New guns, clothes, knives, crossbows, outdoor-related services and some fun are presented from the 2013 Shot Show held at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas.

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More than 20 vendors are interviewed, 10 associated YouTube videos were shot and the show was described on both my Backyard Deer Hunting and Hovey’s Outdoor Adventures Radio Show blogs. What was new and interesting was a three-barreled shotgun from Chappa, hammerless muzzleloading rifle from Traditions, Arsenal’s Siamese-twin 1911s, new knives from Buck, Case and Queen Cutlery as well as crossbows from Barnett, Excalibur and TenPoint that are shorter, slimmer, and lighter than ever before.

Shooting accessories included a new green laser sight from Crimson Trace, holographic sight for crossbows from EOTech and a do-it-yourself interior barrel finish from Dynamic Finishes that prevents “crud ring” formation from using pelletitized powders in muzzleloading guns.

I paid more attention to clothes for the under-served part of the hunting market by including interviews with Lucky Bums, who makes clothes, seats, packs and outdoor equipment for junior hunters; and Prois who has developed a line of innovative hunting gear for women. I did not forget the guys, and I also did interviews with Irish Setter about their outdoor boots and with Manzella about their nearly 40 varieties of outdoor-hunting gloves.

Just for fun, I also filmed Joey Rocketshoes Dillon’s fast and fancy revolver act at the Cimarron Arms booth where he juggled a pair of Colt Peacemaker revolvers. He started working on this at about age 6 with a cap pistol. This video appears along with the others from the Shot Show the wmhoveysmith channel.

Ads on the show include those from Fix It, Inc., to get you out of any little troubles that you might get into in Las Vegas and Ersatz Vegas to whom you pay your allotted gambling money and they send you receipts and cheap Vegas souvenirs to save you the expense of going. More importantly, this removes the risk of you gambling away everything you own and having to sell your daughter out of bible college to a Middle Eastern prince to settle the family’s debts.

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Blunderbuss Swan Hunt

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Blunderbusses are strange guns and the people who enjoy shooting them are perhaps even stranger, including me. When I first saw one advertised in Sportsman’s Guide I knew that I would need to get it and wring it out. The .54 caliber gun was shot at outdoor writers’ conferences in Mississippi and Tennessee, hunted small game and deer in Georgia and was now off to hunt the nation’s largest waterfowl in North Carolina.

The 20-gauge is usually considered to be a small-bore shotgun compared to 11, 12 and 10 gauge guns, that are considered medium-bore guns. (Big-bore shotguns start at the 8-gauge and go up to 2-gauge punt guns which are not legal in the U.S. for waterfowl.) Because the Traditions-made gun’s barrel is a cylinder-bored 26-gauge, its maximum effective throw of shot is about a 1-ounce load. You can shoot more shot out the barrel, but you lose any pretense of a pattern and your shot winds up as a hollow-centered donut. This condition is aggravated because I am also using hand-cut cardboard and foam wads derived from beer cartons and egg crates.

Given enough time, I can usually count on getting at least one swan to decoy within the 20-25 yard kill range of the blunderbuss. I loaded it with 70-grains of Hodgdon’s TripleSeven powder and 1-ounce of mixed steel and HeviShot 4s with a Cream of Wheat buffer between the over-powder wad and the shot. This load generated sharp recoil from the light-weight gun.

I was at Bodie Island, got the blind I wanted for each of the three days The first two mornings’ hunt produced only two distant swan. The last day I hunted all day and had several flights over me just before dark. All but one bird was out of range and offered a butt-profile shot that I did not take. I downed a bird by taking a shot at what turned out to be the last flight of the day. The bird was beyond my 25-yard limit, but I broke a wing. I finished it by chasing it down with a Mossberg 500 3-inch pump cartridge shotgun.

This hunt demonstrated that you can take down swan with a 20-gauge gun, but the trick is to get them in close and take neck-head shots. HeviShot 4s from a 20-gauge can be effective when used in this manner, but wait for a good shot.

