Welcome to the Toolies!

Big Steven and I had a great trip out to Wister. We just got back today and I hope to have some pictures up in the next few days. In the meantime, one of the questions we get asked a lot here at HuntingSensei.com is “What about reloading shells? Is it worth the effort and what are the best shotgun shell reloaders to use?” Hmmm, I guess that was more than one question.

The short and long answer to the first part of that question is “Yes.” Reloading your empties can allow you to shoot for as much as 50% of the cost over the course of a season, maybe more depeding upon how much you shoot. It is also an incredibly relaxing way to start off the new season. My wife, Gina, and I spend the weekend before the dove opener and load 500-600 shells in preparation and we have a lot of fun.

As to the question of which reloader is the best: I am very happy with my two MEC Shotshell reloaders. I have one set up to load shells for Gina’s 20 gauge and one to load 12 gauge shells for Big Steven and I. There are a number of different versions of the reloaders, which I’ll post links to here in this post for you all to take a look at. My personal choice is the Mec Sizemaster. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Big Steven and I are heading back out to Wister tonight for a day before Thanksgiving shoot. We’re hoping things go a bit better than they did on our last trip which netted 4 ducks for me and a rail bird Big Steven mistook for a snipe.

There is absolutely nothing more satisfying than making a good shot while you’re out in the field. Watching as a set of ducks commits to your spread, opening up as they come in to range and then listening for that tell-tale splash as a bird goes down in to the water. And, there is nothing more frustrating than missing a shot you should have made.

Over the course of the past week or so, as Big Steven and I took a look back on that trip to see what went wrong for him, we analyzed what he was doing wrong. The first thing we discovered was that he was left eye dominant. What that means is he instinctively shuts his right eye which throws off his aim as a right handed shooter. I’ve known a lot of hunters who experience this problem and there are a few options to solving it. First off you can shoot left handed. You can wear an eye patch over your left eye during the shoot to help train yourself. Or, you can suffer through a lot of missed shots until you train yourself to use the correct eye. Big Steven doesn’t want to switch to shooting left handed so he’ll be trying out an eye patch on our shoot tomorrow. We’ll give you all an update on how it went once we get back.

Going over Big Steven’s problem also allowed us to come up with a list of 6 shooting tips to help make sure you fill your limit every time. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

One of the problems every waterfowler runs in to is a leaky decoy — either from years of use and abuse or, sometimes, from an accidental shot. That “accidental shot” is precisely what happened to Big Steven and I at our last trip out to the Wister Unit here in Southern California. A nice set of 3 teal burst out of the bush right at water level and flew a few feet over our decoy spread. We both took a pair of shots and Big Steven pegged a couple of our decoys in the process. Of course, I blame Big Steven for hitting the decoys because I’m the one telling the story here. He took down his bird but he also took down a pair of magnum pintails in the process.

After we came back to shore from retrieving both the fallen birds and the fallen decoys, I thought it would be a great topic to talk about here on the Hunting Sensei. It’s something we all go through one way or the other but not everyone knows how to bring a hole-filled decoy back from the dead. Read More »

Welcome to the Toolies!

Big Steven and I spent the better part of last weekend hunting out in the Salton Sea region of Southern California, at the Wister Unit.  We had a blast and brought home a few ducks…along with an egret Big Steven thought was a snipe.  Now, a few of you might be asking, “but, Big Steven didn’t really hit anything this time around,” and you’re right.  However, what you don’t realize is that Big Steven has a very specific range in which he is deadly accurate — unfortunately, that range is between 25 and 27 yards.  Anything less than that or further away and he misses…but if a bird flies into that 2 yard killing zone it’s dead.

With the aid of my son-in-law, we’ve put together the first in what I hope to be a long line of Hunting Sensei video episodes detailing our adventures in hunting. 

Once you’ve taken a gander at the video, feel free to drop us a line to let Big Steven and I know what you think.  Until next time, Happy Hunting!

-Steve D., the Hunting Sensei
http://www.huntingsensei.com

Welcome to the Toolies!

Today is a great day. Not only are Big Steven and I heading back out to Wister tonight, but I’ve got in a great reader email asking a question about hunting on a rice field. We don’t do a huge amount of hunting on rice, which tend to be a lot flatter and have more visibility than hunting in flooded timber. Because of that visibility, setting up a good blind in a rice field can be tricky.

Let’s hear what Bruce has to say about his upcoming hunting trip. Read More »