For a long time, bowfin have been held in low opinion in the public eye in terms of being an eating fish. With that said, you might be wondering if you should kill bowfin like you might kill carp and eat them for food. Some people will tell you that you can, but is that advice misguided? Can you eat bowfin fish?

You can eat bowfin fish without it being dangerous, but most people don’t like the flavor because they don’t prepare it right. Incorrectly prepared, it has a soft, mushy texture. If you had to think about the flavor, most compare it to catfish with a meatier flavor.

Experience of Eating Bowfin

While bowfin will thrash and squirm after you have put them at the end of your line and they put up a spirited fight, most people don’t think you should eat bowfin—they’re wrong. They don’t taste as good as walleye, northern pike or sunfish, but you can prepare them so that they will taste better.

The flesh of bowfin is soft and jellylike when incorrectly prepared, and while it might be edible, most people wouldn’t consider it worth eating. When prepared wrong, they’d be right.

Also worth noting, they call the bowfin the mudfish for a reason. It has a strong flavor of mud, which is why many bowfishermen won’t eat them. As one bowfisherman reports, “They’re edible, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat it.”

The other thing worth noting is that bowfin accumulate mercury in their body, and the older the bowfin, the more mercury it will have. In particular, pregnant women must be careful because of how mercury can harm an unborn child. It can harm parts of the child’s body like the lungs, kidneys and nervous system. In addition, it could harm a young child’s nervous system as well. That said, the mercury issue is true of any predatory fish. You can learn more about mercury issues with fish here.

If you did decide to eat bowfin, you should cook it right away to keep the meat from turning mushy. Don’t worry, we’ll show you how to properly prepare it soon so that it tastes good.

What Does Bowfin Taste Like?

How they taste depends on your cooking method. In Louisiana, they have come to be known as cotton fish, which describes the texture of it unless you cook it right. You can combat the texture of bowfin by cutting it like chicken fingers, and that’s the method that I would recommend. You might compare the taste to alligator gar in some ways or catfish as we said above when done right.

You would definitely call bowfin an acquired taste. A lot of people won’t like it, but some people do call it good eating. That said, most people don’t. I’ve had it to where it did taste good, however. Bowfin have small bones that you have to be careful of. As you chop the fillets, direct your efforts away from the stomach region. That is where the bowfin caught its nickname, the mudfish because it tastes like mud.

Bowfin Preparation—9 Tips for Eating It

How you prepare the bowfin will have an impact on the flavor. The preparation stages to create a good flavor are crucial but tricky. You can go wrong in several ways. First, you can’t put water on this fish without impacting the flavor. Avoid it at all costs. If you put water on it and don’t burn it as a result, it will negatively impact the flavor. Second, you can’t put this fish in the fridge and cook it tomorrow morning because the water will impact the meat and make it mushy and difficult to eat.

When you prepare bowfin right, it will have a meatier texture than other fish. As soon as you catch a bowfin, you take it home and start frying it up. Waiting will make it taste bad, which is why many fishermen have had a bad experience with eating bowfin. If you don’t have the time to cook it right away, put it back in the water and let it go. It’s not worth it, otherwise. This isn’t an invasive fish species like the snakehead.

Let’s take the example of someone who tries to put it in the fridge for tomorrow. In one case, the individual had the bowfin meat turn entirely to mush and run through his fingers when he went to cook it. He couldn’t even attempt cooking it. That flavor would’ve been downright scary. We’ll show you how to make it taste right, and you can decide for yourself if you want to try it.

Tip #1 Fillet It While Alive: You want to fillet this fish while alive because it will let the blood run out of it. The blood is responsible for the muddy taste of the fish. Unlike other fish, bowfin can store oxygen in their blood. For those who have a light stomach, this may be too gruesome, but the average fisherman who eats fish and fillets them won’t have a problem.

Tip #2 Don’t Put Water On It: We already talked about not putting water on it, but we can’t emphasize that enough. If you don’t put water on it at all, it will hold its shape without becoming mushy. As soon as you put water on it, however, it turns to mush, making it inedible. Don’t put water of any kind on it. It’s better to avoid it altogether for the best results when cooking.

Tip #3 Take Paper Towels to Pat the Meat: You take a roll of paper towels to pat down the meat and eliminate the blood to get rid of the muddy flavor. Again, we can’t use water on the meat because it will badly impact the texture to the point that you will struggle to eat it. While you can’t clean it with water, you still want it clean. Otherwise, it would be like eating bloody meat. Be sure to clean the scales off the meat as well. The scales on the bowfin are solid, and he has some tough scales. You may want to use an electric fillet knife to clean it in the initial stages.

The Bubba 110V Electric Fillet Knife is a great knife to clean it with because it can get past the scales. It also has a slip-free handle making it ideal for fish, which can be slippery.

Tip #4 Cut It in Half and Make Nuggets: Next, you will cut the two separate bowfin fillets in half to make it into four separate pieces. You don’t need to hit it exactly at the middle part, but you want it close for the portion sizes. Next, you will cut it crossways against the grain like you were cutting fish sticks out of it.

Tip #5 Grilling vs Frying: You can grill bowfin, and it will taste incredible if prepared right. Most people choose to fry it, but you can cook it on the grill as well, and it will taste equally as good. You can also cook it on the Blackstone. With whatever cooking method that you choose, the preparation steps will all carry the same steps.

Tip #6 Use Tinfoil for Grilling: With grilling the fish, we would recommend that you use tinfoil before cutting it up into fish sticks. You will put lemon pepper, Tony’s Original Creole Seasoning and lemon juice (optional). We would only recommend the last one if you like lemon on your fish.

Tip #7 Don’t Let the Bowfin Die: If you let the bowfin die before you can cook it, he won’t taste good because you need to let the blood run out of the fish while he’s alive. You must fillet it while alive for the best flavor. This fish is extremely finicky with how you prepare it, which explains why many people don’t like bowfin. They try it one time, if at all, have a bad experience and never try it again because they don’t know how to prepare it.

I was that guy, and I very hesitantly tried it a second time when a buddy showed me.

Tip #8 Good Fish to Learn How to Fillet: The bowfin offers you an awesome chance to learn how to fillet if new to filleting fish because of how it has a thick meat, and you won’t cut through it easily. In comparison to learning on a catfish, the bowfin is much easier to learn filleting on.

Tip #9 Beware of Making the Meat Cuts Too Thick: You don’t want the meat cuts too thick because of how it won’t cook as well. Make sure that the meat cuts don’t have as much thickness for the best results.

Bowfin Recipe

To begin cooking, we will assume that you have taken the proper steps to prepare it. Remember—good preparation will give you the best flavor in the meat. You want to prepare so that the following steps will make it taste good.

1. Take yellow corn meal and put it in a bowl.
2. Grab a handful of Tony’s Original Creole Seasoning and throw it in the bowl.
3. Add about the same amount of salt.
4. Mix the bowl up well to give it the best seasoning. You want an even mixing throughout the bowl.
5. Don’t wash anything with the fish. Remember, water will hurt the flavor. Take the fillets and put them directly into the bowl for seasoning.
6. Once you have the fillets in the bowl, you wil cover the bowl and start shaking it to put the mixture over the fish fillets.
7. After you have shaken it up, the mixture should take to the meat.
8. Fire up the fryer or the grill and add the fillets into the oil once it becomes hot. You want it at about 275 degrees Fahrenheit.
9. You will cook the meat for 12 minutes, give or take. You will know they’re done when golden brown.

Once you have done that, give the meat a try and see if you like it. Provided you prepared it properly, you may find that you like it. This isn’t the fish for everyone, but some people may say it in a new light.

The biggest problem with bowfin is that many people don’t know how to prepare it, and this meat is very finicky. If not prepared in the way outlined, it won’t taste good.

Try It for Yourself

The only way to learn if bowfin is edible is by trying it for yourself. When I first had bowfin, I didn’t like the flavor because I didn’t prepare it right. A buddy of mine showed me how to prepare it, and it tasted much better after that. Everyone will be different, and if you have the opportunity to try it, I would recommend it. You can’t be harmed by trying it one time.

With that said, the average person who doesn’t prepare it correctly may want to just throw it away or let the fish go back into the water before that point.

Bowfin Caviar: What Does It Taste Like?

While eating bowfin has never been popular, one thing that has picked up in popularity has been to eat bowfin eggs. Bowfin caviar has a jet black color, and they are firm. The taste is mildly tangy and earthy. In particular, bowfin caviar has picked up in popularity in the southern United States like Louisiana where it has the name Cajun Caviar. In South America, they call it Chourpique.

If you’d like to know what bowfin caviar tastes like, you can buy some American bowfin black caviar here. We would call it a less expensive version of sturgeon caviar. Many people have even liked it. They taste small, crunchy, mild and not overly salty. Bowfin black caviar offers you a great introduction to caviar if you never had it before.

For anyone wondering if it is Kosher, they don’t consider this Kosher in the Orthodox Union. Most caviar isn’t Kosher and when you find a Kosher, it is rare.

Bowfin caviar versus sturgeon caviar costs less. However, it doesn’t have the same stellar reputation as sturgeon caviar. In comparison to sturgeon caviar, sturgeon will taste much like the sea, but neither sturgeon nor bowfin caviar should have an overly fishy flavor.

Bowfin and Prevailing Negative Beliefs

You might be wondering to yourself, “Is bowfin dogfish?” Yes, bowfin is the same as dogfish, and if you know anything about dogfish, it has received an unjustified reputation. This native fish has existed in North America for thousands of years. You can learn more about this fascinating living fossil here.

Usually, when you catch a bowfin, you will hear the conversation go something along these lines, “You caught a dogfish? You didn’t put it back, did you? Dogfish kill other fish for fun!”

In truth, bowfin do not kill other fish for fun. They act as scavengers, and they eat some of the other fish that people love, but because they’re a native fish species, they should be left alone. Most likely, bowfin receive a bad reputation because they taste bad when prepared wrong, and they look like the invasive snakehead species. The snakehead brings diseases to native fish populations that can kill them off.

You can tell bowfin apart from snakeheads because snakeheads have one big long and continuous anal fin, while the bowfin’s anal fin is more like a regular fin. Bowfin don’t overpopulate, and they don’t cause any harm to other fish. Not only that, but they’re a native fish species: all the more reason to leave them alone.

Don’t Kill Bowfin if You Don’t Eat Them

People who say to kill bowfin speak from ignorance, rather than truth. Bowfin is like the snakehead in that it has a set of lungs, which allows it to survive on land for an amount of time. In fact, one recorded case of it surviving had the bowfin alive for up to 21 days in a dried up pond. Compare that to a northern pike, they can only live five minutes out of water.

That said, in some states like Indiana, they require you to kill snakeheads if you catch them, but these aren’t considered good eating anyhow. You should check your local laws to ensure that it is legal if you practice catch and release of a snakehead. With bowfishing, that never becomes a problem, however, because of how shooting a fish with a bow will kill the fish.

The problem is that a lot of people don’t know how to distinguish snakeheads from bowfin, and as a result, they kill them both. Bowfin do not have a continuous backfin while a snakehead does. When handling the bowfin, be careful because they have been known to bite without warning. This fish has fearsome teeth like a mouth full of canines, and they have been known to bite through fishing line.

You should only kill a bowfin if you intend to eat it.

Great Fighting Fish

If you have ever had a dogfish thrashing at the end of your line, you know what a fight these fish can put up. In fact, bowfin are one of the few species that do the deathroll like gators. They put up a furious fight. Many anglers even respect the bowfin because of its fighting capabilities. It puts up one of the hardest fights out of all the freshwater fish species. They fight harder than bass.

Check out this short video to see how a bowfin fights:

Conclusion

Provided you have prepared the bowfin correctly before you go to cook it, it will taste fine. In fact, I have known people who call it one of the best-tasting fish species around. That said, you have to prepare it right. In particular, people in the South like Mississippi seem to have the best understanding of how to cook it. If you don’t plan to eat it, you may want to release them back into the water. Some fishermen even believe that bowfin are beneficial to the local waters and the surrounding fish.

Not to mention, they never take over the waters like what carp do. In addition, they’re native, and that especially is why you shouldn’t kill them unless you plan to eat them.

Hunting’s post-kill rituals aren’t spontaneous gestures like high-fives or war-whoops, but perhaps that’s where they began.

Maybe those instinctive, visceral celebrations evolved as ancient hunters and their tribes considered what they gained at the animal’s expense. From there, things got complicated as time and culture took hunters’ thoughts and hunting’s utilitarian tasks, and shaped them into formal tributes to the animal’s life and the meat it provided.

