June 2013 John 3:16 Vol. 4 No. 35

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HILLCOUNTRYOUTDOORSIn This Issue:

- Ten Things Every CoonHunter Should Know (Part 1)

- Foods That Keep You Cool

- Top Exercises forBowhunting

- 10 Tricks To Keep You CoolWhile Summer Camping

-Outdoor Truths

- Solunar Tables

Mike Martin and Devan Lamberthwith some nice looking Bluesafter a long night of coon hunting.

Mike Martin and Devan Lamberthwith some nice looking Bluesafter a long night of coon hunting.

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Dog Days & HaintsEveryday in North Mississippi, well all over the U.S. I guess, there will be someman, boy, girl or lady go out to the kennel and hear the sound of applause fromthe mouths of their dogs. I’ve always noticed, even after a long day, just goingand sitting down with your dogs makes you feel better. Some vibrate with joywhile others may slump and barely wag their tail. No matter, they are still glad tosee you and they know you love them and you know they love you. I know theyare even happier if you’re carrying a feed bucket with the best tasting houndhash that can be ground, but we’ll just say they love us even more. I guess theynotice the expression on our faces, but they sure can tell when a hunting day iscoming up. It really doesn’t matter what kind of dog you have, bird dog, lab,coon, or hog, its like they have a sixth since and they’re about to go hunting. Iknow that I always have something bad to say about summer, but the length oftime between early spring and early fall just seems to drag by for me and thehounds. I go out and talk to them, give them a little scratch and a pet session,and they just head back over to the shade and lie down. The dogs seem a littledepressed that summer is here. Excitement for a hunting dog in the summer ispretty much at a lull, unless you lighten their spirits every once in while. It doesn’ttake much to cause a ruckus at the kennel when the dogs are bored, so I makethe best of it. Here are a few pointers to help overcome the not so dog days ofsummer. Lets start out with the 10 p.m. Haint. I know some of you are going tobust me over this, but hey, as long as me and my dogs like it and no one getshurt, what’s the harm. Let’s go back to the term Haint or Spook, the definition fora spirit or ghost. Now, in some neighborhoods you can’t do this, but in some youcan, so country folks have at it. Somewhere in the house lies a tattered andworn white bed sheet, tucked away nicely by your sweet wife. It wouldn’t beadvisable to ask her where it is, because the question of what do you want it forwill follow and we will just say from here on out, what happens at the dog penstays at the dog pen. So by now you’ve found your blanket. I would cut someholes in it so you can watch for roots and such. After you’ve completed this task,go and find that cheap flashlight that your wife bought you for your anniversary.Turn it on, in under the blanket, which you now have over your body, giving you aglowing effect. It’s now 10 o’clock, and most self-respectable people are in thebed, reading the newspaper, or watching Obama on the news trying to turn usinto a 3rd world country. Not you though, its time to stir a little excitement at thedog pen. Please note that if your neighbor has horses or cows, he probably willnever seen them again. So anyway, what you want to do is practice moving realslowly, the slower the better. I hope you have good wire around your pen whereyour dogs are. If not, you may end up in the hospital. Okay, its show time. Now,walk outside, and if at all possible without your dogs knowing, hide behind atree. Once behind the tree, make a hissing sound and peak your head from be-hind the tree. This should get your first, what we will call here, a booger bark. Sonow that you have Blue’s attention, pull your head back and stick out your arm.Now Blue should be squatted, shaking the ground while wetting the ground andfoaming like a Schick hot lather machine. I once saw a 5 year old black and tanbiting the wire trying to get to me with this technique. Funny ain’t it. If you feellike running, do so to the next tree, and then slowly peek around the tree. I canassure you, by now, Blue has come unglued at the seems and is pulling grassand dirt with his teeth. Its good to get your dog mad every once in a while. Let’sjust say you’re getting even with him for all the times he tries to tear the pendown, when your neighbors’ cat comes prissing by at 2 am. This stuff works,helps your dog get on alert for intruders like burglars, your mother-in-law, or anunwanted neighbor just strolling by to see what your house looks like at night onthe inside from the out. I guess, I should at the end of the game, let Blue see it’sme and that I’m just joking but I never do. Summer spooks will bring you a lot oflaughter, especially if your kids or grandkids are watching. Laugh loud and laughoften my friend, there will be days, you just can’t.

Hope to see you soon, out in the Hill Country.

Deano

Foods that keep you coolwhile enjoying the outdoorsBy Chef Cristian Feher

With the south's 100 degree weather,faulty air conditioning, and the growingthreat of global warming aaah right, itdoesn't look like it's getting cooler anytime soon. So I thought this would bean appropriate article. Before I give youa list of the foods that will keep yourbody cool this summer, I have prepareda short and nerdy presentation of howyour body's cooling system works.Think of your body as a car engine, butinstead of burning gas, it burns food.When it runs it gets hot and when it'shot outside it gets even hotter. And justlike your car's engine, it's liquid cooled -it uses fluid to trap the heat and throw itout. But please... not in the pool.

