Editor’s Note: CVA Pro hunter Tony Smotherman discusses the value of using deer calls when hunting with your CVA muzzleloader rifle.

Question: Tony, let’s talk about deer calls. Do you use them or not?

Smotherman: I use deer calls quite frequently, but my experience has been that they only call in deer about 30 percent of the time.

Question: Tony, what’s your favorite deer call to use?

Smotherman: By using a deer call, you have a 30-percent-better chance of calling-in a buck than you have if you don’t use a deer call. If I was playing the lottery I’d be really excited if I had a 30-percent chance to win. But that 30-percent increase only applies if you’re using a grunt call. I believe that using the snort/wheeze is far-more effective then the grunt call. I’ll always have a snort/wheeze call in my pocket when I’m hunting. I consider the snort/wheeze a challenge call that says, “I am the toughest guy in the neighborhood. If you think you’re tougher than me, come over here, and prove it.” When a buck hears a snort/wheeze, he assumes that the buck that’s made that call will run him off, if he doesn’t leave. But if you use that call, and there’s a buck in the area that thinks he’s the dominant buck, then he’ll to come to that snort/wheeze call. To put it simply, Ibelieve that the snort/wheeze call works on any greedy buck that doesn’t mind banging his antlers on another buck. Therefore I think that the snort/wheeze call is more effective in the Midwest and West, where the buck-to-doe ratio is closer to 1:1, than it is in much of the East. Too, the bucks in the Midwest seem to enjoy fighting more then the bucks in the Southeast do.

For some reason, the bucks in the Midwest just seem to be tougher, perhaps due to age and size. In the Midwest, a 4-1/2-year-old buck will weigh around 250 pounds. Any deer that lives that long and gets that big will think he is dominant and tough enough to whip any deer that intrudes into his area. Remember that in a lot of instances, bucks are often like hunters. Some bucks are just a little-bit greedier than the other ones are. I took a buck in western Kentucky last year that was 3-1/2-years-old. He didn’t have terribly-big antlers – 120 range on the Boone and Crockett scale. But I have video-camera pictures of this buck pushing 4-1/2-and 5-1/2-year-old bucks out of the food plot that he thought belonged to him. This buck was fighting and whipping bucks that had 150- and 160-class antlers. This younger buck was just bad to the bone and more dominant than the older, bigger bucks he was running-off. I’ve learned that the snort/wheeze works on an aggressive buck, regardless of his age or the size of his antlers.

Puzzled by why a big buck would come to a scent he’d never smelled before, CVA interviewed deer researcher Dr. Karl Miller, professor of wildlife management at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Dr. Miller explained, “A deer will come-in to check-out any strange smell he finds. He wants to know what that new odor is, and what’s causing it.”

Many hunters are aware that deer will respond to strange smells. Some hunters use:

* shaving lotion;

* the smell of fresh paint;

* the smell of fresh earth;

* fox urine;

* doe urine;

* buck urine;

* tarsal gland and

* a wide variety of other scents and lures to bring deer to within bow or gun range at various times of deer season. Sometimes when you find a buck in a place you can’t reach, such as a clear-cut or a thicket or across a property line, you often can use deer lure to bring that buck to you.

Not all deer lures work equally well, and you’ll find some more effective than others. Dr. Larry Marchinton, retired professor of wildlife biology at the University of Georgia and longtime deer researcher, says, “Lures will work sometimes. Often I think deer react to a lure more out of curiosity than anything else. They may be responding to a strange scent in their environment.” Michael Cartwright, former wildlife biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, mentions that, “During the breeding season, the communication between the bucks and does is very strong. That’s why the behavior pattern of a buck changes, and he begins to make scrape lines and deposit scent through urine over his tarsal glands on his hind legs. The urine mixes with the scent on the tarsal gland, leaves a very-strong smell and communicates information to other deer in the area – both does and bucks. The bucks can tell by the scent a doe leaves whether or not she’s receptive to breeding during the breeding season. Scent communication is much-more developed in deer than in humans.” Lee Christianson of Wisconsin, an avid deer hunter, explains that, “Basically lures are a sex lure that initiates a breeding response, a food lure that calls deer to eat or a curiosity lure that stimulates a deer to come and investigate. You’ve heard the old saying that curiosity kills the cat. I believe curiosity has killed more deer than it has cats. Deer are gregarious herd animals and very social. Because they want to meet and greet new individuals in their herd, they’ll investigate the smells of what they perceive to be other deer.”