That process created ceremonies—large and small, personal and communal—to instill and sustain ancient reverence. Maybe that’s why post-kill hollering, laughing and chest-thumping can appear disrespectful to others. Ignoring post-kill tributes—even those silent and subtle—suggests we’ve forgotten the old ways, never took time to learn them, or never knew of them in the first place.

Either way, today’s post-kill rituals are rooted in history and traditions, and mostly of European or Native American origins. The Germans, for instance, prayed to St. Hubert, the patron saint of hunters. They built forest chapels on their hunting lands and made worship mandatory. American Indians, meanwhile, have long dropped pinches of tobacco onto the animal’s body to offer respect, believing that tobacco—crumbled or smoked—connects them to the spirit world.

Many hunters still practice post-kill rituals, borrowing from history, other cultures and their own imaginations to honor the fact that life requires death, which warrants respect. With that in mind, here are some post-kill rituals you might recognize.

Blooding: This common ritual varies widely, but usually involves a parent or the camp’s senior member taking blood from a hunter’s first kill and applying it to his or her face. Some elders carefully streak the hunter’s cheeks with a blooded finger, while others hastily smear blood all over the hunter’s face.

This rite traces back to the 700s A.D. as a tribute to St. Hubert. To receive the patron saint’s blessing for the kill, the group placed a knife in the animal’s fatal wound to coat it in blood. One of them then used the knife to gently apply red crucifixes on the hunter’s forehead and both cheeks. The hunter then accepted everyone’s congratulations.

Joe Hamilton, director of development for the Quality Deer Management Association, recalls a similar ritual from his younger days. In this case, an older hunter explained the symbolism while applying blood: The streak down the first-timer’s nose honored the quarry’s sense of smell; a second streak over one eye honored the quarry’s sense of sight; a final streak over the other eye honored the hunter’s accomplishment. “They honored the hunter for being quiet, patient and stealthy to overcome the animal’s natural defenses,” Hamilton explains.

Horn Blowing: Houndsmen hunting deer often blew horns to communicate with the dogs and each other. To make the sounds, they used everything from a bull’s actual horn sheath, to horns or bugles made of brass or pewter. Today many huntmasters in Europe still blow horns to communicate to their charges. Some American hunters do, too. Regardless where it’s blown, the sound of a horn reverberating through a hardwoods swamp or a deep forest can make the hair on hunters’ arms stand up.

The Last Bite: The “letzebissen” or “letzer bissen” is practiced in Austria, Holland and Germany, and by some Americans. Valerius Geist, 78, of British Columbia, is a retired zoology professor and hunting authority who was raised in Germany and Austria. Geist says Germans break (never cut) a twig from one of five tree species in descending preference: oak, pine, spruce, fir and alder. With the animal placed on its right side, they pull the broken twig through its mouth from one side to the other and leave it clamped between its jaws.

Eating Raw Liver: Al Hofacker, founding editor of Deer & Deer Hunting magazine, recalls hunters in 1960s-era deer camps in northeastern Wisconsin that brought the liver of their first kill back to camp each year. “At night they’d slice small pieces of the raw liver and each eat a piece,” he says.

Slitting the Throat: Hofacker also recalls a once-routine practice he could never explain. “Decades ago it was common to slit the deer’s throat before field-dressing it,” he says. “It never made sense because the heart has stopped beating, but they thought they were ‘bleeding it out.’ That’s pretty much gone now.”

Meat, Skulls, Shoulder Mounts: Long after the kill, hunters continue honoring their quarry by cherishing and consuming its meat, and displaying its skull or full-shoulder taxidermy mount. Such honors, however, are easily tarnished. “You should never desecrate head mounts by placing cigarettes in the mouths, sunglasses over the eyes, or hats or Santa Claus caps on their heads,” Geist says. “You also don’t sit on the animal’s body after you’ve killed it. That dishonors the creature.”

This is obviously an incomplete list, but perhaps it reminds us that honoring our quarry is largely a matter of the heart. And that, Geist says, should focus on the kill itself.

“Rituals aren’t a bad idea; I see their value,” Geist says. “But you show the utmost respect by concentrating on killing the animal quickly. Hunters’ conduct toward wildlife and nature should be consistent with their conduct toward other humans.”

What’s the most diverse group of guns in use by the world’s military forces?

It’s not rifles, or machine guns, or submachine guns, or even shotguns. Most successful long-gun fall into just a few different designs.

When you see oddball service rifles, you often see them plagued by issues of all kinds I.E. the INSAS, the FAMAS, the SA-80, and even the G36 have all had their problems.

The most diverse group of military weapons are handguns, aka sidearms. Even within certain countries, pistols can be diversely issued depending on the unit and mission.

Sometimes pistols are such a second thought they are a mishmash of different guns.

For example, see Israel at the near end of this list. Another challenge is how countries outside of Western Europe equip their military forces. In the Western World, there is a big move towards standardization that’s not present with other countries.

Several countries also don’t put out a press release when they purchase or adopt a new handgun, making it difficult to verify the information.

To be entirely fair, sidearms are just a step above bayonets on the necessity of military equipment priorities. Most countries issue them in small numbers to officers and specialists.

I put my best foot forward to come up with a comprehensive list of the sidearms from around the world. It was a little harder than I initially thought, but the research was still fascinating and fun.

With all this in mind, I’ve tried my hardest to verify the issuance of every firearm on this list. I set my parameters to general issue sidearms.

Some Special ops teams may use something different than the standard forces, and trying to catalog these weapons along with general sidearms would take several articles.

For example, the United States military alone issues the Beretta M9, the M17/18, the MEU/SOC 1911, the SIG P226, the M11A1, the P229R, the Glock 34, Glock 17, Glock 19, Glock 22, and many more we’ve likely never seen. It’s much more reasonable to focus on the general issue sidearms of these military forces.

Since several military forces have adopted the same gun, we’ll group those together to simplify things.

1. United States – SIG P320 Designated the M17/18

I was lucky enough to be at SHOT Show when it was announced that the SIG P320 would be adopted for military service with the U.S. Army. Needless to say, the folks at the SIG booth were quite excited.

The P320, designated the M17 and M18, was adopted in 9mm in full size (M17) and compact (M18) variants. The M17/18 series are quite advanced for military sidearms and feature red dot optics compatibility. Although red dots have not been issued as far as I know.

Like the P320 the ability exists to move the serialized fire control group to different grip modules. The military is quite strict with serial numbers and if the military allows the issued troop to choose a grip module they could get a gun that fits them. One size fits all is rarely a good idea.

Of course, the U.S. Military is nanny like and included a manual safety. In reality, more training would be more beneficial than a manual safety, but who am I to judge big army.

The M17 has since been adopted by the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marines. The M17 is currently being issued to combat arms units first in the U.S. Army. The Army plans to replace every M9 within ten years with an M17/18.

2. Commonwealth Club – The Browning Hi-Power

Canada, Australia, Bahrain, India, Thailand

The Browning Hi-Power is the European 1911.

What I mean by that is its popularity and longevity in military service. The Hi-Power has been used by just about everybody and in only the last few years have more modern designs replaced it.

The Hi-Power was one of the first high capacity 9mms that entered regular service. It’s a single action only weapon with a manual safety and a 13 round magazine. The Hi-Power is a beautiful gun that is robust and reliable.

It’s close to 100 years old and is still seeing war.

It’s one of the few guns to see action on both sides of WW2 in service with numerous Allied Forces, including the British, and in the hands of Germans. The Hi-Power is an excellent firearm and was a final fitting design for John Browning.

Its legacy of service across the world is nearly unmatched. Much like the sun never sets on the British empire, the sun doesn’t set on the Hi-Power. While it’s been produced mostly in Europe, the gun is also widely built in South American factories as well.

It’s been heavily used in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and South America. From imported goods to domestic production copies, the Hi-Power is a legend in small arms design.

It’s currently the issued sidearm of Commonwealth countries like Canada and Australia, and as far out as India and Thailand.

3. 20+ Nations – The Glock 17, 19, and 34.

The United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Malaysia, Mexico (Navy), Montenegro, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Yemen, Venezuela, Uruguay, India, and many more.

It would seemingly be easier to make a list of countries the Glock 9mm series doesn’t serve in. The weapon seems to be everywhere in the world.

Why not? The 9mm Glocks are the flagship of their handguns, and the only difference between the 17, 19, and 34 is barrel and grip length.

Glock 9mm pistols are legendary for their rugged and reliable design. These superbly simple guns work, and keep working. On top of that, Glock has logistics nailed with supplies and spare parts out the yin yang.

Generation wise it appears that Gen 3 and Gen 4 models are the most popular variants in the military market. The Glock series also seems to be the most popular choice in countries where Spec Ops have more leeway in choosing a handgun.

The Glock series of firearms are popular the world over for a good reason. They are accurate, easy to use, highly reliable, lightweight, and cheap. The price Glock sells their guns to Police Forces is criminally low, and I imagine the price for military forces is even smaller.

Penny pinchers often give a big say when it comes to new guns, and price always matters. Glock makes their weapons affordable while being high quality. As far as military sidearms go the Glock 17 will likely remain the most popular choice for some time to come.

If you want to get your own Glock, you should take a look at some of these articles:

• Best Glock (All Sizes & Calibers)
• Best 9mm Glock
• Best Glock Upgrades

4. Germany, Ireland, Greece, and Spain – The HK U.S.P.

I love the HK U.S.P. It’s one of my favorite DA/SA guns, and that’s saying a lot. The U.S.P., or universal self-loading pistol, is Heckler and Koch’s premier handgun design.

It’s a fascinating gun and while 9mm is the chosen NATO cartridge the USP was one of the first guns built around the 40 S&W. The gun was also chambered in 357 SIG, and later 45 A.C.P.

The U.S.P. stood apart from other polymer-frame guns of the time due to its mechanical recoil reduction system. This system is implemented with a heavy captive coil spring around the guide rod that reduced the force of the slide slinging rearward.

This buffers recoil by up to 30% according to H.K. The U.S.P. came to be because of the Offensive Handgun Weapon System, where it was tested alongside prototypes of the Mk 23 Mod 0. From the very beginning the gun was always meant to be a service pistol.

As a service weapon, it has been adopted by at least four countries as the general issue sidearm. In several more countries, it serves as a pistol for Special Operations units. Plus the U.S.P. C. is Jack Bauer’s gun of choice.

5. The French – M.A.C. Mle 50 and PAMAS G1

I’m not picking on the French, but any look into their current small arms will find them lacking. Their military is often ignored and their weapons are often quite old. There are two current service pistols in use, and neither is a new design.

First we have the ancient, but domestically designed M.A.C. Mle 50 and then the PAMAS G1. The PAMAS G1 is a licensed clone of the Beretta 92F and is built in France.

The 30-year-old G1 was supposed to replace the MAC Mle 50, but it seems the process has been moving along very slowly. They are looking to now replace both pistols as of March 2019.

The M.A.C. Mle 50 is a product of its time, and as a gun designed in 1950, that means it’s a single stack 9mm with nine rounds and a single-action design. It uses the Browning system like a Hi-Power and has an integral barrel feed ramp.

The M.A.C. 50 is a stout little gun that’s known for its durability, clearly, since it’s been around for nearly 70 years now.

The PAMAS G1 is a clone of the Beretta 92F made in France. There are a few differences between the PAMAS G1 and Beretta 92F. The G1 has a decocking lever only, and apparently, the French steel is more brittle.

Since it’s a 92F, it lacks the enlarged hammer axis pin that prevents the slide from accidentally leaving the gun and hitting the operator in the face. However, there is some speculation this was initially caused by +P+ ammo.

The French will likely adopt a Glock pistol, but until then, the M.A.C. and PAMAS are chugging along. The PAMAS is certainly a step up from the MAC, but both are likely well past their service life.

6. South Korea – The Daewoo K5

South Korea has a robust and well established domestic arms production history. Rather than just relying on the U.S., the Daewoo brand has produced most of South Korea’s military firearms.

The Daewoo K5 is an innovative and exciting firearm design that has served the Koreans since 1989.

The Daewoo K5 is a DA/SA pistol with a hammer, made on metal frame and is chambered in 9mm. The Daewoo K5 holds 15 rounds of 9mm, and in 1989 was quite high tech. It’s slightly dated now, but still an excellent combat pistol.

The K5 features an unusual trigger mechanism, sometimes called Triple action or Double action +. It’s quite similar to the P99, except with an actual hammer-fired handgun. The K5’s hammer can be decoked, while still maintaining mainspring compression.

