The Hunting Times

As has been the custom for the past 34 years (well at least for me - for Dad, probably more like 50+), our family goes deer hunting on Thanksgiving.  This year, we mixed it up a bit - we all slept in and did not hunt this morning.  And to a person, NO ONE can remember the last time we slept in on Thanksgiving; not Dad, Uncle DC, Cousin Shane, me, Nick, Kathy, no one.  And you know what?  It felt kinda good to sleep in.  We must be getting old. Cousin Shane did not have the time away from the family to hunt this year, so he stopped by for a quick visit and a nice Sun King Wee-Mac beer.  Mighty tasty.  We had a short, but awesome, visit.         Selfie in the gator.  Drinking Wee-Mac and taking a farm tour. We all loaded up this afternoon at 3:  Dad, Kathy (her first time out this year), Nick, Alex, and me. It was 63 degrees F with a 22 mph wind gusting in all directions.  That kind of weather is "Kathy hunt...

Nick and I went out at 7 am this Wednesday.  It was 36 degrees F with only a slight wind.  When we arrived at Marshall's N woods, Harold was already on the tractor planting grass seed. We sat for two hours.  Neither of us saw any deer, but I did see a coyote (Latin:  Indominus Rex).  It was across the property line, and although I had two good chances to shoot it, I dare not cross that line.  I did mess with it a bit by squeaking.  My guess a small female. We walked out a 9.  Harold was just leaving so we chatted with him a bit. We had a birthday party for Grant and then Date Night, so no more hunting today. The "real" Indominus Rex, in case you did not catch it above.

Well as beautiful as the snow was yesterday, it is not our friend this morning.  My bride had to be at work at 0800.  So she wisely auto-started her car to warm up while she got ready. Unfortunately, that wet and heavy snow melted down all over our vehicles - and then Mr. Snow Miser and Mother Nature dropped the temperature to 4 degrees!  So what happened???  Our doors froze shut. I scraped all the snow I could off of her car.  We let it go through two cycles of self-start / warm-up.  And we still could not open a single door.  Of course this was after I pulled open the truck doors - which were also frozen - to get out my scraper. So, I warmed up the truck and took my bride to work.  She didn't want to drive the truck anyways and besides, I'll need it this afternoon for hunting.  I guess we both win. I am hoping that Big Red shines on the dark colored cars and warms them up a bit - at least enough so we can open some doors.  Temp...

So the snow kept on coming and coming and coming.  By 2 o'clock we had about 3" on the ground.  Dad calls and says, "Where we hunting tonight?" Nick is still ill and Alex has plans with his parents, so I load up and go get Dad. He carries a chair into Vice's and sits under a tree by the creek.  I park and walk the bottoms on Marshall.  We arrive at 2:30 pm.  There is only the slightest hint of any wind.  It's 30 F.  Just a pleasant day to be out.  Shucks, it sher was purty too... Since there was no wind, the snow fell straight down and collected, almost like in a snow globe.  And it was wet and heavy. Wet and heavy snow collecting on the trees It took me an hour and 15 minutes to walk to the first finger N of Bailey.  I walked W and sat for a bit.  I then continued N.  After two hours I did a radio check with Dad.  He thought he could tough it out until sunset.  I continued W. On top, facing NE on...

Alex's uncle Dave and cousin Craig joined us this morning for their first ever deer hunt.  They had been out before, but just as observers.  This time they carried licenses and firearms. We hit the golf course at 6:40 am.  It was a pleasant 30 F with only a slight breeze from the E (yes, from the E, not the prevailing W-SW). Dave and I sat on 'over-watch' above Hole #5.  Alex and Craig took the bottoms on Hole #15.  I suspect they did so to get out of the wind, because they don't have their Man Cards yet. We sat for two hours.  We saw red-tailed hawks and squirrels but no deer.  The snow did start to fall.  Not much was sticking to the ground, but it was falling.  It was quite the beautiful morning to be in the woods. Dave and I relocated to Hole #17 and dropped our gear.  We then walked E to the boys.  We pushed out 3 doe, but they ran by at Mach 2.8 - which is just barely too fast to make a shot.  Wisely the boys opte...

Nick and I went out to Marshall's about 4 pm.  Harold was there drilling in grass. Nick walked to the killing finger and I walked the bottoms. Nick chased 3 doe out of the finger to the N.  He then chased a large buck and doe out of the finger N. I walked the bottoms to Pete's buck and then cut up to the top.  I chased out 2 more doe (I thought I heard squirrels - Nick said they were deer).  These two ran S away from Nick. All told, Nick saw 7 deer.  I never saw one.  No shots fired, but a nice evening in the woods.

