Inside Out Outdoors

If you're like me, your love of the outdoors consumes you and you enjoy the small details that happen and you see each trip as much as the adrenaline and thrill you feel from hooking a big bass, reaching the wind-cooled summit of a mountain or taking ol' Mossy Horns while he chases a doe through the November woods.  That love has led me wanting to share those experiences and memories with others, which has resulted in me now filming - I know that technically if you aren't using film it is not really filming but I use the terms "video" and "film" interchangeably so bear with me throughout this - my hunts and fishing trips as well as the occasional hike and eventually a skiing adventure or two.  While no professional (just yet), I do want to get the best footage I can and that all starts with the most important piece needed to obtain said footage:  The video camera.  This first part in a 6-piece series will be centered on the many video camera choices to choose from when it comes to taking video in the outdoors.  I do want to point out that the following parts in this series will be looking at the keys to taking video for hunting and fishing and not while partaking in other outdoor centric activities, however the same principles and equipment I will discuss will also apply to getting the best footage possible during anything you do outdoors.  That being said, let's dive right into things.

That's right, you did not read the above title wrong, this week I have TWO videos to share with you.  I ran across them via blind luck when I clicked on a link found in the signature of forum member flinginairos on Archerytalk.  Doing so led me to said member's website and blog that he and his friends operate; they are Xtreme Pursuit Outdoors.  A quick email asking for permission to post was answered with a enthusiastic "We would love for you to share it!" and here we are.  Hope you guys enjoy these two videos on bow tuning and if the guys post anymore up you can be sure that we will post them up for you to see.  Thanks to L.G., Jared, A.J. and Larry for letting me share these on this blog post and please go visit their site as it is extremely well-laid out and full of good information, writing and videos that really show the passion for the outdoors and all that comes with it that we enjoy so much.

-C.B.

Due to an unexpected visit to the vet today (luckily it was nothing major for our Clyde dog, just a knee cap dislocating occasionally), I missed out on some fishing with the family.  That made me search the web for some bass fishing pictures and the above one just jumped out at me.  I have never seen a heron try to tackle swallowing a fish that big and for Jerry Segraves to be able to capture a photo like that at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge is a real treat for my eyes.

-C.B.

Just wanted to give an update since I've been MIA this week it seems.  I missed my self-imposed Wednesday deadline to post up the first part of the "So You Want to Film the Outdoors" series so be on the lookout for that to go live here in the next little bit.  I also will be posting the photo of the week today, the video of the week tomorrow and a short look into what goes into choosing the right bow for you as I just picked out my new one yesterday and will be getting it from the shop here in the next week or two.  All that being said, I hope you enjoy mine and Paul's writing and find a nugget or two of information that you are able to either put to use or just enjoy reading.

-C.B.

We've been trying to bring you delicious wild game recipes every Friday and today is no different.  I came across a website that has many good looking recipes on it and I am looking forward to trying some out myself, so of course  I wanted to share it with you as well.  Head on over to honest-food.net/wild-game and find something for dinner!  They have a large variety of recipes and I think everyone can find something here that will appeal to them. 

As always if you have a recipe you'd like to share please let us know. 

-Paul Nicolucci

I'm sure many of our readers have been waiting for something like this.  I know coming from NY I was use to hunting Coyotes at night but was not allowed to do the same in North Carolina.  However, that is about to change this year.  North Carolina has decided to allow hunting of Feral Swine and Coyotes at night on private land only.  This is a step in the right direction and gives many of us additional opportunities to hunt these animals.  The news story can be found here.

-Paul Nicolucci

I've got a pair of Cooper's Hawks nesting behind my house so today I wanted to find and share a photo of these beautiful birds of prey in action, which you can see below thanks to the photograph (#3 of 49) by Rob Palmer that I found on FalconPhotos.com.

The video for this week is from Go Pro and is their video showcasing the capabilities of the Hero3 Black Edition, mixing in clips of the amazing footage it is able to capture in such a small package as well as the pictures it produces and that you can turn into time-lapses.  Enjoy!

I've always hunted squirrel for as long as I can remember, but there are very few ways to prepare squirrel that I can recall ever liking!  One  of those that I love though is squirrel soup.  My buddy Derrick's mother use to make it for us growing up once we had enough squirrels in the freezer and boy, is it delicious!  I'm going to try and do this from memory; it is pretty simple and we just made it a few weeks ago.

Yes I know I should have had these up Saturday and Sunday or even earlier this week, but cut me a little slack as Saturday was a work and travel day and I've just been enjoying my week off up til yesterday; yard work is rewarding but whipped my rear end since it was the first yard work "day" in 2013 for me.  But without further ado I give you what was supposed to be your 3/16/13 and 3/17/13 Video and Picture of the Week.

The Osceolas are in trouble now that the season is in down in Florida and searching images online of those beautiful birds led me to ducksouth.com and some images posted last March by member Double R 2.  The above was my favorite but check out the others he posted as they are all wonderful showcases for the colors of this particular subspecies of wild turkey.

The video of the week is another video done by one of the prostaff of Campbell Cameras and can be found on their prostaff blog.  I saw it the other week when I watched the intro by Game Time Outdoors and have been waiting to post it up when turkey fever hit me.  It is by Eternity Outdoors and is entitled "#SpringInspired", enjoy.

Now that it is the off season, and I had a full season to try out Hornady's new SST-ML Low Drag sabots, I wanted to share the results with our readers.  If you are anything like me, once the off season starts I begin to correct any issues I may have had the previous year.  If you had problems or were not impressed with your current sabot for your inline muzzleloader then I'd highly recommend using these.  I've been hunting with a CVA Accura .50-cal for the past few years and started out by using the CVA slick load 300-grain sabots.  Although these CVA sabots loaded easily and grouped nicely at 100 yards, I was not impressed with their performance on game.  There were two deer shot with these sabots and neither had an exit wound.  Having only an entry wound can make tracking a hit animal difficult, especially in the South where we rarely have the pleasure of tracking in the snow! 
 
After seeing the Hornady sabots in the local sporting goods store one afternoon I went home and did some research.  I found that others were really impressed with these new bullets so I went back the next day and picked up two boxes of them.  Then came a trip to the range the following weekend.  I was happy with their performance on paper as only minor adjustments were needed to get them grouping literally on top of each other.  I also had the pleasure of taking three deer this past season with these bullets and with the results I won't be changing for sometime now!  Every one of the shots resulted in a pass through and the lethality was exceptional as each of these animals dropped within 50 yards or less of where they were shot.  I was shooting the 300-grain sabots and had my rifle zeroed at 100 yards as most of my shots are within that range.  If you look at the ballistics for this bullet they are very impressive.  Hornady recommends to zero them 3 inches high at 100 yards, making your shot at 200 yards be 3 inches low.  That's a 6-inch spread from 0 to 200 yards...not bad if you ask me for a muzzleloader!  I plan to get back to the range and do as suggested by Hornady so I can be more comfortable with a longer shot this coming year if one presents itself to me.  If you want to take a look at the ballistics for yourself you can find them here.
   
-Paul Nicolucci