The end result is a trigger pull with the length of a double-action trigger, but the weight of a single-action design. In the states, the Lionheart imported pistol had the same innovative feature. The K5 is a fascinating gun, and in 1989 showed a lot of innovative thought from Daewoo and South Korea.

Daewoo is an interesting company. They make everything from TVs to Cars, and handguns and assault rifles. If you need a slow, fuel-efficient car and a machine gun, call Daewoo.

7. China – Type 92

The Type 92, aka the QSZ-92, is China’s primary service sidearm. This recoil-operated, locked-breech pistol has a rotating barrel locking system like the Beretta PX4 series. This rotating barrel setup is supposed to improve reliability and decrease recoil.

This is an interesting little gun, and it was ahead of its time.

The Type 92 was designed in 1994 and featured a detachable steel frame that holds the fire control group. This sits in the plastic grip and acts very much like a SIG P320’s FCU. The frame can be removed and moved into different sized frames and grip designs.

Whether or not this was ever done remains to be seen. The gun is also chambered in the very odd 5.8x21mm round. This was China’s variant of the 5.7 and was designed to defeat soft armor.

It holds 20 rounds of the 5.8×21 round in a double-stack magazine and has a combination safety/decocker. It’s a DA/SA design and is issued lightly among Chinese forces.

9mm variants also exist for export… for reasons.

I’m betting the 5.8 round handles a lot like the 5.7, and it’s a shame we can’t find out for ourselves.

8. Russia – Makarov, and MP-443

Russian is a weird country for small arms.

Admittedly they are much more focused on their rifles than their handguns. That’s why the Makarov pistol is still around and kicking in use by their military forces. This Great Value brand Walther PP has been serving since 1951.

It’s a blowback-operated design that’s very compact for a service pistol. When your handgun is more or less used for executing traitors and subjugating people, I guess size doesn’t matter. The Makarov had a capacity of 8 rounds of what is essentially a +P .380 ACP round.

The most impressive thing about the Makarov is the fact it’s made of only 27 parts. This was perfect for the Soviet Union at the time. It is cheap and easy to produce, and had very few failure points.

The Makarov pistol has been around for so long because the former Soviet Union produced millions of them, and they are robust little pistols.

The MP 443 Grach, aka the PYa, is a more modern Russian service pistol that aims to replace the Makarov. The MP 443 is a modern 9mm Parabellum pistol with a 17 or 18 round magazine capacity. The MP 443 is slowly making its way into the hands of Russian forces, and the gun has been in mass production for eight years now.

The MP 443 is pretty standard as far as pistols go. It’s a DA/SA design that does allow the user to swap the slide stop lever and manual safety to the right and left sides of the gun. The MP 443 uses a Colt-Browning design and doesn’t do anything revolutionary.

So it’s a lot unlike bored Russians in that sense.

It is an all-steel gun, and while this adds to the gun’s weight, it is quite robust and durable. It needs to be to use the Russian armor piercing 9mm 7N21 armor-piercing round. This s a +P+ style round apparently and is a hard hitter

The MP 443 is another gun we will likely never see, but I doubt it does anything an old SW 3rd gen doesn’t do.

9. Belgium – FN Five-Seven

The Belgium FN Five-Seven pistol is an interesting firearm. It fires the 5.7x28mm round and was developed to share ammunition with the FN P90 PDW. The round it fires is similar to a rifle round in design and shape.

While the ammunition is long, it’s thin, and this allows the Five-Seven to hold 20 rounds in a flush-fitting magazine. The Five-Seven offers soft armor penetration and very low recoil on top of a flat shooting cartridge that can reach out to 100 yards.

This is a very easy shooting gun, and I can see why a military would adopt it. Plus it’s lightweight, reliable, and is unlike most handguns when it comes to armor and barrier penetration. The gun and the ammo is quite pricey though.

The gun is Belgium designed and is currently replacing the Browning Hi-Power with the Belgium Army. The Five-Seven also serves the Air Force, Special Forces Group, and Federal Police forces. The Five-Seven is an unconventional choice but is an effective weapon.

And of course, it is the firearm of Ivan Chesnokov fame.

10. Czech Republic – C.Z. 75 Phantom

The Czech Republic has a long history of private firearms ownership and is one of the few European countries to have a strong firearm’s civil rights. C.Z. is also one of my favorite personal gun makers.

The C.Z. 75 has been used extensively by their military for quite some time, and still serves in reserve units.

The C.Z. 75 Phantom is now the primary service pistol. This gun is similar in design to the classic C.Z. 75 but features a polymer frame, Picatinny rail, and a decocker only design. It also uses a larger 19 round magazine, but can also work with classic C.Z. 75 mags.

The C.Z. 75 Phantom is a robust and accurate weapon. The ergonomics are simply incredible, and C.Z. isn’t afraid to sell the gun in the States, so yay for us. The Phantom is a service pistol with the handling of a competition gun.

It has an excellent trigger, a low bore axis, and is well proven. The Phantom is an excellent gun, and it was a great choice by the Army of the Czech Republic.

11. South Africa – Vektor Z88 and SP1

South Africa has an exciting history of arms design and has both cloned and created their weapons. Their service handguns are a mixture of both. The Z88 was a domestically produced clone of the Beretta 92.

They couldn’t license it or receive handgun imports due to the arms embargo on South Africa at the time. Beretta also couldn’t sue because South African’s couldn’t come to court to defend themselves.

The Z88 was a direct clone of the Beretta 92 and, as such, is a DA/SA gun with a decoking safety and a 15 round magazine. The Z88 was a very well done clone and helped modernize the South African military. It still serves today in a limited role.

After the sanctions were lifted, Beretta was in a place where they could file lawsuits, so South Africa wisely changed the design and came up with the Vektor SP1. This gun utilized the same basic Beretta design with some changes. The safety was moved to the frame, the barrel was no longer exposed, and a 40 S&W variant was created.

The SP1 is a metal frame pistol, and it still utilizes Beretta magazines. It currently serves the South African National Defence Force and the Police Service. It admittedly looks very cool and while limited numbers were imported to the States I’ve never seen one in person.

The SP1 is reportedly a well made combat handgun, and since the weapon is based on a Beretta 92 it’s got a solid platform to start on. South Africa apparently likes the weapon enough that they’ve yet to start shopping for a new sidearm, even without an arms embargo.

12. Italy – Beretta 92FS

Beretta, the world’s oldest still-operating arms company, is an Italian firm. Are we at all surprised that the Italians are using one of Beretta’s most legendary handguns?

The 92FS has served several countries as a military and police sidearm, including our own, for more than 30 years.

The Italian military uses the Beretta 92FS. This DA/SA design features one of the best stock factory triggers on the market. The 92FS has a combination safety and decocker and excellent ergonomics outside of the safety.

The 92FS in it’s M9 form was the gun I used and it’s an excellent weapon. The 92FS is robust, reliable, and well-proven. The direct feed system and open slide design greatly increase the gun’s reliability.

Beretta’s and the U.S. Army’s numerous testing has shown that the weapon is extremely reliable and can take a ton of abuse before it cracks.

The all-metal frame pistol has very low recoil and handles like a dream. It’s perfect for both new recruits and expert shots. The 92FS is Italy’s standard service pistol, and there doesn’t seem to be a rush to swap it out.

13. Brazil – Taurus PT-92

The PT-92 is the Brazillian copy of the Beretta 92, made by Brazillian firm Taurus. It’s not an identical copy of the Beretta. Taurus makes these guns on original Beretta machinery left behind after Beretta’s military contract expired in Brazil.

The Taurus PT-92’s most significant and most noticeable change from the Italian Stallion was the use of a frame-mounted combination safety and decocker. Other than that, the PT-92 handles almost identically to the Beretta 92.

This includes the DA/A design, the direct feed design, and the double-stack magazine. The PT-92 has been serving the Brazillian military for decades now without much issue. The teething problems the Taurus guns sometimes have are seemingly not present in the P.T. 92’s design.

14. Israel… A Little Bit of Everything

Tracking down one service pistol for the Israeli army isn’t easy. It seems like they keep a bit of everything around.

The domestically produced Jericho pistol is in the inventory, as well as the SIG P226 and 228, the Hi-Power, the Glock 17 and 19 models, and more.

Researching this article has shown me that service pistols in the Israeli Army are highly uncommon. The Special Forces and Intelligence agencies all seem to have their particular pistol.

I mean, does the Uzi pistol count as a pistol?

The one common thread between Israeli pistols is that they are all quality options. They are well made, proven guns with a long history of service and success.

Conclusion

Service pistols are such a diverse subject to cover, guns that include both past and present designs. The current field of Service pistols around the world is massive, and I was left exhausted after researching and writing this article.

Service pistols are a fascinating subject to research, and I’m surprised to see such exciting diversity. I can’t possibly have conquered them all, so I ask you fine folks in the comments, which ones have I missed? Want more…check out Police Sidearms: From Past to Present.

When it comes to hunting big game or for versatile shooting practices, the choice of cartridge is crucial. In the world of rifles, the debate between the .30-30 Winchester and the .308 Winchester is one that has carried on for decades. Both cartridges have their own set of unique features, advantages, and drawbacks, making it a tricky decision for enthusiasts and hunters alike. In this comprehensive guide, we will dig deep into the comparison between the .30-30 vs .308, including their historical backgrounds, ballistics, effectiveness, and more, helping you make a well-informed decision.

Historical Background of the .30-30 and .308 Cartridges

Understanding the origins of the .30-30 and .308 cartridges is essential in unraveling their characteristics and uses.

.30-30 Winchester: The Pioneer of Modern Rifle Cartridges

The .30-30 Winchester, previously known as .30 WCF (Winchester Center Fire), was introduced in 1895 as the first small-bore, smokeless powder sporting round. It earned its moniker “.30-30” due to the caliber (.30 inches) and the cartridges’ standard black powder load of 30 grains (1.9 g). The .30-30 quickly became popular for its high velocity, accuracy, and effectiveness in hunting, particularly for whitetail deer in the United States.

.308 Winchester: A Modern Classic

Introduced in 1952, the .308 Winchester was designed as a civilian hunting cartridge that also filled the role of a military round. The .308 came almost half a century after the .30-30, and it leveraged advancements in gunpowder and case design to enhance performance. This versatile cartridge is now globally renowned for its accuracy and reliability, and it is actively used for hunting, target shooting, and military snipers.

Ballistics Comparisons Between .30-30 and .308

The comparison of ballistics between the .30-30 and .308 is crucial for understanding their performance in different shooting scenarios.

Projectile Velocity

One of the significant differences between the .30-30 and .308 cartridges is the projectile velocity. The .308 Winchester typically fires bullets between 2,500 to 2,800 feet per second (fps), while the .30-30 Winchester’s range is generally between 2,000 to 2,200 fps. This gives the .308 a clear advantage when it comes to velocity, providing a flatter trajectory and improved long-range accuracy.

Energy

The kinetic energy of a bullet is a critical factor in determining its stopping power and overall performance. The .308 Winchester cartridge, due to its higher velocity, generates significantly more energy than the .30-30 Winchester. A .308 bullet can generate up to 2,600 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle, while a .30-30 bullet produces around 1,900 ft-lbs. This increased energy allows .308 bullets to penetrate deeper, delivering a stronger impact on targets at longer distances.

Recoil

Recoil is an important aspect to consider, especially for hunters who want minimum fatigue during long hours in the field. Generally, the .30-30 cartridges produce a milder recoil compared to the .308 cartridges, making it easier for shooters to follow through shots and maintain their form. The .308 Winchester, with its higher powder charge and projectile weight, generate considerably more recoil, which may not be ideal for novice or recoil-sensitive shooters.

Effectiveness of .30-30 and .308 Cartridges in Hunting

When it comes to hunting, both the .30-30 and .308 cartridges have their unique strengths and weaknesses, making them suitable for specific scenarios.

.30-30 Winchester: The Brush Gun Champion

The .30-30 Winchester is a popular choice for hunters in dense woodlands and considered an ideal “brush gun.” Its low velocity and larger caliber make the .30-30 a perfect match for hunting deer-sized game at short to moderate distances (under 200 yards). The .30-30’s cartridges recoil is mild, making it accessible for novice shooters and hunters who prefer lighter guns like the lever-action rifles. However, its limited trajectory and energy output make it less suitable for long-range hunting or precision shooting.

