Two More Upset Michigan Outdoor Sportsmen Speak Out About DNR Funding

Below is a video you probably ought to watch. Buck LeVasseur talks with two prominent sportsmen from Michigan about what’s going on with the “smoke and mirrors” funding taking place within the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

You can get caught up here by finding out how the MDNR went from a projected shortfall in its budget of $10 million to a surplus of $10 million dollars.

Then come back here and watch this video and listen as Dale McNamee of the Upper Peninsula Sportsmans Alliance and Roy Mattson of the Delta Conservation District tell what they know is going on within the department. It’s sure to make your blood boil.

Tom Remington

Richard Hare

Rich Hare lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He’s a accomplished writer, and an avid outdoorsman devoted to all forms of hunting, trapping, and fishing

Articles by Richard Hare

Downright Poor Management

An Open Letter to Michigan Sportsmen

Michigan DNR’s Miracle Christmas! They Found $20 Million

Art Summer at Simply Outdoors sent me an email yesterday asking me if I had been following the story in Michigan about budget shortfalls with the Department of Natural Resources. I admitted I had been remiss in not more closely following up on previous stories I had written about their woes. As a matter of fact, back in July I was contacted by the Cadillac News and asked if I would be interested in presenting what I would consider negative effects of sharply raising license fees. Read more

Michigan And Iowa With Deer Harvest Issues

During the deer hunting seasons nationwide, it is normal to hear of states struggling to get harvest numbers where they want to due mainly to bad weather. But Michigan is scratching their heads at the moment trying to figure out where all the deer hunters went.

There are no official reports out yet but the Michigan DNR is saying that Michigan sold about the same number of hunting licenses as in the past. They also are reporting that deer harvest rates were up by about 6% in the Upper Peninsula, down 6% in the upper lower peninsula and down 7% in the lower lower peninsula.

Other unofficial reports statewide seems to indicate that hunter participation was low everywhere. A couple weeks ago, Eric Sharp, outdoor writer for the Detroit Free Press, asked where all the hunters were. DNR officials are perplexed and don’t seem to have any rational explanation for that.

Meanwhile, over in Iowa, the Department of Natural Resources is considering an emergency statewide deer hunt because harvest numbers have been so low. To this point in the season, hunters have taken 34,000 fewer deer than was projected. If the commission approves the emergency hunt, it will be statewide and any hunters with unfilled tags will be able to fill them with antlerless deer only.

Iowa officials blame poor weather for the lousy success rate.

Tom Remington

Recap of Mt Lions In Southwestern Maine

by
A. Sayward Lamb

For several years I have been hearing from several friends and acquaintances, telling me of sightings of the very elusive mountain lions which they have seen personally, or have been told of sightings by their friends. My earliest recollections of sightings were back in the mid-nineteen fifties, when I was living in South Woodstock. My friends, Leon Poland, and Joe Pete Appleby, repeatedly told me of sighting a Mt. Lion that crossed the highway in front of their vehicles on several occasions, just about dusk or shortly after dark, about a quarter of mile from where I resided. Read more

Tree Stand Tips

By Robert Lane

Bob Lane is a Licensed Master Maine Guide and photographer. He has also guided Caribou Hunters and Fishermen on float trips in Southwest Alaska.

July’s warm, sunny weather doesn’t provide much incentive to think about deer hunting to outdoorsmen who are trolling for deep swimming salmon and togue, whipping out the fly line during the drake hatch, or pursuing numerous other activities in the Maine woods this time of year.

This time of year I find myself occupied with trying to decide where I’m going to fish during the week and on the weekends, and trying to fit the kayaking and photography in to boot. Read more

Protecting Property Rights From National Heritage Areas And Earmarks

By Tom Remington

Let’s face it! Hunters, fishermen and all outdoor enthusiasts can’t enjoy their sports if they have no place to do it. Most states have at least some level of public lands but most of us still rely on private landowners’ unselfish willingness to allow you and I on their land. We have to respect the wishes of the landowner. It only makes sense. As a landowner myself, I want to be able to have a say in what I do with my land and who enters it and for what purpose. This is all part of being a free American and many of us enjoy it. As outdoor recreationists we need to do a better job in creating good, respectful landowner relationship programs. Read more

Field Dressing a Deer

By Anonymous

 

There may have been years worth of work that has gone into bagging your first deer and not always are you fortunate to have someone with you that first time that can teach you how to field-dress a deer. The following directions are the basics of field dressing. Please keep in mind that everyone has his or her own favorite way to do this. Many prefer to completely dress the animal in the woods and others choose to “field” dress and finish the job when they get back home. The option is really yours and where you prefer to be. Personally, I like to do as much as I can in the woods.