Your body builds up a lot of heat when it has to digest heavy fuel. I'm sure youremember the last time you had a greasy burger and fries on a hot day. Youprobably felt sluggish, short of breath and very uncomfortable - you overheatedyour engine. The simplest thing you could have done would have been to eat aleaner, cooler, easier to digest fuel - like a salad or fruit. Salads and fruit are agreat hot weather food in that they take very little effort for your body to digest.Less effort makes less heat. And because a salad is cool to begin with, it doesn'traise your body's temperature as much as a hot meal will.

The first way that your body gets rid of heat is through sweating. The blood ab-sorbs the extra heat in your system and channels it out through the sweat ducts.As the sweat evaporates off your skin, the heat goes with it. So you actually want

to eat foods that will make you sweat.Notice that cultures which live in hotclimates usually cook with a lot ofspicy foods. They know that sweatingkeeps you cool and if you've evereaten a spicy goat curry on thebeaches of Trinidad and Tobago, orJerk Chicken in Jamaica, you knowwhat I mean. "Get me a towel!". Asidefrom their great taste, hot peppers areyour best sweat inducing foods andyou should acquire a taste for them ifyou want to keep cool in hot weather.

Hot peppers contain a substance called capsicum which cause your bodysweat. These include all types of hot peppers, and anything with cayenne. If youcan't handle spicy foods, don't worry. I have other suggestions below.

The second method your body uses to get rid of heat is through urination. That'swhy we are able to write our names in the snow so legibly. A diuretic is a sub-stance which makes your body get rid of fluids through urination. If you don't liketo sweat, I suggest eating diuretic foods, which mostly come in the forms of liq-uids. Apple cider vinegar, caffeine and cranberry juice are all diuretics, and theywill help keep you cool. Coconut water is also a diuretic, which would be tragi-cally ironic if you were ever stranded on a deserted island and needed coconutwater to survive! The only issue with diuretics is that you risk becoming dehy-drated. So make sure to keep drinking.

The speed and thickness of your blood is also a factor. Thinner blood will circu-late more easily through the body with less effort. This will have a cooling effect.Foods that are natural blood thinners are cayenne pepper, ginger, cinnamon andvinegars.

By following these guidelines you should be able to keep cooler this summer,and if you're lucky, maybe even lose a little weight!

For the drink, mix 1 part coconut water and 2 parts cranberry juice. Add to aglass with crushed ice.

Editorial

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1. How to learn the fundamentals of coon hunting.I ran into a couple of kids the other day on the parking lot at the localWal-Mart. They drove up in a Ford Ranger pickup with a beat-up dogbox in the back. They saw my dog box and wanted to say hello. Iwalked over to the truck and greeted a pair of genuine country boys,evidenced by the faint smell of wood smoke on their camo clothing. Iasked if they were coon hunters and they said yes. The next logicalquestion to them was, “what kind of dogs do you hunt?” They told methey had an old Walker female and a young Bluetick. I kidded them byasking, “why a Bluetick?” The smaller of the two kids was sitting on thepassenger side and answered, “Cuz thatʼs better than a Black and Tan.”We all laughed and they asked me the same. I told them I was probablyworse off in the dog department than they were in that I hunted a Plott. Itold them I had my dog in the box and they wanted to see him. Ofcourse that gave me a chance to show off my training skills as I let mythree-year old male Hoss out and put him through a few obediencepaces; sit, stay, down, come, and kennel. They were impressed andsaid they had never seen a dog handle like that. I told them that all ittakes is patience and time and they could have their dogs handling likethat, too.

Our conversation turned to places to hunt in the area, inquiries aboutother hunters that they knew and wound up with the smaller fellow ask-ing me how much I would charge him to train his young Bluetick. I jok-ingly said, “Iʼm 65 years old. I seriously doubt Iʼll live long enough totrain a Bluetick,” and we all laughed. I then told him, no, I wouldnʼt takethe dog for training but I would be glad to go along with him and showhim methods that have worked for me in starting young dogs. I gavehim my phone number and Iʼm waiting for him to call. I hope he doesbecause thereʼs nothing I like more than working with young people inthis sport. The thing that makes this opportunity so appealing is thatthese fellows are totally innocent and havenʼt been spoiled by many ofthe current approaches to training that are out there, methods that aresupposed to make instant coon dogs out of six month old pups. Thiswas supported by the fact that neither of these kids had ever seen acoon hunting magazine.

I was fortunate to be the son of a real woodsman. I learned at an earlyage where to go to find a coon track in an area where coon ere ex-tremely scarce. I learned what feeds coon were on at certain times ofthe year and how to distinguish the type of game my hound was

running by the sound of its voice, or by the way in which a track trav-eled. A hound running in short circles in a weedy or thick place wasprobably running a rabbit. A hound trailing cold and then hot alterna-tively up a creek bed was probably running a mink. A hound cold trailingin a circle without treeing was likely to be working a grey fox. A widercircling running track that went in and out of hearing and crested theridges was likely to be a red fox. A hot track that rapidly went out ofhearing and headed toward a body of water was most likely a whitetaildeer. Skunks and possums were obvious.

