Anyone knows what camouflage is, but fewer people have seen a ghillie suit. And unless you are looking very carefully, you may not see it period. Landlords would hire guys to go around their property and repel illegal hunters in the beginnings of the ghillie suit. They were called ghillies and would make suits from old rags and frayed textiles to hide themselves in the brush and wait for poachers.
Today a variety of operations, from combat sharpshooting to paintballing are performed in the ghillie suit. The technology remains the same even though the textiles have changed over time. The modern ghillie suit wearer looks like a pile of sticks when they are being still and can remain undetected even when the opposition or target comes within a very close range to them.
Ghillie suits have been associated with sniping because of their simple concept and high efficiency. The act of sharpshooting started around the time of the end of the eighteenth century. Guerillas would shoot at opposing armies from far-away areas to destroy and break the spirits of the enemy. Sharpshooters came about when rifles became more accurate and sharpshooter could be more than 100 meters from their mark.
The implementation of shooters in military engagements changed the the technique in which battles were fought. Officers would stand with battalions and give orders during battle before the deployment of snipers. As more and more commanders were assassinated, troop combat went from direct encounters to more sheltered, flanking techniques. Commanders had to attempt to blend in with the common soldiers to avoid being shot. covered areas such as woods and mountains became the choice area over open areas as shooting tactics became more prevalent. As more ferocious and far-away tactics were used in combat, the rules of engagement that troops before stood by was abandoned.
To pick off top officers and to break the spirits of enemy troops during World War I, all sides had ghillie suits and sharpshooter tactics. The skill to remain hidden for shooters lies within the ghillie suit; textiles hang down and give the shooter unbelievable camouflage protection. There are several different styles of the suit so that the wearer can blend in with surroundings no matter what terrain they are in. A desert ghillie suit, for example, would appear a lot different than a woodlands ghillie suit.
Modern day snipers still continue to use the ghillie suit for protection and security while on decisive missions. Since a shooter often operates alone or with one other man the ability to stay hidden is crucial for a shooter’s safety. A well-made suit to hide the sniper is the most important asset besides the rifle. A sniper’s life would be extremely compromised if they didn’t have the ability to stay hidden until it was time to shoot. To an sniper, the escape is just as important as the actual shot. Many times during the escape the shooter will use the camouflage of the suit to get him out without harm.
Bow hunting is not easy. One of the most difficult things to do is to get close enough to the prey and fire that bow of yours. Nevertheless, once gun season comes to a close you will end up being in that scenario one way or another at one point in time when hunting. Hunting with a bow, during the times when gun season is over is a daunting task. There aren’t that many places to hide, because most if not all leaves are gone by this time and the hunter needs to be cautious and experienced. Many hunters try hiding on trees to be able to avoid being detected by their pray. The most popular pray is deer, and deer hunting with a bow is an excellent and rewarding pass time. Hunting deer with a bow gives the hunter an advantage when doing so in a close area. Many experienced bow hunters hunt for deer at pine forested areas where deer go to hide. Hunting in such areas takes away the deer’s advantage, the advantage it would normally have due to the bows limited range. It is best advised to find a heavy trail leading into a forested area, an area with pine, climb a tree that oversees the vicinity. Have in mind that the best range to fire a bow is within a 50 yard radius. It is imperative that you find a good spot to hide. Staying on the edge of this area will inevitably drive your pray away. You will stick out like a shore thumb and will never get a good chance to fire that bow of yours. Experienced hunters know well that deer, especially during the end of the hunting season, are extremely cautious when entering or approaching open hardwoods. Nevertheless, they are relaxed and carefree when entering a pine thicket. A thick pine area provides deer a good hiding place, it is close cover that allows them to feel secure and don’t expect anyone to be there.
