Chapter 11
Hunting Equipment
All modern Rifles not smaller than .25 Calibre are O.K. for deer hunting. I personally use a .25 Calibre Automatic Remington, which carries six shots. Regardless of the kind of gun you buy, do not change too often. Once you get a gun you like, stick to it. You can do much better shooting with a gun with which you are accustomed.
BILL GORMAN > The L.L.Bean retail store didn’t formally sell firearms until 1984. But in the early days, L.L. would often purchase a gun, determine it didn't suit his purposes (for whatever reason), and he’d put it out on the floor to sell it.
Although I have used the same rifle for years, I continue to use up all my old shells practicing just before starting on my hunting trip. I want to be sure that the sights are O.K. and that the gun is in perfect working condition. I also buy new shells each season as I have known smokeless powder shells to misfire. Old shells are O.K. for signaling.
BILL GORMAN > L.L. was able to confidently stand behind everything he sold because he personally used all that gear. That philosophy still stands. All our hunting and fishing employees spend many days in the field and on the water. Personally, I’m in the woods thirty weeks a year.
I do not use a regular cartridge belt or clips, instead I carry ten shells in a small zipper leather case that loops onto my belt. Besides the six shells in my rifle, I distribute twelve more in my coat pockets. (28 in all.)
Always make sure that your sights are O.K. and that your rifle is in perfect working condition before starting on your hunting trip.
There are many days you will not use a single shell but if you wound a deer you are likely to use quite a few and he may take you so far from camp that you will need many more for signaling. (See Chapter 14 “Signals for Hunters.”)
I carry two compasses. (See Chapter 15 “How to Use a Compass.”)
For other small equipment I carry about twenty matches in a small sealed container for emergency use only. Also other matches for daily use. One medium size pocket knife, one sheath knife or small belt axe, a vest pocket flashlight, a few strips of celluloid or small fire kindler and a small pocket waterproof game bag in which I carry a lunch. Also, drag line about 8 ft. of strong window cord is good for hanging up and dragging out deer.
If you do not have a guide make your equipment just as light as possible. If you do have a guide See Chapter 38.
If you are going to camp and do your own cooking, you will find grub lists in Chapter 33. I suggest that you choose food that is easy to prepare, especially so if you can go to the door of your camp with an auto.
“Corrosion is the worst enemy of firearms,” read the catalog copy for Bean’s Gun Grease back in 1948. A four-ounce tube sold for just fifty cents post paid.
If your party is more than two or you plan to stay more than six days you will need to increase the amount proportionately.
Non-residents in Maine can not camp and kindle fires from May 1 to December 1 in the open without a registered guide for every five members of your party, except at public camp sites. A copy of either the Game Laws or Fishing Laws may be obtained by writing the Fish and Game Commissioner, Augusta, Maine.
BILL GORMAN > L.L. makes no mention of bow hunting, but he was interested in it. One often-told story is of the day in the fifties that a Bear Archery representative visited and set up a target in a back storeroom of the store on Main Street. L.L. told his friend and employee Wid Griffin, “Give it a whirl!” Wid shot an arrow right out the window into downtown Freeport.
If you’re new to the sport of archery, you may want to consider starting with a compound bow. Because they use cams or elliptical wheels to reduce the force necessary to hold the bows at full draw, compound bows are remarkably consistent and accurate, allowing you to become competent very quickly. With a little practice, you’ll find yourself routinely making forty-yard shots.
Once you’re proficient with the compound bow, you may desire a greater challenge. That is the time to give a traditional wood recurve, longbow, or flatbow a try. Many archery enthusiasts prefer the challenge of the old stick and string and even build their own wooden bows and arrows.
The range of archery equipment is vast, and advances are being made all the time. Bows come in a variety of lengths and are made from wood, fiberglass and graphite, or carbon composites. Arrows may be wooden shafts with feather fletchings or aluminum, carbon fiber, or composite materials fletched with plastic vanes. In the past, tips were broadheads made of steel or stone; today’s tips often sport surgically sharpened razorblades — some fixed in position, others set within the broadheads and deploying on contact.
Add to that mechanical string releases, stabilizers, lighted bowsights, detachable quivers, and more, and you have some very sophisticated equipment.
Whether you choose to use modern or primitive equipment, bowhunting is an extra excuse to spend time in the woods and a thrilling way to harvest an animal.
— Bill Gorman