Month: November 2015

Hiking and Backpacking With a Dog Safety Tips

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Bear Shock electric phone, Hiking and Backpacking With a Dog Safety Tips

Hiking and backpack camping with dogs is enjoyable. Dogs are excellent companions in the backcountry, although dogs can also pose several problems for backpackers and hikers. One major issue when you are in the backcountry with a dog is that it can create an encounter with a bear. For instance, If a dog is sleeping in a tent with their human companions, they may be carrying several interesting smells on their coat that bears may find interesting. However it is a very rare occurrence for a bear to invade a tent, and, when they do, it is usually because of left out food scraps or an unkept camp.Be sure to use the UDAP Bear Shock fence at your campground site for protection from bears.

Bear Shock electric phone, Hiking and Backpacking With a Dog Safety Tips

If you do run into a bear out on the trail, a dog may be tempted to run after the bear, barking, and the bear may feel that it has to defend itself. Dogs can be great instigators of trouble, although when the bear charges the dog or attacks the dog, the dog is going to run back to you, and he will be bringing the scared, angry bear with him. An encounter like this is completely preventable, by placing a leash on the dog when you are out on the trail. This and other safety tips are necessary for you to pay heed to in order to protect your dog and yourself as well. You could read more here about how you could enjoy fun activities and explore the outdoors with your dog in a safe and enjoyable manner.

Coming back to hiking with dogs, if you are going to be traveling in bear country with your dogs, leash them, but also give them a job to perform. Dogs can carry their own food and, possibly, other supplies on their backs. Keep the load light, though, dogs should not be required to haul too much weight on the trail. There are even backpacks built exclusively for dogs. If the dog is required to carry important supplies, then it should be leashed. A hot, tired dog isn’t going to consider the load on his back when he sees a wide, muddy puddle or a deep, pristine mountain lake. A dog carrying sleeping bags should be leashed, at least until the backpack is removed.

Dogs do make excellent companions on the trail. Unlike some of your friends at the bottom of your call list, the dog will not complain out on the trail. Dogs can also sense possible dangers long before their human counterparts, and dogs may sense that cow moose around the bend, or the rattlesnake coiled at the other side of the log. Although, proper precautions should be taken, when hiking and backpacking with dogs in bear country.

Black Friday Shopping Safety Tips

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Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day of the year. It has become such a popular day to shop that people are finishing up their turkey dinners to go out and stand in line at numerous big box stores throughout their town for the chance to purchase electronics, homeware, clothing, etc., at sale prices. The event has become so incredibly busy that unforeseen problems with other shoppers are becoming more and more prevalent. Not only shopping in stores, but also, if you consider online shopping platforms like Price, during the festive season they tend to offer various offers like discounts, coupons, and cashback offers that the common shoppers can avail. But, when it comes to offline shopping, the shoppers are tired (most stores open in the middle of the night or the very early morning) some are hopped up on too much caffeine, and, in many cases, the shoppers are waiting in line in the cold. Here are a few tips to keep yourself safe if you are going out to shop this upcoming Black Friday.

When you are standing in line outside a store, be sure to pay attention to what the rest of the crowd is doing. Pay attention to the mood; the anxiousness of other shoppers. Lines for many of the stores stretch for hundreds of yards, possibly coiling around the parking lot, and, when the stores open, overly eager shoppers could invoke a possible riot. Every year there are stories of both adults and children being injured by the trampling of feet of overly anxious shoppers. Stores should take preventative measures to stop this from happening, whether that’s installing a few steel pipe bollards to help manage the flow of people, breaking the line into smaller groups and only allowing a certain number of groups in at a time, or having additional security on the day.

Also, when you are out in the parking lot, take note of the traffic. Pandemonium does not equate to safe driving. Overly caffeinated shoppers may make poor decisions when they are operating their vehicles. Keep your eye on the parking lot for oncoming vehicles, or vehicles that are driving erratically.

Black Friday Shopping Safety Tips

Once you are inside the store, beware that people get into confrontations over the limited stock of sale items. Many of these stores offer only one or two of each item at sale prices, and the competition for those items can be fierce. Stories of shouting matches, pushing and shoving, even fistfights are prevalent every year. Avoid confrontations if it is at all possible. Remember, the items that are on sale can be replaced or repurchased at another store, not one of those sale items is worth the risk of injury or even possibly your life. And don’t forget to get your UDAP Keychain Pepper Spray to carry with you at all times.

Autumn Means Hunting Season

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While autumn in many places marks the end of a busy summer and a transition to the winter, fall in the west means busy mountain ranges, busy rivers, and intense flights of migratory birds. Hunters begin to hit the mountain slopes in full camo in the archery season, and the bright orange jackets of rifle season eventually take over. Anglers flock to the big rivers for the intense hatches of mayflies and October caddis.

Later, in mid-October, hunters in camo, with Labradors or Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, maybe even Springer Spaniels, will throw duck decoys out onto a river or pond, and create the calls of a hen mallard, while hiding on the bank, shotgun at the ready (some curios folks may wish to learn is shotgun better than rifle?) Hunters will produce enormous flocks of goose decoys in fields of corn stubble or cut alfalfa, hiding in lay out blinds or ditches, using silhouettes, shells, or intricately carved full body goose decoys to lure in giant Canadian Honkers. Another important aspect of the fall is intense color. The greens of spring and summer give way to the yellowing leaves and grasses of fall and the colors combine with dramatic complexity.

