rabbit and really push it. I am so glad I did becuase seconds later a third fox shows up and just stands there staring at the call wondering why it's not furry while I take aim and blast him. All total I went from 0 foxes to 3 foxes in 48 seconds! It was a rush!

I want to thank Glen (Rizzo) for the tips he gave me on hunting fox. He is the reason I switched to different fox vocalizations and kept calling after the first shot. I had heard that before but until I heard it from him I never really believed they would keep coming in.

 

 

 

Thanks for the story and pictures, Justin!

 

Happy Hunting!

 

 

 

I'll take the easy road . . . .

I have an uncle in Wyoming who sent this picture out to the family yesterday, and I wanted to share it. My uncle was plowing the snow on a road near Jackson Lake when he spotted this red fox with an American coot in its mouth trotting down the plowed area. He seemed to pay no attention to my uncle until he tried to get more pictures, and then the fox jumped into the snow.

Once my uncle passed by where the fox had left the road, he looked in his rearview mirror and the fox popped back onto the nicely paved asphalt and continued on his way. Guess after chasing down and nabbing a coot, this ol' fox wanted to take the easy road!

Thanks for the picture Charlie!

Alligator skull is finally complete!

It's been a long time coming (here's the original gator post back in August), but the gator skull is finally complete! I've been really busy lately with training and such, but I had some time today to get the gator skull all wrapped up.

This has been a fun project, even if it seemed to take forever, but I really learned a lot since this was my first gator. There were several differences between this skull and the mammal skulls that I am so used to cleaning, such as the type of meat, the smell (stinky!), the way that the bone reacts to the whitening peroxide, and the way that the bone dries. I have two more gators to clean, and this one was the smallest of the three, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the others go.

Happy Hunting!

Bird, Dog, Cat

Several weeks ago, a pigeon was messing around in my wife's garden, and then mysteriously dropped dead. ;-) Not one to let an opportunity go to waste, I realized that I had not cleaned a pigeon skull in the past - in fact, this is the smallest skull I have ever cleaned. It turned out really well!

Back in May at the Coyote Clinic, we skinned a coyote during the skinning demonstration that was provided by a former Coyote Clinic graduate. I was finally able to get around to cleaning the skull this last month, and thought it fitting that it should be displayed on the tire of my fur gettin' truck.

And I'm slowly working my way through a box of bobcat heads in my freezer, all of which were trapped last season. Here's a few of them that I finished over the last couple of weeks, with one particularly large skull on the right. I really like the way that the skulls reflect in the bumper of the fur gettin' truck.

More skulls are coming soon - the alligator is just about wrapped up (had a bit of a peroxide issue), and several nice mule deer bucks are being cleaned as of right now.

If anyone needs bobcat skulls, by the way, they are for sale. I'll also donate them to educational institutions, especially any that teach kids about responsible hunting or outdoor skills.


Happy Hunting!

BIG Diamondback Rattlesnake Skull!

A hunter that I know named Roger contacted me several weeks ago after killing a massive diamondback rattlesnake while out coyote hunting. He wanted to get the skull cleaned up, and would be in my neck of the woods, so I had him stop by and drop the head off.

 

 

When it came time to put the head in the beetles, I placed it in the palm of my hand to see just how big it was - and I have to say that this was a very creepy thing to do! I'm not scared of snakes or anything like that, but this snake's eyes were still open, and after seeing how long snakes can move around after they are dead, it just made me squirm a little. This is one big rattlesnake head!

 

 

After the beetles were done with the head, the real work began. The tough part about rattlesnakes is that their bones aren't really connected - they are mostly held together with muscles and such. So when the skull is cleaned, it completely falls apart! It's a pretty painstaking process to hold it all together just right and apply the appropriate amount of super glue where needed, especially when youa re trying to go for a certain position with the skull. Most of the time, this process can take over an hour. Here's the skull once it was completed:

 

 

Keep an eye out for those rattlesnakes when you are out hunting and hiking! Sneaky devils, I tell ya.

 

Happy Hunting!