I learned that coons feed on sweet corn in July but rarely touch hard-ened field corn until midwinter after the fall acorns and other mast cropsare gone.

I learned that coon will flipcow pies over in search ofbeetles in the summer, willwork a branch for springlizards (salamanders) andcrawfish about any time, loveblackberries around pasturefields and old roadways inJuly and August, love thefence rows where wild cher-ries are ripe in August andSeptember and will be storing up winter fat in the oak woodlots and onthe ridges where the wild grapes strangle the trees in October and No-vember.

I learned that coon will “lay up” for hours feeding on acorns and wildgrapes and that it takes a dog that can wind them laying up there with-out smelling a track on the ground to tree them accurately.

I learned that some dogs can trail a cold track and tree a coon off thattrack that cannot figure out which way a hot track is going, lacking thebrain power to put “direction” to the track.

I learned that some dogs open quickly on scent, even scent they cannotmake forward progress on while others can cold trail with precision giv-ing very little mouth in the process. I also learned that some dogs barka lot on a cold track and “shut up” as the track warms, hoping to catchthe coon.

I learned that the coon sitting higher in the tree is usually the boar, thatwhen treed on a steep hillside the coon will usually be on a limb on thedownhill side, that a coon sitting with its nose pointed toward the moonwill rarely look no matter how much you shine and squall unless hehappens to be sitting on a vine you can shake.

I learned that in extremely hot weather a coon will likely come down forwater in the hot afternoon and lay up until the wee hours of the morningwhen things cool down to stir and feed.

I learned that on the coldest, snowiest nights of dead winter, if I justhave to go hunting, the best place to strike a coon is along a body ofwater.

(cont. on pg. 5)

Ten Things Every Coon Hunter Should Know (Part 1)By Steve Fielder

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Ten Things Every Coon Hunter Should Know (cont. from pg. 4)

I learned that moonlight nights usually produce coons treed in dens orin evergreens and that trash tracks are more abundant on these kindsof nights than are coon tracks.

I learned that a hound develops into a better cooner if permitted to learnat its own pace. Attempts to “fast-start” some hounds fail and thosepups are culled when a little time and patience, exposing the pup to op-portunities continually without “pushing” often results in a better hound.Dogs are like kids. The ones that are permitted opportunities continuallybut are allowed to develop a love for learning usually make better stu-dents in the long run.

Stud dog ads are largely responsible for creating the need for pup buy-ers to push a pup beyond its ability to process the training. If heʼs not asix-month wonder like the other pups in the ads, heʼs a loser. If nothingelse in this article clicks, please take this one to heart. Remember theErnest and Julio Gallo commercial – “We will sell no wine before itstime?” Apply that philosophy to pup training. Donʼt cull that pup until youare sure he or she is mature enough to process the opportunities youare presenting them.

2. How to find places to hunt.Most coon hunters will agree, the most severe threat to the sport ofcoon hunting is the decline in places to safely run our hounds. The cur-rent economic downturn has somewhat stemmed the tide of buildingthat was the case a few years ago. Urban sprawl is taking a breatherfor now and with the decline in building the demand for hardwood tim-ber is somewhat diminished. A downside to the poor economy for coonhunters is that land owners, including the big timber companies withhundreds of thousands of acres across the south, and small farmersalike are looking for tax breaks. They have learned they can offset theirtax burdens by leasing the land. Leases usually involve deer and turkeyhunters that generally hold dog hunters in disdain. Combine that withhunting seasons that exclude dog hunting, like Mississippiʼs springturkey season for example and you see that finding opportunities to rundogs can be a challenge.

Many states now have recreational trespass laws that require writtenpermission. Many landowners will give permission to hunt but donʼtwant to put it into writing for fear of repercussions should someone gethurt on their land. When I lived in Michigan I devised a written permis-sion statement and carried copies in my truck. When I approached aland owner about hunting I showed them the form that stated that Iwould not hold them responsible for injury or death incurred while ontheir property and that if my dogs or I were responsible for damage tohis or her property while engaged in hunting or training dogs, I would befully responsible. I signed it along with their signature allowing me tohunt their lands. I never had a landowner refuse to sign the form after Ihad signed it in their presence. Your demeanor when asking for permis-sion has a lot to do with the answer you get.

