Deer Hunting
Nearing the Half-Way Point
With the Polar Vortex about to sweep down from the North, and the Super Bowl nearly upon us, I thought I would check in. I normally look at Super Bowl Weekend as the half-way point in the wait between the end of Deer Season and the beginning of Turkey. It really is not; I mean don’t go breaking out a calendar and start counting. It used to be that you had to have your turkey tag request in the mail by about now, or else Ohio wasn’t going to let you hunt in the spring. Thankfully those days are long … More . . .
KY Non-Resident Fees Hiked
From: 2019 Licenses on Sale FRANKFORT, Ky. (1/12/19) — Licenses and permits to fish, hunt and trap in Kentucky in the coming license year are on sale now. The 2019-2020 license year starts March 1. License and permit fees for Kentucky residents for the 2019-2020 license year are unchanged from the 2018-19 license year. Prices on some options for non-residents have changed and include: Annual fishing license, $55; One-day fishing license, $15; Seven-day fishing license, $35; Annual hunting license, $150; Statewide deer permit, $185; Spring turkey permit, $85; Fall turkey permit, $85; One-day hunting license, $25; Seven-day hunting license, $65; … More . . .
Found a new Gunsmith
I sent the Mauser from Hell out for a new safety. Hibberd’s Armory suggested I try Nathan Fleming at Legacy Gunsmithing. That was just a few weeks ago. I called Nathan, and he sent me a quote, and two weeks later, the Mauser is back and the new Timney safety is installed and I’m impressed. Best of all, Nathan is over by Saint Xavier High School, less than 5 miles from my house. Nathan has his own bluing tanks, and is a full-service gunsmith. His father is a long-time gunsmith out of Columbus, Ohio. This post has already been read … More . . .
Deer Season Post-Mortem, 2018
Let me be clear: This season sucked. It sucked in so many ways it hurts to think about it. Not everyone in Kentucky feels this way. That’s fine. I can believe our problems were localized, possibly self-inflicted, whatever. It still sucked. I’m looking at the final harvest numbers for November. Statewide the numbers good– #2 all-time. Locally, Bracken county had an average year. Just across the ridge, however, Pendleton County’s harvest was the worst in 6 years. Let me discuss what I think are the causes; maybe it will be worth it for you planning for next time. Before I … More . . .
But Wait! There’s More
At 0915 Sunday, I was just putting the finishing touches on what I thought was going to be the last post of the season. The fog had started to roll in before 2200 the night before. It had been an iridescent pea soup at 0600. A full moon and fog will do that. Angus and SuperCore had gone out for one last try. I had taken a doe the evening before, and was needing a rest. I went back to sleep when everyone left and only arose at 0900. I was freshening up my coffee when I heard a muffled … More . . .
A Doe for the Freezer
It says over in the right column, “On this day nothing happened, ever.”  That’s not entirely true. I just don’t write about it all that much. The Shamanic Deer Team woke up this morning with just 10 hours left of the season. They’re all out trying one last try. I slept in. No. I’m not tagged out. I’m just tired out. I’ve got a couple hours of packing ahead of me. Somewhere in there, I’ll pop the cork on the water and let it drain back into the cistern. We’ll lock up camp and go. Out at Midway yesterday afternoon, … More . . .
Finally! Shaman Scores a Buck
For the first time in a week, the Shamanic Dream Team went afield this morning with reasonably good weather. From Sunday to Friday it was cold (about 15 degrees below normal) and wet. Along the way we have had to face rain, drizzle, graupel, freezing rain, driving rain, snow and sleet. We had to evacuate deer camp on Thursday after an ice storm knocked out the power and threatened to close the roads. The second Saturday of season found us pretty well wet and demoralized. Angus got called into work. SuperCore has barely seen a deer. I had seen a … More . . .
Rifle Opener 2018
This was the coldest Rifle Opener we’ve had. Temps dipped down to 24F, and there was a steady cold west wind most of the morning. Shooting was light; there was 1 shot per 3 minutes, but outside of a few blazing minutes here and there, it was dead. The eleventh shot was fairly close at 0711 ET. That was Angus taking his buck. Angus said he was hunkered down behind the treestand skirt trying to stay out of the wind when he saw the buck’s back. He had sneaked out of the pasture to the north and was travelling across … More . . .