 

Having someone with you to assist makes the job easier but I will assume that you are alone with your prize.

1. Locate a spot in the woods that can be beneficial to you. Most prefer to dress a deer on a bit of a downhill grade, so if that is not an option, look for a slight rise in the nearby terrain and drag the deer there. You can use the grade off one side of the rise.

2. The single most important thing that you want to focus on is not cutting into the “ponch”. The ponch is the stomach and intestines. Rupturing those can be messy and the odor sometimes is overpowering so work slowly and methodically.

 

3. If you can position the deer on its back that would be helpful. Again, if you are alone use your dragging rope to assist in tying the deer into position. Don’t be bashful. I find that if I straddle the deer’s head and hold its front legs apart with my knees, it affords me room and keeps both hands free to cut. If you have rope, use it to hold the deer’s two front legs apart.

4. You will find that the dead weight of the animal can be difficult to handle so be patient. The lower part of the deer will be rolled to one side or the other. Starting at the chest area and working toward the butt of the deer is easiest and at a point you need to move from your straddle position at the head to the rear.

5. Start at the chest. Find the point where the rib cage joins together and with one hand grab the hair and skin and lift it up and away from the stomach cavity. With the other hand, use your knife, and you better hope it is sharp, and begin cutting the hide being careful not to go too deep. As you cut, you will find that there is the layer of the hide and directly under that is a thin muscle area that protects the stomach and intestines. Go ahead and carefully cut that as well.

6. Move from the point of the rib cage toward the rear. Approximately 2/3 to ¾ of the way down the torso you will need to switch ends and move down and hold the hind legs apart as you finish opening the deer. The farther you get away from the rib cage, the easier it is to hold the hide and inner muscle layer up and away from the ponch.

7. If the deer you have shot is a buck, you will soon come to its testicles. Choose one side or the other to cut around but eventually you will remove those from the deer. Continue cutting and slice the hide all the way to the anus.

8. This is where most hunters have differing opinions as to what to do next. Most are correct – just different approaches. Hopefully you have succeeded in keeping the stomach in one piece. There are two more things that you need to keep tabs on and work hard not to rupture if possible as some contamination could occur. One is the bladder, the other is the intestines. Many times both will have matter contained in them. Assume that they do.

9. Roll the deer onto one side with the opening you have just made in the body cavity facing downhill. This will require loosening or retying your ropes if you are using them. Let the guts roll out onto the ground along with the blood that has collected in the body cavity. You will now need to get down and get dirty. Reach up into the chest cavity until you find the esophagus. That is the “pipe-like” tube coming from the throat to the deer’s stomach. Once you have found it, reach in with the other hand and a knife and cut it off. This will release the majority of the guts and the intestines will still be connected to the rectum.

10. While holding the hind legs of the deer apart, take your knife and finish removing the testicles. Once that is done, continue cutting with your knife into the meaty part between the hind legs until you strike bone.

11. Move to the very rear end of the deer and locate the anus. Like a fine surgeon, carefully cut around the anus. If you follow the anus through the cavity located between the deer’s hind legs, you would discover that the intestines connect to the anus. If you are careful you can continue to cut around the anus moving deeper and deeper at the same time lightly tugging at the intestines still connected to the guts you have rolled onto the ground. Once successful, you will be able to remove the anus in one piece still connected to the intestines. Some hunters will cut the intestines to finish removing the guts before they remove the rectum and anus. If you choose this option, be as careful as you can not to get deer feces inside the deer cavity. If you have shot a doe, remove the female organs with the rectum and anus.

12. Next, the bladder should be removed. When you removed the testicles of the buck or female organs of a doe, you cut the tube that carries the urine from the bladder. At the end of the bladder toward the head of the deer, is another tube that enters the bladder. Cut it off being as careful as you can not to rupture or spill urine into the cavity. With both tubes cut try to remove the bladder by holding both tubes to prevent urine from escaping.

13. All that is left is the diaphragm and the lungs that you will find deep up inside the chest cavity. You will need reach up inside and cut through the diaphragm to gain access to the lungs. The furthest reach you will have is to locate the windpipe and cut it off. Once that is done the lungs and diaphragm come out quite easily.

That is pretty much it. Again some hunters prefer to only remove the ponch and finish the job later. That’s up to you. If you have access to water, it is helpful to be able to rinse off yourself and some opt to rinse the inside of the deer cavity as well. Some will do it well when they get home.