The hunter needs to stay alert at all times if there is a chance to kill a deer. Every experienced hunter will tell you that in most cases they hear their pray before they see it. Most of the time, hearing a sound is what makes the hunter look towards a direction, towards the direction of the pray. Being alert is very important for the hunt, especially when hunting with a bow; more so when hunting in a wooded pine area. Deer will be more likely to sneak up to the hunter in this type of area. They occasionally snap a twig in pine thickets but could sneak up behind you without making a single sound. That’s why many hunters prefer to have hearing equipment with them during these kinds of hunts. When hunting with a bow, you need to get up close so you will need a good advantage over the pray. Aside from the hearing aide, the good warm cloths and boots and hat the hunter should have a good fine tuned hunting bow.
Fall was the preferred time to hunt wild turkeys by most of the famous old time turkey hunters and is still favored by many traditionalists. These turkey hunting experts liked it best because it was a lot more difficult and therefore more rewarding to call in an old turkey in the fall rather than the spring.
Gobblers in the late summer, fall and winter become very solitary animals with very little interest in females. They do, however, gobble in the fall and there have been a few mornings in October and November that you would think that it was spring with the huge number of gobblers around. On rare occasions, gobblers will even come in strutting and gobbling just like it was spring. More likely though, you won’t even notice a fall turkey reacting to your calls. He will just appear silently, looking for companionship with another long beard but not really caring whether he finds it or not. This is a real fall gobbler.
The fall season has regained its popularity recently with the ever-increasing numbers of turkeys. Over 40 states now host fall turkey seasons and more and more hunters are discovering the excitement of hunting in the fall. Turkey hunting is a pleasurable and enjoyable sport people are starting to like.
This sport requires seperate permits for hunters during the fall, along with the applications for spring hunting permits. Turkey hunters are allowed only to take only one wild turkey of either sex during that fall season each day.
Turkeys are usually found in open, mixed hardwood and pine forests. Others are scattered in brush land. Others prefer to roost in trees larger than the surrounding vegetation and will often choose place to stay on sites facing slopes where they can shelter from the existing strong wind. They will use open fields and meadows as feeding and boasting sites and wooded areas are roosting sites. If few or no roosting sites are available, the turkey may leave the place and not use it.
Basic Turkey Characteristics
Turkeys’ ears are also placed on both sides of their heads. And because they have no outer ear to develop the sound in one direction, they hear sounds all the way around them. Sounds received by only one ear can help the turkey find out which direction the sound comes out but not any indication of distance. Turkeys turn around to be more alert.
With a highly developed sense of smell, they can determine the direction of danger by scent and wind direction. The clever beasts generally flee away from the danger, not toward it. Besides their sense of smell, they rely heavily on both their eyes and ears to determine the direction of danger before they run away from it.
For Hunting, fishing, hiking, boating or cycling in all kinds of weather
Communication in the wilderness is a matter of survival, as well as convenience. Before even leaving home, communications must begin. In fact, our first two communications tips do not even require equipment or gadgets.
“Make sure that somebody knows when you leave, when you expect to return (or get to your destination),” advises Chad Brown, owner of Farm & Field fishing and hunting equipment auctions, a website geared to hunting, fishing and farming. “Provide as much information about your route as possible.
Things can happen. Rocks can fall on your head while hiking. Boats can tip over while fishing. Firearms can malfunction while hunting. Somebody needs to know that you are late in arriving…and where to send search parties to go hunting for you. In fact, this is the same advice I used to give drivers in winter weather when I was spokesperson for CAA Ontario.
The second tip is to never head into the wilderness alone. Just as one should never go swimming without a swimming buddy, nor should one go long-distance cycling or hiking, nor hunting, camping or fishing in a remote area without a buddy.
My wife’s uncle took the business end of large falling branch on his skull while out in the forest, knocking him unconscious and cracking his skull down the middle. Eventually his skull will heal, but only because he had companions to get him into town. Otherwise, he might still not be found.
Here is another report, this one from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation about a fall from a tree stand: “The subject had no communications equipment with him. No phone or radio. If the subject had left word of where he would be and approximate hour of return, a response may have been quicker. Cause of Death: The subject suffered a broken shoulder, multiple broken ribs on one side, a punctured lung, and a punctured spleen.”
This is hunting equipment?
Assuming you are still conscious, it helps to have some communications equipment while out hunting, fishing or camping. Of course, there is the ever popular cell phone, which brings instant communications to almost everywhere in the world. Except maybe your wilderness trek.