Ads on the show include those from Invasive Species Control, whose motto is,” We kill ‘um, you eat ‘um.” and SIN, Inc. (Synthetic Industrial Non-Nutritives, Inc.) who announced that its Puke Vodka is now available for home therapy in 5-gallon and 1-gallon pails as well as in 55-gallon drums and tank cars for use by alcoholic treatment and rehabilitation centers.

The cooking section consisted of a visit to the Sanctuary Vineyards and a product tasting with the Wine Maker which included my own pear wine made from my back-yard pear trees.

A video of this tasting may be seen at: http://youtu.be/73r0DgDXV70

A description of this show with photos is at: www.hoveysoutdooradventures.wordpress.com

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The Year’s Adventures, 2012

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2012’s adventures started with a bang with swan hunts on the year’s first two shows and ending with a reading of my original play “A Visit from Auntie Thresa Claus” on the Annual Christmas show. Twenty-three original shows were produced with two 1 1/2-hour shows and one 2-hour show.

Events covered included the Shot Show, Atlanta Blade Show, NRA’s National Convention and Quality Deer Management Association’s Annual Meeting. Communities featured in the occasional “Hunting Small Town America” series were Dawson, Helen and St. Marys, in Georgia as well as North Carolina’s Outer Banks and Ashland City, Tennessee. Successful hunts included swan, wild hogs, turkeys and deer featuring muzzleloading shotguns, blunderbuss, pistols and crossbow along with bowfishing Tennessee’s Cumberland River.

Limited finances in a down economy restricted 2012’s activities largely to the Southeastern States, but nonetheless provided some unusual show opportunities, such as investigating the Gray Fossil Site near Johnson City, Tennessee, where Miocene elephants, rhinos, tapirs, bears and alligators are found as fossil remains at a site that is even more productive than the La Brea Tar Pits in California.

Besides the usual hunting stories, two original stories were aired including a Christmas reading of my play “A visit from Auntie Thresa Claus” and “Watermelon Smith” which is about a slave who wins his freedom after a successful Mississippi River boat race where he de-scales a boiler by throwing a watermelon onto the boiler’s red-hot coals.

Downloads from WebTalkRadio.net steadily increased to about 20,000 a week, with the most popularly downloaded shows being those about the trade shows, handgun hunting and outdoor personalities such as Larry Weishuhn, Bill Booth, Margaret Hice, The Swamp People and The Turtle Man. The most frequently searched for items concerned Hice and the now-discontinued Tree Lounge Tree Stands.

Related activities included publishing softcover and E-book versions of X-Treme Muzzleloading: Fur, fowl and dangerous game with muzzleloading rifles, pistols and smoothbores, and an updated E-book edition of Practical Bowfishing. Over 100 YouTube videos were published during the year which received 300,000 views. Many of these videos were related to subjects covered in “Hovey’s Outdoor Adventures Radio Show Blog,” which had 19,000 views and my “Backyard Deer Hunting Blog” which had 100,000 views last year. A 20-video series on “Starting your own outdoor business” is included among among the current 180 videos on the wmhoveysmith Channel.

Kickstarter Projects that were attempted and failed during 2012 included funding for the production of my play A Visit from Auntie Thresa Claus (read on my annual Christmas shows) and funding to permit an upgrade of this radio show. Sponsorships continued to be elusive during 2012, and this lack of support threatens the survival of the program. Although there has been a lot of activity, this has not generated sufficient income to sustain the show.