.308 Winchester: A Versatile Hunter

The .308 Winchester’s excellent ballistics and wide selection of bullet designs make it a versatile cartridge suitable for hunting almost any game in North America. It has a flatter trajectory and higher kinetic energy, capable of taking down larger animals like elk and bears at longer ranges (up to 400 yards). Additionally, the higher velocity and better wind resistance of the .308 bullets ensure a more accurate and ethical shot placement, especially in adverse conditions. For hunters who struggle with the .308’s recoil, investing in a rifle with well-designed recoil mitigation features could be a solution.

Summary: Who Wins the .30-30 vs .308 Debate?

Ultimately, choosing between the .30-30 and .308 cartridges depends on your intended purpose, shooting preferences, and priorities. If your goal is to hunt medium-sized game at short to moderate distances, the .30-30 Winchester provides a reliable, time-tested option with manageable recoil. On the other hand, if you’re seeking versatility, long-range performance, and the ability to hunt a wider range of game, the .308 Winchester undoubtedly reigns supreme. Regardless of your choice, remember that practice, shot placement, and proper bullet selection are vital ingredients for a successful and ethical hunting experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a 30-30 as powerful as a 308?

While both cartridges have similar bullet diameters, the .308 is generally considered more powerful due its higher velocity and energy. The .308 Winchester typically has a higher muzzle velocity, greater range, and flatter trajectory compared to the .30-30. The .308 also generates more energy at both the muzzle and downrange, making it more suitable for longer range shots and larger game.

What is the difference between a 308 and a 30 caliber?

The term “.30 caliber” refers to the bullet diameter, which is approximately 7.62mm or .308 inches for both .308 Winchester and .30-30 Winchester cartridges. The primary difference is in their specific cartridge design, with the .308 being a higher pressure round that produces a higher muzzle velocity and more energy than the .30-30. Additionally, the .308 is commonly used in bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles, while the .30-30 is most often used in lever-action rifles.

Is 308 overkill for deer?

While the .308 Winchester is a powerful cartridge and more than capable of taking down deer, it is not considered “overkill.” In fact, the .308 is a popular choice among hunters for its versatility and effectiveness on medium-sized game like deer. The key to a humane and effective kill is to use an appropriate bullet type and place your shot accurately for a quick, clean dispatch of the animal.

Do people still hunt with a 30-30?

Yes, the .30-30 Winchester remains a popular hunting cartridge, especially for those who prefer lever-action rifles. While it may not offer the long-range capabilities or energy of the .308 Winchester, the .30-30 is still an effective cartridge for hunting deer and other medium-sized game at moderate ranges. Its lighter recoil and classic lever-action design are also attractive to many hunters.

Is the .30-30 suitable for long-range shooting?

The .30-30 is generally considered a moderate-range cartridge, with effective distances for hunting usually limited to around 200 yards. Its relatively lower ballistic coefficient and velocity compared to the .308 mean it has a more pronounced bullet drop and less energy at longer ranges. For shots beyond 200 yards, the .308 Winchester is typically a better choice.

Can a .308 rifle use .30-30 ammunition?

No, these two cartridges are not interchangeable. The .308 Winchester and .30-30 Winchester cartridges have different case dimensions and pressure ratings, which means they cannot safely or reliably be fired in a rifle chambered for the other cartridge.

What types of firearms are available in .30-30 and .308?

The .30-30 cartridge is most often associated with lever-action rifles, while the .308 Winchester is commonly chambered in bolt-action and semi-automatic rifles. Although, some single-shot and pump-action rifles are also available for both calibers. It is important to choose a firearm that is specifically chambered for the desired cartridge.

Which cartridge is easier to find and purchase?

Both .308 Winchester and .30-30 Winchester are popular and widely available cartridges. The .308 may be slightly more common due to its widespread use in both hunting and tactical applications, but both types of ammunition can typically be found relatively easily at sporting goods stores and online retailers.

What is the recoil like for the .30-30 compared to the .308?

The .30-30 Winchester typically has less recoil than the .308 Winchester. This is primarily due to its lower pressure and energy compared to the .308. However, the specific recoil experienced by the shooter also depends on factors such as firearm weight and stock design.

Are there significant differences in bullet options for the .30-30 and .308?

Both .308 and .30-30 offer various bullet options for different purposes. However, due to its higher popularity and versatile application, the .308 Winchester generally offers a wider variety of bullet types and weights to choose from, including expanding bullets for hunting and match-grade bullets for precision shooting. The .30-30 Winchester also offers hunting-appropriate bullets, but its selection is somewhat more limited in comparison.

Hunters stink and none of them can smell they’re own scent. That’s right. As much as we don’t want to admit it, everyone has a scent and none of us can smell it because our brains recognize it as our own.

Not to mention, humans have a very poor sense of smell compared to wild animals like deer, elk and bear.

For hunters, the bad news is that there is nothing you can do to get rid of your smell. You can wash and scrub all you want and the game you are pursuing can still smell you. And if game catches a whiff of your smell, you are out of business.

As a hunter, the best you can do is to try mask your scent from wild animals, when you are in the field. Of course there are countless products available that promise to effectively mask your scent, but not all of them work. Here are some tips on how you can mask you smell when you are hunting.

Avoid unnatural smells

A human’s scent can be easily detected by wild animals. With this in mind, it is important to not make your situation worse by adding unnatural smells that would increase the odds of an animal detecting you.

Common unnatural smells include gasoline, coffee, cigarettes, aftershave, detergents and soaps. Avoid these smells at all cost, if you want to remain undetected when hunting.

Reduce body odor

Body odor should not be confused with human scent. Body odor is produced by the growth of bacteria when you sweat. One way for hunters to reduce body odor is to use a soap that contains enzymes that kill bacteria. These soaps can help prevent bacteria growth when you sweat. Another step you can take is to dress in layers to help prevent overheating and sweating.

Dress to reduce smell

The clothing you wear can also help reduce the odds of animals smelling you. Scent control hunting clothing is specially manufactured so it prevents the production of bacteria. With less bacteria, you are less likely to smell. Of course this is not perfect, but it can make a significant difference.

Natural smells

One way to mask your scent is to use a natural smell that is familiar to animals and will not alert them to your presence. Rubbing dirt, leaves, pine needles and other natural materials on your clothing will help mask your scent from animals. Typically these materials have stronger scents than humans. They will not completely mask your odor, but they can help.

Overload

Among the many products available to help mask scents are sprays known as receptor overload. The spray confuses animals, because it overloads their system by bombarding them with so many different smells they cannot process them. This causes their brain to ignore the smells, thus keeping your scent masked from the animal.

Stay downwind

It may seem elementary, but one of the best ways to mask your scent is to keep your scent away from the animals you are hunting. Before you begin hunting, check the wind direction and make sure you are downwind of the direction from which animals will be approaching. This is a simple tactic, but it is very effective, even on days where there is very little wind.

© Abc4foto | Dreamstime.com – Hunter with optical rifle and binoculars

When setup correctly, tarp shelters are like magic. With the right setup, you can stay dry in the rain, block rain, create a shady area to eat lunch, or even keep you warm on an unplanned night in the wilderness. There are literally hundreds of different tarp shelters you can use. Here I’ll go over the most important ones to know for camping, backpacking and survival/emergency use.

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Jump to:

• Infographic
• Which tarp shelter setup is best?
• Horizontal Ridgeline Tarp Setups
• Diagonal Ridgeline Tarp Setups
• Tarp Setups with Poles
• Other Tarp Shelter Setups

Tarp Shelter Setup Infographic

Which Tarp Setup Is Best?

The best tarp setups for camping are arguably: the A-frame, Adirondack, plow point, and holden tent. However, the best tarp shelter setup depends on many factors like the weather conditions, how you’ll be using it, and pitching conditions. Ideally, you will learn several setups including at least one which can be pitched quickly, doesn’t require trees or a ridgeline, has a built-in groundsheet, and is closed on three sides for weather protection.

Note: To hang a tarp properly, you’ll need to know the 7 main tarp knots and how to tie out the ridgeline and guylines.

Recommended Tarps:

• AquaQuest Guide Tarp: All-around good tarp which comes in a variety of sizes (10×10 size is 18.3oz).
• REI Trail Break Tarp: For when you need a larger tarp for car camping (12’x12′ size and 33oz).
• Sea to Summit Escapist Tarp: Lightweight tarp which is still durable (medium is 6 ft. 6 in. x 8 ft. 6 in and 9.5oz; large is 10×10 ft. and 12.3oz)
• Twinn Tarp by Gossamer Gear: Even lighter tarp for serious UL backpackers (just 9.7oz)
• Free Soldier Tarp: Very affordable tarp which is still lightweight. Plus it has tie-outs going down the middle! (large size is 118″ × 126″ and 42oz)

Don’t forget about cordage!

You will probably need at least 30 feet (10m) for a 10×10 tarp or 40 feet (12m) for a 10×15 tarp. I recommend getting REFLECTIVE paracord so you don’t walk into your ridgeline or tie-out points at night!

Horizontal Ridgeline Tarp Shelter Setups

These tarp shelters all have horizontal ridgelines. These are good options when you have two trees to pitch between. They are easy to learn and give you even headroom throughout.

The downside is that you’ll need a lot of rope (length of tarp + at least 8 feet for tying around trees). Some of the setups require even more rope to tie out guylines for walls or the roof. While many of these setups can be done with just poles, the roof has a tendency to sag.

Remember to make sure the ridgeline is perpendicular to the wind and the opening is on the leeward side!

1. A-Frame Tarp Shelter

The A-frame is one of the simplest and easiest tarp shelters to set up. It’s also somewhat versatile because you can hang it higher to get more headroom or hang it lower to get more interior space.

The major downside is that both ends of the A-frame shelter are open, so wind and rain can get in. For best protection, hang the A-frame so the openings aren’t facing the wind. If possible try to have at least opening next to a natural protection, such as a big bush which will block the wind from getting inside.

Instructions:

1. Hang your ridgeline about shoulder height.*
2. Put the tarp over the ridgeline. The midline of the tarp should be directly over the ridgeline.
3. Spread out the sides of the tarp so they are taut. You can adjust the height of the ridgeline is you want the tarp to be higher or wider.
4. Peg down the four corners of the tarp. Peg down the entire edge of the shelter for better weather protection.
5. Use a prusik knot to secure the tarp onto the ridgeline

Notes:

• A higher ridgeline will give you more headroom but will be narrower. A lower ridgeline will give you more width inside but less headroom.
• A 9×9 foot tarp hung at a 60 degree angle will give you a width of 4.5 feet and max headroom of 3.9 feet.
• It’s possible to use poles to hang the A-frame, but you’ll really need to stake them out. Even then, the roof will still sag – so it’s best to use a ridgeline for this tarp shelter.

Pros:

• Adjustable height and width
• Very fast and easy setup
• Weather protection on two sides

Cons:

• Somewhat claustrophobic inside

2. Lean-To Tarp Shelter

Also called a wind break shelter, the lean-to tarp setup is fast and easy. The downside is that it doesn’t protect against rain well. It’s also not great against wind, unless the wind doesn’t change direction. For this reason, the lean-to is only recommended for tarp camping in good weather or as a quick shelter setup for breaks.

Instructions:

1. Hang a ridgeline between two trees. Attach your tarp to the ridgeline. Alternatively, tie the top two corners of the tarp to the trees.
2. Peg out the bottom corners of the tarp.

Notes:

• You can also use poles to hang a lean-to shelter. In this case, first peg out the bottom two corners of the tarp. Then attach the top two corners to poles and stake them out.
• The “Envelope” pitch is a variation of the lean-to. Simply fold the tarp under itself to create a groundsheet before attaching it to the ridgeline.

Pros:

• Very fast and easy to pitch
• Possible with square or rectangular tarps
• Can pitch with ridgeline or poles
• Good headroom and interior space

Cons:

• Poor wind and rain protection

3. Wind Shed

Also called a fold-over wind shed, this tarp setup is a cross between a lean-to and an A-frame. Depending on the weather, you can set it up so the roof is flat (for more headroom and shade) or slanted (to repel rain). When the roof is slanted downwards (as in the drawing), the setup is called a “wind shield wedge.”

Instructions:

1. Hang a ridgeline.
2. Drape your tarp over the ridgeline so approximately 2/3 is hanging on the windward side and the other 1/3 is on the leeward side.
3. Extend the longer side of the tarp to make an angled wall. Secure the corners to the ground.
4. Using rope or poles, secure the corners of the shorter side to make a roof.

Notes:

You can pitch using poles instead of a ridgeline, but it’s somewhat tricky. You’ll need a lot of rope to stake out the poles to make it stable enough. Even then, the roof ends up sagging and doesn’t hold up well in high winds.