I usually went on a Sunday afternoon. If possible I took my son or mywife with me. I washed my truck before I went. I put on presentableclothes. I wanted to present a wholesome look. If I appeared with athree day growth of beard, dirty jeans and t-shirt and drove a vehiclecovered in mud the landowner was likely to draw many conclusions,one of which could indicate that I had been up all weekend digging rutsin some farmerʼs field with my 4×4. I usually make the point that mydogs donʼt run livestock and chase deer and that I have the means, viathe GPS unit and the Tri-tronics to control them at all times. I ask if itʼsokay for me to come at any time during the night or would the landowner prefer early evening hours before he goes to bed. I assure the

land owner that I will not climb his fences except when absolutely nec-essary and then only at the post, Iʼll close all gates behind me that wereclosed before I arrived, that I wonʼt drive across his fields and that I willnot leave anything behind me that was not there when I arrived. I haveto continually remind myself that I am a guest and that I must behaveon the landownerʼs property just as I would behave if invited into hishome. Learn this lesson and develop this attitude and you will find thatmost farmers will let you hunt.

3. How to select the right kind of gearWeʼve often joked about the guy at the hunts with the $40,000 truck,the $1000 tracking system, the $800 dog box, the $500 shock collar,the $400 light, the $200 boots and the two-dollar dog. But thereʼs nodenying it, the equipment you choose will not only enhance your enjoy-ment of the sport but will also improve your odds of having a successfulhunt, whether for pleasure or in competition. Here is my list of funda-mental gear items that I have with me on every hunt:

First, you need a quality light source. I am absolutely sold on the new,lightweight LED lights that are on the market today. In my view there isno longer any need to carry the weight of a battery box or pack on thebelt. Secondly, in order to have a comfortable hunt, a good pair of well-fitting rubber boots with water resistant chaps properly sewn to the legof the boots is essential for wading briars and nettles and for crossingcreeks. John Wick once said, “When your feet get wet, the funʼs over,”and I agree. Thirdly you will want to invest in a Garmin GPS-enhancedtracking system and learn to use it. It will help you recover your dog,keep the dog out of harmʼs way and take you to the truck at the end ofthe hunt. If you are a young hunter, electronic gizmos offer no problemto you and you will catch onto the use of the Garmin quickly. If you area geezer like me, ask one of the kids at the club to show you how. Nextin order is a Tri-Tronics Trashbreaker trainer. Read all you can aboutthe use of this trainer and never turn your hound loose without it. Its ap-plications are too many to list here but trust me and donʼt leave homewithout it. Of course you will need a 4×4 pickup and a dog box to roundout your list of essentials. I would add a good quality coon squaller suchas the Zepp and a good pocket knife. For some of you, a stop at thecorner store for some chew is also an essential. Iʼll pass on that, thankyou very much.

4. How to buy a coonhound without getting burned.Coon hunters are human and humans by their very nature will lie. Ihave a friend that teaches in public schools. I have heard her tell ofwatching kindergartners doing some type of negative behavior andwhen asked, “Johnny, why did you do that?” Little Johnny says, “I didnʼtdo it.” The teacher replies, “I was standing here watching you do it,” towhich Little Johnny says, “It wasnʼt me.”

If thereʼs one thing that brings the urge to prevaricate to the surface inthe human race itʼs this thing we call coon hunting. Coon hunters, likefisherman canʼt resist the temptation to lie. Do you think thatʼs harsh?Consider this scenario, one Iʼve witnessed many times over the years.Time out has been called or the hunt is over and a dog has not beenhandled. The owner employs the tracking device and leaves the cast toretrieve his or her dog. Upon return, what does the handler say? You goto the head of the class if you get this one right and get to wear thedunce cap if you miss it. Iʼll bet you a dollar against a donut that thehandler says, “He was treed and had the coon.” I have never heard ahandler in that situation say, “He was treed slick.” Why does the handlerthink he has to lie? Unless lying is that hunterʼs best friend, the answerlies in one word; pride.

When we put our nameplates on these coonhounds they become ex-tensions of ourselves. An average dog becomes a “number one coondog” because to admit anything less would be to admit (cont. on pg. 6)

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Ten Things Every Coon Hunter Should Know (cont. from pg.5)

that either we donʼt know how to train a coon dog or we were dumbenough to buy an “average” dog when the world knows we hunt nothingbut the best. This type of lying is generally harmless to our fellowhunters (Iʼm not going to venture my thoughts on what the Lord thinksabout it) unless we employ it to help us sell the dog to the unsuspecting

buyer. This is where lying be-comes larceny and unfortunatelyfor us, there are a lot of folks outthere that are making a living byit.

Thereʼs only two ways to keepfrom getting burned on a dogdeal. The first is to go and huntwith the dog, not one night but asmany nights and under as manydifferent types of conditions asyou can. The second is, if you donot know the owner of the dogpersonally, and have not had pre-

vious dealings with the owner of the dog to the point that you know thatyou know that you know that man to be absolutely honest, donʼt takehis word for it. In case you missed that, Iʼm saying: “Donʼt take anyoneʼsword as to the ability of a dog unless itʼs a guy you would send toVegas with your credit car and the deed to your home.” Get the point?Why? Because when it comes to dogs most coon hunters just canʼthelp but lie. If this offends you, you either are absolutely honest or thetruth hurts.