The trees of fall are the obvious choice of dramatic color. A person only has to drive the banks of a western river with the bright yellow leaves of Cottonwood trees, offset by the bright, clear water of the river, to realize just how special of a time of year fall is. Also, in areas of the west that have dense stands of Aspen trees, the cloud of intense yellow that these trees present is inspiring. In the fall another landscape color that can cause serious drama is white. When the first snows cover the peaks of the mountains; the views of the mountains are juxtaposed with the greens and yellows of the valleys.

Some game animals of the west also exhibit intense color. Mallard drakes, for instance, have come out of their drab molt of summer, and the green feathers about its head are bright and intense. Brown Trout seem to absorb the yellow leaves that fall into the river and their scales turn bright yellow to gold in full spawning colors.

Be Prepared

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Every hiker, camper, and hunter should carry something in his pack or on his person that can start a fire. Matches, flint, magnesium sticks, UDAP Bear Spray, etc., all are good options. But, what if a person in the outdoors has lost or left behind his tool to start fire, and they must start a fire in the backcountry in an emergency. While there are many ways to start a fire in an emergency, the Fire Plow Method is effective, although challenging it is challenging to get it just right. The fire plow method is effective because it allows a person to use nothing more then the friction of wood against wood to ignite a spark.

Bear Spray

The Fire Plow method is only effective if a person has a cutting instrument. A knife, or, if no knife is present, a sharp narrow rock can be used for cutting. After gathering wood and tinder, prepare the plow. The plow is nothing more then a stick that is roughly one foot long, and one, to one and a half inches, wide. Use the cutting tool – knife or sharp stone – to carve a point into the plow at a forty-five degree angle. Also, a base made up of wood will have to be created. The base should be wider than the plow, sturdy and flat. Carve a flat spot into the base with the cutting instrument for stability, and carve a shallow groove at the width of the plow to give the plow a guide to be worked in. Put the plow into the groove and begin to work it back and forth along the track of the base. Once the wood on the base feels softer, or, possibly, there is smoke in the track, increase the pressure on the stick until a small ember forms over the wood. Slide the ember, carefully, onto a pad of tinder – dried grasses, etc. – and, when the ember begins to burn the tinder, slightly blow on the timber to increase the fire.

The Fire Plow method is difficult to perfect, and, if a person is relying on this method for starting a fire in the woods, practice should be intense and repetitive, careful and consistent. And as always, don’t forget your UDAP Bear Spray!

Mountain Grouse Season

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Mountain Grouse season begins in early September and offers some very fast-paced wing shooting action. For the upland game bird hunter that is familiar with hunting upland birds in rolling fields and dense brushy riverbanks, mountain grouse hunting takes place on steep hillsides, dense with pine trees. And, like any grouse hunt, when the covey breaks from its place in cover, the action is fast and furious.

Many a time, coveys of grouse that hold on steep hillsides can pick up and set their wings down the steep slopes. And often, when a covey of grouse is found, a hunter can follow the covey for a mile before they ever get a shot. This is part of the fun of grouse hunting, although it is definitely not an event for a person who isn’t willing to commit to some serious hiking and purchasing a good rifle. As for the latter, simply buying any rifle won’t be enough. You need a long-range gun modified with the right equipment – a g43 magnifier, a good stock, a silencer – that could improve your chances of getting a bullseye on the first try. Grouse could be quite finicky, so it’s important to get it right on the first try. If there’s a gun you have in mind that’s a little out of your budget, you could try enrolling in a gun raffle contest and having a little luck by your side could do the trick. But when it comes to hiking experience, you might certainly have to break some sweat.

There are three main types of grouse found in the mountains of Montana: Ruffed Grouse, Dusky Grouse, and Spruce Grouse. Spruce Grouse are beautiful birds. The male Spruce Grouse is grey, and it can have white tips on its feathers. The female Spruce Grouse looks much like a sharptail, and it is tan and it can have white spots on the feathers. The Ruffed Grouse, famously conjures images of eastern forests covered in the yellows leaves of fall, side-by-side shotguns, and a graceful Irish or English setter. Ruffed Grouse, tan birds with beautiful fanned tails, do make a home in the deep dense stands of timber in the west. The Dusky Grouse, also commonly referred to as Blue Grouse make their home on the mountainsides of the west. The dusky grouse can be found in high meadows at very high elevations. The Dusky Grouse will make its home on steep hillsides and soar down them when they are startled or challenged.

Bear Spray

A dog can be a wonderful hunting tool and companion. And, like most types of upland bird hunting, each breed exhibits distinct characteristics in the way they hunt. Pointers, for instance, can cover a tremendous amount of ground and, when they do find a covey, will, hopefully, stop before they spook the covey, and set in to a point until the hunter can get within range of the birds. Spaniels and Retrievers do have a place in the grouse woods, and all of these dogs, as long as they are trained to hunt within range, will move birds and retrieve them with ease. Please note that dogs have been known to bring an angry bear back to their owners. Always be alert and prepared with bear spray when your dog is off leash in the wild.