Pros:

• Good headroom
• Fast and easy setup
• Wind protection from one side
• Some rain protection

Cons:

• Requires a lot of rope
• Guylines are tripping hazard
• Difficult to pitch with poles instead of a ridgeline

4. C-Fly Tarp Setup

The C-fly tarp setup is the same as the wind shield setup. The difference is that, with the C-fly, you fold under part of the tarp to create a groundsheet. Because much of the tarp is used for the groundsheet, you won’t have as much interior space or headroom.

As with the wind shield setup, you can keep the roof flat (for more headroom and shade) or angle it downwards (for better rain protection). When the roof is slanted downwards, it’s called a “C-fly wedge.”

Instructions:

1. Hang a ridgeline about waist or shoulder height. A lower ridgeline will give you more weather protection but less headroom.
2. Fold the tarp under on line AB. This will be your groundsheet. It should be at least 2 feet wide for one person.
3. Drape the rest of the tarp over the ridgeline. AB should be on the windward side and CD should be on the leeward side.
4. Adjust the tarp so line CD is sitting on the ridgeline. The part hanging over the ridgeline (CDFE) will be your “roof”.
5. Pull corners A and B back to make an angled wall. Then stake them out.
6. Use rope or poles to secure points E and F to make a roof.
7. To make the shelter roof more taut, secure line CD to the ridgeline with a prusik knot.

Notes:

• To keep the wall and roof taut, secure points C and D to the ridgeline using a prusik knot.

Pros:

• Has groundsheet
• Adjustable height/interior space
• Decent weather protection

Cons:

• No weather protection on two sides
• Requires a lot of rope
• Can trip over guylines in the dark
• Difficult to pitch with poles instead of a ridgeline

5. Adirondack Wind Shed

This is one of my favorite tarp shelters. It offers very good weather protection while still giving you lots of interior space and headroom. One side is open, so you can have a fire in front of the shelter. Leave the “roof” up in good weather. If the weather gets bad, simply re-stake point D to pull the roof down.

The setup is also fairly flexible: you can experiment with folding the tarp at different places. Make the triangle folds bigger for more weather protection.

Instructions:

1. Hang a ridgeline about shoulder height.
2. Fold the tarp so triangle AEF is on the ground. The line EF should be on the windward side and point A on the leeward side.
3. Drape the tarp over your ridgeline. Line GH should be sitting on the ridgeline.
4. Pull EFHG back to create a wall. If you aren’t happy with the angle of the wall, adjust the height of your ridgeline.
5. Stake out points E and F
6. Pull point C inwards to create a side wall. Stake it down. Do the same with point B.
7. Using rope or a pole, stake out point D.
8. To make the shelter more taut, use a prusik knot to secure points D and G to the ridgeline.

Notes:

• If you want to use poles instead of a ridgeline with this setup, you’ll probably need a partner to help.
• Use fluorescent rope so you don’t trip over your guylines!

Pros:

• Good headroom and interior space
• Great wind protection
• Decent rain protection
• Has partial groundsheet

Cons:

• A somewhat difficult setup which requires practice to get right
• Uses a lot of rope
• Guylines are a tripping hazard

6. Body Bag Tarp Setup

Also called a tube tent, this is a simple tarp shelter. Because it is so small and uncomfortable, it’s really only for emergency situations. It is only closed on two sides. However, because the openings are so small, the tree trunks used for pitching will actually provide some weather protection. For even more protection, pitch next to a bush, boulder, or other natural protection.

Instructions:

1. Hang a ridgeline around thigh height.*
2. Fold the tarp along AB to create a groundsheet.
3. Drape the tarp over the ridgeline so CD is sitting on the ridgeline.
4. Adjust the position of the walls then stake out points A, B, E and F.

Notes:

• A 9×9 tarp will only give you a bit more than 2.5 feet of headroom at the highest point.
• I don’t recommend using poles for pitching the body bag setup. The roof will sag and there’s barely any headroom as is!

Pros:

• Good rain and wind protection from two sides
• Has groundsheet
• Quick and easy to set up

Cons:

• Open on two sides
• Claustrophobic inside
• No headroom and very little interior space
• Have to crawl inside

7. Shade Sail

The shade sail is also called the “hammock shelter” or the “diamond tarp.” Because it is pitched on the diagonal, you get more coverage. It’s popular for hammock camping and also as a sun shade for camp kitchens or even patios.

Note that the shade sail setup is not the same as the diamond fly. The diamond fly is also pitched on the diagonal, but one corner is staked to the ground. With the shade sail, both corners are elevated.

Instructions:

1. Hang a ridgeline.
2. Drape the tarp over the ridgeline. The diagonal midline should be on the ridgeline.
3. Use a prusik knot to secure the corners to the ridgeline.
4. Stake out the corners to create two angled walls. Keep the walls angled lower for more weather protection.

Notes:

• If you aren’t using a ridgeline, then just tie the diagonal corners to trees. Or attach to poles. However, the roof will sag a lot without a ridgeline.
• The guylines on this are serious tripping hazards. Use fluorescent rope!

Pros:

• Easy to pitch
• Lots of interior space
• Decent protection from rain and wind

Cons:

• Uses a lot of rope
• Guylines are tripping hazards
• Roof sags without ridgeline

8. Baker’s Wind Shed

The baker’s wind shed tarp setup uses a rectangular tarp. The tarp needs to be at least 10 feet on the long side if you want to sleep in it with your head towards the side walls. If your tarp is very large, you could also sleep with your head towards the back wall of the shelter.

I personally don’t like the baker’s wind shed setup very much. The Adirondack gives you more protection without sacrificing much space. However, the baker’s wind shed can be good when tarp camping with multiple people all sharing one big tarp.

Instructions:

1. Stake FG to the ground on the windward side.
2. Pull point A inward. Line AF should be at approximately 90 degrees with FG. Stake point A to the ground. Then the same with point D.
3. Attach points B and C to a ridgeline or poles.
4. Tuck corners E and H underneath the shelter to create a partial groundsheet. Alternatively, you can leave them outside the shelter.

Notes:

• Lines AB and CD are the height of the shelter when set up.
• An 8×16 foot tarp can be folded so line BC is 6 feet long. This will give you a max height of 5 feet and a depth of 9.4 feet.

Pros:

• Lots of interior space
• Protection on three sides

Cons:

• Need a long tarp
• Not lots of headroom

Tarp Setups with Diagonal Ridgelines

These tarp setups are good for when you only have one tree. You can also use a pole instead of a tree for many of these tarp setups. Unlike with the setups which use horizontal ridgelines, the roof won’t sag as much. Another benefit of these setups is that they don’t use a lot of rope.

You can get by with just 3 feet of rope for pitching some (though I recommend always bringing more just in case!). There is less interior space around the foot-end of the shelter, so the tarp will trap heat better. The drawback of this though is that they are claustrophic and you may need to crawl in feet-first.

9. Bivvy Bag Tarp Shelter

Also called the “cornet”, the bivvy bag tarp shelter is incredibly cramped (hence the name). However, it’s also one of the best tarp shelters for bad weather. You can pitch the bivvy bag on one tree or with a single pole. Unlike other tarp shelters which use poles, this one is actually easy to set up.

Ultralight backpackers will also love that the bivvy bag shelter requires just one guyline, so you save weight on rope.

What size tarp for a bivvy bag shelter?

You will probably want a 10×10 foot tarp for the bivvy bag shelter. The smallest size you can get away with is an 8×8 foot tarp. This will give you a shelter with an entranceway 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide and a length of 11 feet. But note that the groundsheet starts between CE (not at point D!). So, with an 8×8 tarp, the groundsheet length is only about 7 feet long. Because the end is so cramped, there’s actually barely enough room for a 6 foot tall person. You only get 3 feet of headroom at the place where the groundsheet starts and it gets narrow quickly.

Instructions:

1. Fold the tarp in half on the diagonal line AD
2. While holding the tarp upwards from point D, tuck sides AF and AB underneath so they are slightly overlapping each other. This will prevent the groundsheet part of the tarp from touching wet or muddy ground.
3. Stake point A to the ground.
4. Secure point D to a tree or pole.
5. Adjust the walls and then stake out points E and C.

Notes:

• The bivvy bag shelter is sometimes incorrectly called the
• Because of the shape, this tarp shelter is not good for two people.

Pros:

• Good weather protection
• Has groundsheet
• Uses almost no rope
• Can pitch with one tree or pole
• Traps body heat

Cons:

• Very claustrophobic inside
• No headroom
• Have to crawl inside feet first

10. Hunchback Bivvy Bag

The hunchback tarp shelter is a variation of the bivvy bag setup. It uses a pole to support the roof above the groundsheet. This allows you to angle point D downwards to create a “beak,” which means that the shelter roof blocks rain better.

Instructions:

1. Fold the tarp in half on the diagonal line AD
2. While holding the tarp upwards from point D, tuck sides AF and AB underneath so they are slightly overlapping each other. This will prevent the groundsheet part of the tarp from touching wet or muddy ground.
3. Stake point A to the ground.
4. Put a pole upright at point G
5. Secure point D to the ground
6. Adjust the walls and then stake out points E and C.

Notes:

• This tarp setup doesn’t need a ridgeline or trees at all, but I included it in this section so you can see how it differs from the classic bivvy bag setup.
• You can also set it up without a pole. In this case, you’ll create a tie-out point at point G and use guylines to attach it to a tree. Then you’ll tie the guyline at point D to the ground.

Pros:

• Great weather protection
• Has groundsheet
• Uses almost no rope
• Can pitch with one tree or pole
• Traps body heat

Cons:

• Very claustrophobic inside
• No headroom
• Have to crawl inside feet first
• Requires a pole
• Can easily knock pole over

11. Plow Point

Also called the plough point, flying V or diamond fly, this is another easy tarp shelter. You don’t need to use a ridgeline at all – just tie it directly to a tree. However, the plow point does have a tendency to sag if you don’t use a ridgeline.

Instructions:

1. Secure one corner of the tarp down on the windward side.
2. Tie the opposite corner to a tree or secure it to a pole.
3. Spread out the sides and secure down the remaining corners.

Notes:

• Tying the tarp higher will give you more headroom but less interior space and weather protection.

Pros:

• Very easy to pitch
• Uses very little rope
• Only needs one tree or pole
• Adjustable height and interior space
• Lots of room for gear storage

Cons:

• Hard to get sides taut without ridgeline
• No protection on one side

12. Half Pyramid Free End

I personally don’t like this tarp shelter setup very much. IMO, the A-frame closed end or diamond fly give better coverage while providing more interior space. The bit of groundsheet you get with the half pyramid isn’t enough to justify the lost interior space.

However, the half pyramid can be very useful when combined with other tarp setups. For example, you can use it to make a vestibule or close off the entrance of another setup. Or you can put two half pyramids together to make a fully-enclosed tent.

Instructions:

1. Fold point A under the tarp. Stake down points E and F.
2. Secure point D to a tree or pole.
3. Pull in point B to create a wall. Depending on the angle of the roof, you may need to fold under some of the tarp. Stake down the corner. Do the same with point C.

Pros:

• Lots of headroom
• Easy setup
• Can be used with other setups
• Decent weather protection

Cons:

• Only partial groundsheet
• Not much interior space

13. Forester

The forester is a more difficult tarp shelter to pitch. It doesn’t work well with tarps made from more rigid materials (like painter’s dropcloth). You are better off using silnylon or canvas. Once you master this pitch though, it’s incredibly useful. You get excellent weather protection without sacrificing usable space.

Instructions:

1. Stake down corner A on the windward side.
2. Fold point D downwards to create point G.
3. Support point G with a pole. It helps to have a partner hold it up for you while doing the next steps.
4. Pull point C forward to create wall ACG. Stake point C down.
5. Pull point B forward to create wall ABC. Stake point B down.
6. Spread out triangles CGE and BGF to make door flaps.
7. You’ll have a bit of extra tarp material hanging inside the shelter. You can use a clip to hold it out of the way.

Tip: If you are going to use this pitch frequently, I suggest making a little mark on your tarp where the pole should go. Also note the height of the pole. This will make it faster and easier to set up.

Pros:

• Excellent weather protection
• Doesn’t require trees
• Uses very little rope
• Lots of interior space and decent headroom

Cons:

• Difficult to pitch, especially alone
• Requires pole

14. Bunker Half Cone Fly

The bunker half cone fly is similar to the plow point in that both are pitched on the diagonal. The difference is that the bunker setup uses two additional guylines to pull out the sides of the tent. This creates a V-shaped roof and two almost vertical walls.

