|
|
July 27, 2009 by
Personally, I do not think there is anything in the world that can kick my adrenaline into overdrive like a top-heavy whitetail buck with a lot of character. By character, I am talking about a thick massive rack with gnarly kickers, stickers and trash. Throw in a pair of draping drop-tines and you’ve got just the right dosage to flat-line this poor deer hunter’s heart. Consequently, the buck I just described is exactly what walked in front of Robert Taylor during the 2008 firearm season in Kentucky. Just a brief glimpse of this 29-point bluegrass bruiser will make you want to jump into a treestand right now and hold on tight until the end of season. With that being said, let’s take a quick look at how a last minute decision generated an encounter with a buck of a lifetime.
Like most of us, Robert Taylor is a hunter who works hard for a living, but he lives to chase whitetails during the fall of the year. Last November was no exception and Taylor made a long drive north to Kentucky to hunt one of his favorite locations. Unfortunately, two consecutive days in the same stand had produced no big buck sightings. Furthermore, to make matters worse, the weather forecast was predicting strong storms and heavy rain for the next day. At this point, Taylor had just about decided to stay in and rest during the bad weather. However, something told him to give the stand on the edge of an old reclaimed strip mine at least one more chance. This split-second decision to tough things out and stay in the woods was probably the best move Taylor had ever made as a deer hunter.
After hours of patiently sitting still, Taylor’s persistence was finally rewarded just before dark. As the last few minutes of shooting light winded down, he began to quietly put away his gear and call it a night. At that very moment, the buck of his dreams materialized and stepped into an opening about 200 yards from his stand. Without hesitation, Taylor steadied his aim and slowly squeezed the trigger causing an echoing boom to break the evening silence. Ironically, it started raining just after the shot and Taylor had to work fast to reach the last place he had seen the buck. A sigh of relief hit the hunter when he spotted the monster piled up about 20 yards deeper into the woods than what he had expected. The buck’s intimidating rack looked like a thick entanglement of bony points and curling drop-tines. Refusing to throw in the towel allowed Taylor to tag a giant 29-point non-typical that scored an amazing 249 & 6/8. Way to hang in there brother!
[ Read Full Post ]July 22, 2009 by
I was punching in the Outdoor Life website address this morning and an article running on my MSN homepage caught my eye. The lead picture for the story was some young hunters decked out in orange and the headline read “Kids Hunting Alone.” The article appeared on MSNBC and attempted to link deadly hunting accidents with a lack of state mandated age requirements. This piece began with a recount of a tragic hunting accident that involved a young hunter from Washington State. A teenage boy mistakenly shot and killed a hiker during a bear hunt in western Washington’s Skagit County. Next, the article hammered the point that the boy was not even old enough to drive himself to the woods, but it was perfectly legal for him to hunt without adult supervision in the state of Washington.
The story also provided up to date research showing that currently 21 states allow children 12 or younger to hunt alone. Within the article, a variety of people weighed-in on why they felt states should or should not pass new legislation over this issue. Strong comments from both sides of the debate were also posted, which stirred a lot of controversy. As a hunter, it was scary to read some of the viewpoints that were voiced. Basically, a lot of people felt that more gun control laws or simply doing away with firearms and hunting would be the best option for our country. Personally, I feel that it should be up to a parent (not the government) to decide when a child is old enough to hunt or start hunting alone. It’s also a parent’s responsibility to teach gun safety and woodsmanship skills that will prevent a tragic accident from ever occurring in a child’s life. What do you think? Post a comment and let us know how you feel about the hunting age requirement issue.
[ Read Full Post ] July 10, 2009 by
The quiet Euclid, Ohio, widow who kept mostly to herself said she was “a giving person” and “a loving person” when confronted by a WKYC reporter earlier this week. Well, she certainly gave it to a Bambi-sized fawn she discovered hiding in her flower bed recently.
The widow, Dorothy Richardson, allegedly beat to death the 25-pound fawn with a garden shovel after spotting it cowering among her bushes and then stuffed it’s carcass in a cardboard box and placed it at the curb for a trip to the local landfill. Yikes! Joe Pesci never had it so bad in any of his roles as a wise-cracking mobster.
“I just tapped him a little bit…just a little tap,” Richardson told WKYC as she demonstrated her technique. “I did like this…tap…just tapping, get going. His eyes contacted my eyes like he’s going wild. And when is he going to jump and, and bite my head off?”
But neighbor and city councilman Christopher Gruber said Richardson told him a different story.
“She hit it once and according to her, it squealed and she hit it two more times. And she says what I wanted to do is put the deer at the edge of the yard so the other deer know not to mess with me…” Gruber told the news station. That’s some real Tower of London stuff right there. Gruber by the way, is now a witness in the animal cruelty case that Dorothy “The Shovel” Richardson has been brought up on. If convicted, she faces up to 60 days in jail and $1,000 fine.
In response to her fears that the fawn was going to savagely “bite her head off,” I can relate. Hey Dorothy, it’s sort of like those cows I blogged about the other week. Of course, I never went medieval on them with a pair of pliers and blow torch either.