Alex had church and Nick was ill, so Dad and I went out to the golf course.  It was a much nicer day today, with the temp at 44 F and the wind only slight. Dad sat in a chair at #17 senior tees watching N, W, and E.  I went back to #4.  And we saw nothing.  Dad suggested we walk our own up.  So I headed to 15 then down 14 back to Dad.  Nada.  We called it at 9:30 and took yesterday's deer up to Simpson. This is looking back NW.  I sat in that woods across the bridge yesterday morning. As you can tell, once the sun comes up, it's difficult to see back in this direction. This morning I sat where that deer crossed yesterday. Hole #4.  Sunday 15 NOV 7:30 am. I went back out at 4:15 pm.  Drove out to Marshall's since I saw Harold picking corn earlier today.  He was done when I arrived.  It's 55 degrees.  I have dressed very light. I sat in Davey's old stand in the Killing Finger for about an hour.  It ...

Firearm season opened up in Indiana on Saturday, 14 NOV 2015.  That found Nick, Alex, and Me out on the golf course.  Nick sat on 15, Alex over-watched 5, and I sat on 4.  We saw tons of squirrels, birds, and a fox and fired zero shots. Alex saw a buck running down 1, stood on the tee box like he was the king, and then ran back up 2, across 3, and then into the woods W of me.  I never saw him. I did see one deer before first light, crossing the hill, silhouetted by the rising sun.  It was one minute before legal shooting light, but it didn't matter because she was off our property and we cannot hunt to the S.  Four more came running my way about 8:30.  I took a knee, rifle up, and safety off.  At their trajectory, they were going to cross the property line 20 yards E of me.  They turned and went back SE, again all on property we cannot hunt. A red fox came by.  I am guessing it was a she, as it 'squatted' to piss - on the bridge of...

Maybe you can recall from your high school chemistry days that water is nearly an incompressible fluid.   That's important.  Save that piece of data. And, you surely know that if you get gun powder WET, it becomes very difficult to light it off.  It doesn't like to go "boom" when wet.  Thus the origin of "keep your powder dry." With today's ammo (rim fire, pistol, shotgun, rifle, what have you), this is rarely something we have to consider - keeping our powder dry.  The shell itself will keep our powder dry.  However, when you consider Muzzle Loaders, now we have something to concern ourselves with. I have, in the past, put electrical tape over the end of my muzzle loader (dangerous end) to keep the rain / moisture out.  I do not want water to seep down the barrel and wet my powder.  An argument could be made that this has some effect on the accuracy - and it probably does, but it is so negligible as to be moot to discuss. Electrical ta...

Reminds me of the line from the movie Tropic Thunder - you never go full auto... Well, today we did.  We borrowed a fully automatic AR-15 and loaded up 30-round magazines.  Yes, the "owner" was with us and supervising the entire time.  I was the camera man.  Shot these videos on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.  Shout out to our sponsor - Samsung paid me $500 each for saying that.  Not really, but I wish. The gun had a 10" barrel and was selectable from Safe, to Semi-Auto, to Full-Auto.  We also put a brass collector on the ejector port so we did not have to pick up the empties. Got video of Dad, Alex, and Nick shooting. The guy in the back of them?  He's there to ensure that you hold the gun tight enough so as not to spray too high or behind you once you go into Full Auto mode. As you can see, they took it easy - shooting in 3-5 round bursts.  Nick shot the most at one time.  And he also had to stop as his dog, Axel, went running...

In the Fall 2015 issue of Pheasants Forever magazine on page 64, there is an article taken from a book.  The book is "Hunting and Home in the Southern Heartland, The Best of Archibald Rutledge."  The article is reprinted with permission.  This section is entitled, Why I Taught My Boys to be Hunters.  And while I understand that Archie was given three boys, I on the other hand was blessed with one of each sex.  And so I have changed the title to "family" instead of boys. As I read the article, it struck me that I had those same feelings as Archie, as probably did my father and grandfather and uncle and brother and cousin and son and daughter and son-in-law and everyone else who participated with us during our endeavors out of doors. I would love to provide you with the entire article, but I am not going to type that much.  I would rather you join Pheasants Forever and get your own copy of the magazine.  Or, you could purchase the book noted above ($...

RePhil, his son Aaron, and I drove up to Ellendale, North Dakota last Friday, October 30.  It was a 13 hour drive from Mulberry.  We arrived in enough time to hunt Saturday (Halloween).  We checked in with the land owner and then set off in 50 - 70 mph winds.  Yes, hunting was TOUGH. We did a repeat on Sunday and Monday and drove back Tuesday.  The weather the next two days was the best we have ever had.  It was 40 for the low and 65 for the high with winds in the Single Digits!  This is a first.  Never, in 11 years, have we hunted ND and had single digit winds. Now if only the birds would have cooperated.  Sadly, we bagged only 3 and RePhil, on his own, missed three he should have taken.  It matters not, we had a blast. We have agreed that next year we will be taking a dog! RePhil and Aaron Snellenbarger at sunrise W of Ellendale, ND on Sunday, 01 NOV 2015. The standard shot of guns with our bird. We have...