Shamanic Guide — How do you Bleat?
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 all you need to sound like a deer attempting to make contact with friends in the neighborhood. Now think of a deer caught in a fence. Say “maaAAAaa!” or even “maaaAAAaaaAAAAAaaa” That is the distress bleat. The more it rises and falls, the more distress you are imparting. String a … More . . .
Waiting for the Opener
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 lows in the mid-twenties. That’s about as cold as it gets for an opener in Kentucky. I’m hoping #2 Son can hack it. It should be good weather overall, just a bit colder than we’re used to. I’ve been tidying up the loading bench and the cleaning bench. I caught … More . . .
Stress Shopping yields new bag
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: a little LED light and a compass that are permanently sewn into the bag. It also has a divider in the big pouch. It will get rid of my biggest problem—the strap on the fanny kept slipping through the buckle. For the most part, I stopped wearing the fanny … More . . .
How was my Bow Season?
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 bow hunting. Yeah, the season start around Labor Day, but it’s hard to get into bow hunting deer when a) It’s so hot b) The deer aren’t cooperating c) The kids need some of my time for squirrel hunting.. That puts bow into my traditional start of the first weekend … More . . .
More on Deer Intelligence
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 grass, pass grass, and make little grass eaters. I could get totally gratuitous and suggest this extends to some vegetarian humans I know, but that would be going to far for just a cheap laugh at my vegan acquaintances. Your average deer is certainly above turkey in intelligence. It is … More . . .
Having an Understanding Wife
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 Memphis TN, that managed to schedule a wedding just before the opening of Duck Season. The groomsmen, the groom, and the father of the groom all brought their duck boats to the reception and took off for a week after the wedding. My son was born during opening week of … More . . .
Do you gut in the field?
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. It saves on leaves and muck in the cavity. If I still got one at the bottom of a ravine, I’d still gut it out to lighten the load. After hefting my big bruiser out last year un-gutted, I read an article about deer hunters having heart attacks, and I … More . . .
A Meat Pole for Deer Camp
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 light while I get elbow-deep in a deer. I’ve pondered the problem for a while. I figured a kid’s swing set would be an ideal model, but for the height I intended, the base would be dramatically wide. I also didn’t want to use too many long pieces. It finally … More . . .
First Blood with the Muzzleloader
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 I would buy it for myself as a birthday present. It was just a standard Thompson Center Hawken in .54. However, it had a really nice stock. Everyone ooohed and ahhhed at it when I brought it out. For laughs, I loaded it with a blackpowder and a toilet paper … More . . .
What was my very first deer like?
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 shot at a buck, a respectable 4 pointer, but what fell down was a doe. It all started when I was invited to hunt Sue and Hugh’s place outside Warsaw, Kentucky. Sue and Hugh had a trailer on 80 acres. I had been having some nice close-calls with the deer … More . . .
Back from the Hunt– 1 Doe with the Hawken
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 first muzzleloader deer in 20 years of trying. The shot rolled her over, and she was dead before she hit the ground. Funny thing: the girfriend stuck around for about 20 minutes trying to figure out why her buddy was taking a dirt nap. Deer are not really deep creatures, … More . . .
My thought on Decoys
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 it out in the front yard, and my dog went nuts. I’ve got a wonderful set of photos of the dog running out and trying to get the deer to run. It was a hoot. We took it out to the nearest county park and had great results. We put … More . . .
Our Little QDM Program
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, I chained up the gate and posted signs, and went about chasing everyone out. The next year, my neighbors started doing the same. As a result, my deer herd has probably doubled or tripled. We’ve also stopped having shots whizzing over our heads on opening day. We were able to … More . . .
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