One Week to Go
I woke up this morning and started to feel the rush. Things were piling up.  I started getting that caged-animal feeling at 0400. I went down to the Reloading Cave and sharpened knives, and cased up some of the deer rifles. The Opener is just a week away. The whole past two weeks have been hectic. I’ve got the S-10 Deer Wagon in for a last-minute oil change, and some new rear tires. We’ll drive it to deer camp this weekend and finish outfitting it for the Opener. It runs, but S-10 don’t age as well as they used to. … More . . .
A Mooselette Comes to Deer Camp
Deer Camp opened this year with a new addition. Mooselette turned 6 this year. She has been out with Daddy Moose and myself to hike and hunt squirrel. However, yesterday afternoon marked the first time our youngest camper has officially donned the Orange and gone afield. This day has been 7 years in the making, as you may recall: I’ve Been Busy . . . You can see this project was anticipated all the way back to near the beginning. Mooselette had a good time out at Hollywood. It was cut short by a severe wind event that drove us … More . . .
Testimonial: Dyna-Tek Bore Coat is Amazing
I just wanted to give you a quick story about my Savage 99 at the range today. First off, though, I need to give you a bit of history. KYHillChick bought me this Savage 99 in 308 WIN in 2003 for my birthday. I’ve used it every year as my Opening Day goto rifle since. I encountered a bunch of problems getting it ready for its first season. Most of them were easily worked out. The one lingering problem was that it required at least 5 fouling shots every year before it would begin to shoot accurately. From there on, … More . . .
Range Day
Angus and Moose brought some from friends out from town, Keith and George, the new guy. Everyone had a good time, but you wouldn’t know it from the expressions. It was a hot one for September. Temps were in the high 80’s. Update on The Mauser From Hell Before they arrived, I was working on a couple of my projects. You may all remember The Mauser from Hell, a sporterized K98 that has previously given me fits. Over the winter, I opened up the barrel channel and removed enough of the old bedding to fit a dollar bill down the … More . . .
Watch out for Turkey Mites
Last year about this time, I was watching a bumper crop of deer out at the farm. The neighbor to my north had sold out and he was no longer dumping $700 worth of corn into his feeder every year. The deer all came over to my place. They’re not nearly as prevalent this year, but it made for a grand show while it lasted. One thing I noticed was most of the deer were showing signs of something really bugging the snot out of them. They seemed pre-occupied with something that was making them twitch and shake. I chalked … More . . .
Updated KY Deer Regs are Posted
After a looooong delay, KYDFWR has finally got the updated 2018-2019 deer regs published. What’s in: You can now bag up to 4 deer on your KY deer tag– no more than one antlered animal. There are a bunch of zone changes– a lot of counties went up a zone. What’s out: The proposed expanded crossbow season was cut. The extra antlerless rifle season in late September got the ax Here are the amended rules. http://genesis9.angzva.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/fallhuntingguide2018-192ndrun.pdf Here’s video discussing all the changes: This post has already been read 1440 times!Views: 5 Related posts: KY Deer Regs are … More . . .
KY Deer Regs are still delayed
. . . and not due until mid-September. This post has already been read 1489 times!Views: 15 Related posts: Updated KY Deer Regs are Posted Angus Passes Hunter Ed The Countdown Begins KY 2018 Rules Delay KY Non-Resident Fees Hiked 2026 Fall Rules are Out Is the USDA Trying to Kill Deer Hunting? Deer Opener
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The Shamanic Frog Rifle
I turned 60 last week. Things have been fairly quiet down at the farm. I went down and mowed last weekend. I’d like to write something dramatic about it all. However, this has been a rather boring summer. Edit: I deleted a list of the highlights of my summer, because it was just too boring. That’s how boring it’s been. I figure that if y’all wanted to read that kind of muck you’d be on Facebook instead of here. The reason it’s been so boring goes back to my first sentence. A lot of what has been happening has been … More . . .
Michigan Bans Baiting!
From FoxNews.COM Michigan sets new deer-hunting rules to keep chronic wasting disease from spreading Michigan Natural Resources Commission has approved new deer-hunting regulations to help curb chronic wasting disease from spreading, Michigan Department of Natural Resources said. The rules, which go into effect for this year’s deer-hunting season, will pose new restrictions on baiting and feeding. Among the regulations will be a statewide ban on the use of all natural cervid urine-based lures, and an immediate ban on baiting and feeding in the 16 counties that make up the Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone, according to the state’s … More . . .