The first show of 2013 also got off to a shooting start with two successful hunts on Georgia’s Ossabaw and Cumberland islands for deer and hogs with muzzleloading pistols, including CVA’s Optima .50-caliber single shot, Cabela’s stainless steel 1858 Remington-pattern Buffalo Revolver with a 10-inch barrel and adjustable sights and Traditions’ 1858 Remington Sheriff’s Model with a 5 1/2-inch barrel which performs duties as a back-up muzzleloading handgun to kill a small wounded deer at 50-yards. A link to my Cumberland Island hunt YouTube video appears below:

Hovey’s Outdoor Adventures Radio Show Blog http://www.hoveysoutdooradventures.wordpress.com

YouTube video on hunting Georgia’s Cumberland Island http://youtu.be/bp6rQ-VGg-M

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Deer and hogs were hunted with blunderbuss and pistols in November and December on Georgia’s Ossabaw and Cumberland Islands. These regular management hunts are held by the State Dept. of Fish and Game and The National Park Service to help control these species and protect sea turtle eggs from being consumed by feral hogs.

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Hogs may be harvested without limit on both islands and two deer may be taken which do not count towards the state limit of 12 deer a year. Hunts on each of the islands start with archery only hunts, then primitive weapon hunts (muzzleloaders, crossbows and bows on Ossabaw and muzzleloaders, crossbows, bows and cartridge handguns on Cumberland) which are followed by hunts with conventional guns and hog-only hunts.

For photos and more information go to:

For a video of the Cumberland Island hunt go to:

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This special edition features a reading of Hovey’s original Christmas play, “A Visit from Auntie Thresa Claus,” a cold Christmas at Copper Center, Alaska, making Southern cornbread dressing, recent activities and a sign-off from the Christmas Chipmunk.

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The uninterrupted reading of the play is sponsored by Velcro Wall, the leader in child suspension systems, who introduces the “Rent a Dungeon” for the 2012 holiday season so you can hang up your kids for a couple of hours while they play Dungeon in a sound-proof room. Velcro also reminds listeners of their “Kid Harness Division” which allows kids to be harnessed up for doing healthy work such as pulling sleds, carts and plows, rather than getting no exercise while being transported in cars or being pushed around grocery stores in shopping carts.

Updates are given for Ursus, a once overweight yellow Lab, that has successfully undergone knee surgery and weight reduction; hunts related in the Blunderbuss Chronicles; an interesting deer-save with an 1858 replica percussion revolver and the still-pending results from Hovey’s standing for a re-examination for the renewal of his license as a Professional Geologist.

Photos and recipes may be found at: www.hoveysoutdooradventures.wordpress.com.

A YouTube video “Blunderbuss and Pistol Hunt on Ossabaw Island” may be seen at: http://youtu.be/O7pyDBUkhK8.

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Washington County’s annual Kaolin Festival provides the venue for Hovey to explain the origin of the universe and of the state’s kaolin clay deposits in 7 minutes, tell a new story about Watermelon Smith, the first black steamboat master in the pre-Civil War South; and present some of his hunting adventures with his often “strange” muzzleloading guns.

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The hunting stories include “Bouncing Bounty,” how an outrageously long flintlock pistol takes a Florida buck; “Armadillo Safari,” where he goes hunting with a Japanese Matchlock and “Howdah Hunter,” where a double-barreled pistol designed to kill tigers climbing up Elephant’s backs is used to take a Texas hog.

Watermelon Smith’s exploits are part of a book-in-progress describing the evolution of the fictional town of Smith’s Pass, located between Louisiana and Mississippi, which the home of the “Order of the White Magnolia Burial and Beneficent Society.” The evolution of the community is traced from its earliest beginnings to modern day when a newcomer comes to work for a paper mill and finds himself joining this secret society whose curious customs are guided by their motto, “Once among us, always with us.”

Ads on the show include “Festivals, Inc.” founded to gather information about community festivals nationwide. This fee-paid organization helps communities start and plan successful festivals by providing lists of potential events, costs, event time lines, publicity guides and probable cost-benefit analysis. By visiting festivals and using business analysis techniques, new festivals can be designed based on successful festivals held in other communities.

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Hunting experiences with ten crossbows from seven different makers are reviewed in an overview of modern crossbow used in Alaska, Eastern Canada, Idaho and Georgia where deer, black bear, hogs, gators and wild turkeys are taken.