Too, for scents to pay buck dividends, you must match those scents to the amount of hunting pressure in an area. As one hunter explained to me, “At the beginning of bow season, deer are in full-rut mode hardly anywhere in the country. So, you may not want to use a sex scent at this time of the year. You may prefer to choose a different type of scent. If you’re hunting in a high-pressure region on opening day of deer season, and everybody hunting is putting-out some type of deer lure, then any deer lure probably will be counterproductive because of the large amount of lure being put-out by hunters.” Many hunters consider the words, buck lure, a misnomer. A buck lure probably contains hormones a doe will give-off when she’s ready or getting ready to mate. These hormones attract the buck because of his natural mating instincts.

Dr. Marchinton believes that, “Many things are labeled buck lures. If the tarsal scents are made from tarsal glands, and if that scent is representative of the actual smell of a deer, then we think this lure can communicate the individuality of the animal. That scent may be able to communicate the sex of the animal that has produced the scent. We strongly suspect that the scent probably even communicates the social position or rank of that deer in the herd. This theory is not proven and is not scientific fact. Biologists only have some circumstantial evidence to support this idea.”

Question: Mark, when I go to sight-in my muzzleloader rifle at the rifle range, what do I need to do to make my rifle shoot, if it’s not shooting?

Hendricks: There may be a number of reasons why your rifle isn’t shooting. Before you load your rifle, pull-out your breech plug to make sure you don’t have a load still in there from last season. Even better, before you go to the range, take-out the breech plug, and make sure the barrel is clean and clear. Then, shoot two or three primer caps before loading live ammo inside the rifle. The primer caps will dry-out the breech and remove any condensation that may have formed and any oil or solvent left from the last time you cleaned it that may have settled-down into the breech-plug area. The caps also will get rid of any cobwebs or dust bunnies that may have settled between the cap and the barrel. This procedure generally will take care of most of the problems that are causing your rifle not to shoot.

However, if after you fire a few caps, and your gun still isn’t firing, pull your breech plug again, and push your load out the back of the barrel with your CVA Range and Cleaning Rod to clear the barrel. Take a good look at your breech plug, and make sure the little flash hole that goes through the breech plug to ignite the powder is clear. If it’s not clear, and you can’t see all the way through the hole, take a little piece of wire or a CVA nipple pick to clean-out that hole. I use old guitar strings, because I always seem to have an abundance of them at any given time. Any small wire you can push through that hole to clean it will work.

Question: What else can I do to make my gun shoot, if it’s not shooting?

Hendricks: If your percussion cap’s not going-off when you fire your rifle, you may have a problem in the firing mechanism or bad caps; although caps rarely go bad. Next, make sure your firing pin is working properly. Open the gun (break-open the barrel), pull the trigger back with your finger, and push the hammer forward with your thumb. You should see the firing pin sticking-out in front of the breech face about 1/16-inch. If your firing pin is corroded or jammed, take the barrel off the gun, unscrew the bushing that holds the firing pin in place, take-out the firing pin, and clean it. The bushing is clearly visible on the front of the breech face. Use a thin-bladed screwdriver that fits that slot to unscrew the bushing and the firing pin. The spring should come-out after the bushing is unscrewed. If the firing pin is corroded, you may need to use a little punch to push the firing pin out of the back. Once you get the firing pin and the spring out, use Q-tips with some solvent on them to clean the spring and some steel wool to clean the firing pin. If the firing pin and the spring are too corroded for you to clean, purchase a new firing pin and spring from CVA. But if you can clean the firing pin and the spring, you can put them back into the gun. They should continue to work properly, until you can get a replacement. If you don’t want to go through all that trouble, or you still can’t get the gun to fire, send the gun directly to CVA to have it serviced by our gun experts. If anyone needed  help with their CVA muzzleloader please download a repair form from the cva.com and send your rifle to the address on the repair form. As of right our repair turnaround time frame for most repairs is approximately 3 weeks. If you wait until a week before deer season starts or during deer season, CVA will need several weeks before we can return the gun to you. By starting early, we can help solve any problem you may have with your gun more quickly.

We’ve explained earlier the need for predator hunters on lands being managed for deer and turkey and have provided the latest research by biologist Cory VanGilder on the effects of coyotes on deer populations. Now, let’s look at some tips for taking coyotes from one of the nation’s top predator hunters, Steve DeMers of Whitehall, Montana, a wildlife specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). DeMers hunts coyotes to decrease coyote populations and reduce the damage they do to crops and wildlife. Here are some tips that will help you take more coyotes this season with your CVA muzzleloader rifle and a .22-250, a .243 or a .223 Bergara barrel.

