Deer Feeder Maintenance

Nothing sucks more than to show up for a weekend hunt after a hard week at work only to find that your deer feeder has quite working. Too many times have I sat in the stand watching the sun come up and the feeder never goes off. Talk about a ruined hunt! Coons can be one problem, causing all sorts of damage, but that is usually obvious. The not so obvious problems are the ones you can't see. Mostly it is a dead battery. I always keep a voltmeter in my repair kit and leave the repair kit at the hunting cabin. A volt meter can help you diagnose all kinds of problems when it comes to debugging a feeder. However, the easiest way to avoid feeder malfunctions is to keep those batteries charged. I keep my batteries on a battery maintenance device all year when the feeders are not it service. Even if you charge your battery to 100% after the season is over, the battery will deteriorate just by sitting. Its important to keep them "maintained" all through the off season. Since I have more than one feeder, I have multiple batteries. In the 2nd photo you will notice that they are wired in parallel by jumping all of the positive (+) terminals together and all the negative (-) terminals together. By doing this you only need one charger to keep your batteries maintained in the off season. If you use Solar Panels to charge your feeder batteries during hunting season, see the video below. I will show you how to test those Solar Panels to make sure they are still functioning.

Trail Camera Photos from July 2013 - Protein Feeders and Coon Deterrents

Here is some photos from my trail camera. This camera is setup on a custom protein feeder that I made in hopes to deter these pesky raccoons. However these little critters seem to not be phased by the amount of sharp edges I presented them with. Lots of bucks are showing up at and eating the protein. This is a good sign because as mid July approaches, the grass has already dried up here in Central Texas and food sources for the deer appear limited. On a side note, I've had multiple questions why I place fences around my feeders. The simple answer is to keep the cattle away from the feeders. As you can tell from one of the photos that task is not as easy as putting up a fence.

Opening Day of Spring Turkey Hunting in Texas - My son's 1st Turkey!

I took my seven year old son hunting on the morning of opening day of Rio Grande Turkey season here in Texas. This is a Gobbler only hunting season. You may have seen him in a few of my videos including the infamous mini gun video (I'll put a link to it at the bottom of this post). We had a great hunt and he shot his first turkey ever with his new Rossi .410 / 22LR combo rifle. This is a youth model and it fits him perfectly. He's hunted with me during deer season and has taken a few shots at turkeys with his 22 rifle and compound bow. After is was over he told me he was shaking all over as we tried to get closer to the turkeys for a better shot.

FLIR Scout PS32 Handheld Thermal Night Vision Camera

I get just as excited as the next gear queer when it comes to night vision and the ability to see in the dark. However, my wallet can not seem to get past the cost of most of these cool toys. The FLIR scout that I show in this video is a good example. It's small and packable, it works as advertised, but the cost is just not for the ordinary joe. So I'll most likely keep to my high power flashlights and a quick trigger finger when I hunt at night.
 

Hunting With the Swiss K31 Surplus Rifle

I love my Swiss K31 Rifle. This is by far the coolest surplus rifle I have ever shot. It has a unique straight pull bolt action that I find very easy to work. The accuracy of this rifle is astounding! I can shoot a steel gong at 400 yards with the open sights on this thing. With that said, I did not take a shot at any deer unless they were 100 yards are less just to ensure a clean kill. Found under the butt plate of my K31 is the name of the soldier the rifle was originally issued to. See the video at the end of these pictures.

Two Large Mouth Black Bass in a Death Grip...

Shotgun Camo Paint Job for Turkey Hunting

My son always wanted a camo rifle. I could not think of a better one to do then his new Rossi single shot 410 shotgun. This is the same shotgun he used to kill his first turkey on opening day of Spring Turkey season.

First make sure you clean all parts of the gun you plan to paint.

Tape off the parts you don't want painted.

No matter how many colors you plan to use, apply the lightest color first.

Apply the next lightest color.

And finally the darkest color last.

Once you finish all the colors and it drys.  Apply the lightest color one more time.  Make sure that you hold the spray can a few feet away from the gun as you lightly spray.  You want to just "dust" the gun.  This will help break-up the camo patterns and make them appear to blend better.

We left the safety in the "safe" position so that when the selector is moved, the red "fire" indicator shows.