September 16, 2012

                                                                                Genesis 1

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Its September  16  7:30  PM, do you know where your BUCK is?

The White tailed deer is a very fascinating creature, it has different phases in life and if fact in every season of the year. A buck is normally born in late May and or June and it normally has one or two brothers and or sisters to grow up with. Unlike we humans it grows up fast and leaves its mother‘s nurturing and watch full eyes at about one year old. In its first fall of life  ( if it lives that long) it will grow its first set of buttons ( button Buck) or antlers  and learn real quick who man is and that its best to stay as far from him as possible especially in the fall.  The white tail buck loses its antlers early spring and shortly thereafter starts growing a new pair. The size and mass of the individual buck’s antlers is dependent many things, its heredity , or gene pool, what is has to eat during the year, and the minerals available to him throughout the year and overall health.

   I have read that if a buck get hurt on its left side during the year , its antlers  on the right side may show some type of irregularity .Same for the opposite side. It takes about three years in most cases for a buck to start sporting some impressive headwear! Ever year after that his antlers will increase in size and mass IF he lives and stays healthy up until about six or seven years old,  then antler growth falls off each successive year he lives.

  After the first year a buck learns, in most cases to rely on the natural gifts our Heavenly Father gave him to survive in the wild! Like humans he has the sense of smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch. I placed the sense of smell first because I believe it’s his most powerful tool in detecting danger.

  I also believe the BIG bucks that have survived two or more hunting seasons develop a sixth sense that enables them to detect the slightest irregularity in their environment.  They can “FEEL” that something is NOT RIGHT!  That makes it even harder to penetrate their defenses in the fall hunting season.

  Big bucks go nocturnal and stay nocturnal for the most part UNTILL love gets in their EYES and when that happens every fall we are given access to a small window of opportunity  to score a mature buck!  As I mentioned earlier a deer changes patterns or habits as the year progress’s through the season’s.

   For the most part the deer's food changes and that changes the “ pattern’s” the deer have for a given day BUT when the White Tail Buck starts losing the velvet that covers his horns it’s a good sign that the RUT is soon to follow! When the days shorten the buck and does start a natural process of procreation the life of a white tail hunter lights up with anticipation of the upcoming rut and all the encounter we will have with the elusive creature.

  As I have said before, watching and outsmarting is more fun than the kill!

As the photo indicates the Bucks are getting ready.. ARE WE GETTING READY?

Send me what you are seeing  as the RUT progresses!

Thanks! and As always I hope your next hunting day will be " Just Right!"

I'm Back!

                             September 2012

Trophy farms  Blog post

Im BACK!

  Well as you already surmised I have been on an extended hiatus. I am back just in time for one of nature’s most important transitions from summer to  spectacular fall.  WHY you ask do I think it is spectacular, well for me it’s the cool autumn air. The brilliant color change that occurs magically during the gradual shorting of daylight along with the sharpening of the Virginia white tail bucks horns and senses.

  I started chasing white tailed bucks at the age of  17. I graduated from the rank of expert eastern squirrel hunter into a whole new world and I loved it! I loved it then and I love it even more today. I had my first experience with the canny white tail and the results were not so impressive. Back in those days the White Tail deer was not so numerous and seemed to me to be more of a ghost than a real creature. The occasional deer tract and other sign testified of an animal that proved to be much more of a challenge than the numerous loud squirrels I had cut my teeth on.

    I was hooked more by the challenge of outsmarting the Buck than the actual kill. I loved then as I do now watching all of Our Father in Heavens creatures in their natural habitat and trying to blend into the background so that I was “invisible” to the creatures of the forest. I was the first of all my friends to use camouflage and scents to hide my presence way back then. I remember climbing trees and building “tree stands” to hunt out of, I was also the first of my hunting buddies to utilize the advantage of being out of the deer’s natural line of sight and his unbelievable sense of smell. I learned real quick that it was his nose that got me detected 9 times out of  10.

 We will talk more of the buck and his natural affection for the does and how that plays into the “hunters” plans on later posts!

 I invite all of you to report your sightings of deer activity and RUT sign as we progress into the fall and the peak of the rut!

Until next time this is Big Daddy saying I hope your tonight and tomorrow are  “JUST RIGHT!!”

 

 

                             September 2012

Trophy farms  Blog post

Im BACK!

  Well as you already surmised I have been on an extended hiatus. I am back just in time for one of nature’s most important transitions from summer to  spectacular fall.  WHY you ask do I think it is spectacular, well for me it’s the cool autumn air. The brilliant color change that occurs magically during the gradual shorting of daylight along with the sharpening of the Virginia white tail bucks horns and senses.

