Deer Hunting
Wet Weather for Smokepole Season
Up around Bracken County, it’s looking like scattered rain on Saturday and then sunny on Sunday. I guess my best shot will be the afternoon of Saturday, but you can bet I’ll be somewhere out there in the morning. One of my biggest disappointments was on the Saturday afternoon of ML in 2002. It was pouring pitchforks and tarbabies, and I was sitting in a barn watching the world get dark. This BIG buck came out and walked right towards me. I had him dead on with a brisket shot at 30 yards. Pop! The humidity had gotten to my … More . . .
Preparing for Muzzleloader Season
I was downstairs this morning at the bench, running one more patch down the Hawken before I pack it for the farm. This weekend is early Muzzleloader, and I finally got a good group out of the new barrel on Sunday. For twenty years, I shot buffalo bullets and round ball out of the factory barrel. Last year I finally broke down and bought one of those Green Mountain IBS barrels with the 1in28″ twist. Last year was a disaster– couldn’t get the new barrel to shoot worth a poop. I don’t know what was wrong. I tried sabots, Buffalo … More . . .
Is the Acorn Crop Failing?
At the farm in SW Bracken County, the whites are producing at a level just under last year’s bumper crop. The reds are taking the year off. Our other place is up in Cincinnati. There are acorns there, but not in any profusion. About every 10 years or so, the mast crop of the oaks fails completely. The result is ruinous to the squirrel population. The next year, they produce a bigger than normal crop of acorns. There’s been some research to suggest the trees have evolved this way as a way of insuring that at least one crop out … More . . .
Youth Hunt SNAFU PT III
——————————————————————————– Well, I wish I had a story for you that began: “There the doe lay, under a bush beside the gully. The 150 grainer had taken its time doing its work, but . . .” or “The coyotes had done their work. All that was left was . . .” or even: “How could we have been so blind as to not see her . . ” Nope. I got on my brush pants and an orange sweatshirt and took off after the sun came up. Barney and I went back to the spot and looked for anything that … More . . .
Youth Hunt SNAFU PT II
We had a hearty second breakfast and then headed out to the stand at Heartbreak Ridge, stayed for a couple of hours, heard nothing, saw nothing. Along about 1 PM we headed in for lunch and a nap. The deer we had seen in the morning had been grazing directly in front of our hunting blind up on Gobbler’s Knob. We arrived there around 3:30 and lazed around until about 5:30. #2 has been doing a lot of napping lately– must be going through a growth spurt. #2 caught the first sign of the deer. Two doe came out by … More . . .
Youth Hunt SNAFU PT I
It’s 0640 on Sunday. Why am I not in the stand? It’s Youth Weekend, why am I not in the stand with my son? Saturday morning started off perfectly. #2 son was all primed to take a deer. First light came and zap! #2 was up to his old habits, dead asleep and snoring. We were back at the barn #2 made famous last year: Late Season Youth Hunt I let him sleep for a while and then got him up as best I could. There was no action, so all he was missing was a beautiful Fall morning– Four … More . . .
Deer Season
It all seems to come on so quickly. There is a first whiff of Fall, the Harvest Moon rises, and then ZAP! I’m in the middle of deer season and my life is filled with last-minute shopping, running loads of hunting clothes through the washer, juggling acts in the dimensions of time, space and the vagaries of stand choice. Before two months are out, it will all be over. The freezers will be filled, the checking account drained. The unmarked van of reality will pull up and dump me off outside a shopping mall, as I suddenly realize I’m behind … More . . .
Youth Hunt Preparations
I’m taking #2 out. He’s psyched. Saturday we went into town to get his youth tag. We spent Sunday afternoon getting his rifle sighted in. It’s funny how a reloader marks the passage of time and the growth of his son. This year we finished shooting up the original batch of reduced 30-30 loads. I noticed he fits the Marlin perfectly. His group is adequate for a supported shot at reasonable range. The new loads are a bit hotter from the ones we had loaded before. He can take a full 30-30 load now. He’s also ready for loading the … More . . .
Shamanic Guide — Treestand Safety
When I look back on my early years of deer hunting, it’s a small wonder I survived. Take tree stands for instance. Look at any good book on deer hunting. Go to any Hunter’s Ed class. Here’s what the Treestand Manufacturers Association says you don’t do: • Wear a safety belt around your waist. If you should fall, this will flip you upside down leaving you dangling helplessly; or you could completely slip from the belt and fall. • Hunt from a tree stand while under the influence of drugs, alcohol or if you’re physically impaired. • Use a tree … More . . .
The Cost of a Tag
Over on KentuckyHunting.com’s forums, SCSIMS was commenting on the increases in tag prices. I completely agree. Increasing tag prices: 1) Encourages folks to not buy tags and not report kills. This is the last thing you want. Once that begins snowballing, the herd dwindles back to nothing. 2) Discourages new hunters and old hunters. If hunting will remain the Commonwealth’s main choice in controlling deer herds, that is a problem. 3) Turns deer hunting into an elitist activity. One of the big draws of deer hunting is that you do not need to be a rich guy to do it– … More . . .
To hang or Not to Hang, That is the Question
I’ve never been much of a believer in letting the carcass age. Mine usually go right to the processor and I usually pick up the results a week later. He may let mine hang for a few days, while it waits its turn, but that’s it. I’m on the road to processing my own, now that I have a shed to do it, but it won’t age. I worked in a frozen meat plant for years, and before we ground up the 8-foot diameter pallets of beef, we’d put it in a tempering room. Basically, we were aging the cuts … More . . .
The ritual of Fall has begun.
The bug finally hit last night. All of a sudden, the scene changed. It came with the 10 degree drop in temperature, the accumulating leaves in the yard, the smell of my old leather shooting glove as I brought it out of the case. It was time to bow hunt, and I could no longer wait. I had been practicing for quite a while, but it had not seemed real. It was something too far off in the future to get worked up about. I grabbed some arrows and grandpa’s old watering can and stepped off the twenty yards, set … More . . .
The Optimal Whitetail Load
How do you know if you have an optimized whitetail load? That question is simple to answer: take it out in the woods, point it at deer and touch it off. If, in the next few seconds, you transform a graceful, warm, vital deer into a slowly cooling pile of venison, I think it is safe to conclude that you have an optimal load. Okay, I’m a smart-a$$. There is something I have noticed as I ever so slowly mature as a deer hunter and a reloader. There are an infinite number of mental bunny holes and most of them … More . . .
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