And as a footnote to this item, a new coon hunter should buy a veterancooner as his or her first dog. You will be surprised in this world of“pups” how many good coonhounds, many of them with Grand NiteChampion titles are for sale once they graduate out of the pup-huntstage of their lives. Buying an older, finished coonhound will serve toteach the young hunter more about coon hunting that all the articles likethis in the world and they represent the best buys in the coonhoundmarket. Then, once you have the “feel” for the sport, find a good-blooded pup of your liking and train it with your veteran cooner. Thatʼsprobably the best advice you will read in this article this month.

5. How to breed, buy and train a coonhound pupCoonhound magazines are full of stud ads and all proclaim to be thebest since sliced bread in terms of “reproducing” themselves. The ruleof thumb when looking at a prospective stud is this: “You donʼt get thestud, you get what he produces.” Thatʼs true but to put all your eggs inthe stud dogʼs basket when deciding to buy a pup is just half the equa-tion. Any prospective pup buyer should remember this. There are no100% guarantees in terms of what a cross will produce and there areno absolute “proven crosses.” Yes, there are crosses that have pro-duced outstanding offspring but there is no guarantee that when thatsire and dam are bred again that the pups will turn out like the previousones just as there is no guarantee that the title the dog holds indicatesthe type of coonhound you will want to hunt and feed. The dam of thepup is vitally important, too. Here is my advice to anyone looking to buya pup that will hopefully be a good prospect and with proper handlingand training, will become a winner or a pleasure dog you will be proudto hunt.

Look for a “family” of dogs that carry the traits that you prefer in a coon-hound. Almost all purebred coonhound pups of today will tree. A wellbred pup should possess the treeing instinct as inherently as the desireto eat, drink, sleep and poop. Most well-bred pups will tree before they

run track. Once Iʼve found the family of dogs I like I would try to get apup from a 12.5% inbred cross from within that family; uncle to niece,aunt to nephew, grandsire to granddaughter, granddam to grandson, orhalf-brother to half-sister crosses are key. I would avoid family breedingof the 25% variety meaning sire to daughter, mother to son or fullbrother to full sister matings. Lloyd Brackett, called Mr. German Shep-herd for his success with that breed, selected his stud dog and thenbred five daughters of that stud to him, daughters that most resembledthe stud, and produced astounding results in the show ring. Iʼm not ad-vocating that kind of intense family breeding because most of us donʼthave the stomach to cull when inbreeding brings faults to the surface asit surely will.

Letʼs say thereʼs a stud out there and youʼve gone out and hunted withhim. You like his looks, his genetic background and the way he gets inthere and gets the job done, finishing with that classic loud tree barkyou have been looking for. Of course he needs to have the coon. Thenext thing you need to do is to try to find a granddaughter or niece tothat dog that looks, acts, and hunts as much like that stud as you can. Ifthe stud owner doesnʼt have that bitch, then your job is to either per-suade the owner of that bitch to breed to your chosen stud or to buy thefemale and breed her yourself. Thatʼs the quickest route to getting thetype of pups that you want with a word of caution repeated from theopen words of this item. There are no guarantees and there are no100% proven crosses. I have witnessed, on several occasions repeatmatings that produced pups that were nothing like earlier matings of thesame cross. I have also witnessed some astounding results whenbreeding coonhounds in this way.

Like the young hunters mentioned in the first item in this piece, many ofus lack the knowledge to train a coonhound pup. For me, trainingmeans teaching the pup basic obedience, house breaking and display-ing the best of manners when with people, other dogs and livestock. Ilook to nature to provide and develop the basic elements that a coon-hound requires to become a top hound. My job is simply to expose thepup to learning opportunities that will allow his breeding to surface.

Here are some basics:A. Expose a pup to a caged coon once or twice just to let him knowthatʼs what you are after. Tie the pup back, place the coon out of hisreach and use another dog to bark at the cage. If the pup shows no in-terest, drag the cage back and forth just beyond his reach. Never lead apup up to a caged coon and try to force it to react to the coon.

B. Once the pup is barking at the coon, take it away. The next step isfor another training session. Take the caged coon and place it in anopen field. Go back and get the pup and turn it loose, walking in the di-rection of the cage. When the pup finds the cage and barks, go to it andtie the pup back. I use one of the screw-in stakes for this purpose. Turnthe coon loose toward the woods, preferably 50 to 100 yards distant.Let the pup watch the coon until it is out of sight. Turn the pup loose. Itwill sight-chase the coon in the direction it went but when it gets to thewoods it will have to use its nose to find the coon. Usually the coon willgo up the first tree it comes to and the pupʼs natural treeing instincts willsurface. I would do this a couple of times max, each in a separate ses-sion and then take the pup to the woods at night where it will encounterwild coon scent.