A couple more helpful hints: Carry some extra paper towel sheets with you or I carry baby wipes. They can clean up a lot of things and I often use them as toilet paper. Also, once the deer has been gutted, I like to roll the deer into a spread eagle position and leave it while I clean up etc. and let a lot of the blood in the cavity drain before it clots.

How to Remove Rust From a Gun

p style=”margin-top: 1px; margin-bottom: 1px” align=”left”> By Steven T. Remington

Removing surface rust from a gun without damaging the finish can be quite tricky if you aren’t familiar with the process, but there are a couple easy methods that can be used that will save you time and energy. If the rust isn’t very bad you may only need to spend 5 minutes. If there is serious rusting it could take 20 minutes per day for a few weeks. Keeping your gun free of rust helps preserve your gun’s beauty and value, and it will help keep it functioning properly.

Here is how:

* Get your gun oil out. I sometimes use “Inhibitor” but whatever you normally use to lube up your guns to prevent rust. Also head on over to the Home Depot and pick up some fine steel wool. You will want to get 00 steel wool normally found in the paint department. Once you get those 2 things find a nice comfortable spot where the gun can lay down without being scratched if the gun should slide around a bit. Newspapers on a work bench or a towel will work fine.

* Check to see if your gun is loaded. If it is, unload it.

* Apply oil directly on and around any rust spots.

* Now apply oil onto the 00 steel wool and gently rub the rusty areas. You won’t need to rub hard just nice and softly working the wool back and forth.

* Have a rag handy and occasionally remove the oil and inspect the surface. The oil will turn brown if any of the rust is being removed. So wipe off the dirty oil occasionally and reapply clean oil onto rusty spots.

* Repeat as necessary until all the rust is gone. Sometimes you may want to lube up the gun and put it away for a couple of days and work at it again if the rust is real bad. Sometimes the outer surface of the rust needs to be loosened over time by the oil.

* This process will not harm the “bluing” on your rifle. Just be sure to not scrub so hard you’ll scratch the finish. Firmly is fine, but remember it isn’t necessarily strength that will remove the rust, but rather persistence, patience, and time.

*Once you remove all the rust, make sure to coat all steel surfaces of your gun with oil, using a clean rag, after each use.

 

By Steven Remington

 

Man Who Shot Cow For Coyote Charged

A Michigan man, Richard Buckner, who supposedly mistook a 1,400-pound pregnant cow for a coyote, has been charged with a misdemeanor and that’s all. Get this! This guy says he thought he was shooting at a coyote. Okay, so the guy screws up, not that there is any excuse for not identifying your target, and kills a woman’s cow and unborn calf. They are trying to determine value, I assume so Buckner can pay restitution.

End of story right? Not quite. Some may think this guy was an idiot to mistake a cow for a coyote and I would agree. But now you have to ask who’s the bigger idiot? The guy who shot the cow or the people who can’t see this guys got a problem?

According to the Traverse City Record-Eagle, the woman who owned the cow said it’s time to accept what happened and move on.

“I certainly thought there would have been additional charges … but that is up to the prosecutor to decide what’s most offensive and what’s most appropriate,” Mosher said. “We don’t hold any grudges against (Buckner). We live in a small community and I guess we just have to accept some of the things that happen in a small community and move on.”

Has anyone thought that maybe Buckner has a few loose screws? Look, people. This guy didn’t just screw up and mistake a cow for a coyote. Read what this same article says about what actually happened.

The cream-and-white cow had wandered away from a neighboring farm when Buckner allegedly fired on the animal, but the cow didn’t die with the initial shot.

Buckner allegedly shot the animal twice more and chained it to his vehicle.

Mosher’s father witnessed Buckner dragging the cow behind his truck and alerted authorities.

This guy must have been so surprised when he found out he had shot a cow instead of a coyote, that he finished the cow off with two more shots, chained it to his truck and headed for home. I wonder if he gutted it out? Is this the actions of a person who screwed up and didn’t identify the target? For God’s sake! It wasn’t even coyote hunting season!

Then the sheriff says this.

“I think they probably should have looked at a (Department of Natural Resources) charge, also. This guy wasn’t being a responsible hunter,” Heckman said.

This guy is no hunter. He wasn’t hunting. He was out to kill something and shouldn’t be looked at as a hunter. Can’t anybody see this guy is probably a danger to others?

The county prosecutor says the charge is sufficient.

“I am not in the habit of justifying my decisions to the newspaper when the police want additional charges,” he said. “The charge is enough to address the situation.”

Wow! I just hope next month we don’t hear about this guy shooting a person thinking it was groundhog.

Tom Remington

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