I hope every one had a very Merry Christmas, and that you are now preparing for a happy New Year. I apologize for not posting this past week, but it has just been one of those times… the holidays have just been overwhelming, and we are now just trying to finish up our season with a hunt tonight and tomorrow.

I have several big posts ready, and I promise that the new year will bring lots of new writing, and possibly some changes. New Year’s eve is always a great time to review the year’s successes and failures, and then set a new path based on them. I look forward to sharing more with you on this.

I also have to wish my wife a Happy Anniversary! We were married 7 years ago here in the Lowcountry on a day that did not get above 20 degrees.  It will forever rank as one of the most special days of my life along with the birth of both of our two boys.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

Jeff

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Matt over at Bright Ideas Outdoors has been looking for ideas and thoughts on getting kids involved in hunting in preparation for an upcoming seminar at the Nation’s Outdoors Sportsman’s Show (sponsored by Kevin at HuntingLife.com ), so I thought I would put together a few things for him (and everyone else) to think about.

I have introduced quite a few teenagers (kids of friends) to our sport. And while my kids are not quite old enough to actually hunt, they are already hooked on it as well. From my experience, there are just a couple of musts…

Start Early. My boys are not even old enough to hunt yet, but they want to. We talk about it all of the time, look at my big buck mounts and watch hunting videos. We also go hiking a lot, and when we do, we are usually arrowhead hunting. However while we are doing that, we are also looking for tracks and other animal sign. Almost anything we find while out is a learning tool and moment. A turkey track leads to talk about the big birds. If we find acorns, I tell them all about the different animals that eat them. You get the idea. All of it leads to them being more interested in the outdoors, which leads to an interest in hunting. 

No Pressure. My friend was just complaining that his 8 year old does not like to go fishing with him. But neither do most of his friends. If he isn’t catching fish, life sucks. And god help you if he loses one. But even worse is the fact that he goes crazy if you lose one. That of course takes all of the fun out of it for everyone involved!

I also had to learn this from my wife. I like to be successful when I go hunting, and the first few years she went with me I sometimes resented the fact that it would impact the way I hunt. So I would nag her before we left to do this and that, and then in the woods I would still be complaining, etc… She kept hunting, just not with me and in my stand. I finally realized that the time outdoors together was more important than killing something, and I lightened up. She is usually busy with the kids these days, but we always have a much better time when we go now. 

Hunt Easy. Most beginners, especially kids, are not looking to work that hard and then get nothing out of it. Don’t start on a low-success deer hunt the first time out. Go squirrel or rabbit hunting where you can find something to shoot. That type of hunt also allows you to walk and talk about the animals and the different hunting techniques rather than sitting passively in a stand where they can’t move or talk - which is impossible for most kids, and even some adults.

Then when you do move to bigger game, again make it easier for them to be successful. Make sure you have doe tags and consider letting them shoot any buck even if you are on a management plan… One new hunter is worth a lot more to our sport than any one animal.

I know there are lots of other things to think about when hunting with kids, but these were a few that I felt were really important. Hope this helps Matt as well as everyone else out there looking to get their kids, wife, neighbor, etc involved in the outdoors.

Good Luck Matt! And thanks to Darrell at Alpha Trilogy for reminding us about Matt’s seminar.

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Our family wishes for everyone to have a very Merry Christmas!

Jeff, Amy, Bo and Will Hunt

Thanks for reading!

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I slipped out yesterday afternoon for another try at putting some meat in our freezer before the season ends. Unfortunately, I found J.O. and the forestry fire guys out at the Blount Place trying to put out the work of some of our local idiots… Once again, someone had set a fire near our line, and it had crossed over on to us. It happens every year, so it is no surprise. However it SUCKS!

J.O. has lost a great deal of money in his timber over the last few years due to this vandalism/arson, and it is now probably pretty much finished off our season over there. I am still waiting to find out exactly how bad it was and were it actually came in from. I hate to say this, but it is just a shame that one of these fires has not gotten way out of hand and  just burned down a few of the houses around us over there. I bet then they would think a little harder about doing this crap.

You just have to understand that the Blount Place has a rural neighborhood running down one side of it, and that is where the fire comes from every time. And while most of the people living there are very good people, there are a few BAD apples hanging around too. They are the ones that just hate that someone has something that they DO NOT, so they steal your stands, joy ride their ATVs on your lease and poach deer - Not to mention start fires!

And what is worse, is that the residents know who they are… Nothing goes on around here without someone seeing it or hearing about it. We live in a VERY small community where the internet can not compete with the grapevine when it comes to gossip, dirt, etc. People here know more about you than you do! Don’t get me wrong, that is what makes this place what it is. And it is often a good thing since people around here will do anything for you, and since they already know what the problem is, they will most likely help you without you even having to ask.

However it also works the other way. People know things, but they do not want to get involved. Most likely because they have to live here and see them every day. And when the police will NOT do anything to anyone anyway, I am sure most people wonder “why bother?”.  And we can’t forget that almost everyone around here is related somehow, so no one wants to turn in a family member. So these two reasons together make it almost impossible to get any crime solved, or if it is solved, to get anything substantial done to the perpetrators.