  I started chasing white tailed bucks at the age of  17. I graduated from the rank of expert eastern squirrel hunter into a whole new world and I loved it! I loved it then and I love it even more today. I had my first experience with the canny white tail and the results were not so impressive. Back in those days the White Tail deer was not so numerous and seemed to me to be more of a ghost than a real creature. The occasional deer tract and other sign testified of an animal that proved to be much more of a challenge than the numerous loud squirrels I had cut my teeth on.

    I was hooked more by the challenge of outsmarting the Buck than the actual kill. I loved then as I do now watching all of Our Father in Heavens creatures in their natural habitat and trying to blend into the background so that I was “invisible” to the creatures of the forest. I was the first of all my friends to use camouflage and scents to hide my presence way back then. I remember climbing trees and building “tree stands” to hunt out of, I was also the first of my hunting buddies to utilize the advantage of being out of the deer’s natural line of sight and his unbelievable sense of smell. I learned real quick that it was his nose that got me detected 9 times out of  10.

 We will talk more of the buck and his natural affection for the does and how that plays into the “hunters” plans on later posts!

 I invite all of you to report your sightings of deer activity and RUT sign as we progress into the fall and the peak of the rut!

Until next time this is Big Daddy saying I hope your tonight and tomorrow are  “JUST RIGHT!!”

 

 

More work

Good Afternoon,
Its been a while since I have been able to write. I have been busy with my work. I was able to go hunting one day last week. No luck , We heard one bird but once again the weather blew us out!
I have one decent bird to report, my Friend Richard Howald harvested a nice bird last week. With the rain it will probably be next week before I try again.
Till then, I hope you and yours are "just right"!

WORK Work work!

Well, I am sad to report work has kept me away from hunting this week and It looks like it will be Next week before I can try again.
I have talked with several hunters and noticed some nice birds in The Chatham Star Tribune that were harvested already this season.
It is shaping up to be a good spring season in spite if the cool days and rain!
I spent part of the day in a tree thinning class today that the Virginia Department of Forestry puts on. They do a great job and are eager to help you manage your forest but they also have great programs to increase your wildlife including deer and wild turkey! Today they were covering Quail habitat. They are a well educated and nice bunch of men and women dedicated to preserving our great woodlands here in Virginia!
That's all the time I have for now, as always I hope you and yours are "just right!"

Round Two!

Good evening!

I hope this blog finds you in a warm place!

Well let’s get to it! Toady was the second day of Spring Wild Turkey season here in the beautiful state of Virginia. It has been cool or down right cold all spring! On top of that, we have been blessed with a lot of wet “dreary days. “Dreary” is a term my Dear late Grandmother use to use to describe a day like today!

Back to the turkey story.....Bobby and I actually got started with today’s hunt late Sunday afternoon. We drove down to Halifax County in the late afternoon with the hopes of “putting a turkey to bed”. The purpose of such an exercise is to know with in a few hundred yards if a Tom turkey has roosted in the area to increase the chances of hearing and seeing a Gobbler the next day. Male turkeys have the distinct habit of gobbling up in the tree just after roosting; this enables us, the hunter’s slight advantage the next morning!

Well Sunday night we were blessed to hear two or three birds sounding off just before dark! We hastily set up Bobby’s portable blind for the next mornings hunt with great hope of success!

Once again 4:00 am came and I downed my fake rice crispies and quickly got dressed and Bobby and I headed south to Halifax County. We had anticipated a clear morning but the clouds and cool weather had already moved in. We arrived at the farm we scouted the night before only to find a man in a truck near the entrance to our farm. Strike one!

He informed us that he would be hunting the adjacent farm and from what he said it sounded like he might as well come and sit in my lap!

Well Bobby, always the optimistic one said, come on he’s not going to mess up my hunt, so off we went! We gathered up our gear and set off to our new “honey hole!”

It was breaking day light and we had just barely enough time to set out B – Mobile ( with his new “10 beard”) and henny penny and my two feather light decoys.

Bobby climbed into his blind” and I moved quietly into my pre determined place closer to the barb wired fence and the hardwoods next to the field where we had our decoy’s set up.

Daylight came quickly but it wasn’t the bright daylight we had hoped for, it was that dreary thing that we talked about earlier. Strike two; not prime conditions for Tom Turkeys to Gobble on the roost!

Well once again we waited and waited to hear that wonderful sound of a long beard gobbling his presence to the awakening world!

It was 7:AM and I hadn’t heard a peep and this time I knew the Toms were their!