C. Too much sight work on caged or “hang-up” coons, either on theground or in a tree is detrimental to producing a coon dog that will lo-cate and tree off scent. Many hunters shoot a coon and drag it for thepup, hanging it up on a low-hanging limb. If you do this, do it sparingly,once or twice and thatʼs it. You are only trying to trigger the pupʼs in-stincts. If you persist, you will produce a dog that wants to tree by sight.( oont. on pg. 7)

Page 7

By Dan Staton, MS, PES

On a hunt last year for Bowhunter TV, I had a bull elk in my lap for overthree minutes, while all the brush in the state of Montana conspiredagainst me as it hid the bullʼs vitals. My muscles quivered as I held per-fectly still at full draw and the bull glared holes through me and camera-man Larry D. Jones.

Sound familiar? All too often, hunting season arrives and you find outyouʼve lost some shooting strength and stamina. As a result, your accu-racy suffers. A strong draw and solid anchor hinges upon developedmuscles of the back and shoulders coupled with muscle memory. Fortu-nately, a preemptive strike can ward off the strength and stamina loss.

The shoulders and upper back are the pillars of a solid draw and aim.These muscle groups are also prone to injury, so before chronic achesand pains strike — or maybe even surgery to repair shoulder damage —build strong pillars.

To do so, you must optimize range ofmotion in all of your joints. That in-volves exercises that help correctproblems created by your life outsideof hunting. Most of us spend longhours hunched over a computer, andif that is you, inevitably your shoul-ders will roll forward and tighten.

Thatʼs bad enough, but it gets worseif you go right out after work andshoot your bow. Shoulders tight fromdeskwork lack the necessary stabilityand range of motion for safely drawing a bow. However, your body has aknack for compensating, and it recruits more of your rotator cuff as youhold the bow up and pull the string. That, combined with poor joint align-ment caused by poor posture at work, could produce a nasty case ofshoulder impingement or upper back spasms.

About 65 percent of injuries — both athletic and lifestyle-related — arecaused from overuse, which is to say from repetitive use of joints com-promised by lousy posture and weak muscles. The following exerciseshelp you draw a bow smoothly and powerfully while reducing the risk ofinjury. Perform the following exercises weekly. The number of reps andsets depends on your current fitness level. Start out slowly and progressover time.

PRONE TʼSThis exercise improves shoulder stability, strengthens the rotator cuffs,improves scapular strength, and increases muscle recruitment patterns.

To perform the exercise, pull your shoulder blades in toward your spineand extend your arms to the sides to create a T with your torso. Keepyour arms long and straight, 90 degrees to your torso. Point your thumbsup, toward the ceiling. Keep your head in line with your spine. Keep yourshoulder blades back and down, trying to squeeze them together. Youshould feel the contraction in the backs of your shoulders and in yourupper back between the shoulder blades.

BOW TRAINER

BOW TRAINERPlace your feet shoulder width apart with an open stance, as if shootingyour bow. Grasping an exercise band in both hands, hold your bow armin line with your shoulders and your bow hand at shoulder height. Withthree fingers of the draw hand, pull the band with your draw arm to youranchor position while keepingyour draw arm in line with yourshoulders.

Start with a light band, and pull ituntil you reach your approximatedraw length. While drawing theband back past your jaw, try toget the band to the tip of yournose, or the corner of yourmouth, to create an extra refer-ence point. Complete three setsof 8-12 repetitions at your fulldraw length. Rest one minute be-tween sets.

Work up in band strength, andonly incorporate the red “power band” after several weeks of training.When using the red band, only pull back to half of your draw length.

Above all, build strength over time. Trying to pull too much too sooncould strain and damage your shoulders. For an audio/video presenta-tion, go to www.bow-trainer.com.

Top Exercises That’ll Strengthen Your Back and Shoulders

For Bowhunting

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Family Tent

What season do you usually prefer to camp out? The most popular timeto enjoy the outdoors is by summer. You get to hike on the way to thecamp, look at the clear skies, enjoy the fresh air, and prepare a bonfire.The only problem that season is that the tent gets too humid.

Keep your tent cool even without the air conditioning unit. Escape fromthe sticky and scorching tent with the tips below:

1. Look for shady areas to pitch your tent. To find a good spot, makeuse of your compass. Strategically pitch your tent in the east wherethere is a tree nearby, a hill, or any other blockade that can give youshade while you are sleeping or during the afternoon. Relocate yourtent as the sun shifts its position.

2. Consider the direction of the wind as well. Find out which way thewind blows. Pitch your tent in a way that the wind blows directly into themesh windows. Switch the location or position of the tent if you noticethat the wind direction alters. This is very important if your tent only hasa little mesh on it. But if it is purely made of mesh, donʼt worry about thepositioning.

3.Wear appropriate clothes. Your clothes should be loose and cool.Make sure that the fabric is not too thick or heavy.

4. Hydrate yourself all throughout the day. Drink lots of liquids not onlyto quench your thirst but to keep your body cool too.

