The Hunting Times

Cousin Shane is two weeks my younger, so we grew up tight.  Got our first BB guns and .22 rifles together.  And when we finally hit 13, our Dads took us deer hunting over the Thanksgiving holiday.  For the past 37 years, our Thanksgiving feast has been a cold ham sandwich in the deer woods with our fathers.  And as our kids grew up and showed interest, they started to tag along too. Well, Father Time has spoken and the "old men" think it wiser that they stay in where it is warm, where they don't have to walk 1/2 a mile to a stand, and what would they even do with a deer if they shot one?  They can't load it any more.  So this is how we celebrated Thanksgiving 2018 this morning - Yes, this is our breakfast.  And as you can tell, it was awesome! Our feast spread out all over the garage workbench. Ritz crackers, three types of cheeses, Hot Pepper Butter, two types of deer salami, Buffalo Trace & Colonel Taylor's bourbons, and lots of diff...

After getting up on the third ring of my alarm when my wife 'encouraged' me to get out of bed, I finally did.  I made it to the woods at 7:10.  Legal hunting light was 7:11.  Now don't get me wrong, I do not like walking into the woods when it's dark.  I know there are not supposed to be any other hunters on the property, but there are hunters to the S and E.  I do not want them mistaking me for a deer.  It's a really bad day when you get shot...today, though, I was pushing the limit and should have already been in the woods. The wind was blowing steady from the W on top, but in the bottoms it was calm with swirling winds.  It was 30 degrees out and overcast.  Overall a nice morning. As I was walking down the road to the woods, I saw a large deer cross the road in front of me.  It was too far away to call buck or doe, but it was most certainly not a monster buck nor a yearling.  Probably a 4 or 6-point buck.  It snorted when it ...

The gang all headed out for the golf course this morning for opening day of firearms season for 2018.  We did ok in the morning, bagging a small buck and a very large doe.  We went back out in the evening and bagged another three small anterless deer.  Five deer on opening day by four people - that's the definition of a great day.  Not sure we've ever had a better opening day... There were shots all over this morning - S, E, and N.  Folks were seeing deer, but not many were getting bagged.  Both S & E missed.  Not sure about N.  Hunters were in the woods though for sure! Reports from hunters on other properties: RePhil went out in the morning and didn't see anything.  He was bored and texted me a lot. Zach bagged him a nice buck - the one that never gave him a shot during archery season. Krueger got him a wall hanger, which you kinda hate to do because they get so expensive.  Beautiful 10-pointer! Davey didn't say if he was l...

RePhil, Davey, and I met A-A Ron in Sioux City, Iowa and drove to meet Kent Burget in Winnetoon, Nebraska for a long week-end of busting pheasants. Winnetoon is located just 20 miles S of the Missouri River and 2 hours due W from Sioux City in the NE corner of the state, or the middle of no where! The accommodations are fantastic.  Kent has a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom, full kitchen "cabin."  We took some of our own food, but we also tasted some of the local cuisine as well. We hunted both public and private land, and saw more birds than we have seen in a long time.  Kent's two dogs, Layla & Bailey, worked great.  Lots of solid points.  If we would have been better shots, we could have limited out.  Alas, pheasant hunting is tough.  You walk through grass that is waist high to head high - because that's where the birds are. We ended up bagging 10, but the killing of birds was not our sole purpose.  It was being out with good friends, tellin...