But there are many places where cell phone range covers your fishing lake or hunting woods. The best part about a cell phone is that, even in the wilderness, you can have utterly normal conversations with pretty well anybody.
“Yes, nice weather we are having lately. OK, darling, on my way back into town I’ll pick up some milk and peanut butter and…wait! Was that a whitetail? Gotta go.” Click.
Not only that, with a cell phone you can even catch up on your email while crouching in your tent or scaling a cliff, with an email to phone service.
A two-way radio is a much surer piece of equipment, because it does not depend on the cellular phone network to connect. The downside is that you get to speak to a much narrower range of people: other two-way radio owners.
“Hi there, Big Bear, do you read me? Can you get a-hold of my wife to see if I have to pick up milk and peanut butter on my way back into town? Do you copy? Oh yeah, you got the weather forecast there, by any chance?”
Before you leave on any outdoors trip, it is wise to check the weather forecast. But the weather forecast can change quickly, so a cell phone or radio serves another purpose.
“Whaddaya mean thunderstorms and hail?!? I just got here, darling, I don’t want to come home just yet. Oh…alright…”
Of course, you could just have someone email the weather forecast to you on your cell phone.
Chad Brown also suggests another piece of hunting equipment – keeping a very loud whistle hanging from your neck. If you are trapped under a tree, pinned down by a boulder, or wrestling a grizzly bear, you might not have the reach or the attention span to dial a number. If anybody is within earshot, they will come running…if not to help you, at least to capture the scene for America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Our final tip might seem obvious, but make sure you know where to call. Have the emergency number taped to the back of the cell phone (ignore your wife’s idea of tattooing it to your forehead; where would you find a mirror in the middle of a ravine?) and make sure you know what frequency to call for help on the two-way radio.
There you have it. You are prepared to go out into the wild and communicate. Make sure to prepare, to have the right hunting equipment or fishing gear for communicating, and know how to use them in an emergency.
And if the animals don’t understand what you are trying to communicate to them, you might not be any worse off than in the city.
If the gun fails to fire in that situation, you probably won’t live to regret it anyway. Neither will your family. (Of course, you can hide in your room and wait for your local overworked and understaffed police force to come to your rescue. But that’s another subject.) Clean Your Gun!
Cleaning Tips
Use a bronze wire brush for normal bore cleaning. When removing copper, heavy lead fouling, or plastic shotgun wad fouling use a nylon brush with Shooters Choice or similar bore cleaner. (Shooters Choice is a powerful bore cleaner, will eat bronze brushes.)
Run the bronze brush through the bore once for every round fired. (I prefer Hoppes #9 solvent for light cleaning.)
If you are serious about the care of your gun invest in a coated steel or brass cleaning rod. Aluminum rods are soft. They collect grit and particles that can scratch the bore.
Wipe the rod off after every pass through the bore.
Use a brass jag to push patches through the bore. Dragging a dirty patch in a slotted tip back through the bore is not what I call cleaning.
Use a bore guide or brass “bumper” to protect the chamber or muzzle crown from damage.
Clean the action with a blast of pressurized solvent such as Gun Scrubber by Birchwood Casey. It cleans without leaving a residue.
Oil Lightly! Oil attracts dirt! If you can see oil, you probably oiled too much!
If you’re concerned that you’ve oiled too much, try storing your gun with the barrel down. This will prevent oil or solvent from seeping into the wooden stock.
Strip clean about every 800 rounds or so. If you don’t know how and don’t have an owners manual, take the gun to a Gunsmith. It doesn’t cost that much. (It’s cheaper than having him replace that spring that went flying into the recesses of your oh so clean garage or basement work room.)
There’s much more to gun care, but this info should put you ahead of the game. If you want to learn more, check out a hobby gunsmith course such as one offered here at The Fish Creek House and Gun Club in Southwest Montana We offer Firearms training repair, rebluing, nickel, chrome plating, teflon, custom work from recoil pad installation to complete custom rifles and handguns built to your specs.
