Bowhunting
This is going to be a bit tickilish. I know my bow hunting friends might very well look at this and think I am knocking bow hunting. I am trying my darndest not to do so. However, it has been 5 years since I had to give up my bow, and as I’m putting the rifles away I must say that I have not missed bow hunting as much as I thought I would. What got me out of bow hunting was a mix of things. First, my eyes started to go. I was having trouble focusing on the pins … More . . .
The Clown Suit Revealed
Over the years, I have gone round and round about in my beliefs regarding camo for deer hunting. I started back in the early 80’s just using whatever was at hand, mostly stuff recycled from my paintballing. I was a bowhunter, and I usually wore an old milsurp M-65 field jacket, and the deer did not seem to mind. Well, I say that, but really they were too busy snorting at me for the mothballs I packed my wool pants in to be paying attention to the camo pattern. Over the years, I started thinking that I had to maximize … More . . .
So Now What?
Good question. Season is over for us. I still have a pile of stuff to do before calling it quits. The Guns One thing I learned over this season is that storing rifles in padded cases is bad Ju-Ju. I guess I was lucky all these years. I never had a problem. However, this year was particularly wet– record setting rain. We had water in the basement. The foam in the cases probably soaked up a bunch of humidity. After I found rust on some of my rifles, I made a point of bringing the cases upstairs and letting them … More . . .
The Way it Ends
The drive back Sunday was all too familiar.  Rain, a lot of unused tags, snow in the forecast, and listening to the Bengals lose.   I explained to Angus that was how I spent a good deal of my early years as a deer hunter.  Somehow Phil Samp play-by-play, Horst Muhlman field goals,  deer hunting, tag soup, and rain all fit together in one tight little package.  That was long ago. Things change after thirty years. For one thing, the Bengals went on to pull it out over Cleveland in the second half.  For another, the unfilled tags belonged to everyone … More . . .
Report from Deer Camp, 2011
Y’all were really nice about Dad passing. Thanks again for all the good wishes. Normally I would have been doing more of a day-by-day report up on Deer and Deer Hunting. Now, here it is, Thanksgiving, and I’ve hardly written a thing. Sadly, there has not been much to write. PRELUDE I’ll begin back in July. I was still recovering from pneumonia back during Turkey Season. We had missed quite a few weekends coming out to camp, and I was behind in my chores.  I went out in mid-July to mow around the house. Just at sundown there was a … More . . .
Getting to the Opener
It is always a bit of thrill getting to deer camp the night before The Opener. The preparations have usually been going on since August. The tree stand skirts are hung in September. Sure, we hunted a little in September and October, but mostly that ends up being armed scouting. What we are all really dreaming about is the odd big rack that appears out of the bottoms and comes up on our ridge starting about Halloween. Everyone wants to save their tag for that. Even with Dad passing away this year, the slow relentless march towards the Opener kept on. … More . . .
Weather Heebie-Jeebies
I do this every year. I know it’s neurotic. I can’t help it.  It gets down to Halloween and I start seriously thinking about the Rifle Opener, second weekend in November. Next I begin to wonder about how the weather will be. Usually it’s in the low thirties and partly cloudy. However, I’ve had some odd variants. In 2006 I got to my stand just before the drizzle started. It was 50-something. By 0900 I was taking horizontal rain, and 25 MPH winds and falling temperatures. I was wondering if it could get any worse when I heard thunder. That … More . . .
DST — More on this Deer Hunting Bugaboo
As you know, I have been examining the effects of Daylight Savings Time (DST)Â on sport of deer hunting– especially the effects on the deer themselves. This year, I have been conducting expanded experiments at the D&DH Pro-Staffer facility near Browningsville, KY. Three identical plots were created, each filled with a combination of ladino clover and wheat. In Plot #1, the Accelerated Plot, I placed test equipment including a Shamanic Anti-DST device that simulated the time change 2 weeks early. In Plot #2, the Control Plot, I placed test equipment but no Anti-DST device. DST will change back this weekend … More . . .
Second Guessing
Every year I start jonesing over my successes after the season ends. You can see it if you look back here in this weblog. Deer season ends, and sometime before the first turkey gobbles, I get all wound up over my deer rifles and their loads. Somehow I get to thinking things could have been better, even though the freezer is usually crammed full. Somehow, I feel like I could have done it better. In the wake of all that fussing, I have learned a few universal truths: 1) Any modern legal centerfire rifle cartridge will produce venison. Deer are … More . . .
Back at it — Yeah, we lost Dad
There’s that old bit of glurge about footsteps in the sand. You look back and see only one set of prints although you know someone was there helping you along. I just looked back and there’s nothing in this weblog for October except a piece on buck fever on the Third and a prayer request for my Dad mid-month.  October is normally my busy month for posting. There really is some stuff in this about deer hunting. Just bear with me for a bit. Dad Died Well, let me cut to the chase. Dad died. We buried him last week. … More . . .
The Revel
The Revel (Apologies to Bartholomew Dowling) We meet ‘neath the sounding rafter, From the walls the fallen all stare As they shout back our peals of laughter It seems their glass eyes aware. Then stand to your glasses, steady! We drink in our comrades eyes: One cup to the dead already- Hurrah for the next deer  that dies! Not here are the goblets glowing, Not here is the vintage sweet; ‘Tis cold as our hearts are growing, And dark as the doom they meet. But stand to your glasses, steady! And soon shall our pulses rise: A cup to … More . . .
Buck Fever
I have never had chronic buck fever, but I can point to at least a couple of times where I got a dose of it. Maybe this qualifies me to give advice. Maybe it doesn’t. However, I do know what has worked for me. First off, let me be clear. There are a bunch of different forms of buck fever. You got the shakes. You’ve got the freeze-ups, and you got the stupids. Maybe there’s other versions, but those are the ones I’ve seen. The Shakes: A deer comes in and you start shaking so bad you can’t hold the … More . . .
New-Mown Hay
I was down at Deer Camp last weekend. Everything went well. I really have no complaints. The family did not come with me. Angus was competing at his last big bagpipe competition for the season. I could not go, because I had to work on Friday and Monday. It rained– not a lot, but enough to keep me on the front porch being reflective. In earlier years, I might have been out hunting squirrel or deer. I might have been servicing tree stands. I might have been building ground blinds. I might have been doing a whole lot of things. … More . . .
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