All of a sudden I hear the most awful imitation of a barred owl that can be uttered by a human being! It was our buddy next door trying to entice a Tom to Gobble. Strike three, I thought! Not only that, he was headed in the direction of where we had located the birds the night before! What else could happen?

It was heading on to 7:30 Am a good hour after daylight and we hadn’t heard a bird.

So what did I do? I quietly went to my father in Heaven again and asked for a little help!

A few minutes went by and Tarzan of the jungle faded away and Bobby and I tried some of our best turkey calls to see if we could get anything,and I mean anything to happen!

Way off I heard that beautiful sound....Gobble Gobble Gobble . It was a Tom and he was showing a little interest! Well,we persisted in our serenade and then to our delight we heard another bird and he was closer. Then we heard two jakes (young Toms) sounding off too! It was turkey hunting heaven on earth!

Then way across the field another Tom sounded off and he had a little more respectable gobble than the others.

Now , please excuse me but this next part of the story is a little “hear say” because I could not see the bird from my position. My hunting partner for over 36 years tells me that all of a sudden the huge Tom appeared across the field. He was strutting and gobbling, spinning, putting on a real show,kinda easing up the field toward the decoys and the turkey calls that we were expertly “putting down”. If there is an “American Turkey idol” we would have stole the show! Well the old Tom suddenly noticed a couple of gentlemen escorting the ladies,old b mobile and my Jake decoy!

He started running up the field and just as he stopped and spun around about 25 yards from Bobby’s blind I heard another shot go off!

Well this time we have a little different ending, Bobby and I had fooled a twenty, two pound “hammer Tom” into a deadly love triangle and Bobby had made the perfect shot!

Once again our Heavenly Father had blessed his two sons with a hunt that we will never forget!

That’s all for tonight! We will try again Thursday! Till then , as always, I hope this blog finds you and yours “Just right”!

Opening day

Good afternoon
Well, the big day came and went.... I remember getting up at 4:30 AM and jamming down a big bowl of fake rice crispy's, then to my surprise their was a knock at the door at 4:45 AM! My hunting partner was 15 minutes early!
Well thank goodness I had prepared the night before so all I had top do was spray down with bug spray and jump into my Camo! I love Camo, I love to say camo....
back to the story , we took off and traveled through the cool darkness to our pre determined hunting location. We knew exactly where we wanted to set up because we had hunted this farm the year before. I must mention that we had been fooled by two different Long Beards at this same location, so we were determined to not allow such a embarrassing thing to happen again!
We arrived before sunrise and walked through darkness to our site. We set up the decoys , my two feather lites and Bobby's "B Mobile" and real turkey feather hen decoy! ( by the way, she looks a little used, if you know what I mean!)
Then we waited ....the sun came up as we anticipated the hair raising on the neck sound of a male Tom Gobbling his location and intentions for all the rest of the woods to hear , and I might add take note of!
We then waited some more....and some more until after all of our sure fire methods of getting a Tom to gobble failed! We did not hear one single bird gobble on the roost! Well, we being the resourceful hunters that we are ....we did NOT take our decoys and go home. No ,we made all the excuses we could think of to help those poor non gobbling Tom turkeys out and then changed locations!
Then we changed locations again and again and by this time the winds had increased to what seems like ( to two guys Turkey hunting anyway) Hurricane force winds!
Once again we did not take our decoys and go home, we did what any self respecting opening day turkey hunter would do....we changes locations again to a well known " honey hole" of for those not up on turkey lingo , a heavenly populated turkey spot!
By this time the trees were laying over sideways and the time was 11:30AM!!
We proceeded to get out of the Rubicon jeep and do a circle through the hardwoods on the outskirts of a field with more of an scouting outcome in mind than actually calling up a Tom turkey
We had started calling as soon as we exited the jeep and we were just about to complete our short circle through the woods when all of a sudden a bird gobbled only 50 yards from us and he was coming fast!!! We had only time enough to sit down and call a couple of times when.... the bird showed himself way to the right of where we thought he was going to appear.
I heard a shot and like in slow motion a HUGE bird started rising vertically very slowly...I said to myself he is hit!! He continued to rising upward toward the tops of the hardwoods ... a big twenty plus pound Tom ,, so big it seemed as though he would never make it to the top of the tree canopy.
Well he did and the last I saw of him he was safely gliding away... a well educated and a better bird for it!
I am just happy that I could experience another great ." the one that got away story!"
My friend and I were a little sad, but in reality , our Heavenly Father made sure two friends had a day in the woods that neither will ever forget!
Thats all for now! as always I hope you have a wonderful Easter and Passover and everybody you know is" Just right!"