While the configuration means you get slightly less interior space, you get much more headroom. This makes the bunker suitable for multiple people and much more comfortable for multi-night stays. It’s also better for larger tarps because the additional guylines prevent the walls from sagging.

Despite looking easy, the bunker half cone fly is actually a bit tricky to set up. You’ll need a good tarp too since the guylines put a lot of strain on the sides and they can easily tear.

Instructions:

1. Stake point A to the ground on the windward side.
2. Tie point D to a tree or a pole on the leeward side. Alternatively, you can run a ridgeline from point A to a tree and connect point D to it. This will help prevent the roof from sagging.
3. Pull out point B and stake it to the ground. Do the same with point F.
4. Attach a guyline to point C. Pull it outwards and secure it to the ground. Do the same with point E.
5. If windy, stake down the edges on AB and AF

Pros:

• Good weather protection
• Lots of headroom in the front
• Large entryway

Cons:

• More difficult pitch
• Roof sags without ridgeline
• Requires two additional guylines

Tarp Shelters which Use Poles (No Trees Required)

These tarp shelters are a bit more tricky to set up because you’ll need to stake out the poles to keep them upright (which takes some practice). If you have a very large tarp, then you’ll need a long pole – which may require you lashing two poles together. But, these tarp shelters are good to know in case you can’t find a suitable tree for pitching against. They are also great tarp shelters for ultralight backpackers because you don’t need to bring much rope with some setups.

Note that there are also many UL tents which use trekking poles instead of normal tent poles. See the best trekking pole tents here.

15. Holden Tent

Also called the “A-frame closed end” shelter, the holden setup is one of the best tarp shelters for ultralight backpacking, especially with two people. It is very fast to pitch and doesn’t require any trees.

For a tarp shelter with three walls, there is actually a lot of interior space inside and decent headroom. Since the shelter is open on one side, it doesn’t feel claustrophic either.

My main complaint with the holden tent shelter is that you have to lay the tarp flat on the ground. This means that, if the ground is muddy, the underside of the tent completely dirty. Thus, for muddy weather, you are better off with a shelter like the plow point.

Instructions:

1. Lay the tarp flat on the ground.
2. Stake out points A, B and C.
3. Put a pole under the tarp at point E. You’ll need to angle it slightly forward.
4. Pull point D forward to create a wall then stake it down. Do the same with point F. You might need to have a partner hold the pole upright while doing this.
5. Secure the pole in position with a guyline.

Notes:

• Depending on where you stake down the walls, you will end up with either a square or triangular interior.

Pros:

• Good interior space
• Decent headroom
• Weather protection from three sides

Cons:

• Can accidentally knock over the pole when getting in/out
• Takes practice to pitch by yourself

16. Dining Fly

The dining fly is one of the most important tarp shelters to know for car camping. As the name suggests, it is great for creating a covered area for cooking and eating. It might take a few tries to figure out the optimal height and roof angle (and thus the right pole length and guyline position). But, once you figure this out, the dining fly is actually pretty simple to set up.

Instructions:

1. Lay the tarp flat on the ground where you want your shelter to be.
2. Attach guylines (about 4-6 feet long each) to all four corners of the tarp.
3. Stake out all of the guylines. They should be approximately 5 feet away from the corners of the tarp and set at a 45 degree angle from the corners.
4. Find two very long poles. If you can’t find poles long enough, you can join two poles together using round lashings.
5. Using half hitches, tie long guylines to the top of each pole.
6. Push the first pole underneath the tarp so it’s at middle edge. It helps to have someone hold this pole in place while you do the next steps.
7. Push the second pole underneath the tarp. Now the roof of the dining fly should be completely raised.
8. Stake out the guylines on the poles.
9. Adjust the guylines on the corners so the tarp is very taut.

Pros:

• Excellent headroom
• Lots of interior space

Cons:

• Uses two very long poles and a lot of rope
• Takes practice to set up, even with help
• Rain and wind enter from sides when pitched high
• Underside of tarp gets dirty when ground is muddy or wet

17. Toque Tent

The toque tarp tent is quite different from the other setups. Instead of having the pole in the front of the shelter, the pole is set in the back. This means you end up with more headroom in the back (but a really low entranceway). Two guylines pull on the entranceway to create an awning. This awning does a great job of repelling water away from the shelter. However, the toque tent isn’t very stable in heavy winds.

Instructions:

1. Fold the tarp so points A and B are together. Stake them to the ground together on the windward side. This is now called “point AB.”
2. Put a pole under point G. The bottom of the pole should sit on point AB. This will make sides AG and BG stand straight up.
3. Pull out point C to create triangular wall AGC. Stake down point C. Do the same with point F.
4. Attach guylines to points D and E. Pull them outwards and stake them down. This will create a low awning.

Pros:

• Pole at back instead of blocking entryway
• Good rain protection

Cons:

• Weird interior space
• Not very sturdy in high winds

18. Tarp Tent

The tarp tent configuration can be a bit confusing at first. But, it’s actually not that difficult to set up. It’s a favorite tarp shelter for ultralight backpacking.

Instructions:

1. Lay tarp flat on the ground.
2. Stake out points A and B.
3. Now stake out points C and D, making sure that folds AD and BC are nice and tight.
4. Tuck corner F underneath fold AD. Then tuck corner E underneath fold BC.
5. Point H is on the ground. Pull tarp corner G there and stake it in place.
6. Point J is also on the ground. Pull tarp corner I there and stake it down.
7. Put a pole underneath the tarp so it stands up at point K. Put a cloth over the top of the pole so it doesn’t tear a hole in your tarp.
8. You’ll have a flap of tarp hanging in the entryway to the shelter.
9. Attach guylines to the midway points on the flap (points L and M). Pull the guylines back and secure them to the ground along the walls of the shelter.
10. Run a guyline from point N to the ground directly in front of the shelter.

Pros:

• Excellent weather protection
• Decent interior space

Cons:

• Underside of tarp gets dirty if setting up on wet or muddy ground
• Slightly more difficult to learn
• Pole can get knocked over

Other Tarp Shelter Setups

Once you learn the basic tarp shelter setups, you will be able to experiment with variations to meet your needs — such as staking out an extra side to get more interior space or adjusting the position of the ceiling to block rain. Here are some examples.

19. Modified A-Frame

One wall of the tarp has been pulled outwards in the middle to get more interior space, but the sides are down for weather protection.

20. Kayak Pitch

This is essential an A-frame tarp setup with one side more slanted down than the other. Instead of poles, kayak paddles are used.

21. Large Bunker

This tarp setup a lot like the bunker half cone. However, there are extra guylines on the sides. This helps pull out the walls to keep them from sagging and to give you more interior space.

22. UL Tarp Setup

Pitching low to the ground means you get weather protection even from a tiny, ultralight tarp. The head area is staked a bit higher so it isn’t as claustrophic inside.

23. Wind Shed Variation

One walls slants and the other has a partial wedge to make use of the space and tree positions.

24. Wind Shed Variation 2

25. Half Tetra Wedge Cover

This is a flying half tetra wedge setup. The roof is angled downwards, which is great for directing water off the tarp in rainy weather.

26. Homemade Tarp

Here’s a very small, UL tarp made by Bob Cartwright of The Outdoor Station.

27. Umbrella

Here’s a way to set up a tarp so it makes an umbrella shape.

Image credits: “Pyramid and Tarps” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak “Finland_Canoeing_01” (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) by jjay69, “Kitchen Tarp” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak “Bob and Tarp” (CC BY-NC 2.0) by Andy Howell “Our Tarp at Petroglyph” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak “Tarp camp shelter” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak “Sheep Camp Tarp” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak “Inner Point Camp” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak “Sarah’s tarp” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak “Tarp Camp on Deer Island, Ernest Sound,” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak “Tarp Camp, Inner Pt” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Umnak

The difference between a 10 gauge and 12 gauge shotgun lies in the size of the bore, or interior diameter, of the barrel. A 10 gauge shotgun has a larger bore than a 12 gauge shotgun, which means that it is capable of firing larger and heavier shot.

The size of a 10 gauge shotgun barrel will vary depending on the make and model of the gun. However, in general, the bore diameter of a 10 gauge shotgun barrel is approximately 0.775 inches. This is larger than the bore diameter of a 12 gauge shotgun, which is typically around 0.729 inches.

The larger bore diameter of a 10 gauge shotgun allows it to fire larger and heavier shot than a 12 gauge shotgun. This can make it more effective for shooting larger game animals or for shooting at longer distances. However, the larger size and weight of a 10 gauge shotgun can also make it less maneuverable and more difficult to handle for some shooters.

10 gauge shotguns were once popular among hunters and were commonly used for shooting large waterfowl and other game animals. However, they have largely been replaced by 12 gauge shotguns, which offer a good balance of power and versatility.

One of the main differences between 10 gauge and 12 gauge shotguns is the amount of shot they can hold. A 10 gauge shotgun has a larger bore and is therefore able to hold more shot than a 12 gauge shotgun. This can be an advantage when shooting larger or more distant targets, as it allows the shooter to use more shot to increase the chances of a hit.

Another difference between 10 gauge and 12 gauge shotguns is the amount of recoil they produce. Because 10 gauge shotguns are larger and heavier, they tend to produce less recoil than 12 gauge shotguns. This can make them more comfortable to shoot for people who are sensitive to recoil or have smaller frames.

In terms of performance, 10 gauge shotguns are generally considered to be more powerful than 12 gauge shotguns. This is because they are able to fire larger and heavier shot, which can deliver more energy and penetration to the target. However, this added power comes at a cost, as 10 gauge shotguns are typically more expensive and heavier than 12 gauge shotguns.

What is the better for deer hunting?

It is difficult to say which type of shotgun would be better for hunting deer without knowing more about the specific circumstances, such as the type of terrain, the range at which the deer are typically shot, and the type of ammunition that will be used. In general, a 12 gauge shotgun is a more versatile choice for hunting because it can handle a wider range of ammunition and shot sizes than a 10 gauge. However, a 10 gauge shotgun may be a better choice for long-range shooting or for shooting larger shot sizes. Ultimately, the best choice will depend on the individual hunter’s preferences and needs. Here are more helpful tips on buying your first firearm.

The choice between a 10 gauge and 12 gauge shotgun will depend on the intended use and the preferences of the shooter. 10 gauge shotguns are powerful and versatile, but they are also more expensive and heavier than 12 gauge shotguns. On the other hand, 12 gauge shotguns offer a good balance of power and versatility and are suitable for a wide range of hunting and shooting applications.

A bucket-list dream came to life when I spent two days hunting hogs with helicopter pilot Kyle Lange, and learned some intense lessons along the way. Lange estimates he fires an average of 30,000 rounds at havoc-wreaking feral hogs and coyotes annually.

As a gun guy, I’d wheeze with enthusiasm over the opportunity to shoot at simple inanimate targets out of a helicopter. Heck, the opportunity to even go up in a chopper fills me with delight. Adding a target-rich environment of invasive species just adds to the challenge and the fun.

Hog Invasion

Much of Texas and the Deep South are overrun by wild hogs, and they damage millions of dollars of agricultural and native ecosystems every year. Prior to spring planting, farmers and state wildlife control make a push to reduce feral hog populations, which directly improves crop success.

Texas Parks & Wildlife estimate current feral hog populations in the Lone Star State at 1.5 million and growing exponentially every season. Young sows begin breeding around the age of six months, and their gestational period of 115 days yields up to three litters per year.

A big sounder (group of pigs) can root up acres of freshly planted crops in a single night. As a result, farmers and ranchers occasionally band together in an effort to radically reduce the population. Although it’s expensive, the most effective way – the only truly effective way – to reduce or even eliminate invasive hogs is by shooting them from a helicopter.

Hardware

Hunting feral hogs from a chopper introduces some surprising hardware considerations. For example, guns need a special shell deflector to prevent empty shell cases from flying up into the rotors and causing expensive damages – not to mention a rather abrupt landing.

Chopper rotor blades are incredibly sensitive. At one point, Lange noticed a rhythmic vibration in the chopper, which was caused by bird poop deposited on one of the blades overnight. Lange keeps specialized deflectors for AR-type rifles on hand, but sometimes shooters have to make their own – out of outlandish items such as the old motor oil bottle we fashioned onto fellow writer and Editor David Faubion’s AK.

Also, most guns will malfunction at least once during two days of hot and heavy shooting. It’s important to keep a compact cleaning kit, CLP and a small parts kit on hand.