When you’ve fine-tuned your rifle so that it’s driving tacks, you really don’t want to change anything about the gun, because accuracy depends on consistency. Regardless of how far you can shoot accurately, if you don’t have a target, accuracy won’t count. Although Steve DeMers can shoot at distances out to 300 yards or more, he’s developed coyote-calling tactics that consistently pay off for him. “I use an electronic call,” DeMers explains. “But I won’t tell you the name of the call because I don’t want other people to start using the same caller. I’ve learned from experience that the more a particular brand-name call is used with coyotes, the less-effective it becomes. Hopefully I’m utilizing an electronic caller that many other predator hunters don’t. To be effective, you have to give the coyotes different sounds than what they’ve heard previously.”

DeMers prefers the coyote howl call, the pup squeal and other coyote sounds rather than prey-species calls in his area, except in the dead of winter. “We have plenty of mice, deer and agriculture in the region I hunt,” DeMers advises. “So, the coyotes here rarely search for food. When I use a coyote sound like a howl or a pup squeal, I’m triggering a territorial response from the coyotes. The animals in my section of the country are much-more interested in protecting their territories than finding meals. To stop the coyotes when they run-in to the call, I yell at the coyote with my natural voice or howl to it.  If you let a coyote get too close, he’ll often come running-in and be much harder to stop, so you can take a shot. Many predator hunters make the same mistakes as others because they get the same information from similar sources. I buy many instructional predator-hunting videos to see how other predator hunters teach people who buy videos to hunt. I want to learn which types of callers and sounds the video instructors are recommending. Then I can avoid using the same callers and sounds everyone has seen on the videos. Too, I try to insure that the sounds I buy for my electronic callers are made by animals and not by hunters blowing through mouth calls. The best sounds you can purchase are new sounds from different live animals each year.”

Another secret DeMers has learned is not to alert the coyotes of his presence. He prefers to use electric hunting vehicles when hunting coyotes, because they don’t give-off emissions or noise, other than the sound of the tires rolling over the ground. “I’ve been looking at using an electric motorcycle, because I believe it will be far-more quiet than an electric hunting vehicle,” DeMers says. “You have to remember that coyotes are highly intelligent, they learn quickly, and they’re excellent at dodging hunters without being seen. So, when the coyotes hear a gas-powered ATV, they know that a predator (a hunter) is on the prowl. Even though I try to keep the coyotes from hearing or seeing me, I still may make a long hike into the area where I’ll be hunting and stalk and crawl quietly to reach a position where I can set-up to hunt the coyotes. The more stealthful you are in your approach to the site where you’ll call the coyotes, the greater your odds will be for taking a coyote.”

Predator hunting is now easier than ever. Using an electronic predator caller and a remote and understanding how and why coyotes come-in to predator calls and decoys can provide plenty of off-season hunting for the muzzleloader enthusiast. You can take predators with your muzzleloader rifles and shotguns or convert your CVA Apex to a centerfire rifle with a .22-250-, a .243- or a .223-caliber Bergara barrel. If you have a Savage 110, a Remington 700 or a Thompson/Center Encore rifle, you also can purchase a Bergara barrel in these three calibers to take predators.

Editor’s Note: The owner of M.A.X. (Muzzleloader Accuracy Xperts, LLC), in South Carolina, former U.S. Marine Corps sniper Russell Lynch produces videos and customizes muzzleloader rifles to determine the best primer, shot and load for each individual muzzleloader rifle he’s asked to evaluate and to improve shooting accuracy. Russell has recently been working closely with CVA Muzzleloaders to help its customers improve there shooting experience.

Some muzzleloader hunters believe that having really-big bullets and shooting magnum charges will result in more game taken. But hunters used muzzleloader rifles for many years before we had 209 primers and breech-action muzzleloaders. Those early hunters took a lot of big game, often with not much more than 100 grains of black powder or blackpowder substitutes. The idea of shooting 150 grains of pellets (magnum charge) helps to sell a lot of rifles, and that magnum charge certainly has its place in the muzzleloader industry where folks will use a magnum charge. There are even some circumstances where I may use a magnum charge, but the only place in North America where I’ll hunt with that big of a powder charge is when I’m hunting in thick areas. I have been in some really-thick places before where I may hunt with a magnum charge when I know I’ll have to shoot through some brush and take a big animal at close range (120 yards or less).

On most bear hunts I’ve ever been on, a 100-yard shot is a really….

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