KY 2018 Rules Delay
Wondering why the 2018-2019 KY Fall Hunting Guides aren’t out yet? From Facebook: This post has already been read 2821 times!Views: 6 Related posts: Rifle Opener 2018 2026 Fall Rules are Out Turkey Camp 2018 Deer Season Post-Mortem, 2018 Angus Passes Hunter Ed The Countdown Begins KY Deer Regs are still delayed KY Non-Resident Fees Hiked
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Momma, I want to Swing!
I had a doe bring her fawn up into the yard at camp yesterday, and it got caught on the security cameras. It looked like the fawn was running for the meatpole. Little bugger! He’ll be swinging from there soon enough. He doesn’t need to be there yet. This post has already been read 1552 times!Views: 4 Related posts: Is the Acorn Crop Failing? To Bait, Or Not to Bait QDM, Shaman-style Blue Tongue Comes to the County Developments– Food Plots and Jagende Hutte II Mining the Deer Log Youth Hunt SNAFU PT III Waiting for the Opener
More . . .Kentucky Crossbow Changes
Starting in 2019, Kentucky will be liberalizing its Crossbow Season for deer. The changes were adopted last week: Major Changes to Kentucky Crossbow Season for 2019-2020 Here are the details: MAJOR CHANGES TO KENTUCKY CROSSBOW SEASON FOR 2019-2020 The KDFWR Commission met on Friday, June 15, 2019. Kentucky Crossbow Federation president Perry McClure was present, along with other KCF members. At that meeting, they approved the following for the 2019-2020 hunting season. The crossbow season will begin on the 3^rd Saturday of September and run continuously until the third Monday in January. Youth under the age of 16 may hunt … More . . .
Mining the Deer Log
I was playing around with the camp’s deer log, and I cooked up some charts to display some of the data. Most of the concepts are not new to you. First off, let’s look at the barometer and see how it has influenced our deer harvest: (Click on the graphs to get a full-sized image) Generally speaking, 29.80″ – 30.60″ is considered a good range for taking deer.  30.01″ – 30.40″ is considered Optimal. Sure enough, at our place over 18 seasons we’ve seen exactly that. Of course, below 29.8, it’s usually pouring rain, and above 30.6 it’s windy and … More . . .
Thoughts on Feeding Deer
A lot of folks here in the Trans-Bluegrass think it is a good idea to set out corn for the deer. I have been saying for years that I did not think it was a good idea. In the past, my reasoning was that I had tried it early on here at the farm and found it was not attracting deer nearly as much as I had thought. What seemed to occupy their attentions most on my ridges were acorns. No amount of corn was going to keep them away from acorns in the fall. I have a recent data … More . . .
In Praise of Ed’s Red
I looked back and found my first mention of Ed’s Red clear back in the first month of this weblog. Rude, Rusty Surprises in your Smokepole. Since then, I’ve gone through many pints of the stuff. I whipped up a batch a couple weeks ago. Much like I was doing in 2004, this was to use in a muzzleloader. Now I do not shoot black powder in my hunting muzzleloaders. When I do, I use hot water and the following recipe: 1 part Simple Green 1 part Murphy’s Oil soap 1 part Hydrogen Pyroxide In modern muzzleloaders, we’re dealing with … More . . .
Salting the Deer
With all the hoo-haw over KYHillChick, a lot of chores have needed to be spooled off.   She’s fine, by the way. Thanks for asking. I tried a few weeks ago to start mowing around camp. After less than 10 minutes, the belt on the Cub Cadet went smoking into oblivion. I couldn’t do anything at the time, but fuss and fume. I had to get back to town. Last weekend was the first time I’d been able to get back down and cart the mower over to Chatham for repair. Mister Poe is all backed up at the moment. It’ll … More . . .
Return of the Whitetail in Kentucky
NOTE: 10/3/2021 Well, Hoop-de-Do! I found them.   I was beginning to despair. I discovered that these Art Landers columns had disappeared when KYForward.com folded tent a while back. However, I discovered copies of them on the Wayback Machine. I snagged copies in PDF. Enjoy! Here is a great 2-part article by Art Landers on the history of whitetail deer hunting in the state of Kentucky. Part I Art Lander’s Outdoors The white-tailed deer in Kentucky and the return of a native species | KyForward.com Part II Art Lander’s Outdoors White-tailed deer population flourishes today as a relic of Kentucky’s … More . . .
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