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During the process of writing Crossbow Hunting and following the publication of the book, crossbows made by Barnett, Horton, TenPoint, Fred Bear, Parker, Stryker and Excalibur were used under a variety of conditions to take North American game. Starting with the lowest price crossbow then made by Barnett, author/host Wm. Hovey Smith, proceeded to take a deer in the city limits of his home town and began a serious investigation of these hunting tools.

He then proceeded to hunt with a variety of crossbows to get a feel for different priced instruments and their capabilities. This included the Stryker with its 424 fps blistering speed to the much more modest velocities generated by the Barnett Ranger and RC-150 series crossbows. Game was killed with all of these including moonlight hunts for wild hogs, gator chasing in Georgia’s coastal marshes and black bears taken over bait (video links below) as well as hunting deer from tree stands.

While the more expensive crossbows, upwards of $2,000, do offer convenience, easier operation and greater energies, the fact remains that many maker’s crossbows in the $400-$500 range with 150-175 pound draw weights will very capably take deer out to 40 yards year after year. Because these crossbows are not operating at near the material limits of the equipment, they generally have a longer string life, get out of adjustment less frequently and are generally more trouble free.

Current models featured in 2012 catalogs often advertise 200-pound pull weights with subsequent increases in arrow speed and flatter trajectories. Many of these also feature carbon-fiber and/or titanium components to decrease weight. I have little doubt that these crossbows will also work very well, if you want an instrument incorporating the latest technology.

Continuing improvements are also being made in reducing crossbow noise, including wrapping the limbs in rubberized material so that if they should contact the bow stand they do not make a metallic tink that will spook deer as well as noise suppressors on the strings.

I have shot, although not hunted with, the new reverse-draw crossbows made by Scorpyd, Horton, others and shown as a prototype by Barnett. These are interesting crossbows that promise to be very effective in the field. Some have large excentric wheels on the end of the limbs which would be subject to damage if dropped or being jammed with stems and leaves when taken through the woods. I would anticipate that this style of crossbow will be more frequently seen in the woods.

Alligator Hunting and Gator Cooking http://youtu.be/HkEP0ZlBx7s.

Backyard Bear Hunting http://youtu.be/GSbemqFJTjQ.

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Hunting Tennessee Elephants and Rhinos

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In the hunting world the unexpected sometimes happens, as when I visited Johnson City, Tennessee, and found a museum at the Gray Fossil Site where shovel-tusked elephants, saber toothed tigers, rhinos and tapirs are being excavated from the remains of a sink hole pond.

Blaine W. Schubert, PhD., graduate students from Eastern Tennessee State University, visiting paleontologist and volunteers are slowly digging through black clays which were deposited in a Miocene pond and meticulously uncovering, preserving and describing thousands of plant and animal species to make an unusually complete profile of life during the period.

Due to rapid burial in clay-rich soils, even very delicate bones from snakes and salamanders are preserved. No one knows what exciting find might next emerge that will reveal some new secrets of Miocene life when many of the species that we know today were evolving. Some, like horses and camels, became extinct in North America, but survived in Asia. Others, apparently originated in Asia, such as panda bears, but were present as in Eastern Tennessee in a forest setting that was not unlike today’s oak-hickory forest.

The geology of the site is described, how it is being excavated, the details of bone extraction, how the materials are preserved and the exhibits at the Natural History Museum, which is adjacent to the site. Although different in detail, this site is the La Brea Tar Pits of the eastern U.S., and represents an even more complete sampling of many extinct life forms.

Ads on the program include Rock Pickers Inc. who specializes in everything that a paleontologist, archaeologist or forensic scientist needs to excavate fossils and other remains from materials that range from solid rock to frozen Arctic soils. The cooking section is presented by SIN, Inc. (Synthetic Industrial Non-Nutritives, Inc.) whose basic raw material, glop, can be made to resemble anything such as the steaks from ancient rhinos that will provide the salt, sugar and butter taste that you crave from a raw material made from the best of coal tar, petroleum and agricultural waste by-products.