There’s no doubt helicopter hog hunting emphasizes the value of high-capacity magazines. Lange has discovered that most AR magazines will feed up to 22 rounds or so of bulk steel-cased ammo reliably. Pack more in and you’ll have issues with some mags. He attributes it to the lesser lubricity and malleability of steel cases compared to brass.

Airborne Rifles

For decades, a good shotgun was the choice of aerial animal-control gunners. Scatterguns are still effective as ever, but they require pilots to get close – which is hard on the helicopter and tricky for the pilot. Plus, getting right down on animals with the rotor blades pounding them like a bass drum tends to scatter them in all directions, resulting in the need to climb, relocate, and pursue individual animals into thick brush. Additionally, hours of hammering heavy buckshot through a shotgun will pound even the toughest shooters into mush.

A better choice is the AR-15 rifle. Its reach allows pilots to hover a bit higher, which is easier on the machine. Animals also tend to stick together when the chopper stays higher, enabling shooters a chance to drop several hogs in quick succession. You burn through a lot of ammo – sometimes dumping a full magazine in one pass over a sounder of pigs.

The only concern I had initially was with the advisability of shooting big hogs with bulk FMJ .223 ammo. Which leads to the most surprising element of the experience: you may have to shoot a hog multiple times, but that FMJ ammo gets the job done. More often than not, hogs rolled with the first well-placed hit, and I’m pleased to say that we didn’t have a single wounded pig escape.

Ideally, heli-hog hunters should feed their rifles with something like Nosler’s 60-grain Partition or a Barnes TSX bullet – which would expand and impart much more energy – but such ammunition is far too expensive for crews shooting tens of thousands of rounds per year.

Another fantastic option would be to shoot an AR-15 chambered in .300 Blackout, which is potentially the perfect cartridge for the activity. But again, ammo cost is prohibitive. Lange did have one shooter use a .300 Blackout; he had a shell-catcher installed on his rifle and salvaged every piece of brass – often detrimental for making quick reloads.

Lange has also tried for years to make an AK-47 work. According to him, its 7.63x39mm cartridge hits pigs hard – but he hasn’t been able to get an AK to shoot with adequate precision or maintain integrity with an optic, which he considers vital for effective helicopter hog and coyote hunting.

Faubion used a Krebs Custom KV-13 on the hunt. It sported a forward optic rail, a decent trigger, and better-than-adequate accuracy. Mounted with a Trijicon RMR, it made for a fantastic close-range combat sight but was a bit coarse for use on running animals at 30 to 50 yards. Using a more precise optic like the Trijicon SRS (Sealed Reflex Sight) would have made Faubion’s setup much more helicopter-‘n-hog friendly.

Optimal Optics

A quality, non-magnified or low-magnification optic is vital to fast-paced shooting. It also needs to have very clear glass and have a fine aiming point.

Lange prefers Trijicon optics, and he’s particularly fond of the SRS. Its generous ocular lens and pinpoint red dots enables fast target acquisition and situational awareness. The SRS uses commonly available AA-batteries and is durable enough to withstand abuse and still maintain zero.

I opted to use a Trijicon VCOG in case I wanted a bit of magnification. It’s super durable, and offers true 1X (no magnification) at the low end of its 1-6x range. It worked great. After two days in the chopper, Lange was eyeing my VCOG with something I can only describe as lust.

Suppressors

Lange and other pilots prefer shooters use suppressors while shooting from the aircraft; both to minimize hearing loss and to avoid noise pollution for neighboring farmers. Even with hearing protection, the effect of hundreds of un-suppressed shots adds up quickly.

Reduced recoil is also an added benefit, making it easier to get back on target quickly. Just don’t touch that steaming hot can after a barrage of shots. Yes, I speak from experience.

Keys to Success

When shooting at wild game from a helicopter, every dimension is constantly changing. The chopper moves forward, sideways, up, down and usually a combination of directions. Animals run helter-skelter for parts unknown, and the shot distance, angle and required lead-time is always dramatically changing.

There’s simply no way to practice shooting from a moving platform, while leaning out of an aircraft and aiming at a target running in the opposite direction. You’ve got to learn on the fly (forgive the pun). Round counts tend to add up in a hurry.

Keys to success are staying loose, watching bullet impacts and adapting quickly. Be aware of the differing leads – when paralleling a running hog at roughly equal speeds, no lead is needed. If that animal is outstripping you, hold in front of it; if you’re overtaking, hold behind it. Holding behind a running animal seems counterintuitive, and it’s tough to do initially.

While not the most difficult type of shooting I’ve done – I reserve that distinction for very long shots on small targets in high wind with a precision rifle – shooting at zigzagging critters is undoubtedly the most intense shooting I’ve ever experienced.

Safety

It’s important to note that shooting from an aircraft is extremely safe. Sure, you’re hanging out of a door-less helicopter banging away at moving targets, but consider the fact that those bullets are going directly into the dirt – the potential for a ricochet is almost nonexistent. Plus, having a literal birds-eye view allows you to see any people or livestock in the area.

While most shooters don’t use a climbing-type harness, the seatbelts in choppers are secure. The craft we flew in had a five-point belt system in the front seats and a two-point system in the rear. Both were sufficient to make me feel safe while maneuvering in flight. However, if you’re skittish, bring a simple strap-type treestand harness and a carabiner for added peace of mind.

I also felt safe with Lange’s piloting experience; he’s your archetypical chopper-jockey. He often flies with his father, Aubrey, who served two tours as a medevac helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Together, they’ve net-gunned and relocated deer and exotic species for 20 years. Kyle also does aerial deer surveys and has extensive wildlife management experience. Plus, like many guys that spend their life driving a bubble in the sky through crazy maneuvers, he’s a humorist – never a dull moment.

Additional safety rules apply: While in the helicopter, “up” is no longer a safe direction for your muzzle. In fact, pilots are firm about keeping muzzles pointed down – at the ground and away from rotor blades. A negligent bullet headed through the rotor blades has drastic potential.

When flying, you’ll most likely have your gun in “hot” condition, meaning there’s a cartridge in the chamber. Attempting to remove the magazine and clear the chamber after every flurry of action is potentially more dangerous than simply putting the firearm on ‘safe’ and keeping the muzzle pointed safely out the door and down.

Doing It

Hunting from a helicopter can cost up to $800 per hour or more. If you’re like me, you don’t have that kind of unoccupied cash lying around. If you do have it, make reservations today and get up in the air. I was lucky enough to participate in my capacity as an outdoor journalist.

If you want to try something different than anything you’ve ever experienced, get up in the sky to do your part for invasive species control. It’s a trip you’ll never forget.

Yes, you can eat acorns, and all acorns are edible — it’s just that most need special processing. Here’s how to go about it.

If you haven’t read my other acorn posts, Acorns and the Forager’s Dilemma is an introduction to the use of acorns; the Forager’s Dilemma is, in a word, starch. Starch (carbohydrates) is the toughest thing to gather, and is a primary reason why humans settled down 10,000 years ago to grow grain.

Next I wrote about how various world cultures have traditionally used acorns, cultures ranging from Korea to Japan to the Native Americans, Europeans and North Africans.

Let me say loud and clear that you can eat acorns and all acorns are edible, at least all species of acorns are. We’ll get into details in a bit.

Basically there are three ways to eat acorns: Eating them as nuts (they are a lot like chestnuts), making acorn flour, or cooking in acorn oil. I have not yet tried to make acorn oil, but that link leads you to my friend Sam Thayer’s website; he sells it.

Collecting Edible Acorns

First you need to get yourself a supply of acorns. Go find some oak trees; they’re the ones with all the acorns that have fallen down around them. I know this sounds condescending and stupid, but oaks come in so many varieties that in autumn this really is the easiest way. It is a bit of a crapshoot, as it is tougher to determine a variety of oak by its acorn than by its the leaf — you can do it, but it is a little harder.

You can gather acorns anytime from September until early spring. I find gathering as the acorns fall is best. Suellen Ocean, who wrote a very useful book Acorns and Eat ’em,says she likes to collect Tanoak acorns in February and March, after many have begun sprouting.

She says acorns with sprouts between 1 to 2 inches long are still good to eat, but discard any acorn meats that have turned green. Ocean says recently sprouted acorns a) have begun to turn their starch into sugar, and b) are foolproof: “If it is sprouted, it’s a good acorn and I haven’t wasted time gathering wormy ones.”

A word on worms. When I first gathered acorns, little did I know that I had gathered scores already infected with the larva of the oak weevil. Nasty little maggoty things, you can tell they are inside your acorn if there is a little hole in the shell. Look for it, discard that acorn and move on. But know that oak weevil larvae bored those holes from the inside out. Like Alien.

It’s helpful to know what kind of oak you are dealing with because acorns from different oaks have different levels of tannins in them; more on that in a bit. If you don’t know your trees, start looking for little green acorns in May. Pick a leaf and compare it to oak leaves online or in a guidebook. Gather acorns and compare them to online images and guidebooks; different oaks bear acorns with different shapes.

With that in mind, remember that not all oaks are created equal, and the fundamental fact to know if you are going to eat acorns is that you are dealing with a wild food, and as such must contend with tremendous variability, both in species and even among individuals of the same species.

Some oaks bear acorns so low in bitter tannins that they can be eaten raw. Legend says that California Indians fought over these trees, which makes some sense because one mature Valley Oak can drop 2,000 pounds of acorns in a really good year. A ton of sweet acorns may well be worth fighting over.

That said, even “sweet” acorns should be leached to remove what tannins exist in them because several studies show that unleached acorns can make you constipated and can harm your teeth. Of all the species I know of, only the imported European cork oak and the Emory oak of the Sonoran Desert come close to being “sweet.”

Tannins aren’t the only thing that makes different species of acorn different. UC Riverside Professor David Bainbridge wrote in a 1986 academic paper that depending on species, acorns can range in fat content from 1.1 percent to 31.3 percent, protein from 2.3 percent to 8.6 percent, and carbohydrates from 32.7 percent to 89.7 percent. That is a huge range!

What does it mean? It means that in the kitchen you treat acorns from different species very, very differently. A fatty acorn will make a meal, like ground almonds. A carb-rich acorn — like Valley Oak acorns — makes a drier flour, more like chestnut or chickpea flour (acorns lack gluten and so will not rise.)

Differences in Various Oaks

Here’s a general breakdown:

‘Sweetest’ Acorns, meaning lowest in tannin: East Coast white oak, the Emory oak of the Southwest, the pin oak of the South, the valley and blue oaks of California, the burr oak of the Midwest, as well as the cork oak and the well-named bellota oak of Europe. To my California readers, know that there are an awful lot of cork oaks and burr oaks planted in towns and cities here, so keep your eyes peeled.

Largest Acorns: Valley oaks are really big, as are East Coast White oaks. Burr oaks are large, too, as is the California Black oak.

Fattiest Acorns: The Eastern red oak acorns I’ve used have a very high oil content, and I’ve read that the Algonquin used red oak acorns for oil. In the West, the champions are both live oaks, the Coastal and the interior live oak, as well as the tanoak and black oak, which is Quercus kellogii.

Shelling Acorns

I found that shelling the acorns is the most onerous part of dealing with them. They have an elastic shell that resists normal nut crackers. I found whacking them with a hammer to be the best way to open up an acorn. Some people use a knife, and I do this with green acorns, but not fully ripe ones.

Best way to whack ’em is to put the flat end (the side that used to have the cap) on a firm surface and rap the pointy end with a hammer, or, with long, tapered acorns like cork oak or Valley oaks, just whack the side.

Acorns are far easier to shell after they’ve dried. If you choose to dry them, do this in wide, shallow pans so they don’t get moldy. Once dried, I’ve worked with two-year-old acorns and they were fine. They will need an overnight soak before grinding, however.

Red oak acorns have a “test,” a skin that doesn’t want to come off, just like a chestnut. Easiest way to deal with this is to freeze your fresh acorns for a week or two before cracking. This will slip the skin off the nut. The skin is bitter, but it’s not that big a deal if you are making flour.

Shell your acorns into water. The meats oxidize, and you will get a lighter-colored flour if you do this. It’s aesthetic, but it matters to me.

Tannins

All acorns should be leached with water to remove bitter tannins, which will a) make your mouth feel and taste like felt, b) make you a bit nauseous, and possibly c) constipate you for days.

Getting those tannins out is the big barrier to cooking with acorns. But it ain’t no biggie. With my valley oak acorns, after shelling I drop the acorn meats directly into my stockpot that was two-thirds full of water. When I fill the pot about a third of the way up with shelled acorns, if I am in a hurry, I bring the pot of water to a boil. The water turns dark. As soon as it boils, pour the water off into the sink and repeat the process.