[ Read Full Post ]July 8, 2009 by
Starting with the bizarre death of former Kung Fu star David Carradine in Thailand of all places, the Grim Reaper seems to have been working overtime among the celebrity ranks in the past weeks. Following Carradine, came pre-eminent sidekick and “Heeeerrrreee’s Johnny!!!” announcer, Ed McMahon who was last publicly seen this year hocking his gold for cash in a Super Bowl commercial.
The sad and lengthy public cancer death of original Charlie’s Angel, Farrah Fawcett, soon followed; and just as the legacy of her dramatic acting will forever be overshadowed by her 1970s iconic pin-up girl status, so too was her final curtain call by another unexpected celebrity death on the same day—that of pop legend and legendary weird dude, Michael Jackson. The sudden news of his passing shocked the mainstream media into a frenzy of coverage that is wearying even the most ardent of fans to this day and in the meantime shuttled Fawcett’s expected obituary to a page 2 after-thought.
Another shocker (and perhaps the one I’m personally least able to wrap my head around) was the discovery of incomparable pitchman Billy Mays’s lifeloss body just last week. He sold us Oxi-Clean, KaBoom, the Tool Band-It, Zorbeez, Mighty Putty, the Awesome Auger, the Big City Slider Kit and more and made it all seem like something that would truly improve our lives if we would just “BUY NOW.” A pulmonary embolism is thought to be the culprit there. Other celebs leaving us in this two-week flurry include impressionist Fred Travalena, Karl Malden (can you believe he was 97?) and some other lady who was famous in the 40s and 50s but whose name completely escapes me now, probably because I wasn’t around back then.
While none of these people’s passing (and more significantly their lives) are any more significant than the countless random deaths of people in our communities every day, they often feel as if they are for the simple reason that we had heard of these people, we watched them on television shows and movies, we saw them perform and many times we caught them on the news. Their lives, whether we’re a fan or not, become oddly entwined with ours if for no other reason than the saturation of media in our daily routines.
Unfortunately, there is another death that occurred last week that will touch many outdoorsmen much deeper than these others and that is the passing of outdoor show host Paul Newsom. Newsom hosted his own show Paul Newsom’s Great Outdoors TV series for more than 15 years, but to many of us, he was the original face and host of Mossy Oak’s Hunting the Country program when wide scale outdoor television was really getting it’s start.
I only met him one brief time many years ago and he seemed like a nice enough guy. He was an avid hunter who loved deer, turkey and waterfowl hunting. And while I can’t speak as to his true character behind the camera, I know on it, he set the bar for legitimate outdoor television hosts with his good looks and strong-voiced delivery. Like Mays, Newsom was at heart, a pitchman, whose Newsom Productions put him in the role of doing countless TV commercials for local car dealerships throughout his native Oklahoma. I didn’t know this, but he also served on the school board in his hometown of Bixby, Okla. In fact, the school’s Web site has a pretty interesting bio (http://www.bixbyps.org/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectio...) of Newsom that shows like most of the people we get to know through television, their lives are much deeper than what they appear on the small screen.
[ Read Full Post ]July 2, 2009 by
Archery whitetail seasons start in two months or less. Do you have all your preseason chores finished? Now is the time to make your major intrusion so any mature buck has ample time to forget about you tromping through his bedroom, dining room and mass transit system.
What constitutes a major chore? Anything to do with setting up a treestand or a ground blind ambush location is a major chore. You're going to be seen, heard and smelled so why not give your intrusion away early and have everything ready for a sneaky entrance on opening day? Set up a couple of ambush locations now and save a couple to set up if you see a different pattern emerging during the season.
1. Stand Setup
Despite most companies leaning toward light and quiet treestand setups, there still is some rattling, banging and clanking that takes place when you put up a stand. In addition, getting a 20-foot ladder stand into the woods often requires the use of an ATV. Get several of your favorite ambush sites set up now and get the noise out of the way.
2. Trimming The Hedges
It's difficult not to leave scent behind when you're trimming shooting lanes and walking through waist-high brush. Get it done now and let the rain wash away your presence later. Trim your shooting lanes now when foliage is at its utmost and be sure not to overharvest the foliage camouflaging your treestand setup. In addition, make sure to clip and trim any underbrush that may rub up against your legs and waist while going to, or from your stand site. These innocent-looking saplings can hold scent and give you away during the season.
3. Mowing The Yard
If you have a weedeater or better yet, a tractor-operated deck mower, use it to make a patch of least resistance. Deer love to follow easy trails in and out of the woods. Mowing or clearing a path to and from your stand, or along a field edge is a great way to entice deer to your location. They'll appreciate the easy route and nip the new growth along the way.
4. Gardening Chores
Finally, if you have a remote stand location in deep timber, plant a mini food plot, or several around your stand. You can use an ATV and a drag or even a hand-operated rake to get the chore done. Sprinkle some seed and fertilizer on the tiny plot and you may just attract a big buck afraid to leave the timber before darkness.
Summer is a time to loaf before the rush of the hunt, but don't let the opportunity to get some preseason chores done slip away. If you have any other summer setup chores you find helpful, please share them with us.
[ Read Full Post ]
|
|