5. If you do your activities during the hottest time of the day, you canswim or dip your feet into the cool lake. This will help you beat the heat.

6. Do not bring or use sleeping bags that are stuffy and heavy. Go forthose that are light and especially made for hot summer nights. Packbedding and blankets in case it gets cold.

7. It pays to be ready. In case you canʼt take too much of the heat,bring a battery-powered fan.

8. Check weather reports beforehand if you really canʼt stand humid.But if you want to camp out during summer, make sure that you chooseareas that are elevated to avoid too much heat.

9. Your tent can be the source of your ventilation problems. I suggestthat you pick and buy the right tent to avoid this problem. Get one thathas a wall made of mesh. If you want, you can purchase one thatʼs fullymade of mesh (except for the floor). The more mesh your tent has, themore cool it is. Worried what happens to your tent when it rains? Donʼtfret. A rain fly comes with a meshed tent to protect you from the rain.

10. Close your tent zippers but open the windows throughout the day.This is important so that the heat is expressed into the window. If youare afraid that bugs might get inside the tent, spritz the window with bugspray to keep them out.

With the 10 tips above, I am sure that you can keep your summernights less hot and sweaty. Good luck and I hope you enjoy camping!

Summer Camping, some love it, some hate it.If you’re of the first persuasion, here you go...

10 Tricks To Keep Your Tent Cool

Memorial Day has always symbolized more than itsoriginal purpose. It is supposed to allow us to reflecton the lives of those who died while serving in thearmed forces in the United States. We would do wellto both remember that and to take a moment to ac-tually do it in some fashion. I personally do not be-lieve this is meant to be a somber day whereby onecannot enjoy all that the long weekend has to offer;

but that we remember the price that was paid that gives us the freedomto have all of this fun. I think those who died defending freedom woulddelight in a sense of satisfaction in knowing that Americans feel secureon this day.

This day has also always marked the beginning of summer. Asa youngster, this was the day the public swimming pool opened. It wasa day for baseball, barbeque and bicycles. It was the time my mommaunpacked the summer clothes and packed up the winter ones. (I canstill remember opening those bags of clothes as if I were getting some-thing new) And of course, perhaps the most important marker that Me-morial Day provided was knowing that school was official out for thesummer. The name Memorial Day really does fit. It is a day of lots of re-membrances. But because of this, we must be cautious.

Over the years monuments and markers have been built just tokeep us from forgetting those who gave their lives in order that wemight enjoy ours. Without these, we might lose focus on the real pur-pose of this day. We might forget the heroic acts and even the bleakmoments when it seemed that the worst had come. We have to remem-ber these times and the best way to do that is by building these monu-ments. We learned this in the Bible.

God was always telling his people to build an altar or to stack upstones, or even to write something down. It was mainly for one simplereason – so they would not forget; so that each time, they passed bythese monuments, they would remember how God had delivered themor provided for them in a difficult time. We too would be wise to do thesame.Perhaps you are going through a time right now where it seems there isno way out. It may look as if the worst has come or the end is near. Itmay seem, as it did to Moses, that you have an enemy that is behindyou and a vast sea in front of you. Remember, just as God made a waybefore, He will make a way now. But this time, after He has parted yourRed Sea, build a monument so that you and others will remember thenext time you think victory will never come.

Gary Millergary@outdoortruths.org

OutdoorTruths

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Homemade Sports DrinkFor SummerHuntersFor those of you who haveextended yourself a little too muchin the summer heat like me andlived to learn, here is a personal fa-vorite of mine while wrestling wildhogs or doing summer chores in 90degree weather.

Ingredients- 1/4 cup sugar- 1/4 teaspoon salt- 1/4 cup hot water- 1/4 cup orange juice(not concentrate) plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice

- 3 1/2 cups cold water1. In the bottom of a pitcher, dissolve the sugar and salt in the hot

water.2. Add the juice and the remaining water; chill.3. Quench that thirst!Makes 1 quart. per 8-ounce serving: 50 calories, 12 grams carbohydrate,110 mg sodium.

Almost 100 years laterthis Cartridge drops thebucks without kickingyour butt.

The .250-3000 SavageBy Chuck Hawks

The .250 Savage was introduced by Savage in 1915. The cartridge wasdesigned for Savage by Charles Newton. The .250 is a compact andeconomical cartridge whose modern appearance belies its age.

As originally factory loaded, the .250 Savage drove an 87 grain spitzerbullet to 3000 fps. This is why it was also known as the .250-3000. Itwas the first standard US cartridge to achieve that muzzle velocity.

Today's factory loads catalog a 100 grain bullet at 2820 fps at the muz-zle with 1765 ft. lbs. of energy. At 200 yards this bullet is still traveling at

2210 fps and delivers 1084 ft. lbs. of energy. The recoil energy from thisload in a 7.5 pound rifle is only 8.6 ft. lbs.