Well, once again, the idiots of this world have made their mark… I sure hope they are happy. Merry Christmas MORONS!

That pretty much put an end to hunting over there

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We finally made it home late Saturday night from our trip down to Florida for work, but not before breaking down in Jacksonville. Our van’s fuel filter had clogged up, and that shut the fuel pump down. Luckily we were able to limp to a station, and the the pump was fine after we changed the filter. Just a little excitement to make the trip home better!

Will came back with us, and we have tried to use these last couple of COLD days to hunt hard, but with no luck. We sat until 10am yesterday morning in the 21 degree weather and did not see a thing. And last night was more of the same - sunny and cold, but no deer. We just knew they would have to get up to eat in weather like this, but I guess not. The four months of hunting pressure probably does not help either.

We did see quite a few fresh scrapes over the last few days, so we were hoping to catch up with one of the late rutting bucks. Chip had one chase a doe by him on Cubbedge Hill this past weekend in the 80 degree heat, and then saw two good ones during midday chasing over at the Blount Place.  So we figured that the cold would really make them move for us. However just like the rest of the season, the deer have not done anything that they are supposed to.

We are getting Will on the road this morning back to Florida, and then I promise to get a few new posts up including one to fulfill my MEME TAG!

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Today is our oldest boy’s birthday, and I thought that I would recount the day of his birth since it is hunting related. I know that is hard to believe with our family, but it is true. And if having a name like Bo Hunt would not make sure you grow up with a serious love of the outdoors, he also has a native american name. It is just one that I gave him for fun, but it will always remind me of one of the most special days of my life.

A giant cold front had rolled in a few days before, and the temperature had not made it out of the teens all week. Today was more of the same, and Amy and I had been up since long before daylight so that we could make the hour drive to the hospital where she was scheduled to be induced. Her due date had passed 10 days ago, so the doctors wanted to go ahead and get him out for safety sake. I was also scheduled to go out of town on a business trip in a few days, and I sure did not want to miss his birth!

So we made the drive over, and they had her set up on the IV by about 10am. They then told me that it would be about 8-9 hours before it kicked in, so the birth would not be until at least 7pm. I still had a wedding album a bride was hoping to have before Christmas, so I made the hour drive back home, finished assembling her album and  DVDs, put them in the mail and prepared to go back to the hospital. It was now about 5pm, and the sun was just setting. The temperature had also dropped to the single digits, so I hurriedly made a couple of more trips out to the car with some things for my wife’s hospital stay.

And you have to remember that we live deep in the county, so I did what I always did when I came out of the front door - I looked down “the Avenue” that ran straight away from our house. It is an oak-lined drive that used to lead to one of our area’s old hunting clubs, and there were always giant bucks crossing it near dark. And low and behold, what was standing there - one of the two MONSTERS that I normally saw on it. However instead of being 400-500 yards down the road, like they normally were, he was only 100 yards away and just 50 yards from the gate/property line!

I just acted like I did not see him, continued to pack the car and then quickly walked back inside. There, right by the door, I always kept a pair of binoculars so that I could keep tabs on the bucks. However on this day, there was also a 270 WSM sitting there that my good friend Will had left with me.

OH, What to do? Here was one of the biggest deer I had ever seen in the lowcountry sitting just feet over the property line. I obviously did not have time to skin him out, but with the ultra cold night, he would hold fine. I reached down, grabbed the …….. and walked back out to the car. Sure enough, he was still standing there.

Wow, looking at him through the magnified glass, he was impressive. He had super long beams, 10 tall points with two of those being matching crab claws and LOTS of mass. I just stood there taking him in. And then I pulled the trigger?

No, I pulled the binoculars down and went back inside for one last load. When I came back out, he was gone. I couldn’t help but to stand there for another minute or two thinking about how nice he would have looked on my wall. However my overriding thought was how I did not want to taint my son’s birth day (or any day for that fact) by shooting a deer that was not mine.

I finally got back on the road to the hospital, and the whole way over all I could think about was how the native americans named their offspring for animals as well as significant events that they saw either just before or after a birth. So I decided that our son would forever be “Monster Buck with Crab Claws”. And just so people did not think we were TOO crazy, we of course would give him the other names we had decided on.

I made it to the hospital, got changed in to some scrubs and headed in to see my wife. The doctor was already there, and he told me that the induction did not work. So we could come back and try again, or we could go right in to the to the delivery room for a C-section. My wife said she was totally done being pregnant and to take her in there RIGHT now.

A few AMAZING minutes later, we had our first son - Jeffrey Bowers (BO) Hunt, forever also known as Monster Buck with Crab Claws.

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There are two stories on FoxNews that I thought some of you may be interested in. One of them is positive, and it is about a 5 year old that killed his first bear - a monster 445 pounder. And what is really neat is that he is the 10th great grandson of Davey Crockett, who supposedly killed his first bear when he was 3. The story also had NO anti-hunting slant, which is highly unusual for anything in the mainstream media.

The second story is a great example of how far the crazy anti-hunters will go to stop hunting, eating meat, wearing fur, etc.  PETA is upset that child stars Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen are still wearing fur, so they are going after them big time. They have nicknamed them the “Trollsen Twins”, made a mean-spirited video of them as well as a spoof MySpace page making them out to be horrible animal killers.