It requires about five changes of water to get valley oak acorns to taste like chestnuts. I did this all while watching football, and did not miss a snap. Other oaks will require more or fewer changes of water. Choose the “sweetest” acorns on my list above for the least amount of work.

There is a better method, but it takes days. Grind the raw acorns into flour, then mix a ratio of 1 cup of acorn meal to 3 cups water, or more water if you have large containers. Pour this all into a glass jar with a lid and put it in the fridge. Every day you shake the jar, wait 12 hours or more, then pour off the water — and the tannins.

How long? Anywhere from a week to two weeks, depending on how bitter your acorns are. This is a good way to leach acorns without using fuel for boiling water, and you do not denature a particular starch in the acorns that acts a little like the gluten in flour, i.e., it helps the flour stick to itself. I go into the full process of cold leaching acorns here.

If you plan on baking with the acorn flour, use the cold-water leaching method.

Once your acorns are free of tannins, you need to figure out what to do with them. Regardless, you need to dry them first or they will rot. Acorn grits can be patted dry on a tea towel. If it is hot out, lay the acorns out on cookie sheets and dry in the shade. You could also put them in an oven set on “warm.” You can also put the acorns in a dehydrator set on low heat, which is what I do.

You can also freeze your fresh acorn meal. Store dried flour in jars in the fridge. Why the fridge? What fat there is in acorns will go rancid pretty quick if you left the flour at room temperature.

What you can now do to eat acorns is pretty limitless.

My first success was an acorn flour flatbread in the style of an Italian piadina. I also make an acorn flour honey cake, which is really very tasty — almost like gingerbread cake. The flour also makes an excellent pasta dough when mixed with regular flour.

Other Ways To Eat Acorns

I will also substitute about 1/5 of the flour in my homemade flour tortillas with acorn flour, and I also make mean acorn gnocchi.

Use your imagination!

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With temperatures reaching 93 degrees, conditions inside the ground blind were sauna-like. Despite the heat, my guide assured me that it’d be a great evening. So, as sweat beads trickled down my back and forehead, I monitored the wide-open food plot in front of me, hoping one of the surrounding draws would manufacture a mature buck.

As darkness slowly swallowed the daylight, I knew I’d be picked up soon and my evening hunt would be over. Suddenly, a big, mature 8-pointer and another buck appeared on the skyline 150 yards away. I felt a wash of adrenaline coarse through my veins as they beelined for the feeder. Suddenly, there he stood, quartering toward me at just 30 paces.

Two minutes of legal shooting light remained when he finally turned. In that instant I released my arrow, sure it would be a winner. To this day I’m not sure what went wrong. When we found the arrow there was next to no blood on it and no blood trail to be found. We spent hours looking everywhere for that deer to no avail. Needless to say, I was sick. Since I’d made contact, my hunt was over. But I’d be back in Oklahoma in November for another chance.

For the next month, I researched Oklahoma wildlife management areas for my next Sooner State hunt. The one I chose was some 200 miles from where my October hunt had unfolded. Three days in, I arrowed my then-best whitetail, a 150-inch-plus beauty. He is a tremendous trophy, especially since I took him the first time I hunted that particular WMA.

Oklahoma’s geographic location—sandwiched between whitetail meccas Kansas and Texas—is well-appointed to offer excellent deer hunting. According to QDMA’s 2020 Annual Report, 66 percent of bucks harvested in Oklahoma in 2017 and 2018 were 3 1/2 years old or older. This means that many bucks reach the age class that sees peak antler potential.

Some 4.6 percent of Oklahoma is public land. While that may not sound like a lot, in addition to sprawling national forests and grasslands, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation manages more than 80 WMAs across the state. So, when visiting Oklahoma, you won’t struggle to find places to hunt. And, if a do-it-yourself hunt isn’t your thing, the Sooner State has many outfitters who offer a quality hunting experience.

From mountains to prairies, Oklahoma is a venerable ecological cornucopia with enormous biodiversity. Here are six of the best ecoregions in Oklahoma to hunt.

CENTRAL/SOUTHERN SHORTGRASS PRAIRIE

In Oklahoma’s Panhandle lies a sea of prairie habitat surrounded by an agricultural checkerboard. Far from population centers, hunting pressure during archery season is minimal, and a bit busier during firearms season. Folks from the eastern part of the South will find the Panhandle completely different from the deer habitat back home. If you’re a treestand hunter, most of the scouting is already done—just find some trees in the wide-open habitat and park your backside there daily.

Public-hunting options in the Panhandle include the Rita Blanca National Grasslands, Optima WMA and Beaver River WMA. Native forages include ragweed and sunflower; additionally, the state cultivates small food plots on these areas. Windmills and guzzlers have also been installed to provide hydration for wildlife in this arid habitat.

Lodging options can be found in Guymon, Boise City and Beaver. Primitive camping is available at Optima WMA and Beaver River WMA, and RV hookups can be had at Beaver Dunes State Park.

MIXED-GRASS PRAIRIE

Just east of the Panhandle is a large area that stretches more than 100 miles wide (east to west) and from the northcentral border with Kansas to the southwest border with Texas. Due to size and scope, it offers great habitat diversity and varying whitetail genetics.

The 30,710-acre Black Kettle National Grasslands in Roger Mills County offers ample opportunities to stretch your legs and find your own slice of whitetail heaven. Like the panhandle, native forages are ragweed and sunflower. While the Black Kettle is scattered into nearly 100 units, wildlife plantings and water are available on most units. Primitive camping is allowed on the entire area, and three developed camping facilities exist.

If you’re looking for a large, contiguous tract, the nearby Packsaddle WMA in Ellis County encompasses 19,659 acres of rolling upland habitat consisting of buffalo grass, sagebrush, sand plum, shinnery oak and occasional mesquite. Cottonwood, elm and hackberry line the Canadian River bottoms on the Packsaddle’s southern fringe. Vehicle access is minimal to limit impact on wildlife and improve hunting.

SOUTHERN TALLGRASS PRAIRIE

Split into two sectors, the tallgrass prairie includes Kay, Osage, Pawnee, Wagoner, Mayes and Rogers counties, among others in Oklahoma’s northern and northeastern sections. Expect an ideal mixture of prairies, agriculture, brushy thickets and riparian habitat. In this region, WMAs like the 16,254-acre Kaw and 21,798-acre Fort Gibson offer solid hunting opportunities with rich soils teeming with wheat, milo, corn and soybeans, to name a few of the plantings the state implements on these WMAs.

Oaks here are abundant. During a bumper acorn crop, focus on hunting the timber, as deer will move less since food is available in or near bedding areas. Many other hunters will hunt field edges, especially those planted in soybeans. While they may be full of deer sign, most activity in the fields will be at night, so getting deep into the timber puts you in the heart of deer activity and gets you away from pressure.

Primitive camping is available on the Kaw WMA at dedicated areas, while camping near the Fort Gibson WMA can be found on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds. If motel lodging better suits you, check out Ponca City and Newkirk near the Kaw or Wagoner near Fort Gibson.

OZARKS

Next door to Arkansas is Oklahoma’s own small Ozark region, which covers Adair, Delaware and Cherokee counties. It also touches parts of a few other adjoining counties. Vastly different from the areas we’ve covered so far, expect heavily timbered habitat with oaks and hickory amidst rolling to rocky, steep terrain. Acorns are a primary food source, while native grasses provide valuable forage and thickets provide additional cover. The area sees 40-plus inches of rainfall annually, rendering it far more fertile than the ecoregions found in the western part of the state.

Worthwhile public hunting parcels are the Cherokee and Cookson WMAs. The Cherokee WMA encompasses 31,360 acres, 16,000 of which are open year-round to legal hunting with several controlled hunts made throughout the year. Between 200 and 300 acres are planted in food plots.

• SOONER STATE GIANT: 3-Year Quest Ends with Huge Typical Whitetail

The Cookson WMA has 14,725 acres, with more than 100 acres planted in food plots, providing vital and attractive forages. Both of these WMAs have ponds throughout, some stocked with fish like bass and catfish. Elk roam this country, too, so keep your eyes peeled.

Limited camping options are available in the two WMAs and on surrounding U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds. Modern accommodations are available in Tahlequah and Muskogee. If you like hunting in the timber, you’ll love this area.

CROSSTIMBERS

The Crosstimbers region cuts a narrow swath through the tallgrass prairie region up north, then widens out around Tulsa and runs south clear to the Red River on the Texas border. Essentially, it covers most of central Oklahoma. Plentiful stands of oaks and eastern red cedar cover this region’s rolling hills and draws. There are also numerous cattle ranches, farmlands and river bottoms throughout it.

At the Love Valley WMA in southcentral Oklahoma, you’ll find good deer numbers on 7,746 acres of mixed upland habitat, with post oak-blackjack timber and riparian habitat featuring hardwoods along the Red River. To the northeast, in Pittsburg and Latimer counties, sits the sprawling 21,353-acre James Collins WMA in the Sans Bois Mountains. It features diverse habitat, including pine forests, oak and hickory timber, not to mention uplands and native grasslands.

If hunting at Love Valley WMA, lodge in Ardmore or camp primitively at the WMA. If hunting at James Collins WMA, camp at the WMA entrance or lodge at McAlester.

OUACHITA MOUNTAINS/ARKANSAS RIVER VALLEY

In southeastern Oklahoma you’ll find dense deer populations. Big pine forests intermixed with oaks in varied terrain ranging from gentle to rugged provide ample places for big bucks to hide and mature.

Want some room to roam? The gigantic 216,503-acre Three Rivers WMA in McCurtain and Pushmataha counties delivers. Nonresidents must purchase an $85 access permit, which reciprocates for access to the nearby 91,721-acre Honobia Creek WMA, too. Both WMAs features pine plantations and hardwoods. Terrain funnels are common, and if you’re willing to hike, hunting pressure can be evaded without much trouble.

• MUST READ: Hunter’s Red-Dirt Redemption in Pursuit of ‘Ghost’ Buck

While no designated camping areas exist on either of the aforementioned WMAs, primitive camping is acceptable anywhere on both. If hunting at Honobia Creek, consider modern lodging in the town of Clayton. If hunting at Three Rivers, lodge in Hochatown or in Broken Bow.

RED DIRT OUTFITTERS

These operations are ready, willing and able to provide an unforgettable whitetail adventure.

Mixed-Grass Prairie Region

Todd Rogers owns and operates Rut-N-Strut Guide Service in Elk City, offering hunts on approximately 31,000 acres of prime deer habitat with food plots, protein and mineral sites. Rolling red hills drop into creeks and river bottoms where clients hunt from ladder stands, pop-up ground blinds and box blinds. A quality mature buck at Rut-N-Strut typically measures 130 to 150 inches, with some considerably larger. Lodging is in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a kitchen, washer, dryer and satellite TV. (580-799-1920; rutnstrutguideservice.com)

Central/Southern Shortgrass Prairie Region

James Burnett owns and operates Cimarron Valley Outfitters, which is based in Elkhart, Kan., but runs whitetail hunts in the Sooner State. Cimarron Valley’s Oklahoma hunts occur from the Colorado border in the panhandle all the way to northcentral Oklahoma against the Kansas border. Quality bucks typically range from 125 to 170 inches. The muzzleloader season can be outstanding while deer are still on feeding patterns, with late muzzleloader having some good pre-rut action. (620-360-4735; cvohunts.com)

Southern Tallgrass Prairie Region

The Stuart Ranch has been family-owned and -operated since 1868, and it encompasses some 46,000 acres. Hunts take place on two ranch divisions, located in Waurika and Caddo, both in southern Oklahoma. Various types of terrain are hunted, including vast prairie grasses, rolling hills and dense woodlands. Package whitetail hunts include lodging, kitchen facilities and meals (as requested). Stuart Ranch provides transportation to and from the ranch, cleaning and cold storage of harvested deer. The ranch is set up to accommodate archery, muzzleloader and rifle hunters. (580-512-7004; stuartranchoutfitters.com)

Ouachita Mountains/Arkansas River Valley Region

The Choctaw Hunting Lodge is located in Pittsburg, Okla., and situated on 44,000 privately owned acres. The lodge is a full-service operation, offering both preserve (high fence) and native (free range) whitetail hunts. Choctaw Hunting Lodge offers four- and five-day hunts, which include a private room, meals, hors d’oeuvres, snacks and beverages, transportation to and from the field, and taxidermy prep. CHL can accommodate archery, muzzleloader and rifle hunters. (580-740-0040; choctawhuntinglodge.com)