The .250 Savage does best with bullets of 100 grains and less. Thelong 117 and 120 grain bullets extend too far into the small case, con-siderably reducing powder capacity and thus velocity.

An interesting choice for big game is the Barnes 85 grain X-bullet, acontrolled expansion design recommended for deer and antelope hunt-ing that typically retains nearly 100% of its weight and penetrates well.According to the Barnes Reloading Manual Number One, this bullet canbe driven to a MV of 3100 fps by 33.0 grains of H4895 powder; a maxi-mum load of 37.0 grains of H4895 yields an impressive MV of 3264 fps.At a MV of 3100 fps the remaining energy of this bullet at 300 yardswould be 936 ft. lbs.

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Ten Things Every Coon Hunter Should Know (cont. from pg.6)

Of course there are many other elements to training a coonhound pup,most of which involve keeping that pup in the woods once he starts butthatʼs a whole book in itself.

6. How to develop a lifetime network of coon hunting friendsI once talked to a fellow that told me he had worked hard for everythinghe had attained in this sport and that no one ever gave him anything. Ireplied that I was very proud of the fact that many of the treasures I hadgained in this sport, including many tangible ones, came from others.The “I am a rock” attitude displayed by this young man, if carried onthrough the years will no doubt result in many lonely days when ageand time takes its inevitable toll and he is no longer able to get the per-sonal high from winning that is so important to him now. I have beenfortunate to do many things in this sport, things that some of you willnever get to do. Iʼm not bragging about that, Iʼm just extremely thankful.Iʼve presented World Champion trophies to, and taken pictures of noless than 30 World Champions in my days with the registries. Iʼve wit-nessed the unveiling of priceless oil paintings and witnessed firsthandthe joy on the faces of the winners of 15 Purina Outstanding Nite HuntCoonhound of the Year awards. Iʼve helped to crown National Champi-ons and National Grand Champions and Iʼve traveled the length andbreadth of this country attending coonhound events. Iʼve shaken thehands of thousands upon thousands of coon hunters over the last 35 ormore years. These experiences are priceless to me and I list them heresimply to say that in the midst of all this activity, the network of coonhunting friends that has been the result of all this is indeed my most val-ued treasure.

Because of my network, I am able to pick up the phone or shoot anemail to any area of the country and inquire about virtually any subjectrelated to the sport and I know I will get the information I need quicklyand accurately because of my friends. This network has been invalu-able to me both in my career and in my personal life. My network con-tains vendors that have come to my rescue when I needed products fora special event. My network contains knowledgeable dog men andwomen that will meet my needs when I need a well-bred pup to train oras recently was the case, when I wanted to buy a well-bred cur pup forsquirrel hunting. My network provides information on where to staywhen in a certain area hunting or what kind of boots and chaps will bestsuit my skinny legs and narrow feet. Anything I need to know is avail-able to me because I know the right people to call and you can developthat kind of network too.

I realize that coon hunting has not been a career for many of you butthere are means available to you today that donʼt require thirty years oftime. The coonhound message forums, classified sections and social-media sites like Facebook provide the opportunity to meet people in thissport. When you go to an event, take your game face off and go overand talk to as many people as you can. If you find you have a commoninterest, exchange phone numbers or email addresses. Breed associa-tion membership is an excellent opportunity to find friends that huntyour preferred breed of hound. Attendance at major coonhound eventsprovides a virtually unlimited source of opportunities to meet peoplefrom all over the country in the span of two or three days. When yousee a dog box in a pickup at the gas station on as was my case, at thelocal Wally World, make a point to talk to the owner. Leave your numberunder the windshield wiper if he or she isnʼt around. Pick up the phoneand call the numbers you see in the ads or if you are a cheap skate likeme, send an email and get acquainted. The result will be a network offriends that you will cherish throughout your coon hunting career andespecially in retirement when you will have the time to travel and domore than you ever thought you could.

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P.O. Box 2205784 Highway 15Ecru, MS 38841

662.489.1515

ckidd134@ms.metrocast.net

TAX & ACCOUNTING

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Get your Hillcountry Outdoor Magazine at one of these fine locations!

Algoma Store

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Recipeof theMonth

Wild Boar Pork Chop• 4 wild boar chops

• 3 lemons juiced

• 1 cup olive oil

• 1/4 cup fresh rosemary chopped

• 1 tablespoon garlic minced

• 1 teaspoon salt kosher

• 1 teaspoon black pepper fresh ground

1. Salt and pepper the chops.

2. Place chops in roomy, non-metal container so each choplays flat.

3. Whisk all ingredients (sans chops) for marinade.

4. Pour marinade over chops.

5. Cover and refrigerate at least (4) hours, turning every houror so.

6. Prepare grill/fire for direct heat on hi.

7. Sear chops on both side for 2 minutes.

8. Turn heat down or place chops on cooler part of grill for remaining cooking.

9. Close lid and cook about (5) mins on each side for mediumrare.

10. Let chops rest at room temp for (10) mins before serving.