I am normally not to big on most celebrities (since most are commies), but these two seem like they may deserve our support. Because if the outdoor community does not stand by them and their decision to still wear fur even in the face of such ridicule from the nuts, they may give in and stop - Giving the ANTIs one more victory. And when we have so few in Hollywood that are with us, we need every one we can get.

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Arthur over at SimplyOutdoors has tagged me. That means that I must do a post about myself, and not about hunting. The idea is for everyone to learn a little more about the bloggers that they read, and of course most of us do have lives outside of the woods.

However I can’t say that about Rex over at the DeerCampBlog since I believe he has left the hold of society in search of Thunderhoof, or at least a monster buck! He did manage to send out a Christmas card before he left though, and you must check it out!

I am headed to Florida for two days to work, so I will try and get this done once I get back. I am looking forward to it… Please note that I also have a pre-written post going up on Friday, so don’t forget to check it out as well.

Jeff

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I just got in from the woods, and the heat was crazy. It was 80 when I left for the stand, and I think it is only going to get down to the mid 60s tonight!

Fortunately the deer thought it wasn’t too bad, and I ended up seeing one buck fawn, two spikes and a medium 6 point.  But NO DOES. Kind of made me want to bag the decent 6. But since in one more year he could be really nice, I decided to let him go - all 140 pounds (give or take) of his nice, tasty, succulent flesh… ooohh, maybe I should have hammered him.

Just kidding… If I am patient more of those darn skinheads will come by. And who knows, the weather man says that a cold front should move in by this weekend; possibly the bigger bucks will get up on their feet too.

I’ll let you know!

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I have to admit that I did a stupid thing the other night while on the stand… I tried to kill two deer, and ended up with none.

The season is almost over here in the Lowcountry, and after passing up tons of does all fall, I now need to make sure we have enough meat to last through the summer.  We eat deer 80% of the time around here, so it is very important that this task be accomplished, therefore I am after a couple of fat does between now and Jan. 1st.

However it is very HOT right now, causing low deer movement. The long season is also taking its toll, so any deer is hard to get out in the open. That is why Friday night when a whole family group came by, I just knew it was time to get busy. I waited until they were very close so that I would have an easy shot on the lead doe as well as possibly another shot on one making its escape.

This is where theory meets reality…

My stand is in the middle of three trees, and I leaned out to the side of one of them and pulled the trigger as the first deer hit the road leading out the clearcut. She jumped straight up and kicked her feet out, then let out a loud bleat. However before she even hit the ground, I spotted antlers running off with the rest of the pack. I quickly shoved another shell in, leaned to the other side of the tree, and tried to pick him out of the group. By then, most were getting deep in to the bush, and I couldn’t find him. I did however find another doe that had stopped running about 150 yards away, and was now trotting.

I got on her, and pulled the trigger again. I saw her bound off with no problem… That’s OK I told myself since I already had one down. I then hurried over to where my deer should have been. It was not there! So I started looking around, but with no luck. I then started back at the beginning and tried to find the blood trail. Still no luck.

So I went up and down every path I could find as well as looking all over in the tall grass and dog fennel that surrounded my stand. NOTHING! I looked for almost 45 minutes until the sun dropped out of the sky making it even harder to find my deer.
I was pissed… at myself. Instead of killing one nice deer and coming back another day to get one more, I had tried to shorten the process by getting both at the same time. And to do that, I had taken my eye off of the first wounded deer to shoot at the second. And normally that wouldn’t have been too bad since I should have been able to still watch her out of the corner of my eye - except for the tree the completely blocked my view. Now I had no idea even which trail she had run off on, and in a dense clearcut like I was hunting, that was a sure way to lose one. And sure enough, that is what had happened.

I told myself to just calm down, go and get my truck and pick up the guy hunting with me. We could then come back and look some more. However my newly fixed truck took a s..t about half way back to the front of Cubbedge Hill, and I had to walk on to get him. The two of us then walked out to the front gate while I tried calling everyone I could think of to come and get us (when my wife did not answer, I knew the kids had turned off the ringer again, so she wasn’t going to be coming to get me anytime soon).

I finally got a hold of my cousin, and he and J.O. came to get us about an hour later when they finished picking cotton. By then, it was getting pretty late. I decided to go ahead on home, hope the temperature dropped enough in the night to keep my deer from spoiling and come back tomorrow. Unfortunately it did not, so I just ended up feeding our coyotes…I am now so bummed with myself.

Of course that is only my human emotions talking, since whatever ate it surely did not think it had gone to waste. And it is not like we don’t have one of the highest deer populations in the country. But, again, I DO NOT like to lose a deer. And if you count my lost/missed buck early in the rut, that would make two. And I usually do not lose one, much less two.

The lesson here: no matter how good of a hunter you are, there is always something new to learn. And even if you have learned that lesson before, you may forget it and have to be reminded.

So remember -  Never take your eye of off the deer you are shooting/have shot! We owe it to these wonderful creatures.

Lesson learned - AGAIN!

Jeff

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