#2 Son, AKA Mooseboy, succeeded in bagging his first deer on Opening Day. I t was a bit of a mixed victory, but then again, aren’t they all. We got up into the stand near the campground a bit late, but still well before sunrise. A screech owl, the … Continue reading →
My folks called up today to wish me well on the hunt. I wish I could get Dad out for a try, but he says his deer hunting days are over. The were paging through the BassPro flyer and found a game cart on sale, and wanted to know if … Continue reading →
Bleating is fairly simple: First you have the contact bleat– this is the call that deer use to announce their location. It is a friendly neutral call. Say “maa” — like “ma” but with a long “a” sound. That’s a bleat. Three of these over 15 seconds is a about … Continue reading →
It’s getting close. Opening Day is getting real close. Saturday morning. I’ll try and pull out of work early on Friday. Girlfriend is going down early to open up. There is not much else to do except sit and wait. I’ve been obcessing on the weather report. It looks like … Continue reading →
The long waiting finally made me succumb to stress shopping. I stopped by Walmart today. They had a really nice little padded shoulder bag that will replace my aging fanny pack. Geez! That thing has been with me since ’92 or so. This new bag has couple of nice features: … Continue reading →
Bow season sort of ends for me in November. It’s not that I’m blocked from doing it. It just turns out that way. By moving my attentions to Kentucky, it’s kind of narrowed my bow opportunities in a lot of ways. First, September is usually too hot to do serious … Continue reading →
Now that I am truly middle-aged, there are some things that I just cannot do. It is not because I am physically constrained. It is because I’ve just gotten the peek at the consequences, and I know better. So it is with this lung thing I’ve been nursing for over … Continue reading →
I would say that my orginal post was in no way attempting to anthropomorphize whitetail deer, but some folks seem to think so. Quite to the contrary, deer have intelligence and world view befitting a 4-legged herbivore, and that’s about it. You really don’t need that much upstairs to eat … Continue reading →
DeerMeadowFarm over at HuntingChat.net is in the doghouse, because he missed a wedding chasing a deer on opening day of gun season. He was looking for help. I say don’t sweat it. They get over it. Some things just have to be done. I knew one family down south of … Continue reading →
I was a gut-in-place kind of guy. However, I became a drag-it-out convert when we moved into the farm. I can radio back and have a pickup within 5 minutes. I even have one of those hitch platforms that is low-enough to the ground for me to flop ’em on. … Continue reading →
Every good deer camp needs a meat pole. We’ve been making do for the past three years, gutting and cleaning deer on the front porch. However, it makes for a messy clean-up, and Girlfriend has decided that there is no way she can stomach another episode, with her holding the … Continue reading →
There’s a picture of me with my new muzzleloader. I’m at my 25th birthday party. It was a truly grand affair. I remember it like it was yesterday. I wasn’t even thinking about deer hunting with it. I just saw it at Sports Headquarters up in Sharonville, and determined that … Continue reading →
My mind drifts back. What was my first deer like? Let me give you a few highlights: 1) Just before I shot my deer, I had nearly been trampled in a stampede of deer. 2) I shot my first deer at 10 feet with a Texas Heart Shot 3) I … Continue reading →
I’m back in from the hunt. a doe came in at 5 with her girlfriend trailing. She came in on exactly the downwind side and busted me. At 6, she came back on a crosswind trail and I nailed her at 60 yards with the 54 Hawken. This is my … Continue reading →
Decoys are not one of my favorite gimmicks. On the advice of Peter Fiduccia’s articles and book, I bought a Carry-lite full body decoy. It was a gorgeous piece of work– Italian handpainted. It was incredibly life-like. I have credit to Fiduccia that his writing was so convincing. I put … Continue reading →
My family acquired a 220 acre tract in SW Bracken County in September of 2001. When we showed up, it and the surrounding tracts were wide open to hunting. I’ve since met guys from all over that knew about that land and have hunted it over the years. In 2001, … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
——————————————————————————– 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 . . … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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, … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
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 … Continue reading →