A new product introduced on the show is FloatEyes which are floating retaining straps for eye glasses so that if your expensive prescription sun glasses fall from your face they can be recovered. Many styles of eye glasses retainers are offered by the company including leather models that do not float, to jute and cork models that do.

Alligators are represented among the fossils at the site and the cooking section describes cleaning, cooking and eating the tasty meat from these large reptiles.

The Natural History Museum’s website is at: www.etsu.edu/naturalhistorymuseum

A selection of FloatEyes products may be seen at: www.FloatEyes.com.

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Wild hog hunting with Jager Pro using thermal imaging scopes and Colt AR rifles was the reason for visiting Terrell County, but hearty welcomes from the City Manager, Chamber of Commerce and others might convince some people to migrate to this quiet rural location.

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Terrell County is located in Southwest Georgia on higher ground drained by the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers to the east and west. This is an agricultural part of the state with peanuts and cotton being the major cash crops. Peanuts, which grow in the ground, are highly desired by wild hogs and gangs of them will ravage peanut fields, if not controlled.

Jager Pro, www.jagerpro.com, traps large numbers of hogs during mid-winter, but during the Summer and Fall relies on hunters using night-vision equipment to thin the population. I accompanied guide Lance Hopper and two other hunters on one of his successful night-time hunts.

During the visit I interviewed City Manager Barney Parnacott, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Gina Webb, Albany Technical College’s Adult Education Director, Dianne Wimes, D.J. Smith from E-Z Pay hardware as well as newspaper editor Tommy Rountree to get a feel for the community. More specific information about nighttime hog hunting was provided by Mossy Creek Outdoors owner Dan Redmond.

Following the successful hunt Brandon Stolz headed back to Pennsylvania with two large sows, Torbin Wind to Denmark with fond memories of two unusual Georgia hunts and me home with some good pork for the freezer.

Ads on this show include Fantasy Hunts where you can hunt any creature that ever lived, or that you can imagine, and creative hog products from SIN,Inc., (Synthetic Industrial Non-Nutritives, Inc.).

On the cooking section I discuss scrapple making with Brandon Stolz and perhaps convince him to sample some Georgia Brunswick Stew on his drive back to Pennsylvania.

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An audio exploration of Ashland City, Tennessee, reveals a city of 4,000 located only 20-miles from Nashville with abundant public hunting and fishing opportunities, industrial access by rail and the Cumberland River, interesting people, local hospitals, three sets of convenient public schools and inexpensive land prices.

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Interviews began with a lively discussion with sisters Rose Tidwell and Jenny McKnight over the remains of a fish dinner at the Riverside Restaurant and Marina overlooking the Cumberland. This was followed up with discussions on the fine arts of catfish cooking with Manager Eric Cannon. The Rev. Paul R. Gupon filled us in on some aspects from local history from his lawn chair behind the Court House and the Director of Business Relations Ann Thompson supplied detailed information on Cheatham County’s businesses and other towns. Among the new developments are the high-rise Braxton Condominiums which have just been completed and will soon be ready for occupancy and the Vantage Pointe independent living facility for retirees.

Although I was originally attracted to the area by “Caught Up” bowfishing guide Eric Collier, I was sufficiently impressed by the area to investigate the county’s potential for retirees and others who might wish to locate near Nashville, but prefer small-town life. The contrast between Ashland City and “Music City” could not be more profound.

I shot the strange bowfishing bow terribly, but did manage to get some fish including several buffalo, common carp, two species of gar, a quill back and redhorse creek sucker. The buffalo provided not only a meal when I returned home but a recipe for the show along with the accumulated scales which I boiled to make a gelatin-based aspic.

Ads on the show included Billy Bob’s Buffalo Cooker with a 600-lb. lid and hoist for deep frying buffalo and SIN’s (Synthetic Industrial Non-Nitritive, Inc.’s) glop fish, made from the best of coal tar, petroleum and agricultural waste byproducts, which require no cleaning and provide no known nutritive value while giving the diner the salt, butter and sugar tastes that he craves.

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